Vyacheslav Manassein

MANASSEIN, Vyacheslav Avksentyevich (1841–1901), an outstanding therapist and public physician, professor at the Military Medical Academy, and editor of the journal Vrach. Manassein studied medicine at the universities of Moscow, Kazan, and Dorpat, at the Military Medical Academy, and abroad. He was forced to leave Moscow University for participating in student unrest, and Dorpat University for contributions to Russian journals in which he exposed the dark sides of local life. From 1876, Manassein held the chair of private pathology and therapy at the Military Medical Academy. Manassein was an outstanding lecturer. His lectures attracted a vast audience not only of students of all years, but also of physicians. In addition to purely clinical questions, Manassein's lectures covered issues of medical life, ethics, and social life. In the field of therapy, Manassein was skeptical of pharmaceutical remedies and recommended using only a small number of well-studied preparations. He attached great importance to physical methods of treatment and was an ardent supporter of air therapy, hydrotherapy, dietetics, massage, and others. He was the first to equip a hydrotherapeutic clinic. In the treatment and prevention of diseases, Manassein considered the improvement of the sanitary conditions of the life of the popular masses and hygienic living conditions to be extremely important. As editor of the journal Vrach, Manassein devoted very great attention to questions of medical ethics and life, Zemstvo and municipal medicine, public health organization, and others. Vrach, edited by Manassein, was in its time an authoritative organ of Russian

medical thought. In this journal, Manassein waged a struggle against quackery, medical advertising, unscrupulous methods of medical practice, and unscientific methods of treatment. As a public figure, Manassein took an active part in the organization of the Pirogov Congresses, in the activities of the Literary Fund (of which he served as chairman and judge of honor), in the Union of Writers, and in the society for aiding needy students. In his socio-political views, Manassein was a typical old-formation "Pirogovite" and adhered to radical Narodnik views. The main works of Manassein: Materials on the Question of Starvation (dissertation, St. Petersburg, 1869), Materials on the Question of the Etiology and Therapeutic Significance of Mental Influences (St. Petersburg, 1876), Lectures on General Therapy (St. Petersburg, 1879), and others.