[Karol Kaczkowski (1787-1867) General of Staff of the Polish Army, epidemiologist, innovator, teacher].

The name of Karol Kaczkowski, one of the pioneers of Polish epidemiology of the 19th century, has been somewhat forgotten. Hence, it is worth getting acquainted with his actions that he made contributing to the effective inhibition of the spread of the cholera epidemic that hit Polish territory in the 1830s. KAROL KACZKOWSKI (1797-1867) General of Staff of the Polish Army, doctor, professor, He was born in Warsaw on 2 February 1797. In 1805 his parents moved to Krzemieniec. In 1815, he began medical studies at the University of Vilnius. He was friends with philomaths: Adam Mickiewicz and Tomasz Zan. In 1821 he obtained the degree of doctor of medicine. In the years 1824-1828 he traveled around Europe. In 1829, he was nominated the Head of the Therapeutic Clinic at the University of Warsaw. After the outbreak of the November Uprising on November 29, 1830, he joined the artillery and in 1831 was appointed chief physician of the Polish Army. He organized the command of the military health service, hospitals and field hospitals. After the battle of Grochów, he organized battalion dressing points and a cordon of doctors who provided quick help to the wounded. On February 5, 1831, Karol Kaczkowski was appointed the Chief Physician of the Polish Army. When the first cholera patients, brought in by the Russian army, arrived in Warsaw in the spring of 1831, he prepared instructions on how to detect and treat cholera. He created cholera hospitals in Mienia and Warsaw, and sanitary supervision in military units. For this he was awarded the Wirtuti Militari Gold Cross. After the fall of the uprising, he left Poland with a group of 2,000. injured. He got to Prussia, and then to Lviv. In 1854 he settled in Żytomierz. He suffered harassment from the tsarist authorities. In 1863, during the January Uprising, he was sent to the Voronezh Governorate. In 1867, he obtained a permit to travel to Kherson, where he died on September 14, 1867.

(© National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene.)