One of the most important turning points in Turkish History of Medicine is the transfer of Western / European medical knowledge to Ottoman medicine in 19th century. This knowledge is mostly transferred by government employed Ottoman citizens and aimed at improving the health status of the Ottoman States elites, troops and people. Most important contributions of transferring and popularizing the concepts of microbe and vaccination to Ottoman medicine, concerning both disease and preventive medicine, were made by a military doctor, Colonel Dr. Hüseyin Remzi Bey. He served in a large spectrum of military and civilian health services from field medicine to professorship in higher educational institutes and made important contributions for education of modern medicine in Turkish language. He was a part of the Ottoman team visiting Pasteur to learn the rabies vaccine and given credit to be one of the first users of microbiological knowledge and applications in Ottoman Country. He also tried to disseminate the knowledge about health amongst people and wrote more than 50 manuscripts, most of them published as books or newspaper periodicals. He is a figure who made important contributions of the accumulation and distribution of modern medical knowledge, including preventive medicine, in Turkey.
Key words: Hüseyin Remzi Bey, Turkish military medicine, history of microbiology, history of preventive medicine, medical education in Turkish, westernization of Turkish medicine Article Language: Turkish English
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