An Example of a Transitional Period in Medical Theory: Halid İzzet Bey and his Hıfzu’s-Sıhha

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the life of a military doctor who grew up in the
Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, to follow the innovations in this century through
his story and to evaluate his work titled Hıfzıssıhha. Halid İzzet Bey (d.1922) was an
Ottoman military doctor and surgeon who grew up in the 19th century. This century was
a period of developments in both the military and medical fields in the Ottoman Empire.
Halid İzzet Bey studied at Mekteb-i İdadi-i Tıbbiye-i Şahane (Medical High School) and
then completed his education at Mekteb-i Tıbbiye-i Şahane, where modern medicine
was taught. He worked at Haydarpaşa Military Hospital, Hamidiye Etfal Hospital and
Darülaceze, and in the last years of his civil service, he worked at Istib Hospital in
Macedonia. In addition to the two books he translated, his work titled “Hıfzıssıhha” (Sanitation)
shows that he was a doctor who took responsibility for public health. The aim
of his work is to be taught as a textbook and its target audience is middle level students.
The work lists the things that young people should do in order to spend their current
age in good health, as well as the issues they should pay attention to regarding marriage
and parenthood in their later life. It is noteworthy that a physician trained in modern
medicine bases some parts of his work on humoral pathology, which has been going
on since Hippocrates, and interprets these developments from a miasmatic perspective,
while following the bacteriological developments of his time. This approach is a good
example reflecting the spirit of the age.