Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 186-187. (Budapest, 2004)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK — COMMUNICATIONS - KOTOK, Alexander: Homeopathy in Bulgaria: from revolutionaries to professionals. - Homeopátia Bulgáriában: a forradalmároktól a szakemberekig

public figure. He worked also as the principal of the high school in Sliven, as the editor of the city newspaper Bolgarsko zname (The Bulgarian Banner), continued his activity in the Uniate movement and was awarded a medal by the Pope Pius IX. He has been well known as the author of two manuals on Bulgarian grammar. All that was simultaneously with his medical practice. In 1885, he issued the first Bulgarian book on homeopathy,Domashen omeopatichen lekar (Domestic Homeopathic Doctor). In 1891-1896, he issued his own journal entitled first Zdravoslovie (The Health) and later on renamed for Nova svetlina (The New Light), completely devoted to spiritism, magnetism, psychism, hypnotism and homeopathy. In 1894, he retired and discontinued his regular homeopathic practice. Yet when being a well-to-do person he could sometimes allow himself free treatment of anyone declaring him or herself poor. It is doubtful that Mirkovich had a proper background in homeopathy in is his journal he warmly greeted any kind of what he called "progressive homeopathy", for example, so-called electrohomeopathy by the Italian Cesare Matthei (1809-1896) or biochemical homeopathy by the German Wilhelm Schüssler (\%2\-\%9%), etc. He died in 1905, and was accompanied in his last way by the throng of friends, relatives and inhabitants of Sliven. During his life he was awarded the title of the honorary citizen of Sliven

1

. It is hard to say why Dr. Mirkovich has persistently been regarded in all Bulgarian sources as the first homeopathic doctor in Bulgaria. No source refers to any experience of him as a homeopath before liberation of the country, while after the liberation he was not the only one, who practiced homeopathy in Bulgaria. Hopefully the next researches will give us more facts. Another person well known as an active homeopathic doctor is Ilia Georgiev Kutev (1853-1907). He was born, like Dr. Mirkovich, in the city of Sliven and had graduated MD from Galatasarai University in 1877. Almost immediately he was exiled by the Turkish authorities for his political activity, but the escaped his exile and joined the Russian Army as a volunteer. After liberation of Bulgaria he settled down in the city of Yamboul and started there his homeopathic practice

2

. The Ottoman Empire has hardly been known for any homeopathic achievements. Thus, where could Dr. Kutev study homeopathy? We would apparently receive the answer from his personal archive kept in Sliven but regretfully this archive cannot be successfully approached today. It is possibly to surmise that although that Dr. Kutev could learn homeopathy on his own from the contemporary books and periodicals, most probably he was instructed in homeopathy when being a volunteer in the Russian army. We are perfectly aware of the fact that the most influential Russian homeopathic pharmacy at the St. Petersburg Charitable Society of the Followers of Homeopathy had repeatedly received requests for homeopathic kits and manuals from the Russian military and civil staff since 1877 3

, when the Russian army had entered Bulgaria 1 The biography of Dr. Mirkovich is outlined here by the data provided in the afterword of the reprint of «Domashen omcpatichen lekar» (Sofia, Dr. Georgy Mirkovich publishing house, 1993, pp. 223-238), written by Stefan Gidikov. It is mentioned in the book that this biography was first published in March 14, 1935, in the proceedings of the Sliven Culture Center "Zora" entitled "He didn't die. Sliven of its unfading sons". 2 According to the report by S. Alexieva Dr. Ilia Georgiev Kutev - the first physician at the Yamboul city hospital (delivered at the jubilee conference "The Sliven Public Health - its past, present and future", Sliven, 1997). 3 Ilia Sundi Istoricheskaia zapiskano vozniknovenii I deiatel'nosti Sankt-Peterburgskogo Obshchestav posledovatelei gomeopatii za vremia so 2-go maia 1881 po 2-e maia 1891 g. (Historical Writing on Emergence