Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 190-193. (Budapest, 2005)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK - COMMUNICATIONS - Paskalev, Dobrin - Kircheva, Anna B.: Bulgarian contributions to the development of medicine - Bolgár hozzájárulások az orvostudomány fejlődéséhez

Feranini, Ivan Raev conducted a successful treatment of encephalitis patients. In 1935 prof. Jusepe Panegrossi announced at an international congress in Berlin that for less than a year 1346 ill people had been cured under the Raev method. The German doctor Walter Foeler arrived in Rome and acquainted himself with the new treatment method on site. Having confirmed the efficiency of the Ivan Raev

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s method, he introduced it in Germany. Enjoying international popularity, the method proposed by the Bulgarian healer was called "cura bulgara" (Bulgarian treatment) (24,25,27,28,32,34). Some time later the Bulgarian pharmaceutist Pancho Nakashev (1881-1962) prepared the pills intended for treatment of postencephalitis parkinsonism (33). The "Bellabulgara - Nakashev" preparation contains all alkaloids from the Atropa belladonna roots in the form of tartarates and sucsinates. One pill of 0,4 mg equals 2ml decoction from belladonna roots (23). The "Bellabulgara-Nakashev" drug was tested in the clinic of prof. Panegrossi (Rome) and in the Neurology Institute (New York) headed by Dr. Josephine Neal who gave a high evaluation of the medicine. After World War II Pancho Nakashev left for the USA where he patented the "Bellabulgara-Nakashev" drug and the famous company Lederle undertakes the production of the medicine (33). It shall be noted that on the basis of the belladonna alkaloids a series of medicines such as Bellafit (ampules), produced by the Hungarian pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter, the Italian drug Panatropa (the Belfanti company), etc. were created and used in practice (23). Acknowledgement The glamorous success of Ivan Raev in Italy was rewarded with a series of distinctions. On 16 May 1938 King Victor Emmanuel III issued a decree pronouncing the Bulgarian healer member of the Royal Crown Order. His name was recorded under no 2141 (series 3a) in the honorary list of foreigners with merits for Italy. He was conferred the title "doctor", and the hospital where the Bulgarian administered his renowned treatment was called after his name. As a token of respect Queen Elena of Savoy gave Ivan Raev a picture of herself with her own signature. She invited him to stay in Italy forever, but his homesickness prevailed and he went back to his home country (24,25,26,27,29). In Bulgaria Ivan Raev kept in touch with patients from all over Europe and his company „Herb" maintained business relations with pharmaceutical companies from 16 countries (25, 26,29). He died unexpectedly on 15 September 1938. Ivan Raev's life-work was continued during the next three decades by his daughter Sofia and his son-in-law Nikola Stoyanov. They gathered many letters - both business letters and personal ones, which continued arriving at the address of the popular healer in the village of Shipka years after his death (27-29). The work of Ivan Raev was judged on its merits. The great Bulgarian pharmacologist acad. Petar Nikolov (1894-1990) in 1948 pointed out that: "The repute of Raevvs treatment went beyond Bulgaria" s boundaries and gained world fame...This is an