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[MICROCEPHALY IN MOSCOW] Sluchay mikrokefalii v Moskve [i.e. A Case of Microcephaly in Moscow]

Pokrovsky, E.

Item #2012

Moscow: tip. M.N. Lavrova i K°, 1878. 3, [1] pp., 1 table. 33.6x26 cm. In original publisher’s printed wrappers. Front wrapper loose, otherwise in a very good condition. With 2 black-and-white illustrations throughout.
Extremely scarce. First and only edition. An excerpt from the Proceedings of the meetings of the Commission for the organization of the Anthropological Exhibition of the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography (Second Volume, 1878).
A pioneering Russian study of microcephaly by Egor Pokrovsky (1834-1895), a leading researcher in children’s physical education and Chairman of the Medical Commission of the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography.

In the text, the author examines a case of microcephaly that occurred in the Moscow Children’s Hospital in February of 1878. Pokrovsky provides details about the newborn patient, Vasily Ivanov, from the village Kazanova, and briefly delves into the background of his parents - 34- and 35-year-old peasants. The researcher meticulously delineates the patient’s condition and presents an informative table for comparing his state with that of another microcephalic infant and healthy newborns. The edition is complemented by two black-andwhite photographs of Vasily.
Pokrovsky prepared the paper for the Anthropological Exhibition of the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography. The Exhibition took several years to materialize and was finally realized at Moscow University in 1879. Pokrovsky played a pivotal role as the curator of the medical-anthropological section.
Following the conclusion of the Exhibition, Pokrovsky received the prestigious honor of being elected as an honorary member of the Imperial Society. Notably, in the society’s entire history (1863-1931), only 28 individuals have been accorded such a status.
Egor Pokrovsky graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University in 1860 and practiced as a physician in Pudozh in the Olonets Governorate. From 1862, he lived and worked in Moscow, initially as an intern at the Children’s Hospital on Bronnaya Street, and later, from 1882 to 1895, as its director and chief physician. In 1872, he was sent abroad for four months by the Department of Institutions of Empress Maria to study the organization of children’s clinics in Berlin, Vienna, and Paris. Pokrovsky curated a section on the physical education of children at the World Exhibition in Paris (1889). His most renowned work, Detskiye igry, preimushchestvenno russkiye [i.e. Children’s Games, Mainly Russian], (1887) was issued in multiple editions and praised by Lev Tolstoy himself.

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