Jan Mikulicz-Radecki (1850-1905) – The forgotten surgical genius

When his son informed him that he intended to study medicine, he put up an opposition to this too. And although his father saw Jan studying law in the future, this time Jan went against him. As a consequence of his son’s disobedience, Jan’s father refused to provide any more financial support for his education. Despite this, in 1869 he started studying medicine at Vienna University whilst initially earning his living giving private tuition and piano lessons. Not long afterwards, thanks to his professor’s support, he received a scholarship from the Silberstein Foundation which allowed him to devote his full attention to his studies.

In 1875, Mikulicz was awarded a doctorate in Medicine and was accepted into the Vienna Surgical Hospital by Theodor Billroth, who today is considered the father or modern surgery. “By contrast, Billroth’s lectures demonstrated profound knowledge and extensive practice and experience, they were quite simply brilliant. You felt that he was leaving the well trodden paths of surgical practice and entering a new land that had been hitherto inaccessible.“[3] A year after his marriage to the Austrian Henriette Pacher,  Jan Mikulicz had to leave his position at the hospital because the rules in force at the time stated that a married assistant could not occupy a permanent post at the university hospital. Mikulicz took over the direction of the surgical polyclinic but was not allowed to carry out any scientific research. A Viennese manufacturer of surgical instruments came to his aid which enabled the young surgeon to develop the so-called Mikulicz gastroscope. In 1881, in a world first, he carried out a procedure in which he was able to provide endoscopic evidence of a carcinoma of the lower oesophagus.[4]

In 1882, Jan Mikulicz, with the support of Theodor Billroth, assumed the Chair of Surgery in Krakow although he was  not one of their preferred applicants. The Commission accused him of knowing too little Polish. As a result, his supporter, Billroth, wrote to one of the professors in Krakow as follows: “Just watch Mikulicz operate and you would want him even if he were deaf and dumb.”[5] For his part, Mikulicz prepared diligently to take over the Chair by improving his Polish. His appointment was only reluctantly accepted by the medical circles in Krakow because they felt that his sponsorship had come from Vienna. In his inaugural lecture, at which police were in attendance in the lecture theatre to prevent any protests, the surgeon made reference to this, saying: “I have been accused of not knowing the Polish language although it is my mother tongue just as much as it is that of every man here present. It is true that I neglected our mother tongue due to my long stays at German scientific institutions [...] .”[6] It is difficult to judge today whether this was a statement about his nationality, especially because when asked whether he was a Pole, a German or an Austrian, Mikulicz generally answered: “I am a surgeon”.