Nil Filatov

FILATOV, Nil Fedorovich (1846–1902), professor at Moscow University, one of the founders of Russian pediatrics. He graduated from Moscow University in 1869, served as a resident physician at the children's hospital on Bronnaya, which was later moved to Sadovaya and renamed the Sofia Hospital, and now bears his name. Having furthered his education for over two years with the leading representatives of medicine abroad at the time, he defended his dissertation in 1876 on "The Relationship of Capillary Bronchitis to Pneumonia," was elected privat-docent of the university, and lectured at the aforementioned hospital. In 1891, he was appointed to the chair of children's diseases at Moscow University, which he held until his death. He authored works that laid the foundation of Russian clinical pediatrics: "Semeiotics and Diagnostics of Children's Diseases," "Infectious Diseases in Children," "Brief Textbook of Children's Diseases," "Lectures on Acute Infectious Diseases," "Clinical Lectures," and many other smaller in volume but significant works upon which many generations of pediatricians were and continue to be raised. From this perspective, Filatov can justly be called the founder of Russian pediatrics, immediately elevating it to the level of Western medicine. These classical works of his were translated into German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, and even Japanese languages, and earned enthusiastic reviews in the foreign press. "There are few books that an author could compile on the basis of his own subtle and well-thought-out observations," writes Prof. Bozzolo in the preface to the Italian translation of Filatov's "Semeiotics and Diagnostics." Indeed, this work is the result of Filatov's observational and creative labor, a summary of his daily observations at the patient's bedside, which were systematized, ordered, and continually supplemented and verified by him. The original arrangement of material, the picturesque descriptions that often provide greater clarity than the best illustrations, and the subtle analysis of facts make this book an unsurpassed guide not only for pediatricians. From the description of individual cases, from the comparison of variously manifesting diseases, and from a mass of masked, tangled disease pictures, Filatov crystallized individual independent forms, which he differentiated with extreme care from similar ones. Thus, as early as 1877, he wrote about the independence of chickenpox; in 1885, he singled out scarlatinal rubella as an independent disease, the so-called fourth disease, later described by the Englishman Dukes; in 1887, he spoke about the pathogenesis of non-albuminuric dropsy in children, about protracted afebrile forms of influenza, about the branny desquamation of the oral mucosa in children during the prodromal period of measles—a sign described by Koplik a year after Filatov—about idiopathic inflammation of the cervical lymph glands, which Pfeiffer later described under the name of glandular fever, and so on. Another major work by Filatov—"Lectures on Infectious Diseases in Children"—for many years, until recently, was the only major, systematically presented guide where, with full utilization of the literature on the subject, the enormous personal experience and observation of the author are felt throughout. It should be noted that in his final years Filatov took a special interest in nervous diseases of childhood, and a whole series of clinical forms passed before the clinical audience: acute ataxia, paraplegia, chorea, bulbar symptom complex, pseudohypertrophia musculorum, Little's disease, Strümpell's disease, and many other nervous diseases of childhood which listeners could see nowhere else, since children did not end up in the clinic of nervous diseases, and even prominent neuropathologists themselves were often little familiar with them. Filatov was not a brilliant lecturer, but the clarity, simplicity of presentation, brevity, and at the same time the picturesque quality of his speech, and above all his analysis of the patient, his ability to single out the most essential from the mass of noted facts, to synthesize these facts and give an accurate diagnosis—all this always attracted a full audience of listeners not only of students, but also of physicians of other specialties. Filatov's lectures remained entirely in the memory of his listeners. The two published issues of his clinical lectures give an idea, although of course incomplete, of the manner of presentation, simplicity, and clarity of his analysis of patients. Among the brilliant constellation of professors at Moscow University in the 1890s, Filatov occupied one of the foremost places. While still a docent, he took a most active part in the circle of children's physicians organized at that time; with his active participation, this circle turned into the Moscow Society of Children's Physicians, where he served as chairman for 10 years until his death; thanks to his assistance, the society was able to publish its proceedings and minutes. It goes without saying that Filatov enjoyed immense popularity as a practicing physician not only in our country, but also abroad. If one compares what Russian pediatrics was before Filatov and after him, it becomes clear what a monumental figure he was for us and for pediatrics in general. He died while still at the peak of his activity, leaving a legacy of about 70 scientific works and the unforgettable name of the founder of Russian pediatrics. Filatov authored classical manuals that were republished many times posthumously and translated into foreign languages: "Lectures on Acute Infectious Diseases in Children" (5th ed., Moscow, 1903); "Brief Textbook of Children's Diseases" (11th ed., Berlin, 1922); "Semeiotics and Diagnostics of Children's Diseases" (9th ed., Moscow-Petrograd, 1923).

1927–28); "Experimental Zoology" (Leningrad, 1932); "The Evolutionary Idea in Biology" (Moscow, 1923, 2nd ed., Moscow, 1926); "Popular Biology" (2nd ed., Leningrad, 1925); "Variabilität und Variation" (Berlin, 1927).