Description

A rare medical publication by the Slovenian / Yugoslav partisans, printed in an underground press during WWII, includes articles on lice, disinfection and medicine against itch, construction of a basic bathroom, partisan fighter as a nurse, diseases of teeth and dental care, scurvy and burial of the dead in the woods. A folding mimeographed illustration represents a construction of a barrel for disinfection.

The editor of this first number was dr. Mirko Černič (1884-1956), who was schooled in Vienna and was working as a medical doctor on the Italian and Russian front during WWI. He authored several medical articles before and after the war. The authors are signed with their first names or with noms de guerre.

According to the introduction this manual was made to improve the medical treatment and the hygiene of the growing resistance movement.

Many partisan medical doctors and nurses, some only trained by short clandestine courses, were working on the field in the guerrilla war with improvised equipment, as the others were working under harsh conditions in hospitals, hidden in the woods and secret partisan bases. During WWII there were circa 120 improvised underground partisan hospitals in Slovenia, with most famous one being Franja, named after a female medical doctor dr. Franja Bojc (click here fort he photos).

There were 10 issues of this magazine published in 9 volumes in 1944 and early 1945, all of which are rare. They were printed in various formats in various printing techniques by two different presses. Worldcat lists five examples with unnknown numbers of issues in Slovenian institutions.

References: OCLC 442904595; Bibliografija 3513.