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38 READING 2. Read the text and try to guess who it is about. THE WORLD-FAMOUS RUSSIAN SURGEON ………….. was one of the most prominent and outstanding Russian surgeons and scientists. His life story was incredible. He was born in Moscow in 1810. He was a gifted and intelligent child, he learned to read early and was fluent in foreign languages. At 14 he got into Moscow State University, the Faculty of Medicine. At 18 he graduated with honors. By 22 he had defended his doctoral thesis. By 27 he had already become a professor of surgery at the University of Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia), one of the largest in Europe at that time. At 30 he re- turned to Russia and headed the department of hospital surgery at St. Pe- tersburg Medical and Surgical Academy. He did research into anatomy and surgery. He was the first in many respects. He was the founder of topographic anatomy and field surgery. The physician took part in four wars. He was one of the first surgeons in Europe to use ether as an anaesthetic drug. In 1847 in the Caucasus and in 1855 in Crimea he performed about 10,000 operations under anaesthesia. He was the first to operate on patients who had bullet wounds in the abdomen. He was the first in Russia to perform plastic surgery. He also performed an unprecedented osteoplastic surgery. Moreover, he developed his own technique of using plaster casts to treat fractured bones. It helped to avoid amputations. His methods are among the basic methods in studying and teaching anatomy. The first anatomical atlas created by the scientist is still used by medical students. ―The Wonderful Doctor‖ by Alexander Kuprin is based on a true story about this surgeon. It tells us that hu- man kindness and sympathy towards others can work mi- racles. by T.I. Panina