Available via license: CC BY-NC 4.0
Content may be subject to copyright.
The Most Influential Physicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Risto Jeremic (1869-1952)
438 HISTORY OF MEDICINE | MED ARCH. 2019 DEC; 73(6): 438-439
The Most Influential Physicians
in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Risto
Jeremic (1869-1952)
Izet Masic
Dr. Risto Jeremic (1869 - 1952) was
born on May 8, 1869 in Foca, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, where he nished
elementary school. He started his
high school in Sarajevo, then in Du-
brovnik, where he graduated on July
29, 1889 (1-3). He started his studies
at Faculty of medicine of Vienna uni-
versity and graduated at Faculty of
medicine of Graz university in 1897.
He was promoted to the Doctor of
Medicine in 1898. Dr. Risto Jeremic
was the rst domestic surgeon in the
former Bosnia and Herzegovina and
the rst man from Foca who gradu-
ated at one university. As a student,
during school breaks, in 1892 he at-
tempted to establish the „Focanski
Soko'' Serbian Gymnastics Associa-
tion in Foca, banned from the Aus-
trian authorities, which was the fore-
runner of the ''Srpski Soko'' ("Serbian
Falcon"), is association has been
active for more than four decades
and has been a model for the found-
ing of a number of similar anti-capi-
talist societies.
Upon completion of the studies,
Dr. Risto Jeremic works at the Land
hospital in Sarajevo (Landespital,
opened on July 1st, 1894), rst as
an intern at Department of Inter-
nal medicine, chaired by Dr. Geza
Kobler (1864-1891), Director of the
hospital, then as a secondary doctor
and a district doctor. Specializing in
the eld of Surgery, he studied with
Dr. von Josef Preindlsberger (1864-
1938), who at that time chaired De-
partment of Surgery at Land hospi-
tal. From 1904 until the First World
War Dr. Risto Jeremic was the Head
of the Surgical Department of the
hospital in Tuzla. With the arrival of
Dr. Risto Jeremic in 1904, people of
Tuzla had their rst surgeon at their
disposal. He was soon to become the
new Tuzla hospital manager. After
approval provided by the authorities,
in the year 1906 Dr. Jeremic founded
the construction of his private sana-
torium on a hill named Kojsino, just
above the Hospital itself. From 1919
till 1923 he was Director of the State
hospital in Sarajevo (during his pres-
idency Land hospital changed the
name to State hospital) (4-7).
After the Sarajevo assassination,
together with many free and re-
spectable Serbian citizens, he was
deprived of his liberty and was tried
on the so-called „Veleizdajnicki pro-
ces“ (High-treason Process) in Banja
Luka, because of his national ideas
and also because of connections with
the „National Defense“ he was sen-
tenced to three years in prison. By
the amnesty of Emperor Karel, he
was released in 1917.
Dr. Risto Jeremic worked in Sub-
otica from 1923 to 1934 as Head
of Outpatient Clinic at the State
Railway Directorate. In that city he
taught forensic medicine at the Law
School for a while. He began his sci-
entic research work since 1904 (8,
9). Becoming acquainted with Jo-
van Cvijic at the Surgical Congress
in Belgrade in 1911 inuenced the
widening of his scientic interests,
so Dr. Jeremic began collecting and
publishing material on the origin of
HISTORY OF MEDICINE
doi: 10.5455/medarh.2019.73.438-439
MED ARCH. 2019 DEC; 73(6): 438-439
RECEIVED: OCT 22, 2019 | ACCEPTED: NOV 20, 2019
Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Corresponding author: Professor Izet Masic,
MD, PhD, FWAAS, FIAHSI, FEFMI, FACMI.
Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
E-mail: izetmasic@gmail.com. ORCID ID: https//
www.orcid.org/ 0000-0002-9880-5456.
© 2019 Izet Masic
This is an Open A ccess articl e distributed under t he
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-
Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted
non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, p rovided the origin al work is properly
cited.
Figure 1. Dr. Risto Jeremic (1869-1952)
The Most Influential Physicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Risto Jeremic (1869-1952)
439
HISTORY OF MEDICINE | MED ARCH. 2019 DEC; 73(6): 438-439
the population of the Tuzla region. At the same time, he
began research work in the eld of the history of health
culture and medicine in the Yugoslav countries. He was
the author of fteen books, mostly in the eld of history
of medicine in the former Yugoslav countries and more
than sixty scientic papers in various elds. Dr. Risto
Jeremic has written an important book on the history of
medicine in Bosnia and Herzegovina – „Contributions
to the History of Health and Medical Opportunities of
Bosnia and Herzegovina under Turkey and Austro-Hun-
gary“, published in the 1951 (2).
Dr. Risto Jeremic was elected in 1952 as a member of
the Scientic Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina, later
the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herze-
govina and a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences
and Arts (SANU). Also, he has been elected on Decem-
ber 22nd 1937 as an honorary doctor of the University of
Belgrade. He was one of the initiators and founders of the
Serbian cultural and educational association “Prosvjeta”,
and then president in the period 1903-1904 (8-9), and,
also, he founded the Treasury Society „Pobratimstvo“.
During the Second World War he was one of the
Vice-Presidents of the Central National Committee, and
after the war he was elected to Honorary President of the
Serbian Medical Society based in Belgrade. After retire-
ment, he came to Belgrade and was hired as an expert
in medical history at the Central Institute of Hygiene. In
1937 he established the Medical History Museum, the
rst museum of medical history in Serbia, within the
Department of Social Medicine of the Central Hygiene
Institute. After many years of research into the history of
health culture in the archives of Dubrovnik, Sremski Kar-
lovci, Slavonski Brod and Zemun, Dr. Jeremic published
several monographs, including a valuable „Bibliography
of Serbian Health Literature 1757 – 1918“, published by
the Serbian Medical Society in 1947. He died on Septem-
ber 16, 1952 in Mostar, where he was buried.
REFERENCES
1. Mašić I. Korijeni medicine i zdravstva u BiH. Avicena, Sara-
jevo, 2004: 228 pp.. ISBN: 9958-720-24-8.
2 Jeremic R. Prilozi istoriji zdravstvenih i medicinskih prilika
Bosne i Hercegovine pod Turskom i Austruggarskom upra-
vom. Naucna knjiga. Beograd, 1851: 130-136.
3. Masic I. One Hundred Fifty Years of Organized Health Care
Services in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Med Arch. 2018 Oct;
72(5): 374-388. doi: 10.5455/medearh.2018.72.374-388.19.
4. Masic I. First hospitals in Bosnia and Herzgovina. Avicena.
Sarajevo, 2001: 128 pp.
5 Mašić I. Z emaljska bolnica u S arajevu. Avicena, S arajevo, 1994:
138 pp.
6. Mašić I. Prve hospitalne zdravstvene ustanove u BiH. Med
Arh, 1994; 48(3): 139-143.
7 Konjhodžić F, Mašić I. Osnivanje Zemaljske bolnice u Sara-
jevu. Med Arh, 2004; 58(2): 12.
8. Prilozi istoriji zdravstvene kulture Vojvodstva Srbije“ Bibli-
ograja srpske zdravstvene k njiževnosti: od 1757 do 1918. go-
dine.
9. Stanojević, „Likovi i dela istaknutih lekara u Srbiji pre osniv-
anja Srpskog lekarskog društva : dr. Risto Jeremić“, 190-193.
https://sr.wik ipedia.org/sr-el/%
