[General and medical circumstances in Serbia prior to the Serbian Medical Society Foundation].

The aim of this paper is to critically summarize and present insufficiently known data on medical corps conditions within Serbia after the Second Serbian Uprising (1815) and before founding the Serbian Medical Society in 1872. By the middle of 19th century, there came the first educated doctors of medicine to Serbia, followed by the Serbian doctors from out of Serbia, and, very soon, the Serbian doctors of medicine. The first hospitals were opened shortly afterwards followed by a long process of formation of medical corps mainly due to the lack of understanding and poverty. The doctors, however, as European students, got the most important role in establishing the first professional and humanitarian associations. Proposed by Doctor Vladan Dordević, the first Serbian Medical Society was founded in 1872, in the very same year as the German Society. At the same time, the Journal of the Serbian Medical Society (the Serbian Archives of Medicine) was launched and its first issue published in 1874. The Serbian Red Cross was founded in 1876. It was by founding of these societies that Serbia proved itself capable of keeping pace with the most developed European countries.