[Jubilees of the Serbian Medical Society. Golden jubilee--a time of renewal and remembrance].

The Serbian medical association was founded in Belgrade 125 years ago. At that time, Serbia was liberated from the Ottoman domination, and was one of some thirty existing independent states gaining international recognition in 1878. The physicians of the Serbian medical association have shared the fate of their people over the past 125 years. This is best illustrated by the fact that Serbia lost more than 1,000,000 people in World War I and that every third doctor in Serbia lost his life serving his people during the war. This was the highest expression of philanthropy, unsurpassed in the history of mankind. The period of time after the war, was the time of renewal and commemoration. In that time John Maynard Keynes, one of the most outstanding figures in the field of world economics, was on the Peace Conference in Paris, after the World War I, in charge of estimating war damages and the degree of destruction in the Allied countries, but without considering their losses in "human capital"-- the only exception he made for Serbia. In his book "The Economic Consequences of the Peace (published in 1920) he wrote: "The losses of Serbia, although from a human point of view her sufferings were the greatest of all, are not measured pecuniarily by great figures, on account of her low economic development." He quoted some extraordinary figures of the loss of life--"at above 1,000,000, or more than one-third of the population of Old Serbia." In the end he concludes: "Of all the Allies, Serbian sufferings and losses were proportionately the greatest, and after Serbian, the French. In these times, also, according to professor Hichmann (Geographical Statistical Atlas 1920) "it was found, when the nations counted their losses after the war, that Serb casualties amounted to 23% of her population as compared with 3.7% for Great Britain, 8.5% for France and 9.3% for Germany. No small nation can suffer a loss such as Serbia, drawn moreover entirely from its able-bodied manhood, without coming near the risk of extinction. Every single man who could be saved from the debacle strengthened the hope for the future.