A vernissage of paintings preceded the celebrations by Tytus Byczkowski, a painter from Zakopane, portraitist and Plein-air artist. They created 29 unique works on this occasion - portraits of the Medical University of Warsaw professors, members and friends of the Warsaw Medical Society. The exhibition was developed in cooperation with the Museum of the History of Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw.
During the meeting in the assembly hall, the president of the Warsaw Medical Society, Prof. Jerzy Jurkiewicz, pointed out that the 200th anniversary is being celebrated thanks to the dedication, heroism, sacrifice and unwavering attitude of successive generations of Warsaw doctors who have always served Poland and Poles. He thanked the Rector of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Prof. Zbigniew Gaciong, and the Rector of the University of Warsaw, Prof. Alojzy Nowak, for assuming honorary patronage of the event, emphasising the unusual bond linking the Society with both universities. - They say thank you for being an honorary patron of the Jubilee celebrations. In our case, of course, this is the case, but I must say this patronage is precisely 200 years old and has been permanent - constant patronage of the Warsaw Medical Society since the first moment of its establishment," he stressed. On behalf of the Society, the professor presented both rectors with the Society's highest honour, the August Ferdinand Wolff medal.
- the Warsaw Medical Society has made an enormous contribution to many successive generations of doctors," said Prof. Zbigniew Gaciong. "It is the duty of society and the university to preserve this heritage, pass it on to posterity, and multiply it. Meetings such as today's strengthen the memory of our university's academic community and write another page on Polish medicine. They testify to the unbreakable bond that has always linked our organisations. After all, we have one common goal, which is to serve society," stressed the rector.
During the ceremony, the highest dignity of the Warsaw Medical Society - the ring and the title Spectatissimus - was awarded to Prof. Tadeusz Tolloczko - a 1952 graduate of our Alma Mater, the Rector of the Medical Academy (1990-1996), for many years the Head of the Surgical Clinic of the Second Medical Faculty and then of the Vascular Surgery and Transplantology Clinic of the First Medical Faculty of the Medical Academy (1974-1999). Prof. Jacek Szmidt gave an appropriate laudation. Other decorations of the Warsaw Medical Society were also awarded, and the Polish Medical Association's "Medicus Nobilis" decoration was awarded to Prof. Jerzy Jurkiewicz.
