Salomea Bau-Prussak (1889-1942)
Salomea Bau-Prussak source: Herman E. (1958) Neurolodzy polscy. Warszawa: Państwowy Zakład Wydawnictw Le-karskich 225-227.
Salomea Bau-Prusakowa (Prussakowa) was born in the family of Jewish origin in December 1889 in Tyczyn (Rzeszowski District belonging to Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria) [1,2].
She graduated from St. Junior High School. Anna in Kraków in 1912. She completed her medical studies at the Jagiellonian University and the University of Vienna. In November 1918 she received the title of doctor of all medical sciences at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She was the first woman with a doctor of medicine degree obtained at a Polish university[1]. Month later she took a position of an assistant in the neurological department of the Czyste Hospital in Warsaw, headed by Edward Flatau. In 1932, after the death of E. Flatau she continued her scientific and medical activities working as an assistant at the neurological clinic of the University of Warsaw under the supervision of professor Kazimierz Orzechowski. She worked there until the outbreak of World War II [2].
Jewish Hospital in Czyste, Warsaw, where Salomea Bau-Prusakowa worked
Jagielloian University 1930
During her academic work both in the department of Dr. Edward Flatau and in the clinic of Prof. Kazimierz Orzechowski she was highly appreciated and respected by her managers and colleagues. Her passion for science, tender heart and sensitive nature, along with her patience with the patients made her an enlightened role model for all who knew her. She had a very good clinical sense and comprehensive interests that went far beyond the scope of strict neurology. She had a very good knowledge of natural sciences and belles-lettres. She spoke several languages fluently. Additionally, she was very hardworking and devoted to her work [2].
Photographs from Neurologia Polska 1937, 20, 1: 146-147
In 1940, she was resettled by the Nazis to the Warsaw ghetto where she spent two years until August 7, 1942, when during the great deportation operation, she was deported to Treblinka. Shortly after the transition she died tragically [2].
Although she was the author of only 17 scientific papers published in Polish and foreign languages, the value of her publications together with her insightful descriptions of sick patients, significantly enriched the neurological literature [3-18]. The subject matter of her works is diverse. Her achievements include works describing multiple sclerosis from a clinical perspective based on her own observations. In the work "On the amyotrophic form of multiple sclerosis" (in polish: “O postaci amiotroficznej stwardnienia rozsianego”) published in the Jubilee Book of Edward Flatau in 1929, Salomea, based on the descriptions of her 8 patients, describes the features typical of muscle atrophy in multiple sclerosis, such as: lack of degeneration and fibrous tremors, their slow development and, in some cases, their disappearing during the period of improvement, as well as a predilection for muscle atrophy in the upper limbs (Aran-Duchenne atrophy) and lower limbs (atrophy of the quadriceps and peroneal muscles) [2,7].
In 1926, she described degeneratio genito-sclerodermica based on two clinical cases [4].
She also published with her husband a neurologist and psychiatrist Leon Prusak (1889-1968). Their work entitled "On epileptic seizures in multiple sclerosis" (in polish: “O napadach padaczkowych w stwardnieniu rozsianem”) was published in 1927. In this publication, based on 13 cases, they concluded that epileptic seizures may occur as general, Jacksonian, minor (petit mal), as well as in the form of mental equivalents [5].
In 1932 and 1933, she described a case of mild tuberous sclerosis with changes in the retina. Despite the fact that it was a casuistic work, due to the rarity of the observation cited and the accuracy of the description, it is included in the basic foreign literature [8].
She was a pioneer in studying the importance of Walter's bromine test for testing the permeability of the central nervous barrier in nervous and mental diseases (1927) and in the description of cartilage formations compressing the medulla or cauda equina (1934) [13].
Bau-Prussakowa S. (1935) Lipoidozy, Warszawskie Czasopismo Lekarskie. 12 (11-14) [in polish]
Her last work with Leon Prussak was published couple years after her death in 1951. “Diseases of the nervous system due to syphilis” (in polish: “Choroby układu nerwowego na tle kiły”) was a chapter in the collective textbook of nervous diseases edited by prof. W. Jakimowicz [16].
Bau-Prussakowa S., Prussak L. (1951) Choroby układu nerwowego na tle kiły. Państwowy Zakład Wydawnictw Lekarskich
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