The establishment of the Commission of National Education initiated a process of profound changes in Polish education, including both organisational structures and teaching programmes. One of the first tasks faced by the new educational authority was the creation of a school system covering the successive stages of education from primary schools to universities. The new structures were to be headed by universities, exercising control over lower-level education. The existing universities in Kraków and Vilnius differed significantly from their modern European counterparts, so the Commission initially wanted to establish new ones. In the course of discussions and at the request of representatives of the Kraków Academy, decisions were made to reform both universities. The reform of the Kraków Academy was undertaken by her student, Hugo Kołłątaj, who learned the current trends in the development of European universities during his studies abroad. The reformed university, which was now called the Crown Main School, consisted of the College of Morality, with schools of theology, law and literature, and the College of Physics, with schools of mathematics, physics and medicine. The Seminary for Candidates for the Academic Estate was launched at the university, in which future teachers were educated. In departure from the medieval rules, the method of hiring and promoting lecturers was also changed. The university was to be a research and teaching institution with a comprehensive range of education opportunities. While modern knowledge, especially in the field of natural sciences, was to be applied in everyday life in order to contribute to raising the economic level of the country, the development of the social sciences and the humanities was aimed at shaping a new model of the Pole, a patriot and citizen.
During the Age of Enlightenment, many Poles pursued medical studies at various European universities. One of them was Jan Dominik Piotr Jaśkiewicz. Born on 6 July 1749 in Lviv to an Armenian family, he moved to Vienna in the late 1760s to study medicine at the university under the supervision of renowned professors: Anton de Haën, Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz, Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, and others. Jaśkiewicz graduated in 1775 with a Doctor of Medicine degree, based on the thesis titled “Dissertatio inauguralis medica sistens pharmaca regni vegetabilis”, in which he provided a list, description, and healing properties of some plant species, arranged according to the systematics of Carl von Linnè (Linnaeus). Through his dissertation, Jaśkiewicz popularized in Poland the views of the Viennese medical school, among others, on the medical use of digitalis. For some time he remained in Vienna, attempting to secure a suitable position. Between 1780 and 1783, Jaśkiewicz expanded his knowledge of nature through travels to Italy, Germany, and France. After presenting his mineralogical observations in Paris, Jaśkiewicz was appointed as a correspondent member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. It was during this time in Paris that Jaśkiewicz met Jan Śniadecki, who later became his friend, colleague, and patient. Subsequently, Hugo Kołłątaj appointed Jaśkiewicz as a professor of natural history and chemistry at the Crown’s Main School in Kraków (Jagiellonian University). He began his lectures in Kraków on 1 October 1783. It should be emphasized that Jaśkiewicz laid the foundations for Polish scientific vocabulary. He also played a crucial role in establishing a chemical laboratory and organizing a botanical garden and a cabinet of natural history. In February 1783, Jaśkiewicz took on the position of a hospital physician (director) at the St. Barbara Academic Hospital, where he focused on organizing the hospital’s finances and management. Around the same time, he declined additional remuneration for this role. In 1787, Jaśkiewicz assumed the duties of the house physician for the Wielopolski margrave in Pińczów. Jaśkiewicz died in Kraków on 14 November 1809. Throughout his life, he was an active physician and performed his medical career independently of other duties. Jaśkiewicz gained considerable recognition and popularity for his achievements in the medical field.
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