Spyridon Mavrogenis


Spyridon Mavrogenis Pasha, in Turkish known as Ispiro Mavroyani, was a Phanariot Greek doctor who was the physician of Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
Constantinos Trompoukis and John Lascaratos described him as "a prolific scholar".
He knew Greek, French, and German.

History

A member of the, his great-grandfather was Petros Mavrogenis. Theodore Blancard stated that the Mavrogenises or the Morozonis were of Venetian heritage. His father died when he was young, so he lived with his uncle, Ioannis Mavrogenis, who was living in Vienna as the chargé d'affairs of the local Ottoman mission. He had studied at the Chalcis Commercial School prior to living with his uncle and at a medical studies programme in Vienna from 1835-1843. He initially remained in that city, working in city-owned hospital as an auxiliary doctor. He came back to Constantinople in 1845.
Whilst back in Turkey, he became a doctor in the Artillery Hospital, and then, beginning in 1848, a professor at the Imperial Medical School. He initially taught hygiene, and later pathology. There he advocated for French as a medium of instruction. He held meetings of the Greek Literary Society, created in 1861, at his house.
His son, Alexandros Mavrogenis, was a diplomat. George Anogianakis, author of "Reflections of Western Thinking on Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Thought: A Critique of the 'Hard-Problem' by Spyridon Mavrogenis, a Nineteenth Century Physiologist," wrote that the fact his son had such a coveted job "is indicative of Mavrogenis' influence". When his relationship with Abdul Hamid deteriorated, his son lost his envoy job.

Works

He also wrote an entry in "Treatises of Physiology".

Honours

In the title page of his monograph on Constantin Carathéodory, his titles are stated: