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Hélène Sosnowska

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Hélène Sosnowska
Sosnowska by J. Kostka i Mulert, Warsaw
Born
Helena Goldspiegel

(1864-02-13)13 February 1864
Warsaw, Congress Poland
Died31 January 1942(1942-01-31) (aged 77)
8th arrondissement of Paris, German-occupied France
Resting placePère Lachaise Cemetery
NationalityPolish-French
EducationUniversity of Paris Faculty of Medicine
Spouse
Casimir Martin Sosnowski
​
​
(m. 1889)​
Children2
Medical career
Sub-specialtiesGynaecology

Hélène Goldspiegel-Sosnowska[1] (born Helena Goldspiegel; 13 February 1864 – 31 January 1942) was a Polish-French physician, activist, and writer. She was an eminent gynaecologist and published a number of texts on the subject. An advocate for temperance and vegetarianism, she served as vice-president and later president of the French Vegetarian Society.

Biography

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Early life and education

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Helena Goldspiegel was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Warsaw, Congress Poland[2] on 13 February 1864.[note 1] Her parents were Hermann Goldspiegel and Natalie Berman.[5]

After graduating with a gold medal from a high school in Warsaw, she moved to Paris at the end of 1881 to pursue medical studies. There she met Casimir Martin Sosnowski (Kazimierz Marcin Sosnowski), who assisted her in expanding her understanding of chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Aligned with his social interests, she joined the newly established Society of Mutual Aid for Workers.[2]

Sosnowska pursued her studies at the University of Paris Faculty of Medicine, obtaining a baccalaureate equivalency in 1882 and enrolling 16 times between 1882 and 1887.[4] In 1887, she worked with Jean-Martin Charcot at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital.[8] On 31 October 1888 she was awarded her doctoral degree,[2] after successfully defending her thesis on hysteria in children at the Faculty of Medicine under the supervision of Charcot.[9] It was one of the first medical theses defended by a woman.[10] She spent the following year in Stockholm with Major Thure Brandt.[1]

Career

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Sosnowska, c. 1931

Sosnowska specialized in gynaecology.[11] She quickly established her medical practice in Paris, where she played a key role in popularizing the Thure-Brandt method, a therapeutic approach using gymnastics and gynecological massage to treat chronic female diseases and infertility. Her research extended to the effects of vegetarianism and fasting on the human body, and she began publishing her findings in professional journals in 1889. After marrying, Sosnowska published under the double name Goldspiegel-Sosnowska, later as Sosnowska.[2]

Sosnowska authored a number of medical texts on gynaecology, including those on uterine disorders.[12][4][11] In 1893, she published Traitement des maladies des femmes par la méthode de Thure Brandt (Observations personnelles de 1889 à 1893). At the 1902 International Congress of Gynecology and Obstetrics in Rome, she presented "Quelques cas de stérilité guéris par le traitement de Brandt". She continued participating in medical congresses in London and Paris.[2]

During World War I, Sosnowska cared for the wounded in Paris hospitals. She helped Polish students who, after completing their medical studies in Paris, took up work in hospitals there. After the war, she published a paper entitled "Les Hémorragies utérines soignées par la méthode de Thure-Brandt (gymnastique décongestionnante et massage vibratoire)" delivered on 19 February 1934 at the Société Française de Gynécologie.[2]

Sosnowska also wrote about household nutrition and childcare, as well as works advocating for women, such as for the Society of Breastfeeding.[11] Additionally, she was a founding member of the Society of Kinesitherapy.[1]

Vegetarianism

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Sosnowska campaigned for temperance and vegetarianism, specializing in the practical aspects of the latter. In 1897, she contributed an article titled "Autointoxication par défaut d'assimilation et d'élimination; phénomènes neurasthéniques et arthritiques; guérison par le régime végétarien absolu, suivi pendant 16 mois" to Revue Théorique et Pratique de Maladies de la Nutrition.[2]

In 1904, she joined the committee of the French Vegetarian Society and became its vice-president in 1907.[11] The Society published several of her works, including Comment on doit nourrir les enfants (Paris, 1906), Le Jeûne (Paris, before 1912), and Le végétarisme en thérapeutique, which she presented in Paris on 4 December 1912 (published after 1912).[2]

Sosnowska attended the International Vegetarian Union 1926 Congress in London, where she stated:[13]

[the vegetarianism] movement was not the result of the clash of material forces, but was part of an intelligent evolutionary process. They had to recognise the close relation that existed between the physical, the emotional and the intellectual kingdoms, and that vegetarianism would not only help to quicken the intellect, but would also help them to transmute their egoism into altruism.

Following former president's Jules Grand's death in 1933, she became president of the Society.[14]

Personal life and death

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Sosnowska married Casimir Martin Sosnowski (1857–1942) on 21 August 1890 in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.[5][15] He was a Polish engineer, socialist activist, and technologist who played a key role in the early Polish socialist movement, later becoming a pioneer in steam turbine technology in France, where he contributed significantly to industrial advancements and international economic relations. They had two children, a son and a daughter.[2][15]

Sosnowska died at her home in the 8th arrondissement of Paris on 31 January 1942, at the age of 77.[6][7] Her funeral was held at the Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot church.[16] She was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery along with her husband.[2] Her death brought an end to the activities of the French Vegetarian Society.[11]

Selected publications

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  • Contribution à l'étude de l'hystérie chez l'enfants. Paris: Thesis. 1889.
  • Du traitement manuel des maladies des femmes selon la méthode de Thure Brandt. 1889.
  • Traitement des maladies des femmes par la méthode de Thure Brandt (observations personnelles de 1889 à 1893). 1893.
  • Comment on doit nourrir les enfants. 1906.
  • Le végétarisme en thérapeutique. 1912.
  • Traitement non sanglant des rétro-déviations utérines, indications et contre-indications au traitement de Brandt. 1916.
  • Thérapeutique gynécologique. Indications et technique de la méthode de Brandt: Contribution personnelle. 1922.
  • Traitement de Thure-Brandt au point de vue analgésique. 1933.
  • Les hémorragies utérines soignées par la méthode de Thure-Brandt (gymnastique décongestionnante et massage vibratoire). 1934.

Notes

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  1. ^ Some secondary sources give Sosnowska's birth date as 15 February 1865.[2][3] However, primary sources, including her university and marriage records, give her birth date as 13 February 1864.[4][5] Additionally, her death record in the Paris archives lists her birth date as 13 February 1864 and death date as 31 January 1942.[6] This would make her age at death as 77 years old, which corresponds with her listed age of death as 77 years old in the Sejm-Wielki Genealogical database.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Goldspiegel Hélène". Dictionnaire des noms propres du CFDRM, la bibliothèque du massage. Lettre G (in French). Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pacholczykowa, Alicja. "Helena Sosnowska (z domu Goldspiegel)". Internetowy Polski Słownik Biograficzny (in Polish). Retrieved 6 February 2025.
  3. ^ "Goldspiegel, Hélène (1865-....)". IdRef. Archived from the original on 15 August 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2025.
  4. ^ a b c "Sosnowska, Hélène". Paris Cité University (in French). Retrieved 6 February 2025.
  5. ^ a b c "Les mariages de migrants originaires de : Pologne" [Marriages of migrants from: Poland]. FranceGenWeb (in French). Retrieved 6 February 2025.
  6. ^ a b "Act no. 111". Archives de Paris (in French). p. 12. Retrieved 6 February 2025.
  7. ^ a b "Helena Goldspiegel". Sejm-Wielki.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 6 February 2025.
  8. ^ "'Exceptional Women': The Female Doctors Missing from André Brouillet's A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière" (PDF). The Osler Library Newsletter (138): 3. Summer 2023.
  9. ^ Micale, Mark S. (1 March 1990). "Hysteria and its historiography: the future perspective". History of Psychiatry. 1 (1): 33–124. doi:10.1177/0957154X9000100103. ISSN 0957-154X.
  10. ^ Barbas, Stéphane (18 February 2014). "Gloire et déclin de l'hystérie infantile au xixe siècle. Chronique illustrée:Rubrique dirigée par Eduardo Mahieu et Jacques Postel". L'information psychiatrique (in French). 90 (1): 65–77. doi:10.1684/ipe.2013.1148. ISSN 0020-0204.
  11. ^ a b c d e Hondermarck, Alexandra (2024). "La construction de la cause végétarienne au prisme du genre : engagements, circulations et réseaux transnationaux entre France, Suisse, Angleterre et Belgique (années 1870-1914)" [The construction of the vegetarian cause through the prism of gender: commitments, circulations and transnational networks between France, Switzerland, England and Belgium (1870s-1914)]. Genre & histoire (in French). 34. doi:10.4000/12yks. ISSN 2102-5886.
  12. ^ "Hélène Sosnowska (1864-1942)". Data BNF (in French). Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  13. ^ "History of the French Vegetarian Societies". International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  14. ^ Bernard, Léo (2024). "Hygie, et la présence continue du milieu végétarien". Hippocrate initié: Courants ésotériques et holisme médical en France durant l’entre-deux-guerres [Hippocrates initiated: Esoteric currents and medical holism in France during the interwar period] (in French). Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes. p. 73. doi:10.4000/12mfw. ISBN 978-2-7535-9581-1.
  15. ^ a b Pacholczykowa, Alicja. "Kazimierz Marcin Sosnowski". Internetowy Polski Słownik Biograficzny (in Polish). Retrieved 6 February 2025.
  16. ^ "Nécrologies" [Obituaries]. L'informateur médical (in French) (807): 4. 20 February 1942 – via Internet Archive.
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  • Hélène Sosnowska at the Society for the Protection of Polish Souvenirs and Historical Graves in France
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