Anastasie Fătu (originally Năstase Fêtu or Fĕtu,Anastasiu, p. 705; Urechia (1892), pp. 205, 267 also known as Anastasius Fétul, Anastasie Fĕtul or Anastase Fătul; January 2, 1816 – March 15, 1886) was a Moldavian and Romanian physician, naturalist, philanthropist and political figure, a titular member of the Romanian Academy and founder of Iași's Botanical Garden. Of lowly origins, he benefited from the meritocratic program instituted by Moldavia's government in the 1830s, and went on to study law at the University of Vienna, with hopes of becoming a political economist. After graduating, he changed his professional path, and trained in medicine at the University of Paris. Recognized for pioneering contributions in cardiology, pediatrics, obstetrics and balneotherapy, he was also an early speaker for public health and social medicine, as well as an educational theorist and textbook author. Fătu's career as a professor of natural sciences took him to the Gregorian Institute, the Socola Monastery school, and ultimately Iași University, where he took steps to create a regional medical school.
In parallel to his career in science, Fătu served one term in the ad hoc Divan (1857–1858), then several in the Parliament of Romania, initially its Assembly of Deputies; he was Assembly Chairman in 1868, and an associate of the Free and Independent Faction during the late 1860s and 1870s, espousing a platform of radical economic antisemitism. By 1878, he was part of the Factionalist chapter which caucused with the National Liberal Party.
Inducted into the Academy in 1871, he became one of its main sponsors, and thus a patron of hard science in Romania. While there, he helped standardize scientific references, and, siding with the partisans of phonemic orthography, participated in the creation of a specialized Romanian vocabulary. Criticized by his adversaries at Junimea society for his accumulation of offices, and for collecting a large salary as curator of Sfântul Spiridon Hospital, Fătu nevertheless donated most of his money to the Academy. The rest of his estate was at the center of legal disputes which lasted into the 1890s. Though largely forgotten within two generations, Fătu survived in cultural memory as a partial inspiration for Zaharia Trahanache, a ridiculous but ultimately likeable figure in Ion Luca Caragiale's political comedy, O scrisoare pierdută.
Biography
Early life and studies abroad While he remains fundamentally associated with the city of Iași, Fătu was actually born just to the south of it, at Mușata, Fălciu County—presently Vaslui County—on January 2, 1816 (Old Style: December 21, 1815).Buda, pp. 57, 78. See also Teodorescu et al., p. 289 He had a younger brother, Iacob,Bodea, pp. 287–288 who worked alongside Costache Conachi as a translator of literature.Teodorescu et al., p. 289 Their father, born into a peasant family, was a parson of the Moldavian Orthodox Metropolis.Buda, pp. 57, 78A. D. Xenopol, Istoria românilor din Dacia Traiană. Vol. XI: Istoria politică a țărilor române dela 1822—1848. Bucharest: Cartea Românească, 1930. After finishing primary school in Huși, at the school maintained by the Orthodox bishopric,Buda, p. 443 Anastasie passed an examination and received a scholarship for Iași's Vasilian Gymnasium,Urechia (1892), p. 205 thus profiting from a meritocratic shift in Moldavian society. As noted by historian A. D. Xenopol, Moldavian Prince Mihail Sturdza and his adviser Gheorghe Asachi were tacitly encouraging "people from the lower strata of society" to acquire and education, and then to take up employment in the state apparatus, at the expense of boyardom. Scholar V. A. Urechia also records the "great diversity of origin" at the Vasilian boarding school, arguing that it was a positive contribution to Romania's culture.
From 1834, one of six Moldavians to have qualified for a scholarship from the banker-philanthropist Hagi Constantin Popp,Bodea, p. 37 Fătu was sent abroad, on condition that, upon graduating, he would return the favor by teaching a public "course in philosophy, law and political economy".Anastasiu, pp. 705–706; Urechia (1892), pp. 267–270, 377–378 He went on to study in the Austrian Empire at the University of Vienna. Another scholarship recipient was Anton Velini, who remained his friend in later years,Bodea, pp. 37–38 and with whom he studied law, physics and mathematics as an undergraduate.Urechia (1892), pp. 270, 377–378 It was also here that Fătu met ethnic Romanians from Austria's Bukovina District—Constantin Wassilko and the Hurmuzachi brothers, and, to some degree, also associated with students from Transylvania; together, they established a pan-Romanian club.Bodea, pp. 37–38, 43–45 After taking his Doctorate of Law, and also auditing courses at Vienna Medical Faculty (1839–1841), Fătu received permission from the Moldavian government to continue his studies in France; he enlisted at the University of Paris medical school, but remained in contact with the Vienna expatriates.Bodea, pp. 38, 43–45, 287–288. See also Anastasiu, p. 708; Buda, pp. 57–58, 443 By August 1846, he was friends with two other Moldavian youths in Paris, all three active politically: Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Scarlat Vârnav, and Nicolae Ionescu.Bodea, pp. 287–288, 292–293 His friends at home included fellow naturalist Ion Ionescu de la Brad, who noted admiringly that Fătu was "enamored with his studies", and an inspiration to the other Moldavians.Bodea, pp. 292–293
Fătu became a Doctor of Medicine in 1847, with a thesis on cardiac examination (including the study of menstruation flow), published under the name Anastasius Fétul (Des signes des maladies du coeur en général).Buda, p. 443; Teodorescu et al., p. 289 He was invited to remain in Paris and practice there,Constantinescu, p. 31 but, after a series of European travels,N. Angelescu, A. Dima, "Personalități chirurgicale ieșene", in Jurnalul de Chirurgie, Issue 4/2006, p. 424 he returned to Moldavia. He was appointed by Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica to serve as head physician of Iași, and also as surgeon-general of the Moldavian Militia. His services were rewarded with a succession of boyar titles. He became a Ban in December 1851 (at roughly the same time, Iacob Fătu was Serdar); in April 1853, he became a Spatharios, and in October 1855 an Aga.Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu (ed.), Marea arhondologie a boierilor Moldovei (1835–1856), p. 86. Iași: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, 2014. . See also Rășcanu, p. 285
Rise to prominence In 1850, Fătu contributed a monograph on the prevention of malaria; he also focused his activity on obstretics, balneotherapy and dietetics, with Învățătură dietetică relativă la scrofule ("A Dietary Instruction against Scrofulae"), followed by Descrierea și întrebuințarea apeĭ simple și a apelor minerale din Moldova ("Description and Use of Plain and Mineral Water in Moldavia", 1851) and Manualu pentru învățĕtura móșelor ("A Textbook of Midwife Instructions", 1852).Teodorescu et al., pp. 288–289; Vintilă-Ghițulescu, pp. 32, 212–213, 228, 252, 425, 471. See also Buda, pp. 443, 444; Urechia (1894), p. 122 At the time, he insisted, against religious observance and popular superstition, that women wash themselves as often as possible; he also began advocating a government-sponsored program of spa tourism, but his proposal was casually ignored.Vintilă-Ghițulescu, pp. 212–213, 299, 425 Fătu's hypothesis that sulfur baths could work against syphilis was more reserved than other claims to the same effect from his contemporaries, but nonetheless contributed to a prevailing mythology in later folk medicine.Valeriu L. Bologa, "Istoria sifilisului", in Buletin Eugenic și Biopolitic, Issues 3–4/1930, pp. 84–85
In 1852, Ban Fătu established the Gregorian Institute (named for the patron-prince Ghica), which included a midwives' school that was at some point co-headed by Nicolae Negură.Buda, p. 443; Vintilă-Ghițulescu, pp. 252, 471 Its parallel function as a maternity hospital enraged conservatives such as Constantin Sion, who called it Ghica's "whore-house, the house of illegitimate births".Șerban Cioculescu, Varietăți critice, pp. 158–159. Bucharest: Editura pentru Literatură, 1966 Within this institution, doctors Fătu and Gheorghe Cuciureanu also pioneered pediatrics, and ran Moldavia's only pre-kindergarten for abandoned children. Mihail Mihailide, "Discursuri exemplare", in Viața Medicală, Issue 52 (1389), December 2009 Fătu also created the Society for the Encouragement of Young Romanians to Study Abroad on March 22, 1855, providing it with a capital of 1,000 ducats from his own estate,Urechia (1894), pp. 122–123, 225 and publishing its statutes as a brochure. The following year, he set up on his property at Râpa Galbenă the Iași Botanical Garden, celebrated as the very first one in the two Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia).Buda, p. 444; Chirilă, p. 18; Constantinescu, p. 31 The collection, Fătu asserted, was meant to both improve the environment and educate the youth; upon inauguration, it comprised 2,500 plant species from several continents, as well as artificial ponds and greenhouses.Chirilă, p. 18
When the Crimean War toppled the Regulamentul Organic regime, placing the Danubian Principalities under the shared tutelage of Great Powers, Aga Fătu became marginally involved in the liberal and Romanian nationalist movement. By June 1856, he was a member of the enlarged Unionist Committee, which openly called for union between Moldavia and Wallachia.Xenopol, pp. 332–333 In February 1857, he joined a deputation sent by the Moldavian printers, asking the powers to lift censorship laws—other envoys were Vasile Alecsandri, Constantin Hurmuzachi, and Alecu Donici.Gheorghe Bogdan-Duică, Vasile Alecsandri. Povestirea unei vieți, p. 38. Bucharest: Editura Cultura Națională, 1926. He then ran in the elections of September, taking a seat for Iași in the ad hoc Divan. He was one of several affiliates of the National Party to win in that city, taking 198 votes.Preda, pp. 76–77. See also Rășcanu, p. 285 This new legislature, sanctioned by the Great Powers, replaced a Divan elected fraudulently in July.Preda, pp. 74–77; Rășcanu, passim
The new chambers inaugurated a process whereby Fătu's Paris friend and National-Party favorite, Cuza, was elected the new prince of Moldavia—and then as Domnitor of the United Principalities (the basis for modern Romania). Fătu is known to have endorsed this move, and to have kept a portrait of the Domnitor in his residence.Chirilă, p. 17 He returned to publishing in 1863 with Proiectu de Organisarea Policieĭ Sanitarĭâ in Romania ("A Project for Instituting Romania's Sanitary Police"), which also functioned as Romania's first attempt at a sanitary code.Buda, pp. 443–444; Felix, pp. 11, 17–18; Vintilă-Ghițulescu, pp. 121–121, 255, 299, 446. See also Teodorescu et al., p. 289 The same text pioneered medical jurisprudence, including the basics of mental health law and forensic science,Buda, pp. 443–444 sketched out food safety codes, regulated the creation of public toilets, and standardized the depth of graves.Vintilă-Ghițulescu, pp. 121–122, 299–300, 446 It also called for a ban on open-casket church funerals, proposing to isolate dead bodies under the close watch of specialized bailiffs.Vintilă-Ghițulescu, p. 446 As social historian Constanța Vintilă-Ghițulescu remarks, Fătu's law integrated well within the "hygienist wave" of "civilized Europe", with doctors emerging as "key figures in the construction of the modern state."Vintilă-Ghițulescu, p. 252 However, according to fellow hygienist Iacob Felix, the project was simply ignored by the government of Nicolae Kretzulescu, and the Assembly of Deputies consulted it only for laws establishing county councils.Felix, pp. 17–18
Factionalist debut