Hulusi Behçet (Ottoman Turkish: خلوصی بهجت; Turkish: [behˈtʃet]; 20 February 1889 – 8 March 1948) was a Turkish dermatologist and scientist. He described a disease of inflamed blood vessels in 1937, which is named after him as Behçet's disease. His portrait was depicted on a former Turkish postcard stamp.
Early life Born to Turkish parents, as his father was an official in the Ottoman Empire, they emigrated to Damascus where he spent his early childhood after he lost his mother to an illness.
Professional works During World War I (1914–1918), he served at the military hospital in Edirne as a specialist in dermatology and venereal diseases and was assigned to the head of the hospital as an assistant. After the war, between 1918 and 1919, he first went to Budapest, Hungary and then to Berlin, Germany to improve his medical knowledge. He had the opportunity to meet some well-known colleagues there. After his return to Turkey, he went into private practice. In 1923, Behçet was appointed as the head physician at the Hasköy Venereal Diseases Hospital at Golden Horn in Istanbul. Shortly after, he moved to Guraba Hospital, which is now part of the School of Medicine Bezmialem University. While he lectured at the university, he continued his private practice as well.
Scientific works In 1933, Istanbul University was re-established out of the old-fashioned Dar-ul Fünun. During this period of reform, Behçet founded the department of dermatology and venereal diseases. His curiosity for research, writing, and discussion were his intellectual characteristics. Starting from the early years in his profession, his participation in national and international congresses with original articles was very apparent, publishing many articles at home and abroad. The famous German pathologist Philipp Schwartz once called him "a scientist who was well known everywhere, but in his country", adding that "you could never find him in Turkey because he was always abroad presenting his findings". He translated many articles into Turkish to help educate new generations and published original case reports in international reviews in order to make contact with such far countries as Korea. He was interested in syphilis since 1922 and had published many international articles on its diagnosis, treatment, hereditary properties, serology, and social aspects. Leishmaniasis (Oriental sore) was another disease, which Behçet worked on, beginning in 1923. He wrote about it in many articles and succeeded in its treatment with diathermic. He first described "the nail sign" appearing by the removal of the crust of an oriental sore. A part of his published work was concerned with parasitosis. In 1923, he described the etiologic agents of "gale cereal" in Turkey. Behçet dealt with superficial and deep mycosis and their treatments. Due to his observations, he described the dermatitis of fig in 1933. In 1935, at the Dermatology Congress in Budapest, he was honored for his studies on mycosis. He was also in the publishing vanguard to improve Turkish medicine and he was responsible for the first dermato-venerology journal of Turkey called ’’Turkish Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology’’ in 1924. In 1939, he was elected as a correspondent member to the German scientific journals ’’Dermatologische Wochenschrift’’ and ’’Medizinische Wochenschrift’’. The same year, he was promoted to ordinary professor. The most important work that Behçet brought to Turkish medicine was the monograph published in 1940 called ’’Clinical and Practical Syphilis, Diagnosis and Related Dermatoses’’. Every page of this book contains an aspect of syphilis and the footnotes provide a wealth of detailed information about the differential diagnosis of other skin diseases. As a result, scientists had the chance to learn about syphilis and dermatology at the same time. This book, despite its outdated style, still retains its value and spirit in medicine as being the only example in its field. Behçet continued as the Head of the Department of Dermatology and Venereal Diseases until 1947.
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