Series VI: Medical Sciences – SUPPLEMENT ... - Krongres

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Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Bra�ov • Vol. 2 (51) - 2009 • Series VI
was already encountering a prosperous
material status, which allowed him at his
arrival, in 1872, to open a pharmacy in the
free port of Sulina, under the name of the
wise deity �Minerva� [2].
Notwithstanding, from the beginning he
received the help of two business partners
right from the beginning: dr. Contomihalos
and after his departure, dr. Valentin Stais
[3].
In this prosperous city, which was the
residence of the European Danube
Commission ever since 1856, the
pharmacist Zervos was the sole owner of a
pharmacy: a medical statistic study of
November 14 th , 1879 (the official date of
the Romanian administration commencement
in Dobrogea), mentions only 2
pharmacies in Sulina: �Minerva� and the
pharmacy of the European Danube
Commission’s Hospital [3].
The legal framework under continuous
change brought amendments also for the
�Pharmacy’s business carrying out�: by
means of the Ministers’ Council Journal
no. 8 of February 6 th , 1881, the pharmacies
with foreign owners (without Romanian
citizenship) as in the case of the �Minerva�
pharmacy from Sulina, were only
acknowledged under �personal right� [3].
The grounds of the name change, of
Gherasimos Zervos’ pharmacy, are
unknown in 1895, subsequently being
renamed �Speran�a�. Under this optimistic
name the pharmacy was run for another
five years by Gherasimos Zervos, until his
death on January 30 th , 1901 [4].
Starting that year, the family of the
deceased Zervos gives under concession
the pharmacy up to 1916 to the
pharmacists: Nicolae Lupescu, Pavel
Avram and Gh. C�lin [4].
The First World War breaks off the
ordinary course of life in the Sulina free
port as well: subsequently, the destiny of
Zervos family and of the pharmacy
changed, the documents of those times
having provided no statement at all. Under
the same silence were also placed the
successors of the pharmacist Gherasimos
Zervos (1842-1901) from Sulina.
Their discovery was revealed upon the
reading of the travel book �Abyssinia� [5],
signed by the reporter-writer Mihai Tican-
Rumano (1895-1967), who had travelled
along five continents and represented a
genuine ambassador of our country.
In 1934, having journalistic interests
concerning the Italo-Abyssinian conflict,
recently begun at the country borders, he
travels to Ethiopia, hoping that his dream
would come true, namely that of seeing
�an African Christian-Orthodox country
by excellence, the country of the world’s
most pious emperor, Haile� Selassié I� [6].
Being under preparation and alert due
to the war, the audience to the emperor
became unachievable. He was advised to
ask for help from the personal counselor
and physician of the Imperial Court of
Abyssinia’s capital, Addis-Abeba.
A cordial reception was held in the
doctor’s house, a certain dr. Zervos.
The business card of the Romanian
writer stirred great emotions and
enthusiasm: the doctor started to speak
Romanian!
Although having strong Greek
influences, the Romanian language spoken
in the heart of Abyssinia by the doctor
caused a great surprise also to the reporter
Mihai Tican-Rumano.
He was in front of Dr. Jaques Zervos,
the private physician of the Imperial Court
and resident minister of Greece in Addis-
Abeba.
Jaques Zervos had confessed about his
native and childhood city, Sulina, where
his parents rest in peace, about his
children, �a boy and a girl who learn at our
schools�, about his big family from
Romania and about the studies at the
Faculty of Medicine in Athens, together