Filip Terč

Dr. Filip Terč was born in 1844 in Praporište (Czech Republic). He studied medicine in Vienna (Austria) and worked in Vienna General Hospital as a surgical assistant. He got married to Rudolfina Valenta and had a son with her. Since 1876, Dr. Terč and his family lived in Maribor, where he worked as a doctor and a teacher. He got remarried to Katarina Scherbaum and had another son and a daughter with her. He died in Maribor in 1917.

Beside medicine, Dr. Filip Terč had a big passion for bees. Working as a beekeeper encouraged him to study the beneficial effects of bee poison on patients suffering from rheumatic diseases. He published his findings in a magazine in Vienna in 1888. After this notification, Central Europe became interested in Apitherapy. The works of Dr. Filip Terč show that by his experiments and clinical observations he opened the way for the subsequent science of Allergy and Immunology.

For several years, his birthday, 30 March, has been celebrated as World Apitherapy Day.