Abstract
In the small village of Prapořiště (then German Braunpusch) in Chodovia, Philipp Terč was born on 30 March 1844. He studied at the College of Medicine in Vienna, graduating in 1869.
He became an assistant at Surgical Clinic of General Hospital. He completed his medical education with a Master's degree in obstetrics and surgery, both in 1875.
In 1873 he married Rudolfina Valentova. In 1875, the family relocated to what is now Maribor, Slovenia.
Since his youth, Dr. Philip Terc has suffered from rheumatic joint pain in his hand.
Back in Vienna, on a summer day in 1868, he was stung on the stricken hand by several bees. Surprisingly, as the swelling of the affected area subsided, so did the joint problems and the mobility of the hand improved.
Fully ten years he continued his experiments and observations on the effects of bee stings. In 1888 he published a paper on the remarkable relationship between bee stings and rheumatism, describing his experience of administering apitherapy to 660 patients with rheumatic arthritis.
On 28 October 1917, Filip Terč, M.D. passed away in Maribor. In 2006, at an apitherapeutic congress in Germany, participants chose to mark World Apitherapy Day each year.
They chose the date of birth of Dr. Filip Terc to honor his pioneering research work.