269 Health, Culture and the Human Body Düring Pasha’s Services for the Ottoman Empire Nuran Yıldırım 1 1-Introduction Ater the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in the Ottoman-Russian war of 1877-78, Abdülhamid II intended to modernise the Ottoman Army in order to stem Russia’s expansionism. For that purpose, he invited the German Baron Colmar von der Goltz (1843-1916), who came to Istan- bul with a military mission. Of the 12,000 soldiers called up to serve in the military corps founded by von der Goltz in the 1880s, only 8,000 men were healthy. he remaining 4,000 privates were sent back to their hometowns for health reasons. Among the 20-22,000 soldiers from a number of regions, including those provided as guards for Istanbul, only 8,000 healthy soldiers could be found (Düring Paşa 1924). Espe- cially among the young recruits from Kastamonu, many were diagnosed as syphilitic. he increase of the numbers of men who were unit for military service began to worry the State administration, therefore the question of the spread of syphilis and treatment of the infected people appeared on the agenda. It was decided to send for an expert from Ger- many to organise the control of syphilis. he Sublime Porte requested from the embassy in Berlin to ind a doctor who would at the same time teach dermatology at the Imperi- al School of Medicine and plan and direct the struggle against syph- ilis in the province of Kastamonu, where the disease was particularly 1 Prof. Dr. Nuran Yıldırım, Istanbul University Istanbul Medical Faculty, Department for History of Medicine and Ethics. E-mail: nurany@gmail.com