The fi rst scientifi c medical society – the Society for the Medical and Physical Sciences Competition – was created in 1804 at the Medical Faculty of the Imperial Moscow University. From 1845 it became known as the Moscow Physics and Medical Society. Major scientifi c schools were created in the second half of the 19th century in Russia. They were headed by scientists who were active members of the Physics and Medical Society. At this time, a tradition evolved at the university of combining academic and scientifi c spheres of activity, as well as the use of scientifi c techniques that were discovered in medical practice.