Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 78-79. (Budapest, 1976)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK - ELŐADÁSOK - Karasszon, Dénes: Szumowski befolyása a magyar orvostörténet fejlődésére (angol nyelven)

SZU MOWS KL I'S INFLUENCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEDICAL HISTORY IN HUNGARY* BY DFNBS KARASSZON Research in medical history has older traditions in Hungary than the medical school itself. István Weszprémi had begun to collect related historical records in 1766, three years before the first Medical Faculty was founded at the University of Nagyszombat by Queen Maria Theresia. The first volume of the reputed biographical series written by Weszprémi was published in Leipzig, Germany, in 1774. Ten years later Pál Adami, who had temporarily held the chair of Veterinary Professor at the University of Krakow, (Poland), published one of the first bibliographies on epizootology under the title "Bibliotheca Loimica" (1784). A century later F. X. Linzbauer (1807 -1888) compiled all data and legal orders related to the history of public health in Hungary in seven vast volumes, entitled "Codex Sanitario-medicinalis Hungáriáé" (1852—1861). The teaching of medical history has been pursued in Hungary from the very beginnings of academic professional training. Already the first medical professors had been anxious to train the undergraduates in the history of medical sciences. However, no comprehensive review was then written in the Hungarian language on the history of development in medicine. Hungarian doctors were engaged in healing the wounds of the warriors fighting in the Hungarian War of Independence rather than in investigations into their own historical past. So it happened that the first book dealing with the history of the development of medicine in Hungary was written by a non-professional, the historician Kálmán Demkó, who did his best in good faith, but without the proper sense of criticism and, alas, with an entirely non-professional approach to the field. After Dcmkó's pioneer effort, professional medical writers took charge of the subject. The spirit of professional commitment, which had inspired Weszprémi, Adami and Linzbauer in the past, was revived in the historical contributions of F. CI. Mayer, Gy. Magyary-Kossa and T. Györy, to mention only the most outstanding authors of the many who volunteered investigations into the history of medicine. In this florishing era of medical history the Hungarian translation of Szumowski's book was published in 1939. The Hungarian edition was the first to unite the originally separately written three main parts of the book in a single volume, making thereby possible a comprehensive survey of the entire subject and a synthesis of all knowledge in the field * Paper delivered at the session of the Polish Society for the History of Medicin, Krakow, 6th November 1975.