J. Antall szerk.: Medical history in Hungary. Presented to the XXII. International Congress for the History of Medicine / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 4. (Budapest, 1970)

ESSAYS-LECTURES - J. Antall—D. Karasszon: Victor Babes and the Medical School of Pest (in English)

VICTOR BABES AND THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF PEST by JÓZSEF ANTALL and DÉNES KARASSZON "Dathological anatomy has become a new and fundamental branch of medical science through the activities of Morgagni, and later Bichat. It is due to Rokitansky and Virchow that it was "raised to the distinction it deserves", to quote Lajos Arányi [1] "Whereas earlier, when investigations into the causes of the diseases we could only risk hypotheses which were more or less probable, and set up dubious theories, now—thanks to the birth and the speedy development of the new science, bacteriology—in most cases we can already refer to the factors which are in the closest connection with infectious diseases", wrote Ferenc Hutyra in 1888 [2]. It was not mere accident that the great bacteriological discoveries of the second half of the 19th century, Pasteur and Koch, left such a deep impression in Hungary. Lajos Fekete was fully justified to write in his book "A Short History of Contagious and Epidemic Diseases in Hungary" (1847): "if we claim that in our land epidemics and contagious diseases took more lives than the bloodiest military campaigns, we are far from exaggerating" [3]. Perhaps it was due to the very existence of these devastating, grave epidemics that Hungarian medicine can boast of such outstanding scientists in the field of research on contagious and parasitic diseases like. Endre Högÿes, József Fodor, Ferenc Hutyra, Aladár Aujeszky, Hugó Preisz, Miklós Jancsó Sr., István Rátz etc. The most prominent figure of Roumanian pathological anatomy and bacteriology, Victor Babes, also belongs to them. BABES AND HUNGARY The life and work of Victor Babes (1854—1926) was dealt with by Bologa [4], Cräciun [5], Spielmann [6], and others. Data were provided on his activity in Hungary by Högÿes [7] later by Kenéz [8] and in Roumanian language by Harangĥÿ [9]. In our present paper we primarily aim at showing the connections which existed between the student and later the professor of the Budapest university and his teachers (later fellow-teachers), and even later between the professor of the university of Bucharest and his colleagues in Budapest. It might be worth while saying some words on the family background that formed the personality of Babes, and made him to become the symbol of Rou185