Hála József - Romsics Imre (szerk.): A kalocsai polihisztor. Tóth Mike emlékkönyv. Tanulmányok - Kalocsai múzeumi értekezések 11. (Kalocsa, 2009)
Romsics Imre: "Az igazság felismerése az ember szellemének kenyere, és életének fűszere." Tóth Mike és a természettudományos ismeretterjesztés
Romsics Imre IMRE ROMSICS Mike Tóth and popular science The best known and most characteristic area of Mike Toth’s work was his study of minerals. Besides exhaustive scientific works of the subject, he also wrote several articles aimed in a more popular style at wider audiences. He pointed out the importance of searching regarding the various spots where different minerals may be detected and described potentials for their use in industry and commerce. His booklet Minerals and Life described the ways in which various minerals may be applied in everyday life. He shared whatever experiences he gathered during his trips abroad with the Hungarian audiences and each time formulated proposals on introducing various innovations in this country, e.g. on utilising the energy of peat or of trees planted by the side of the roads. Talking of salt mines, he referred to their value in the tourist trade. He proposed that a collection of Hungarian minerals be created and he encouraged scientific research on the subject. This proposal was partly fulfilled, if not entirely, by organising the mineral collection of the Kalocsa Grammar School. Mike’s writings in the religious magazines that he edited also regularly included similes and parables taken from the natural sciences. He raised considerable consternation when describing the belief system associated with shrines - in fact a treasure house for ethnographic and historical research. Mike Tóth was a man capable of such a complex view of the world as to form a unified vision involving the natural sciences, economics and the dimensions of social welfare. Highly socially sensitive, he paid great attention to the question of elevating and educating the impoverished masses. He placed absolute priority on cultivating the good the human soul and procuring its salvation. His innumerable proposals at innovation and betterment aimed to create the worldly foundation for this end. He proposed that students of secondary and tertiary schools should be obliged to travel to all the different parts of this country. His books on Spain and Central Europe are the fore-runners of the travel guides so popular today. Besides publishing innumerable articles in Hungarian and foreign magazines and newspapers, he also fully furbished the chemistry and physics laboratories of the Kalocsa Grammar School and tht, Minerals Collection which even had its special guard. A great part of the work of Mike Tóth was popular science itself, in the best sense of the word. His every piece of writing aimed to inform and educate. He was a man forever striving for the development of the economy and the improvement of his society. 158
