C. Csapodi, E. Moravek et al.(szerk.): The Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1826–1961.

II. The Use of the Library

the manuscript of the founder of the Academy from the former SzéchenyiMuseum of the Academy. There is also a letter of Lajos Kossuth dealing with the death of favour and the connections of Hungarian refugees with him (Fig. 25). In another manuscript, in a neat hand, Ignác Semmelweis, the ,,saver of mothers' lives" reported to the Academy on the methods of defence against puerperal fever (Fig. 33). Then there is the first poetical exchange of letters between the fraternal friends of Hungarian literature of the nineteenth century, Sándor Petőfi, who is most known abroad, and our greatest epic poet János Arany whose characteristically Hungarian verse is practically untranslatable. In his first letter Petőfi writes the sentence known as their common poetical program: „If the people will but rule in poetry, they will be near to ruling in politics too." (Fig. 22—23). Manuscripts of the greatest Hungarian prose writers are also preserved here with the small letters of the great romantic novelist, Mór Jókai; Kálmán Mikszáth's backward sloping letters (Fig. 26), letters of Zsigmond Móricz (Fig. 28), and Endre Ady, the great lyrist (Fig. 27). There are also letters by Ferenc Liszt (Fig. 29) and Béla Bartók (Fig. 30). Of our scientists, manuscripts of Ányos Jedlik (Fig. 32), the inventor of the dynamo and electric motor, are preserved as well as those of the eponym of the University of Budapest, Loránd Eötvös, the discoverer of the geophysical instrument bearing his name, the torsion balance (Fig. 34). The Department has taken over the older portions of the archives of the Academy and also those of the Kisfaludy Society which was, in its day an important literary association. Doctoral and Candidate's theses also constitute a continuously growing part of the Department. In the future, literary reliquia of scholars will be the main items to be collected. Foreign visitors have often inquired about the former Elischer's GoetheMuseum. This Museum fell victim to the Second World War, but the manuscripts luckily escaped destruction and are now also treasured possessions of the Department, The Collection o] Old Books is located in rooms common with the Department of Manuscripts. It was set up in 1954. The collection is at present made up 20