Fráter Jánosné: A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia állandó bizottságai 1854–1949 (A MTAK kiadványai 70. Budapest, 1974)

Preface

11 Within the scope of their particular activities, the committees also tended to diffuse scientific knowledge in ever wider circles through their publications. Apart from scientific institutions, a good part of their publications reached the middle-strata of intellectuals, and even the educational institutions. With inexpensive publications, they promoted public education,particularly in the field of the cultivation of the Hungarian language. The SubCommittee on Polk Music had collected the basic source material of its work from among the peasants, preserving the old Hungarian traditions and folk art, which later served as a basis for the worldfamed compositions of the modern Hungarian musical art. The majority of committees was engaged in the humanitiesj only one committee was working in the field of natural sciences. This is explained by the Academy's statutes adopted in 1869, which considered it as primary objective to serve intellectual progress and the diffusion of knowledge through the promotion and cultivation of the Hungarian language. The statutes, with minor modifications, remained practically unchanged until as late as 1945. Although the rapid development of natural sciences - particularly in the interwar period - made it imperative to give adequate support to these branches of science, and the ever increasing importance of these branches would have given the Academy a good opportunity to reformulate its scientific objectives, but the Academy failed to play a leading role in the organization of natural sciences, despite some internationally recognized Hungarian achievements in these fields. Initiated by Albert Szent-Györgyi, an "Academy of Natural Sciences" had been founded in 1945 which merged with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1946. After World War II, partly the reconstruction of the ruined country and, as a consequence, the serious economic difficulties, partly the Academy's justified and well-founded reorganization absorbed the energies.All this had a serious impact on the practical activities of the committees, too: they either did not work at all or their work was limited to a minimum level.