Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 3. (Budapest, 1956)

J. BALOGH, M. D.: The hungarian traumatic surgery in the first part of the 19th century

could move it actively in all directions, without pain. After 7 weeks of treatment the patient returned to work. In view of this article, it is a small wonder that Réczey, in his operative surgery, displays a profound knowledge of pseudoarthrosis. The description given and the surgical procedures suggested for treatment are remarkably uptodate. Réczey calls the condition actually a pseudoarthrosis and describes two kinds of surgical operations for its treatment. He starts by dissuading the reader to employ one of them: resection, which he claims to be dangerous. The recommandée! technique is as follows: Reduce the fracture ends, pass a suitable needle armed with a ribbon soaked in setaeeum fan excitant) in between the ends, through the whole width of the limb. The pus drain is to be left in place, should be moved and exchanged from time to time. Author warns that when passing the needle through the limb care should be taken not to damage blood vessels and nerves and that, if possible, the limb should be immobilised in extension. The procedure is to be continued for months, until recovery résulte. In the 1847 numbers of O. T. one can find reports on the great achievement in medicine: general anaesthesia. After Balassa and Markusovszky, Flór, a chief physician at the Rókus hospital, anaesthesized a small girl with ether, but the result was unsatisfactory. Flór and his associates, who were inexperienced in this field, dared give only a few drops of ether and the little patient was restless and could not be kept quiet. Ether, believed to be a dangerous agent, was handled with such caution as seems unreasonable today. This new, later so highly significant, milestone in surgery marked the end of a phase in stagnant medical history. This phase was followed by the era of the War of Liberation and subsequent oppression, both being of high political importance for the peoples of this country. In 1857, „Orvosi Hetilap" (O. H.) appears, from the pages of which emanate a new spirit, a new tone. In the treatment of traumatic surgical cases new viewpoints, new procedures and achievements are regularly employed. There is no fear