Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 45. (Budapest, 1968)
TANULMÁNYOK - József Antall: Sándor Lumniczer and the Medical School of Pest (Angol nyelvű közl.)
to say: "Schoepf was the adherent of absolute and unlimited freedom, and as such a worthy son of his country—a Magyar" [29], There is an important passage in Lumniczer's memorial speech which exceeds the requirements of character-drawing: "The result of the desperate struggles growing inside the core of a commonwealth over questions of national principle has from time immemorial been that one party was compelled to yield its legitimate or illegitimate ground to brute force. Thus originated the emigration of 1849—an exodus of the intellectuals. Or did today's homeless not stand at the head of the government of a nation not surpassed in self-government so far, were they who are now in exile not the leaders of an army victorious for one and a half years, aren't those beggars who were willing to sacrifice a fortune for the country ? Their large groups have flocked to strange lands : behind them is the lost field of glory and the ruins of their homeland plunged into mourning, before them nothing but the wilderness of embarrassing incertitude and the desert of aimlessness. But though this heart-rending event has ruined the peaceful happiness of numberless individuals, and there are thousands feeling that bitter calamity even today, after eleven harsh years, the same has brought benefit, too, on our beloved country. It has for ever destroyed the wall that autocracy had erected against the sympathy of the great nations. With the emigration the fame of the immense rhetorical power of the until then unknown Magyar has entered the free nations of another world; by it the firmest constitutional people of the world (i. e. the British ) has learned to esteem our nation's free spirit and its ability for self-government; through it the advanced West has become acquainted with our fellow countrymen's valour and also with their practical common sense" [30]. The crisis of absolutism at last eased Lumniczer's position: he got a medical post with the State Railways between 1860 and 1868. He also accepted to lead the II surgical department of Rókus Hospital, first (in 1861) unsalaried, and later (in 1864) as appointed head-surgeon. The reviving intellectual life had its aberrations, too: a heated dispute began to develop between Balassa's circle and the editor of a new periodical, "Gyógyászat" (Therapy), Imre Poór [31]. He accused the formers with organizing a clique system, each other's recommendation, the financial utilization of their profession, or sometimes even with being unpatriotic. Lumniczer was also given his share of these abuses. Semmelweis's letters, composed in cool detachment, represented an exception in that deteriorated polemic. The battle between the two groups spread over the field of the appointment of university professorships. Their fight is often referred to as that of the progressives and conservatives. It is substantially true in medical aspects, but not so simply. Many of the outstanding personalities of the War of Independence, Kossuth's confidants, mostly the members of the older generation, including Ferenc Flór, are to be found in Poor's circle. In his memorial speech on Flór, Poór drew a sharp dividing line between the three groupings: the "cosmopolitan" champions of "equality before the law" and of political liberty, those combining it with independent stateshood on a Swiss pattern, and those who although partly accept the above but first of all cling to the Hungarian character of the state. It is not hard to find out that Poor counted Flór
