Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 45. (Budapest, 1968)

TANULMÁNYOK - József Antall: Sándor Lumniczer and the Medical School of Pest (Angol nyelvű közl.)

and himself among the third group. That is why they had been already carrying a sharp fight at the time of the October Diploma, when Markusovszky and his friends were opposed to the dismissal of Czermák, who was an excellent professor but did not speak Hungarian. Balassa, Markusovszky, and their circle—not only on the basis of personal relations, but also in their view—stood close to Eötvös and the group formerly known as centralists. Likewise, they had close connections with the like-minded Austrian intellectuals, which did not prevent them from taking up the uniform of field-surgeons, without pondering, "for the constitutional defense of our country in 1848/49" as Lumniczer put it in his memorial speech on Balassa. They also preserved their friendship to "the traitor", Artúr Görgey, with whom Eötvös and his followers were also in touch, although they were anxious to protect the delicate system of the Compromise from the unpopularity of his person [32, 35]. Another remark of Lumniczer on Balassa (1872) reflects their views well: "He was not one of the over-zealous who would have endured the deformities of pseudo-science to be stealed into the hall of science, were they even under the banner of patriotism [36]. They were the workmen of modern medical science, the supporters of a parliamentarian government invested with constitutional human rights; they acquiesced in the Compromise, they were great progressive characters who urged the improvement of the economic, social, cultural and medical conditions of Hungary. False pathos should not transform them into barricade-revolutionaries or unbreakable romantic characters. They were not such. The less should that be done, as perhaps their opponents can sometimes be regarded so with more justification. THE PROFESSOR OF SURGERY After the making of the Compromise of 1867 once more Eötvös took the direction of public education in his hands. Balassa was only a private advisor at his side, but Markusovszky became one of his closest associates in questions concerning medical education and academic affairs. New opportunities were opened up, much delay and backwardness had to be made good. Semmelweis did not live to see all the changes, whereas Balassa hardly outlived them. A new generation came, József Fodor, Endre Hó'gyes, to mention the most prominent ones. Political life, once attracting so many talents, lost its interest, the great old men stepped aside disillusioned, the gifted younger ones found place for their creating activities in scientific life. Sándor Lumniczer achieved all a physician-scientist could hope for. He was habilitated "Privatdocent" in 1868, without a qualifying examination, on the basis of his thesis "To the Study of Medical Injuries". But he did not stand aloof from the challenge of organizing public sanitation, a task he undertook together with Balassa and Korányi; he was appointed a member of the Public Health Board, of which later (1878) he became Vice President and finally (1881) President [37]. He took part in elaborating the Public Health Bill, he was the permanent expert of surgical and hospital affairs. We find him attending the