Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 51-53. (Budapest, 1969)
TANULMÁNYOK - Antall József: A modern felsőoktatási rendszer kialakulása Magyarországon (1848—1890) (angol nyelven)
the emphasis laid on declaring public health a state responsibility and its consequences on our entire national existence is of special importance in the proposal. The first Hungarian educational congress initiated by Lajos Tavasi and convened by the reorganized and all-inclusive Hungarian Society for Education met between 20th and 24th of July, 1848, and aimed at organising the system of education on a broad basis and letting new blood into the veins of the teaching community. The leaders of the congress included among others Ferenc Ney (Chairman), János Warga (Deputy-Chairman), József Palotay-Purgstaller (the one-time teacher of Ignác Semmelweis), Mihály Táncsics, and at the head of the branch of higher education Flóris Römer and Ányos Jedlik. Those convened in the name of liberty and democracy submitted a radical and sweeping program to the Government, and first of all demanded the separation of national and religious affairs. The "Proposal concerning the High Schools and the Universities" was prepared under the direction of Ányos Jedlik as chairman and Jakab Zimmermann as secretary. The proposal, based on the University Act, summarized the tasks and the necessary organizational changes on the example of the contemporaneous liberal foreign universities. Eötvös made use of the flood of proposals and schemes and integrated them into his educational (including higher educational) program. In questions of organization and detail he accepted the faculty proposals mentioned above. A synthesis made by Eötvös: "The constitution of the Hungarian University" lay hidden nearly for a hundred years when its publication was forestalled by the events of September, the resignation of the Batthyány government. This comprehensive reform program is made up of twelve chapters and 295 paragraphs. All its points beam the liberal spirit of Eötvös, conceived in the period of revival. Among others it planned separate theological faculties for all religions —a conception resulting from the concern for the nationalities—and several posts of professor in philosophy on the arts faculty. He defined the concept of universities and schools for higher education with classical brevity and clearness: u a state institution where the young generation is introduced in the depthness of science on the basis of education appropriated in secondary schools". The university was to be composed of three theological faculties (Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox), Faculty of Law (with legal and political departments), and Faculties of Medicine and of Arts (with departments in Philosophy, History, Linguistics, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences). Mention should be made that Eötvös's conception like most other progressive plans, included the dividing of the Arts Faculty into Social and Natural Sciences. He materialized that in the organization of Kolozsvár University, established later, but in Budapest it had to wait until the university reform accomplished it two decades ago. The regulation places a democratically elected Rector and Board at the head of the university. It solves the question of "private professorship" and the members of the Academy are entitled to announce lectures. It provides for the participation of the students in their affairs and solves the institutionalized training of secondary school teachers (and also that of elementary school teachers). It envisages libraries, practical exercises, welfare institutions and 5 Orvostörténeti Közlemények 65
