Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 51-53. (Budapest, 1969)

TANULMÁNYOK - Végh Antal: Than Károly, a magyar tudományos kémia és az egyetemi kémiai oktatás megteremtője (angol nyelven)

Iiis impoverished family, were hard but decisive for his future scientific dedication. „... Artillery provided me with the first opportunity to get acquainted with chemistry. After the silencing of the first phase of our fight for freedom I found myself at the asylum at Kőrös-Ladány, the birthplace of my friend Lengyel, (Béla Lengyel, the first Hungarian professor in pharmaceutical chemistry— — the Editor — ) in a little pharmacy, to were I was drawn by inclination, since I hoped to have something to do there with chemistry. And I was not to be disappointed. . .. The goodwill of my principal, Ferencz Kiss, placed scientific books at my disposal, and he even gave me instructions in their use. After half a year I got to Hódmezővásárhely, to Ferencz Simonidesz. Recognizing my intentions he supported my inclination towards chemistry with the best will, liberally allowing me to use the materials necessary for my experiments. For a little sum, saved from my small earnings, I obtained a little cabinet from Prague, equipped with chemical instruments. After fulfilling my daily duties. I made experiments, mostly at nights. As an autodidact here I learned very much and felt quite at home in the simpler methods of analysis. But the greatest gain was that I realized how little I knew. In solving various simpler algebraic problems the joys of success aroused in me a reverence for mathematics and a desire to study it. Thus, imbued with the desire for self-perfection, I began to continue my studies in the Grammar School of Szeged with the support of Antal Rohrbach (a pharmacyst at Szeged), my principal, who helped my endevoursin chemistry with all possible means." [3], In the summer of 1855 he finished the secondary school and in the autumn entered the Medical Faculty in Vienna. In the following year he changed to the Faculty of Arts, partly because as a needy student he could get a scholarship there and partly becose he turned towards chemistry with full interest. At that time Redtenbacher was the Professor of Chemistry in Vienna, "a loveable teacher, very much favouring the Hungarian youth"; — according to Than. Redtenbacher had already had a very talented Hungarian student in 1846/47 in Prague: Arthur Görgey, who started as an excellent chemist and was very much liked by his professor. Redtenbacher's sympathy for the Hungarians must have stemmed from that. (Later Than belonged to that close friendly circle, which often called on the excellent commander of the War of Independence, living in self-imposed exile at Visegrád.) Soon Than became the private assistant of the professor and took the doctor's degree in 1858 "summa cum laude". Then corresponding to his professor's field of activity he still dealt in organic chemistry: platinic-cyanid-ethyl, chrysophanic acid. Bud when in 1858/59 he found he could continue his studies abroad on a further scholarship, he did not choose Giessen, where Liebig, the greatest organic chemist of the time lived, but Heidelberg and Robert Bunsen, where later Loránd Eötvös, the famous physicist, too became a student. Bunsen, who discovered spectrum analysis just at that time, was the greatest contemporary scientist of inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry and analytics. At Bunsen 's institute first of all Than studied the laws of gas absorption, but his scientific inclinations and theoretical interests are best reflected in the courses he took up: theoretical optics, differential and integral calculus, analysis of infinites, and so on. Beside his strenuous work he found time to visit Paris and see the most famous institutes. It was at that time that he made a life-long