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)

As a researcher Than later was engaged in thermodynamical investigations, where his measurements concerning the changes in the quantity of liberated energy caused by the heat of combustion and reaction are the most outstanding. In spite of his many occupations he was active in writing, too. He always regarded himself a pharmacist and his first textbook "Exercises in chemical training for beginners" (1888) was written for them—with examplary didactic sense. Another book, "Qualitative Chemical Analysis" (1895) is quite outstanding on its contemporary theoretical basis. Is took a long time to prepare a textbook on general and inorganic chemistry (his first commission to write it was received from the Academy in 1872): the first volume of the large-scale "Elements of Experimental Chemistry" appeared in 1898, while the second volume came out in 190(5. The work shows his chrystal-clear logic infused with many decades of teaching experience. Than had a rare sense for systématisation and used analogies to make the understanding of the subject easier. The structure of the work was in conformity with the periodic system of Mendelyeev —a sign of his constant progress, up-to-dateness. It was the first large-scale Hungarian work in chemistry and it created a Hungarian chemical terminology. Than's versatility is reflected by the fact that he laid down not only the foundations of chemistry-teaching and research and was deeply concerned about the popularization of science, but his talent was drawn on in many spheres of activity which to-day form the subject-matter of whole comissions. Just to mention a few: when gas-lighting was introduced accidents caused by pipe explosions created a serious problem. Than found out that the 5—20 volume per cent lighting-gas was already explosive. He then designed an appliance called "diffusioskop" which was to indicate gas-flows. On behalf of the Ministry of the Interior in 1881 he studied the safety measures introduced in Germany to prevent fires in multi-storey-houses. During the plague epidemic of 1879 he, together with József Fodor, made tests in connection with the disinfecting of postal letters; they found that the bacteria studied by them perished in 137° centigrade only if there was carbolic acid (phenol) present. From 1800 onwards he was constantly engaged in studying the water-supply of the capital. Among others he contributed to draw up a report (with József Fodor and Mátyás Balló) "Whether the capital should use naturally or artificially filtrated water". During the nearly half-century while he stood at the head of Hungarian chemical science his subject underwent a revolutionary change and he managed to keep in step pace with that progress. Beside searching for theoretical correlations he never lost his sense of their practical application. That was manifested in his last major intellectual accomplishment, "On the Newest Developments in Theoretical Chemistry", a book published in 1903 as the first of the Markusovszky-'mspired series "university anniversary lectures". The series was the result of lectures initiated by the Medical Faculty and the first choice was Than. In the words of Hőgyes : "As it is well known, he was one of the first of the pioneers who introduced the teaching of their subject in an up to date fashion. At present, chemical and physical research and teaching methods are at the most developed stage in the medical and natural sciences. Every new step in the theoretical and methodological progress of these disciplines serves as a spur