Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 57-59. (Budapest, 1971)

TANULMÁNYOK - Antall József: A pesti orvosi iskola kialakulása és a centralisták egészségügyi politikája (angol nyelven)

for his ability to collect a "brains trust" around himself. He had all the qualities for that: his intellectual superiority, his tactfullness, and an ability to respect other people's opinions. He knew that the prerequisite of all planning and execution was the selection of the right experts and leaders. The leading brains of the intelligentia—the "eggheads" of that age, though that shape was not characteristic of them—were all gathering around him from the end of the 1840s onwards, and that was even increasing in the 'fifties and the 'sixties. The fortunate interaction, the alignment of the general program and the plans concerning public health and medical training took place in these years, from the end of the reform period to the Compromise. It is easy to recognize the close relationship of ideas between the political circle of Eötvös and the medical circle of Balassa. They met in their efforts aiming at the creation of the bourgeois state endowed with constitutional and democratic liberties as well as in accepting the compromises made after the lost war of independence, and in the fight for the improvement of sanitary and cultural conditions. They equally detested the distortion of scientific research, coming from any direction, even if "under the banner of patriotism". And they were also agreed that the understanding with Austria must be maintained not through the person of the sovereign, but through the Austrian liberals and the reformists of Vienna, by keeping in contact with them.

24 The approach of Balassa, Markusovszky, Lumniczer and Frigyes Korányi to general policy and cultural policy was akin to that of Eötvös, and in turn they provided the centralists with the missing health program. Social politics based on prevention could easily meet the program of physicians who proclaimed prevention in sanitation. The latter was manifested in the teachings of Semmelweis as well as in the doctoral dissertation of Markusovszky (The physician as educationalist. Pest, 1844), which argued for prevention as the basis of health policy.

25 The group of the centralists and the medical school of Pest were the fruits of the same age, teh same social-political school, expressed its general policies and their application.

26 We mention the personal contacts of the two only in order to give weight to this historically and medical historically determined relation. As we have mentioned, the medical adviser of the Eötvös and Trefort families was Balassa (1848), Markusovszky (during the absolutist rule), and Korányi (after the Compromise). At the death of Eötvös both Korányi and Markusovszky 24 Antall J. : Lumniczer Sándor és a pesti orvosi iskola. = Comm. Hist. Artis Med. 45. (1968), 57-73. 25 (For a popularizing summary, see:) Antall J. : Markusovszky Lajos. 1815 — 1893. = Élet és Tud., 1965. 29. 1372 — 74. 20 Antall J. : A pesti orvosi iskola kialakulásának történelmi és tudománytörténeti tényezői a XIX. század közepén. (Lecture delivered at the yearly meeting of the Medical Historical Society of the GDR at Weimar. 2nd October 1969. See in the Yearbook of the Humboldt University.) (It is characteristic that Eötvös was on good terms with Czermák, too, and in 1870 he spent his time with him whide staying at Karlsbad. Ferenczi Z. : Báró Eötvös József. Bp., 1903. 288.)