Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 57-59. (Budapest, 1971)
TANULMÁNYOK - Antall József: A pesti orvosi iskola kialakulása és a centralisták egészségügyi politikája (angol nyelven)
stood by. 27 But they were not only their "family doctors", but their expert advisers as well on questions of health policy and medical education. It was not by accident that in 1848 János Balassa, and after 1807 Lajos Markusovszky was put in charge of university affairs by Eötvös. The meeting and interrelation of the planning activities of the centralists and the efforts of the medical school of Pest created the cultural-scientific and health organization of modern Hungary, and laid down the foundations of her institutions. As it was the nature of liberalism, the centralists had an aversion to state interference in the various fields of public life. For a long time they envisaged the organization of education and public health on an Anglo-Saxon pattern, to be based on voluntary social associations and enterprises. They were haunted by the memory of enlieghtened absolutism, of Josephinism, even as regarded the intervention of the state in a progressive direction. But they were the first to recognize the necessity of the interference of the constitutional and democratic state in the interest of progression. And in accepting that the contribution of the leading figures of public education and public health—in our case the medical school of Pest—was not on a small scale. Though cautiously and with reservations, but similar conclusion were drawn by Lajos Kossuth, a representative of classical liberalism. "In the last century the notion dominated in political science that the only duty of the state is the protection of the social order, and the rest must be left to go on its own way. But social relations have become so complicated, the mechanical and natural sciences introduced so many new elements into life where the new demands cannot be met by individual action, that the principle of the previous century is no longer applicable to the conditions of today, consequently the impression has arisen that the duty of the state is not only to be the guardian of order but also to be the lever of progress." 28 The Minister of Public Education (1872-1888), Ágoston Trefort declared that "one of the main conditions for the development of our economy is public health". 29 His triple slogan: "public health, economy, public education" clarly shows the recognition of their interdependence. 30 He understood that public health and public education were economic affairs as well, since they determined the physical and spiritual state of one of the major factors of production : manpower. In his letter to József Fodor, Trefort set forth the view that "the political and economic weight of a nation" depends on the demographic changes. He asked Fodor, the professor of public health, to esplain the unfavourable mortality conditions of Hungary. (It is inte27 They are mentioned in the correspondance of Eötvös on several occasions. — Ferenczi i. m. 289 — 91. 28 Lajos Kossuth's last public speech before the Hungarians travelling to the World Fair in Paris. 1889. julius 5. Turin. = Kossuth Lajos iratai. X. kötet. Bp., 1904. 304—305. 29 Ágoston Trefort's speech in Pozsony. 22nd June 1884. = Beszédek és levelek. Bp., 1888. 147. 30 Trefort exponnds this idea at several places, among others in: Beszédek 143. 180.
