Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 60-61. (Budapest, 1971)

TANULMÁNYOK - Szőkefalvi-Nagy Zoltán -Spielmann József: Nyulas Ferenc életére és működésére vonatkozó újabb adatok

the Gubernium printed, is the first serious study on the medicinal herbs of Transylvania, eight years preceding the well-known monograph of /. Fr. G. Baumgarten ("Enumeratio stirpium in Magno Transilvano Principatui"). Nyulas even noted some species of plants and their habitat which were not to be found in the Austrian Pharmacopoeia. His work shows that at that time in Transylvania 69 medicanal herbs were grown, including cereals. Of some species he found that they existed in Transylvania in wild form, too. Simultaneously with the pharmacies Nyulas visited the prisons of the towns. His findings were reported under the title "Carcerum salubritas". In the spirit of enlightenment he demanded the modernization of the prisons, the improvement of the food and the medical treatment of the prisoners, and in the name of human dignity he called forth for understanding in respect of all imprisoned persons, including the criminals, as they "did not lose their humanity so much that their improvement were rendered impossible." Another of his concerns was the training of midwives. He repeatedly appealed to the county authorities with circular letters, asking them to send as many future midwives to the Medical Surgical School of Kolozsvár (of which he became director after 1808) as possible. He provided allowances for them, and initiated training in Rumanian, too, in Kolozsvár, which duly started at the end of 1808. His prime concern was the interests of the public, therefore allowed the practising of good empirical midwives were there were none with proper qualifications. He also planned the unification of the by-laws of all the Transylvanian surgeon-guilds, but due to his early death that was realized only by his successor, András Szőts, in 1809. Even as chief medical officer he did not lose his interest in smallpox-vaccination. In 1808 he had a "Directions" printed for the authorities and the physicians about vaccination. Among others he prescribed that vaccination should be performed only by the authorized physicians and surgeons, with free vaccine. The method recommended for storing the vaccine was quite ingenious. He cherished high hopes about the popularization of vaccination, and called on the priests and teachers of all denominations to help in that. His description of the local and general lesions in the first twelve days following the vaccination conforms to our present knowledge. He knows of the slight temperature following the injection, the tumescence of the lymphatic gland in the axilla, the lymphadenitis, the individual reactivity, and

—to use a. modern term—the anaphylactic and allergic symptoms. He orders the priests of the denominations to issue vaccination certificates, and to register the names of the vaccinated, together with the date. He proved to be an excellent health organizer. When in the county of Hunyad a plague epidemic broke out in 1807 he sent there Dániel Getse, an enlightened physician, to fight it. During his inspection tour, at Marosvásárhely, where since 1790 the official post of the town physician had been held by an under-qualified chirurgeon, he settled the latter's substitution with Mátyás Horváth, a welltrained physician. In the service of the public he was not afraid of applying strong measures against those who violated the health regulations.