Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 66-68. (Budapest, 1973)

TANULMÁNYOK - Regöly-Mérei Gyula: A középkori és régi magyar egyetemek, különös tekintettel a budapesti orvosi kar jelentőségére a tudománytörténetben (angol nyelven)

pediatrics on which he was lecturing at the university. In 183G he established the Institute of Orthopedics. From 1836 he gave lectures on the history of medicine at the Medical School of Pest. In the War of Independence of 1848-49 he was the physician of the Italian legion, this was the reason why, after the defeat, he was compelled to emigrate and fled to England where along with Whitehead, English gynecologist, he established a children's hospital in Manchester. By means of regular autopsies he controlled the correctness of diagnoses and therapeutic effects (1842, 1845), his activity is exemplary also in this respect. His books dealing with the spasm and convulsion of children (On spasm and convulsion of children, 1850) as well as the disorders of infantile development and the cause and prevention of rickets (Disorders of infantile development and rickets, 1858). The foundation of the Budapest pediatric school was connected with the name of János Bókay jun. (1858-1937). He was an international authority of intubation discovered by O'Dwyer (Die Lehre der Intubation, 1908). It is well-known that Behring

1 s serum, by which he became one of the greatest benefactors of mankind, began to spread more widely about 1892. Though it significantly improved the mortality rate of diphtheria having been rather high at that time owing to the death cases described by Heubner and Langerhans, a few of the contemporaries were averse to use it. The question of treatment of diphtheria with serum was placed on the agends of the VIII. International Public Health and Demographic Congress held in Budapest between September 4-9, 1894. After the intervention on of Emile Roux, who was the first to produce diphtheria-toxin, the congress called upon János Bókay to study the clinical application of the Behring-serum. Bókay established that the death rate of diphtheria before using the serum fluctued between 48,4% (Baginsky, 1893) and 60% (L'Hôpital Trousseau, Paris, 1894), while after serum treatment it soon decreased to 9,32% (Bókay, 1895 and the following years). Bókay's experiences considerably contributed to the rapid spreading of the serum treatment (Dtsch. med. Wschr. 1895; Jb. Kinderheilk., 1897). In 1932 his great work (Die Diphtherie seit Bretonneau, Erg. Inn. Med. u. Kinderheilk.) written together with B. Johann, J. Tomcsik, L Lovrekovich, B. Kanyó, F. Szirmay and P. Kiss (Gegesi Kiss) was published which is often referred to both in Hungarian and foreign literature. He is the first to recognize the identity of herpes zoster and varicella virus, and suggests the name of zoster varicellosus. His statement has proved to be correct. Bókay's activity in the field of history of medicine is also of international importance. His excellent work deals with the development of pediatrics (Geschichte der Kinderheilkunde, 1922). It has been mentioned that a mental hospital, working in our days too, was founded 1852 in Buda and prior to it one at Vác in 1850. Both institutions were established by Ferenc Schwartzer (1818-1889). During his activity he elucidated the semeiology of mania with and without delirium (1853), the criteria concerning the state when a mentally-derangad is a danger to himself