Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 66-68. (Budapest, 1973)
TANULMÁNYOK - Székely Sándor: Az 1876-os közegészségügyi törvény előkészítéséről (angol nyelven)
peasant serfs ran away from the poorer counties where farming was less productive, and markets were frequently looted. Such happenings had, of course, their repercussions in public health, too. In 1847 Baron Miklós Vay reported to the Governor General's Council: **... in several towns of the district of Hajdú— despite all the measures I took there with the intent to prevent emigration— the poor inhabitants from the uplands trying to escape from starvation in groups, or marching under pretext of seeking for employment through the towns, fell ill there in large numbers, and often not only they themselves became victims of death, but they even dragged with them some of the local people who had given them succour .. ." 3 According to data collected by Lajos Varga, the health facilities were entirely inadequate. In 1840 there were 255 physicians, 324 pharmacists, 1,064 surgeons and 143 trained midwives in the country. 44 If we add to all this," he writes, "how unequal the distribution of doctors was between the capital city and the provinces (for instance, in 1841 there were 131 physicians in Pest-Buda alone and in 1840 only 9 physicians and 15 surgeons in the County of Komárom), it will be clear that there was a serious shortage of physicians and surgeons in the provinces. Hospital facilities were also in desperate straits. Not only the number of hospitals and hospital beds was terribly inadequate, but the treatment and nursing care of patients, and hospital hygiene were also very backward.'^ In 1830 there were 56 hospitals with 595 beds, and in 1848 only 92 hospitals with room for 2,905 patients. The best of the Hungarian reform generation exposed the unsatisfactory conditions of health under which the people were living and thought of their improvement. In the first Hungarian-language medical journal Orvosi Tár (Medical Record) started in 1831 by Pál Bugát and Ferenc Toldy (Schedel) as its editors, a number of articles appeared on public health, its conditions and problems. These were the circumstances in health affairs on the eve of March 15, 1848, the victory of the Hungarian bourgeois revolution, which was followed by the formation of the first responsible Hungarian government. PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURES UNDER THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE Under the legislation of the revolutionary government which provided for some democratic changes, such as the declaration of equality before the law and collective taxation, the abolition of serfdom, free practice of religion, the 3 Helytartótanács (The Governor's Council) 1847. No. 24216. Hungarian National Records Office. 4 Lajos Varga: „Részletek a magyar közegészségügy történetéből, különös tekintettel az Országos Közegészségügyi Tanács megszervezésére és első negyedszázados működésére (Details from the History of Hungarian Public Health, with Special Reference to the Organization and First Quarter Century of Operation of the National Public Health Council)." Ph. D. dissertation. Manuscript. 1960. Vol. I. p. 61.
