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

TANULMÁNYOK - Székely Sándor: Az 1876-os közegészségügyi törvény előkészítéséről (angol nyelven)

"It is necessary that the Government which has the mission to put forward the motions for these laws in the first place and which is to see to their execution, — 1. have at its disposal a body which, having the desirable standard of knowledge and experience, would be able to assist the Government with advise, in other words which would be consulted not only in certain ad hoc cases, but which would in fact elaborate the provisions of the law in respect to public health, medical administration and legal medicine at court proceedings, and would then, on the basis of these provisions, work out or endorse the necessary instructions ; and would generally act to ensure that whatever useful discoveries or achievements were contributed by science for the above purposes should in fact be applied for the common good; 2. have at its disposal responsible agents who are able to carry out public health laws and decrees, or control their execution ; who, in order to perfect public health and the State medical service, collect data, discover the shortcomings, make regular annual reports and, each in his own field, act to ensure that the law and the aims set down by the Government should be realized as perfectly as possible."

12 This "independent, scientific body of consultants" was then to prepare the public health act. The setting up of this "independent scientific body", in other words, of the National Public Health Council, corresponded with the carefully drawn up plans of the Government, as this is amply evidenced by the fact that after the conference held on March 10, 1868, on the recommendation of the Government the King signed the proposal already on April 9, together with the statutes of the Council—likewise drawn up in advance —and by June 14th, the Chairman of the Council and its members were appointed. The Council held its constituent meeting on July 5, and this meeting already formulated the rules. János Balassa became the President of the Council and Endre Kovács Sebestyén its Vice-President. (Balassa was able to act as president only for half a year, for he died on December 9, 1868 of a perforated appendix. He was succeeded by S. Endre Kovács as Council President.) The regular members of the Council were Lajos Grósz, Jenő Jendrassik, István Kajdacsy, Frigyes Korányi, Sándor Lumniczer, Mór Moskovits, N. János Rupp, Károly Than, Károly Tormay and János Wagner. In addition there were 28 corresponding members, including a number of provincial county chief medical officers. A report of the first phase of the Council's activity is available in Lajos Csatáry's work The 25-Year History of the National Public Health Council published in 1893. Lajos Varga's "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," a Ph. D. dissertation written in 1960, deals with the operation and development of the Council. The National Public Health Council was active in many fields directly after its creation, and it began to prepare the public health act—the most important problem on the agenda in that period—in 1869. At that time Frigyes Korányi, a member of the Council, proposed the elaboration of the draft bill. For this 12 Lajos Varga: Op. Cit., Vol. 1, pp. 160-161.