Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 66-68. (Budapest, 1973)
TANULMÁNYOK - Székely Sándor: Az 1876-os közegészségügyi törvény előkészítéséről (angol nyelven)
In Pest .,, 3 times as many individuals die of consumption than in the metropolis of London!" (Fodor's italics). 17 We often boast of the fact that the progressive physicians of our country introduced smallpox vaccination after Jenner—preceding many other countries in Europe. On the other hand, in connection with his analysis of the English Vaccination Act, Fodor stated over fifty years later, that a law of this type would be sorely needed in Hungary, too, for "the number of lives that could be saved through more successful and zealous vaccinations would be at least 15,000 ... and the number of illnesses that could be prevented would be about 150 to 200 thousand. Such a result would certainly be worth its cost—and in regard to this I would like to observe that the present negligent procedure also costs money, a tidy sum at that." 18 Fodor wrote with great appreciation about health legislation in England. Although not many comprehensive laws like the Public Health Act of England passed in 1848 were framed, he noted, the force of law was invoked in a great many detail questions. Fodor's work reported on 41 medical statutes adopted in the period between 1848 and 1871. And he made special mention of the fact that most of these laws attempted to combat endemic diseases, to eliminate the dangers of unsatisfactory sanitary conditions, to protect health. Comparing legislation in England with that in Hungary, he wrote: "As against the laws in England, many think that the shortcomings of ours lie in the fact that whereas those are laws in the strict sense of the word, ours are mere rules and regulations not laws. In my view it is not a matter of name, though. The enforcement of decrees should be just as obligatory as of laws ; and if they are not observed, not the name is to blame ; nor is it a fault of the name if the contents are inferior." He praised the democracy and expertise of English legislation, pointing out that there the bills are widely discussed with consultation with experts, not as in our country where the decrees "are usually made according to the views—often excellent views, but also often incorrect, fallacious or obsolete views—of certain Ministers and Undersecretaries of State or of individuals influential and respected in the eyes of these men .. . 19 Moreover, the democracy of legislation is also evident in the fact that the measures taken correspond to public opinion, to the health and sanitary level of a large part of the population. "The English health laws" wrote Fodor, "derived from public opinion, from a general sense of need. A law was never imposed on the ignorant and suspicious people—as this was almost the general practice elsewhere in Europe, And this is the principal reason for the viability of English sanitary laws. The English people are all in all convinced of the importance and usefulness of health laws, and this consciousness, coupled with the British spirit of respect for law and justice, achieves that these laws are 17 József Fodor: Op. Cit., pp. 40, 79-80. 18 József Fodor: Op. Cit. p. 345. 19 Ibid. p. 178.
