Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 66-68. (Budapest, 1973)
TANULMÁNYOK - Székely Sándor: Az 1876-os közegészségügyi törvény előkészítéséről (angol nyelven)
contained in the original draft were omitted, for instance the one on sanitation on the railways and in navigation. The Hungarian Physicians and Naturalists (MOT) continued to follow the preparations of the law with steady attention and decided to hold a debate over both drafts, both that of the Ministry of the Interior and the draft modified by the National Public Health Council. The debate took place at the Medical Administration Department of the MOT, where it was first of all decided which of the two documents would be considered for intensive discussion. "After longer deliberation, the draft submitted by the National Public Health Council has been accepted as the basis of discussion," the minutes recorded. 27 We have not discussed—nor do we wish to do so further on—the rather subjective argument which raged between Imre Poor, editor of the periodical Gyógyászat (Therapy), and the members of the Balassa-Markusovszky group around the Orvosi Hetilap (Medical Weekly). Nonetheless the opinion of Imre Poor, who played an important part in the MOT, recorded in the above minutes, is interesting enough to be quoted here: "Professor Imre Poor expresses the opinion that the draft bill is not equipped to function as a law and lacks scientific principles. He would like to modify it in four principal directions: 1) its subject should be in the first place the material aspects of public health, and only in the second place the personnel aspects ; 2) the jurisdiction of the Government, the regional and local authorities and communities should be defined in the law; 3) there should be an emphatic distinction between law and instructions; 4) the bill should be constructed on the basis of scientific systematization." As we have, however, mentioned, the MOT accepted the National Public Health Council's draft as a basis for discussion, and in fact only a few modifications, largely matters of formulation, were proposed in the course of the debates. FURTHER ACTION The debate over the drafts of 1873 still did not terminate the process of framing the law. The Ministry of the Interior continued to deal with the National Public Health Council's draft, and the MOT also kept it on its agenda. The fact was that although the Medical Administration Department of the MOT accepted the Council's draft with minor modifications and recommended it to the attention of the 17th MOT Congress, held at Győr, the Council version failed to get a friendly reception at the said congress. The Medical-Surgical Department of the MOT (which included the majority of the physicians, chiefly the practicing physicians) opposed the Medical Administration Department, and their position had a greater influence on the permanent Central Committee of the MOT, whose president was Károly Nendtvich, and whose 27 A MOT Nagygyűlései (The MOT Congresses). Vol. XVII. Budapest 1875, p. 66.
