Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 66-68. (Budapest, 1973)
TANULMÁNYOK - Bugyi Balázs: Az iparegészségügy kezdetei Magyarországon (1928-ig) (angol nyelven)
were treated for a total of 289,908 days in hospital, or a little longer than 31 days on the average. Out of all the 12,241 patients, the guilds carried the hospital costs for 1,871, the merchants' organization of Pest for 40, the managing board of Hungarian railways for 156, the corporation of brick burners for 378; furthermore 749 patients were treated at their own costs, the rest on warrant issued for 5,103 by the mayor, for 3,932 by the police and for the remaining number by various foundations. Worth of notice is this record about the vocational affiliations of Rókus Hospital patients, more particularly their division between industry and commerce. Surprisingly high was the number of patients treated in the hospital for various forms of lues (1,395 including 819 males and 576 females) which makes 1 out of every 9. This survey of admission files according to profession permitted inferences for the proportional sizes of professions in Pest, Buda and the adjoining counties and indicated at the same time the degree in which people of various professions were exposed to damage of health. Therefore the idea was raised as early as 1847 to set up an "ambulance" in the central hospital of the municipality Pest, charged to concern itself with the diseases of "craftsmen". A not insignificant proportion of the ailments were identified as occupational damages of the skin. No wonder, therefore, that the initiative to provide medical care for "artisanal diseases" came from a dermatologist. At the beginning of 1847 Móric Jacobovics filed a petition to the Monarch, "supplicating for permission to teach medical students at the University of Pest how to deal with diseases of skin, genitals, more particularly with lues and with artisans ailments". In a rescript dated 25th March 1847 the Royal Court agreed to the petition. Previously the director of the medical faculty informed the Chancellery in a memorandum that Jacobovics, by permission of the board, had been in the habit to hold practical lectures by the bed-side in the sick-wards of Rókus Hospital, Considering the importance of the subject, the director makes a point of having Jacobovics appointed as professor and of starting the lecture course. On 3rd September 1847 Móric Jacobovics is appointed to unsalaried associate university professor, with the commission to read lectures on his subject for medical students in Hungarian language. On 20th December 1847 he delivers an inaugural lecture of which the Medical Journal of 1848 carries a full-length reproduction, quoting him as having spoken "among other things, about the effects that certain artisanal occupations are producing first on the skin, later probably in the whole of the human system." Ignác Stáhly reviewed Jacobovics' lecture in terms of warm praise, saying he rated it most useful and important himself that a subject, so significant for the cause of progress, has been included into the university curriculum. 10 Worth of attention in Jacobovics' inaugural paper are the following two statements: a) The skin is the site for the majority of diseases that arise under pursuit of some craft or occupation, for instance in the textile industry by the handling 10 Győry T.x Az Orvostudományi Kar története, 1770 — 1935. (History of the Medical Faculty 1770-1935.) Budapest 1937.
