Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 69-70. (Budapest, 1973)

KISEBB KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Vida, Mária: Hell Miksa (1720 — 1792), a polihisztor csillagász (angol nyelven)

MIKSA HELL ( 1 7 2 0 — 1 7 9 2 ), A POLYHISTOR ASTRONOMER by MÁRIA VIDA T

he question may seem pertinent: why should concern the historian of median with the noted Hungarian astronomer, Miksa Hell? The raising of the question is justified, but the answer is fairly obvious: the branches of science are interrelated and they must be viewed comprehensively. By letting the development of the "basic sciences" fall from our vision we may reduce the physician to a healing artisan. In order to form a synthetical view of the material and intellectual progress of a given era all the branches of science must be considered. But Hell commands our attention for other reasons, too. Although his primary interests were mathematics, physics, and astronomy, his comprehensive mind paid attention to the questions of healing, too, and he even published some of his observations. Hell started his activities at the University of Nagyszombat (today Trnava, Slovakia) in 1751. This was the age of Queen Maria Theresa, when the interests of the Empire, the "reasons of state", "enlightened" absolutism demanded that the emphasis should be on the training of "practical" experts : men of law, physicians — and theologians. This was reflected in the establishment of a medical faculty (1769) and in the issuing of Ratio Educationis (1777). The formation of scholars and scientists was not one of the primary tasks of the University; science was taught as the part of general culture and especially as a fundamental in practical education, mainly serving the training of physicians. It is by no means incidental that the first important cultivators of botany, chemistry, etc. in Hungary (Jakab Winterl, Pál Kitaibel) all came from the students of medicine. In the 18th century astronomy was Miksa Hell (copperplate, 1771) 14 Orvostörténeti Közlemények 69—70.