Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 87-88. (Budapest, 1979)
TANULMÁNYOK - Czeizel, Endre: A heredodegeneraciós tan történeti értékelése (angol nyelven)
analysed is suitable for the representation of the full genetics of recessively inherited deaf-mutism. Its greatest merit is the proof of the two loci autosomal recessive inheritance of deaf-mutism, though it had been referred to before him as a theoretical possibility by Bauer and Stein in 1926, Miihlmann's pedigree of 1930 is thought to have supported it, (but Csörsz was unaware of it) still it was Csörsz and Tokay's communication that gave the first unambiguous proof of this important theoretical and practical thesis. Csörsz and his colleague's merit is acknowledged in the international literature (e.g. Fraser, 1976). Analysing pedigrees, Csörsz arrived at the following —still acceptable conclusions: "1. Hereditary diseases appeared in the history of man surely as mutations and with several starting points. 2. The extent of pathologic transformation of genes under mutation is not uniform", and he put forward the today so import possibility of multiple allels. "3. From a didactic point, let's imagine that both active parts of an allelomorphic pair of genes strive for independent manifestation. The result of the competition must be either interference (intermediary mode of inheritance) or only one of them gets manifested (dominancy, recessivity)" . Károly Csörsz's greatest merit, in my opinion, is that he recognized that the clinical patient material is so much selected that generally it is unsuitable for representing a given population. Therefore he started research work in two directions, unparalleled since then in Hungary and being of a pioneering character internationally, too. He started in Hungary twin researches with a genetic purpose. Based on the examination of 151 twins he proved that the predisposition for bearing twins is hereditary. His other initiative was to set forth and practise on a high level population genetics in Hungary. Unfortunately his early death prevented him from carrying through his plans and making them acknowledge internationally. In 1927 Károly Csörsz published his monography "Statistical, constitutional and genetic investigations from the Alföld" (v. II. No. 3 of the Works of the II. [Medical and Natural Sciences] Section of the István Tisza Scientific Society of Debrecen), and actually it is from that time on that we may count the existence of Hungarian population genetics. In the preface to the 71-page study with 36 genealogical tables Csörzs states that "the pathology of the near future will be not so much the pathology of diseases but rather that of the diseased man. And the only way to understand genetically the diseased man is to regard him as member of a population.'''' Accordingly, in 1924 Károly Csörsz launched into a full-scope genetic investigation of the 1100 habitants of Tépe, a community in County Bihar, at 24 km from Debrecen. It had two parts; the research of registers and the investigation of the then living. The registers of births, marriages and deaths drew back as far as 1751. (That is, in this Calvinist region official lists were not dared to be kept until long after the Peace of Szatmár, that is after the confirmation of the liberty of religion.) Thus Károly Csörsz could track down and analyse about 300 families back to 1751. The data of the pedigrees are precisely given in the appendix of his work. He examined the living systematically after an elaborated scheme from biomedical, pathological and ethnographic aspects. His statement is still reliable: "As fas as I know, this sort of investigations to such extent (though surely thought of by many) have never been managed before."
