Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 89-91. (Budapest, 1980)

TANULMÁNYOK - Magyar, Imre: Belgyógyászati irányzatok Magyarországon a két világháború között (angol nyelven)

The state of internal medicine in Hungary still flourishing despite the external crisis, abruptly changed in the second half of the 30s. In 1936 S. Korányi was pensioned off and his department closed. Bálint died already in 1929 and since then only three internal clinics were functioning. With the Korányi clinic being closed, there remained only two internal clinics in Budapest. Herzog together with the staff of the 1st Department of Medicine moved into the building of the Korányi clinic. His place was occupied by the Department of Urology. At the 2nd Department of Medicine, after Kéthly's death Boros was appointed professor, a good haematologist and cardiologist although not an outstanding personality, as Herzog used also not to be. The standard of medical departments in the country was likely to be higher due to the activity of Rusznyák, Fornet, Ángyán and their disciples. A deterioration of internal medicine cannot by far be explained by personal causes. There was an overwhelming contraselection, with the worsening of the economic and political situation during the war the country was suffering under the distressing protection of false friends. There is no need to describe here the atrocities of the years before the outbreak of the 2nd World WarIn 1935 still the following was to be read in Gáli, G. : "The Doctor's Progress" [78] : "We have reached the present days in which the legal state in the Kantian sense having

—according to the great Wilhelm Humboldt

—the single duty of guaranteeing the security of its citizens, has developed into a patronizing welfare state (Wohlfahrtstaat) interfering in every affair of the citizens. In this state the type of medical officer emerges or predominates which, after workers'

1 insurance has been gradually been taken over by the state

—includes also the doctor of the insurance cashier's office. Beside this type, the specialist being inevitably a hospital doctor, is indispensable. As the third type, almost as wretched remnants, the private practicioner, the family doctor remains. This is happening when recent progress in medicine is characterized by psychological meditation.

.. This should by all means not be expected of a bureocratized physician bound by cruel official obligations" Vámossy bursted out in his editorial [79] "What is to become of us if we are not allowed even to protest against something not to our liking, and if we are torn apart at the first gunshot as we are ordered to do." We were ordered and have been torn apart. In the same year, in 1934, when after graduating I started to work as a physician at the Korányi department that was to exist for another two years. Madame Curie died [80], Ramon y Cajal [81] died, G. Farkas died [82] as well as V. Tauffer [83]. Minot Murphy and Whipple [84] won the Nobel prize for the treatment of pernicious anaemia. Nékám [85] praized the Italian conditions and was enthusiastic about Mussolini's grandiose plan which was supposed to help in overcoming class struggles because, instead of classes, it divided Italians into groups of farmers, producers and artists, disregading class structure. Public opinion urged establishment of a T. B. pavilion attached to the university [86] since the teaching of tuberculosis was impossible without it. Liek stated in his entitled Der Arzt und seine Sendung [87] that 50 per cent of the population in Germany prefers to consult a quack instead of a physician. Egészségpolitikai Szemle (Review of Health Policy) edited by J. Born and Szociális Orvostudomány (Social Medicine) edited by Gy. Gortvai were started. At the same time when, according to an indignant editorial of Orvosi Hetilap [88] the paper Népegészségügy (Public Health) was declining. One of our greatest scientists, M. Lenhossék, well known and respected all over the world, was awarded a secondclass Distinguished Service Cross without the star. Orvosi Hetilap was again indignant