Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 97-99. (Budapest, 1982)
KISEBB KÖZLEMÉNYEK - ELŐADÁSOK - Csillag István: Gruby Dávid (angol nyelven)
DAVID GRUBY ISTVÁN CSILLAG From among Hungarian doctors who lived abroad and made world-wide reputation, David Gruby should be mentioned first of all. Books have been filled by the French on his struggled and wholesome life. 1,2 Several authors — Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Alfons Daudet — painted his figure in world-famous novels. Hungarian writers are still indebted for writing his biography. A monography on David Gruby is also to be written by Hungarian medical historians. No street or memorial tablet has preserved so far his name. He was born at the small village of Kiskér in Bács county, the scientific activity of the poor Jew boy who became a doctor brought "eternal glory for the Hungarian people"? He was well ahead of his time: he was an initiator of the etiological trend, a world-famous expert of mycoses, a congenial discoverer of the doctrine of Protozoons, the inventor and establisher of microscopic photography. He was the first to prescribe cotton for surgical dressing. 4,5 ' 6 We recall Wigner's 7 words : To raise something from 0 to 1 means more than to raise from 1 to 5. 5 to 1 is just five, but one to zero is infinity. After eighteen years of scientific work, as practising physician in Paris, he is family physician and friend to such world-famous that it is extraordinary. His patients were Heine, Chopin, George Sand, Gambetta, Mac Mahon, Alfonse Daudet, Thomas, Gounod, Balzac, the two Dumas, Lamartine, Flammarion, Ferenc Liszt, Mihály Munkácsy, Mihály Zichy, Lajos Bruck, László Paál, Izsák Perimutter (the latter he also provided with board and lodging in his own house for years). He was often called for to the court of Napoleon III, to the royal dukes in England, etc. 8 1 Le Leu: Le docteur Gruby. Notes et souvenirs. Paris, Stock, 1908. p. 300 2 Ibid.: Count Witzhum's short story. „Sphynx" on David Gruby; Lorenzo Mcntemerli: Biographie du Docteur Gruby. Paris, 1874. 3 Nékám Lajos: Az Orvostudományi Kar története (A history of the Medical Faculty.) Orvosi Hetilap (O. H.) 1937. 213; ibid: Tibor Győry's answer 4 Magyary-Kossa, Gyula: Magyar orvosi emlékek (Hungarian Medical Relics). Vol. II. Budapest, 1929. 34—35. Ten years later Alfonz Guerin „discovered" again cotton-wool. „The work of the genius is like the well of the roads that every rouge may draw from to his liking. Lucky if he won't spit into it." 5 Magyary-Kossa, Gyula: Adatok Gruby Dávid életéhez (Data to the life of David Gruby.) Gyógyászat, 77, 1937, 55—56, 571—172, 578—588 6 Fritz, Sándor: Dr. Gruby Dávid (1810—1898). MTA Közi. V, 1959, 243—254; Idem: Gruby Dávid élete és működése. (The life and work of Dávid Gruby.) O. H. 94, 1953, 1001—1004; Idem: Gruby Dávid szerepe és működése Párizsban (David Gruby 's role and activity in Paris.) (1851—1898). Literatura, May 1937. 7 Conversation with Jenő Wigner: Valóság 16, 1973, 73—81. 8 S. no. 6
