Magyar László szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 174-177. (Budapest, 2001)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK — COMMUNICATIONS - Kapronczay Károly: A short history of the urology in Hungaiy. — (A magyarországi urológia rövid története.)

dwelling catheters and that he performed urethral dilatations applying Lyonel's dilator and that they performed internal urethrotomy applying urethrometer and urethrotome instruments and introduced indwelling catheter after the intervention. József Kovács saw clearly what opportunities would present themselves for urological surgery and that sooner or later there should be a separate section established for it in each hospital of Hungary and its practice should "get into the hands" of surgeons specialised in it. One of his students, Géza Antal (1846—1889) began his surgical career in Kovács's department and started to be engaged in urological surgery under Kovács's inspiration. In 1889, next before he died Géza Antal earned the corresponding membership of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for his activity in the domain of urological surgery. He got to the department directed by József Kovács in 1873. In 1876 he qualified as a private-docent in the theme entitled A férfi és női nemi szervek sebészeti bántalmai (The Surgical Lesions of Male and Female Genital Organs). In 1883 he became a titular professor of urological surgery and the head physician of the separate urological ward established in the Rókus Kórház (Saint Roch Hospital) in Budapest in the same year. He was an eminent surgeon indeed being considered one of the pioneers of the urological surgery and the therapy of urological diseases in Hungary. In 1888 he published an excellent school-book of operative surgery entitled A húgyszervi bántalmak sebészeti kór- és gyógytana (The Surgical Pathology and Therapy of the Lesions of Urinary Organs) that became the first Hungarian standard work and school-book of urology used for long. It was published also in German, bringing Géza Antal

's name into international repute. In his book he presented the science of urology divided into 16 lectures. In his presentation urology can really be regarded as an own science having its own tasks circumscribed properly. The first chapter of the book gives anatomical attainments. The second deals with the methods of urethral examination, the percussion, the disinfecting procedures before the examination, the rules of the introduction of instruments, the reflections and their methods. The third chapter is about inflammatory lesions, inflammations and the strictures connected with them. The following lecture deals with the dilating and surgical interventions ceasing strictures, the next with the international practice of urological surgery. The following chapters are about the symptomatology and the operative surgery of urethral strictures and fistulas, the next ones deal with injuries, foreign bodies, stones, tumours and disorders. From the eighth chapter the book is about bladder troubles and the methods of their examination. From the tenth chapter it deals with the urological surgical interventions themselves like the removal of bladder stones or the methods of triturating, and makes known the special bibliography and the statistical figures related to them. He dealt engrossed with the chances of the illumination of urological cavities as a diagnostic method on the analogy of ophthalmoscopy and laryngoscopy and the elaboration of its techniques. The instruments applied till then were suitable for the examination of a very little area only. He found Grünfeld'

s apparatus the best. Later Leiter'

s electric illumination, that was 5—7 millimetres in diameter, was led in it. Developing and completing it Antal constructed his own appliance called auerourethroscope. This apparatus made the inflation and the dilation of urethra possible, so a surface of several square centimetres became visible at the same time owing to the illumination. He applied Nitze's cystoscope with good results through which he could take good photographs. In 1881 in the perfection of Nitze's cystoscope also József Grünfeld took part who was Hungarian by origin. Géza Antal was