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.)

clinic he stated that he had performed 349 renal operations in the meantime. Some of them were prostatectomies or operative solutions of hypernephroma but he performed also nephrectomies because of renal tuberculosis. Working in his own wards and clinic he continued to be engaged in the elaboration of the methods of the staining and illumination of renal cavity system. He adopted Osborn's intravenous procedure with sodium iodide, but iodine sensitivity made the examinations impossible very often. In Berlin Lichtenberg applied the material called uroselectan with good results. It was applied by Illyés as well but only for intensive clinical examinations because this contrast material was very expensive. Trying several matters, they elaborated finer methods of pyelography which perfected other medical methods and they got an overall picture of renal function and the dynamics of the system. Illyés insisted on the importance of the pathology of the whole system in contradiction to the pathology of a single organ. It was a great perception to realize that renal excretion and the lead of urine constituted an inseparable unity, the disturbance of one of them could call forth the dysfunction of the other. The clinic directed by Géza Illyés really became one of the most significant European centres of urological research which is shown also by the fact that he became a member of the editorial board of the journal, published in German, called Zeitschrift ßr urologische Chirurgie (Journal for renal substance in the International Urological Surgery) in 1925 and the leader of the theme entitled The causes of the suppuration of renal substance in the International Urological Congress in Vienna in 1928. In 1925 Illyés was elected as the president of the Hungarian Urologists ' Society organised at the same time. The leaders of the Hungarian urological wards of that time and three other private-docents were from his department, as his former pupils. In 1924 the university examination of specialists of urology was introduced on his motion. The condition of this special qualification was not only a surgical practice but also a practice for a definite time in a urological ward or in a separated urological section of a surgical ward. This disposition acknowledged urology as an independent field of research officially though it was just an optional subject in the curriculum of the medical schools of the universities in Hungary. In 1930 Illyés published his school-book entitled Urológia (Urology) that, relying on original matters, became an important standard work of the subject of the disorders of urinary organs and the urological surgical practice. The importance of the urology in Hungary increased when Géza Illyés was elected as a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1936 and as an ordinary member in 1941 and when his clinic, directed by him up to 1943, was moved into a new building in 1936. In 1941 Illyés submitted his proposition entitled Az urológiai osztályok létesítése tárgyában (On the Subject of the Institution of Urological Wards) to the Hungarian National Health Council. In the proposition he moved the widening of the Hungarian urological health provision and the institution of new urological wards. He supported his proposition by statistical figures. He realized that the most of the recognised urological illnesses required not only special health provision but also surgical intervention. In his proposition he moved the institution of 18 national centres but thought it unavoidable anyway to institute a urological ward of 30 or 40 beds in each hospital larger than of 300 beds.