Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 194-195. (Budapest, 2006)

TANULMÁNYOK — ARTICLES - ELEK, Gábor - MÜLLER, Miklós: Ervin Bauer as pathologist

convince Ervin ihat we should not leave [Buda]pest now. He should wait until things become clearer and work on his book" (Kaffka's letter to her mother, November 20, 1918; Rolla 190). During this time he must have made great strides in his theoretical studies since his first efforts in this field appeared in print already in 1920 (Bauer 1920b, 1920c), just as he settled in Prague after his emigration from Hungary late 1919. Bauer applied for an unpaid assitant professorship in his alma mater at the 1st Instutute of Pathology, then under the direction of Kálmán Buday (Balogh 1966). His application was registered in the Dean's office on January 5, 1919 (Szögi 1982, No. 3675

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). The rector „confirms the appointment" and „notifies" Professor Kálmán Buday on February 24 (No 5270). On July 24, 1919, the Rector forwards a letter from the People's Commissariat of Public Education (No. 170125/919) stating the ^appointment of Dr. Ervin Bauer as assistent at the 1st Department of Pathology" (No. 1 1456). The original applications and correspondence could not be found. The papers of the Dean's office contain a „Detailed information on the employees of the Faculty of Medicine on July 31, 1919" (No. 14852) that was supposed to be submitted to the Workers Insurance Organization (Munkásbiztositó). This did not happen because, as noted on the cover jhe Dictatorship of the Proletariat dissolved on August 2, thus its orders are no longer valid." This summary does not list Bauer any more. We find his name, however, among those who left the Institute in a „detailed report on personnel changes in 1919", signed by Bêla Johan for the director in the fall of 1919. We do not find his name in the registry of personnel of the Institute (Molnár and Szögi 2002). According to the autopsy registry of the 1st Institute of Pathology, he performed autopsies from December 1918 through May 1919 (Molnár and Szögi 2002,144). It cannot be ascertained whether he evaluated any biopsies, because a registry of „Specimens submitted'' survived only for the Und Institute of Pathology. This information shows that Bauer worked for about half a year in the 1st Institute of Pathology. Subsequently he has worked at the Peoples' Commissariat of Health in the final period of the Republic of Councils. (Fig.2.) His last paper on pathology completed in this Institute was not published until 1920 (Bauer 1920a), the same year when his pioneering theoretical article in the Naturwissenschaften (Bauer 1920b) and the Grundprinzipien (Bauer 1920c) were published, but already giving Göttingen and Prague as his address. The illustrations to this paper were prepared by Jenő Orsós, who was an unpaid practicant in the Institute in 1918/1919. Neither Bauer nor Orsós are listed in the 1920 directory of the Institute and the article gives Bauer as „past assistant" (ehem. [ehemaliger] Assitent). By 1920 Bauer has long left Hungary. He never returned to pathological anatomy and devoted all his energies to the development of his Theoretical Biology (Bauer, 1935) and laboratory work, primarily looking for experimental evidence in support of his theory of life. These efforts will have to be discussed in a separate article. 2 The numbers given here are the serial number under which the individual items have been entered into the Registry of the Dean's Office.