Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 200-201. (Budapest, 2007)
TANULMÁNYOK — ARTICLES - FORRAI, Judit: History of a Special Healing Method for Motor-disordered Children: Conductive Education - A mozgásszervi betegségben szenvedő gyermekek egyik sajátos gyógymódja, a konduktív nevelés története
The theoretical ground on which Pető's work stands is given by Pavlov's statements. The pathologist Camillo Golgi (1843-1926) was one of the founders of modern neurohistological technology. He made certain deformations that took place in nerve tissue visible. He wrote a book on brain localisation, while his other book tells about the fine anatomy of nervous system centres. In 1906 he received the Nobel Prize together with Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) who worked out a new way of painting nerve tissue, strengthening the neurone-theory. He studied the theory of nerve cell degeneration. Otto Meyerhof (1884-1951), a scientist from Heidelberg, researched the chemical processes of energy transformation in muscles. He ma Archibald Vivian Hill (1886-1968) received the highest international award at the same time - Hill worked out the process of oxygen heat creation in connection with muscle activity. Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952) contributed greatly to the knowledge of the workings of the nervous system. He shed light onto the problems of neurones, reflexes and nerve-regeneration. The phrase "synapses" is his as well. He worked out the foundations of how long-term seizures and regulation of conscious muscles works, which gives an insight into the reflexes of spastic patients. Sherrington received the Nobel Prize shared with Lord Edgar Douglas Adrian (1889-1964), who analysed the potency changes of stimuli with electro-physiological methods and the electric characteristics of brain function. He was the first to examine the localisation of epilepsy and brain lesions with E.E.G.. In Clark Hull's (1884-1952) system stimuli is always followed by an answer. The learning process has universal laws. Learning is made effective by the frequency of positive feedback, but to learn one needs motivation (drive reduction). This theoretical statement is used by Pető as well: motivation to reach a certain goal (e.g.: to put on socks). This historical research created the background which enabled 20 th century scientists to describe the special functioning of the brain, the movement of muscles, and the conditioning and biophysical mechanism of damaged brain centres. All this enabled exact diagnosis and a right therapy. This was an almost revolutionary phase of medical science. All professionals regarded the results of this research with great interest. Pető, an open-minded man with a curiosity for everything was in all probability aware of the theories of these world famous scientists. Years in Vienna (1911-1938) After his university years Pető found a job with the hospital in Grinzing on the internal medicine and pulmonary ward. Later he would work on neurology and psychiatry (1919 1921) at the psychiatric clinic of the Nobel Prize-winning Wagner-Jauregg 25 . In 1921 orthopaedics came into his range of interest on the bone tuberculosis ward of the TB clinic in Grimmenstein. 23 Wagner-Jauregg (1857 - 1940). As an assistant at a mental clinic he noticed that one of his patients, who would be sunk in deep depression for months at a time, improved mentally after an illness associated with high fever. He started to research into the connection between fever and mental illness, particularly incurable illnesses. He experimented with erysipelas, malarial fever and tuberculin. He introduced the use of malarial therapy in his Institute in 1917 against the creeping paralysis caused by syphilis. He received a Nobel Prize for his life's work in 1927.
