Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 218-221. (Budapest, 2012)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Monos Emil—László Molnár—Lajos Szollár—Osmo Hänninen: Rácz Sámuel, az első magyar nyelven írott élettan-tankönyv írója

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Comm, de Hist. Anis Med. 218—221 (2012)

leader of the local funds for health care. He married Borbála, the daughter of Dr Sebestyén Rumbach, chief physician of Pest. Dr Rumbach was also bom in Nagybánya.

In early November 1777 Samuel Rácz started to give lectures in the Medical Faculty of Buda to those students who had selected surgery as their specialization. In 1783 he was appointed professor of physiology and higher anatomy (histology). Rácz was the first professor of physiology in Hungary, and he taught physiology for thirty years until his death. (KISS 1997).

As a scientist Samuel Rácz studied the lymphatic system (KISS 1993, 2006). He found for instance that “even if I compressed mercury towards the villous trips, I never saw it in other cells and that indicated that the lymphatics started from villi." This was a significant observation at that time.

Samuel Rácz contributed also to the administration of the university, and served for several academic years as the dean of the Medical Faculty. In one academic year (1793/94) he was the Rector Magnificus of the university.

Samuel Rácz got the title Royal Adviser. Several scientific societies invited him to be their members.

Samuel Rácz died at the age of 63 in 24 February 1807.

Samuel Rácz, as pioneer in developing Hungarian medical language

Samuel Rácz regarded the promotion of Hungarian medical terminology as his life time duty. Therefore he published textbooks in Hungarian language. Some books he wrote himself, and some he translated from other languages. Rácz’s books cover practically all medical areas important in his time. (Fig. 1.)

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Fig. 1. The front page of Samuel Rácz ’s physiology textbook published in 1789. It was one of the first books written in a popular language in history