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. Artis Med. 218—221 (2012)

“Sir, the Hungarian nation Rejoices, as it can hear the Present-day sons of Asclepius Speak Hungarian;

And as Hippocrates took off his Greek-style clothes and changed them To a Hungarian gown And even took a liking to it"

Thus, the poet congratulates Rácz and says that the whole Hungarian nation is happy when it hears Asclepius’ followers speaking Hungarian.

Samuel Rácz lectured also on internal medicine between 1785 amd 1786, on theoretical medicine and forensic medicine in 1802-1803 as well as on anatomy in 1805-1806.

Samuel Rácz published altogether 25 scientific titles. Of these twelve were written in Hungarian. Other texts were in Latin, German and Greek. He was able to speak and write also in French.

The most important books published by Rácz were:

Az emberi élet általános ismeretét tanító könyv (A book teaching the general knowledge of human life) Buda, 1772.

Orvosi oktatás, melyben a leggyakrabb és legközönségesebb belső nyavalyáknak jelei és orvosságai röviden leiratnak, (A medical treatise including the symptoms and therapies of the most frequent and most common internal diseases) Buda, 1776.

A physiologiának rövid sommája (A short summary of physiology) Pest, 1789.

Orvosi praxis, vagyis: A betegségeknek leírása és orvoslása (Medical practice, or a description and therapy of diseases) Buda, 1801.

Fig. 3. The Sámuel Rácz medal

When the present Hungarian Physiological Society celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1985, the Society - on the initiative of Arisztid G.B. Kovách - issued a memorial medal in honour of Samuel Rácz as a promoter of physiological education and as a publisher of the first textbooks and articles on physiology written in Hungarian. (Fig. 3.) (Kovách got the