J. Antall szerk.: Medical history in Hungary. Presented to the XXII. International Congress for the History of Medicine / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 4. (Budapest, 1970)
MEDICAL HISTORY IN HUNGARY - J. Antall: Museum Affairs Concerning Medical and Pharmaceutical History in Hungary (in English)
tions are under way, the scientific studies have been completed, the reconstruction is to start soon, so we hope that within three years the apothecary "Arany Sas" (Golden Eagle) will open as a pharmaceutical historical museum. The process of integration was carried forward when on January 1, 1968 the Minister of Health—in agreement with the Minister of Education—united the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum and the National Medical Historical Library "with a view to the combination and furthering of the researching and popularizing activities in the field of medical history." By that the institution was born, which had been first advocated several decades ago and was started on many occasions, and which, as the historical and legal successor of the institute initiated by Endre Högÿes, could make its first steps in 1965 already with a past of sixty years. Through many years the library collection of the József Ernyey Pharmaceutical Museum already mentioned was kept at the Institute of Pharmacognosy of the Medical University in Budapest "in complete legal uncertainty". In 1968 by the agreement of the Rector of the University and the Directorate of the Museum it was taken over by the Museum, but was left at its former place as the József Ernyey Library of the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum. Now at last the complete material —objects and historical documents—of a broadly interpreted field fell in one hand, including the book collections. Thus our institute is the pool of all the collections initiated in the years past. The museum pieces are kept in ten special colletions (medical, pharmaceutical, anthropological, ethnographical, art, numizmatic, etc.), and the historical documents (manuscripts, prints, pictures and sound-relics) are kept in a separate collection together with the archival materials, e.g. the documents of the former Association of Physicians. To that are added the auxiliary collections: film- and data collection, etc. At present a permanent exhibition (Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts) presents the material of the Museum, from primitive curing up to the age of the first world war. We have already spoken about the various other duties of the Instituts, here we should like to refer only to the general administrative tasks like the protection of the medical relics. All that is performed by a Director, a Deputy Director, and researchers having degrees in medicine, history, archival subjects, museology, librarianship, philology, pharmaceutics, etc., together with assistant librarians, museum executives, restorers, etc. having a specialized higher secondary education. They all set the service of research and the popularization of medical history as their task and aim at meeting the wishes of both their foreign and Hungarian visitors. THE EXHIBITION OF THE SEMMELWEIS MEDICAL HISTORICAL MUSEUM The birthplace of Ignác Semmelweis (1818—1865) is situated at the southern foot of Buda-Castle. Now it houses the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum, founded in 1965 (Fig. 1.). The house, built in the 18th century in late Baroque style was rebuilt after a great fire in the neighbouring Tabán district (1810) in 3 Orvostörténeti Közlemények 33
