Antall József szerk.: Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 5. (Budapest, 1972)
Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts (Guide for the Exhibition)
the professor of Vesalius in Paris appointed him prosector (pathological anato- 21 mist), but Pare did not accept the anatomical views of Dubois referring to Galen but became a straight follower of the Vesalian theories in 1555. Another significant contribution of Pare to the surgical art was the reintroduction of ligatures. Pare indeed should be considered the forerunner of modern surgery. At the side his work "Chirurgica Opera" (1582) surgical instruments are exhibited: a trephine and other instruments. (Fig. 16.). In that age surgeons represented the lowest level in the hierarchy of physicians. They had no academic training except some practical teaching in connection with the barbers' profession, and they performed only manual healing. Medical doctors, however, in the possession of their scientific knowledge, obtained at the universities did a work very much like our internal medicine to-day and could generally boast of having written several serious medical works. The other great personality of this age was Paracelsus , whose full name was Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus ab Hohenheim (14931541). His personality was rich in contradictions and nas been a favourite subject for the historians of medicine for centuries. He was the typical representative of the universal man: physician, alchemist, philosopher and theologian; it seems easier to enumerate the things he did not deal with during his life full of adventures. As a physician he was almost a "specialist" in surgery, anatomy, pathology, botanies and pharmacology. After Fracastoro and before Ramazzini he was the first to study the occupational illnesses and wrote a special study on a disease common among miners. He applied chemistry not for making gold but in the service of pharmacology. His theories were built upon the foundations laid by the ancient authors even if he had rejected them, but his ingenious, often bold way of thinking produced new, heterodox views which he tried to realize in his practice. We present his book and a medal preserving his memory (Fig. 17.). The most devastating disease of the age was Plague, one of the illnesses that has been known by mankind for a long time past. Several dreadful outbreaks spread throughout Europe between the 16th and 17th centuries. Plague took most of its victims in the 14th century when one fourth of the population of Hungary died from that disease. János Hunyadi also died from Plague in 1456. The coins and the so-called "plague-thalers" in the showcase preserve the dark memory of this disease. The column of Holy Trinity in the Castle of Buda was erected also as a memento by those who survived. Special mention should be made of the flat casket made of silver and partitioned in 12 sections which contained medicines. The names of the medicines were inscribed on the congruent parts of its lid (Cinnamon, Mint, Clove, Amber, etc.). It was made by a German master at the turn of the i6th-i7th centuries.
