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 presented clinical instruments belong to the different fields of medicine : surgery, internal pathology, dental surgery. They are completed with some contemporary prescriptions. Mention should be made of the lithotriptor, lancets, trephines for trephination of skulls, a needle-holder, extraction forceps, etc. Two coloured caricatures represent a collection of all the costumes (plaguemasks) advised by physicians as protection against cholera epidemics. 4. Medical Relics of the Hungarian War of Independence (1848-49) A mile-stone of Hungarian history was the War of Independence suppressed by Austria and its ally, Tsarist Russia. Among the fighters for national independence we find the outstanding personalities of the emerging medical School of Pest : János Balassa, Lajos Markusovszky , Sándor Lumniczer, Endre Kovács-Sebestyén, Ágost Schoepf-Merei and Frigyes Korányi. The leaders of Hungarian medical life were united in their political fight for national independence. They formed a firm circle out of which Hungarian medicine rose to European level in the second half of the 19th century. Medical documents of the two years' period of the revolution and War of Independence are displayed in the show-case dedicated to this period, and they are surrounded with pictures. E. g. : the handwritten inventory of the Surgical Clinic (signed by Balassa and Markusovszky ); the appointment of János Balassa to the rank of ministerial counsiller signed by István, Palatine of Hungary, the work of Endre Kovács-Sebestyén: "Javaslat az d iadalmi közegészségi és orvosi ügy rendezésére" ("Suggestion for the organisation of state public health") published in Pest in 1848. There are two more interesting documents to be mentioned : Lázár Mészáros (1795-1858) minister of Defence appoints Albert Grdsz "physician supervisor of hospitals" and the military passport of Albert Grósz. The portrait of Illés PöĤtzer (1825-1907) director of the Hospital at Nagyvárad (today Oradea in Rumania) during the War of Independence was painted by Antal Simonÿi (1821-1892). The exhibited cockade of the Academical Legion belonged also to Politzer. Károly Than (1834-1908) aged 14, was one of the youngest soldiers of the War of Independence. Later he became the pioneer of experimental chemistry in Hungary and the founder of the first chemical institute of the country. The founder of Hungarian psychiatry was Ferenc Babarczi Schwar zer (1818-1889). During the war of Independence he served his country under the name of Ferenc Fekete as a surgeon-major. The pocket-watch on show evokes his memory. The exhibited instruments mainly belong to military surgery : ophthalmological instruments, bullet-drawer, surgical instruments in tool-case, bone-drills, trephines on stands, etc. The wooden chest with iron battens was used for storing medicines and medical instruments (Fig. 60.).
