J. Antall szerk.: Medical history in Hungary 1972. Presented to the XXIII. International Congress of the History of Medicine / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 6. (Budapest, 1972)
V. R. Harkó and T. Vida : British Contacts of the Hungarian István Weszprémi, M. D. (1723—1799)
i /¡_ 2 Medical History in Hungary 1972 (Comm. Hist. Artis Med. Suppl. 6.) residence. Debretzin, though it has the title and privileges of a town must be considered a village ; and then it is perhaps the greatest village in Europe. But should it be considered a town, it is one of the worst, though its inhabitants are not the poorest ... The houses, with only a few exceptions, consist merely of the groundfloor ; they are thatched, and have the gableend turned towards the streets : these are not paved ; but balks are laid down in the middle for the Pietons. By far the greatest part of the inhabitants are Calvinists : their gloomy manners and dress, together with the gloomy weather that happened during my stay here, made this altogether a dismal place. The principal college of this sect in the kingdom is here. .." After this Townson dealt with the circumstances of the instructors and students and notes the other things which lend special interest to the town, the local pipe, the long sleeveless frieze capes the local peasants wore, the excellentes favoured bread baked there and the quarterly fairs. He mentioned the "tolerably good inn" and the "very poor vine" growing in the neighbourhood. He found the town gloomy and was glad to leave it. The only surprise the locality provided was that he met there "four or five gentlemen who had visited our island." He also referred to his meeting with Weszprémi, writing that he thought Weszprémi had studied some time in Edinburgh. Among the gentlemen he met he mentioned, apart from Weszprémi, Mihály Benedek (1748—1821), Bishop of Debrecen and a well-known philologist, who spent three years at foreign universities, including Oxford. Townson relates of him that when Benedek met Gypsies in England he understood their vernacular. We know not only from Townson, but from other sources, too, that a circle of friends and associates of strong English sympathies formed around Weszprémi. Sámuel Kazay, the pharmacist, who had a library and numismatic collection, valuable and representative even from a British point of view; István Segesvári, the medical practitioner of Debrecen, who was noted for his "Anglomania", and even Professor István Hatvani, known for his contacts in England, who was not only Weszprémi's professor, but later also a close friend and his family physician treating even his children. As his first wife died, Weszprémi married twice. Several children were born of both marriages, but he lost them all except for his daughters Julianna and Sophie. He worked as a physician for ten years gratis and then for over thirty years with pay. With the passing of time he became relatively prosperous, and had his own house, land and vineyard. His valuable library was sold after his death. Some of his books went into the possession of Ferenc Kölcsey (1789— 1838), the great Hungarian poet. 1 8 As his medical practice made him aware of the low level of public health in Hungary, Weszprémi continued his contributions to professional literature in order to improve the situation. His book entitled A kisded gyermekekről 1 8 Jancsó, Benedek: Kölcsey Ferenc élete és művei (The Life and Works of Ferenc Kölcsey), p. 30.
