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)

I. Friedrich: The Spreading of Jenner's Vaccination in Hungary

I. Friedrich : The Spreading of Jenner's Vaccination in Hungary 155 are a lot of good Hungarian Dissertations written (on variola,).

.. we know that the public does not read at a//."

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9 He thought that the only solution was that the spiritual advisers who were respected, should teach from the pulpit the good effect of inoculation with cow-pox. Accordingly he intended his book to be read aloud. He gave the form of a command to the appeal for vaccination then described Jenner's discovery and the victorious spread of vaccination in Europe. Finally he discussed the difference between the course of real small-pox and cow-pox. He suggested to teach all these to the children in the schools. "¤P Ņ OŅŲM COMMENTA DELECT DIES, NATURAE IUDICIA CONFIRMAT"

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0 "Small-pox and fatal epidemics will never disappear entirely in the future

. —prophesied pessimistically one antivaccinator in 1875.

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1 Opposition in Hungary which showed considerable energy already from the beginning, was silenced only by the last small-pox epidemic in 1886. This epidemic induced the authorities in 1887 to screw up the statute of 1876, which already made vaccination compulsory but without any penal sanctions. Law XII of 1887 made vaccination obligatory and declared the necessity of revaccination. This statute was the result of more than eight decades of exertion, fights, debates and it put an end to small-pox epidemics in Hungary. Jenner investigated one of the laws of nature and with its help during the first two decades of the century he saved "more human life than the great Napoleon sacrificed for his own ambition,"

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2 The task of realizing the importance of this discovery, to have it acknowledged and finally to make the most of it by social legislature, devolved on the succeeding generation. 4

9 Ková s, Mihály: Értekezés a himlő kiirtásról. Lelkitanítók számokra (Dissertation on the Extirpation of Variola. For Spiritual Teachers). Pest, 1822. p. 30. 5

0 "Fabricated Opinions are Crushed by Time. Convictions are Braced Up By Nature

" — Ková s, Mihály: Értekezés a himlő kiirtásról. Lelkitanítók számokra (Dissertation on the Extirpation of Variola. For Spiritual Teachers). Pest, 1822. p. 14. 5

1 Szmethanovics, Sándor: Az életmód betegségei (The Illnesses of Regimen). The author's speach at the estraordinary meeting of the Medical Association on 17 April, 1875. 5

2 Högÿes, Endre: Jenner és a védoltások tana (Jenner and the Doctrine of Vaccination). O. H. 189(5. No. 39. p. 469.