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
E. Réti: Darwin's Influence on Hungarian Medical Thought 161 of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life . With this, Darwinism "arrived" in Hungarian scientific life, for with this it not only gained the personal support of men like Margó and Markusovszky, but also won the general appreciation of the scientific world. When the publication of a natural science series had been recommanded by László Dapsy, Darwin's work On the Origin of Species was chosen to make up the second and third volumes of the series, published in 1873 and 1874 in Dapsy's translation and with Tivadar Margó as the revising editor. The Hungarian Darwin edition was in the hands of Aurél Török de Ponori (1842—1912), He had been assistant professor under Jenő Jendrassik, and later became professor of biology at the University of Kolozsvár, He had studied anthropology in Paris under Broca, Topinard and Manöųvrier, and at home he was appointed professor of anthropology at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Budapest. His thinking was earmarked by a natural scientific outlook, although a certain agnosticism was also apparent in his works. In his article published in 1896 in the Természettudományi Közlöny (Natural Science Bulletin) Török gave voice to Darwinist views in his description of the "upright ape-man as the link between animal and human being". "If we take an unprejudiced stand in the question of the Pithecanthropus erectus we definitely have to say that, regardless of the outlook in the direction of which we are inclined, we have in it a being which combines human and animal characteristics, a reason why the discovery of the fossils of Java man found at Trinil is additional evidence, in fact highly important proof, in support of the principle of gradual evolution put forward by Darwin ." Török took an open and militant stand in his "Anthropological Letters", too, which he wrote from Meudon. For instance, his article entitled "In Memory of Paul Broca" attacks the idealist-clerical trend ( Orvosi Hetilap, 1880, p. 1083, Meudon October). "In the winter of 1859 Broca submitted a paper on hybrids to the Biological Society in Paris ("Memoire sur Vhybridité et sur la distinction des espéces animáles") in which he was the first to demonstrate and prove the existence of hybrids, pointing out the fact that at the Jardin des Plan es he was able to develop through the interbreeding of a wild hare and domestic rabbit a hybrid of mongrel species, a leporid. Orthodox monogenists and polygenists were horrorstricken by this piece of work. The paper by Broca was received with contempt ; and Rayer, the president of the Society, did not permit Broca to complete reading it. Broca withdrew his study, and , having resigned his membership in the society, he founded a new one with 18 other fellow-scientists, including Brown-Séquard and Geoffrey S. Hilaire, namely the present Anthropological Society of Paris." To be sure, the Society was placed until police surveillance until it finally became consolidated. "And, we ask, what happened to the former society? This once famous society, although for the very reason of Broca*s action bourgeois and clerical pietists had rushed to its aid, was forced to disband as it stopped having any message for science at large." Géza Mihalkovics, another physician-naturalist, ( Orvosi Hetilap, 1882. p. 925) was most definite in his affirmation of the need for biological thinking 11 Orvostörténetł Közlemények 6.
