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)
E. Réti: Darwin's Influence on Hungarian Medical Thought (1868—1918) 157 J. Antall, A. Faiudy and K. Kapronczay: József Fodor and Public Health in Hungary
J. Antall—A. Faludÿ — K. Kapronczay : József Fodor iji FODOR'S LIFE AND CAREER József Fodor was born on the 16th July 1843 in Lakócsa, county Somogy. 10 His father emerged from the average world of the landed gentry: wrote works relating to agriculture and moreover, he even wrote a drama, where he critisized backwardness and contemporary gentry attitude. Next to the family background mention should be made of the influence of schools which he attended at Pécs, the town famous for its educated middle-class. He studied medicine in Vienna in the last period of the flourishing Second School of Vienna and in Budapest. Already as a medical student the attention of János Nep. Rupp Professor of medical Jurisprudence, was directed on him. He graduated as doctor of medicine in 1865 and soon after obtained degree as obstetrician, master of surgery and ophtalmology. No wonder that Prof. Rupp immediately employed him as assistant, the young man who knew several languages and had excellent abilities. This department was engaged with teaching forensic medicine (medicina forensis) and medical jurisprudence (politica medica), the latter containing decrees relating to public health which had been passed administratively. These decrees are summed up in the seven volumes of Francis Xav. Litizbauer's Codex sanitario-medicinalis Hungáriáé , published in 1852 in connection with which the witty remark was made: "if nature had as many laws as the medical jurisprudence, God himself would be embarrassed ". Beside Prof . Rupp, Fodor himself lectured on medical jurisprudence systematically. At the same time he filled the post of pathological anatomist in the St . Rochus Hospital in Pest and then worked as coroner in the Inner City. His experiences as coroner were passed over and published in the "Orvosi Hetilap" regularly. Through Kálmán Balogh he met Lajos Markusovszky , too. Despite the great difference in age, Lajos Markusovszky and József Fodor became great friends, which friendship later determined the career of Fodor. "Fodor was a constant and firm member of our Saturday evening meetings, consisting of professors of medicine and practitioner physicians of kindred way of thinking and sentiments . These meetings were the continuation of those founded by Balassa and Markusovszky in the sixties of the last century and to be developed later by Lumnitzer, Balogh, Korányi, and reconstructed from time to time by members of the young generation, where the questions of medical reforms which rose Hungarian medical culture on modern level during the past decade, were discussed in friendly, informal conversations. Fodor took an active part in these conversations. The realm of public health is a wide world including a manifold variety of human attempts, the aims of which is to create the greatest possible health and lastingness within the boundaries of each. Fodor as a young man saw in everything its relevance to public health, his 1 0 Mono graphy on Fodor' s life: G. Hahn— J. Mellÿ, Fcdcr József élete és munkássága (József Fodor's Life and Work), Budapest, 1965. — Fodor József emlékezete. (In memóriám J. Fodor), Separatum of the "Egészség", Budapest, 1902. April 15. — I. Vedres-F. Fodor, Fodor József (1843-1901). Study form the Magyar orvosi iskola mesterei (Masters of the Hungarian medical school) Budapest 1969.
