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)
M. Vida : Serving two Nations: Tivadar Duka (1825—1908)
i /¡_2 Medical History in Hungary 1972 (Comm. Hist. Artis Med. Suppl. 6.) titude —also shared by the representatives of the ancient Indian medical school — can be explained by the frequent and regular appearance of waves of epidemics due to tropical climatic conditions. Both native and British physicians practising in Bengal used a common name, "climatic aliments" for the periodic epidemics: cholera, intermittent fever, plague, leper. 3 6 Duka followed both European and Hungarian medical literature with great interest and complemented it with his own observations. Reflecting on Virchow's article on leper which appeared in 1860 he added that in the East the disease is transmitted from the father to his sons and is most frequent between 23 and 40. Leprosy was already known in ancient India, Charaka spoke of a more dangerous and a milder sort, which can be subdivided into seven and eleven subclasses respectively. After enumerating the symptoms (ill health, hypertrophy of the epidermis at some places, the loss of pigment on the face, hands and toes) Duka recommended some medicaments used by native doctors: arsenic, the fluid moisture of Asclepias gigante and chalmugra oil. 3 7 Several years later he spoke in the Society of Physicians on another common tropical disease, fever. He quoted statistical figures showing that in India out of 1000 deaths 38.9 are caused by fevers while cholera, smallpox and other abdominal diseases are responsible for 32.1. 3 8 The importance of his treatises on infectious diseases imported from the tropics lies in the fact that they had been written years before Robert Koch's discoveries, and that he published his own and other people's experiences obtained in the East in the Hungarian medical press. He was the first to make aetiological observations on "cholera Asiatica", and gave informations to Hungarian medical circles on Indian practice concerning the clinical pattern and the course of the cholera in the 1860's. In Hungary the first systematical work on cholera appeared only in 1873 written by Frigyes Korányi. 3 9 Effective treatment was introduced only after 1884 following the discovery of its pathogen by Koch who also established the methods of fighting it down. After his retirement from the Indian Service Duka set out to widen the connections between Hungarian and British scientific life. His aim was not only to make the best results of English medicine known in Hungary but at the same time was concerned with the other aspect of the question too and aspired to make such names as Semmelweis or Sándor Körösi Csoma internationally known. 3 GDuka, Tivadar: „A Gangesz parti éghajlati bajokról" (On the Climatic Ailments Along the Ganges), Orvosi Hetilap, I860. No. 24. 3 7 Duka, Tivadar: „A poklosságról" (On Leprosy), Orvosi Hetilap, 1861. No. 11. pp. 211-212. 3 8 Duka, Tivadar: „Némely megjegyzések Kelet-Indiában, különösen a Himaláják tájain előforduló lázak jelenségeiről" (Some Observations on Fevers Occuring in East India, especially Near the Himalajas), Orvosi Hetilap, 1881. No. 29. p. 679. 3 9 Korányi, Frigyes: Az ázsiai hányszékelésről. (On Asiatic Cholera) Budapest, 1873.
