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)
J. Antall: State Interference and the Dilemma of Liberalism in the Field of Medical Training and Public Health
44 Medical History in Hungary 1972 (Comm. Hist. Artis Med. Suppl. 6.) and foreign absolutist government created an obstacle in the way of any interference, even when it had progressive aims. 9 The English model of social cooperation, association, and spontaneous action found more sympathy than any submittance to reasons of state. But on the Continent, and especially on the ground of Eastern and Central European reality, even those devoted to liberalism had to admit the necessity of interference, especially in the field of applied politics, such as public health and cultural affairs. 1 0 THE IDEAS OF LIBERALISM AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN HUNGARY The development of Hungarian statehood was greatly retarded by the collapse of the mediaeval state in the Battle of Mohács (1526) and the ensuing wars against the Turks, followed by the fights of the Estates for independence against the Habsburgs. The state was legally so restricted, its functions so much curtailed that there were many who doubted even its very existence. That accounts for the significance of the Age of Reforms (1825 — 48) when a programme was drawn up advocating social transformation, national independence and the creation of a modern state machinery. Among the forerunners of liberalism were József Hajnóczy, the martyr of the "Hungarian Jacobins" (executed in 1795), and Gergely Berzeviczy, the follower of Adam Smith, but the greatest figures of liberalism in Hungary were the leading statesmen of the Age of Reforms: István Széchenyi, Miklós Wesselényi, Lajos Kossuth, Ferenc Deák, József Eötvös, to mention just the best known ones. In practical politics the greatest were Kossuth and Ferenc Deák, these truly professional politicians, who were able to fuse their ideas into a political programme and in its implementation could both incite their followers or keep them back, according to the needs. Széchenyi was a more complex, perhaps greater personality, but in the open forum as a professional politician he could not compete with his opponents. In this great epoch, and indeed afterwards, around the Compromise of 1867, the theoretically and politically best trained and most articulate group of Hungarian liberalism was formed by the circle of József Eötvös and Ágost Trefort known as "centralists" of "doctrinaires". Although their direct influence was more or less restricted to the elite, to a small number of intellectuals, and did not prevail in the political arena, their ideas left their imprint on many institutions. Their leader, Eötvös (who was Minister of Cults and Education both in 1848 and in 1867 and distinguished himself as author, political philosopher 9 J. Antall, "Absolutism and Liberalism in Health Policy in Hungary." In: Medical History in Hungary, 1970. Comm. Hist. Artis Med. Suppl. 4. p. 147. 1 0 J. Antall, "The Emergence of the System of Modern Higher Education in Hungary 1848-1890". Comm. Hist. Artis Med. 1909. 51—53. p. 61.
