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
J. Antall: State Interference and the Dilemma of Liberalism . 45 and statesman) was in contact and correspondence with such great representatives of liberalism as John Stuart Mill, A. de Tocqueville, Montalembert, and although there is no trace of any personal contact, unquestionably was intellectually kindred in spirit to Lord Acton. 1 1 They were both marked by a fear lest liberalism should turn into radicalism and were opposed to the emerging socialistic-communistic tendencies. Their proposed cure against revolutionary radicalism was the raising of the cultural level of the people and the ensuring of its welfare. They adopted the theory of social balance and advocated social reforms in order to prevent social upheavals. In Hungary one can recognize the influence of liberalism in the 1840's in the national aspirations, reform proposals, economic demands (e.g. for the developing of industry) and also in cultural policy and philanthrophy. There are speeches on the penal code, prison conditions, pauperism, infant schools, but health policy seems to have failed to raise too much interest. Ferenc Bene, one of the most eminent physicians of the Age of Reforms noticed this and called for a comprehensive reorganization of public health affairs at the Itinerary Congress of Hungarian Physicians and Naturalists in 1841. In 1845, at another such congress, the university professor Pál Bugát pleaded for the making of a Health Act, for setting up a governmental department in charge of health affairs. Strangely enough it was the field of public health that became the last to form an integral part of the programme of liberal reform. The initiative of one or two outstanding physicians could not have the desired effect, and it was only through the emergence of a medical school in Pest around the personality of János Balassa that the Hungarian liberals, first of all the centralists of Eötvös, who maintained a close personal and intellectual relationship with the leading figures of the medical school of Pest, 1 2 formulated a programme of reform in public health affairs. We have already mentioned that in spite of the general political opposition of absolutism and liberalism in some periods their practical, applied policies showed resemblance, for instance in education and public health. The actual contents of the policy followed in a certain field is determined by the demands and technical potentialities of the age, while ideological considerations may fall into the background in matters of practical implementation. This can be observed in Hungary when the physician reformers of Vienna, who in spite of their sympathies felt towards the Austrian liberals entered the service of neoabsolutism in the 1850's, though they held similar or identical views on the questions of science policy or medical training with the Hungarian liberals who were forced into passive political opposition. Indeed it can be even maintained that the "enlightened despotism" of the 18th century or neoabsolutism in the middle of the 19th followed and implemented progressive ideas in more than one 1 1 A. Balla, A liberalizmus történelme. (The History of Liberalism.) Budapest, 1920. pp. 300-3(50. 1 2 J. Antall, Sándor Lumniczer and the Medical School of Pest. Comm. Hist. Artis Med. 19G8. 45. p. 75.
