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)
G. Buzinkayt Hungarians on Great Britain, 1620—1848. (Observations on English Education and Public Health in Hungarian Travelogues)
HUNGARIANS ON GREAT BRITAIN 1 620 — 1 848 OBSERVATIONS ON ENGLISH EDUCATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN HUNGARIAN TRAVELOGUES by GÉZA BUZINKAY qphe Hungarian tribes conquered their present country after long migrations more than thousand years ago, and they won first reputation in European history on account of their raids. Wandering and globetrotting seems to have developed to our "national characteristics" ever since. Our fellow-countrymen used to travel, study abroad and make comparisons, they judged the Hungarian by the standard of the great world. After the Hungarian revolution and War of Independence against the Habsburgs in 1848/49 and again from the end of the last century onwards, they settled down in large numbers in foreign countries. England, Great Britain —and from the beginning of the 19th century onwards even North-America —played an important role in the interest, orientation and travelling routes of Hungarian travellers. Parallel to medieval dynastic relations, cultural relations also developed between the English and the Hungarian. It is a remarkable, almost symbolic phenomenon that the first student known by name at Oxford University was the Hungarian Nicolaus de Hungaria. 1 From that time on up to the present day our mutual relations have been unbroken 2 dispite numerous hindering factors. Until the middle of this century, German cultural influence prevailed in Hungary, accompanied by political influence or even subordination. Until the end of the last century, the bourgeois citizens of Hungary consisted almost exclusively of German nationalities. 3 Last but not least, the great distance between the two countries meant also one of the greatest obstacles for quite a long time. Until the 1820-ies —when the majority of Hungarian travellers left for England already with a considerable knowledge of English —difficult orientation was also due to the fact that Hungarian scholars and students of a prevailingly classical education could hardly make themselves understood on English territory. 4 1 Gál, I. : Magyarország, Anglia és Amerika (Hungary, England and America) Budapest 1945. p. 9- 11. 2 The best summary of Anglo-saxon—Hungarian relations with a rich bibliography: c.f. Gál op. cit. 3 For further information see: Pukánszky, B. : Német polgárság magyar földön (German inhabitants on Hungarian territory), Budapest 1940. 4 Márton Szepsi Csombor complained in 1620: "...Where (i.e. England) I ivas surprised above all at the lack of Latin knowledge of the people, because walking along three streets among merchants, furriers and tailors, I did not meet anyone who could have talked to me in Latin. . ."c.f.: Szepsi Csombor, M. : Europ¿ça
