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)
G. Buzinkay : Hungarians on Great Britain, 1620 —1848. .. ßj Having visited Oxford and Cambridge after 30 years, in 1837, Bertalan Szemere pointed out almost the same phenomenon. At the same time he tried to elucidate as clearly as possible the advantages of the English educational system considered as curious on the Continent. "And. how is it possible —he asked —that despite such deficiencies of the colleges, England can still provide us with so many excellent personalities ? Isn't it due to the magnificence and authority of the public life in the universities compelling everyone to activity and meditating ? It is true that the source of greatness of the English nation lies in work and activity created by life and taking its roots in life. Isn't it due to the fact that completing their studies in a short time, young people are confronted with the age of freedom when they are to act and think on their own ? It is true that as long as you study you are a slave , and you regain your mental independence only when you have left school, whether at the age of 12 or 30... Isn't it due to the fact that the young man is equally and continuously divided between school and life —and thus between theory and practice, between contemplation and reality and while classics inspire and cultivate his soul, life provides him with the power of judgement? It is true that the knowledge an Englishman has, is not wide but it is thorough, his power of memory cannot be admired, but he can perceive each object individually and skillfully, which has two consequences : he uses his own reason and his intellectual capacity is unfolded, stimulated and awakened, it is like the sun illuminating everything, whereas in our home, filled with knowledge, it is like a fully written page on which there is no room left for anything else". 3 3 Bertalan Szemere examined carefully penology and prison matters, one of the most significant questions for the reformers of the age. He realized that the English prison system based on single cells is an example to be followed in Hungary. 3 4 OBSERVATIONS REFERRING TO PUBLIC HEALTH János Zigán observed —as Márton Szepsi Csombor two hundred years before — that "it can be said of the present English in general that they surpass any other nations in cleanness and especially in taking care of the cleanness of their underwear" 3 5 He gives us the first detailed description on London hospitals and charitable institutions. It is worth presenting the guide-like description in its full length. "North-eastwards from here [i.e. the British Museum] is the Foundling Hospital, which looks rather a palace than a house of the infant poor. The boys brought up there will be given to serve on ships while girls will be servant maids. Towards the west is a building called Charterhouse, purchased by Thomas 3 3 Szemere, op. cit. pp. 175 — 176. 3 4 Szemere, op. cit. Vol. II. pp. 57 — 86; The great novel of József Eötvös entitled *'A falu jegyzője" (The village notary) was written in the same spirit some years later (1845). 3 5 Zigán, op. cit. p. 58.
