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. Jeszenszky: Medical and Sanitary Conditions in Hungary as Seen by British Travellers, 1790—1848

G. Jeszenszky : Medical and Sanitary Conditions in Hungary

... 71 excellent, and its soil rich. It is intersected by some of the largest rivers in Europe ; and inhabited by a brave and hardy race of men. But all these natural advantages are prevented from producing a due effect, by the palpable imperfections of its political institutions; and although these have, within the last fifty years, been materially corrected and improved, they still occasion a powerful counteraction to the vigour and welfare of the nation."

8 With later travellers the political situation and the movement for its changing was even more in the focus of their interest. Shortly after Hunter Dr Bright could already remark with hope: ".. .the patriotism of her nobles is producing an extensive, though gradual improvement in her internal prosperity."

9 The greatest concentration on the political, social and economic conditions of Hungary can be found at John Paget, another physician, whose book is both an important source on the Hungary of the 1830's and a moving testimony of the attraction the country had on this most congenial character.

1

0 Both he and Miss Pardoe

1

1 were captured by the spirit and momentum of the reform movement and both influenced and at the same time were influenced by the leading characters of the "reform generation". Their criticism was directed at the very same symptoms and institutions the Hungarian liberals were intent upon changing. As a result they

—as all the later travellers

—had less space for such matters as sanitation and medical affairs but concentrated upon political debates, history, constitutional questions and the like. By that time both medicine and public health had already reached such a stage that the inadequacies were no longer so apalling and striking as previously, and consequently required less comment. At the end of the 18th century, however, the country was still subject to outbreaks of the plague (178(>, 171)5, 1813—14) and to frequent smallpox 8 Ibid. II. p. 464. ¦

> Richard Bright, Travels from Vienna through Lower Hungary with Remarks on the State of Vienna during the Congress in the Year 1814. (Edinburgh, 1818) p. VII. The well-known physician and his journey aroused considerable interest, especially in medical circles, in Hungary even in later years and his book was dealt with in numerous publications, listed in the latest selection from his writings: Imre Szereçz, ed., Richard Bright utazásai a Dunántúlon 1815 (Richard Bright's Travels in Transdanubia in 1814) (Veszprém, 1970). 1

0 John Paget (1808, Thorpe Satchville — 1892, Gyéres in Transylvania) took his M.D. in Edinburgh but never practised. He visited Hungary in 1835—36 and published his authorative account in 1839 that went into several editions both in English and in German. Paget married a Hungarian woman, took part in the War of Independence, emigrated, and later returned to die a Hungarian. This remarkable product of the best raditions of the 19th century is buried in Kolozsvár. See John Kovács, An Oration in memory of the late John Paget Esq. (Kolozsvár, 1893); József Balogh, "John Paget (1808-1892)", Hungarian Quarterly 1939. pp. 610-632. and 1940. pp. 65-81.; István Gál, "Paget, Erdély angol honpolgára" (Paget, an English Transylvanian) in Pásztortűz, 1939 Sept, also in Magyar Nemzet, 1940, March 24. and in Magyarország, Anglia és Amerika, pp. 126-131. 1

1 Julia S. H. Pardoe, The City of the Magyar, or Hungary and her Institutions in 1839-40. (London, 1840) 3 vols. (Hereafter cited as Pardoe.)