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

ioo Medical History in Hungary 1972 (Comm. Hist. Artis Med. Suppl. 6.) ing a second floor on it. Pest, too, had its public hospital, but in 1793 Townson found it in a horrible state. "For hospitals this town is badly off

; that belonging to the University is good, but can admit very few ; twelve or fifteen only, and that which belongs to the town, and is called the Burgers Hospital

, is, I hope and really believe, the worst in Europe. Had I not seen it, I could not have believed such to have existed in this town. Every thing here, building, furniture, attendants, etc., etc. is miserable, stinking, and dirty. In a little shabby room, in which were eight beds, there was only one small window, and this shut, though the weather was hot.

.. Surely Joseph II never was in this hospital, or he would have suppressed it as an insult to humanity."

3

1 In the very same year the director of this hospital addressed a memorandum to the Council of Pest to have a new building erected. As a result in 1798 the Szent Rókus (St. Roch) Hospital was opened with 207 beds. It was transformed from a poor-house built in 1784. By additions it contained 400 beds in 1840. It might be well worth to quote at some length Miss Pardoe's account of her visit, especially when considering that the building still exists and is used as a hospital. "It is a large, cold

, bleak-looking building with vaulted passages, as comfortless in appearance as a deserted manufactory ; and I was really glad when my attention was directed to a handsome edifice now in progress of erection, which has been very ably designed, and is to be built with great solidity, for the reception of about eight hundred patients

... The building in its present state is calculated to accomodate three hundred patients, the average number generally to be found there being about one hundred and seventy. It is the largest establishment of the kind in Hungary

... The most perfect and scrupulous cleaniliness was perceptible throughout all the arrangements; and the venerable Director

... informed me that from the 1st November 1838, to the 31st of October 1839, six thousand two hundred and eight patients had been admitted at St. Roch ; of whom five thousand two hundred had left the establishment cured, and six hundred and thirty-three had died. As it was what is here termed "a fever-year" the mortality was above the usual average. Of these patimts two thousand three hundred and ninety-five had paid a small sum towards defraying the expenses of their illness

, leaving three thousand eight hundred and thirteen who were treated gratuitously,"

3

2 One can see that although the hospital did not yet assume a completely modern character where the emphasis is decidedly on admitting persons who have a good chance of leaving it cured, but it was well on that way. The poorhouse function was already partly separated: "Attached to the Hospital is an Almshouse, where thirty poor men and thirty poor women, all above sixty years of age, are clothed, fed, and lodged,"

3

3 Miss Pardoe concluded her account with some general observations: "The situation is very advantageous, being open and airy

; but the building suffered 3

1 Townson, p. 78. 3

2 Pardoe, III. pp. 17., 22-3. 3

3 Ibid. p. 23.