Claudius F. Mayer: From Plato to Pope Paul / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 17. (Budapest, 1989)

CLAUDIUS FRANCIS MAYER (1899—1988) It was the young Claudius Francis Mayer

, who wrote the first comprehensive bock on international medical history in Hungarian when he was not more than 28 years old. "The History of Medicine'''' (Budapest, Hornyánszky, 1927) was introduced by Professor Gyula Magyary-Kossa

, one of the leading scholars in Hungarian medical history of the 30s. He developed the idea, that the ųñhistóriçai approach of the Hungarian medical society obstacles physicians to understand real medicine. "They have forgotten

, that science is a living organism and a like analysing a developed body, ontogeny is not only a benefit, but rather an indispensable method to use, so the ups and downs, and past and present of medicine might teach us a lot. Could anybody be a real self respected gynecologist, bacteriologist or surgeon who does not know anything about the life and work of Semmelweis, Pasteur or Lister, about their success and fails?''''

—he wrote in his introduction. Prof. Magyary-Kossa congratulated his young fellow for writing such an important book. Claudius F. Mayer has added a curriculum vitae to the second edition of his book. His education started at Eger (North-Hungary), where he attended elementary school and later the Cistercian Gymnasium. As a grammar school student he went through a thoroughful language education: beside Latin and German he had to learn French, Italian and English as well. At the age of 16 he moved as a novicius to the Monastery of Zirc for a year. Returning to Eger he finished the 7th and 8th forms of the secondary school. Next year, he had passed the mature examination, his abbey, Dr. Remigius Békefi, who was also an excellent scholar in ecclesiastical 3