Schultheisz Emil: Traditio Renovata. Tanulmányok a középkor és a reneszánsz orvostudományáról / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 21. (Budapest, 1997)
24. Short history of epidemics in Hungary until the Great Cholera Epidemic of 1831
216 V. The epidemics had a share in the life of all peoples of Europe. The "Black Death" of 1348—1349 afflicted the population of this country relatively less, than that of most other countries, but later owing to the fact that Hungary become for more than 150 years an international theatre of war — the situation developed in the contrary direction. In Hungary contagion raged also in years, for which the chronicles report no great epidemics all over Europe and Western chronicles of those times described often from year to year in a tone of quiet sympathy inspired by secure distance also the common product of wars and epidemics, the famines in Hungary. Sufferings, having become permanent naturally exerted a considerable influence on the moral strength of the population, on its resistance. On the areas ravaged by epidemics embittered men, who had lost their families, forming troops often turned their arms in the nihilist atmosphere of be iųm omnium contra omnes not only against their lords, but also against people similar to them. In later centuries, as the epidemics became more rare and abated, publich health improved, this sad image gradually changed all over the country, but the effect of epidemics and famines having raged in earlier centuries left lasting traces on the further development of Hungary. When evaluating the historical role of epidemics in Hungary we must deal with the effect exercised by devasting epidemics diseases on the military potential of the country. We have already mentioned before how many people had fallen victims to the epidemics breaking out one after the other. This by itself would not yet have entailed a particular weaking of the military strength of the country, as the epidemic diseases did not spar the ncghbouring countries either. But the situation is different when thinking of those practically illimited possibilities of fđ ing up available in the XVI—XVIIth centuries to the Turkish Empire, incessantly attacking Hungary, which occupied a considerable part of the country for about 150 years, as against those very limited reserves of men which were at the disposal of Hungary. The image gets even worse when taking into consideration that beside the relatively small town population of those times the epidemics ravaged primarily the Hungarian population living on cultivated areas, engaged in agriculture and stock breeding and serving traditionally as soldiers, while other peoples living among its mountains as herdsmen suffered much less. Hungarian troops arrived in these centuries not seldom already infected from the hinterland to the theatre of military operations or were attacked by the contagion directly before the military operation. Both varieties exercised naturally a decisive influence on the development of military events. Thus e.g. in 1439 an epidemic of dysentery broke out in the ranks of Hungarian troops fighting in Southern Hungary and it was so severe that it decided the outcome of the battle. In 1594 it was typhoid which forced the armies of the Turkish pasha Sinan operating in Western Hungary to retreat. In 1684 the siege of Buda castle failed to come about owing to an epidemic of dysentery which had broken out in the ranks of the Christian armies. Very often plague and other epidemic diseases were brought to the area spared before just by an advancing or retrating army. In the middle of the XVth century e.g. soldiers retiirning from Belgrade introduced the epidemic of plague to Hungary and later of leprosy, syphilis and dysentery. In 1597 Italian soldiers returning from Southern Hungary to Italy took typhoid with hem and caused a mass epidemic in their country.
