Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 18-19. (Budapest, 2000)

Preface

Preface (by Professor Sándor Fekete) There are considerable medical historical collections in many countries of Europe, thus the foundation of a Hungarian medical historical museum was not only necessary but an urgent demand. The study of medical history is not a compulsory part of the curriculum in Hungarian medical universities, consequently the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum is entrusted also with the task of teaching the new generation of physicians the past of the healing arts, thus contributing to the development of the medical profession's moral and historical consciousness. An educated mind has no doubt about the necessity of a Mediça Historical Museum. Today no branch of science can exist and can be developed without the knowledge of its history of development. Medical history is an organic and inseparable part of the universal history of science; if we acknowledge the latter, the research of the historical development of medicine has to be regarded as essential. In addition to pointing out the general connections, medical history — and within its scope the medical historical museum — has a special significance. The new generation of today is confronted with all the results of medicine that have been reached so far. Without the knowledge of the history of medicine the young generation would never realize how much trouble, sacrifice and inventive imagination was required to produce this heritage, this vast knowledge in the field of medicine that has been accumulated. For example, the development of medicine and medical writing was greatly retarded by historical circumstances in the period of Turkish occupation and during the various fights for independence, lead by the Estates. The most significant medical historian of the 18th century, István Csanádi Weszprém¿ made great efforts to collect all available data on the lives of the physicians of Hungary and Transylvania who had preceded him. Professor Ferenc Bene, the prominent physician of the first half of the 19th century wrote another important work: his book of five volumes, a manual of internal pathology, had been highly appreciated abroad. Real progress was achieved. However, only after the War of Independence, thanks to the school which developed around János Balassa, Ignác Semmelweis, Lajos Markusovszky, Sándor Lumniczer, Frigyes Korányi and later with the appearance of József Fodor, Endre Högÿes, Sándor Korányi and Vilmos Tauffer. There was no lack in great physicians, but the state of public health and especially the availability of hospitals was most unfavourable by comparison to the countries of Western Europe. It was due to pecuniary on the one 7