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

Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts - Guide to the Exhibition

The painting above the balance is titled Mithridates and Maimonides by an unknown South Italian artist (18th century). The record presented in the middle right of the shelve is the diploma of a pharmacist, Franz Mayr, issued by Johann Jacob Hagcl's school, the Nigrum Ursum in Vienna, 1775. The big bronze jar, on right of the floor, has a cover with a lock. It was used for storing acid liquids. On the left of it there are two mortars, a wooden and a bronze one. The glasses were used for storing mineral water. Both of them are from South Germany. The top right corner of the shelve with the prcparatcd animals: an alligator, a starfish, a sword of a swordfish, and an owl is representing the usual decoration of an alchemist's laboratory. IV. Medicine in the age of Enlightlnment Enlightenment like any great epoch in the history of ideas could hardly be fixed to an exact date. Especially true it is when speaking about a narrow scope of a branch of scicncc — in our ease about medicine. New ideas making gradually their ways in time and space, confronting with old and new critiques often show a long and polarized process. In the aspect of mcdical history, to divide the 17th century from the beginning of the 18th has no ground. Great scientists, discoverers realized it again that they had to work for the sake of mankind. Research should not have been made for its own purposes but in order to enlighten people and to banish superstition and beliefs in supernatural forccs. Having established their systems on the firm ground of empiricism they accepted those facts that had been justified by experience and common sense. As a conscqucnce they chose observation and experimentation as a base for their scientific work. The different branches of scicncc built on the wide foundations of the scientific revolution secured a horizon for medical theory and subsequently for mcdical practice. 1. Folk medicine The age of Enlightenment brought about radical changes in the development of scienccs. Intriguingly enough, though these new results were important indeed, they influenced only a few educated people and camc to be a common knowledge definitely slowly. Folk medicine is a good example how much old treating methods, which were rooted in religious beliefs, were preserved. 47