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
entity. These surgeons carried out the less serious medical treatments: venesections, or scarifications or even tooth extractions. Rácz Sámuel's work, the A borbélył tanításoknak első darabja (No. 20) (First Chapters in Surgical Education) published in 1794, was the first Hungarian textbook on surgery of the medical faculty of Pest. Another interesting document is a fee-schedule of surgical operations (No.20), elaborated by János Justus Torkos (1699-1770), Head Physycian of Pozsony. These tariffs were used throughout the 18th century in Western Hungary. Among the surgical instruments from the 18th ccntury you can see phlebotomes, cupping glasses, trocars, fistulectomical knifes, trephines and catheters. There is Delaporte's cartoon showing a succesful tooth extraction by a French dentist. Next to it you can sec a pair of 18th c. rudimentary dental forceps (No.l) with a complete dentist kit (No.2) from the 19th ccntury. Gynecological and obstetrical instruments from the 18th century arc arrayed in the next show-case. Here, you can sec the first survived Hungarian obstetric forceps (No.l). The complete obstetrical kit was made in the Mail¡arđ workshop , (Francc) in 1793. In 18th century Hungary obstetrics was usually performed by midwives. Some of them received diplomas from the university, but the vast majority was trained by other midwives. The books in the show-ease were edited in order to provide them with a more appropriate medical knowledge. Károly Mocsi's A bábamesterségnek eleji (An Introduction into Midwifery) was published in 1784 and János Seidele's Magyar Bábamesterség (Hungarian Midwifery) (No.2) in 1777. In the book of András Lugosi Fodor's Szülést segítő tudomány és mesterség (Art and Profession for Helping Deliveries) (No.3) (1817) there is a good illustration of an early 19th ccntury Hungarian obstetric chair. VI. Two centuries in the development of Hungarian faience apothecary jars Our exhibition in general tends to offer a strict chronological survey through the theory and practicc of medicine and pharmaceutics. We have not followed, however, this principle when displaying pharmacy jars and presenting the history of balneology. The development of Hungarian pharmacy jars between the 17th and the 19th centuries is presented separately. We have chosen this solution not only for acsthetical reasons but because it represents a homogeneous proccss and reflects the high quality of Hungarian ceramic art as well. The earliest relics of Hungarian pottery have been the products of potters from the period of the Árpád dynasty (1000-1301) so far. Though these vessels which were made for everyday use were already marked on the bottom, these signs have not been figured out yet. 55
