Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 86. (Budapest 1994)
Dely, O. Gy.: In commemoration of the centenary of Géza Gyula Fejérváry's birth
ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Tomus 86. Budapest, 1994 p. 145-151 In commemoration of the centenary of Géza Gyula Fejérváry 's birth by O. GY. DELY, Budapest DELY, O. GY. (1994): In commemoration of the centenary of Géza Gyula Fejérváry's birth. - Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 86: 145151. Abstract - A short biography of GÉZA GYULA FEJÉRVÁRY is given, completed with details of his activities in the herpetology. With one figure. GÉZA GYULA FEJÉRVÁRY was a great promise of the Hungarian and international zoological and biological sciences in the first half of the twentieth century but he was inhibited by tragic decease at the age of 38 from turning his comprehensive knowledge to account in the scientific research and in his teaching and educational work. The centenary of his birth affords us an opportunity to commemorate the scientific commitment of a naturalist characterized by strong features and having displayed a really original research work. Selecting some of his numerous scientific works we should like to give a survey of the scientific results which were offered by FEJÉRVÁRY for the advancement of the biology. FEJÉRVÁRY, born hundred years ago, can be set as an example for us, Hungarian zoologists in the last decades of the 20th century. GÉZA GYULA FEJÉRVÁRY was born in Budapest on the 25th of June 1894, in a Hungarian aristocratic family. His grandfather, GÉZA FEJÉRVÁRY as a staff captain was decorated with the medal of the heroes of Solferino and raised up as a baron to the Hungarian aristocratic class in 1862. He became Minister of War, and later Prime Minister of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy. GÉZA GYULA s father, IMRE FEJÉRVÁRY was also a high-placed official who for many years served as the Lord-lieutenant of County Baranya. He lived in Pécs, in the county's seat town. The life of the family was managed by his mother, LAURA SZILASSY. FEJÉRVÁRY spent the first phase of his childhood in Pécs, but later, he spent the years of his scholarship mostly with his mother as a private pupil in Switzerland at Bex. The young FEJÉRVÁRY often went for walks and excursions to the wonderful Rhône Valley, accompanied by his mother, but on one occasion (1909) he had the opportunity to go for an excursion in the Rhône Valley with the great Hungarian herpetologist, BOLKAY. He evidenced his deep interest in amphibians and reptiles. This soon became clear for his parents, too, and they did everything for him to go for a biologist committed to revealing the problems of biology. In spite of knowing the many possibilities lying before a young aristocrat as a soldier, an official or a politician, they did not prevent him from becoming a biologist. FEJÉRVÁRY was scarcely fifteen years old and a pupil of the fifth class of grammar school Dr. GÉZA GYULA FEJÉRVÁRY (1894-1932)
