Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 100. (Budapest 2008)
Korsós, Z.: History of the Herpetological Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum
his more-than-100-page work about the fossil Varanidae and Megalanidae reptile families. The young zoologist became a famous scientist in the blink of an eye, in 1920 he got an invitation to Columbia University in New York, and later, the Calcutta University in India offered him a professor's job, too. He did not accept either of them, because he wanted to work and succeed in Hungary. His further works proved the expectations well, he participated in many international conferences and his scientific works were publicised regularly (PONGRÁCZ 1932). In 1923 FEJÉRVÁRY processed the herpetological material collected by E. CsiKl on his trips to the Balkan Peninsula between 1916-1918 (FEJÉRVÁRY 1923). The specimens from Albania, among others, represented a near to complete picture of the herpetofauna of the country, and in FEJÉRVÁRY'S paper even the museum's appropriate inventory numbers are published (Mus. Hung. Amph. 2540/1-2540/17 and Mus. Hung. Rept. 2680/1-2721/38). Altogether 4 urodelan and 10 anuran amphibian, 7 lizard, 5 snake, and 2 turtle species were listed, including a new Yellow-bellied Toad variety (Bombina salsa var. csikii). Unfortunately, this material was also annihilated in 1956. FEJÉRVÁRY was the editor of the Hungarian periodical Állattani Közlemények (— Zoological Communications) between 1925 and 1927, and the secretary of the 10 r International Congress of Zoology in Budapest (its president was GÉZA HORVÁTH). In this year his popular biological book "Life, love, death" was also published, and created a great response in Hungarian cultural life. BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS In the history of the Department of Zoology, this period brought substantial changes. Before World War I, in 1911, the zoological collections were in the building of the National Museum in 10 rooms. The lack of space and the crowdedness became unbearable by 1925, but the new building, which was promised than, and further postponed during the millennium, was still not built (MÉHELY 1911), and the war killed almost every hope. Although no damage was caused in the building by the war, the exhibitions had to be closed to the public in 1925 because of their bad condition. As a temporary solution, the Department of Zoology was first moved to no. 7 on Szentkirályi street (in 1926), and then to no. 13 Baross street (its present location) in 1928 ( H OMAN 1929, KORSÓS 2002^). The Herpetological Collection was placed on the left side (when observed from the street) of the third floor of the building - which was originally built to be a bank office (Fig. 22). The exhibitions were reopened in ten medium-sized rooms on the second and third floors of the National Museum's building between 1929 and 1935. So from this time on, the scientific collections became separated from the exhibitions, and were not open to the public any more. The museum became different from other cultural museums, and achieved a status similar to most foreign natural history museums: only a smaller part of the material serves the public, the greater part is subject to scientific research. Many herpetologists (MÉHELY 1911, FEJÉRVÁRY 1932, LENDL 1919,1920, 1931) pursued the problem of the lack of space, but unfortunately all efforts remained unsuccessful.
