Dr. Kubassek János szerk.: A Kárpát-medence természeti értékei (Érd, 2004)

Dr. Gyula Gábris: Jenő Cholnoky, a professor of geography and protector of nature

in spite of being medical student - he took Cholnoky's courses. The diligent visitors of his lectures were other medical students, engineering and law students too. Cholnoky's Sunday morning presentations held in the Urania Cinema were illustrated with slides, and these performances were seen as social events. Cholnoky wrote his books in a delightful style, which also satisfied the demand of popular science lectures. His publications were bestsellers and were a part of the home library of educated people. or she contributed to the development of a discipline. Naturally, such assessment can be made several times by successors - students, followers or even scientific opponents, as the value of results is subject to change from time to time; to fundamental change or to difference the significance of which would later fade away or even become obsolete. Sometimes it also occurs that some thoughts that were not considered important in their own time, later on prove to have a fertilizing effect and pave completely new ways ahead for science. In addition to such analyses performed by others, there are those rare occasions when scientists themselves look back at their professional careers and assess their own inventions and scientific achievements. Jenő Cholnoky's account of his own scientific activity is such a rarity. In September 2001, the geography departments of Eötvös Loránd University moved to a new place (to the Lágymányos district on the south Buda bank of the Danube). The manuscript of Cholnoky's account, hidden in an old folder, was discovered then; it is now held by the Hungarian Geographical Museum in Erd. Most probably, this manuscript was originally intended to form a part of a major work, an autobiography published posthumously in 1998 in Veszprém (Vár Ucca Tizenhét, Vol. VI, No. 2, pp. 187-339)- This very interesting, informative, in places very personal work is presented here, accompanied by comments, examined in the light of current scientific thinking. Before reading the manuscript, it is necessary to consider some general remarks. It is recommended to approach the writings with a critical eye as far from being modest, the author sometimes went to extremes in his memoirs. You will often find that Cholnoky's merit is not the understanding or explanation of certain phenomena, or THE SCIENTIST AND RESEARCHER he achievements of a scientist are mostly judged according to whether he