Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)
26 Historical survey 352 beetle species and variants, several of them new to science. He appended drawings as well, but these are almost unusable for the identification of many species. Nonetheless, only a few names mentioned cannot be identified, so that his imposing list of species with some location data makes TOWNSON the first to issue a comprehensive work on the coleopterology of Hungary. 84 Another English traveller, RICHARD POCOCKE (1704-1765), accompanied by his cousin JEREMIAH MILLER, followed a route across Western Hungary from Sopron through Szombathely, Kőszeg and Kismarton (Eisenstadt) in 173 6. 85 POCOCKE later made a much longer visit, but it did not take him to the West Hungarian border region. He described his travels in the East in a two-volume work, in which his descriptions of Hungary appear in the second volume, published in 1745. 86 These mainly concern Roman ruins. His other observations hardly go beyond generalities. He found the waters of Fertő brackish and thought the lake contained few fish. However, the account mentions 32 species of plant found in Hungary. 87 JOHAN SIGMUND VALENTIN POPOWITSCH (POPOVICH, 1705-1774), a professor of German language and literature at Vienna University who was of Slovenian origin, played and important part in 18th-century Austrian cultural history. He paid a visit to Sopron and Fertő in the autumn of 1764, probably out of interest in the plant life of the lake and the German and Croat dialects of Western Hungary. 88 The British physician and geologist RICHARD BRIGHT (1789-1858) visited Hungary twice during the Congress of Vienna. On the first occasion, in April-May 1815, he travelled round Transdanubia. His travel experiences were published in London and Edinburgh in 1818. 89 His comments on Sopron, the Fertő district, Kőszeg and Szombathely present him as a keen, receptive observer, but contain little information of relevance to the subject of this book. However, his thorough reading is apparent when he refers to an assessment of conditions 84 MERKL, O. 1999. Robert Townson's 'Entomologia'. In RÓZSA, P. ed. Robert Townson's Travel in Hungary, 99-116. Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó. 85 ORSZÁGH, L. 1938. Angol utazók Szombathelyen kétszáz év előtt (English travellers in Szombathely two hundred years ago). Vasi Szemle 5:179-82. 86 POCOCKE, R. 1743-5. A Description of the East and Some Other Countries. 2 vols. London: W. Bowyer. His diary appeared in KUBITSCHEK, W. 1929. keltere Berichte über den römischen Limes in Pannónia. See also CSATKAI, E. 1938. Idegenek a régi Sopronról (Foreigners in Old Sopron). Sopron. 87 RÓZSA, P., and M. NAGY 1997. Richard Pococke, XVIII. századi angol utazó magyarországi florisztikai adatai (The Hungarian íloristic data of the 18th-century English traveller RP). Kitaibelia 2:160-63. 88 ANGYAL, E. 1956. Egy szlovén tudós a Fertőnél (A Slovenian scholar at Fertő). Soproni Szemle 10:79. He made a notable comment worth recalling today: 'Natural history suffers with the language and the latter with the former. A naturalist can only rely on a linguist and vice versa. Neither one nor the other will be free from the chaos of errors until strong linguistic study and strong nature study combine in one man.' 89 BRIGHT, R. 1818. Travels from Vienna through Lower Hungary with some Remarks on the State of Vienna during the Congress in the Year 1815. London and Edinburgh.
