Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 3. (Budapest, 1956)

J. BALOGH, M. D.: The hungarian traumatic surgery in the first part of the 19th century

garian language had to be created, which had to be suitable also for the interpretation of medical scientific problems. The government was inimical, the leaders of the people fought against almost insurmountable difficulties, the university, including the medical faculty, abhorred from any progressive thinking. It is mentioned in passing that in his work on operative surgery published in 1838, Imre Réczey writes in the preface that surgery has reached such perfection that further advance may not be expected, except in the field of instruments and equipment. In his book published in 1803, Ferenc Eckstein, a Pest professor of surgery described in detail the case history of a head injury. A young actor in Pest, Mihály Horváth, was hit on the head by one of his enemies, who used a log for doing so. Eckstein saw the injured young man the next day, gave a classically perfect clinical description of the case, then dealt with the indications and techniques of trepanation. The brief report reveals the remarkably detailed information available at that time concerning head injuries. The conclusions drawn from the condition of the patient and from the quality of the pulse seem quite reasonable even today. In the case in question Eckstein indicated trepanation, exposed the site of fracture, removed the fragments of bone, treated the surgical wound, and, after prescribing the antiphlogistic diet in vogue at that time, departed. The patient recovered and the author presented in his report drawings made by himself, showing the injury and the fragments of bone removed. In his work referred to, Réczey writes that trepanation is indicated when, as a result of injury sustained, the brain and meninges are compressed or are under pressure, when foreign body has entered the skull, and when effusions develop in the skull cavity that can be located and removed at operation by the surgeon. At that time, the symptoms of cerebral commotion were rather well-known among surgeons. It is reported in O. T. that in 1832 the number of patients treated for cerebral commotion in the Rokus hospital totalled 20, of whom 6 were lost. It can be also understood that at necropsy after head injury adequate significance was attri-