Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 13. (Budapest, 1959)
Dr. TARDY LAJOS: Dr. Orlay János
Basing on his researches of archives, the author deals with the work of organisation, Orlay did related to ministre Novosil/.ev's policy of education, in the interest of the immigration of Russian scientists from Hungary appointed to the Russian universities recently founded. Orlay didn't break his relations to the scientific circles in Hungary even during the decades of his residence in Russia ; he remained in an active correspondence with them and often forwarded also to the contemporary Hungarian newspapers interesting reports, in which the mighty prosperity of the Russian cultural life since the last years of the XVIII th century has been sketched. The paper deals with also the role Orlay played in the Russian freemasonry, further with his relations to Goethe on mineralogical problems, his behaviour is also painted in the years of the Great National Defensive War, when he was untiringly active as hospital head doctor. A short discussion follows on medical of other works, which were written by Orlay and were published in print. As Orlay's health-condition worsened, he took over the direction of the secondary school in Njesjin and at the same time the charges of a district doctor too. These years of his activity were of importance also for the Russian literature, one of his pupils being the young Gogol, with whose family Orlay made friends and whom he made acquainted with the life of the Carpatho-russians. Since 1826 Orlay is working as director general of the high school Richelieu in Odessa and keeps this honorable position till his death (1829). Orlay's life and activity are of universal value for the RussoHungarian relations of medical and cultural history. His personality and his oeuvre may claim to be dealt with far more intensively by Hungarian medical history than it was done in the present paper —hardly being more than a short biography. The memory of this worthy man really deserves an adequate appraisal.
