Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 20. (Budapest, 1961)

Adattár - Orvostörténeti adatok a Vay család golopi levéltárából (dr. Bendefy László)

commissioner of the northeastern territories. The young man set to work briskly. He was present at every spot where the disease broke out, had special houses built for the sick and, with the help of his mother and his wife, tended them himself until finally he too fell sick. But the epidemic was stopped. 5. Mrs. Miklós I. Vay nee Johanna Adelsheim suffered, in 1818, from continuous severe headaches and was confined to her bed for two months. The doctors finally prescribed ferriferous baths. They set about it in the following manner. The lady took up her abode next to the forges of Diósgyőr and, in the immediate vicinity of one of them, had herself erected a small shack into which a tub was placed and filled with water. The water was heated twice daily by the immersion of red-hot irons. After a prolonged cure the health of the Baroness was restored. 6. At the time of the cholera-epidemic of 1831 the two ladies Vay determined to have a hospital built in Miskolc, but this plan encountered many obstacles. The year 1847, howewer, was such an extremely bad one that the problem called for an immediate solution. Therefore the ground-floor of the manor-house in Golop was adapted as a hospital. Besides, about 70-80 poor were fed in the dining-hall of Golop as long as the famine subsided after the harvest. On the Vay's estate anly one single woman died of hunger, although at the same time scores of people starved to death in the cities. The General's widow, Johanna seems to have been a lady of great foresight. We read in her diary: ,,Even now (i. e. at the height of the famine) there are many granaries full of corn which could supply the market, the price, however, is still very high. The root of the evil lays very deep. It is impossible to touch this corn without trangrcssing proprietary rights and 1 look forward to the future with many misgivings." Maybe the public-spirited lady was thinking about the parcelling out of some of the latifundia but did not dare to put her thoughts into writing, even though her diary was provided with a clasp!