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

dr. Gál Lajos: Himlőellenes védőoltás Magyarországon 1802-ben

VACCINATION AGAINST SMALLPOX IN HUNGARY IN 1802 By Dr. LAJOS GÁL I

n one of our registers begun in 1782 I hit upon an centry of great importance and interest and which is most probably unique in medical history. Between 1782 and 1811 a certain Mihály Major was pastor of the Calvinist Church in Tiszaföldvár. He was concerned not only with the spritual but with the physical welfare of his parishioners as well and in a truly Christian spirit did everything in his power to fight off sickness and disease in his community. His „medical work" was prompted by the discovery of the Edward Jenner whose research work on the vaccine against smallpox was brought to a head in 1796. Consequently, the first institute where vaccination against the disease was practised was opened in London in 1799. Hungary followed suite later: a law passed in 1876 making vaccination compulsory. The news of Tenner's discovery was soon all over Europe; it reached Hungary six years later — in the given circumstances a comparatively short time. The necessary lymph for vaccines was gained from cows and calves, hence Mihály Major calles the sickness „cowpox" and the procedure of vaccination an „operádon". The above mentioned entry is very important in our medical history, first, because it proves that already in 1802 the vaccine against smallpox was known and applied, second, because it tells