Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 57-59. (Budapest, 1971)
TANULMÁNYOK - Zoltán Imre: A budapesti egyetem és a magyar orvostudomány mesterei (angol nyelven)
to follow the example of the Vienna University, which preceded always in each respect the Hungarian university as regards the introduction of new reforms, the organization of new departments or the problem of increasing the number of hospital beds. Corresponding to the teaching system of the University of Vienna the Medical Course at the University of Nagyszombat covered 5 years and the various disciplines were presented by 5 professors. Their pioneer activity should be honored and they merit to be mentioned. The first professors of the first Hungarian Faculty of Medicine were Mihály Schoretics, professor of pathology and therapy, Ádám Ignácz Prandt, physiology and pharmacology, Jakob Winterl, botany, Venczel Trnka anatomy and József Jakab Plenck professor of practical surgery and obstetrics. Among them mainly Plenck was outstanding, his textbook on surgery and obstetrics were published in many editions both in Vienna and in Copenhagen. His books on ophthalmology and dermatology were also successful, especially the latter where he systematized the diseases of the skin. In spite of these excellent professors the Faculty had to cope with severe difficulties especially in the line of practical teaching. In his memorandum Winterl writes already on the 10 th July 1771 that there is a contradiction in the obligation of the University to teach practical therapy and in the lack of available hospitals. The problem could not be resolved in spite of the repeated resolutions demanding the municipal hospital first in general, then more explicitly to designate 2-2 beds for the teaching of internal medicine and surgery. This was one of the ultimate causes leading to the transfer of the Faculty to Buda. The last lecture Ín Nagyszombat was held on the 24 th August 1777, to be continued next year in Buda. The auditoriums of the Faculty of Medicine were placed there in the buildings offered for this purpose by the queen, near to the royal palace. For the purposes of practical training in internal medicine and surgery 2 wards of the civil hospital in Buda (old Szent János) were reserved. However all this was of little help. Joseph II. who visited the University in 1781 and in 1783, records with anger the unbearable situation in the clinical hospital, and states firmly, that practical teaching is impossible at such a place. It was due to his efforts that the Faculty of Medicine was transferred to Pest in 1784, of the empty monasterial buildings at the corner Hatvani and Újvilág streets (now Kossuth Lajos and Semmelweis streets). The situation did not improve substantially even here. The "clinics" consisting of 6—12 beds, were unsuited for uptodate teaching not merely due to the small number of patients, but also due to the poor premises. The clinics of surgery and obstetrics were soon transferred into a separate building on the Ország-út (now Muzeum-körút) due to the outbreak of an erysipelas epidemy. This however was no great help either. All efforts of the Faculty to convince the hospital of the city to help with their beds in the teaching of the Faculty of Medicine—like the one in Vienna—failed on the firm resistance of the leading officials of the city. The possibilities of modern clinical teaching were being created only by the
