Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 66-68. (Budapest, 1973)

TANULMÁNYOK - Székely Sándor: Az 1876-os közegészségügyi törvény előkészítéséről (angol nyelven)

not merely printed on paper as this is the case on the Continent and especially in our country, hut are in fact observed."

20 Of course, Fodor did not forget, in fact he emphasized, that—in addition to public understanding, readiness to help and enlightenment—also adequate medical organizations are needed in order to carry out the sound laws. In this respect the major role is played by the local authorities which have to apply the laws on the spot in full knowledge of the problems, in order to eliminate undesirable practices, ^n England it is customary for the local authorities to issue independent measures and decrees on the basis of the law. In Hungary, said Fodor, there is a health organization, there are functionaries to introduce measures, and there are also decrees and regulations. "What is the reason then" he posed the question, "that our health affairs nonetheless exist under such dismal conditions? That for example in 1871 people died by the hundreds on the Great Plains of Hungary, and it could not even be discovered why ? The reason lies in the torpidity of the authorities and their functionaries, their often impotent obtuseness. So if people in the provinces turn for help against all health malpractices to the Government, blaming and condemning the Government for them, the people in question have the wrong address; they should turn to their own authorities, that is where the power, the means for action lie, unless these (magistrates) are sluggish and impotent

... This is the lesson I draw from the English health organization."

21 Fodor's work published in 1873 is one of those classic writings which may still be valuable to the reader. Of course, at the time its significance was even greater: it was a direct preliminary to the most up-to-date health law of the period, to Act XIV of 1876. THE BILL DRAFTED IN 1873 Although Fodor was the most eminent personality in Hungarian public health, he was not alone. The sanitary problems seemed more and more oppressive after the 1850's, and accordingly they very much occupied the minds of physicians, in the first place the attention of the county and municipal medical officers. This is evident in the professional literature of the period just as it was obvious in the lectures delivered at the MOT meetings. Special mention should be made of the writings of Gergely Patrubány, Chief Medical Officer of Budapest, whose papers published in the Medical Weekly and other periodicals dealt in detail with the dismal situation in the health of the capital. The key-tone of the proper approach to health was sounded by Lajos Markusovszky. "The subject of our concern," he wrote in 1866, "is above all indeed the existence and growth of public health, the health of the population, of the nation, which can be said to exist if the mean age is as high as possible and the largest possible number of people reach it

... For this reason the main topic of cur concern 20 Ibid. p. 180. 21 Ibid. pp. 205-206.