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

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

is not so much the ill as the healthy, the majority of the people, the big numbers, for the richness and the strength of the nation is deposited in them."

22 At the end of the 1860's and the beginning of the 1870's an increasing number of studies appeared in Hungarian professional publications which treated the public health and the sanitary legislation of Western European countries. The preparation of the public health law also remained on the agenda, and the MOT meeting at Fiume* in 1870 again passed a resolution on urging the Government to draft the bill. At the Congress at Arad** in the next year, however, the MOT Central Committee submitted the following report: "Before, however, the Central Committee would have submitted this petition, we are able to welcome the information that the Hungarian Royal Ministry of the Interior charged the National Public Health Council with the task of preparing a public health bill

.. ."

23 In its "Miscellany" column, the Medical Weekly reported on October 19, 1873 on the fact that "The health draft bill, framed with great care on the basis of several elaborations by the Health Council and also with due consideration of existing regulations—foreign laws and statutes as well as statements made at conferences—and passed down for comments and criticism, was distributed among the members at the meeting on the 16th this month of the National Public Health Council

. .. and it greatly facilitates the work of the Public Health Council in this field."

2

* The November 16 and 23 issues of the Medical Weekly published the draft bill released by the Ministry of the Interior, a bill which, in contrast to the earlier recommandations, corresponded already in contents to the law finally enacted in 1876. This draft was longer, more clearly divided into detail topics and more comprehensive than its predecessors. According to a footnote "the studies and petitions made by the National Public Health Council were considered" in its formulation. The structure of the bill was the following:

25 Part I, entitled "Health Measures", discusses the problems of public health in 30 chapters. Part II, "Public Health Service", treats the problems of organization in four chapters. The topic is evident from the titles of the chapters, and the weight given to the individual subjects is indicated by the number of paragraphs devoted to the question. Accordingly: 1. General Rules. Pars. 1-7; 2. Pregnant women and maternity cases, 8-9; 3. Care of children, 10-11; 4. Public salubrity, 12-13; 5. Victuals, 14-16; 6. Occupations, 17; 7. Medical-police autopsies, 18-19; 8. Inquests, 20-25; 22 Lajos Markusovszky: „A közegészség tudomány mai állása és feladatai. (The Present Position and Tasks of the Science of Public Health)." Markusovszky Lajos válogatott munkái (Selected Works of Lajos Markusovszky). Budapest 1905. p. 170. 23 A MOT Nagygyűlései (The MOT Congresses). Vol. XV, Pest, 1872, p. 42. 24 Orvosi Hetilap, 1873, p. 753. 25 Orvosi Hetilap, 1873, pp. 827-839, 851-857. * Today Rijeka, Yugoslavia. ** Today Oradea in Rumania.