Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 71-72. (Budapest, 1974)

KISEBB KÖZLEMÉNYEK - M. Lugosi Márta: A gyógyszerészi múzeum felállításának ügye Magyarországon

Summary It was in Debrecen at the end of the 18th century that the first — unsuccessful — attempt was made by István Weszprémi and Sámuel Kazay to establish a collection on the history of pharmacy. The theme was revived at the end of the 19th century to remain permanently on the agenda. Gyula Orient, an assistant at the University of Kolozsvár (today Cluj, Rumania), began to collect the relics of pharmacy mainly from Upper Hungary (today Slovakia) and Transylvania (today part of Rumania). In 1902 he donated his collection containing about 1800 pieces of pharmaceutical objects to the Transylvanian Museum. At the same time in Budapest Geyza Karlovszky, Gyula Nagy and László Traxler also raised the question of setting up a museum of pharmaceutical history (1890). Their call resulted in the birth of a considerable collection, some of which was displayed at the Hungarian Millenial Exhibition of 1896, but later the whole collection got lost. In the National Association of Pharmacists József Ernyey proposed in 1905 the founding of a museum for the history of pharmacy. Collecting was actually started in 1908—1909 by the students of pharmaceutics. They were so successful that the collection soon became too large and in 1917 it had to be handed over to the National Museum. Parallel with that in 1904 a committee was set up in the Budapest Association of Physicians led by Endre Hőgyes for collecting the relics of the history of medicine. World War I greatly retarded this development. In 1918 Lajos Nékám proposed a common museum for the history of medicine and pharmacy. The Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Education asked Nékám to submit detailed proposals and a national committee was set up. But the good beginning came to an end due to the results of the war. With Kolozsvár and Transylvania, consequently the Transylvanian Museum, awarded to Rumania only the pharmaceutical collection held in the National Museum was left. An exhibition based on that was opened in 1928, arranged by József Ernyey. The first independent museum of pharmaceutical history was set up after World War 2, in 1948. In connection with the centenary of the revolution and war of independence of 1848—49 the celebration committee of the pharmacists decided that it would restore a ruined building in the court of the Pharmaceutical Institute in order to hold an exhibition there and establish a permanent museum. The new museum was opened on October 11 1948 and was named after József Ernyey. It was managed by a four man committee presided by Prof. Sándor Mozsonyi, who, together with János Halmai, took an outstanding part in the organizing work. In 1963 the two rooms of the museum were taken over for teaching purposes. The books of the collection and the demonstration objects used in teaching were kept by the University, the rest was united with the collection of the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum then under organization. This in fact solved the problem of the proper accomodation, care and augmentation of pharmaceutical relics. The Golden Eagle Apothecary Museum will be opened in 1974 in the Buda Castle as an independent unit of the Semmelweis Museum to show the visitors the history of pharmacy.