Magyar László szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 174-177. (Budapest, 2001)

KÖZLEMÉNYEK — COMMUNICATIONS - Kapronczay Károly: A short history of the urology in Hungaiy. — (A magyarországi urológia rövid története.)

an eminent operator. He changed the technique of cystotomy and the crateriform incision with the more exact and more correct suturing of the surfaces of the incision, initiated by him, was adopted in all the world. He died unexpectedly at the age of 43. His death was a grievous loss not only for the Hungarian but also for all the European urological research. The first urological surgical ward in Hungary was established in the Rókus Kórház (Saint Roch Hospital) and in the following decades many further ones were established in all the country. Placing urological patients in a separate sickward of the surgical ward and entrusting their operations to surgeons specialised in urological surgery became a general practice in the hospitals of Hungary. After Géza Antal's unexpected death László Farkas (1847—1913) was entrusted with the direction of Antal's ward in the Rókus Kórház (Saint Roch Hospital). He not only became his master's worthy successor but also acquired fame constructing many new medical instruments. Today neither of them is in use any more but Farkas 's syringe as it is called. László Farkas was a many-sided, picturesque character. As a young physician he took part in the organisation of the sanitary service of the Hungarian Red Cross Society and the establishment of the ambulance units of Hungary. He was the originator of the Hungarian field hospital system too. Similarly he played a great role in the organisation of the training of the Hungarian professional and voluntary Red Cross nurses, the elaboration of the curriculum of the training and the training itself started in 1881. From 1897 to 1898, during the Greek-Ottoman War, behind the front lines he directed a field hospital on account of which he was later treated also with the greatest Ottoman state distinction. In the 1860s some English surgeons and also others following them performed several ovarotomies. The injury of the ureter was a frequent outgrowth of these operations. After some animal experiments Professor Simon, a surgeon in Heidelberg, was the first to perform nephrectomy on 2

nd August 1869. Though he did it with no antisepsis, his patient left hospital six weeks later recovered totally. In Hungary Ignác Semmelweis (1818—1865) was the first to perform laparoovariectomy in 1863. He was succeeded by János Balassa in 1865, Ferenc Darányi in 1868 in Arad (a town in the country), József Kovács, Sándor Lumniczer and Endre Sebestyén Kovács. Imre Réczey (1848—1913), one of the pupils of József Kovács, was the first to perform nephrectomy on 23rd June 1880 but some weeks later also another Hungarian physician, Manó Herczel, did the same successfully. Though Imre Réczey's patient died some weeks later, it was the 48th successful operation of this kind in the world. On 16th October 1885 Vilmos Tauffer (1851—1935), the founder of the Hungarian gynaecological school, performed nephrectomy because of the injury of the ureter and in November he even sutured successfully the ureter injured in the course of the operation. Later the wittily united ureter was working efficiently. Tauffer used this manoeuvre with good results later as well. On 1st May 1886 he removed a suppurated kidney, on 11th November performed nephrectomy in transperitoneal way because of hydronephrosis, in February 1888 removed a healthy kidney because of a ureter injured in a bad accident. In 1890 he performed nephrectomy because of nephrolithiasis, in 1893 he did the same on a male patient because of pyonephritis. This kind of surgical interventions happened still only rarely at that time in Hungary. Vilmos Tauffer realized that also gynaecologists should care for nephrolithiasis and the disturbances of urinary passage because some of these organs are near female genitals, their