Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 182-185. (Budapest, 2003)

TANULMÁNYOK - ARTICLES - GOSZTONYI, Georg: Stephan Környey's contribution to the study of encephalitides. (Környey István hozzájárulása az. agyhártyagyulladás kutatásához.)

1958a and b, 1964, 1968). These survey articles were based on carefully prepared introductory lectures held at congresses with the aim to mediate up-to-date knowledge. After his retirement Környey devoted in Budapest his time to write and edit the first textbook of neuropathology in Hungarian language. The majority of chapters were written by himself, while he commissioned a few chapters to his earlier co-workers. The book appeared in 1987 at the Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Környey, 1987). The chapter on encephalitides (Környey, 1987a) summarises with exemplary compactness the knowledge of the 1980ies in this field. The passages on the pathogenesis of leukoencephalomyelitides and slow virus diseases deserve special attention. The description of the various types of encephalitides are well supplemented by the data of the results of his experiments and clinical observations, demonstrating that his personal work contributed a great deal to the formation of our views on the inflammatory diseases of the nervous system. Beside the comprehensive description of encephalomyelitides in four short chapters he delineated the concept of inflammation in the nervous system, the luetic and trypanosomal diseases, the tuberculosis and other granulomatous processes and the parasitoses of the CNS (Környey, 1987b, c, d, e). Környey's work in the field of encephalitides did not remain without reverberation among his pupils. Some of them spontaneously, while others prompted by Környey performed studies on the clinical features, neuropathology and pathogenesis of polio- and leukoencephalitides. Adorján Máttyus studied the panencephalitides and childhood encephalomyeloitides, György Päiffy the clinical features and pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis, József Czopf the immunological aspects of demyelinating diseases and György Gosztonyi the pathogenesis of polioencephalitides and the hyperacute form of disseminated encephalomyelitis, the acute haemorrhagic leukoencephalitis (Hurst's disease). Mainly in the early years of his activity at Pécs Környey encouraged some of his co-workers to elaborate certain topics. Thus, F. Tibor Mérei studied the histopathology of the optic neuromyelitis and the neural consequences of the Mantoux-test, György Bozsik the neural complications of the infantile Coxsackie B virus infections, and György Fodor the neural complications of the vaccination against rabies. The fight against the virus encephalitides had lead to spectacular achievements during the activity of Stephen Környey. As a result of systemic active immunization poliomyelitis and SSPE disappeared from Europe and North America. Although these accomplishments have to be attributed primarily to virologists and immunologists, the merits of those performing basic and clinical research - including those of Környey - must also be appreciated. The retroviral infections expanding from the beginning of the 1980ies and the spread of human and animal spongiform encephalopathies attest that the research on infectious diseases of the nervous system has not lost its actuality. GEORG GOSZTONYl, MD, PhD Department of Neuropathology, Freie Universität Berlin, Hindenburgdamm 30, D12200 Berlin DEUTSCHLAND