Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 188-189. (Budapest, 2004)
KÖZLEMÉNYEK - COMMUNICATIONS - Koltay Erika: History of alternative medicine in Hungary in 19th and early 20th century. - Az alternatív orvoslás története Magyarországon a 19. és a korai 20. században
was already a flourishing period in the history of Hungarian alternative medicine starting in the 1830s and lasting until the 1940s. The alternative medicine of the two periods differ from each other in many ways, but one thing is common in both: its flourishing started in both cases as a result of the changes experienced in social thinking. "Longing after nature has become part of the European social thinking from the mid J8 !h century... From that time on, nature has not been regarded merely a living and lifeless medium surrounding people, taken for granted from ancient times, which we are exposed to and which, at the same time, we have resort to for our necessities of life, but it also gives us vigour, it keeps us relaxed, protects, heals and delights us, and it deserves specific respect for all these." (Kósa 1999:11) This change of attitude affected all fields of culture, and it gradually reached all layers of the society. The trend of dietetics dealing with the appropriate mode of living - after a long prehistory came into fashion again in the mid 18th century. Its most important Hungarian publication was the volume written by István Mátyus: Dietetics, that is, a book treating fundamentally the method of preserving one's good health (1762), which was later published under the title Old and New Dietetics (1787-1793). The concept of a healthy mode of living appeared in the Hungarian education policy also in the mid 18th century. As a result of this stream of thought, step by step the custom of visiting spas was taken on, particularly among the urban bourgeoisie and nobility, who visited not only the Hungarian spas but other European ones as well in order to use the medicinal waters for preserving their health. These examples were only quoted so as to recall the early period of alternative medicine, which may help us to understand this phenomenon. In the historical review it is more suitable to use the notion natural healing, which reflects the spirit of the age more truly. This notion refers to nature and, in connection with that, to the necessary harmony between man and nature, and to a certain vigour which is natural in the body and which must be set into action by different methods in order to overcome diseases by natural means. In the following I am going to give a brief description of the major trends of alternative medicine of this period. The alternative medicine of this period was affected by four major trends: homeopathy, therapeutic methods related to medicinal waters, mesmerism and reforming one's life. In the history of veterinary surgery, the methods of alternative therapy did not play such an important role as they do at the present, with the exception of homeopathy. Homeopathy Out of the alternative therapeutic methods listed above, the historical antecedents of homeopathy can be outlined in most details. Since the mid 19th century until the late 1930s this trend reached the most organised institutional level: due to its periodicals, associations, university branches it formed an independent part of alternative medicine in that period throughout several years. The magic principle "similar cures similar" has already been mentioned in the chapter about traditional medicine (jaundice, dog bite). In the ancient cultures thousands of years ago, methods based on this principle were used in magic, on the occasion of going hunting and in healing as well (Frazer 2002:23-26)
