Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 190-193. (Budapest, 2005)

TANULMÁNYOK - ARTICLES - Balázs Péter: Magyarország és a Habsburg Birodalom szerepe az 1770. évi Generale Normativum létrehozásában

szellemi termék, de azt is tudjuk, hogy az alaprendelet anyagát az ausztriai jogalkotás is számos más forrásból merítette. Semmi okunk nincs arra, hogy a tények teljes körű ismeretében ne úgy tekintsük a Generale Normativum-m, mint nemzeti kulturális örökségünk igen értékes, szerves és megbecsült részére. PÉTER BALÁZS, MD, DSc Director Semmelweis University College for Health Care Department of Public Health H-1088 Budapest Szentkirályi u. 14. HUNG AR Y E-mail: balazsp@se-efk.hu SUMMARY Hungary's first General Rule of Health Service was put into practice under the reign of Queen Maria Theresia (1740-1780) as a directive issued by the Council of the GovernorGeneral (Helytartótanács) on 4 October 1770. Previously, on the 2

nd January of this year, the Queen, as the Archduchess of Lower and Upper Austria, had issued the original Hauptsanitätsnormativ for the hereditary provinces of the Habsburg lands. Between the two dates the original regulation, written in German, was adapted to the special statutory law of the Hungarian Kingdom. Moreover, the Council had the specialists at its disposal who could translate it into Latin, the official language both in legislation and of law enforcement in Hungary. Without doubt, the original regulation was an outstanding work of Habsburg health policy lawmaking. It unified and reorganized around three panels the European public health experiences: (1) structure and function of central and local health authorities, (2) rights and duties of health providers, and (3) prevention of epidemics on seaside and inland as well. As to the seaside, the ruling about havens issued in 1755 was only a cross-reference in the preamble for it was updated as a completely new version in 1769. It summarised the latest and most effective measures practiced against the terrible recent epidemics of plague in Venice, Livorno, and Marseilles. The new regulation on inland (along the borders of the Habsburg Empire throughout the Balkans and Eastern-Europe) was an excellent conversion of the seaside measures. This way, the operation of sanitary cordons and the chain of quarantine-houses on border crossings of the main commercial routes extinguished the plague in the Habsburg provinces and the Hungarian Kingdom. As to the providers (doctors, surgeons, apothecaries, and midwives) the backup work was the totally revised Bohemian Medical Order 1753. Regarding law enforcement, Vienna took over the Prussian model of centralized governance, but the version for Hungary respected in all details the traditional self-governing principle of counties and privileged royal boroughs as wel|. In public health, the General Rule brought up Hungary to the level of the most