Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 194-195. (Budapest, 2006)
TANULMÁNYOK — ARTICLES - SCHULTHEISZ, Emil: Literature on Public Health and State Medicine in Hungary in the Age of Enlightenment
LITERATURE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND STATE MEDICINE IN HUNGARY IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT EMIL SCHULTHEISZ Classical hygiene was born in the ancient Greek period of enlightenment. The issue of public health, as it is known in our modern age, emerged during the English and the subsequent French age of Enlightenment, with a view to the notions of'"common good" and "utility", the new dual concept characteristic of the era. As far as medical thinking was concerned, this meant rephrasing the old realization that the mission of medicine was not simply to heal people but also, quite reasonably, to prevent diseases. The proponents of enlightened absolutism recognized the importance of general healthcare in this respect, and, in accordance with the thinking of the age, emphasized the need for central control over healthcare issues. By the second half of the 18 th century, a new branch of medicine was seen to emerge from the convergent thought systems of medical science and political science; this was the predecessor of today's public health system, the so-called medical police. It was referred to under various terms, first as politia medica, or medizinische Polizei, that is "medical police" or "medical policing", then later as Staatsarzneikunde, or "state medicine". It was a single term to cover today's notions of "public health" and "hygiene". This new era of healthcare was initiated in Hungary by the oeuvre of Zakariás Teofd Huszty, who gave the following definition of the new branch of science in his most important work: "The theory of medical police is a science which incorporates all the fundamental principles whereby the stale provides for the maintenance of its subjects ' health and life. It is a theoretical branch of science, but should the ruler issue an order jailing within its scope, it instantly becomes practical knowledge." Sámuel Rácz (1744— 1807) wrote thus in his A ' borbélyt tanításoknak... második darabja (Teachings for Barbers ... Part II), the first Hungarian-language textbook for teaching physicians and surgeons, published in 1794: "And that science, which does teach of the determination of all those things whereby the health of the people is kept up and good care is taken of the population's life, is called Medical Police". The thought that led several scholars - notably the most famous European scientist working in this discipline, J. P. Frank (1745-1821), as well as the above-mentioned Huszty in Hungary - to practise this scientific area as a discipline in its own right, eventually originated not from a medical doctor but from the highly renowned professor of the Viennese university, Joseph von Sonnenfels (1739-1817), who lectured on political science at the university and served as a counsellor for Maria Theresa as well as for Emperor Joseph II. Being one of the most renowned theoreticians of jurisdiction based on the ideas of the Enlightenment, Baron
