Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 218-221. (Budapest, 2012)
KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Monos Emil—László Molnár—Lajos Szollár—Osmo Hänninen: Rácz Sámuel, az első magyar nyelven írott élettan-tankönyv írója
MONOS E. - MOLNÁR L - SZOLLÁR L. - HÄNNINEN, O.: Sámuel Rácz 93 Samuel Rácz took the translation as his life duty. He was one of the pioneers in the whole of Europe, as the main language of science was still Latin in his time. Even the very first textbook of physiology in eight volumes (Elementa physiologiae corporis humani, 1757-1766) was therefore written in Latin by Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777). It is obvious that this book could serve only professionals and even only few of those. It was translated into English in 1786, only three years before Rácz’s Hungarian book. This underlines the value of the Rácz's work in Hungary. As Samuel Rácz in Hungary, Elias Lönnrot played a similar role in Finland on the adoption of Finnish health-related terminology. Lönnrofs Suomalaisen talonpojan kotilääkäri appeared in several editions from 1838 onwards. (Fig. 5.) The last printing (so far) took place in 2002. Elias Lönnrot’s work had also a great effect outside medicine. He published e.g. an extensive volume on botany. The Finnish national epic the Kalevala is also a good source of health-related language. It is proper to notice that the first edition of Kalevala appeared three years before his "Kotilääkäri". Finnish folk poetry has also promoted the adoption of common Finnish health-related words as everyone reads Kalevala at schools. Elias Lönnrofs merits in the development of Finnish language were so great that he was invited, actually forced to leave Kajaani, his home town and take the professorship of Finnish language at the University of Helsinki. He planned to stay in Kajaani where he had served a long time as district physician. The Finnish Literature Society was bom, in fact, from the initiative of a veterinary surgeon Dr Marten (Marni) Lindfors, the first qualified Finnish veterinary surgeon who spent his last years in Kuopio (ANTTILA 1931, MÄKELÄ-ALITALO 2005). Initially this society supported the publication of Elias Lönnrofs books. The publication of Kalevala, the Finnish national epic in 1835 took place in the same way. Duodecim Society was established by twelve Finnish-speaking physicians to promote the use of Finnish language in medicine about one hundred years ago. This society continues working and publishes books; its selection at present covers most of the specializations. The Education Foundation of Nurses has also been very significant in publishing. Its books in Finnish have been used for decades not only in the curricula of nurses but also by other health professions. The first Finnish textbook on physiology (Fysiologia) was published in 1903 in Kuopio by Professor Robert Tigerstedt, the physiologist of world renown. K. Suomalainen translated Tigerstedt's manuscript as Tigerstedt was more familiar with the Swedish language because he lived in Sweden for several years and was a professor of physiology at the Karolinska Institutet before returning to his home country. At that time medical terminology was already more or less adopted in Finnish language due to Lönnrot's work. Finns hosted the Centennial IUPS Congress (1989, Helsinki). In this decision, the Hungarian IUPS Secretary General Arisztid GB Kovách, as the Union's key officer, played a significant role. One of the authors of this article served as Secretary General of the Centennial Congress (OH). At present practically all Finnish health care personnel have been using Nienstedt and his co-workers' textbook lhmisen fysiologian ja anatómia (Human Physiology and Anatomy), first published in 1972 i.e. 40 years ago. It already has the longest life span of all
