Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 234-237. (Budapest, 2016)
KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Müller Miklós—Elek Gábor: Bauer Ervin 1935-ös biológia-tankönyve és a könyv további sorsa
MÜLLER, M. - ELEK, G.: A Biology Textbook Edited by Ervin Bauer 87 Although Bauer is listed only as the editor on the title page, he also contributed a rather detailed introduction and one chapter of Part III Excitation. His coworker Luntz - not listed as author - wrote the other chapter for Part III. In the introduction Bauer thanks Dorfman specifically for his extensive help in coordinating the preparation and editing of the volume. Bauer’s contributions, especially his introduction, clearly reflect his views on the nature of life. In the introduction he summarized the basic properties of living organisms and defined them from a philosophical point of view. He distanced biological phenomena from vitalism and mechanicism, stressing that they cannot be reduced to laws of physics and chemistry. Remarkably, he mentions only cursorily his fundamental principle of “permanent disequilibrium of the living matter“The living protoplasm...is not stable in a physical sense” (Eayop 1935b, p. 13-14). The textbook, published in 15000 copies, was received enthusiastically. As the first complete college level text in Russian, it filled a pressing need. Until its publication no domestic general biology text had existed in the USSR. The Russian translation of Max Hartmann's General Biology was the major text for colleges and universities (Tapmuian 1929, 1931). In a personal letter to Hartmann, his former professor, Bauer’s coworker Albert Luntz wrote: „Your ’Allgemeine Biologie’ is widely distributed here and is regarded THE textbook of biology (albeit in a somewhat abbreviated Russian translation). ” 1 This void explains why Bauer’s text was reissued as a second printing within a year1 2 and why two other college level texts appeared about the same time (Hamanu et al. 1934; Emxep 1935). A detailed review if the book appeared in Under the Flag of Marxism [nod 3HcmeHeM MapKcumaJ, the theoretical journal of the Communist (bolshevik) Party of the USSR (MwieuyuiKUH 1936). Its overall conclusion: „The book under review is the first good (nojiHoqeHHbiü) textbook of general biology in our country, in spite of some shortcomings. Its publication represents a real achievment in creating a complete Soviet textbook of general biology, the lack of which was so keenly felt until now” (MujieuywKUH 1936 p. 208). The book was greeted with a detailed positive review also by the noted cell biologist, Katsnelson (KaifuejibcoH 1936) in the popular science monthly, Nature [npupoda] although a brief review in this journal commented on the neglect in the book of botanical aspects (Ouhh 1936). Since the work was successful and apparently filled a need, soon additional editions became necessary. But because this was the time of the great terror in the USSR, the further fate of the book became highly complex. The decreasing list of editors and coauthors shows the impact of the times (Table 1). However, the great significance of the book is shown by the fact that in spite of all this, newer and newer editions did not fail to appear. 1 Archives of the Max-Planck-Institute, Berlin-Dahlem. Max Hartmann papers. 2 The technical editor of the reprint edition was Mikhail M. Mesterházi, a well known Darwinist, whose grandfather emigrated from Hungary to Russia and whose family still cherishes this fact (MeCTepra3H, 2011).
