J. Antall szerk.: Medical history in Hungary. Presented to the XXII. International Congress for the History of Medicine / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 4. (Budapest, 1970)

MEDICAL HISTORY IN HUNGARY - J. Antall: Museum Affairs Concerning Medical and Pharmaceutical History in Hungary (in English)

Austria, Rumania—and one could continue the list—but in the richness of material and in organization the Wellcome Institute has maintained its leading position. On the whole it is rather difficult to find a basis for comparison, because even the aims of the various institutions are not the same. In most countries the collections either serve for medical training as a university department, or completely independently of that form a special collection in some museum. It was due to Hungary's different historical development, the less favourable conditions, and not the lack of well-intentioned initiative, that in spite of the identity of the year of foundation the development of medical and pharmaceutical historical museum affairs took a course less favourable than in England. In April 1905 the Royal Association of Physicians invited all the physicians of Hungary to help with their donations the establishment of a medical historical museum. The preparatory committee was set up under the presidency of professor Endre Högÿes "with a view to the establishment of the medical historical museum proposed at first by himself and now by Temesvárÿ" [1]. Högÿes relinquished his post before his death in 1906 and Gyula Elischer became the chairman of the museum committee. But the actual work of organization fell to Tibor Győry, who was an eminent medical historian and an expert on Semmelweis a member of the committee, and the librarian of the Association of Physicians. Salacz refers to the first steps, the beginning of actual collecting activity, when he wrote about the achievements of the Association in 1905 [2]: "The medical historical museum of the Association is becoming a fact, as it found the right man for direction and acquisition in the person of (then second librarian) Tibor Győry, who envisaged a collection covering mainly the relics of the development of medicine in Hungary as completely as possible. To the detriment of our medical history the good start was interrupted by the world war and the difficult years following it. We are still waiting for the rebirth of the ardent spirit of Győry." The author of the above passage remarks in a note than on Frigyes Korányi's initiative the Balassa, Lumniczer, and Markusovszky families added to the holdings of the museum very important correspondence and manuscript material. But after a promising start, which ensured the survival of the othervise unobtainable medical historical collection, the museum could not strike roots as an independent establishment. This is shown by the fact that professor Lajos Nékám in 1918 elaborated a scheme for the establishment of a Hungarian Medical Historical Museum, which was obviously meant to be the continuation of the 1905 initiative of Högÿes. The planned museum was to cover medical history in a wide sense, including pharmaceutics and public health. It put special emphasis on collecting the relics of the world war, which was a forward-looking act, as the original proposal of Högÿes had set 1850 as the limit of collection. The 1918 proposal and the ensuing debate was significant as it went beyond simply saving the relics and already determined the character of the work in the institute. The use of the name Hungarian Medical Historical Museum and Library was recommended, and that in itself determined the sphere of collection. They bore in mind the personal composition, too, of the future institution and decided it was desirable that the collecting activity should be performed by a 27