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)
two other institutions and collections established in those years which have a bearing on medical historical museum affairs. One of them is the Public Health Museum formed in 1919 from the Social Museum established in 1910 [14], In that—even if only with a secondary purpose—there was a considerable medical historical material on display, undoubtedly due to the influence of its director, the medical historian György Gortvay. Unfortunately its material was nearly completely destroyed or lost in the second world war. But that institution had a role somewhat similar to a Health Information Centre and cannot be regarded as a medical historical museum. Likewise the Ambulance Museum, too, had such a dual role by presenting old and modern life-saving and rescue facilities [15]. The material of the pharmaceutical collection within the National Museum was only slowly gathering. János Baradlai wrote [16]: "However poor it is at present, the foundations of the Hungarian pharmaceutical museum were created by the industry and knowledge of József Ernyey . It would be desirable if his nobles endeavours were supported by grants or deposits by the Hungarian pharmacists to augment the material of the museum ". Pharmaceutical history has indeed found a rare man of talent in the person of József Ernyey (1874—1945), who combined in himself all the necessary expert knowledge: the qualities of the museum-director of Kolozsvár, Pósta, and the pharmacist Orient. At first he was a pharmacist, after 1908 a collaborator of the National Museum, then the head of the Ethnographical Museum, later of the Numizmatical Collection, and from 1934 onwards director general of the Natural Science Museum. So the pharmaceutical collection was in the right hands and it was not his fault that the results were not far-reaching. The collection of pharmaceutical material found other patrons, too. From 1934 the Pharmaceutical Institute, too, collected material and documentary objects. That collection was united with that of the National Museum in October 11, 1948 to become the József Ernyey Pharmaceutical Museum [17], With the extension of the university institutes, however, in 1963 it ceased its activities; most of the material was taken over by the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum then under organization. A smaller part was left in the keeping of the Herb and Drug Institute of the Medical University in Budapest where it is used for demonstrating the lectures on pharmaceutical history. Devastating wars are always followed by an increasing appreciation for the values of the past, which rouse public thinking. If this meets the possibilities of realization then success never fails to come. Following the second world war, the atmosphere of the hundredth anniversary of the War of Independence of 1848 led not only to the establishment of the József Ernyey Pharmaceutical Museum, but the "Hungarian Medical Historical Exhibition" of the Free Trade Union of Hungarian Physicians [18] already attempted to collect and display all the material available. After two years (in 1950) a "Medical Historical and Public Health Exhibition" was held at Szombathely [19]. Unfortunately we could mention only the best known collections and exhibitions. We could not refer to the more important private collections, or the material of the other universities of the country, or the former collection of the 30
