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)
Especially noteworthy collections exist in the fields of botanies, pharmaceutics, balneology, chirurgy, the various diseases, popular curing, etc. The 5000 volumes of medical dissertations contain not only the older inaugural dissertations in Hungary, but also similar material from abroad, obtained by way of exchanges. The collection of offprints contains more than 15 000 units: partly Hungarian and partly foreign articles related to medicine and medical history. There are more than 20 000 volumes of periodicals : nearly a complete collection of Hungarian periodical medical literature from the 1860s onwards, and foreign literature from even earlier. In the meantime the preparation of the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum started. In 1958 a preparatory committee was formed, and statutory provisions appeared concerning the announcement of museum pieces in the health institutions. But the most important event was when in 1962 the Budapest Municipal Council the birthplace of Ignác Semmelweis to the Ministry of Health and the restoration of the building based on the plans of Egon Pfannl could start with a view to house the museum. It was finished in 1964. The institute moved in the building on 12 October 1964, and some days later, on 15th October the remains of Semmelweis disinterred in 1963 were placed in the grave formed in the stone wall of the court of the Museum. The registration and description of the accumulated objects and documents, the arrangement of the stores could now start. In less than a year, on 13th August 1965—the centenary of Semmelweis 1s death—"Maternity", a statue by Miklós Borsos standing in front of the grave was ceremonially unveiled. That day is the official birthday of the Museum, when the Ministers of Health and Education issued a decree for the establishment of the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum. Many questions are asked how could the Museum—established only recently — acquire the objects exhibited? Having read the above account the answer is not difficult. The bases of the present collection are the objects of the Medical Historical Museum of the Association of Physicians (1905), the Pharmaceutical Museum of the Association of Pharmacists (1906) later transformed into the József Ernyey Pharmaceutical Museum (1948), and the material collected by the Medical Historical Library (old apothecary vessels, bathing cups, the wellknown numismatic collection of Falnđi and other objects). To that the material received from all parts of the country on the basis of the announcements presribed by the Minister of Health was added, together with museum pieces and historical documents surrendered by various institutes mainly by the medical universities. In the ministerial decree establishing the Museum a well-balanced acquisitions policy is manifested : "The sphere of collection of the Museum extends to the objects and documentary relics of the history of Hungarian medicine (including pharmaceutics and public health), to the relics of universal medical history available in Hungary, and to foreign relics related to Hungarian medical history ". Consequently a new decision in 1966 by the Ministers concerned, which added the baroque apothecary found in the Castle district of Buda (18 Tárnok Street, Budapest, I.) to the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum as a unit for pharmaceutical history, appeared to be as a matter of course. The prepara32
