Antall József szerk.: Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 5. (Budapest, 1972)

Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts (Guide for the Exhibition)

helping in need') published in 1790; Mihály Nediliczi Váli (c. 1700-1772) „Házi-orvos szótárotska" ('A small dictionary of self-treatment') published in 1

797. From the exhibited medical literature of scientific value mention should be made of István Kibédi Mátyus's (1725-1802) (Fig. 41.) "ó-és új Diaetika" ('Old and new dietetics') published in 1792 and Mihály Ková s*

s (1768-1851) "Az emberi élet meghosszabbításának mestersége" ('The art of lenghtening human life') published after Hufeland in 1798. Among the authors of several books concerning the training of midwives and barbers, special mention should be made of István Weszprémi (i 723-1799) (Fig. 42.) whose work "Succinta Medicorum Hungáriáé at Transilvaniae Biographia" published in four volumes has remained the most precious source of Hungarian medical history up to the present days. Weszprémi was not only an excellent medicohistorian but at the same time an outstanding practitioner of his profession. In his work "Tentamen de inoculande peste" published in London in 1755 he was the first to suggest that prevention of plaque should also be tried by injection, similar to small-pox vaccination. Balthasar van den Bossche's (1681-1715) oil-painting (48 × 60.3 cm) representing the removal of a plaster in the surgeon's consulting room is an outstanding piece in the museum collection. According to the original mark it was painted in 1707, probably in Antwerp. This intimate picture is painted in the style of the early Dutch genre paintings representing simple scenes taken from every-day life. The figures - the surgeon, the apprentice warming up the plaster, the suffering patient and the women watching them with astonishment and fear - form a harmonic unit in the simple event of everday life. Although the warm colours are low in key, the picture is not sombre but rather objective. Johann Christian Fiedler's (1697-1765) oil-painting on a copper plate entitled "Examination of a patient" (41.5x31.5 cm) represents a uroscopy in the refined, aristocratic Rococo style developed in France. The elegant lady is sitting in a velvet armchair and looks at the doctor as if asking for help. He is holding a pear-shaped vessel used in urinanalysis in his right hand while he is feeling the patient's pulse with his left hand. The enterieur is painted with great skill, especially the finely executed tea-set on the table. The fabric of the curtain, table-cloth and costumes is light and airy. A remarkable contrast can be observed between the solemn, somewhat affected representation of the figures and the intimate realistic portrait of the painter himself which hangs on the wall (Plate VIII.). An indispensable accessory of medical practice has always been the medical kit or case containing the instruments of the physician visiting patients, together with the most important medicines for prompt aid. The most beautiful ones in the collection of the museum are presented in a separate show-case. The wooden kit revealing the stylistic features of Austrian late-baroque - the