J. Antall szerk.: Medical history in Hungary 1972. Presented to the XXIII. International Congress of the History of Medicine / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 6. (Budapest, 1972)

E. Réti: Darwin's Influence on Hungarian Medical Thought (1868—1918) 157 J. Antall, A. Faiudy and K. Kapronczay: József Fodor and Public Health in Hungary

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/¡_2 Medical History in Hungary 1972 (Comm. Hist. Artis Med. Suppl. 6.) way of thinking was predestinated by the idea of hygiene, he was almost a poet in giving public health interest to any scientific or social question. His ideas

, sometimes exaggerations were often opposed to heavily in these meetings and the reforms relating to public health, he proposed, were furthered to the authorities in milder form than that of his own proposals. It was always Markusovszky who supported whole-heartedly Fodor's theories and ideas referring to public health reforms, he who was the first to take up the cause of renewal in the columns of his medical journal, **Orvosi Hetilap". His chief opponent was Balogh, fellowworker of Markusovszky, who kept on softening the bombastic soaring of his ideas. Influenced by these views Fodor's ideas became active elements in the field of Hungarian public health."

—wrote Endre Högÿes, his friend and contemporary in the journal "Egészség".

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1 Inspired by this connection with the Medical School of Pest, József Fodor took an exam from the "proceedings of medical officers" in 1869 to become a private docent. This period is the birth of a reformed medical training in the University of Budapest. The professors were filled with reform ideas, and Markusovszky, who was in charge of the university affairs beside Eötvös and Trefort ministers of public education, did their best to send young Hungarian physicians abroad attaining them state scholarships, so that they could study the new branches of science, especially public health, which were developing at a great speed. On the recommendation of Markusovszky, Rupp and Balogh, in 1870 Fodor obtained a scholarship from the Government. First he attended Pettenkofer's lectures in Munich and there he also got acquainted with the methods of chemical analysis, necessary to hygiene, in the laboratory of Liebig

. Afterwards he worked in the institute of Recklinghausen und Hilger in Würzburg then he travelled to Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and England, in order to study the affairs of public health. He in fact got this travelling scholarship after a certain activity in this field in Hungary: we think of his first article, entitled "A hagy máz kóroktani kutatása" (Research into the aetiology of typhoid fever) which was soon followed by several articles dealing with forensic medicine. Mention should be made of his essay on the disposal and utilization of sewage. In Munich he studied the examinations referring to water, soil and air, the three great fields of public health, in the same spirit and witn the same methods as Pettenkofer did, whom he regarded as his master. He reported about his experiences gained in the foreign countries and sent these letters home systematically, rendering a true picture of their sanitary institutions and health administration, and comparing them with the situation at home. During his travelling he was attracted most of all by England, as it has been mentioned before. His experiences in England will be treated below in chapter III. 1

1 E. Högÿes

: In memóriám Fodor József, cf. MTA elhunyt tagjai fölött tartott emlékbeszédek (Memorial speeches on deceased members of the Hung. Academy of Sciences), Budapest 1903.