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

J. Antall—A. Faludÿ — K. Kapronczay : József Fodor iji research.

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6 He was most successful with the method of detecting carbon dioxide based on formation of carbon oxide haemoglobin, which method was suitable to detect even the slightest quantity of carbon dioxide. He carried out fundamental investigations for finding out the correlations between fresh water and underground water and the characteristics of polluted soil. He proved that hygienic measures directed against the pollution of soil, water and air might check the spread of epidemics.

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7 He urged the cause of the building of a municipal sewer system and its modernization respectively, since contaminated soil and exhalations might be the cause of epidemics and infections.

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8 His investigations relating to soil were acknowledged outside the bounderies of Hungary, too, this international respect was expressed by the fact that Wey asked him to contribute to his manual of public health published in 1893. Fodor's investigation into the hygiene of soil have also bacteriological significance. Pettenkofer and Virchow still doubted the pathogenic function of the micro-organisms which were discovered one after the other, Fodor on the other hand, following the views of Koch and Pasteur

—carried out his epidemiological investigations relying on the results of bacteriology. He suspected the relation between the pollution of soil, water and air, various micro-organisms and epidemics. He came to this conclusion while studying the greatly opposed mycological theories of Hallier

: he all of a sudden realized that those mycotic organisms in fact have a vital role in the spread of contagious diseases. On the basis of his experiments, Fodor proved in the 1880-ies that infections are caused by special bacteria and the task of medical science is to discover these microorganisms and to develop immunity in the human organism. His inaugural lecture in the Academy of Sciences was dedicated to these questions of immunity

—as it has been mentioned already

—and he definitely maintained that various pathogenic bacteria are destroyed in the blood of a healthy animal owing to its biochemical effect.

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9 This theory was later proved by Nuttal and Flügge and developed by Bucher, Łųbarsch and Beĥring

. Together with Gusztáv 1

6 Kísérleti tanulmányok a talaj és talajlégnemek fertőtlenítése felett (Experimental studies on decontamination of soil and soil air), Orvosi Hetilap 1875. the same in German in: Deutsche Allg. Zentralzeitung. 1875. — Kísérleti tanulmányok a talaj és talajlégnemek felett (Experimental studies on soil and soil air), Orvosi Hetilap, 1876. the same in German: in Deutsche Vierteljahrschrift für öffentliche Gesundheitspflege. 1876. — A talajvizsgálat céljáról és módszereiről. (Aims and methods of soil investigation), Lecture delivered on the festive session of the Royal Association of Physicians in Budapest. 1876. 1

7 A levegőről. (On Air), Association of Natural Scientists 1880. 1

8 A szénéleg egészségi tekintetben. (Carbon-dioxide from a sanitary point of view), Orvosi Hetilap. 1880. — Egészségtani kutatások a levegőt, talajt és vizet illetőleg. (Hygienic investigations on Air, Soil and Water), Hung. Academy of Sciences, Math, and Nat. Hist. Comm. XVI and XVII. (1880-1881) — the same in German: Braunschweig Vieweg u. Sohn. 1881 — 82. 1

9 Baktériumok az élő állat vérében (Bacteria in the Blood of the Living Animal), Inaugural lecture in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. 1885. — the same in German: Arch, für Hygiene, 1886. 12 Orvostörténeti Közlemények 6.