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.) These comparative statistical figures were the best measures that he could take to make his contemporaries realize the sad state of public health affairs in Hungary and the urgent need to control them. The set of statistical data serves him as background to his analysis of the health policy of England. He gives a short survey of the history of English sanitary legislation, with such milestones as the Public Health Act of 1848—which he publishes in full detail

— the Local Government Act of 1858, the Sanitary Acts of 1866 and 1868, and so on. He seems especially impressed by the battle of his English contemporaries against dirt and nuisances, and by the efforts of the medical officers, led by Sir John Simon to make a radical improvement of the conditions of the town-dwellers. Their battle for communal cleanliness was won by the improvement of municipal services: continuous water-supply, water purification, sewage system, etc. which achievements were at the same time considered as main means of controlling and stamping out epidemic diseases like cholera and typhoid fever. In Fodor's eyes the Nuisances Removal Acts and Diseases Prevention Acts (passed several times since 1848) and especially the Sanitary Acts of 1866 and 1868 were results of a most enlightened health policy and the basic measures in combating ill-health and the spread of diseases. In short, he was greatly impressed by the activity of Sir John Simon whom he undoubtedly resembled as regards deep sanitary sense and wide-ranging interest in all aspects of hygiene. He

—like Sir John Simon

—stresses the need of a responsible central health legislation: "Without laws the principles and doctrines of public health are sharp swords without any hilts : useless or if used incorrectly

—causing much damage".

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2 A central legislation alone may ensure the uniform, homogeneous, systematic development of health policy. But the system can only be effective if the laws are homogeneous themselves and if their execution is supervised by an equally homogeneous organisation. Fodor calls for the co-ordination of the various public health authorities instead of the chaotic system of English public health administration. Refusing the labyrinth of local authorities he sets the Privy Council as a model to be realized in Hungary. In his article on the organisation of the English Privy Council and its transplantation into Hungary he maintains that "since the Privy Council was made responsible for the supervision of the execution of the public health acts, it was able to improve the health conditions even of the worst seed-beds of death in a short time

: Manchester, Birmingham and the other gigantic industrial centres ceased to be the cemeteries of the working class and the majority of the English towns including even those with only a few thousands inhabitants are now provided with pure water, healthy dwellings and appropriate sewage system."

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3 He finds that the Council can be effective not only because it is empowered to order sanitary measures but because under the supervision of its Medical Department, qualified officers (sanitary inspectors) 4

2 J. Fodor, op. cit., p. 179. 4

3 J. Fodor, Az angol „Privy Council" közegészségügyi hatóságának szervezete, s ennek átültetéséről hazánkba. (On the Organization of the English Privy Council and its transplantation into Hungary). Orvosi Hetilap, Közegészségügy és törvényszéki orvostan (supplement) 1871. No. 3, p. 33 ff.