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.) ENGLISH AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF JÓZSEF FODOR József Fodor was a prominent representative of public health reformers, appreciated not only in his native country, but all over Europe and in other continents, too. His writings were translated into foreign languages

—primarily into German

—and published in several journals abroad.

4

7 His scientific reputation is well reflected also by the fact that Wey asked him to contribute to his Handbuch der Hygiene, as has been mentioned before.

4

8 He travelled frequently abroad and represented his country in various international congresses and conferences of hygiene. His excellent knowledge of languages was part of the success of his lectures he delivered.

4

9 Honours were heaped upon him at home as well as abroad. He was decorated with the order of the Iron Crown by the Hungarian Sovereign. He was awarded the gold medal of Queen Victoria for his heating apparatus presented on the Exhibition of Hygiene arranged in Berlin 1882—1883. But of all his academic distinctions it was the LL.D. of the University of Cambridge which he valued the most. He was admitted LL.D. while staying in England and taking part in the 7th International Congress of Hygiene and Demography held in London in 1891. The Public Orator addressed him as "cultor bacteriologiae acerrimus" and among his virtues he mentioned that he "etiam de Angliae salubritate opus egregium conscripsit".

5

0 He was associate and honorary member of a great number of institutions both home and abroad: to mention just some of the latter: Gesellschaft für öffentliche Gesundheitspflege (Berlin), Verein für Öffentliche Gesundheitspflege (Frankfurt a. M.), The Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, The Society of Medical Officers of Health (London), Societä d'Igiene Fiorentina, Reale Societä Italiana d'Igiene (Milano), Association internationale pour le progrés de l'hygiéne (Brussels), Sociedad espagnol de Higiene (Madrid), Finnish Society of Physicians and Society of Hygiene (Helsingfors), Société royale de médecine publique (Brüsse ls, Société française d'hygiéne, etc. He was engaged in a vivid correspondence with his colleagues and friends abroad. In the "Fodor-Archives" preserved in the Semmelweis Medical Historical 4

7 Cf. notes 16, 21, 24 and 26. 4

8/. Fodor, Hygiene des Bodens mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Epidemiologie und Bauwesen, ui: A. Wey :

,,Handbuch der Hygiene" Jena 1893. Vol. 1. p. 210. 4

9 "Ł¾er die Vorzüge und Nachteile der Luftheizung". Lecture delivered on the 9th meeting of the Deutscher Verein für öffentliche Gesundheitspflege in Vienna in 1882. — "Teaching of public health in the universities

" — Lecture delivered on the 5th international congress of Hygiene held in the Haag in 1884. Cf. Annales of the Congress — "The typhoid fever at Pécs (Hungary) in 1890 in relation with water." Lecture delivered on the 7th International Congress of Hygiene and Demography held in London in 1891. Cf. Annales of the Congress, etc. etc. 5

0 The speech was written by Donald MacAliz, St John's College Cambridge, as it turns out from a letter of him dating from 9. September 1891 preserved in the "Fodor-Archives" of the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum and Library. The speech was turned into Latin by the Public Orator, Dr. J. E. Sandys

.