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)
L. Várađi: The Social Position of Physicians in Hungary at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries
i /¡_2 Medical History in Hungary 1972 (Comm. Hist . Arti s Med . Suppl . 6.) this number was 2300, and in the German Empire 2200. 5 Considering the number of physicians per 10 000 inhabitants, the comparison among the three countries' is conspicuous : In Hungary the avarage number is 3.03, in Germany and France 4.54. Health service did not change considerably as compared to the data 5 years before. According to the report of the Ministry for Home Affairs in 1895 the number of physicians in Hungary was 4033. 6 In addition there were 391 surgeons entitled to practice by the former law, i.e. there were altogether 4424 persons concerned about health treatment. The population of Hungary at that time was 15.5 million (regarding the territory of the historical Hungary). Analysing the areal distribution of the doctor's settlement, the stagnation of the number of physicians is even more conspicuous. A great majority of the physicians lived in towns. In the second half of the 19th century, due to the bourgeois development, more and more settlements were granted municipal rights in case of a sufficient number of inhabitants. In the modern sense of the word and even compared to the contemporary major towns, these towns were retrograde from the point of view of culture and style of living, nevertheless, they assured a better atmosphere for the doctor's development than contemporary villages and countries and farmsteads. In these towns a greater majority of inhabitants was concentrated on a smaller territory, and by means of building new public roads the availability of both patient and doctor became ever so much easier and quicker than among people living scattered in vast territories. Healing activity was dependent on distance and its financial side, i.e. traffic costs. Though the country-even on account of its isolation —demanded a better health administration, there were regions where practically no doctor was available. The number of vacant districts was about 150, and there were districts which included 40—50 villages. The counties which were the most retrograde as regards the number of physicians were the following: 7 Counties Number of inhabitants Number of Physicians Surgeons Árva 84,950 9 2 Kis-Küküllő 108,765 16 — Fogaras 92,145 9 1 Ugocsa 83,267 12 1 These data suggest that the task of the physicians in question was immense, especially if we bear in mind that these regions were poverty-stricken. Besides in these underdeveloped regions physicians were responsible not exclusively for curing their patients but had to try to take up the fight with the circumstances in order to eliminate the possibility of large-scale infections and epidemics. But there was no physician who could succeed in it, moreover, their 5 Országos Orvos-Szövetség (National Association of Physicians) (monthly paper) 1900. 2. p. 15. 0 National Archives B. r 49. 250 (637). 7 Magyar Statisztikai Évkönyv, op. cit. p. 61.
