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)

G. Jeszenszky: Medical and Sanitary Conditions in Hungary as Seen by British Travellers, 1790—1848

G. Jeszenszky : Medical and Sanitary Conditions in Hungary

... 81 The Pest University at that time was not a Hungarian university either in language (up to 1844) or in spirit. Miss Pardoe's informant for instance had much trouble in obtaining his diploma as a physician because he had moustaches

—a typical Hungarian feature. Another one, "both being a Protestant and. a Liberal

", was refused the certificate for his insufficient politeness shown towards the professors.

4

6 While the university became a tool of the government and lost its earlier tolerant character, the inhabitants of the country became more enlightened in their religious views and demanded the discontinuation of intolerance, both in religion and in politics. Paget's conversations in Transylvania show this quite well. "It is a common thing, among both Catholics and Protestants, for the best informed of the young people

—the old cling to the faith and observances of their forefathers with a fervent and sincere attachment

—to speak of religion as a useful means of influencing mankind, of Christianity as a beautiful moral system ; but there are very few with whome I have spoken seriously on the subject, who have not denied its Divine origin."

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7 What was especially remarkable in the views of these young liberals is the lack of dogmatism and extremism which was

—and is

—so common in other cases of young rebels. When Paget was astonished to find an influential young Calvinist not to believe in religion, he was answered: "I may not believe the dogmas of the Reformed Church, and yet have a strong conviction that the principles of the Reformation, the right of free inquiry, and the duty of every man's forming his own opinion, are just and true. What I contend for now is the independence of our schools and colleges with respect to any interference on the part of an absolute and Catholic Government

. In that I am as Protestant as the best believers amongst them"*

8 What other subjects raised the attention of the English visitors in the field of medicine or health? Quite many. Nearly all of them spoke at some length of the mines of Upper Hungary: Körmöcbánya, Selmecbánya, Gölnicbánya, etc., and many visited the salt-mines of Transylvania, too. In these accounts one finds frequent references to working conditions, safety, and the like. E.g. Pardoe after her visit into the pits complained about the air which "is already so fatal that very few aged men are to be found among those who labour in it.

.. Its effect upon the boys employed there is painfully palpable ; they are thin, wiry, and dwarfed."

4

9 Bright left us an excellent description of rinderpest while at the same time illuminating the debate on contagion. (Physicians then had to have some knowledge on veterinary as well, which was even included in the curriculum.) "It has been believed by some, that the neglected state of cattle on these extensive plains

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0, causes the frequent attacks of pestilential disease to which the herds are subject

» 4

6 Ibid. 4 7 Paget, II. p. 490. 4

8 Ibid. p. 491. 4

9 Pardoe, I. pp. 190-1. 5

0 He is speaking of the Mezőföld, a salient of the Great Hungarian Plain in Transdanubia, along the Danube. 6 Orvostörténeti Közlemények 6.