Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 18-19. (Budapest, 2000)

Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts - Guide to the Exhibition

There were sharp differences between the utilitarian orders and their executions, the satisfaction of the government officials and the ' insufficient number of pharmacies' reported by doctors to county and national assemblies. Statistical figures from 1840 list 324 pharmacists, while the number of physicians was 555. Most of these chemists worked in Pest-Buda, which explains why their first association, named simply the Gremium, was established there, probably in 1809. The first pharmaceutical journal in Hungarian that represented a good scicntific standard, the Gyógyszerészi Hírlap (Pharmaceutical Journal), was founded in 1848 by Ferenc Láng Adolf (

1795-1863) a pharmacist and also a judge of the county court in Nyitra. It was not extraordinary in prc-1848 Hungary, however, that an educated local nobleman had a share in jurisdiction if his reputation was good enough. Next to an issue of this journal you can sec the second edition of the Gyógyszerek árszabása Magyarországon és hozzákapcsolt tartományaihoz alkalmazva (Međiç¡nç Priccs in Hungary and Adapted to its Connected Provinces) published in 1843. The first edition was brought out in 1829 by the Pharmaceutical Association of Pcst-Buda. On the side-wall of the show-case there arc two reliefs representing Hygieia — one made of metal, the other of wood. The pharmaceutical instruments and objects exhibited in the case arc as follows: a mortar made of serpentine (ophite), wooden and bronze mould for casting suppositories, a densimeter made of copper and glass, an alchoholmctcr, a scries of metric liquid measures (mensura), weights, carved glass with lid, stochiometr¡c tabulat¡on with sliding caliper. Beside the window, you can see a valuable piece of work of our collection: a herbal press from the middle 19th ccntury. The Baroque style laboratory scalc was made at Szombathely (middle 18th c.). It stands on a twisted, bronze column, on both its equally long arms platters arc hanged on a chain. The sophisticatcdly ornamented analytic balance has a simple column. Its unknown builder was obviously a master of his craft since the scale is as precise, that it has a feather touch. Among the typical laboratory instruments of the 19th ccntury pharmacies were the presses. In our exhibition we have presented two special samples: one is a herb-press from the beginning of the 19th century, the other one is a tincturc-press dating from the 50s of the 19th ccntury. The latter deserves special attention, since it belonged to the Saint Bernard Pharmacy at Zirc, founded in 1849. It was used for pressing herbs soaked in alcohol, water and wine. The careful functional execution and the rustic forms makes us to suppose that this wine press was manufactured by a talented village craftsman. Besides altar picccs ordered by the Catholic Church there were also some rich people who ordered different, valuable goods from the same masters. At the end of the 18th ccntury, when sculptural arts flourished, buyers were not satisfied with merely carved furniture. What they needed were something more artistic, so the goods of a skillful sculptor were broadly required. The two balances with figura decoration made by an unknown master for the Lion Pharmacy at Gönc, (founded in 1835), are good examples of this development. The lower parts are dark and contain sets of drawers on their reverse. Small 63