Szemészet, 2004 (141. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

2004-06-01 / 2. szám

141. évfolyam (2004)

culture, in the same way as art, literature, or politics. Therefore the following statement by Stalin is relevant also to science: ‘Soviet culture should be national in its form, and socialist in its content.’ This succinct and invaluable definition tells us by what criteria we should judge science in the service of the people.” He continued: “According to the foregoing, as to the form, we should cultivate Hungarian science in the Hungarian language, building on the noble traditions of Hungarian science, and emphasising its national characteristics. In the second place, as to the content, we should develop the kind of science which promotes the welfare of the people, and is relevant to the needs of the workers.”

On 12 November 1949 the Subsection held a meeting to elect new officers. István Csapody was elected President (“elnök”). But there was a radical organisational innovation, in the form of 5 so-called joint-Presidents (“társelnök”): Béla Boros, Gusztáv Horay, Aladár Kettesy, Tibor Nónay, and Magda Radnót. The Vice-President was István Grósz. The General Secretary was Emil Galla, and the Secretary Ágost Kahán.

1950-1955

On 25-26 February 1950 the Sub-section held a general assembly to mark the 75th birthday of V. P. Filatov. “Szemészet” also dealt extensively with the so-called tissue therapy, and with biogenic stimulators. Béla Boros was the chairman of the “Filatov special work-group”, but many others (including Ditrói et al., Imre Brand, Sztrilich, and Raáb) also reported their work in these fields. In the same year the university textbook “Ophthalmology”, by Kettesy, Imre, and Scholtz was published, as well as a book titled “Ophthal mological pathology” by Radnót. It was also in 1950 that the members of the Sub-section had the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge on pathologies of colour-vision. Articles by Kettesy, Aczél, Dömsödy, Pirityi, and János Nagy dealt with theoretical and practical questions concerning colour vision and different types of colour blindness.

The Sub-section’s electoral meeting was held in the lecture-hall of the 2nd Department of Ophthalmology. The new officers were: President, Magda Radnót; General Secretary, Béla Németh; Organisational Secretary, Mrs. Dezső Liszauer; Secretary, Károly Turi; Treasurer, Károly Bárdy. The leadership of the Sub-section formulated an ambitious work-plan for the years 1950-51. They designated the dates, the theme-topics, and the speakers for the conference for the following year.

The year 1951 marked a significant anniversary for ophthalmologists everywhere. 100 years previously, in 1851, Helmholtz had published his account of his brilliant invention, titled “Die Beschreibung eines Augenspiegels” (“Description of a mirror for ocular examinations”). Already on 6 December 1850, at a meeting of the Berlin Physics Society, he had demonstrated the novel instrument. With the aid of the laws of physics, but “without any greater knowledge of optics than what I learned at school”, as he put it, Helmholtz was able to explain the reason for the black appearance of the eye’s pupil. Gusztáv Horay wrote an appropriate commemorative piece which was published in “Szemészet”.

Another important anniversary in this year was the 150th birthday of the Ophthalmology Department of the University of Budapest. Imre Bartók wrote a commemorative article in which he reviewed the work carried out and the achievements of the leading ophthalmologists there.

Subordinate branch-sections operated in the cities of Szeged, Pécs, and Debrecen. I should mention that at the ТВ clinic of the Debrecen Medical School a special ophthalmic ward was set up, under the direction of László Gát.

To give a picture of conditions obtaining in the 1950s, here are some reports relating to ophthalmic diseases. Ferenc Bendenritter for example gave an account of the conditions in the trachoma ward of the State Eye Hospital. From his figures it appears that in Hungary this disease had somewhat abated, and the number of cases with pannus had decreased; but it still remained a serious problem. The number of trachoma patients admitted to the State Eye Hospital in 1930 had been 1642, while in 1949 the number had fallen to 368. At this time, corticosteroid medications had not yet become available. There were many cases of vernal conjunctivitis. We learn from the report of Sándor Erőss that a medication called Erythrophlein was available, and had in fact been recommended by József Imre as early as 1936. The product is obtained from the tropical tree erythrophaecum quinense by extracting with hydrochloric and phosphoric acids. In the case of vernal conjunctivitis, when applied as drops it causes long-lasting anaesthesia and amelioration of symptoms.

In 1952 a new leadership team was elected by the members of the Sub-section. The new President was Béla Boros; Béla Németh remained as the General Secretary. The numbers of those in leading positions was increased with the formation of several more new committees. The post-holders included 10 women.

As for the journal “Szemészet” itself, it should be mentioned that from 1951 to 1952 the abstracts of articles appeared in Russian and French, while from 1952 onwards the languages were Russian and German. “Szemészet” more and more became a forum for further-training. It published many very lengthy articles. In 1952 Nónay with 15 colleagues wrote a 22-page article concerning 6348 eye-injuries. Even this was exceeded by Kettesy (who normally wrote rather succinct reports) in his two summary-articles called “Perception of objects” and “Colour vision”, which totalled 32 pages. Béla Boros wrote a 17-page article on the treatment of glaucoma.

The life of the Sub-section continued in the familiar fashion. Professional training was regarded as the prime task, as before. Accordingly, each year there was a general assembly, plus a scientific session held on the last Friday of each month. These sessions began at 8pm, although this late hour was unpopular with those who had to travel from the provinces. Nevertheless, the principle that working-hours should be reserved for normal work was generally accepted; scientific activity, with its benefits for the individual and its social by-products, was an “extra” which belonged outside such hours. A few

100 YEARS OF THE HUNGARIAN OPHTHALMOLOGICAL SOCIETY