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 . Artis Med. Suppl. 6.) SOCIAL POSITION OF PHYSICIANS AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY Contemporary press and literature inform us that the lack of appreciation of the medical profession and healing activity hindered the further development of the physicians in his special field, the efficient curing and social respect. In Hungarian literature of the turn of the century the doctor's figure is only seldom dexcribed. This lack of interest denotes a social judgement which is further increased by the rough-and-ready representation of the physician's social position appearing in the works of art. A coherent picture of the social position of the physicians is rendered in the historical novel of Mór Jókai, 1 0 entitled "Rab Ráby". Though the scene of the novel is set in the 17th century, the described picture is true for the second half of the 19th century. The novel introduces the figure of the doctor who is defenseless against the "allmighty county", who cannot exercise his duties if they happen to hurt the interests of the county. The example —taken from a fiction — might be an extreme one, nevertheless, it is rather remarkable, that the doctor's figure in other novels or short stories is similarly a negative character. A further analysis of the specific features of Hungarian society could render us further data conserning this question. Until then it has to be accepted as a fact that a kind of social defencelessness and unjust social subordination was a general feature of the positions of physicians in Hungary at the end of the 19th century. It does not refer to university professors and a few respected physicians who were socially recognized due to their personal career. Again a further analysis would be needed to establish the differences which separated the famous professors who founded and furthered schools from the wide strata of physicians engaged in actual health treatment. Even the social position of Hungarian doctors enjoying greater respect cannot be compared to the social independence which characterized James Simpson, the famous English physician in a medical anecdote noted by Kálmán Mikszáth. 11 He could afford the following dialogue: "Outside the house of sir James Simpson, the famous English physician there stood a coach of a princess who sent her stablelad to the doctor to inform him that she was waiting for him in the street. ... Go and tell the princess that I am busy with a washerwoman, I vannot go downstairs !..." The essence of the differrence between the two behaviours is the presence and lack of professional and human self-consciousness which represents strength. Since "self-consciousness" is a social attitude, the different characteristics of 1 0 Mór Jókai (1825-1904) a famous representative of Hungarian romantic novel writing. 1 1 Kálmán Mikszáth (1847-1910) realist writer, journalist, who had a clear insight into life in Hungary at the turn of the century. He represented contemporary circumstances in his works critisizing them ironically.
