Dr. Kubassek János szerk.: A Kárpát-medence természeti értékei (Érd, 2004)

Dr. János Kubassek: Mosaics from the natural heritage of the Carpathian Basin

The Hungarian Academy, established on the initiation of István Széchenyi, could not provide the necessary framework to integrate the large scale study of the geology of the whole territory of Hungary. Such an objective would not have been realistic in the first half of the 19th century. Hungary was lagging behind the western European countries in every aspect, and this adversely affected the development of scientific research. Hungary had a school of mining in Selmecbánya since 1735, but the first department of geology was only established in 1841. The Royal Hungarian Geological Institute was founded in 1869, soon after the Great Compromise with Austria. The Hungarian Geological Society was already organised in 1848, but the Hungarian Geographical Society was only born in 1872 after the initiation of János Hunfalvy (1820-1888). The first university department of geography was also established by János Hunfalvy in 1870. It was his merit that the science of geography received academic rank. He can be rightly considered a great Hungarian representative of the German geography school developed by Karl Ritter. In his studies of the Carpathian Basin, Hunfalvy developed and in several aspects surpassed the descriptive-comparative method of Karl Ritter. THE ROLE OF GEOGRAPHERS IN THE STUDY OF THE CARPATHIAN BASIN ános Hunfalvy studied the climate, the natural vegetation and the hydroloof the region. His observations were directly useful in practice, namely in íomy, in the development of transportation or flood control. His great work, commissioned by the Hungarian Academy, The description of the physical geography of the Hungarian Kingdom was published in three volumes in Pest between 1863 and 1865. This book was a major reference book, in which the author gave several examples of the complex relationship between nature and society. It is true that the method of the great Hungarian naturalist did not describe every natural phenomenon in its development and in relationship with its environment, but nobody can question his merits in his age. The spread of photographs used in descriptions and documentation provided the scientists with the new dimensions of presenting the regional characteristics. The pho-