Árpád Szállási
The Medical Contribution
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It is noteworthy that before the First World War many outstanding members of the Budapest medical school started their careers in the Transylvanian city of Kolozsvár. József Lenhossék, Endre Hoýgyes, Árpád Bókay, Nándor Klug and Balázs Kenyeres, to mention but the most prominent, were appointed to their first posts there, and their achievements brought them a summons to Budapest.
Here follow the names of some, however, who remained in Kolozsvár. Zsigmond Purjesz Jr. (1846–1918), who published the first Hungarian university textbook on internal medicine (1885). The neurologist Károly Lechner (1850–1922), who was a pioneer in the research on reflex movements, also worked there, and so did Miklós Jancsó Sen. (1868–1930), whose research work on malaria and the role of the anopheles mosquito were outstanding. Jancsó later moved to Szeged when the university was transferred.
Paradoxically, whereas pre-war Hungary had only two universities, the severely truncated post-Trianon country had four medical faculties (Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged and Pécs). The developments in medicine and public health made this necessary, but the poor economic conditions created difficulties at the outset. Luckily enough, there were sensible politicians, most notably Count Kunó Klebelsberg, Minister of Public Education and Culture, and Béla Johan, Secretary of Public Health in the Ministry of Home Affairs, who realized the importance of education and were able to resolve an almost insoluble situation.
With the help of the Rockefeller Foundation, the first National Institute for Public Health was opened in Budapest in 1927. The Institute soon became a major centre for research. Professor Béla Johan not only directed the Institute, but also organized a network of ambulance stations, of T.B. dispensaries, control stations for venereal diseases, and a system (called the Green Cross) of home nursing for the poor in the countryside.
The universities transferred from the parts of the old kingdom of Hungary were strongly supported by Count Klebelsberg. The Universities of Szeged, Debrecen and Pécs soon became dynamic and forceful centres of education and research. Szeged was also strong in pharmacology, under Zsigmond Jakabházy and Béla Issekutz. Later on both of them moved to the capital, but the golden age in pharmacology at Szeged was under Issekutz. While he was the Rector of the University and on his recommandation, the promising young Albert Szent-Györgyi was called home from Cambridge. A modern institute of biochemistry was established for him. Szent-Györgyi received a Nobel Prize in 1937 for his research into biological oxidation, and for showing that paprika was an excellent source of ascorbic acid, vitamin c, that is.
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Árpád Szállási
a physician, is Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Debrecen.
