German-Hungarian medical relationships during the Enlightenment; including an 18th century work on inoculation against plague

Abstract

The influence of German science and medicine on the development of Hungarian medicine in the age of Enlightenment has been extraordinary strong. Many Hungarian medical students stayed in German medical faculties. The medical interrelationships between Germany and Hungary in the 18th century are discussed in an overview according to the following dimensions: education of protestant Hungarian medical students at German >>Aufklaerungs-Universitaeten<<, practical and theoretical resonance, membership of scientific societies, personal contacts and correspondence. Outstanding personalities of this area were Daniel Fischer, István Weszprémi, Abraham Vater. Special attention is given to a new idea: inoculation against plague was first described by A. Vater in his work Blattern-Beltzen (1721). Thirty years later I. Weszprémi published his original conception - independently from Vater - in the Tentamen de inoculanda peste (1755).