[A century old trial: the Gorgey-controversy once and today]. / Egy evszazados per a Gorgey-kerdes tegnap es ma.

Artur Gorgey (1818-1916) seems to remain one of the most disputed figures of Hungarian historiography and literature. The former officer of the Habsburg Imperial Army, who changed his military career for lectureship in chemistry, joined the Hungarian Armed forces in 1848. He was soon promoted to general and later (when still only 31 years old), commander-in-chief of the revolutionary forces. In August 1849 he capitulated the Russian intervention army, which outnumbered twice the Hungarian, and by so doing he put an end to the Hungarian war of independence. Although the capitulation was reasoned by military, economic and political necessities, it was immediately questioned by many, most of all by Kossuth. Kossuth, who was equally clear with the hopelessness of the struggle, transferred the supreme power to Gorgey and then fled the country. The idea was, perhaps, to keep the political leadership untouched by the humiliation that the capitulation would obviously bring about. Nevertheless when he had arrived in Turkey he blamed Gorgey for the defeat and called him a traitor. For Kossuth was becoming an almost mythical national hero his opinion was very much influential and this opened a long dispute and aversion to Gorgey's decision.

[Vienna and Budapest in Semmelweis' life work]. / Wien und Budapest im Lebenswerk Semmelweis'.

Both Budapest and Vienna played a dominant role in the life of Semmelweis and this fact should mean connection and not separation in scientific research and interpretation. The Hungarian capital was his birth place, the scene of his education and partly also of his university studies, the city where he became professor, wrote his papers, propagated his doctrine and became a partaker of the spiritual workshop of the Pest medical school. Vienna was the city where--impressed by the second Vienna medical school--his medical view was formed, the place of the conception of the "Semmelweis doctrine" and also of his tragic death. Born in a German speaking family which was deeply rooted in historical Hungary, he was bilingual through all his life, avowed himself however as Hungarian. It should be avoided to make him either a hero of the barricades or an opportunist. By defining the etiology of puerperal fever and by elaborating the methods of its prevention he became a great figure of scientific research. As to the essence of the Semmelweis doctrine there is no place for debates of priority. The doctrine was confirmed in the era of bacteriology.