Orvostort Kozl. 2002 ; 47(1-4): 75-110.

[History of homeopathy in Hungary 1820-1990]

KÃ³cziÃ¡n M, KÃ¶lnei L.

This article tells the story of homeopathy in Hungary. After Hahnemann's discovery the theory found enthusiastic followers even in Hungary. The first generation of homeopathic physicians (PÃ¡l AlmÃ¡si Balogh, JÃ³zsef Bakody, GyÃ¶rgy ForgÃ³ and others) established a successful practice, although the doctrine had been banned in the Habsburg Empire from 1819 onwards. Thanks to the activity of the so-called second generation (Ferenc Hausmann, IstvÃ¡n VezekÃ©nyi Horner) Hahnemann's main work, the Organon was translated into Hungarian (1830) and the first homeopathic hospitals were founded in KÃ¶szeg (1833) and in GyÃ¶ngynÃ¶s (1838). In 1837 the order banning homeopathical practice was removed, and in 1844 the Hungarian Parliament decided to establish a homeopathic department at the University of Pest. In 1847 DÃ¶me Argenti published his extradinarily successful homeopathic book Homeopathic Treatment of Various Illnesses". In the 1860s a new generation of physicians (TihamÃ©r AlmÃ¡si Balogh, LÃ³rÃ¡nt Hausmann, AbrahÃ¡m Szontagh and others) published the first Hungarian homeopathic periodicals the Hasonszenvi KÃ¶zlÃ¶ny and the Hasonszenvi Lapok and, at the same time, they founded the Society of Hungarian Homeopathic Physicians (1865), too. In 1870 the first homeopathic hospital, the Elisabethinum, opened its gates, and at the University of Pest two different homeopathic departments began to operate. At the end of the century however, homeopathy entered into a period of decline, due to the resistance of the conventional physicians and the successes of conventional medicine. Between the two World Wars only GusztÃ¡v Schimert and his circle substained the theory and practice in Hungary, so successfully that in 1935 the International League of Homeopathy held its congress in Budapest. After the Second World War Schimert emigrated, and homeopathy was informally banned in Hungary (although the practice itself survived in secrecy). The Society of Hungarian Homeopathical Physicians was re-established only in 1991.