The Natural Sciences: Theory and Practice

As many works attest, Transylvanian teachers in the natural sciences had fully mastered the field in the course of their studies abroad. The first Cartesian textbook on physics, Philosophia ad usum scholarum praesertim Debrecinae applicata (Heidelberg, 1678), was the work of a Debrecen scholar, Márton Szilágyi Tönkő. Pál Régeni Mihály, a professor at the Unitarian college in Kolozsvár, produced the clearest exposition of Cartesian physics in Physica contracta (Leipzig, 1689). Pápai Páriz taught Copernican theory and heliocentric astronomy in the context of Cartesian physics. Sámuel Kaposi Juhász, who studied at English and Dutch universities before taking up a teaching post at the college of {2-466.} Marosvásárhely, left behind several manuscript works, dating from 1689–90, on mathematics and physics. János Köpeczi's dissertation on comets (De cometis, 1666), has been judged 'one of the most important works on physics in 17th-century Transylvania'.[163]163. J. Spielmann, A közjó, p. 117. His conclusion was that with an understanding of the nature of matter and movement, all natural phenomena could be explained. The other work of comparable importance was Sámuel Köleséri's thesis on light (1681). Back in 1666, the rector of Nagyenyed's college, János Nadányi, had affirmed the necessity of developing the various scientific disciplines in isolation from theology. However, even the best efforts could scarcely overcome unfavourable circumstances, notably the shortage of instruments and scientists. Individual scholars could perform admirably and, hampered by isolation and incomprehension, still fail to generate a comprehensive development of the natural sciences.

It was mainly in the sphere of medicine that new theories found practical application. This development mirrored what was happening in western Europe, but with some distinctly Transylvanian features. In the mid-1600s, three very different groups were responsible for public health in Transylvania. People who fell ill sought treatment from domestic healers, barbers, or doctors. By ancient custom, people in rural areas and market towns — and the poorer townspeople as well — turned to healers for help. Traditionally, the landowner's wife was duty bound to look after the people on their estate. Anna Bornemissza's medicine cabinet contained medicinal herbs as well as Turkish remedies. There was a proliferation of midwives, women herbalists, and male as well as female healers in the villages and towns. Certain treatments were largely the preserve of women healers. Surviving letters and descriptions of medicine cabinets reveal much about domestic healing, which combined ancient methods with the insights of practical experience.

{2-467.} The Transylvanian witchcraft trials offer a glimpse into the physical and emotional state of people in the Székely széks, villages, and market towns, in the Szászföld, and in the towns. Scholars noted early on that the witchcraft trials in Transylvania differed markedly from those in Hungary and western Europe. The trials, which occurred more frequently in towns than in villages, originated mainly in cases of illness. Charges of witchcraft were brought variously against noblewomen, Saxon men, Hungarian peasant women, midwives and, more rarely — notably in 1675 — against Romanian women. The testimonies reveal that all of them — including, in 1652, Kata Táncos at Kolozsvár — got into trouble because of their practice of healing. Many of them were midwives. Most of the accused had been remunerated for their services and pleaded innocent in the dock. One Mrs. Zsigmond Szabó, for instance, declared that she had cured many people with her eye balm and insisted that she had done nothing illegal. The accusers included not only poor illiterates but also such educated men as the deputy royal magistrate of Aranyosszék and Segesvár's Márton Töpfer. Fierce competition between healers was a common cause of witchcraft trials: many a barber and midwife brought charges of malpractice, maleficence, or witchcraft against a rival.

The barbers' healing practices — treatment of wounds, blood-letting, cupping — were regulated by their guilds, which had a long history in such Transylvanian towns as Gyulafehérvár, Kolozsvár, and Nagybánya. However, these regulations only addressed the charge for surgical services, without regard for medical criteria, and, as many contemporary sources reveal, offered no protection against charlatanism.

Medical doctors were few in number, but they had excellent qualifications and a good record. Doctors belonging to the first Cartesian generation established their practice in the 1650s and 1660s; notable examples were István Auer at Medgyes, Pál Francisci at Brassó, and György Vizaknai Bereck at Kolozsvár. {2-468.} Some even won recognition abroad. The work of three young Transylvanian physicians, János Sikó, Sámuel Enyedi, and the Brassó-born János Gunesch, was cited in Regius's Medicina et praxis medicia (1657); the author of this important and enduring treatise was a medical pioneer who, going beyond Descartes' dualism, stressed the need for a detailed clinical record of illnesses. In his lectures at Nagyenyed College on the philosophy history, Sámuel Enyedi dealt with such medical luminaries as Regius and William Harvey (1664–66). Medical historians have noted that Enyedi's Physica seu philosophia naturalis was the first Transylvanian work that referred to experiments on animals and to mathematical techniques of verification.

Bartholomeus Bausner, who came from Kőhalom and had studied at Amsterdam, would, by the early 1660s, discourse on the harmony of the human anatomy and write that 'he who denies that blood circulates rejects reason and experience'.[164]164. Bartholomeus Bausner, De cordis humanis actionibus (Leiden, 1654); J. Spielmann and A. Huttmann, 'Blätter aus der Medizin-geschichte der Siebenbürger Sachsen', Die Grünenthal Waage VII, 1968, no. 2; J. Spielmann, A közjó, p. 125. The Nagybánya-born János Bánffyhunyadi specialized in medical drugs and was regarded as an outstanding chemist; the English chemist Jonathan Goddard, a fellow of the Royal Society, included his drug formulas in a treatise on pharmacology published in 1681. The first Transylvanian work on the latest theories in chemistry was penned by Apafi's court physician, István Huszti Szabó; he later taught philosophy and promoted Pietism at Debrecen, then served as Rákóczi's army doctor. Sámuel Köleséri studied in England, where he probably attended lectures by Newton, before learning clinical analysis and obtaining a medical degree in Leiden. In a work published at Nagyszeben in 1707, he described scurvy and argued that the disease was a consequence of the miners' poor diet; he also stressed the importance of prompt medical treatment for injured miners and called for the creation of hospitals. In the same period, several published works dealt with prevention of the plague.

János Nadányi translated the work of a French doctor, Antoine Mizald (Paris, 1595), and, together with János Kájoni and others, {2-469.} wrote a manual of herbal medicines for people who had no access to qualified doctors or might be too poor to turn to pharmacists. Such works reflected what was perhaps the most important task faced by medical scientists in Transylvania those days: to convey their knowledge, in an intelligible and readily applicable fashion, to the many local healers. No one did more in this respect than Ferenc Pápai Páriz. After being introduced by Sámuel Enyedi to Cartesian-ism, Pápai left Transylvania in 1672 to pursue his studies, first at Leipzig, then at Frankfurt an der Oder, Marburg, Heidelberg, and finally at Basel, where he obtained his medical diploma. After his return in 1675, he served as a doctor in town, then at court, and he became a professor in 1680 at the college of Nagyenyed.

Pápai wrote the first published medical work by a Hungarian doctor, in Hungarian: Pax corporis, az-az Az emberi Testnek belső Nyavalyáinak okairól, Fészkeiről és azoknak orvoslásának módjáról való tracta [Pax corporis; or, An Essay on the Causes, Sources, and Cures of the Human Body's Internal Diseases] (Kolozsvár, 1690). He summarized the medical knowledge of his time so perfectly that the book would serve as a practical guide to treatment, and thus meet an urgent social need. The most significant consequence of the work was a definitive shift in emphasis from miracle cures to medical science, from determinism to autonomous responsibility. The author gave precise definitions of health, illness, and pain. He drew a clear distinction between investigations of the body and of the mind, but he explained how the two interacted by way of the nervous system.

Dismissing miracles, amulets, and healing rituals, Pápai Páriz based medical treatment on the laws of nature and common sense. He took a firm and reasoned stand against superstition. Since the book was intended to serve not only doctors, but village and domestic healers a well, the author devoted considerable attention to popular treatments and medically-proven herbal remedies, although he had difficulty in distinguishing between some time-{2-470.} tested popular cures and magic potions. He stressed that a healthy lifestyle was the best formula for avoiding illness. Pápai Páriz called on the authorities to take preventive measures against epidemics; his book was the first to deal with issues of public health and hygiene. Pax corporis went through eleven printings, the last in 1774; it served in Hungary as a reference manual for a hundred years.

Cartesian medical science had another major consequence in Transylvania, one connected with the name of Andreas Teutsch. The latter had studied at Utrecht and Wittenberg, practised medicine, served as mayor of Nagyszeben, then became the Saxons' chief bailiff. Acting in that capacity, Teutsch issued a ban on all witchcraft trials in the Királyföld, and this almost fifteen years before Empress Maria Theresa's enlightened physician, Van Swieten, made his similar, historic recommendation.