John Perliczi

* Késmárk, October 29, 1705 – † Losonc-Apátfalva, April 28, 1778 / physician, polymath ; ; He was the son of the local evangelical pastor. He started his schooling in Késmárk, then continued in Miskolc, where he went to learn the Hungarian language, and finally completed his secondary school studies in Prešov and Bratislava. He also studied at several foreign universities. Boroszló, his mother's hometown, was the first stop on his peregrination, followed by Jena and Wittenberg, where he received the title of Master of Philosophy, and earned his doctorate in medicine in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in 1728. After that, he returned to his homeland and first settled in Selmecbánya, where he also utilized the mathematical knowledge of the mining chamber. In the city he met the distinguished physician Károly Otto Moller (Bánya Biszterce), also known as the Hungarian Hippocrates, and in 1731 he married his daughter Anna Katalin Moller, with whom he lived a happy marriage for more than 33 years. Probably for financial reasons he said yes to the offer of the Lord of Nógrád, János Ádám Forgách, to become the chief physician of the county. In the last days of December 1731 he moved to Losonc and worked in this city until 1754 as the “physician” of Nógrád County. He soon opened a pharmacy on the ground floor of his apartment: this was the first pharmacy in the city (and the county). János Dániel Perliczi developed several plans during his life. The first one was in 1733, when he put the county’s public health regulations on paper. In it, he designated the duties of the county chief physician, the county pharmacist, as well as the surgeons and midwives. This regulation played an important role, especially during the last plague epidemic in Hungary in 1739. Perliczi translated his father-in-law's Latin work on the plague into Hungarian, and it was published in Buda in 1740. Since many counties did not have a single doctor at the time, he also published two booklets for the poor (Medicina pauperum, i.e.: the pharmacy of the poor, A guide to physical peace). One lists home remedies, the other lists the preparations found in the "Lossontz pharmacy". In recognition of his fight against the plague, he received a noble certificate from Maria Theresa in 1741. In 1742, the famous Academia Leopoldina also accepted him as a member. During these years, he also began working on a subsequent draft, in which he initiated the establishment of a Hungarian medical faculty, with the consideration that this would alleviate the shortage of doctors and would also enable young Hungarians with local knowledge to enter the field, who were better acquainted with the local climate and social conditions and spoke the language of the common people. In the four-part draft, he indicated Selmecbánya and Buda as possible locations for the institution (since these cities are located in the central part of the country). However, the draft was “drilled” by the Vienna-born chief physician of Bratislava, József Károly Perbegg (1702–1786) – in today’s terms – and he even considered Perliczi unfit to lead the medical faculty. Professional jealousy and the fact that, according to the draft, members of all denominations would have had an equal chance to study medicine at this institution also played a role in the rejection. Moreover, he did not take into account the already existing University of Nagyszombat, where medical education finally began in 1769, much to Perliczi's disappointment, since the new faculty did not have a single Hungarian professor. But he had already had cause for annoyance earlier. In 1751, a new chief magistrate was appointed to the head of Nógrád County, Count Antal Grassalkovich (1694–1771), with whom Perliczi had some disagreement, and the count took satisfaction by selling the county chief physician's residence, along with the pharmacy, over the Perliczi family's heads. For this reason, Perliczi moved to Apátfalvá near Losonc (now incorporated into the city), where he had an estate. He continued his medical practice here as well, although he often had problems with his salary. Therefore, in another draft in 1774, he called on the authorities not to forget about the regular payment of salaries to doctors and pharmacists. He was widowed in 1764, so in 1768 he married again, marrying a young widow: Okolicsányi Jánosné Pongrácz Erzsébet, who also brought a son into the marriage. Unfortunately, they did not care about Perliczi's legacy when he died ten years later. His manuscript works were lost (including Sacra Themidos Hungariae, which could have been the first Hungarian forensic medicine if it had been published), and his library was sold. Since 1998, the oldest pharmacy in Losonc has had a commemorative plaque in Slovak on the wall, which was made by the Slovak Chamber of Pharmacists.