Zay Samuel

* Komárom, 10 May 1753 – † Tata, 9 April 1812 /doctor, mineralogist; ; He began his studies at the ref. public school in his hometown. From 1768 he was a student at the ref. college in Debrecen, while he was a teacher in Karcag from 1771 to 1773, and then his professors sent him on a fundraising tour to Mátyusföld in 1778. He completed his studies in Debrecen in 1781 and was the rector of the Tiszafüred school until 1783. At that time he enrolled in the medical faculty of the University of Pest and obtained a doctorate in medicine in 1788. He settled in his hometown as a practicing physician and also joined the work of the Komárno Scientific Society led by József Péczeli the elder. He worked in Kecskemét from 1790 to 1794, then moved to Tata and served as the chief physician of Komárom County until his death. In addition to his medical work, he was also interested in natural sciences, especially botany, zoology and mineralogy. When he received his medical degree, he planned to publish a three-volume natural history work in Hungarian, which would have discussed mineralogy, botany and zoology. In 1791, the first volume dealing with minerals and fossils, entitled Magyar mineralógia, was published. This work was the third mineralogical work in Hungarian in the series, and the word “mineral” itself was also invented by Sámuel Zay. The continuation was not continued after János Földi (1755–1801), a physician, naturalist, linguist, and author of the first systematic zoology in Hungarian published in Bratislava, asked Zay to let him write this series, and he was willing to do so. Later, Földi “repaid” this generosity by calling Hungarian Mineralogy a common plagiarism and a translation of Mátyás Piller’s previously published Latin work. However, thorough analyses refute this, and moreover, Sámuel Zay’s work is at least three times longer than Piller’s, so it cannot be considered a mere translation for this reason either. Of course, he also translated, primarily medical works, and we know of the transposition of Hippocrates’ works, but this manuscript was not published for unknown reasons. He was the first Hungarian physician to raise the possibility of using blood transfusion as a life-saving intervention. ; ; His main works: ; Hungarian mineralogy or the science of minerals, which presents to us in Hungarian the hitherto undiscovered products of the first world of nature, 1791; Village doctor priest, or a medical guide by which the ailments that usually prevail in villages are mostly cured: ; Prepared by the publisher for priests, surgeons, and intelligent householders of all religions, 1810.