[History of Smallpox Vaccination and of the Vaccine Supply in Hungary, up to 1890].

One of the preconditions for the spread of vaccination against pox diseases was making vaccination available. The first vaccinations were carried out using original cowpox lymph sent by Jenner. For further vaccinations the vaccine was extracted from the blisters of those who had been successfully inoculated. In order to provide vaccine continuously six vaccine centres were set up in 1804 in the following cities: Pest, Buda, Kassa, Gyula, Pozsony and Zágráb (Croatia). Detailed information is available only about the centre in Pest which operated in Rókus Hospital under the leadership of the hospital director András Bossányi. Besides regular vaccination they also provided vaccine for the countryside. From 1824 the vaccine was relocated to the medical faculty of the university in Pest and Ferenc Gebhardt, an instructor of surgeons, became its head. The centre operated in the building of the medical faculty and vaccinations were given on Thursdays and Sundays. After the retirement of Gebhardt in 1860, the centre was taken over by the dermatologist Ferenc Poor for a short time, then by Ignác Semmelweis. From 1863 Gergely Patrubány was responsible for managing the centre. In 1874 the central vaccine institution moved to the Hospital for Poor Children in Pest where it was led first by Lázár Wittman, then by Géza Hainiss. In the 1880s private institutions appeared, the best known were Dani Pécsi's centre in Pest and Béla Intze's one in Tirgu Lapus (Romania). Between 1873 an 1889 András Kreichel ran a vaccine centre in Nálepkovo (Slovakia).