Posted by Ellen on August 29, 2003 at 20:09:26:
Joi, 28 august 2003 - ora 19:54
President of Romanian Jewish Community, Academician Nicolae Cajal praises scientist Nicolae Paulescu, although he rejects Paulescu's opinions
Bucharest, Aug 28 /Rompres/ - President of the Federation of Romanian Jewish Communities, Academician Nicolae Cajal says Romania must be proud of the achievements of the great scientist Nicolae Paulescu, regardless of the opinions he had in his life and with which he disagrees. "Paulescu was indeed a great scientist, a man who contributed enormously to the discovery of insulin and he is a personality we must all be proud of, regardless of the opinions any man has at a certain point in his life," N. Cajal said in an interview broadcast on Thursday, August 28, by Radio Romania Actualitati station.
It is "nonsense" to judge Paulescu's value by what he thought of "the anti-Semitic issue, of the issues of the relationship with foreigners." "These are his personal problems. I may not agree to them, as I do not agree to them. I may as well dispute them in a certain case, but by no means am I allowed, because of them, to bring the least negative influence on a discovery such as his, to undermine scientific activities we must be proud of, while Romania must be proud that it had a man like Paulescu in Romanian medical research and made a big step forward by his activity," Cajal said.
The accusations of anti-Semitism brought to Paulescu, on Monday, by an article published in French daily Le Monde resulted in cancelling the ceremony of setting up a commemorative plate at the Hotel-Dieu hospital in Paris in honour of two pioneers of the research on diabetes who worked here: the Romanian Nicolae Paulescu (1869-1931) and the Frenchman Etienne Lancereaux (1827-1910). The commemorative plate should have represented a gesture of acknowledging the scientist Paulescu's importance. He discovered insulin in 1921, although the Nobel Prize was awarded in 1923 to several Canadian researchers who put Paulescu's discovery into practice. Paulescu is accused by Le Monde of having published anti-Semitic pamphlets and of having been one of the founders of the National League of Christian Defence, an anti-Semitic organisation from which the fascism-oriented group - the Iron Guard - separated.
President of the Romanian Diabetology Federation, Professor Nicolae Hancu also talked in favour of the clear-cut distinction between Paulescu's scientific activity and his personal opinions. In an interview published on Thursday, August 28, by the Ziua daily, Hancu expressed his astonishment that "political issues got involved to such a large extent that an undisputed scientific personality could see his merits spoiled by a few things that had nothing to do with science." He said that Paulescu discovered the insulin that saved millions of lives, inclusive of the Jews suffering from diabetes. "We are now falling into the same bad habits that the Communist regime used to have, which starting from 1947 did away with great values… when an entire list of national values were eliminated from the Academy because they did not have "healthy origins," Nicolae Hancu added.
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