PROFESSOR MVDR ET DRHC MULT KRAL,FRANTISEK,(FRANK) IN BULGARIA AND USA

Professor Kral became a legend. He was engaged in Czech veterinary med icine from its very beginning in the new independent Czechoslovak stat e for 29 years; of this time, 19 years as a faculty member, teacher at the School of Veterinary Medicine in Brno. He soon outgrew the limits of the school. Kral was very active in postgraduate education of prac titioners. For many years he enjoyed the favour of students and voters , and as an exponent of the Czechoslovak Agrarian Party he participate d as a representative in Moravian and Brno city council.His journey to Bulgaria belongs among the not quite elucidated events of his life. I n the oppressive atmosphere of the beginning nazi occupation of Czech lands he appeared in Sofia in May 1939. He was awarded a honorary doct or of veterinary medicine of the Sofia University of Saint Kliment of Ochrid, and was also decorated with the Order of Saint George IIIrd cl ass. According to oral communications of witnesses in Sofia these dist inctions were conferred upon him after he offered the Czech teachers-v eterinarians from nazi-occupied Brno to Sofia University. His proposal was not accepted by the Bulgarian side. After 1948, at the age of 56, he left the country and came to the USA. Here he actively participate d in veterinary medicine for 31 years, until his death in 1980. His Am erican career was longer than that in his native country. For 15 years he was a faculty member at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Univers ity of Pennsylvania. Even after retiring at the age of 71, he did not interrupt the contact with this University and continued to work. Derm atology became his destiny. During his entire professional career he h ad great interest in this discipline. His beginning as a dermatologist was exceptionally fortunate, it grew from the very roots of the disci pline and traces back to the famous Vienna Medical School, the renowne d founders and heads of which were Karel Rokytansky and Josef Skoda. I ts members were also the dermatologist Ferdinand Hebra and his followe rs, Hebra's son Hans and Hugo Schindelka; all of them except for Hans Hebra were, natives of the Czech lands. Schindelka, doctor of medicine , became professor at the Vienna Veterinary School, and has been regar ded as the founder of veterinary dermatology that flourished under his leadership. He included the discipline into veterinary curriculum. Kr al transferred this excellent tradition from Vienna to Brno and in a s hort time he published a monograph on veterinary dermatology. Thus he made Brno one of the focuses of this discipline. After World War II he transferred it to the USA and became a well known and distinguished f ounder of American veterinary dermatology. At the Philadelphia place o f work, and also at the graduate School of Medicine he thus further qu ickly developed his Middle European heritage in dermatology in a fruit ful way. In 1959 he received the first Annual Gaines Award in recognit ion of his pioneer work in veterinary dermatology, and in 1961, at the 12th World Veterinary Congress the first awarded congress prize, amon g many others. Despite memories, apologies and praising articles about Kral as a dermatologist have been wrongfully and to our own detriment neglected in recent Czech professional literature.