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.