Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
V. Life in Buda-Pesth
186 PARIS ACADEMY Academicians whom we have heard, we can count essentialists, demi-essentialists, essentialists against their will, essentialists without their knowledge, absolute localisers, half and quarter localisers, localisers with a leaning towards essentialisation, and essentialists with a love of localisation, specificists, typhists, traumatists and neo-traumatists.”* This description was probably intended to be more witty than exact, but it conveys to us some impression of the chaotic difference of opinion on such a serious subject as puerperal fever among the most prominent obstetric ‘ authorities ’ in France during the Second Empire. Each “ authority ” appeared to retain his former opinions as is usual on such occasions, and there appeared to be no sign of any progressive change. As Herrgott says: “The medical press which criticised the discussion presented itself a spectacle of the diversity of opinion and of the practical sterility which was the result: “La boussole manquait complétement sur cette mer agitée hérissée de récifs.” Semmelweis was stirred up to wrath and contempt to an unusual degree when the report of the proceedings of the Paris Academy of Medicine reached him in Buda- Pesth. Concerning the discussion he wrote in the Ätiologie f: The dry straw which was then exposed to the light we shall leave unthrashed; grain cannot be beaten out of it; let it suffice to quote from Dubois first mentioning his scientific position as described by Arneth : “In Obstetrics the medical profession forms no republic: one individual appears to be supreme. Before him all flags are lowered. His opinion is sought for whenever any fresh phenomenon makes its appearance. Men, who themselves have accomplished much, declare that their work is the fruit of his teaching. . . . Even in the Academy men listen breathless to his words; through his influence opinions borrowed from abroad * Herrgott III. p, 295. t p. 457.
