Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
V. Life in Buda-Pesth
198 PREPARATION OF THE iETIOLOGIE of the staffs avoided contact with the cadaver, as in Copenhagen. . . . “Direct inquiries addressed to the Directors of these institutions should obtain for you much of the information which you desire. “Upon the whole one1 hears less about those devastating epidemics of puerperal fever. . . . “ Perhaps the cause of this lies in the observance of the methods of carrying on the practice of midwifery based upon your experience without any public admission of the change. For the purposes of investigating the truth on this point a journey round the world would be well worth your while.” Well may v. Waldheim (p. 142) declare : They envied this man his celebrity. The vanity of the learned considered it ridiculous that this simple person who spoke a dialect in his scientific addresses and contributions to debate, who had never published a single scientific contribution to obstetrics, could have made such a discovery. The thing must be simply ignored. “ Professors who were not even specialists in obstetrics had most improperly puffed (ungebührlich auf gebauscht) the discovery. There might be something in it, but Semmelweis had only given attention to one of the causes of puerperal fever which was already well known to the medical profession in England, one cause among thousands. In order to combat the other alleged causes they excogitated or borrowed all possible hygienic measures, and attributed the more favourable results to them. Even those who started as opponents out of sheer vanity and dislike, finally became convinced antagonists and believed what they alleged.” Such was the atmosphere of alternating extremes of emotion resulting from the intelligence received from abroad concerning the spread of his Doctrine that the work continued to grow. The author was at the same time occupied in his routine professional labours both private and public, and no doubt many an hour was lost owing to distraction caused in such an excitable individual by the crosses and disappointments which he met with in
