Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)

VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"

ETIOLOGY

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in the year 1854. This mortality has been exceeded only three times in the whole seventy-five years of the history of the Vienna Lying-in Hospital.”

After more pages of statistics and analysis and exposition, we reach the conclusion once more that not only in Vienna but in every lying-in hospital everywhere else in Europe, the mortality from puerperal fever does not depend upon any epidemic influence, but upon a decomposed animal organic material brought from without into contact with the genitals of the individual patient.

This conclusion is brought forcibly home by reviewing the practices and results of the lying-in hospitals of Great Britain and Ireland, and comparing them with the less favourable health conditions of puerperae in the lying-in hospitals of Germany and France.

There is no evidence whatever that the atmospheric influences in Great Britain differ in any respect from the continental, but the opinions of the medical profession in the United Kingdom differ essentially regarding the origin of puerperal fever from the opinions entertained in France and Germany.

The medical profession in England regard puerperal fever as contagious; in France and Germany the prevailing opinion has always been that puerperal fever is not contagious. That puerperal fever is not contagious is also my belief. . . .

But puerperal fever is conveyable (übertragbar) from a sick pregnant, parturient or puerperal woman to a healthy pregnant, parturient or puerperal woman by means of a decomposed material produced by the sick pregnant, parturient, or puerperal woman. Puerperal fever is not conveyable during life from every sick pregnant, parturient or puerperal woman to a healthy individual, but only from those infected women who produce a decomposed material. After death puerperal fever is conveyable from every cadaver of a puerpera to a healthy individual when the cadaver has reached the necessary degree of decomposition.”