Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
CORRESPONDENCE AND OPINIONS 227 for my Doctrine is not firmly established in order that the book expounding it may moulder in the dust of a library : my Doctrine has a mission, and that is to bring blessings into practical social life. My Doctrine is produced in order that it maybe disseminated by teachers of midwifery, until all who practise medicine, down to the last village doctor and the last village midwife, may act according to its principles; my Doctrine is produced in order to banish the terror from the lying-in hospitals, to preserve the wife to the husband, the mother to the child. ... If now after twelve years since the birthday of my Doctrine we put the question : has this doctrine fulfilled its mission, the answer is very depressing.” “The essentials of the Doctrine have been proclaimed all these years and the truth has been demonstrated, and seeing the object of the practice founded on the theory is the saving of human lives, one would have expected that men of science would have reflected and taken action. All are agreed as to the terrible nature of the malady; we ought to have been equally unanimous in treating it in the manner which promised the highest success. “But experience has taught us differently; the vast majority of medical lecture-rooms still re-echo with lectures about epidemic puerperal fever, and with philippics against my Doctrine, consequently one generation after another of infectors are sent forth into the professional practice of their lives, and it is impossible to foresee the time when the last village doctor and the last village midwife will cease to carry infection. . . . “ In recent medical writings my Doctrine is either ignored or offensively assailed . . . and Directors of lying-in hospitals might be mentioned who apply my method and yet attack it, and ascribe their success to other causes. “Indignation at the greatness of this scandal has thrust the pen into my unwilling hand. I think it would be criminal behaviour on my part if I were longer to remain :silent, and neglect producing unbiassed, impartial, and
