Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
DENHAM Speaking of vicissitudes with regard to puerperal fever experienced at the Dublin hospital, and the absence of puerperal fever in the previous decade recorded by Drs. Johnston and Sinclair, Denham asks in reference to this immunity for years: “Should we rather ascribe it to the absence of epidemic influences combined with the strict attention to cleanliness and ventilation that has at all times characterized the management of this institution ?” Coming next to Semmelweis: “With respect to the opinions put forth by Dr. Semmelweis of Buda-Pesth ... I feel it would only be a waste of time to dwell upon them.’’ ... I may mention that I have lately visited the hospital in Vienna and that . . . Dr. Braun informed me that the theory put forward by Dr. Semmelweis had been entirely upset during the last outbreak of puerperal fever.” So the credulous visitor believed that the final judgment had been pronounced. Of the Dublin “ epidemic ” he says : “. . . There was an unusual amount of puerperal fever over the city and neighbourhood during the winter. . . . The professor at Munich mentioned to me a most interesting fact connected with the hospital there : it was opened . . . in 1859 with new beds, blankets and sheets and a new staff of nurses. Yet scarcely was it opened until they had a fearful outbreak of puerperal fever, which has visited them every year since.” . . . We may recall the fact that Semmelweis had already explained in the Ätiologie the origin of puerperal fever in the new lying-in hospital at Munich under Anselm Martin who was a thoroughgoing epidemicist. . . . On asking the professor at Vienna whether he thought the disease was introduced or kept up by the students, his reply was short but expressive : “ We have the students always with us, puerperal fever only sometimes.” No doubt a clever epigrammatic way of making a statement, but defective inasmuch as it conveyed a departure from the notorious truth. Since Semmelweis left the hospital in March, 1849, puerperal fever had never ceased to haunt the 244
