Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
246 OPEN LETTERS Europe to the influence of the /.Etiologie on the spread of his Doctrine. Within a year of the publication of the /Etiologie he could restrain himself no longer, and he burst out upon his chief antagonists in the Open Letters. In these letters we find nothing that is new concerning puerperal fever: there is more emotion than ratiocination. They are perhaps best considered as the cry of painful disappointment, almost of despair, of the philanthropist, rather than of the scientific obstetrician. The first was entitled : “ Two Open Letters to Dr. J. Späth, Professor of Midwifery at the Joseph’s Academy in Vienna, and to Hofrath Dr. F. W. Scanzoni, Professor of Midwifery at Würzburg.” It is dated Buda-Pesth, 1861. After recapitulating certain points with which we are familiar, and referring to a recent publication by Späth, in which the cause of puerperal fever was declared to be salpingitis, Semmelweis comes into close quarters with his antagonist. “ From these expressions of opinion the Herr Professor has given me the impression that his spirit has not been lighted up by the puerperal sun which arose in Vienna in the year 1847, although it shone so near to him. “ This stubborn ignoring of my Doctrine, this stubborn ruminating over errors, causes me to bestow upon you the following explanation : “ I carry with me the consciousness that since the year 1847 thousands and thousands of lying-in women and sucklings have died who would not have died if I had not remained silent, but to every error concerning puerperal fever which has been spread the necessary corrections have been partly made. About that, Herr Professor, you can persuade yourself that I do not exaggerate when I say that thousands upon thousands of lying-in women and new-born infants have lost their lives, who might have been saved, if I simply recall to your memory what occurred even in the First and Second
