Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
OPEN LETTERS 253 mind with you; but the groans of puerperal women dying of child-bed fever drown the voice of my heart; and my reason enjoins on me to make the truth prevail, even though my heart is thereby painfully touched. There are many things in nature about which the medical profession was for a long time ignorant without human lives being thereby placed in danger. The circulation of the blood went on for five thousand * years before William Harvey discovered it, but no one died because of that ignorance. . . . Professional ignorance of puerperal fever is not devoid of danger. . . . “ I protest in the strongest manner possible against the representation of my Doctrine by the expression ‘ cadaveric infection.’ . . .” “ If you, Herr Hofrath, in spite of everything, thrust upon me a Lehre to the effect that all cases of puerperal fever are produced by cadaveric infection, that amounts to wilful misrepresentation of my teaching or want of the ability to understand it.” Here follows a long and laborious exposition of the theory of the conveyance of infection and the propagation of the malady, and, in spite of the mildness of the opening portion of the letter, Semmelweis becomes more and more excited and indignant, and addresses his old friend in the language to which his bitterest old enemies were accustomed. “ Herr Hofrath has read my book with so little understanding that the record of so many proceedings amounting to manslaughter has drawn no expression of aversion from you. You accept this devastation as something that cannot be prevented. You have read my book with so little understanding that you still find something enigmatic in puerperal fever, whilst to those who have grasped the meaning of my teaching everything about puerperal fever is as clear as sunlight.” Discussing the opinions of French obstetricians as expressed in the great debate of 1858, and the proposal
