Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
258 OPEN LETTERS cause,” he wrote, ‘‘may well be delayed, especially when it has to do battle against erroneous teaching; yet its final success is inevitable.” The “ Open Letters ” of Semmelweis have been subjected to much criticism which has often been in our opinion mistaken and unjustifiably severe. It should be remembered that the ‘‘Open Letter” was not originally invented for the purpose of giving expression to smooth and amiable platitudes. When the advocate or the assailant of a cause resorted to the open letter, he had always something to say for which the ordinary conventional methods of address were inadequate, and if ever the open letter was justified it was at this stage of the Semmelweis controversy. His sEtiologie had been published for over a year, and should have been known to every teacher of midwifery in Europe, but it was either ignored or subjected to the old misrepresentations. Even v. Siebold, the medical historian, professed to believe that Semmelweis attributed all puerperal fever to cadaveric infection alone. We can readily imagine the disappointment and disgust with which the author of the JEtiologie read the ignorant and ill-conditioned attacks on his Doctrine. It was the heart of the philanthropist that was wrung by the contemplation of the loss of human life and the miseries that could have been so easily arrested. It was not the vanity of the scientific discoverer that was touched. They reproach him with ‘‘fanaticism”; we may accept the term and hold it to his eternal honour that he adopted the methods by which all religious and other creeds have established an influence upon some portion of the human race. What benefit was ever conferred upon a cause political or religious by a mugwump or by an elder in the church of the Laodiceans ? The opponents of Semmelweis gave utterance to the usual academic arguments, not to establish a doctrine with which their hearts were full, but to prove that the ancient formulae were true, and their supporters were
