Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
ST. PETERSBURG MEDICAL SOCIETY 259 in the right. It was all heartless formal, academic, conventional. No wonder they were shocked at the want of polite ‘ form ’ in the utterances of Semmelweis. It may be true, as Bruck says, that a more conciliatory method might have better advanced the cause, but that is very doubtful. The older professors and official teachers were already committed to antagonism, and the future of the doctrine lay with a younger and unprejudiced generation. The controversial method of the “Open Letters” was that of an honest, earnest, and vilely persecuted man, and it was probably more efficacious in the long run in attracting notice than a method more conventionally correct. Matter containing personalities is always read, and the contents of the “Open Letters” with the re-iterated exposition of the Lehre, would be known to men who had hitherto neglected even to give the most superficial attention to Die /.Etiologie. St. Petersburg Medical Society—1863. The last incident in the long-drawn-out polemic on the Semmelweis Discovery which brought satisfaction and peace of mind to the unhappy author, was a letter from Professor Hugenberger of St. Petersburg, dated July 4, 1863, enclosing a copy of the report of the Proceedings of the Medical Society of St. Petersburg. This Society had discussed at five consecutive meetings the Etiology and Prophylaxis of Puerperal Fever, and the conclusion was upon the whole strongly in support of the Semmelweis Doctrine. In the “Collected Works of Semmelweis,” the editor, v. Gyory, with commendable judgement, devoted over twenty pages to the report of this very important discussion, in which v. Arneth, the steadfast and accomplished friend of Semmelweis, took a leading part.* v. Arneth had settled in St. Petersburg in an important official position, and his personal experience in Vienna and his advocacy of the Semmelweis Doctrine * Gesammelte Werke, p. 512.
