Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
2Ó2 COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS defunctus as far as controversy on obstetric subjects was concerned, or in fact with regard to sustained rational interest in any professional subject whatever. Committee of Experts. A remarkable incident of 1863 is well worthy of record. With a view to obtaining guidance regarding the proposed erection of a new lying-in hospital in Prague, Austrian government officials invited certain eminent medical men to answer certain questions concerning puerperal fever. Scanzoni’s Commission of 1849 had not yet reported. Among the witnesses invited were Rokitansky, Skoda and Oppolzer of Vienna, Virchow of Berlin, and Lange of Heidelberg. The first question formulated for them was : According to the present position of science regarding the contagious origin and extension of puerperal fever, is the theory established for certain, is it probable or is it possible ? Rokitansky, Skoda and Oppolzer considered the contagious theory of origin and extension established beyond question. Virchow declared a predisposition of the individual to diffuse and malignant inflammations to be the chief factor. ... A local specific infection, a contagion occurs only at a certain height of the epidemic, and with a certain intensity of the contagion. . . . Lange’s opinion was that puerperal fever originated in infection by decomposed animal material. . . . The contagiosity of puerperal fever by means of a specific product must be denied. Others who gave their opinions, such as Hecker, declared that puerperal fever was caused by injurious effluvia like hospital gangrene. . . . We see then that a clear divergency of opinion still existed so late as 1863. Among the witnesses perhaps the most influential was Virchow, and within a year he was frankly to accept the Semmelweis pathology, simultaneously with Späth of Vienna.
