Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
III. Life in Vienna
ló SEMMELWEIS AS ASSISTANT obstetric operations or to render whatever assistance might be required by the midwives within his division. v. Waldheim says that there are now four assistants and half a dozen operators for the work which Semmelweis did in those days single-handed. It must, however, be kept in mind that very few obstetric operations were performed in those pre-anesthetic days, and under the Boer tradition of forbearance and trusting to Nature. Not satisfied with his obligatory duties, Semmelweis still continued to work at the institute of pathological anatomy in the early mornings before visiting his patients. His chief object in undertaking this extra work was to perfect his knowledge of the pathological anatomy of obstetrics and gynaecology. Busy and contented as he then was, a shadow soon began to creep over his professional life, which was destined to determine his whole course of thought and action to the end of his days. What was the cause of the frightful mortality from childbed fever among the patients of the First Clinic? In this year 1846 there were 460 deaths in the First Clinic and 105 deaths in the Second from puerperal fever alone, in spite of all the treatment then known in the practice of midwifery. Other young obstetricians, his predecessors and contemporaries in official positions, knew all the facts and regarded them with comparative indifference. In the spare time between professional work and social engagements they could discuss small variations in operative procedure, trifling modifications in the form of instruments, or the introduction of fresh therapeutic futilities, but Semmelweis found no interest in such things. It was under such circumstances, e.g., that Carl Braun, his immediate successor as assistant, invented his blunt decapitation hook, and other assistants made contributions to obstetrics, which are now justly consigned to oblivion. But Semmelweis was not a man such as these; his intellect refused to accept verbiage for reality; he could not amuse himself with‘toys; his heart bled for the
