Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VII. Last Illness and Death
CARL BRAUN 279 in the First Clinic under Braun as observed by a young Scottish graduate more than ten years after the delivery of this address, when it might be assumed that still further progress had been made towards perfect prophylaxis. At that time many young foreign graduates attended the practice at the Vienna General Hospital, attracted mainly by the amount of clinical material, and it was almost the universal custom among them to take as many special courses as there was time for in a working day. Among the courses attended by the Scotsman referred to was one of operative midwifery upon the cadaver. He obtained a card for the class on paying the number of gulden demanded, and was asked no questions as to his course of clinical midwifery or anything else. The course of operative midwifery upon the cadaver was conducted by one of Carl Braun’s assistants, a charming young fellow who did his best for the small polyglot group which formed the class. They met :n a sort of dead-house in the basement, a room belonging to the department of pathological anatomy. The subjects for operation were the bodies of women who had died in the Hospital, most likely in the lying-in division, because recent parturition would improve them as “material.” By way of preparation for an obstetric operation the abdomen was opened, and the pelvic viscera were removed so as to make room for a foetus. After the foetal corpse had been placed in the position suitable for the operation to follow, it was held by the teacher, and the pupil proceeded to perform the operation of version, decapitation, etc., as required. Into the midst of these proceedings would come a hurried message to the effect that the assistant was wanted in the labour room upstairs to attend to some abnormal case or to operate. There was immediately a rush of all concerned to get at the means of ablution—only a stream of cold water from a tap into a basin below, such as you can see in the scullery of the meanest cottage house in England—water
