Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
III. Life in Vienna
REMOVAL FROM ASSISTANTSHIP 47 occupied with the routine professional work of his office, and distracted and depressed in spirits by the prevalence of puerperal fever, he was suddenly deprived of his position as Ordinary Assistant by an unprecedented circumstance. The predecessor of Semmelweis, Dr. Breit, after his period of office had terminated, and his duties had been performed for several months by his successor, now obtained a two years’ extension of his appointment. So Semmelweis had the humiliation and disappointment of returning to the position of provisional assistant for another two years. The degradation of Semmelweis was a scandalously arbitrary abuse of authority on the part of Professor Klein, from which it may fairly be concluded that the young Hungarian had exhibited disconcerting qualities as assistant by which he had forfeited the goodwill of his easy-going chief. The restless energy of Semmelweis in the First Clinic, his sympathy with suffering women, and his constant criticism of the old orthodox opinions on the causation of puerperal fever, must have all been the subject of conversation and strictures in the professional circles of the General Hospital, and it would be contrary to all experience if some backbiting, by repetition and exaggeration of utterances, did not reach the ears of the Director. Whatever may have been the influences at work, it came to pass that the conventionally careful orthodox man-wife, Dr. Breit, once more assumed the duties of Ordinary Assistant in the First Division, and Semmelweis returned to his occupations as provisional assistant with the prospect of waiting for another two years in the inferior position. The question then arose: How was he to occupy his time? Familiar with the history of the Vienna Medical School he naturally thought of the journey of Boer, and how his visit to the lying-in hospitals of Great Britain and Ireland had resulted in such advantages to obstetrical science and practice in Austria. Boer had introduced the methods of English midwifery practice into Vienna
