Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 55-56. (Budapest, 1970)

TANULMÁNYOK - Benedek, István: The Illness and Death of Semmelweis (angol nyelvű közlemény)

taken away from him and were never returned, although he believed to have discovered certain pathological marks on them, on which he could have formed definite opinion only after further detailed examinations. These could not take place not only for the death of the professor but also because the remains of Semmelweis were placed in a plastic chumk and walled in the courtyard of the Semmelweis Museum, at the side looking towards the Castle Hill, consequently nobody will be able to check the results of the anthropological and pathological examinations unless the wall is pulled down and the chumk is removed. In conclusion the reports unequivocally show that some sort of chronic disorder did exist in the nervous system of Semmelweis, the hypothesis of paralysis is neither proved nor disproved. But just as it is not disproved on the basis of the symptoms cited and the circumstances rendering it probable I persist in my contention. 3. SEPSIS Nobody questions that Semmelweis died in sepsis. All the same, there are many obscure points and differing opinions on that, too. Here I can refer only to the most essential disagreement. Namely: In the opinion of László Haranghy, Gyula Nyirő and Gyula Regöly-Mérei, published in 1960 and again confirmed by them in 1965 1. Semmelweis had no mental disorder whatsoever, 2. his confusion preceding his death was a toxic delirium, 5. the latter was caused by osteomyelitis due to his injured finger, 4. had he recovered from the sepsis, his state of mind would, too, have completely recovered. This view was endorsed by György Gortvay and Imre Zoltán in their book on Semmelweis published in 1966 by the Hungarian Academy, which is available in English, too. Against them I am on the opinion that 1, Semmelweis had a mental disorder previous to and independent of the sepsis, 2, he had had no toxic delirium at all before he was taken to the mental home, 3, the injured finger and the osteomyelitis — if there had been such a thing before he was taken to the asylum — had only a secondary connection with his mental disorder, 4

t had he recovered from the sepsis, the dementia paralytica (or some other organic mental disorder) would have developed in its full strength, 5. his death was caused by sepsis, the result of an infection received in the course of the brutal treatment in the mental hospital. The first and fourth points do not need further reasoning, they self-evidently follow from what has been told above. Only one addition: simply I cannot understand what has lead a psychiatrist, an outstanding and widely respected