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

TANULMÁNYOK - Zoltán Imre: Semmelweis (angol nyelvű közlemény)

seriously influenced by the circumstance that in the last few weeks of his life, Semmelweis suffered from mental disturbance, and that he was taken to a mental hospital, where he died. Although many contemporaries, first among these Markusovszky, stated on the evidence of the post mortem examination published in the "Medical Weekly" that the immediate cause of Semmelweis's, death was not insanity but pyaemia, nobody has taken any notice of it. The mental hospital had. given as the cause of death paralysis of the brain (Gehirnlähmung) and this was repeated in the death certificate issued by the General Hospital of Vienna, and by his family in the obituary announcement. The general belief that Semmelweis suffered from an organic disease of the brain was greatly supported by the autopsy report which, in its diagnosis, clearly speaks of "atrophia cerebri" and „hydrocephalus chronicus". It is also evident that, in the last few years of his life, there was a distant change in his personality. The man, who had formerly been of a happy, open-minded and well-balanced disposition, suddenly became morose, moody, with a bent to instability and eccentricity in his behaviour. These circumstances had not escaped the notice of some contemporaries, among them Kálmán Müller, his nephew and naturally his wife. All these circumstances make it clear that for a long time nobody had any doubts that the mind of this unfortunate man — mainly due to his futile struggles — had become deranged. However the more and the deeper research is made in connection with Semmelweis's life, the more data arise to contradict his endogenous insanity. It struck them that Semmelweis's widow expressed her opinion of her husband's changed personality at an advanced age, forty years after his death, and Kálmán Müller, a respectable man, who made his statement as the President of the Council of Public Health at the age of 70 was only 10 years old when Semmelweis died. On the other hand most of his contemporaries repeatedly declare that the symptoms of his "insanity" became evident only in the last weeks of his life. Ignác Hirschler confirms this in his diary and his pupil Fleischer refers to it in his memorial spech held in 1872 with the following words: "In the last weeks of his life, his deep, perspicacious, clear mind became deranged". Schopper, rector of the university, also emphasised in his speech that "Semmelweis had devoted ten years of untiring and brilliant work" to this institution. Indeed Semmelweis continued his many-sided activities until July 18(35, the outbreak of his acute mental trouble. He managed his clinic, gave lectures and performed the duties of economic superintendent in the medical faculty. His last scientific contribution: "Operative Treatment of the Ovary" had appeared in parts and remained unfinished only because of his death. The scientific paper, written logically in a carefully worded style could only have been the work of a man in full command of his mental capacities. Though more and more doubts have cropped up in connection with Semmelweis's insanity in the course of research, there has not been a single article to question it, what could have been the reason of this taciturnity. I believe that most researchers have not attached any importance to this question. Semmelweis's insanity does not deduct anything either of his human stature or the