Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 55-56. (Budapest, 1970)
TANULMÁNYOK - Zoltán Imre: Semmelweis (angol nyelvű közlemény)
significance of his discovery. He would not have been the only great man of the last century suffering from a similar disease. Hungarian biographers have been most probably afraid of being called chauvinists again as so öfter in the past when they trying to prove the priority of his discovery or argueing about his Hungarian nationality. Still the main cause of the silence was the fact that Semmelweis's alleged insanity could not be refuted scientifically. It was only quite recently that the research work of the medical historian and paleopathologist Regöly-Mérei, pathologist Haranghy and psychiatrist Nyirő have become public. In studying the life and activities of Semmelweis Regöly-Mérei did not discover one single factor pointing to insanity. He explains the psychic symptoms evident before Semmelweis's death as being the feverish, septic condition of delirium. 3 years ago Semmelweis's remains were exhumed and the skeleton examined by Haranghy, Regöly-Mérei and Lajos Bartucz. The bones revealed to the examiners the picture of grave acute osteomyelitis which must have been responsible for the infection that caused death. According to them the process may have lasted for weeks not only ten days, and the septic conditions must have existed when the symptoms of acute insanity appeared. Prof. Haranghy compared the original autopsy record in the archives of the former Rokitansky Institute with the one published in the "Medical Weekly" by Markusovszky. He found that the two versions were almost identical but there are parts which do not tally with the original, moreover the text of the diagnosis does not entirely agree with it either. The autopsy diagnosis of the Medical Weekly speaks of "atrophia cerebri" cum hydrocephalo chronico", whereas the original contains nothing of that sort. I must mention here that some new "authentic" autopsy records have cropped up since them as pointed out by István Darvas. Haranghy summed up his views as follows: "Neither the autopsy record nor the neuro-histological changes can offer convincing proof that Semmelweis suffered either from paralysis or tabes, and as far as it is possible to draw conclusions regarding psychic conditions from pathological findings, it is possible to presume that the disturbed mental state prae mortem was caused by the clearly demonstrable septic state responsible for his delirial condition." Nyirő gave a thorough analysis of Semmelweis's mental state. He summed up his opinion in these words: "It can be clearly stated that Semmelweis did not suffer from any chronic insanity, paralysis, mania or paranoia. His peculiar change in personality made him fanatic in his discovery. It was also reflected in a pattern of behaviour which is not uncommon in genius .... There is no doubt that the acute psychosis three weeks before his death was an exogenous, reaction type mental disorder resulting from the sepsis which finally caused his death. Had Semmelweis recovered of his sepsis he would have been cured of his mental disease too." The researches of Regöly-Mérei, Haranghy and Nyirő hâve thrown new light on the question of Semmelweis's disease. This does not mean that all researchers consider the problem a foregone conclusion. There are opinions in recent papers on medical history that do
