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

TANULMÁNYOK - Regöly-Mérei, Gyula: The Pathological Reconstruction of Semmelweis's Disease on the Basis of the Catamnestic Analysis and Palaeopathological Examination (angol nyelvű közlemény)

VII. FAMILY CATAMNESIS Ignác Semmelweis and Mária Weidenhoffer were married on June 1st 1857. If Semmelweis would have had syphilis then — in accordance with pathological experiences — it is most likely that his wife and children too, had developed the same disease. However, Mrs. Semmelweis died at the age of 73 in 1910 and was healthy up to her old age. Their son Béla committed suicide in his youth but not out of fear of meeting his father's fate (as I also was inclined to think formerly) but — as confided by his family — due to improvidence in financial matters. One of their daughters, Margit was 07 years old when she died from gynaecological sarcoma, their other daughter Antonia died at the age of 78. Semmelweis's first two children Ignác (1858 X 14—15) and Mária (1859 XI 20—1800 III 15) died in their infancy. Although the rate of infant mortality was still very high at that time, — e.g. about 25% in Central Europe — a number of diseases were named as cause of death (atrophy, bronchopneumonia etc.), and yet the possibility of syphilis could come up. At the exhumation it appeared that Semmelweis's coffin contained remains of infants' bones and pieces of thin board of a children's coffin. The manuscript of my palaeopathological report on Semmelweis (87a and b) was sent to press in the autumn of 1904, whereas the children's bones were examined in January and February of 1905, hence I can only make a final statement now. In Semmelweis's coffin three kinds of soil, that is earth of three different graves was found. On the basis of the palaeopathological examination I consider it, today, improbable that this was due to an incidental mixing for it appeared that the bones derived not from one but from two infants whose age corresponds to the age of Semmelweis's children. This kind of coincidence cannot be due to mere chance. On my request the leader of the Kerepesi cemetery (Budapest) Gábor Fülep and Mrs. S. Hus kindly dealt with the question of little Ignác's and Maria's grave and established that both of them had been buried in the vault of the Walthier family. After having been exhumed in Vienna, the mortal remains of Semmelweis were also buried there, for the mother of Mrs. Semmelweis was born Walthier. In the cemetery's register of deaths only the place and time of the children's burial is recorded but no mention is made of theirs exhumation. The entry of the latter could have been omitted. It is very probable moreover even certain that the children's bones were put in their father's coffin when the mortal remains of Semmelweis were placed in the Walthier family vault (1891) or at the later exhumation (1894). Mrs. Semmelweis died in 1910 and was buried in the Walthier-vault. The syphilitic symptoms of infants are very characteristic. From our viewpoint the bone symptoms of the early form are important (osteitis gummosa, osteochondritis syphilitica, periostitis ossifacans, osteomyelitis and periostitis gummosa), however, symptoms pointing to these diseases were not found in the children's bones. In the family catamnesis no symptoms pointing to syphilis could be detected.