Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 62-63. (Budapest, 1971)

TANULMÁNYOK - Meigs, J. Wister: Kontagionisták, antikontagionisták és a gyermekágyi láz (angol nyelven)

As a preface to the maternal mortality experience of some of the Masters of the Rotunda, matched against their views about contagion, one needs an example of Browne's style in dealing with anticontagionists. A "sure foundation" had been laid, he said, by "Holmes, and later Semmelweis [sicl] ... upon which others strove to build a defence against puerperal fever. Unfortunately progress was slow, largely due to obstruction by prominent members of the medical profession. The wellknown English gynaecologist, Lawson Tait (1845-1899) of Birmingham, whose success as an operator was exceptional, was an unconscious follower of the antiseptic system although he scorned the idea of the existence of bacteria. Apart from his insisting upon the scrupulous cleanliness of the operator's hands and instruments, he had no further ideas" [5a]. The intended message is a puzzle. One interpretation might be that Tait's expression of anticontagionist views was regarded as irredeemable behavior. Never mind his scrupulous cleanliness or his successful results! He had no further ideas and somehow, because of that failure, he must have been an obstructionist and he must have slowed progress. There are no data to permit comparison of the beliefs of Lawson Tait and his contemporaries in gynecology with their surgical mortality. But for the Rotunda and its Masters, there is reasonably good information. Table 1 shows no obvious relationship between the attitude of the Master toward contagion and his maternal mortality rate until after the work of Pasteur and others had placed a Table 1. MATERNAL MORTALITY RATES AND ATTITUDES TOWARD CONTAGION OF MASTERS OF ROTUNDA, 1826-96 Name Date Maternal deaths per 100/Deliveries rotunda hospital records board Attitude toward contagion R. COLLINS* 1826-33 0.96 SKEPTICAL E. KENNEDY 1833-40 1.70 CONTAGIONIST C. JOHNSON 1840-47 1.31 UNKNOWN R. SHEKLETON 1847-54 1.22 UNKNOWN A. MCCLINTOCK 1854-61 2.49 2.71 CONTAGIONIST J. DENHAM 1861-68 3.41 2,94 SKEPTICAL G. JOHNSTON 1868-75 2.21 2.20 SKEPTICAL L. ATTHIL 1875-82 — 2.23 CONTAGIONIST A. MACAN 1882-89 — 0.74 POST-PASTEUR JSMYLY 1889-96 0.65 0.65 POST-PASTEUR * From 1829 to 1833 while Collins was sterilizing the hospital with chlorine systematically, the mean maternal mortality was 0,54%