Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 81. (Budapest, 1977)
TANULMÁNYOK - Ehrentheil, O. F.: Oliver Wendell Holmes és Semmelweis Jgnác egy és negyed századról visszatekintve (angol nyelven)
cannot get variola from somebody sick with another disease. The English, however, emphasized the possibility of aquiring P.F. from people with erysipelous or phlegmoneous diseases. Semmelweis broadened the range of possible sources of P.F. by saying that any putrid animal organic matter can produce it. He said literally (in my translation): The P.F. has no closer relationship to erysipelas and its sequelae than to other sickness which produces decomposed material. The P. F. is related to erysipelas and its sequels in the same way as to any decomposed cadaver. If the English physicians accept besides P. F. itself only erysipelas and its sequelae as the source of decaying material producing P.F. they are demarcating the area much too narrow as the above data are clearly showing. It had not been just only erysipelas which had produced the material for the above mentioned cases of P.F. [24]. In the prophylaxis of P.F. and in the practical advice to attending medical personnel there was very little difference between the English Contagionists and Semmelweis, but the concept of P.F. as a pyemia caused by absorption of putrid material into the blood-mass was a new discovery by Semmelweis. He sent copies of his printed book to many teachers of midwifery hoping that everyone would now accept his doctrine. He was apparently bitterly disappointed when his doctrine was still rejected and often misunderstood. He had argued against his obstetrical opponents in a rather hostile manner in his book in 1861. Then in 1861 and 1862 he released his "Open Letters" [28] addressed to 1) Prof. J. Spaeth (Vienna), 2) Prof. F. W. Scanzoni (Prague, later Würzburg), 3) Prof. J. v. Siebold (Göttingen), 4) a second letter to Prof. F. W. Scanzoni and 5) a last one addressed to All Professors of Midwifery. In his apodictic manner he declared: "I have discovered in 1847 the only and always true cause of Puerperal Fever namely decaying animal organic matter. This has been true and will be true without exception as long as the human female has born and will bear children." The letters were bitter, scathing attacks unheard of in academic-scientific controversies. He wrote that the midwives and practitioners in Würzburg are just as colossally ignorant of the causes and preventions of puerperal fever as Scanzoni, the Herr Hofrat himself. He blamed the professors for the death of many women in P.F. and called them murderers who continue to teach their pupils to be murderers. The phrasing of these open letters can be explained, but hardly excused by the frustrating experiences accummulated through fifteen years. Prof. J. Spaeth to whom one of the offending letters was addressed and who later accepted the Semmelweis doctrine said in a speech before the Vienna Medical Society in February 1864 [29] "... This theory would certainly have attracted many friends as open supporters among obstetricians if Semmelweis had not at first put forward as the only cause of puerperal fever the factor which was most obvious to him, and if he had not of late fought for his theory in a tone which no scientific man has hitherto employed . . ." Sinclair [8] on the other hand expressed his opinion "the controversial method of the Open Letters was that of an honest, earnest, and widely persecuted man, and it was probably more efficacious in the long run in attracting notice than a method more conventionally correct" .Thus while Holmes has answered his opponents in a logical, superior,
