Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)

V. Life in Buda-Pesth

BEFORE DIE iETIOLOGIE

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wifery to the ancient formulae, the traditional irrational doctrines.

There was only one man living to whom the whole subject lay in the clearest light. By a flash of insight the discovery had come to him ten years before: experience and reflection had only strengthened his convictions and given them completer form in his mind. His friends kept pressing him to write : the book was, as it were, standing ready-made in his mind : it was his duty to suffering humanity to publish his doctrine to the whole world in order to put an end to the well-nigh universal manslaughter. To the appeals of his friend Markusovszky in particular he had always replied: “ I cannot write.” Now the detested rival Carl Braun had written that the doctrine of cadaveric infection had been almost unanimously rejected in Germany, France and England, the doctrine which he had expected to triumph because of its inherent truth. Then once more the eternally reiterated error that he had declared cadaveric poison to be the only cause of puerperal fever. Was it not under all these circumstances a crime to remain silent ?

We have seen that Semmelweis repeatedly missed his opportunities of proclaiming the Doctrine when he alone was in a position to fully and clearly expound it.

Hebra had led the way in 1847, and Semmelweis was content to further spread abroad the discovery by means of private letters and the verbal communications of his personal friends.

Skoda, impressed with the immeasurable importance of the new idea, had given an address to the Vienna Academy in 1849, and used all his personal and professional influence in proclaiming the truth.

Semmelweis himself had been prevailed upon to address the Medical Society in 1850, and received such a reception that he might well have taken courage to publish at that time the equivalent of Die /Etiologie instead of ten years later, but he was content to permit

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