Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
V. Life in Buda-Pesth
STEINER 179 known prophylactic regulations . . . But the chief cause of the better results lies with the care taken to prevent over-crowding. . . . This foresight Michaelis did not exercise.” Certainly it must be admitted that in spite of all their foresight they had not been spared the visitation of the smaller epi- and en-demics, and twice they had to resort to temporary closing of the hospital. ...” Further, I would remark that sometimes the puerperal fever showed itself first in the town or neighbourhood, and then occurred in the institution or the institution was even entirely spared.” This experience of Litmann’s that puerperal fever first showed itself in the town before appearing in the hospital is probably the first of the kind recorded in the history of midwifery. We shall hear a good deal more on this subject, especially from the opponents of Semmelweis at Prague and Vienna. Steiner. Early in 1858 Semmelweis received a letter1 which must have brought him much-needed comfort. The communication is unique in giving some account of the puerperal infection question from the medical undergraduate standpoint. The writer, Joseph Steiner, had been a student of Semmelweis at Buda-Pesth, and he then went to Gratz to complete his studies. He wrote: ” Infection of all sorts occurs at the Gratz Lying-in Hospital. . . . The dissecting-room is the only place where the students can meet and pass the time when waiting for their midwifery cases, and they often devote their attention to dissecting, or studying and manipulating preparations. When they are summoned to the Lying-in Hospital, which is just across the street, they do not make any pretence at disinfection : some of them do not even wash their hands. ... A diligent student of anatomy is a highly dangerous person for the lying-in women at the Gratz Hospital. . . . The patients might as well be delivered in the dissecting-room. As it is, the students cross the street with hands wet and 1. Aetiol. p. 410.
