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

V. Life in Buda-Pesth

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PARIS ACADEMY DISCUSSION

bloody from dissecting; they dry their hands in the air, and stick them a few times into their pockets and at once proceed to make examinations. ... It is no longer a riddle to me why after a clinical meeting the Medical Officer (Stadtphysikus) of Gratz exclaimed:

‘ The lying-in hospitals are really nothing but murder- institutions !’ ”

Apostrophising Scanzoni in reference to the letter of Joseph Steiner, Semmelweis exclaims: “ If Fate had placed this candidate in surgery in your place, Herr Hofrath, I believe that the valleys of Germany would to a less extent re-echo the groans of lying-in women dying of the childbed fever caused by your disciples, male and female, whom you have sent forth into practice from the Lying-in Hospitals of Prague and Würzburg in colossal ignorance of the cause and prevention of puerperal fever.” 1

Discussion on Puerperal Fever at the Academy of Medicine of Paris in 1858.

It was now ten years after the first published announcement of the Semmelweis Discovery, and the subject of puerperal fever was receiving much attention at all the medical schools of Europe, and by all the obstetrical societies.

At the meeting of the Paris Académie de Médecine in February, 1858, M. Guérard mentioned a fatal case of puerperal fever after abortion, and said that he proposed to call the attention of the colleagues to the nature, the mode of propagation, and the treatment of puerperal fever, and requested the help of the members in throwing light upon the nature of this grave malady. This was the origin of the memorable discussion which occupied the Academy for several months, and created a profound impression upon le monde medicale of Paris and indeed throughout the whole of France.

The first to address the meeting of the 2nd of March, when the discussion commenced, was Depaul. He 1. Aetiologie p. 413.