Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
PROPHYLAXIS 225 the organism of such a material so as to prevent its reabsorption and thereby the occurrence of puerperal fever. It is easier to prevent the fingers from being rendered unclean by decomposed material than to wash them thoroughly clean after contact, therefore all students of medicine should be forbidden by law to engage in such work as must soil their fingers with such material during the time when they are occupied with the practical study of midwifery. . . . If the Semmelweis teaching is made a mock of by professors of midwifery among their students, what amount of conscientious disinfection can be expected from the students ? When death has obtained a rich booty, then is the failure of the chlorine disinfection declared to be a proof of the epidemic origin of puerperal fever. Then follows an appeal to all civil authorities everywhere to make illegal the practice of midwifery at lying- in hospitals simultaneously with work at pathology and operations on the cadaver (p. 268). This opinion is emphasized by an exposition of the injurious consequences of practical courses in midwifery by operations on the cadaver, then and for many years after boasted of as a sort of proud distinction of the Vienna school. All pathological anatomy and even surgical work in the curriculum should be finished before the practice of midwifery is begun. These opinions appear now to be mere platitude with our modern opinions founded on long experience, but at that time in Continental Europe he who proclaimed them was as one crying in the wilderness. Besides keeping the hands clean, is was necessary to institute rigorous precautions with regard to all articles which were made unclean with decomposed material and then were brought into contact with the genitals, such as instruments, bed-linen, sponges, bed-pans, etc. The conveyer of the decomposed matter may also be the atmospheric air. Hence free ventilation is necessary p
