Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
238 VIRCHOW It was a great scandal; to every member of the General Hospital staff the dEtiologie of Semmelweis was now available reading, and there was much animated discussion about the Clinic. The Director of the Clinic, Professor Carl Braun, was requested by the Directors of the General Hospital to report on the epidemic, and the measures adopted by him in dealing with it. Carl Braun reported that the cases occurred simultaneously in all the five lying-in rooms at a time when the health of the hospital as a whole was satisfactory. No rational cause could be discovered within the Clinic. On careful inquiry it was ascertained that in the end of October one-tenth of the patients admitted were in a high state of fever (heftig fieberte), and so they brought their malady with them into the hospital. The measures adopted to prevent dissemination were : All students were forbidden to make vaginal examinations after the ist of November. Operation courses on the cadaver ceased for a short time. Solution of chlorinated lime was again used for washing, although it had been declared by authorities in chemistry to be useless for the destruction of organic material, and had been proved to be of no practical use in Vienna in 1854-55, and at other universities. . . . In order to remove from the hands the cadaveric odour, permanganate of potash solution must be employed. In spite of all these extraordinary precautions 48 patients out of 253 admitted sickened in the first half of November. . . . Referring to this outbreak of puerperal fever the editor of one of the Vienna medical journals, with the object of putting a stop to the gossip so injurious to the worthy Director of the First Clinic, published an article in which he referred to the sad illusions entertained by Professor Semmelweis of Buda-Pesth regarding the infallibility of his preventatives ! Virchow. Virchow began his investigations into the anatomical lesions produced by puerperal fever in 1846 and 1847. It should be remembered that Rokitansky
