Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
OPEN LETTERS 249 There is a long discussion of certain anomalies of labour and the puerperium said to have been observed at Würzburg, and the iteration of the assurance that they could not be produced by epidemic influences or by the so-called puerperal miasma. In reply to Scanzoni’s opinion that the midwives and practitioners in and around Würzburg do not carry infection, and therefore the cases which occur in their practice are the result of epidemic influences, Semmelweis says: “I admit that I do not share these opinions, I believe rather that the midwives and practitioners in Würzburg and its vicinity are just as colossally ignorant of the causes and prevention of puerperal fever as you are yourself, Herr Hofrath, and that the cases in Würzburg and round about are just cases of infection from without. “It is obvious that the midwives and practitioners of Würzburg and neighbourhood have not learned in Pesth how puerperal fever is produced and how it can be prevented . . . Then, where have they learned it ? Certainly not with you, Herr Hofrath, nor with Kiwisch .... name to me, Herr Hofrath, the professor of midwifery who has now for fourteen years been teaching my Doctrine, so that I may express my thanks to that individual alone. “You see, Herr Hofrath, that I have drawn the props from your teaching. These you found in the murderous deeds which the midwives and practitioners of Würzburg committed in their ignorance. “It is said that special attention must be drawn to the fact that the puerperal fever cases in Würzburg did not all occur in the practice of one doctor : naturally, for it is not one practitioner in Würzburg, but all who practise there, who are ignoramuses on the subject of puerperal fever prevention, and for the ignorance the professors of midwifery are to blame . . . and in this matter, Herr Hofrath, you have sent all over Germany a considerable contingent of practitioners who will, in their ignorance, engage in homicidal practices. ... You say that the cases of puerperal fever have
