Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VI. Publication or "Die Aetiologie"
256 OPEN LETTERS “Herr Hof rath has been in the right for thirteen years because I have been silent for thirteen years; now I have broken the silence and I am in the right, and I shall so remain as long as the human female continues to bear children. To you, Herr Hofrath, nothing remains, if you would save your reputation or at least as much of it as remains to save, but to accept my Lehre. If you adhere to the doctrine of epidemic puerperal fever, then, with the advancement of knowledge, both pseudoepidemics of puerperal fever and your reputation will disappear from the world.” . . . “Some benefit has accrued from these two pseudoepidemics of puerperal fever in your new lying-in hospital, provided with the very best furnishings and appliances : they have completely disposed of the proposals of ignorant Frenchmen to erect new lying-in hospitals as the only way of preserving the lives of the patients. You have demonstrated, Herr Hofrath, that in spite of a new hospital provided with the most modern furnishings and appliances, a good deal of homicide can be perpetrated where the required talent in that way exists.” The last of the Open Letters is the “Open Letter to all the Professors of Midwifery.” It is very long, in the original publication running to many pages. It begins by a restatement of the matter contained in the /Etiologie. “In May 1862, it is fifteen years since I discovered the only eternally true cause of puerperal, no single case of puerperal fever excepted ... in decomposed animal- organic matter.” We have then an exposition of the pathology, a repetition of the statistics including those of Vienna, and of the United Kingdom, with a recapitulation of the incidents which formed the evidence on which the medical profession of the United Kingdom came to the conclusion that puerperal fever was a contagious disease. He then assumes the polemical tone and attacks Scanzoni and Braun once more. In spite of his fifteen years of preaching his Doctrine he can mention only Michaelis and Lange of Heidelberg among the pro
