Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
III. Life in Vienna
ETIOLOGY BEFORE SEMMELWEIS 17 sufferers whom he saw carried off daily under his hands. The questions which constantly recurred to his mind were: What is puerperal fever ? How does it arise ? What can be done to prevent it ? What treatment can avail to mitigate its ravages? He devoted his whole time to the study of the malady in the library, in the dead house, at the bedside. His thoughts and actions were all concentrated on the problem ; he learned all the professional opinions hitherto accepted at home and abroad; and such conclusions as he reached from clinical observation were in conflict with the prevailing doctrines. “I could not discover in the hitherto prevailing principles underlying the etiology of puerperal fever the actual existence of the alleged etiological factors in the many hundreds of cases which I saw treated in vain.” Doctrines of the Etiology of Puerperal Fever before Semmelweis. Let us inquire what he had to unlearn and what were the available means of building up some positive system in place of that to be demolished. Semmelweis, like his predecessors in the office which he came to occupy, and like all the professors of midwifery throughout Europe for about two centuries before his time, had been taught the orthodox conventional theories prevailing in his generation. His own professor of midwifery was Klein who had been a pupil and assistant of Boer. With regard to puerperal fever, Boer’s teaching had been in some measure different from that of his Continental contemporaries inasmuch as he had been influenced by the English doctrine of contagion, and had adopted the milk-fever variety of contagionism. In order to appreciate the nature and extent of the Semmelweis revolt it is necessary to form some conception of the notions prevalent at the time when he began to doubt. These opinions are so various within limits and apparently so confusing that they are difficult to state clearly and succinctly. Among the best statements, comprehensive and discriminating, are those of Hegar in c
