Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VII. Last Illness and Death
298 FREUND and-twenty years after the first Hebra article ! Why was such a thing done ? Was it ignorance or stupidity ? No one who ever knew Carl Braun could excuse him on such grounds. Semmelweis was quite right in setting down Braun’s first attack upon him, over thirty years before, to ill-will and jealousy. Why do we rake up all this now ? Because history is only worth writing or reading if it guides posterity to practical conclusions for its own use; if it guides or warns. The time is now sufficiently remote to hurt no susceptibilities, and, in leaving Vienna and the persecution of Semmelweis, we may recall once more the sentiment: On ne doit pas aux morts que ... la justice et la verité. W. A. Freund, 1885. Passing over the less important episodes, .we return once more to Strassburg, now become a German university city, to call attention to the generous and emphatic appreciation of Semmelweis by Professor W. A. Freund in 1885. Freund’s subject was Parametritis, and that naturally brought him to refer to Virchow in discussing the pathological anatomy. In a note, Freund then went on to say that whoever painfully reflects on the eighteen years’ delay in the recognition of the great discovery of Semmelweis, which for the sick and sound patients brought such blessings, for physicians such saving from worry and anxiety, if such a one omitted the name of Virchow from the record of obstruction he made a mistake. Virchow’s authority did not stand out prominently in clinical etiological research, and there was no reason why he should be appealed to on such questions. Virchow’s intervention in clinical etiological work was obstructive. While we are in the enjoyment of a benefaction conferring great happiness, we associate with the thought of the benefactor our resentment against those who, for a long time, obstructed the way to our enjoyment. We sit in judgment. Do we not know the course of history ? Do we not know that the mighty achievement of Harvey required thirty years for its recognition . . . Semmel
