Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VII. Last Illness and Death
318 LEE form of pyaemia and septicaemia, that is, puerperal fever. . . . Puerperal fever, however induced, has a remarkable tendency to be conveyed to other puerperal women. . . . To prevent this it is therefore the duty of every practitioner to avoid as far as possible any communication of effluvia, secretions from erysipelas, pyaemia, unhealthy sores ... to his obstetric patients. This implies that he shall . . . use antiseptics, change of clothing ... it cannot possibly imply entire abstention from visiting infectious cases while doing midwifery work. The occurrence of a case of septicaemia calls for redoubled precautions. He agrees on principle with Matthews Duncan that quarantine may be necessary. . . . “ A professed obstetrician should not indulge in postmortem examinations or other probable sources of septicaemia.” We have here stated opinions and practice as modern and scientific as any to be found in Europe then or now. We can discover some trace of the contagionist creed; but it is a faithful reflection of the teaching of Simpson of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh School of Medicine modified by the writer’s experience and individuality; and whatever Hegar and some Continental authorities might say, it was the most consistent and efficient practice in Europe of that time, founded on an etiology and pathology which have stood the test of time. Lee. Of very different quality from the paper of Dr. Thorburn was that which was published by Dr. Robert J. Lee, Assistant Physician at the Hospital for Sick Children. The subject was puerperal fever and it was published in the British Medical Journal of May 13th, 1875. Lee was not a teacher of midwifery. This is perhaps the last belittling attack on Semmelweis which ever appeared in any British or Continental medical journal. The writer compares Gordon, of Aberdeen, and Semmelweis very much to the advantage of the former; but he shows that he has not even yet, in 1875, been able to distinguish between the old obsolete
