Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VII. Last Illness and Death
LEE 319 doctrine of the contagionists and the modern and thoroughly established etiology of puerperal fever as wound-fever. “ The method of investigation pursued by Semmelweis was much the same as that followed by Gordon.” That is true if “postmortem examination” always implies the same thing, apart altogether from the way in which it is made, and whether by amateur or expert. It was only the year before that Matthews Duncan, in his paper on Puerperal Pyaemia, expressed something like contempt for the amateur postmortem work which had obstructed the progress of the science of puerperal pyaemia. That Gordon was a very awkward amateur must be the conclusion of every one who has read his own account of his work with reasonable attention. Dr. Lee further declares that Semmelweis gives proofs of possessing very limited knowledge indeed of the literature of his subject, and he consequently finds very little difficulty in disposing of his opponents to his own satisfaction. Such language is beyond criticism : it is merely utterly prejudiced, wrong-headed and exasperating. It is because it is unique in the English literature of the subject that we have thought it worth while to call attention to Dr. Lee’s contribution, not from any misconception as to its quality. It reads like the work of a man who had been to Vienna, and obtained his information orally in Carl Braun’s lecture-room.
