Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VIII. Forerunners and Contemporaries
320 VIII. Forerunners and Contemporaries of Semmelweis. The discredit of the differences of opinion with some obscurantism prevalent among even the teachers of obstetrics in England so late as 1875, implied in Hegar’s sarcasms, is not so obvious when we come to examine closely into the historic causes and analyse the facts. It was not so discreditable as was the unanimity among the professors of midwifery in France and Germany and Continental Europe generally up to about the same time. In England the differences arose chiefly from independent thought and observation, influenced here and there by the adoption of irrational opinions from France or Germany, and modified by the genius of the individual “authority.” In Germany, on the other hand, the absence of differences concerning the fundamental principles at the basis of the etiology of puerperal fever, was owing to the universal acceptance of the doctrine of the genius epidemicus, the atmospheric, cosmic, telluric influences. It is difficult to grasp even now the position : it seems impossible that educated thinking men should have for generations acted in the most serious concerns of professional life on such irrational, unthinkable notions, simply because they were taught by the masters and by them of old time. Upon the whole bodies of men have in religion, politics and medicine always accepted the verba magistri, they do now, and they always will do; but in the history of medicine there is no more remarkable illustration of universal suspension of judgment concerning matters of such immeasurable importance in medical science and practice, that is to all human communities, as that concerning puerperal fever. In the field of religious dogma there had appeared a Martin Luther and less fortunate reformers; in physical
