Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VIII. Forerunners and Contemporaries
334 SWEDEN AND NORWAY bears a strong analogy to the contributions of English practitioners for many decades before. We are safe to state, however, that owing to the evolution of obstetric education in Denmark the general practitioner never had a chance of contributing to the etiology and pathology of puerperal fever like his contemporaries in the United Kingdom. v. Siebold truly says of Denmark in the first third of the 19th century : “Nothing was wanting in the teaching of midwifery in this country. We find everywhere accomplished midwifery practitioners, and recognise that all take an active part in advancing obstetric science.” But in Denmark general medical practitioners as compared with the English contemporaries were too late in finding opportunities of making scientific observations upon puerperal fever. Sweden and Norway. While Sweden and Norway drew their teachers of midwifery from among the disciples of Saxtorph of Copenhagen, the principles on which these teachers acted regarding puerperal fever were largely those of Germany and France. In the beginning of the nineteenth century the men of mark in Stockholm were Cederschjöld, a disciple of Saxtorph, professor from 1817, and Retzius who from 1828 was director of the small lying-in hospital. As among the opponents of Semmelweis Carl Braun mentioned with obvious satisfaction Retzius and Faye of Christiania (JEtiologie, p. 524). The reply of Semmelweis implies that the Swedish and Norwegian professors belonged to the same class as Carl Braun himself, the teachers of midwifery who tried the prophylaxis without conviction and earnest endeavour: “ Retzius in Stockholm lost 3*3 per cent., and Faye in Christiania lost 15 per cent, of lying-in women in spite of chlorine disinfection” (sEtiologie, p. 526). But worst of all in the i860 “epidemic” of puerperal fever, Retzius had to admit that in the new lying-in hospital of Stockholmé the morbidity reached 40 per cent, and the mortality 16 per cent.
