Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
III. Life in Vienna
FRIENDS OF SEMMELWEIS 25 and the failure produced the watchfulness and exact observation in the lying-in wards and in the postmortem room which led to the Discovery. Semmelweis, beginning as a milk-fever epidemicist, had much farther to travel to the doctrine of a decomposed animal organic matter directly conveyed to the genitals of the individual patient as the only etiological factor, than, for example, the British contagionist. .When his discovery had completely seized him he was able to place erysipelas in its proper position in relation to puerperal fever, as merely a producer of decomposed animal-organic matter. It was not until 1874 that we find Matthews Duncan inculcating for the first time on British listeners the same opinion. The modern universally accepted doctrine of the etiology of puerperal fever is that puerperal fever is wound-fever, and wound-fever is wound-poisoning. The supplementary doctrine is also universally established except for a mere logomachy, viz., all infection comes from without. In the works of Semmelweis we find all this implied, sometimes almost explicitly stated. How he came to bridge the space between the theories which he was taught and the modern doctrine must now be our task to trace. Friends of Semmelweis. But first let us glance for a moment at the social surroundings in which the work of Semmelweis was carried on, and try to take some impressions of the immediate associates who influenced his career at the time by placing opportunities in his way, and stimulating him by the example of fruitful achievements. Semmelweis was remarkably fortunate in his early friends in Vienna, and that fact is perhaps a high testimonial to his own intellect and character—the clear head and kindly heart. Chief among the group of singularly able but as yet comparatively little known men, who were beginning to attract the attention of the medical world of Europe
