Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
IV. Spread of the Doctrine During the Vienna Period
SPREAD OF DOCTRINE 63 students and others to obstruct the exact and thorough application of the method of prophylaxis introduced by Semmelweis in May, 1847. There were occasional difficulties at the Clinic arising from this cause, which broke the even tenour of the smooth and conventional routine. For example some of the students used to make game of the Assistant’s ‘ fad,’ and one in particular, who was engaged in dissection, disregarded the regulations about disinfection before making examinations in the labour-room. Suddenly the mortality rose in September, 1847, to 5^25 per cent. Careful inquiry led to the identification of the culprit. The levity and want of conscience which had sacrificed the lives of several poor women, was just the kind of thing to rouse the anger and contempt of an earnest and kindly man. Semmelweis said to the young criminal some “easy things to understand’’ : his anger was frightful; and he employed terms of such unmeasured reprobation and warning that playing tricks on the eccentric assistant ceased henceforth to be a source of amusement to even the most frivolous student. Semmelweis referred to some such incidents, in after years, as probably explaining the failure of chlorine disinfection at the lying-in hospitals where the Directors had no faith in the efficacy of the measures which they professed to employ. In the autumn of 1847 the Obstetric Clinic was visited by Kussmaul and a companion from Baden. They had both been assistants to the now aged and honoured Naegele, of Heidelberg, and on that ground alone they were welcomed by Semmelweis as personal friends. He obtained for them the privilege of working at the Obstetric Clinics for six weeks. Kussmaul pronounced the operation course of midwifery, conducted by Semmelweis, as simply admirable; and he appears to have been much impressed with what he witnessed of the work of the Vienna Lying-in Hospital. He referred to Semmelweis in the most
