Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
IV. Spread of the Doctrine During the Vienna Period
66 HEBRA’S FIRST ARTICLE was in most cases nothing else than cadaveric infection. In order to test this opinion, it was laid down as a rule in the First Obstetric Clinic that every one, before making an examination of a pregnant woman, must first wash his hands in an aqueous solution of chloride of lime (Chloratis calcis unc. i, Aqua fontana lib. duas). The result was surprisingly favourable; for during the months of April and May, when this rule had not yet come into force out of ioo cases of labour there were 18 deaths, the number of deaths in the following months up to November 26, only amounted to 47 out of i,547 cases, that is to say the mortality amounted to 2^45 per cent. From this circumstance the problem is perhaps solved, why in schools for midwives the proportion of the prevalent mortality is so favourable in comparison with that of the institutions devoted to the training of students of medicine. An exception is the Maternité of Paris where, as is well known, postmortem examinations are undertaken by the pupil- mid wives. Three distinct facts of experience may perhaps still further confirm the conviction just expressed and even extend still further its scope. Dr. Semmelweis believes that he can prove that: 1. Owing to careless washing some student engaged in dissection caused the loss of several patients in the month of September : 2. In the month of October, owing to frequent examinations of a patient in labour, who suffered from a foul-smelling medullary sarcoma of the uterus, when washing was not practised. Also finally : 3. Owing to a filthy discharge from an ulcer of the leg in one of the patients, several women who were confined at the same time were infected. Thus, therefore, the conveyance of a foul exudation from a living organism may he one cause which produces the puerperal process.
