Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
IV. Spread of the Doctrine During the Vienna Period
8o HALLER Hebra was the first to compare the beneficent discovery of Semmelweis with that of Jenner. Semmelweis accepted the comparison as just and appropriate, and introduced it repeatedly in later years when defending his Lehre. There was no exaggeration in favour of Semmelweis in the comparison : Hebra’s expression has been amply justified since it was first employed. Haller. While all medical circles were discussing the value of the Semmelweis discovery, and taking part indirectly in the feud among the professors of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Karl Haller brought the subject before the Medical Society in February, 1849. He was preparing the annual report of the hospital for 1848, and had been deeply impressed with the statistics of the Lying-in Department. Haller had the record of the Lying-in Hospital for the last twelve years, and he stated that in the last year, as compared with the most favourable results of former years, the mortality among lying-in women and infants was just one-fifth or one-sixth of what they had been accustomed to. They were entitled to conclude that the method of chlorine disinfection introduced by Dr. Semmelweis had an important influence in producing the more favourable conditions in this Clinic. Haller was amongst the warmest and most influential supporters of Semmelweis. He was senior physician and assistant Director of the General Hospital, and owing to the respect in which he was held by the staff of that vast institution, his strong advocacy of the Semmelweis doctrine had a determining influence in forming the opinions of all except the staff of the Lying-in Hospital. He concisely stated the experience of former years and mentioned the exact time when chlorine disinfection was introduced “with the consent of Professor Klein,” and the method of its application— “before the first examination of a woman in labour to lying-in the hands scrupulously to make clean with
