Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
V. Life in Buda-Pesth
CARL BRAUN than twenty years after the publication of the Ätiologie German writers of eminence describing the doctrine of Semmelweis as one-sided. Braun next falls back on “ authorities ” and the “ literature” for support. It is over five years since the Semmelweis doctrine was first published to the world, let us hear what the men who know best about lying-in hospitals have to say about it. Among the names mentioned are some men of mark such as Scanzoni and Kiwisch, and two representatives of obstetrics in Scandinavia. The rest are mere nobodies. Carl Braun finds nowhere any confirmation of the alleged reliability of the theory of infection in its practical applications, but we meet everywhere with expressions of the most decided opinions and reports of experience which deprive this hypothesis of its strongest support. Among the list of authorities mentionéi by Carl Braun with characteristic recklessness and disregard for accuracy occurs the name of Chiari, one of the earliest and most consistent supporters of the Semmelweis doctrine. It was the episode of death from the removal of a fibroid polypus of the uterus when Chiari was assistant to Klein that led both Chiari and Semmelweis to reflect on the phenomena and symptoms, to reject the ordinary explanation, and apply chlorine antisepsis to gynaecological surgery. It was an extremely painful surprise to me to find Chiari included among my opponents for I had never heard an expression of opposition from him,” and although Semmelweis cannot believe that Chiari ever expressed an opinion of the etiology contrary to his own, he proceeds to quote from an address on “ Pyaemia in Puerperio” delivered by Chiari in 1851. But it was all a deplorable mistake : Chiari had never wavered in his support of the Semmelweis Doctrine, and the heartache caused by the episode was only the consequence of Carl Braun’s peculiar method of controversy. Unfortunately before the misunderstanding 163
