Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
V. Life in Buda-Pesth
CARL BRAUN could be cleared up Chiari was in his grave, carried off by cholera in 1855. Among authorities quoted by Braun is Faye of Christiania, who in spite of all advantages of hospital construction, had a mortality of 15 per cent, from childbed fever. Semmelweis has little difficulty in turning the facts to the support of his doctrine. Semmelweis next conscientiously examines and partly discusses the thirty causes of puerperal fever enumerated by Carl Braun in his book. He begins by saying in two sentences what might have stood for the whole dreary dissertation : “Braun’s etiology is partly error and partly truth : Braun’s etiology is error when he teaches something different from my teaching, it is the truth when he teaches what I teach.’’ “In Vienna I established the truth of my doctrine by its practical application. If I had not been able to prove it true by its practical application during my term of service, that would not have made it erroneous. What is true in Vienna is true over the whole world, and if the truth has not been made manifest elsewhere that does not turn the truth into falsehood, and only proves the incompetence of those who have failed.” “ Did Auenbrugger or his contemporaries prove themselves incompetent because Auenbrugger did not live to see percussion brought into general use? ” In Carl Braun’s summary of the etiological factors of puerperal fever we find references to practices peculiar to the Continental lying-in hospitals of those days which make the modern reader shudder. Professor Simpson’s Schmähungen in reply to Arneth’s letter about the Semmelweis discovery in 1848 were only too well grounded. Semmelweis concludes his chapter on Carl Braun b;y giving, and remarking on, the revised definition of puerperal fever contained in Braun’s book. “ Only the- definition of child-bed fever shall we give because it is once more a demonstration of how far astray an undigested compilation may lead. We may reflect that. 164
