Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 55-56. (Budapest, 1970)

TANULMÁNYOK - Zoltán Imre: Semmelweis (angol nyelvű közlemény)

Such a man was Semmelweis who had spent the last 10 years of his short life at the Medical University of Pest as the professor of practial and theoretical obstetrics. When in 1855 the King appointed him professor of obstetrics at the University of Pest, he was a young man of 37 with a past full of struggles, disappointment and humiliation. The three and half years that had elapsed between the spring of 1847, the time of his discovery and the autumn of 1850 when he left Vienna was a period of futile struggle, refusal and failure. His biographers justly point out that Semmelweis had not only enemies in Vienna but great friends as well, to mention only Rokitansky, Skoda and Hebra, Professors of medical faculty of Pest University in 1863, Standing: János Diescher, János Wagner, Lajos Arányi, Ignác Semmelweis, Gáspár Lippay, József Lenhossék, Jenő Jendrassik, Döme Nedelkó, Ferenc Linzbauer, Dávid Wachtel, Tamás Stockinger. Sitting: Vilmos Zlamál, Ignác Sauer, N. János Rupp, János Balassa. (Drawing by J. Marastoni) The excellent professor Lesky is equally right in proving that permitting him to demonstrate on phantoms only was by no means offensive. Yet it is a fact that Semmelweis deprived of his post and possibilities of research, rebuffed, found the atmosphere of Vienna stifling. This prompted him finally to move to his native Pest. Before he was appointed professor in Pest, Semmelweis had worked 4 years as an unsalaried head of department at the St. Rochus hospital and as professor continued to work there for another 2 years—six years altogether. During those