Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 194-195. (Budapest, 2006)

TANULMÁNYOK — ARTICLES - HÄNNINEN, O. - FARAGÓ, Mária - MONOS, Emil: Semmelweis ' Discovery and Its Finnish Follow-Up

the poor situation in his clinic. In 1866 he even mentioned that his clinic was a deadly place for mothers and newborns (21 ). Other Finns were also familiar with Semmelweis' work. In 1851 Knut Felix von Willebrand (later - fin 1856-1874 - professor of internal medicine fin the University of Helsinki) gave a lecture on Semmelweis' findings just after the very first reports. This knowledge, however, did not hinder the Medical Faculty to order a professor of pathology Otto Edvard August H jelt (1823-1913) to serve as an acting professor of obstetrics (21). Pippingsköld opened a new period in the obstetrics in Finland, when he became professor and chairman after Sirelius fin 1870. He isolated the septic patients. Personnel had to wear clean clothing. Beds had to be clean. All instruments were heat treated before the use. Personnel had to wash their hands carefully. Flair should be clean and no full beards were permitted. In his inaugural lecture in 1871 he said that the puerperal fever would soon be overcome. Pippingsköld worked hard to establish a new obstetrical hospital, and his efforts proved to be successful. The hospital was opened in 1878 (7). In 1861-1869, during professor Sirelius' time the sepsis-induced mortality among obstetric patients was 7.4%. In a few years, mortality rate was reduced to 3.3 % (fin 1 871), and fin 1888-9 fit had dropped to 0.45 % (21). Thus, Pippingsköld was one of the first in Europe who introduced the ideas of Semmelweis in medical praxis with very good results. During Semmelweis' time Finns were usually born in sauna. Semmelweis' innovation on hand washing and aseptics was probably less important in rural Finland, its practical impact was limited to city hospitals. Great majority of Finnish mothers gave birth fin saunas in those days. The saunas were quite clean due to very hot air temperature and the use of boiled water. It is also noteworthy that smoke, although the farmers were unaware of it, contains phenols and in that time most of the saunas were traditional smoke saunas (later Lister used carbolic acid!). Midwives obviously washed their hands and the water contained some smoke-derived phenols. A direct transfer of infections from one mother to another was rare, as there were seldom more than one delivery fin the family. Jutikkala (8) using available records has studied the mortality fin Airaksinen family and Iisvesi branch of Kekkonen family from 1720 to 1939 as examples of health condition of rural people. His paper does not contain sufficient data specifically on puerperal fever mortality, or on the mortality of newborns. However, it is interesting to note that in 1840-1849, the mortality of infants under one-year old was 14.5 % in the Airaksinen family, where the overall mortality was usually 10 %, and only 2 % in the Kekkonen family where the mortality was regularly less than 10 %. World Premier of Semmelweis Drama in Turku, Finland In 1968, Norwegian author Jens Björneboe (1920-1976) wrote a play on Semmelweis (2). The play presents 33 scenes and embraces a 20 year period of the tragic life of Semmelweis who died at the age of 47. This play claims that Semmelweis not only ceased puerperal fever, but he did much more having ruined the authorities, who were the embodiment of the mortal disease. Both in the prologue and epilogue the tumultuous student year 1968 comes through. The World Premier of Björneboe's Semmelweis drama took place in September 1969 at Âbo Svenska Theatre - the Swedish theatre in Turku, Finland. Lars Svedberg had just been