History of medicine: Ignaz Semmelweis

Also known as

• Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp

 

Life

• 1818 CE – 1865 CE
• Born in Buda, Kingdom of Hungary (modern Budapest, Hungary)
• Appointed assistant to Professor Johann Klein in the First Obstetrical Clinic of the Vienna General Hospital on July 1, 1846.
• The first clinic had higher rates of puerperal fever than the second clinic. Even patients who gave birth in the streets, had lower rates of this disease. He became interested in the large disparity.
• 1847: The breakthrough discovery of his life. His friend Jakob Kolletschka died of an infection after being cut by a contaminated scalpel during a post mortem examination. The autopsy results showed a similar pathology to puerperal fever. Germ theory of disease was not yet widely known in Austria, so he was not aware of this existence of bacteria. However, he considered the possibility of:

 An der Hand klebende Cadavertheile (cadaveric parts sticking to the hand)

• 1847: He began promoting hand hygiene.
• 1848: He began promoting washing of medical instruments.
• 1861: Published his main work on his theory. It met with widespread derision. He responded by writing harsh open letters full of desperation and frustration.
• In 1865, he was forcibly confined to a psychiatric hospital, beaten by guards and died of sepsis (officially recorded as pyaemia). His death occured 14 days after his admission.
• Died in Oberdöbling, Austrian Empire (modern Vienna, Austria) .

 

Great works

• 1861: Die Ätiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxe des Kindbettfiebers (Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever)

Significance in history 

• Recognised that a "cadaverous poison" (despite being unaware of the existence of micro-organisms) was spreading puerperal fever around the hospital. He realised that the staff themselves could be carriers.
• Presented evidence that sanitary practice significantly reduces patient deaths.
• His work was met with strong ridicule and denial.
• 1847 and 1848: Ferdinand von Hebra, the editor of a leading Austrian medical journal, promoted the ideas of Semmelweis, comparing their significance to the works of Edward Jenner.
• Professor Gustav Adolf Michaelis, a German obstetrician, accepted the ideas of Semmelweis and adopted a compulsory practice of prophylactic chlorine handwashing. He realised that many puerperal fevers (now known as 'postpartum infections') and deaths were probably caused by his unsanitary practices. One of the postpartum patients he examined was his own cousin, who died of pueperal fever shortly afterwards. He became depressed and committed suicide in 1848. 
• More than twenty years later, Louis Pasteur would unite 'cadaverous poison' with the Germ theory of disease.