Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian obstetrician of Geman descent. He is famous for his advocacy of physicians' handwashing with chlorinated lime solutions to prevent childbed fever. Budapest's Semmelweis University is named in his honor.

Quotes

• Nachdem mich das Ergebniss der Chlorwaschungen davon überzeugt hat, was die wahre Ursache des Kindbettfiebers sei, teilte ich meine Meinung den Leitern mehrerer Gebäranstalten mit, damit ich die Menschheit und deren möglichst grössten Theil von dieser Geissel je eher befreie.
  translation: After the results of the chlorine washes convinced me of the true cause of childbed fever, I shared my opinion with the directors of several maternity hospitals so that I could free humanity, and as many people as possible, from this scourge as soon as possible.
  • "Der Meinungsunterschied zwischen mir und den englischen Aertzen über das Kindbettfieber (1860; The difference of opinion between me and the English doctors over childbed fever)". Semmelweis' gesammelte Werke. Jena: Gustav Fischer. 1905. pp. 83–94.  (quote from p. 83; edited by Tibor Györy)

• Die Geburtshilfe ist derjenige Zweig des Medicin, welcher die höchste Aufgabe derselben, nämlich Rettung des bedrohten menschlichen Lebens, in zahlreichen Fällen am augenscheinliche löst. Unter vielen Fällen wollen wir nur die Querlage des reifen Kindes anführen. Mutter und Kind sind ein sicheren Tode verfallen, wenn die Geburt der Natur überlassen bleibt, während die rechtzeitig hilfeleistende Hand der Geburtshelfers durch beinahe schmerzlose, Kaum einige Minuten in Anspruch nehmende Handgriffe beider rettet.
  translation: Obstetrics is the branch of medicine which in numerous cases most clearly solves its most important task, namely saving human life in danger. Among many cases we will only mention the transverse malpresentation at childbirth. Mother and child are doomed to certain death if birth is left to nature, while the timely assistance of the obstetrician saves both by almost painless manipulations which take only a few minutes.
  • Die Aetiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers. Hartleben. 1861. 

Quotes about Semmelweis

• ... If one understood the cause of puerperal fever, perhaps the disease could at least be prevented, but such was not the case. To Semmelweis, the disease was as frightening as it was to his colleagues. Yet, unlike his colleagues, Semmelweis saw in puerperal fever a troubling dichotomy. While he was driven to a state of chronic melancholy from observing the large numbers of women dying under his care, at the same time, the disease represented his noble challenge—one that would consume the rest of his life.
  • Theodore G. Obenchain, Genius Belabored: Childbed Fever and the Tragic Life of Ignaz Semmelweis. University of Alabama Press. 2016. p. 23. ISBN 0817319298. 

• Ignaz Semmelweis’ (1818–1865) discovery of the endemic causes of febris puerperalis is a striking example of the role of pathology in medicine. Transdisciplinarity encounters Semmelweis’ biography, which is neither linear nor totally focused on medicine. He completed the philosophicum (artisterium), studying the septem artes liberales (1835–1837) in Pest, comprising humanities and natural science. After moving to Vienna, he began to study law, but turned to medicine as early as 1838. In 1844, he graduated with a botanical doctoral thesis composed in Neo-Latin, showing linguistic and stylistic talent and a broad knowledge of gynecology and obstetrics. The style and topoi demonstrate the interchangeability of what he learnt during his propaedeuticum. Nowadays, hardly anyone is familiar with this booklet, for two main reasons: the language choice and the life-saving impact of the physician’s opus magnum on the reasons for puerperal fever (Die Aetiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers). In later life, he became convinced that he had no talent as a (scientific) author—a fatal error that led him to become a victim of what we now call “publish or perish.” Semmelweis had felt rejected for years. This negative feeling was the reason for his decision not to publish his great book for 14 years. When it finally went to the printer in 1861, the scientific community did not accept it.
  • Sonja Schreiner, (2020). "Ignaz Semmelweis: a victim of harassment?". Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift 170 (11): 293–302.

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Ignaz Semmelweis on Wikipedia
• Media related to Ignaz Semmelweis on Wikimedia Commons