In the old days if a woman gave birth to a baby there was a very good chance that the woman would die of a fever after childbirth. It was called puerperal fever, and (oddly enough) it was more likely to occur if the childbirth was at a maternity hospital rather than if it was in a home with a visiting midwife. Why this happened was unknown until the 1840s and 1850s. Then Dr. Ignatz Phillip Semmelweiss (1818 - 1865) was appointed to the staff of maternity department of the University of Vienna. Semmelweiss noted the large number of female deaths there from puerperal fever (sometimes in excess of 7.45%), mostly in the medical student's division rather than with the midwife's.
Semmelweiss studied every possible reason for these deaths: atmospheric conditions, overcrowding, fear, contamination. Nothing was making sense, Then one of his colleagues died of a dissection wound. Semmelweiss realized that many of the student doctors came from their dissection classes straight into the maternity ward. Semmelweiss insisted that the students wash their hands thoroughly before touching the mothers. At the end of 1847 the death rate fell to 3.04% and in 1848 it fell to 1.27%. But Semmelweiss' supporters could not overcome the jealousy of his supervisor, Dr. Johann Klein. Klein and his friends drove Semmelweiss from Vienna in 1849, the year of the Hungarian revolt against the Hapsburgs.
Semmelweiss went to the then independent city of Pest in Hungary (now part of Budapest). He became head of the maternity department there, and in six years reduced mortality from puerperal fever by 0.85%. However, Semmelweiss still had harsh critics about his theories of cleanliness. Eventually he went mad, and was committed to an asylum in July 1865. He had gotten infection by a dissection he had recently done - ironically he died from the infection.
Semmelweiss's achievement was a great step forward in the development of modern medicine. But he never fully understood what he had done. He did not know about microbes that carry disease, but just figured that it was a matter of cleanliness in the hands of doctors and students. Still he led the way to the work of men like Lister, Pasteur, and Koch.
Semmelweiss studied every possible reason for these deaths: atmospheric conditions, overcrowding, fear, contamination. Nothing was making sense, Then one of his colleagues died of a dissection wound. Semmelweiss realized that many of the student doctors came from their dissection classes straight into the maternity ward. Semmelweiss insisted that the students wash their hands thoroughly before touching the mothers. At the end of 1847 the death rate fell to 3.04% and in 1848 it fell to 1.27%. But Semmelweiss' supporters could not overcome the jealousy of his supervisor, Dr. Johann Klein. Klein and his friends drove Semmelweiss from Vienna in 1849, the year of the Hungarian revolt against the Hapsburgs.
Semmelweiss went to the then independent city of Pest in Hungary (now part of Budapest). He became head of the maternity department there, and in six years reduced mortality from puerperal fever by 0.85%. However, Semmelweiss still had harsh critics about his theories of cleanliness. Eventually he went mad, and was committed to an asylum in July 1865. He had gotten infection by a dissection he had recently done - ironically he died from the infection.
Semmelweiss's achievement was a great step forward in the development of modern medicine. But he never fully understood what he had done. He did not know about microbes that carry disease, but just figured that it was a matter of cleanliness in the hands of doctors and students. Still he led the way to the work of men like Lister, Pasteur, and Koch.