Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (; hu, Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp ; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist, who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "saviour of mothers", he discovered that the
incidence of
puerperal fever
Postpartum infections, also known as childbed fever and puerperal fever, are any bacterial infections of the female reproductive tract following childbirth or miscarriage. Signs and symptoms usually include a fever greater than , chills, lower ab ...
(also known as "childbed fever") could be drastically reduced by requiring hand disinfection in
obstetrical
Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surg ...
clinics. Puerperal fever was common in mid-19th-century hospitals and often fatal. He proposed the practice of
washing hands
Hand washing (or handwashing), also known as hand hygiene, is the act of cleaning one's hands with soap or handwash and water to remove viruses/bacteria/microorganisms, dirt, grease, or other harmful and unwanted substances stuck to the hand ...
with
chlorinated lime solutions in 1847 while working in
Vienna General Hospital
The Vienna General Hospital (german: Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien), usually abbreviated to AKH, is the general hospital of the city of Vienna, Austria. It is also the city's university hospital, and the site of the Medical Univer ...
's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of
midwives' wards. He published a book of his findings in ''
Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever''.
Despite various publications of results where hand-washing reduced
mortality
Mortality is the state of being mortal, or susceptible to death; the opposite of immortality.
Mortality may also refer to:
* Fish mortality, a parameter used in fisheries population dynamics to account for the loss of fish in a fish stock throug ...
to below 1%, Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. He could offer no theoretical explanation for his findings of reduced mortality due to hand-washing, and some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and mocked him for it. In 1865, the increasingly outspoken Semmelweis allegedly suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an
asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
* Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute
* Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea
...
by his colleagues. In the asylum he was beaten by the guards. He died 14 days later from a gangrenous wound on his right hand that may have been caused by the beating. His findings earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...
confirmed the
germ theory
The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can lead to disease. These small organisms, too small to be seen without magnification, invade ...
, giving Semmelweis' observations a theoretical explanation, and
Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, (5 April 182710 February 1912) was a British surgeon, medical scientist, experimental pathologist and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventative medicine. Joseph Lister revolutionised the craft of s ...
, acting on Pasteur's research, practised and operated using hygienic methods, with great success.
Family and early life
![Ignaz Semmelweis parents](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Ignaz_Semmelweis_parents.jpg)
Ignaz Semmelweis was born on 1 July 1818 in the
Tabán
Tabán usually refers to an area within the 1st district of Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It lies on the Buda (i.e. Western) side of the Danube, to the south of György Dózsa Square, on the northern side of Elisabeth Bridge and to the east o ...
neighbourhood of
Buda
Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
(today part of
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
),
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...
,
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
. He was the fifth child out of 10 of the prosperous
grocer
A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food preservation, packaged ...
family of József Semmelweis and Teréz Müller.
Of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
ancestry, his father was an ethnic German (''hienc'', stem from , a German term for the historical Western-Hungary) born in Kismarton, then in the
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...
(now
Eisenstadt
Eisenstadt (; hu, Kismarton; hr, Željezni grad; ; sl, Železno, Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ''Eisnstod'') is a city in Austria, the state capital of Burgenland. It had a recorded population on 29 April 2021 of 15,074.
In the Habsburg ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
), and his mother an ethnic German from
Buda
Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
. He was granted citizenship in Buda in 1806 and, in the same year, he opened a wholesale business for spices and general consumer goods. The company was named ''Zum weißen Elefanten'' (At the White Elephant) in the Meindl House (today's
Semmelweis Museum of Medical History
The Semmelweis Museum, Library and Archive of the History of Medicine ( hu, Semmelweis Orvostörténeti Múzeum, Könyvtár és Levéltár) is a museum, library and archive in Budapest, Hungary. It was founded in 1965, and became a department of t ...
, located at 1–3 Apród Street,
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
). By 1810, he was a wealthy man and married Teréz Müller, daughter of the coachbuilder Fülöp Müller.
Ignaz began studying law at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
in the autumn of 1837, but by the following year, for reasons that are no longer known, he had switched to medicine. He was awarded his doctor of medicine degree in 1844. Later, after failing to obtain an appointment in a clinic for internal medicine, Semmelweis decided to specialize in obstetrics. His teachers included
Carl von Rokitansky
Baron Carl von Rokitansky (german: Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, cs, Karel Rokytanský; 19 February 1804 – 23 July 1878) was a Bohemian physician, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician, founder of the Viennese School of Medi ...
,
Joseph Škoda, and
Ferdinand von Hebra.
Work on cause of childbed fever mortality
Position at Vienna General Hospital
Semmelweis was appointed assistant to Professor
Johann Klein in the First Obstetrical Clinic of the
Vienna General Hospital
The Vienna General Hospital (german: Allgemeines Krankenhaus der Stadt Wien), usually abbreviated to AKH, is the general hospital of the city of Vienna, Austria. It is also the city's university hospital, and the site of the Medical Univer ...
on 1 July 1846. A comparable position today in a United States hospital would be "chief resident." His duties were to examine patients each morning in preparation for the professor's rounds, supervise difficult deliveries, teach students of obstetrics, and be "clerk" of records.
Maternity institutions were set up all over Europe to address problems of
infanticide
Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose is the prevention of reso ...
of illegitimate children. They were set up as ''gratis'' institutions and offered to care for the infants, which made them attractive to
underprivileged
Social privilege is a theory of special advantage or entitlement, which benefits one person, often to the detriment of others. Privileged groups can be advantaged based on education, social class, caste, age, height, weight, nationality, geogra ...
women, including prostitutes. In return for the free services, the women would be subjects for the training of doctors and midwives.
Two maternity clinics were at the Viennese hospital. The First Clinic had an average
maternal
]
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestat ...
mortality rate
Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...
of about 10% due to puerperal fever. The Second Clinic's rate was considerably lower, averaging less than 4%. This fact was known outside the hospital. The two clinics admitted on alternate days, but women begged to be admitted to the Second Clinic, due to the bad reputation of the First Clinic. Semmelweis described desperate women begging on their knees not to be admitted to the First Clinic. Some women even preferred to give birth in the streets, pretending to have given sudden birth ''en route'' to the hospital (a practice known as street births), which meant they would still qualify for the child care benefits without having been admitted to the clinic. Semmelweis was puzzled that puerperal fever was rare among women giving street births. "To me, it appeared logical that patients who experienced street births would become ill at least as frequently as those who delivered in the clinic.
..What protected those who delivered outside the clinic from these destructive unknown endemic influences?"
Analysis of childbed fever mortality
Semmelweis was severely troubled that his First Clinic had a much higher mortality rate due to puerperal fever than the Second Clinic. It "made me so miserable that life seemed worthless". The two clinics used almost the same techniques, and Semmelweis started eliminating all possible differences, including even religious practices. The only major difference was the individuals who worked there. The First Clinic was the teaching service for medical students, while the Second Clinic had been selected in 1841 for the instruction of midwives only.
![Yearly mortality rates 1841-1846 two clinics](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Yearly_mortality_rates_1841-1846_two_clinics.png)
He excluded "overcrowding" as a cause since the Second Clinic was always more crowded and yet the mortality was lower. He eliminated climate as a cause because the climate was the same.
Theory of cadaverous poisoning
Semmelweis' breakthrough occurred in 1847, following the death of his good friend
Jakob Kolletschka
Jakob Kolletschka (24 July 1803, Biela (now Bělá nad Svitavou), BohemiaSOA Zámrsk, Matrika narozených 1800-1835 v Bělé nad Svitavou, sign. M-17 2255, ukn. 80, p. 16. Available online – 13 March 1847, Vienna) was Professor of Forensic Med ...
, who had been accidentally poked with a student's scalpel while performing a
''post mortem'' examination. Kolletschka's autopsy showed a
pathology
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...
similar to that of the women who were dying from puerperal fever. Semmelweis immediately proposed a connection between
cadaver
A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stud ...
ic contamination and puerperal fever.
He proposed that he and the medical students carried "cadaverous particles" on their hands from the autopsy room to the patients they examined in the First Obstetrical Clinic. This explained why the student
midwives
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...
in the Second Clinic, who were not engaged in autopsies and had no contact with corpses, saw a much lower mortality rate.
The
germ theory of disease
The germ theory of disease is the currently accepted scientific theory for many diseases. It states that microorganisms known as pathogens or "germs" can lead to disease. These small organisms, too small to be seen without magnification, invade h ...
had not yet been accepted in Vienna. Thus, Semmelweis concluded some unknown "cadaverous material" caused childbed fever. He instituted a policy of using a solution of chlorinated lime (
calcium hypochlorite
Calcium hypochlorite is an inorganic compound with formula Ca(OCl)2. It is the main active ingredient of commercial products called bleaching powder, chlorine powder, or chlorinated lime, used for water treatment and as a bleaching agent. Thi ...
) for washing hands between autopsy work and the examination of patients. He did this because he found that this chlorinated solution worked best to remove the putrid smell of infected autopsy tissue, and thus perhaps destroyed the causal "poisonous" or contaminating "cadaveric" agent hypothetically being transmitted by this material.
The result was the mortality rate in the First Clinic declined 90% and was then comparable to that in the Second Clinic. The mortality rate in April 1847 was 18.3%. After
hand washing
Hand washing (or handwashing), also known as hand hygiene, is the act of cleaning one's hands with soap, soap or handwash and water to remove viruses/bacteria/microorganisms, dirt, grease, or other harmful and unwanted substances stuck to the ...
was instituted in mid-May, the rates in June were 2.2%, July 1.2%, August 1.9%, and, for the first time since the introduction of anatomical orientation, the death rate was zero in two months in the year following this discovery.
Efforts to reduce childbed fever
Semmelweis's hypothesis, that there was only one cause, that all that mattered was cleanliness, was extreme at the time and was largely ignored, rejected, or ridiculed. He was dismissed from the hospital for political reasons and harassed by the medical community in Vienna, being eventually forced to move to Budapest.
Semmelweis was outraged by the indifference of the medical profession and began writing open and increasingly angry letters to prominent European obstetricians, at times denouncing them as irresponsible murderers. His contemporaries, including his wife, believed he was losing his mind, and in 1865, nearly 20 years after his breakthrough, he was committed to the ''Landesirrenanstalt
Döbling
Döbling () is the 19th District
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, seve ...
'' (provincial lunatic asylum). He died there of
septic shock
Septic shock is a potentially fatal medical condition that occurs when sepsis, which is organ injury or damage in response to infection, leads to dangerously low blood pressure and abnormalities in cellular metabolism. The Third International Con ...
only 14 days later, possibly as the result of being severely beaten by guards. Semmelweis's practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death when Louis Pasteur further developed the germ theory of disease, offering a theoretical explanation for Semmelweis's findings. He is considered a pioneer of antiseptic procedures.
Conflict with established medical opinion
![Monthly mortality rates 1841-1849](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Monthly_mortality_rates_1841-1849.png)
Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time. The theory of diseases was highly influenced by ideas of an imbalance of the basic "
four humours
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 1850s ...
" in the body, a theory known as
dyscrasia
In medicine, both ancient and modern, a dyscrasia is any of various disorders. The word has ancient Greek roots meaning "bad mixture". The concept of dyscrasia was developed by the Greek physician Galen (129–216 AD), who elaborated a model of h ...
, for which the main treatment was
bloodletting
Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease. Bloodletting, whether by a physician or by leeches, was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily flu ...
s. Medical texts at the time emphasized that each case of disease was unique, the result of a personal imbalance, and the main difficulty of the medical profession was to establish precisely each patient's unique situation, case by case.
The findings from autopsies of deceased women also showed a confusing multitude of physical signs, which emphasized the belief that puerperal fever was not one, but many different, yet unidentified, diseases.
The rejection of Semmelweis's empirical observations is often traced to
belief perseverance
Belief perseverance (also known as conceptual conservatism) is maintaining a belief despite new information that firmly contradicts it. Such beliefs may even be strengthened when others attempt to present evidence debunking them, a phenomenon kn ...
, the psychological tendency of clinging to discredited beliefs. Also, some historians of science argue that resistance to path-breaking contributions of obscure scientists is common and "constitutes the single most formidable block to scientific advances."
As a result, his ideas were rejected by the medical community. Other, more subtle, factors may also have played a role. Some doctors, for instance, were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands, feeling that their social status as gentlemen was inconsistent with the idea that their hands could be unclean.
Semmelweis's results lacked scientific explanation at the time. That became possible only in the 1860s and 1870s, when
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...
,
Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, (5 April 182710 February 1912) was a British surgeon, medical scientist, experimental pathologist and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventative medicine. Joseph Lister revolutionised the craft of s ...
, and others further developed the germ theory of disease.
During 1848, Semmelweis widened the scope of his washing protocol, to include all instruments coming in contact with patients in labour, and used mortality rates
time series
In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. Exa ...
to document his success in virtually eliminating puerperal fever from the hospital ward.
Hesitant publication of results and first signs of trouble
![Streptococcus pyogenes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Streptococcus_pyogenes.jpg)
Toward the end of 1847, accounts of the work of Semmelweis (as well as the similar conclusions of
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most fa ...
, working in America) began to spread around Europe. Semmelweis and his students wrote letters to the directors of several prominent maternity clinics describing their recent observations.
Ferdinand von Hebra, the editor of a leading Austrian medical journal, announced Semmelweis's discovery in the December 1847 and April 1848 issues of the medical journal. Hebra claimed that Semmelweis's work had a practical significance comparable to that of
Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner, (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was a British physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines, and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms ''vaccine'' and ''vaccination'' are derived f ...
's introduction of cowpox inoculations to prevent smallpox.
In late 1848, one of Semmelweis's former students wrote a lecture explaining Semmelweis's work. The lecture was presented before the Royal Medical and Surgical Society in London and a review published in ''
The Lancet
''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823.
The journal publishes original research articles, ...
'', a prominent medical journal. A few months later, another of Semmelweis's former students published a similar essay in a French periodical.
As accounts of the dramatic reduction in mortality rates in Vienna were being circulated throughout Europe, Semmelweis had reason to expect that the chlorine washings would be widely adopted, saving tens of thousands of lives. Early responses to his work also gave clear signs of coming trouble, however. Some physicians had clearly misinterpreted his claims. Additionally, initial responses to Semmelweis's findings tended to downplay their significance by arguing that ''he had said nothing new''.
James Young Simpson
Sir James Young Simpson, 1st Baronet, (7 June 1811 – 6 May 1870) was a Scottish obstetrician and a significant figure in the history of medicine. He was the first physician to demonstrate the anesthetic, anaesthetic properties of chloroform ...
, for instance, saw no difference between Semmelweis's groundbreaking findings and the idea presented in an 1843 paper by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. that childbed fever was contagious (''i.e''. that infected persons could pass the infection to others).
In fact, Semmelweis was warning against all decaying organic matter, not just against a specific contagion that originated from victims of childbed fever themselves. This misunderstanding, and others like it, occurred partly because Semmelweis's work was known only through secondhand reports written by his colleagues and students. At this crucial stage, Semmelweis himself had published nothing. These and similar misinterpretations continued to cloud discussions of his work throughout the century.
Some accounts emphasize that Semmelweis refused to communicate his method officially to the learned circles of Vienna, nor was he eager to explain it on paper.
Political turmoil and dismissal from the Vienna hospital
In 1848,
a series of tumultuous revolutions swept across Europe. The resulting political turmoil would affect Semmelweis's career. In Vienna on 13 March 1848, students demonstrated in favor of increased
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
, including trial by jury and
freedom of expression
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
. The demonstrations were led by medical students and young faculty members and were joined by workers from the suburbs. Two days later in Hungary, demonstrations and uprisings led to the
Hungarian Revolution of 1848
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 or fully Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although th ...
and a full-scale war against the ruling
Habsburgs
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
of the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
. In Vienna, the March demonstration was followed by months of general unrest.
No evidence indicates Semmelweis was personally involved in the events of 1848. Some of his brothers were punished for active participation in the Hungarian independence movement, and the Hungarian-born Semmelweis likely was sympathetic to the cause. Semmelweis's superior, professor
Johann Klein, was a conservative Austrian, likely uneasy with the independence movements and alarmed by the other
revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
The Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire were a set of revolutions that took place in the Austrian Empire from March 1848 to November 1849. Much of the revolutionary activity had a nationalist character: the Empire, ruled from Vienna, incl ...
. Klein probably mistrusted Semmelweis.
When Semmelweis's term was about to expire,
Carl Braun also applied for the position of "assistant" in the First Clinic, possibly at Klein's own invitation. Semmelweis and Braun were the only two applicants for the post. Semmelweis's predecessor,
Franz Breit, had been granted a two-year extension. Semmelweis's application for an extension was supported by
Joseph Škoda and
Carl von Rokitansky
Baron Carl von Rokitansky (german: Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, cs, Karel Rokytanský; 19 February 1804 – 23 July 1878) was a Bohemian physician, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician, founder of the Viennese School of Medi ...
and by most of the medical faculty, but Klein chose Braun for the position. Semmelweis was obliged to leave the obstetrical clinic when his term expired on March 20, 1849.
The day his term expired, Semmelweis petitioned the Viennese authorities to be made
docent
The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...
of obstetrics. A docent was a private lecturer who taught students and who had access to some university facilities. At first, because of Klein's opposition, Semmelweis's petition was denied. He reapplied, but had to wait until 10 October 1850 (more than 18 months), before finally being appointed docent of 'theoretical' obstetrics. The terms refused him access to cadavers and limited him to teaching students by using leather-fabricated
mannequin
A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles. Pr ...
s only. A few days after being notified of his appointment, Semmelweis left Vienna abruptly and returned to Pest. He apparently left without so much as saying goodbye to his former friends and colleagues, a move that might have offended them. According to his own account, he left Vienna because he was "unable to endure further frustrations in dealing with the Viennese medical establishment".
Life in Budapest
![Semmelweis Ignác és felesége 1857 Canzi Ágost](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Semmelweis_Ign%C3%A1c_%C3%A9s_feles%C3%A9ge_1857_Canzi_%C3%81gost.jpg)
During 1848–1849, some troops from the
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
-ruled
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
thwarted the
Hungarian independence movement, executed or imprisoned its leaders and in the process destroyed parts of
Pest. Semmelweis, upon arriving from the Habsburg Vienna in 1850, likely was not warmly welcomed in Pest.
On 20 May 1851, Semmelweis took the relatively insignificant, unpaid, honorary head-physician position of the obstetric ward of Pest's small
Szent Rókus Hospital. He held that position for six years, until June 1857. Childbed fever was rampant at the clinic; at a visit in 1850, just after returning to Pest, Semmelweis found one fresh corpse, another patient in severe agony, and four others seriously ill with the disease. After taking over in 1851, Semmelweis virtually eliminated the disease. During 1851–1855, only eight patients died from childbed fever out of 933 births (0.85%).
Despite the impressive results, Semmelweis's ideas were not accepted by the other obstetricians in Budapest. The professor of obstetrics at the University of Pest,
Ede Flórián Birly, never adopted Semmelweis's methods. He continued to believe that puerperal fever was due to uncleanliness of the bowel. Therefore, extensive purging was the preferred treatment.
After Birly died in 1854, Semmelweis applied for the position. So did Carl Braun—Semmelweis's nemesis and successor as
Johann Klein's assistant in Vienna—and Braun received more votes from his Hungarian colleagues than Semmelweis did. Semmelweis was eventually appointed in 1855, but only because the Viennese authorities overruled the wishes of the Hungarians, as Braun did not speak Hungarian. As professor of obstetrics, Semmelweis instituted chlorine washings at the University of Pest
maternity clinic. Once again, the results were impressive.
Semmelweis declined an offer in 1857 to become professor of obstetrics at the
University of Zurich
The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
. The same year, Semmelweis married Mária Weidenhofer (1837–1910), 19 years his junior and the daughter of a successful merchant in Pest. They had five children.
Response by the medical community
![Yearly mortality rates 1784-1849](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Yearly_mortality_rates_1784-1849.png)
Semmelweis's views were much more favorably received in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
than on the continent, but he was more often cited than understood. The British consistently regarded Semmelweis as having supported their theory of contagion. A typical example was W. Tyler Smith, who claimed that Semmelweis "made out very conclusively" that "
miasms derived from the dissecting room will excite puerperal disease." One of the first to respond to Semmelweis's 1848 communications was
James Young Simpson
Sir James Young Simpson, 1st Baronet, (7 June 1811 – 6 May 1870) was a Scottish obstetrician and a significant figure in the history of medicine. He was the first physician to demonstrate the anesthetic, anaesthetic properties of chloroform ...
, who wrote a stinging letter. Simpson surmised that the British obstetrical literature must be totally unknown in Vienna, or Semmelweis would have known that the British had long regarded childbed fever as contagious and would have employed chlorine washing to protect against it.
In 1856, Semmelweis's assistant Josef Fleischer reported the successful results of hand washing activities at St. Rochus and Pest maternity institutions in the'' Viennese Medical Weekly ''(''
Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift
The ''Wiener Medizinische Wochensschrift'' is a medical journal published by Springer Verlag, Vienna. The Österreichische Nationalbibliothek has made old copies available over the Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global syst ...
''). The editor remarked sarcastically that it was time people stopped being misled about the theory of chlorine washings. Two years later, Semmelweis published his own account of his work in an essay entitled "The Etiology of Childbed Fever". Two years after that, he published a second essay, "The Difference in Opinion between Myself and the English Physicians regarding Childbed Fever". In 1861, Semmelweis published his main work ''Die Ätiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers'' (German for "The Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever"). In his 1861 book, Semmelweis lamented the slow adoption of his ideas: "Most medical lecture halls continue to resound with lectures on epidemic childbed fever and with discourses against my theories.
..In published medical works my teachings are either ignored or attacked. The medical faculty at Würzburg awarded a prize to a monograph written in 1859 in which my teachings were rejected".
In a textbook, Carl Braun, Semmelweis's successor as assistant in the first clinic, identified 30 causes of childbed fever; only the 28th of these was cadaverous infection. Other supposed causes included conception and pregnancy, uremia, pressure exerted on adjacent organs by the shrinking uterus, emotional traumata, mistakes in diet, chilling, and atmospheric epidemic influences.
Despite this opposition, Braun, who was Assistant in the First Division in the period April 1849 to summer 1853, maintained a relatively low mortality rate in the First Division, roughly consistent with the rate Semmelweis himself achieved, as
mortality rates
Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...
in the period April 1849 to end 1853 show. These results suggest that Braun continued, assiduously, to require the chlorine washings.
At a conference of German physicians and
natural scientist
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repea ...
s, most of the speakers rejected his doctrine, including the celebrated
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...
, who was a scientist of the highest authority of his time. Virchow's great authority in medical circles contributed potently to Semmelweis' lack of recognition.
Ede Flórián Birly, Semmelweis's predecessor as Professor of Obstetrics at the University of Pest, never accepted Semmelweis's teachings; he continued to believe that puerperal fever was due to uncleanliness of the bowel.
August Breisky, an obstetrician in Prague, rejected Semmelweis's book as "naïve" and he referred to it as "the Koran of puerperal theology". Breisky objected that Semmelweis had not proved that puerperal fever and
pyemia
Pyaemia (or pyemia) is a type of sepsis that leads to widespread abscesses of a metastatic nature. It is usually caused by the staphylococcus bacteria by pus-forming organisms in the blood. Apart from the distinctive abscesses, pyaemia exhibits ...
are identical, and he insisted that other factors beyond decaying organic matter certainly had to be included in the
etiology
Etiology (pronounced ; alternatively: aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek (''aitiología'') "giving a reason for" (, ''aitía'', "cause"); and ('' -logía''). More completely, e ...
of the disease.
Carl Edvard Marius Levy, head of the Copenhagen maternity hospital and an outspoken critic of Semmelweis's ideas, had reservations concerning the unspecific nature of cadaverous particles and that the supposed quantities were unreasonably small. In fact,
Robert Koch
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the Vibrio ...
later used precisely this fact to prove that various infecting materials contained living organisms which could reproduce in the human body; that is, since the poison could be neither chemical nor physical in operation, it must be biological.
It has been contended that Semmelweis could have had an even greater impact if he had managed to communicate his findings more effectively and avoid antagonising the medical establishment, even given the opposition from entrenched viewpoints.
Breakdown and death
![Semmelweis Ignác 1864](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Semmelweis_Ign%C3%A1c_1864.jpg)
After a number of unfavorable foreign reviews of his 1861 book, Semmelweis lashed out against his critics in a series of open letters. They were addressed to various prominent European obstetricians, including
Späth Spaeth, Spæth, or Späth is a surname, and may refer to:
Spaeth
*Barbette Spaeth (born ?), American professor and Roman mythology expert
*Diana Palmer (author) (born Susan Spaeth, 1946), American romance novelist
*George Spaeth (born 1932), Amer ...
,
Scanzoni,
Siebold Siebold or von Siebold is a German surname:
* Carl Caspar von Siebold (1736–1807), surgeon
* Regina von Siebold (1771–1849), obstetrician
* Adam Elias von Siebold (1775–1828), medical doctor
* Charlotte von Siebold (1788–1859), gynaecol ...
, and to "all obstetricians". They were full of bitterness, desperation, and fury and were "highly polemical and superlatively offensive", at times denouncing his critics as irresponsible murderers or ignoramuses. He also called upon Siebold to arrange a meeting of German obstetricians somewhere in Germany to provide a forum for discussions on puerperal fever, where he would stay "until all have been converted to his theory."
In mid-1865, his public behaviour became exasperating and embarrassing to his associates. He also began to drink immoderately; he spent progressively more time away from his family, sometimes in the company of a prostitute; and his wife noticed changes in his sexual behavior. On 13 July 1865, the Semmelweis family visited friends, and during the visit, Semmelweis's behavior seemed particularly inappropriate.
Semmelweis's alleged affliction has been a subject of some debate. According to K. Codell Carter, in his biography of Semmelweis, its exact nature cannot be determined:
It is impossible to appraise the nature of Semmelweis's disorder. ... It might have been Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
, a type of dementia, which is associated with rapid cognitive decline and mood changes. It might have been third-stage syphilis
Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...
, a then-common disease of obstetricians who examined thousands of women at gratis institutions, or it might have been emotional exhaustion from overwork and stress.
In 1865,
János Balassa
János Balassa (1815–1868) was a surgeon, university professor, and one of the leading personalities of the Hungarian medical society at the time. He was also an internationally recognized authority within the field of plastic surgery.Benedek 198 ...
wrote a document referring Semmelweis to a mental institution. On 30 July,
Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra
Ferdinand Karl Franz Schwarzmann, Ritter von Hebra (7 September 1816, in Brno, Moravia – 5 August 1880 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary) was an Austrian physician and dermatologist known as the founder of the New Vienna School of Dermatology, an ...
lured him, under the pretense of visiting one of Hebra's "new Institutes", to a Viennese insane asylum located in Lazarettgasse (''Landes-Irren-Anstalt in der Lazarettgasse''). Semmelweis surmised what was happening and tried to leave. He was severely beaten by several guards, secured in a
straitjacket
A straitjacket is a garment shaped like a jacket with long sleeves that surpass the tips of the wearer's fingers. Its most typical use is restraining people who may cause harm to themselves or others. Once the wearer slides their arms into the ...
, and confined to a darkened cell. Apart from the straitjacket, treatments at the
mental institution
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
included dousing with cold water and administering
castor oil
Castor oil is a vegetable oil pressed from castor beans.
It is a colourless or pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and odor. Its boiling point is and its density is 0.961 g/cm3. It includes a mixture of triglycerides in which about ...
, a
laxative
Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation.
Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lubri ...
. He died after two weeks, on 13 August 1865, aged 47, from a
gangrenous
Gangrene is a type of tissue death caused by a lack of blood supply. Symptoms may include a change in skin color to red or black, numbness, swelling, pain, skin breakdown, and coolness. The feet and hands are most commonly affected. If the ga ...
wound, due to an infection on his right hand which might have been caused by the struggle. The autopsy gave the cause of death as
pyemia
Pyaemia (or pyemia) is a type of sepsis that leads to widespread abscesses of a metastatic nature. It is usually caused by the staphylococcus bacteria by pus-forming organisms in the blood. Apart from the distinctive abscesses, pyaemia exhibits ...
—
blood poisoning
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
.
Semmelweis was buried in Vienna on 15 August 1865. Only a few people attended the service. Brief announcements of his death appeared in a few medical periodicals in Vienna and Budapest. Although the rules of the Hungarian Association of Physicians and Natural Scientists specified that a commemorative address be delivered in honor of a member who had died in the preceding year, there was no address for Semmelweis; his death was never even mentioned.
János Diescher was appointed Semmelweis's successor at the Pest University maternity clinic. Immediately, mortality rates increased sixfold to 6%, but the physicians of Budapest said nothing; there were no inquiries and no protests. Almost no one—either in Vienna or in Budapest—seems to have been willing to acknowledge Semmelweis's life and work.
His remains were transferred to Budapest in 1891. On 11 October 1964, they were transferred once more to the house in which he was born. The
house at 1-3 Apród utca is now a museum of medical history, honoring Ignaz Semmelweis.
Legacy
![Semmelweis statue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Semmelweis_statue.jpg)
Semmelweis' advice on chlorine washings was probably more influential than he realized. Many doctors, particularly in Germany, appeared quite willing to experiment with the practical
hand washing
Hand washing (or handwashing), also known as hand hygiene, is the act of cleaning one's hands with soap, soap or handwash and water to remove viruses/bacteria/microorganisms, dirt, grease, or other harmful and unwanted substances stuck to the ...
measures that he proposed—although virtually everyone rejected his basic and ground-breaking innovation: that the disease had only one cause, lack of cleanliness.
Gustav Adolf Michaelis
Gustav Adolf Michaelis (9 July 1798 – 8 August 1848) was a German obstetrician who was a native of Kiel. He was the founder and establisher of the Michaelis’ Rhomboid.
Biography Education and Career
Gustav Adolf Michaelis was born on the 9 ...
, a professor at a maternity institution in
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
, replied positively to Semmelweis' suggestions, but eventually committed suicide, feeling responsible for the death of his own cousin, whom he had examined after she gave birth.
Only belatedly did his observational evidence gain wide acceptance; more than twenty years later,
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...
's work offered a ''theoretical'' explanation for Semmelweis' observations: the germ theory of disease. As such, the Semmelweis story is often used in university courses with
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
content, e.g.
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
courses—demonstrating the virtues of
empiricism
In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological theory that holds that knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empir ...
or
positivism
Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...
and providing a historical account of which types of knowledge count as scientific (and thus accepted) knowledge, and which do not.
C. Hempel, just to mention one, dedicated the first pages of his ''
Philosophy of Natural Science
''Philosophy of Natural Science'' is a 1966 book about the philosophy of science by the philosopher Carl Gustav Hempel.
Reception
The philosopher Michael Friedman wrote that while ''Philosophy of Natural Science'' was more popular in its approach ...
'' to Semmelweis, arguing that the latter's method is typical of contemporary scientific research, in that the doctor framed a series of hypotheses, verifying them through
falsifying experiments in accordance with Hempel's
deductive-nomological model
The deductive-nomological model (DN model) of scientific explanation, also known as Hempel's model, the Hempel–Oppenheim model, the Popper–Hempel model, or the covering law model, is a formal view of scientifically answering questions asking, ...
. It has been seen as an irony that Semmelweis' critics considered themselves positivists, but even positivism suffers problems in the face of theories which seem magical or superstitious, such as the idea that "corpse particles" might turn a person into a corpse, with no causal mechanism being stipulated, after a simple contact. To his contemporaries, Semmelweis seemed to be reverting to the speculative theories of earlier decades that were so repugnant to his positivist contemporaries.
![Semmelweis Ignác emlékmű, Stróbl Alajos, 1904-06](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Semmelweis_Ign%C3%A1c_eml%C3%A9km%C5%B1%2C_Str%C3%B3bl_Alajos%2C_1904-06.jpg)
The so-called
Semmelweis reflex
The Semmelweis reflex or "Semmelweis effect" is a metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs, or paradigms.
The term derives from the name of Ignaz Semmelweis, ...
—a metaphor for a certain type of human behaviour characterized by reflex-like rejection of new knowledge because it contradicts entrenched norms, beliefs, or paradigms—is named after Semmelweis, whose ideas were ridiculed and rejected by his contemporaries.
Other legacies of Semmelweis include:
* Semmelweis is now recognized as a pioneer of
antiseptic
An antiseptic (from Greek ἀντί ''anti'', "against" and σηπτικός ''sēptikos'', "putrefactive") is an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putre ...
policy.
*
Semmelweis University
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (; hu, Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp ; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist, who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "saviour of mothers", he discovered that t ...
, a university for medicine and health-related disciplines (located in
Budapest, Hungary
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population of ...
), is named after Semmelweis.
* The
Semmelweis Museum of Medical History
The Semmelweis Museum, Library and Archive of the History of Medicine ( hu, Semmelweis Orvostörténeti Múzeum, Könyvtár és Levéltár) is a museum, library and archive in Budapest, Hungary. It was founded in 1965, and became a department of t ...
is located in the house where he was born.
* The Semmelweis Klinik, a hospital for women located in Vienna, Austria.
* The Semmelweis Hospital in
Miskolc
Miskolc ( , , ; Czech language, Czech and sk, Miškovec; german: Mischkolz; yi, script=Latn, Mishkoltz; ro, Mișcolț) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 (1 Jan 2014) Miskolc is the ...
, Hungary.
* The Semmelweis Hospital in Kiskunhalas, Hungary.
* In 2008, Semmelweis was selected as the motif for an Austrian
commemorative coin
Commemorative coins are coins issued to commemorate some particular event or issue with a distinct design with reference to the occasion on which they were issued. Many coins of this category serve as collectors items only, although some countries ...
.
* Minor planet
4170 Semmelweis is named after him.
* A postage stamp was issued by Hungary on 1 July 1932 in the Famous Hungarians series: ''Stamp:Ignác Semmelweis (1818~1865), physician''
* Inclusion as a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
to promote handwashing beginning on 20 March 2020 during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
* The Ignác Semmelweis Prize, the most prestigious Hungarian medical award.
Films
* ''
That Mothers Might Live
''That Mothers Might Live'' is a 1938 American short drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann. In 1939, at the 11th Academy Awards, it won an Oscar for Best Short Subject (One-Reel).
The short is a brief account of Hungarian physician Ignaz Semm ...
'' (1938), US,
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
, director:
Fred Zinnemann
Alfred ''Fred'' Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 – March 14, 1997) was an Austrian Empire-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and play ...
. Played by
Shepperd Strudwick
Shepperd Strudwick (September 22, 1907 – January 15, 1983) was an American actor of film, television, and stage. He was also billed as John Shepperd for some of his films and for his acting on stage in New York.
Early years
Strudwick was ...
. Oscar for the best short film
* ''Semmelweis'' (1940), Hungary,
Mester Film, director:
André de Toth
Endre Antal Miksa DeToth, better known as Andre de Toth (born Endre Antal Mihály Tóth; May 15, 1913 – October 27, 2002), was a Hungarian-American film director, born and raised in Makó, Austria-Hungary. He directed the 3D film ''House ...
. Played by
Tivadar Uray
Tivadar Uray (9 November 1895 – 22 June 1962) was a Hungarian film actor. He appeared in more than 40 films between 1917 and 1962. He was born and died in Munkács, Hungary (now Mukachevo, Ukraine).
Selected filmography
* '' A Vörös S ...
* ''Semmelweis – Retter der Mütter'' (1950), East Germany,
DEFA
DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence.
Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...
, director:
Georg C. Klaren
Georg C. Klaren (1900–1962) was an Austrian screenwriter and film director. He worked on a number of screenplays with Herbert Juttke during the silent era, silent and early sound eras including Alfred Hitchcock's 1931 film ''Mary (1931 film), Ma ...
. Played by
Karl Paryla
Karl Paryla (1905–1996) was an Austrian theater actor and director, and later a film maker as well. A lifelong, dedicated communist, his career in the Austrian theater was first interrupted by the Second World War, and then strained by Cold War ...
* ''Ignaz Semmelweis: Gynecologist'' (1989), West Germany/Austria/Hungary,
ZDF
ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
/
ORF
ORF or Orf may refer to:
* Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF
* Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute
* One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel
* Open reading frame, a portion of the ...
, director:
Michael Verhoeven
Michael Verhoeven (born 13 July 1938) is a German film director.
Life and work
Verhoeven is the son of the German film director Paul Verhoeven (not to be confused with the Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven). He married actress Senta Berger in ...
. Played by
Heiner Lauterbach
Heiner Lauterbach (; born 10 April 1953) is a German actor.
Life and work
Heiner Lauterbach was married to German actress Katja Flint who is the mother of his son Oscar (*1988). Later he had a relationship with Jenny Elvers. Since 7 Septem ...
* ''Semmelweis'' (1994), the Netherlands,
Humanistische Omroep Stichting, director:
Floor Maas
A floor is the bottom surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many layered surfaces made with modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal or any other material that can support the expected load ...
. Played by
Stefan de Walle
Stefan de Walle (born 15 September 1965) is a Dutch actor.
Career
De Walle is known for his role of ''Kees'' in the spin-off television series of the 1986 film ''Flodder'', which ran from 1993 to 1998. He also played this role in the 1995 fi ...
* ''Docteur Semmelweis'' (1995), France/Poland, director:
Roger Andrieux. Played by
Philippe Volter
Philippe Volter (23 March 1959 – 13 April 2005) was a Belgian actor and director. Born Philippe Wolter to theatre director Claude Volter and his wife, actress Jacqueline Bir, Volter began his career in Brussels in 1985.
He made many stage ...
* ''Semmelweis'' (2001 short film), US/Austria,
Belvedere Film, director:
Jim Berry, producers:
Robert Dassanowsky
Robert von Dassanowsky FRHistS, FRSA (born January 28, 1965) is an Austrian-American academic, writer, film and cultural historian, and producer. He is usually known as Robert Dassanowsky.
Education, career and publications
Dassanowsky was born ...
and
Elfi von Dassanowsky
Elfriede "Elfi" von Dassanowsky (February 2, 1924October 2, 2007) was an Austrian-born singer, pianist and film producer.
Early life
Elfi von Dassanowsky (also known as Elfi Dassanowsky or Elfriede Dassanowsky) was born Elfriede Maria Elisabe ...
. Played by Fritz Michel
Literature
* is the classic reference, in Latin print, not the original Gothic print.
*
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( , ) was a French novelist, polemicist and physician. His first novel ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the ''Pri ...
completed his M.D. thesis on Semmelweis in 1924. It was published as a fictionalized biography under the title ''La Vie et l'œuvre de Philippe Ignace Semmelweis'' in 1936 (English versions: ''The Life and Work of Semmelweis'', tr. by Robert Allerton Parker, Boston : Little, Brown and Company, 1937; ''Semmelweis'', tr. by John Harman, Atlas Press, 2008).
* In William Forstchen's
The Lost Regiment series of novels, one of the main characters is a doctor named Emil Weiss, the regiment's surgeon. On multiple occasions, it is mentioned that he had studied under Semmelweis and as such had developed effective sanitation techniques to avoid infection when treating injuries.
*
Morton Thompson
Morton Thompson (c. 1907 – July 7, 1953) was an American writer of newspaper journalism, novels and film screenplays.
Career
Amongst his works were a collection of journalistic memoirs called ''Joe, the Wounded Tennis Player'', and the nov ...
's 1949 novel ''
The Cry and the Covenant
''The Cry and the Covenant'' is a novel by Morton Thompson written in 1949 and published by Doubleday (publisher), Doubleday. The novel is a fictionalized story of Ignaz Semmelweis, an Austria-Hungary, Austrian-Hungarian physician known for his r ...
'' is a fictionalized account based on the life of Semmelweis.
* Motherkillers, a novel by John Piper, based on the Semmelweis story.
*
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
praises Semmelweis at length in his 2005 memoir, ''
A Man Without a Country
''A Man Without a Country'' (subtitle: ''A Memoir of Life in George W. Bush's America'') is an essay collection published in 2005 by the author Kurt Vonnegut. The essays deal with topics ranging from the importance of humor, to problems with ...
'', portraying his story as a tragic tale of a powerful force for good being ignored, mocked and derided in his own time. Vonnegut called him "my hero" and held his story up as a beneficial example for all mankind.
* ''Genius Belabored: Childbed Fever and the Tragic Life of Ignaz Semmelweis'', by Theodore G. Obenchain.
Drama/plays
*''
An Enemy of the People
''An Enemy of the People'' (original Norwegian title: ''En folkefiende''), an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, followed his previous play, ''Ghosts'', which criticized the hypocrisy of his society's moral code. That response inclu ...
'', drama by
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...
. The protagonist, a doctor battling both microbes and societal rejection, is at least loosely modeled on Semmelweis. (See
Thomas Szasz
Thomas Stephen Szasz ( ; hu, Szász Tamás István ; 15 April 1920 – 8 September 2012) was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate M ...
, ''Liberation by Oppression: A Comparative Study of Slavery and Psychiatry'', Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick & London, p. 176.)
*''Semmelweis'', opera-theater work by Raymond J. Lustig (music) and Matthew Doherty (libretto). Premiere production June 2018 in Miskolc, Hungary, directed by Martin Boross, featuring Szilveszter Szabó, Veronika Nádasi, and the Bela Bartok Chamber Choir of Szolnok, co-produced by Budapest Operetta Theater and Bartok Plusz Opera Festival. Nine additional Hungarian-language performances in Budapest, and a five-city tour throughout Hungary, 2018–19.
* "Semmelweis" by
Jens Bjørneboe
Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe (9 October 1920 – 9 May 1976) was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats. He was also a painter and a Waldorf school teacher. Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society an ...
. Performed in 1977 at the
Studio Arena Theater in Buffalo, New York with Lewis J. Stadlen, Kathy Bates, and
Kim Hunter
Kim Hunter (born Janet Cole; November 11, 1922 – September 11, 2002) was an American theatre, film, and television actress. She achieved prominence for portraying Stella Kowalski in the original production of Tennessee Williams' ''A Streetcar N ...
. Performed in 1978 at the
Kennedy Center
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...
in Washington, D.C. with Colin Blakeley. Performed in 1981 at the Hartman Theater in Stamford, Connecticut.
* "What are you fighting for, Dr Semmelweis" by Titus Alexander, 1968. Performed July 1969 at Churchill Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, by pupils of the Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School Dramatic Society, with Simon Scott as Semmelweis with music composed by Mark Edwards. Translated into German as "Um was kämpfen Sie, Dr. Semmelweis?" by Concilia Viegener and performed by a Steiner school in Brazil.
* "Semmelweis" by Peter Russell. A 90-minute play broadcast 9 August 1971 on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
featuring
Sandor Eles in the title role.
*"Dr Semmelweis" a new play by
Stephen Brown with
Mark Rylance
Sir David Mark Rylance Waters (born 18 January 1960) is a British actor, playwright and theatre director. He is known for his roles on stage and screen having received numerous awards including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Laurenc ...
. Delayed by the
COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
and opening at the
Bristol Old Vic
Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a fin ...
in January 2022.
See also
*
Carl Mayrhofer
Carl Mayrhofer (2 June 1837 in Steyr, Austria – 3 June 1882 in Franzensbad, Bohemia) was a physician conducting work on the role of germs in childbed fever.
Carl Mayrhofer was a son of physician, he was recognized as an unusually bright st ...
*
Museum of Health Care
The Museum of Health Care is located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in the Ann Baillie Building on the Kingston General Hospital site and covers medical history from the 18th century to the modern era. Its research and collection are searchable on ...
*
Semmelweis Frauen-Klinik
The Semmelweis-Frauenklinik (English: Semmelweis Women's Clinic) is a women's clinic in the 18th district of Vienna known as Währing. It is named after Ignaz Semmelweis.
The clinic is registered as an historically significant place and is to be ...
*
Semmelweis effect
Footnotes
References
Notes
Works cited
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* (references to Carter's foreword and notes indicated)
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External links
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Catholic Encyclopedia entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semmelweis, Ignaz
1818 births
1865 deaths
19th-century Hungarian physicians
Burials at Kerepesi Cemetery
Deaths in mental institutions
Hungarian people of German descent
Hungarian Roman Catholics
Hungarian scientists
Hygienists
Medical hygiene
People from Buda
Deaths by beating in Europe