Thursday, May 24, 2007

IGNAZ SEMMELWEIS WATCH

Virginia Smith has written a book called Clean:A History of Personal Hygene, yet for some reason Dr. ignaz Semmelweis gets only one line in the book.  ONE! LINE!  In her book review, Daily Telegraph writer Jemmy McCartney comments on this:



Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, the 19th-century Hungarian father of antiseptic, rates no more than a line, yet his is one of the great personal and public tragedies of medical history. Although his pioneering insistence on hand-washing virtually eliminated instances of labouring women dying from puerperal fever in his obstetrics ward, he was opposed and ridiculed by the Viennese medical establishment, and died in a madhouse.




Sing it, sister! More people should know about Ignaz Semmelweis.

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