Today's Trivia - Ridiculed Pioneers

We often take for granted simple but significant inventions or discoveries, not realizing what price someone may have paid for them to come about. Like hand washing, for example; a discovery that saves lives in the medical world. What most of us don’t know is that when Dr. Semmelweis, the Hungarian physician called ‘the saviour of mothers’, introduced the idea that the simple act of hand washing would drastically reduce the incidence of puerperal fever (childbed fever), and save the lives of women, his idea was not well received.

Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, aged 42 in 1860

Semmelweis became convinced that cleanliness was the key to reducing fatalities in obstetrical clinics, but when he brought forward his hypothesis to the medical community that they were killing a large number of women having babies by assisting in the births without washing their hands, his theory was ignored, rejected and even ridiculed. He was dismissed from the hospital and harassed by the medical community in Vienna, which eventually forced him to move to Budapest.

Outraged by the indifference of his colleagues, Semmelweis sent brusque and increasingly hostile letters to prominent European obstetricians, at times denouncing them as irresponsible murderers. His contemporaries, and even his wife, believed that he was losing his mind, and he was committed to an asylum in 1865. He died within 14 days of being there, possibly after being severely beaten by guards.

Dr. Semmelweis’ theory earned widespread acceptance only years after his death when it was verified by other physicians, including Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister. It is a shame that the man considered a pioneer of antiseptic procedures did not get to witness this.