Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) was a German-Hungarian physician-obstetrician working at the Vienna General Hospital. His 1847 observation of transmission of puerperal (child-bed) fever from doctors to patients led him to empirically introduce hand-washing and use of mild chloride-of-lime solution as a disinfectant. The delayed wider knowledge and acceptance of the new organism/bacterial theories during his lifetime led to lack of recognition after his early death. (Cf. Joseph Lister.) Contemporaneously in Massachusetts, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., MD (Harvard 1836), taught the then-controversial idea that doctors themselves could carry puerperal fever from patient to patient.
Last modified 3 February 2023