Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis

Semmelweis, Ignaz Philipp 

Born July 1, 1818, in Budapest; died Aug. 13, 1865, in Vienna. Hungarian obstetrician.

In 1844, Semmelweis graduated from the medical faculty at the Vienna Institute. While working in a clinic, he became interested in determining the cause of puerperal sepsis (child-bed fever). Almost one woman in three died during childbirth of this disease. In 1846, long before the discoveries of L. Pasteur and J. Lister, Semmelweis empirically developed a method for combating puerperal sepsis. It involved carefully washing and disinfecting the physician’s hands with a solution of chlorinated lime. The use of this technique resulted in a significant drop in the mortality rate from childbed fever at the obstetrical clinic. However, Semmelweis’ method was received with hostility by the conservative doctors, and he decided to leave Vienna. From 1850 to 1855, he directed the maternity division of St. Rochus Hospital in Budapest. In 1855 he became a professor of theoretical and practical obstetrics at the University of Budapest. His discovery was given full recognition only after his death. In 1906 a monument to Semmelweis with the inscription “Savior of Mothers” was built in Budapest.

WORKS

Die Aetiologie, der Be griff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers. Pest-Vienna-Liepzig, 1861.

REFERENCES

Kakushkin, N. “Zemmerveis.” Vrachebnoe delo, 1927, no. 12.
Pakhner, F. Za zhizn’ materei. Moscow, 1963. (Translated from Czech.)

M. B. MIRSKII