Höchst wichtige Erfahrungen über die Aetiologie der in Gebäranstalten epidemischen Puerperalfieber.

Semmelweis, pioneer of antisepsis in obstetrics, was the first to recognize that puerperal fever is a septicemia. He concluded that the doctors and students of Vienna’s First Obstetrical Clinic carried the infection on their hands from the autopsy room to the maternity wards, and instituted a program of hand-washing in chlorinated lime between autopsy work and examination of patients. One month later the First Clinic’s mortality rate had dropped by 10 per cent. Despite this spectacular success Semmelweis refused to communicate his results officially. The above papers were written for Semmelweis by his friend, Ferdinand von Hebra, editor of the Zeitschrifi. (See also No. 6277).