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Biography of Ignaz Philipp SemmelweisName: Ignaz Philipp SemmelweisBirth Date: July 1, 1818 Death Date: August 13, 1865 Place of Birth: Buda, Hungary Nationality: Hungarian Gender: Male Occupations: physician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis The Hungarian physician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818-1865) was a pioneer of antisepsis in obstetrics and demonstrated that many cases of puerperal fever could be prevented.Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, the son of a prosperous shopkeeper, was born on July 1, 1818, at Buda, a city united with Pest in 1873 to form Budapest. After 2 years at the University of Pest, 19-year-old Ignaz matriculated at the University of Vienna as a law student. Unhappy, he returned to the University of Pest and studied medicine (1838-1840). After completing further studies at the University of Vienna, he received a medical degree in April 1844. Following 4 months of special instruction in midwifery, Semmelweis became a provisionary assistant at the First Obstetric Clinic in the large Vienna Lying-In Hospital. Two years later he became a regular assistant to the director of this clinic.Semmelweis was especially distressed by the horrors of puerperal fever. Within a few hours after delivery, numerous mothers would …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…a suffering that intensified as opposition to his ideas spread throughout Europe.With much reluctance Semmelweis organized his observations and published his great work on puerperal fever, The Etiology, Concept, and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever (1861). Even this did not silence his opponents, and Semmelweis, unable to accept this resistance, was committed to an insane asylum in 1865, where he died of blood poisoning. Not until 1883 did the Boston Lying-In Hospital introduce methods of antisepsis, methods similar to those used several decades earlier by Semmelweis. Further Reading The most readable biography of Semmelweis is Frank G. Slaughter, Immortal Magyar: Semmelweis, Conqueror of Childbed Fever (1950). For greater detail, especially about the opposition to Semmelweis's views, see Sir William J. Sinclair, Semmelweis: His Life and His Doctrine (1909).Childbed fever: a scientific biography of Ignaz Semmelweis, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.Slaughter, Frank G. (Frank Gill), Immortal Magyar: Semmelweis, conqueror of childbed fever, New York, Schuman, 1950. |