細節
[SEMMELWEIS, Ignaz Philipp (1818-1865)]. [Ferdinand von HEBRA (1816-1880)]. "Hchst wichtige Erfarhrungen ber die tiologie der in Gebranstalten epidemischen Puerperalfieber" (-- "Fortsetzung der Erfahrungen..."). In: Zeitschrift der k. k. Gesellschaft der Aerzte zu Wien 4 (1847), pp. 242-244; 5 (1848), pp. 64-65. Vienna: Kaulfuss Witwe, Prandel & Comp., 1847-1848.
2 parts in 2 volumes, 8o (239 x 155 mm). Part 1: pp. 242-244. Part 2: pp. 64-65. Original printed wrappers (short tears to backstrip of 1848 volume). Provenance: Wr Neustadt, Chirgurgische Gremium (inkstamps on wrappers).
FIRST EDITION, JOURNAL ISSUE, ANNOUNCING SEMMELWEIS'S IMPORTANT DISCOVERY OF THE SOURCE OF AND MEANS OF PREVENTING PUERPERAL FEVER. The Hungarian physician Semmelweis performed one of the great services in the history of medicine in discovering a means of preventing puerperal fever, killer of thousands of women every year, but he was a martyr of obscurantism and died two decades before his discovery gained universal recognition. In 1847, as a young house officer of the First Obstetrical Clinic of the Vienna General Hospital, teaching institute of the University of Vienna, Semmelweis was presented with a remarkable situation: in the Hospital's two maternity wards, one, his First Clinic, was faced by extremely high maternal and neonatal mortality, on the order of 13 percent, while the other, the Second Clinic, enjoyed a low death rate of only 2 percent of the patients. The only discernible difference between the two clinics was that the First Clinic was used as a teaching facility for medical students, while the Second Clinic was used to teach midwives. In a "brilliant example of fact-finding, meaningful statistical analysis, and keen inductive reasoning" (DSB), Semmelweis made good use of this "built-in control group," and deduced that the prevalence of fatal disease in the one clinic was caused by an infective agent carried by the medical students directly from the autopsy dissecting rooms to the delivery rooms. He immediately instituted in his ward a strict policy of prophylactic hand-washing using chlorinated limewater, which, despite initial resistance from the staff, he was able to enforce, bringing about a dramatic drop in the mortality rate. Perhaps out of reluctance to ruffle any feathers, Semmelweis refrained from publishing the results of his experiment, restricting himself to informal communications to colleagues and to a few lectures delivered in 1850. Sensing the vital importance of informing the medical public of this means of saving lives, Semmelweis's colleague Ferdinand von Hebra, one of the leading lights of the new Second Vienna Medical School, published the present article and its continuation, briefly describing Semmelweis's discovery, which he compares in importance to Jenner's discovery of the smallpox vaccine, and urging all members of the obstetrical community to institute the handwashing in order to test the results for themselves.
Unfortunately, Semmelweis's simple and clearly reasoned recommendation met with intense opposition from his peers. His immediate superior, Johann Klein, angered by favorable reports of a method that could be seen as an indictment of his own policies, refused to renew his appointment. In late 1850 Semmelweis abruptly returned to his native city of Pest. Although he finally published his own book-length account of his discoveries and conclusions in 1861 (see lot 1293), the effect of his move back to this politically repressed backwater was to hinder the promulgation of his own ideas, which were not taken up again until the end of the century. Worn down by the continued bitter controversy aroused by his findings, Semmelweis suffered a mental breakdown in the summer of 1865, and died later the same year -- of generalized sepsis from a surgically infected finger -- shortly after beng committed to an asylum.
RARE. Garrison-Morton 6275; PMM 316b; Waller, p. 390; Norman 1925. (2)
2 parts in 2 volumes, 8
FIRST EDITION, JOURNAL ISSUE, ANNOUNCING SEMMELWEIS'S IMPORTANT DISCOVERY OF THE SOURCE OF AND MEANS OF PREVENTING PUERPERAL FEVER. The Hungarian physician Semmelweis performed one of the great services in the history of medicine in discovering a means of preventing puerperal fever, killer of thousands of women every year, but he was a martyr of obscurantism and died two decades before his discovery gained universal recognition. In 1847, as a young house officer of the First Obstetrical Clinic of the Vienna General Hospital, teaching institute of the University of Vienna, Semmelweis was presented with a remarkable situation: in the Hospital's two maternity wards, one, his First Clinic, was faced by extremely high maternal and neonatal mortality, on the order of 13 percent, while the other, the Second Clinic, enjoyed a low death rate of only 2 percent of the patients. The only discernible difference between the two clinics was that the First Clinic was used as a teaching facility for medical students, while the Second Clinic was used to teach midwives. In a "brilliant example of fact-finding, meaningful statistical analysis, and keen inductive reasoning" (DSB), Semmelweis made good use of this "built-in control group," and deduced that the prevalence of fatal disease in the one clinic was caused by an infective agent carried by the medical students directly from the autopsy dissecting rooms to the delivery rooms. He immediately instituted in his ward a strict policy of prophylactic hand-washing using chlorinated limewater, which, despite initial resistance from the staff, he was able to enforce, bringing about a dramatic drop in the mortality rate. Perhaps out of reluctance to ruffle any feathers, Semmelweis refrained from publishing the results of his experiment, restricting himself to informal communications to colleagues and to a few lectures delivered in 1850. Sensing the vital importance of informing the medical public of this means of saving lives, Semmelweis's colleague Ferdinand von Hebra, one of the leading lights of the new Second Vienna Medical School, published the present article and its continuation, briefly describing Semmelweis's discovery, which he compares in importance to Jenner's discovery of the smallpox vaccine, and urging all members of the obstetrical community to institute the handwashing in order to test the results for themselves.
Unfortunately, Semmelweis's simple and clearly reasoned recommendation met with intense opposition from his peers. His immediate superior, Johann Klein, angered by favorable reports of a method that could be seen as an indictment of his own policies, refused to renew his appointment. In late 1850 Semmelweis abruptly returned to his native city of Pest. Although he finally published his own book-length account of his discoveries and conclusions in 1861 (see lot 1293), the effect of his move back to this politically repressed backwater was to hinder the promulgation of his own ideas, which were not taken up again until the end of the century. Worn down by the continued bitter controversy aroused by his findings, Semmelweis suffered a mental breakdown in the summer of 1865, and died later the same year -- of generalized sepsis from a surgically infected finger -- shortly after beng committed to an asylum.
RARE. Garrison-Morton 6275; PMM 316b; Waller, p. 390; Norman 1925. (2)