Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865)

In 1846, Semmelweis collected information from two clinics. One particular fact caught his attention, wealthy women and street births were not examined by the medical students who had spent their mornings dissecting cadavers. The death of his good friend, Jakob Kolletschka, a professor of forensic pathology, in 1847 was a horrible shock to Semmelweis but also provided him a needed insight. Kolletschka had sustained an accidental laceration during an autopsy. He developed lymphangitis in his arm, pleuritis, pericarditis, and peritonitis. Five days later he died. Kolletschka died with identical symptoms and pathology as seen in the puerperal fever patients. An earlier event had stayed on Semmelweis’s mind. In 1844, Semmelweis watched the obstetrician Johann Chiari remove a tumor from a patient’s cervix. The operation was considered simple and Semmelweis had seen it done many times. A few days later the women died of puerperal fever. Neither patient had given birth and Kolletschka had not been in the First Clinic. Semmelweis had found his explanation, "the transmission of cadaveric particles clinging to the hand, [and] also by ichorous discharges originating in living organisms." In May 1847, he ordered all medical students to wash their hands with chlorinated lime before entering the delivery room. The mortality rate dropped to under 2%.

Read a little about Lister.