Healthy Blood Through Cleanliness: The Semmelweis Principle

Famous doctor goes insane after cadavers kill new mothers

This Is A True Story

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was a Hungarian-Austrian physician who made an amazing discovery in 1847 while head of the Maternity Department of the Vienna General Hospital.

Death Clinics

The Vienna General Hospital had two maternity clinics. One of the clinics had a death rate of one out of every eight new mothers due to a postpartum infection, known as puerperal fever, alternately "childbed fever." The second obstetrical clinic had a much lower postpartum death rate - one out of 64 new mothers died from the same infection.The death rates of the two clinics were well known among pregnant mothers - who would do all they could to give birth at the safer clinic, often giving birth on the street rather than being admitted to the first clinic, which could be their death sentence.

The differing mortality rate among the two clinics perplexed Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, who was residing over the maternity department at the Vienna General Hospital.

Resistance from Superiors

Dr. Semmelweis began investigating the cause of the higher rate of postpartum infection in one clinic over the other, but he received resistance from his superiors who felt that the infections were unpreventable. They reasoned that both clinics were located in the same hospital and used the same techniques, therefore there was nothing that could be done about the situation.

Semmelweis was not convinced by his superiors' reasoning and continued the investigation. There was only one difference between the two clinics - they each had a different purpose.

The first clinic was a teaching clinic for medical students, and the second clinic was a teaching clinic for the instruction of midwives.

The Blood Connection

The breakthrough for Dr. Semmelweis occurred in 1847 with the death of his friend Jakob Kolletschka. His friend had died from an infection that he contracted after his finger was accidentally punctured with a knife while performing an autopsy.

The autopsy of Dr. Semmelweis’ friend showed a pathological situation similar to that of the women who were dying from puerperal fever. Dr. Semmelweis immediately proposed a connection between cadaver contamination and the infection leading to the death of his friend.

He began a detailed  study of the mortality statistics of both obstetrical clinics and concluded that he and the students were carrying infected particles on their hands after performing autopsies. Their cleanliness standards (or lack thereof) did not require the sanitation of their hands (nor an isolation period) after the autopsy, nor before tending to other patients - including those giving birth.

A Successful Experiment

The germ theory of disease had not yet been developed at the time. Yet, Dr. Semmelweiss concluded that some unknown "cadaveric material" was causing this mortal fever among the new mothers. He immediately instituted a policy of washing hands with a solution of chlorinated lime between autopsy work and the examination of patients. As a result, the mortality rate dropped to one out of 64: the same as the clinic for instructing midwives.

During 1848, Dr. Semmelweis widened the scope of his washing protocol to include all instruments coming in contact with patients in labor. He was able to statistically document the success of virtually eliminating postpartum fever (and the resulting death) from both obstetrical clinics in the hospital ward.

A Nobel Prize?

Well, this was not the end of the story for Dr. Semmelweis. Would you not expect that he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize for saving hundreds if not thousands of lives and helping to eliminate the need for orphanages as more mothers could now be alive to care for their children not only from his clinic, but others around the country?

No, that was not the outcome for this medical pioneer.

Rejected as Superstitious

Instead, the majority of the medical establishment rejected his discovery. His observations went against the current scientific opinion of the time, which blamed disease on an imbalance of the basic "four humours" in the body, one being blood. The view of the day was that too much blood in the body was the cause of disease, not "cadaveric material".

It was also "argued" that even if his findings were correct, washing one's hands each time before treating a pregnant woman, as Dr. Semmelweis advised, would be too much work. Nor were doctors eager to admit that they had caused so many deaths. Also the medical profession believed that Dr. Semmelweis’ claims lacked scientific explanation, since no explanation was given to his findings.

In a previous post, we shared the principles that God had instituted for the Israelites concerning the touching of a human corpse.  God did not give His people any details as to why they should wash their clothes and body in water after touching a human corpse, nor did He give reasons for the subsequent isolation period. He just said (in essence), "Obey Me, and I will protect you." Today, it obvious that washing hands is necessary before surgery. But in that day it was considered superstitious.

Semmelweis' ideas were thought to give special significance to death and dying. The idea of doctors transferring germs from not washing their hands after autopsies was deemed "religious" or "superstitious" in the post-Enlightenment intellectual environment that dominated scientific circles at the time.

The establishment's failure to recognize his findings led to the tragic and unnecessary death of thousands of young mothers. But Semmelweis was ultimately vindicated, as we now practice the very washing principles that he instituted to preserve life - the same or similar principles that the Israelites had been practicing millennia earlier.

It has been said, and it must be said again, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12)."

Insane Asylum. 

Unfortunately, Dr. Semmelweis suffered a tragic fate. Tormented by the knowledge that lives could be saved by applying his health practices, coupled with the medical establishments seeming lack of concern, he was eventually placed in an insane asylum where he underwent cruel treatment, dying two weeks later in the year 1865.

Semmelweis Reflex.

Though Semmelweis did not see the acceptance and implementation of his cleanliness principles in his lifetime, over time, a phrase was coined in his honor.  The Semmelweis Reflex is the dismissing or rejecting of an idea or information automatically without thought, inspection, or experiment.

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Learn more about Semmelweis here: Childbed Fever: A Scientific Biography of Ignaz Semmelweis.

Conclusion

We need to be careful not to dismiss an idea or health practice without sufficient reason or evidence. God's Word is the supreme law for wise living and long life. Do we use the Semmelweis Reflex to throw out God's principles for health and living? Is the medical establishment today any different than the time of Semmelweis? Do they wrongly discount alternative and or preventative medicines simply because it does not match the current theory of medicine?

There is so much wisdom to be gleaned from God's Word.

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