Ignaz Semmelweis

[Shows how new knowledge is received in Allopathy, and shows infection knowledge was nil in 1847, relevant to Smallpox vaccine "Lymph".]

In 1847, Semmelweis introduced hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions for interns who had performed autopsies. Semmelweis was outraged by the indifference of the medical profession and began writing open and increasingly angry letters to prominent European obstetricians, at times denouncing them as irresponsible murderers. His contemporaries, including his wife, believed he was losing his mind and he was in 1865 committed to an asylum (mental institution). Semmelweis died there only 14 days later, possibly after being severely beaten by guards. (ref)

In his 1861 book, Semmelweis lamented the slow adoption of his ideas:

"Most medical lecture halls continue to resound with lectures on epidemic childbed fever and with discourses against my theories. […] The medical literature for the last twelve years continues to swell with reports of puerperal epidemics, and in 1854 in Vienna, the birthplace of my theory, 400 maternity patients died from childbed fever. In published medical works my teachings are either ignored or attacked. The medical faculty at Würzburg awarded a prize to a monograph written in 1859 in which my teachings were rejected".

 See: Sydenham  Puerperal Fever