Semmelweis's Discovery
1847
In a Vienna maternity ward, Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that mothers attended by doctors who came straight from autopsies died of childbed fever far more often than those seen by midwives. He ordered chlorinated handwashing; deaths collapsed. The medical establishment ridiculed him. He died in an asylum, twenty years before Pasteur confirmed his guess.
In context
Also in 1847 (3 other events on record)
- Brigham Young Reaches Salt Lake · North America · Religion
- Liberia Independent · Africa · Politics
- Jane Eyre Published · Europe · Culture
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Science
Era
Industrial Age (1801–1900), one of 513 events from that era on Saeculum.
Sources