Why didn't Zemmelweis agree to publish his discovery in the medical community, gain the fame he deserved and save countless mothers from death in hospitals?
At the end of the previous part we brought up the fateful fate. Why didn't Zemmelweis agree to publish his discovery in the medical community, gain the fame he deserved and save countless mothers from death in hospitals?
It's hard to put your finger on one single reason. We know that Zemlweis kept accurate records of the number of births and the monthly death rate. He had the raw data, but he steadfastly refused to give lectures on the subject, or to publish the data in writing. As a Hungarian in a foreign city, his feelings of inferiority prevented him from becoming part of Viennese learned society. His constant paranoia and his lack of command of the spoken language did not allow him to connect with the accepted academic circles and he tried to distance himself from them as much as possible. He did not see the public lectures as a tool to promote awareness of his research, but as self-torture and giving his haters an opportunity to attack him - and Zemlweiss was sure that everyone hated him.
Since Semmelweis himself refused to publish the data in his possession, his close friends - Professors Ferdinand von Hebra and Joseph Škoda - finally published the discovery. Von-Habra published in 1847 and 1848 two articles about Semmelweis' research. He explained in articles the way puerperal fever is contracted and recommended the use of hypochlorite calcium as a means of disinfecting doctors' hands. Skoda delivered a lecture on the same subject before the Imperial and Royal Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, Zemlweiss did not update his friends with all the data he had, and the articles and lectures did not receive wide support among the medical community.
Joseph Klein, the director of the department, returned from his vacation in 1849 to find his department clean and scrubbed, with zero maternal mortality. If Zemlweis expected gratitude, he was sorely disappointed. Klein saw Zemmelweis as a threat to his position as department head, and his success in neutralizing puerperal fever as an insult to the theories espoused by Klein. The senior manager claimed that the new ventilation system is responsible for the sharp decrease in the number of deaths, and demanded that Zemlweis stop the custom of shaking hands, which demeans the doctor. When Semmelweis objected, Klein refused to renew his appointment as assistant manager, and personally saw to it that the hand-holding was stopped. The mortality rate rose sharply, up to 35% of all maternity patients in the ward. Klein saw this fact as proof of his claims that there is no real way to deal with puerperal fever. Indeed, there is no doubt that the bacteria found a perfect ally in Klein - a doctor who valued his opinions more than the facts.
Near despair, Semmelweis agreed to speak before the Viennese Medical Association in 1850, but failed to make a positive impression on the association. He saw any questioning of his conclusions as a personal attack and hurled insults and slurs at all his critics. Anyone who did not accept his method over her ignorance, was in his eyes nothing more than a simple murderer, and he did not hesitate to say so publicly. Needless to say, his attitude made many of his colleagues look up to him, and alienated the doctors who might have supported him. Even the great Rudolf Virchow - the man who turned pathology from an art into a science - came out publicly against Semmelweis's theory, and the weight of his opinion tipped the scales for many who still disagreed. When doubts began to arise in the medical community about the purity of Zemlweis's character and the degree of truth in his records, it could no longer cope with the situation in Vienna. He fled back to Hungary, his native country, without warning even his closest friends beforehand. The hasty escape lowered his profile even more in the eyes of the medical community in Austria, and in fact any chance he still had of convincing the doctors in Vienna was blown.
In Hungary, Zemlweiss was welcomed, mainly due to the sad state of that country. In 1851, Semmelweis arrived at the hospital of the city of Fest, suffering from a severe outbreak of puerperal fever in the maternity ward. Zemmelweis asked to manage the department and introduced his sterilization methods. Despite the initial resistance and negligence of the medical staff, his methods lowered the mortality rate in the ward to 0.85%. In Hungary, the medical community was more open to new ideas, and Zemmelweis' sterilization methods were spread to all hospitals in the country by government order.
He married, raised five children and lectured in fluent Hungarian to a wide audience on puerperal fever. But despite his success, Zemmelweis was still not satisfied. Women dying screaming and in agony from childbirth fever. Widowers forced to watch their orphaned children starve for lack of breast milk. These horrific sights were not forgotten from his memory even for a meager moment. He would often wake up in the middle of the night drenched in a cold sweat, filled with a grim certainty that at this very moment a woman was literally dying in the world from labor fever, as a result of medical negligence and not washing her hands. These thoughts haunted him all his life, along with strong feelings of guilt for his inability to convince the world of his righteousness. In the end, they were the ones who made him publish in 1861 his book, 'The etiology, perception and prevention of puerperal fever'.
The book was written in fluent German, and was mainly aimed at an audience outside of Hungary. In the book, Zemlweiss described the theory he formulated around puerperal fever and brought many tables, charts, and statistical data that supported the theory. This part of the book could have easily convinced even the biggest skeptics. The trouble was that in the other part of the book, Zemlweiss saw an opportunity to attack the opponents of his method. He called them various derogatory names and even defined them as murderers. In doing so, he himself dropped the ground from under his feet. This part of the book drove away the doctors who were considering using his method, and caused a real uproar in which Zemlweiss exchanged a chain of angry letters - all open to the public - with a significant number of doctors in Europe. To Friedrich Schanzoni, an important professor of obstetrics in Würzburg, he wrote in an open letter that, "If you continue to teach the students and midwives... that puerperal fever is a normal disease, without refuting my doctrine, then I declare before God and the whole world that you are a murderer and an assassin. The history of puerperal fever will not exaggerate if you are immortalized as the 'Emperor Nero' of medicine."
Professor Friedrich Schanzoni did not like this letter. The other people at the university in Wurzburg didn't like him either. And so the support for Zemlweis disappeared, university after university throughout the western world.
In 1865, after four years of a chain of letters containing wild accusations, the spirit of Zemlweiss, the man who cared too much for the world, finally broke. He suffered severe tantrums, in which he crowned himself the failed 'savior of mothers'. His family admitted him to a mental institution, and the entire medical community celebrated when word got out that I was looking for him. His opponents claimed that it had now been definitively proven that Semmelweis's theory was nothing more than the twisted musings of a mentally ill person, and saw this as the end of the 'Semmelweis era'.
Zemlweiss died in the hospital shortly after his arrival. According to the legend that was practiced until the end of the 20th century, he died as a result of a severe infection in his finger that spread to the rest of his body. This legend provided an ironic end to the life of that man, who constantly fought against the infection and bacteria. This legend was debunked in 1979, and today we know that Zemmelweis had a tantrum at the hospital, and was violently restrained by the staff. He died two weeks later as a result of the injuries he sustained during that 'treatment'.
Zemlweis's story is still well remembered in our day, and is usually brought up as a miracle, with the aim of casting doubt on the scientific establishment. UFO enthusiasts, creationists, people of holistic medicine and others - all showcase the story of Zemmelweis and thereby prove the closedness of science and its unwillingness to accept new theories.
Is this indeed the case?
It must be admitted that science is indeed not ready to accept new theories easily. At the same time, one must put one's finger on the difference between the science that existed 150 years ago, and the science of today. Most of the theories that exist today are based on a wide variety of evidence and proofs, and a new theory that arrives has to find a good explanation for all the cases that the previous theory was also able to explain. The theories of UFOs and intelligent creation fail to find unequivocal proof of their existence, or good enough explanations for all the phenomena explained by simpler theories, and therefore are not accepted by the scientific community.
But Zemmelweis's greatness was that he was able to document extremely convincing statistics regarding puerperal fever and the success of its treatment. Why was his theory not accepted into the textbooks of medical science?
As always, the answer has two faces. On the one hand, the medical community did not want to change its ways and did not agree to the idea of hand washing, which damaged the dignity of the doctors themselves. On the other hand, Semmelweis himself was not of a character capable of swaying other people after him and bringing about a real revolution in science, like Chloe Pasteur. He did not give the medical community all the data he had and rarely lectured on his theory. Even when he was lecturing, he would arouse the wrath of the audience when he would rage and lash out against the skeptics. In the sad end, Zemmelweis was his own worst enemy - and the puerperal fever he tried so hard to cure.
In the next chapter we will deal withJoseph Lister, the doctor and scientist who succeeded in introducing sterilization against bacteria into medicine.
For the full series of articles:
15 תגובות
First, continuous pleasure to read!
And in the days of the corona epidemic and the confirmed epidemic, it seems that the greatest epidemic ever is the epidemic of the medical ego', it is simply unbelievable how much pride the heads of the system have, to take an entire country and turn them into laboratory rats!
How much stupidity and conformism do they have who go like sheep to the slaughter!!!
Time will tell and history will judge!
And our sages said, 'It is good that doctors go to hell!
Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, today's 'Zemelweiss'. Just listen to what he says.
God forbid.
The description of the assassination of Zemlvis is simply a historical distortion "hospitalized by his family...", really?
He would drink and hang out with prostitutes (seems quite standard to me, certainly not indicative of mental illness), Janos Balsa from the head of the Hungarian medical establishment wrote a hospitalization letter, Zemlvis was lured by Ferdinand von Hebra from the head of the Viennese medical establishment to a meeting under the pretext of a tour of the clinic and an offer of a job . Zemlvis realized at the last moment and tried to escape, he was physically caught, severely beaten and tied up and imprisoned in a dark, damp and cold cell and died from his injuries within two weeks. No one came to the funeral and great joy spread in the medical establishment and this was a sign to return to the routine of eliminating maternity, the mortality rate immediately increased 6 times.
Others who supported his ideas and his assistants were also professionally eliminated.
Well, once upon a time the medical/scientific establishment had "balls" and knew how to close accounts properly, in today's holocaust it seems much more decent and direct.
Today they will simply insult you behind your back, spread rumors, "organize consensus conferences" that will accuse you of denying "science" or "pseudo-science", prevent publications, research funds and finally fire you, etc.
As an example I will give the "science of nutrition" it should be clear to everyone that 35% obesity (severe obesity over 30 BMI) and 0% healing means that "science" does not understand anything about nutrition just like 20% will die in hospital births Compared to 0.5% at home they had to imply it to the respected doctors.
In fact, this means that not only do we not know, but that the nutritional advice they give us under every fresh tree is anti-correct for sure.
And yet anyone who just opens his mouth and offers something that undoubtedly works or a slightly different view of the problem will be eliminated politically and professionally like say Atkins.
There are still endless examples...
Well you dug about the UFOs
And Roy - you need faith in God, if you don't believe, it's a shame for your time in heaven 🙂
Look at Hadassah every doctor thinks he is half god
I forgot to write "no" after "somewhere in space"
Shawn:
All it takes to see a UFO (=unidentified object) is to see an object and not recognize it. The more you know and understand, the harder it is not to recognize what you see. That's why scientists have never seen a UFO.
A little more seriously - it is not possible to prove that there are no UFOs just as it is not possible to prove that somewhere in space a cup of tea surrounds the earth, but there is no reason to believe in a UFO visit to the earth if there is no convincing evidence for it just as there is no reason to believe in that cup of tea.
And even more seriously, all the "Shons" I know write their name Sean and not Shon (the origin of the name is Irish and this is its spelling) Is your name really Sean or is it an endearment or do you simply assume that Israelis would not know how to pronounce it correctly if it were written in the accepted way?
good evening ~
Regarding UFOs - do they exist, or do they not exist - the debate is an idle debate in my humble opinion, both options are possible!!
It is true that there is no real and tangible evidence to accept one opinion or another, and it is also true that there is a lot of logic and reason in addition to fascinating stories and scientific and philosophical understanding and deep thought and... and.... and....
So I apply Solomon's sentence here, peace be upon him, and may a redeemer come!!!!
to ask:
It's nice that you learn something from me, but even an expression like this should not be used just like that.
I do this when I find that I need to repeat information that I know is already known to the person I'm addressing and I assume that ignoring it is part of the attrition strategy (the sigh is meant to express the fact that the attrition does work). That is not the case here. As Roy pointed out, he has already said many times that in his opinion (and I will add, in the opinion of many other scientists) the possibility of the existence of life outside the earth and even the possibility of intelligent life definitely exists and the question is only if they visited here.
A beautiful phrase I once heard from Fatal says that the main proof that there is intelligent life outside of Earth lies in the fact that they are intelligent enough not to visit here.
One can go on and on about the reasons why scientists do not believe that aliens have visited here, but as with any religion, the chances of convincing the believers are slim.
to ask the sigher,
I already wrote in the previous discussion (in part XNUMX of the chapter) that I absolutely believe that extraterrestrials (aliens) exist. I do not rule out the search for extraterrestrials, and I greatly appreciate the people who invest their time in SETI. The problem starts when people come and claim that the aliens have already visited the earth, without any real conclusive proof.
Mr. Sabat, whose responses I greatly respect, claims that many scientists support that aliens have already visited the Earth. I am waiting to see his evidence for this, so that I can better understand what he is basing this opinion on. As far as I know, the aliens are very far from being an established scientific fact. As Sh.H. Says himself, there is no solid physical evidence, which science needs before establishing a fact of such great significance.
Roy.
I agree withRoey Tsezana that the fact that there were a small number of theories that were rejected by most researchers and then accepted does not mean that every unsubstantiated theory automatically becomes "revolutionary" and one that the "mushy establishment" opposes.
As soon as established proofs are presented that are supported by observations and experiments according to the accepted scientific method, a theory will be accepted even if at first glance it seems strange or far-fetched, see for example quantum mechanics and its various interpretations.
As for the matter of extraterrestrials, as of today there is no solid and well-founded evidence published in the accepted scientific literature that has stood up to a research test for the visits of extraterrestrials to Earth. No "engine" of unknown materials was found. No encounter was recorded. Most of the photographs were found to be fake and the others simply document natural phenomena.
Everything is based on the testimonies of eccentric callers. I wonder if the extraterrestrials want to meet so much why don't they do it with the President of the United States and the UN Secretary on CNN in prime time instead of meeting with the callers?
Oh Roy, Roy (I learned something from Michael),
If you are a true evolutionist then you have no reason to assume that there are no UFOs; After all, just as our lives were created naturally on our little planet, there is no reason why life should not be created in other places somewhere in the universe, if you do not say yes, you may safely degenerate into believing in the uniqueness of man as the only rational being in the universe, from which the path to belief in God is short God forbid.
We have come to learn that the question is not, if there are UFOs, but if they managed to contact us; In other words, the question is not biological or zoological, but a physical question: if there is a way to overcome the enormous barriers of space, and travel by miraculous means within the 'space of time'. As far as I know, this is a question that is definitely not an extreme question. If so, what is wrong with searching for UFOs?? (Who knows, maybe they're even tasty, and you can eat them on your next visit to Sushiya).
Bye
Hello Hanan,
In my talk about UFO theories I described the state of affairs from the point of view of the scientific community. I would appreciate it if you could provide me with a number of links to the articles or studies of the scientists you mentioned, so that I can look at them and expand my knowledge, as well as the science readers who peruse the comments.
In any case, I find it important to explain that Semmelweis's failure does not reflect on all the 'extremist' theories put forward throughout history. You are invited to read Ran Levy's excellent 'Perpetum Mobila', which tells how 'extremist' theories were put forward on the right and left by inventors - fraudsters and innocents alike. If the scientific community were tempted to believe every claim, no real progress would be achieved in any field.
As far as I know, the UFO theory is currently an 'extreme' theory that is not supported by real evidence. I do not claim to be a UFO researcher, but as I wrote, I would love to read links that unequivocally prove the existence of UFOs.
thank you for your response,
Roy.
How unfortunate that the author of the article, himself commits the same sin committed by those who rejected the views of Zemloweiss.
The author of the article claims that: "UFO theories... fail to find unequivocal proof of their existence, or good enough explanations for all the phenomena that are explained by simpler theories, and therefore are not accepted by the scientific community."
"..
This argument itself is not based on the writer's knowledge and the minimal research he has done on the subject, but on his private beliefs and his opinion, which in these cases is not based on research but on rumors and partial and popular information.
It is amazing to see how those who praise Zemmelweis as a miracle, continue to make false claims against modern UFO research, which includes the most senior researchers (Prof. Heinke, Prof. Mack, nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, Dr. Bruce Maccabi, Prof. Anna Luisa -Sid and many other good ones). It is a very unfortunate and unfortunate thing that the author of the article fell into the trap that he himself is trying to describe in the article...
This is a classic example of what may happen in the academic world, when someone challenges his superiors, disagrees with the majority opinion, or God forbid develops a new method/new discovery/new theory, which does not agree with the opinion of the majority and the superiors...
As someone who is engaged in researching a phenomenon that causes a lot of controversy in the academic world, I know enough examples of academics (some of them very senior), who dared to express their opinion only after reaching a very senior position (and some of them even paid with their job and status for it).
"Academic freedom" is found only within the norm. All pioneers may face enormous difficulties before they recognize or accept their views.
Most scientific discoveries are the result of a revolution and not of step-by-step development. The really important discoveries come from the brilliance of a moment, different thinking and the courage to stand up to the established academic establishment.
The sad story of Zemlvis shows, in my opinion, how important character and personality are to a scientist. It turns out that science is not objective but is greatly influenced by the character of the researcher.
A good example of this is the discovery that DNA is the hereditary material by Avery and about 10 years later again by Hershey and Chase. The main difference between the researchers was in personality and charisma.