163. Semmelweis Ignác (1818-1865) orvos, „az anyák megmentője” autográf...

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, Hungarian physician and scientist, an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures, also known as the „saviour of mothers”. He discovered that the incidence of the so-called „childbed fever” could be dramatically reduced by proper aseptic practices like hand disinfection. After returning to Hungary from Vienna, he took the unpaid, honorary head-physician position of the obstetric ward of Szent Rókus Hospital. Here, he was also successful in reducing rates of puerperal fever to less than one percent. During his time in Hungary, he usually cooperated with the authorities by providing expert opinions. In this letter (written in German) he is declaring his views on a case of infanticide: he strengthens the defendant’s statement, as neither the size of the mother’s belly nor the infant’s movement was able to adequately warn the mother about her actual condition. Semmelweis’ autograph writings are extremely rare. The scripts of his main work, public letters and articles are all missing. György Korbuly and Ákos Palla medical historians estimate that as few as five original letters by Semmelweis survive and no more than 20 or 30 documents in total.