Wednesday, November 18, 2009

What is the name of that French doctor who went crazy because no one believed him about the importance of soap?

He lived sometime in the 19th century (or in the past atleast) and he ended up going crazy and comitting suicide because no one believed him when he said that soap and washing hands would lessen the chance of bacterial infection in patients during surgery.

What is the name of that French doctor who went crazy because no one believed him about the importance of soap?
He wasn't French; he was Hungarian Jewish, and his name was Ignaz Semmelweiss. Poor man, he deserved better, and so did the patients in the Vienna Lying-In Hospital. You can find lots of stuff about him on Google, but this is a starter:
Reply:He wasn't French, he was Hungarian. His name was Ignaz Fulop Semmelweis. (Anglicized to Ignace Phillip) .





Part of the problem was that Semmelweis was a Hungarian surrounded by elite and haughty Viennese physicians who considered Hungarians as ill-mannered dolts. The germ theory of disease was not known.





Louis Pasteur was a French chemist whose experiments led him to believe that contagion could be spread by unclean hands. Since he wasn't a physician, his beliefs were initially rejected. Pasteur was of stronger stuff, and he eventually prevailed. Ditto for Lister in England.


No comments:

Post a Comment