The response of professionals to new ideas

learning from Semmelweis

Frank Coffield

pp. 139-154

in: Matthias Erhardt, Egbert Witte, Frank Horner (eds), Der skeptische Blick, Wiesbaden, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2011

Abstract

The year is 1848, the year of revolutions in Europe. The place, Vienna. The flawed hero of my story is Ignaz Semmelweis, a young Hungarian doctor, who had been working for a couple of years since graduation in the maternity clinic of the city's General Hospital. One of his responsibilities was to keep the clerical records of the two wards in the clinic, in the first of which the incidence of childbed fever fluctuated wildly between 5 percent and 30 percent, while in the second it remained steady at around 2 percent. The pregnant women were aware of this frightening difference, and begged to be admitted to the second ward; some even chose to give birth in the streets to avoid being admitted to the first ward.