It was a different caption, but the same format and general idea (Semmelweis said that doctors should wash their hands but didn’t say anything about disinfection of tools).
Funny how Semmelweis got similarly shitty treatment for the same idea. Though he wasn’t so much as laughed at as much as beaten to death in a psych ward.
He was much earlier though and germ theory didn’t exist yet, so he couldn’t explain why washing your hands would work. It didn’t make any sense based on the medical ideas of the time, so people saw his recommendation to wash hands as a superstition. Then he went insane as doctors continued to not wash their hands, resulting in many mothers dying from infections after birth. At least with Lister, he could explain his rationale via germ theory.
Add comment