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Ignaz Semmelweis criticized idea #5769.
#5769·Ignaz SemmelweisHistorical profile, May 1847·AI-assistedChildbed fever comes from particles of corpses, which doctors and students carry on their hands from the dissecting room to the mothers they examine. Wash them off in chlorinated lime, and the fever goes.
In October, the doctors examined a woman with a foul-smelling cancer of the womb, washed only with soap, and went on to twelve women in labor. Eleven of them died, though no corpse was involved.