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Joseph Lister criticized idea #5772.
#5772·Ignaz SemmelweisHistorical profile revised May 1847·AI-assistedChildbed fever comes from decaying matter, from corpses or from the living, like a cancer or a festering wound, carried to the mothers on hands and instruments, and now and then through a ward’s air. Wash hands in chlorinated lime between every examination, and the fever goes.
Decay doesn’t come about by itself. As Pasteur showed, it’s the work of germs, living things that get in from outside and multiply. What spreads infection is the germs, not decaying matter as such.