Ignác Semmelweis: A Hand for a Man Ahead of His Time

Semmelweis via Wikipedia Commons

If ever there were a time to applaud the man who popularized the washing of hands to ride them of germs and other microbes, it’s now. The man is, of course, Hungarian Ignác Semmelweis. And while the washing of hands may be the best way to keep germs from spreading, and the most obvious, before he came along, it was treated with skepticism. But due to his willingness to face derision, we have Semmelweis to thank the healthy habit.

Ignác (internationally known as Ignaz) Semmelweis, is one of Hungary’s most lauded figures, contributing to the sphere of pediatrics by discovering the cause and treatment of puerperal fever. He was also the first to forward a theory of germ infection, and a system of sterilizing equipment, while urging – much to their dismay – surgeons to wash their hands.

Like many reformers and great thinkers, Semmelweis was far enough ahead of his time that nobody took his greatest theories seriously. Refusing to back down in the face of the academy, and suffering from minor undiagnosed ailments, the great doctor found himself a patient in an insane asylum, where he died — from an infection, ironically — at age 47. When Louis Pasteur proved Semmelweis correct, the term ‘Semmelweis Reflex’, which Wikipedia defines as “a metaphor for a certain type of human behavior characterized by reflex-like rejection of new knowledge because it contradicts entrenched norms, beliefs or paradigms,” was coined. Of course, now it is a given that doctors wash their hands and sterilize equipment. But those notions were soundly rejected on the basis that the infecting agent was not visible to the human eye.

Budapest’s internationally renown medical university Semmelweis bears his name. He was also made posthumously famous by the French writer, Louis-Ferdinand Celine (author of Journey to the End of the Night), who wrote a short biography of him. And while he has yet to get a Hollywood treatment, no less that seven films have been made about his life. So these days, we know all to well the importance of clean hands, and have the Hungarian antiseptics pioneer Semmelweis to thank.

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