March 12, 2025

The Origin Of Weird: Ignaz Semmelweis

The Origin Of Weird: Ignaz Semmelweis

The shocking story of how simply washing hands could have saved countless women's lives—and why doctors refused to do it. 

Meet Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician working in Vienna in the 1840s who made a disturbing observation: women were dying at alarming rates after childbirth in doctor-run maternity wards, while those assisted by midwives usually survived. The difference? Doctors were performing autopsies before delivering babies—without washing their hands in between.

When Semmelweis implemented a mandatory hand-washing protocol using chlorinated lime solution in 1847, the results were immediate and dramatic. Mortality rates plummeted from over 18% to near zero within months. Yet instead of celebration, his discovery met with ridicule and hostility from the medical establishment. Many physicians were offended at the suggestion they should wash their hands between procedures, considering it an affront to their status as gentlemen.

The tragic irony of Semmelweis's story is that after years of fighting for acceptance, his mental health deteriorated. In 1865, colleagues tricked him into visiting an asylum where he was forcibly detained. During a struggle with guards, he sustained injuries that became infected, and he died—from the very type of preventable infection he had spent his life fighting—at just 47 years old. His hand-washing practices were largely abandoned, and mortality rates immediately increased sixfold.

Decades would pass before Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister established germ theory, vindicating Semmelweis's work too late for him to witness. Join us as we explore this heartbreaking medical saga that reminds us how institutional resistance to change can cost countless lives, and how scientific progress sometimes comes at great personal sacrifice.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

https://www/pbs.org/newshour/health/ignaz-semmelweis-doctor-prescribed-hand-washing

By - Dr. Howard Markel

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Chapters

00:00 - Introducing the History Buffoons

04:53 - Childbed Fever: A Deadly Postpartum Infection

09:06 - Rise of Hospital Births and Autopsies

14:21 - Semmelweis Discovers the Deadly Pattern

19:40 - Hand Washing Revolution Begins

27:11 - Semmelweis's Tragic End and Legacy

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:13.891 --> 00:00:16.213
oh, hey there, oh hey there.

00:00:16.213 --> 00:00:19.675
Where over there, where hello I?

00:00:20.175 --> 00:00:21.176
am a history buffoon.

00:00:21.176 --> 00:00:21.637
How about you?

00:00:22.341 --> 00:00:24.143
hello, I am also a buffoon of history.

00:00:25.106 --> 00:00:26.227
We are the history buffoons.

00:00:26.547 --> 00:00:27.048
I'm Bradley.

00:00:27.428 --> 00:00:27.929
I'm Kate.

00:00:28.271 --> 00:00:29.192
How are you today, Kate?

00:00:29.693 --> 00:00:30.855
I'm good, wonderful.

00:00:30.855 --> 00:00:33.226
This is actually the origin of weird.

00:00:33.667 --> 00:00:34.310
It sure is.

00:00:35.222 --> 00:00:36.508
We are trying to find.

00:00:36.979 --> 00:00:38.606
The weirdest origin stories?

00:00:38.606 --> 00:00:39.890
Yes, also.

00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:41.624
Or where did weird start?

00:00:41.664 --> 00:00:43.850
Yeah, like seriously we don't know, or where did weird start?

00:00:43.850 --> 00:00:44.671
Yeah, like seriously, we don't know.

00:00:44.671 --> 00:00:45.194
Did it start with you?

00:00:45.194 --> 00:00:45.695
I don't know.

00:00:45.695 --> 00:00:46.557
Did it start with me?

00:00:46.557 --> 00:00:46.878
I don't know.

00:00:46.917 --> 00:00:47.420
Let's find out.

00:00:47.420 --> 00:00:49.905
It most definitely started with you.

00:00:49.947 --> 00:00:52.112
Do you believe in Sorry?

00:00:55.539 --> 00:00:57.607
That's going to be a running topic for a while.

00:00:57.607 --> 00:00:58.844
We're going to talk about.

00:00:58.844 --> 00:01:13.349
Yes, do tell Ignaz Semmelweis, he actually helped prevent a deadly childbirth complication, okay called child bed fever child bed fever.

00:01:13.349 --> 00:01:13.951
Have you heard of it?

00:01:14.132 --> 00:01:14.894
I don't think I have.

00:01:14.894 --> 00:01:17.019
So did the child get a fever in bed?

00:01:17.019 --> 00:01:22.004
Kind of kind of I mean child bed fever leads me to believe that.

00:01:22.625 --> 00:01:35.876
It's actually also known as purperol fever, purple fever, purperol, purperol, puperol, puperol, pew, pew, pew, purperol.

00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:39.780
Okay, you need to stop with your fucking variations of this.

00:01:39.819 --> 00:01:44.671
Childbed fever is a postpartum infection caused by bacteria.

00:01:45.191 --> 00:01:45.593
Gotcha.

00:01:45.733 --> 00:01:46.013
Gotcha Okay.

00:01:46.013 --> 00:01:52.590
So today is largely preventable with proper hygiene and antibiotics, Sure.

00:01:52.900 --> 00:01:56.420
But back in the day, not so much, not so much.

00:01:56.500 --> 00:02:01.507
I mean we're talking pre-germ theory, pre-antibiotics.

00:02:01.507 --> 00:02:05.871
It was a common deadly complication, so that was like common deadly complication.

00:02:05.891 --> 00:02:07.777
So that was like what Complication, like five years ago?

00:02:07.777 --> 00:02:10.105
No, what time frame are we talking?

00:02:11.881 --> 00:02:13.868
The 18th 19th centuries.

00:02:14.001 --> 00:02:15.338
Okay, I kind of figured that yeah.

00:02:15.721 --> 00:02:22.294
So, within about three days of giving birth, patients developed abdominal pain fevers.

00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:24.371
So like the mothers did yes, or the babies did, the babies Okay, no fevers.

00:02:24.390 --> 00:02:25.859
So like the mothers did, yes, or the babies did, the babies.

00:02:25.859 --> 00:02:29.329
Okay, no the mothers, no the babies.

00:02:31.061 --> 00:02:32.306
So confused right now.

00:02:32.747 --> 00:02:33.128
Women.

00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:34.443
So men were immune.

00:02:35.667 --> 00:02:36.049
Women.

00:02:36.409 --> 00:02:36.751
Women.

00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:39.084
Developed abdominal pain.

00:02:39.525 --> 00:02:39.824
Yes.

00:02:40.385 --> 00:02:40.987
Fevers.

00:02:41.367 --> 00:02:41.748
Okay.

00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:43.473
Abscesses.

00:02:43.693 --> 00:02:43.933
Yeah.

00:02:44.460 --> 00:02:51.086
And other signs of infection, okay, and it would often progress to blood poisoning and death.

00:02:51.086 --> 00:02:53.334
Sounds fantastic, is that funny?

00:02:54.036 --> 00:02:59.165
I mean it kind of is because you still didn't answer my question, so it's the mothers.

00:02:59.507 --> 00:03:15.135
Okay, mortality rates yeah were really high, ranging from 20 to 30 percent for, like, sporadic cases, but then 70 to 80 percent during epidemics holy fuck, so epidemic.

00:03:15.155 --> 00:03:17.741
So is this something that could be caught?

00:03:17.781 --> 00:03:24.774
then yes, oh wow yes, so many prominent women died from this, including henry the eighth's.

00:03:24.774 --> 00:03:29.844
So many prominent women died from this, including henry the eighth's wife, jane seymour.

00:03:29.844 --> 00:03:30.165
I know of her.

00:03:30.165 --> 00:03:30.948
Yes, yes, she died of childbed fever.

00:03:31.027 --> 00:03:33.213
Yeah, I did not realize that was her cause of death.

00:03:33.373 --> 00:03:45.635
Yes, and it was a mystery before evidence-based medicine figured out right what it was, but theories ranged from imbalances in bodily fluids to bad air.

00:03:46.480 --> 00:03:47.585
Bad air.

00:03:47.585 --> 00:03:51.229
Yes, like you lived in, never mind Okay.

00:03:53.621 --> 00:03:59.653
Several factors contributed to the rise of child bed fever epidemics in the 18th and 19th centuries.

00:03:59.653 --> 00:04:07.394
Prior to the 18th century, male doctors rarely delivered babies unless complications came up.

00:04:07.741 --> 00:04:08.966
Because the women couldn't handle it.

00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:11.846
No, because they were doctors.

00:04:12.825 --> 00:04:13.350
No, that's not why.

00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:15.134
The other kind was midwives.

00:04:15.134 --> 00:04:16.937
Right so they didn't have that kind of like.

00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:19.728
No, because midwives were very popular back then.

00:04:19.747 --> 00:04:20.009
Yes.

00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:23.730
Yeah, I mean they're still around today, but not as prevalent.

00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:27.930
So there were two changes that occurred in the 1700s.

00:04:27.930 --> 00:04:34.132
More women gave birth in hospitals, sometimes due to social programs for the poor.

00:04:34.413 --> 00:04:34.653
Sure.

00:04:35.761 --> 00:04:40.271
And these hospitals were staffed by either midwives or doctors.

00:04:40.632 --> 00:04:40.892
Right.

00:04:41.961 --> 00:04:46.920
And medical education incorporated autopsies more frequently.

00:04:47.382 --> 00:04:48.024
Right, okay.

00:04:48.581 --> 00:04:52.944
So more women in hospitals, more autopsies.

00:04:54.269 --> 00:04:55.091
That's the correlation.

00:04:55.180 --> 00:05:03.966
Those were the two factors that happened in the 1700s, so these changes had unintended consequences.

00:05:03.966 --> 00:05:06.190
What's the word Consequences?

00:05:06.752 --> 00:05:07.593
Consequences.

00:05:08.420 --> 00:05:09.987
Doctors and students.

00:05:09.987 --> 00:05:14.605
Can you please say it normally, so I can stop laughing?

00:05:14.605 --> 00:05:15.668
Consequences.

00:05:15.668 --> 00:05:20.673
Thank you, consequences.

00:05:20.694 --> 00:05:26.512
Consequences Jesus Christ Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

00:05:26.512 --> 00:05:28.500
Consequences Consequences Jesus Christ Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

00:05:29.601 --> 00:05:36.665
So doctors and students handled bodies of women who died from child bed fever, often with bare hands.

00:05:36.899 --> 00:05:38.807
I hope they had to live with dignity.

00:05:39.300 --> 00:05:42.069
And pathogens weren't understood at the time.

00:05:42.069 --> 00:05:46.550
So there was a lack of hygiene and hand washing wasn't practiced yet.

00:05:46.771 --> 00:05:46.812
No.

00:05:47.882 --> 00:05:49.206
And cervical gloves.

00:05:49.788 --> 00:05:54.168
Cervical or surgical Surgical gloves, because that would be weird if it was cervical gloves.

00:05:58.000 --> 00:05:59.125
Surgical gloves.

00:05:59.125 --> 00:06:01.206
There it is, weren't invented yet.

00:06:01.206 --> 00:06:03.360
It wasn't invented in 1888.

00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:05.658
Nope, 1889.

00:06:05.658 --> 00:06:10.290
How were you a year off when you said that I'm tipsy?

00:06:12.841 --> 00:06:17.153
So surgical gloves weren't invented until 1889.

00:06:17.153 --> 00:06:21.117
Or, if you're actually proper, 1889.

00:06:21.117 --> 00:06:21.319
Okay, okay.

00:06:22.339 --> 00:06:24.045
So the combination of factors led to like a dramatic increase in childbed fever?

00:06:24.045 --> 00:06:27.918
Okay, okay, so the combination of factors led to like a dramatic increase in childbed fever.

00:06:28.119 --> 00:06:28.300
Okay.

00:06:28.660 --> 00:06:30.386
Particularly in hospitals.

00:06:31.369 --> 00:06:31.649
Right.

00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:33.867
Several hospitals experienced outbreaks.

00:06:33.867 --> 00:06:37.490
Hospitals weren't seen as safe places to give birth.

00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:41.853
Didn't because there was a pretty big mortality rate there, right, huge yeah.

00:06:41.853 --> 00:06:44.649
Like you go to the hospital, you fucking die.

00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:46.255
You die, yes, which is just wild, because you think you're going to someplace to help you right there, right, huge, yeah, like you go to the hospital.

00:06:46.255 --> 00:06:46.583
You fucking died a lot of times.

00:06:46.536 --> 00:07:01.887
Yes, which is just wild, because you think you're going to some place to help you yes, so some doctors recognize the link between autopsies and childbed fever right or patient to patient transmission right, and they did publish their theories and solutions.

00:07:01.908 --> 00:07:15.127
Okay, so in, so in 1746, Alexander Gordon of Scotland suggested doctors could transmit the disease and recommended disinfectant measures.

00:07:15.369 --> 00:07:15.810
Isn't it funny?

00:07:15.810 --> 00:07:19.531
Because they probably in their heads thought there's no way I can transfer that.

00:07:20.276 --> 00:07:20.899
I'm a doctor.

00:07:20.899 --> 00:07:22.244
Doctors did believe that.

00:07:22.584 --> 00:07:23.226
Well, some did.

00:07:23.226 --> 00:07:24.531
I'm sure there's some that did.

00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:34.134
In 1829, Robert Collins of Dublin implemented chlorine fumigation and cleaning protocols, significantly reducing cases.

00:07:34.134 --> 00:07:34.899
Isn't that wild?

00:07:34.899 --> 00:07:47.851
And in 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr of Boston presented a paper advocating for hand washing and separation of obstetric duties and autopsies Autopsies.

00:07:48.012 --> 00:07:48.252
Did he?

00:07:48.252 --> 00:07:51.668
Did he puk the cod Havadjad?

00:07:51.829 --> 00:07:52.531
He probably did.

00:07:52.531 --> 00:07:59.845
Oliver Wendell Holmes Senya Senya His paper offered Okay you can stop with that.

00:07:59.845 --> 00:08:07.170
Practical solutions to prevent child death fever, but it was initially dismissed by the medical community.

00:08:07.170 --> 00:08:10.800
Some doctors ridiculed Holmes' theories.

00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:12.449
When did we get to the South?

00:08:13.783 --> 00:08:15.269
When did we get to the South?

00:08:17.043 --> 00:08:23.947
Why I do declare why I do declare that some doctors ridiculed Holmes theories, can I?

00:08:23.966 --> 00:08:24.670
get an amen.

00:08:25.245 --> 00:08:28.610
Amen Attributing to high bed, high child bed fever.

00:08:28.610 --> 00:08:32.532
Alright, stop, oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

00:08:32.552 --> 00:08:33.315
Jesus Christ.

00:08:33.885 --> 00:08:41.571
His paper offered practical solutions to prevent child bed fever, but it was initially dismissed by the medical community.

00:08:41.571 --> 00:08:58.590
Some doctors ridiculed Holmes' theories, attributing high childbirth fever rates to just bad luck wow, ignorant fucks that brings me to ignis symbol vice ignis symbol vice okay.

00:08:58.590 --> 00:08:59.770
Idol vice, oh sorry.

00:08:59.770 --> 00:09:02.195
No symbol vice Edelweiss, oh sorry.

00:09:02.215 --> 00:09:02.816
Edelweiss no.

00:09:03.817 --> 00:09:04.538
Semmelweis.

00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:06.160
Brujaha.

00:09:07.905 --> 00:09:11.676
He was born on July 1st 1818.

00:09:11.696 --> 00:09:12.336
Oh, that's a good year.

00:09:12.725 --> 00:09:13.971
He was the fifth out of ten.

00:09:13.971 --> 00:09:18.595
Semmelweis studied law first, but then became a doctor in Vienna.

00:09:18.595 --> 00:09:19.476
Because why not?

00:09:19.706 --> 00:09:21.251
Because I mean, got nothing else to do.

00:09:22.005 --> 00:09:33.778
Unable to find work in internal medicine, he pursued obstetrics and in 1846, semmelweis joined the Vienna General Hospital as an assistant in the maternity clinic.

00:09:33.778 --> 00:09:37.443
The hospital had two clinics, oh.

00:09:37.443 --> 00:09:44.812
First clinic was staffed by doctors and medical students who also performed autopsies Okay.

00:09:44.812 --> 00:09:46.394
And medical students who also performed autopsies Okay.

00:09:46.394 --> 00:09:51.139
The second clinic staffed by midwives and their students.

00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:51.899
Okay.

00:09:51.899 --> 00:10:04.198
Okay, semmelweis noticed a disturbing difference in childbed fever rates between the clinics, so can I guess the midwife and student one had less.

00:10:05.105 --> 00:10:12.664
Yes, midwife clinic had 1% to 2% mortality rate, where the doctor's clinic had 5% to 10% mortality rate.

00:10:12.826 --> 00:10:14.090
That is quite significant.

00:10:14.090 --> 00:10:16.349
It is, I mean, that's literally.

00:10:16.349 --> 00:10:18.235
Yeah, that's five times more.

00:10:20.166 --> 00:10:29.312
Women in labor would plead to be admitted to the midwife's clinic or giving birth on the street rather than the doctor's clinic.

00:10:29.445 --> 00:10:30.509
Isn't that fucking wild?

00:10:30.509 --> 00:10:31.746
Yes, that's just.

00:10:33.225 --> 00:10:38.445
Some of us even noticed that the street births had lower motility rates.

00:10:38.544 --> 00:10:41.120
See, that is just fucking amazing.

00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:43.270
Yes, because you can't tell me those were cleanly, cleanly.

00:10:43.270 --> 00:10:44.619
No, I mean, there was no godliness going on there, no, there wasn't.

00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:45.865
Yes Because you can't tell me those were cleanly, cleanly, no.

00:10:46.365 --> 00:10:47.970
I mean, there was no godliness going on there?

00:10:47.970 --> 00:10:50.576
No, there wasn't, wow Okay.

00:10:50.684 --> 00:10:52.230
He was deeply disturbed.

00:10:52.230 --> 00:10:55.568
Can you blame him by this investigation?

00:10:55.568 --> 00:10:55.889
I?

00:10:55.909 --> 00:10:56.371
don't blame him.

00:10:56.371 --> 00:10:57.895
Yeah, you don't say.

00:10:59.725 --> 00:11:06.099
He excluded overcrowding as a cause, since the second clinic was always more crowded.

00:11:06.345 --> 00:11:08.500
Sure because more people wanted to go there.

00:11:08.740 --> 00:11:14.091
He eliminated climate because the two clients were in close proximity to each other.

00:11:14.091 --> 00:11:18.190
He altered the position in which mothers gave birth.

00:11:18.190 --> 00:11:21.932
So instead of on their back on their knees.

00:11:21.932 --> 00:11:25.034
Or side-lying or something like that.

00:11:25.034 --> 00:11:39.033
He proposed that priests giving less rights in the clinic were terrifying women after birth, causing them to develop the fever, Like they would hear that the priest was here with his bell ringing.

00:11:39.333 --> 00:11:40.297
Bring out your dead.

00:11:40.336 --> 00:11:45.378
Exactly Women would hear that and potentially panic, thinking that it was them.

00:11:45.639 --> 00:11:46.522
Yeah, they were dying.

00:11:46.522 --> 00:11:47.504
Yeah, Okay.

00:11:47.885 --> 00:11:55.139
So a turning point came, when his colleague Caleb nope, Jacob Kolechka, Kolechka.

00:11:55.139 --> 00:12:00.923
Died of a condition resembling child bed fever after an autopsy mishap.

00:12:01.224 --> 00:12:01.404
Okay.

00:12:01.764 --> 00:12:03.732
A student had poked him with a scalpel.

00:12:05.067 --> 00:12:06.495
After cutting into.

00:12:06.839 --> 00:12:07.825
Yes, the autopsy yes.

00:12:08.407 --> 00:12:09.009
The disease.

00:12:09.009 --> 00:12:18.892
Yes, wow, so Semmelweis noticed that so how do you actually just poke him with a fucking scalpel Like oh hey, doc, yeah, wow, that's fucked up, yeah, okay.

00:12:19.184 --> 00:12:25.879
So Semmelweis noticed that, unlike midwives, medical students routinely performed autopsies and vaginal examinations.

00:12:27.184 --> 00:12:28.611
Because those go side by side.

00:12:29.445 --> 00:12:39.395
So he theorized that cadaverous particles from autopsies were transmitted to patients by the doctor's hands.

00:12:40.144 --> 00:12:48.456
Yeah, because you know they're fucking dead Icky.

00:12:48.456 --> 00:12:49.717
Yeah, continue Sorry.

00:12:49.998 --> 00:12:50.938
Icky, icky, icky.

00:12:51.320 --> 00:12:52.280
Icky icky eh.

00:12:53.306 --> 00:12:58.998
In May 1847, he implemented a mandatory hand washing protocol.

00:12:59.384 --> 00:13:01.894
Which is probably thought fucking witchcraft at the time.

00:13:01.953 --> 00:13:04.495
Yeah, it was chlorinated lime solution.

00:13:04.495 --> 00:13:05.763
I said wine Wine Chlorinated lime solution.

00:13:05.763 --> 00:13:11.924
I said wine Wine Chlorinated lime solution, which was a disinfectant after autopsies, gotcha.

00:13:11.924 --> 00:13:20.953
So he did this because he found the chlorinated solution worked best to remove the putrid smell of infected autopsy tissue.

00:13:21.144 --> 00:13:33.388
And it's funny because that was the initial reason for it was just to get rid of the smell, not to actually clean your hands.

00:13:33.408 --> 00:13:38.304
It was just to eliminate a smell, right, and it destroyed the poisonous or contaminating cadaveric agent hypothetically being transmitted by this material.

00:13:38.304 --> 00:13:41.429
But the impact was immediate.

00:13:41.429 --> 00:14:07.120
Child bed fever mortality in the doctor's clinic plummeted from 18.3 percent in april to 2.2 percent in june I mean, that's literally two months, yes, and it drops 16 percent, yes, and by august, another two months later, zero deaths, for the first time since autopsies became routine weird, isn't it?

00:14:08.043 --> 00:14:15.565
despite the success of hand washing, he couldn't fully explain why hand washing worked, leading to doubts of his theory.

00:14:15.565 --> 00:14:24.373
So he revised his theory, suggesting that cadaverous particles could come from any decaying matter, not just human bodies.

00:14:24.373 --> 00:14:28.486
Right, so most established doctors rejected his findings.

00:14:28.486 --> 00:14:41.056
They clung on to the miasma theory, which is disease caused by bad air those people are, I understand, not enough information.

00:14:41.056 --> 00:14:48.532
Yeah fuck, they're dumb some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands.

00:14:48.664 --> 00:14:49.288
I know better.

00:14:49.288 --> 00:14:52.392
Like you think, I put my hands somewhere they shouldn't have been.

00:14:52.511 --> 00:14:55.789
I am a doctor, I'm a gentleman doctor.

00:14:55.830 --> 00:14:59.405
Yeah, I do declare, sir, my hands are clean, sir.

00:14:59.405 --> 00:15:01.265
By all means.

00:15:01.265 --> 00:15:02.812
I believe you are wrong.

00:15:05.004 --> 00:15:07.772
But access to clean water wasn't always guaranteed in here.

00:15:07.792 --> 00:15:09.777
Well, she took time, that is true, that is true.

00:15:12.466 --> 00:15:18.384
So Semmelweis documented the continued high child bed fever rates and attacks on his theories.

00:15:18.384 --> 00:15:32.087
So, despite the resistance, semmelweis powered the fuck through, symbolized powered the fuck through.

00:15:32.087 --> 00:15:36.878
So in 1848 he mandated cleaning birthing instruments with chlorinated lime, further reducing mortality rates weird.

00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:48.458
With a constant rejection he faced, he became increasingly frustrated and combative well, because people kept going against what he was saying, even though the results were fucking proving them.

00:15:48.458 --> 00:15:51.052
Mm-hmm, so cool.

00:15:52.265 --> 00:16:04.710
So in 1849, he had like a two-year contract with this hospital and it ended and the hospital offered him a position without a cadaver contract.

00:16:04.730 --> 00:16:06.652
Okay, and he felt sour about that offered him a position without a cadaver contract.

00:16:06.672 --> 00:16:08.533
Okay, and he felt sour about that.

00:16:08.533 --> 00:16:12.538
He left Vienna for Hungary in 1850 without a farewell.

00:16:12.538 --> 00:16:13.558
He was just like I'm out.

00:16:14.059 --> 00:16:15.301
Adios, au revoir.

00:16:15.461 --> 00:16:27.754
Uh-huh, and in 1851, he became head of obstetrics at St Ruckus Hospital, which was an honorary position, and he achieved lower childbed fever rates.

00:16:28.245 --> 00:16:33.951
And for everyone who doesn't know what obstetrics is it's baby delivery.

00:16:34.111 --> 00:16:38.354
Yeah, yes, but he virtually eliminated the disease.

00:16:39.416 --> 00:16:39.716
Weird.

00:16:39.716 --> 00:16:42.013
I mean, it seems coincidental.

00:16:42.013 --> 00:16:44.793
There's no way he could have been part of this.

00:16:45.284 --> 00:16:53.119
During 1851 to 1855, only eight patients died from childbed fever.

00:16:53.298 --> 00:16:53.919
Yeah, weird.

00:16:53.985 --> 00:16:56.813
Out of 933 births.

00:16:56.965 --> 00:16:58.331
That's pretty good fucking odds.

00:16:58.684 --> 00:16:59.791
Eight in four years.

00:17:00.245 --> 00:17:01.410
I mean that's two a year.

00:17:02.326 --> 00:17:04.133
Out of 933 births.

00:17:04.704 --> 00:17:05.709
So 933 births four years.

00:17:05.709 --> 00:17:07.635
I mean that's over 200 births a year out of 933 births.

00:17:07.635 --> 00:17:08.799
So 933 births four years.

00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:12.108
I mean that's over 200 births a year and you lost two per year.

00:17:12.108 --> 00:17:14.534
That's pretty fucking good.

00:17:14.534 --> 00:17:17.661
I mean, there's today.

00:17:17.661 --> 00:17:33.909
We'll probably lose that, yeah, honestly, from other complications of course not from what we're talking about, but still that's pretty good, fucking odds so, even though some devices, hand washing methods, dramatically reduce these deaths, they weren't exactly a hit.

00:17:34.108 --> 00:17:36.233
Well, no, because people had to do an extra step.

00:17:36.233 --> 00:17:45.576
Yeah, and they're like but but, sir, I'm a doctor the leading doctor at the university of pest In Budapest.

00:17:45.615 --> 00:17:46.740
His name is ED Burley.

00:17:46.740 --> 00:17:50.419
He clung to the belief that childbirth fever came from unclean bowels.

00:17:50.980 --> 00:17:54.035
Not unclean air, no bowels.

00:17:54.035 --> 00:17:55.414
He upgraded his theory.

00:17:56.029 --> 00:17:59.200
His cure was harsh purges.

00:18:00.512 --> 00:18:01.135
Of the buttocks.

00:18:01.390 --> 00:18:03.376
Which, you can imagine, isn't exactly pleasant.

00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:06.876
No, so he had basically given him a colonoscopy.

00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:08.101
Enemas.

00:18:08.630 --> 00:18:09.796
That's the word I was looking for.

00:18:10.109 --> 00:18:11.998
Nasty harsh purging enemas.

00:18:12.650 --> 00:18:16.099
There's a really good tool song called Enema, anyways.

00:18:16.140 --> 00:18:16.401
Okay.

00:18:16.401 --> 00:18:24.202
So Burley finally kicked the bucket in 1854 and Semmelweis saw his chance to become a new professor.

00:18:24.202 --> 00:18:30.513
Ooh, Unfortunately, an old rival from Vienna named Karl Braun also applied.

00:18:30.513 --> 00:18:38.313
But Braun, despite not even speaking Hungarian, won the favor of the Hungarian doctors and got the job.

00:18:38.313 --> 00:18:44.051
However, Samuel Weiss was not going to give up easily.

00:18:44.051 --> 00:18:45.056
Something Weiss.

00:18:45.056 --> 00:18:54.424
Thanks to some intervention from Vienna, the vote was overturned and eventually he landed the position in 1855.

00:18:54.424 --> 00:19:00.103
You wouldn't know it, but his hand-washing protocols once again brought impressive results.

00:19:00.410 --> 00:19:00.810
Weird.

00:19:00.810 --> 00:19:04.842
I mean, it just seems to be a proven fucking thing, but okay.

00:19:05.150 --> 00:19:17.455
Despite his success, Semmelweis turned down an offer to become a professor in zurich in 1857 okay maybe he was tired of fighting the medical establishment, or maybe he just found love, because that seemed.

00:19:17.455 --> 00:19:32.125
He married a woman oh yes, and they had a family of five children oh, wow despite the success of hand Semmelweis' abrasive personality and hostage tactics backfired.

00:19:32.125 --> 00:19:41.343
Yeah, he didn't go about it the right way In 1861, semmelweis published a book about his handwashing discoveries and unfortunately some foreign reviews weren't exactly glowing.

00:19:41.462 --> 00:19:41.844
Of course.

00:19:42.289 --> 00:19:48.663
Feeling defeated, frustrated, Semmelweis lashed out at his critics in a series of very angry open letters.

00:19:49.250 --> 00:19:50.616
Because they didn't have emails back then.

00:19:51.150 --> 00:19:57.703
He called prominent doctors names like irresponsible murderers and ignoramuses.

00:19:58.330 --> 00:19:59.556
Oh, not the ignoramus.

00:19:59.556 --> 00:20:00.137
That's the worst.

00:20:00.137 --> 00:20:03.057
That cuts you to the quick right there.

00:20:03.430 --> 00:20:08.333
And he challenged them to like a public debate, demanding they all convert to his theory.

00:20:08.333 --> 00:20:11.035
Okay, challenged them to like a public debate, demanding they all convert to his theory.

00:20:11.035 --> 00:20:13.556
Around the same time, semmelweis' behavior started to raise eyebrows.

00:20:13.556 --> 00:20:22.902
He became increasingly withdrawn from his family, spending more time away, sometimes with a prostitute, and his wife noticed changes in his personality.

00:20:24.002 --> 00:20:26.484
So is there any like speculation as to why?

00:20:27.025 --> 00:20:30.287
So it was suggested that he had early onset Alzheimer's.

00:20:30.967 --> 00:20:31.268
Oh.

00:20:31.728 --> 00:20:31.968
Yes.

00:20:32.791 --> 00:20:38.289
So there could have been something there, just not 100% exactly what it was.

00:20:38.369 --> 00:20:40.417
They also think it could have been syphilis.

00:20:40.730 --> 00:20:41.935
I was going to say that actually.

00:20:43.211 --> 00:20:48.462
And some believe it was emotional burnout from years of stress, of fighting for acceptance.

00:20:49.431 --> 00:20:53.281
I mean, I understand that, but it seems a little more than that, but okay.

00:20:54.752 --> 00:20:58.342
In 1865, semmelweis' mental state deteriorated.

00:20:58.342 --> 00:21:04.163
Yep, a colleague tricked him into visiting a mental asylum under false pretenses.

00:21:04.584 --> 00:21:05.144
That's bullshit.

00:21:05.529 --> 00:21:08.916
And there Semmelweis realized his situation and attempted to escape.

00:21:08.916 --> 00:21:09.659
That's bullshit.

00:21:09.659 --> 00:21:24.670
That seems really helpful, oh my God.

00:21:24.670 --> 00:21:28.794
Well, yeah, two weeks later, semmelweis died at the age of 47.

00:21:29.173 --> 00:21:29.775
Well, yeah.

00:21:30.234 --> 00:21:36.280
From a gangrenous wound, likely caused by an infection, during his struggle with the guards.

00:21:36.280 --> 00:21:43.426
Irony is, he died of an infection that was preventable with proper care.

00:21:45.213 --> 00:21:47.662
Yep, wow, that's horseshit.

00:21:48.605 --> 00:21:54.538
Semmelweis's work, though unrecognized in his lifetime, laid the groundwork for the future.

00:21:54.569 --> 00:21:55.333
For modern day.

00:21:55.353 --> 00:21:58.993
yeah, yes, so immediately.

00:21:58.993 --> 00:22:01.801
Mortality rates increased sixfold.

00:22:02.289 --> 00:22:04.855
Yeah, because no one fucking cared about his shit.

00:22:04.855 --> 00:22:06.259
This fucker's gone.

00:22:06.259 --> 00:22:07.282
He's not preaching his shit.

00:22:07.282 --> 00:22:08.596
Let's go back to our old ways.

00:22:08.596 --> 00:22:11.720
And all of a sudden, lots more people died.

00:22:12.633 --> 00:22:25.126
The physicians of Budapest did nothing, said nothing, no inquiries, no protests, Wow that's bullshit, and almost no one, either in Vienna or Budapest, seems to have been willing to acknowledge Semmelweis' life and work.

00:22:25.448 --> 00:22:25.769
That's terrible.

00:22:26.289 --> 00:22:35.688
It wasn't until the 1880s, after the work of Pasteur and Lister, that infection control became standard in obstetrics.

00:22:35.688 --> 00:22:40.819
Okay, but these researchers were unaware of Semmelweis' contributions.

00:22:41.721 --> 00:22:42.103
Of course.

00:22:42.103 --> 00:22:44.057
Why would they know that?

00:22:44.057 --> 00:22:44.778
Yeah, honestly.

00:22:45.230 --> 00:22:49.084
Semmelweis' story wasn't fully recognized until the late 19th century.

00:22:49.084 --> 00:22:50.609
Wow, that's wild.

00:22:51.517 --> 00:22:54.756
It's weird, it is because you would think it's.

00:22:54.756 --> 00:22:58.384
I mean, obviously, in our day and age it's such a simple thing.

00:22:58.384 --> 00:22:59.567
Wash your fucking hands.

00:22:59.586 --> 00:23:00.107
Wash your hands.

00:23:00.107 --> 00:23:00.808
Simple as that.

00:23:00.950 --> 00:23:01.932
Yeah, and obviously there's a little.

00:23:01.932 --> 00:23:07.103
There's more to it, obviously, with the cleaning of the utensils and supplies and such and whatever.

00:23:07.103 --> 00:23:18.778
But like, literally, just wash your fucking hands and they're like I'm a doctor, sir, I do not have to wash my hands, my reputation is clean, but your hands aren't, you fuck.

00:23:19.678 --> 00:23:21.460
You just touch a dead body, yeah.

00:23:21.779 --> 00:23:24.742
You literally touch a decaying fucking body.

00:23:24.742 --> 00:23:27.164
Let's go check this chick's vagina out.

00:23:28.165 --> 00:23:29.426
And have a baby.

00:23:29.666 --> 00:23:33.354
Yeah, and that's going to fucking go well.

00:23:33.354 --> 00:23:37.939
No one said ever Unless you're from that fucking time and you're a fucking idiot.

00:23:37.939 --> 00:23:50.155
I mean, I get it, things evolve, practices come into play and so on and whatever, but it's like wash your fucking hands, man, for the love of God.

00:23:50.410 --> 00:23:55.380
Well, that was Ignaz Semmelweis and his chlorinated lime treatment.

00:23:55.380 --> 00:23:56.843
He was a fucking pioneer.

00:23:56.843 --> 00:23:57.805
He was a pioneer.

00:23:58.009 --> 00:24:04.179
He really was in the terms of cleanliness and I'd have to say godliness.

00:24:04.179 --> 00:24:07.743
Well, I suppose.

00:24:07.743 --> 00:24:08.826
All right, buffoons.

00:24:08.826 --> 00:24:10.236
That's it for today's episode.

00:24:10.910 --> 00:24:14.078
Buckle up, because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you.

00:24:14.078 --> 00:24:22.029
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