Semmelweis: A Rereading of Die Aetiologie … Part I: Puerperal Sepsis before 1845;Die Aetiologie

Semmelweis IP . Die Aetiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers. Pest-Vienna-Leipzig: CA Hartleben, 1861. (Transl. by Frank P Murphy. The etiology, the concept and the prophylaxis of childbed fever. In: Medical Classics, vol 5. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1941:350–773).

Fruton JS . Molecules and Life. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1972. (Quotations copyright © and reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, New York).

Lancaster HO . Expectations of Life: a Study in the Demography, Statistics, and History of World Mortality. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990.

Churchill F. Essays on the Puerperal Fever and Other Diseases Peculiar to Women. London: Sydenham Society, 1849.

Holmes OW . The contagiousness of puerperal fever. N Eng Quart J Med Surg 1843. Reprinted with additions, Puerperal Fever as a Private Pestilence. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1855. In: The Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, vol IX, Medical essays 1842–1882. Boston-New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1891.

Pasteur L Joubert JF Chamberland CE . La théorie des germes et ses applications a la médecine et à la chirurgie. CR Acad Sci 1878; 86:1037–43. In: Ouevres 6:112–30.

White C. A Treatise on the Management of Pregnant and Lying-in Women. 1773. Reprinted 1777, 1784, 1791. In: Adami JG. Charles White of Manchester (1728–1813) and the Arrest of Puerperal Fever. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1922. Also in: Churchill F (op. cit. ref 4):232.

Gordon A. A Treatise on the Epidemic Puerperal Fever of Aberdeen.. 1795 In: Churchill F (op. cit. ref 4).

Ibid. Cited in Churchill (op. cit. ref 4):445–6,471.

Ibid: 470–1,472.

Holmes consulted a “competent person” whose identity cannot be established by material in the Oliver Wendell Holmes archives, according to the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Boston Medical Library, Dr R J Wolfe. It is possible that this mathematician recognized that the problem of testing clustering had been solved for other special cases by constructing what is now known as the reference set. Thus Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782)* tested the “flatness” of the solar system, i.e. almost equal inclination of the planetary orbits; Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698–1759)* tested the heredity of Polydactyly (multiple digits); and John Michell (ca 1724–1793)* tested the grouping of the Seven Sisters (Pleiades).

Holmes OW . In: Medical essays (op. cit. ref 5): p 114.

Nunneley T. A Treatise on the Nature, Causes, and Treatment of Erysipelas. London: John Churchill, 1841:73–81.

Holmes OW . In: Medical essays (op. cit. ref 5):161–2.

Ibid: 150,152.

Semmelweis IP (op. cit. ref 1):429.

Lesky E. The Vienna Medical School of the 19th Century. Baltimore-London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976:188.

Gortvay G Zoltán I. Semmelweis: His Life and Work. Transl. by Rona E. Budapest: Akademiai Kiadó, 1968:63.

Nuland SB . The enigma of Semmelweis - an interpretation. J Hist Med 1979; 34:255–72.

Semmelweis IP. Höchst wichtige Erfahrungen über die Aetiologie der in Gebäranstalten epidemischen Puerperalfieber. (Experiences of the greatest importance concerning the etiology of epidemic puerperal fever in lying-in institutions). Ztschr d. k. k. Gesellsch d. Aerzte in Wien 1847–48; 4: pt 2,242; 1849;5:64.

Semmelweis IP . A Gyermekágyi lás Kóroktana. (Etiology of puerperal fever.) Orvosi hetilap 1858;2:1,17,65,81,305,337,353.

von Liebig J . Animal Chemistry or Chemistry in its Applications to Physiology and Pathology. Part I. Gregory W , ed. 3rd edn. London: Taylor and Walton, 1846.

Vallery-Radot R. The Life of Pasteur. Transl. by Devonshire RL . London: Constable, 1919:175–6.

Semmelweis IP (op. cit. ref 1):53.