Role for hypochlorite saponification in Semmelweis's suppression of puerperal fever epidemics

Witty, Michael

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128646 Copy

Description

Title

Role for hypochlorite saponification in Semmelweis's suppression of puerperal fever epidemics

Author(s)

Witty, Michael

Contributor(s)

Ayudhya, Theppawut

Issue Date

2022-12-30

Keyword(s)

• Chemistry
• History
• Semmelweis
• Puerperal Fever

Abstract

The most prominent product of the Vienna General Hospital was Ignaz Semmelweis, who was the first to use a chemical antiseptic to counteract the large scale outbreaks of puerperal fever which had periodically decimated maternity wards ever since those institutions were established. Semmelweis introduced the compulsory use of bleach and nail brushes to wash gynecologists’ hands, before patient examinations, to remove pathological material and lubricating oil. He worked with little chemical knowledge and no possible knowledge of microbial pathology in the significant years prior to 1847. He was, strangely by twenty-first-century standards, influenced by ideas of miasmas in his efforts to suppress pathology by suppressing the clinging odor of pathology with chlorine. His chemical breakthrough has saved many thousands of babies’ and mothers’ lives. It has been assumed that the chemical mechanism for Semmelweis’s antiseptic procedure was oxidation. The present work suggests that the striking suppression of puerperal fever was achieved by saponification in addition to oxidation.

Publisher

Division of the History of Chemistry

ISSN

1053-4385

Type of Resource

text

Genre of Resource

article

Language

eng

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128646

DOI

https://doi.org/10.70359/bhc2022v047p270

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Division of the History of Chemistry

Owning Collections