(Great Discoveries.) By Sherwin B. Nuland. 191 pp., illustrated. New York, Norton, 2003. $21.95. ISBN 0-393-05299-0.
Many people have heard of Semmelweis, whose fame rests on havingshown in the 1840s that deaths from puerperal fever (an infectionfollowing childbirth) at the Vienna Lying-in Hospital couldbe reduced by making doctors and medical students wash theirhands in a disinfectant solution before entering the maternityward. His observations were largely ignored during his lifetimeand for many years after his death in 1865. Near the end ofthe 19th century, however, and especially after the publicationof a hagiographic biography in 1909, Semmelweis's reputationwas raised to the skies. I know of no one else in . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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