• nevemsenki@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Funny how Semmelweis got similarly shitty treatment for the same idea. Though he wasn’t so much as laughed at as much as beaten to death in a psych ward.

    • Tetsuo
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      1 year ago

      Didn’t know at all about Semmelweis. Very interesting… and sad.

      • nevemsenki@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        He really deserved better. Societal momentum is tough to go against, and can easily beat one down… oftentimes literally.

    • SuperIce@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      He was much earlier though and germ theory didn’t exist yet, so he couldn’t explain why washing your hands would work. It didn’t make any sense based on the medical ideas of the time, so people saw his recommendation to wash hands as a superstition. Then he went insane as doctors continued to not wash their hands, resulting in many mothers dying from infections after birth. At least with Lister, he could explain his rationale via germ theory.

      • Buglefingers@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        It’s especially sad because he had empirical evidence washing his hands worked! New birth death rates dropped and when he eventually opened his own practice death rates were the lowest ever seen. Though he got bitter and angry towards the end which lead to being put in the psych ward. Honestly though, if you knew people were killing babies by negligence and were an empathetic person you’d probably end up the same way regardless of who you are.

        IIRC, the hand wash was a chlorine one that was pretty rough on the skin so people didn’t like to do it. Additionally to accept what he said Dr.s would have to accept they have been killing babies this whole time. I believe one Dr. Agreed with Sammelwise and killed himself because that knowledge haunted him so.

  • caroline@lemmy.fmhy.net
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    1 year ago

    It’s cause the guy was a dick about it… He was correct, but the way he communicated it to the medical community was rude which is why it wasn’t adopted earlier.

    • LemmysMum@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So they had a cry and people died because they had their fefe’s hurt when the smart man correctly identified their habits as neanderthalic? Well if that wasn’t proof enough, this sure doesn’t make them seem any more capable or less moronic.

    • SuperIce@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It was a different caption, but the same format and general idea (Semmelweis said that doctors should wash their hands but didn’t say anything about disinfection of tools).