Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis
At a glance:
- Series: Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century
- Categories: Medicine, Health
- Subcategories: Doctors, Physicians, Nurses, Epidemics, Diseases
- Curriculum: 19th Century European History, Eastern European History
Article abstract: Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician, was the first to recognize the infectious nature of puerperal fever (childbed fever). His use of antiseptic techniques in obstetric practice greatly reduced deaths from the fever and paved the way for the development of modern surgery.
Early Life
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was born in 1818 in Buda, Hungary, the fifth of ten children born to József Semmelweis, a prosperous grocer, and Terézia Müller, the daughter of a coach manufacturer, one of the richest men in Buda. Semmelweis’ father belonged to...
[The entire page is 2335 words long]
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