1818 – 1865
Ignaz Semmelweis
HungaryAustriaMedicine & Public Health
Background
A Hungarian physician working in Vienna.
Contribution
Showed in the 1840s that hand disinfection with chlorinated lime sharply cut deadly childbed fever — an empirical foundation for antisepsis, rejected in his lifetime.
Popular credit vs. the record
Semmelweis's evidence predated germ theory and was dismissed; recognition came posthumously.
Associated inventions
Collaborators & contemporaries
Sources & further reading
Each citation names the publisher and the exact reference title.
- U.S. National Library of Medicine — history of medicineU.S. National Library of Medicine (NIH) · Government / archive
- Encyclopædia Britannica — technology & biography topic articlesEncyclopædia Britannica · Encyclopedia
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