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theabhorsen's review against another edition
4.0
Prior to basic hygiene in medical wards, doctors frequently carried diseases from one patient to the next. That was a particularly big problem in maternity wards, because they tended to be a lot more invasive than midwives and not-infrequently started their days with dissections. Dr. Ignac Semmelweis was one of the first people who realized what was happening and tried to institute reforms. He undoubtedly saved many lives in the places where he worked, but his impact was short-lived.
I really appreciated this book. It was a solid overview of both a serious issue that plagued the medical field and a doctor who recognized the problem and tried to solve it.
I really appreciated this book. It was a solid overview of both a serious issue that plagued the medical field and a doctor who recognized the problem and tried to solve it.
mbondlamberty's review against another edition
Very interesting read. Frustrating the hubris of male doctors. Hidden secrets of the advancement of medicine
siria's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not saying that only formally-trained historians can write history books, but I am saying that this book is a solid example of the kind of bad history that a non-historian can produce when writing about a topic that they're in many ways quite knowledgeable about.
Sherwin Nuland was a physician, and so knows what he's talking about when it comes to puerperal fever—a possibly fatal form of infection or sepsis that can be contracted by post-partum people—and the technical processes by which the Hungarian-born Ignać Semmelweis discovered the disease's causation in the mid-nineteenth century.
He's on much shakier ground, however, when it comes to understanding the history of medicine, claiming that physicians didn't really understand that their ideas needed to be based on evidence until the nineteenth century and demonstrating little familiarity with the scholarship on pregnancy and childbirth during the Middle Ages and in early modern Europe. Nuland engages in retrospective diagnosis about Semmelweis' apparent mental illness towards the end of his life—something which historians are extremely wary of, given how difficult it is for physicians today to diagnose a patient whom they've not seen in person.
And then there's the weird, fictional intro where Nuland imagines a virginal upper-class Viennese teenager who gets pregnant and is kicked out of the house by her "Papa", so is taken in by her former maidservant and ultimately dies shortly after giving birth from puerperal fever. It's weird and creepy, and also unnecessary given how many real life women actually died an agonizing death from it—but then again, throughout Nuland seems not particularly interested in writing a history which centres women overly much.
Sherwin Nuland was a physician, and so knows what he's talking about when it comes to puerperal fever—a possibly fatal form of infection or sepsis that can be contracted by post-partum people—and the technical processes by which the Hungarian-born Ignać Semmelweis discovered the disease's causation in the mid-nineteenth century.
He's on much shakier ground, however, when it comes to understanding the history of medicine, claiming that physicians didn't really understand that their ideas needed to be based on evidence until the nineteenth century and demonstrating little familiarity with the scholarship on pregnancy and childbirth during the Middle Ages and in early modern Europe. Nuland engages in retrospective diagnosis about Semmelweis' apparent mental illness towards the end of his life—something which historians are extremely wary of, given how difficult it is for physicians today to diagnose a patient whom they've not seen in person.
And then there's the weird, fictional intro where Nuland imagines a virginal upper-class Viennese teenager who gets pregnant and is kicked out of the house by her "Papa", so is taken in by her former maidservant and ultimately dies shortly after giving birth from puerperal fever. It's weird and creepy, and also unnecessary given how many real life women actually died an agonizing death from it—but then again, throughout Nuland seems not particularly interested in writing a history which centres women overly much.
prasi's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book as a requirement for my Microbiology class at Uni and it was fantastic - if a little dense at times.
The book starts off with a very engaging story about a woman giving birth. It's a fictional story meant to hook the reader by bringing an emotional element into what it might have been like at that time to be a young pregnant woman who is afraid of giving birth because of the death rates.
Nuland then goes into a concise history and biography of Ignác Semmelweis and the beginning of antiseptic. The only complaint is that after the first chapter he jumps immediately into very technical and dense writing and it lost me for a minute. It was not a seamless transition. But I do think Nuland did the topic justice.
The book starts off with a very engaging story about a woman giving birth. It's a fictional story meant to hook the reader by bringing an emotional element into what it might have been like at that time to be a young pregnant woman who is afraid of giving birth because of the death rates.
Nuland then goes into a concise history and biography of Ignác Semmelweis and the beginning of antiseptic. The only complaint is that after the first chapter he jumps immediately into very technical and dense writing and it lost me for a minute. It was not a seamless transition. But I do think Nuland did the topic justice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Medical content, Pregnancy, Death, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness
tasmanian_bibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
Will the real Dr Semmelweis please stand up?
I first became aware of Dr Ignac Semmelweis through reading ‘The Cry and the Covenant’ back in the early 1970s. Microbiology, theories of germ transfer and other sciences of medicine became more familiar to me later, but I’d not critically revisited the role of Dr Semmelweis until recently.
Dr Nuland’s book is valuable on two fronts.
Firstly, it provides background and insight into Dr Semmelweis himself which goes some way to explaining why his theory was not universally embraced even though it appeared to be proven in practice. Secondly, it is a reminder that scientific understanding of causation does not always accompany insight.
Dr Semmelweis proved that taking precautions to prevent cadaveric contamination of recently delivered women led to a reduction in puerperal sepsis, but not ‘why’ or ‘how’. Unfortunately, Dr Semmelweis’s abrupt and abrasive personality alienated many of the medical establishment including some of his earlier supporters. This, combined with the fact that it took him 14 years to publish his findings made it easy for many to ignore his findings.
At various times Dr Semmelweis has been ignored or condemned, or subjected to hero worship and hagiography. Surely, the truth rests between the extremes. Dr Nuland has written a book which, while it will be accessible to interested non-medical readers also provides an historic insight into the life and times of Dr Semmelweis. It should also provide a timely reminder, too, that some of the best solutions to iatrogenic illness are the simplest ones: effective handwashing remains a front line defence.
I first became aware of Dr Ignac Semmelweis through reading ‘The Cry and the Covenant’ back in the early 1970s. Microbiology, theories of germ transfer and other sciences of medicine became more familiar to me later, but I’d not critically revisited the role of Dr Semmelweis until recently.
Dr Nuland’s book is valuable on two fronts.
Firstly, it provides background and insight into Dr Semmelweis himself which goes some way to explaining why his theory was not universally embraced even though it appeared to be proven in practice. Secondly, it is a reminder that scientific understanding of causation does not always accompany insight.
Dr Semmelweis proved that taking precautions to prevent cadaveric contamination of recently delivered women led to a reduction in puerperal sepsis, but not ‘why’ or ‘how’. Unfortunately, Dr Semmelweis’s abrupt and abrasive personality alienated many of the medical establishment including some of his earlier supporters. This, combined with the fact that it took him 14 years to publish his findings made it easy for many to ignore his findings.
At various times Dr Semmelweis has been ignored or condemned, or subjected to hero worship and hagiography. Surely, the truth rests between the extremes. Dr Nuland has written a book which, while it will be accessible to interested non-medical readers also provides an historic insight into the life and times of Dr Semmelweis. It should also provide a timely reminder, too, that some of the best solutions to iatrogenic illness are the simplest ones: effective handwashing remains a front line defence.
chicagoliz's review against another edition
4.0
A very short and quick read about an interesting topic. Near the end it really became about something other than what I had expected. — the focus isn’t so much on the discovery of germs/contagious elements transferred from caregiver to patient, but in the particular and peculiar personality of Semmelweis and the effect it had on his career and notoriety.
msmouse's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a really good history of a forgotten problem. Before we understood germ theory there were so many situations where doctors just couldn't figure out why people were dying seemingly without a direct cause. This is the story of one of those situations, with a tragically high death toll, and one doctor who did figure it out, though he stopped just short of discovering all of germ theory.
It's a very interesting subject, unfortunately written more in the style of a university paper than a novel or biography, but still very readable. I liked it.
It's a very interesting subject, unfortunately written more in the style of a university paper than a novel or biography, but still very readable. I liked it.
melbsreads's review against another edition
3.0
If you're even remotely squeamish, you probably shouldn't read this book. It's about childbed fever, so there are women dying in agony left right and centre, and then their bodies are autopsied and found to be full of stinky pus. It's pretty graphic and pretty gross a lot of the time. And definitely don't read it if you're pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant in the near future.
But it's fascinating to see how something that seems so completely obvious - "Hey, maybe don't touch the insides of rotting corpses with your bare hands and then shove your unwashed fingers into some poor woman's birth canal repeatedly!" - took so long to be worked out, and how determined Semmelweis' colleagues were that he was wrong and washing your hands would do absolutely nothing. In some ways, it's not surprising that they resisted. I mean, accepting the theory meant accepting that you were personally responsible for the deaths of hundred and thousands of women. But at the same time, there was OVERWHELMING evidence in front of them and they still refused to believe it.
Semmelweis' life was a fairly tragic one, both personally and professionally. His attitude and his personal background meant that his colleagues and students were often rubbed the wrong way, making them determined not to accept his theories purely because they were Semmelweis' theories. Even historically, Semmelweis is largely overshadowed by Lister and Pasteur.
It's a pretty fascinating book, but it's occasionally a little clinical for those of us who don't have medical degrees. I would have liked a little more information about Semmelweis, but given that it seems such information is fairly thin on the ground, it's not surprising that Nuland didn't go into more detail.
But it's fascinating to see how something that seems so completely obvious - "Hey, maybe don't touch the insides of rotting corpses with your bare hands and then shove your unwashed fingers into some poor woman's birth canal repeatedly!" - took so long to be worked out, and how determined Semmelweis' colleagues were that he was wrong and washing your hands would do absolutely nothing. In some ways, it's not surprising that they resisted. I mean, accepting the theory meant accepting that you were personally responsible for the deaths of hundred and thousands of women. But at the same time, there was OVERWHELMING evidence in front of them and they still refused to believe it.
Semmelweis' life was a fairly tragic one, both personally and professionally. His attitude and his personal background meant that his colleagues and students were often rubbed the wrong way, making them determined not to accept his theories purely because they were Semmelweis' theories. Even historically, Semmelweis is largely overshadowed by Lister and Pasteur.
It's a pretty fascinating book, but it's occasionally a little clinical for those of us who don't have medical degrees. I would have liked a little more information about Semmelweis, but given that it seems such information is fairly thin on the ground, it's not surprising that Nuland didn't go into more detail.
jessferg's review against another edition
4.0
Probably one of the best science books I've ever read. Not dumbed down but completely accessible to the layman. The science is explained well without being dry. The medical mystery is intriguing. All around a fascinating story.