Historically, puerperal fever was a devastating disease. It affected women within the first three days after childbirth and progressed rapidly, causing acute symptoms of severe abdominal pain, fever a
Vienna General Hospital in 1784. Semmelweis worked at the maternity clinic. Copper engraving by Josef & Peter Schafer
Hôtel Dieu in Paris, about ad 1500. The priest on the right is issuing the last sacraments, while a nun administers to the patient on the left. Patients often slept two, three and even four to a bed
Carl von Rokitansky
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Baron Carl von Rokitansky was an Austrian medical doctor, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician, founder of the Viennese School of Medicine of the 19th century. He was the founder o
Historical mortality rates of puerperal fever
…the genitals of patients to be touched by contaminated hands. For these reasons, mortality in the first clinic was reduced during these months. I had Carl von Rokitansky's permission to dissect all female corpses, including those not already set aside for autopsy, in order to correlate the results of my examinations…
Baron Carl von Rokitansky
Carl von Rokitansky as rector of Vienna University
Memorial plaque to Carl von Rokitansky in Hradec Králové
Rokitansky (age 49) and his Vienna colleagues (1853). He is the third man from the right in the bottom row, holding a book and looking left to his right.