Is There a Smart Doctor in the House? – The Semmelweis reflex
In the early 1800’s bacteria was not fully understood even though the basics of bacteria was discovered by Robert Hooke and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 1665 and 1676 respectively. Some patients were plagued with bad bacteria that cause many deaths. One doctor was determined to find out the cause of death of his patients even though most other doctors didn’t believe his findings.
Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician, was working in an obstetrical clinic in the mid 1800’s and was perplexed by his patients getting puerperal fever, or infections of the female reproductive tract following childbirth or miscarriage. Germ theory was not yet developed. After trying different things he came upon something that helped lower the incidence of infections to less than 1%: disinfecting his hands (handwashing with a chlorine solution). Despite evidence, his physician cohorts rejected his idea that hand washing lowers infection rates because “cadaverous particles” were not transferred from patient to patient. A gentleman’s hands were always clean! His colleagues mocked him because he could not explain why his method of hand cleaning worked so well.
The Semmelweis reflex “is a metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs, or paradigms.“
By 1865, Semmelweis had a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum. He later died from a gangrenous hand wound. This is bizarre. I can’t make this stuff up folks.
Read up on the Semmelweis reflex