Ignaz Semmelweis, the doctor mocked to death for saying wash your hands

Vienna General Hospital doctors had triple the mortality rates of midwives due to cadaverous particles.

Jakob Kolletschka's fatal scalpel nick proved that blood poisoning symptoms matched those of childbed fever.

Mandatory chlorinated lime scrubbing dropped maternal mortality from twelve percent to nearly one percent.

Medical elites rejected handwashing because they viewed the suggestion of dirty hands as a social insult.

Semmelweis alienated the medical community by publicly labeling his critics as murderers and ignoramuses.

The pioneer of handwashing died at forty-seven from sepsis after a struggle in a mental asylum.