In 1837 a young Hungarian made a decision that was to affect the lives of countless people throughout the world. An nineteen, Ignaz Semmelweis enrolled as a student in the Vienna School of Medicine. At first it was doubtful he would ever become a doctor, for he dared to question the dogmatic statements made by his professors, and it was feared they might order him to leave the school. Ignaz soon learned to be more tactful with his teachers, but they could not force him to accept their views about medicine. They taught him that the patients in the hospital were to be regarded strictly as medical problems to be solved. He preferred to treat them as human beings to be cured.

As an intern he became interested in the expectant mothers and the infants on the maternity wards. Unlike his colleagues, Ignaz was appalled at the high death rate and decided to find the cause of the dreaded puerperal fever, the disease which killed so many of the mothers and their offspring. The hospital in Vienna of 1845 was unspeakable filthy. New patients were put in beds covered with dirty linen, and the floors and walls were rarely cleaned. The doctors, after performing their autopsies, examined patients without removing their bloodstained coats or even washing their hands.

One day his best friend accidentally cut himself in the dissection room, and soon died of the same disease that killed the maternity patients. Even while he grieved, Ignaz made the terrible discovery that he and the other doctors were infecting patients with their germ-ridden hands. He passionately campaigned for the introduction of new sanitation methods which defeated death by destroying germs, a revolutionary concept at the time.

This life story of Ignaz Semmelweis is an inspiring study of a man whose genius was a combination of brilliant logic and deep concern about all the inadequacies of medicine. The development of character, the atmosphere of time and place, the drama of life and death are all skillfully blended into a compelling story.

From the dust jacket