How Was Germ Theory Discovered? Handwashing, Fermentation, and a 40-Year Fight
In 1847 a Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that women delivered by medical students died of childbed fever at several times the rate of women delivered by midwives. He worked out why, proved it by making students wash their hands, and cut the death rate from about 18% to roughly 1%. His colleagues rejected … Read more