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3. Ignaz Semmelweis. He was a doctor who discovered that washing your

Sat Jan 17, 2015, 04:27 PM

Jan 2015

hands before tending pregnant women reduced the incidence of childbed fever to almost nothing. This was before the germ theory of illness was known to be true. His insistence on handwashing was followed in his two clinics to great result, but he was thought to be nuts about the subject. He wrote famous obstetricians and called them stupid for not following his handwashing method. He was sent to an asylum, where he was beaten by guards and died of septicemia 14 days later.

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Who's your favorite "Noble Failure" in history? [View all] DerekG Jan 2015 OP

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Ignaz Semmelweis. He was a doctor who discovered that washing your Nay Jan 2015 #3

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