Semmelweis

American  

[zem-uhl-vahys] / ˈzɛm əlˌvaɪs /

noun

1. Ignaz Philipp 1818–65, Hungarian obstetrician.

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Semmelweis British  

/ ˈsɛməlˌvaɪs /

noun

1. Ignaz Philipp. 1818–65, Hungarian obstetrician, who discovered the cause of puerperal infection and pioneered the use of antiseptics

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Semmelweis Scientific  

/ zĕm′əl-vīs′ /

1. Hungarian physician who was a pioneer of sterile surgical practices. He proved that infectious disease and death in the obstetric clinic were caused by medical students going directly from performing autopsies to treating patients. Semmelweis instituted strict rules governing hygiene that dramatically reduced the mortality rate.

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Example Sentences

These include a cancer biologist at Semmelweis University.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 26, 2023

But a Semmelweis spokesperson said the researcher’s move to a Saudi affiliation was an “administrative error” that will be corrected.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 26, 2023

Andrea Fekete, a nephrologist and CEO of SigmaDrugs, a biotech spin-off of Semmelweis University in Budapest, has used fluvoxamine and other sigma-1-receptor-targeting drugs to protect rats from fibrosis, or tissue scarring, in renal disease.

From Scientific American • Nov. 12, 2021

Tasked with figuring out why maternal mortality rates were so much higher in the maternity ward run by doctors than the one led by midwifes, Semmelweis came up with a series of simple hygiene solutions.

From Salon • Oct. 1, 2021

Though Semmelweis died with no other reward than the scorn of his contemporaries, it is impossible at the present day to so much as contemplate the abuses he attacked without a shudder.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various