Hospital Infection in the last century

Hospital infection was a huge problem in the nineteenth century. Florence Nightingale, who had a passion for statistical evidence, pointed out that the mortality rate in most hospitals was at least 50% and in some hospitals much higher.

Blood poisoning, erysipelas and in particular gangrene were the scourge of hospital wards.
Dirt, smells, and the transmission of 'infecting matter', expiring from patients, through the air, were considered to be the main causes of infection, especially gangrene. These ideas led to a sanitarian approach to the problem.
The limited succes of this procedure, however, meant that by the middle of the century some medical men were looking for futher explanations.

Ignaz Semmeleweis and 'Childbed' fever
Joseph Lister & Antiseptic Surgery

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