Why Doctors Didn't Wash Their Hands

Hopefully you wash your hands multiple times a day. But when did we start with this practice? How did hand washing become a thing? It has to do with babies and corpses and Vienna in the 19th century.
00:00 - 01: 42 Do You Wash Your Hands?
01:43 - 02:57 Childbed Fever
02:58 - 04:06 Ignaz Semmelweis Observations
04:07 - 06:05 The Solution
06:06 - 09:04 Why Semmelweis is forgotten
Sources:
Caroline M De Costa - “The contagiousness of childbed fever”: a short history of puerperal sepsis and its treatment
Baron Joseph Lister - The Classic: On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery
Lim, Fidelindo - Why Florence Nightingale still matters
P M Dunn - Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) and his essay on puerperal fever
Dana Tulodziecki - Shattering the Myth of Semmelweis
Christine Hallet - The Attempt to Understand Puerperal Fever in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: The Influence of Inflammation Theory
Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis’ studies of death in childbirth - Irvine Loudon
Hi there, my name is Jochem Boodt. I make the show The Present Past, where I show how the present has been influenced by the past. History, but connected to the present and fun!
Every episode I show how history has influenced and made a thing, an idea or event in our present time.
I make different content. You can find me on:
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If you have an idea for an episode please fill in this form:
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Пікірлер: 100

  • @MarkusArtemis
    @MarkusArtemis Жыл бұрын

    I just came through the Johnny Harris video and, while I did enjoy that one a lot. This and the NW passage video are definitely some great Historical Videos and I'm very much hoping you get some more traction in the community from not only the Johnny Video but from these other ones as well. Thanks for the content and can't wait for more!

  • @nate2933

    @nate2933

    Жыл бұрын

    Agree! been watching every video

  • @NautyCat

    @NautyCat

    Жыл бұрын

    Johnny Harris is a douchebag. He never provides sources and dramatizes everything.

  • @ariadneschild8460

    @ariadneschild8460

    Жыл бұрын

    I'm here from the Johnny Harris video too.

  • @caydcrow5161

    @caydcrow5161

    Жыл бұрын

    Agreed! I definitely think this man has potential to be a great KZread historian!

  • @jtgd

    @jtgd

    Жыл бұрын

    Same

  • @N1ghthavvk
    @N1ghthavvk Жыл бұрын

    Florence Nightingale is also of particular interested because she pioneered the usage of statistics in organizational efforts. She managed hospitals and plotting causes of death helped analyse what to do to combat them. You could say she was a creator of modern medicine (trials) and the scientific process.

  • @Shortymort
    @Shortymort Жыл бұрын

    I have read a book on I.F.Semmelweis back in college...I think he was a man of conscience who made absolutely horrifying realisation, that doctors were killing young women by hundreds. He tried hard to convey this message and got rejected. You say he was a dick about it, but I would argue his contemporaries were too proud and self-assured to acknowledge their mistakes. It is painfull to think, that none of those professors would be willing to give him benefit of doubt, maybe buy few bars of fucking soap and run a simple experiment. I just have to stand up and say this has much less to do with character of one loud weirdo, then that of the silent majority.

  • @sheerluckholmes7720

    @sheerluckholmes7720

    Жыл бұрын

    Well said, sorry I said much the same in my post before I read yours.I agree with you 💯

  • @dantetre
    @dantetre Жыл бұрын

    Although his communication was bad, but he still holds the title of "THE SAVIOUR OF MOTHERS"!

  • @hadidobaidi6146
    @hadidobaidi6146 Жыл бұрын

    Semmelweis Ignác is remembered in Hungary and has the medical university and children hospital named after where I was born in Budapest. He’s called the “Saviour of Mothers” in Hungary.

  • @pyrrhusthegreat2103
    @pyrrhusthegreat2103 Жыл бұрын

    Just discovered you through the Johnny Harris video, I had no idea you had such good quality content

  • @dattebayo326
    @dattebayo326 Жыл бұрын

    HI JOCHEM!!! IM SO GLAD I'VE STUMBLED UPON YOUR VIDEO!!! I'm based in NZ and have an up and coming medical laboratory conference where my presentation will be on Hand Washing Hygiene and so good to see this!!!! After reading about semmelweis in many scientific journals and articles, good to know that I've cross references to be able to compare and add to my list of citations. Thank you for this video!!!! I'll add this to my presentation for the NZ medlab folks. 😊🤗😊💪🏽👏🏼💪🏽👏🏼👨🏻‍🔬👩🏻‍🔬👩🏻‍🔬🧑🏻‍🔬

  • @nielsmaaswinkel9940
    @nielsmaaswinkel9940 Жыл бұрын

    Dude, nice! I like how you bring out another perspective too: at school I was taught that Semmelweis was the ‘unheard genius’ that was right about germs etc. But not that he wasn’t d*ck and why his theory didn’t stick. Thanks.

  • @ThePresentPast_

    @ThePresentPast_

    Жыл бұрын

    Semmelweis knowledge in this house!

  • @ReepRutger

    @ReepRutger

    Жыл бұрын

    @@ThePresentPast_ Samwise the great?

  • @droprelease4820

    @droprelease4820

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for the video! I hadnt heard the psychological reasons why his theory wasnt heard until I read a passage on him in Robert Greene’s book Mastery - great you presented all sides of science, the discovery and psychological

  • @TrueHolarctic

    @TrueHolarctic

    Жыл бұрын

    @@droprelease4820 I think that youre thinking social and not psychological

  • @Enhancedlies
    @Enhancedlies Жыл бұрын

    your videos are addictive, you are really fantastic teacher. keep this up, I can see this channel becoming a staple for my YT diet haha

  • @cactus_vixen7093
    @cactus_vixen7093 Жыл бұрын

    Would love to teach my cat this, still mildly concerned she only cleans herself with her tongue

  • @VictoriaMeira7
    @VictoriaMeira7 Жыл бұрын

    loving the new backgrounds and cinematography

  • @ThePresentPast_

    @ThePresentPast_

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks!

  • @navdragoni
    @navdragoni Жыл бұрын

    The lesson is that communication is just as important as facts. Sometimes even more so.

  • @CurzdGob
    @CurzdGob Жыл бұрын

    It is a shame it took the Johnny Harris video to bring all these to a greater audience, but boy am I happy it did. Kudos.

  • @ThePresentPast_

    @ThePresentPast_

    Жыл бұрын

    Sometimes you need some drama and clickbait to take off

  • @Zilero
    @Zilero Жыл бұрын

    Going to have to work the Semmelweis reflex into a future argument here

  • @ThePresentPast_

    @ThePresentPast_

    Жыл бұрын

    Probably someone denying your undeniable swag

  • @forreadingoutloud6282
    @forreadingoutloud6282 Жыл бұрын

    A really well-presented video! Keep up the awesome work!

  • @ReepRutger
    @ReepRutger Жыл бұрын

    Awesome stuff. Keep up the good work!

  • @RoseDragoness
    @RoseDragoness Жыл бұрын

    This is cool! Keep continuing to make quality contents!

  • @MiaMakesThings
    @MiaMakesThings Жыл бұрын

    Your channel is so great! You deserve so many more subs! Hope you get there!

  • @kannainjected
    @kannainjected Жыл бұрын

    this reminded me of this year's Serbian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest. It's called In Corpore Sano and the artist washes her hands compulsively

  • @interspect_
    @interspect_ Жыл бұрын

    Sweet vid! Been showing you to some friends in the US.

  • @ariadneschild8460
    @ariadneschild8460 Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for this, I find medical history fascinating.

  • @davidechelibe4078
    @davidechelibe4078 Жыл бұрын

    Your story telling skills are really good

  • @rccarothers
    @rccarothers Жыл бұрын

    I just found your channel & became an instant new sub based off your Johnny Harris very well & respected critique on his history video. I'm looking forward to watching both your past & new upcoming content. This channel will become very big soon!

  • @ThePresentPast_

    @ThePresentPast_

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks Christo!

  • @babi9784
    @babi9784 Жыл бұрын

    I am new at your channel. I like your lectures, are soo soooo interesting,it is a pleasure to watch. Keep up! Cheers

  • @himanshisharma6418
    @himanshisharma6418 Жыл бұрын

    Florence Nightingale spent her entire career propagating hygiene and made some major headways in improving hygiene standards in British army hospitals ( A Brief History of Florence Nightingale by Hugh Small). However you only mention her in passing. Was just wondering why did you decide to focus on Ignaz Semmelweis , rather than other people working in similar direction? Was just curious about why Ignaz Semmelweis was the focus of this story, when there were other journeys that were more successful in their campaign ?

  • @siseroscicero
    @siseroscicero Жыл бұрын

    Found your channle through the last Video u were doing great content thats why i love some parts of youtube u can always learn something

  • @michaelodonnell824
    @michaelodonnell82410 ай бұрын

    There's something too often missed to get a full understanding of what Maternal Hospital Death rates implied. Firstly, the Aristocratic and very wealthy gave birth at home, surrounded by medical professionals and nurses. Meanwhile, the poor and Working Class also gave birth at home, sometimes with the assistance of "Amateur" midwives (only rarely would they have access to "Professional" midwives. So, the Mothers dying in the Maternity Hospitals were Middle Class women, because Hospitals were NOT Free and the Poorer Classes could not afford them. Interestingly, because of the "personalized" care Home Birthers received, far fewer Home Birther Mothers died than those who paid...

  • @freeman9586
    @freeman95866 ай бұрын

    1:55 "Allgemeines Krankenhaus" with two Ls. (German for "General Hospital", or "General House for Persons with a disease")

  • @stevenv6463
    @stevenv6463 Жыл бұрын

    I think hand washing was normal among Jews and Muslims even before 150 years ago

  • @BausofHogs
    @BausofHogs Жыл бұрын

    Hey keep it up man I think you’ve got an awesome style. Like Lemino but history based.

  • @ILikedGooglePlus
    @ILikedGooglePlus Жыл бұрын

    Billy: Lads is it gay to wash your hands?

  • @ESC_jackqulen
    @ESC_jackqulen Жыл бұрын

    To all Eurovision fans, 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸 BITI ZDRAVA 🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸

  • @ThePresentPast_

    @ThePresentPast_

    Жыл бұрын

    Haha this is news to me

  • @michelwijs9833
    @michelwijs9833 Жыл бұрын

    Geweldige content

  • @romananezmah
    @romananezmah Жыл бұрын

    Great job! Keep up the good work! 😁

  • @ThePresentPast_

    @ThePresentPast_

    Жыл бұрын

    Hvala!

  • @ianhfl3164
    @ianhfl3164Ай бұрын

    Really enjoy your videos, which I usually watch on Nebula, but figured I’d pop over here to this one since you mention handwashing in the context of Covid. It should be noted that Covid is an airborne vascular disease and that handwashing, while a great thing to do in general, doesn’t stop the spread; properly, masking, using eye protection, upgrading ventilation, and social distancing help reduce transmission. The pandemic is only getting worse the longer it goes on, so hopefully you or your viewers will see this and save some lives as a result. Also a blanket apology for all the awful things Americans do to make the world more difficult for everybody, especially these days 😀

  • @klausg1843
    @klausg1843 Жыл бұрын

    Very good lecture. BUT I don’t understand why you do not mention the french writer and doctor Ferdinand Celine’s doctoral thesis on Semmelweiss.

  • @namedesired
    @namedesired Жыл бұрын

    Actually dogs don't sweat.

  • @evekinglehman84
    @evekinglehman84 Жыл бұрын

    At minute 5:49, you might want to add the word "Bad" over the titles at the end (?) Looking forward to your next videos.

  • @sanarchy3101
    @sanarchy3101 Жыл бұрын

    Nice video :)

  • @jtgd
    @jtgd Жыл бұрын

    Dogs can’t sweat

  • @evelynstarshine8561
    @evelynstarshine85618 ай бұрын

    The part that always gets me in the middle ages washing your hands was normal! but then miasma theory was discovered and it was banned because hot water=steam=spreads miasma! and by the time that theory was gone water standards had declined in large cities and black death and killed all the doctors and scholars so it was forgotten and not rediscovered in europe! (other cultures maintained it because washing hands before eating was pretty much universal before colonisation brought europes (then recent) rule of no washing)

  • @fatfurie
    @fatfurie Жыл бұрын

    dogs dont sweat :p love the channel youve got a new fan

  • @sumanyo4476
    @sumanyo4476 Жыл бұрын

    Muslims in Spain and elsewhere did it much earlier that where European benefited most from but Europeans trying to hide that somehow .you should make video about that you seem like a unbiased guy was

  • @ivan55599
    @ivan55599 Жыл бұрын

    You can only imagine how it feels to be as a person who suffers from mysophobia, and other family members rarely was their hands after visiting toilet.

  • @kangarookazoo9529

    @kangarookazoo9529

    Жыл бұрын

    Literally. I have contamination ocd and hand washing is one of my compulsions. In the winter my hands bleed and crack but I see other people with normal hands and yeah, obviously they don’t wash their hands as much as me, but my ocd makes me worry about how little they do. It’s like I don’t trust people without mysophobia 😂

  • @ivan55599

    @ivan55599

    Жыл бұрын

    It is like "act like everyone else is possibly contaminated, be precausious and prepare for every surprise moment when contacting other people". Cursed science! Why did you revealed us germs and bacteria!? Or, why people have to pick their noses or act so unhygienic? Simple hand washing helps.

  • @kangarookazoo9529

    @kangarookazoo9529

    Жыл бұрын

    Exactly. When Covid started everyone was like “ahhhhhhh wash your hands!!” And I was like okay this shouldn’t be a huge realization. Kinda sad how it had to take a global pandemic to make people realize how disgusting their hygiene was lmao

  • @ivan55599

    @ivan55599

    Жыл бұрын

    And a bit ironic, that in some cases it feels better that that virus came. Everything is (or at least it was) hygienic, no need to shake hands without being weirdo or to make a ritual some time after that, etc. "Finally you can see a glimpse about what kind of world l live in, every day, every moment." Even if overall this global mess is stressing. But now my surrounding people act pretty much as if nothing has happened, there is no virus around, etc. Meanwhile...

  • @kangarookazoo9529

    @kangarookazoo9529

    Жыл бұрын

    Yeah I had that same thought too. I kinda felt bad for it but people were finally starting to understand and now they think I’m weird again.

  • @PotatoflakeJake
    @PotatoflakeJake Жыл бұрын

    Hey bro! Getting rid of the reverb would go a long way in improving the viewing experience!

  • @mayoite160
    @mayoite160 Жыл бұрын

    would love to know the situation in "non-Western" civilisations pre-Semmelweis

  • @SwissOnZ
    @SwissOnZ Жыл бұрын

    So you’re a doctor? Or moreover a philosopher. Grappling with my European-American identity. So hard because with globalization the European schools (many educated) in the US from a philosophical standpoint Europe is so much better. Intellectual population peaks and valleys are so grave and stark on both ends of the pond. Alas, your cultivation is so DUTCH. Understanding Anglicanism and accepting we were apart of the founding of the Dutch colon - Manhattan NY. There’s so much research and so little time. The unfortunate politics of passports. Technically Anglo-Schweitzer-Dutch. Engels. Really looking forward to this channel.

  • @SwissOnZ

    @SwissOnZ

    Жыл бұрын

    Colony.

  • @vlbz
    @vlbz Жыл бұрын

    A lot of "well respected" people would rather let babies die instead of even entertaining the idea that they are doing something wrong. When things are going this disastrously bad you listen for ideas from anyone... infuriating honestly

  • @mishun
    @mishun Жыл бұрын

    That stuff about hand washing and sermon about irrational denial has never sat right with me. Isn't soap was known (and used) for a very long time (Ignaz Semmelweis suggested to use something like chlorinated lime instead of soap)? I couldn't find medical books from that time that specifically prescribe doctors to wash their hands, but there's some sporadic evidence that they did. I suspect that other doctors heard dude saying that smelly water reduces mortality by order of magnitude because of weird theory and were, like, "Suuuure. Have you considered publishing it at least? Or maybe it's a statistical fluke? Or did you consider A, B and C?". Of which Semmelweis did nothing and proceeded to insult all influential people around (thus effectively cutting off possibility of someone else replicating his results without risk for their career). He eventually published a book decade later, which had no new experimental data and, when for some reason it strangely didn't cause everyone around to repent, completely lost his marbles (if I remember correctly, source for that is "Five Documents Relating to the Final Illness and Death of Ignaz Semmelweis"). On a related theme, Pasteur's work wasn't just "theoretical", he conducted bunch of ingenious experiments, many of them specifically to address criticisms his earlier work attained. That's probably what explains difference of outcomes.

  • @elisegeum1514
    @elisegeum1514 Жыл бұрын

    Found new bangers

  • @zalareberc7858
    @zalareberc7858 Жыл бұрын

    Notice me senpai

  • @ThePresentPast_

    @ThePresentPast_

    Жыл бұрын

    No simping plz

  • @VictoriaMeira7

    @VictoriaMeira7

    Жыл бұрын

    @@ThePresentPast_ not even a little bit?🥺

  • @xandrej2480
    @xandrej2480 Жыл бұрын

    This video is fire but i gotta say adding the stranger things clock made wanna die

  • @stijnnijssen2974
    @stijnnijssen2974 Жыл бұрын

    Hope no corona soon with the help of your video's!!

  • @ThePresentPast_

    @ThePresentPast_

    Жыл бұрын

    knock on wood!

  • @ryanchristophergavan80
    @ryanchristophergavan80 Жыл бұрын

    Anyone else read freakonomics bc this guy did too ☝️

  • @johndogshot252
    @johndogshot252 Жыл бұрын

    This is a mad history channel dogshot out

  • @chesthoIe
    @chesthoIe Жыл бұрын

    Ugh, but my peers are practicing slavery. Real life slavery. I can't take this system down without pointing out how it is full of slaves for doing things that we all do and just don't get caught for. I hear ya though.

  • @michaelodonnell824
    @michaelodonnell82410 ай бұрын

    One element you missed about one reason why Semmelweiss was marginalised - Semmelweiss was Jewish and anti-Semitism played a part...

  • @discodiscordia

    @discodiscordia

    8 ай бұрын

    No he wasn't. He was a catholic of German descent.

  • @jtgd
    @jtgd Жыл бұрын

    Lmfao love the cultural references

  • @andr386
    @andr386 Жыл бұрын

    It's not as clear as the creator intented it to be. I was lost multiple time and had to go back in the video and it's not very complex content.

  • @rcyununycvniyb6ucv
    @rcyununycvniyb6ucv Жыл бұрын

    "sweat like dogs" what a silly saying😅 dogs dont sweat 😂

  • @dantetre
    @dantetre Жыл бұрын

    3:00 Semmelweis Ignác was totally Hungarian, and not "Hungarian-born". Austrians again cherry picking on nationalities, like with they done with Hitler...

  • @brucehutch5419
    @brucehutch5419 Жыл бұрын

    What an idiotic premise. Guess some people that are history of medicine experts. Give the context.