Re: JQ Wilson on the Unabomber

[knowware@xxxxxxxx (Tom Walker)]

Rakesh Bhandari wrote,

>Now many of us must appreciate the recognition that departure from the
>course requirements does not represent mental illness, though it does tend
>to slow down the making of academic careers.

You could also say that Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis "departed from the course
requirements". Semmelweis discovered that childbed fever was spread by
physicians going directly from performing autopsies to attending
childbirths. He instituted a regime of handwashing in his hospital division
that dramatically reduced the incidence of the fever. For his discovery,
Semmelweis was ridiculed, fired from two hospitals, expelled from the
medical society and ultimately died impoverished in an insane asylum. Some
say he was beaten to death.

Here is how one recent account relates those events: "The 'old guard' and
Dr. Semmelweis' worsening mental illness finally drove him from Vienna, and
finally to a lonely death in an insane asylum. But his brilliant work lived
on and changed the face of medicine for all the ages." This version makes it
sound like poor Ignaz hitched a ride to the edge of town with an old soldier.


Regards,

Tom Walker
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