The Doctors' Plague Author:Sherwin B. Nuland In mid-nineteenth-century Vienna, Ignác Semmelweis advised that doctors must wash their hands before examining patients, especially if they are going to or have just aided in the delivery of a baby . Otherwise, they would pass on to patients childbed fever. The Herr Profeszors were aghast such a silly idea, that they were causing ch... more »ildbed fever because they didn't wash their hands! The hidebound doctors brought down upon Semmelweis the wrath of the establishment. This is a sad story told by Surgeon, scholar, best-selling author, Sherwin B. Nuland.« less