Gustav Adolf Michaelis (9 July 1798 – 8 August 1848) was a German obstetrician who was a native of Kiel.
Gustav Adolf Michaelis (9 July 1798 – 8 August 1848) was a German obstetrician who was a native of Kiel.
Gustav Adolf Michaelis was born on the 9th of July, 1798, to an obstetrician Gottfried Philipp Michaelis. Gustav's uncle Christian Rudolf Wiedemann also was an obstetrician, after Philipp's death in 1811 he raised his nephew. Gustav Michaelis graduated from Kiel medical school in 1820 and continued his medical studies in Paris. Among his teachers were Konrad Johann Martin Langenbeck (1776-1851) and obstetrician Friedrich Benjamin Osiander (1759-1822). In 1823 he returned to Kiel and served as an assistant to his uncle, who held the position of director at the city lying-in hospital. [1] [2]
In 1828 he married Julia Jahn, a musician. In 1829 she gave birth to daughter Emma, in 1835 son Adolf Michaelis was born. Later he would become a prominent archaeologist. [1] [2]
In 1836 Michaelis was promoted to a city chief physician. In 1841 he inherited from his uncle the director's post at local maternity hospital. A year later he started reading lectures in local medical school, also established by Christian Rudolf Wiedemann. [1] [2]
Michaelis was a pioneer of scientific obstetrics, remembered for his work in the field of pelvimetry. He performed extensive research on difficulties associated with a "narrow pelvis" and its relationship to childbirth, of which he documented in a treatise called Das Enge Becken: Nach eigenen Beobachtungen und Untersuchungen. [3] The book was published four years after his death by his successor Theodor Litzman. [4] The rhombus of Michaelis, named after him, is a contour in the coccyx/sacrum region that is rhombus-shaped. Sometimes it is referred to as the "quadrilateral of Michaelis". [5]
Michaelis had a wide range of interests, he studied archaeology and mathematics. In 1830 he published his work Über das Leuchten der Ostsee, where for the first time described the fluorescent microorganisms in the Baltic Sea. [6]
After being informed of Ignaz Semmelweis's theory of prophylaxis for prevention of puerperal fever, Michaelis was one of the first obstetricians to adopt the practice of compulsory chlorine handwashing. [7] He later became severely depressed over the number of women (including a beloved niece) who had died from puerperal fever due to unsanitary obstetrical practices, and on 8 August 1848, Michaelis committed suicide in Lehrte, Germany. [8]
After his death, his position at Kiel was filled by Carl Conrad Theodor Litzmann (1815-1890). Today, the "Michaelis Midwifery School" at the University of Kiel is named in his honor.
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician and scientist of German descent who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures and was described as the "saviour of mothers". Postpartum infection, also known as puerperal fever or childbed fever, consists of any bacterial infection of the reproductive tract following birth and in the 19th century was common and often fatal. Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of infection could be drastically reduced by requiring healthcare workers in obstetrical clinics to disinfect their hands. In 1847, he proposed hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions at Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of midwives' wards. The maternal mortality rate dropped from 18% to less than 2%, and he published a book of his findings, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever, in 1861.
Postpartum infections, also known as childbed fever and puerperal fever, are any bacterial infections of the female reproductive tract following childbirth or miscarriage. Signs and symptoms usually include a fever greater than 38.0 °C (100.4 °F), chills, lower abdominal pain, and possibly bad-smelling vaginal discharge. It usually occurs after the first 24 hours and within the first ten days following delivery.
Johann Baptist Chiari was an Austrian gynecologist and obstetrician born in Salzburg.
The Cry and the Covenant is a novel by Morton Thompson written in 1949 and published by Doubleday. The novel is a fictionalized story of Ignaz Semmelweis, an Austrian-Hungarian physician known for his research into puerperal fever and his advances in medical hygiene. The novel includes historical references, and details into Semmelweis' youth and education, as well as his later studies.
Historically, puerperal fever was a devastating disease. It affected women within the first three days after childbirth and progressed rapidly, causing acute symptoms of severe abdominal pain, fever and debility.
Franz Kiwisch von Rotterau was Professor of Obstetrics at the University of Würzburg and later at the University of Prague. He was one of Semmelweis's principal opponents. In Würzburg he was succeeded by Friedrich Wilhelm Scanzoni von Lichtenfels.
Carl Edvard Marius Levy was professor and head of the Danish Maternity institution in Copenhagen. His name is sometimes spelled "Carl Eduard Marius Levy" or, in foreign literature, "Karl Edouard Marius Levy".
Carl Braun, sometimes Carl Rudolf Braun alternative spelling: Karl Braun, or Karl von Braun-Fernwald, name after knighthood Carl Ritter von Fernwald Braun was an Austrian obstetrician. He was born 22 March 1822 in Zistersdorf, Austria, son of the medical doctor Carl August Braun.
Johann Lucas Boër, originally Johann Lucas Boogers was a German medical doctor and obstetrician.
Joseph Späth was professor of obstetrics in Vienna, and from 1873 to 1886 he was director of the second obstetrical clinic at the Vienna General Hospital.
Professor August Breisky was an Austrian gynecologist and obstetrician.
Ignaz Semmelweis discovered in 1847 that hand-wash with a solution of chlorinated lime reduced the incidence of fatal childbed fever tenfold in maternity institutions. However, the reaction of his contemporaries was not positive; his subsequent mental disintegration led to him being confined to an insane asylum, where he died in 1865.
Eduard Caspar Jacob von Siebold was a German professor of gynecology. He worked at Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Marburg and University of Göttingen.
Joseph Hermann Schmidt was professor of obstetrics in Berlin, and official of the Prussian cultural ministry.
Carl Mayrhofer was a physician conducting work on the role of germs in childbed fever.
Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever is a pioneering medical book written by Ignaz Semmelweis and published in 1861, which explains how hygiene in hospitals can drastically reduce unnecessary deaths. The book and concept saved millions of mothers from a preventable streptococcal infection.
The rhombus of Michaelis, also known as the Michaelis-Raute or the quadrilateral of Michaelis, is a rhombus-shaped contour that is sometimes visible on the lower human back. The rhombus is defined by the following vertices: Dimples of Venus, the top of the gluteal crease and the lower end of the crease over the spine.
Jakob Heinrich Hermann Schwartz was a German obstetrician and gynecologist. He was the father of classical philologist Eduard Schwartz (1858–1940).
Gustavus Charles Philip Murray was a British obstetrician who may have been the inspiration for Luke Fildes' 1891 painting The Doctor. His work in the examination of pregnant women was recognised by Adolphe Pinard in 1889 but ignored in England. He was popular with his patients and had a thriving practice with many professional appointments but as a result wrote little. He died at the age of 56 years from heart failure.
Alexander Gordon MA, MD was a Scottish obstetrician best known for clearly demonstrating the contagious nature of puerperal sepsis. By systematically recording details of all visits to women with the condition, he concluded that it was spread from patient to patient by the attending midwife or doctor, and he published these findings in his 1795 paper "Treatise on the Epidemic Puerperal Fever of Aberdeen". On the basis of these conclusions, he advised that the spread could be limited by fumigation of the clothing and burning of the bed linen used by women with the condition and by cleanliness of her medical and midwife attendants. He also recognised a connection between puerperal fever and erysipelas, a skin infection later shown to be caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, the same organism that causes puerperal fever. His paper gave insights into the contagious nature of puerperal sepsis around half a century before the better-known publications of Ignaz Semmelweis and Oliver Wendell Holmes and some eighty years before the role of bacteria as infecting agents was clearly understood. Gordon's textbook The Practice of Physik gives valuable insights into medical practice in the later years of the Enlightenment. He advised that clinical decisions be based on personal observations and experience rather than ancient aphorisms.
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