Therewas presumably a moment when everything changed for Ignac Philipp Semmelweis (1818-65)-a moment of awful clarity in which he realised the truth about the cause of childbed fever. His later descriptions suggest that any initial sense of achievement was soon overshadowed by a sinking, overwhelming guilt. It must have quickly dawned on him that while he had diligently been keeping precise records of maternal mortality rates-rates that he found disturbingly high, and inadequately investigated-the devastating "contagion" was being carried to his patients on his own hands and those of the medical students under his direct supervision. Perhaps he never fully recovered, and the zeal with which he later stripped layers of skin from his hands with chlorinated lime solution recalls the words of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth when she despaired, "What, will these hand ne'er be clean?"
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机译：大概在那一刻，伊格纳克·菲利普·塞梅尔维斯（Ignac Philipp Semmelweis，1818-65年）的一切都发生了变化。他后来的描述表明，最初的成就感很快就被沉没，压倒性的罪恶感所笼罩。一定很快就意识到，尽管他一直努力地保持着准确的孕产妇死亡率记录，但他发现这一数字令人不安地高，并且没有进行充分的调查，而毁灭性的“传染病”却是由他自己和其他人携带的。在他的直接监督下的医学生。也许他从来没有完全康复过，后来他热情地用氯化石灰溶液从手上剥离了几层皮肤，回想起莎士比亚夫人麦克白夫人绝望时的话：“什么，这些手会干净吗？”
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