Changes

==Formulation and Testing of Hypotheses==

==Formulation and Testing of Hypotheses==

Semmelwies developed several hypotheses to test, among them:

Semmelweis developed several hypotheses to test, among them:

#Overcrowding on certain wards spread the disease.  He tested the hypothesis by comparing sepsis deaths on floors based on crowding.  The statistics did not support the hypothesis, so it was abandoned.

#Overcrowding on certain wards spread the disease.  He tested the hypothesis by comparing sepsis deaths on floors based on crowding.  The statistics did not support the hypothesis, so it was abandoned.

#Doctors and medical students some how passed "particles" of disease to patients.  A close friend of Semmelweis had died of a disease indistinguishable from childbed fever after cutting his hand during an autopsy.  Semmelweis noted that often, doctors and medical students would perform autopsies, then go to the ward to deliver babies, one after the other.  Midwives did not.  He posited that particles of illness were making mothers ill, and that washing hands might prevent illness.  He tested this by instituting a strict regimen of hand washing with a chlorine-lime solution before examining mothers or delivering babies.  The death rate from sepsis quickly fell to the level seen in the midwife deliveries. The hypothesis was successfully tested elsewhere, as mentioned above, but communication was poor.  The hypothesis had been tested and made correct predictions.  

#Doctors and medical students some how passed "particles" of disease to patients.  A close friend of Semmelweis had died of a disease indistinguishable from childbed fever after cutting his hand during an autopsy.  Semmelweis noted that often, doctors and medical students would perform autopsies, then go to the ward to deliver babies, one after the other.  Midwives did not.  He posited that particles of illness were making mothers ill, and that washing hands might prevent illness.  He tested this by instituting a strict regimen of hand washing with a chlorine-lime solution before examining mothers or delivering babies.  The death rate from sepsis quickly fell to the level seen in the midwife deliveries. The hypothesis was successfully tested elsewhere, as mentioned above, but communication was poor.  The hypothesis had been tested and made correct predictions.  

==Paradigm Shift and Acceptance==

==Paradigm Shift and Acceptance==

Semmelwies died at 47 of an unknown illness in an asylum for the insane.  He did not live to see the success of his methods.  Just a few years after his untimely demise, other researchers, such as Billroth (discovery of streptococci in pus), [[Louis Pasteur|Pasteur]] (discovery of strep in the blood of a septic woman), and [[Joseph Lister|Lister]] (pioneer of antisepsis in surgery) helped overturn the old order.  The humoral and miasma theories of disease were gone, to be replaced by the germ theory.

Semmelweis died at 47 of an unknown illness in an asylum for the insane.  He did not live to see the success of his methods.  Just a few years after his untimely demise, other researchers, such as Billroth (discovery of streptococci in pus), [[Louis Pasteur|Pasteur]] (discovery of strep in the blood of a septic woman), and [[Joseph Lister|Lister]] (pioneer of antisepsis in surgery) helped overturn the old order.  The humoral and miasma theories of disease were gone, to be replaced by the germ theory.

==Significance of Statistics==

==Significance of Statistics==