Editing Ignaz Semmelweis (section)

==Breakdown and death==
[[File:Ignaz Semmelweis 1862 Open letter.jpg|thumb|Semmelweis's 1862 ''Open Letter to all Professors of Obstetrics'']]
[[File:Semmelweis Ignác 1864.jpg|thumb|right|The last photograph of Ignaz Semmelweis from 1864]]
After a number of unfavorable foreign reviews of his 1861 book, Semmelweis lashed out against his critics in a series of open letters.{{efn-ua|The 1862 open letter is available at the  {{URL|1=http://www.literature.at/viewer.alo?viewmode=overview&objid=13184&page= |2=Austrian national library}} website.}} They were addressed to various prominent European obstetricians, including [[Joseph Späth|Späth]], [[Friedrich Wilhelm Scanzoni von Lichtenfels|Scanzoni]], [[Eduard Caspar Jacob von Siebold|Siebold]], and to "all obstetricians". They were "highly polemical and superlatively offensive", at times denouncing his critics as irresponsible murderers or ignoramuses.{{sfn|Semmelweis|1983|p=57}}{{sfn|Carter|Carter|2005|p=73}}{{sfn|Semmelweis|1983|p=41}} He also called upon Siebold to arrange a meeting of German obstetricians somewhere in Germany to provide a forum for discussions on puerperal fever, where he would stay "until all have been converted to his theory."{{sfn|Hauzman|2006}}

In mid-1865, his public behaviour became exasperating and embarrassing to his associates. He also began to drink immoderately; he spent progressively more time away from his family, sometimes in the company of a prostitute; and his wife noticed changes in his sexual behavior. On 13 July 1865, the Semmelweis family visited friends, and during the visit, Semmelweis's behavior seemed particularly inappropriate.{{sfn|Carter|Carter|2005|p=74}}

Semmelweis's alleged affliction has been a subject of some debate. According to K. Codell Carter, in his biography of Semmelweis, its exact nature cannot be determined:<blockquote>It is impossible to appraise the nature of Semmelweis's disorder. ... It might have been [[Alzheimer's disease]], a type of dementia, which is associated with rapid cognitive decline and mood changes.{{sfn|Nuland|2003|p=270}} It might have been third-stage [[syphilis]], a then-common disease of obstetricians who examined thousands of women at gratis institutions, or it might have been emotional exhaustion from overwork and stress.{{sfn|Carter|Carter|2005|p=75}}</blockquote>In 1865, [[János Balassa]] wrote a document referring Semmelweis to a mental institution. On 30 July, [[Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra]] lured him, under the pretense of visiting one of Hebra's "new Institutes", to a Viennese insane asylum located in Lazarettgasse (''Landes-Irren-Anstalt in der Lazarettgasse'').{{sfn|Benedek|1983|p=293}} Semmelweis surmised what was happening and tried to leave. He was severely beaten by several guards, secured in a [[straitjacket]], and confined to a darkened cell. Apart from the straitjacket, treatments at the [[mental institution]] included dousing with cold water and administering [[castor oil]], a [[laxative]]. He died after two weeks, on 13 August 1865, aged 47, from a [[gangrene|gangrenous]] wound, due to an infection on his right hand which might have been caused by the struggle. The autopsy gave the cause of death as [[pyemia]]—[[blood poisoning]].{{sfn|Carter|Carter|2005|pp=76–78}}

Semmelweis was buried in Vienna on 15 August 1865. Only a few people attended the service.{{sfn|Carter|Carter|2005|p=78}} Brief announcements of his death appeared in a few medical periodicals in Vienna and Budapest. Although the rules of the Hungarian Association of Physicians and Natural Scientists specified that a commemorative address be delivered in honor of a member who had died in the preceding year, there was no address for Semmelweis; his death was never even mentioned.{{sfn|Carter|Carter|2005|p=79}}

János Diescher was appointed Semmelweis's successor at the Pest University maternity clinic. Immediately, mortality rates increased sixfold to 6%, but the physicians of Budapest said nothing; there were no inquiries and no protests. Almost no one—either in Vienna or in Budapest—seems to have been willing to acknowledge Semmelweis's life and work.{{sfn|Carter|Carter|2005|p=79}}

His remains were transferred to Budapest in 1891. On 11 October 1964, they were transferred once more to the house in which he was born. The [[Semmelweis Museum of Medical History|house at 1-3 Apród utca]]{{sfn|Semmelweis Orvostörténeti Múzeum}} is now a museum of medical history, honoring Ignaz Semmelweis.{{sfn|Semmelweis|1983|p=58}}