“Semmelweis’s colleagues treated his findings with hostility and he eventually resigned his position. It was not until after his death that others such as Louis Pasteur and Oliver Wendell Holmes recognised the importance of his work”
The real problem was that the germ theory of disease was not really formulated until the 1890’s (Pasteur, Kosh, etc), and so, Semmelweiss’ contemporaries did not really have the intellectual ability to appreciate his genius.
The story of Koch’s presentation of his work on cholera, and later, his postulates (1890) is illustrative of the problems that these early scientists faced at the dawn of the period of modern medicine.
His colleagues were presented with scientific fact that it worked. They shouldn’t have needed to understand WHY it worked. didn’t need to understand why.
But I don’t want to be too critical. The episode demonstrates a nasty side of human nature.
It seems inconceivable that WASHING your hands was once considered controversial.