Semmelweiss and Hand-Washing: video worksheets, diferentiated.

An engaging and thorough account of Semmelweis’ heroic and tragic career: his discovery, challenges, rejection, death, and legacy. Covering: handwashing now commonplace, esp. in medicine. Semmelweis’ early career in obstetrics, and teaching. Observation of high deathrates with physician assistance. Puerperal / childbed / doctor’s fever: symptoms and prognosis. Very low mortality for home-births. Link to poor hygiene in autopsies identified. New antiseptic protocol introduced, death rates fall. Class- and gender-based resistance from doctors elsewhere. Germ theory vs. miasma theory. Semmelweis unable to explain why sterilisation works. Frustration, poor mental health. Sacked from Vienna General Hospital. Becomes depressed; alcoholism; possible Alzheimer’s; committed to a mental institution. Terrible treatment including violence. Death. Pasteur and Lister provided evidence of germs. Semmelweis vindicated; legacy.

Find the film by searching YouTube’s Weird History channel for “How a 19th Century Doctor Tried to Get His Peers To Wash Their Hands”.

14 questions for the 13-min film. Differentiated! Both versions look very similar, but “B” version has subtle clues. Excellent subtitles: scripted, not auto-generated. Answer sheet. Very easy to mark. .doc & .pdf for all files.