Medical breakthroughs that were initially ridiculed or rejected
[1] Although medical science most often advances
incrementally on the basis of an ever-accumulating body of
evidence, occasionally leaps forward are made. Quite often
[4] these leaps fly ∈ the face of conventional wisdom, and are
ridiculed or rejected by the medical establishment.
Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician
[7] working ∈a maternity ward ∈Vienna ∈ the mid-19th century.
He came to the conclusion that puerperal fever was contagious
by observing that students and physicians were performing
[10] autopsies and then attending new mothers, many of whom
would soon become ill and die.
He then advocated that doctors ∈ obstetric clinics
[13] disinfect their hands following autopsies. The result: at the
clinic ∈ which his hand-washing policy was implemented, the
puerperal fever mortality rates dropped from 18.3% to less than
[16] 2% ∈ fewer than 6 months.
Despite Semmelweis’s demonstration of the value of
antiseptic techniques, by and large his ideas were rejected by
[19] the medical community. Because of this, he began publishing
a series of vitriolic “open letters” against his critics. Isolated
and unpredictable, Semmelweis was admitted against his will
[22] to an insane asylum, where he died after two weeks.
Gabriel Miller. Internet: (adapted).
Based on the text, judge the following item.
In general, progress ∈ medical science is based on previous knowledge and information, but there are exceptions, which the author refers to as “leaps” (l.3).
