ghee @ 2008-11-14T23:50:00
Just some 150 years ago a theory that newborns died from "cadaverous particles" brought on to them after autopsies was considered backward.
The physician who found the cause-effect link felt misunderstood and died from pyemia after a severe beating in the psychiatric asylum, according to references in a Wikipedia page on Ignaz Semmelweis,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
This mildly contradicts an article in a Russian pop magazine. The article says that the physician "died" after his spirits were broken and that his colleagues considered his idea anti-religious. But the references in the above page tell about his colleagues thinking that his idea was rooted in old beliefs.
Syndicated 2008-11-15 04:51:12 (Updated 2008-11-15 18:44:37) from Ilguiz (eel ghEEz) Latypov