> Semmelweis was not, in fact, right all along

His results have NOT been refuted. Sanitizing hands saved lives. Not sanitizing hands cost lives.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17553179/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35486338/

Whether or not it happened due to "cadaveric particles" is a completely irrelevant detail. People died less. That's enough for public health policy decisions even today. The fact his contemporaries did not accept it would be criminal negligence today.

The "scholarly debate" about his mental state is mere speculation. Here's the first result of looking it up:

> 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.

> 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.

You clearly believe the first two options. I don't believe that even for a second.

> He was not committed to a sanitarium out of pique over his demands that people chlorinate water.

Here's the second result of looking it up:

> With this etiology, Semmelweis identified childbed fever as purely an iatrogenic disease — that is, one caused by doctors.

> Friedrich Wilhelm Scanzoni von Lichtenfels took personal offense at this, and never forgave Semmelweis for it

> Scanzoni remained one of the most ardent critics of Semmelweis.

The third result of looking it up:

> Semmelweis also angered his conservative medical colleagues — and especially his boss, Johann Klein, who was head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

> Klein rejected Semmelweis' arguments concerning cleanliness, as did his colleagues.

> He probably felt angry that this precocious Hungarian was making orthodox practices and practitioners look not only ridiculous but also dangerous.

> It was Klein, incidentally, who had insisted that medical students examine cadavers in the first place, and it was he who had relaxed constraints on conducting vaginal examinations during labor.

> Semmelweis seemed to be saying that Klein's policies were the direct cause of the epidemic

> When Semmelweis' temporary appointment came up for renewal in March 1849, Klein blocked his application, despite appeals from senior medical colleagues

> The second part [of his publication] attacked his critics. This was the part that got him into serious trouble. Many leaders in obstetrics in Europe were vilified.

> While the book collected all of Semmelweis' investigations into one volume for the first time, it met with harsh reviews and had little impact in preventing the dreaded puerperal fever.

> Probably as a consequence, Semmelweis' mental state deteriorated.

> He roamed the streets of Budapest muttering to himself and distributing pamphlets directed against those who refused to follow his teachings.

> He seemed to swing from periods of excitement and energy to periods of paralyzed depression. By July 1865, he was clearly deranged.

They clearly hated this guy and found several ways punish him for his insubordination. It's entirely possible and very likely that this was the reason he ended up in the asylum where he was killed.