The "Inventor" of OCD

Whenever you see your doctor or dentist wash his or her hands before an exam, thank Ignaz Semmelweis.

In 1847, while working in the Vienna Lying-in Hospital's Maternity Ward, Semmelweis observed a number of cases of puerperal fever (also called "childbed fever"). He noted that in wards where the staff washed their hands more often, puerperal fever was less prevalent.

Semmelweis went public with his theory in 1850. The reaction of the "scientific community" of his day was hostile.

The current scientific opinion of the time blamed diseases on an imbalance of the basical "humours" in the body. It was also argued that even if his findings were correct, washing one's hands each time before treating a pregnant woman, as Semmelweis advised, would be too much work.

His crusade to get physicians to wash their hands earned him nothing but ridicule. Eventually, the contiuous ostracising he received from the medical community would drive him mad. In 1865, he was committed to an insane asylum where died from blood poisoning.

Posthumously, Dr. Semmelweis was recognized as a pioneer of antiseptic policy and immortalized on a stamp (preglued, I hope).