Eduard Lumpe (obstetrician)

Eduard Lumpe (1813–1876)^[1] was an obstetrician working in Vienna General Hospital as assistant to professor Johann Klein. He is mainly known for compiling a list of causes for childbed fever in 1845, reflecting the (in retrospect: limited) insights at the time. The disease was predominantly epidemic, i.e. due to miasmatic influences. Other causal factors included: general deprivation, worry, shame, attempted abortion, fear of death, dietary disorders, exposure to cold, local miasmas and difficult delivery.^[2] Ignaz Semmelweis ridiculed Lumpe's work.

Lumpe's work reflected mainstream views, see for instance the work of Charles Delucena Meigs^[3] for a similar American account in 1854.

References

• Semmelweis, Ignaz; K. Codell Carter (translator and extensive foreword) (1861). Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever. University of Wisconsin Press, September 15, 1983. ISBN 0299093646.  p92 footnote 15

• Lumpe, Eduard (1845). "Die Leistungen der neuesten Zeit in der Gynäkologie". Zeitschrift der k.k. Gesellschaft der Ärzte zu Wien 1: 341–371. 

• Meigs, Charles Delucena (1854). On the Nature, Signs, and Treatment of Childbed Fevers: In a Series of Letters Addressed to the Students of His Class. Original from Harvard University (Digitized Nov 30, 2007), Retrieved Sep 1, 2008: Blanchard and Lea, Philadelphia. pp. 362 pages. http://books.google.com/?id=RigSAAAAYAAJ. 

Notes

1. ^ Birth and death years retrieved in a cached Google search from a German antiquaritat für Medizin and should be confirmed (http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:8lnl47bKQ2wJ:www.medicusbooks.com/shop/USER_ARTIKEL_HANDLING_AUFRUF.php%3Fdarstellen%3D1%26PEPPERSESS%3D7335fc792f4959f8b872b0758b6ea266%26Kategorie_ID%3D23022%26anzeigen_ab%3D640%26anzahl_total%3D787%26sort%3D%26order%3D%26level%3D0%26kategorie_0%3D0%26print%3Dtrue+Zur+Theorie+der+Pueperalfieber&hl=da&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk)
2. ^ Semmelweis 1861:13-14
3. ^ Meigs(1854):179ff