Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician who took a post at the Vienna Lying-In Hospital in the mid-1800s. He noticed that the incidence of puerperal fever was much higher in the teaching wards for medical students than for midwives. The independent variable, he realized, was that medical students performed autopsies and the midwives did not. He introduced antiseptic practices in the obstetrical wards and reduced the mortality rate of puerperal fever from 13.6% to 1.5%. In 1861, he published his classic work on childbed fever based on his extremely detailed records from his practice.

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