Eduard Lumpe

Eduard Lumpe Lithography by Josef Kriehuber, 1862

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 (1861). Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever. Translated by K. Codell Carter. University of Wisconsin Press, September 15, 1983. p. 92 footnote 15. ISBN 0-299-09364-6.
• 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.