From 'The Plight of the Obscure Innovator in Science' (Moti Nissani, 1995) [0] :
"Semmelweis was laughed at in part because he was unable to explain the observed effect of soiled hands on childbed fever. So, to be believed, widespread resistance to obscure innovators must be documented and explained....
"Bernard Barber commented [1962] that 'one of the interesting aspects of the social process of discovery--the resistance on the part of scientists themselves to scientific discovery...has been largely neglected as a subject for systematic investigation.' A third of a century later, the subject has not yet received the methodical attention it so richly deserves. Only a time-consuming comprehensive historical survey will help to unravel the extent, nature, causes, consequences, and cures of this resistance."
Semmelweis died in an insane asylum in 1865. Joseph Lister = who'd discovered the use of carbolic acid that same year - published Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery in 1867. He'd read about Louis Pasteur's experiments confirming germ theory.
"Semmelweis was laughed at in part because he was unable to explain the observed effect of soiled hands on childbed fever. So, to be believed, widespread resistance to obscure innovators must be documented and explained....
"Bernard Barber commented [1962] that 'one of the interesting aspects of the social process of discovery--the resistance on the part of scientists themselves to scientific discovery...has been largely neglected as a subject for systematic investigation.' A third of a century later, the subject has not yet received the methodical attention it so richly deserves. Only a time-consuming comprehensive historical survey will help to unravel the extent, nature, causes, consequences, and cures of this resistance."
[0] http://drnissani.net/MNISSANI/PAGEPUB/HISTORY.HTM
Semmelweis died in an insane asylum in 1865. Joseph Lister = who'd discovered the use of carbolic acid that same year - published Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery in 1867. He'd read about Louis Pasteur's experiments confirming germ theory.