It happened Terrible year written by Victor Hugo A debacle says Emile Zola. In the winter of 1870-1871, when the Paris Commune followed the Franco-Prussian War, the wounded died en masse and “The most distinguished masters of surgery, horrified, doubted their art.”said Dr: Paul Recluse. Only a few doctors practiced asepsis of wounds and surgical instruments, and up to two-thirds of those operated on died of infections. The famous August Nelaton, “Despairing of losing 70 out of 70 patients operated on (…), he said that a golden statue should be erected to the one who found a way to prevent the purulent infection, which is the cause of this terrible mortality.”says Oriel de la Porte in a book dedicated to the surgeon Alphonse Guerin.
This one, we are told, would be worthy of this golden statue. Because at the end of this terrible year “There was a noise in the hospitals, which caused an indescribable dullness. surgeon Alphonse Guerin (…) had…
Source: Le Figaro
