In the 1840's many women giving birth in hospitals contracted puerperal fever.. it was the most common cause of maternal mortality in Europe. Dr. Semmelweis (Who was obsessed with the problem) realized that many of the students and Doctors were entering the maternity wards directly from dissecting rooms, where they had been touching corpses. He said that mortality rates would drop if Doctors would simply wash their hands before their next surgery or delivery. Sadly, nobody believed him because at the time the germ theory hadn't been proposed, much less proven.
Because of his (At the time) outrageous theory, he was ridiculed. He didn't stop though, he grew bitter and angry but he kept fighting for hand washing.. until 1865, when his wife and others committed him to an insane asylum where he died two weeks later, reportedly due to a beating by the staff.
The lesson.. Society is cruel and ignorant. An ignorant mind will dismiss and ridicule something it doesn't understand while a wise mind will be intrigued..
A smart man will sound like a crazy man to an ignorant man.
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