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.

Eduard Lumpe Lithography by Josef Kriehuber, 1862

Lumpe's work reflected mainstream views, see for instance the work of Charles Delucena Meigs[3] for a similar American account in 1854.

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Notes

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  1. Hirsch/H., Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker. Dritte, unveränderte Aufl., 3. Bd (1962), p.866 ([dead link]) [dead link]
  2. Semmelweis 1861:13-14
  3. Meigs(1854):179ff