In the early 19th century a Viennese physician called Ignaz Semmelweiss noticed that the rate of puerperal sepsis (a devastating and often fatal infection seen in nursing mothers) in wards covered by doctors was anything up to 10 times higher than on wards controlled by midwives. Understandably, he couldn't help wondering whether this might have something to do with the doctor's custom of performing post-mortem examinations in the morgue, and then coming straight over to the maternity wards- WITHOUT washing their hands. To the execration of his medical colleagues, he introduced the compulsory practice of hand washing with chlorinated lime before examining live patients.
The mortality rate on the doctor's ward fell quickly to match the rate in the midwive's ward. He didn't know about bacteria: they hadn't been discovered yet. He just reasoned the doctors must be transferring something nasty from the cadavers to the women patients.
Nearly 170 years on, research has confirmed his findings: repeated hand washing by nurses, visitors and especially doctors in hospitals has significantly reduced "cross-infection" rates, particularly in cases of MRSA, which fell by over 50% in the years since this "new" practice was introduced.
As Semmelweiss might have said: well duh!
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