"... If one understood the cause of puerperal fever, perhaps the disease could at least be prevented, but such was not the case. To Semmelweis, the disease was as frightening as it was to his colleagues. Yet, unlike his colleagues, Semmelweis saw in puerperal fever a troubling dichotomy. While he was driven to a state of chronic melancholy from observing the large numbers of women dying under his care, at the same time, the disease represented his noble challenge—one that would consume the rest of his life."