Bergmann hired Schimmelbusch in 1889, having been impressed with his work on bacteriology. Bergmann used a number of methods of disinfection and sterilisation, which Schimmelbusch documented and formalised. He referred to the equipment and methods used as the "aseptic apparatus", and in 1892, published Anleitung zur aseptischen Wundbehandlung ("Guide to the aseptic treatment of wounds"), which became a seminal work on the subject. In Bergmann's obituary of Schimmelbusch, he wrote that the treatise "had been translated into almost all European languages and its procedures had spread worldwide." The procedures were heavily based upon the work of Robert Koch and Hugo Davidsohn, and combined Koch's technique of removing anthrax spores to disinfect, along with hand sanitation methods proposed by Paul Fürbringer and heat sterilisation of surgical instruments. Although these practices were already used in laboratories, Bergmann and Schimmelbusch were among the first to apply them in a surgical setting. Schimmelbusch proposed that medical dressings should be sterilised daily, prior to surgery, and that they should remain in the same vessel until their use. He noted that items described as sterile that arrived from a factory or pharmacy were often contaminated, resulting in the need to conduct sterilisation in the hospital. To achieve this, he proposed a variation on the designs of autoclave that already existed, in which items should be sterilised for twenty to thirty minutes. He also designed several storage boxes which could hold the instruments inside the autoclave, and then be closed so that the instruments could be transported to the location of the operation without being contaminated. The boxes had sliding bands to open or close gaps to allow steam or prevent contaminants from entering the box. Death Schimmelbusch died of tuberculosis on 2 August 1895 at the age of 34. His obituary in the British Medical Journal described him as "one of the most distinguished of the younger generation of surgeons in Berlin", and praised his work in the fields of thrombosis and aseptic techniques. Works References Bibliography External links 1860 births 1895 deaths German pathologists People from the Province of Prussia University of Freiburg alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni University of Würzburg alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni Academic staff of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Physicians of the Charité Tuberculosis deaths in Germany