It's interesting to examine the history of soap and hand-washing: how patients and doctors gradually came to understand its importance.
In fact, hand-washing took a really long time to catch on, largely because doctors saw it as an inconvenience. Some surgeons used to pride themselves on wearing lab coats covered with blood; it was the sign of a busy practice.
This story in the New Yorker actually makes a much broader, interesting point, investigating why some innovations take so long to catch on. For example, anesthesia was discovered around the same time as antiseptics, but it caught on about a decade sooner.
In fact, hand-washing took a really long time to catch on, largely because doctors saw it as an inconvenience. Some surgeons used to pride themselves on wearing lab coats covered with blood; it was the sign of a busy practice.
This story in the New Yorker actually makes a much broader, interesting point, investigating why some innovations take so long to catch on. For example, anesthesia was discovered around the same time as antiseptics, but it caught on about a decade sooner.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_...