Jakob Kolletschka is mostly known for his death which eventually led Ignaz Semmelweis to his discovery of the etiology of childbed fever.
"[2] Semmelweis had left for Venice on 2 March 1847 to escape the many deaths at the Viennese maternity institution, which haunted him.
I was immediately overwhelmed by the sad news that Professor [Jakob] Kolletschka, whom I greatly admired, had died in the interim.
The case history went as follows: Kolletschka, Professor of Forensic Medicine, often conducted autopsies for legal purposes in the company of students.
Professor Kolletschka contracted lymphangitis and phlebitis [inflammation of the lymphatic vessels and of the veins respectively] in the upper extremity.