On the mortality of childbed and maternity hospitals / by J. Matthews Duncan.

Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the mortality of childbed and maternity hospitals / by J. Matthews Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Eesearches in Obstetrics, lays claim to no infallibity, as writers upon such subjects so often do ; but plainly avows his indecision on many points, and admits that the opinions he entertains are very far from being regarded by himself as final. This will by no means diminish, but will rather add to, the value of Dr. Duncan's book, in the estimation of the profession. We refrain from referring particularly to the views which Dr. Duncan enforces in reference to the diseases of which he treats, as a discussion of such a nature is fitted only for the columns of a medical journal; but we generally note the learning and the patient observation which Dr. Duncan has brought to bear upon a difficult department of medical science. Dr. Duncan's nomenclature is new. Taking example from the heart and other organs, he uses the prefix peri to denote inflammation of serous membrane ; and iMra, inflammation of cellular or connective tissue. This is a very convenient mode of expressing these differ- cnces, and it would be well if the profession generally were to sanction its adoption. From the Athenseum; To most readers, even professional readers, the subject of this book, as indicated by the title, would be dark and mysterious. But Dr. Duncan is too well known as a labourer in the field of obstet- rics to lead any one to doubt that he has chosen judicious terms to indicate the diseases he wishes to describe and treat. These diseases are outside ordinary experience, and can only be described by the practitioner of large experience and acute observation. We cannot here enter into any detail of them ; but those who are interested in saving the most precious Life in the community—the life of the motlier who has just given birth to offspring—will best understand the value of a treatise devoted to diseases which are the result of that condition. Wo notice this work to say that we think it deserves the attentive study of all engaged in the treatment of those diseases to which it refers. Prom the British Medical Journal. The appearance of this monograph on a most interesting and important subject is weU-timed, and a careful perusal of it has led N