Essays on the puerperal fever and other diseases peculiar to women. Selected from the writings of British authors previous to the close of the eighteenth century / Edited by Fleetwood Churchill.

  • Churchill, Fleetwood, 1808-1878
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on the puerperal fever and other diseases peculiar to women. Selected from the writings of British authors previous to the close of the eighteenth century / Edited by Fleetwood Churchill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the Hospital, dated February 4, 1820. “I regret,” he says, “to have the unpleasant task of laying before the Board, the account of an epidemic fever which prevailed in this hospital during the latter part of last and beginning of the present year. Before I enter into particulars, it may not be amiss to give a general abstract for the last five years. “ During the years 1815-16-17 the hospital was healthy; of nearly 10,000 women admitted, sixty-six died, or one in 151. The year 1818 was not so favorable: of 3,549 admitted, fifty-six died, or one in sixty-two. This excess of mortality, however, arose from patients coming in ill of typhus fever (which was that year so prevalent through the city), many of whom sunk immediately after delivery. arly in the last year (1819) the puerperal fever made its appearance, but was confined to a few wards, and by a thorough whitewashing and cleansing it was arrested in its progress, and the hospital restored to its former healthy state. “The epidemic, which is the immediate object of this state-\ ment, commenced in a most insidious way, so as to excite but little alarm. During the months of June, July, and August last we continued healthy, and without a single case of fever. On the 8th of September, however, two women were attacked, and on the following day, one; on the 20th, one; on the 28th, one; and | on the 4th of October, one: all in different wards. “No new case occurring for several days after this last © attack, I was in hopes that I should be relieved from all anxiety ; but on the 15th of October I was much alarmed on finding seven women complaining, and from this time until the begin- ning of December, there was scarce a day that two or more were not attacked. “arly in December, with the concurrence of several me- dical governors, I sent notices of the unhealthy state of the hospital through the city, in order to prevent those from coming in who could provide themselves with accommodation at home, to whom, at the same time, I offered our gratuitous attendance at their residences. This had the effect of lessening our num- bers ; but many wretched creatures still continued to present themselves for admission at our gates, saying that they would rather run the risk of fever in the hospital, where they would have food and attendance, than remain at home destitute of both.