An inaugural dissertation on puerperal fever : Submitted to the public examination of the faculty of physic under the authority of the trustees of Columbia College, in the state of New-York, the right Rev. Benjamin Moore, D.D. president; for the degree of doctor of physic, on the first day of May, 1804. / By Ezekiel Ostrander, citizen of the state of New-York.

  • Ostrander, Ezekiel, 1778-1860.
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on puerperal fever : Submitted to the public examination of the faculty of physic under the authority of the trustees of Columbia College, in the state of New-York, the right Rev. Benjamin Moore, D.D. president; for the degree of doctor of physic, on the first day of May, 1804. / By Ezekiel Ostrander, citizen of the state of New-York. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    discharge was impeded, which, of consequence^ accumulated in the uterus and folds of the vagina -y there became acrid, and operated as an extraneous stimulating material, excoriating and inflaming the parts, and consequently preventing the natural se- cretion of it from the uterus. The retention of that material which was intended by nature to be secreted from the system, together with that lodged in the vagina and uterus, in addition to the mal- treatment above mentioned, were all so many ex- citing causes of puerperal fever. It notwithstanding often happens in cases where there is no cause for complaint respecting the treatment, that patients will be attacked with this disease, which must be referred to the opera- tion of atmospheric influence in those seasons of the year when epidemic fevers prevail. In the autumn of 180S, and every other year when the principal towns in America were visited with yel- low fever, it was remarked that many parturient women in those towns were seized with this dis- ease, which put on a very alarming appearance, and proved fatal to the greatest proportion of them. I need not here insert the numerous instances related by medical authors of the fatal ravages com- mitted by this disease in lying-in wards of Euro- pean hospitals, particularly those crowded with patients. When we come to examine the climate, soil, and situations of those countries and places where c