Education, Medical -- Massachusetts -- 19th century; Homeopathy; Libraries, Medical -- Massachusetts -- 19th century; Medicine
At the same meeting, Dr. West mentioned a fact related to him by Dr.
Samuel Jackson of Northumberland. Seven females, delivered by Dr.
Jackson in rapid succession, while practising in Northumberland County,
were all attacked with puerperal fever, and five of them died. “Women,”
he said, “who had expected me to attend upon them, now becoming alarmed,
removed out of my reach, and others sent for a physician residing
several miles distant. These women, as well as those attended by
midwives; all did well; nor did we hear of any deaths in child-bed
within a radius of fifty miles, excepting two, and these I afterwards
ascertained to have been caused by other diseases.” He underwent, as
he thought, a thorough purification, and still his next patient was
attacked with the disease and died. He was led to suspect that the
contagion might have been carried in the gloves which he had worn in
attendance upon the previous cases. Two months or more after this he had
two other cases. He could find nothing to account for these, unless it
were the instruments for giving enemata, which had been used in two of
the former cases, and were employed by these patients. When the
first case occurred, he was attending and dressing a limb extensively
mortified from erysipelas, and went immediately to the accouchement with
his clothes and gloves most thoroughly imbued with its efluvia. And here
I may mention, that this very Dr. Samuel Jackson of Northumberland is
one of Dr. Dewees's authorities against contagion.
The three following statements are now for the first time given to the
public. All of the cases referred to occurred within this State, and two
of the three series in Boston and its immediate vicinity.
I. The first is a series of cases which took place during the last
spring in a town at some distance from this neighborhood. A physician of
that town, Dr. C., had the following consecutive cases.
No. 1, delivered March 20, died March 24.
“ 2, “ April 9, “ April 14.
“ 3, “ “ 10, “ “ 14.
“ 4, “ “ 11, “ “ 18.
“ 5, “ “ 27, “ May 3.
“ 6, “ “ 28, had some symptoms, (recovered.)
“ 7, “ May 8, had some symptoms, (also recovered.)
These were the only cases attended by this physician during the period
referred to. “They were all attended by him until their termination,
with the exception of the patient No. 6, who fell into the hands of
another physician on the 2d of May. (Dr. C. left town for a few days
at this time.) Dr. C. attended cases immediately before and after the
above-named periods, none of which, however, presented any peculiar
symptoms of the disease.”
About the 1st of July he attended another patient in a neighboring
village, who died two or three days after delivery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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