Education, Medical -- Massachusetts -- 19th century; Homeopathy; Libraries, Medical -- Massachusetts -- 19th century; Medicine
Now add to all this the undisputed fact, that within the walls of
lying-in hospitals there is often generated a miasm, palpable as the
chlorine used to destroy it, tenacious so as in some cases almost to
defy extirpation, deadly in some institutions as the plague; which has
killed women in a private hospital of London so fast that they were
buried two in one coffin to conceal its horrors; which enabled Tonnelle
to record two hundred and twenty-two autopsies at the Maternite of
Paris; which has led Dr. Lee to express his deliberate conviction that
the loss of life occasioned by these institutions completely defeats the
objects of their founders; and out of this train of cumulative evidence,
the multiplied groups of cases clustering about individuals, the deadly
results of autopsies, the inoculation by fluids from the living patient,
the murderous poison of hospitals,--does there not result a conclusion
that laughs all sophistry to scorn, and renders all argument an insult?
I have had occasion to mention some instances in which there was an
apparent relation between puerperal fever and erysipelas. The length
to which this paper has extended does not allow me to enter into the
consideration of this most important subject. I will only say, that
the evidence appears to me altogether satisfactory that some most fatal
series of puerperal fever have been produced by an infection originating
in the matter or effluvia of erysipelas. In evidence of some connection
between the two diseases, I need not go back to the older authors, as
Pouteau or Gordon, but will content myself with giving the following
references, with their dates; from which it will be seen that the
testimony has been constantly coming before the profession for the last
few years.
“London Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine,” article Puerperal Fever,
1833.
Mr. Ceeley's Account of the Puerperal Fever at Aylesbury. “Lancet,”
1835.
Dr. Ramsbotham's Lecture. “London Medical Gazette,” 1835.
Mr. Yates Ackerly's Letter in the same Journal, 1838.
Mr. Ingleby on Epidemic Puerperal Fever. “Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
Journal,” 1838.
Mr. Paley's Letter. “London Medical Gazette,” 1839.
Remarks at the Medical and Chirurgical Society. “Lancet,” 1840.
Dr. Rigby's “System of Midwifery.” 1841.
“Nunneley on Erysipelas,”--a work which contains a large number of
references on the subject. 1841.
“British and Foreign Quarterly Review,” 1842.
Dr. S. Jackson of Northumberland, as already quoted from the Summary of
the College of Physicians, 1842.
And lastly, a startling series of cases by Mr. Storrs of Doncaster, to
be found in the “American Journal of the Medical Sciences” for January,
1843.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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