At a period when puerperal fever was rife, forty cases, attacked with some form of the disease, "were treated without any bleeding or leeching, or without any attempt to induce the constitutional effects of mercury; and of these, only two died."[41] "In irritable habits, when the inflammation becomes more diffused," says Mr. Hunter, "bleeding should be performed with great caution: even a quick, hard pulse, and sizy blood, are not always to be depended upon as sure indications of bleeding being the proper method of the resolution of the inflammation; more must be taken into the account. The kind of blood is of great consequence to be known; for although it should prove sizy, yet if it lies squat in the basin, and is not firm in texture, and if the symptoms at the same time are very violent, bleeding must be performed very sparingly, if at all; for I suspect, that under such a state of blood, if the symptoms continue, bleeding is not the proper mode of treatment. If we had medicines which, when given internally, could be taken into the constitution, and were endowed with a power of making the vessels contract, such, I apprehend, would be proper medicines. Bark has certainly this property, and is of singular service, I believe, in every inflammation attended with weakness; and therefore, I conceive, should be oftener given than is commonly done." [41] FERGUSON (Dr.) On the Diseases of Women. These cases formed one-fifth of the whole number treated. In bleeding women suffering from puerperal fever during an epidemic, in which the disease frequently terminated in purulent deposits, I have occasionally seen an irregular transparent bluish layer form upon the surface of the blood, almost immediately after the operation; in consequence of this, a repetition of the bleeding was sometimes had recourse to, when the subsequent stages of the disease appeared to indicate that it had not been required. The transparent layer of lymph on the surface of the blood, may, in such instances, be only an indication of its tendency to separate into its different parts, as previously described. Large bleedings, under such circumstances, inasmuch as they tend to diminish the already enfeebled power of coagulation in the blood, may predispose to the infection of the system, and to the formation of purulent deposits. The influence of mercury upon the system, as illustrated in Case XXVI, may have the same tendency. The action of mercury, so far as it can be traced upon the surface of the body, is certainly unfavourable both to union by the first intention, and to adhesive inflammation; and, inasmuch as the safety of the patient, after an injury or wound, depends upon the due performance of these processes, its effect upon the system must be regarded as of, at least, doubtful advantage.