"
Mr. Roberton remarks, that little more than half the women she delivered
during this month took the fever; that on some days all escaped, on
others only one or more out of three or four; a circumstance similar to
what is seen in other infectious maladies.
Dr. Blundell says, "Those who have never made the experiment can have but
a faint conception how difficult it is to obtain the exact truth
respecting any occurrence in which feelings and interests are concerned.
Omitting particulars, then, I content myself with remarking, generally,
that from more than one district I have received accounts of the
prevalence of puerperal fever in the practice of some individuals, while
its occurrence in that of others, in the same neighborhood, was not
observed. Some, as I have been told, have lost ten, twelve, or a greater
number of patients, in scarcely broken succession; like their evil
genius, the puerperal fever has seemed to stalk behind them wherever they
went. Some have deemed it prudent to retire for a time from practice.
In fine, that this fever may occur spontaneously, I admit; that its
infectious nature may be plausibly disputed, I do not deny; but I add,
considerately, that in my own family I had rather that those I esteemed
the most should be delivered, unaided, in a stable, by the manger-side,
than that they should receive the best help, in the fairest apartment,
but exposed to the vapors of this pitiless disease.
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