Essays on the Most Important Diseases of Women, Volume 1: Puerperal Fever

Excerpt from Essays on the Most Important Diseases of Puerperal Fever

The malady which forms the subject of this Essay is the most fatal of those peculiar to women, as seven eighths of the total mortality in child-birth are owing to it. Other important diseases, incident to the Puerperal state, as Phlegmasia Dolens and one form of Puerperal Mania, are modifications of that condi tion of body which gives rise to Puerperal Fever. A correct knowledge, therefore, of this disease, must necessarily throw great light on the whole of one im portant condition of the female constitution, namely, the Parturient State; and by so doing, afford the means by which we may hope to prevent, or at least to mitigate, some of the evils incident to it. These reasons have induced me to commence a series of Essays descriptive of the diseases of women.