[ 90 ] 
bable their number will increafe as their good effects in fociety are 
experienced. It is hoped, therefore, that a few faéts and obfer- 
vations, tending to point out a confiderable fource of error in aa 
extenfive lying-in hofpital, may be deemed worthy of public 
notice; both prefent and future inftitutions of this nature may, 
perhaps, derive fome ufeful information from fuch enquiry. 
SEVERAL years ago, in attempting to afcertain the nature of 
the difeafe which is the fubject of the following remarks, I, found 
the doctrines contained in moft medical books of very little ufe: 
all the morbid caufes, commonly fuppofed to produce difeafes’ in 
“infancy, appeared to me inadequate to an explanation of its phoe- 
nomena. Doubts of courfe arofe in my mind, fome of which have 
been already ftated to the public*. At length I was tempted to. 
hazard a conjecture, which then appeared probable, and which fuc- 
ceeding events /eem to have confirmed: A fketch of the evidence 
is here, with deference, fubmitted to the candid confideration of 
phyficians, and of this Academy. 
Ar the conclufion of the year 1782, of feventeen thoufand fix 
hundred and fifty infants born alive in the Lying-in Hofpital of 
this city, two thoufand nine hundred and forty-four had died 
within the firft fortnight}, that is nearly every fixth child, or 
about feventeen in the hundred. This was obvioufly a large pro- 
portion 
* See Obfervations on the Properties commonly attributed by medical writers 
to human Milk, &c. Vol. II. of the Tranfactions of this Academy. 
+ See abftract of regiftry at the end of this effay. 
