[soo] 
rath day, 11th, roth, gth, 8th, 7th, 6th, sth, 4th, 3d, 2d, ft. Total. 
rdied. 0.7 3.) Br ee ek ay. 1. aU. ge) Las aeprnamineds 
Hence it is obvious that the fatal days are the fifth, the 
feventh, but efpecially the fixth, and either of thefe are undoubt- 
edly much within the average day of the difcharge of our patients. 
Befides, the early difcharge of patients did not commence in any 
one year, as the leffened mortality of infants did; it arofe from a 
gradual increafe in the number of poor demanding admiffion ; and 
I am happy to add, that fome late very liberal donations, and a 
confequent increafe in the number of our beds, have put an end 
to the neceffity of this difagreeable expedient, adopted folely 
with a view of affording indifcriminate relief. 
Ir might naturally be fuppofed that an atmofphere, which we 
have endeavoured to prove injurious to the health of infants, 
would alfo fomewhat affect the chances of life in their mothers. 
The fat, however, certainly is, that on an average fewer women 
have died in child-bed in the Dublin hofpital than in moft 
other lying-in hofpitals, (Compare the abftra@ at the end of this 
effay with facts contained in the poftfcript to Mr. White’s treatife 
on the management of pregnant and puerperal women.) Here 
then a queftion arifes, why fhould infants be fo much more liable 
to injury from an impure atmofphere than adults? Is it poffible 
that mothers fhall efcape with impunity and their children perifh ? 
This, I own, puzzled me extremely, and had almoft made me 
doubt of what I confidered a fact, fupported by the ftrongeft 
probable evidence. By accident, however, in looking over a dif- 
fertation on the food and difcharges of the human body, by 
our 
