MEMOIB OF DK WRIGHT. ** 91 



shutting up, and plastering every crevice, the closet 

 was heated, and kept hot with a fire of wood. The 

 usual consequence was a puerperal fever to the mo 

 ther, and frequently the child was carried off by this 

 cruel disorder. At times I was of opinion that the 

 improper mode of treating the umbilical cord might 

 be the cause ; at others, the omission to purge off the 

 meconium in proper time. I have seen these accidents 

 occur, from keeping the infant too hot with body 

 clothes and bed-clothes in that burning climate ; and I 

 have known it happen when none of these causes ex- 

 isted. 



" Some years before I left Jamaica, I introduced 

 a material change in the treatment of pregnant wo- 

 men. I had a lying-in ward prepared, which was 

 kept clean, airy, and commodious ; with black nurses 

 and midwives, properly instructed. The pregnant 

 woman went about, and did some easy work, till the 

 last day of her reckoning ; and this practice is now 

 universal in that island. By this means, few women 

 die of puerperal fever ; and the proportion of children 

 that die of locked jaw is small, in comparison with the 

 numbers of former times. The women, too, by gentle 

 exercise, have seldom those difficult and preternatural 

 labours, which often happen to ladies of rank and fa- 

 shion, and to those in inferior ranks who follow the 

 pernicious example, by giving themselves up to sloth 

 and idleness during the period of pregnancy. 



" The locked jaw happens before the ninth day af- 

 ter birth, and often without any notice or warning of 

 its approach. In a few cases, where the infant seemed 



