PUERPERAL FEVER 236 



letter to the Registrar-General. He makes the statement 

 that "five die weekly of smallpox in the metropolis when 

 the disease is not epidemic," and adds, " The problem for 

 solution is, Why do the five deaths become 10, 15, 20, 31, 58, 

 88, weekly, and then progressively fall through the same 

 measured steps?" 



5. I take it for granted that if it can be shown that great 

 numbers of lives have been and are sacrificed to ignorance 

 or blindness on this point, no other error of which physicians 

 or nurses may be occasionally suspected will be alleged in 

 palliation of this; but that whenever and wherever they 

 can be shown to carry disease and death instead of health 

 and safety, the common instincts of humanity will silence 

 every attempt to explain away their responsibility. 



The treatise of Dr. Gordon, of Aberdeen, was published 

 in the year 1795, being among the earlier special works 

 upon the disease. A part of his testimony has been occasion- 

 ally copied into other works, but his expressions are so clear, 

 his experience is given with such manly distinctness and 

 disinterested honesty, that it may be quoted as a model 

 which might have been often followed with advantage. 



" This disease seized such women only as were visited or 

 delivered by a practitioner, or taken care of by a nurse, 

 who had previously attended patients affected with the 

 disease." 



" I had evident proofs of its infectious nature, and that 

 the infection was as readily communicated as that of the 

 smallpox or measles, and operated more speedily than any 

 other infection with which I am acquainted." 



" I had evident proofs that every person who had been 

 with a patient in the puerperal fever became charged with 

 an atmosphere of infection, which was communicated to 

 every pregnant woman who happened to come within its 

 sphere. This is not an assertion, but a fact, admitting of 

 demonstration, as may be seen by a perusal of the fore- 

 going table " referring to a table of seventy-seven cases, 

 in many of which the channel of propagation was evident. 



He adds : " It is a disagreeable declaration for me tc 

 mention, that I myself was the means of carrying the in- 



