PUERPERAL FEVER 241 



to puerperal women resident in the same neighborhood, and 

 I have ample evidence for affirming that the infection 

 of the disease was often carried about in that manner; 

 and, however painful to my feelings, I must in candour 

 declare that it is very probable the contagion was conveyed, 

 in some instances, by myself, though I took every possible 

 care to prevent such a thing from happening the moment that 

 I ascertained that the distemper was infectious." Dr. Arm- 

 strong goes on to mention six other instances within his 

 knowledge, in which the disease had at different times and 

 places been limited, in the same singular manner, to the 

 practice of individuals, while it existed scarcely, if at all, 

 among the patients of others around them. Two of the gen- 

 tlemen became so convinced of their conveying the con- 

 tagion that they withdrew for a time from practice. 



I find a brief notice, in an American journal, of another 

 series of cases, first mentioned by Mr. Davies, in the " Medi- 

 cal Repository." This gentleman stated his conviction that 

 the disease is contagious. 



" In the autumn of 1822 he met with twelve cases, while 

 his medical friends in the neighbourhood did not meet with 

 any, 'or at least very few.' He could attribute this cir- 

 cumstance to no other cause than his having been present 

 at the examination after death, of two cases, some time 

 previous, and of his having imparted the disease to his 

 patients, notwithstanding every precaution." * 



Dr. Gooch says : " It is not uncommon for the greater 

 number of cases to occur in the practice of one man, whilst 

 the other practitioners of the neighborhood, who are not 

 more skilful or more busy, meet with few or none. A 

 practitioner opened the body of a woman who had died 

 ot puerperal fever, and continued to wear the same clothes. 

 A lady whom he delivered a few days afterwards was at- 

 tacked with and died of a similar disease; two more of his 

 lying-in patients, in rapid succession, met with the same 

 fate; struck by the thought that he might have carried con- 

 tagion in his clothes, he instantly changed them, and met with 

 no more cases of the kind.' A woman in the country who 



* Phitad. Med. Journal for 1825, p. 408. 



' A frimilar anecdote it related by Sir Benjamin Brodic, of th* latt Dr. 

 John Gark, Lancet, May a, 1840. 



