242 O. W. HOLMES 



was employed as washerwoman and nurse washed the linen 

 of one who had died of puerperal fever; the next lying-in 

 patient she nursed died of the same disease; a third nursed 

 by her met the same fate, till the neighbourhood, getting 

 afraid of her, ceased to employ her." 4 



In the winter of the year 1824, " several instances oc- 

 curred of its prevalence among the patients of particular prac- 

 titioners, whilst others who were equally busy met with few 

 or none. One instance of this kind was very remarkable. A 

 general practitioner, in large midwifery practice, lost so 

 many patients from puerperal fever that he determined to 

 deliver no more for some time, but that his partner should 

 attend in his place. This plan was pursued for one month, 

 during which not a case of the disease occurred in their 

 practice. The elder practitioner, being then sufficiently re- 

 covered, returned to his practice, but the first patient he 

 attended was attacked by the disease and died. A physician 

 who met him in consultation soon afterwards, about a case 

 of a different kind, and who knew nothing of his misfor- 

 tune, asked him whether puerperal fever was at all preva- 

 lent in his neighbourhood, on which he burst into tears, and 

 related the above circumstances. 



" Among the cases which I saw this season in consultation, 

 four occurred in one month in the practice of one medical 

 man, and all of them terminated fatally." 5 



Dr. Ramsbotham asserted, in a lecture at the London Hos- 

 pital, that he had known the disease spread through a par- 

 ticular district, or be confined to the practice of a particular 

 person, almost every patient being attacked with it, while 

 others had not a single case. It seemed capable, he thought, 

 of conveyance, not only by common modes, but through the 

 dress of the attendants upon the patient. 8 



In a letter to be found in the " London Medical Gazette " 

 for January, 1840, Mr. Roberton, of Manchester, makes the 

 statement which I here give in a somewhat condensed form. 



A midwife delivered a woman on the 4th of December, 

 1830, who died soon after with the symptoms of puerperal 

 fever. In one month from this date the same midwife de- 



* An Account of Some of the Most Important Diseases Peculiar A 

 Women, p. 4. 6 Gooch, op. cit., p. 71. Lond. Mtd. Gaz., May a, 1835. 



