706 Explanatory Note by Dr. Duncan Stewart. [Sept. 



which certainly conveys to the reader the erroneous impression that 

 all the 1328 cases of " childbed disease" were mothers. 



I took the earliest opportunity in my power of rectifying the 

 misapprehension which this gave rise to, as soon as it was pointed out 

 to me, by addressing a brief note to the Englishman newspaper on the 

 subject. 



If you will do me the favor, in noticing Mr. Kean's letter, to refer 

 him to the paragraph which I have marked in the accompanying 

 printed copy of my Evidence before the Municipal Committee, and the 

 annexed Table, he will perceive that the mistake has arisen from the 

 careless omission of an explanation there given of the native term used 

 to denote that class of diseases. 



" The term employed to include all accidents of this nature, and ap- 

 " plied indiscriminately to the infant and the mother, (antari-rog) is 

 " one which attributes the fatal termination of such cases to demoniacal 

 " influence. It is not applied to casualties after the first month, and 

 " we may therefore conclude that the picture here given, distressing 

 " though it be, does not exhibit the total amount of suffering, and 

 " of death, caused by the barbarity, ignorance, and prejudices, of the 

 " Hindoos in their management of lying-in women. The number of 

 " still-born children is not given at all, nor is it, I fear, ascertainable. 

 " The picture is sufficiently frightful, which shows, as matter of fact, 

 " that of 1801 children who died during the first year of life, 1237 died 

 " from the accidents of childbed. Out of 88 mothers who lost their 

 " lives in childbed, four appear to have been so young as thirteen, two 

 " aged fourteen, six aged fifteen, and eight died between the ages of 

 " fifteen and twenty." 



By reference to the annexed Table it will be seen that of the 

 1328 cases of "childbed" mortality, 1237 were infants under one year 

 of age ; and referring again to the Table in your April Journal it will be 

 seen that most of these were not one month ill, and probably not older; 

 356 are stated to have died on the first day of illness ; 308 on the 

 second ; 146 on the third, and so on. Neither the Table now sent nor 

 the former has reference to the ratio of " mortality to population :" 

 the imperfection of the census, which does not assign the ages of the 

 living on any particular day, renders this impossible. The present 

 Table exhibits merely the comparative prevalence and mortality of 

 particular diseases, and the influence of these as affected by sex and 

 age. The Table in the April Journal was drawn up from the same 

 data, in order to discover the intensity of particular diseases, as evinced 

 by their duration, before causing death. 



