1946 DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE SYSTEM 



Mastigophora : — 



Oicomonas vaginalis Castellani and Chalmers, 1908. 

 Prowazekia vaginalis Castellani and Chalmers, 191 8. 

 Trichomonas vaginalis Donne, 1837. 

 Tetratrichomonas vagince Castellani and Chalmers, 19 18. 



Ciliata : — 



Balantidium vaginale Castellani and Chalmers, 191 8. 



TROPICAL PUERPERAL FEVER. 



Synonym.- — Puerperal septicaemia. 



Definition. — Tropical puerperal fever is an infection of parturient 

 or puerperal women with various germs, which may cause a local 

 septic condition or a general septicaemia. 



History. — It is probable that puerperal fever has been pr evalent 

 throughout the world in all ages wherever man has roamed, but 

 as it is conveyed from infective sources, living or dead, autogenetic 

 or heterogenetic, by instruments or by the hands of the attendants, 

 to the uterus of the parturient woman, it is obvious that, in those 

 primitive tribes in which little or no aid is given to the woman in 

 childbirth, there will be little puerperal fever, notwithstanding that 

 her immediate surroundings may be insanitary. 



Usually in non-civilized races there is less difficulty with child 

 labour, and hence less damage to the organs of generation, and con- 

 sequently a less number of portals of septic infection. 



The reasons for this easier childbirth are not well known, but may 

 possibly depend upon two factors — i.e., the mother and the child. 

 With regard to the mother, the fact that pregnancy takes place at 

 an earlier age in the uncivilized than in the civilized, and the fact 

 that the woman of non-civilization, from spare and hard living, 

 is oftenthinner than the woman of civilization, may help, even if her 

 pelvic measurements are relatively smaller; while it is often alleged 

 that the head of the unciviHzed child is smaller than that of a civilized 

 race, and it has even been asserted by Brooke that on an average 

 the child weighs i pound lighter in uncivilized races. If these 

 statements are correct, they will help to explain the easy child 

 labours and the less amount of puerperal fever in those races. 



When we consider old native civilizations and the Caucasian races, 

 we find that child labour is difficult, and that assistance has had 

 often to be rendered to the parturient woman from time 

 immemorable, and that puerperal fever in isolated cases and in 

 epidemics has been known for ages. 



Turning to one of the old civilizations of the tropic— viz., that 

 seen in Ceylon — these facts are well borne out by the researches of 

 one of us in 1907 into the vital statistics of the various peoples 

 inhabiting that island. 



These inquiries showed that the deaths of women in childbirth 

 were higher than those in Europe, and that the principal cause was 

 puerperal fever. 



