On the duration of labour as a cause of mortality and danger to the mother and infant; &c : in reply to a letter of Dr. Collins / by J.Y. Simpson.
- James Young Simpson
- Date:
- 1848
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the duration of labour as a cause of mortality and danger to the mother and infant; &c : in reply to a letter of Dr. Collins / by J.Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![the generalizations whicli I had offered on the duration of labour as affecting the life and safety of the mother and infant, you have entered into other criticisms, and made other observations on my essay. The principal of these criticisms and observations I shall now notice. For in- stance :— 4. Speaking of the results of your practice when Master for seven years of the Dublin Hospital, and of the number of patients who died of puerperal fever, you observe— If we were only to deduct the deaths from this fatal disease, which may be considered accidental, the entire maternal mortality for seven years would then be less than one in ]56. And why (you specially ask,) is it not stated by you, that for the four last years of my residence in the Hospital, after puerperal fever disappeared, during which period, the very great number (10,785,) of delive- ries occurred, 58 only died, or in the proportion^of 1 in 186? Wliy did I not state this ? Simply because I had nothing whatever to do with the matter. I should have been tra^ veiling altogether out of my road if I had mentioned it. My essay was not, in any, the very slightest degree, a comment upon the good or the bad success of your practice. My cal- culations and inquiries were altogether independent of the numbers you happened to save or to lose. The principles I have educed would have equally appeared whether your practice had been twice more successful, or twice less suc- cessful than it was. The proportions you lost at any specified time did not interfere in any respect with my calculations, and I had no kind of interest in the point you allude to. But since you do ask such strange questions, let me ask you one or two in turn.—Why is it not stated by You that during the first three years of your Mastership, out of 5,629 women delivered, 106 died, or one in every 53? Why have you never mentioned that in one year, (1826,) when you acted in the Hospital partly as Assistant-Phy- sician, and partly as Master, 81 out of 2,440 women de-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21474886_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
