A report, made by order of government, of a memoir, containing a new, easy, and successful method of treating the child-bed or puerperal fever, made use of by the late M. Doulcet ... : read at a meeting of the Royal Medical Society, held at the Louvre, the 6th of September, 1782 / translated from the French ; to which are added notes, containing a view of the nature and causes of this alarming and fatal disease, by John Whitehead.

Société royale de médecine

Date:: 1783

Credit: A report, made by order of government, of a memoir, containing a new, easy, and successful method of treating the child-bed or puerperal fever, made use of by the late M. Doulcet ... : read at a meeting of the Royal Medical Society, held at the Louvre, the 6th of September, 1782 / translated from the French ; to which are added notes, containing a view of the nature and causes of this alarming and fatal disease, by John Whitehead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$once ^ of importance to prevent, for being formed it is almoft always fatal. This malady is neither new nor peculiar to the Hotel-Dieu. Hippocrates gives a confiderably enlarged; the>- are affbacd with Wronger flimuli than before. that period, and aft with greater force, fo that the afflux of fluids to this vifeus is now greatly increafed, in order to anfwer the various purpofes of nature. After delivery, a change takes place in the aftion of the fbhds and diftnbution of the fluids, of feveral parts of the body. The uterine vefTels contraft and refufe the ufual quantity of blood deter- rnined to them. The hreafts begin to feel the influence of a new and increafed flimulus, announced by throbbing fhooting pains; the vefTels dilate and become more ca- pacious than before, and the flrength of their affioti is increafed. Hence a greater afflux -of fluids to the part, and large fecretions are made proportioned to the defigns and wants of nature. If then, while thefe changes aie taking place in the fyftera, a Putrid Fever fupervene, what are tlxe mifehiefs we may not expeft ? and from the pafl and prefent flate of the abdominal vifeeraj we may well fuppofe they will be the feene of the dreadful tragedy. If this be a juft view of the ftate- ^ ©f the body when the Puerperal Fever ufually com- mences, \vc may cafily account for all the fymptoms of it, without having, recourfe to the obfeure doftrine of metaftalis, which ill applies in thefe cafes. perfe6l$

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