.

III. "MY DEAR SIR,--I received a note from you last evening, requesting
me to answer certain questions therein proposed, touching the cases of
puerperal fever which came under my observation the past summer. It
gives me pleasure to comply with your request, so far as it is in my
power so to do, but, owing to the hurry in preparing for a journey, the
notes of the cases I had then taken were lost or mislaid. The principal
facts, however, are too vivid upon my recollection to be soon forgotten.
I think, therefore, that I shall be able to give you all the information
you may require.

"All the cases that occurred in my practice took place between the 7th of
May and the 17th of June 1842.

"They were not confined to any particular part of the city. The first
two cases were patients residing at the South End, the next was at the
extreme North End, one living in Sea Street and the other in Roxbury.
The following is the order in which they occurred:

"Case 1. Mrs._____ was confined on the 7th of May, at 5 o'clock, P. M.,
after a natural labor of six hours. At 12 o'clock at night, on the 9th
(thirty-one hours after confinement), she was taken with severe chill,
previous to which she was as comfortable as women usually are under the
circumstances. She died on the 10th.

"Case 2. Mrs._____ was confined on the 10th of June (four weeks after
Mrs. C.), at 11 A. M., after a natural, but somewhat severe labor of
five hours. At 7 o'clock, on the morning of the 11th, she had a chill.
Died on the 12th.

"Case 3. Mrs._____ , confined on the 14th of June, was comfortable until
the 18th, when symptoms of puerperal fever were manifest. She died on
the 20th.

"Case 4. Mrs._____ , confined June 17th, at 5 o'clock, A. M., was doing
well until the morning of the 19th. She died on the evening of the 21st.

"Case 5. Mrs._____ was confined with her fifth child on the 17th of
June, at 6 o'clock in the evening. This patient had been attacked with
puerperal fever, at three of her previous confinements, but the disease
yielded to depletion and other remedies without difficulty. This time, I
regret to say, I was not so fortunate. She was not attacked, as were the
other patients, with a chill, but complained of extreme pain in abdomen,
and tenderness on pressure, almost from the moment of her confinement.
In this as in the other cases, the disease resisted all remedies, and she
died in great distress on the 22d of the same month. Owing to the