ough for regret,
and no voice loud enough for warning. The woman about to become a
mother, or with her new-born infant upon her bosom, should be the object
of trembling care and sympathy wherever she bears her tender burden,
or stretches her aching limbs. The very outcast of the streets has pity
upon her sister in degradation, when the seal of promised maternity is
impressed upon her. The remorseless vengeance of the law, brought down
upon its victim by a machinery as sure as destiny, is arrested in its
fall at a word which reveals her transient claim for mercy. The solemn
prayer of the liturgy singles out her sorrows from the multiplied trials
of life, to plead for her in the hour of peril. God forbid that any
member of the profession to which she trusts her life, doubly precious
at that eventful period, should hazard it negligently, unadvisedly, or
selfishly!

There may be some among those whom I address who are disposed to ask the
question, What course are we to follow in relation to this matter? The
facts are before them, and the answer must be left to their own judgment
and conscience. If any should care to know my own conclusions, they are
the following; and in taking the liberty to state them very freely and
broadly, I would ask the inquirer to examine them as freely in the light
of the evidence which has been laid before him.

1. A physician holding himself in readiness to attend cases of midwifery
should never take any active part in the post-mortem examination of
cases of puerperal fever.

2. If a physician is present at such autopsies, he should use thorough
ablution, change every article of dress, and allow twenty-four hours or
more to elapse before attending to any case of midwifery. It may be well
to extend the same caution to cases of simple peritonitis.

3. Similar precautions should be taken after the autopsy or surgical
treatment of cases of erysipelas, if the physician is obliged to unite
such offices with his obstetrical duties, which is in the highest degree
inexpedient.

4. On the occurrence of a single case of puerperal fever in his
practice, the physician is bound to consider the next female he attends
in labor, unless some weeks at least have elapsed, as in danger of being
infected by him, and it is his duty to take every precaution to diminish
her risk of disease and death.

5. If within a short period two cases of puerperal fever happen close
to each other, in the practice of the same p