The Tragedy of Childbed Fever

by Loudon, Irvine

• ISBN13: 9780198204992
• ISBN10: 019820499X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-03-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Childbed fever was by the far the most common cause of deaths associated with childbirth throughout Europe up to the Second World War. Otherwise known as puerperal fever, it was an infection which followed childbirth and resulted in miserable and agonizing deaths for thousands of women every year. This book provides the first detailed account of this tragic disease from its recognition in the eighteenth century up to the second half of the twentieth century, examining it within a fully comprehensive history of infectious diseases.

Author Biography

Irvine Loudon is a freelance historian of medicine.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	x
List of Tables	xii
An Introduction to Puerperal Fever	1	(13)
Case Histories of Puerperal Fever	2	(3)
The Clinical Features of Puerperal Fever	5	(2)
The Pathology of Puerperal Fever	7	(1)
Nomenclature and Synonyms for Puerperal Fever	8	(2)
Measuring Mortality due to Puerperal Fever	10	(1)
The Bacteriology of Puerperal Fever	10	(1)
The Link between Puerperal Fever and Erysipelas	11	(1)
Overview	12	(2)
Puerperal Fever in the Eighteenth Century	14	(10)
The First Appearance of the Term `Puerperal Fever'	14	(2)
The Recognition of Puerperal Fever as a Separate Disease	16	(2)
Early Views on the Nature and Causes of Puerperal Fever	18	(2)
Charles White and the Prevention of Puerperal Fever	20	(2)
The Treatment of Puerperal Fever	22	(2)
Gordon of Aberdeen	24	(11)
Gordon's Treatise	25	(1)
The Link with Erysipelas	26	(1)
Treatment	27	(1)
The Epidemic and the Treatise	28	(4)
The Reception of Gordon's Work	32	(3)
Epidemic Puerperal Fever in Towns	35	(23)
The Frequency of Town Epidemics	36	(4)
The Abingdon Epidemic	40	(1)
Other Epidemics	41	(3)
Epidemics Spread by Doctors and Midwives	44	(5)
Erysipelas and Puerperal Fever in the USA	49	(4)
Oliver Wendell Holmes and Puerperal Fever	53	(5)
Puerperal Fever and the Lying-in Hospitals	58	(17)
The Establishment of Lying-in (Maternity) Hospitals	58	(2)
Death in the Lying-in Hospitals	60	(4)
Descriptions of Hospital Epidemics	64	(7)
The Cause of Hospital Epidemics	71	(4)
Puerperal Fever: Causes and Contagion	75	(13)
Changing Definitions of Fevers	75	(1)
Contagionism, Anticontagionism, and Puerperal Fever	76	(2)
Contagions, Infections, and Miasmas	78	(3)
Explaining Epidemics of Puerperal Fever	81	(1)
Configuration, Contamination, and Predisposition	82	(1)
Clarity and Confusion	83	(2)
James Young Simpson and Puerperal Fever	85	(3)
Semmelweis	88	(23)
Semmelweis Arrives in Vienna	88	(2)
The Two Clinics	90	(2)
The Introduction of Antisepsis	92	(4)
Semmelweis's Concepts of the Etiology of Puerperal Fever	96	(3)
The Dissemination of Semmelweis's Doctrines	99	(3)
The Illness and Death of Semmelweis	102	(4)
The Influence of Semmelweis	106	(3)
Appendix. A Brief Chronology of the Life and Work of Ignaz Semmelweis	109	(2)
Monocausalists, Multicausalists, and Germ Theory	111	(19)
Monocausalists and Multicausalists	111	(2)
Mayrhofer and the Beginnings of Germ Theory in Relation to Puerperal Fever	113	(1)
The Views of Dr Barnes and Professor Leishman	114	(4)
The Meetings in Paris and London	118	(2)
Pasteur and Hervieux	120	(4)
Pasteur and Doleris	124	(1)
Should Lying-in Hospitals be Abolished?	125	(5)
Lister and Antisepsis	130	(21)
The Story of Antisepsis	130	(1)
Listerian Antisepsis in Surgical Practice	131	(3)
Listerian Antisepsis in Obstetrics	134	(11)
On Reputations, Statues, and Prizes: The Resurrection of Semmelweis	145	(6)
Puerperal Fever in the Early Twentieth Century	151	(18)
The Optimism Arising from Antisepsis	151	(1)
The Decline in Puerperal Fever between 1890 and 1912	152	(3)
Puerperal Fever and Midwives in North-West Europe	155	(5)
Puerperal Fever, Midwives, and General Practitioners	160	(4)
General Practice and Midwifery in the Early 1900s	164	(1)
Puerperal Fever, 1910--1935	165	(4)
Puerperal Fever: A Curable Disease	169	(20)
Immunotherapy and Chemotherapy	169	(1)
Paul Ehrlich and German Research	170	(2)
Almroth Wright and British Research	172	(2)
Domagk and Prontosil	174	(3)
Colebrook and the Introduction of the Sulphonamides	177	(6)
The Impact of the Sulphonamides	183	(4)
Post-antibiotic Epidemics of Puerperal Fever	187	(2)
The Epidemiology of Puerperal Fever	189	(25)
Endemic and Epidemic Puerperal Fever	189	(2)
Mortality due to Puerperal Fever	191	(5)
The Group A Streptococcus	196	(5)
The Carrier State	201	(3)
Secular Trends and Virulence	204	(1)
The Relationship of Puerperal Fever to other Streptococcal Diseases	205	(7)
Conclusion	212	(2)
Select Bibliography	214	(17)
Index	231