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27
PUERPERAL FEVER.
Puerperal fever is compulsorily notifiable by Section 55 of
the Public Health (London) Act, 1891. In 1910 there were
registered in Finsbury 3,566 births—and in 7 cases these were
followed by notifications of puerperal fever. So that it may
be asserted that, on the whole, the work of attending women
in their confinements is carried out extremely well in the Borough
The number of notifications in previous years have been as
follows:—
1901, 5; 1902, 6; 1903, 8; 1904, 5; 1905, 6; 1906, 7; 1907, 3;
1908, 4; and in 1909, 6 cases.
The seven cases in the present year were attended by students
of St. Bartholomew's, and the Royal Free Hospital (4), and by
medical men 3 cases.
The predisposing and associated causes were as follows:—
Prolonged and difficult labour 3
Deformity of pelvis 1
Disease of uterus 1
Retained afterbirth 1
Douche given by mother of patient 1
In Finsbury every case is investigated by the lady Sanitary
Inspector—the premises are visited, the sanitary defects ascertained,
and made the subject of subsequent notice for amendment,
and the rooms are disinfected.
Out of the seven notified cases no less than six afterwards
died. The number of deaths from 1901 onwards has been: 4, 5,
4, 5, 0, 5, 1, 3, 2, 6, so that this year the number is higher
than it has been before.
It is difficult to know how many of these deaths are preventable,
and how in actual practice to prevent them. The mothers are,
in the intervals between the visits of the doctor or midwife, cared
for by the good offices of a kind neighbour or friend, whose
ideas of surgical cleanliness may be very primitive, and whose