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91
[1909
Puerperal Septic Diseases--
These diseases of women are the result of infection after childbirth, and
include Puerperal Pya;mia, Septicaemia, Sapraemia, Septic Intoxication and
the so-cilled Puerperal Fever. The deaths from thein during 1909 were 7 in
number, as compared with 4 in the preceding year, and a corrected average of
10 during the 10 years 1899-1908. They were in the proportion of 0'85 per
1,000 births. These diseases are very grave, being usually fatal to those
whom they attack, as will be readily seen when it is stated that there were
only 14 cases known in the 12 months, so that the fatality was 50 per centThe
deaths are very often the result of gross carelessness on the part of the
mothers themselves, because they do not trouble to prepare clean bedding for
their lying-in. This is not always due to actual dirty habits, but to the fact
that they do not wish to soil their bedding, not knowing in their ignorance
that at the time of lying-in cleanliness is of the first importance.