Researches in obstetrics / by J. Matthews Duncan.

  • Duncan, J. Matthews (James Matthews), 1826-1890.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches in obstetrics / by J. Matthews Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    expected to have a higher mortality in lying-in than that of the city generally. The city generally has a mortality above 1 in 114, The figure therefore suited for comparison with the hospital mortality is consider- ably above 1 in 114. 1 in 256 is thus shown to be an utterly misleading figure for any comparison or use, Now, the lower limit for Edinburgh, as obtained from the Eegistrar-General's reports, is 1 in 160. For the towns of Scotland it is 1 in 178 (from returns of 1860-64). Whatever may be the mortality of lying-in in private practice in Edinburgh, it must be above 1 in 160. In the towns of Scotland it must be above 1 in 178. Second :—The Eegistrar's reports may be corrected so as to bring up their statements of deaths of childbed (metria and childbirth) to the statements wanted—■ namely, deaths in childbed (from all causes). If this can be satisfactorily done, then we shall have a state- ment of the mortality in childbed in home practice. Now, this has already been done in two ways. Dr. M'Clintock^ has ingeniously suggested that it should be done on the following plan. He finds the figure indicating the excess of the mortality in child- bed above the mortality of childbed (metria and childbirth deaths), and adds this to the mortality of childbed. In other words, he finds how many lying- in women die of other causes than metria and child- birth, and adds the figure to that indicating the deaths ^ Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medicine, August 1869.