To Professor Simpson, of Edinburgh, in reply to his letter to Dr. Collins, on the "Duration of labour as a cause of mortality and danger to mother and infant" : second letter / by Robert Collins, M.D.

  • Collins, Robert, 1801-1868.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: To Professor Simpson, of Edinburgh, in reply to his letter to Dr. Collins, on the "Duration of labour as a cause of mortality and danger to mother and infant" : second letter / by Robert Collins, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    veritable report! was then sent to me without one word of assurance from Dr. Simpson as to his belief of its authenticity, and the entire report, so far as regards deliveries in the hospital, is contained in a note to the managers^ statement of the fundsi &c., of the charity, to the effect that, from the 21st of June, 1839, to the 15th of October, 1840, 212 women were delivered within the hospital, all of whom recovered. All the remainder were out patients ; and I rather think, when Dr. Mackintosh and Dr. Hamilton differed so materially as to the mortality in the very small number of patients deli- vered m the hospital, most of my readers will place no con^ fidence whatever as to the results to the patients delivered in every quarter of the City of Edinburgh. It is absolute trifling with the profession to state such records as facts ! ! Dr. Simpson has, in his present letter, given other returns of the mortality in the Edinburgh Hospital during certain remote periods of its management, under the late Professor Hamilton ; but these can afford no information to be relied upon, as Dr. Mackintosh's essay fully proves. I have a return of the num- ber of deliveries, both in and out of the hospital, from 1829 to 1838, which Dr. Simpson furnished me before he was elected professor, at the same time he informed me the .mortality to either mother or infant was not to be had. If such could have been supplied, my earnest and repeated entreaties tothel'dte Pro- fessor Hamilton, to supply those unequivocal tests of the success of the practice he advocated, must have brought them to light. Dr. Simpson need not now struggle to supply us with such broken and untrustworthy reeds, but should supply his own results in hospital, of which he has given a very scanty allowance as yet; and when he does, I shall submit with meekness to his com- parisons. Delusion, No. 4.—Dr. Simpson states, that, in a postcript to my former letter, I denounced the mortality in the Edinburgh hospital under the use of chloroform, as frightful, and that I came to this conclusion by unintentionally perverting the returns. I deny in the most emphatic terms any perversion whatever; I stated the deaths to be three out of 95, or one in 31. What is Dr. Simpson's own version? Of 88 natural cases delivered under chloroform, one died; chloroform was also used in seven morbid ! labours that happened ! to be brought into the house ; of these, two died. As 88 and 7 make 95, we need say . no more as to perversion. Why, three cases re-