A TREATISE 
—BY— 
HENRY N. GUERNSEY, M. D. 
Reprinted from the N. T. “ Hoskeopathio Times ” 
for January, 1879. A TREATISE. 
BY H. N. GUERNSEY, M.D., PHILADELPHIA. 
(Read, by invitation, before the New York County 
Homoeopathic Medical Society, November 13, 1878.) 
DEATH-RATES IN CHILDBED. 
“ Every vital truth has been born into the 
world amid pain and tro uble, and has succeeded 
to acceptance in men's minds only amid opposi- 
tion and trial." 
In looking over the September number, 
1878, of the “ Obstetrical Journal of Great 
Britain and Ireland, including Midwifery, 
&<?.,” my eye was arrested by the above title of 
a paper by Alfred H. McClintock, M.D., F.R.C. 
S.I., LL.D. This gentleman, by universal con- 
cession of the Allopathic School of Medicine, 
stands pre-eminent in accuracy of statistics, so 
that what he publishes may be regarded as 
authentic. 
His statistics for “ Death-rates in Childbed ” 
are made “ from a large collection of cases 
treated in private practice by several men of 
character and eminence,” and have been in 
compilation for a long period of years. By the 
term “ in childbed ” he means those women 
only, that have perished either in the act of 
parturition or within the succeeding four 
weeks. 2 
In the above data he estimates the death- 
rate in childbed at one per cent., “and this, 
mind you,” he says, “ among patients in com- 
fortable circumstances treated at their own 
homes by competent and highly skilled ac- 
coucheurs,” where of course these compe- 
tent and highly-skilled accoucheurs would 
naturally avail themselves of every known 
means of saving life under such urgent and 
peculiar circumstances. In the lower walks of 
life, where less skill is brought into requisition, 
and the means for employing all that is known, 
are wanting, the death-rate must be much 
higher. Dr. McClintock further states that he 
has lately received from Professor Lusk, of 
New York, an interesting and elaborate paper 
which “contains one very striking fact which 
tends to support the estimate I have put for- 
ward as the true death-rate of women in child- 
bed.” This “striking fact ” is as follows: “ A 
careful analysis made by Dr. Lusk of the vital 
statistics of New York for the nine years ending 
1876, shows that the total number of deaths to 
the total number of confinements would be, at 
least, in the proportion of 1 to 85.” In the 
Philadelphia Almshouse, Blockley, during the 
years 1872-1876, inclusive, the mortality from 
all causes was, in 1109 cases, 88 deaths, giving a 
percentage of 3.42. 
If, then, in Great Britain, where medical learn- 3 
ing and skill have attained so great a height, 
one (1) in a hundred (100) recent mothers must 
go to an untimely grave; and if in New York, 
the metropolis of America, where medi- 
cal education and ability are supposed to abound, 
1 in 85 recent mothers must succumb to the fell 
destroyer—then, to place the death-rate through- 
out the United States of America at one per 
centum, would really be a very low estimate for 
Allopathic physicians. It is their own statistics, 
and death-rates which they themselves give, 
that we are now reporting. But in so impor- 
tant a matter as this, nothing should be kept 
back. They should tell us of the injured con- 
stitutions by bad treatment—the deleterious 
effects of their frightful medication—of the sup- 
pression of diseased conditions they cause, 
which linger in the system and gnaw at the 
vital force like a canker-worm, till the grave 
covers their deplorable work and the case is for- 
gotten. Of the ninety-nine or eighty-four that 
survive, how many escape these scathing in- 
fluences altogether ? Add all these injuries to 
their already frightful death-rates, and some 
idea of the magnitude of their mortality can be 
entertained. 
But let us turn to the contemplation of a 
more pleasing picture. So soon as I determined 
to write this paper, I addressed a large number 
of postal cards to Homoeopathic physicians of 4 
character and eminence, living in different parts 
of the country, for the sake of their experiences 
which should serve as the basis for statistics 
that could be relied upon to establish death- 
rates in childbed, under “ Homoeopathic treat- 
ment, pure and simple.” The card of inquiry 
ran as follows:— 
“ Estimated from your own experience, and 
from the experience of your most intimate 
associates in the pi'actice of Homoeopathy pure 
and simple, what should be regarded as the 
average mortality among women in parturition, 
and the four weeks immediately succeeding ?” 
Eighty answers to this inquiry came promptly 
to hand, the sum total of which warrants the 
estimate, in accordance with the data of the 
the card, at less than one-fifth of one per 
centum, which is less than two deaths in a 
thousand cases of confinement. These state- 
ments came principally from our distinguished 
and veteran brethren who I know practice 
Homoeopathy pure and simple; who I know 
rely upon the properly selected medicine in all 
cases of therapeutical necessities; who I know 
keep aloof from the Allopathic mode of practice 
as far as possible, being well aware that the latter 
leads to misery and death, whilst the strictly 
Homoeopathic mode leads to happiness and 
safety. 
Take, for instance, puerperal or childbed 5 
fever, septicaemia, or whatever it may be cal- 
led ; also, phlebitis and phlegmasia alba do- 
lens; the rate of mortality under Allopathic 
treatment in these cases is fully 30 per cent.,* or 
300 out of 1000. It is only about 2 per cent., or 20 
in 1000, under the Homoeopathic treatment 
pure and simple. In puerperal convulsions, 
Allopathic rates are 25 per cent., or 250 per 
1000. On the other hand, under strictly 
Homoeopathic treatment, with a firm reliance 
upon the well selected Homoeopathic similimum 
the mortality is only l j per cent., which is 
15 per 1000. And especially note the fact that, 
in Homoeopathic recoveries there are no sequelae 
to contend with, while the sequelae attendant 
upon Allopathic recoveries are most alarming to 
contemplate. Look again at the figures in 
puerperal fevers, &c.—300 out of 1000 for 
Allopathy, to 20 out of 1000 for Homoeopathy. 
Again, in puerperal convulsions—250 out of 
1000 for Allopathy, to 15 out of 1000 for 
Homoeopathy. This being the case, why is it 
that some Homoeopathic physicians shirk their 
duty and resort to Allopathic measures, in such 
cases ? 
It is worthy of note, just here, that women 
having had strict Homoeopathic treatment be- 
fore and during pregnancy, have by far fewer 
irregularities during parturition and the lying-in 
* Churchill’s Midwifery, 1860, page 542. 6 
period; and what abnormalities do then occur,, 
are much more easily controlled. And still 
further be it remarked, as a positive fact, that 
the further we depart from strict Homoeo- 
pathy, pure and simple—the more a phy- 
sician drifts into and adopts Allopathic 
measures in the treatment of his pati- 
ents, in these or any other forms of illness— 
the higher becomes his death-rate. “ Compari- 
sons are odious,” and here they are particularly 
so to the Allopathic fraternity’s mode of 
practice. About the year 1850, it fell to my 
lot to work through an epidemic of childbed 
fever which raged with great severity in the 
extensive 23d ward (Frankford) of Philadelphia. 
My obstetric practice was very large, certainly as 
large as that of any of the twelve physicians 
in the ward. I was the only Homoeopathic 
physician practising in the ward at that time. 
We worked side by side in. the same streets and 
in the same blocks. The Allopathic physicians 
lost a large number of their patients, whilst I 
did not lose even one, during the entire epidemic; 
and I have so far, in a practice extending over 
thirty-five years, during which time I have at- 
tended fully 4000 childbed cases, lost but one 
case of puerperal fever within the four weeks 
immediately succeeding confinement. 
A fearful catastrophe to encounter under the 
Allopathic mode of treatment, and from which,. 7 
according to Churchill’s statistics,* one out of 
every six dies, is post-partum haemorrhage. With 
all their appliances—the cold douche, ice-plugs, 
colpeurynters, hot water injections, transfusions, 
and every other conceivable plan, except the 
right one, to arrest haunorrhage and to save life, 
they lose one-sixth of all their cases of this kind. 
Then why should we, even in a solitary instance, 
imitate their bad example in the treatment of 
these cases, thereby meting out to ourselves 
such a mortality, which indeed is a cutting re- 
proach to the divine art of healing. For we 
have it on indisputable evidence, that in all post- 
partum haemorrhages which are treated by even 
moderately skillful Homoeopathic physicians, 
when they select and apply their medicines 
according to the strictest principles of our 
school, the average death-rate is 1/20 of 1 
per cent. This is a loss of 1 in 2000 against 
166§ in 1000 for those who practice Allopathy 
according to their own statistics. 
The statistics, as given above, which redound 
so largely to the credit of Homoeopathy, will 
stand the test of close scrutiny and soon enough 
will all the jeers, jokes, sarcasms, slanders and 
condemnations of the real Homoeopathic prac- 
tice in these cases,—soon enough will all the 
abuses of so sacred a matter—come home with 
fearful vengeance upon the heads of those who 
* Churchill’s Midwifery, 1860, page 45. 8 
perpetrate such wrongs. It is a fact that the 
more strict the Homoeopathic treatment in 
these very cases, the smaller will be the mortality. 
I find my own experience to accord well with 
that of nearly all my correspondents; that they 
never use any other means for controlling post- 
partum haemorrhage than the Homoeopathic 
medicine, having no confidence in any other, 
and they rarely lose a case from this much dreaded 
occurrence. In a practice of thirty-five years, 
during which time I have treated fully 4000 
cases of childbed sickness, I have, truthfully and 
honestly, never lost a case by uterine haemor- 
rhage, and I have never used an adjuvant of 
any sort or kind. I have been repeatedly 
called in consultation with other physicians in 
these cases, and have always seen a happy issue. 
Also, I have succeeded Allopathic physicians 
when, by their manner, if not by their words, 
they have shown the interested parties that they 
had no hope of saving life—and these cases I 
have invariably saved. I have found women 
almost insensible, pulseless and bathed in a cold 
clammy perspiration; “she is flooding to death,” 
the attendants would say. Calling at once for 
a tumbler of water and a teaspoon, I drop a few 
little pellets of China between the lips of the 
dying patient, and a few more into the tumbler 
of water, and I give her a teaspoonfull of the 
solution every half minute or minute, and so 9 
continue to do till I can distinguish a return of 
the pulse; then I give it at longer intervals, and 
a perfect recovery is the final result. China 
is worth infinitely more than tens of thou- 
sands of transfusions or any quantity of 
brandy and water, or any other possible 
means of saving life,in these exceedingly danger- 
ous cases. 
Oh ! “ tell it not in Gath, nor let the sound 
thereof reach Askalon,” how some self-styled 
Homoeopathic physicians decry the teaching of 
Samuel Hahnemann on this subject, as 
exemplified in my work on Obstetrics. This 
teaching is true, and it is being successfully 
tested by the best Homoeopathic physicians in 
the world, more and more every day. Those 
who tamper in the least with Homoeopathic treat- 
ment, pure and simple, are sure to fail of reach- 
ing the satisfactory results above reported; while 
all physicians who are true to the law of simi- 
lars will meet with a success more or less bril- 
liant according to their efforts. 
In the preparation of this paper I have had 
occasion to refer to myself, not for self-eleva- 
tion in comparison with others, hut that I 
might the better illustrate the value of Homoe- 
opathic treatment; for I believe all can do as 
well as I and even better, if they apply the law 10 
of cure more perfectly than it has been in my 
power. 
A brief recapitulation of comparative death- 
rates, and I will close :— 
In Allopathic treatment of puerperal fever, 
phlebitis, phlegmasia alba dolens, &c., the loss 
within the puerperal month is 30 per cent., or 
300 per 1000. In Homoeopathic treatment, pure 
and simple, in the same disorders, only 2 per 
cent, or 20 per 1000. In puerperal convulsions— 
real eclampsia,—allopathic treatment has a 
mortality of 25 per cent., or 250 per 1000.* 
In Homoeopathic treatment, pure and simple, 
we have a loss of only per cent., or 15 per 
1000. In puerperal haemorrhage, post-partum, the 
Allopathic fraternity sustains a loss of 16f per 
cent., or 166f per 1000. The loss from the same 
disorder under Homoeopathic treatment, pure 
and simple, is only 1/20 of 1 per cent., that is 1 
per 2000. The average mortality from all 
causes within the puerperal month from Allopa- 
thic treatment is 1 per cent., or 10 per 1000. 
From the effects of drugging and inefficiency 
* T. W. Tanner’s Practice of Medicine, 1874, p. 387. 11 
in aiding the recuperative powers of nature at 
least 10 per cent, more premature deaths, sooner 
or later, making 20 per 1000. And what shall 
be said of the influence of all the heroic drug- 
ging upon the otfspring ? On the other hand, 
the further we keep from Allopathic treatment, 
and the more perfectly we practice Homoeo- 
pathic treatment, pure and simple, the better 
for the offspring and the better for the mothers. 
Our statistics prove beyond question that our 
mortality does not reach |of 1 per cent., less 
than two in a thousand (2 per 1000), and 
no sequelae or bad effects from drugging. 
When such striking differences of mortality 
are so clearly manifested between the two 
schools, and at the same time are so easy of 
demonstration, what hope or incentive have we 
in borrowing tools from the Allopathic School ? 
The conclusion is inevitable', and our duty, as 
physicians, to our wives, our children, to our 
children’s children, and to the community at 
large, absolutely demands of us that we obey, 
to the very letter and spirit, that grand and 
benignant Law of Cure which is embodied in the 
well known formula Similia similibus curan- 
iur. 12 
We the undersigned, having examined and 
compared the eighty statistical reports, from as 
many Homoeopathic physicians, on the mortality 
of women in childbed, recording upwards of 
45,000 birth's, feel warranted in placing the 
estimates as given above in Dr. Guernsey’s paper 
on death-rates in childbed, under Homoeopathic 
treatment pure and simple, as correct. 
Ad. Lippe, M.D., 
1204 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. 
Thos. Moore, M.D., 
Germantown. 
J. K. Lee, M.D., 
3800 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. 
Malcolm Macearlan, M.D., 
1805 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. 
J. C. Guernsey, M.D., 
1439 Walnut St. Philadelphia. 5 
fever, septicaemia, or whatever it may be cal- 
led ; also, phlebitis and phlegmasia alba do- 
lens; the rate of mortality under Allopathic 
treatment in these cases is fully 30 per cent.,* or 
300 out of 1000. It is only about 2 per cent., or 20 
in 1000, under the Homoeopathic treatment 
pure and simple. In puerperal convulsions, 
Allopathic rates are 25 per cent., or 250 per 
1000. On the other hand, under strictly 
Homoeopathic treatment, with a firm reliance 
upon the well selected Homoeopathic similimum 
the mortality is only l£ per cent., which is 
15 per 1000. And especially note the fact that, 
in Homoeopathic recoveries there are no sequel<:b 
to contend with, while the sequelae attendant 
upon Allopathic recoveries are most alarming to 
contemplate. Look again at the figures in 
puerperal fevers, &c.—300 out of 1000 for 
Allopathy, to 20 out of 1000 for Homoeopathy. 
Again, in puerperal convulsions—250 out of 
1000 for Allopathy, to 15 out of 1000 for 
Homoeopathy. This being the case, why is it 
that some Homoeopathic physicians shirk their 
duty and resort to Allopathic measures, in such 
cases ? 
It is worthy of note, just here, that women 
having had strict Homoeopathic treatment be- 
fore and during pregnancy, have by far fewer 
irregularities during parturition and the lying-in 
* Churchill’s Midwifery, 1860, page 542. 6 
period; and what abnormalities do then occur,, 
are much more easily controlled. And still 
further be it remarked, as a positive fact, that 
the further we depart from strict Homoeo- 
pathy, pure and simple—the more a phy- 
sician drifts into and adopts Allopathic 
measures in the treatment of his pati- 
ents, in these or any other forms of illness— 
the higher becomes his death-rate. “ Compari- 
sons are odious,” and here they are particularly 
so to the Allopathic fraternity’s mode of 
practice. About the year 1850, it fell to my 
lot to work through an epidemic of childbed 
fever which raged with great severity in the 
extensive 23d ward (Frankford) of Philadelphia. 
My obstetric practice was very large, certainly as 
large as that of any of the twelve physicians 
in the ward. I was the only Homoeopathic 
physician practising in the ward at that time, 
W e worked side by side in. the same streets and 
in the same blocks. The Allopathic physicians 
lost a large number of their patients, whilst I 
did not lose even one, during the entire epidemic ; 
and I have so far, in a practice extending over 
thirty-five years, during which time I have at- 
tended fully 4000 childbed cases, lost but one 
case of puerperal fever within the four weeks 
immediately succeeding confinement. 
A fearful catastrophe to encounter under the 
Allopathic mode of treatment, and from which, 7 
according to Churchill’s statistics,* one out of 
every six dies, is post-parlum, haemorrhage. With 
all their appliances—the cold douche, ice-plugs, 
colpeurynters, hot water injections, transfusions, 
and every other conceivable plan, except the 
right one, to arrest haemorrhage and to save life, 
they lose one-sixth of all their cases of this kind. 
Then why should we, even in a solitary instance, 
imitate their bad example in the treatment of 
these cases, thereby meting out to ourselves 
such a mortality, which indeed is a cutting re- 
proach to the divine art of healing. For we 
have it on indisputable evidence, that in all post- 
partum haemorrhages which are treated by even 
moderately skillful Homoeopathic physicians, 
when they select and apply their medicines 
according to the strictest principles of our 
school, the average death-rate is 1/30 of 1 
per cent. This is a loss of 1 in 2000 against 
166f in 1000 for those who practice Allopathy 
according to their own statistics. 
The statistics, as given above, which redound 
so largely to the credit of Homoeopathy, will 
stand the test of close scrutiny and soon enough 
will all the jeers, jokes, sarcasms, slanders and 
condemnations of the real Homoeopathic prac- 
tice in these cases,—soon enough will all the 
abuses of so sacred a matter—come home with 
fearful vengeance upon the heads of those who 
* Churchill’s Midwifery, 1860, page 45. 8 
perpetrate such wrongs. It is a fact that the 
more strict the Homoeopathic treatment in 
these very cases, the smaller will be the mortality. 
I find my own experience to accord Avell with 
that of nearly all my correspondents; that they 
never use any other means for controlling post- 
partum haemorrhage than the Homoeopathic 
medicine, having no confidence in any other, 
and they rarely loseacase from this much dreaded 
occurrence. In a practice of thirty-five years, 
during which time I have treated fully 4000 
cases of childbed sickness, I have, truthfully and 
honestly, never lost a case by uterine haemor- 
rhage, and I have never used an adjuvant of 
any sort or kind. I have been repeatedly 
called in consultation with other physicians in 
these cases, and have always seen a happy issue. 
Also, I have succeeded Allopathic physicians 
when, by their manner, if not by their words, 
they have shown the interested parties that they 
had no hope of saving life—and these cases I 
have invariably saved. I have found women 
almost insensible, pulseless and bathed in a cold 
clammy perspiration; “she is flooding to death,” 
the attendants would say. Calling at once for 
a tumbler of water and a teaspoon, I drop a few 
little pellets of China between the lips of the 
dying patient, and a few more into the tumbler 
of water, and I give her a teaspoonfull of the 
solution every half minute or minute, and so