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24 spite of the old and unsuitable buildings and the depressing status of many of the patients.

A still more satisfactory result is shown in Dr. Annie McCall's Clapham Maternity, where not a single death occurred amongst the 760 cases first received into the institution.

This excellent result still continues under the same administration. In the 2,100 lying-in cases received to date in the hospital, there has been no death from puerperal fever. This excellent record has been attained by scrupulous cleanliness, absolute isolation on the occurrence of suspicious symptoms, by excellent nursing, and constant oversight by the doctors in charge. Even in the out-patient department, where the conditions of living are not under such strict medical control, the deaths from this frightful malady have only amounted to 4 in 7,000 cases under the same enlightened direction.

This great and beneficent reform in the first and world-wide branch of medicine, by means of which the lives of innumerable women in all our large centres of civilization have been saved, is the result of scientific research. It was initiated and successfully carried out by Semmelweis, of