Deciphering cause of death

[rsayle]

Posting this in the Kincardine section because my great aunt died in Bervie and maybe someone knows the registrar's handwriting?!

I've been fairly lucky in reading old certificates but this one has me stymied.

It's from my great aunt's death certificate and she died 6 days after the birth of her 10th child.

What I can read looks like "puerperal to__tonitis". So it's something postpartum related. I've tried to Google but nothing showed up. One of her younger sisters died at the age of 22, thirteen years earlier, of "puerperal insanity". Quite sad.

Any good eyes out there?

[Arranroots]

Puerperal peritonitis

A common cause of death from childbirth - the bloodstream was infected with toxins.

Very sad: antibiotics save many a woman's life in these circumstances today.

kind regards, Arranroots 

[PrueM]

Hi rsayle,
It's "Puerperal Peritonitis".  Also called "Puerperal Fever" or "Childbed Fever".  A common affliction and extremely sad and horrendous to contemplate - basically infection of the uterus.  My g-g-grandmother died from it.  I believe the real epidemics of this condition started when lying-in hospitals became the norm in the 18th/19th centuries, and surgeons did the rounds of women who were birthing, spreading blood and germs and god knows what with their unwashed hands from one to the other. 

THere is a good article about it here:

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7921

Prue

[rsayle]

Thanks for both those answers. It took me over a minute to detect the missing loop in the "P" after I knew the answer. Looks like the missing ink was later delivered to the doctor's name.

There was a lot of tragedy in my great grandfather's family that modern medicine would have prevented. He and his first wife lost the last three children, all under the age of 1, of their 10 children to things that are curable today.

Merci...!