| Description Of Item | Each case book entry gives the patient's name; age; previous labours and miscarriages; beginning and end of last catamenia; delivery date; length of each stage of delivery; presentation and position of child; sex and weight of the child; by whom delivered (giving the midwife's or doctor's name); and remarks (usually date of dismissal). There are gaps in the entries from March 1852 to August 1853 and from November 1853 to April 1854.
Although this volume is labelled as a case book of the Royal Maternity Hospital, it contains cases dating back to 1844 which pre-dates the opening of the hospital. One possible explanation is that an earlier case book from the Edinburgh General Lying-in Hospital was copied into this one. A note on the front of the volume states 'NB Previously to May 1844 the Edinr Royal Maternity Hosp was called the Edinr General Lying-In Hospital whose records [ ] from 1823 to 1844 [ ]' (location illegible). The volume includes Dr James Young Simpson's first case in which he used chloroform in a hospital - Elizabeth Mackay, 22 November 1847 (Simpson had previously used chloroform on a private patient, believed to have been Jane Carstairs, on 9 November). |