Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 982.5

JOHN LEAKE (1729-1792) Practical observations on the child-bed fever : also on the nature and treatment of uterine haemorrhages, convulsions, and such other acute diseases, as are most fatal to women during the state of pregnancy. Printed for J. Walter ... T. Becket and Co. ... R. Baldwin ... and Richardson and Co. 1772 404, [4] p. 22 cm.

Convinced the puerperal fever was contagious, Leake made a comprehensive study on an outbreak at the New Westminster Lying-In Hospital, which he founded in 1765. His work gives an excellent account of the symptoms and course of the disease, for which he recommended fumigation and hygienic measures following those of James Lind for jail fever. So fundamental was Leake’s study that it went through seven English editions before his death.

John Martin, M.D. Endowment