Abstract
The condition which I am about to describe and
discuss was in
• many of its aspects quite unfamiliar
to me until I became resident in Queen Charlotte's
Lying-in Hospital, during the months of January,
February, March, and a part of April 1903. My atten¬
tion was first drawn to its clinical interest and
pathological importance by Dr. W.S.A.Griffth, Senior
Physician to the Hospital. He pointed out to me
that the affection was constantly observed at Queen
Charlotte's Hospital during the first 14 days of the
Puerperium, and that while its causation was in some
instances quite obscure, its relation to certain
other factors such as "Sore Nipples", was on the
other hand quite definite. He further indicated
that future investigation would probably show that
all cases of so-called "Flushed Breast" were due to
uterine sapraemia or some other uterine factor.
During the month of January, 1903, it so happened that we had an unusual number of such cases, and
as I had not heard or read of the condition previously either at the Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh or
the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, during my student days,
my interest in the affection became quite intense and
I determined to do everything in my power to investigate this curiously transient condition which seemed
to fascinate everyone at Queen Charlotte's, and yet
which no one had ever attempted to investigate carefully or describe clinically. Accordingly, I made
a point of taking special notes of my own in each
case from the beginning of January, 1903, and these
are to he found carefully recorded in my Note Book;
in addition, the Hospital Records for 1900, 1901,
1902, furnished me with a number of similar cases
for comparison.
