which would ensue from her entire management of the case. There is more apparent than real force in this answer. No man, called in on an emergency like those I have mentioned, can be made sufficiently master of the circumstances, to be able at once to do justice to himself or to the patient. Much depends always upon the previous history of the case, the course which the labour has taken, the symptoms which have occurred in the course of it. A moment of hurry and of danger like this, when the fear of a fatal issue is the only object before the eyes of the patient, her friends, or her attendant, is no time for the communication of a long series of facts, no time to enter into the whole details of the labour. And besides this, none but the accoucheur herself is a competent judge when the assistance of a consultation is required; and she will very naturally be desirous to put off as long as possible the moment when she is to acknowledge herself incompetent to the farther management of the case.
  We may just suppose the case of puerperal or child bed fever supervening within a few days after delivery. The female practitioner might very innocently protract the calling in of the physician, from overlooking the symptoms of the disease, from confounding them with some of those which so frequently occur in the first few days after confinement, or from not sufficiently estimating their importance. There is a certain appearance, certain occult symptoms, which lurk about a woman frequently for some days before she is formally attacked with puerperal fever, which may be detected by the physician and