The period from the birth of the child till about eight o’clock the next morning, was a period full of peril and alarm.  The loss of blood was considerable, and produced an almost uninterrupted series of fainting fits.  I went to the chamber soon after four in the morning, and found her in this state.  She told me some time on Thursday, “that she should have died the preceding night, but that she was determined not to leave me.”  She added, with one of those smiles which so eminently illuminated her countenance, “that I should not be like Porson,” alluding to the circumstance of that great man having lost his wife, after being only a few months married.  Speaking of what she had already passed through, she declared, “that she had never known what bodily pain was before.”

On Thursday morning Dr. Poignand repeated his visit.  Mary had just before expressed some inclination to see Dr. George Fordyce, a man probably of more science than any other medical professor in England, and between whom and herself there had long subsisted a mutual friendship.  I mentioned this to Dr. Poignand, but he rather discountenanced the idea, observing that he saw no necessity for it, and that he supposed Dr. Fordyce was not particularly conversant with obstetrical cases; but that I would do as I pleased.  After Dr. Poignand was gone, I determined to send for Dr. Fordyce.  He accordingly saw the patient about three o’clock on Thursday afternoon.  He however perceived no particular cause of alarm; and, on that or the next day, quoted, as I am told, Mary’s case, in a mixed company, as a corroboration of a favourite idea of his, of the propriety of employing females in the capacity of midwives.  Mary “had had a woman, and was doing extremely well.”

What had passed however in the night between Wednesday and Thursday, had so far alarmed me, that I did not quit the house, and scarcely the chamber, during the following day.  But my alarms wore off, as time advanced.  Appearances were more favourable, than the exhausted state of the patient would almost have permitted me to expect.  Friday morning therefore I devoted to a business of some urgency, which called me to different parts of the town, and which, before dinner, I happily completed.  On my return, and during the evening, I received the most pleasurable sensations from the promising state of the patient.  I was now perfectly satisfied that every thing was safe, and that, if she did not take cold, or suffer from any external accident, her speedy recovery was certain.

Saturday was a day less auspicious than Friday, but not absolutely alarming.