The feminist and writer Mary Wollstonecraft met her end at the hands of a medical mystery that killed scores of 18th century mothers. Why? Wollstonecraft’s death, following the birth of her daughter, ...

This book is a verminophobic's worst nightmare, though in the mid-19th century the fear of germs wasn't a recognizable phobia: Medical science hadn't discovered germs yet, let alone understood their ...

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In 1847, one out of every six women who delivered a baby in the First Division at the Allgemeine Krankenhaus hospital in Vienna died of childbed fever, a situation mirrored at other medical facilities ...

THE CRY AND THE COVENANT (469 pp.)—Morton Thompson—Doubleday ($3.50). One hot day in August 1865, a bald, middle-aged man lunged through the streets of Budapest thrusting circulars into the hands of ...

Scientists discovered a previously unknown trigger that turns run-of-the-mill strep infections into the flesh-eating disease childbed fever, which strikes postpartum moms and newborns, often leaving ...

We all expect our doctors to wash their hands before examining us, let alone before performing an operation, to prevent the spread of infection. But surprisingly, the lifesaving power of this simple ...