Julia Ann BRANNON^[1]

1854 - 1876  (21 years)

• Name	Julia Ann BRANNON
  Born	27 Nov 1854	Idaho, USA
  Gender	Female
  Died	17 Jul 1876
  Person ID	I17579	Main
  Last Modified	5 Jun 2009

  
  

  Father	James BRANNON,   b. 31 Jul 1819, Boston, Summit, Ohio ,   d. 7 Dec 1898, Lowell, Indiana  (Age 79 years)
  Mother	Eleanor FOSTER,   b. 25 Mar 1832, Burlington, Bradford, Pennsylvania ,   d. 1 Sep 1907, Lowell County, Indiana  (Age 75 years)
  Married	17 May 1851	W Creek, Lake, Indiana
  Family ID	F5638	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Timothy Abbott WASON,   b. 23 Sep 1845, Vevay, Switzerland, Indiana ,   d. 25 Jan 1912, Lowell, Indiana  (Age 66 years)
  Married	24 Dec 1873
  Last Modified	26 Feb 2019
  Family ID	F5651	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Julia Wason died of puerperal fever. MAB said it was pure murder. Her physician was drunk, and had just come from a patient with that disease. He infected Julia when delivering the baby. She died 48 hours later while having convulsions. ----- Puerperal fever was a devastating disease. It affected women within the first three days after childbirth and progressed rapidly, causing acute symptoms of severe abdominal pain, fever and debility. Although it had been recognized from as early as the time of the Hippocratic corpus that women in childbed were prone to fevers, the distinct name, “puerperal fever” appears in the historical record only in the early eighteenth century. Death and disease caused by childbirth were a commonplace of early modern life. Pre-eclampsia, ante-partum and post-partum haemorrhage and cephalopelvic disproportion were only a few of the complications which could affect women and children at this most dangerous time. The Edinburgh physician William Campbell, in his treatise of 1822, observed that the symptoms of puerperal fever could be complex and difficult to interpret. In the majority of patients the disease appeared on the third day, and commenced with rigor, headache and the “cold fit” followed by extreme heat, perspiration and thirst. Abdominal pain was an almost ubiquitous feature and this began as a mild symptom, becoming increasingly severe over the duration of the disease. This pain—which was accompanied by abdominal distension—was usually located in the hypogastric and iliac regions, and any apparent remission tended to be dangerous, indicating mortification. There was “great derangement of the vascular system”, the pulse rising to as much as 140 beats per minute, and the patient tended to lie on her back and appear listless and indifferent. The tongue was usually white, although it could become dark and furred in the face of impending death. Respiration was difficult due to the abdominal pain and distension, and the patient was prone to nausea and vomiting. The early stages of the disease could be characterized by constipation, which, however, soon gave way to diarrhoea. Urination was usually painful and the urine was “high coloured and turbid”. The production of milk was usually suppressed, but the flow of lochia tended to continue. A minority of sufferers experienced delirium and mania. “The Attempt to Understand Puerperal Fever in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: The Influence of Inflammation Theory” by CHRISTINE HALLETT, PhD; Med Hist. 2005 January 1; 49(1): 1–28; http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1088248

  
  

• Sources

  [S44] Orcutt_001 gedcom file, Robert Waddell.