Stockwell.
My dear Sir,
Allow me to express my gratitude for your kind care and attention to me during my two last confinements, and the great benefit I derived from your mode of relieving the dreadful pains of childbirth.
When consulting you in the year 1859 relative to my approaching confinement, which I very much dreaded, having upon two previous occasions suffered intensely the pains of labour for the space of nearly two days each time, I gladly accepted the proffered relief you offered me, though I was somewhat sceptical it would afford me all the relief you considered it was calculated to convey.
I now beg to state, for the information of any who may never have participated in its inestimable benefit, that both in 1859 and in the last month (March, 1861), I am perfectly convinced it has been under Providence the means of saving my life; that its marvellous effects are such that pain is scarcely felt or known; and while inhaling the vapour there is not the slightest degree of unconsciousness. I was able to converse and give directions with the same ability and readiness of perception as a person in the most perfect health would do; in addition, I may also state, that whereas in my previous labours I had always suffered much pain from distension and soreness afterwards, in the two last there was a total absence of both these inconveniences.
I cannot but express my fervent thankfulness for your skill and watchfulness during my hour of need, and should only be too happy to testify personally to any one expecting to take it, that they need be under no apprehension whatever from ill effects, at the time or afterwards, either to themselves or their infant. So beautiful is it, that I told my nurse, as far as the pain at the time of labour went, I should not mind going through the same every week.
Incredible as these results may appear to those who have never felt nor witnessed your mode of alleviating the pains of labour, the earnest desire of both myself and husband is, that by God's blessing your valuable life may long be spared, and that you may enjoy the happiness and privilege of being, to a constantly-increasing number of ladies, the means of proving that what has hitherto been considered an impossibility can be done—namely, the birth of a child without any pain or any loss of consciousness to the mother throughout the whole of her labour.
I remain,
Dear Sir,
Yours very sincerely,
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