THE ETIOLOGY OF ECLAMPSIA

Abstract

The recent important contribution of McQuarrie 1 on the toxemia of pregnancy suggested, as an explanation of this condition, the accidental transfusion of incompatible blood between mother and child as the result of a fortuitous opening in the placenta between the two circulations. Examining 180 women and their new-born infants, McQuarrie found that toxemia occurred sixteen and one-half times more frequently when the maternal and fetal bloods were incompatible than when they were in the same iso-agglutination group. More than 70 per cent. of the cases of toxemia (all forms included) occurred in the small group in which there was interagglutination between maternal and fetal blood. The work was of particular interest to me, because in 1911 I worked on the same idea, and was about to publish a preliminary communication on it (my article having already been approved by Professor Gies and Dr. Mandelbaum, in whose laboratories I was