Part 5

No one can imagine the relief obtained under your process: it must be felt to be believed.

With deep gratitude to God as the first cause of every blessing, and with sincere thanks to yourself for the very great relief you gave me,

Believe me to remain, Dear Sir, Yours respectfully, * * *

To Dr. Townley.

* * * * *

Kennington.

Dear Dr. Townley,

Having been so fortunate as to procure your professional services during my accouchement, and receiving so much benefit thereby, I cannot allow it to pass without expressing my admiration at the skill and success with which you relieved me from all pain, whilst at the same time I remained perfectly sensible.

Before you arrived I was suffering great agony, but you immediately relieved it. The labour went on regularly for nearly five hours without my feeling the slightest particle of pain.

I can conscientiously state that I did not know the child was born till I heard it cry, at the same time being perfectly sensible and able to converse cheerfully with a friend I had with me.

I did not suffer from headache, fever, or any other bad symptom which sometimes follows childbirth.

I consider the process you use in midwifery cases to be, without any exception, the greatest boon which has been, or ever can be, given to woman, and will, I trust, be appreciated as such. I have received the wonderful benefit of it myself, as well as witnessing it in two other cases; one an extremely difficult one, where I am fully convinced that the patient must, in all human probability, have lost her life, had it not been for your beautiful process, whereby she was totally relieved from pain, which must in her case have exhausted nature.

I could add much more in favour of this great boon, but will not trouble you with a tedious letter.

In conclusion, let me offer my sincere thanks to you for devoting your time and talents to the discovery of so wonderful and useful a practice in the most important branch of your profession; and you will, I am sure, be fully repaid by knowing the amount of suffering you have prevented, and, I may also add, the lives you have saved.

You are at liberty to show this letter to any one, or to refer them personally to me.

It is my opinion that too much cannot be said in praise of your beautiful process.

I remain, Dear Dr. Townley, Yours most sincerely, * * *

* * * * *

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, * * *

Dr. Townley.

* * * * *