The Hour of Delivery

1Rea!> at tbe /Oeetfng of tbe 3Batb anb ^Bristol branch of tbe aSritisb iTOeMcal association, /?aie 30tb, 1888. Some persons may be disposed to think that those who attempt to determine by statistics at what hour delivery most frequently occurs, are taking a great deal of trouble about a question which is more curious than useful. But there are others who consider that no investigation can be utterly useless which contributes the smallest amount of information respecting any of the laws or operations of Nature. I, myself, belong to this latter class, and consequently have taken the trouble to ascertain how far my own experience confirms that of another observer whose conclusions were published in the British Medical Journal for January 7th, 1888. I quote verbatim the article which contained them : "the hour of delivery. " An industrious statistician has recently contributed to a medical journal at Lille the results of an analysis of 1,000 labours, with the precise hour at which delivery took place. He reports that 45 per cent, of the labours terminated between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and 56 per cent.