By 1860 standard obstetrical textbooks no longer recommended bleeding for puerperal convulsions, although a few older practioners still considered it good therapy and lamented its passing. By that time most of the experts recommended ether and chloroform. James Young Simpson lived and practiced during this period of transition of medical therapy. In his lecture notes Simpson mentions bleeding and anesthesia as acceptable treatment. Bloodletting in American obstetric practice, 1800-1945.
Lecture notes on eclampsia.
Baltimore And London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.