Mary Hunt died about a month after the birth of her daughter, Mary.

The certified cause of death, which seems to read 'pyonia', is probably a version of pyaemia (severe blood poisoning), 'pyon' meaning pus. Early symptoms of pyaemia, according to medical dictionaries, are frequent intermittent high fever and shaking chills. Where treatment is delayed, septicaemia (bacteria invading the blood system) occurs from a pus-forming area (abscess) and produces multiple abscesses internally and externally throughout the body, with fatal results.

'Childbed fever is a variety of pyaemia' - Semmelweis, 1861.