A compendious system of midwifery : chiefly designed to facilitate the inquiries of those who may be pursuing this branch of study, illustrated by occasional cases / by William P. Dewees.

  • Dewees, William P. (William Potts), 1768-1841.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A compendious system of midwifery : chiefly designed to facilitate the inquiries of those who may be pursuing this branch of study, illustrated by occasional cases / by William P. Dewees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    16/700
    suaded I shall be supported by every well-instructed accoucheur, that it requires no less judgment to determine when we should be so, than when it is proper to offer assistance, or to take the business entirely out of her hands. But the decisions of ignorance do not always result in an en- tire reliance upon the powers of nature; they sometimes, and this but too frequently, end in the contrary extreme—in these cases, there is, on the part of the practitioner, an overweening desire to aid her efforts; and his ill-directed endeavours, but too soon eventuate in a destructive subversion of her powers. To this we must attribute the very many instances of injury that take place in the hands of the ill-instructed. Who has not wit- nessed a labour, which, had it been let alone, would have been but an ordinary one, as regards either duration or severity, con- verted into one of great hazard, and protracted duration? Can such mischievous ignorance be too severely reprehended, or could it be too severely punished? What has he not to answer for, who shall permit a fellow creature to die, when a little ad- dress or knowledge might have saved her; or, what is perhaps still worse, who shall absolutely destroy her, by ill-judged and rude manoeuvres, under the specious pretence of relieving her, when the case should have been trusted to the powers of nature alone. Besides, the peculiar situation of our country, imposes a ne- cessity upon every medical student, to become well acquainted with the theory of midwifery; for every one almost must prac- tise it, if he pursue the object for which he is educated. A change of manners within a few years, has resulted in the almost exclusive employment of the male practitioner. This was mainly effected by a conviction, that the well-instructed phy- sician is better calculated to avert danger, and surmount diffi- culties, than the ignoranf pretender: but how ill is this confi- dence repaid! a confidence which costs the female so severe a struggle! Should they submit their welfare, nay their lives, to the ill-instructed practitioner, what security have they that they shall escape, without having entailed on them a permanent derangement of organ, or the perpetuation of a harassing, and loathsome disease? In whatever point of view we regard this subject, it must be highly interesting to the philosopher, and the philanthropist; shall it be less so, then, to the physician who should be both, and who is more immediately concerned in its influence? Shall