Search : stillborn, elements, art, revolution, courage, homœopathy.

Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Search : stillborn, elements, art, revolution, courage, homœopathy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    for a short time, upon what they might persuade themselves was a mere chance of carrying in- fection ; especially when they know that some other practitioner may be called in, perhaps equally dangerous, and that by attending upon the occasion of childbirth he is pretty certain of obtaining the entire practice of the family. So it is frequently recorded of men that they per- severed to attend women, although their steps were traced by a train of victims.— Vide Hr. Churchill, page 587, as an example. It is clear that, to be safe from carrying in- fection, practitioners in midwifery, of either sex, must limit themselves to that branch of medicine. How constantly is it seen that those who avoid employing a doctor are seldom ill, and that when once he has been summoned sickness fol- lows! It must be so—he must carry infection to many; and sometimes is even barbarous enough to advise that children should be exposed to the chance of taking such a complaint as measles, because—“ It is a good kind!” Whether posterity will endorse the popular opinion of vaccination remains to be seen: cer- tainly in many cases it does not prevent small- pox ; certainly it has caused death itself occasion- ally; certainly loathsome eruptions often follow its performance; no scientific reasons can be urged in its favour ; it is simply an empiricism.