On the theory and practice of midwifery / by Fleetwood Churchill ; with notes and additions, by D. Francis Condie.

  • Churchill, Fleetwood, 1808-1878.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the theory and practice of midwifery / by Fleetwood Churchill ; with notes and additions, by D. Francis Condie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    In grouping together a number of cases to ascertain their positive or relative frequency, their causes, the ratio of mor- tality positive and comparative, &c, it is next to impossible to obtain exactly similar cases, or patients under exactly similar circumstances; for this we have to make allowance, and also for differences in habits of life, constitution, or at- mospheric influences, modes of previous treatment, &c, so that we shall find abundant reason to use our statistical de- ductions with caution and allowance; in fact, we cannot possibly ascertain the exact truth, but only a more or less close approximation to it. But even thus far these calcula- tions are of great value, for, 1. They lead to a habit of definite thought and statement; so that instead of general terms, we use numbers or propor- tions, and in so far as accuracy is attained, we give a fixed and scientific character to our observations. 2. As Dr. Simpson, in his excellent essay on the value and necessity of statistics in operative surgery, has remarked, Statistics offer a test by which the impressions of our re- corded and limited experience are corrected; and they furnish a mode of investigation capable of resolving many existing practical problems in surgery. 3. They afford us in general the only true and ultimate measure of value of any proposed alternative operation, or of any new practice in surgery or midwifery. For these and other reasons I still hold the opinion that numerical calculations, applied to midwifery, are of great value, notwithstanding the numerous chances of error, and the impossibility of drawing conclusions from them with absolute accuracy.