Longings of the pregnant, viewed in light from the East / by Alfred Ela.

  • Ela, Alfred.
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Longings of the pregnant, viewed in light from the East / by Alfred Ela. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [Reprinted from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. clxxxiii, No. 20, pp. 576-579, November 11, 1920.] LONGINGS OP THE PREGNANT, VIEWED IN LIGHT FROM THti EAST. By Alfred Ela, Boston. Sufficient warrant for taking np this sub¬ ject is given by the point made in a discussion in 1918 before the Pittsburgh Academy of Medicine/’ to wit:^^ ‘Mt is important that the physician should be versed in obstetrical super¬ stitions in order that he may be in position to den}^ them and thus assist the patient.” Prom¬ inent among such superstitions are the loiig- ings*'^ (cravings, or peculiar yearnings) of pregnant women. From -early times^^ these longings have been divided (especially as to ab¬ normal appetites) into (a) the natural and healthy, and (b) the unnatural, revolting or pathological. The latter division seems the only one set out in the textbooks, and apparently it is there treated sufficiently; accordingly, the first class only needs to be considered here. Giles,^^ while ascribing a large portion of the ^ffiatural” cravings to superstitious grounds, attempted to account for part as fulfilling some physiological want in food or drink; his opinion, however, can be looked at askance, for he had not yet rid himself of the popular be¬ lief that non-satisfaction of longings of that