A "man-midwife" (male obstetrician) represented by a figure divided in half, one half representing a man and the other a woman. Coloured etching by I. Cruikshank, 1793.

  • Cruikshank, Isaac, 1764-1811
Date:
15 June 1793
Reference:
16968i
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Description

The background of the bisected figure is also divided: the right hand side is a male-midwife's surgery and the left hand side is a cosy domestic scene with fireplace and carpet. Perhaps a comment on the unpopularity of male-midwives and "a belated protest against the male accoucheur as a danger to female modesty and virtue."

Publication/Creation

London (3 Piccadilly) : S W Fores, 15 June 1793.

Physical description

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; platemark 25.7 x 20.5 cm

Lettering

A man-mid-wife, or a newly discovered animal, not known in Buffon's time; ... Lettering continues: "for a more full description of this monster, see, an ingenious book, lately publish'd, price 3/6, entitled, Man-midwifery dessected, containing a variety of well authenticated cases, elucidating this animal's propensities to cruelty & indecency, sold by the publisher of this print, who has presented the author with the above for a frontispiece to his book."

References note

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. VII, London 1942, no. 8376
H. Speert, Iconographia gyniatrica - a pictorial history of gynecology and obstetrics, Philadelphia 1973, Ch. 3, p. 71

Reference

Wellcome Collection 16968i

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