On midwives and accoucheurs / by Joseph Adams.

  • Adams, Joseph, 1756-1818.
Date:
[between 1810 and 1819]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On midwives and accoucheurs / by Joseph Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    3/6 (page 87)
    tection, which adds much to the difficulty and expence of her attendance ; and it is only during a comparatively short period of her life that she can be equal to the fatigues at- tending her vocations. Another very serious inconvenience has arisen from this, which I am constrained to mention without any general imputation ou the sex. After or under considerable fatigue, she will always find some of her sex at hand to offer the ready but dangerous relief of the dram- bottle. Whatever may be her inclinations, not to say reso- lutions, it will be scarcely possible to resist at all times, and it is unnecessary to add how gradually this habit steals on both sexes with advancing years. How much more must it be, then, where there is the addition of continual solicita- tion, and often a sufficient apology for complying. That such was the case with midwives, and one of the causes of their discontinuance, is notorious. Nor can it be entirely imputed to the effects of a northern climate, and the facility with which ardent spirits are procured, since the invention of distillation from malt. In Rome, and probably in Athens, long before even the distillation of brandy was known, mid- wives were accused of this habit. One familiar instance occurs to me in Terrence. The scene of his Andria is well known to be in Athens; but, supposing that he has intro- duced Roman customs, the question will not be materially altered. In this play an infant is born, previously to which we have the description of the ob&tetrix and nurse. In the fourth scene of the first act, the servant addresses the nurse, telling her that she heard her orders to procure Lesbia the midwife. She then adds that “ Lesbia is such a tippler, and so inconsiderate, as not to be trusted in a first labour. However,’* says she, “ I’ll fetch her.” As she is going she adds aside to the audience—“ Iinportunitatem spectate ani- culae, quia compotrix ejus est—see how mal-apropos the old creature is, merely because they are pot companions.” Thus it appears to me that for the most part there seems no remedy against the additional fatigue which this branch of the profession has brought on the country practitioners. At the same time, I conceive, it would be always to their advantage to select, if they can find such, the most judicious among those women who are in the habit of assisting their poor neighbours, and give them such general instructions, in the form of aphorisms, as may enable them to distinguish preter- natural presentations at an early period. By these means, the surgeon might frequently be relieved for several hours, and even allowed to sleep till morning, without the loss of his fee in such families as arc worth attending. Even the good