Truth : a libel by law : the evidence of Sir J.Y. Simpson, bart., M.D., and others, in the case of Sharp versus Wilson, with diagrams and correspondence / by James Wilson.

  • Wilson, James, L.F.P.S.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Truth : a libel by law : the evidence of Sir J.Y. Simpson, bart., M.D., and others, in the case of Sharp versus Wilson, with diagrams and correspondence / by James Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON, BART., M.D., &g. Sir, I venture to dedicate tbo following pages to you for two reasons, viz.. 1st. Becanso to every nnprejudiced person it must bo clear, from what fellows, that tho Judges were influenced by your bigli professional standing, and gave a weight to your evidence which it did not merit. Anything more at variance wi^li just notions of midwifery practice, it is scarcely possible to conceive. If ever evidence established a tale of terrible and fatal malpractice, the witnesses for tho defence established it, in tho case of Sharp v. AVilson, with a consistency and force rarely paralleled. That you must regret the part you took in this matter, I think too highly of you as a Christian and a man justly occupying a high position in the professional world, to doubt. The only excuse for you possible is that, in ignorance of the real merits at issue, you thoughtlessly lent the weight of your high reputation in such a way as to make you unconsciously extenuate barbarities, tho very mention of which must make your blood run cold. 2c?. Because your evidence reveals opinions on practical points in midwifery at vai-iance with some of its best established doctrines-opinions misleading and highly dangerous, considering their source, and such as no man of less rep°utation than yourself could avow with impunity. Truly, we have come to an age of meddle- some midwifery, if, in your evidence, you but reflected what you teach! Fertility of resource in the difiiculties of midwifery practice is invaluable- but Sangrado shedding the blood of a dying parturient woman, and charging the head of her half-born babe with a poker [Fig. D], in order to break his way through the hvang structures of its mother, that he might wrench its skull to pieces wilh the shoemakers pincers [Fig. B] you so much took under your protection in Court is a picture Dante might have given us as of a scene in the nether world to stir the'con- sciences o men to a due sense of professional responsibility and duty; but scarcely ne, a p..fessor of midwifery, would approve as representing a practice just flaWe because humane and skilful. jusunaoie, I am, Sir, Tours, Slost respectfully, JAMES WILSON, L.F.P.S. Glasg., & L.M. Odllen, N.B., ISm March, 1869.