Elements of operative midwifery ; comprising a description of certain new and improved powers for assisting difficult and dangerous labours; illustrated by plates: with cautionary strictures on the improper use of instruments / By David D. Davis.

  • Davis, David D., 1777-1841.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of operative midwifery ; comprising a description of certain new and improved powers for assisting difficult and dangerous labours; illustrated by plates: with cautionary strictures on the improper use of instruments / By David D. Davis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ficult to believe were it not perfectly well authenticated, that these latter worthies have sometimes foisted into their last and fare- well instructions to their pupils, when on the eve of departing for London or Edinburgh to finish their professional education, the extraordinary advice, “ not to put themselves to much incon- venience as to attendance on midwifery lectures,” adding, “ that the principles of that art are few and simple, as also very well de- tailed in books ; and as to skill in practice, that it is only to be ac- quired by actual practice on the living subject.” In accounting for a conduct so preposterous on the part of these veterans (for I am not willing to impute it to any considerable number of the younger general practitioners of the kingdom), we are bound to presume that they must themselves be miserably incompetent to encounter the greater difficulties of the art—often too ignorant even to re- cognise some of the difficulties here supposed, and therefore, pro- bably, wholesale dealers in one or two of the more capital and fatal operations of midwifery. Such men, however, are many of your reputed clever fellows, the loudly lauded darlings of their dis- tricts, experienced masters of many arts, persons renowned for quick decisions, solitary and self-alone consulting operators, cool and steady-handed drivers of pointed steel into living foetal sculls. Few and simple duties ! What difficulties, indeed, could be antici- pated, as likely to arise in the routine of ordinary practice, of suf- ficient magnitude to resist the power of such ruthless operators ? Dead children, like dead men, can tell no tales ; and at any event, still-births are occasional and unavoidable occurrences in the prac- tice of the most consummate professors of the art. Nevertheless let the wretchedly taught pupils of such instructors be persuaded, at least, to take the opinion of better informed advisers as to the essential value of obstetric studies. c 2