Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    several Germans have attributed it also to Von Baer. M. Coste, in his Histoire Generale et Particuliere du Developpement des Corps Organises, says: I was at first accused of having copied M. Baer; but, inasmuch as the opinions I had set forth were diametrically op- posed to those of that great physiologist, the public early did justice to a reproach so unfounded, and the improper criticisms of Mr. Eobert Froriep were promptly repelled by Bernhardt himself, in his inaugural thesis, ' Symbolae ad Ovi Historiam,' p. 25. This reproach having been set aside, an attempt was next made to bestow upon others the credit it was impossible to assign to M. Yon Baer. It was pretended that the discovery was made at the same time, or nearly at the same time, byM. Coste in France, M. Bernhardt in Germany, and Mr. T. Wharton Jones in England. As to M. Bernhardt, it is enough for me to refer to that author's preface, in which he declares that his experiments were instituted for the purpose of ascertaining the cor- rectness of my observations. Mr. Jones's publication is later by one year than mine; a statement that might suffice for the present occasion, were it not that that physiologist has himself fully recognized my rights as to the priority of discovery, in his report on Ovology in the ' Brit, and For. Med. Review,' No. 32, 1843, a paper in which he lays no claim to it himself, but attributes it to me. Thus far M. Coste, whose remark as to Bernhardt's preface is correct, as well as his cita- tion of Mr. Jones's paper. 244. Mr. T. Wharton Jones's words are as follows: By the dis- covery of the germinal vesicle, in the mammiferous ovarian ovum, the complete analogy between the latter and the ovarian ovum, of the bird, &c, was established, and Baer's error regarding it dissipated. The correct view of the matter had been suspected by Purkinje, but he and Valentin had in vain searched for a germinal vesicle, and it was only on renewing their investigations, after the announcement that such a vesicle had been discovered in the rabbit's ovum by M. Coste, that they, Wagner and others in Germany, were successful in finding it. M. Coste, therefore, as Bischoff observes, must, notwithstanding his very imperfect description and delineation of the germinal vesicle, be con- sidered as its first discoverer. This, it appears to me, is enough to enable the Student to see clearly the whole case; and I shall not fur- ther cite M. Coste, in his warm reclamations against M. Bischoff of Giessen. 245. It is much to be regretted that, amidst the tranquil pursuits of letters and philosophy, there should arise occasions for reproach—the more, as so much honor always remains to be shared by the diligent members of the Republic. The world is very ready to acknowledge