Researches in obstetrics / by J. Matthews Duncan.

  • Duncan, J. Matthews (James Matthews), 1826-1890.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches in obstetrics / by J. Matthews Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    VIU PREFACE. Hospitals, yet tlic Author believes that they are, on the whole, best adapted for the discussion of the value of Hospitals generally. There is a unity about childbirth that does not exist in connection with amputations or any other surgical operations. Childbirths can be scrutinised in vast numbers. Their data have been collected without a view to any controversy. A lying-in woman is very liable to be affected by all kinds of insalubrious influences. The Author was impelled to undertake the work by two considerations. Of these one was practical, the other scientific. The practical consideration was the defence of Hospitals against unjust attacks. These invaluable institutions he found misrepresented in a manner which he considered most unfair, and which he knew to be most injurious. He felt bound to try what he could do, not so much in their defence as to secure them fair play. The scientific consideration was the circumstance that a terribly erroneous statement by a most respect- able author—Le Fort—was extensively quoted and applied, indeed made a text for several great tirades against Hospitals. This statement is that the mortality of women delivered at home is 1 in 212, and that the