An address to the public on the propriety of midwives, instead of surgeons, practising midwifery / by J.R. Pickmere.

  • Pickmere, John Richard.
Date:
[1827]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address to the public on the propriety of midwives, instead of surgeons, practising midwifery / by J.R. Pickmere. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/60 (page 71)
    Another sort of abuse, the ambition or desire of fame, which'; impels some accoucheurs to commence dangerous surgical opera- ; tions, where nature is sufficient to complete her own works, as verified by an eminent member of the medical profession to be j frequently practised, shall be reserved for especial notice, when discussing the injurious consequences to bodily health, and danger to life, proceeding from the various abuses before mentioned. Having adverted to the abuses arising out of the present system of midwifery, I now come to a consideration, first, of the irre¬ mediable difficulties, in all cases, opposed to their suppression, under that system ; and, secondly, of the character of these abuses, and of the immediate effects and remoter consequences produced by them. There being more or less interference of the accoucheur with ! the female in every childbirth which he attends, there must always be a proportionate degree of indelicacy committed and suffered ; ! and the moral evil of unlawful lust, on his part, may be considered to be in general co-extensive. The ordinary interference in common cases being considered requisite, and greater interference being required in every other case, it is obvious, that no remedy, except the subversion of man-midwifery, is applicable to any case. I will now examine, whether there is any remedy, except that, for extraordinary directly wanton abuses. The propriety or impropriety of any interference must depend in every case on the symptoms indicated, or the result of inquiry at the time, as to whether or not they induce a reasonable supposition, that the labor is so far advanced as to render some, be it more or less, assistance of the practitioner necessary. That by any human device the conduct of medical men could be universally and permanently restricted to a proper course in this respect is absolutely impossible. Aware, in a general point of view, of the natural forwardness peculiar to the male sex, yet naturally strangers in feeling to the impetuosity and extent of desire which prompts it, women are easily deceived by | supposed necessity, or the pretences of the accoucheur. I am aware that females, to whom my remarks may be well known by information, and by whom they may be kept in mind, are com¬ petent to detect those extraordinary abuses, which are obviously . without a good plea; but can this knowlege be made universal , amongst them, and if it could, will not time eventually efface such I knowlege in future generations ? But in cases where the fact is ascertained by females, the only corrective to the accoucheur’s misconduct, unless surgeons were discouraged from practising midwifery, would be a disclosure of a nature highly repugnant to I the feelings of delicacy in the individual female, especially if young, whose modesty and general propriety of behavior might