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sonably can have; and I think they are fully intitled to maintain that rank and consideration in society, which in this nation they in general possess; indeed, in some respects, I think they are debarred from privileges which they ought to enjoy. Still, I entertain no romantic ideas respecting them; and it is incumbent on me to distinguish between right and wrong in conduct, and to act as conscience dictates. Women having naturally more modesty, and especially a higher sense of personal delicacy than men; I am certain, for this reason, that were it not for the evil influence or specious indifference, the bad example and tutelage of such mothers as I have been censuring, women in general, and particularly young modest females, would cordially unite in manifesting to the world their approbation of the proposed reforma

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But whence arises this sensibility to shame in a mother? A little reflection would dispel it. A wrongful act, as it relates to the person committing or authorising it, and without reference to circumstances of aggravation or extenuation, admits of two degrees of guilt, or it may be wholly blameless and excusable; accordingly as it proceeds from design, carelessness, or unavoidable error. Now design, which is by far the principal degree of guilt, is, in the case of the wife, out of the question. I have before remarked that females, though they are aware in a general point of view of the natural forwardness peculiar to the male sex, yet being naturally strangers in feeling to the impetuosity of desire which prompts it, are therefore not so capable of detecting the pretences of the accoucheur as men are; and besides, they therefore cannot so readily perceive the extent of his impure feelings. The generally presumed and undisputed honor and uprightness of medical men in general have contributed to produce the same effects. A generally prevalent and unimpeached custom has had the same tendency. And beyond all these considerations, a sense of delicacy has sealed the lips of the wife from general complaint; and she has been urged, as the artful accoucheur was well aware, to secrete the indelicacy even from her husband, improperly though almost unblamably, by her anxiety to support his love towards her. These palliations combine in nearly every instance of a female hitherto attended by an accoucheur; and though they impute a degree of carelessness, and do not form a perfect excuse, they approach nearly to it.

The accoucheurs stand in a very different light to the fair sex. Their conduct was designed. They must be acquainted with the unlawful gratification afforded to their lustful desires, and have anticipated this gratification. They must be conscious of their own impure motives in instances of extraordinary unnecessary

interference. Excuse for their misconduct is out of the question; because it was morally incumbent on them to have abandoned a vocation which was at best indelicate, and which led them into actual contact with an evil passion, in such a case, nearly always more or less incontrollable. In the ordinary abuses of man-midwifery, medical men of the present day, however, are intitled to some palliation for their misconduct. Those of the present age did not originate the abusive system, but succeeded to the practice of their predecessors. They were brought up to the medical profession; and as surgeons were induced to enter it partly for the sake of the emoluments of man-midwifery; and the pecuniary means of many of them are so contracted through rivalship, that these have been stimulated to support the present system to avoid poverty. It is no palliation, however, that their practice of midwifery was not a subject of public complaint, because accoucheurs were conscious that the community in general were not aware of the various evils of it. The wife has always experienced some of these evils, and the husband sometimes has directly or consequentially experienced more or less of them: and though in some instances he may through unconsciousness have never actually felt, and through death never will feel a direct injury, and never received a consequential one, from the accoucheur's practice, yet the latter is still guilty of moral wrong to the husband, for the reason mentioned, when formerly alluding to wrongs unconsciously suffered in cases of surgical dissection. A change of system in the practice of midwifery will not be a permanent injury to the interests of medical men. If it is effected, there will in future be fewer students in the medical profession; so that the present members of the profession will share more of their proper business. There will be the same reduction in their numbers constantly operating by death or other incapacity, without a proportionate, yet with an adequate supply.

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Men of all ages and ranks, whose opinions I have asked, or by other means been able to ascertain, except interested person's, have almost uniformly approved of the general purposes of this tract. Some of my readers will perhaps ask, how is a husband, who is averse to the present system of midwifery, to act, if he is united to a female who is disposed to have the assistance of an accoucheur, or the firmness of whose resolution to the contrary he has reason to doubt? I will suppose, for the sake of example, that these circumstances should occur in the case of a young gentleman, who has been recently married to a young female of great personal beauty and accomplishments, to whom he is ardently attached. After perusing these pages, he will of course beware of the importunities and insinuating address of the medical men

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in his neighborhood; all of whom he will probably perceive to endeavor in an especial manner to court the acquaintance and favor of himself and his partner, as early after the marriage as opportunity may serve. Besides reasoning with his wife on the propriety of a midwife, he will caution her against the undue influence of monthly nurses, and most of all, of the mothers whose conduct I have reprehended. He will likewise act up to the suggestions furnished by the following excellent description and remarks thereon, taken from the tract from which I have before quoted.

"Not many months after marriage the lady is attacked by the usual qualms from pregnancy; and the accoucheur, according to the most modern practice, is then commonly called in. Some of my readers, I expect, will immediately apply the following description. On being introduced, he assumes an ingenuous air and apparent candor, to impress his patient with a conviction of his honesty and zeal. After having once secured an inroad, the lady is put under his care,' as it is termed, and his visits of course are frequently repeated. The husband, having no suspicion of his wife's danger, is often absent, either on business or pleasure; and the patient (if a woman can be styled a patient merely because she is pregnant) finds relief from solitude in the society and conversation of the doctor. He commonly begins at each visit by kind inquiries re⚫specting her health, made in a polite but earnest manner: he discovers a solicitude to amuse and please her, knowing that woman's gentler feelings are always deeply affected by kindness and attention. Accompanied by an apology on the necessity of the case, he asks her questions of a nature that the generality of men are not at all aware of. Nothing, of course, can be concealed from him; and though the patient, from her youth and inexperience, cannot judge how far his questions may be relevant, and therefore justifiable, she supposes that a gentleman, and one of an honorable and liberal profession, as it is termed, would not exceed his duty by asking any unnecessary and improper questions, which must of course be of a private nature. These conversations being frequently repeated, a confidential feeling is excited in the mind of the woman towards the accoucheur: that kind of discourse, she would once have shrunk from, by degrees becomes familiar to her; and she shortly habituates herself to talk to him as she would to her nurse; which is what women like,' at least so a gentleman of the same profession once declared to me to be the case. A pleasing reflection for husbands, and a handsome compliment to ladies. Such conversations, however, ought never to occur between a medical man and a youthful female; and if husbands possessed the least delicacy of sentiment themselves, or had the smallest regard for that of VOL. XXVIII. NO. LV. H

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their wives, such conversations, if ever necessary, would always be carried on through the medium of a nurse or of themselves; unless female modesty is unworthy of preservation, and then let unlimited indulgence be openly and avowedly granted to all women. It is notorious that there are many accoucheurs who, under the pretence of asking the wife necessary questions of a private nature, do not hesitate to require the husband to withdraw, who com→ monly is wise enough to comply. This perhaps will remind the reader of the priest in the Decameron of Boccaccio, who sentenced the husband to perform a penance in a dark room at the bottom of the house, that he might be enabled to pass the time agreeably alone with the wife in another apartment. Unlike the husband, the accoucheur never complains, is never dissatisfied nor indifferent; he is always cheerful, polite, and invariably kind, showing the most devoted and subtle attentions, as he finds opportunities.. And it is this system which excites generally, in the minds of women of all ranks, that feeling of partiality towards their medical attendants, which is found so frequently to prevail."

By attending to the remarks and suggestions I have mentioned, as far as they may be requisite, the husband's efforts and vigilance will most probably prove successful, and his young wife will most cordially join in his sentiments. However, should she, on the contrary, be disposed through evil influence to sacrifice delicacy, honor, and virtue, and perhaps her health or even life; and also to sacrifice the feelings of her husband, and in a considerable degree the mutual peace and happiness of both, to her perverseness and wayward prejudice; let him then act with the firmness and decision becoming his situation, and the exigencies of the occasion. A proper midwife being engaged, he ought to insist, at all hazards, on her assistance being exclusively adopted, if the case is one of usual occurrence; and as the midwives of the present day are not competent to cases of difficulty, it will be proper to have some one in readiness to procure an accoucheur, lest it should perchance become requisite, which is extremely unlikely; or if the husband's residence is not in a large town, or if his wife desire it, the accou cheur should be previously appointed to be near at hand.

I will not occupy the reader's time with reasons in support of the conduct I am now recommending; for it is so palpably just and proper, that it would be trifling with his patience to do so. Should the husband, however, be weak enough to compromise his rights and his duty, he will in addition to his wounded feelings, and himself and his wife encountering the certain, and perhaps some of the possible, bad consequences of an abusive system, ultimately incur the secret contempt of the accoucheur whom he has indulged; who, if he has been informed of the husband's

unsuccessful efforts, will privately laugh, or perhaps, in a way not to be misunderstood, openly and exultingly smile at his puerility; pluming himself on the manner in which he and the wife have managed the good-natured and docile husband. It is not unlikely that such a husband, instead of magnanimously retrieving his past indecision by openly expressing his indigna tión at man-midwifery, will endeavor to conceal his uneasiness from the world, and will inwardly increase it by aiming at a foolish consistency, in pursuing the quiet and tractable course he has already taken; and for this purpose will manifest a studied complaisance towards his cunning guest the accoucheur, whose triumph will then be complete. The husband may try to find solace and repose in an unqualified assumption of the Christian doctrines of "meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another;" but reason, if he possess a moderate capacity, and exercise it, will tell him, that a wise, a prudent, and a virtuous man, without entertaining revengeful feelings in his heart, will adopt all fair means and precaution to prevent the occurrence of temporal injury; and to prevent its recurrence, will, as far as he is able, discipline by lawful means the evil aggressor in the manner and to the extent the case warrants, not in a spirit of retribution, but (resigning that to Providence) as the necessities of himself and society require. Such conduct is expected of him by his Creator, not only for his own individual protection, but as a member of society, for the protection of his fellow-creatures, to reform if possible the evil-doer, and, as an example to others, to prevent the repetition of offence.

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In the present habits of society in this nation, men generally occupy all the lucrative employments, including those that might with equal propriety and effect be supplied by women. sands of young females of respectable parents who have been decently brought up and educated, and who are therefore unfitted for the drudgery of common service, are necessitated by the pecuniary misfortunes of their parents to earn a livelihood by needlework. All other female occupations equally suitable for them, or of a superior kind, require comparatively few individuals to supply them; and it is notorious that such is the rivalship amongst females in this business, that employment is generally exceedingly precarious, and the profit very small. Many of such young females having in vain sought for a slender pittance, their parents being either dead or through misfortunes unable to provide for them, therefore without a home and pressed by poverty, in a moment of despair, resort to prostitution and its concomitants, misery, disease, and death! The police reports of the metropolis show that many young prostituted females from the polish of their manners, and

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