ART. XXVI The Science and Art of Midwifery

WILLIAM THOMPSON LUSK
1882 American Journal of the Medical Sciences  
At a recent lunch-party at a club, noted as a gathering-place of medi¬ cal men in New York, the gynecologists, by a sort of mutual consent, prevailed and gave tone to the conversation. Among the topics brought up was the need of a new American treatise upon obstetrics, and who, among the men noted in literature, was the most likely to produce one worthy to fill the vacant place. Any one who is familiar with gynecolo¬ gists will be prepared to hear that no agreement was reached. The conversation
more » ... is alluded to as showing that among those who teach and study gynecology and obstetrics, there exists a feeling that we are not represented worthily in this department of medicine. Why this state of things exists, while medical literature in every other department is teem¬ ing with exuberant life, is a difficult question to answer. In other branches of our literature, but a single parallel instance exists, not from want of candidates for the vacant place, but from the light standard of criticism, that makes success nearly impossible. And why may we not adopt the latter as an explanation of the need that the gynecologists with more or less justice complain of? If we express this literary want numerically, we shall see that it is more apparent than real. In this country in the year 1880, we had nine obstetrical publications in the form of books, which, considered in a quantitative way, must have more than equalled any demand that obstetrical science or art could have made upon literature. While, then, we cannot say that obstetrical has not equalled, relatively in quantity, the more active and enticing gynecological literature, we may assume that it does not comply with a severe standard of criticism. This is partially confirmed by the fact that in Great Britain and Ireland, where the standard of merit in obstetrical literature is raised even higher than in this country, we find only five books of this class published in the same year. In Germany we have nineteen books upon obstetrics, and in France fifty-one for the same period. It appears to follow that this class of literature multiplies just in proportion as the critical standard is low¬ ered, for in France, where such abnormal activity exists, but little original work is done in this department, and the literary work is sadly deficient in merit. As a matter of fact, much of this excess in French obstetrical literature is due to the rivalry existing between professors and competing clinics.1 This class of work seems to be, among English-speaking people, under a healthful restraint. Men hesitate to risk their reputations upon a formal obstetric treatise. Where much is demanded, there is a natural reluctance to offer, especially, as in this case, in view of the severe labour and difficulties of the subject, a man offers his all. A man ages at once when he has given to the world a volume upon obstetrics. However young he may be, he becomes old when he has completed his life-work. He has but one trial, and he either succeeds or fails. If he is wise he reverses the order; he may write a book upon gynecology, and if he fails then, he may solace himself with the thought that he has obstetrics left 1 Obstetrical and Gynecological Literature, 1870-1880.
doi:10.1097/00000441-188204000-00026 fatcat:wvyxaxjrbncmxlsoavbr5igmwq