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Kay's Originals Vol. 1

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Volume 8 Page 463
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 331 only.’ The truth is, that in those days the practice of midwifery was almost solely confined to that sex, as it was only in difficult cases that the assistance of male practitioners was called in ; and hence it very frequently happened that the labour was found to be too far advanced to admit of their aid being of material service, and thus from want of skill, the lives of many mothers and children were lost. The public owe it to the strenuous exertions of Dr. Young (the first Professor of Midwifery in the College of Edinburgh), and of the subject of this memoir, that so few fatal cases occur in this way, in the metropolitan districts of . Scotland. Both of these gentlemen were indefatigable in their efforts to impress upon the public the necessity and advantages of all who practised midwifery, both male and female, being regularly instructed in the art. In their days they had very formidable prejudices to encounter. They had not only to contend with the gross ignorance of those who were in established practice, and whose interests were so nearly related to the continuance of the system ; but such was the state of public feeling, that there were many who pretended to the name of philosophers, who encouraged the prejudice. The principal argument upon which they insisted, which happens not to be fact in all cases, was, that nature is the proper midwife. This, combined with certain fastidious notions of delicacy, had the effect of confining the obstetrical art to females. But such has been the gradual improvement of the age in which we live, that we have the highest authority (even that of the present excellent Professor in the University of Edinburgh) for affirming that the public conviction of the utility of the art is so great, that there is now hardly a parish of Scotland the midwife of which has not been regularly taught ; and it may with truth be added, that the propriety and advantage of males practising as accoucheurs is now so generally admitted, as to make it very probable that the employment of females in midwifery may in time be entirely superseded. In three of the four Universities of Scotland there are Professors of Midwifery, viz., in Glasgow, Marischal College, and in Edinburgh, in which city there was established, in 1791, a Lying-in Hospital,’ under the more immediate patronage of the magistrates, the Lord Provost being President, and the Professor of Midwifery Ordinary Physician. The prefixed Plate contains a striking likeness of the late DR. ALEXANDER HAMILTONT. his gentleman was born in 1739 at Fordoun, near Montrose, where his father, who had been a surgeon in the army during Queen Anne’s wars, was established as a medical practitioner. He came to Edinburgh about the year 1755, as assistant to Mr. John Straiton, a surgeon then in extensive practice ; and on that gentleman’s death, in 1762, he was urged by a number of respectable families to settle in Edinburgh. He accordingly, on application, was admitted a member of the College of Surgeons in that city, for the Royal College was not incorporated until 1578. Of an active and bustling disposition, After him Mr. Robert Smith taught the same class for seventeen yeam. and, on the anniversary of its institution, used to dine aunually with the Professor. ’ The Earl of Leven and Melville took a very active part in getting this Hospital established ;
Volume 8 Page 464
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