The "languid child" and the eighteenth-century man-midwife

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Volumn 75, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 641-679

  Lloyd, Josephine M ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Eighteenth century men midwives; Forceps; Respect for life; Sickly neonates

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CHILD CARE; EQUIPMENT DESIGN; EUROPE; FORCEPS; HISTORY; HISTORY OF MEDICINE; HUMAN; MALE; MIDWIFE; NEWBORN; RESUSCITATION;

EQUIPMENT DESIGN; EUROPE; HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 18TH CENT.; HUMAN; INFANT CARE; INFANT, NEWBORN; MALE; MIDWIFERY; OBSTETRICAL FORCEPS; RESUSCITATION;

EID: 0035650908     PISSN: 00075140     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (189)

1. James Woodforde, The Diary of a Country Parson, 1758-1802, ed. John Beresford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 14.
2. John Quincy, Lexicon Physico-medicum, Or, A New Medical Dictionary; Explaining the Difficult Terms Used in the Several Branches of the Profession and in Such Parts of Natural Philosophy as Are Introductory Therein, with an Account of the Things Signified by Such Terms, Collected from Many Eminent Authors, 9th ed. (London: Longman, 1775). (The copy of this dictionary used was originally owned by William Hey; it has his signature on the flyleaf and candle burns on the edge of some pages where he was attentively reading it.) The OED meaning of the word for the period is "faint, weak, and inert from fatigue or weakness, wanting in vigour or vitality and slow in movement." Helkiah Crooke, A Description of the Body of Man (London, 1615), p. 338, describes births at the beginning of the seventh month as "verie languid and weake."
3. John Quincy, Lexicon Physico-medicum, Or, A New Medical Dictionary; Explaining the Difficult Terms Used in the Several Branches of the Profession and in Such Parts of Natural Philosophy as Are Introductory Therein, with an Account of the Things Signified by Such Terms, Collected from Many Eminent Authors, 9th ed. (London: Longman, 1775). (The copy of this dictionary used was originally owned by William Hey; it has his signature on the flyleaf and candle burns on the edge of some pages where he was attentively reading it.) The OED meaning of the word for the period is "faint, weak, and inert from fatigue or weakness, wanting in vigour or vitality and slow in movement." Helkiah Crooke, A Description of the Body of Man (London, 1615), p. 338, describes births at the beginning of the seventh month as "verie languid and weake."
4. See Adrian Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery: Childbirth in England, 1660-1770 (London: University College Press, 1995), pp. 91, 92, citing William Giffard, Cases in Midwifry Written by the Late Mr. William Giffard, Surgeon and Man-Midwife, Revised and Published by Edward Hody (London: B. Motte, 1734), case 16, pp. 32-34, in which the mother's pulse is described as very languid; William Smellie, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery (London: D. Wilson, 1752), p. 225 (hereafter Smellie, Treatise): "If the circulation is languid, respiration begins with difficulty."
5. See Adrian Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery: Childbirth in England, 1660-1770 (London: University College Press, 1995), pp. 91, 92, citing William Giffard, Cases in Midwifry Written by the Late Mr. William Giffard, Surgeon and Man-Midwife, Revised and Published by Edward Hody (London: B. Motte, 1734), case 16, pp. 32-34, in which the mother's pulse is described as very languid; William Smellie, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery (London: D. Wilson, 1752), p. 225 (hereafter Smellie, Treatise): "If the circulation is languid, respiration begins with difficulty."
6. See Adrian Wilson, The Making of Man-Midwifery: Childbirth in England, 1660-1770 (London: University College Press, 1995), pp. 91, 92, citing William Giffard, Cases in Midwifry Written by the Late Mr. William Giffard, Surgeon and Man-Midwife, Revised and Published by Edward Hody (London: B. Motte, 1734), case 16, pp. 32-34, in which the mother's pulse is described as very languid; William Smellie, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery (London: D. Wilson, 1752), p. 225 (hereafter Smellie, Treatise): "If the circulation is languid, respiration begins with difficulty."
7. William Hey, "Medical and Surgical Cases," Special Collection, Brotherton Library, Leeds University (hereafter SCBLL), MS 628, bk. 5, case 45, dated 1 March 1775: the case of a four-hour-old baby whose umbilical cord had been torn, revealing the contents of the perineal cavity; bk. 4, case 23, dated 27 April 1772: a two-day-old baby with an imperforate anus; bk. 7, case 55, dated 1784: a newborn with jaundice and vibices.
8. "Cases in Midwifery," written in the hand of William Hey, SCBLL, MS 567, bks. 1-10 (hereafter Hey, "Cases").
9. William Smellie, Smellie's Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, ed. Alfred H. McClintock (London: New Sydenham Society, 1876), 2: 324, footnote comment by McClintock (hereafter Smellie, Midwifery).
10. Ibid., pp. 215, 219.
11. I am grateful to John O. Phipps for drawing my attention to Richard Gough, The History of Middle, ed. David Hey (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981), pp. 172-73: "when his second wife Anne was in travel of a child, the midwife told him that the child was dead in the womb, and unless it was drawn from the woman, she would dye also; and thereupon Clarke made iron hooks, in his Iytle smith's forge, according to the midwife's direction and therewith she eased the woman of her burthen, and the woman recovered. But when she was with child agen, and the woman was in the same condition, hee would not suffer the midwife to do the like, soe the woman dyed."
12. Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), p. 125.
13. Thomas Percival, Medical Ethics: Or, a Code of Institutes and Precepts: Adapted to the Professional Conduct of Physicians and Surgeons (London: Bickerstaff, 1803), p. 32.
14. Ibid., p. 86.
15. Dr. Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed. (London, 1784): "love" includes tenderness and parental care. See also Charles Wesley's Handbook of Hymns (London, 1780): "Gentle Jesus meek and mild, look upon a little child. Pity my simplicity; suffer me to come to thee. Fain I would to Thee be brought, dearest God forbid it not. Give me, blessed Lord, a place in the Kingdom of Thy grace."
16. Dr. Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed. (London, 1784): "love" includes tenderness and parental care. See also Charles Wesley's Handbook of Hymns (London, 1780): "Gentle Jesus meek and mild, look upon a little child. Pity my simplicity; suffer me to come to thee. Fain I would to Thee be brought, dearest God forbid it not. Give me, blessed Lord, a place in the Kingdom of Thy grace."
17. For comment on the grief caused by neonatal mortality in the seventeenth century, see David Cressy, Birth, Marriage and Death: Ritual, Religion and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 343, 344, and n. 70.
18. Sec, for instance, Burnley parish register: 6 May 1650, the burial of a child of James Eastwoods of Stonehouse not baptized; 9 July 1650, a child of John Cellars of Pendle not baptized. See also Roger Schofield, "Did the Mothers Really Die? Three Centuries of Maternal Mortality in the World We Have Lost," in The World We Have Gained: Histories of Population and Social Structure, ed. Lloyd Bonfield, Richard M. Smith, and Keith Wrightson (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986), pp. 231-60, on p. 234;
19. E. A. Wrigley, "Explaining the Rise in Marital Fertility in England in the 'Long' Eighteenth Century," Econ. Hist. Rev., 1998, 51 (3): 435-64;
20. Jacques Gélis, History of Childbirth: Fertility, Pregnancy and Birth in Early Modern Europe, trans. Rosemary Morris (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 1991), p. xv.
21. Woodforde, Diary (n. 1), p. 315. This quotation and the opening quotation illustrate the attitudes of the era.
22. Cressy recounts the funeral of a woman "who died in childbirth in 1676 . . . the wife . . . and the child with her, whom I saw laid in one coffin the child in her arms as though it were asleep" (Cressy, Birth [n. 13], p. 394).
23. Smellie details a case of a child born in good health who "caught cold at the christening about the eighth day," and subsequently died (Smellie, Midwifery [n. 6], 3: 314, case 524).
24. Cressy, Birth (n. 13), p. 381.
25. Ibid., p. 384.
26. For an assessment of medical progress in the seventeenth century, sec Charles Webster, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine and Reform, 1626-1666 (London: Duckworth, 1975), chap. 4, "The Prolongation of Life."
27. John I. Christie, Stress and Stability in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain: Reflections on the British Avoidance of Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), pp. 187, 200. See also Edward P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980), chap. 2.
28. John I. Christie, Stress and Stability in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain: Reflections on the British Avoidance of Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), pp. 187, 200. See also Edward P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1980), chap. 2.
29. Smellie, Midwifery (n. 6), 3: 114, case 366.
30. Ibid., p. 367.
31. Ibid., p. 324, case 531.
32. Hey, "Cases," bk. 1, p. 116, case 58.
33. Jane Sharp, The Midwives Book, or the Whole Art of Midwifry Discovered, ed. Elaine Hobby (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
34. Thomas Denman, An Introduction to the Practice of Midwifery, 2d ed. (London: Johnson, 1801), 1: xli, refers to Willughby's book, which was not published until a later century, but was known of and referred to in the eighteenth century.
35. Peter Chamberlen, Dr. Chamberlain's Midwifes Practice (London: Rooks, 1665).
36. For an assessment of the licensing of midwives and their character determination, see David Harley, "Provincial Midwives in England: Lancashire and Cheshire, 1660-1760," in The Art of Midwifery: Early Modern Midwives in Europe, ed. Hilary Marland (London: Routlcdge, 1993), pp. 27-48.
37. See also David Harley, "English Archives, Local History, and the Study of Early Modern Midwifery," Archives, 1994, 21: 145-54, on p. 152.
38. "Each midwife would have her own method of stimulating respiration," and could "try some extraordinary measure as burning a little 'Coventrey blew threed' and allow the smoke to enter the child's nostrils" (Doreen Evenden, The Midwives of Seventeenth-Century London [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000], p. 84). See also Cressy, Birth (n. 13), p. 81.
39. "Each midwife would have her own method of stimulating respiration," and could "try some extraordinary measure as burning a little 'Coventrey blew threed' and allow the smoke to enter the child's nostrils" (Doreen Evenden, The Midwives of Seventeenth-Century London [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000], p. 84). See also Cressy, Birth (n. 13), p. 81.
40. Sharp, Midwives Book (n. 20), p. 164.
41. "If the child be born weak, put back the blood, which you shall find flow back by the umbilical vein, do it gently and by degrees" (Chamberlen, Dr. Chamberlain's Midwifes Practice [n. 28], chap. 86, p. 269).
42. Ibid., p. 271. Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged: with Three Hundred and Sixty-Nine Medicines Made of English Herbs (London: W. Nicoll, 1775), pp. 245, 246, 247, noted that pellitory made into an ointment with hog's grease takes away black and blue spots (meaning bruising). Percival Willughby, Observation in Midwifery, ed. Henry Blenkinsop (Warwick: H. T. Cooke and Son, 1863), p. 53, did not offer any specific remedy to preserve a weak infant, but noted that weakness could be attributed to the sickness of the mother.
43. Ibid., p. 271. Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged: with Three Hundred and Sixty-Nine Medicines Made of English Herbs (London: W. Nicoll, 1775), pp. 245, 246, 247, noted that pellitory made into an ointment with hog's grease takes away black and blue spots (meaning bruising). Percival Willughby, Observation in Midwifery, ed. Henry Blenkinsop (Warwick: H. T. Cooke and Son, 1863), p. 53, did not offer any specific remedy to preserve a weak infant, but noted that weakness could be attributed to the sickness of the mother.
44. Ibid., p. 271. Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged: with Three Hundred and Sixty-Nine Medicines Made of English Herbs (London: W. Nicoll, 1775), pp. 245, 246, 247, noted that pellitory made into an ointment with hog's grease takes away black and blue spots (meaning bruising). Percival Willughby, Observation in Midwifery, ed. Henry Blenkinsop (Warwick: H. T. Cooke and Son, 1863), p. 53, did not offer any specific remedy to preserve a weak infant, but noted that weakness could be attributed to the sickness of the mother.
45. Willughby, Observations in Midwifery (n. 33), p. 186.
46. Gélis, History of Childbirth (n. 14), p. 224.
47. Willughby, Observations in Midwifery (n. 33), p. 127.
48. Smellie, Midwifery (n. 6), 3: 304, case 508.
49. Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), noted that "La Motte, although extolling the advantages of forceps, did not suggest that they could save the child's life" (p. 67).
50. François Mauriceau, The Diseases of Women with Child and in Childbed: As also the Best Means of Helping Them in Natural and Unnatural Labours. With Fit Remedies for the Several Indispositions of Newborn Babes, trans. Hugh Chamberlen, 2d ed. (London: John Darby, 1683), part 3, chap. 19, pp. 373-77.
51. Ibid., p. 373.
52. Ibid., p. 374.
53. Ibid., p. 374.
54. Ibid., p. 375.
55. Ibid., chap. 34: "these that have this disease so young . . . bring it with them into the world from their mothers womb which may be known if she were infected with it" (p. 363).
56. Guillaume M. La Motte, A General Treatise of Midwifery: Illustrated with Upwards of Four Hundred Curious Observations and Reflexions Concerning That Art, trans. Thomas Tomkyns (London: J. Waugh, 1746), p. 161.
57. Ibid., p. 449.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid., p. 470.
60. Gélis, History of Childbirth (n. 14), p. 176. Gélis noted without detailing his source that French midwives made use of a feather-stalk or straw, pinched the child's nostrils together, and blew to clear the tubes so that the child could take its first breath.
61. Hendrik van Deventer, The Art of Midwifery Improved Fully and Plainly Laying Down Whatever Instructions Are Required to Make a Compleat Midwife, and the Many Errors in All the Books Hitherto Written upon This Subject Clearly Refuted by Henry A. Daventer (London, 1716), p. 137.
62. Ibid., pp. 185-89.
63. Ibid., p. 70.
64. Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), p. 79.
65. Ibid., p. 80.
66. M. J. van Lieburg, "Catharine Schradcr (1656-1746) and Her Notebook," in Catarina Schrader, "Mother and Child Were Saved": The Memoirs (1693-1740) of the Frisian Midwife Catarina Schrader, translated and annotated by Hilary Marland, with introductory essays by M. J. van Lieburg and G. J. Kloosterman (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987), pp. 6-22, quotation on p. 18.
67. Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), p. 81.
68. Sarah Stone, A Complete Practice of Midwifery (London: T. Cooper, 1737), p. 51.
69. Ibid., p. 53.
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid., p. 77.
73. Isobel Grundy, "Sarah Stone: Enlightenment Midwife," in Medicine in the Enlightenment, ed. Roy Porter (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994), pp. 128-44, esp. pp. 129, 131.
74. Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), p. 96, quoting William Giffard's case 23, of 28 June 1728.
75. Giffard, Cases in Midwifry (n. 3), case 83, p. 197. Hypericum oil, derived from Saint-John's-wort, was credited with powerful magical properties, and acted as an antispasmodic, a sedative, and a healing oil.
76. Edmund Chapman, A Treatise on the Improvement of Midwifery, 2d ed. (London: J. Brindley, J. Clarke, and C. Corbett, 1735), case 50, p. 166.
77. Chamberlen, Dr. Chamberlain's Midwifes Practice (n. 28), chap. 49, p. 137; Willughby, Observations in Midwifery (n. 33), p. 57.
78. Chamberlen, Dr. Chamberlain's Midwifes Practice (n. 28), chap. 49, p. 137; Willughby, Observations in Midwifery (n. 33), p. 57.
79. Evenden, Midwives (n. 30), p. 11 and nn. 56-58.
80. Smellie, Midwifery (n. 6), 2: 114.
81. Chapman, Improvement of Midwifery (n. 65), p. 14.
82. Mauriceau, Diseases of Women with Child (n. 39), chap. 13, pp. 271-76.
83. Smellie, Midwifery (n. 6), 3: 86.
84. Hey, "Cases," bk. 3, case 173.
85. Ibid.
86. Smellie, Midwifery (n. 6), 2: 277, case 206.
87. Ibid., p. 276, case 205.
88. Ibid., 3: 82, case 347.
89. Diary of Faith Gray, entry for 18 June 1781, p. 37, Gray Papers, York City Archives, D la. Faith Gray was related to William Hey by marriage, but he did not treat her during her pregnancies.
90. Irvine London, Medical Care and the General Practitioner, 1750-1850 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 85-99; Dorothy Porter and Roy Porter, Patient's Progress: Doctors and Doctoring in Eighteenth-century England (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 1989), p. 175.
91. Irvine London, Medical Care and the General Practitioner, 1750-1850 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 85-99; Dorothy Porter and Roy Porter, Patient's Progress: Doctors and Doctoring in Eighteenth-century England (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 1989), p. 175.
92. Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), pp. 166-67, quotation on p. 166.
93. Smellie, Midwifery (n. 6), 3: 108.
94. The 1751 Petition of the Unborn Babes to the Censors of the Royal College of Physicians (London, 1751), p. 4.
95. Ibid., p. 5.
96. Ibid., pp. 6-7 (emphasis added).
97. Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1984), chap. 9, v. 19, typifies eighteenth-century lampooning with the portrayal of the York man-midwife Richard Burton as Dr. Slop.
98. Smellie, Treatise (n. 3), p. 225.
99. Ibid., p. 226.
100. Ibid., p. 227.
101. Smellie, Midwifery (n. 6), 2: 276, case 204.
102. Ibid., p. 255.
103. William Smellic, A Set of Anatomical Tables, with Explanation and an Abridgement of the Practice of Midwifery, with a View to Illustrate a Treatise on That Subject (London, 1754); William Hunter, Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata: Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus (London, 1774). For a review of fetal images, see Ludmilla J. Jordanova, "Gender, Generation and Science in William Hunter's Obstetrical Atlas," in William Hunter and the Eighteenth-Century Medical World, ed. William F. Bynum and Roy Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 385-413. See also Barbara M. Stafford, Body Criticism: Imaging the Unseen in Enlightenment Art and Medicine (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991); and, for a gender-sensitive view, Karen Newman, Fetal Positions: Individualism, Science, Visuality (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).
104. William Smellic, A Set of Anatomical Tables, with Explanation and an Abridgement of the Practice of Midwifery, with a View to Illustrate a Treatise on That Subject (London, 1754); William Hunter, Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata: Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus (London, 1774). For a review of fetal images, see Ludmilla J. Jordanova, "Gender, Generation and Science in William Hunter's Obstetrical Atlas," in William Hunter and the Eighteenth-Century Medical World, ed. William F. Bynum and Roy Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 385-413. See also Barbara M. Stafford, Body Criticism: Imaging the Unseen in Enlightenment Art and Medicine (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991); and, for a gender-sensitive view, Karen Newman, Fetal Positions: Individualism, Science, Visuality (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).
105. William Smellic, A Set of Anatomical Tables, with Explanation and an Abridgement of the Practice of Midwifery, with a View to Illustrate a Treatise on That Subject (London, 1754); William Hunter, Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata: Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus (London, 1774). For a review of fetal images, see Ludmilla J. Jordanova, "Gender, Generation and Science in William Hunter's Obstetrical Atlas," in William Hunter and the Eighteenth-Century Medical World, ed. William F. Bynum and Roy Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 385-413. See also Barbara M. Stafford, Body Criticism: Imaging the Unseen in Enlightenment Art and Medicine (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991); and, for a gender-sensitive view, Karen Newman, Fetal Positions: Individualism, Science, Visuality (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).
106. William Smellic, A Set of Anatomical Tables, with Explanation and an Abridgement of the Practice of Midwifery, with a View to Illustrate a Treatise on That Subject (London, 1754); William Hunter, Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata: Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus (London, 1774). For a review of fetal images, see Ludmilla J. Jordanova, "Gender, Generation and Science in William Hunter's Obstetrical Atlas," in William Hunter and the Eighteenth-Century Medical World, ed. William F. Bynum and Roy Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 385-413. See also Barbara M. Stafford, Body Criticism: Imaging the Unseen in Enlightenment Art and Medicine (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991); and, for a gender-sensitive view, Karen Newman, Fetal Positions: Individualism, Science, Visuality (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).
107. William Smellic, A Set of Anatomical Tables, with Explanation and an Abridgement of the Practice of Midwifery, with a View to Illustrate a Treatise on That Subject (London, 1754); William Hunter, Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata: Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus (London, 1774). For a review of fetal images, see Ludmilla J. Jordanova, "Gender, Generation and Science in William Hunter's Obstetrical Atlas," in William Hunter and the Eighteenth-Century Medical World, ed. William F. Bynum and Roy Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 385-413. See also Barbara M. Stafford, Body Criticism: Imaging the Unseen in Enlightenment Art and Medicine (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991); and, for a gender-sensitive view, Karen Newman, Fetal Positions: Individualism, Science, Visuality (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).
108. John L. Thornton and Patricia C. Want, "William Hunter (1718-1783) and His Contributions to Obstetrics," Brit. J. Obst, & Gyn., 1983, 90: 787-94, esp. p. 788.
109. Ludmilla Jordanova, Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989), p. 137.
110. Smellie, Anatomical Tables (n. 90), table 37, p. 95.
111. Transcript of the pupil register of St. George's Hospital, held in the Royal College of Surgeons, London.
112. William Hunter Lectures, manuscript notes by William Allison (1785), Royal College of Surgeons, London, 42. d. 25, p. 8. There is no indication of when the lectures were given; for comments, see Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), p. 175.
113. William Hunter Lectures, manuscript notes by William Allison (1785), Royal College of Surgeons, London, 42. d. 25, p. 8. There is no indication of when the lectures were given; for comments, see Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), p. 175.
114. Hunter Lecture notes (n. 95), p. 51.
115. Thornton and Want, "William Hunter" (n. 91), p. 788.
116. Hunter Lecture notes (n. 95), pp. 177, 178.
117. Ibid., p. 177.
118. Ibid.
119. Ibid., p. 186.
120. Ibid.
121. Ibid., p. 187.
122. Smellie, Anatomical Tables (n. 90), p. 246.
123. William Hey, Observations in Surgeiy (London: Cadell and Davies, 1803), preface.
124. For later details of Hey's midwifery work, see William Hey (1772-1844), A Treatise on the Puerperal Fever Illustrated by Cases, Which Occurred in Leeds and Its Vicinity (London, 1815).
125. Hey, "Cases," bk. 1, case 52.
126. Ibid., case 50.
127. Ibid., bk. 3, case 163 (remarks following).
128. Ibid., case 164.
129. Ibid., bk. 2, case 79.
130. Ibid., case 95.
131. Denman, Introduction (n. 27), 1: 361; Thomas Denman, An Essay on Natural Labours (London: J. Johnson, 1786), p. 44. 114. Hey, "Cases," bk. 4, case 226 (emphasis in original). Hey was taught midwifery by Colin Mackenzie, whose lecture notes (held in the Royal College of Physicians, London, MS 693), refer the reader to Lorenz Heister's A General System of Surgery in Three Parts (London: W. Innys and J. Richardson, 1757) for instruction regarding the method of performing a cesarean delivery. It is interesting to note that Heister (part 2, p. 75) instructs the surgeon to endeavor to recover the life of the child by blowing into its mouth and nose and baptizing it immediately in cold water.
132. Denman, Introduction (n. 27), 1: 361; Thomas Denman, An Essay on Natural Labours (London: J. Johnson, 1786), p. 44. 114. Hey, "Cases," bk. 4, case 226 (emphasis in original). Hey was taught midwifery by Colin Mackenzie, whose lecture notes (held in the Royal College of Physicians, London, MS 693), refer the reader to Lorenz Heister's A General System of Surgery in Three Parts (London: W. Innys and J. Richardson, 1757) for instruction regarding the method of performing a cesarean delivery. It is interesting to note that Heister (part 2, p. 75) instructs the surgeon to endeavor to recover the life of the child by blowing into its mouth and nose and baptizing it immediately in cold water.
133. Denman, Introduction (n. 27), 1: 361; Thomas Denman, An Essay on Natural Labours (London: J. Johnson, 1786), p. 44. 114. Hey, "Cases," bk. 4, case 226 (emphasis in original). Hey was taught midwifery by Colin Mackenzie, whose lecture notes (held in the Royal College of Physicians, London, MS 693), refer the reader to Lorenz Heister's A General System of Surgery in Three Parts (London: W. Innys and J. Richardson, 1757) for instruction regarding the method of performing a cesarean delivery. It is interesting to note that Heister (part 2, p. 75) instructs the surgeon to endeavor to recover the life of the child by blowing into its mouth and nose and baptizing it immediately in cold water.
134. Denman, Introduction (n. 27), 1: 361; Thomas Denman, An Essay on Natural Labours (London: J. Johnson, 1786), p. 44. 114. Hey, "Cases," bk. 4, case 226 (emphasis in original). Hey was taught midwifery by Colin Mackenzie, whose lecture notes (held in the Royal College of Physicians, London, MS 693), refer the reader to Lorenz Heister's A General System of Surgery in Three Parts (London: W. Innys and J. Richardson, 1757) for instruction regarding the method of performing a cesarean delivery. It is interesting to note that Heister (part 2, p. 75) instructs the surgeon to endeavor to recover the life of the child by blowing into its mouth and nose and baptizing it immediately in cold water.
135. Hey, "Cases," bk. 4, case 226.
136. Ibid., bk. 8, case 392.
137. Denman, Introduction (n. 27), 2: 173. In the copy of this book in my ownership, there is considerable annotation beside this remark from the original owner - from which I deduce that that particular man-midwife found himself in just such a dilemma.
138. Smellie, Treatise (n. 3), pp. 242, 249.
139. Alban Doran, "A Demonstration of Some Eighteenth-Century Obstetric Forceps," Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., Hist. Med., 1913, 6 (2): 54-76. See also Kedarnath Das, Obstetric Forceps: Its History and Evolution (Leeds: Medical Museum, 1993), pp. 220-21. Orme's forceps are associated later with those of his pupil William Lowder, to whom William Hey sent his eldest son, Richard (1764-89), for obstetric teaching; however, I can find no evidence that Hey used the later refinement of the Orme/Lowder forceps, nor does he refer at any time to forceps designed by his teacher Colin Mackenzie.
140. Alban Doran, "A Demonstration of Some Eighteenth-Century Obstetric Forceps," Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., Hist. Med., 1913, 6 (2): 54-76. See also Kedarnath Das, Obstetric Forceps: Its History and Evolution (Leeds: Medical Museum, 1993), pp. 220-21. Orme's forceps are associated later with those of his pupil William Lowder, to whom William Hey sent his eldest son, Richard (1764-89), for obstetric teaching; however, I can find no evidence that Hey used the later refinement of the Orme/Lowder forceps, nor does he refer at any time to forceps designed by his teacher Colin Mackenzie.
141. Hey, "Cases," bk. 2, a case after case 127, dated 27 April 1771, records that he delivered a patient of Mr. Walker, a physician in Leeds, with the Johnson forceps.
142. Bryan M. Hibbard, The Obstetric Forceps (London: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 1992), p. 23.
143. Robert W. Johnson, A New System of Midwifery Founded on Practical Observations by Robert Wallace Johnson (London, 1769). The copy of this book now held in SCBLL, SC/1 has penciled comments by Hey in the margin.
144. Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), p. 100: "forceps practice was, and remained strictly an emergency province." In the first part of the eighteenth century this probably was so; however, the evidence from Hey's case histories tells us that a measured effective approach was in many cases entirely successful.
145. The Trade Directory of Leeds (Leeds, 1798), pp. 6-7, details the two medical men named by Hey - Shirtcliffe and Teale - as partners in a Leeds apothecary and midwifery practice.
146. Hey, "Cases," bk. 8, case 398.
147. Ibid., p. 163, remarks after case 398.
148. Susan C. Lawrence, Charitable Knowledge: Hospital Pupils and Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century London (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 259-88, explores gatherings of like-minded men and medical societies, but does not highlight the national networks revealed in case histories such as those of William Hey.
149. Adrian F. Wilson, "The Enlightenment and Infant Care," Bull. Soc. Social Hist. Med., 1979, 25: 44-47, quotation on p. 46.
150. For a survey of the work of William Cadogan on neonatal and pediatric care, see George F. Still, The History of Paediatrics: The Progress of the Study of Diseases of Children up to the End of the Eighteenth Century (London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1965), pp. 379-83.
151. Ann. Roy. Coll. Physicians, 1765, p. 18.
152. Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), p. 201 and n. 34.
153. Transcript of the pupil register of St. George's Hospital (n. 94). The admittance number of William Hey, no. 50, is dated September 1757; Michael Underwood, no. 77, is dated September 1758; Charles White, no. 85, and Alexander Hamilton of Edinburgh, no. 89, were both admitted in November 1758.
154. Hey, "Cases," bk. 3, case 139, dated 23 January 1772.
155. Michael Underwood, A Treatise on the Diseases of Children with Directions for the Management of Infants from Birth (London: J. Matthews, 1784), p. ii.
156. William Hey II (son), in preparatory notes for a biography of his father to be written by John Pearson, stated: "He paid especial attention to puerperal convulsions on which subject he wrote a paper for publication, but happening to differ on some points with Dr. Denman, who said he would write against it if it was published, Mr. Hey postponed his intentions, but still with a view of sometime publishing a volume on midwifery," but detailed confirmation of this statement could not be obtained from Michael Underwood prior to his death: SCBLL, MS 504/3.
157. Hey, "Cases," bk. 1, case 74, and bk. 3, case 141, detail the interaction between Hey and Hunter. See also C. Helen Brock, Dr. William Hunter's Papers and Drawings in the Hunterian Collection of Glasgow University Library: A Handlist (Cambridge: Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, 1990), p. 12, items H 73, H 74, H 84.
158. Hey, "Cases," bk. 1, case 74, and bk. 3, case 141, detail the interaction between Hey and Hunter. See also C. Helen Brock, Dr. William Hunter's Papers and Drawings in the Hunterian Collection of Glasgow University Library: A Handlist (Cambridge: Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, 1990), p. 12, items H 73, H 74, H 84.
159. Hey, "Cases," bk. 1, case 51, 20 May 1764, details the clearing of the delivery room by dismissing all the gossips, opening the windows, and bathing the patient to cool her body. He noted the good effect this had, and from this point on he used these procedures.
160. Charles White, A Treatise on the Management of Pregnant and Lying-In Women, repr. with intro. by Lawrence D. Longo (Canton, Mass.: Science History Publications, USA, 1987), pp. 40-45.
161. Ibid., case 4, p. 113.
162. Denman, Introduction (n. 27), 2: 173.
163. White, Treatise on Lying-In Women (n. 138), p. 45.
164. Denman, Introduction (n. 27), I: 362. Denman first mentions this in An Essay on Preternatural Labours (London:Johnson, 1786), p. 45.
165. Denman, Introduction (n. 27), I: 362. Denman first mentions this in An Essay on Preternatural Labours (London:Johnson, 1786), p. 45.
166. Ibid., p. 46.
167. Underwood, Diseases of Children (n. 134), p. v.
168. Hey, "Cases,", bk. 5, case 274.
169. Ibid., bk. 10, case 475.
170. Still, History of Paediatrics (n. 129), p. 478.
171. Ibid., pp. 481, 482.
172. Giambattista Morgagni, The Seats and Causes of Diseases Investigated by Anatomy in Five Books, Containing a Great Variety of Dissections with Remarks. To Which Are Added Very Accurate and Copious Indexes of the Principal Things and Names Therein Contained, trans. Benjamin Alexander (London: A. Millar and T. Cadell, 1768), bk. 3, letter 48, art. 60.
173. Still, History of Paediatrics (n. 129), p. 483.
174. Hey, "Cases," bk. 6, case 292.
175. Alexander Hamilton, A Treatise in Midwifery Comprehending the Management of Female Complaints, and the Treatment of Children in Early Infancy (London: J. Murray, 1781), p. 403.
176. William Nisbet, The Clinical Guide, Or, a Concise View of the Leading Facts, on the History, Nature, and Treatment of the Various Diseases That Form the Subject of Midwifery, or Attend the Pregnant, Parturient, and Puerperal States . . . to Which Is Added an Obstetrical Pharmacopoeia (London: J. Johnson, 1800), p. 183.
177. Jesse Foot, Observations upon the New Opinions of John Hunter, in His Late Treatise on the Venereal Disease (London: P. Beckett, 1786), p. 16.
178. William Hey, F.R.S., "Facts Illustrating the Effects of the Venereal Disease on the Foetus in Utero," Medico-Chirurg. Trans., 1816, 7: 541-50.
179. William Hey, "Medical and Surgical Cases," SCBLL, MSS 628, 268.
180. Hey, "Foetus in Utero" (n. 155), p. 543.
181. Johnson had a chapter on the infection of the mother with lues venera (syphilis), in which he noted that "the child is often dead before the birth, if born alive it seldom survived the month" - concluding, like Mauriceau almost a century earlier, that the child of an infected mother could also be infected with the disease: Johnson, New System of Midwifery (n. 122), p. 138. See also n. 44 above.
182. Ibid., p. 213.
183. Ibid., p. 214.
184. Smellie, Midwifery (n. 6), 3: 299, case 503.
185. Wilson, Making of Man-Midwifery (n. 3), pp. 203, 209 n. 46.
186. Wilson, "Enlightenment and Infant Care" (n. 128), p. 46.
187. James Lucas, On the Duties of a General Practitioner (London, 1808), p. 183.
188. Smellie, Anatomical Tables (n. 90), p. 96.
189. My conclusions from the evidence of Hey's domiciliary midwifery cases arc in contrast to the comment made by Evenden, Midwives (n. 30), p. 184: "women and their infants were to be the losers for generations to come."