Labor among primitive peoples : Showing the development of the obstetric science of to-day, from the natural and instinctive customs of all races, civilized and savage, past and present / By Geo. J. Engelmann.

  • George Julius Engelmann
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Labor among primitive peoples : Showing the development of the obstetric science of to-day, from the natural and instinctive customs of all races, civilized and savage, past and present / By Geo. J. Engelmann. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    PREGNANCY, PARTURITION AND CHILDBED. As it shall be my endeavor to unravel the mysteries of the obstetric art among primitive peoples, to describe the peculiar features in the obstetric practice of the various savage races during every stage of labor, I will now, in this first chapter, for the better understanding of these details, completely de- scribe that most interesting period in the life of woman, so important, socially as well as professionally—the time of pregnancy, labor and childbed. We will find among the natural habits of primitive people many points of resemblance to the customs of our more advanced civilization. In their views, in their methods of treatment of the parturient, we see rudely depicted the lying-in chamber of to-day; indeed, many a labor in the cellar or the attic of a crowded city, or in the log cabin of a secluded country dis- trict, differs but little from that which we will find in the te])et of the Indian or the hut of the Negro; in fact, it is here that we often see customs which are rudely indicative of some of the very best of our modern improvements upon which obste- tricians greatly pride themselves; observation has taught these children of nature many a lesson of which, in their natural shrewdness, they have profited. PREGNANCY. We can trace a certain resemblance throughout; thus a great deal of interest, and I may say of importance, attaches among many tribes to the pregnant state, be it in the jungles of India, in the wilds of Africa, or upon our own prairies. It is to the woman an eventful period of her life, and is appreci- ated as such by her tribe as important, not only for herself but for all her people. The Andamanese, for instance, are extremely proud of their condition, which in their native state
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