Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs.

Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetrics : the science and the art / by Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Like all books, mine has some iterations; but I thought that to make my pages useful, it was inevitable to repeat statements; with- out which I could not. inscribe-the why and how on the same pages. If this is fit to be a book of consultation, it will be more useful for this fault. ,Hippocrates says that art is long; still, I think that, to repeat, is really to abbreviate; for the y 8s tsxvrj /j-axpij, and the tj 8s xpiai( xa’KsTtr], both vanish under a clear and comprehensible delineation of the Why and the How for every special occasion. I think you will find that I have in this book given a very clear relation of the new doctrines of menstruation, and that I have shown the Student the whole history and progress of the discovery of the mammiferous ovulum, from the time of the detection of the germi- nal vesicle by the Breslau professor, down to the last, most complete and admirable exposition of the whole subject by M. Coste, of the College of France. If this part of my publication is full and clear, I cannot doubt of its being advantageous. If I have done but this, and no more, I shall look confidently for useful results to my labor, for I know that multitudes of the younger class of my medical bre- thren, and especially of those that still belong to the Student-class, were formerly grossly neglected as to their instruction in these par- ticulars. No one should be sent forth with a diploma certifying his acquaintance with all the branches of Medicine, whose therapeutical course, while uninformed on the questions referred to, could not but be a mere succession of conjectures and blunders, rather than the sure steps of a learned and accurate reasoner. Apologetically, I pray the reader may know that the labor of this writing and publishing, added to my professional vocations, has been so severe as seriously to affect my health—to that degree, indeed, that I have been compelled to finish it by the assistance of an ama- nuensis, who has written at my dictation, and read the proof-sheets. I have not dared to examine the proofs of the last 250 pages, on account of a distressing neuralgia of the eyes, which has also pre- vented me from reading any book or considerable pamphlet since the autumn. It may be that I ought to solicit, from my American brethren, a favorable acceptance of this work, the fruit of many years of painful toil in the acquisition of clinical experience and knowledge. 1 ab- stain from doing so, not because I desire not such acceptance, but only upon the certain conviction I have, that the book is no longer mine—and that, in going forth from my hands, it hath found many owners, each of whom will and ought to treat it as may seem good in his own sight.