Dr. William Smellie and his contemporaries : a contribution to the history of midwifery in the eighteenth century / by John Glaister.

  • Glaister, John, 1856-1932.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. William Smellie and his contemporaries : a contribution to the history of midwifery in the eighteenth century / by John Glaister. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    32/396
    to be such, of this lady, is in Smollett’s novel, The Adven- tures of Peregrine Pickle, and, more particularly, in The Memoirs of a Lady of Fashion, which is therein incorporated, and which was published in 1751; the lady of fashion being the notorious Lady Vane. In an edition of Smollett’s works, published by Nimmo of Edinburgh in 1870, there is prefixed a memoir of the author, by David Herbert, M.A. In his annotations on The Memoirs of a Lady of Fashion, Herbert advances the opinion that the Mrs. S— which occurs in the narrative was none other than the wife of Smellie, and that Dr. S— was Smellie himself. The reader will remember that in these memoirs there is a considerable number of persons mentioned whose names are indicated by an initial letter followed by a dash. Herbert, indeed, in the above work, goes the length of filling in the blank Dr. S— as Dr. S(mellie), and Mrs. S— as Mrs. S(mellie). At page 361 of this edition, it is stated that Lady Vane was seized with a violent fit of illness, “in which,” the narrative goes on to say, “ I [Lady Vane] was visited by my father, and attended by two physicians, one of whom despaired of my life, and took his leave accordingly ; but Dr. S(mellie), who was the other, persisted in his attendance, and, in all human appearance, saved my life ; a circumstance by which he acquired a great share of reputation.” Again, at page 373, it is stated in the narrative, that “ in a few weeks we were joined by Dr. S(mellie) and his lady, who visited us at Tun- bridge according to their promise,” etc. ; and, on another occasion, “ Mrs. S(mellie) sat up all night by my bedside, and was so good as to assure me that she would not leave me until I should be safely delivered from the apprehensions that surrounded me in this house, to which she and the doctor had been the principal cause of my coming ” ; and, further, that “ we returned to town with the doctor and Mrs. S(mellie).” The reasons which Herbert advances for believing the Dr. S— to be Dr. Smellie are these: “ The remark that ‘ he acquired a great share of reputation ’ means to imply subse- quent eminence. Sir Hans Sloane was still alive, but he attained eminence long before this time. Dr. Smellie had been just a year or two in London, to which he came in 1739* It might be he. His position, at the time these memoirs were