Medical morals, illustrated with plates and extracts from medical works : designed to show the pernicious social and moral influence of the present system of medical practice, and the importance of establishing female medical colleges, and educating and employing female physicians for their own sex / by George Gregory.
- George Gregory
- Date:
- 1852
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Medical morals, illustrated with plates and extracts from medical works : designed to show the pernicious social and moral influence of the present system of medical practice, and the importance of establishing female medical colleges, and educating and employing female physicians for their own sex / by George Gregory. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![4G Mi;i>l< a I. MORALS. for her relief. Her husband made attempts to get redress, but, being a simple man, was persuaded to desist. Mr. M. then exclaims, 0, the mischiefs perpetrated by men-midwives ! A thousand tongues could not express half the enormities done by these sly usurpers ! He then continues : Before I close my answer to your very polite letter, suffer me to mention a little occurrence. When my sentiments on the atrocity of man-midwifery began to be somewhat publicly known, a teacher of the art in Brunswick College [Me.] took occa- sion to reprimand me for my audacity. After making my defence, and looking him sternly in the face, where guilt flashed in every direction, he passed off by saying, ' We have got the business in our own hands, and we will keep it.' Your writings, sir, I hope, will dis- appoint him and all his coadjutors. It is this resolute determination on the part of so many of the teachers and disciples of the art that obliges us much, against our inclinations, to draw the veil, and let the public look in upon the hideousness of their occupation, that thus the only effectual power, public sentiment, may be applied to put an end to this marvellous inno- vation, so secretly and successfully introduced by these sly usurpers. The following is an extract from the Young Lady's Book, by Rev. William Hosmer, Auburn, N. Y. Mr. H. is an able and dis- tinguished author, and a prominent clergyman of the Methodist denomination, being the official editor of one of their widely-circu- lated journals, through which ho has done much to promote the cause of female medical education. We wish his Young Lady's Book might be read by all ladies, young and old, and by gentleman also. By far the most important consideration connected with the med- ical education of females, is the protection which it affords to their moral character. The distinction of sex, so immutable in the consti- tution of society, is entirely overlooked in the modern practice of medicine. The regular practice is exclusively in the hands of men, and no attention whatever is paid to the fact that female delicacy and virtue must suffer by such an unnatural arrangement. Physicians are a privileged class — a class whose privileges are the ruin of soci- ety. There is something indescribably horrible in this abuse. Under the name of humanity, and shielded by professional usage, the sacred barriers of morality have been broken down. A profession that might have been useful, had it confined its labors within proper limits, has, by overstepping those limits, and thereby profaning the sanctity](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2112422x_0048.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
