Answer to the religious objections advanced against the employment of anaesthetic agents in midwifery and surgery / By J.Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Answer to the religious objections advanced against the employment of anaesthetic agents in midwifery and surgery / By J.Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake : in sorrow (^itztzaibhon) shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life : 18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the iield. 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou re- turn unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken : for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. In the form of a few separate observations, I will now add the remarks and answers which I wish to make. And I would begin by observing, that,— 1. The primeval curse is triple. It contains a judg- ment, First, upon the serpent (verses 14,15); Second- ly, upon the woman (v. 16) ; and, Thirdly, upon the ground for the sake of the man (v. 17-19).—With the first of these three curses—that on the serpent—and its apparent permanence (Isaiah Ixv. 25,), our present inquiry has nothing to do. It is enough for me to re- mark, that the second and third curses—on the woman and on the ground—are evidently, from diilerent parts of the Holy Word, not immutable. God himself, on more than one occasion, promises the removal of them, and in general conjunctly, to the Israelites, provided they would keep their covenants and obey his laws. See, for example, Deuteronomy vii. 13, I will bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, &c.; xxviii. 4, Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, &c. See also Chap, xxviii. 11, &c. In Isaiah (xxviii. 23-29), man's culture by the plough, &c., of the ground cursed by God, is said to come from the ])rovidence of God himself. For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach