Essays and notes on the physiology and diseases of women, and on practical midwifery / by John Robertson.
- John Roberton
- Date:
- 1851
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays and notes on the physiology and diseases of women, and on practical midwifery / by John Robertson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![ing, in my rambles on this day of plenty, I found beyond a doubt, that the women do not eat with the men; but waiting until they are first satisfied, then enjoy a feast by themselves.1 The same custom is universal in Hindustan: Women, according to the Hon. Mr. Elphinstone, do not join in the society of men, and are not admitted to an equality with them. In the lower orders, the wife who cooks and serves the dinner, waits till the husband has finished before she begins. When persons of different sexes walk together, the woman always follows the man, even when there is no obstacle to their walking abreast.3 If this be so among the Hindus, declared by Mr. Elphinstone to be a humane people, as evinced by some of their war customs, and m several of the laws of Menu,3 we may, perhaps, infer, that it is the same, or worse elsewhere, in Asia. Even among the Nestorian Christians of Armenia, so powerful is the influence of surrounding manners, that the men do not eat with the women.4 If it could be said, which it cannot, with strictness be, that the Esquimaux have a form of worship, women would not be admitted to its rites. Thus, in an exhibition of the feat of raising a spirit, by the Wizard Toolemak, 1 Captain Lyon's 'Private Journal,' pp. 28 and 142. 2 'History of India,' Second edition, vol. i, p. 356. s Ibid., vol. i, p. 152. 4 Dr Grant's 'Nestorian Christians ;' London, 1841, p. 0/. Father Labat remarks, that even a negro slave does not eat mth ]lis wife and children. Quoted by Reginald Forster, p. 423. Very recently Dr. Tarns has observed the same trait among the negro people of the Portuguese island of San Antonio: 'Ayosrt to the Portuguese Possessions of West Africa,' translated from the German; London, 1845, vol. i, p. 43.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21460681_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
