The Obstetric catechism : containing two thousand three hundred and forty-seven questions and answers on obstetrics proper / by Joseph Warrington.

  • Warrington, Joseph, -1888.
Date:
1854 [c.1853]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Obstetric catechism : containing two thousand three hundred and forty-seven questions and answers on obstetrics proper / by Joseph Warrington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Emory University.

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    of the numerous cultivators of obstetric medicine now liv- ing—and.I have apparently made you draw some of your responses from a few of the many excellent volumes which have been written on obstetrics. I know full well, young gentlemen, that during the hurried pupilage, which unfor- tunately is the custom of the present age, you cannot have read and reflected upon all that such industrious men could tell you, or have written for you; but should not the al- most unauimous sentiment of the great American medical association influence you and your successors to protract the period of your studentship, I pray that you may, even after having acquired the degree of the Doctorate in the schools of your choice, before you attempt to share largely in those weighty responsibilities which are experienced by some of your older brethren, embrace every possible op- portunity to make yourselves acquainted with the results of their carefully made observations, either by conversation or correspondence with those who are now busy on the stage of professional life, or studying the works of those who have fulfilled their destiny here and have gone hence to receive their retribution, leaving to us a rich legacy in their recorded sentiments and experience. Gentlemen—in the course of a quarter of a century de- voted to the practice of medicine, and especially to that of obstetrics, I have many times fuRy realized the truth of the assertion of the venerable Dr. John W. Francis of New York, uttered more than thirty years ago, and which, on the present occasion, I transmit to you. Another circumstance which fortifies the claims of this branch of study, arises from the absolute certainty, that every one engaged in the practice of medicine, is liable to be called upon in obstetrical cases. Although it is per- mitted, that the practice of physic and surgery be exercised by the same individual, it is not unusual for persons to se- lect that particular branch to which their genius or feelings are most partial. But, it is proper for us to bear in mind, that whether emulous of medical or surgical reputation, in the course of our duties, calls in midwifery happen to all. To gentlemen who enter upon the practice of medicine in this country, a knowledge of the obstetric art is indispens- able. Cases of labor occur in every well regulated family, and calls of this nature can neither be parried or delayed.