William Smellie (1697?1763)

Dr Smellie’s Prescriptions for Pregnant Women

William Smellie (1697–1763) was unquestionably the most influential man-midwife, or specialist obstetrician, in Britain during the eighteenth century. His early years in Lanark and Glasgow were spent training as a medical apprentice and, from 1720, working as a local general practitioner. But in 1739 he left Scotland for London where he established an extensive midwifery practice, both for book...

William Smellie

MY object today is to try, I am sure very inadequately, to tell you something of the life of that illustrious fellow countryman of mine, William Smellie, the Master of British Midwifery, who was born in Lanark in the year 1697. Smellie lived during the reigns of four sovereigns-Queen Anne and the first three Hanoverian Georges. He saw the union of the Scottish and English Parliaments in 1707, a...

Heberden Historical Series

William Hunter (1718–1783) (Fig. 1) and his more famous younger brother, John (1728–1793) were born at Long Calderwood Farm, East Kilbride, a few miles south of Glasgow. William was educated at the College of Glasgow, as the University was then called, following which he became an apprentice to Dr William Cullen (1710–1790) who had started amedical practice in nearby Hamilton. William also atte...

A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, (1752-1764) by William Smellie

A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery is a three volume collection of patient accounts that William Smellie published from 1752 to 1764. Smellie, a physician and instructor in obstetrics in Great Britain, published these compilations to share his expertise in reproductive medicine, while also providing his students and colleagues with a source of reference in their own medical prac...

William Smellie and William Hunter: two great obstetricians and anatomists.