A Brief Survey of Early Midwifery Practice

IN choosing a subject for my address tonight , I was anxious to speak about something that might be of general interest to everyone present, and try to avoid anything of a technical nature, as I am sure you will have several opportunities of listening to scientific papers on medical subjects at our meetings here during the next year, given by men much better qualified for that purpose than I am. Therefore, with the desire to keep as much as possible to my own subject, I am going to endeavour to interest you for a very short time on the early beginnings of midwifery practice. How did the modern midwifery of civilized nations develop from the original beginnings? Now that is a question, even with our most stringent research, to which we have not been able to furnish a complete answer. However, the investigations into the manners and customs, as well as the manipulations and assistance at birth, are of outstanding interest in the history of civilization. The ancient records at our disposal are so meagre. that they contain very little that is of value to us in arriving at the stage midwifery practice had reached in the early cenituries B.C. The oldest records of woman's diseases in our possession at present, mostly gynaecological, saved from the disastrous fire which burnt down the great library at Alexandria centuries ago, are contained in some of the ancient Egyptian papyri, now in the library at Leipzig University. One of these ancient manuscripts, the Ebers Papyrus, was written about the year 1550 B.C., but in its compilation and editing may be dated back as far as the year 1900 B.C. Five columns of this Papyrus deal with obstetrics and gynecology. The obstetric rules and prescriptions relate to the acceleration of parturition; to the methods of producing abortion; to affections of the female breasts, and to the birth prognosis for the newborn child, which depend upon the nature of its first cries and its way of holding its head. Further references to midwifery practice contained in this Papyrus and others, such as the Kahum and Westcar Papyri, written about the same time, were special instructions and tests for the diagnosis of pregnancy, some of which, I am afraid, 109