The Midwife and the Witch

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves that we are underlings." The words of Shakespeare are not dimmed for us. In some respects we are nearer to the thought of his day than we like to admit, for the cults of astrology, numerology and their ilk still find ready adherents. The superstitions of the ball diamond seem to amuse us but it is disappointing to find counterparts among our astronauts. The phenomenon of human reproduction has always interested mankind and many of the superstitions that have grown up around it go far back into the dawn of history. Every obstetrician is familiar with the more persistent which appear to be forever fixed. The Midwife and the Witch is a scholarly and significant book and delightfully written. It should have a special appeal to those interested in obstetrics: doctors, nurses, midwives, medical students. It is a truism that no worker in any field can consider himself as educated unless he knows something of the history of his discipline. A large portion of the book is concerned with the history of the midwife in Europe. In New England our earliest midwives were those who had been licenced to practise in the old country. Such a one was Elizabeth Smithson of Guilford, eulogized at her death by her son-in-law, the cleric physician Jared Eliot, as one "who knew when to exert herself vigorously and also when it was her strength to sit still." Interesting today is the certified nurse-midwife movement which has made an auspicious start in our country in some of our best institutions. Interesting too is the fact that the first use of these valuable aides in a teaching hospital in the United States took place in the 1940's at the Yale-New Haven Medical Center where Dr. Forbes is engaged in teaching. Dr. Forbes' book is primarily a treatise on superstitions and chiefly those surrounding pregnancy and childbirth. Chapter titles include, Pregnancy and Fertility Tests, The Prediction of Sex, Chalcedony and Childbirth, The Veil of Good Fortune, The Midwife and the Witch, Perette the Midwife, Early Regulation of English Midwives. This book goes beyond that of another medical history for it points accusingly, if indirectly, to our own times. It is a missionary effort aimed at a day when we shall have the courage to restore the 13th floor to many of our skyscrapers. HERBERT THOMS