The obstetric forceps: a short history and descriptive catalogue of the forceps in the Museum of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

I would also have liked to have known what Burgel and Maulitz, who wrote the most interesting essays, make of the co-existence of lay and scientific concepts of pathology. Buirgel shows how Prophetic and Galenic systems intersected in Arabic medicine: orthodox Muslims were obliged to question whether rational, secular therapies were compatible with pious striving and trust in God's omnipotence. Prophetic medicine, according to Burgel, shifted authority from the ancients to the Koran and to the Prophet. In an aside, he suggests that orthodox Muslims today face a similar question in regard to scientific medicine; indeed, the sayings of the Prophet (Hadiths) are sometimes invoked to legitimize such scientific practices as organ transplantation. Maulitz traces the development of American pathology to the early twentieth century, a tale of increasing technical complexity and sub-division. Unfortunately, there is no discussion of the pathology's impact on the doctor-patient relationship. The technical and social complexity of scientific pathology distanced pathology from clinical medicine, even as this very complexity facilitated the divergence of clinical from lay conceptions of disease.