Ramsey Arram
Eng. 106
Professor Mark Canada
Sept. 21, 2001
Abstract of "On the Importance of the Obstetrick Art"
Catherine M. Scholten provides a historical look at medical
practices in the 1700's and early 1800's. Her article is focused on
child birth and the primitive technology that was used to insure a good delivery.
The beginning of the article is a painfull passage describing three days
of labor, which was performed by William Shippen, Jr. The only instrument
used was a pair of forceps that was kept in the doctor's pocket. William
Shippen, Jr. was a prominent member of America's first generation of doctors
trained in obstreticks. He went on to be the first doctor to maintain
a regular practice attending child birth midwives delivered in 1763.
Until the 1760's, the field of child birth was considered a field for women.
Child birth was supposed to be suffered by women together, and it was divinely
ordained. Scholten explaines to us that it was typical for women to give
birth to 6 - 8 children in the colonial period. Scholten compares the
Cotton Mather's ruthless view of pregnancy as a "lethal condition" to John
Oliver's point of view of the need for prayer for the dangers of pregnancy.
We find in her article that women were the midwives of colonial times.
Pregnant women always relied on the women around them and their mother's
to help them bear their child. Women did enjoy some recognition in
the medical field during this time. They had to swear to oaths, first
in England, for responsibility to supervise the child birth, baptise
the baby in a Church of England, and report the true parents. Massachussets
and New York were the first two states to make women, surgeons, and physicians
take an oath to be liscened to deliver a child. They were responsible
for everything except the place of baptism, and they were not allowed to
perform their practice in front of any males unless under an extreme condition.
We see a clear a example of colonial america midwivery on a Mrs. Phillip's
gravestone described in the article. It says she was liscened deliver
children in 1718, and she delivered over 3,000 children in the world.
This proves the capability of the women to perform midwivery in early America
without the technology of today and our hospitals. In earlier colonial
times the women barely ever laid flat when giving birth, and in the deliverence
the
liscened women, surgeon, or doctor caught the child and tied the umbilical
cord, very primitive to the preperation and the drugs we have available to
reduce pain and induce labor and perform c-sections. When a fetus exited
the birth canal feet first, if it wasn't performed right they had to kill
the fetus. There were many dangers and risks in colonial times, and
what used to be known as a practice strictly for women is now performed by
both sexes all over America.
Abstract of "The Angelical Conjunction Revisited:
Another Look at the Preacher - Physician in Colonial America and the
Throat
Distemper Epidemic"
Practitioner versus preacher physicians was a battle throughout the
1700's. Although in 1735 they had good relations the preacher-physicians
started to disappear throughout the country. The preacher physician
was almost invented by colonial America. One reason is because professional
doctors stoppped coming to America when they only found hardships and extreme
labor and little oppurtunity for professional doctors. An argument
found in this article claims that colonial doctors were just as good as professional
doctor's in the colonial times. Schools at the time had no set method
to teach medical students, instead they learned about beliefs and theories
of the times. Which results in the claim that colonial American doctors
were just as good as the educated English doctor. The preacher's of
the colonial America were encouraged to practice medicine to lessen the financial
burden of the congregation, and help the poor. Cotton Mather, and influencial
voice in medicine, argued that preacher's should learn medicine because they
are the most learned professionals of the day. One reason is because
diseases and sickness were directly related to the work of Satan and tests
of God, so the preacher could heal the soul and body in colonial times. Conflict
arose between preacher physicians and educated practioners when smallpox
hit. The preacher physician approved inoculation ( the introduction
of mild form of disease or virus to produce immunity), while the practitioner
opposed it. Two strong voices on this subject were Cotton Mather who
approved it because of angelical conjunction, while William Douglas opposed
it mostly because preacher physicians approved it. John Williams wrote
an article the New England Courant disapproving it because inoculation didn't
coincide with the law of physic. Inoculation proved to work when 5,579
people were diagnosed with smallpox and only 844 people died - 15%. Despite
this, Douglass and the practioners won the battle because they proved preacher
physicians weren't the most learned professionals. Many arguments arose
from the throat distemper epidemic, which originated in Kingston, N.H. It
took 5,000 people, but mostly children. The arguments between preacher
physicians and practioners is shown through this article. It is a well-supported
paper showing the historical development of the colonial American Doctor.
Important Names
William Douglas
Cotton Mather
Zabdiel Boylsten
John Williams
William Shippen, Jr.