Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/110

 to be under the care of a sober, honest matron, well acquainted with lying-in women, employed by the Doctor for that purpose.” This is the first attempt in this country to establish a practical school or hospital for lying-in women. By his exertions in this direction, Dr. Shippen succeeded in popularizing “Man Midwifery,” and acquired a respectable share of practice. We are informed by Dr. Wistar, that prior to the Revolution, Dr. Shippen “seems to have had a distinct class of students in the branch of Obstetrics; after that he delivered a short course to his general class,” and adds: “I believe there was no lecture in which he shone so much as in his Introductory one to Midwifery, upon the subject of dress and deportment.”

The union of Anatomy and Midwifery, after Dr. Shippen’s death, did not continue without remonstrance upon the part of the Professor, Dr. Wistar. From the Minutes of the Board of Trustees, Jan. 9, 1809, immediately after his election, we find that he directed a letter to that body, “requesting, for reasons therein stated, that the Professorship of Anatomy and Midwifery be abolished, and that two distinct Professorships be established in this Seminary.” The movement which ensued from this proposition led to the passage of the following resolution, April 11, 1810:—

“That the present establishment of a Professor of Anatomy and Midwifery be divided, and that hereafter there shall be a Professorship of Anatomy, and a Professorship of Midwifery, but that it shall not be necessary in order to obtain the Degree of Doctor of Medicine, that the student shall attend the Professor of Midwifery.”

On the 29th of June, 1810, Dr. Thomas Chalkley James was elected Professor of Midwifery. To no one could the duties of this chair have been more appropriately committed than to this amiable, gentle, and accomplished gentleman.

But with the act of calling Dr. James to the newly-created chair of Obstetrics, it must not be concealed that a grudging assent was given to the propriety of elevating the subject to a condition of independence, and that its equality with others as a branch of medical science was denied, from the fact that attendance upon the lectures of the Professor was not made