Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/50

 xl INTRODUCTION

In the meantime, while the old gynecology was thus going to seed, there was, beginning with McDowell, in 1809, and Marion Sims, in 1849, a new gynecology springing up full of life and vigor, sturdy, independent and aggressive, about to disown all but a remote kinship with the pining maiden allied to obstetrics, still wearing a pessary, woe-begone with an irritable uterus and bed-ridden with hysteria.

The new specialty, the first of all modern specialties, was the child of a new spirit in a new age, born in an era of healthy scepticism, and fostered by every new and quickening influence in an age pre-eminent in scientific investigation and progress.

Gynecology thus sprang not like Minerva fully armed from the head of Jove, perfect at the onset, but took shape gradually, being moulded feature by feature and limb by limb, the formation and assemblage of the parts being hastened by the discovery of certain general principles, affecting and quickening the whole art of surgery in all its branches. It was, notably, anesthesia which robbed surgery of its horrors, asepsis which robbed it of its dangers, and cellular pathology which came as a godsend to enable the operator to discriminate between malignant and non-malignant growths.

The vital question which now affects gynecology is this, is she destined to live a spinster all her days? For we see her on one hand courted by her obstetrical ancestor, who seeks to draw her once more into an unholy, unfruitful alliance, destined to rob her of virility, to be rocked into inocuous desuetude for the rest of her days in the obstetric cradle, sucking the withered ancestral finger in the vain hope of nourishment [with apology for mixed metaphor].

On the other hand, we see her wooed by a vigorous, manly suitor, General Surgery, seeking to allure her from her autonomy into his own house under his own name, obliterating her identity.

Aside from the three great factors mentioned which have done so much to transform modern surgery, certain other scarcely less important factors took their rise in the spirit of the times, and were scarcely less effective if less spectacular and less heralded.

These were:

1. The formation of voluntary mutual improvement associations for the discussion of medical topics and the promulgation of new ideas, commonly called state or county medical societies.

2. The more or less regular publication of journals or transactions by these societies for the permanent record and the wider diffusion of knowledge.

3. The formation of lectureships and professorships on Diseases of Women in various teaching institutions. Giving dignity to the subject and training young men.