Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/221

205 Extensions of Nursing Field 205 pices by a nurse, Elizabeth Crowell. This is the practice of midwifery, of which it seems important to give a brief historical outline. It is unnecessary to point out the extreme an- tiquity of midwifery. It is probably not as old as nursing, for the first mothers doubtless delivered themselves, as Indian women sometimes have done. But from remote ages it had been solely the province of women. Midwifery was not origi- nally a part of medicine, nor of nursing, but held a place of its own, distinct and clear cut, while mid wives had always been a distinct class. Classic allusions and legendary history attribute superior skill and a distinction of caste to midwives. Their position doubtless rose and fell with the general position of women, as that of nurses did. How- ever notable they may have been among the Norse- men and Druids, or in the India of Buddha, it is only too well known to mission workers that the most dreadful ignorance and superstition now con- trol this fundamental service to motherhood in countries that have fallen behind in enlightenment, or that have retained the old belief in demoniacal possession. On the European continent, midwifery was re- cognized as a distinct and important art, before modern skilled nursing was thought of. The mid-