Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/222

206 206 A Short History of Nursing wife was in almost universal employ for normal cases, the medical man being called only in emer- gencies. The large clinics and universities of mid- Europe and of the Scandinavian countries gave thorough instruction to midwives at a compara- tively early time, and recognized the importance of their work. It was perhaps in the last-named nations that they came to hold the most dignified position. So honourable there was the calling, that the women who entered it were comparable with modern medical women in social status and culture. In southern Europe, though technically well-taught, the social class was different, and the type often hard, and even of questionable morale. Teaching and research remained chiefly in men's hands, and as the medical profession advanced there was a growing tendency, especially in Anglo- Saxon countries, to take obstetrics over from the midwives. The result of this tendency was a growing degradation of midwifery, which was strongly resisted by a group of keenly intelligent and educated Englishwomen, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. They were trained mid- wives who had taken university courses in other countries. They believed in their work and held it high. To place it where they wanted it to be, these women carried on a most courageous and deter-