Page:Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia - George W Norris.djvu/49

 He commences by stating that, having been called to the assistance of a number of women in the country, in difficult labors, "most of which were made so by the unskilful old women about them, and seeing that great suffering to the mothers, accompanied often with loss of life to them, or their offspring, have followed, which could easily have been prevented by proper management, had made him resolve to introduce a course of lectures on that useful and necessary branch of surgery, in order to remedy those terrible evils, and to instruct those women who have had virtue enough to own their ignorance and apply for instruction, as well as those students who are qualifying themselves to practise in different parts of the country with safety and advantage to their fellow-creatures."

Two cases are then related which had fallen under his notice that had been sadly mismanaged. One of these was a natural labor, which was improperly interrupted by the use of instruments, causing the death of the mother; and the other, which occurred near Gloucester, New Jersey, was a shoulder presentation, in which the hand had come down, where two midwives who were in attendance had separated the arm "by knife and scissors," in which he delivered