[58] A correspondent has kindly communicated to us the following “ower true” tale of humble life:—“A poor girl, married, at the age of sixteen, to a youth not much older than, and equally poor with, herself (so impoverished are they), fell in labour of her first child. She was living with her father and mother, and he with his, for they were too poor to keep house, and her father was an old man and paralyzed, and both generations, on both sides, were as poor as was possible, consistently with living at all. Nevertheless, the wife’s mother, having known better days, was ambitious of having her daughter attended by a doctor, and, during her pregnancy, had, by one device or another, scraped together the sum of half a guinea—the doctor’s fee—which was laid up in store—an uneasy possession, in the meantime, for the poor mother, whose pressing occasions often tempted her to break in upon it. Labour, at length, coming on, late at night, as usual, the chosen doctor was sent or rather gone for, and came. The girl was in considerable pain, but the doctor, after the usual examination, declared his services to be, for the present, unnecessary. The doctor, however, was not so occupied with his patient but that he was observed, by her mother, to cast sundry glances around the forlorn and desolate apartment, as if doubtful of his fee. It is but justice to the apartment to state that it fully warranted the doctor’s suspicions. The doctor, however, not being wanted, as he said, went home, leaving it to be understood that he would come again. Not coming, a long time having elapsed, and the labour becoming urgent, the mother went to the doctor’s house (this was the third time that, full of trouble, she traversed a mile of windy streets at midnight). Her application to the knocker was answered from the window by the doctor’s wife, who stated that her husband was in bed, and meant to stay there unless his fee was paid down. In vain the poor woman urged that the fee was ready, pleading besides her daughter’s extremity. ‘No,’ was the reply, ‘if not paid then and there the doctor would not stir.’ This being simply impossible, the poor woman again sought her home, which, by this time, was a scene of pain, terror, and confusion. And now, instead of the ‘usurper,’ the ‘true prince’ was first thought of in the person of an old woman in a neighbouring court, who was well spoken of, and, by her timely aid, the long protracted labour was at length terminated for the moderate fee of five shillings. So the girl did well, the mother saved five shillings and sixpence, and the doctor remains a respectable man!!”
[59] Dr. Stevens mentions, that Dr. Gregory took from a gravestone in “the old burying ground” in Charlestown the following inscription:—
“Here lyes interred the body of Mrs. Elizabeth Phillips, wife to Mr. John Phillips, who was born in Westminster, in Great Britain, and commissioned by John, Lord Bishop of London, in the year 1718, to the office of a midwife, and came to this country in the year 1719, and, by the blessing of God, has brought into this world above 3,000 children.”
An obituary notice in the Boston Liberator of 1845, runs thus:—
“Mrs. Janet Alexander died in Boston, September 15, 1845, after an illness of nearly four months, aged 61 years. She was a native of Scotland, and was instructed in the theory and practice of midwifery by Dr. James Hamilton, the celebrated professor of Midwifery in the University of Edinburgh. She received her diploma from him in 1817. She arrived in Boston in November, 1819, and commenced the exercise of her profession on the ensuing Christmas day; and for a period of more than twenty-five years’ practice among the most intelligent and respectable portion of the community, was most singularly successful, having NEVER, IN ANY INSTANCE, LOST A PATIENT.”
[60] “We may, with tolerable safety, estimate the present population of the Chinese Empire as between 350,000,000, and 400,000,000 of human beings. The constant flow of emigration from China, contrasted with the complete absence of immigration into China, is striking evidence of the redundancy of the population; for though that emigration is almost wholly confined to two provinces, namely, Kwangtung and Fookein, representing together a population of probably from 34,000,000, to 35,000,000, I am disposed to think, that a number nearer 3,000,000 than 2,000,000 from these provinces alone, is located in foreign countries. In the kingdom of Siam it is estimated that there are at least 1,500,000 Chinese, of which 200,000 are in the capital (Bankok). They crowd all the islands of the Indian Archipelago. In Java, we know by a correct census, there are 136,000. Cochin China teems with Chinese. In this colony we are seldom without one, two, or three vessels taking Chinese emigrants to California and other places. Multitudes go to Australia, to the Philippines, to the Sandwich Islands, to the Western Coast of Central and Southern America, some have made their way to British India. The emigration to the British West Indies has been considerable; to the Havannah greater still. The annual arrivals in Singapore are estimated at an average of 10,000, and 20,000 is the number that are said annually to return to China.”—Sir John Bowring.
[61] “Notwithstanding all our affectation of superior delicacy, and our reprehension of the coarse manners of our ancestors, we suspect that they would have been shocked at the idea of the indelicate and unnecessary presence of a man in the sanctuary of the lying-in room.”—Plea for Physicians, Fraser’s Magazine, March, 1848.
[62] “An institution such as I have in my mind, should be a place where women could obtain a sort of professional education under professors of the other sex,—for men are the best instructors of women;—where they might be trained as hospital and village nurses, visitors of the poor, and teachers in the elementary and reformatory schools,” &c.—Mrs. Jameson’s “Sisters of Charity,” page 116.
[63] Roberton says, “In speaking of the small mortality in child-bed among the poor, I limit my remark to those of this community (Manchester), who have long had the advantage of being attended chiefly by midwives carefully trained and educated in connexion with our Lying-in Charity.”—Pag. 437.
[64] We have heard that the almost incredible sum of five hundred guineas has been paid as a fee to one of the fashionable “ladies’ doctors:” and that another caused it to be understood that he would not take a less fee than fifty guineas, whereupon the number of patients soliciting his attendance increased a hundred fold.