An address to British females on the moral management of pregnancy and labour, and some cursory observations on medical deportment

by William Cooke

Deeply participating, however, as we do in the general grief for the death of an amiable Princess, and sympathizing with the sorrowful illustrious family, it is not within our province to eulogize the deceased, nor can we hope to console the surviving relatives; yet there is one class of mourners that demands commiseration, and whose claims will be more particularly directed to the practitioners of medicine.

If it be within the department of a medical practitioner to soothe the afflictions of mankind, unquestionably a large portion of his attention and kindness is demanded at the present time. Whilst almost every occupation is more or less suspended, as a tribute to departed excellence, and as a token of loyal sympathy, it would be disreputable to a profession, so important to the welfare of mankind, to withhold its share in the general emotion.

The public feeling of sorrow is honorable to the British nation, and illustrates the superior sensibility and the moral pre-eminence derived from the diffusion of Christian principles. Where these principles are adopted and diffused, men cannot circumscribe within their own bosoms, or within the bosom of their families, those sources of pleasure or grief which the Creator has bestowed indiscriminately. We ought to participate in each other’s pleasures, and to sympathize is mutual sorrow.

Duties often devolve on a practitioner of surgery, which demand the control of his feelings; and this has elicited the popular charge, that sensations, common to the rest of mankind, are to him unknown. Surely we are traduced—and on an occasion like this it will neither be thought unphilosophical, nor unworthy the attention of a scientific mind, to incline itself to an event which has agitated the country, and which especially fills the bosom of every female in the land.

Collectively, it is impracticable to exhibit their interest on the occasion, but as individuals there is an important niche which they, and none else can occupy. It would neither be wise nor honorable to extinguish sensibility, nor to suppress the salutary eloquence of social grief; but to counteract the indulgence of excessive passion, and to guard against the fruitful evils to which there is a consequent and perpetual tendency, is perfectly consistent both with wisdom and honor; and a prompt and generous effort to accomplish purposes so desirable, must be a pleasing tribute to the illustrious House, by whose afflictions these passions have been created.

It redounds to the credit of the clergy, not only in the established church, but equally of all denominations, that the mournful event has been observed in the most obvious and impressive manner, and their office been made subservient to the condolence and moral improvement of society. Yet is there one class of persons, most interesting from their sex, from their condition in life, and from their extraordinary participation in the event, owing to peculiar circumstantials of coincidence, which, though accessible to the ordinary means of consolation, demands the most solicitous and encouraging attention. It is unnecessary here to observe, that the persons alluded to are females in the state of pregnancy, and more particularly those, who, like Her Royal Highness, are anticipating the first parturition.

They cannot but discern that the persons most competent to administer encouragement, are those to whose management their health is entrusted; and upon their accoucheur it unequivocally devolves not only to assist in the moments of child-birth, but to use every precaution to conduct to that period in safety. Timidity and apprehension often modify the nature of child-birth, without any extraordinary occurrence. Instances of predicted death, and predicted suffering, have been fully authenticated; and those, who have attributed the prescience to supernatural agency, have been misled. Persons who die at a predicted time, die not in consequence of the thing portended:—if the prediction rest upon some imaginary omen, or unwarrantable timidity, death is the punishment of their superstition, or their fears.

Sympathetic sorrow and fear must be distinguished. Who would interdict at the present a moderate indulgence in the former? but, for inordinate fear, this fatal instance of child-birth does not supply the least well-grounded occasion. It cannot, however, be averted, that females thus delicately situated, will be the subject of needless apprehension, and may become enslaved by unwarrantable anxiety and terror; and which it is the duty, and will I am persuaded, be within the power, of a conscientious man, nearly, if not wholly, to suppress.

It would be a dereliction from my present feelings, nor do I think it incompatible with the design, to ask, if practitioners in Midwifery, and of Medical Science in general, in their attachment to the custom of administering drugs, and in their repugnance to a species of fanatical empiricism, do not too much disregard the moral treatment of disease?

Let it not be supposed that I would question the efficacy of Medicine, or that I would tolerate the chicanery or chimeras of Tractorism or Magnetism; for though it would be well if the articles of our Materia Medica were reduced to at least one twentieth of their present number, I cannot hesitate to aver, that some drugs are capable of acting specifically on the animal frame. Must it not also be admitted, that although, upon every genuine principle of philanthropy, we would sweep imposture “with the besom of destruction,” the audacious empiric has produced effects well adapted to astonish the vulgar, and to claim for himself a large portion of ephemeral reputation?