William Cooke

“ We have seen striking indications of disregard to human suffering in our hospitals; and often has it called forth a disgusting expression of risibility amongst the students. Painful, indeed, is it to observe the mistaken excellence attached to an apparent disregard of human suffering: it seems to be thought, that there is something philosophical in conquering the common sympathies of human life, although it is by them society is cemented. ”

“ It is true, artifice has often taken precedence of merit. Attractive as popularity undeniably is, the practitioner who solicits the aid of artifice to rise into notice, not only forfeits his character, but hazards the sacrifice of future professional honor and success, on the altar of a most precarious goddess:—
“To seek honor, is to lose liberty.”
Recently the most strenuous efforts have [Pg 10] been made to render the medical profession more worthy of public confidence, but the appropriation of means has surely been surprisingly perverted. ”

“ The mind is in the condition of the quickest sensibility. Every thing transacted about the patient should be done openly. All whisperings or attempts at secrecy, excite the utmost curiosity, and essays at evasion only heighten the distress. All allusion to unfavourable cases should be most sacredly avoided. Nothing should tempt the individual on whom reliance is placed in these instances, to concede the truth—a falsehood once detected, contravenes all future trust ”

“ The endurance of pain, ever raises more or less anxiety for ease; and as in child-birth it is known there is a limit—a period when the trouble shall instantly cease—there is peculiar desire to ascertain the probable duration of suffering. The hopes and wishes of practitioners often seduce them into a definition. The period arrives, and is succeeded by disappointment—another is fixed, which equally disappoints the expectation, and ceaselessly enervates the patient. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And under this and every other instance of human instability and calamity, one common principle remains as a hope which cannot be shaken. We can look from earth to heaven, and say, ‘Thou, O Lord, remaineth for ever, thy throne from generation to generation.’”—Dr. ”

“ Royalty has no exemptions from disease; nor is there any royal exoneration from the contingencies of human life. If a female, in ordinary rank, die of fever, it is not brooded over to excess; and if one in these subordinate walks fall in the hour of child-birth, soon its influence subsides. ”

“ But if we allow the ascendancy of mind, its agency becomes most powerful when most sensitive; and when, with this morbid sensibility, it is most subjected to molestation.
How interesting and impressive are the claims of a female under these circumstances; and attempts to administer relief, by the unassisted aid of medicine, will, not unfrequently, issue in disappointment.
The causes of miscarriage vary; and as various as are the causes, must be the medical treatment. These causes primarily belong, in general, to the parent; but they may exist independently in the conception. ”

“ The scientific mind ought to appreciate the influence which one human being is capable of exerting over another; and by reflecting on it, the most available line of conduct in the removal of disease will be discovered. ”

“ 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 ”

“ To designate a disease is by no means difficult; but to describe on paper all the distinctions of an experienced eye, and all the erudition of habituated touch, and to impart to them the full energy of the original source of demonstration, would require a power of delineation which is unattainable. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Varied as the cases of parturition are, if the principle is kept in view, an intelligent mind will supply the deficiency. And a female will be conducted through a lingering labor with much less suffering, and much less exhaustion than under more unguarded treatment. ”

“ Some men have directed all their time and talents to insulated departments of medical or surgical practice. Does not this make them pedantic? Although they have risen high in these departments, yet having but partially appreciated other objects, they are contemned, notwithstanding they are effecting equal good by different agency. Division of human labor has its advantages ”

“ We express ourselves strongly and decidedly on this point, because we pity a delicate inexperienced female, who happens at so critical a moment to be managed by an ignorant or obtrusive nurse; and because we have no question that most of the evils which spring up subsequently to parturition, arise from the contravention of proper orders, either respecting quietude or diet. ”

“ 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 ”

“ If relatives are chosen, they should be such as know how to regulate their feelings—when to withhold, as well as when to impart. On the other hand, those who have no feeling, no commiseration, (and there are such among women) , should be fully excluded from such an occasion, and there should not be one person present as a mere spectator. But of ordinary attendants, the selection of a good nurse is of chief importance. ”

“ For what beneficial end, many will exclaim, are these observations made? and had I not drawn for myself the line of demarcation, I would gladly meet the inquiry in an attempt to prove that some men of superior knowledge, and of eminent rank, would have greatly extended their benefits to human nature had not their manners been repulsive:—that the extraneous habits of these men are borrowed, by an aspiring race of students, who appear in plumes of fancied beauty ”

“ Abortion or miscarriage, which usually is accidental, sometimes becomes habitual; and at about the same period of conception, on many successive occasions, this disappointment will happen.
If there is a strong claim in the ordinary occurrences of pregnancy, for an attentive regard to the condition of mind as well as [Pg 33] body, it acquires its utmost urgency in those conditions in which habitual miscarriage happens. ”

“ The claim is urgent in behalf of the unfortunate individual, whose life is a perpetual series of suffering and anxiety, who is not only subjected, perhaps, every six or eight months to the debilitating effect of excessive hemorrhage, but whose mind is oppressed by disappointment, arising out of domestic and conjugal relationships, even more heavily than by the influence of personal suffering. ”

“ It would indeed be a great advantage to society, if persons of this description were not permitted to assume the office of nurse without testimonials: but as the field is now open, not only should ladies be circumspect in the selection, but it behoves the guardians of the public health, even if it be unsolicited, to counsel their friends in the choice. ”

“ Such diet should be adopted as is least irritating, and with most facility is converted into nutriment. Gruel, preparations of arrow-root, sago, &c., without wine (except under peculiar circumstances) are best, and the patient should be encouraged to take them at proper intervals.
After labor, quietude is the chief subsidiary; but some regard must be had to the state of the patient. The sudden transition from long-suffering to almost entire case, produces a striking moral effect, and [Pg 30] effusions of grateful expression generally succeed. ”

“ Although no personal graces—no urbanity—no kindness, can be substituted for unremitting study, and discriminating observation, yet it is practicable to adopt a deportment equally remote from pliancy and barbarity. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Every expression of regard to their comfort and happiness is demanded; and when they are subjected to inordinate care, the token should be peculiar and spontaneous. It is unpardonable, that in the treatment of female diseases there should be either rudeness or indecency. ”

“ And these measures will never be fully and perseveringly adopted, but when the mind is satisfied that the advice results from knowledge, and when the progress is watched by the assiduities of kindness. ”

“ The popular belief in the salutary influence of faith, is well founded—the opposite feeling of distrust, will act perniciously. The man whose mind is properly furnished will dexterously seize occasions of alleviating distress, which another, who may be almost exclusively watching for diseased structure, would not easily comprehend. ”

“ The exhaustion consequent to child-birth, has occasioned the pretty general custom of allowing the patient to lay an hour undisturbed; but at the end of this hour, it is often inevitable, whatever the degree of indisposition, that the patient must be raised into an erect posture, before she can be placed in bed, owing to the improper arrangement of dress and bed-clothes. ”

“ However extensive and useful his knowledge, if he has not a zest for the alleviation of human suffering, he incalculably circumscribes the usefulness of his acquisitions. There are men, indeed, who have pursued science with abstracted ardor ”

“ In the management of these cases, especially when they may be deemed habitual, moral treatment is in the highest [Pg 36] degree momentous. It is an indispensable pre-requisite, that not only the judgment, but the candor of the practitioner be fully appreciated, before perfect acquiescence can be commanded in precautionary measures. Sacrifices of great domestic interest must often be required.
It may be necessary to enjoin an almost constant observance of the horizontal posture; almost total seclusion from social intercourse, at least such intercourse as may disturb the circulation ”

“ But illustrious station gives unparalleled horror to death; not because it differs abstractedly from the death of others, but, because in the fall of persons eminent in [Pg 18] rank or office, the relationships of life are more deranged, and even the interests of a country may be affected. ”

“ Abruptness, rudeness, insensibility, coarseness of manner, vulgarity, or obsequiousness, may be found in men, whose minds are far superior to mediocrity; and although nature or education might have been somewhat defective, it is not difficult to recognise the features of some pernicious habit. ”