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Excerpt from An Introductory Lecture to the Course on Obstetrics, and Diseases of Women and Children: Delivered in the University of Pennsylvania, November 2, 1840
On this occasion, time is far too Short to pass in review, all the duties of the obstetrician, and to present the facts and arguments by which the nature and importance of these duties may be illus trated. On former occasions analogous to the present, I have shown that the science of obstetrics, although it has immediate reference to the process of parturition, yet embraces necessarily in its scope all the peculiarities of the female system, anatomically and physiologically. It must take cognizance of the healthy or diseased state of the female, not only at the time of labor, but during the period of pregnancy. It is called upon to investigate the causes of sterility - the connection which exists between the health of the female, and that of her child; whether disease can be propagated from parents to children; the nature of hereditary diseases, and hence, the propriety or suitableness of marriage under such circumstances. The welfare of females and children, and through them, the welfare of society at large is committed to this department of practical medicine.
Passing by some of these points for the present, let us view the obstetrician under the character of the guardian of the Rights of Infants.
Here also we must restrict ourselves to a portion only of these rights, and the consequent duties which rest on the practitioner of midwifery.
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