Sinclair, Sir William J.: Semmelweis. His Life and his Doctrine (Manchester, 1909)
VIII. Forerunners and Contemporaries
GERMANY 325 every State; many old abuses and prejudices have disappeared. Old traditional usage and modern improvements have given the German Hebamme a large amount of popular consideration, in contrast to the English usage of 150 years. About 90 per cent, of all cases of labour are still conducted by midwives in Germany. The medical profession has never sufficiently asserted its claims, and has consequently never been granted the opportunities which are a commonplace privilege of the general practitioner in England. Considering the assured position of the general practitioner upon whom in large measure has depended the advancement of obstetric science in the United Kingdom for a century and a half, the introduction of regulations for midwives is a thing devoutly to be wished by all benevolent Englishmen, lay or medical. In Germany the claims of the general practitioner have yet to be asserted; in England he has held the upper hand too long to fear rivalry. Austria-hungary. The history of midwifery in Austria and Hungary is analogous in every respect to that of Germany. The causes of the backwardness of the teaching and practice of midwifery by medical practitioners were almost identical, political disturbances and social disorganisation resulting from feud and open war. The beginnings of amelioration were also identical, the exercise of a benevolent autocracy by the sovereign of the period. Improvements in Vienna were, as we have seen, begun by Maria Theresa when, after many struggles, she found her diminished empire at peace. v. Siebold says : “The great States gave a salutary example in the teachings of midwifery; it was thus that Maria Theresa, that noble sovereign, selected . . . . Crantz, a disciple of the great van Swieten, and sent him to Paris and London to follow with ardour the eminent masters who taught midwifery with the object
