Need for female physicians
- Creator(s):
- Gregory, George
- Title:
- Medical morals, illustrated with plates and extracts from medical works: designed to show the pernicious social and moral influence of the present system of medical practice, and the importance of establishing female medical colleges, and educating and employing female physicians for their own sex
- Publication/Origin:
- New York: Published by the Author, 1853
- Description:
- During the Victorian Era, many considered childbirth and midwifery to be unseemly and male midwifery indecent. George Gregory shared these views, and he championed the establishment of female medical colleges so that men would not be needed in “this disagreeable branch of medicine.” In Medical Morals he includes images and quotations from the English translation of J. P. Maygrier’s Nouvelles démonstrations d’accouchemens to illuminate his point. Dr. Maygrier’s comprehensive and beautifully illustrated work on obstetrics portrays the changes in a pregnant woman’s body, documenting labor and delivery. In some of the images, he intended to show a discreet examination of a woman. In Gregory’s later engravings, after Maygrier’s images, the examination takes on a sinister character.
- Citation:
- Gregory, George, Medical morals, illustrated with plates and extracts from medical works: designed to show the pernicious social and moral influence of the present system of medical practice, and the importance of establishing female medical colleges, and educating and employing female physicians for their own sex, New York: Published by the Author, 1853, Lisa Unger Baskin Collection, Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Accessed July 06, 2025, https://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/baskin/item/4147