18T3.] 175 [Bell. 



vai-iety of means he must enlist for the treatment of her maladies, com- 

 pounded, as they so often are, of both bodily and mental troubles. 



A similar problem, although not quite so complex and puzzling, comes 

 up continually for study and solution in dealing with the diseases of the 

 other sex, and we are forced, after a review- of the whole field, to the 

 conclusion, that often, very often, the smaller part of the curative means 

 employed by a physician, consists in prescribing drugs to his patient. 

 But whilst thus abstinent in one direction, he takes higher ground in 

 another, as a minister of nature and expounder of the philosophy of 

 life. The author of Letters to his Class does not fail to speak of woman's 

 early readiness to receive the lessons of Christianity, and the consolation 

 which she subsequently derived from being imbued with its spirit. 



He was probably incited to prepare this work by his having, three 

 years before the publication of his Letters, made a translation of the 

 treatise of Colombat de L'Isere on the diseases and Special Hygiene of 

 Females, which he held in great esteem, and in which he introduced 

 notes and additions. 



In his intentness to diffuse a knowledge of the subject as taught from 

 his chair on Midwifery and the diseases of Women and Children, in the 

 Jefferson Medical College, he spared no labor, and seemed to invite, as 

 it were, literary and professional rivalry. His next original performance 

 was a treatise entitled Obstetrics the Science and the Art, in 1849, which 

 he wrought ex cathedra, with the weight of large experience and dis- 

 criminative ability. 



The Dublin Quarterly Journal declares this work to contain a "vast 

 amount of practical knowledge, by one who has accurately observed and 

 retained the experience of many years, and tells the result in a free, 

 pleasant, and easy manner." A German journal thought that, with some 

 condensation, the volume is well adapted for translation into German. 

 Our American journals abound in their praises of this, as, indeed, of 

 •most of the other productions of the author. Following this volume, 

 ■"Certain Diseases. of Young Children," in 1850, and in 1854, a Treatise 

 on Acute and Chronic Diseases of the Neck of the Uterus, with plates, 

 .colored and plain ; many of the former of them received the touch of his 

 own brush. " Throughout this work," says the Dublin Journal already 

 quoted, "are valuable practical suggestions, as coming from Dr. Meigs," 

 and most of the colored plates are described to be "very beautiful and 

 graphic." 



Nearly simultaneous with the appearance of this volume was that on 

 Child-bed Fevers. In the same yeai', which was that of the second visita- 

 tion of epidemic cholera in Philadelphia, he gave in a brochure his 

 thoughts on this disease, termed by him spasmodic cholera, for private 

 distribution. 



Next in order of time comes his volume on the Nature, Signs, and 

 Treatment of Child-bed Fevers, in 1854. He strenuously advocated the 

 non-contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, and the preference to be given to 

 venesection in its treatment, in both of which views he subjected him- 

 self to much opposing inculcation, and severe, abusive critisism. He 



