352 MfcUICAL SECTION 



consulted before a Stillbirths Registration Bill is 

 framed and introduced into Parliament ; and, if I may 

 say so, the medical practitioner should not be treated 

 as he was and is under the Notification of Births Act 

 made responsible and fined for neglect in performing 

 a public service, but not rewarded even to the extent 

 of a shilling for doing what is asked of him. I am 

 prepared to suggest the main principles and lines of 

 such an Act. 



In the second place inquiries should be made into 

 local conditions, and especially into the sale of aborti- 

 facient drugs, where the stillbirth-rate is found to be 

 high ; and some sort of check should be put upon the 

 present facilities for the obtaining of medicines and 

 nostrums for the procuring ot miscarriages. 



In the third place the medical profession, as 

 a whole, should take a much more active part in the 

 supervision ot pregnancies. The medical practitioner 

 should endeavour to get into touch with the expectant 

 mothers in his or her practice to a much greater extent 

 and at a much earlier date in gestation than is done 

 now. He should be ready to give advice regarding 

 the early but often very troublesome disabilities and 

 discomforts of pregnancy, and he should try to relieve 

 all suffering so arising to the best of his ability. 

 If he do this, patients will not be long in finding him 

 nut and in coming to him for help. 



In the fourth place there should be supervision 

 o| the prcgnarcies of the poor as well as of the 

 middle and upper classes. All maternity hospitals 

 should be furnished with pre maternity or pi'eg- 

 nancy wards lor the reception of patients, married 

 <>r unman led, who are suffering from one or other of 

 the diseases of the pregnant state. Nearly fourteen 

 years' experience of such a ward in the Edinburgh 

 Royal Maternity Hospital has convinced me of its 

 great value, for I have seen patients, lor whom no 

 accommodation was provided elsewhere, come into 



