X PREFACE. 



the absurd and vulgar prejudice, that it is impossible to be at 

 the same time a skilful accoucheur and an able physician, we 

 shall succeed in establishing it upon a basis worthy of the 

 subject! 



In this book I have endeavored not to be unjust to any one. 

 I have spoken on all occasions without being influenced by 

 hatred or prejudice, and I may add, without enthusiasm, and 

 with absolute independence. The sciences compose a republic 

 in which every man is at liberty to make researches, to examine 

 and think for himself, as well as to say what he thinks. Truth 

 is the avowed object of all who cultivate them: it may be 

 reached by a hundred different routes, and I could never un- 

 derstand how any reasonable man could be offended because 

 his ideas fail to be received as laws for other men. 



In adopting a course somewhat different from that pursued 

 by the modern classic writers, I was not misled as to its merits. 

 No person attaches less importance to classifications than I do, 

 or is more fully convinced that every one has an equal right 

 to choose for himself. The course I have chosen appeared to 

 me to be more natural than any other; I found that one was 

 necessary for my purposes, and I preferred this one; I shall, 

 therefore, make no further attempt to justify it. It belongs to 

 the public to decide whether it be good or bad. 



I have given a name to the science of the accoucheur; in 

 the first place, because it is a substitute for a periphrasis; and 

 in the next, because it is quite extraordinary that that science 

 should have remained until the present day without any spe- 

 cial qualification in France. From the earliest years of my 

 studies, I employed the term {obstetricie) obstetrics, derived 

 from the Latin obstetrix, midwife. I think it more uniform 

 in acceptation than the word obstetrique, which is used in 

 Germany, and which M. Dug^s has desired to establish among 

 us. But the word tokology, derived from toxoi, child-birth, 

 and from ^oyoy, word, out of which may be constructed the 



