OBSTETRICS IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 253 



the year 1867, diplomas to licentiates in medicine and surgery were 

 issued every year to young men who scattered throughout the Archipelago 

 to practice medicine, either as private physicians or in some public 

 capacity under the former Spanish Government. Although, so far as 

 parturition was concerned, it must be admitted that the clinical educa- 

 tion given in the lecture rooms of the university was exceedingly 

 deficient because of lack of a practical foundation, yet it is no more 

 than just to acknowledge that, thanks to spontaneous efforts and ex- 

 tensive personal experience, many of the native physicians became expert 

 obstetricians and contributed materially to the advancement of this branch 

 of medical knowledge in the Philippines. 



Prominent among these men is the figure of Dr. Felipe Zamora, who 

 for many years and until the close of Spanish rule, was the best obste- 

 trician of Manila and the adjacent provinces. More recently, excellent 

 obstetricians have developed in the persons of Drs. Pablo ISTalda and 

 Manuel Madrigal, both deceased, and among our own contemporaries. 



Another event connected with the history of obstetrics in the Phil- 

 ippine Islands was the establishment in 1879 of a school of midwives 

 annexed to the University of Santo Tomas. The course consisted of 

 four semesters. Fifty-six of the one hundred and thirteen pupils who 

 were matriculated received the degree of midwife. The school suspended 

 operations in the month of March, 1903. Nine years after its creation, 

 by virtue of a royal order of February 28, 1888, the service of official 

 midwives who might render gratuitous service to poor parturients was 

 established for Manila and the provinces, but nearly all the provincial 

 positions remained vacant, probably because of the lack of competent, 

 qualified persons. There followed the establishment of the inspection 

 general de bencficiencia y sanidad, by virtue of the royal order of Sep- 

 tember 10, 1888, to replace the old sub delegation de medicina y farmacia, 

 which had existed since the year 1862. Later, there was* founded the 

 service of official physicians (medicos titulares) for the Archipelago, 

 the latter being charged with the obligatory and gratuitous attendance 

 of poor parturients within the municipal limits of Manila. 



American sovereignty came in the year 1898 to replace that of Spain 

 in the government and administration of these Isalnds, and after civil 

 government had been established, the Board of Health was created in 

 October, 1901. In December of the same year, the Board of Medical 

 Examiners was constituted, charged with qualifying physicians, prac- 

 titioners of medicine and midwives who wished to follow their profession 

 in the Archipelago. Of the latter, thirty-three were registered, certainly 

 a very insignificant number for the entire Philippine population. Thirty- 

 one of these were from Manila, one from Iloilo, and one from Ilocos 

 Sur, there being none from the other provinces. Eight of these thirty- 

 three qualified midwives were appointed municipal midwives, to render, 



