The Washington herald., 1915-04-12

twilight sleep. Gauss has employed his
present methods for nearly ten years.
He has delivered thousands OF women
successfully. and the published reports
Of th. work done by himself and kroe-
mig show that the method is humane,
satisfactory. and safe. Also. during most
of the last decade, a modified and simple
method of painless delivery has been in
use in America by some thousands OF
physicians. with equally satisfactory re-
suits.
The astounding fact - that. while
these methods have been known to the
medical profession all this time. no cmi-
nent professor of obstetrics in America.
great American hospital. n" great
American medical school apparently has
raid the slightest attention to twilight
Sl"eP-"xcept. perhaps. IN tn" way OF
condemnation And nov. at last. after
ten long years of indifference the pro-
fesson is waking up, Why? Simply
because the Iaity has taken this matter
into It's own hands and. through nuIner-
Gus magazines and newspaper articles. Is
demanding that medical men shall inter-
est themselves in it.
This exploitation is good at least
TO the extent that il has compelled
the profession 10 take Cognizance of
something in which the public is in
tensely interested and about which
people have a right to demand the
truth. II is good If it has compelled
medical men 10 study this thing thor
ouEhly. on its own merits. instead of
yielding everything unreserVedly to
the critic and the Conservativ the
'ditcher of any new ideas. We ought
to be hIG enough to see the pitiful
inconsistency and oStrich-like hyp0C-
risy Of the position some of our lead
ing men are taking in this matter
and about other matters. TOO. we may
adde.
says Position Is Weak.
I'm the name of Heaven. lei US he
honest with ourselves and admit that
the position taken by the medical
profession in trying to hush up those
enthusiastic women is pitIfully weak
Everything new ever introduced in
medicine has met exactly this kind of
opposition. and especially from the
leaders of IN" profession. II is a
good sign of the times that the public
can compel us 10 study problems like
this.
DO not assume that we are de-
Tending the Gauss .paemmersChlaf'
unreservedly or that We believe it
will prove to he the last word in
settling the problem of p5inless deIiv-
cry. We are fully aware that it has
grave faults that will make its gem
eral adoption by the profession i'm
possible. This method has The serious
disadvantages Of being suitable only
for use in hospitals. requiring unusual
experiences on the part of attendants
and of being very expensive.
I'm the long run. simpler methods
must be developed. which then. no
doubt, Will he improved upon as a re-
suit OF wider acquaintance with it !
and its more general employment by |
the profession as whole. No OBJ |
stetrical teChniC is perfect which is |
not capable of fairly general applica-
tion. Our so-called leaders have no |
monopoly of knowledge. no 'strangle- !
hold on all the available cases. Their |
opinions are not the last word and |
they cannot stand long in the way of |
progress. Il
What we need is an honest inves- |
tigation of twilight sleep. or painless |
delivery (Call the thing itself by |
whatever name you please). on its |
merits alone. Do not let us excuse /
our own neglect or Ignorance by &C
cusing others. Give US more careful, |
cautious. constructive clinical work |
We have had complaints enough"