* * * * Once in the sick room, with an eye to fees,[58] Tales they get up of uterine disease; Disease, the realms of Physic never knew, Till 'speculating Simpson' gave the cue; And, working thus on woman's weaker nerves, They raise whatever ghost their purpose serves. Then, not the young alone, but graver dames, Fooled by mere phantoms with un-English names, Endure 'examinations'--Ladies, speak! Do these not shock the soul and blanch the cheek? Surprise comes first--next horror, ill disguised, But soon to worse some get familiarized! For what will trusting woman not believe And bear, when 'scientific men' deceive? With no suspicion of the game these play, Their tales of terror haunt her night and day. Now she dreads 'tumour,' now 'occlusion,' now 'Version' she talks of, with a 'why' and 'how.' Reasons, of course, and numberless occasions, Have these quick rogues for their 'manipulations.' But who--immortal truth!--can justify The frightful means they locally apply? Caustics, that keep their patients always ill, Yet ever ready to indorse their skill; While abscess, ulcer, haemorrhage itself, Attest what men may CAUSE for love of pelf. Note the result--whatever the pretext, In soul, at least, the woman is unsexed; Words that of yore would make her forehead flush, She now blurts out to men without a blush! Heavens! how can husbands, fathers, brothers lend Their countenance to such an odious end! In all the _animal_ kingdom, where or when Were such things needed--tell us, Englishmen! Of 'base chirurgery' let the world take heed, For this is base chirurgery indeed!" Dr. Ewell, in the introduction to his _Letters to Ladies_, says:-- "The serious object of my present solicitude is to wrest the practice of midwifery from the hands of men, and transfer it to women, as it was in the beginning, and ever should be. I have seldom felt a more ardent desire to succeed in any undertaking, because I view the present practice of calling on men, in ordinary births, as a source of serious evils in child-bearing; as an imposition upon the credulity of women, and upon the fears of their husbands; as a means of sacrificing delicacy, and consequently virtue; and as a robbery of many good women of their proper employment and support.