Dr. William Shippen, of Philadelphia, a very worthy citizen and exemplary man, had the honor of being the first teacher of midwifery in the United States. In London he enjoyed the advantages of the instructions of the celebrated Dr. William Hunter, and on his return to his native country he was chosen professor of anatomy in the earliest of its medical schools, the University of Pennsylvania. His lectures on obstetrics, like those upon anatomy and surgery, are said to have evinced great ability and command over his auditory. His first course on midwifery was delivered in 1762, and was attended by only ten pupils. He, however, lived to give instructions to a class of two hundred and fifty. This leads me to the reflection, will those who now advocate the employment of females principally in midwifery, even when the country has grown many times larger in numbers than it then was, meet with one half the success that Dr. Shippen did? If so, may it be, and Heaven speed the right. In the year 1767 the first medical school of New York was founded, under the auspices of Kings, now Columbia College. Among the appointments to that institution was Dr. John V. B. Tennant as professor of obstetrics. It is said that he was a very worthy man and of good reputation. He died at an early age, of the yellow fever, in the West Indies, where he had gone for his health. Since the time of Drs. Shippen and Tennant, midwifery has been taught as an important part of medical education in all of the medical colleges in the United States. In China the practice of midwifery is regulated in a very good way certainly; and on the whole, the Chinese custom is to be regarded as a safe one. It, however, recognizes the superiority of man’s intellect, nerve, mechanical skill, to that of woman’s, in scenes of trial and danger. The custom is this: Female midwives attend in all ordinary cases; but there is a class of obstetric surgeons which is devoted exclusively to this department, is perfectly skilled in the use of instruments, and the management of every possible difficulty. One of these is located in each particular district, having a given number of inhabitants, and after a woman has been a certain number of hours in labor, the child not being yet born, the midwife is required by law to call in the obstetric surgeon. Thus it is, I repeat, that man’s superiority over woman’s, in ability to perform great and difficult operations, is recognized even in China. Nor is it to be supposed that it is in the most difficult cases only that the male practitioner is called in that country, because many a woman has, on the whole, a safe labor which is yet a good deal protracted. It is said that in Russia the obstetric branch of the medical art is practiced for the most part by females. They are educated at the government’s expense, and are said to be very skillful in their art. We are not, however, in the habit of looking to Russia as a country eminent in civilization and the arts.