ing attended a woman, as man-midwife
and physician, was detected by the husband in the act of adultery with her.
It became public through the city. There are many men, and many women, who
have virtue enough to protect them if let alone; if assailed, or thrown
into temptation, they fall.
If a midwife cannot be had, have a doctor. But
take pains. When lecturing in Newburyport, I stated to the audience,
one evening, that before coming into the hall a gentleman remarked to me
that he would drive thirty miles for a midwife, and kill his horse by the
effort, before he would have a doctor attend his wife. 'I'd drive a
hundred!' cried out a young man in the audience.
Rev. Wm. Miltimore, a Presbyterian clergyman, of Litchfield,
N.H., states, in a communication, that 'a physician, in his parish, having
attended a pretty-faced woman in her confinement, presumed upon his intimacy,
and jumped into bed with her. But by her screams she brought in friends
to her relief.' The public papers of June, 1847, state that Dr. S. S. Perry,
of Gainesville, Ala., representative to the legislature, attended, as family
physician, in the family of Col. J.A. Winston, state senator. Dr. P., as
is not surprising, became the paramour, then an adulterer. Winston shot
him through, in the Post-office, and exclaimed, 'Thank God, I have killed
the seducer of my wife and the destroyer of my own peace!' Dr. Ewell speaks
of 'the melancholy tale of the seduction of the wife of a member of congress
from Carolina, by her accoucheur.' The papers of Nov. 1847, state that Alderman
James Noe, of Lafayette, La., shot Dr. Easton. Cause -- improper intimacy
between Dr.E. and Noe's wife. The alderman was tried and acquitted.
Dr. G., of Lowell, was tried for infanticide. To show
his general character, several ladies testified in court, that he had, on
sundry professional visits, endeavored to seduce them. To one woman, whose
husband was absent, he prescribed adultery as indispensable.
A physician in Lowell told the publisher, that he knew a man and his wife
who had just parted, in consequence of too great intimacy between her and
her doctor. Another physician in Lowell took an interest in a factory girl,
who was out of health, gave her medical attendance gratuitously, took her
to ride to Chelmsford, and at the hotel attempted to seduce her. She escaped,
returned on foot, late at night, to Lowell, and exposed the lewd scoundrel.
A trial has just closed at Cambridge, of Dr. D.A. Ingalls, of Lowell, |
for having, by the aid of a female accomplice, decoyed a young girl,
of 17, into his office and violated her person.
Women sometimes seduce doctors. A physician told an
acquaintance of mine, that, having attended a woman in her confinement,
she afterwards called at his office and solicited him; and, as he had
the hardihood to acknowledge, he proved as base as the woman. Mr. C.,
of this city, said a sailor's wife attempted to seduce her doctor, who
fled. I was informed that a woman, in Fowlerville, N.Y., entered a complaint
against her family physician for attempting improper liberties with her.
The doctor testified, on oath, that the woman summoned him to call, took
him into a private apartment, as if for professional advice, and then
endeavored to bring him to her purposes; but he maintained his integrity.
It appears that the woman had commenced and was carrying out the character
of 'Potiphar's wife.' The physician was acquitted; and Madam Potiphar
was balked in her vengeance.
A doctor in P., in this state, attended as accoucheur
to a woman, and, apropos to the occasion, he attempted liberties with
the female assistant. Being a member of a church, he was called to an
account. Another doctor, in a large town, in this state, attended as man-midwife,
and also, according to the promptings of the occupation, meditated freedom
with the female assistant. It being in the early stage of the labor, he
gave the patient a sleeping potion, and then commenced his endeavors with
the other woman. The patient, however, did not sleep, but heard, saw,
reported.
Mr. B., of this city, a man whose veracity is unimpeachable,
informed me that Dr. ---(fortunately deceased) told him that he, the said
Boston doctor, had had sexual intercourse with over one hundred different
women, married and unmarried. Mr. B. said he had no reason to doubt the
statement, either from the manner in which it was given, or from the character
of the man. It does not appear at all improbable, when it is considered
that the hoary old sinner had been for forty or fifty years attending
to the women.
In regard to man-midwifery, and this unlimited intimacy
between physicians and females, we may say, with Shakspeare, --
'It is hypocrisy against the devil:
That they mean virtuously and yet do so.
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt Heaven.'
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