which are supposed to represent the different positions of the foetus in the uterus, are not at all in accordance with the truth, and show the most marvelous products of the artist's fancy. Von Siebold states, however, that the prejudices which at that time existed in the minds of the people against the slightest participation of males in the operations of midwifery were so strong that Rhodion would not have been permitted to do anything toward learning the truth by the employment of direct observation and careful examination—the only possible way in which the actual facts might have been learned.
Rhodion's book, notwithstanding the defects to which I have just referred, accomplished much good. It also restored the operation of podalic version to the position which it deserved, and it improved the service of the midwives,—which was what the Duchess chiefly desired,—and it undoubtedly emphasized the fact that the time had arrived when obstetrics should receive the same degree of scientific study that was being bestowed on all the other departments of medicine.
The title of Rhodion's (or Roesslin's) little book reveals the fact that he possessed no small degree of humor. It reads: "Garden of Roses for Pregnant Women and for Midwives," Worms, 1513.
The Operation Known as Caesarian Section.—The following statements relating to the operation known as "Caesarian section" have been compiled from Haeser's Geschichte der Medicin[P2**Medizin ?]:—This operation, which owes its name to the erroneous idea that Caesar was brought into the world by its aid, is commonly believed to have been practiced on different occasions throughout antiquity, but there has not yet been found in the records of history any account which shows clearly that the operation was performed upon a living woman, and also that the incision extended not merely through the abdominal integuments, but also through the actual uterine wall. At Siegershausen, in Switzerland,—according to the report of Caspar Bauhin in the treatise ("Gynaecia") which he published at Basel in 1586,—a man named Jacob Nufer performed (about
