The Origin of Right-Handedness

Abstract

operative labor, which is so nearly that of the expert as to satisfy the community.Most such men feel unwilling to decline the obstetric work which comes up among the families whom they attend for other troubles, and, however consci- entious they may be, this fact renders it difficult for them to ask for consultations during preg- nancy with specialists who are their competitors for the care of normal labor.Once we can teach the great mass of the pro- fession that real success in the management of difficult cases is only to be attained by foreseeing their difficulty, and that it is possible for suffi- ciently experienced men to select these difficult cases during pregnancy; once we can teach them that in such cases the ordinary, reckless and careless habit of trusting to nature, i. e., to blind luck in labor, and of sending for a specialist only after the mischief is done merely leads to ill health to the mother and death to the baby, -we shall find all the better class of general prac- titioners willing and glad to consult beforehand men who have especial knowledge, and who do not attend normal labor.It this proves to be the future of obstetrics it cannot be doubted that obstetricians who are not at every one's beck and call for normal labor, but who find their practice in the management of really difficult cases alone will be in a far more enviable position than that occupied by most obstetric experts of to-day.