The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century c8.s1.t15.36

c8.s1.t15.36

Midwives are another class of practitioners that may be noticed, although it has been denied that Hindus have any. An eminent London physician, in his examination before the Medical Committee of the House of Commons, is stated to have affirmed that the inhabitants of China have no women-midwives, and no practitioners in midwifery at all. ‘Of course,’ it is added, ‘the African nations and the Hindus are the same.’ I enquired and noted the number of women-midwives (there is not a man-midwife in the country) in the villages of Nattore, and find that they amount to 297. They are no doubt sufficiently ignorant, as are probably the majority of women-midwives at home.