History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

CHAPTER IXOBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGYBy FREDERICK H. FALLS, M.D.*OBSTETRICS isprobably the oldest of the medical specialties. Thereprevails among many people a fundamental attitude approaching areligious faith toward reproduction and the perpetuation of the race.Indeed, the very survival of early man depended upon his ability to reproducehis kind so as to furnish soldiers for war and manpower for huntingand agriculture.Indian Practices and BeliefsThe Illini Indians have left little evidence as to their customs but Iassume that their practices and beliefs were approximately the same asthose of other Indian tribes of this region. 1 -2Among the Indians, the woman was sole master of her own body. Herhusband or lover acquired marital contrpl over her person by her ownconsent or that of her family or clan elders. This respect for the person ofnative women was extended equally to captive alien women. GeneralClinton, fighting the Iroquois, paid them this compliment: "Bad as thesavages were, they never violated the chastity of captured women." However,isolated instances of rape among the various tribes occurred and theculprits, if apprehended, were punished by the woman's kinsmen if shewas single, or by the husband and his friends if she was married. Seductionwas punished by grave bodily injury from the aggrieved women and girls,and this retribution was sanctioned by the tribe.During menstruation, pregnancy and the puerperium, the Indian womanwas looked upon as sacred and superhuman. It was assumed that hercondition revealed a magic power so potent that, if not separated fromthe ordinary haunts of man, it would disturb the normal course of Nature.• During his career at the University of Chicago, Dr. Frederick H. Falls was memberboth of the baseball and the basketball teams. He graduated from Rush Medical Collegein 1910 and by competitive examination won an internship at Cook County Hospital.He later was appointed a member of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecologyat the University of Illinois College of Medicine, becoming Head of this Department in1926. He has contributed many papers to medical literature. He is a recent past-Presidentof the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.—Editor1Handbook of American Indians, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bull. 30, part 2,1912.sEngelman, George J.:Labor Among Primitive Peoples, St. Louis, J. H. Chambers &Co., 1883.211