0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

120 ANCIENT TIMES.
and about the care of the newly born child* They even
undertook important operations such as turning by the
head or feet in faulty presentations.! Embryotomy was
only performed when all attempts to deliver a living child
were fruitless.J
A law said to have been made by NuMA POMPILIUS,
ordained that the Cesarean section should be performed
on women dying in labour, in order if possible to save the
life of the child.§ PLINY || narrates that it was also carried
out on living parturient women, and SCIPIO AFRICANUS
owed his life to this operation.
Many midwives did not confine their sphere of action
to midwifery and the treatment of women's diseases, but
advanced into the domain of general medical science, and
consequently were really female doctors.^
Midwives enjoyed great respect. By the Courts they were
considered** to be experts and later on possessed the right
of bringing an action in support of claims for services
rendered.ft Numerous inscriptions give expression to the
honours paid to them. On a tombstone, as described by
MOMMSEN, there is found a laudatory epitaph to " the incomparable
spouse—noblest woman and accomplished midwife."
One of the most celebrated of medical authors and
doctors, THEODORUS PRISCIANUS, even dedicated a book
to a midwife " the charming helper of his art" as he calls
her.H
* SORANUS p. 79 et seq.
't SORANUS p. noetseq.
X SORANUS p. 113 el seq.—TERTULLIAN : de anima, c. 25.
§ Pandect, lib. x., tit. 8, de mortuo inferendo.
|| PLINIUS: hist. nat. vii, 7.
If MARTIAL: Epigr. xi, 71.— APULEIUS: Metamorph. v, 24.—PLINIUS: hist.
nat. xxviii, 7, 18, 23, 80—JUVENAL, ii, 141.
** SENECA : Epist. 66.
ft Pandect, lib. 50, tit. 13.
XX TH. PRISCIAN. lib. iii, Prsef.