s's book and
my Essay in his hands at the same time.

Question. "If such facts as Roberton's cases were before you, and the
attendant had had ten, or even five fatal cases, or three, or two even,
would you, or would you not, if insuring the life of the next patient to
be taken care of by that attendant, expect an extra premium over that of
an average case of childbirth?"

Answer. "Of course I should require a very large extra premium, if I
would take take risk at all."

But I do not choose to add the expressions of indignation which the
examination of the facts before him called out. I was satisfied from the
effect they produced on him, that if all the hideous catalogues of cases
now accumulated were fully brought to the knowledge of the public,
nothing, since the days of Burke and Hare, has raised such a cry of
horror as would be shrieked in the ears of the Profession.

Dr. Meigs has elsewhere invoked "Providence" as the alternative of
accident, to account for the "coincidences." ("Obstetrics," Phil. 1852,
p. 631.) If so, Providence either acts through the agency of secondary
causes, as in other diseases, or not. If through such causes, let us
find out what they are, as we try to do in other cases. It may be true
that offences, or diseases, will come, but "woe unto him through whom
they come," if we catch him in the voluntary or careless act of bringing
them! But if Providence does not act through secondary causes in this
particular sphere of etiology, then why does Dr. Meigs take such pains to
reason so extensively about the laws of contagion, which, on that
supposition, have no more to do with this case than with the plague which
destroyed the people after David had numbered them? Above all, what
becomes of the theological aspect of the question, when he asserts that a
practitioner was "only unlucky in meeting with the epidemic cases?" (Op.
cit. p. 633.) We do not deny that the God of battles decides the fate of
nations; but we like to have the biggest squadrons on our side, and we
are particular that our soldiers should not only say their prayers, but
also keep their powder dry. We do not deny the agency of Providence in
the disaster at Norwalk, but we turn off the engineer, and charge the
Company five thousand dollars apiece for every life that is sacrificed.

Why a grand jury should not bring in a bill against a physician who
switches off a score of women one after the other along his private
track, when he k