Excerpt from A System of Obstetric Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 1: Theoretical and Clinical, for the Student and Practitioner It is usual, ' he says, 'in works on Obstetrics to omit all reference to the earliest known stages of embryology, but we preferred a different course. N 0 one will dispute that a proper knowledge of the early phases of human development is very important, yet if this study continue to be systematically ignored by those who alone have opportunities of extending our knowledge in this direction, what hope can there be of our completing it? The requisite specimens are difficult to obtain they only turn up on rare occasions. This difficulty renders it more incumbent upon every one to whom the opportunities are likely to fall to be fully alive to the importance of making the most of them. The actual number of specimens less than a fortnight old that have been described with any degree of accuracy is surprisingly small. There can be little doubt that opportunities are frequently missed, and valuable specimens lost, simply through failure to appreciate their true value, and insufficient care in examining and preserving objects of great delicacy.' To this argument, in itself unanswerable, we may add that in this elemental study we may now and then catch a lumi nous glimpse, if not a full explanation, of many things that come before us in clinical practice, which will not only throw around our work the enchantment of scientific research, but which may one day develop into the fulness of knowledge. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.