Charles Delucena Meigs (February 19, 1792 – June 22, 1869) was an American
obstetrician
Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...
of the nineteenth century who is remembered for his opposition to obstetrical anesthesia and to advocating the idea that
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner ( Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through t ...
s' hands could not transmit disease to their patients.
Biography
Meigs was born February 19, 1792, in
St. George, Bermuda, the son of
Josiah Meigs
Josiah Meigs (August 21, 1757 – September 4, 1822) was an American academic, journalist and government official. He was the first acting president of the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, where he implemented the university's first physic ...
and Clara Benjamin Meigs.
[ He died June 22, 1869, in ]Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1 ...
.
He graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...
in 1817. In 1818 he was awarded an honorary degree of M.D. from Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
. Meigs specialized in obstetrics and was for a long time the acknowledged leader in this branch of medicine. In 1826, Meigs was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
. In 1841, he became professor of obstetrics and diseases of women in the Jefferson Medical College
Thomas Jefferson University is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. To signify its heritage, the univer ...
, until his retirement in 1861.[Dr. Charles Delucena Meigs (#219)]
. Meigs.org. Retrieved on 2012-02-29.
Meigs was a lifelong opponent of obstetric anesthesia
Anesthesia is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prevention of pain), paralysis (muscle relaxation), a ...
. In 1856, he warned against the morally "doubtful nature of any process that the physicians set up to contravene the operations of those natural and physiological forces that the Divinity has ordained us to enjoy or to suffer".
His work "On The Nature, Signs, and Treatment of Childbed Fevers" discussed in detail the proposition that women were at risk of disease in dirty environments. He looked at both sides of the idea that doctors could convey childbed fever
Postpartum infections, also known as childbed fever and puerperal fever, are any bacterial infections of the female reproductive tract following childbirth or miscarriage. Signs and symptoms usually include a fever greater than , chills, lower ab ...
(a disease) on their hands on the grounds and quoted Dr. D. Rutter asking, "Did he carry it on his hands? But a gentleman's hands are clean".
He weighs "contagion" and "non-contagion" as causes. On the contagion side he is in great favor of "purifying the whole hospital". He cites Dr. Robert Collin's in 1829 as having used chorine gas in a ward, painting the floor and woodwork with chloride of lime mixed with water, and finishing with whitewashing the ward and scouring the blankets and heating them to 130 degrees.
His feelings on the matter of contagion were distilled into "Is contagion a truth? Then, for heaven's sweet sake, I implore you not to lay your impoisoned hands upon her who is committed to your science and skill and charitable goodness, only for her safety and comfort, and not that you should, after collecting fees, soon return her to her friends a putrid corpse."
He was active as a translator from French. His translation of Gobineau's ''Typhaines Abbey'' was published in 1869.Laurel Hill Cemetery
Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.
The cemetery is ...
, Philadelphia, in Section I, Plot 71
A son, Montgomery C. Meigs
Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (; May 3, 1816 – January 2, 1892) was a career United States Army officer and civil engineer, who served as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War. Meigs strongly opposed sec ...
(1816–1892), achieved distinction as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
during the American Civil War.
Works
* 362 pages.
* 116 pages.
* 730 pages.
* 276 pages.
Notes
External links
*
*
*
* P M Dunn
Professor Charles D Meigs (1792–1869) of Philadelphia and persistent fetal circulation.
''Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed.'' 1994; 70; F155-F156
Meigs Family papers
at Hagley Museum and Library
The Hagley Museum and Library is a nonprofit educational institution in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. Covering more than along the banks of the Brandywine Creek, the museum and grounds include the first du Pon ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meigs, Charles Delucena
1792 births
1869 deaths
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni
American obstetricians