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 i t i c s C u l t u re
C r pu l a r
Radio and Po
A History of British Radio Criticism
Paul R
ixon
Radio Critics and Popular Culture
 Paul Rixon

Radio Critics and

Popular Culture
A History of British Radio Criticism
Paul Rixon
University of Roehampton
London, UK

ISBN 978-1-137-55386-7    ISBN 978-1-137-55387-4 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55387-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018936645

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
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Cover Credit: LongQuattro

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Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Macmillan Publishers
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The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United
Kingdom
To Mandy, Charlotte and Antonia
 Acknowledgements

After spending most evenings and many weekends working on this book,
I think that, as it is finished, I should now give thanks to where it is due.
So, to start, I would like to thank my family for putting up with me for the
last year or so, as I’ve concentrated on researching, writing and finshing
this book. I need especially to say a big thank you to my two lovely chil-
dren, Antonia and Charlotte, who, at times, have wondered what I have
been doing in my office all this time. I hope one day that they will love
radio as much as I do. And yes! I can now take you to the playground.
I also want to say a big thanks to Mandy, my wife, for giving up many of her
evenings to discuss my ideas with me and to help proofread the final man-
uscript. Her help in this endeavour has been vital and it was her encour-
agement in the end that gave me the strength to finally finish the book.
I would also like to thank my students, especially those on my ‘Podcasting
and Radio module’, for the insights they have provided over the years.
And, finally, I would also like to give a big thank you to friends and col-
leagues that have discussed my ideas about television and radio criticism
over the years, providing useful and helpful insights and suggestions.

vii
 Contents

1 Introduction    1

2 Approaching the Study of Radio Critics and Radio

Criticism  11

3 Radio in Britain in the 1920s: Narratives of Spectacle

and Concern  33

4 Rise of a Medium: Arrival of the Radio Critic   65

5 The Critic, Newspaper Radio Criticism and the Heyday

of Radio  103

6 From the Swinging Sixties to Thatcherism: The Decline

of Radio Coverage  133

7 The Digital Age: The Press, Radio, Radio Critics

and the Public  163

8 Conclusion 197

Index 203

ix
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Preamble: A Personal View

On most days I wake up to a radio alarm clock that switches on to the
Today programme broadcast on BBC Radio Four. This experience contin-
ues over breakfast with my family. Others might tune into a music station
in the morning and listen to the patter of the DJ and sing along to the
popular tunes of the day. Many sit in their cars going to work listening to
the radio, or under headphones on the commuter train, existing both in
their own private listening environment while also connected through
radio to the wider world. People sit in cafes sipping tea, or go about their
shopping, with the radio playing in the background, providing some
ambiance to their activities. Radio is there when we wake up, go to sleep,
travel and undertake leisure activities. According to the Radio Audience
Joint Audience Research (RAJAR), ‘49.2 million adults or 90% of the
adult (15+) UK population tuned in to their selected radio stations each
week in the second quarter of 2017’ (RAJAR 2017). Radio, whether we
know it or not, is part of our everyday lives and routines and has been
there, in this form, for nearly a hundred years or so. Indeed, at an anec-
dotal level, my parents can still remember as children listening to it in the
1940s, when radio played a more important role in the life of the nation,
listening-in to the radio news about the war, comedy programmes, swing,
dance and classical music, variety shows and children’s programmes. They
remember the way their family would sit around the radio set in the eve-
ning, listening to the voices, music and sounds coming out of the ether,

© The Author(s) 2018 1

P. Rixon, Radio Critics and Popular Culture,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55387-4_1
2 P. RIXON

linking the nation together. Indeed, my father remembers using his short-
wave radio after the war to listen, through the crackle and hiss, to stations
broadcasting from around Europe. However, it very much appears to be
the forgotten medium. If you ask a group of students which media they
have used in a day, radio is usually forgotten. For many it is used as a back-
ground medium, one through which other media, such as music or news,
are heard and remembered. However, as noted above, it is still a popular
medium. We almost all still, at some stage during the day, listen to it,
whether by choice or not. Reflecting this disinterest, in some ways, has
been the lack of scholarly work on radio, with most interest in the media
being focused on film, television or the press (Lacey 2009: 21).
This has led me to wonder why such a popular medium as radio no
longer attracts much public discourse. If I open up a newspaper, maga-
zine, or even use my computer to look at a news website, most of the
articles, when they touch on the media, will relate to film, music or televi-
sion. Radio is hardly covered at all. It is not only a secondary media in
terms of how many of us seem to consume it, such that we do not know
or remember that we have listened to it, but also that there is little popular
or critical discussion about it. There are few previews, reviews or critiques
about radio to be found in the mass media, or even on the new media. As
Peter Lewis argues, there is a gaping hole in public discourse about this
medium (2000). However, as we shall see, this has not always been so. For
some decades, particularly when radio was the pre-eminent medium of the
day, radio critics or radio columnists, such as Collie Knox or Jonah
Barrington, were in fact minor celebrities. Such columnists were given a
regular slot in the paper, and attracted a lot of public attention. There
were also journals, such as Popular Wireless and Amateur Wireless and even
the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) very own The Listener,
which concentrated on radio broadcasting. What my book will focus on,
is not radio and its history, its output and programmes, nor that of the
press and its history, but on the link between them, the radio critic and
their coverage, and their input into the public debate and public discourse
about radio. I am interested in the radio coverage that appeared in the
major national newspapers, the appointment of critics, different types of
output the critics provided, how their work helped position radio in both
the wider cultural debates and for the public. I will also look at how the
role of critics has changed over time and, indeed, how their importance
has waxed and waned over the decades for newspapers, readers and
listeners.
 INTRODUCTION 3

Seeking an Approach
I start this book, in some ways, with a problem of defining the medium the
critics write about: radio. Is it the programmes, the act of listening to pro-
grammes, the underlying technology, practices of making radio, the rela-
tionship between radio and other media, the context within which radio
operates, the stories of the people working there or the regulations and
policies which have shaped its development? (see: Lacey 2009: 24–5). In
many ways it is all these elements and more. And, as such, no one piece of
work can take or provide a complete holistic account of these elements, all
that can be done is to focus on particular issues, processes and time peri-
ods, marshalled together and organised through a particular conceptual or
theoretical view point or historical narrative. Likewise the finished work
can never present a finalised view of radio, but instead it can only but add
to a developing and growing understanding of the medium. The same, in
many ways, can be said of the press, the other part of the equation I am
dealing with in this book.
However, is it not just a question of defining and approaching the study
of one medium in isolation, as all media and cultural forms, in some way
are interrelated, they all connect in some form. For example, it is impos-
sible to understand film without also understanding its relationship to the-
atre, drama, radio and television. This does not mean that one cannot
focus on one particular medium, perhaps as an organising principle, but as
we do so we have to take account of its connection or interrelatedness to
others. This might be done through our own research, or by utilising
research already undertaken on other media. However, as James Curran
notes, this has not always been the case, ‘British media history is highly
fragmented, being subdivided by period, medium and interpretive tradi-
tion’ (2009: 1). I therefore see my approach as being one that attempts
not to just to focus on radio and its related criticism, but to align it, to add
it to, to intertwine it, to other histories and media forms. Indeed, by its
very nature, it is a form and practice that directly connects two media: that
of the press and the related practices of journalism and the object of its
critique, radio; and that there is an obvious and self-evident need, there-
fore, to take account of their different histories. As Siân Nicholas argues,
‘[h]istorians of the mass media may have traditionally treated each medium
separately. Yet the necessity for an integrated approach is evident if we are
to address the historical role of the media’ (2012: 390).
4 P. RIXON

Therefore, I wish here to stress and to indicate that my aim in this book
is to help create a multifaceted understanding of how radio criticism devel-
oped as a form and practice and its relationship to radio and the press, and
to other media and cultural forms, such as film, theatre, drama and televi-
sion, as well as to the wider cultural, social, political and economic con-
text. My aim is not to analyse and explore the work of critics separated
from the media they work for, the one they write about and the wider
context within which they operate. This approach will be echoed in the
structure of the work, where chapters have been chosen, partly, to focus
on particular moments relevant not just to critics, but important moments
in the histories of other media and the wider social and cultural history of
the nation, such as relating to the war and the period of austerity that fol-
lows, the introduction of commercial television in the 1950s, the cultural
upheaval in the 1960s that leads to the launching of Radio 1, the shift
towards the free market in the 1980s and the development of the internet.
Also, in relation to the analysis, it will not just be a close reading of the
work of the critics, but also a wider analysis of how the output of the critic
relates to the wider context within which they work.

Chapter Structure
This work is divided into six further chapters, a division which is, in some
ways arbitrary. They could be, like any other book, divided differently.
However, the chapters I have decided to use the idea of focusing on par-
ticular historical moments or phases in the development of radio criticism,
radio, newspapers, journalistic practice and other media and cultural forms
and their moments of interconnectedness, as noted above. While five of
the chapters focus on particular historical periods or moments, Chap. 2
stands out as being different, as it is designed to operate as a theoretical-­
conceptual chapter, which explores the nature of the critic, the critic’s role
as a cultural intermediary, the relationship between the critic and the
industry they work for, and the one they might write about, the wider
cultural context they work in and, for my book, how the radio critic related
to the radio and television industries. I also use this chapter to help set up
the approach, including the methodology, taken within this book.
As the chapter structure is chronological, Chap. 3 starts by focusing on
the early radio coverage, which developed in the 1920s. Such coverage
was often written by journalists and radio correspondents, as no identifi-
able radio critics had yet been appointed by the national newspapers. This
 INTRODUCTION 5

is the early period of radio broadcasting, one where radio was finding its
form, while the press equally was exploring different ways of covering
radio’s developments. At this time, as I highlight, two important narra-
tives came to dominate the early newspaper coverage of radio, and which
fed back into the wider public debates that were occurring about radio.
The first narrative concentrated on the technological possibilities and the
spectacle of radio, including the early forms of radio communication and
the first experiments in broadcasting. While the medium was still forming,
the focus was less on its output and content, than what it seems to be able
to offer, its potential. The other narrative, that starts to appear a little later,
as the medium of radio broadcasting developed, focused on the worries
and concerns about this new form. These were worries about the social,
cultural and political power of the radio, but also the impact it might have
on existing businesses, British culture, other media and cultural forms,
and, connected to this, discussions of how radio might be controlled or
regulated to limit the potential harm it might cause. This chapter there-
fore looks not only at the potential of radio and worries about its possible
impact, but also at the form that it took, initially as a regulated commercial
monopoly and then as a public corporation, imbued with the aim of serv-
ing the public. The second part of the chapter explores the early forms of
radio coverage that appeared at this time, some of which celebrated the
spectacle and excitement of radio and its output, while other elements
criticised the British Broadcasting Company (BBCo) (it became a public
corporation in 1927), the organisation given the monopoly to run broad-
casting in the UK, and its early coverage.
The next chapter, Chap. 4, focuses on the 1930s. This is a period when
radio critics started to be appointed by most newspapers, partly in response
to the growing popularity of radio at this time. This is when the critics
writing for the popular papers were given their own columns and started
to establish or develop further some of the main ways of writing about
radio, such as with previews and reviews, supplemented by gossip about
and from the industry. Some of these critics became key columnists for the
newspapers, often becoming minor celebrities, such as Collie Knox, Jonah
Barrington and Sydney Moseley. In this chapter I will also look at the
launch of a new journal in 1929 by the BBC, The Listener, which focused
specifically on providing a more contextual and serious understanding of
radio (Briggs 1965: 291). In the mid-1930s it appointed its first radio
critic and started to develop a rich stream of radio criticism that continued
over the next sixty years (Briggs 1965: 291; Fiddick 1991: 17).
6 P. RIXON

Chapter 5 focuses on the war and post-war years, from 1939 till 1959.
This is a period when radio became the media par excellence, often attract-
ing huge audiences, indeed, the BBC, as the only legal provider of radio at
this time, comes out of the war with its and radio’s reputation enhanced
(Williams 2010: 173). The war was, however, a time of great change,
socially, culturally and politically, and this led to the BBC creating new
popular channels during and after, such as the Light Programme launched
in 1945 (Crisell 1997: 60–6). For the popular newspapers the war years
signalled an abrupt halt to the intense competition occurring in the 1930s.
With newsprint rationed newspapers were reduced in size and radio cover-
age was cut. This is all with a certain irony, as while many radio critics
spent the 1930s criticising the BBC for the lack of popular output, the
golden age of the BBC, for some (Seymour-­Ure 1993: 7), started in the
war period, when the BBC created some of its most popular programmes,
a time when radio coverage in the newspapers shrank. After the war radio
coverage never fully returned to the level that was there before, with the
returning entertainment pages in the popular papers slowly being domi-
nated by the coverage of television.
Chapter 6 analyses the period 1960 till 1989, a time when the country
went through a cultural and social revolution, economic upheaval and saw
the rise of a free-market philosophy. For radio this was also a moment of
huge change. For example, the BBC reacted to competition and cultural
developments in the 1960s by launching a new music channel, Radio 1, as
well as relaunching its other radio channels as Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio
4. The BBC also started to replace its regional output with locally focused
radio stations, but then faced the loss of its local radio monopoly in the
early 1970s with the launch of local independent commercial radio. Over
the next two decades the number of radio channels in Britain increased
greatly, mostly at the local level, with many of these being provided by
commercial concerns. This was also the period when radio criticism, in its
classic form, with reviews, previews and radio critiques, developed over
some 50 years, more or less vanished from the popular newspapers. By
1991 even The Listener, one of the main places where serious criticism had
been appearing, ceased publication (Fiddick 1991: 17). However, while
such coverage disappeared from the popular papers, it continued, and
even increased, in the quality papers like the Daily Telegraph, which
appointed its first radio critic in 1975. While radio audiences were now
segmented by class and age each listening in to different types of radio
 INTRODUCTION 7

stations, this was being reflected in the way newspaper coverage was divid-
ing. While the readers of the popular papers were given mostly a limited
amount of soft news coverage of radio, for the readers of quality papers,
critical coverage was still provided. Generally for the newspapers this was
a period, from the early 1970s onwards, of fierce competition, especially
between the tabloids, The Sun and the Daily Mirror, and economic woes,
with various take overs and failed attempts at launching new newspapers,
such as Today; it was also a time when newspaper’s form and content went
through constant revision and update (Williams 2010: 215–17).
The last main chapter, Chap. 7, focuses on the period from the early
1990s until now, corresponding to a period when new forms of digital
communication and the internet (I will use this term to also refer to the
web or World Wide Web), arrived. Again, for radio, this was a period of
huge change, with the development of DAB, podcasts and radio stream-
ing, but also for the newspapers, as younger readers started to desert them
for online news. Indeed, for Kevin Williams this is a period of ‘super’
competition, as newspapers sought to survive using whatever means they
could; some even wondered that, with the internet, whether the time of
the traditional newspaper had ended (Williams 2010: 221–42). The 1990s
was also a period when radio criticism experienced, what could be called,
a resurgence in the popular press, thanks to the launching of seven-day
guides, though this coverage soon declined again later in the decade. As
internet take up increased the nature of news production, distribution and
consumption started to change. With many young people deserting the
newspapers for the internet, which they found more interactive, conve-
nient and engaging, the newspapers found their circulations declining.
The internet allowed new forms of competition to the newspapers to
appear, such as from new online-only media companies and from the pub-
lic itself using blogs and new forms of social media. The newspapers
reacted by setting up their own online sites and creating digital strategies
to direct their development and survival into the new digital age. Radio
criticism, while still found in the traditional newspapers, now also moved
online, onto the newspaper’s website, onto the sites of new forms of online
media and onto the areas populated by the public, such as Twitter and
Facebook. I will end this chapter raising these questions: what is the future
of the radio critic and radio criticism? Where will it be found in the future?
What form will it take? Who will be writing it? And how will it position
radio for its readers?
8 P. RIXON

Conclusion
As radio and the newspapers have gone through huge changes in the
twentieth century, so too has radio criticism. The radio critic has moved
from being an unnamed contributor in the 1920s, to a minor celebrity in
the 1930s, to a commentator on the developments of television, to being
virtually invisible or non-existent for most radio listeners and newspaper
readers. Only the readers of the qualities papers continue to be served with
regular reviews and previews. However, by the noughties, even these crit-
ics, working at the quality papers, have had to come to terms with a new
form of radio, one that can be listened to through various devices, where
there are extensive catch-up facilities, where radio programmes are inter-
linked to websites and other texts, where individual programmes or pod-
casts can be downloaded, where the listener can tune-in to stations from
around the world, some of which might have been recorded by the pro-
verbial one person and a dog. They have had to learn a new art of working
not just on hardcopy, but understanding how to use online technologies,
including using webpages, podcasts, blogs, social media and the like. They
are being encouraged to use these forms to engage with their readers in
new ways. If they do not, they will be redundant, in more ways than one.
As radio as a medium, has changed, and as newspapers have shifted their
focus online, so the radio critic has had to either come to terms with the
new form of radio and online newspaper, and the new needs of the listener
and reader, or disappear alongside the traditional newspaper as it fades
from use and our memories.

Bibliography
Briggs, A. (1965) The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: The Golden
Age of Wireless, II (London: Oxford University Press).
Crisell, A. (1997) An Introductory History of British Broadcasting (London:
Routledge).
Curran, J. (2009) ‘Narratives of Media History Revisited’ in Michael Bailey (ed)
Narrating Media History (London: Routledge), pp.1–21.
Fiddick, P. (1991) ‘Editorial’, The Listener, 3 January, p.17.
Lacey, K. (2009) ‘Ten Years of Radio Studies: The Very Idea’, The Radio Journal:
International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 6(1), pp.21–32.
Lewis, P. M. (2000) ‘Private Passion, Public Neglect: The Cultural Status of
Radio’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 3(2), pp.160–167.
 INTRODUCTION 9

Nicholas, S. (2012) ‘Media History or Media Histories? Re-addressing the History

of the Mass Media in Inter-War Britain’, Media History, 18(3–4), pp.379–394.
Radio Audience Joint Audience Research (RAJAR) (2017) ‘Data Release
Infographics’, http://www.rajar.co.uk/docs/news/RAJAR_DataRelease_
InfographicQ22017.pdf, date accessed 23 September 2017.
Seymour-Ure, C. (1993) The British Press and Broadcasting Since 1945 (London:
Blackwell).
Williams, K. (2010) Read All About It! A History of the British Newspaper (London:
Routledge).
 CHAPTER 2

Approaching the Study of Radio Critics

and Radio Criticism

Introduction
Radio criticism sits at an intersection of the newspaper, radio and the wider
societal context. As such it is not just a journalistic discourse, it is also part
of radio’s history, part of how we, the listener, have come to know, under-
stand and value radio. However, it is not a form that has attracted much
attention, something this book seeks to address. In this chapter I will
begin by exploring and outlining how I approach the study of radio criti-
cism in Britain. To do this I have divided this chapter into a number of
sections where I will explore related theoretical, conceptual and method-
ological issues. In the first section, I will explore the question of why we
need to study the role of radio critics. Part of my answer to this is that they
have played a central role in how we, as a society, have come to understand
radio and how it became, and continues to be, part of our popular culture,
and that it has been, at least for a time, an important part of newspaper
coverage. I will follow this section by looking at, in a more abstract way,
questions about the role of the critic, namely what does the critic do and,
possibly, what should they do that is so important? To help explore and
define what their main roles are I will, by engaging with existing work in
the area of criticism, such as that by Anthony Scott (2016), James Grant
(2013) and John Corner (2013), delineate some of the main characteris-
tics of the critics’ role and their work. This is important because by doing
this we can, through a process of extrapolation, move from the general
discussion around critics to the particular, and focus on radio critics, to

© The Author(s) 2018 11

P. Rixon, Radio Critics and Popular Culture,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55387-4_2
12 P. RIXON

start to understand the role of the radio critics and why they are so impor-
tant in the history of radio.
After this, using work by scholars such as Pierre Bourdieu (1984),
Jennifer Smith Maguire and Julian Matthews (2012) and Rónán McDonald
(2007), I will explore why and how critics have to be understood in rela-
tion to the wider society in which they work, in particular raising questions
around cultural values and taste and the way critics work as cultural inter-
mediaries. In this sense the critic is situated between the multitude of
cultural forms and services on offer and the reader. They, through their
selection of cultural products and outputs and how they write about these,
play an important role in shaping, as well as reinforcing, the tastes and
values of their readers. After this discussion I will then move on to explore,
under the heading of ‘The Media Critics: Industry and Discourse’, the
particular problems faced by critics working for the mass media, and in
particular those working for newspapers. For this I will use work by Mike
Poole (1984), which, while focused on television criticism, raises issues
relevant for understanding radio critics. In Poole’s work he explores the
tensions and problems faced by media-based critics in relation to the
industry they work for, the one whose output they critique and the wider
context of the dominant cultural hierarchy; an interaction between these
different media industries comes for Poole, in various ways, to impact on
the form of the critic’s critical discourse. I will end in the last section by
outlining the methodology I have employed to undertake this research,
indicating the way I have carried it out and how this has fed into the over-
all approach of this work.

Why Study Radio Criticism and Radio Critics?

Radio coverage, in some form, written by critics, reviewers and previewers,
has been a popular part of British newspaper provision for nearly a hun-
dred years, with the first critical provision appearing in the 1920s, though
initially without by-lines. However, while it has been a popular form of
press coverage throughout the twentieth century, there has been little
research undertaken on it. Indeed, it has to be said that radio itself has
been an under-researched medium (Lacey 2009), eclipsed by the huge
amount of work on other media such as television. This might be one
reason why there is so little interest or work on the associated area of radio
criticism (Rixon 2015: 23–4). However, even with television, the much
more popular medium, there is a dearth of work in Britain on related
 APPROACHING THE STUDY OF RADIO CRITICS AND RADIO CRITICISM 13

popular newspaper criticism, with only a few exceptions, such as John

Corner (2013), John Ellis (2008) and Paul Rixon (2011). It might be
argued media scholars have tended to view this form of journalistic-critical
writing about radio and television as being ancillary to their main fields of
study with their focus on the media and its organisations and history
(Briggs 1961, 1965, 1970, 1979, 1995), its output (Cooke 2003), related
policy (Franklin 2001), economics and finance (Congdon 1992) and con-
sumption (Turnock 2007). Where scholars do touch on the coverage of
radio by the press, it has often been to provide background information or
a context to help situate particular developments occurring in radio, such
as in relation to policy, genre, scheduling or reception, for example, the
way Asa Briggs touches on it, rather uncritically, to show how the BBC
thought about newspaper coverage in the early 1930s (1965: 70). The
work of critics has not been the main focus of most academic work in the
field. Indeed, Siân Nicholas argues that much of the ‘scholarship on radio
and television has tended to address the press where at all mostly for illus-
trative commentary’ (2012: 381). If one searches various electronic library
and journal databases and catalogues using such terms radio critics or
radio criticism very few books or articles will be found, and those that are
usually refer to academic critics and associated critical work. Though,
more work has appeared in the USA on popular forms of criticism than in
Britain, for example, Ralph Smith’s work on radio criticism (1979) and
Amanda Lotz’s work on television critics (2008).
In some ways, this tendency to side-line radio criticism has also been
true of those researching and writing on journalism. Undertaking an elec-
tronic search of journalism-focused journals and monographs will bring
up few results focused on radio and television critics or criticism. Perhaps
this is because of the perceived trivial nature of such an activity compared
to serious news output, but also perhaps because it does not appear as
straight forward journalism written in the form of an objective news report
but more as a form of evaluation and personal insight (DeWerth-Pallmeyer
2003: 101). Much of journalism scholarship has tended to ‘privilege so
called “newspapers of record” over popular or local titles and political
content over ephemera’ (Nicholas 2012: 382). Often where critics and
criticism is touched on, it is collapsed more generally into work on soft
news or columnists (Petley 1997: 255–6).
However, I would argue that such critics play an important role in the
mediated public discourse about radio. Their output—radio criticisms,
reviews and previews— helps public opinion to coalesce; it provides a
14 P. RIXON

shared way for understanding and talking about radio and has played an
important role in how radio became and continues to be accepted as part
of popular culture, as such it is part of the shared discourse about radio
(Rixon 2015). Such writing also gives us an historical insight into the
nature of radio, such as how it was listened to, what was being broadcast,
its reception and the discussions happening about radio and its output,
which are hard to access after the event when often few concrete records
have been kept or recordings made, especially covering the early days of
radio broadcasting. Also, as radio criticism connects to other forms of
criticism, such as film and theatre criticism, from which it drew, and to
television criticism, for which it played an important role in helping to
shape its form and approach, it is thus linked to all their histories (Rixon
2015). Its development tells us something about the situation and devel-
opment of the press and the broadcasting industries and the evolving and
changing relationship between them, what Nicholas refers to as the ‘inter-
relatedness of the media’ (2012: 309). Also, we must accept that radio
criticism, like all criticism, is a cultural form in its own right and can be
appreciated aesthetically and understood as a product of a particular time
and situation. As Scott suggests, ‘[…] criticism is an art in its own right
[…and] the critic is a craftsman of sorts [… and] also a creator’ (2016:
17). Lastly, as journalism has gone through and is now experiencing
another period of change, with the use of new digital technologies and the
internet, there is a need to understand where the radio critic and radio
criticism fit within this and to what extent their role continues or might
even be superseded in some way (Rixon 2017a); will, as DeWerth-
Pallmeyer questions, ‘the shape of criticism [… transform] given a change
in the overall media landscape?’ (2003: 101). For this reason I believe that
the role of radio critics and their output is important and that more work
is required to explore and delve into what it can tell us about radio, its
cultural reception, the way we as a society value it, the way it relates to
other media forms, like newspapers, other forms of criticism and how
these elements are changing and have changed over time.

What Is a Critic? What Is Criticism?

If we accept the view that radio criticism, as found in the press and other
such media outlets, is important then we need to ask questions about what
it is and who produces it: Who is the critic? What is their purpose and role?
What do they produce? What is criticism? Perhaps a useful place to start is
 APPROACHING THE STUDY OF RADIO CRITICS AND RADIO CRITICISM 15

with the etymology of the term ‘critic’. Critic, as Himmelstein points out
(1981: 21), comes from the Greek term krit, which relates to testing a
work. The critic, in this sense, critically examines an artefact to see if and
how it works. The critic therefore acts as the tester or as the Kritos, the
Judge (McDonald 2007: 41). The critic holds the work up to scrutiny, to
test it or judge it against something, such as some code, beliefs or values,
to verify whether it conforms, exceeds or fails to hit such targets. In some
ways we all act, at some stage, as critics or judges. Whenever we watch,
read or listen to something then we are judging it, against our own views,
beliefs and experiences, though we have to accept that these are socially
and culturally formed and therefore linked to wider values and views.
Indeed, increasingly we are all encouraged to review and reflect on things
we have purchased, by leaving feedback and a star rating, such as with
Amazon (Blank 2007). However, by doing this we would not necessarily
consider ourselves as being a critic. This is a title given to or taken on by a
particular person, often because of the work they do or the position they
hold. This begs the question: Are you a film critic because you write about
films in a certain way, or because the Daily Telegraph has appointed you as
their film critic? For many, for a long while, it has been the latter, though
a new form of public critic has recently appeared on the internet who has
taken on the mantle because of their popularity and acceptance, rather
than necessarily being given a position by a media organisation (Rixon
2017a).
While it would seem that a media critic can gain this title and status by
being given the role by a media organisation (Crosbie and Roberge 2016:
276), another, what we could call the public critic, might gain such status
by showing the right ability and attracting a sizeable audience, perhaps,
these days, by keeping an online blog about a particular cultural activity.
While it seems there are two main ways of gaining the status of being
accepted as a critic there is also a question of what role they play. Indeed,
what makes a good critic? James Grant (2013) argues that an important
characteristic of being a critic is to appreciate a cultural artefact and then
to be able to communicate this to a wider public. The critic does this by
being ‘aware of the work’s features by means required for appreciation’
and will communicate to a readership how to act ‘appropriately for appro-
priate reasons’ (p. 39). While, for John Corner, a critic needs a ‘“profes-
sional” grounding for critical judgment in some kind of approved
competence (knowledge of the history of the specific field, its materials
and techniques, and of achievements within it)’ (2013: 2). Hal Himmelstein
16 P. RIXON

argues that, ‘[a] truly skilful […critic must] possess a combination of attri-
butes, including the analytical techniques of a scholar, the insights of an
intellectual, and the eloquence and expressive power of the best stylists’
(1981: 21). For others, ‘[c]riticism is a carefully considered judgment of
the merits and faults of a work of art with the purpose of improving and
stimulating interest in that direction’ (Smith 1979: vi). Here Smith
touches on the point that the critic is not just serving and writing for the
public, but also engaging with the industry or artists who create the cul-
tural product in an effort to try to improve it.
It would seem that most meta-critics (critics of critics), those that stand
over the critics criticising and reflecting on what they do, believe that a
critic requires certain critical skills, detailed knowledge of the form and
particular abilities, such as being able to write. Though, with the needs of
the industry, the critic is appointed often not because of their supposed
knowledge or skills, of being able to critique a particular piece of work,
but because they ‘are employed simply as they’re stars’ and can attract
readers (Petley 1997: 255). For all critics, whatever their standing, they
are employed not just because of their critical skills to analyse or critique
culture, but that they can also engage or communicate successfully with
the public in some way.
As they do this they act as a cultural judge, or cultural intermediary,
acting on behalf of and for society, otherwise they would be appreciating
a cultural artefact on their own for themselves; they are there to help teach
or guide the public in how to appreciate and value culture. If the critic
moves away from social and cultural interactions they would become what
Eagleton calls a Sage—a critic who metaphorically, and, in some cases lit-
erally—such as with a reclusive academic—sits alone in a cave pondering
various cultural questions (1987: 32). However, to act as a cultural inter-
mediary or to judge on behalf of the public also requires the acceptance by
the same public. The status or standing of a critic in the eye of the public,
as touched on above, comes through two main ways: the critic’s profi-
ciency in critiquing the work in question and/or ‘[…] being employed to
‘review’ cultural products’ by a media organisation (Corner 2013: 2).
Therefore it could be argued that there are four important aspects of
being a critic and, if done well, to be a good critic. Firstly, there is a need
to be positioned and accepted as a cultural intermediary or judge by the
public and in some cases also by the artists and the industry. This requires
the reader to have trust in the critic and their abilities. This trust might
 APPROACHING THE STUDY OF RADIO CRITICS AND RADIO CRITICISM 17

develop with the critic demonstrating they have the required skills, abili-
ties and knowledge that, at least for the public, situates them as a critic.
However, as Corner argues, this trust can also be conferred on by them
when being appointed to the role by a media organisation, allowing the
transference of trust from the media organisation to the critic (Rixon
2015). If the reader trusts the organisation then this might be transferred
to their anointed critic. However the critics gain their status, whether via
employment as a media critic or by exhibiting the required abilities and
knowledge, it is the reader and the wider public who decide if that person
will actually be accepted as a trusted critic and whether their outputs war-
rant considered reflection and engagement of some kind (Crosbie and
Roberge 2016: 280).
Secondly, critics are there to offer new insights, forms of evaluation or
understanding of an artefact or process that they have witnessed and have
knowledge about. It is through this critical evaluation that they provide
the public with guidance on how to appreciate particular cultural pro-
cesses and forms (Grant 2013: 27–8). In this way they are not just
describing the artefact, though this might be part of what they offer,
there is also a critical and evaluative component to their work. Indeed,
when new cultural forms come along, as they do, they take on the role of
helping guide the public in how to understand and value such forms
(McDonald 2007: 54–5), which could include providing criticisms of the
evolving cultural form or the institutions that make it. Thirdly, a charac-
teristic of their role is that they need to have an underlying approach or
argument that informs and guides their views, opinions and evaluation of
the work they are critiquing. In this way they are not just writing about,
or reflecting, on the artefact or cultural process using their personal views,
their likes and dislikes of work, but that they have a rational and coherent
way for approaching and evaluating the work, one that can be understood
and reasoned with.
Fourthly, and lastly, they do not sit outside society like Eagleton’s Sage
who might be thought as being more akin to the old fashioned academics
working in their ivory towers. The media critic is employed by a media
organisation to communicate with the wider society. They have a role to
inform and, indeed, to engage with the wider public in the relation to the
artefacts they are interested in and, hopefully, to open the minds of the
public to different ways of approaching and appreciating the work in ques-
tion. Obviously this can be, and often is, an interactive process, where the
18 P. RIXON

critic will engage with the public and, what Crosbie and Roberge call, the
aesthetic public sphere (2016: 277), and the debates happening there,
helping to find or help shape a consensus or shared critical view of the
cultural form in question, one which they can then communicate to their
readers (Eagleton 1987: 20–1). Indeed, for DeWerth-Pallmeyer, the ‘best
criticism should […] have an impact on both the audience and the media
arts. […] The best criticism helps construct a “cultural frame” for the
media arts and for the readers’ (2003: 100). Therefore, criticism will help
to create a shared view of the cultural form, but will also feedback to those
that make such artefacts, perhaps leading them to change their approach
for the better. Therefore, both media-appointed critics and public critics
must be good communicators, having an ‘ability to articulate’, as Grant
put it (2013: 46): media critics are employed by a media organisation
because of their abilities to communicate with a particular readership,
while, for the public critic, it is their quality of communication that gains
them their status of being a critic, such as the quality of their input into a
blog site.
The critics, while sometimes presenting critiques and reviews as per-
sonal viewpoints or insights informed by universal values, are closely linked
to the wider social, cultural, economic and ideological forces that shape
their habitus, their cultural capital and cultural experience and the context
within which they live and work (Bourdieu 1984: 234–5). They will find
it hard to be employed and to attract readers if they try to sit completely
outside the dominant culture and its associated values, even if this was pos-
sible. However, while the approach of the critic and their criticisms might
be informed by shared dominant values, the form it takes will depend on
the artefact or process being looked at, the industries in question and the
specific audiences being served. Therefore, with radio criticism appearing
in British newspapers, we can see a range of different forms of criticism,
ranging from serious attempts to critique radio to more popular framed
opinion pieces, some which focus on the programme as a text to others
that criticise the wider industry. I will now move on to look in more detail
at how the critic relates to questions of culture and taste using the concept
of cultural intermediary, before moving on to explore the specific indus-
trial context within which the broadcast critic operates, one where particu-
lar bodies, such as broadcasters and newspapers, are also active with their
own needs and strategies.
 APPROACHING THE STUDY OF RADIO CRITICS AND RADIO CRITICISM 19

The Critic as Cultural Intermediary

As noted above, the critic can be viewed as playing an important role as a
cultural intermediary or cultural arbiter (Bourdieu 1984: 325). By this I
mean, they take on an intermediate role between the artists, producers
and the mass media industries that produce cultural artefact and services
and the way the public experience, understand, value and come to terms
with these, helping in the process to shape, reinforced or even change
shared tastes and cultural values (Maguire 2014: 16). At the heart of this
is the fact that most people do not have time or finances to access all cul-
tural products, or have the knowledge or expertise of how to engage with
or understand them, especially as new media and forms appear. Indeed,
the public wants to have help in understanding how the products and
services on offer fit with their tastes and values, which are closely aligned
to the wider shared tastes and values of society and their class. For exam-
ple, when radio broadcasting first started to appear in the 1920s, the
British public was initially unsure of this new form and how to appreciate
and understand it. The radio critics, and those starting to take on such
roles, working for journals, magazines and the newspapers helped, there-
fore, in positioning and situating radio in relation to popular culture,
helping people how to understand and how to value this new medium
(Rixon 2015).
The critic is a trusted, knowledgeable professional employed, usually,
by the media, to experience cultural artefacts and performances, from
which they select a number to communicate about to their readers. They
are informed by their views, values and own tastes, shaped through their
habitus, cultural capital and their experience and understanding of the
dominant values and cultural forms, to write about and critique the work
in question. These media-based critics engage with the public through
the mass media and the wider mediated (aesthetic) public sphere, often
seeking to create, or, as some of them might argue, to reflect, a shared
view and understanding of the form in question. In this way the critic, as
an intermediary, plays an important role in maintaining, shaping and
changing the shared tastes and cultural values of their readers and the
wider public.
For Jennifer Smith Maguire and Julian Matthews at times, the term,
cultural intermediary, has become, in their words, ‘a descriptive catch-all
for seemingly any creative or cultural occupation or institution [… which
has diluted the] use of the term’ (2012: 552). However, for most writers,
20 P. RIXON

such as Bourdieu, the critic, as a taste maker, can be considered as being a

cultural intermediary (Maguire 2014: 17). Part of Maguire and Matthews
(2012) approach, which will be followed in this work, is to look at the
critics in a way that takes account of their ‘context as constitutive of agency,
not as an external determinant of action (in other words, cultural interme-
diaries are not merely the passive bearers of their contextualizing catego-
ries’ (2012: 3). This requires an understanding the critic’s personal and
professional habitus, cultural capital, and their relationship to the cultural
field within which they work and to the readership which they write and
critique for (2012: 3). For such an understanding of the radio critic, this
will require, taking account of their backgrounds, class allegiances,
upbringing and the cultural values they hold. It also needs an analysis of
the field within which they work, that of journalism and criticism, the
dominant values at work there, and, lastly, knowledge of the readership
they serve, partly determined by the media organisation they work for.
Maguire and Matthews suggest three dimensions to the ‘contextual
specificity of cultural intermediaries’ (2012: 3), which are useful in helping
to breakdown the important and specific role that critics play in mediating
between cultural industries and the public. These are, firstly, framing,
which refers to how and why an intermediary, selects and focuses on par-
ticular items; secondly, expertise, what claims to authority can a critic
make, compared to others, to take on this role; and thirdly, impact, how
successful is the cultural intermediary in influencing others. I will now
look at these points in more detail in relation to radio critics.
The radio critic, and the radio coverage found in newspapers, cannot
cover all aspects of radio, there is too much and not all will be of interest
to the reader. They therefore create and use a cultural frame as a way of
delimiting what they are looking at and what they present to their readers,
helping to focus on particular aspects of radio. They use this to help guide
what they concentrate on, whether it is the radio industry, stations, the
schedule, the presenters or the programmes, which individual examples of
these they select to write about, which types of stations and programmes
for example, and how they will do this, by using an impressionistic
approach, a form of close textual analysis or through a less critical and
more opinionated journalistic discourse. The radio coverage that has
tended to dominant the newspapers has invariably been listings or pro-
gramme schedule information, usually for the main national radio chan-
nels, previews, where the critic selects and evaluates upcoming programme
or programmes, through highlights, where particular programmes are
 APPROACHING THE STUDY OF RADIO CRITICS AND RADIO CRITICISM 21

selected as being worth listening to and, lastly, reviews, where, after broad-
cast, the radio critic reflects on how successful or not, a programme was.
Though other forms of hard and soft news coverage also appear, such as
where radio is written about as an industry or through the behaviour and
lifestyles of its celebrities. What decides and delimits what is selected for
such treatment and how they are written about, relates, as noted earlier, to
the cultural values held by the critic, the knowledge they have of what
going to be broadcast, often information carefully controlled by the
broadcaster, the newspaper they work for, the readership they write for
and the wider held dominant values. For Bourdieu the sentiments of the
critic and readers are often similar, as the newspapers will tend to employ
cultural intermediaries who share the same values and tastes their readers,
or are prepared, mostly, to satisfy these (Bourdieu 1984: 234).
In relation to claims to expertise, as we saw earlier in this chapter, this
relates to the radio critic in two main ways. Either they have been
employed to work for a newspaper and have been given the title of critic,
or, if publishing independently, perhaps online, they earn the trust of the
reader through their abilities. However, at the end of the day, if they write
and review cultural forms in a way that does not accord with the tastes
and values of their readers, and they are unable to persuade them of their
views, they might lose their reader’s trust and, perhaps, their position as
expert at the paper. Therefore, there is a lot of pressure on the critic,
especially from the newspapers editors, to conform. However, an occa-
sional subversive approach to the cultural form in question can work the
other way, helping to reaffirm, in the reader’s eyes, the independent
nature of the critic in question (Crosbie and Roberge 2016: 276). This
point links to the third dimension, that of impact. In terms of radio crit-
ics, or any critics this is hard to measure. However, it could be argued
that, over time the output of British radio critics has impacted on readers,
listener, policy makers, performers and broadcasters. Such as when critics
played an important role in the 1920s and 1930s in how radio became
accepted as part of popular culture (Rixon 2015), in the war pressuring
the BBC to rethink its initial war time services (Nicholas 2012) and, in
the 1960s, the way critics helped to introduce new celebrities and stars of
Radio 1 to British listeners (see Chap. 6). Radio critics and related cover-
age plays an important role in telling the listener what is on and when,
what might be worth listening to and what the shared feeling was about
the programmes.
22 P. RIXON

The radio critic, in this way, must be viewed as a cultural intermediary—

helping society to think through its culture and how it views it, helping to
provide direction and understanding. However, as noted, this is usually
done through the lens of the dominant cultural values, usually held by
radio critic, but also by most readers. Though, at certain moments, when
new media forms appear or as society goes through change, the critic
might take a more dynamic role, actively shaping a response to new cul-
tural forms and, sometimes helping to change the shared dominant values.
I now want to look, more specifically, at the industrial context where critics
work and how this impacts on their role and critical discourse.

The Media Critic: Industry and Discourse

However, as noted above, media critics work for an industry; they are
employed to create a cultural output and, as such they are evaluated and
judged, both critically and commercially. If they do not achieve their tar-
gets, if they do not satisfy the readers or the media owners, they might face
redundancy. The media critic is therefore caught in a bind of having to
both appear to be independent, providing a personal but informed view
on what they write about or review, while also having to attract particular
readerships, satisfying the needs of the industry they work for; they are
judged both on their approach on dissecting the cultural form and their
popularity of their own cultural output. In an article relating to media-
based television criticism, which observations can also be applied to radio,
Mike Poole (1984) argues that the critic operates at a junction where a
number of discourses intersect. For Poole this includes industrial dis-
courses of the organisations the critics work for and the organisations
whose output they review, which occurs, at least in the British context,
within a powerful literary or critical tradition that, in many ways for televi-
sion, but also for radio criticism, has over-determined the emerging critical
form (1984: 49). Such a view suggests that the critic is employed by the
media, such as a newspaper, and is therefore a specialised journalist or
columnist with a primary role to provide engaging copy for the reader,
with only a secondary role to deliver a critical insight into television or
radio (Giddings 1994). At the same time the media critic is also in a close
relationship with the broadcasting industry, whose workings, organisa-
tions and productions they critique and review. Such an industry seeks to
use the critic to speak for them in what Poole calls ‘Promotional
Ventriloquy’ (1984: 49): it tries to use critics to promote their programmes
 APPROACHING THE STUDY OF RADIO CRITICS AND RADIO CRITICISM 23

and to write about broadcasting in a way that suits them. They do this by
selecting which programmes critics get access to at previews, restricting
access to their staff and using their promotional material to try to shape
what is written (Poole 1984: 49–52; Rixon 2017b). As Poole argues, the
broadcast critic is therefore under a double institutional hegemony of the
print and electronic media. The problem of developing an appropriate and
acceptable approach, for Poole, has not been helped as the early broadcast
critics, seeking both critical and journalistic acceptance, looked towards
existing forms of reviewing art, music, literature and theatre that relied on
a form of textual analysis to critique the programme as a text (Rixon 2011:
77–8). Therefore, as broadcast critics followed these traditions this has led
to an inappropriate form of criticism developing, one that takes little
account of radio as an aural form of mass media (Rixon 2015).
Because of the needs of the broadcasters and newspapers, and the dom-
inance of a literary-focused culture, a form of textual criticism has become
the main form of cultural critique found in the press. For the broadcasters
the wish is for their product, the programmes, to be focused on and for
these to be reviewed and highlighted for the public. There is less desire by
the industry for a critical approach that focuses on what they do as organ-
isations, the number of repeats they might use, their revenue streams and
the high salaries or bonuses paid (Poole 1984: 49–52). Likewise the press
media, where most of the critics operate, want their radio coverage to fit
into a known form. Therefore, they desire it to sit easily alongside other
forms of criticism or popular reviewing, such as that that already exists for
cultural forms like film, theatre and literature. Radio criticism, as it devel-
oped, has duplicate these other approaches, tending to focus mostly on
the programmes as texts; though, in the 1930s, many of the critics work-
ing for the popular press, much to the annoyance of the BBC, took a more
critical contextual approach (Nicholas 2012: 386).
A strong reason for this dominant textual focus, for Poole, comes from
the dominant literary culture in Britain, with its linkage to high culture,
which tends to view the author and the text as the main area of creativity.
Cultural products that are mass produced are looked down as lacking
these elements as they are shaped by commercial need (Adorno 1991).
Therefore, for radio and television to be accepted by the dominant cul-
tural paradigm, it requires the mass media elements to be downplayed,
and for an authorial hand to be discovered and the text to be the centre of
focus. By critics taking such an approach it allowed them to make a claim
for the cultural standing of the broadcast form and their position as critics
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
competition with theirs, and who will prize more highly the pleasure
he receives than that he may be capable of bestowing—such a man
appears to me, in the essentials of character, a brute. The brutes
commonly seek the satisfaction of their propensities with straight-
forward selfishness, and never calculate whether their companions
are gratified or teased by their importunities. Man cannot assimilate
his nature more closely to theirs, than by imitating them in this.
Again. There is no instinct in regard to which strict temperance is
more essential. All our animal desires have hitherto occupied an
undue share of human thoughts; but none more generally than this.
The imaginations of the young and the passions of the adult are
inflamed by mystery or excited by restraint, and a full half of all the
thoughts and intrigues of the world has a direct reference to this
single instinct. Even those, who like the Shakers, ‘crucify the flesh,’
are not the less occupied by it in their secret thoughts; as the Shaker
writings themselves may afford proof. Neither human institutions
nor human prejudices can destroy the instinct. Strange it is, that men
should not be content rationally to control, and wisely to regulate it.
 SEXUAL WEAKNESS

This complaint, commonly called fluor albus, or whites, to which

women are peculiarly subject, must form an important object of
attention, since it is always attended with disagreeable symptoms;
and, when aggravated, soon spoils the beauty of a fine face, weakens
the digestive powers, produces a general bad habit, and occasions
sterility.
 Symptoms.
An irregular discharge from the passage leading to the womb, of a
fluid, which, in different women, varies much in colour, being of a
white, green, yellow, or brown hue. In the beginning it is, however,
most usually white and pellucid, and, in progress of the complaint,
acquires the various discolourations and different degrees of
acrimony, whence proceed a slight smarting on making water.
Besides the discharge, the patient is frequently afflicted with severe
and constant pains in the back and loins, indigestion, paleness of the
face, chilliness, and languor. In process of time, every symptom
becomes highly aggravated, the feet and ankles swell, palpitations,
and a difficulty of respiration are experienced, the menstrual
discharge is rendered irregular, the urine is turbid, the mind is
dejected, and either consumption or dropsy supervenes, and
terminates a miserable existence.
In some languid habits, the fluor albus returns periodically,
instead of the proper menstrual evacuation, until the patient’s
constitution is duly invigorated.
 Causes.
It may be produced by any cause which either weakens or irritates
the womb and its appendages. It may arise from general debility of
the constitution, but it is especially caused by circumstances
impairing the power of the womb itself, as, for instance, a severe
labour, a miscarriage, or profuse menstruation.
In some instances it appears to depend on a full and irritable habit
of body, and, in other cases, of local irritation, such as disorders of
the womb, or of the urinary organs, or a collection in the gut, of the
small thready worms called ascarides.
Upon the high authority of Dr. Hamilton, this disease is most
frequently first brought on by some imprudence in respect to diet
and clothing, or exposure to cold or fatigue, or neglect of the bowels
about the time when menstruation begins.
 Treatment.
In the treatment of this complaint regard must be had to the
apparent cause, and to the state of the patient. The discharge is too
often considered by the sex as the effects of general weakness in their
habit, and, therefore, they are led to the indiscriminate use of heating
medicines, as port wine, balsam copaibæ, &c., without paying
attention to the habit of the body, or cause of the disease.
A milk diet, change of air, and the partial cold bath, as sponging
the loins and thighs with cold water every morning, with attention to
cleanliness and proper exercise, are often sufficient to arrest the
disease, if early adopted.
In addition to this plan of treatment, if the patient be of a full
habit, a disposition to fever from slight causes, attended with a sense
of heat about the passage to the womb, it will be necessary to have
recourse to the lancet, cooling cathartics, and febrifuge medicines,
and to inject, several times a day, flax-seed tea or milk and water,
into the passage of the womb. In the great majority of cases, the
complaint arises from general debility or laxity of the vessels of the
parts, and in such cases the indications of cure are to increase the
vital heat, promote the digestion, and restrain the preternatural
discharge. In order to which, recourse must be had to such of the
tonic medicines as will be found to agree best with the patient. Of
these, the bark and elixir vitriol, the tonic powders or pills, the rust
or tincture of steel, and lime-water have usually been employed, and
often with good effects. In some instances, however, I have known
these medicines to fail, when the nitric acid, diluted, in doses of a
wineglassful, three or four times a day, wonderfully succeeded.
Previously to the exhibition of tonic medicines, it is advisable to
give a dose of ipecacuanha or antimonial wine. Gentle emetics are
supposed to be of singular utility in this complaint, not only by
cleansing the stomach and bowels, and making a revulsion of the
humors from the inferior part of the body, but likewise by their
exciting all the powers of the constitution to a more vigorous action.
 The bowels must be kept in a regular state by conjoining a few
grains of rhubarb with some of the tonic medicines, or by taking
occasionally, at bedtime, one of the aloetic, or aperient or diaphoretic
pills; or, in the morning, a teaspoonful of Epsom salts dissolved in a
tumbler of water.
If there be a fulness of the stomach after eating, the tincture of
rhubarb in small doses will excite digestion. In obstinate cases, it is
often expedient to produce a change in the system, by giving a grain
or two of calomel, or one of the mercurial pills at bedtime, until the
gums become slightly affected, and then the cure may be completed
by strengthening medicines, together with the shower bath.
Besides tonics, stimulating medicines, such as commonly
determine to the urinary passages, have very frequently been
employed with great benefit. Of these, rosin in doses of ten grains in
the yolk of an egg, or a spoonful of molasses, or balsam copaibæ in
doses of a teaspoonful, or tincture of cantharides in doses of twenty
or thirty drops in some mucilaginous drink, and taken three or four
times a day, will be found most salutary.
These means strike at the cause of the complaint; but if it do not
remove the effect very soon, we are not to trust to them alone. For
once a morbid secretion being excited, it is very apt to continue,
although the exciting cause cease to operate.
On this account, we ought, without delay, to have recourse to
astringent injections, such as a strong decoction of red oak bark, with
the addition of a little alum or a solution of alum in water. Half an
ounce of the former to be dissolved in a bottle of water; which should
be thrown into the vagina by means of a female syringe, two or three
times a day. The celebrated Dr. Burns says, after many trials, he
satisfied himself, that although assistance may be derived from
internal medicines and the cold bath, yet the chief dependence is to
be placed on astringent applications to the seat of the discharge; and
these, where there is no fulness of the general system, nor any
affection of the womb itself, are perfectly safe, and seldom fail in
producing a cure.
It will be prudent, when this disease occurs as an early symptom of
pregnancy, not to check the discharge suddenly, lest miscarriage be
the consequence; but it may be moderated by injections of water,
with the addition of a little vinegar, or an infusion of green tea.
Neither should the discharge be suddenly suppressed when it has
been of long standing, and acquired a considerable degree of
acrimony, with an offensive smell. For if it be unseasonably checked,
the belly swells, and a train of the most disagreeable symptoms
occurs. In such cases, soap suds, or an infusion of chamomile flowers
or hops, should be frequently thrown up the vagina; and, as soon as
the blood is freed of its impurities, by suitable medicines, and has
recovered, in some measure, its soft and balmy quality of which it
has been deprived, the astringent injections may be employed with
perfect safety.
The application of a blister to the sacrum, has, in some obstinate
cases, been attended with advantage.
When the fluor albus proceeds from worms, purgatives and bitter
clysters are the proper remedies.
Pain in the back and loins is often mitigated by the application of a
large adhesive or strengthening plaster, and by avoiding a standing
posture of long continuance, much walking, dancing, or any other
violent exertion.
Women should carefully avoid all the remote causes of the disease:
they should pay diligent attention to cleanliness, by washing the
parts frequently with cold water; and when there are excoriations,
milk and water, or lead water, may be employed as a wash.
 Regimen.
The diet should be light, cordial, and nourishing, consisting of
isinglass dissolved in milk by boiling it, jellies, custards, rice, milk,
soft-boiled eggs, gelatinous broths, and light meats, together with a
prudent use of genuine wine, particularly claret or port.
Women, affected with this disease, should by no means indulge in
the use of tea and other warm slops of a relaxing nature; but should
lie on a mattress in preference to a feather bed; and they should rise
early, and take such daily exercise as their strength will admit,
particularly on horseback. When there is much languor, with
chilliness, friction with the flesh-brush, and wearing flannel next the
skin, must not be omitted.
 FALLING DOWN OF THE WOMB.

This is a much more common complaint than the former, and

takes place in women of every age, and every rank. As its name
implies, it consists of change in the situation of the womb, by which
that organ lies much lower than it ought to do. In some cases it
absolutely protrudes entirely without the parts. The slightest degrees
are styled bearing down; and the more violent ones descent or falling
down of the womb.
In general, the first symptom of this complaint is an uneasy
sensation in the lower part of the back while standing or walking,
with now and then a kind of pressure and bearing down.
If these feelings be disregarded, the complaint increases, and the
patient becomes incapable of making water without first lying down,
or pushing up a swelling which seems to stop the discharge of urine;
and if the disease continues to increase, the womb is actually forced
out of the parts, and takes on the form of a bulky substance hanging
down between the thighs. This extreme degree of the complaint can
seldom happen, excepting in women who have had a great many
children, but the less degrees of it occur occasionally in very young
unmarried women.
The causes of descent of the womb ought to be known to every
woman, as many of them may be avoided. Every disease which
induces weakness of the habit in general, or of the passage leading to
the womb, in particular, must lay the foundation for the complaint.
Frequent miscarriages, improper treatment during labour, too early
or violent exercise after delivery, are in married women, the most
frequent circumstances by which falling down of the womb is
produced. In the unmarried, it is apt to take place in consequence of
violent exercise, as in dancing, riding, &c., while out of order, a fact
that ought to be impressed on the mind of every young woman.
 In the treatment of this complaint, the means must be adapted to
the degree of its violence. When the descent is inconsiderable, and
the case is of recent date, the daily use of the cold bath, invigorating
diet, very moderate exercise, and the injection of any mild astringent
liquor into the passage, evening and morning, will probably prove
successful. But should the disease be in a great degree or of long
standing, a course of tonics, with the frequent use of astringent
injections, as a strong solution of alum in water, or decoction of red
oak bark, must be added to the above means.
Dr. Leak advises, that after the parts are reduced, the intention of
contracting the relaxed vagina so as to prevent its future descent,
may be effected by the frequent use of the following astringent
injection. Take of alum, and white vitriol, each, one drachm, boiling
water, one pound, mix and filter through paper. Inject it into the
vagina, milk warm, with a womb syringe. At the same time
endeavour to strengthen the whole bodily system by nourishing diet,
and tonic medicines.
When the complaint resists such remedies, or when, from its
degree, it may appear unnecessary to employ them, the only relief
which can be afforded, unless the womb become pregnant, is to be
obtained by wearing an instrument called a pessary. It is made of
wood or ivory, and if properly adapted to the passage, and of a
proper construction, it can be worn without much inconvenience,
and it never occasions pain. Certain attentions are however
necessary, whenever such an instrument is used. Thus, the pessary
should never be allowed to remain in the passage above a few days at
a time, otherwise it becomes the source of great irritation. It should,
therefore, be occasionally withdrawn on going to bed, well cleaned
and reintroduced in the morning, before the patient rises. In some
instances, after a pessary of a certain size has been worn for several
months, one of a smaller size becomes better adapted to the
passages, and in other cases one of a larger size is required.
Sponges of such a size as, when expanded, fill up the cavity of the
vagina, are very good pessaries. They support the uterus, and, by
putting a string through them, the end of which is to be left hanging
out of the os externum, the woman can take them away and apply
them herself very conveniently.
 To answer this purpose, a fine sponge, wrung out in alum water,
may be dried in a compressed state, and cut into any convenient
form, so as to be introduced as high as possible: this will act by its
astringency, and by its pressure, in a gentle and uniform manner.
During the use of this application, an astringent injection may be
used twice a day; and the sponge tent should be made gradually
smaller as the vagina contracts.
The application of the bandage round the whole belly, with a
moderate degree of firmness, often gives great relief to the uneasy
feelings. The T bandage has also been worn in this case with
considerable advantage.
If a woman liable to falling down of the womb, become pregnant,
there is no occasion for the pessary after the third month, and by
proper treatment after delivery, the return of the complaint may be
prevented.
 MISCARRIAGE OR ABORTION.

We now come to the consideration of a subject, in respect to which

there exists much misapprehension and ignorance, causing useless
and unnecessary alarm and anxiety to those who may be so
unfortunate as to be subject, at particular periods of gestation, to
abortion or miscarriage.
The dangers of abortion or miscarriage are often magnified and
exaggerated. It is dangerous if produced by a fall, a blow, a kick from
a horse, or any other external bodily violence or injury, causing
internal contusion, or rupture of some blood-vessels; and, also, but
not to the same extent, if produced by sudden fright, violent fits of
passion, &c., or from general debility or disease of the uterus; but the
danger arises more from the cause which produces the miscarriage,
than from the miscarriage itself; as it is well known by those versed
in obstetrics that, where it is deemed indispensable to effect a
miscarriage, either because of the existence of a deformed pelvis,
diseased uterus, or other causes, if skilfully effected, it is attended
with no danger, especially in the earlier stages of pregnancy.[43]
 Symptoms.
When miscarriage is about to take place, its first symptoms are
generally occasional stinging pains at the bottom of the belly,
extending across and around the loins and hips; a feeling of fatigue
of the legs, pain in the forehead, burning sensation of the eyes. The
breasts, which before were distended, become soft and flabby, hot
and cold flashes, attended with thirst, fever, and shiverings. In a day
or two after the appearance of these symptoms, a discharge from the
womb takes place of yellow matter, tinctured with red. If not arrested
at this stage, the pains across the loins become more severe and
frequent, attended with a sense of dead weight, and bearing down
about the womb, the water is discharged, and the expulsion of the
contents of the womb takes place. The symptoms of miscarriage,
however, vary with the causes which produce them, or the state of
habit, age, or health of the patient; some recovering immediately,
and rapidly, and with but little inconvenience. Where miscarriage
arises from a serious accident, such as violent falls, bruises, &.c., the
symptoms are somewhat aggravated, and more severe, and are often
preceded and accompanied with violent and profuse floodings and
discharges of coagula, in addition to the other symptoms; although
moderate flowing is not an unfrequent symptom in miscarriages.
It is always accompanied with two circumstances, separation of
the membranous bag, and expulsive efforts or contraction of the
womb itself. The first is productive of discharge, the second of pains
like those of labor. Sometimes the separation or detachment of part
of the conception takes place before any pain is felt; on other
occasions, the pain, or contraction of the womb, takes place first, and
produces a separation. In the first of these cases, the symptoms of
abortion take place suddenly, and are usually occasioned by fatigue,
sudden exertion, or fright. In the second, the pains come on, and
there are particular feelings, and changes, which indicate that a
miscarriage is likely to take place; as, for instance, the cessation of
the morning sickness, the subsidence of the breasts, &c.
 Miscarriage is preceded by floodings, pains in the back, loins, and
lower part of the abdomen, evacuation of the water, shiverings,
palpitation of the heart, nausea, anxiety, fainting, subsiding of the
breasts and belly, pain in the inside of the thighs, opening and
moisture of the womb.
 Causes.
The principal causes of miscarriage are blows or falls; great
exertion or fatigue; sudden frights and other violent emotions of the
mind; a diet too sparing or too nutritious; the abuse of spirituous
liquors; other diseases, particularly fevers and hæmorrhages;
likewise excessive bleeding, profuse diarrhœa or colic, particularly
from accumulated fæces; immoderate venery, &c.
 Treatment.
When a woman is threatened with a miscarriage, there are two
objects to attend to; the first is, to prevent it if we can; the second is
to manage it so that as little blood as possible be lost; and both these
are obtained by the same means. With this view, the patient should
immediately, on the first alarm, undress and go to bed, lightly
covered, with a firm determination not to rise till the process be
either checked or completely over. There should be little fire in the
room, though it be winter; and in summer, the windows must be
opened. Cloths wet with cold water, should instantly be applied to
the lower part of the belly, and back: the drink must be cold, and
everything stimulating should carefully be avoided.
In robust habits, or when the symptoms have been brought on
suddenly by some such cause as a fall or exertion, it is proper to
bleed; and, in cases of sickness or great feebleness, to give a dose of
laudanum; or, what is better, to administer the anodyne clysters.[44]
Opiates are useful in every case where we hope to prevent
abortion, and must be repeated more often or seldom, according to
the effect they produce. They are, however, improper in those cases
where miscarriages must decidedly take place. Their tendency to
occasion costiveness, when employed, must be obviated by clysters,
or some gentle laxative medicine, such as calcined magnesia, Epsom
salts, or a little castor oil. If there be a continued but trifling
discharge, great advantage may be derived from injecting, three or
four times a day, up the vagina, a solution of alum. Indeed, in all
protracted cases, this is of much benefit. The solution ought to be
thrown up pretty high, that it may reach the womb.
When these means produce not the desired effect, and along with
the discharge of blood large clots come off attended with bearing
down or pains in the back and loins, especially if the symptoms
which precede abortion have appeared, there must be every
probability that the threatening event cannot be avoided; then we
must conduct the patient through the process.
 In all cases during the last stage of pregnancy, where our
endeavors to stop or repress the hemorrhage prove abortive, it will
be advisable to deliver her as soon as possible.
When the whole conception come away at once, the pain and
discharge usually go off; but, if only the fœtus come away, all the
symptoms either continue and increase till the placenta come away,
or, if they be for a time suspended, they are sure to return, except in
early miscarriages of ten or twelve weeks pregnancy, when
sometimes the fœtus is expelled separately, and the placenta comes
immediately after, but the latter frequently remains several days. The
most prudent mode in such cases is to leave it to nature, which
sooner or later expels this foreign body.
After the process is over, if the discharge be profuse, and do not
stop on the application of cold water to the lower part of the belly, it
will be proper to plug up the vagina, and this is best done by taking a
piece of soft sponge, dipping it in sweet oil, and then wringing it
gently. This is to be introduced with the finger, portion after portion,
until the lower part of the vagina be well filled. The remainder is then
to be firmly pressed on the orifice; and held there some time for the
effused blood to coagulate. In obstinate cases, previously to the
introduction of the plug, we may insert a little pounded ice, or snow
tied up in a rag, if to be procured,[45] but neither of these should be
continued so long as to produce pain or much shivering. In addition
to this mode of treatment, it will be advisable to have recourse to the
astringent medicines, as advised under the head of Immoderate
Flow of Menses.
 Regimen.
Arrow-root, tapioca, sago, panada, or rice milk, constitute a proper
regimen. If the process be protracted, and the strength much
impaired, the diet may be more liberal. In every case, ripe fruit is safe
and useful. The bowels are to be kept regular, and sleep, if necessary,
is to be procured by an anodyne.
 Prevention.
It requires great attention to prevent abortion in subsequent
pregnancies, whenever it has happened.
In all such cases, it will be highly necessary to attend to the usual
habitudes and constitution of the woman, and to remove that
condition which is found to dispose to abortion.
A woman that is subject to miscarriage, and who is of a full
plethoric habit, ought to take the tincture of foxglove, twice or thrice
a day, for two or three weeks.
She should likewise keep her body perfectly open with gentle
aperient medicines, use a spare diet, and avoid all agitations of the
mind. The sleep should be abridged in quantity, and taken on a
mattress, instead of a feather bed. Regular and moderate exercise
should be taken daily, being cautious, at the same time, not to carry
it to the length of exciting fatigue.
In women of a weak, lax habit, a nutritive and generous diet,
moderate exercise, and tonic medicines, will be required. And, along
with nourishing diet, a moderate use of wine should be allowed, if it
do not heat the patient, or otherwise disagree. The cold bath is of
signal service in every instance where it is not followed by chilliness.
Until gestation be far advanced, it would be advisable for the
woman to sleep alone, and strictly avoid every cause which is
ascertained to be capable of producing abortion.
Women more frequently miscarry in the second or third month
than at any other time; but some have a certain period at which they
usually go wrong, and do not vary a week from it. In such cases, the
woman should confine herself to the house, avoid the least exercise,
and frequently recline on the sofa or bed, till that period be past.
When a female has suffered several abortions, it becomes almost
impossible to prevent a repetition at the same period of gestation in a
subsequent pregnancy. Nothing, however, will be so successful in
preventing a recurrence of a similar misfortune, as in allowing the
uterine vessels to recover their tone; for which purpose tonics must
be given. Attend to particular symptoms as they occur; with proper
diet and exercise. Sea Bathing and the shower bath are both
excellent.[46]
 When necessary to effect Miscarriage or
Artificial Delivery.
During pregnancy, deformities of the pelvis become objects of
solicitude to the accoucheur, when they are of such a character as to
render delivery at full term impossible without the interference of
cutting operations. At this period only can he guard against the
deplorable consequences of these deformities.
 Pelvic Deformities.
The accoucheur may be consulted by a mother anxious to know
whether the pelvis of her daughter is such as to justify marriage. His
opinion may also be desired by a female pregnant for the first time,
in whose mind there may exist fears as to the formation of her pelvis.
In this case, he will have to reply to the following questions:
Is delivery at full term compatible with the safety of the child?
What influence will the deformity have on pregnancy? What
precautions are necessary to guard against accident until the
completion of gestation, and to facilitate delivery?
When the accoucheur states that delivery will not be possible
without the interference of art, he will then be asked whether this
interference will compromise the life of the mother or child; and
whether this operation cannot be avoided by some process during
pregnancy, either saving the life of mother and child, or sacrificing
the child for the benefit of the mother?
In order to answer these questions satisfactorily, and to furnish
himself with a rule of conduct in advance, it will be necessary for the
accoucheur to know precisely the condition of the pelvis, and the
dimensions of the diameters, &c.
However, it must not be supposed that this mensuration can be
made with mathematical accuracy; our means will not enable us to
obtain this precision; but even if we could, the object we have in view
would not be completely accomplished, for, in order to arrive at a
rigorous appreciation of the consequences of the deformity and the
operations it might require, it would be necessary also to know the
exact size of the fœtus, which is not possible.
Happily, in practice, an approximation as to the absolute condition
of the pelvis will suffice, and it is easy to arrive at this result. With
this view, the accoucheur should, in the first place, learn the previous
history of the patient in infancy and youth, and afterward proceed to
an external and internal examination.
 When the accoucheur is called upon to pass an opinion as to the
natural or unnatural conformation of a female, he should, says M. P.
Dubois, inquire minutely into the antecedent condition of this
woman during her infancy and youth. The history of early life will
often, of itself, cause him to suspect the state of the pelvis. He should
address the following questions to the parent:
What diseases was the infant affected with? At what age did they
manifest themselves? At what age did the child walk? After
walking, did it appear weak in the inferior extremities? Was the
erect position possible? Was it easy? Were the articulations large?
If all these phenomena appeared in infancy, it is highly probable
that the pelvis is deformed; and, moreover, it may be affirmed that
the symptoms arose from rickets, a disease peculiar to infancy. It
commences rarely before eighteen or twenty months, and very
seldom after thirteen of fourteen years of age. If there should be
curvatures of the spinal column and extremities, it will be almost
certain that the pelvis is deformed; and if the curvature commenced
in the inferior extremities, we may conclude that it is owing to
rachitis, for this disease exerts its influence first on the tibias, then
on the bones of the thighs, pelvis, and vertebral column. On the
contrary, if the first ten years have been passed without disturbance
of the general health, then curvatures must be attributed to
malacosteon, especially if the curvature of the spine has preceded
that of the lower limbs. Deformity of the spine may exist alone; then
we may legitimately hope that the pelvis is not contracted.
Experience, indeed, proves that the vertebral column may be
considerably curved without the pelvis participating in the deformity,
when the inferior extremities are straight; and that, in general,
curvatures of the extremities alone accompany pelvic malformations.
Indeed, it is not on simple probabilities that the accoucheur is to
interdict the marriage[47] of a young girl, or determine, during
pregnancy, to perform an operation, with the view of protecting the
mother against the dangers of delivery at full term.
 Premature Artificial Delivery.
Thanks to the efforts of MM. Stoltz, Dezeimeris, P. Dubois, and
Velpeau, delivery brought on before the full term is an operation
hereafter recognised in French midwifery. For a long time it proved
useful to our neighbors in England and Germany, while a foolish
prejudice caused it to be rejected by French practitioners, who did
not hesitate even to have recourse to the Cæsarean section and
symphyscotomy.
We have not within the walls of Paris one solitary example of a
woman who had survived the Cæsarean section. She who lived the
longest was one of those on whom I assisted M. P. Dubois to operate.
She died on the seventeenth day of a tetanic affection, when
everything promised a most successful result.—(Bull. of the Acad. of
Med., t. iii., p. 694; t. v., p. 25.)
When the contraction is such that a living fœtus cannot be brought
forth, the accoucheur has then to choose between the Cæsarean
section or miscarriage.
During pregnancy, abortion will present an extreme and last
resource. And it would seem more humane to sacrifice, before the
period of viability, an embryo whose existence is so uncertain, in
order to protect the mother from the perilous chances of
symphyscotomy and the Cæsarean section.
I must confess that, if such an alternative were presented to me,
the diameter of the pelvis being only two inches, I should not hesitate
to propose this means.
The abuse and criminal extension of such a resource is
reprehensible, but not its proper and authorized employment. This
operation should always be undertaken with great care, and all
necessary precaution used to satisfy the public mind of its necessity.
 LABOR, DELIVERY, ETC.

After seven months of pregnancy the fœtus has all the conditions
for breathing and exercising its digestion. It may then be separated
from its mother, and change its mode of existence. Child-birth rarely,
however, happens at this period: most frequently the fœtus remains
two months longer in the uterus, and it does not pass out of this
organ till after the revolution of nine months.
Examples are related of children being born after ten full months
of gestation; but these cases are very doubtful, for it is extremely
difficult to know the exact period of conception. The legislation in
France, however, has fixed the principle, that child-birth may take
place up to the two hundred and ninety-ninth day of pregnancy.
Nothing is more curious than the mechanism by which the fœtus is
expelled; everything happens with wonderful precision; all seems to
have been foreseen, and calculated to favor its passage through the
pelvis and the genital parts.
The physical causes that determine the exit of the fœtus are the
contraction of the uterus and that of the abdominal muscles; by their
force the liquor amnii flows out, the head of the fœtus is engaged in
the pelvis, it goes through it, and soon passes out by the valve, the
folds of which disappear; these different phenomena take place in
succession, and continue a certain time; they are accompanied with
pains more or less severe; with swelling and softening of the soft
parts of the pelvis and external genital parts, and with an abundant
mucous secretion in the cavity of the vagina. All these circumstances,
each in its own way, favor the passage of the fœtus. To facilitate the
study of this action, it may be divided into several periods.
The first period of child-birth.—It is constituted by the precursory
signs. Two or three days before child-birth a flow of mucus takes
place from the vagina, the external genital parts swell and become
softer; it is the same with the ligaments that unite the bones of the
pelvis; the mouth of the womb flattens, its opening is enlarged, its
edges become thinner; slight pains, known under the name of flying
pains, are felt in the loins and abdomen.
Second period.—Pains of a peculiar kind come on; they begin in
the lumbar region, and seem to be propagated towards the womb or
the rectum; and are renewed only after intervals of a quarter or half
an hour each. Each of them is accompanied with an evident
contraction of the body of the uterus, with tension of its neck and
dilatation of the opening; the finger directed into the vagina
discovers that the envelopes of the fœtus are pushed outward, and
that there is a considerable tumor, which is called the waters; the
pains very soon become stronger, and the contraction of the uterus
more powerful; the membranes break, and a part of the liquid
escapes; the uterus contracts on itself, and is applied to the surface of
the fœtus.
Third period.—The pains and contractions of the uterus increase
considerably; they are instinctively accompanied by the contraction
of the abdominal muscles. The woman who is aware of their effect is
inclined to favour them, by making all the muscular efforts of which
she is capable: her pulse then becomes stronger and more frequent;
her face is animated, her eyes shine, her whole body is in extreme
agitation, and perspiration flows in abundance. The head descends
into the lower strait of the pelvis.
Fourth period.—After some moments of repose the pains and
expulsive contractions resume all their activity; the head presents
itself at the vulva, makes an effort to pass, and succeeds when there
happens to be a contraction sufficiently strong to produce this effect.
The head being once disengaged, the remaining parts of the body
easily follow, on account of their smaller volume. The section of the
umbilical cord is then made, and a ligature is put around it at a short
distance from the umbilicus or navel.
Fifth period.—If the midwife has not proceeded immediately to the
extraction of the placenta after the birth of the child, slight pains are
felt in a short time, the uterus contracts freely, but with force enough
to throw off the placenta and the membranes of the ovum; this
expulsion bears the name of delivery. During the twelve or fifteen
days that follow child-birth the uterus contracts by degrees upon
itself, the woman suffers abundant perspirations, her breasts are
extended by the milk that they secrete; a flow of matter, which takes
place from the vagina, called lochia, first sanguiferous, then whitish,
indicates that the organs of the woman resume, by degrees, the
disposition they had before conception.
 MANAGEMENT OF LABOR.

Women in general are ignorant of parturition or delivery. Almost

all of them are under the impression that labor is completed more by
art than nature; hence the most noted accoucheurs are employed to
attend during this interesting period; and professional men, in
general, have no wish to undeceive them on this subject, as their
interest is too much concerned. It is often astonishing to see the
credulity and ignorance manifested on these occasions. Thanks and
blessings have been poured forth, under the idea that he had saved
their lives in labor, when the accoucheur had merely looked on and
admired the perfectly adequate powers of nature, and superintended
the efforts of her work; and it is nature that accomplishes all, while
the accoucheur gets the credit of it. There is not one case in a
thousand in which he can do more than remain a silent spectator,
except to calm the fears of the ignorant and timid attendants. The
mischief and injury that are done by the untimely interference of art
are incalculable.
In pregnancy women are bled till they have not strength enough to
accomplish delivery; and, when it takes place, the forceps or other
instruments are used, which often prove fatal to the mother or child,
or both.
There are various particulars to be avoided, and several things to
be done, in the management of women during labor. We have room
here to state only a few, and shall begin by pointing out the course to
be pursued in
Natural Labor.
When called to a woman supposed to be in labor, ascertain if her
pains are true or false, which may be easily known by a little inquiry.
If the female complains of flying or unsettled pains about the system,
occurring mostly toward evening or during the night, and being
slight or irregular, it may be taken for granted that they are spurious
or false. If these symptoms prove troublesome, an infusion or tea of
hops may be taken; or, if this is not sufficient to relieve them, or
procure sleep, an anodyne may be taken; and it may be necessary
also to give laxative medicines or an injection, with a little laudanum.
True pains may be known by the pain being more concentrated in
the lower part of the belly, through the loins and hips.
The pains now increase in regularity and force, returning every ten
or fifteen minutes, and leaving the woman comparatively easy in the
intervals.
When the pains become regular and severe, there is a discharge of
slimy matter, tinged with blood, known by the name of shows. At
this period of labor it will be proper for the person who attends the
labor to examine, in order to ascertain what part of the child
presents, which may be done by requesting the female to sit in the
chair or on the side of the bed, and to extend the legs, when the
longest finger, dipped in sweet oil, may be passed up the vagina to
the part which presents, and the sense communicated will determine
the nature of the presentation. In nineteen cases out of twenty, or in
almost every case, the head will be felt. Frequent examinations
should be avoided.
Dr. Bard, speaking of examinations, remarks: “What terms shall I
use to condemn, as it deserves, the abominable practice of boring,
scooping, and stretching the soft parts of the mother, under the
preposterous idea of making room for the child to pass. It is
impossible to censure this dangerous practice too severely; it is
always wrong; nor can there be any one period in labor, the most
easy and natural, the most tedious and difficult, the most regular or
preternatural in which it can be of the least use; in which it will not
unavoidably do great mischief: it will render an easy labor painful;
one which would be short, tedious; and one which, if left to nature,
would terminate happily, highly dangerous.”
“All that is proper to be done in a case of natural labor, from its
commencement to its termination,” says Dr. McNair, “will suggest
itself to any person of common understanding; and I have long
labored under the conviction, that the office of attending women in
their confinement should be intrusted to prudent females. There is
not, according to my experience, and the reports of the most eminent
surgeons, more than one case in three thousand that requires the
least assistance. I am aware, however, that there are crafty
physicians who attempt, and often succeed, in causing the distressed
and alarmed female to believe that it would be altogether impossible
for her to get over her troubles without their assistance; and, for the
purpose of making it appear that their services are absolutely
necessary, they will be continually interfering, sometimes with their
instruments, when there is not the least occasion for it. There is no
doubt in my mind but that one-half of the women attended by these
men are delivered before their proper period; and this is the reason
why we see so many deformed children, and meet with so many
females who have incurable complaints.”
It is a very common circumstance for an inexperienced (or he may
be an experienced, but ignorant) practitioner to attempt a rupture of
the membranes, and in doing so, rupture the bladder, which would
render the woman miserable during life. We are acquainted with
twenty-five or thirty females who have met with this sad misfortune,
and many of them have been attended by those who are termed our
most successful, or old experienced physicians.
Dr. Rush, speaking of child-bearing among the Indians, says, “that
nature is their only midwife; their labors are short and accompanied
with little pain; each woman is delivered in a private cabin, without
so much as one of her own sex to attend her: after washing herself in
cold water, she returns in a few days to her usual employment; so
that she knows nothing of those accidents which proceed from the
carelessness or ill management of midwives or doctors, or the
weakness which arises from a month’s confinement in a warm
room.”
Dr. Whitney remarks; “I have had many cases where I found the
attendants alarmed, and some in tears, from supposing that they
should have had help sooner, fearing the worst consequence from
delay; but, admitting that the ‘doctor knew best,’ they would wait
calmly for hours, when in nature’s time all ended well. I pledge
myself as a physician, that all honest doctors will tell you that labor
is the work of nature, and she generally does it best when left to
herself.”[48]
“Among the Araucanian Indians,” says Stevenson in his Twenty
Years’ Residence in South America, “a mother, immediately on her