Doctor Slop

Dr Slop is a choleric physician and "man-midwife"[1] in Laurence Sterne's novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759).

Slop makes his first appearance in Chapter 34 of the novel, where he is described as: He is portrayed as an incompetent quack, arriving at Shandy Hall having forgotten his array of "vile instruments" and "obstetrical engines", which have to be urgently sent for.

Sterne partially based the character of Slop on Dr John Burton (1710–71), author of An Essay towards a Complete System of Midwifery (1751), in which the engraved plates are the earliest published work of George Stubbs.

[4] His presence reflects a general level of concern on behalf of husbands for the safety of their wives, given the dogmatic and often harmful notions put forth in treatises intended to instruct midwives on the topic, to which doctors were not necessarily beholden.

The traumatic outcome of the birth is ultimately indicative of the hazardous nature of childbirth at the time as well as the inadequacy (sloppiness) of those at the cutting edge of the medical profession.