Slop

Dr Slop

Dr. Slop is the man-midwife. He is a "little, squat, uncourtly figure" of an obstetrician. Readers of the day may have quickly identified Dr. Slop as a satire against Dr. John Burton, a contemporary expert in obstetrics and an enemy of Sterne. However, Burton was not a Catholic, as Slop emphatically is.

Walter champions Slop, no doubt because of the appeal of his pedantic learning. Walter prefers Slop over the midwife, even through Toby's suggestion that his sister "does not care to let a man come so near her ****." Furthermore, Slop places great emphasis on obstetrical instruments, which of course appeals to Walter, but ultimately results in the disfiguration of the infant Tristram's face.



Click here for the first passage on Dr. Slop in Volume II.


Characters
| Toby | Yorick | father (Walter Shandy) | mother | Trim | Tristram | Dr Slop |

Themes
| HOBBY-HORSE | Lillabullero | Don Quixote | Noses | Names |


For a digression on slop, click here!



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Last modified May 12, 1996. Maintained by Keith Earley.
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