J. Morris (Josiah Morris) Slemons

Josiah Morris Slemons was an American physician, obstetrician, and medical writer whose published work focused on pregnancy, prenatal health, and the nutrition of the fetus. He trained at Johns Hopkins Medical School under the influential obstetrician John Whitridge Williams, a background that helped place him in the center of a fast-changing era in women’s medicine.

His academic career included major posts on both coasts. He served at the University of California and, in 1914, was asked to form the Department of Obstetrics at Yale School of Medicine, described on his Wikipedia biography as Yale’s first clinical department to hire full-time faculty members. He later returned to California and continued his research and writing.

For general readers, he is remembered above all for The Prospective Mother: A Handbook for Women During Pregnancy (1912), a book that stayed visible long after publication through projects like Project Gutenberg and The Online Books Page. His work reflects an effort to make medical knowledge about pregnancy more accessible, practical, and reassuring for non-specialist readers.