APPENDIX.
As I do not wish to bewilder the Judgments of my Readers, but to convince their Understandings,—and as I have, throughout my Letters, laid so much Weight on the Dangers which attend hurrying the Labours of Women, I cannot dismiss this Pamphlet into the World without endeavouring clearly to demonstrate the Utility of allowing Nature to adhere strictly to her own Period for accomplishing the Birth.
Men, who have not been accustomed to thinking;—but whose Lives have been spent in the various Occupations, or dissipated Pleasures of the World, by having been habituated daily to view the common round which Providence takes in the natural Events of Life, never felt their Wonder and Admiration excited by considering them in the Manner which is incumbent on reasonable, intelligent Beings. Those, on the other Hand, whose only real Enjoyments proceed from a delightful Indulgement of the Soul in Contemplations on the astonishing Works of God, divest themselves of that Familiarity to them which the hourly Evidence of their Senses would otherwise have obscured—and render’d Matter for no rational Reflection.
Thus we are blind to the surprizing progressive Change, which enlarges a new born Infant, to the size of Manhood! or a small Seed, to a large Tree!—If an Infant, the day after its Birth, was to walk round the Town, in compleat symmetry of Person, and six Feet high, would not the Miracle forcibly strike the Minds of the most thoughtless of our Species?—The difference is made only by Custom. Twenty Hours, and Twenty Years, are exactly the same in the Sight of God!—My Amazement is excited by seeing the Change wrought in twenty Years, to the full in as high a degree, as the same Sight, in twenty Hours, would raise the Astonishment of an embroidered Maccaroni at Carlisle House, or, of an infinitely more rational, esteemable Being; a poor, ignorant Labourer in the Fields!
The Work of Nature, in Labour, is one of it’s most extraordinary Acts!—Untill the Parts are in some degree prepared by the miraculous Change effected in them by the Labour Pains, the Child could no more enter the World than it could fly into the Clouds!—Untill the Parts are properly prepared, the Child cannot appear without the most obvious Danger.
Every Pain has it’s Office,—it lubricates—it dilates. Where these Pains are not violent—are not quick in their Return—but are lingering, and tedious, they plainly indicate that the Woman requires great Preparation—Nature is gradually, and by the most gentle Means, forwarding the Distension—and if left to herself, will not bring on the Birth till every thing is accommodated to her Purpose.
Men Midwives, seldom wait for Nature’s Moment. Women are objected to, because they are tedious—Men are extolled for their quickness. If Doctor ⸺ has two or three pregnant Ladies waiting, from whom he expects handsome Payments, he will take Merit from hastening the Birth—and if any Accident happens from his Impatience, his Reputation is too well establish’d to suffer in the Eyes of Mankind—and the Misfortune is attributed to some of the common Casualties attending Labour, when it derived it’s Source solely from the Doctor’s having brought the Child forward, unnaturally, before the Parts were pre-disposed, by a proper distension, for it’s Reception, and Passage. I fear two Ladies died lately owing to this very Practice. The Parts inflamed—the Inflammation spread by Sympathy—the Bowels mortified. If these Ladies had lain-in in the Country, and had employ’d common, plain Women, who pretended to no Knowledge but what they derived from Experience, it is a Million to one that the Ladies would now have been alive and well.
The Men-midwives not only give rise to Inflammations by bringing the Child before the Woman has felt half the number of Pains which Nature intended to predispose the Parts—but likewise by their abominable Dilatations. Can any Practice be more repugnant to common Sense, than that of irritating the exquisitely sensitive nervous Fibres of those Parts, by way of preparing them for Distension? The Men absolutely counteract the very end they pretend to have in view, by Dilatation!—Friction must irritate—irritation must inflame—Inflammation must contract. It is no Wonder if Parts so nicely constructed—highly irritated for (perhaps) Hours, should inflame after the Birth, and be productive of the most dreadful Consequences!—Yet their Officiousness recommends them to the Ladies!—I really cannot find Words to inform my Readers of every Circumstance I wish to relate. I start Hints—and leave them to pursue the Subject by an exertion of their own Reason.
I have now entirely done with all which relates to the Danger Women and Children run through officious, shameful Impatience. I have only to recommend one serious Reflection to those Husbands who think their Happiness would be interrupted by detecting any Infidelity in their Wives. I beg they will consider the Advantages they give Men-midwives, in allowing them so many favourable Opportunities of extolling the personal Charms of the Ladies, whose Beauties lie open to their most curious Researches. No Men can possibly have such critical Opportunities for engratiating themselves with the Fair. Flattery, critically applied to Women, has strange Effects. They can accompany their Flattery with irresistible Persuasives. The sacred Names of Religion and Honour may be made Subservient to their Purposes. The more they are pretended to be prized in their Estimation, the more they may be urged in proof of the bewitching Allurements, and forcible Power of those hidden Beauties, which have obliterated every Remonstrance of Virtue, and stifled every Check of Conscience. The poor Woman’s Pity is excited, when she views the strongest Principles of her “dear Man” overcome by her Charms—she can only blame herself for possessing such provoking Temptations—she is blinded by the Assistance of Nature—her own Vanity turns Advocate for the Doctor, and acquits him of Villainy during the Empire of Passion; though the return of Reason, when too late! discovers the Artifices which have accomplish’d her Ruin!
THE AUTHOR.
I hope Doctor Hunter will pardon the latter part of the Reference, at the bottom of my second Letter. I fear I misrepresented him in attributing Infirmities to his share which I am inform’d he never yet has experienced. His Abilities are great—and if a Man must be employ’d, I think he may be called in with as much safety as any Man of his Profession.
☞ As this Pamphlet recommends the employing of Women, the Publishers have taken some Pains to procure a List of those who are eminent in their Profession—and on the best information recommend the following Midwives to those Ladies who have too much Modesty to employ Men—and who are convinced by the preceding Pages that the Men are not so safe as Women.
| Mrs. Nihell | Hay Market | |
| Mrs. Brooke | } | Cross Key Court, Little Britain |
| Mrs. Stephens | } | |
| Mrs. Lee | } | |
| Mrs. Harris | Mould Makers Row, St. Martin’s Le Grand | |
| Mrs. Reynard | } | Bartholomew Close |
| Mrs. Forrest | } | |
| Mrs. Smith | } | Cow Lane, Snow-Hill |
| Mrs. Page | } | |
| Mrs. Phillips | Garlick Hill | |
| Mrs. Andrews | Bush Lane, Cannon Street | |
| Mrs. Longbottom | Near Guy’s Hospital | |
| Mrs. Richardson | Westminster | |
| Mrs. Souden | Ratcliff Row, Old Street | |
| Mrs. Hall | Bunhill Row, Ditto | |
| Mrs. Barnet | } | Somerset Street, White-Chapel |
| Mrs. Larkin | } | |
| Mrs. Blunt | Swallow Str. Golden Sq. | |
| Mrs. Lyttelton, | Amen-Corner, Paternoster Row |
FINIS.