The danger and immodesty of the present too general custom of unnecessarily employing men-midwives / Being the letters which lately appeared under the signature of a man-midwife. With an introduction, a treatise on the milk, and an appendix.

by Anonymous

I next consider’d the number of well-disposed Men, who through Prejudice might neglect; or through Indolence, or Weakness of Understanding, be blind to the Force of my Arguments, and of course remain unconvinced by them—and these Obstacles, united, appeared too formidable to be surmounted by any weak Effort I could make through the Channel of a News Paper. At last however I took Courage and submitted my Sentiments to the Consideration of the Public, in the Gazetteer of the 28th of March.

I had not, at that time, any Intention of writing another Letter,—but deriving Hopes from the favourable Impression my first seem’d to have made on the Minds of the Considerate—and having heard weight laid on the Men’s Knowledge of Anatomy as a Reason why they should be safer than Women, I wrote the second Letter to remove that specious, but mistaken Idea—and having known some, and heard of many other young Men Midwives, who really are ignorant of that Knowledge of Anatomy which is their only Recommendation to infatuated Husbands;—and a Man Midwife, under the Signature of “Old Chiron,” having endeavoured to abuse the World with the most scandalous misrepresentations, and gross Fallacies, my last Letter appeared to expose the Danger of employing raw young Men—or believing such interested Deceivers.

I am quite indifferent about the Offence which my Letters have given the Ladies of Fashion, and their darling Doctors—their “sweet Men.” They are conscious my Letters convey only a very faint Sketch of their immodest, obscene practices. They are too bad to be exactly described without using Language very unfit for the Inspection of virtuous Women!—I place dreadful Rocks in their View, to warn them from a Course on which their Purity would be irretrievably wreck’d: and surely those Parents entertain strange Notions of Virtue, who carefully keep my Letters out of the way of their Daughters, through what they imagine to be “Delicacy!”—they would rather, in short, have them polluted in future—past redemption—than instructed by my friendly Admonitions, how to avoid the Path to Vice!—the modest, amiable, worthy, sensible Part of the Community, I am confident, will read my Pamphlet with Candour—approve of the Sentiments contain’d in it—and recommend it to the Perusal of others. I shall view the Censures, and Displeasure of the vicious, and the dissipated, as the highest Eulogiums;—as Praise—which will convey the most genial warmth to my Heart—and, I trust, afford me a pleasing Retrospect in my latest Hours!—

My Letters having succeeded beyond my most sanguine Expectation, I am now encouraged to attack another prevailing Custom among the Fair—that of not giving suck to their Infants, at least during the first five or six weeks.

I shall wave considering the Propriety of a Mother’s giving suck through a Sense of the incumbent Duty she owes her child.—Though the Custom of backening the Milk is unnatural, dangerous, and too often fatal, I shall lay no stress on the former, but rest it entirely on the latter—for in such an Age as the present, in which our fine Ladies have few Ideas of any Religion—are not capable of receiving Pleasure from domestick Employments—would infinitely rather converse with any Men than their Husbands—leave their Children to be instructed, or neglected by Servants, and fly abroad, with eager Impatience to game away their Husbands Fortunes, and receive the criminal Addresses of their profligate Admirers, at the Assembly, the Masquerade, or more commodious Apartments of the Coterie—laughing at the Censures of the few who have still some Regard to Decorum—and despising the Belief of the perpetual Presence of a Being who is Witness to all their secret vicious Deformities—in such times it would be Folly to mention the Dangers they expose their Infants to, from diseased Milk, want of a tender Mother’s Care—or dream of asking them how they will answer to the Almighty for not having afforded them the Nourishment He kindly provided for their Support?—I shall therefore only shew the Absurdity and danger of this Custom, as far as it regards the Health of the Mother.

And here I must endeavour to give my Readers some Idea of that part of the human Body which is concern’d in the formation, and absorbtion of the Milk, in order for their understanding the Force of my arguments.

Our Bodies are constantly, when in Health, receiving Repairs in all their Parts, from millions of the smallest, most minute Arteries. Every Solid, and every Juice, is form’d out of, and secreted from, Blood. Those noxious Parts of the Blood which are not proper for these different, opposite Uses, are thrown off by insensible Perspiration. When, through various Causes, that Perspiration is obstructed, the acrid Matter which ought to have gone off, is absorb’d by the lymphatick Vessels, and returns into the Blood—brings on Fevers, Gout, Rheumatism, &c. &c.

The Lymphaticks, are numberless Vessels, which pass through spungy Glands. These fine Tubes have a vast number of Valves, which prevent the Lymph, (or Liquor) which runs through them from going a contrary Direction from that intended for it. These fine Vessels are dispersed over every Part of our Bodies. The Point of a needle could not be applied to a Spot, under the Skin, where the Mouth of a lymphatic Vessel did not open to imbibe whatever is put in contact with it. These minute Branches run into other Branches, so form larger Vessels, till at last they all unite in a general Reservoir, where the Lymph which they contained, mixes with the Chyle, (the fine Part of our Food, which is fit to be converted into Blood) conducted there by the Lacteals, (the Lacteals resemble the Lymphaticks—they open into the Stomach, and Bowels—they imbibe nothing but from our Food) the Chyle, and Lymph, thus mix’d, run up within the trunk of a large Vessel called the thoracic Duct, on the inside of the back Bone, which is incessantly emptying it’s Liquor into a Vein under the left Collar Bone, where it mixes with the Blood, is immediately convey’d into the vena Cava, which conducts it, with the returning Blood from the rest of the Body, (Lungs excepted) into the right Auricle of the Heart—it thence is drove by the contraction of the Auricle, into the right Ventricle of the Heart—by it’s contraction, into the Pulmonary Artery—from thence through the whole Lungs, where the Blood receives a Change from being impregnated with something received from the Air every Inspiration. The Blood thus changed, is collected from the Lungs into the Pulmonary Veins, and conducted into the left Auricle of the Heart; which drives it into the left Ventricle; which forces it into a great Artery, the Aorta—which rushes it over every other Part of the Body.

The lymphatic Vessels prevent our Blood depending solely on our Food for supply, and by means of them we can subsist some time merely on the Produce of our own Bodies. All these lymphatic Vessels are closely accompanied by Arteries—whose Pulsations assist the motion of the Lymph to it’s Reservoir:⸺Consequently the quicker and stronger they beat, the faster the Lymph is hurried into the Blood. Hence the Reason why Fevers occasion so speedy a wasting of the Flesh—hence Hectics bring on Consumptions—hence People in Fevers can subsist long with little Food,—The lymphaticks then supplying the Blood too abundantly from our own Juices.