A Treatise on the Art of Midwifery / Setting Forth Various Abuses Therein, Especially as to the Practice With Instruments: the Whole Serving to Put All Rational Inquirers in a Fair Way of Very Safely Forming Their Own Judgement Upon the Question; Which It Is Best to Employ, in Cases of Pregnancy and Lying-in, a Man-midwife; Or, a Midwife

by Elizabeth Nihell

I wish I could make an apology as receivable by a reader, who will doubtless be justly disgusted at the repetitions I have too little scrupled the making of the same thoughts, and even sometimes of the same expressions. Yet I dare bespeak, from his candor, some indulgence to the confession of a fault, it will easily be perceived I could not well escape, without the worse inconvenience to himself, of his being perplexed with references back to past pages, besides, that sometimes a chain of argument would be broke, consequently weakened, by the suppression of some link of it, on account of the matter having been elsewhere already employed in other connexions.

Upon the whole, I throw myself, with the more confidence, on the favorable acceptance of the public, from my consciousness of its not being but with the best intentions for the good of society that I hazard this production: and have therefore reason to hope, that it will occasionally be remembered, that my object is purely that of representing a truth, and not of recommending a composition.

Page 20. For blood into water read water into blood.

CONTENTS
OF
Part the First.

• In gratitude of the men-midwives at Paris to their women-teachers of the art, page 6.
• Regulations of the profession of midwifery not unworthy the national care, [9].
• Objection I. Prior possession of the art in the men, [14].
  • Answer, [14].
• Obj. II. Preference of the men founded on the nobility of the art, [17].
  • Ans. 15.
  • Egyptians not so simple as Dr. Smellie pretends, [19].
• Obj. III. Writings of the men-authors prove the antiquity of men-midwives, [24].
  • Ans. 24.
• Obj. IV. Manual operation a science fittest for the men, [28].
  • Ans. 29.
• Obj. V. Anatomy necessary, [32].
  • Ans. 32.
• Obj. VI. Instruments, their use peculiar to the men, [35].
  • Ans. 36.
• Obj. VII. Ignorance only exclaims against instruments, [39].
  • Ans. 40.
  • Dr. Smellie’s false account of the Hôtel-Dieu at Paris, [44].
  • No men-practitioners suffered in it, [47].
  • Dr. Smellie’s Doll-machine, [50].
  • Compendious forming of pupils, [52].
• Obj. VIII. It is a presumption in women to enter into competition with men in this art, [52].
  • Ans. 53.
• Obj. IX. Opinion prevalent of superior safety under the hands of the men, [58].
  • Ans. 59.
• Obj. X. Ignorance of the women, [73].
  • Ans. 73.
  • How the young men students get their learning, [80].
  • Women cruelly used to procure it them, [83].
  • Story of a woman’s child killed with a crotchet, [92].
  • Examination of a passage of Plato quoted by Dr. Smellie, [99].
  • Pecquet, a great anatomist, the victim of his own erroneous speculation, [101].
• Obj. XI. Partial artists the best, [106].
  • Ans. 107.
  • Story of a Dentist, [109].
  • A man-midwife’s toilette, [111].
  • Story of a woman perishing suddenly after delivery, [128].
  • Cruel method of training up pupils, [137].
  • Story of a child horribly murdered, [139].
  • Lessons of midwifery given by Madam Clavier, [144].
  • Pudendist, a name in the stile of oculist or dentist, more proper for a male-practitioner of midwifery than Accoucheur, [151].
• Obj. XII. Men-midwives have terminated happily many labors, [151].
  • Ans. 151.
  • Triumph of a man-midwife, [158].
  • Why young practitioners should conceal their instruments, [173].
  • Appeal to numbers for the greater safety with women, verified by the practice of the midwives at the Hôtel-Dieu at Paris, [180].
• Obj. XIII. Prevalence of the Fashion, [184].
  • Ans. 184.
  • Parallel of error in the preference of men-midwives to that of bringing up of charity-children by hand, [187].
  • Story of a woman ashamed of having been lain by a midwife, [204].
  • Inoculation justified, [207].
  • The greatest lady in Britain no example in favor of Accoucheurs, [210].
  • Midwives formed by the men-practitioners liable to caution against them, and why, [213].
  • Alarming danger of a scarcity of good midwives, to what owing, [217].
• Obj. XIV. False-modesty, that of the women, who prefer the practitioners of their own sex, [219].
  • Ans. 219.
  • Story of Agnodice and the Athenian women canvassed, [219].
  • Dr. Smellie’s Commandment to his pupils against immodesty, [224].
  • No stress laid on the Rabbit-woman of Godalmin, [225].
  • Attitude indecent, and to no end nor purpose, [237].
  • A stone of more virtue than a man-midwife, [239].
• Conclusion of the FIRST PART, [244].
• Part the Second.
• Containing various observations on the labors and delivery of lying-in women, including a description of the pretended necessity for the employing instruments, Introduction, [249].
• Of Deliveries, [256].
  • Story of the sudden death of a woman after delivery, [261].
  • Accounted for, [262].
  • Method of prevention, [263].
  • Histeric medicines invented by the learned men-practitioners, and examples of their insignificance, [267].
• Of DIFFICULT and SEVERE cases, [277].
  • Divisions of them, [279].
  • Profound ignorance of certain men-midwives, [282].
  • Their avarice and cruelty set forth by a man-midwife, [286].
  • Midwives incapable of such horrors, [288].
  • The Crotchet used, and its horrid effects, exemplified in several stories, [291].
  • A VOLUME might be made of them, says a man-midwife, [298].
  • Some instances of male-practice, [304].
• Of Touching, 309.
• Of the OBLIQUITY of the UTERUS, [329].
• Of the EXTRACTION of the HEAD of the FŒTUS severed from the BODY, and which shall have remained in the UTERUS, [358].
  • Speculum matricis given up by Dr. Smellie: so would other instruments be, if justice was done them, [367].
  • A curious method of CELSUS, [369].
  • Inventions of CAWLS and FILLETS, [369].
• Of that labor in which the HEAD of the FŒTUS remains hitched in the passage, the BODY being intirely come out of the UTERUS, [372].
  • Quackery of Daventer, [378].
  • Two examples of children, the one killed, the other supposed dead, and losing its head by errors in the manual function, [379].
• When the HEAD of the fœtus presents itself foremost but sticks in the passage, [289].
  • Objections to instruments more at large included under the title to this section, [389].
  • Mauriceau’s tire-tête, [395].
  • Palfin’s FORCEPS,
• with the improvements of various practitioners, [398].
  • A waggon load of instruments insufficient, and why, [401].
  • A curious nostrum of an instrument, [406].
  • Mr. Freke’s ingenious invention of a FORCEPS and CROTCHET all in one, [416].
  • Dr. Smellie’s improvement of the forceps, [417].
  • The curve forceps of Levret, [419].
• Case of a PENDULOUS BELLY, [445].
• Triumph of the moderns over Hippocrates and the antients in the invention of the forceps, [452].
  • Inhumanity and folly of the general conspiracy against children, [458].
• Conclusion of the Second Part, [466].

A
TREATISE
ON
MIDWIFERY.

Whoever considers the absolute necessity of the art of midwifery, will readily allow it a place among the capital ones in the primeval times of the world. All the other arts are no further necessary to man, than to procure him the conveniencies or luxuries of life; that of midwifery is of indispensable necessity to his living at all, imploring as he does its aid for his introduction into life. Without this art the earth itself must soon become dispeopled and a desert, whereas by means of it men have been multiplied, with inconceivable rapidity.