The Female Physician / Containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, their degrees of danger, and respective methods of prevention and cure: to which is added, the whole art of new improv'd midwifery; comprehending the necessary qualifications of a midwife, and particular directions for laying women, in all cases of difficult and preternatural births; together with the diet and regimen of both the mother and child.

by John Maubray

II. SUPPOSING the Woman to be able to undergo the PAINS, yet the Womb is however contracted, and the SECUNDINE bound so close up, that this Body, which before adher’d Cake-ways to its Bottom in a smooth and broad Form, is now so squeez’d into a small and long Figure, that it is even now a Difficulty next to Impossible, to reach the Bottom of the Womb, and still a harder Task to extract an entire Secundine, without prejudicing the Womb.

III. THEY who altogether neglect Manual Operation, may (I confess) sometimes deliver their Woman, when Success accidentally answers their Wish: But without this Mean, they cannot possibly restore a prolaps’d, fallen-down, or an obliquely situated Womb, to its natural Position. No, to the Contrary, Nothing is more common among ignorant unwary MIDWIVES, than to invert and draw down the Bottom of the Womb itself, by pulling the Navel-String, as they foolishly intend by means of it only to extract the SECUNDINE. Neither does the Mischief always end here, but mistaking this Body, when so found by their Touch, they immediately imagine it to be the Head of another Infant; and persevering in this false Conjecture, they manifestly expose the poor Woman to the Hazard of her Life. Neither,

IV. POSSIBLY can They, without the Use of the Hand, so cleanse the Womb of the Reliques of the SECUNDINE, which may stick up and down to the Womb; or of the Pieces or Parts of the Membranes, which may remain there; or of the clotted Blood, which commonly stays behind. From hence therefore it necessarily follows, that (without the Means of the Hand) They cannot be Positive or Certain in any Circumstance, relating to the True State of the Woman. They can neither assure Herself, nor those concern’d, that her Womb is duly purged; if (perchance) of the SECUNDINE, which they may guess at by the Sight, yet not of the Fragments of the Membranes, nor of the clotted Blood, which they can never be certain of, but by this Method. I mention these Things, because the least Part of Either being retain’d, or left Behind in the Womb, may cost the Woman her Life, as innumerable Precedents do testify. Nor,

V. CAN they possibly secure the Woman, that her WOMB is duly shut and contracted; much less can they (without these Means) affirm that it is orderly situated in its proper natural Center: By the Neglect or Fault of which Condition, she is not only rendred Barren afterwards, but also most infirm all the Days of her Life.

BUT notwithstanding how plain and easy soever, I have endeavour’d to make out the above-mention’d Method, I would over and above recommend It only to the judicious and well-qualify’d MIDWIFE; by no Means to those that are ignorant in the Parts of GENERATION, nor to any stiff clumsy-fisted Person: And that for the Two following Reasons; viz.

I. LEST the String (by some Accident or other) should break, and she, missing this Guide to the SECUNDINE, should take One Part for Another, and consequently dislodge the Womb instead of the After-Birth; which has undoubtedly often happen’d by such blind Doings, notwithstanding this very remarkable Difference between Them, that the SECUNDINE distinguishes itself from the Other, by a great many little Inequalities on the Outside, occasion’d by the Roots of the Umbilical Vessels. And,

II. LEST she should unwarily either break, tear, or scratch the Womb, with her thick, fleshy, rough, and rigid Hand, or with her stiff and crooked Fingers: Either of which Accidents, may give Origin to various Misfortunes; such as a Prolapsus, or Falling-down, a preternatural Flooding, an Inflammation, or Gangrene, &c.

BUT we will now, in fine, suppose that the Ingenuous MIDWIFE has after All discharged her faithful Duty in these Respects, with Care, Lenity, and good Conduct, as well as with great Art and Judgment: In which Case, it only remains, that she take the necessary and usual Care of the Child-Bed-Woman and Infant; as hereafter will be directed in the respective Chapters of SECTION VIth, to come.

IN the mean Time, these curious Things being thus amply premised in this Place, the Reader has no more superfluous Repetitions to expect concerning them in the following Performance: And therefore with these Preliminaries I conclude my Fourth SECTION.