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

John Maubray.

THE
PREFACE
TO THE
READER.

As the Study of Physick has differ’d in every Age, according to the prevailing Opinions and Ambiguous Determinations of Philosophers, so the Practice of Midwifery has also varied, according to the Judicious Experiments and successful Operations of Professors; until of late Years, by the many happy Discoveries and strict Inquiries made into the Secrets of Nature, and Natural Causes, these Healing and obstetricious Arts are so much improv’d and advanc’d, that, they now seem to be arriv’d at their very Height of Perfection: Insomuch that both the one and the other stand this Day upon as sure a Foundation, and as certain Principles, as most other Sciences do, which notwithstanding are not exempted from the Fate of Casualties.

THE Case then being so, it becomes all Men of Ingenuity and Integrity, to be also Communicative of such Things, as may tend to the Welfare of their Neighbours and to the Common Good of Mankind; since according to the Excellent Poet,

Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc, sciat alter.

THIS was the Principle of the Ancients, who, as they discover’d the Natural Debility of the Female Sex, and that Women were not only Subject to all Diseases in common with Men, but also obnoxious to a vast many Distempers peculiarly singular to themselves, were first mov’d to write particular Books, and respective Treatises, upon these Heads: The most wise and divine Hippocrates, first breaking the Ice, after him Diocles, next Aetius, and at last many others; For the more Learned and Ingenious that any one found himself in his respective Age, the more readily he exercis’d himself in these difficult Points.

BUT now a-days Women may well complain, and cry out with Soranus, “O malè Occupatum virorum Genus, occidimur nos, non Morimur: Et ab illis, qui inter vos peritissimi existimantur, perperam curatæ, vos vero de qualibet vel levissima vestrarum Affectionum, Libros ex Libris facientes, Bibliothecas voluminibus oneratas, de Nostris inter ea diris ac difficillimis Cruciatibus, nulla vel exigua, & ea quidem satis oscitanter mentione factâ”: That Men, in short, study their own Good, and take more Care of Themselves than of the Women.

BECAUSE then there are so many Faults and Defects in this part of Physick; in that the Antients, by reason of their precise Gravity, rendred their Works either obscure, or at least difficult to be understood: As some of the more modern Authors have, treated them but Partially and Defectively in most respects; others but transiently and indifferently, or as if they were otherways employ’d: Some again darkly and briefly; others so confusedly and prolixly, that we may justly say to them, as the Lacedemonians did to the Samian Legats of old; “Prioris orationis vestræ partis sumus obliti, postremam ob primæ oblivionem non intelleximus”: We have forgot the Beginning of your Discourse, and for that reason, cannot understand the latter Part.