Volume 1

A short account of the state of midwifery in London, Westminster, etc. Wherein an effectual method is proposed, to enable the midwomen to perform their office ... with as much ease, speed, and safety, as the most dexterous midmen ... / [John Douglas].

  • Douglas, John, approximately 1680-1743.
Date:
1736
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short account of the state of midwifery in London, Westminster, etc. Wherein an effectual method is proposed, to enable the midwomen to perform their office ... with as much ease, speed, and safety, as the most dexterous midmen ... / [John Douglas]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/84 (page 47)
    “ with my finger dilate and call the part (viz. the “ mouth of the womb; back, and fo in a fewmi- “ nutes opened the door, and releafed the little “ prifoner.” Pray would not Madam du Tertre’s finger have releafed the prifoner as foon and as fafely as his did ? That there has been great difficulties oc— calioned by the lothnefs of the mouth of the womb to open, viz. in elderly women, when callous, fchirrous, &tc. no IV1 an will will deny. But there is not the leaft fign of any difficulty or lothnefs of the mouth of the womb to open, in this cafe Mr. Chapman brings, to prove that the pains may be ftrong and true, &c. and yet the mouth of the womb, loth as it were to open, ihall be very little dilated. The difficulty in his cafe confifted only in the unnatural fituation of the Os Tincte, which prevented the head’s preffing dire&ly on it,’ other¬ wise it would have opened with all imaginable eafe and fpeed ; as you fee it did when he touched it with his finger. Page 29. — “ Dipping the infant’s hand, when “ hanging out of the womb, in cold water, rub- “ bingitwith ice, or touching it with a wet cloth, “ which fome ignorant Midwives practice, &c.’’ Pray how many Midwomen did he ever know guilty of thefe fooleries ? Page 30. “ I once delivered a woman, where the child s arm had been eighteen hours in the “ world’ and much fwelled by the long time, and Ignorance of the Midwife, who pulled violently ‘ fc dle arm every pain • not knowing that it was impoffible to deliver a full grown infant bv that iC method