The accoucheur should always examine when the membranes give way, because not only will he be able to feel the presenting part now more distinctly, but if the cord has prolapsed, a coil of it will come down into the vagina and cannot escape his notice; in fact, if there is any thing unusual about the presentation, he will be now able to distinguish it with greater certainty. In women who have had large families, the head remains very high in the pelvis until this moment, so that it is frequently extremely difficult to reach it and to ascertain its position: the same is observed with presentations of the nates and of the shoulder, which seldom descend into the pelvis until the liquor amnii escapes. _Position of the patient during labour._ The position which the patient should take during the actual process of labour has been a subject of considerable discussion, and even at the present day varies exceedingly in different countries. In the earliest periods of history, women appear to have been delivered in a sitting posture, as is described in the first chapter of _Exodus_: this mode was revived in comparatively modern times; thus Ambrose Paré, in 1573, speaks of a labour chair with an inclined back, which he preferred to a common bed. Labour chairs were brought into very general use upon the Continent in the beginning of the last century by Hendrick van Deventer of Dort in Holland, and although they have been in great measure discontinued in modern times, there are still some districts of Germany where they continue to be used. It is a species of chaise percée furnished with straps, cushions, &c. by which the patient can fix her extremities, and thus enable the abdominal muscles to act with the greatest power. This is the very reason which renders labour chairs objectionable. The presenting part of the child is forced through the soft passage with great violence, before they have had time to yield and to dilate sufficiently; hence it has been noticed that lacerations of the perineum are of very frequent occurrence in those countries where labour chairs have been in general use. In some remote parts of Ireland, and also of Germany, the patient sits upon the knees of another person, and this office of substitute for a labour chair is usually performed by her husband. Labour chairs, as far as we are acquainted with their history, were never used in this country, nor have they been used for the last century in France, where the patients are usually delivered in the supine posture, on a small bed upon the floor, which has not inaptly been termed _lit de misére_. A modification of the labour chair is the labour cushion first used by Nuger, and afterwards by the late Professor von Siebold of Berlin and Professor Carus of Dresden; it is a species of mattress, with a hollow beneath the nates of the patient for receiving the discharges which take place during the labour. The patient is compelled to lie upon her