TOUCHING, in the terms of art, consists in the introduction of one or two fingers into the vagina, and thereby into the orifice of the uterus of the person, whose state or situation requires to be known. There scarcely needs admonishing on this occasion, a midwife, of the due care of her hands, being properly prepared and guarded from the least danger of hurting. Such a precaution recommends itself. THE touch then is the most nice and essential point of the art of midwifery. Nor to acquire a sufficient degree of accuracy in it, can there be too much pains taken, considering how much depends on it. Midwives only of great practice, or lying-in hospitals, where there is full liberty for the young female practitioners to make observations, can render it familiar to the learner. I presume I may take for granted, that such a practical study is not extremely decent, nor proper for young lads. And yet, at their season of life it is, that this study should be begun, if but to give expertness the necessary time to attain, through habit, its full growth, against the age of exercising the manual function. It must surely be rather too late, for a man to commence his course of touching at the age of practising; as it must be too soon, at a season of life, where his capital end of _touching_ will probably not be the acquisition of the science. At whose expence then must the rudiments of a man’s study of this branch of the art be? surely at that of the unfortunate women, subjected to the annoyance of such nauseous and profitless visitation. In short, this is ONE of the points of the art, from the nature of which it may fairly, and without implication of contradiction, be pronounced, that the greatest anatomist in Europe may nevertheless be a very indifferent, not to say a miserable man-midwife: or even that a very indifferent anatomist may for all that be an excellent manual practitioner. A MIDWIFE, duly qualified by Nature and art, with a shreudness and delicacy of the touch, is, when requisite, capable of giving, in virtue thereof, a just account of a woman’s condition. She is enabled to make faithful reports to the physician, and inform him of the needful concerning the state of his patient, where any co-incidence of pregnancy sollicits his attention. By the same means she can distinguish the true labor-pains from the false ones; and when the term of delivery is at hand, it may, by the touch, be discerned, whether the labor will be easy or hard, whether the fœtus is well or ill situated. With other precognitions, highly necessary for our taking proper measures both obviative and actual.