WE shall now see what followed. Mr. De la Motte, that despiser of midwives; Mr. De la Motte, who so consistently regretted his not being admitted to the Hôtel Dieu at Paris, and accuses the women, educated at that Hospital, of vanity, for valuing themselves on that education, behaved himself on this occasion, as indeed his merit was that on most occasions he did so, like a true good midwife: he found things _far advanced_ enough, for him to leave the rest very wisely to Nature, and so he did. The consequence of which was, that the patient was soon delivered of a fine boy, and both mother and child did well. SUCH was the result of Mr. De la Motte’s true midwifely proceeding. But what would an instrumentarian have probably done? One of those, I say, who, as to all the boasted improvement of the obstetrical art, produce the stupendous inventions of those surely rather weapons of death, than of life, which Dr. Smellie calls his REINFORCEMENTS, and is so good as “_principally_” to recommend, “_namely the small forceps, blunt hook, scissors, and curve crotchets_”, the unenviable privilege of using which blessed substitutes to the soft fingers of women, being supposed inherent to the men by right of superiority of skill, has so greatly IMPROVED the art of midwifery, and thinned the number of good midwives, by exploding their so much less painful, and certainly more safe method of practice, both for mother and child? For after all, what can such instruments be expected to do, but, instead of improving the art, to multiply murders? if this should appear too severe, hear what Mr. De la Motte himself says to the very case in point: to this very case, in which himself, I repeat it, did no more than play the part of the good midwife, and was only the more commendable for doing so. “IF the operator of the place had been called, he would DOUBTLESS have proceeded in this delivery, as he had done in the other (see p. 292.) that is to say, he would have _quickly_ dispatched it with his _crotchet_: but on the contrary, if he had had any experience, he would have conducted the other delivery as I did this, and thereby have exempted himself from the reproach he must have made to himself, for having killed a poor woman in the most _cruel_ manner.”