this is to be understood of the beginning of the throws, for in proportion as they increase, the midwife must press the harder. “CARE must, in the mean time, be taken, that the pression made on the belly must not be too violent but _very_ moderate: whereas that made on the coccyx must be with the midwife’s whole strength, with this attention however, _first_, that this great effort must not be made but when the force of the throws obliges the woman strongly to contract the muscles of the hypogastrium, and must cease with those throws. _Secondly_, that the hand must be laid flat on the coccyx, not with the fingers half-bent, least the joints should hurt the woman. _Thirdly_, that the hand may be as much expanded as possible, that the pression may be equal on all parts. Observing these three conditions, the midwife may employ her _whole_ strength, without _fear_ of doing any harm to the woman. On the contrary, she will greatly relieve her.” TO the which I have to say, that I should greatly pity a woman that should fall under the hands of a woman that should receive such directions from Monsieur l’Accoucheur, and much more yet, if she was to be under his. A midwife to operate thus! with one hand in and the other out, over the lower part of the belly, “gently” says Daventer, and yet stronger in proportion as the throws increase: and a little after he says, this pression on the belly must not be too violent, but _very_ moderate. I confess, I do not understand, but that may be my fault, how a pression can be stronger and stronger as the pains increase, without ceasing to be gentle or very moderate. BESIDES; as to the pression of the midwife’s hand on the coccyx of the patient, so violent as he advises it, with the whole strength of the midwife, can this be executed without causing to the vagina or rectum a contusion, very capable of bringing on a gangrene, of causing a mortification, or, in short, the laceration of the frænum labiorum, whatever he may say to the contrary? I OBSERVE, by the way, that in this very chapter Daventer supposes the heads of children breaking themselves, sometimes against the os pubis, or the vertebræ, as if these were bare bones, at least he is to me, in these points, unintelligible. HE goes on to object, that if, through ignorance, Nature has been so far left to herself, that the point of the uterus should be fallen into the pelvis, that its orifice, and the head of the child, should be fallen into the lower curve of the _os sacrum_, that the membrane should be broke, and the child’s head a little discovered, and withal, the woman’s strength much exhausted, “TO change, (says Daventer) this situation, thus you must proceed. The woman must rest upon her knees and elbows, with her head low. And what (adds he) determines the placing a woman in this posture, is, that the weight of the uterus may impel it to the side of the diaphragma, and consequently withdraw it from the sinuosity of the coccyx.”