“THE FIRST. Commonly, the orifice of the uterus in this situation is but little open: it must be _violently_ dilated, that is to say, in _forcing_ Nature, or _doing violence_ to her. Yet this must be done slowly, for too much precipitation would cause to the woman _very acute pains_. (_To be sure, a slow violence would not hurt her._) “REASON the SECOND. It is not more easy to penetrate to the bottom of the uterus, of which the orifice already, narrow as it must be, is moreover occupied by the head of the child, than to open the orifice. No wonder then, that so much trouble and patience should be required to get at the child’s feet. “THIRDLY, It will be found, that the distance there is between the orifice of the vagina to the bottom of the uterus, must render the _man-midwife’s_ work so much the more difficult for the sinuosity of it, and his being forced to operate in a part so narrow and close, and in which the hand is much cramped for room. It is obvious to sense, that a place so oblique and streight must deny the liberty of passage.” THE advice which Daventer gives here of extracting the child by the feet in the case he supposes, and, for that purpose, violently to dilate the orifice of the uterus, appears to my weak mind such mad, such frantic doctrine, as to be beneath refutation. The bare recital of his own reasons, and of the difficulties there are to surmount, which he himself confesses, abundantly demonstrate the impossibility and absurdity of the method he proposes. BUT after taking the liberty of dissenting from that celebrated man-midwife in cases of obliquity, as to the practical part, which I take indeed to be his _own_ discovery, it is but just I should offer what I conceive to be the true midwife’s practice, for terminating happily the labor of a woman in the case of obliquity of the uterus: submitting the same to better judgment. ALL the deflexions or byasses of the uterus, whatever they are, are to be known by the touch. An expert and knowing hand will never fail of ascertaining the discovery of them. I say, an expert and knowing hand, for without an exact knowledge of the figure of the whole pelvis, the situation of the bladder, of the rectum, the vagina, and the uterus, before and after pregnancy, the situation of the orifice with respect to the pelvis, there is no distinguishing for example, an over-elevated orifice from one too low, nor a direct from an oblique one. In vain would one conceive clearly what those terms signify, or have some knowledge of the distinctive parts of the female sex, without one has at the same time sufficient experience, and fineness of sense in the touching part. Without these qualifications there is no proceeding but darkling, and in danger of deception.