_It is evidently this universal influence of the_ Uterus _over the whole animal system, in the female sex, that Plato has in view in that his description of it, which Mr. Smellie (introd._ p. 15_) calls_ odd _and_ romantic, _from his not making due allowance for the figurative stile of that florid author. Thus the diffusion of the energy of the_ uterus, _Plato calls its_ “wandering up and down thro’ the body.” _A power of activity which, towards conquering the otherwise natural coldness of the female constitution, nature would hardly give to the_ uterus _merely to excite in women a desire, sanctified under due restrictions, by her favorite end, that of propagation, if she had not, at the same time, endowed that uterus with an instinct, beneficial by its influence in the preservation of the issue of that_ desire. _And the real truth is, that there is something that would be prodigious, if any thing natural could be properly termed prodigious, in that supremely tender sensibility with which women in general are so strongly impressed towards one another in the case of lying-in. What are not their bowels on that occasion? It may not be here quite foreign to remark, in support of the characteristic importance of the_ uterus _or the_ womb, _that in the antient Saxon language the word_ Man _or_ Mon _equally signified one of the male or female sex, as_ Homo _in Latin. But for distinction-sake the male was called_ Weapon-man, _(not however for any offensive weapon or_ instrument _in midwifery;) and the female_ Womb-man, _or man with an_ uterus: _from whence by contraction the word_ woman. Footnote 5: Smellie. Treatise of midwifery, p. 339. _where it appears, that the above dress is reserved for a man-midwife’s masquerade-habit in private practice, before ladies, not to frighten them; whereas to the poor women in hospitals his looking like a butcher, is it seems necessary, with bases and an apron; the_ steel _of course._ But if it is not too presumptuous for me to offer so _learned_ a gentleman as the Dr. a hint of improvement for his man-practitioner’s toilette, upon these occasions, I would advise, for the younger ones, a round-ear cap, with pink and silver bridles, which would greatly soften any thing too masculine in their appearance on a function which is so thoroughly a female one. As to the older ones, a double-clout pinned under their chin could not but give them the air of very venerable old women. Footnote 6: