_If a man happens by great chance to have long taper fingers, it is a circumstance so uncommon, that it is proverbially said of him, “He has rare_ midwife’s _fingers.”_ Nor was it quite unhumorously observed of one of the founders of the sect of instrumentarians in England, remarkable for a raw-boned coarse, clumsy hand, that no forceps he could _invent_ of iron or steel, being more likely to hurt than his fingers, he had, at least, that excuse for recommending instruments. Footnote 7: _A la veritê_ Mauriceau _raporte cette mort inopineê à une_ CAUSE OCCULTE, _puisqu’il dit expressement que_ “ce fut un de ces fortes de malheurs de la destinée que toute la prudence humaine ne peut pas eviter.” _C’est aussi l’opinion de_ la Motte. LEVRET, p. 272. Footnote 8: Levret, p. 269. Footnote 9: This will doubtless be laid hold of as one proof, that midwives have, in cases where they are puzzled, been forced to have recourse to men-practitioners: but I have no where said, there were not some midwives unequal to their business. The sequel will shew, that this most probably was one of them, and the case was not much mended by the assistent she called in. A little more patience, though I confess there is some room to think it in this so long lingering case excusably exhausted, would have prevented the murder of the child: but as the concomitant circumstances are not specified, I cannot pretend to determine that point. All I shall say is, that there is not hardly one case in a thousand, in which nature does not know her own time best, and does not take it kindly to be hurried. It has been known, that sometimes the quickest deliveries have been the most fatal, and the most liable to sudden death, by consequent hemorrhages. Footnote 10: _Dr._ Smellie _has himself_ (p. 403.) _ranked among the causes of sudden death to women by violent floodings after delivery the following one; “if in separating the_ placenta _the_ accoucheur _has_ scratched _or_ tore _the inner surface or membrane of the_ womb.” _But if unpared nails, or the rough hands of a man, may cause such a dreadful accident, what may not be dreaded from iron and steel instruments, blindly thrust into parts of a scarce less tender texture than the apple of the eye? But of that more hereafter._ Footnote 11: Levret’s words, p. 279. Footnote 12: _It is among the smaller mischiefs done to the mother, that I here mention my having not unfrequently seen ruptures brought on by the practice of men-midwives, upon patients in other lyings-in, precedently to the one in which I attended them. These ruptures I have sometimes been able to remedy by good management in my laying them._ Footnote 13: “Let the _forceps_ be unlocked, and the blade _cautiously_ disposed under the cloaths, so as not to be _discovered_”. Smellie, p. 272. Footnote 14: See Smellie, p. 307. Footnote 15: