Smellie, p, 291. “When the head presents, and _cannot_ be delivered by the labor-pains; when all the _common methods_ have been used without success, the woman being exhausted, and all her efforts vain; and when the child cannot be delivered without such _force_ as will _endanger_ the _life_ of the _mother_, because the head is too large, or the _pelvis_ too narrow: it then becomes absolutely necessary to open the head, and extract with the hand, forceps, or crotchet. Indeed this last method formerly was the _common_ practice when the child could not be _easily_ turned, and is still in use with _those_ who do not know how to save the child by delivery with the _forceps_: for this reason their chief care and study was to distinguish, whether the _Fœtus_ was dead or alive; and as the _signs_ were _uncertain_, the operation was often delayed until the woman was in the most imminent danger; or when it was performed sooner, the operator was frequently accused with _rashness_, on the supposition that the child _might_ in time have been delivered _alive_ by the _labor-pains_: perhaps he was sometimes conscious to himself, of the _justice_ of this _imputation_, although what he had done was with an _upright_ intention.”—This last indeed would be too uncharitable not to grant. Footnote 16: Smellie, p. 255. “In this case, we find, _by_ experience, that, unless the woman has some VERY DANGEROUS SYMPTOM, the head will in time slide _gradually_ down into the _pelvis_, even when it is too _large_ to be _extracted_ with the _fillet_ or _forceps_, and the child be SAFELY delivered by the _labor-pains_, although _slow_ and _lingering_, and the mother seems _weak_ and _exhausted_, provided she be supported with nourishing and strengthening cordials.” Now in this Dr. Smellie is very right; his wrong consists in not making this conclusion more extensive, as that of his fellow-practitioners too often does, in fancying or exagerating _dangerous symptoms_: whereas for once that nature really occasions them, they are incomparably oftener the effects of the operator’s own mispractice: this observation I cannot, for the truth and importance of it, too often repeat. Footnote 17: In honor to truth, be it here noted, that a few, and very few indeed of the midwives, dazzled with that vogue into which the instruments brought the men, to the supplanting themselves, attempted to employ them, and though certainly they could handle them at least as dextroussly as the men, they soon discover’d that they were at once insignificant and dangerous substitutes to their own hands, with which they were sure of conducting their operations both more safely, more effectually, and with less pain to the patient. Footnote 18: At this day archbishop of Cambray. Footnote 19: