in the so needful point of predisposing the passages, or of waiting, without however over-waiting, the critical efforts of nature in the expulsion of her burden. Now nothing is more certain, than that nature, who to woman has in general given all that vivacity and quickness of spirit, which seems incompatible with the phlegmatic quality of patience, has, as if she had purposely meant an exception favourable to her darling end, the propagation of beings, especially the human one, bestowed on the female sex, such a remarkable assiduity and diligence in aid of women’s labors, as are rarely to be seen in men, and when seen, appear rather forced than naturally constitutional to them. Women, in those cases, have more bowels for women: they feel for those of their own sex so much, that that feeling operates in them like an irresistible instinct, both in favor of the pregnant mother and of the child. Thence it is, that a woman-practitioner will employ, without stint, or remission, all that is necessary to predispose the passages, for the least pain, and the greater safety; she will patiently, even to sixteen, to eighteen hours, where an extraordinary case requires so extraordinary a length of time, keep her hands fixedly employed in reducing and preserving the uterus in a due position, so as that she may not lapse the critical favorable moment of extraction, or of assisting the expulsive effort of nature: and what man is there, can it be imagined, would have endurance enough to remain so long in a posture, the very image of which, in one of his sex, is so nauseating and so revolting, to say nothing of the want of that pliability and dexterity of management of the fingers, on those occasions, so necessary, and so uncommon in the men, especially in that very age, when their practice should be supposed the greatest.