NOW as all _Arts_ and _Sciences_ require _Instruction_, _Application_, _Pains_, and _Time_, for qualifying any _Person_ to become a MASTER in the _Practice_ of them; so the ART of _Midwifery_ requires not the least Regard, Attention, and Information. Wherefore it is quite wrong for any _Persons_, who have not a _Body_ and _Mind_ particularly adapted to this Business, to spend their Time in _qualifying_ themselves for, and _applying_ themselves to the Performance of this good Office. For such as _These_ ought to leave _This Province_ to THOSE _Persons_, whom _Nature_ has more signally mark’d out for the Purpose. AND that I may the better distinguish upon what I have here propos’d, I shall _first_ speak in the _Negative_, and _then_ in the _Affirmative Sense_ of the Affair; Or _first_, of her _Natural_, and _then_ of her _Acquir’d Qualifications_. I. THEREFORE, _She_ who would discreetly undertake MIDWIFERY, ought not to begin the _Practice_ too _YOUNG_, nor continue it till grown too _OLD_: For the _one_ will want, perhaps, due _Experience_, as well as decent _Gravity_ and _Solidity_; the _other_ will, peradventure, want requisite _Strength_ and _Vigour_ of Body, as well as the Free _Exercise_, and ready _Use_ of her _Senses_. II. SHE ought to be no _weak_, _infirm_, or _diseased_ Person, incapable of undergoing the _Fatigues_ which the Business too often requires: Such as _watching Night_ and _Day_; turning the _INFANTS_, when in a wrong _Posture_; or extracting them at length; which _Action_ frequently requires the full _Strength_ of a strong _MAN_, instead of a weak _Woman_. For _thus_ the most learned and excellent _Fabricius d’ Aquapendente_, testifies of himself, that he has often been so _weary_ and _tired_, that he has been obliged to leave the Work for his _Assistant_ to finish; and as _Daventer_ also (a robust Man) relates of himself, that in the coldest Time of _Winter_, being but thinly _cloathed_, and at a Distance from any _Fire_, his _Hair_ has been wet, and all his _Body_ in a SWEAT, and both his _Loins_ and his _Limbs_ have aked egregiously some Days after _delivering_ a Woman. III. SHE ought not to be too _Fat_ or _Gross_, but especially not to have thick or fleshy _Hands_ and _Arms_, or large-_Bon’d Wrists_; which (of Necessity) must occasion racking _Pains_ to the tender _labouring Woman_. IV. SHE ought not to be _lame_ or _maim’d_, nor have stiff or crooked _Fingers_, _Hands_, or _Arms_; for these _Parts_ are to be used in different _Manners_ and _Postures_, even so that the _Success_ of the LABOUR often depends upon their _Readiness_ and _Agility_. V. SHE ought not to be, _negatively_ speaking, a _conceiv’d_ or _Child-bearing Woman_; because _This_ may be of bad Consequence, not only to the _labouring Woman_; (who depends on her, for more than she’s able to _perform_, especially in a _strong_ LABOUR) but also to the conceiv’d _MIDWIFE_ herself, and her own _INFANT_.