FROM all which we may easily collect the sundry proper _Uses_ of the WOMB, and readily comprehend that it is not only destin’d by _Nature_ to admit the SEED, and receive the _impregnated_ EGG from the OVARIUM and the _Fallopian Tube_; but also to contain the _Organizing Matter_, and all necessary _Principles_ (_Active_ and _Passive_) for constituting the _Conception_; fomenting the receiv’d SEEDS, by its natural _Calidity_, preserving the same, and preparing the _Maternal Blood_ by its inherent _Temperament_, for the Use of the FOETUS: Which FOETUS it surrounds and defends from external _Accidents_, by its Substantial _Corpulency_; containing and nourishing the INFANT, about the Space of 9 or 10 _Months_, by its Faculties of _Extension_ and _Attraction_; and at last forcing it into the World, by _that_ of _Expulsion_. UPON which Occasion, that the _MIDWIFE_ may the better discharge her _Duty_, and assist the _Labouring Woman_ more effectually, without Fear or Danger, and without committing any Blunder or Mistake; as I have already taught her in what _Place_ the WOMB is seated, to what _Parts_ it tends, and how it is _annexed_, &c; so I shall now proceed to describe its _Qualities_ and _Faculties_, so far as is necessary, and absolutely requisite in the _Practice_ of _MIDWIFERY_. And, FIRST, then—— [Illustration] CHAP. X. _Of the Extensive Faculty of the WOMB._ NATURE has endued the WOMB with this _Faculty_, to the end that it may (in _Pregnancy_) extend and dilate itself Day by Day, in _Proportion_ to the _Growth_ of the INFANT, _Secundine_, and _Humours_. NOW the WOMB in its _lower Part_ being straitly tied to the _Intestinum Rectum_ and _Bladder_; it is to be understood that the _Distention_ happens mostly in its superiour Part or _Bottom_: Which is not only most _Free_ and at greatest _Liberty_, but also _Thickest_ and aptest for _Dilatation_. THIS will appear more evident, when we consider how the INFANT adheres to that Part, the _Bottom_, by means of the _Secundine_: How the INFANT also as it grows, begins to separate the _Humours_ in the _Secundine_, which (of consequence) encrease as the _Infant_ does: And how again the Encrease of the _Humours_ fill up the _Chinks_ and VACUUMS, as I may call them, which the INFANT cannot possess. From hence it is that the WOMB extends itself in the _Form_ of a PEAR, only a little _Plainer_ at Both Ends. THUS the _Secundine_ adhering[155] to the _Bottom_ of the WOMB, by its _thicker Part_ (call’d the PLACENTA,) thence it is that the WOMB encreases and extends itself more in its _Bottom_, than in any _inferiour Part_.