BUT before I enter upon _These_, I would willingly in this place, previously subjoin a Word or two of _Advice_ (by way of _Precaution_) to the Young _Andro-Boethogynist_: Which, in short, consists in this _Point_, that as it is the too common _Practice_ here in _England_, for an obstinate SET of _Women_ to keep their _Labouring PATIENTS_ so long under their own Hands only, until the very last _Extremity_; so I would not counsel him at that Time, when sent for, upon such a ticklish Occasion, to go _Head-long_ to such a _Work_, nor to undertake the DELIVERY of such a _Woman_, before He makes some requisite _Observations_: And _that_ I mean no ways because of any Danger of the _Preternatural BIRTH_ which she labours under, how difficult soever it may be; but merely, on account of the _Woman_’s exhausted _Strength_ and _Ability_, to undergo the respective _Operation_ in her weaken’d _Condition_; which I would very much question in most Women, after _One_, _Two_, or _Three Hours_ strong LABOUR, and that in SOME far sooner, notwithstanding that _others_ have been known to stand it out, and struggle a much _longer Time_. HOWEVER, be this as it will, I commonly guess at the _Woman’s State of Ability_, not only by her PULSE, if _strong_ or _weak_, _unequal_ or _intermitting_; by her EYES, if _dejected_; by her SPEECH, if _faint_; by touching the EXTREMITIES of her Body, if _frigid_: but also by some other SYMPTOMS, which infallibly appear, if the _Woman_ be too far spent, such as _Cold Sweats_, _Swoonings_, _Convulsions_, _Loss of Sense_, &c. Whereupon I say in these _Cases_, it is more adviseable to let alone or decline the _Office_, than to undertake such a precarious uncertain Piece of _Work_; because if the _Woman_ happens to die under his _Hand_, He may perhaps be (however unjustly) blam’d for the errant _Midwife_’s Faults, or at least He will scarce avoid the CENSURE of the _Ignorant_ and _Malevolous_. YET this _Advice_ (however wholesome and prudent) is, I confess, what I would but seldom have Recourse to, or follow myself, notwithstanding the worst _Consequences_ of the _Case_; since as long as there is _Life_, there is _Hope_ with me, by the Blessing of GOD: Which tho’ never so _little_, I should think myself obliged in Conscience to do what both ART and NATURE command, and rather in all _Conditions_ of LIFE to attempt an uncertain CURE[170], than abandon the _Distressed_ to certain DEATH, as some _Politicians_ in _Physical_ Affairs commonly do, who prize their vain _Reputation_ above the LIFE of their Neighbour. But _thus_, in short, (for my own Part) I would chuse to _act_, because I have often seen, and known _NATURE_ to have perform’d, and recover’d a weak spent parturient PATIENT, even beyond all human Probability.