BUT notwithstanding the daring _Difficulties_, and time-serving _Precautions_, mentioned by most _Authors_ of my reading and revolving, in this _Case_; I can conceive no extraordinary _Perplexity_ which can attend it, if the _DELIVERY_ be but _timely_ or _seasonably_ undertaken, before the _Woman’s Strength_ and _Blood_ be too much exhausted. I know _Daventer_, _Peu_, and some _others_, make long _Ambages_ or Circumlocutions upon this _Head_; for _some_ are at great Pains to teach us how to perforate the _SECUNDINE_ with a _Hair-Needle_ instead of our _Fingers_, and _others_ how to keep it back, until the _INFANT_ be first born: But for my part, as I already foresee sundry _Difficulties_ that will arise in these Practices, so I shall be loth to come into them, and that because—— FIRST, in penetrating the PLACENTA with any _acute Instrument_, the _CHILD_ (if not the _MOTHER_ also) may be easily wounded: SECONDLY, supposing it to be done with the FINGERS, the _Hole_ must be dilated in proportion to the _Aperture_ of the Mouth of the WOMB, and then _this_ mangled MASS must be dispersed to _all Sides_ of the _Orifice_; by which Means, _Daventer_ himself acknowledges, that it often perfectly _congeals_ with BLOOD, and sticks so fast to the WOMB or VAGINA, that the _Ignorant_ would not only take them to be _grown together_, but also believe them rather to be _one and the same Body_: Which consequently must require both great _Pains_ and _Difficulty_ to be separated, and at last a very diligent _Scrutiny_ must be made, that no _Fragment_ be left any where _Behind_, since in this _Condition_ no just _Conjecture_ can be made by the Eye: THIRDLY, by retaining the _SECUNDINE_ in the WOMB, when its heaviest and most bulky _Part_ (the PLACENTA) is fallen down into the _Entrance_, let it be never so judiciously managed and moved, it possesses a considerable deal of _Room_, and consequently obstructs the _Operation_ of the _MIDWIFE_’s _Hand_, lying as a cross thwarting _Impediment_ in her way, which at the same Time _blockades_ or totally shuts up the _Passage_ of the _CHILD_. WHEREFORE, and considering that this _Body_, when so loosened and separated from the WOMB, can never possibly be any more _serviceable_; but, on the contrary, highly _detrimental_ to both the _MOTHER_ and the _INFANT_, as aforesaid; I cannot but be of Opinion, that it is both the safest and shortest Way, to extract the _SECUNDINE first_; by which expeditious _Step_, the _MIDWIFE_ not only gains more _Room_ to turn the CHILD, but also (this being done) she can much more commodiously draw it out by the HEELS: Animadverting always by the way, that in this critical _Condition_, the _BIRTH_ must immediately follow the _SECUNDINE_, without the Loss of one Moment’s Time, and _that_ especially for stopping the _Floodings_, which would otherways not only soon suffocate the weak INFANT, but also in a short Space of Time effect the certain _Death_ of the tender MOTHER. [Illustration]