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The Female Physician: Containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, their degrees of danger, and respective methods of prevention and cure: to which is added, the whole art of new improv'd midwifery; comprehending the necessary qualifications of a midwife, and particular directions for laying women, in all cases of difficult and preternatural births; together with the diet and regimen of both the mother and child.Maubray, John

Science

The Female Physician: Containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, their degrees of danger, and respective methods of prevention and cure: to which is added, the whole art of new improv'd midwifery; comprehending the necessary qualifications of a midwife, and particular directions for laying women, in all cases of difficult and preternatural births; together with the diet and regimen of both the mother and child.

Name: The Female Physician: Containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, their degrees of danger, and respective methods of prevention and cure: to which is added, the whole art of new improv'd midwifery; comprehending the necessary qualifications of a midwife, and particular directions for laying women, in all cases of difficult and preternatural births; together with the diet and regimen of both the mother and child.
Author: Maubray, John

Maubray, John

Midwifery -- Early works to 1800; Obstetrics -- Early works to 1800

IN order to which, I shall previously observe, that such
_Inconveniencies_ happening to the INFANT, may have a double _Origin_,
and proceed either from a _Defect_ in Nature, or the _Effect_ of a
difficult BIRTH: The _First_ may take Rise from various Causes, such as
of the _Parental Seed_, the _Forming Faculty_, the _Maternal_ or
_Uterine Constitution_, an _illegitimate Time_ of BIRTH, and the like;
as the _Latter_ may also arrive, not only from a _Difficult_, or
_Preternatural_ LABOUR, _&c._ but also from the ignorant, rough Usage,
or barbarous Treatment of the MIDWIFE. However, not to insist too long
on these Things, it very often, and too commonly happens.

I. THAT, The CHILD suffers so much in the _Birth_, that (when born) it
is hard to know, whether it be _dead_ or _alive_, not one part of the
Body being perceiv’d to _move_; which however may be _thus_ well known,
_viz._ by laying my _Hand_ upon its _Breast_, I shall feel the Motion of
the _Heart_, if alive, tho’ never so weak; as I shall also perceive a
small _Pulsation_ of the _Arteries_, by touching the NAVEL-STRING near
the _Belly_.

IN which _Case_, I would immediately order the INFANT to be laid in a
_Warm Bed_ or _Blanket_, and quickly carried to the FIRE; where its
_Mouth_ is to be open’d, as its _Nose_ is to be clean’d and unstopp’d
with small TENTS dipp’d in warm _White-Wine_, and _Linnen_ wet with the
same applied to its _Breast_ and _Belly_; spurting always in the mean
time, a little of the same _Wine_ into its _Mouth_ and _Nose_, until it
begin to stir: Or then I would distil a drop of _Aqua-Vitæ_, from time
to time upon its _Tongue_, bathing its _Pulses_ and _Nostrils_ with the
same, while I anointed its _Mouth_ with _Honey_.

II. IT sometimes only happens, that the tender FACE is bruised _Black_
or _Blew_, _Pale_ or _Livid_; which may also as well proceed from the
Bones of the PELVIS, or from the CHILD’S being Born _Face-upwards_, as
from the MIDWIFE’S hard Usage. In this _Condition_, I would only order
it to be frequently anointed with the _Oil of Sweet Almonds_, drawn
without FIRE, that is, by Expression; upon which it soon recovers its
_Natural Colour_.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.