III. THEY who altogether neglect _Manual Operation_, may (I confess) sometimes _deliver_ their WOMAN, when _Success_ accidentally answers their WISH: But without this _Mean_, they cannot possibly restore a _prolaps’d_, _fallen-down_, or an _obliquely situated_ WOMB, to its _natural Position_. No, to the Contrary, Nothing is more common among ignorant unwary _MIDWIVES_, than to _invert_ and _draw down_ the _Bottom_ of the WOMB itself, by pulling the _Navel-String_, as they foolishly intend by _means_ of it only to extract the _SECUNDINE_. Neither does the _Mischief_ always end here, but mistaking this _Body_, when so found by their TOUCH, they immediately imagine it to be the _Head_ of another INFANT; and persevering in this _false Conjecture_, they manifestly expose the poor WOMAN to the Hazard of her _Life_. Neither,
IV. POSSIBLY can _They_, without the _Use_ of the HAND, so cleanse the WOMB of the _Reliques_ of the _SECUNDINE_, which may stick up and down to the WOMB; or of the _Pieces_ or _Parts_ of the _Membranes_, which may remain there; or of the _clotted Blood_, which commonly stays behind. From hence therefore it necessarily follows, that (without the _Means_ of the HAND) _They_ cannot be Positive or Certain in any _Circumstance_, relating to the _True State of the Woman_. _They_ can neither assure Herself, nor those concern’d, that her WOMB is duly purged; if (perchance) of the _SECUNDINE_, which they may guess at by the _Sight_, yet not of the _Fragments_ of the _Membranes_, nor of the _clotted Blood_, which they can never be certain of, but by this METHOD. I mention these _Things_, because the _least Part_ of EITHER being retain’d, or left _Behind_ in the WOMB, may cost the WOMAN her _Life_, as innumerable _Precedents_ do testify. Nor,
V. CAN they possibly secure the _Woman_, that her _WOMB_ is _duly shut and contracted_; much less can they (without these _Means_) affirm that it is orderly _situated_ in its _proper natural_ CENTER: By the Neglect or Fault of which _Condition_, she is not only rendred _Barren_ afterwards, but also most infirm all the Days of her _Life_.
BUT notwithstanding how _plain_ and _easy_ soever, I have endeavour’d to make out the above-mention’d METHOD, I would over and above recommend _It_ only to the _judicious_ and _well-qualify’d MIDWIFE_; by no Means to those that are _ignorant_ in the _Parts_ of _GENERATION_, nor to any _stiff clumsy-fisted Person_: And that for the _Two following Reasons_; viz.