THESE, I say, are the general Heads of the WORK, which are all again sub-divided into their proper respective Particulars; and consequently every general _Head_ or _Section_ assign’d its own relative _Chapters_, for the singular Benefit and more easy Comprehension of the _Reader_. And these _Chapters_ consisting of 130 in Number, I have, with respect to every singular _Distemper_ mentioned in them, FIRST, defin’d the Nature of the _Disease_; SECONDLY, accounted for its _Causes_; THIRDLY, I have given the _Diagnostick Signs_ or _Symptoms_; FOURTHLY, the _Prognosticks_ or Degrees of Danger; to which I have FIFTHLY and lastly added the Method of _Prevention_ in many Cases, and That of CURE in All: So that there is almost not one _Disease_ which can affect the Woman from her _Birth_ to her _Death_, in _Child_, _Maiden_, _Wife_, or _Widow-hood_, whose _Essence_, _Species_, _Differences_, _Causes_, _Signs_, and _Prognosticks_, we have not sufficiently clear’d up.
ALL these Things I have endeavour’d to be most particular in, to the end that any _Woman_, who reads, so as to be conversant with this BOOK, may know before She sends for her _Physician_, not only her _Distemper_, but also the _Danger_, with which she is threatned upon every Sickly occasion. And in these Things I flatter my self that this WORK will prove Acceptable, where such a Number of _Diseases_ and _Symptoms_ are set forth in so clear a Light, that any Person, making use of their Eyes and Reason only, without being any ways vers’d in the Practice of _Physick_, or _Midwifery_, may evidently see, perceive, and by Experience find, every individual _Case_ to answer these Ends, and the whole to correspond exactly with its _Title_ and _Contents_.
BUT upon the whole, if here and there a brief _Philosophical_ way of Reasoning has crept in, I would have you consider, that it could not be avoided; because the _Proofs_ relating to Natural Things are sometimes taken from very minute _Instruments_; And that the Design of such an _Interspersion_, is only to assist your Understanding, and conduct your Thoughts through the WORK. However in such _Cases_ the _Reader_ may go on, or pass by what does not suit with his _Taste_, as he pleases. Again if here and there, I have retain’d a _Term of Art_, which the common _Reader_ may call a hard Word, I declare it is out of no Design to amuse any one, but out of mere Necessity, since otherways I should have been ridiculously singular, and far less understood: In the mean time I have taken what Care I could to explain the most, or at least the most requisite of _These_, insomuch that whatever _Words_ or _Sentences_ of this Kind are not fully interpreted, you may slip over, without losing any thing Material of the Purport of the Matter, such Things concerning the _Practitioner_ more than the common _Reader_.