82 THE SICK MAN^S COMPAKIOK, 



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sy to determine^ if there be another remaining^ 

 by feeling the state oftbe belly alonejin this way^ 

 a judicious practitioner is very seldom mistaken 

 on the occasion. When only one child has been 

 originally contained in the womb, that organ^ 

 soon after delivery^ diminishes very much in 

 size, while the bowels, which are kept out of 

 their natural situation; in the latter months of 

 pregnancy, immediately get forward to the fore 

 part of the belly, and render it soft and yielding^ 

 but, when a second chilli remains^ the womb 

 does riot appear to diminish in size. The intes- 

 tines, remain behind and at the sides, and the 

 fore part of the belly has the same hardness as 

 before delivery. It soon happens that the pains 

 advance rapidly^ and the second infant comes 

 soon after the first. In such cases all the prac* 

 Vitioner has to do- is to be assured that the second 

 infant is in a proper position^ and to take care so 

 to conduct the extraction of the after birth that 

 no alarming discharge may follow its expulsion. 

 In this case, however, the warm medicines may 

 be resorted to as in the birth of only one child. 

 But, when the labor-throws cease, or become tri^ 

 ling on the birth of the first child, the object of 

 Ihe attendant should be neither to interfer betoie 

 the woman has reciuited sufficiently from her fa- 

 tigue, nor to delay the extracting the second 

 child so long that the passagej* become contract- 

 ad, or he after- birth of the first bora be separated. 



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