PHYSICAL «ann LITERARY. 423 
‘clined forwards and downwards, and that in 
the laft months of pregnancy, or immedi- 
ately before birth, the head, by its weight, 
falls down towards the os uteri, fo that the 
face of the child is turned towards the os /a- 
 crum of the mother, and in this manner is de- 
livered. All this account, both of the child’s 
pofition, and falling down of the head; I muft 
doubt of; for, when I attended courfes of 
midwifery, I examined a great number of 
mbuien; in all the different times of pregnan- 
cy, from fix to nine months gone with child, 
and in the greater/number of them I felt the 
head down; and.Dr Smellie and Mr ‘Hunter 
aflure me, they have generally obferved the 
fame thing: fo that this feems to be rather 
what ought to be called the natural fituation, 
If the child be fometimes in the erect fitua- 
tion, and its head falls down, I cannot: think 
that this change of pofture is owing to its 
greater weight at this, more than at any 
other time; for the head of a foetus ‘is 
proportionally larger and heavier, the younger: 
it is: but to the child, thro’ a natural infting, 
endeavouring to avoid. the. preffure which 
its head will fuffer by the contraction of 
the bottom of the womb, and the detrufion 
ey of 
