of the Human Uterus. 63 



say, that the result of these appetencies, and the func- 

 tions to which the organs are destined, are grades of 

 disease ? Can an organ with its instinct be natural, and 

 nevertheless the only function of which it is capable be 

 morbid, or a grade of disease? Whenever a function is 

 performed agreeably to the fundamental and immutable 

 laws of nature, and without which intermediate function 

 the grand scheme of nature becomes broken and dis- 

 continuous, we intelligibly and with understanding argue 

 such function to be natural, or within the plan of nature 

 Of the grand though inscrutable catenation of human 

 reproduction, that pregnancy is a distinguished link, no 

 man m the possession of a sound mind can entertain the 

 most extenuated doubt. If, then, a link connecting and 

 alone appending the subsequent to the precedent or- 

 ation, how can it be said to be a disease? A disease is 

 a mere contingency ; a contingency declarative of an 

 aberration from the healthy economy of the animal body 

 Disease is an accident to which nature is liable, but no 

 part of her economy can it constitute. But conception 

 and gestation are the very work of the maturity and 

 health of the animal body. 



Were pregnancy a disease, or, as gentlemen please to 

 phrase it, a grade of disease, then were pregnancv, in its 

 inception, progression, and termination, truly fortuitous 

 and incidental. The sublime order of the universe 

 would be forced from its connection, its great design be 

 marred, ruined, and a second chaos involve its beauties. 

 Pregnancy is within the controul of uniform, determinate 

 laws, consecutively subject to the common government 

 of the economy of the body. The uniformity and rcgu- 



