64 Observations on the Natural History 



larity of the laws of utero- gestation are inferrible from 

 the fixedness and constancy of its term. 



That pregnancy is laid out and planned, in the deep, 

 unsearchable projection of nature, is deducible from the 

 accordance of the marriage state, bearing children, with 

 the most perfect health. Not unfrequently, indeed, the 

 stimulus of matrimony bears the body above diseases, 

 not otherwise manageable by our art. That women, 

 while pregnant, should be favoured with a total exemp- 

 tion from disease, is not at all consequential of the posi- 

 tion, that gestation is a condition of nature. Nature 

 may as readily be encumbered by disease, its various 

 ramifications entwining about her springs, in one part 

 of her motions as another. Dyspepsia at times invades 

 the stomach, but still digestion is a natural function ; 

 tubercles may be diffused through the lungs, interrupt- 

 ing their play, nevertheless respiration is a healthy ani- 

 mal operation. 



Can a part of the economy of nature be so amelio- 

 rated, by medical aid, as to be better suited, in its re- 

 lations and operations, to the purposes of its office, than 

 it is by its original constitution? I answer in the nega- 

 tive. Then why shall we break in upon nature's 

 works with our agency ? Gentlemen not only upturn 

 the foundations of the physical world, but they dream 

 of suspending the very denunciations of Heaven on the 

 point of their lancet. 



During gestation, nature may, in her economy, be en- 

 cumbered by disease; and the plan of her procedure be 



