74 Observations on the Natural History 



this be correct, whence is their information ? Have they 

 made it a matter of private enquiry with the individual 

 Squaws ? 



Are there no instances of preternatural presentation 

 among the Calabrian societies ; such as that of the arm, 

 back, or belly "? Would these too be without pain or 

 difficulty '? These tales of uncivilized life are told to us 

 in a most uncivil manner. They are an indecorous at- 

 tack on the understanding of every man. 



The savage, the negro, and the poorer sort of pea- 

 santry, are in their condition nearly similar. They pre- 

 sent not dissimilar phenomena to the eye of observation. 

 And with them there is naturally, and originally, in re- 

 lation to the commencement of labour, an equal degree 

 of difficulty, pain, and danger. Nature, in the general, 

 is upon the same scale, and is safe ; I speak of the ne- 

 gro, the peasant, and the savage. Mischief is the re- 

 sult of rude and clumsy art, in the hands of adventurous 

 ignorance. 



In fine, we have no authorities upon which we can, 

 with safety, proceed in our investigations into the state 

 of parturition, amidst savage life. And what are we to 

 think of the narratives of men, totally without the means 

 of instruction, in respect to the affairs of the woman of 

 the forests, when a lecturer can publish to the world, 

 " that the labours of the brute are not generally attend- 

 ed with pain, or difficulty." Have any of these intelli- 

 gent travellers been at the couch of the lion, or the lair 

 of the wild-hog, the den of the wolf, or the hole of the 



