98 Observations on the Natural History 



an extra- uterine foetus will not be argued to be derived 

 from the stimulus of mechanical distention operating on 

 the accumulated excitability of the uterus. We assur- 

 edly deduce these throes from the laws of the constitu- 

 tion of the mother ; for, in this case, the child is not 

 within the womb, and, of consequence, can by no luxu- 

 riancy of fancy be supposed to excite into action that 

 organ. 



The term proper to the maturity of the child being 

 elapsed, we discover farther and more decisive marks 

 of labour to present themselves. But, before I proceed 

 to the physical properties of the womb, I must say some- 

 thing on the moral necessity of pain. 



What I mean by the moral necessity of pain, it may 

 be proper, in a succinct manner, to explain. Notwith- 

 standing the general sympathies of the body may, and 

 to my apprehension do, grow out of the common con- 

 stitution and economy of body, and would, without 

 the transgression of man, have been attended by plea- 

 sureable sensations in the various operations of which 

 they are the source, yet I find no difficulty to conceive 

 that those sympathies, in their laws the same, may be 

 accompanied by unpleasureable sensations in the func- 

 tions or conditions to which they give origin. 



In the first period of conception, upon the supposition 

 that Eve had remained in her original paradisaical estate, 

 I can conceive that all the associated actions would have 

 afforded pleasure ; that the very associated action of the 

 stomach, which, in the present condition of woman. 



