106 Observations on the Natural History 



I shall now proceed to the examination of that philo* 

 sophy which instructs in the abstraction of blood from 

 a general system of vessels, in order to relax a particular 

 set only. This general system, we may observe, goes 

 off from the same heart; is mutually in its parts depen- 

 dent, and between which parts there is a constant reci- 

 procation of good offices, or injuries, with a continued, 

 uninterrupted circulation of the same common nwss of 

 fluid. The circulation through this general system be- 

 ing continuous, and, as it were, in a circle, any quantity 

 of blood abstracted must immediately, and in the ratio 

 of the diameter of each vessel, influence each and every 

 part of the general whole equally. 



If any loss of blood will relax the os uteri, vagina, 

 and loca muliebria* (I speak of these parts in their ordi- 

 nary state, free from inflammation, rigidity, or spasm, 

 such as in ninety-nine of a hundred labours will be the 

 case), will it not likewise prostrate, in a higher or lower 

 degree, the expulsive forces of the uterus, abdominal 

 muscles, and diaphragm, and equally in their relation ? 

 It must, unquestionably, and leave the resistance to be 

 overcome, and the powers of expulsion, in the same re- 

 lation to each other that they were previously to the 

 use of the lancet. 



* Loci muliebres, vel loca muliebria, are by some classic writers 

 preferred, when they speak of the genital parts of the human female, 

 while they rather restrict the expression pud. nda to the genital parts 

 of the female brute. But, perhaps, they are equally proper,and may 

 be used according to the taste or choice of the writer. 



