AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Confounded with the other branches of medicine, and pur- 

 sued almost exchisively by mere medicasters during a long 

 series of ages, the Art of Midwifery has advanced with ex- 

 treme slowness. Among the Egyptians, the Hebrews, the 

 Greeks, and the Romans, it was reduced in some sort to what 

 concerns the cutting of the umbilical cord; and even at the 

 present time, in countries that are imperfectly civilised, those 

 who make a profession of it inspire so little confidence, that 

 the husband is still compelled to imitate the conduct of the 

 first man, that is to say, he becomes the accoucheur of his wife. 

 These primitive notions have doubtless long ceased to exist 

 amongst us; in our day the Art of Midwifery is especially seen 

 to acquire a rapid movement, and to progress equally with the 

 other departments of the art of curing. It would, however, 

 be wrong to conclude from hence, that every thing has been 

 already done, and that no further improvements can be made. 

 The Science of Obstetrics ought to follow the movements of 

 the age, and advance if it would not retreat. It seems to me 

 that it may be defined, the ensemble of knowledge relative 

 to the reproduction of the human species. By studying it 

 under this extensive and philosophic view, and by doing away 



