304 Medicine. 



tricate and interesting relations of one part to 

 another, their distances and their inclinations, both 

 with respect to each other, and to different parts of 

 the body, as well as with regard to the foetus, form 

 a branch of inquiry on this subject which has been 

 prosecuted to advantage only in modern times. 

 Dr. Smellie, of Great-Britain, is supposed to de- 

 serve the praise of beginning this improvement and 

 pursuing it to considerable extent.'" 



By the light of the eighteenth century, not only 

 many new truths have been brought into view, but 

 a multitude of errors, prejudices and superstitious 

 opinions, which formerly misled the obstetrical 

 art, have been in a great measure banished." Na- 

 ture has resumed its dominion, and is now followed 

 as the safest guide. Much of the officious and vio- 

 lent interposition of former practitioners, to hasten 

 or controul the natural process of parturition, has 

 been found to be injurious, and is novv^ generally 

 relinquished. The modern instruments, in com- 

 parison of those employed by the ancients, are few 

 in number, simple in construction, and seldom re- 

 sorted to. 



The diseases of the puerperal state have been 

 much better understood, discriminated and treated 

 within a few years, than in preceding times. The 

 late publications of Dr. Smellie, Dr. Manning, 

 Dr. HuLME, Dr. Leak, Mr. White, Mr. Moss, 

 Dr. Hamilton, Dr. Denman, Dr. Osborn, M. 



ffi Dr. Smellie is said to have been the first writer who considered the 

 shape and size of the female pelvis, as adapted to the head of the foetus ; and 

 to have abolished many superstitious notions, and erroneous customs, that 

 prevailed in the management of women in labour, and of children ; and to 

 have had the satisfaction to see the most of his maxims adopted in the greater 

 part of Europe. Ramsay's ^fi^/fTi;, p. 13. 



n Van SwiETEN quotes several authors of reputation, who had advised 

 lying-in women to keep their beds till the tentli or twelfth day after par- 

 turition ; and this was frequently done without changing their bed-linen.. 

 The children were also incased from head to foot, so as to be totally de- 

 prived of the use of their limbs. These absurd and unnatural practices have, 

 within the last half century, been gradually exploded. Jbid, 



