MID 
^rhcn required, -without turning flie screw 
to bring the first division upon it to the in- 
dex, I, when the cross wires coincide with 
the point of commencement of the circle or 
divided arc. 
tor reading the divisions by this micro- 
scope, the middle notch of the scale, fig. 4, 
is accounted the first, and every fifth is de- 
noted by a longer notch, and every tenth 
by a still longer, instead of figures. If now, 
■when the circle is set to its required posi- 
tion, and observed through the microscope, 
any division or degree on the circle ex- 
actly coincides with the middle or first 
notch on the scale, the reading will be even 
degrees : if the division on the circle does 
not match with the first notch on the scale, 
the nut, F, of the screw must be turned, 
until the cross wires in the frame, fig. 6, ex- 
actly coincide with the division on the cir- 
cle ; the number of notches on the scale 
denotes the minutes, and the number of the 
division on the small circle, x, on the nut, 
F, which is opposite to the index, I, denotes 
the number of seconds. See Optics. 
MICROTEA, in botany, a genus of the 
Fentandria Digynia class and order. Na- 
tural order of Oleraceae. Atriplices, Jus- 
sieu. Essential character : calyx five-leav- 
ed, spreading ; corolla none ; drupe dry, 
echinated. There is only one species, viz. 
M. debilis, a native of the island of St. 
Christopher, in the AVest Indies. 
MIDWIh'ERY^. The art or science of 
assisting women in child-birth. Of late 
years, however, and especially in this coun- 
try, since the Royal College of Physicians 
of London has consented to admit into a 
distinct class of its licentiates such, as upon 
examination, shall appear duly qualified for 
obstetric practice, it has become an art or 
science of more extensive range, and em- 
braces every case connected with the fe- 
male sexual system, as well as diseases of 
infancy during the period of lactation. Such 
being the general signification assigned in 
the present day, we shall contemplate the 
term under this sense, except what relates 
to the diseases of Infancy, already consider- 
ed under that article, in the following sketch 
of its rise, progress, and practice. 
HISTORY. 
The history of midwifery may be com- 
prised in a few words. In the earliest ages 
of life, when the manners were simple, the 
hours of rest,' and food regular, and the ge- 
neral strength and health proportionate, it 
was only in cases of mal-conformation, eitlier 
of the mother or of the child, or mispi'esen- 
MID 
tation of the latter, that any other assist* 
ance, perhaps, than what nature herself ci- 
ther gave or indicated, could be demanded. 
These exceptions, even in the present day 
of luxury, complex manners, and delicate 
health, are upon the whole extremely few 
compared With the general average of birtlis 
that every hour is a witness to. Yet in the 
periods we are now contemplating, we 
know that they must have been veiy consi- 
derably fewer, because we know, that in 
every instance in which society, by its natu- 
ral tendency, has overstepped the just me- 
dium of its prime object, and introduced 
soft and delicate habits, capricious fashions, 
and all the luxuries of refined life, it has at 
tlie same time introduced debility, even 
from birth, and often before birth, and con- 
sequently all those mal-eonformations and 
obliquities from the line of health which na- 
turally belong to mankind of both sexes, 
and which it is their own fault (we mean the 
•fault of themselves or their ancestors) that 
they do not equally possess in every gene- 
ration. 
Hence the art of midwifery is coeval with 
civilised life, and is to be measured by its 
advance to the utmost summit of refine- 
ment. In the earliest ages, when nature 
required nothing more than mere co-opera- 
tion with her common eftbrts, women alone, 
and these of no peculiar degree of skill, 
■must have been altogether competent to 
the business of child-birth : and hence the 
mid wives of the Hebrews, of the Greeks and 
Romans, we have reason to believe were 
all females ; nor do we meet with a single 
'instance of a chirurgical or medical prac- 
titioner having been had recourse to and 
actually employed earlier tlian the middle 
of the seventeenth century. Perhaps, among 
the earliest practitioners on the continent, 
we may mention M. Julian Clement, a sur- 
geon of high re[mtation .at Paris, who at- 
tended in a difficult case Madame de la Va- 
liere, in 1663, and Dr. Williahi Harvey 
among those of onr own eoimtry, who pub- 
lished his celebrated treatise on generation 
a few years antecedently, and a few years 
afterwards- engaged in the practice of mid- 
wifery, and followed up his practice witli 
■hia ExerciUifio de partu. 
There can be no doubt that midwifery 
ongiit to have been studied , and practised 
■scientifically many ages before the period 
at which we liave now- arrived, and tliat 
tirousands of lives, as' well of mothers as of 
children, must have fallen a sacrifice to tlie 
want of anatouiical skill and knowkdge 
