PARTURITION. GG7 
teaching followed, and foon after the cuftom of employ¬ 
ing men in the practice of midwifery began. 
Several authors of note lived and wrote in the fixteenth 
century, or betwixt the years 1530 and 1590, upon the 
difeafes of pregnant women, and the different methods 
of delivery. A collection of the molt remarkable among 
thefe writers, who are called the old moderns, was pub- 
liflied at Bafil, 1586, in quarto, entitled “ Gynteciorum 
Commentariaand afterwards, in 1597, republilhed at 
Strafburg in folio, by Ifrael Spachius, profellbr of medi¬ 
cine in that city, with the addition of two authors, who 
had not been mentioned in the firft. At the head of 
this collection, is Felix Platerus, born at Bafil: he pub- 
lilhed tables, explaining the ufe and flruCture of the 
parts of generation proper to women. The next is the 
“ Harmonia Gynasciorum,” collected from Cleopatra, 
Mofchion, Theodoras Prifcianus, and another uncertain 
author, freed from repetitions and fuperfiuities, by Caf- 
parus Vulphius. Then follows Eros or Trotula, firft 
publiJhed among the old Latin writers at Venice, by the 
Jons of Aldus. The fourth place is held by Nicholaus 
Rocheus, a Frenchman, whofe works, publilhed at Paris, 
are taken from the Greeks and Arabians; though he 
has added fome obfervations of his own. In his twenty- 
eighth chapter, he fays, if the child is large, the os uteri 
muft be dilated ; if the hand or foot prefents, neither 
mull be laid hold on ; but the operator, introducing his 
hand to the buttock or fhoulder, muft reduce the fcetus 
into the natural fituation, that is, fo as to prefent with 
the head. His thirty-fecond chapter treats of monfters. 
Ludovicus Bonaciolus, of Ferrara, is the fifth : his works 
were publifhed at Stralbourg. The fixth is Jacobus Silvius, 
of Amiens in Picardy. Then comes Jacobus Rueff, who 
publifhed at Zurich in Swifferland, and afterwards at 
Frankfort. He is the firft that gives a draught of the 
fpeculum matricis, for dilating the os internum, which 
he direfls to be ftretched in width ; but by no means 
lengthways, left, the ligaments breaking, the womb 
Jhould fall down. When the feet prefent, and the hands 
are ftretched along the Tides, he advifes us to deliver 
footling ; but, if the hands are up over the head, he fays 
the child ought not to be brought by the feet, unlefs 
the head be very finall. If the knees prefent, he orders 
them to be pufhed up, and the child to be delivered by 
the feet: but if the breech comes firft, it muft be reduced, 
and the fcetus brought by the head. The fame praftice 
he recommends in the prefentation of the hands, 
fhoulder, or hands and feet together. He is fucceeded 
by Hieron. Mercurialis, who lived at Padua, Venice, and 
Bologna, and praftifed much in the fame manner. The 
ninth is Johannes Baptifta Montanus of Padua. Victor 
Trincavillius, of Venice, is the next. Albertus Bottonus, 
of Padua, is the eleventh. After him comes Joannes le 
Bon Heteropolitanus. 
The author, w'ho holds the next place in this collection, 
is Ambrofius Paraus, or Pare, the famous reftorer and 
improver of midwifery : he lived at Paris, and his W'orks 
were tranflated into Latin by Jacob Guillemeau. Next 
to him Spachius places Albucafis the Arabian, already 
mentioned. Then Francifcus Rouffetus, wdio wrote on 
the Caefarian operation : his work was tranflated from the 
French by Cafparus Bauhinus ; and feveral of his cafes 
are publifhed in the memoirs of the academy of furgeons, 
by M. Simon. There is alfo the figure of a petrified 
child, extracted from the womb after the death of the 
mother ; a particular account of which is added to Cor- 
daeus’s comment upon Hippocrates. Cafparus Bauhinus, 
profeflorat Bafil, is the fixteenth. Then Mauritius Cor- 
dasus, of Rheims and Paris. The next is Martinus 
Akakia, of Paris; and the laft is Ludovicus Mercatus, a 
Spaniard. This author fays, if the child does not prefent 
with the head or feet, the cafe is dangerous, and preter¬ 
natural; nor is the prefentation of the feet without ha¬ 
zard or difficulty. In laborious cafes, if the woman be 
young or vigorous, he prefcribes bleeding in the foot, 
after Hippocrates; but is againft the ufe of the bath. He 
exclaims againft the Caefarian operation as an unchriftian 
undertaking; direCts us, when the placenta adheres, to 
introduce the hand, and pull the funis gently from fide 
to fide; and recommends fneezing to the woman, as con¬ 
ducive to its expulfion. When he treats of the manner 
of extracting a’dead child, he fays, with Hitius, we ought 
firft to confider whether or not the woman has ftrength 
fufficient to bear the operation ; then gives the method 
of Hippocrates, and in the next page defcribes the man¬ 
ner of ZEtius. 
Having thus given a fhort fketch of the authors col¬ 
lected by Spachius, we ffiall return to Pare, Who (as al¬ 
ready hinted) was the firft modern that made any confider- 
able improvements in midwifery ; which continued, to 
his time, without any material alteration, even after the 
other branches of phyfic had been improved. For ex¬ 
ample, if the child did not prefent in the natural w-ay, 
they fhook and altered the pofition of the woman, by 
which means they imagined the foetus would turn to the 
right pofture ; or they attempted to move it fo as that it 
fhotild prefent with the head. If this could not be ef¬ 
fected, and the feet were near at hand, they brought it 
footling; but, if they failed in this attempt, the child 
was fuppofed to be dead, and extracted with crotchets 
and hooks of various kinds 5 and if it could not be de¬ 
livered in that manner, on account of its extraordinary 
fize, or the narrownefs of the pelvis, they difmembered 
and feparated the body with crooked and ltraight knives, 
and then extracted it piecemeal. Pare was the firft that 
deviated from this praftice, and exprefsly orders the 
child to be turned and brought away by the feet, in all 
preternatural cafes. He fays, the molt natural cafe is 
that in which the child prefents with the head, and is de¬ 
livered immediately on the difcharge of the waters : it 
is more difficult when the fcetus comes by the feet; and 
ftill more fo, in the prefentation of the arm and legs to¬ 
gether, the back, belly, arm alone, or any other unna¬ 
tural pofition. He direCts us to bring away the fecun- 
dines immediately after the child is delivered : he retains 
the old notions relating to the difeafes and medicines; 
for the ancient theory was not altered till after the 
great Harvey found out the circulation of the blood. 
Cotemporary with him, was the above-mentioned Ja¬ 
cobus Rueff, who praCtifed at Frankfort, and in his 
writings recommends the method of the ancients: a cir- 
cumftance from which we learn, that the improvements 
had not then reached Germany. Indeed they were very 
much retarded by the inodefty of the women, who were 
ffiy of male praftitioners ; and by the miftaken notions 
which were at that time entertained of the ftrufture of 
the uterus ; for, all the defcriptions till the time of Ve- 
falius were very imperfeCI; and the womb in women 
fuppofed to be formed of different cells, refembling that 
of the brute fpecies. 
Jacobus Guillemeau was the pupil of Ambrofius Pare, 
adopted and confirmed his mafter’s praftice, and has 
written with learning and judgment. 
A few years before Ambrofe Pare’s book appeared, 
Eucharius Rhodion, a phyfician at Frankfort, publifhed 
the firft popular work that we are acquainted with on the 
fubjeft. As it was intended for the inftruftion of the 
midwives, it was printed at firft in the German language. 
In 1332, it was tranflated into Latin, under the title of 
“De Partu Hominis,” and in a few years after, into 
French, Englifh, and other modern languages. The 
praftical rules recommended by him, are fuch as he had 
learned from Hippocrates, Avicenna, and other ancient 
writers. In crofs-prefentations, the midwife was to en¬ 
deavour to bring down the head; when this could not 
be effefted, if the breech, or feet, were next the uterine 
orifice, the child was to be allowed to come into the 
world in that pofture, taking, however, efpecial care, 
he fays, that the hands Jhould be brought down, and 
placed one on each fide of the body of the child, a rule 
which 
