PARTURITION. 
wards profeffed ; and fet up bufinefs in Spitalfields, next 
door to the Red Lion, • (-formerly known as the Half-way 
Houfe between Iflington and Stepney,) where he had 
confiderable praflice, and was much reforted to for his 
advice, which he gave to the poor gratis. In his works 
he ftyles himfelf “ Gent. Student in Phyiic and Aftrolo- 
gy;” and thofe phyficians of early times, whom hefeems 
to have particularly ftudied, Paracelfus, Galen, and Avi¬ 
cenna, regarded thofe as homicides who were ignorant 
of altrology: Paracelfus, indeed, went farther; he de¬ 
clared, that a phyiician (liould be predeftinafed to the cure of 
his patient; and that the horofcope lhould be infpefled, 
the plants gathered at the critical moment, or at lead; 
during the planetary hour. Culpeper publifhed “A Di¬ 
rectory for Midwives;” in which he has copied the theo¬ 
ry and practice of the old writers, many of whom he 
mentions, namely, Hippocrates, Galen, iEtius, &c. 
and frequently advifes the reader to confult his tranfla- 
tions of Sennertus, Riverius, Riolanus, Bartholin, John- 
fton, Vefiingius, Rulandus, SanCtorius, Cole, the London 
Difpenfatory, and a book which he himfelf had pub¬ 
lifhed under the title of “ The English Physician, 
and Complete Herbal; being an aftrologo-phyfical Dif- 
courfe of the vulgar Herbs of the Nation ; containing a 
complete Method or PraCtice of Phyfic, whereby a Man 
may preferve his Body in Health, or cure himfelf when 
Tick, with fuch things only as grow in England, they 
being molt fit for Engliffi CcnlTitutions.” This work 
has always been in great requeft, and has been many 
hundred times reprinted, not only in England and Scot¬ 
land, but in America. He publifhed feveral other works ; 
and died at his houfe in Spitalfields, on the 10th January, 
1654, in the thirty-eighth year of his age. He was fuc- 
ceeded in this way of writing by one Dr. Salmon, who 
was alfo a great tranflator and compiler ; and was partly 
author of a fpurious piece called Ariftotle’s Midwifery, 
which hath undergone a great many editions, and con¬ 
tributed to keep up the belief of the marvellous effefls 
of various medicines. 
It is probable that the fortune and eminence acquired 
by the fuppofed advantages of the method of the Cham- 
berlens, which they referved as a fecret, might be the 
occafion that many gentlemen engaged in praflice en¬ 
deavoured to eftablifh themfelves upon the fame prin¬ 
ciples ; that is, of concealing the means they ufed ; of 
which clafs was Dr. Baniber. Others might attempt to 
gain equal reputation and fortune by the very contrary 
means ; that is, by decrying the ufe of inftruments of 
every kind, on any occafion ; for, about the year 1723, 
Dr. John Maubray publifhed a volume upon this fubjefl 
called “The Female Phyiician, or the Whole Art of 
New' improved Midwifery,” in which he exclaims with 
great vehemence againft their ufe. In the following 
year he alfo publifhed an appendix, under the title of 
“ Midwifery brought to Perfection,” in which he de¬ 
mands great credit for the many improvements he had 
made. This appendixes in truth no more than a Syl¬ 
labus of his LeCfures, a courfe of which confifted of 
twenty, tw'elve anatomical and phyfiological, and eight 
practical; and it would be unjuft to deny to Maubray 
the credit of having been the firffc public teacher of mid¬ 
wifery in Britain. He gave his leftures at his houfe in 
Boud-ftreet. 
In the year 1701, Deventer, an eminent furgeon of a 
town in Holland of that name, acquired confiderable 
fame by his practice in the obftetric art. He alfo de¬ 
claimed violently againft the ufe of inftruments, affirm¬ 
ing he could terminate the molt difficult labours with his 
hand alone. He contended that the greateft obftacle to 
the birth of the child arofe from the oblique poiition of 
the uterus, its fundus falling too much forward, or to 
one fide of the abdomen of the mother. The head of 
the child was therefore forced by the pains, either againft 
the facrum, or againft one of the fides of the pelvis, in¬ 
stead of being directed into the centre of that cavity. In 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1273. 
6G£> 
all cafes of difficulty, if the head of the child was not 
forced down fo low as to render it impracticable, he 
palled his hand into the uterus, turned the child, and 
delivered it by the feet. When that could not be done, 
he introduced his left hand into the back part of the va¬ 
gina, and gradually ptifhed back the bones of the coccyx 
fo as to give fpace fufficient for the head of the child to 
pafs. In cafes where the pelvis was diltorted, he mult 
neceflarily have failed in this attempt, for the fame 
reafon that Chatnberlen failed with his forceps; but, as 
fuch cafes would only occur once in five or fix hundred 
labours, that fmall number of exceptions would give 
little check to his fame, which was continued to his 
name for many years after his death. His book was 
tranflated in 1729; and, thus becoming known to the 
Englifh praftitioner, it may be efteemed (fays Dr. Den¬ 
man) a confiderable addition to the ftock of obftetric 
knowledge in this country. Dr. Smellie has quoted one of 
his obfervations ; namely, “ that an imaginary ftraight 
line falling down from the navel, would pafs through the 
middle of the pelvis.” This will nearly hold true, when 
the abdomen is not diftended ; but, in the laft month of 
uterine geftation, in order to pafs through the middle of 
the pelvis, fuch a line mult be let fall from the middle 
fpace betwixt the navel and fcrobiculus cordis. This, 
however, w'as a good hint, and ufeful in praflice. De¬ 
venter was originally a watchmaker. 
The next writer to be noted is Lamotte, who lived at 
Valognes, near Caen in Normandy; and in 1715 pub- 
lifhed a book on midwifery, which feems to be the beft 
of the kind fince Mauriceau, and has been tranflated into 
Engliftt by Mr. Tomkyns. It contains about 400 ob¬ 
fervations, the greateft part of which are illuftrated with 
many judicious refleflions. In defcribinga cafe in which 
the head prefented, he mentions the great fatigue it had 
coft him to turn and deliver by the feet; and hopes that 
fome eafier method will be found out, for extraAing the 
child in fuch circumftances : fo that, although he wrote 
fo lately, he muft have been ignorant of the forceps. 
The next writer in midwifery is Monf. Amand of 
Paris, who defcribes the method of extrafling the head, 
when left in the uterus, by means of a net. The con¬ 
trivance is ingenious, but is not applied without great 
trouble, and cannot fucceed when the pelvis is too nar¬ 
row, or the head too large to pafs. 
Dr. Simfon, profeflor at St. Andrew’s in Scotland, pub¬ 
lifhed in 1729 his “ Syftem of the Womb,” a w’ork of 
fufficient ingenuity, but not of much ufe in praflice, 
even if his theory had been true. 
About the year 1733, Edmund Chapman publifhed his 
“ Treatife on the Improvement of Midwifery,” in which 
there are feveral ufeful obfervations; and other writings 
of temporary confequenceonly. Chapman was the fecond 
public teacher of midwifery in London ; and he was the 
firft who defcribed the forceps as ufed by Chamberlen, in 
the third volume of the Edinburgh Medical Effa-ys. 
In the year 1734, Dr. Hody publifhed a “ Colleflion 
of Cafes in Midwifery,” written by Mr. William Giffard. 
Thefe cafes, 225 in number, feem to be written with 
great fidelity ; and, as they occurred in his own praflice, 
they were leffons of conduct which ought to be purfued 
in fimilar cafes, and may now be confidered as examples 
of the ftate of praflice at that time. Giffard alfo gave a 
plate repftefenting the forceps, and was among the firft 
who affected that the placenta might be attached over 
the os uteri. 
“The Midwife rightly Inftrufted,” was publifhed in 
the year 1736 by Thomas Dawke ; and the “ Midwife’s 
Companion,” by Henry Bracken, in the following year, 
with fome other things equally unimportant. 
About this time lived Richard Manningham, who 
quitted the profeffion of pharmacy, and applied himfelf 
with great affiduity to the praflice of midwifery. In a 
pamphlet, publifhed in the year 1730, he is mentioned 
as having been knighted. In the year 1739 he ellabliffied 
3 H a ward 
