understand the performance; an operation, too, which must not be delayed till the system is exhausted by the loss of blood, and unable to sustain the shock it will occasion.
But further, the most serious difficulties may exist, in the management of the patient after delivery. They may be such as require the most prompt and judicious treatment to preserve life, and yet be such as a female would find herself totally inadequate to manage. I have only to refer to the occurrence of hemorrhage or convulsions, to the difficulty sometimes experienced in the extraction of the placenta, and to the dreadful but not unprecedented accident of all inversion of the womb, for exemplifications of cases which may happen during the attendance upon labor itself. But in addition to this we should take into consideration the many accidents which may happen during the puerperal state, the many diseases which occasionally supervene; and with regard to which it is to be particularly borne in mind, that the only chance for combatting them with success is by resisting their first attacks with the most vigorous remedies. Now aIl these cases require something more than the mere manual adroitness of an accoucheur; they have nothing to do with the mechanical part or the process of labour. They require the skill and science of a physician for their management; and this too at the moment, and on the spot.
It may be thought a sufficient answer to all this, that when such occurrences do take place, a physician may be called in, and thus the advantages of a female accoucheur be preserved, without the risk of life,