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SECT. IV

CHAP. I.

Of MIDWIFERY.

BIRTH, and whatever may depend of, take Rife from, or have any antecedent, concomitant, or consequent Relation to it, is the only proper Business of MIDWIFERY, and justly deemed the common Boundary of the Knowledge and Practice of the MIDWIFE.

WHICH  Art of MIDWIFERY is (in itself) as excellent and ingenious, as its Practice is useful, and absolutely necessary to the Commonwealth; insomuch that this will admit of no Contradiction, when we rightly consider the following few, but important, general Heads, to which I reduce it throughout this Work, viz.

I. THIS Art distinguisheth a Fertile from a Sterile or Barren WOMB; it supports and corroborates the one, and rectifies and cures the other, in most (if not in all) Cases.