presume to treat. Though, if example could be any countenance, I might plead that of so many authors who have, with th utmost confidence and the utmost absurdity, written upon the art of midwifery, without understanding any thing at all of it. The truth is, that my very natural and strong attachment to the profession, which I have long exercised and actually do exercise, created in me an unsuppressible indignation at the errors and pernicious innovations introduced into it, and every day gaining ground, under the protection of Fashion, fostering a preference of men to women in the practice of midwifery: a preference first admitted by credulous Fear, and admitted without examination, upon the so suspicious recommendation of those interested to make that Fear subservient to their selfish ends.

OF these disorders, pernicious as they are to society, I have however been long withheld from taking public notice by far from groundless scruples. Being myself a practitioner, I had just reason to fear, that my representation would have the less in-