CHAPTER II.

In this Chapter I have avoided the Use of Terms of Art, or explain’d them, in Regard to those for whom I chiefly write, as far as my Regard to Decency admits; but if any Word should occur not easily understood by any of my Readers, almost any _English_ Dictionary will explain its Meaning; and it cannot be expected that any Book can instruct those who cannot read, tho’ I am sorry to say too many such assume the Office of _Midwives_.

As Curiosity may reasonably induce many of the Sex concern’d in the Subject of these Sheets, to be inform’d of somewhat of the Provision supreme Wisdom has made for the Existence of Children in the Womb, I shall briefly mention the most obvious _Instruments_ relating to their Breeding and Birth, without puzzling my Readers with minute _anatomical_ Descriptions.

The Vagina, or Passage, lies between the Neck of the _Bladder_ and the large or strait Gut; it is connected at the inward extreme to the _Womb_, and called the _outward Orifice_ at its beginning.

The _Womb_ lies between the _Bladder_ and _Strait Gut_, and is connected to both; during the Time of _Breeding_ it increases in its _Dimensions_, and rising higher in the Body, by Reason of the Weight and Substance of it, with its Contents, at the Fund, or remote End of it, may be liable to swag too much _forward_ or _backward_, or incline more or less to either Side, especially in such, as by their Occasions of Industry in Life are obliged to a Variety of _indirect_ Situations; by which Means the _inward_ Orifice is perverted from a _direct Site_ with Respect to the Passage, and obstructs an easy Exclusion of the Infant in Travel.

The _Placenta_ or _After-birth_, adhering to the _Fund_ of the _Womb_, receives the _Mother_’s Blood, by the _Umbilical-Vessels_, or _Navel-String_, conveys it to the Child for its Nourishment, and retransmits what is superfluous; maintaining by the Intercourse of _Arteries_ and _Veins_, the Circulation of the Blood between Mother and Child.

The _Membranes_ closely connected to the _Placenta_, and the _Fund_ of the _Womb_, between both which they seem to take their Rise, contain the _Humours_ in which the Infant swims, the better to preserve it from Injuries, by its Pressure against _unyielding_ Parts, and the _Humours_ before, and after the _Breaking_ of the _Membranes_, commonly call’d the _Breaking of the Waters_, in the Birth, very much facilitate it, by opening the _inward Orifice_ of the _Womb_, and lubricating the _Passage_ for the Child: These _Membranes_ come away with the _Placenta_, under the Name of the _After-birth_, or _Secundines_, indifferently.

The _Pelvis_ or _Bason_, wherein the _Uterus_ or _Womb_ is seated, is form’d by the _forward_ Bones, commonly call’d the _Share-Bone_, the _Hip-Bones_ and their Continuation on each Side, and the lower Part of the _Back-Bone_, all which are so contiguous to each other, as to form this Cavity, generally much larger in Women than Men, cloathed with Muscles, between which the _Vagina_ is inserted.

The right Formation of the _Pelvis_, is of the greatest Consequence in Favour of an _easy_ Birth; when the _Bones_ forming it, _forward_ and _backward_, and on _each_ Side, both above and below, don’t too much approach each other, and prevent the Exclusion of the Child between, by a free Admission.