THE
DANGER and IMMODESTY
OF
The Present too general Custom of
UNNECESSARILY EMPLOYING
MEN-MIDWIVES.
BEING
The Letters which lately appeared under
the Signature of
A MAN-MIDWIFE.
WITH AN
INTRODUCTION,
A TREATISE on the MILK,
AND AN
APPENDIX.
WITH CORRECTIONS
By the AUTHOR.
LONDON:
Printed for J. Wilkie, No. 71, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard;
and F. Blyth, John’s Coffee-House, Cornhill.
MDCCLXXII.
To the PUBLIC.
I have very long been convinced ofthe many dangerous Consequenceswhich attend the depraved Custom of employingMen-midwives unnecessarily—andhave been for some Years intendingfrom Month to Month to write my Ideason that Subject, in order to combat thevery destructive Practice, and endeavourto awaken the slumbering good Sense of theNation. But when I reflected on the greatDifficulty of conquering Prejudice—considered[2]how generally the Opinion had beenadopted that “Men were the most properAttendants on the Labours of Women,”I confess the Task appeared tooarduous—and I was discouraged.
I knew, that no Arguments, even if anAngel was to descend from Heaven to utterthem, could persuade the Ladies to be satisfiedwith Midwives of their own Sex,after the fine Polish had been onceRUB’D OFF which modesty oughtto have work’d up to such a bright Pitch ofhigh finish’d Excellence, as not to have beencapable of admitting the impure stainwithin the glossy smoothness of its beautifulenamel!—I knew, that, assisted bythe greatest Part of the Faculty (whose interest,as well as pleasure would beat stake) they would leave no means untried—theywould call in every fallaciousart to their aid, to continue the deception,by ridiculing Arguments which theycould not confute—and that unmarried Ladies,through an Opinion of the Virtue oftheir Friends, and swayed, and kept inCountenance, by the prevalent Custom of[3]the Times, would naturally fall into theStream, and not be undeceived until toofar hurried by the Current to be afterwardsable to recede.—On the other Hand, Ilikewise knew that o