Copy 2

A general treatise of midwifery ... illustrated with upwards of four hundred curious observations and reflexions concerning that art / Written originally in French by La Motte ... And translated into English by Thomas Tomkyns, surgeon.

  • Mauquest de La Motte, Guillaume, 1655-1737.
Date:
1746
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A general treatise of midwifery ... illustrated with upwards of four hundred curious observations and reflexions concerning that art / Written originally in French by La Motte ... And translated into English by Thomas Tomkyns, surgeon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    536/564 (page 512)
    512 A general Treatife ^MtCwtFRV. the urine, you can perceive nothing of the bladder by prelTing upon the belly; after delivery the uterus is very fenfibly perceivable to the touchy feeling like a great ball, which falls on any fide that the woman lies on. This is fufficient to fbew the im^ propriety of comparing the uterus to the bladder. As for the example of the ball of wax, let any one take a lump of it of the bignefs of the uterus in its natural fize, (and not of the fize it is of immedi¬ ately after delivery^ for that is not dating the cafe fairly) and let him try to form with it a globe ca¬ pable of containing the child, and all its appurte¬ nances ; I am fure that could he perform his un¬ dertaking, the globe would bt thinner than muf- lin. Some children making their way through the uterus into the abdomen^ only prove that there are fome uterus*^ weaker than others, and not that they become thinner as they are diflended; and I have always found that this rending of the uterus has happened in its fundus^ which place him- felf grants to be the thickefl: of any. The fatted as well as the leaned women are able to feel their children through the integuments, which in fomc may be above four inches thick *, fo that this cannot be made ufe of as an argument for the thinnefs of the uterus, I remember a lady of Caen adlired me, that her child was ill dtuated, be- caufe (he felt different parts from what die ufed’ to do in her former labours.^ and the child really pre- fented an arm. However if the uterus was no thicker than the bladder, a woman might indeed perceive fome eminences, but could never be able to didinguifh fome parts from others, as w^e are often midaken in them, even when we touch them without the interpofition of any other body.' Though I differ from Mauriceau as to the thick- nefs of the uterus^ I do not pretend to fay, that it is