Hicky's Bengal gazette, or The original Calcutta general advertiser (34.1781)

Hew very ftldom a Man-midwife

is n&ejfetry.

FT has been allowed by the ableft A-
f mtonYlls, that Labour is Nature's
Work. If the Affiftaiice of Mem Mid-
wives were requifltfe, the World could
never have been peopled.. To fupp^le
any. more Art necefiary, than what can
be taught by Experience-- would be td
arraign the Goodrieis and Wifdom of the
Almighty. In England, the Cultom or
employing Men, is oxiy of modern
Date. ' It is but lately that our Women
became fo depraved. .- For the Honour
of the Female Character be it fpoken—
even in London-—in the' mid it of the
reigning Depravity, there are many La-
des of the firit Rank, who employ Wo-
men—an J fuch a Number have their
own Sex to A Hi ft them, that Encourage-
ment h given for fome of the Profefflon
to keep elegant Carriages. Thee are
Women who make above ioool, a year
by their Practice. I have no doubt but
many Women are ted to eraploy Men,
through Ignorance, that these afsMid-

.wives of fuch Eminence in London.-----

Yet, even Eminence is not abfolutely
necefTary—fince, if .it were, what would
become of the Millions whole Afiifters
are no otherwife qualified for the Em-
ployment, than by the Knowledge
v/hich they ..derive"f;Om a little Experi-
ence ?.— In fad, Experience is the bed
Jnltnktor. Art is too apt to encroa: h
on Nature—and where the Province is
Nattirfs— for once that Arc may be ol
Strike, It will'nine Hundred Times do
Mifchief. Even' Doctor Smei!ie fays,
that.* ".For further lllultratio.v and
" to inform voting' Practitioners that
** difficult:Cafes do not frequently oc-
** cur, fuppofe, of three thouland Vvo-
** men in one Town or Village, one
*' thouland lhail be delivered in the
" Space of one Year, and in nine hundred
" and ninety of thefe Births, the Child
'* (hall be born without any other than
" common AiTiftance." What is to be
tmderftood by common Affiftaiice is ob-
rvious---fuch Afiiffance as one Gountsy
female Neighbour can adord another.
And even of the remaining ten, the odds
are great, that that there will not be one
which 'requires the Crotchet j -—and
that is the only Cafe in 'which the ma-
tind Affiftaiice of a Man, can be requi-
iite, provided there be a Woman of Em-
inence employed. When an Otseraiizn
is to be performed—and that Operation
is to be done, met off.glt, indifputably a
Man becomes neccilary. But even in
this Cafe, it is not the AfTiltance of eve-
ry common Apothecary, who chafes to
write " Man-Midwife" over his Door,
that will avail—it mult be fome fkilru'

burgeon-—or the Woman had better,

; nd with infinitely iefs Riflfi take her
( hance, tha-n be faved from immediate
Death ( and that far from certain ) too
probably only to have wfietehednefs en-'
tailed on her, for a Year or two of a
miierable -Lite. Dr. StuWllja add-;, hi
* Vol. 1. Pages' 190 and 200.

\ A Jbarp Instrument ufed by Men.

Continued from out-'Laft. the next Page, that'." next Year let us mail receive a reward of fix Gold moh-

C H A P. II. ** fuppofe another thcufand Women fie- urs.

" livered in the lame Place; r.ct el ere Calcutta 8th St^>t. 17.8*1.

" three; fx, or eight, 'flail want ckirc.tr
" dreary Affiftance" and the cxitaordina-
rv Afliftance requilue lor toefe three,
'fix, Or eight, tut cf the. thcnfcr.d, is only
fuch, as cveiy Midwife of tl e leaf! emi-
nence, is qualified to afFoid. 1 know a
Lady who had as crofs a Labour as ever
occured—aru!, netwithftanding, was as
faftly tieliveied, as fhe could have been
by the frr.fi Man in London—fhe had
only a common Midwife, in a Country
Town, two hundred Miles from Lon-
don. If fhe had employed a Man, it is
fifty to one the Child would have been

Croieheted-—that is murdered-and the

Ladv, molt probably, wounded or torn!
How can the Affiftarice of Men be ne-
cefiary when even a Man-Midii'ife of luoh
Eminence as Dr- Smeltie, comeffes that
in TWO THOUSA.\D Labours,
there fliatl only be TWENTY which re-
quire any other Affiance than the Lcbour-
Pains? How much fefs, then, cm the
Alli'ftance of Men be neceffary,. when
even eighteen of thole twenty, are dee-
red laborious, <?»•"» beeaufe the /ijfijlance
of-turning, a id Iriw-ing by the Feet is re-
quifite—which -very Woman of Experi-
ence is as able to-p. rJorm, as any Man
in London ?—Th.e e cmoot be"a great-
er Error than that the Knowledge of A-
h a to my -is neccflary' for 'any'Cafes, but
that unhapp/ one in many thou/ands,
where the v.h-1'i mult be killed in the
Womb'. Eve: y Woman of Experience
mult know the -dtuaiion of the Parts
in which ihe is to operate. They are lb
plain, and obvious, fie .sennit mfs her
tish—and if the Child is to be turned—
there needs no Knowledge of Anatomy
to diltinguifh an Land from a Foot—or
an Head from any other part——by the
feel. Her Road is fo plain before her,
that fne cannot miltake it. An eminent
Man-Midwife to my Knowledge, went
much further in his Computation than
Dr. Smcllie has done—for ' he declared,
alter a Practice of thirty fix Years —that
he had never met with even a lingle
Cafe, in which a Woman of Experience
might not have done the Bi. fi nek, as
well as he could I know a Midwife,
too, who has brought above fix thou-
land Children into the World, and ne-
ver met with a Cafe, that required a
Man.

TobeContinued.

AivY Perfon or Perfons who can
. give information of Mi. William
Maynard, will hear fomethmg to his ad-
vantage Mrs M--was 5th Mate of the

Shr.wfbyry Indkmen Capt, Coggan z-
bout two Yours and a half ago, but rc-
main'd in Inoia, he w; s ken in Calcutta
in 'October I ait. a line di reded to K. P.
or to Mr. Hicky printer or the Benga'
Gazette will befrioft thank fully recelvcll

yth Sept. 1781.
. ^ ^ s T.

SUPPOSED on the Race Ground, or
the Road .Leading from thence to
Town, out of a Phaeton, aLarge Roii

Diamond hair-pin.--Whofoever has

found Inch a one and wii! bring it to

AT THE ACADEMY [
'V/t RS. Griffith's Garden Hotife ne?.r
jLV Jl thfc Bytaconnah) young Gentle-
men are genteely Boarded, tenderly
treated and expeditioufiy taught by the
molt improved methods. The Englilhj
French, Latin, and Italian Languages
grammatically. Alio Writing, Accompts,
Geography &c. Such Gentlemen and
Ladies who think proper to honour him
with the Tuition of their Children, may
depend upon his molt ftrenous Endeav-
ours to merit their Countenance and
future Recommendation, by a Religious
difcharge of the important Truft repofed
in him, both with Refpedt to their
Learning and Morals. For particulars'.
Mr. CowGiY begs leave to refer to Mtffrs.
Thornhill & Killicen. The terms
for Board and Education arc 40 ficca
Rupees per. Month for all under Teh
years of Age, and 50 feral! above.

W A • N T E D ~

P' § WO Coffries who can play very
J[ well on the French Horn and are
otnerwife handy and ufeful about a
Hook, relative to the Btifmefs of a
Confumer, or that of a Cook, they mult
not b; fond of Liquots.

Ar.y perlon, or perfons having Such
to diipole o'f, will be treated with by
applying to the Printer.

~ A L L P ~E li SON S' "
J A YIN G any Claims or Demand-,
1 on the Eltate of John Sage Taylor
deecafed, are rcqueiled to lend an Ac-
count of them to Augultin Sayer, or to
Lancelot Olipliant '.Executors, and all
Perfons indebted to the laid Eltate, are
requeOed to difcharge their rdpective
debts as foon as convenient.

N. B. A. Sayer returns his thanks to
his Friends and Ctulomers, and ipforrRS
them thr^r- '■'---------o- t"-T-.\v

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