WHEREFORE at all _Dissections_ of _pregnant Women_, where I have been present, I carefully observed and took notice of this particular _Point_; upon which I must needs affirm, that I always found the _WOMB_ (however _Big_ or _Little_) of its _natural Thickness_, and rather _thicker_ than _thinner_: For tho’ _It_ is expanded by the _growing Infant_, &c. yet _it_ may (most probably) be equally condensed, by the Imbibition of the _fluent Humours_, which consolidate into _itself_ by the _Pores_ of its _Plexus Body_. Nay, I have not only satisfy’d myself in _dead_, but also in _living Bodies_, with respect to this Matter; for by passing _One Hand_ into the _WOMB_ to take away the _Secundine_, when the _Other_ laid upon the BELLY, I clearly discerned the _Truth_ by SENSE, and have sometimes found the _WOMB_ not only incredibly _Thick_, but also RIGID withal: And in this Matter, I have not been singular; for I find the _ingenious Daventer_ writes to the same purpose, upon this _Head_, in his Book of _Midwifery_. Having therefore thus, in short, perceiv’d the _Thickness_ of the _WOMB_, both with my _Hands_ and _Eyes_, I must trust my SENSES, and prefer my _Experience_ before any _Man’s bare Conjecture_; for tho’ I often _see not_ those Things which I _believe_, yet I must still _believe_ those Things which I _see_.
WHENCE I conclude, that the _WOMB_, tho’ of a different _Bigness_ from the _Conception_ to the BIRTH, is always, at least, of one _Thickness_ with the _unconceiv’d_ WOMB: Which the _Divine Wisdom_ (no doubt) has so ordered for the _Preservation_ of the MOTHER and INFANT; for if the _WOMB_ in Time of _Pregnancy_ did grow _Thinner_, according to its _Extension_, it must of Consequence grow _Weaker_, and, in that _Case_ the INFANT would be liable to perforate it with _Foot_ or _Hand_, which would infallibly terminate in the _Loss_ of both their LIVES.
BUT besides, if the _WOMB_ was so _Thin_ and _Weak_ as Mr. _Mauriceau_ imagines; as the _Pregnant Woman_ would be liable to imminent _Danger_ every Moment _Before_, as well as _In Time_ of LABOUR; so the MIDWIFE would be expos’d to the greatest of _Difficulties_: For who then durst, without _Horror_, offer to turn the INFANT, so closely compress’d in those _thin Membranes_ of the _WOMB_? Or who could have _Resolution_ enough to separate and pull away the AFTER-BIRTH?