THERE are many Things altogether New in our _Midwifery_, which I would have none rashly to stumble at, tho’ I know that _New Opinions_ are always suspected and generally opposed, merely because they are not already _Common_: But as I am not in any respect to press my _Notion_ of Things upon the Belief of _others_, so I desire not to establish any _Maxims_ of mine in other Peoples _Opinions_, farther than they think fit. I know the Relish of the _Understanding_, is often as different as that of the _Palate_; Hence it is that _some_ Men condemn, what _others_ approve; and _some_ despise what _others_ admire: Yea such is the Uncertainty of Men’s _Judgments_, concerning the Excellency of Things, that no _Nut_ of Learning was ever yet open’d, whose _Contents_ were allowed by all to be pure _Kernel_: And no more has any _Truth_ been yet discover’d, either in _Physick_ or _Midwifery_, which has not been question’d, and the _Detector_ exclaim’d against as a pedantick _Innovator_: But all that I shall say to these _Things_ is, that, as _Antiquity_ will never protect an _Error_ in Judgment, so _Novelty_ shall never prejudice me against TRUTH, whether of my own or other People’s _Invention_.
UPON the whole, I would in fine recommend my self to the candid _Reader_’s Benevolent and Charitable Opinion, and if in any particular Point or Respect (because we are but MEN) I may not have had the Happiness to please, or to give Satisfaction, Pray impute it not to _Sloth_ or _Idleness_, but to _Peregrination_ and _Travelling_; in which it may be well suppos’d that _Studies_ are too often interrupted. Remember also _that_ of _Pliny_, “_haud ullo in genere veniam Justiorem esse, si modò mirum non est, Hominem Genitum non omnia Humana novisse_.” For as none of us can do all Things, nor is sufficient for All; so it is Natural for _Man_ to fall, to err, and to be deceiv’d: And as we see some _Blemishes_ in the most beautiful _Bodies_, so there is nothing altogether _Perfect_, among the Works of Men.
_From my House, in_ New-Bond-street, _over against_ Benn’s-Coffee-House, _near_ Hannover-Square. 1724.
Chap. 1. _Of God._ Page 1 2. _Of Nature._ 4 3. _Of Man._ 6 4. _Of the Soul._ 8 5. _Of the Faculties of the Soul._ 13 6. _Of the Humane Body._ 16 7. _Of the Formation of the Embryo._ 20 8. _Of the Animation of the Fœtus._ 24 9. _Of the Maturation of the Infant._ 29 10. _Of the Nutrition and Posture of the Infant._ 30 11. _Of the Membranes and Waters._ 32 12. _Of the Secundine or After-Birth._ 33 13. _Of the Umbilical Vessels, or Navel-String._ 34