cess,
but is more frequently unfortunate in high life than amongst the middle
class of females; which may be owing partly to fear, with which the priests
of LUCINA are liable to inspire the ladies of fashion to induce them to lie
in in town; and partly to the bad air of London, to which they purposely
resort.

There are however other causes, which render parturition more dangerous to
the ladies of high life; such as their greater general debility from
neglect of energetic exercise, their inexperience of the variations of cold
and heat, and their seclusion from fresh air. To which must be added, that
great source of the destruction of female grace and beauty, as well as of
female health, the tight stays, and other bandages, with which they are
generally tortured in their early years by the active folly of their
friends, which by displacing many of the viscera impedes their actions, and
by compressing them together produces adhesions of one part to another, and
affects even the form and aperture of the bones of the pelvis, through
which the nascent child must be protruded.

As parturition is a natural, not a morbid process, no medicine should be
given, where there is no appearance of disease. The absurd custom of giving
a powerful opiate without indication to all women, as soon as they are
delivered, is, I make no doubt, frequently attended with injurious, and
sometimes with fatal consequences. See Class II. 1. 2. 16.

Another thing very injurious to the child, is the tying and cutting the
navel-string too soon; which should always be left till the child has not
only repeatedly breathed, but till all pulsation in the cord ceases. As
otherwise the child is much weaker than it ought to be; a part of the blood
being left in the placenta, which ought to have been in the child; and at
the same time the placenta does not so naturally collapse, and withdraw
itself from the sides of the uterus, and is not therefore removed with so
much safety and certainty. The folly of giving rue or rhubarb to new-born
children, and the danger of feeding them with gruel instead of milk, is
spoken of in Class I. 1. 2. 5. and II. 1. 2. 16.

* * * * *

ORDO I.

_Increased Sensation._

GENUS II.

_With the Production of new Vessels by internal Membranes or Glands, with
Fever._

In the first class of diseases two kinds of fevers were described, one from
excess, and the other from defect of irritation; and wer