Excerpt from The Matron's Manual of Midwifery: And the Diseases of Women During Pregnancy and in Childbed A short time ago I published a popular treatise on The Disease of Woman, in the non pregnant state, and in that work I announced my intention of shortly publishing a similar one on Pregnancy and its diseases. This book is the fulfilment of that promise. Being the first popular, and yet strictly scientific and practical book on Midwifery ever published, its preparation has necessarily been a work of great labour and difficulty. Everything had to be simplified; familiar explanations had to be given of complicated processes, and illustrations had to be designed that could be understood by my readers. Little or no assistance could be obtained from other works on the subject, because they were either designed for professional men; and therefore too technical, or else were too general in their explanations, and too unsystematical, to be of any practical use. I therefore had to write every part afresh myself, and plan a new arrangement; and so difficult was this to do, satisfactorily, that I have twice before completed the whole work, and then commenced at the beginning again, before I was satisfied with my own production. As it now stands, I trust this treatise answers the purposes for which it was intended. I have taken care to make it so complete, and scientific, that a medical student may take it for his text book; and at the same time I have endeavoured to so simplify it that any female, of ordinary capacity, can fully understand both its explanations and practical directions. All purely technical words have been avoided, or, when absolutely necessary, they have been carefully explained. Every topic connected with the main subjects has been discussed, and the latest information given on every point, and from every source. Such a work as this has long been needed. Females have been kept in shameful ignorance, of everything connected with their own systems, and of the wonderful phenomena in which they play so important a part. That ignorance has led to untold evils, which can never be corrected till they become more enlightened respecting themselves. Fortunately many of them begin to see this, and they request, in behalf of themselves and their sisters, that such knowledge be no longer withheld. I have been now, for a long time, engaged in this pleasing task of female instruction, both by my Lectures and books, and in my daily communion with them as patients; I am therefore aware both of their great lack of proper information, and of their strong desire for it, and I flatter myself I also know, from experience and careful observation, the best mode of imparting it to them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.