THISbeing thatCavityin which theWombis placed, and through which theINFANTpasses in time ofBIRTH; it is my Opinion that a distinctKnowledgeof it is highly necessary for allMIDWIVESto accomplish theirPractice: For without thatQualification, they cannot help committing a great manyBlunders, and being guilty of innumerableMistakes; since they must proceed upon grossUncertainties, and use theirHandslikeMENgroping in theDark, as hereafter will more plainly appear.
THISis thatCavitybetwixt theOssa InnominataandOs Sacrum; which join themselves in thePosterior Partof it on each side, byCartilagesandLigaments: so that they, forming there a strong and firmJuncture, compose thisCavityof thePELVIS, which is vulgarly call’d theBasonof theWomb.
THEupper Part of theOssaPubisforms theBordersof thisCavitybefore, and the Hanging forwards or bending down of theOsSacrummakesThoseof itbehind; as theOssa Iliacompose thesameon each side.
THESEOssa Iliaare (bysome) call’d theWingsandBoundsof thePELVIS; but they are mightily mistaken, who imagine that they surround or encompass thePELVIS: For they are only annexed to it oneach side, and more extended towards theBackthan theForepart. As they are also very much in thewrong, who think that theCavityof thePELVISextends in itsLength, according to theLengthof theBack-Bone: since it rises from theBottomobliquely, ascendingForwards, and so proceeds, as if a Person might, through itsPassage, easily touch theNavel.
INfine, it is here Remarkable also, that we do not always find the largestPELVISinWomenof the largestSize, but often the quitecontrary; for it differs as theINFANTdoes inBulk, exactly answering to theBignessof itsHead: And in someWomenit isDeeper, in someLarger, in someBroader, in someFlatter, in some moreOval, and in some at lastRounder. From whence arise sundryObservationsboth useful and necessary, for the betterInformationofMIDWIVES.