Rare. ESTC records eight locations in the UK but only Huntington, US National Library of Medicine, Kansas School of Medicine and Yale in the USA. Aside from the present copy the last recorded on Rare Book Hub was over forty year ago. Advertised as “published this day…beautifully printed in a pocket Volume” 9th September 1736 (see Grub Street Journal)
A detailed practical midwifery manual specifically aimed at women and presented as a dialogue between a surgeon and a “Female young Practitioner.”
Thomas Dawkes a surgeon in London and Cambridge admits in his preface that his work is based on that of Hendrik van Deventer (1651-1724) whose own work on the subject was published in London in translation as The art of midwifery improv’d (1716) but emphasises that his book is intended for the practical use of women supporting a mother during birth and as such he has not “swell’d my pages” with unnecessary anatomical detail or “with an Account of Labours too difficult for any Woman to undertake.” (xxxi)
Dawkes takes particular exception to the quality of women assisting mother’s in birth in the countryside: “..I must observe to you farther, that I think our British Ladies, who reside in each Parish (in the Country especially) do not manage well, in giving any Encouragement at all to the stupid and illiterate sort of People, who take upon them, in the most despicable Capacity, to practice this Art…” (p.7-8)
The manual continues by providing - in dialogue form - a step-by-step guide through the process of birth with much reference to Dawkes own practical experience helping women in labour and his reading on the subject. There is also information on the signs of miscarriage and delivering the afterbirth.
