ADDRESS

To the

R E A D E R.

Discerning Reader,

A large, ornate woodcut initial 'D' features floral patterns and foliage scrolls.

Whoever observes worldly matters with but a little attention will easily find that most sciences and arts, when they first appear, often provoke astonishment and are sometimes subject to contradiction. There are many examples of this. Yet, to avoid bringing proof from afar, we shall only cite the example of the Circulatio circulation of the blood, now accepted and acknowledged by so many, even though it was despised and mockingly rejected at the beginning. And who does not know how vehemently, only a few years ago, that useful operation of the Apparatus Major major apparatus, or the cutting for the Stone upon the staff a surgical procedure to remove bladder stones using a metal guide, was opposed, particularly by those who practiced the Apparatus Minor minor apparatus, or cutting upon the finger,

and had neither knowledge nor skill in the other. This, notwithstanding that in France and other regions the aforementioned Apparatus Major had already been in use for over a hundred years, and is currently practiced here in this country by many, to the benefit of many people. This is also the Operation surgical procedure that has been subject to such treatment in the treatise at hand. For although it has been practiced for many years in France and England, and also in other regions, to the great benefit of the human race, it still could not escape being subjected to much discussion when it was first undertaken here among us. This has moved us to translate this book from French into our mother tongue, as it contains not only the method of assisting a woman in both natural and unnatural births, but also a good number of observations, through which the matters are powerfully confirmed and the methods of procedure clearly demonstrated, in order to show the whole world that it is not a loose and reckless undertaking, but that it rests upon reason, practice, and daily experience.

It is not unknown to us that this work shall (as usually happens) be subject to many opinions