Note 3 — LETTER II.

I would by no means be understood to insinuate the most distant reflection on Dr. Hunter’s management. I have not the smallest idea that any of those deaths were in consequence of the least fault in his execution of his business. I only mentioned them to shew that misfortunes may happen with the most able Man-midwife; and therefore that it is cruel to name one or two accidents as proof of a woman’s being unsafe, since they will happen to the first man in the whole world. I look on Dr. Hunter as a most skilful anatomist; able physician; experienced, tender, patient Man-midwife. If it was left to me to call any man to the labour of a woman in imminent danger, and whose life was linked in mine, Dr. Hunter is the man I would send for without a moment’s hesitation, his skill, but, above all, his experience, age, and infirmities, render him the only man proper to be allowed to take liberties with married women. Yet any woman of experience, in my opinion, is infinitely safer than even Dr. Hunter, except in very extraordinary cases.