removing the child already born, she must
take care to deliver her of the rest, observing all the circumstances as
with the first; after which, it will be necessary to fetch away the
after-birth, or births. But of that I shall treat in another section,
and first show what is to be done to the new-born infant.

SECT. II.--_Of the Cutting of the Child's Navel String._

Though this is accounted by many but as a trifle, yet great care is to
be taken about it, and it shows none of the least art and skill of a
midwife to do it as it should be; and that it may be so done, the
midwife should observe: (1) The time. (2) The place. (3) The manner. (4)
The event.

(1) The time is, as soon as ever the infant comes out of the womb,
whether it brings part of the after-burden with it or not; for
sometimes the child brings into the world a piece of the amnios upon its
head, and is what mid wives call the _caul_, and ignorantly attribute
some extraordinary virtue to the child so born; but this opinion is only
the effect of their ignorance; for when a child is born with such a
crown (as some call it) upon its brows, it generally betokens weakness
and denotes a short life. But to proceed to the matter in hand. As soon
as the child comes into the world, it should be considered whether it is
weak or strong; and if it be weak, let the midwife gently put back part
of the natural and vital blood into the body of the child by its navel;
for that recruits a weak child (the vital and natural spirits being
communicated by the mother to the child by its navel-string), but if the
child be strong, the operation is needless. Only let me advise you, that
many children that are born seemingly dead, may soon be brought to life
again, if you squeeze six or seven drops of blood out of that part of
the navel-string which is cut off, and give it to the child inwardly.

(2) As to the place in which it should be cut, that is, whether it
should be cut long or short, it is that which authors can scarcely agree
in, and which many midwives quarrel about; some prescribing it to be cut
at four fingers' breadth, which is, at best, but an uncertain rule,
unless all fingers were of one size. It is a received opinion, that the
parts adapted to the generation are contracted and dilated according to
the cutting of the navel-string, and this is the reason why midwives are
generally so kind to their own sex, that they leave a longer part of the
navel-string of a male