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2. PARTIALLY SUSPENDED.

Parturient women endeavor to assume this position of partial suspension in various ways. Some hang to the neck

of a husband or friend, others swing themselves by a rope from the branch of a tree, while some are tied up until the act is over, as if undergoing punishment. The squaws of the Brulé Sioux, the largest branch of the great Sioux Nation, are confined in the midst of a crowd of indifferently solicitous relatives and friends, one or more matrons always being present as midwives. In the first stage of labor, that is, prior to the expulsion of the liquor amnii, the squaw sits or lies upon the ground groaning vociferously; during the expulsion of the fetus, her posture is erect or nearly so, with her arms about the neck of a stout male supporter, and I am informed upon credible authority that the young bachelor bucks are most frequently chosen for this service.

The women of the Iroquois in Canada, are all

confined standing, generally leaning on a friend's shoulder, whilst the child is taken by the midwife behind the patient. The position is probably the same as described among the Sioux.

In Japan this position is resorted to in the attempt to correct malpositions in the earlier months of pregnancy. The Japanese medical man makes the patient stand up and put her arms around his neck; he then presses his shoulder against her breast, and his knees between hers in such a manner that she is firmly supported, and, while in this position he manipulates, performing lateral massage with his hands, beginning with the seventh cervical vertebra and bringing them downward and forward, snapping his

fingers to distract the attention of the woman. Finally, he rubs the nates and hips with the palms of the hands forwards, beginning at the sacrum, and repeating the movement sixty or seventy times. This process is repeated every morning after the fifth month.[13]

The "New York Medical Record'' adds, that the accoucheurs are, in Japan, as a rule, advanced in age. If this custom is found in our own country it certainly comes to us from some of the inland countries of Europe. Thus, Spence, in his "System of Midwifery,''[14] says that the position which is very frequently practiced in the northern portion of Scotland, is that of hanging about the neck of a person as tall, or, if possible, taller than herself, who gently supports the patient's back, and with her knees fixes the knees of the woman in labor. In Italy it was Savonarola, who died in Padua in 1460, who taught that in difficult labors the parturient woman should either hang to the neck of a stout person or assume the knee-elbow position.[15]

The practice in some Mexican families[16] is to keep the woman in an upright position, with the knees and thighs slightly flexed, the feet wide apart, while she supports herself by two ropes suspended from above. He adds that massage is very freely resorted to, but no binder is at any time used.

We find precisely the same position in Africa among several native tribes. Thus, the Somali women assume an erect posture, partially suspended by a rope during the expulsion of the child, which is received by a family attendant or midwife.[17] So, also, we find that the women of Dar Fur, on the Nile, are delivered standing, with the legs separated,[18] holding on to a rope.

A somewhat more barbarous custom is that followed by some of our North American Indians, and by the inhabitants of Ceram, an island north of Australia, namely: they tie the patient to a post or tree, with the hands above the head. The Coyoteros are in the habit of tying their women, in labor, to a tree, with the hands above the head,

and leave them in this position until the child is born. This cruelty does not appear to affect them in any perceptible manner, and they recover from it in a much shorter time, and resume their avocations sooner, than the most robust white women.[19] The natives of Ceram hastily construct a rude hut of leaves and brush for the parturient woman, and an old hag, who assists as midwife, ties the patient, with her arms as high as possible, to a tree, so that the balls of the feet barely touch the ground, whilst she herself takes a more comfortable position before the parturient and receives the child in a large leaf, a mat, or an old piece of cloth. Labor over, the young mother washes herself, or takes a bath, and immediately returns to her village and to work.[20]