The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman/Volume 3/Chapter 17
CHAP. XVII.
—And pray, good woman, after all, will you take upon you to say, it may not be the child's hip, as well as the child's head?—'Tis most certainly the head, replied the midwife. Because, continued Dr. Slop, (turning to my father) as positive as these old ladies generally are,—'tis a point very difficult to know,—and yet of the greatest consequence to be known;—because, Sir, if the hip is mistaken for the head,—there is a possibility (if it is a boy) that the forceps ***************************.
—What the possibility was, Dr. Slop whispered very low to my father, and then to my uncle Toby.—There is no such danger, continued he, with the head.—No, in truth, quoth my father,—but when your possibility has taken place at the hip,—you may as well take off the head too.
—It is morally impossible the reader should understand this,—'tis enough Dr. Slop understood it;—so taking the green bays bag in his hand, with the help of Obadiad's pumps, he tripp'd pretty nimbly, for a man of his size, across the room to the door,—and from the door was shewn the way, by the good old mid-wife, to my mother's apartment.