The Female Physician / Containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, their degrees of danger, and respective methods of prevention and cure: to which is added, the whole art of new improv'd midwifery; comprehending the necessary qualifications of a midwife, and particular directions for laying women, in all cases of difficult and preternatural births; together with the diet and regimen of both the mother and child.

by John Maubray

CHAP. IV.
Of False Conceptions.

HAVING already also particularly defin’d the real or true Conception in Sect. III. Chap. I. I come now in like manner to the Reverse of that Case, properly call’d a false Conception. But that I may, in this Point, be well understood,——

A False Conception, in my Opinion, is nothing else, but a Protuberancy of the Woman’s Belly, attended with some, if not with most, of the Symptoms of the Months of Gestation: which however, is no ways occasion’d by a humane FOETUS, but (on the contrary) either by Water and Winds, or Wind and Water vitiously mixed; which is also pertinently call’d a Dropsy of the Womb: Or then, by a corrupted Viscid, or pituitous Matter collected in the Womb; and that either proceeding from weak and vitious Seed, or from some extraordinary Intemperature of the Womb, which may hinder the Elaboration of the Seed and Blood, and consequently the Accomplishment of the Conception: Or the same may also finally proceed from the Impurity of the Menstrua, which may corrupt the Seed, and convert it to Aqueous, purulent, or other Humours.

THIS false Conception is attended (besides the common Symptoms of a true Conception) with inordinate Fevers, Pains of the Head, Neck, Loins, Groins, Back, and Belly: Which Belly swells sooner than in the Condition of real Conception; and which, if struck with the Hand, gives a Sound like a Drum whence ’tis also call’d a Tympany: The whole Body is hence discoloured; the Feet, and sometimes the Face swells; and only a little (if any) watery Milk is found in the Breasts. THE Cure of the Case depends entirely upon proper Evacuations, peculiar to the Quality of what is to be evacuated. Whence I come to treat of the Conception of Moles.

CHAP. V.
Of Moles.

A MOLE is properly nothing else, than a fleshy Mass (instead of a FOETUS) engender’d, of an imperfect Conception, in the Womb. And is so call’d, because (quasi Lapis Molaris) like a Mill-Stone, its weight infests the Woman.

THERE are two immediate Causes of this Conception of Moles, viz. the Superfluity of Matter, and the infirmity of the forming Faculty. Which, I think, is agreeable to Hippocrates his meaning, saying, that too much Menstruous Blood, or too little, weak, or insufficient Seed, is the only Cause of a Mole[^[203]].

I know, that besides these, there are many other various Causes given by diverse Authors; yea I know that the Mole it self is variously accepted among them: But as I am not to insist upon the quibbling Notions of other Men, so I shall only here observe,——

FIRST, that there is a vast Variety and Difference in the Substance, as well as in the Form of Moles: Secondly, That there is sometimes but one, and sometimes two, three, or more Moles, contain’d in One Womb; and that, sometimes with, and sometimes without the Natural FOETUS as also sometimes separately, and sometimes adhering the One to the Other: THIRDLY, That in this Case, if the FOETUS be not directly kill’d by the Compression of its tender Body, it is at least in Danger of being misshaped, or perhaps monstrously formed, according to the Bulk, Weight, and Solidity of what is contain’d with it in the Womb.