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 the SYMPTOMS of the first three Months.

THE Prolifick Seed being duly coagulated by a gentle Ebullition of its own vegetative Faculty, by the Power of the Plastick Virtue of the vital Spirits, and by the peculiar innate Quality of the Matrix; this inlivened Substance produceth an Organical Body, of a perfectly form’d, and delineated Foetus: Which Foetus, according to the various Steps of its Progression in Formation, Animation, and Maturation, occasions as many various and different Effects upon the Bearing Woman; as necessary Consequences of the said three principal Acts of the Infant’s Constitution.

NOW these consequential Effects may be properly divided into Three Classes; which are accordingly call’d Symptoms of the First, Second, or Middle; and of the last Three Months.

BUT it is to be observ’d by the Way, that all Women are not alike subjected to them; Some being more troubled with Those of the First; Others also with Those of the Second; and Others again with the Symptoms of the last Three Months. But there are some Women, in fine, that continue to be troubled, in the Middle Months, with the Symptoms of the First; and in the Latter, with some of Those of the Second: All which happens according to their various Regimens, Dispositions and Habits of Body.

HOWEVER, to proceed methodically, with all Submission, according to what competent Knowledge and Experience I have of the Conceiv’d Woman; the Symptoms most common to Her, in the First Three Months, may be briefly reduced to the following principal Eight in Number; namely, (1.) Vomiting or Nauseating. (2.) Fastidy or Loathing. (3.) Pica or Longing. (4.) Painful Cholicks or Gripes. (5.) Diarrhea or Looseness. (6.) Tooth-Aches. (7.) Head-Aches. And, (8.) Swimmings of the Head. Of all which, I shall now separately treat in their Order.

CHAP. V.
Of VOMITING, or NAUSEATING.

VOMITING is a strong and sudden Contraction of the whole Stomach, occasion’d by the Animal Spirit’s being preternaturally expanded in its orbicular as well as oblong Fibres, and the too quick and violent Exertion of their Elastick Power: Or otherwise, it is a Convulsive Motion of the Stomach, whereby, when the Fibres, which compose its middle or muscular Tunick, are all at once strongly contracted, it endeavours to eject through the Oesophagus and Mouth the Contents of its Cavity; to which the Gullet itself (being of a piece with the Stomach) and the Muscles of the Belly contribute not a little.

WHICH Definition comprehends the immediate Cause of all Vomitings; and tho’ there be many external and internal mediate Causes, yet, I think, in the present Case of the pregnant Woman, the Cause of this Symptom proceeds chiefly from the Vapours of the exhaled Humours, and the worse Part of the Blood; infesting the Tunicks of the Orifice of the Ventricle, and flying into the Cavity of the Stomach.