CHAP. XXVI.
Of FISSURES or CHOPS of the BELLY.
THIS Symptom only happens to Women bearing their first or second CHILD; whole lower BELLIES have not yet been sufficiently extended by frequent CONCEPTION.
THE Cause proceeds only from the natural Lenitude and Constriction of the Skin of the ABDOMEN or lower Belly; which (in proportion to the Growth of the INFANT) must dilate and distend itself: So far as that towards the latter Months, it gives way to such a large degree, that it appears not otherways than as if the SKIN was to be divided, and almost crack or break by its thin Attenuation.
HOWEVER it occasions also very often great Pain, as well as a permanent wrinkled Deformity of that Part. Wherefore Laxative Liniments, and proper Unguents, are pertinently to be made use of by way of Precaution, from the fourth Month, until the Time of Delivery.
CHAP. XXVII.
Of WATER-FLUXES.
THE Water which is gather’d in the Time of GESTATION, between the Membranes involving the INFANT, is at last upon the approaching BIRTH effus’d: For the CHILD having broke the Amnion, feels these WATERS troublesome, and consequently obliges the Chorion also to give way. From whence proceeds naturally a copious Effusion of the same Waters.
BUT of this natural Flooding, I am not properly to treat in this Place; only of that preposterous Flux, which happens before the due time of BIRTH, the immediate Cause of which proceeds from some Procatarctick Accident: Such as a Perturbation of Mind, an unlucky Fall, a Leap, a Stroke, or any other Violence.
THIS Symptom happens Two ways, either by a Disruption, or Dilatation of the MEMBRANES: the first by external, the other commonly by internal Causes. In the first Case, the Flux comes suddenly, irregularly, and in a great Quantity; in the second, by little and little, or by degrees, and less in Quantity.
THE first Case is most dangerous, being the infallible PROGNOSTICK of instant Abortion, if not timely and judiciously prevented. The second Case is of the following bad Consequence, that this Water, which has hitherto defended the Infant from the Rigidity of the circumjacent Parts, being at last (how leisurely soever) exhausted and spent; the Child is soon sensible of its Loss, and finding its wonted Seat become uneasy, it thereupon being restless or discontented, endeavours to move and seek for a Better: By which means (if Abortion does not presently ensue) it falls into a preternatural Situation, which (of course) occasions a preternatural BIRTH. But abstracting from This, the bare Deficiency of the Waters, for moistening the Passages in time of LABOUR, is enough to effect the same Unhappiness.