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. XXX.
Of ABORTION.

WOMEN miscarry so frequently, that if any curious Persons will diligently observe and examine that Matter, they will find the Number of Miscarriages to exceed That of timely Births: Wherefore I have reason to think, that this Head deserves to be handled more at large, and to be more particularly insisted upon, in the following manner.

THE Modern Practisers in MIDWIFERY, distinguish Miscarriages, by four different Appellations; according to the four different Times of the Constitution of the CONCEPTION. viz.

A Miscarriage happening in the Time of Spumification, is call’d an Effluxion of the GENITURA: That which happeneth in the Vegetation, or Time of Ramification, or (as some will have it) before the 40th Day, is call’d a Deperdition of the Embryo: That which falls out in the sensitive Progression, or Time of Carnification, or (as others will have it) before the 90th Day from CONCEPTION, they call an Abortion of the Foetus. But what so happens afterwards preceding the 7th Month, is properly call’d an entire Abortion of the Infant.

HOWEVER, Others will have a fifth Distinction made; namely, what so happens in the 7th, 8th, and preceding the 20th Day of the 9th Month, to be call’d an untimely BIRTH; because tho’ born with Life, they alledge it to be very seldom, or never really Vital, or likely to Live: Upon which I shall, in good Time, introduce my own Sentiment in the subsequent Chapters of this Section.

NOTWITHSTANDING, this Definition signifies but little to the Purpose; let the MISCARRIAGE happen when it will, and under whatsoever Name or Denomination, It is nothing else in general, than an untimely Exclusion of an imperfect and immature Birth; which unhappy Accident may proceed from a vast Variety of Causes, stimulating Nature to such a violent Expulsion.

IN treating therefore of this Accidental BIRTH, I shall make use of none of those Distinctions; but rather (to prevent Mistakes) shall call all its several Species, of whatsoever Time, by the general (and most common) Name of ABORTION.

AND of this ABORTION, happen when it will, the proximous Cause is always the Expulsive Faculty of the Womb; which being hurt, or violently disorder’d in any respect, irritates and debilitates the Retentive Power: And then again, on the other hand, this Retentive Faculty (tho’ not the proximous Cause) is sometimes first hurt or injur’d, and by that means incapacitated to retain the INFANT; which (in that Case) offends and provokes the Expulsive Power[^[93]], which is the proper proximous Cause of all ABORTIONS.

BUT most commonly the Expulsive receives the First Hurt; from whence the Retentive is oblig’d to Sympathize, and yield to its over-ruling Motions. And, according to Galen[^[94]], the Expulsive Faculty may be injur’d and irritated by Three different Causes; viz. 1. By the Bulk of the Infant, when the Womb cannot distend itself far enough to contain it: 2. By its Weight, when heavier than the Womb and Ligaments can bear: And, 3. By the Humours (when the Membranes break) flowing into the Womb; occasioning a Mordacious Itching there, or putrefying the Infant in its Place.