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

THIS Number seems likewise to be of the greatest Esteem in Religion; and from hence among the Hebrews, to swear, is call’d SEPTENARE[^[117]], (that is, to protest by Seven:) So Abraham making the Covenant with Abimelech, appointed Seven Ewe-Lambs for a Testimony: The Seventh Day the Great CREATOR rested from his Work: Jacob served Seven Years: Seven Days the People bewail’d the Death of Jacob: Elisha (the Prophet) said unto Naaman (the Syrian Captain) Go and wash thy self Seven Times in Jordan, and thou shalt be made whole, and thy Flesh become clean: And, in fine, David said, Seven Times a day do I praise THEE, because of thy righteous Judgments.

THESE, and innumerable such like Sentences are not only couch’d in the Books of Moses, and the whole Volume of the Old Testament; but also expresly contain’d in the Gospel, and interspers’d through the whole Bulk of the New: As the Seven Beatitudes, the Seven Virtues, the Seven Vices, the Seven Petitions of the LORD’s PRAYER, the Seven Words of our SAVIOUR upon the Cross, &c. But besides, in the Apocalypse or Revelation of St. JOHN, this mysterious NUMBER is most frequently mention’d, to denote its Efficacy and Excellency of representing some Ænigmatical Truth or Emblem.

MOREOVER, the Divine Apostle signifies and sets forth there, the Persecution of the CHURCH (under the Tyrants, Domitian, Trajan, &c. which began in the Primitive CHURCH in his own Days, and continued for three hundred Years, even to the Reign of Constantine the Great) by the Allegory of[^[118]]SEVEN SEALS. He figures out the Heresys of the ARIANS, &c. (from the Time of Constantine to the Reign of Theodosius, being three hundred Years more) by that of[^[119]]SEVEN TRUMPETS. And, in fine, he mystically alludes to the future Plagues of ANTI-CHRIST (from the Time of Pope Bonifacius, to these our present Days) by[^[120]]SEVEN VIALS, according to the Interpretation of that most Learned Divine, Peter Palladius Bishop of Rochel.

I say, with Submission to wiser Heads, that These and the whole Train of those Sacred Allegorical Allusions used in this Book, might have been as pertinently express’d by any other Number, as the SEPTENARY; were it not that, this Number better implies a certain FULNESS of Sacred Mysterys: As I think that Number likewise (in all rational probability) may properly portend here, PERFECTION in Maturity, and COMPLETION in Vitality to every Full Seven-Months Child.

CHAP. XXXIV.
Of an Eight-Months BIRTH.

AS to this Point, the Case indeed differs much in my Judgment from the Former: For tho’ I have heard some loquacious Women strenuously aver the contrary, because of their own rash Mistakes; yet I cannot help being of the same Opinion still, that this Month seldom or never produces a living, or lively Child: And that because, if the Infant hath Strength enough, it must needs appear about the Close of the Seventh Month; but if not, the Attempts are the same, according to its greater or less Abilitys; (as most Mothers may very sensibly observe in their own Conditions, by its extraordinary Motions and Struggles at that Time) whereby it is so weaken’d and debilitated, that it requires the Eighth full Month, and Part of the Ninth, to recover itself, and recollect its exhausted Strength and Vigour.

ANOTHER Natural Reason besides may be given for This; because that this Month is peculiar to the Planet Saturn, which is an Enemy to all Creatures that breath Life: For he now returns not with the same Meekness and Lenity of Influence that he used in the First Month of the CONCEPTION, but with a far greater Severity of Tyranny and Enmity; as by his Frigidity, lessening and extinguishing the Native Heat of the INFANT, rendering it Unactive and Slow to Motion; so by his Siccity, constringing the Passages and Orifice of the Womb: which, if so, must (of necessity) very much endanger both the MOTHER and the INFANT.

BE this as it will, yet it is most certain, that the Child born in this Month is always very Weak and Sickly; However if, by chance, it survives the 14th, it may live till about the 40th Day, when it most commonly breathes its Last: Yet if it also survives this Time, the greatest Danger being then over, it may, by the means of tender Care and Art, be brought up as others are usually reared: But how long-liv’d soever, or well-governed its Health may be, it will still continue of a weakly and tender Constitution of Body, if not also half-witted[^[121]] in Mind.

UPON this Head some Egyptian Writers mention, that because Dionysius, who was born in the EIGHTH MONTH, lived in the Island of NAXOS; therefore both this Number and the Island were dedicated to his everlasting Memory; Whereupon, they say, he obtained the Prerogative and Privilege from the GODS, that the Women of NAXOS only, in this MONTH, should bring forth in Safety, and their CHILDREN only enjoy Vitality.