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

“Ad Lunæ motum variant Animalia Corpus.

THESE Things then being evidently so, and it being a most certain and undeniable Truth, that the Sun and Moon have each their respective Influence upon all Inferiour Bodys: (as has also been already shewn in Sect. I. Chap. 8.) I come now to observe that such Mutations as are Quick and Brief, or such Changes as are accomplished in a Few Days, may be entirely ascribed to the Power of the Moon: As in the Reverse of these Cases, which cannot be determin’d under a Long Time; the Course of the Sun is more chiefly to be consider’d and principally regarded.

SO Acute Fevers (because SHORT) are generally assuaged and dissolved in 14 Days: Whereas Quartans (because LONG) on the contrary are only determin’d in six Months. It’s true indeed, the Antients ascribed these Laws of Nature, to Pythagorean Numbers, and distinguish’d the Times of Fevers according to their Critical Days, which they strictly animadverted, as they laid great Stress upon that Ceremonious Observation.

HOWEVER, Galen made a far stricter Disquisition in this Matter, and conceiv’d (as the Truth indeed is) that the Accessions and Crises of Fevers had no Connexion with any NUMBERS or odd Days, but took Origin only from the Efficacy of the Moon: (as is more fully explain’d in Chap. 28. of this Section.) According to which MAXIM[^[138]], Acute Distempers have their Circulations in Seven Days, and take their Accesses and Declinations from the Course of the Moon; which every Seventh Day, when New, Half-Full, or Full, has her greatest Influence.

HE farther observes that the Quarter-Day of the Moon may fall upon the 6th or 8th Day of the Distemper, and consequently either of these Days may determine it as well as the SEVENTH. For (according to Dr. Mead’s excellent Judgment) the Dissolution of a Fever sometimes happens To-day, which according to the ordinary Course of the Distemper ought to happen To-morrow; or, on the contrary, the same may be procrastinated till To-morrow, which might be expected To-day: And That for the various Reasons[^[139]] most ingeniously by him alledg’d and irrefragably established.

IN fine, such Mutations and Circulations of Things as are perfected and perform’d in a few Days, are directed by the Property of the Moon: whereas such Changes and Alterations as require the Dissolution and Determination of Months, refer only to the Government of the Sun. Which I would have thus candidly understood, viz.

AS from the beginning of the Month to the Full-Moon are almost 14 Days, which accomplish half the Lunar Circuit, and comprehend two Quarter-Changes; so from the Beginning of Spring to the End of Summer are six Months, which comprehend two Seasons or half of the Year: And so that Mediety or Half of the Month, from FULL-MOON, to the Time of Occultation or NEW-MOON, answers to the other six Months, from the beginning of Autumn to the last of Winter, which conclude the other Half of the Year.

FOR as we divide the Course of the MOON by 4 Weeks, according to its 4 quarter Changes; so we distribute the Course of the SUN into 4 Stations, according to the four Seasons of the Year: Hence it is that all Times of the Year answer in proportion to the different Weeks of the Month, and all Stations of the SUN (in like manner) to the different Changes of the MOON. Wherefore as the 7th Day, which is the 4th Part of the Lunar Month, determines acute Distempers; so the Change of the Season of the Year dissolves Diuturnal Diseases. The SPRING commonly shakes off any Malady generated in WINTER, as the SUMMER does what is begun in the SPRING; and the AUTUMN discusseth any Affection excited in SUMMER, as the WINTER does what happen’d in AUTUMN.

THESE Things being thus cleared-up by the way, we have now only to consider, that the Time of GESTATION is no Acute, but a Diuturnal Effect; and that Birth is nothing else but the Crisis of the same Affection, according to[^[140]]Hippocrates’s Sense. Which, if so, it is evidently manifest that, in defining the Time of Birth, we ought chiefly to regard the Course of the SUN, and strictly observe the Number of MONTHS; However so, as not to neglect the Motions of the MOON, and consequently, we ought also to consider duly the neat Number of DAYS: Wherefore (I say) in Birth we are to have a just Regard to, and take a strict Observation of, not only the Changes of the MOON, but also of the Mutations of the SUN; because both the One and the Other act very powerfully in BIRTH. Which I thus beg leave to illustrate as follows, viz.

AS the first seven Days have the greatest Power of determining Acute Diseases, so the first three Months of GESTATION (which answer to those Days) determine the CONCEPTION: And as of those the 7th Day is the most powerful, so of these the third Month is the most prevalent. From hence it is that the Foetus suffers such manifest Alterations and Changes of Nature in this Month: For it is now metamorphos’d or chang’d from an Inanimate into an Animate Being: It now becomes a Living and Moving Body, subsisting henceforward by its own proper vivacious Faculties; yet not so however, that this Month can be presum’d to produce a vital Birth: No, because as every perfect and plausible CRISIS of the 7th Day, requires the Concurrence of the digested Humour, together with the Ability and Strength of the PATIENT; so in Birth, the Disposition of the INFANT must necessarily concur with all These, which it can never be suppos’d to do in the short Space of Three Months.