MOREOVER again, as the Days of the Interval from the 7th to the 14th, have but small Power in dissolving acute Diseases; so neither have the 4th or 5th Months (which assimilate these Days) any Efficacy tending to Birth. Wherefore if an unlucky Ejection of the Foetus happens in these Months, it can be no otherwise judged of, than as when Symptomatical (not Critical) Excretions fall out on Days not Decretory: Hence we (of consequence) may collect, that the very First Time, in which a legitimate Term can be suppos’d to concur effectually, together with the Disposition and Strength of the INFANT, in case of Birth, will be (as Hippocrates has well observed[[141]]) about the 182d Day, or at the half Year’s End: Which (however) he calls a Septimestrian Birth, because the Ancients reckon’d their Year by Lunar Months, as they did their Months by the Course of the Moon; whereof 13 with some Days of the 14th Month constitute the Solar Year: Not that I mean they in the Interim were at all ignorant of the Solar Periods. And however, tho’ this Number of 182 Days make but up six Solar Months; yet, as it comprehends seven Lunar Months, and almost constitutes three Decades of Lunar Weeks, there can be no Repugnancy in that Wise Man’s Meaning, whatever some literal Interpreters may imagine to the contrary.
NOW this sixth Month being the second Solar Mutation, in it the Womb begins to be more severely oppress’d with the Weight and Bulk of its Burthen; for now the INFANT has assum’d Perfection, and (perhaps) got Strength sufficient to undergo its Fatigue in Labour, and Power enough to support Life, after its Birth; especially if procreated of the more vivid, valid, or excellent Seed; whose powerful Faculty and vigorous Quality may perhaps have perform’d the Work of Formation in 30, which otherwise would require 35, or more Days: In this Case (of consequence) the Birth will succeed at the above-mentioned happy Time; as appears more amply from what has been already set forth in Sect. 1. Chap. 9.
NOW from what has been said, I hope it appears highly reasonable to compute the legitimate Time of Birth, not only by Months and Moons, but also by Weeks and Days: Which however yet, I look not upon to be any very full, exact, or sufficient satisfactory Calculation; because (I think) we have also just Reason to compute this Time even by Hours and Minutes. Therefore how just soever Aristotle’s Observation (mentioned by Pliny[[142]]) may be, that no Animal expires but in the Reflux or Ebb of the Sea; I am yet positive, that Monsieur Paschal’s Notion (mentioned by Doctor Mead[[143]]) that all Births as well as Deaths fall out in the Reflux, and that no Animal is born or dies in the Flux, may be rationally controverted: For I must needs assert that, without any regard to his Senarian Fluxes and Refluxes, Births happen at every Hour of the Day or Night: and perhaps more naturally too in the Flux, than in the Reflux of the Sea. And this, I think, may appear evident, even from the self-same Reasons by which he endeavours to make out the Contrary[[144]]; namely, that intermitting Fevers have their greatest Paroxisms in the Time of the Flux, whereas they cease in the Reflux by sweating: collecting from hence, that the Motion, Vigour, and Force of Distempers are chiefly advanc’d in the Senary of the Flux; and on the contrary, that they are dissolved in the Senary of the Reflux. Which Observation, with respect to Fevers, this most excellent Doctor has found experimentally[[145]] True, as a great many others have also done.
BUT in the Case of a Woman in Labour, as (with Submission) I judge the Paroxisms to differ from the Nature of those in a Fever, so I humbly conceive that the Effect must prove the Reverse. For the Paroxisms in Birth, are nothing else than the Pains or Pangs of Labour; and who knows not that (in Case of a natural Situation of the INFANT and the WOMB) the greater These are, the more Success and Expedition attends the Birth? And who again knows not, that in this Case, the more vigorous Motion the INFANT makes, and the more Force and Strength that attends the Pains, the sooner the Delivery is perfected? Which, of consequence, according to his own Opinion, will fall out in the Senary of the Flux? In fine, again I farther observe, that, as the Reflux may be the appointed Time of Nature destinated to Death, so may the Flux be allotted to Birth; which (in my Mind) is as opposite to Death, as the Flux is to the Reflux of the Tide of the Sea.
WHEREFORE I am obliged to repeat it again here, that we ought to calculate the Legitimate Time of Birth, not only by Months, Weeks, and Days, but perhaps also by Hours and Minutes; and that because, according to the Great Galen’s Observation[[146]], as the Year, Month, or Week does not consist of entire Days, so neither does the Day of entire Hours: For as the Year consists of 365 Days, six Hours, and a few Minutes; and the Month of thirty Days, ten and a half Hours; and the Week of seven Days, two Hours, and twenty-seven Minutes; so the Day (in proportion) consists of 24 Hours and 21 Minutes: From whence I conclude (with that wise Man) that we can make no very nice Computation in this Affair, by full Days, without Fractions.
WHEREFORE it is that the most Learned and Inquisitive Boethogynists, or Female Physicians maintain, that they have always observed their Women to bring forth the self-same Hour of the Night or Day, in which they conceived: And This also daily Experience seems to confirm for Truth; because it is certain, that most Births happen in the Night-Time, or Dawning of the Day; at which Times, we may very probably suppose the Generality of Parents to be most employ’d that way: Whereupon, if This be True, Mr. Paschal’s Position will fall of course; and then that Assertion of a Legitimate BIRTH’s requiring, not only a certain and prefinite Number of Days, but also of Hours and Minutes, will more rationally be establish’d in its Room: Notwithstanding that Saying of Hippocrates[[147]] himself, after having distinguished upon the Times of BIRTH, That these Things fall out in a few Days more or less.
HOWEVER, in fine, from what has been said, (I hope) the Reasons I have given here, why one Number of Months, Weeks, and Days is more auspicious to the BIRTH, and more fortunate to the Child, than another, are by this Time made manifestly clear and self-evident. Now these Things being thus briefly accounted for, I must proceed in the next place (with the Reader’s good Leave) to provide for and prepare the Pregnant Woman, against the Expiration of these Months, Weeks, and Days.
CHAP. XXXIX.
Of the DIET and REGIMEN of the Woman, before and about the Time of BIRTH.
THO’ the Woman ought to be cautious of her DIET and REGIMEN during the whole time of Pregnancy, as advis’d in Chap. 3. of this Section; yet she is now oblig’d in the first place (especially from the beginning of the 9th Month) to be much more circumspect; to use nothing but Food of good Nutrition and easy Concoction, of an Aperitive and Laxative Quality, little at a time, but frequently taken.