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

I. THE natural Cause may depend upon the Seed: Because as there is among Grain several sorts, some of which fructify and ripen in Three, some in Four Months, and others which require much longer Time; so it may be also in human Seed, that it may differ as much in its Kind. Which Truth is very evident from what has been frequently observed, that Women bring forth the Children of different Fathers, at different Times; whereof I shall only mention the remarkable Instance of Vestilia[^[149]]: who was thus deliver’d of Three Children to her Three several Husbands, Herditius, Pomponius, and Orsitus, all noble Citizens of Rome: viz. Of the one in the 7th, of the other in the 11th, and of the last at the Expiration of 8 Months.

II. THE natural Cause may also depend upon the FORMING FACULTY; so far, as the Formation and Perfection of the FOETUS depend upon its Strength or Debility: For as it may be evidently observ’d after the BIRTH, that some Children grow a-pace and very suddenly; others (because of a sickly Constitution) thrive but very little, and grow slowly; so it happens also with the FOETUS in the Womb: for the stronger that this Faculty is, the sooner Formation is perfected, and consequently the sooner the BIRTH follows successfully.

III. THE Natural Cause again may depend upon the Temperature of the Womb: Because that the Woman (being the only one of all Creatures which tolerates Copulation during the time of Pregnancy) may be, by its frequent or immoderate Use, disorder’d in that noble Part; which may infallibly confound and pervert the regular Time. For as the Buds of Vines cherish’d in the Bosom of the Earth, may be easily cut or dissipated by the Plough; so as at least to alter the Time of Fructification, if not quite to destroy Them: So it is not very unlikely with the Infant in the Womb; and therefore wise Nature (sollicitous of Propagation and Preservation of the Human Foetus) will not allow that a Woman should have one precise Time of BIRTH.

IV. THE Natural Cause may also depend upon the Constitution of the Mother, so far as her Habits of Body, and Way of Living, are conducive (or not) to the Maturation, Perfection, Strength, or Debility of the INFANT.

V. AND finally, the Cause may depend upon a superiour Influence, in so far that, as we see with our Eyes, such Grain as is sowed, and such Plants or Trees as are planted in the Interlunium, or silent Moon, and before Full-Moon, to fructify and ripen sooner than others: Or, as we see and perceive our very Nails and Hair which are cut in that Time, to grow faster and sooner, than what is so cut after the Full-Moon: So we may as easily comprehend by our Reason, that these Times may have the same Natural Effect in the[^[150]]Human Seed. And as then the Parts are more Succulent, and the Generative Virtue more excitated, not only in the Human Seed, but also in all other Seeds and Roots, what wonder is it, that the Womb be also more efficacious and prestant at the same Conjuncture?

This I take to have been Pliny’s[^[151]] Meaning, saying none are born in the 7th Month, but they who have been conceiv’d in the very Change of the Moon, or within a Day of it, under or over. Hence I may justly observe, that all slower Births have been begotten at opposite Times; for which, I think, I have also sufficient Authority from[^[152]]HIPPOCRATES himself, saying, when a Woman conceives after Full-Moon, that Conception must, of Necessity, reach the 11th Month.

HAVING thus far (according to the Best of my Judgment) dilucidated these Cases, and having hitherto conducted the Woman with Child, and brought her safe this Length, thro’ all the Difficulties she has been expos’d to, and the many Hardships she has met with in her Gestation or Bearing-Time, to the compleat Number of her MONTHS, or precise Time of her LABOUR: It remains now, that I should also direct her Safety upon that emergent Occasion; since if we should now lose our good and fruitful Woman at last, all our previous Pains and Care have been Labour in vain, and nothing but Frustration. But, because the Work of DELIVERY, does not always depend upon the Woman herself, and but seldom in these Countries, upon the Physician; before I commit her to the Hands of the rude or unskilful, (whether MAN or WOMAN-MIDWIFE) I shall in the next Place, (with all due Deference to my SUPERIOURS, especially the eminent Professors of Physick, and Practisers of Midwifery in the City of LONDON) endeavour to instruct such Persons in the Fundamentals of their ART, and to qualify them with the necessary Knowledge, and indispensible Duty of their BUSINESS.

IN fine, I shall attempt now to perform This Undertaking in the plainest and most succinct Terms following.