Q. Why do children born in the eighth month for the most part die quickly; and why are they called the children of the moon? A. Because the moon is a cold planet, which has dominion over the child, and therefore doth bind it with its coldness, which is the cause of its death.
Q. Why doth a child cry as soon as it is born? Because of the sudden change from heat to cold; which cold doth affect its tenderness. Another reason is, because the child’s soft and tender body is wringed and put together coming out of the narrow and strait passage of the matrix; and especially, the brain being moist, and the head being pressed and wrinkled together, is the cause that some humours distil by the eyes, which are the cause of tears and weeping.
Q. Why doth the child put its fingers into its mouth as soon as it cometh into the world? A. Because that coming out of the womb it cometh out of a hot bath, and entering into the cold, puts its fingers into its mouth for want of heat.
Of the Child in the Womb.
Q. How is the child engendered in the womb? A. The first six days the seed hath the colour of milk; but in the six following a red colour, which is near unto the disposition of flesh; and then it is changed into a thick substance of blood. But in the twelve days following, this substance becomes so thick and round, that it is capable of receiving shape and form.
Q. Doth the child in the womb void excrements or make water? A. No; because it hath not the first digestion which is in the stomach. It receives no food by the mouth, but by the navel; therefore, makes no urine, but sweats, which is but little, and is received in a skin in the matrix, which at the birth is cast out.
Of Abortion and Untimely Birth.
Q. Why do women that eat unwholesome meats easily miscarry? A. Because they breed putrefied seed, which, the mind abhorring, doth cast it out of the womb, as unfit for the most noble shape which is adapted to receive the soul.
Q. Why doth wrestling and leaping cause the casting of the child, as some subtle women do on purpose? A. The vapour is burning, and doth easily hurt the tender substance of the child, entering at the pores of the matrix.
Q. Why doth much joy cause a woman to miscarry? A. Because in a time of joy woman is destitute of heat, and so miscarriage doth follow.