AS an _Illegitimate BIRTH_ also respects _TIME_, so _That_ is only to be call’d so, which happens _before_ or _after_ the _TIME_ instituted by the _Law_ of _Nature_. Hence all unhappy _ABORTIONS_ belong to this _Head_; which being largely handled (apart) in the _Chapter_ just aforegoing, I shall only here cursorily touch upon _That_, which (in a distinct sense) is accounted an _Illegitimate BIRTH_. THAT I may the better define _This Sort_ of _BIRTH_, I shall _first_ observe, that _Nature_ has instituted Nothing _rashly_, nor in _vain_, neither does it ever act by CHANCE. _She_ having then limited a certain TIME (however at large) within which all _Legitimate BIRTHS_ happen, and all _vital Children_ are born; of consequence, whatever happens _before_ or _after_ that _Time_, is an _Illegitimate BIRTH_, and seldom or never produces a _Living_ or _Lively_ CHILD. HOWEVER, _Vallesius_[113], _Cardanus_[114], and some _Others_ relate divers strange Precedents, and affirm that they have known and seen _Children_ born in the _fifth_ and _sixth Months_, which have liv’d to the Years of Discretion; It is notwithstanding my Opinion, that _Those great Men_ giving ear to the frivolous _Relations_ and idle _Reports_ of _simple Women_, have suffer’d their _Credulity_ to impose so far upon their better _Judgments_. And I am besides the more induc’d to think so, because since _Their days_, we have not heard of any _one Example_ of this wonderful _Kind_, which deserv’d the least _Notice_ or _Credit_. BUT there are _Others_ again; who (in a manner) ridiculing these _Instances_, fall into grosser _Absurditys_ themselves; denying the LEGITIMACY of a _seven_ or _eight-Months BIRTH_; yea, _Some_ even of a _Ten Months_, after the _Tenth Day_, as well as of all _posteriour BIRTHS_. Upon which erroneous _Mistakes_, (if it may be without Offence permitted) I would freely offer my _simple Judgment_, in manner following: and thereupon, _First_, [Illustration] CHAP. XXXIII. _Of a Seven-Months BIRTH._ TO prove the LEGITIMACY of this _BIRTH_, and the _Possibility_ of this _Month_’s producing a _vital Child_, I need not confine myself to the _Judgments_ of the most Wise and Divine _Hippocrates_, _Galen_, and _others_, nor to the _Principles_ of PHYSICK in particular: but may justly appeal to All the rest of the _Liberal Arts_ and _Sciences_, which (as far as I am duly acquainted with them) generally agree in _Defence_ of This Position.