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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.Maubray, John

Science

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.

Name: 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.
Author: Maubray, John

Maubray, John

Midwifery -- Early works to 1800; Obstetrics -- Early works to 1800

IT is (however) certain, that the CHILD born _before_ the _Twentieth
Day_ of this _Month_ is commonly _weak_ and _infirm_. And for that
Reason the _later_ the _BIRTH_ happens in the _Month_, the more _brisk_
and _lively_ is the CHILD: As I have more than once observ’d, that the
_Latter Part_ (about the _210th_ _Day_ from _CONCEPTION_) hath produced
as sprightly vivacious _Children_ as any at All. Wherefore, in short, I
cannot help having full as good an Opinion of such a CHILD born about
the _last_ of the _SEVENTH_, as of any such born in the beginning of the
_Ninth Month_, provided it be not expell’d by some _preternatural
Cause_.

TO examine this nice Matter a little more clearly, let us inspect into
the _Nature_ and _Quality_ of the Month: In order to which, I hope, we
may rationally observe,

I. THAT (according to the best _Astrologers_) the latter of the PLANETS,
(the _Moon_) influentially presides over the INFANT in this _Month_;
whose frigid and humid _Qualitys_ are thought to afford the several
_Parts_ of it a certain _Fatness_, thereby relaxing and easily
distending the MATRIX: Which being done, and the CHILD now perfected by
the whole Body of the PLANETS, that have _All_ particularly (in their
order) duly discharg’d their respective _Functions_ towards its
Perfection; provided it has a Competency of _Strength_ and _Vigour_, it
forwardly appears about the Close of this _Month_ with great _Ease_ and
_Facility_, and may continue both _Healthy_ and _Lively_ after its
_Birth_.

II. THIS is universally acknowledged to be a _perfect_ and _compleat_
NUMBER; from whence _Cicero_ calls it _NODUS OMNIUM_, or the _Knot of
all Things_. As the Wise _Pythagoreans_ justly term it otherwise the
_Vehicle of Man’s Life_: Not only because that, according to the
_Violence_ of any DISEASE, and the _Strength_ of the PATIENT, a _CRISIS_
happens either in the _Seventh_, or the _multiply’d Seventh Day_; but
also because, as CONCEPTION is certain upon _Seven-Hours Retention_; and
the Work of _Coagulation_ perfected in _Seven Days_, so may That of full
_Maturity_ be in _Seven Months_, and accordingly this _MONTH_ may very
reasonably produce _vital Children_. But by the way,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.