BE this as it will, yet it is most certain, that the CHILD born in this MONTH is always very _Weak_ and _Sickly_; However if, by chance, it survives the _14th_, it may live till about the _40th Day_, when it most commonly _breathes its Last_: Yet if it also survives this _Time_, the greatest _Danger_ being then over, it may, by the means of tender CARE and ART, be brought up as _others_ are usually reared: But how _long-liv’d_ soever, or well-governed its _Health_ may be, it will still continue of a _weakly_ and _tender Constitution_ of Body, if not also half-witted[121] in Mind. UPON this _Head_ some _Egyptian Writers_ mention, that because _Dionysius_, who was born in the _EIGHTH MONTH_, lived in the _Island_ of _NAXOS_; therefore both this _Number_ and the _Island_ were dedicated to his everlasting _Memory_; Whereupon, they say, he obtained the _Prerogative_ and _Privilege_ from the _GODS_, that the _Women_ of _NAXOS_ only, in this _MONTH_, should bring forth in _Safety_, and their _CHILDREN_ only enjoy _Vitality_. WHICH _Fable_ may however serve to satisfy us, that they have had no better Opinion of an _Eight-Months BIRTH_, in those _Antient Days_, than the Generality of _Learned Men_ yet have in these _Modern_ Times: signifying in the main, by this comical _Allusion_ to that _little Island_ in the _Ægean Sea_, that if, peradventure, an _Octimestrian BIRTH_, by its more propitious _Destiny_, should be determined to _Life_; _that_ ought to be looked upon as something _Extraordinary_, and not laid down for any general _Hypothesis_: especially for this manifest Reason, because in all _other Nations_, such _CHILDREN_ are commonly observed to be but short-liv’d; as the _Women_, labouring with _CHILD_ at that critical[122] or fatal _TIME_, are absolutely exposed to the severest of _excruciating PAINS_, and the greatest of _imminent DANGERS_. MOREOVER, _Hippocrates_ himself testifies, that the very _Gestation_[123] of the _eighth Month_ is the most _onerous_ and _difficult_ of all the Time, as well on account of the _Indisposition_ of the _Womb_, as by reason of the _Mother’s_ being affected by the _disturbing Motions_ of the _Infant_: Wherefore if the _Birth_ then draws on, it receives a double Damage, and suffers as well because of these _Affections_ of the _Mother_ and _Womb_, as by its own proper _Motions_ in precipitating itself. FROM what is said, we may easily comprehend what _HIPPOCRATES_ means by that obscure[124] _Ænigma_, which some have formerly reckoned more inextricable than any _Herculean Knot_, viz. _An Octimestrian Birth is and is not_; signifying thereby nothing else than that the _Child born_ in the _eighth Month_ (in some respect) may be supposed in _Being_, but really and indeed _is not_, because it soon vanishes and _dies_. [Illustration] CHAP. XXXV. _Of a Nine-Months BIRTH._