BUT it may (perhaps) be objected, that the _Antients_ (especially the _Greeks_) reckon’d their Years by _Lunar Revolutions_ only, and had none else but _Lunar Months_. To which I answer, that the _Wise_ and _Divine HIPPOCRATES_ computes[132] the Time of _Birth_ by _Decads of Weeks_; which _Decad_ contains Seventy, as every Week consists of Seven full Days: Hence _He_ makes out the Legitimacy of a _Seven-Months Child_; because that _Term_ comprehends _three Decads_ of Weeks, or 210 Days: And hence it is evident, that he has measur’d that Time of _Gestation_ by _Solar_ Months, of which each contains 30 Days, answering alike in _Births_ of all Months. For if we _divide_ those 210 Days by 7, for the Number of Months, we shall find a _Quotient_ of 30 Days to each; or if we _multiply_ 30 by 7, we’ll find a _Product_ of 210 Days in all. And this _Computation_ he farther elucidates, saying[133], _As thirty Suns form the Fœtus, so seventy move it, and two hundred and ten perfect it_. Hence it is evident and certain, that HIPPOCRATES also considered and regarded the _Circuits_ of the _Sun_. Which leads me farther, to [Illustration] CHAP. XXXVIII. _Of the Reasons why ONE Number of Months, Weeks, and Days, is more Auspicious to BIRTH, than ANOTHER._ WHAT has been said in the _Seven preceeding Chapters_ particularly, concerning _Months_, _Weeks_, &c. leads me directly to descant upon _THESE_ in general: Which _Topick_, tho’ I could willingly resign it to the more _Judicious_ to enter upon, and recommend to the more _Learned_ to discuss; yet lest I may be thought to evade or omit any material _Point_ which I have undertaken, I shall endeavour (according to the Best of my weak _Capacity_) to explain, _en passant_, and to unfold this _Mystery_, by declaring the most plausible _Orthodox Reasons_ why _ONE Number of Days, Weeks and Months, is more Auspicious to the BIRTH_, and affords more _Vitality_ to the CHILD than _ANOTHER_. IN handling of which _Subject-Matter_, as I propose to be very _Brief_, so I shall only observe in short, that such _Reasons_ are chiefly founded upon a _double Principle_; That is, of daily _Experience_, and natural _Knowledge_. I. UPON daily _Experience_; in that it is notoriously well known that CHILDREN born in _different Months_, are not equally _Vital_ or _Lively_; and in that it is evidently manifest, that the _7th_, _9th_, and _10th_, and perhaps the _11th Month_ also, are endued with some certain _Virtues_, and prevalent _Qualitys_ before all OTHERS in this Case.