WHEREFORE I am obliged to repeat it again here, that we ought to calculate the _Legitimate Time_ of BIRTH, not only by _Months_, _Weeks_, and _Days_, but perhaps also by _Hours_ and _Minutes_; and _that_ because, according to the Great _Galen_’s Observation[146], as the _Year_, _Month_, or _Week_ does not consist of entire _Days_, so neither does the DAY of entire _Hours_: For as the _Year_ consists of 365 _Days_, six _Hours_, and a few _Minutes_; and the _Month_ of thirty _Days_, ten and a half _Hours_; and the _Week_ of seven _Days_, two _Hours_, and twenty-seven _Minutes_; so the _Day_ (in proportion) consists of 24 _Hours_ and 21 _Minutes_: From whence I conclude (with that wise _Man_) that we can make no very nice _Computation_ in this Affair, by _full Days_, without FRACTIONS. WHEREFORE it is that the most Learned and Inquisitive _Boethogynists_, or _Female Physicians_ maintain, that they have always observed their WOMEN to bring forth the self-same HOUR of the _Night_ or _Day_, in which they conceived: And _This_ also daily Experience seems to confirm for _Truth_; because it is certain, that most BIRTHS happen in the _Night-Time_, or _Dawning of the Day_; at which _Times_, we may very probably suppose the Generality of _Parents_ to be most employ’d that way: Whereupon, if This be True, Mr. _Paschal_’s Position will fall of course; and then that _Assertion_ of a _Legitimate BIRTH_’s requiring, not only a certain and prefinite Number of _Days_, but also of _Hours_ and _Minutes_, will more rationally be establish’d in its Room: Notwithstanding that Saying of _Hippocrates_[147] himself, after having distinguished upon the _Times_ of _BIRTH_, _That these Things fall out in a few Days more or less_. HOWEVER, in fine, from what has been said, (I hope) the _Reasons_ I have given here, why _one Number_ of _Months_, _Weeks_, and _Days_ is more auspicious to the _BIRTH_, and more fortunate to the CHILD, than _another_, are by this Time made manifestly clear and self-evident. Now these Things being thus briefly accounted for, I must proceed in the next place (with the READER’s good Leave) to provide for and prepare the _Pregnant Woman_, against the _Expiration_ of these _Months_, _Weeks_, and _Days_. [Illustration] CHAP. XXXIX. _Of the DIET and REGIMEN of the Woman, before and about the Time of BIRTH._ THO’ the _Woman_ ought to be cautious of her _DIET_ and _REGIMEN_ during the whole time of _Pregnancy_, as advis’d in _Chap._ 3. of this SECTION; yet she is now oblig’d in the _first place_ (especially from the beginning of the _9th_ MONTH) to be much more circumspect; to use nothing but FOOD of good _Nutrition_ and easy _Concoction_, of an _Aperitive_ and _Laxative_ Quality, _little_ at a time, but frequently taken.