AGAIN the _Cause_ of such _Numerous_ CONCEPTIONS is (according to _Avicenna_’s just Opinion) the _Division_ of the SEED in numerous _Portions_, or _Proportions_; which may happen, either because of the WOMB, or because of the INJECTOR: Because of the WOMB, when its _Cavity_ is larger than ordinary; or when it too greedily _attracts_ to all its Parts; or when the divided SEED adheres separately to the singular _Uterine Veins_: Insomuch, that if what has been recorded of the abovesaid _Countess_ be true, it is not improbable that, there may be a CONCEPTION for every _Orifice_ of the _Uterine Veins_, and that every _Vessel_ may attract its own distinct _share_ of the SEMINAL _Matter_, and thereupon initiate a respective CONCEPTION, tho’ it cannot possibly bring it to _Perfection_. MOREOVER the same may also happen, because of an irregular INJECTION, namely, when _that_ is perform’d by _stops_ and _intervals_; then the WOMB attracting accordingly, may occasion different CONCEPTIONS, according to the different _Immissions_ or _Divisions_ of the SEED. BUT these CONCEPTIONS, whether _two_, _three_, or _more_, are always annexed to, and contained in one common SECUNDINE. And tho’ the _Woman_, by reason of her good Constitution of _Body_ and WOMB, may do well in the time of _Gestation_, yet her _Præternatural Condition_ in the BIRTH, always threatens _Danger_, as is already made out more manifestly[202]. NOW as to the _Cure_ or Prevention of both _this_ and the _preceding Case_, I know but one only grateful Method of performing it; _viz._ by refrigerating and reducing the too _calid_ WOMB to a convenient _Temperature_, and using a proper _Regimen_ of _Health_ and DIET; and _that_ both before and after CONCEPTION. [Illustration] CHAP. IV. _Of False_ CONCEPTIONS. HAVING already also particularly defin’d the _real_ or _true_ CONCEPTION in _Sect._ III. Chap. I. I come now in like manner to the REVERSE of that _Case_, properly call’d a _false_ CONCEPTION. But that I may, in this Point, be well understood,—— A _False_ CONCEPTION, in my Opinion, is nothing else, but a _Protuberancy_ of the _Woman_’s BELLY, attended with some, if not with most, of the _Symptoms_ of the Months of GESTATION: which however, is no ways occasion’d by a humane FOETUS, but (on the contrary) either by _Water_ and _Winds_, or _Wind_ and _Water_ vitiously mixed; which is also pertinently call’d a _Dropsy_ of the WOMB: Or then, by a corrupted _Viscid_, or _pituitous Matter_ collected in the WOMB; and that either proceeding from weak and vitious SEED, or from some extraordinary _Intemperature_ of the WOMB, which may hinder the _Elaboration_ of the SEED and BLOOD, and consequently the _Accomplishment_ of the CONCEPTION: Or the same may also finally proceed from the _Impurity_ of the MENSTRUA, which may corrupt the SEED, and convert it to _Aqueous_, _purulent_, or _other_ HUMOURS.