THIS _false_ CONCEPTION is attended (besides the common _Symptoms_ of a _true_ CONCEPTION) with inordinate FEVERS, PAINS of the _Head_, _Neck_, _Loins_, _Groins_, _Back_, and _Belly_: Which BELLY swells sooner than in the _Condition_ of _real_ CONCEPTION; and which, if struck with the _Hand_, gives a _Sound_ like a DRUM whence ’tis also call’d a TYMPANY: The whole _Body_ is hence discoloured; the _Feet_, and sometimes the _Face_ swells; and only a little (if any) _watery_ MILK is found in the _Breasts_. THE _Cure_ of the _Case_ depends entirely upon proper _Evacuations_, peculiar to the _Quality_ of what is to be evacuated. Whence I come to treat of the _Conception_ of MOLES. [Illustration] CHAP. V. _Of_ MOLES. A MOLE is properly nothing else, than a _fleshy Mass_ (instead of a FOETUS) engender’d, of an _imperfect_ CONCEPTION, in the WOMB. And is so call’d, because (_quasi Lapis Molaris_) like a MILL-STONE, its _weight_ infests the _Woman_. THERE are two immediate _Causes_ of this CONCEPTION of MOLES, _viz._ the _Superfluity_ of Matter, and the _infirmity_ of the _forming Faculty_. Which, I think, is agreeable to _Hippocrates_ his meaning, saying, that _too much Menstruous Blood, or too little, weak, or insufficient_ SEED, _is the only Cause of a_ MOLE[203]. I know, that besides these, there are many other various _Causes_ given by diverse _Authors_; yea I know that the MOLE it self is variously accepted among them: But as I am not to insist upon the _quibbling_ Notions of other Men, so I shall only here observe,—— FIRST, that there is a vast Variety and Difference in the _Substance_, as well as in the _Form_ of MOLES: SECONDLY, That there is sometimes but _one_, _and_ sometimes _two_, _three_, or _more_ MOLES, contain’d in _One_ WOMB; and _that_, sometimes with, and sometimes without the _Natural_ FOETUS as also sometimes separately, and sometimes adhering the _One_ to the _Other_: THIRDLY, That in this _Case_, if the FOETUS be not directly kill’d by the _Compression_ of its tender Body, it is at least in _Danger_ of being _misshaped_, or perhaps _monstrously formed_, according to the _Bulk_, _Weight_, and _Solidity_ of what is contain’d with it in the WOMB.