BUT as to the SECOND _Cause_, the _retain’d_ SEED induces not only _These_, but more grievous _Symptoms_, since as soon as it is _corrupted_ and _refrigerated_, it becomes the worst of POYSON[240]: And as it reaches the principal debilitated _Parts_, it draws on the most dangerous _sort_ of SUFFOCATIONS; in which the PATIENT _lies for Dead_, the whole BODY being extremely refrigerated, or benumb’d by this _venenated Matter_. Which Accident however may happen promiscuously to _all Women_, abounding with such _morbifick Contents_ in the WOMB, as sometimes falls out to MAIDS, but more commonly to WIDOWS, whose _Bodies_ as well as WOMBS abound with _pituitous_ HUMOURS; as also sometimes to _Pregnant Women_ of _Cacochymical Habits_, and to _Puerperial Women_ not _cleansing_ sufficiently. I know by the way, that some modern _Writers_ define the _Case_ otherways, and will have MEN to be also lyable to the same _Distemper_, which they alledge proceeds chiefly from the _Blood_ and _Spirits_: But the _Reason_ why I think _they_ are exempted from it, at least from its _Severities_, is because, what they _lose_ in _Nocturnal Pollutions_ or otherways, is always ejected or thrown _without Doors_; whereas what the _other_ SEX so _emitts_, may be still retain’d _within_; and consequently by a long _Detention_ there, may be converted into VENOM, or a _Poysonous Humour_. HOWEVER, this happens more readily and frequently to WIDOWS, than to VIRGINS, because in the _one_, the Passages are not only dilated, but also Nature is accustomed to such _Emissions_, as the _other_ is yet wholly a Stranger to. Moreover—— AGAIN, this AFFECTION may also proceed from too great an _abundance_ of _SEED_ in those, call’d the _Seminal Vessels_; tho’ not to such a dangerous Degree: In which _Case_, if the _SEED_ be _Acrimonious_, a _Convulsion_ may happen; if otherways, the PATIENT seems only to faint and fall away, with a sort of a grateful _Indulgence_, without any great Change of _Countenance_, or Alteration of PULSE; tho’ she often continues with her _Eyes_ shut, Starting and Wakening (as it were) frequently: And as upon returning to herself, she falls _a-sighing_, so a little after, the SYMPTOM recurs again.