FOR these Reasons this _SYMPTOM_ ought to be carefully _mitigated_, if not _cur’d_, without any loss of Time: But the CURE itself, in my humble Opinion, may be easily effected, by evacuating the _peccant Humours_, by purging and corroborating the _Head_, and by the right _Use_ of proper _Thoracick Medicines_. [Illustration] CHAP. XV. _Of HEART-BEATINGS and SWOONING-FITS._ THESE Beatings or _Palpitations_ are nothing else but a sudden Loss of all the Strength, with an immoderate _Concussion_, by a vehement _Diastole_, and molestous _Systole_ of the _HEART_: From hence this _SYMPTOM_ easily turns to a _Cardialgia_, _Lipothymia_, or _Syncope_; which are _All_ of near _Affinity_, in the Case of the _Pregnant Woman_, so that I shall treat of them _conjunctly_, and first observe; that THE _Cause_ of all such _SYMPTOMS_ are but _Two-fold_, and proceed either from a _flatulent_ Substance of the _Humours_, ascending, thro’ the _Arteries_, or the _Vena Cava_, to the _HEART_: Or from the _Abundance_ of BLOOD, which (not finding passage by the WOMB) seeks to the _superiour Parts_, and thence oppresses the _HEART_ and _vital Faculty_. THIS _Last_ is the most dangerous _Condition_, being (in such _Plethorick Women_) the certain _Prognostick_ of imminent _ABORTION_: To prevent which unhappy _Accident_, the principal Part of the CURE, depends very much on cautious _Venæ-Sections_, or letting Blood, proper _Diet_, &c: Whereas, in the _First Case_, proper _Discutients_, _Cordials_, and _Corroborants_, are the most convenient and successful. [Illustration] CHAP. XVI. _Of WATCHINGS._ THIS _Symptom_ is nothing else, more than an immoderate _Exercitation_ of the SENSES, from too great a _Motion_ of the _Animal Spirits_: Proceeding from some acrimonious and siccid _Vapours_ of the _Humours_, ascending to the BRAIN, and there disturbing the _Spirits_, by exciting their vehement Motion; which so exagitates the SENSES, that the vigilant restless _Woman_ gets either none at all, or but very _short Sleep_. THIS watchful _Affection_ is distinguished by a _siccid_, or _calid_ and _siccid Intemperature_; attended sometimes with a _Melancholick_, _Bilous_, or _Pituitous_, _Saltish_ Matter; which is either essentially lodg’d in the HEAD, or communicated to it from the _Mouth of the Stomach_, or the Veins of the whole Body. SOME have been so overtaken with this _SYMPTOM_, that they have not only continued _Awake_ for some Days and Nights, but also Weeks and Months: Insomuch that _Hercules Saxon_[72] relates of his own _Father_, that He, being melancholick, suffer’d such like WATCHINGS, without the least SLEEP, _seven Months long_.