IN Cases of _Acute_ DISEASES, the worst is, that the necessary _Helps_, which such incident _Distempers_ otherways absolutely require, are not always safe and convenient for the _Child-bearing Woman_: which Condition, (with respect to the CURE) renders the CASE one of the _nicest Points_ in the ART of _Physick_. Wherefore I would, with Submission, advise, that _none_ but the ablest and well-qualified _Physician_ should undertake either the _Care_ or the CURE of such a PATIENT. To whom I am not to prescribe _Rules_, and therefore I shall only refer him to his own more _Acute Judgment_, and the _Curious Solutions_ of (that most learned PHYSICIAN) _Daniel Senertus_[90], upon the _six following Questions_, thus stated by himself, _viz._ I. HOW _far slender Diet is convenient for the Child-bearing Woman_, _labouring under an acute Disease?_ II. HOW _far it is convenient to open a Vein or bleed this Woman upon such an Occasion?_ III. HOW _far it may be proper to purge her on the same Occasion?_ IV. WHETHER _Venæ-Sections or Purges are most dangerous in such a Case?_ V. WHETHER _it is practicable_ (_in such a dangerous Case_) _to excite Abortion_, _for the Woman’s Health and Recovery?_ VI. HOW _far Clysters_, _Diureticks_, _and Diaphoreticks are convenient on such Occasions?_ HAVING, thus, now, in fine, briefly hinted upon the _sundry_ HEADS of this _Chapter_, I shall, in the next Place, offer a few Words upon THAT, which (I think) is the most common Consequence of the foregoing EFFECTS, _viz._ [Illustration] CHAP. XXIX. _Of the DEBILITY and WEAKNESS of the_ Fœtus. BESIDES all the enumerated SYMPTOMS, _Acute_ and _Chronical Distempers_, to which the _Child-bearing Woman_ is subject; it also happens over and above (too frequently) that the INFANT becomes _Weak_ and _Sick_ in the WOMB. THE _Cause_ of which unhappy _Accident_ I take to be _fourfold_: As it proceeds, either from a _Debility_ and _Insufficiency_ of the _Parental_ SEED, or from a _Scarcity_ or _Want_ of requisite _Sustenance_, or from a certain _Depravation_ of that _Sustenance_, or from some immediate _Procatarctick Cause_ of the MOTHER; which may all be thus rationally distinguished, and severally accounted for; _viz._ THE _Cause_ certainly lies in the SEED, if the _Woman_ has continued always _healthy_, eating, drinking, and living regularly. IT may be imputed to the _Scarcity_ of ALIMENT, if she has often laboured under _Diseases_, or been exposed to _Hunger_, _Want_, _Penury_, or any such like manifest retrenching CAUSE. IT may be adjudged to a _Depravity_ of ALIMENT, when the _Woman_ (by a vitiated Constitution of Body) is subject to some certain _Distempers_; and, besides, in short, any _Procatarctick Cause_ is discoverable from the _Relation_ of the PATIENT. BUT whatever the _Cause_ may be, the _Diagnostick Signs_ of this unhappy _Affection_, are commonly _One_ or _more_ of the following SIX; _viz._