NOTWITHSTANDING, this _Definition_ signifies but little to the Purpose; let the _MISCARRIAGE_ happen when it will, and under whatsoever _Name_ or _Denomination_, It is nothing else in general, than an untimely _Exclusion_ of an imperfect and immature BIRTH; which unhappy _Accident_ may proceed from a vast Variety of _Causes_, stimulating NATURE to such a violent _Expulsion_. IN treating therefore of this _Accidental BIRTH_, I shall make use of none of those _Distinctions_; but rather (to prevent Mistakes) shall call all its several SPECIES, of whatsoever _Time_, by the general (and most common) Name of _ABORTION_. AND of this _ABORTION_, happen when it will, the _proximous Cause_ is always the _Expulsive Faculty_ of the WOMB; which being _hurt_, or violently _disorder’d_ in any respect, irritates and debilitates the _Retentive Power_: And then again, on the other hand, this _Retentive Faculty_ (tho’ not the _proximous Cause_) is sometimes _first hurt_ or _injur’d_, and by that means incapacitated to _retain_ the _INFANT_; which (in that Case) offends and provokes the _Expulsive Power_[93], which is the proper _proximous Cause_ of all _ABORTIONS_. BUT most commonly the _Expulsive_ receives the _First Hurt_; from whence the _Retentive_ is oblig’d to _Sympathize_, and yield to its over-ruling _Motions_. And, according to _Galen_[94], the _Expulsive Faculty_ may be injur’d and irritated by _Three_ different _Causes_; viz. 1. By the _Bulk_ of the INFANT, when the WOMB cannot distend itself far enough to contain it: 2. By its _Weight_, when heavier than the WOMB and _Ligaments_ can bear: And, 3. By the _Humours_ (when the _Membranes_ break) flowing into the WOMB; occasioning a _Mordacious Itching_ there, or _putrefying_ the INFANT in its Place. TO which _three Efficients_, some Modern Authors have thought it sufficient to add the _similar_, _organical_, and _common Diseases_ of the WOMB; together with some _Procatarctick Causes_. HOWEVER, because I have generally observ’d _Those_, to be very promiscuously and confusedly treated of, I shall (according to my best Ability) endeavour to reduce the many different _Causes_ of _ABORTION_ to such plain _Heads_, and set them in such a clear _Light_, that they shall prove evident and manifest to the meanest _Capacity_: That _Women_ (whose peculiar _Good_ I have only at Heart in the Performance of this Work) may readily conceive them, and thereby be enabled (in most _Cases_) to prevent their greatest _Misfortunes_. And that whether the _Cause_ happens proximously and immediately from a _stimulated Expulsive_, or mediately from a _læs’d_ and _injur’d Retentive Faculty_. WHEREFORE I shall now reduce those _Causes_ to the following _Four general Heads_; namely, 1. To the _Constitution_ of the MOTHER: 2. The _Constitution_ of the INFANT: 3. The _Symptoms_ of the MONTHS: And, 4. To the various _Procatarctick Causes_ of this Tragical Case.