presaging the approaching delivery are in part the preparation and disposition of the Childing Woman whereby she may bring forth and in part the scite or proper position of the Infant in order to the Birth As concerning the Position Fabricius saith that it is of a conglobated and inflex figure left the Foetus by his extream and eminent parts might injure the Womb or the conteining membranes and likewise that so he may be comprehended in the lesser roome But I am not of opinion that the foetus doth still observe the same scite or positure of his members in the Womb for the fore-scited causes For he swimmeth in a water and moveth himself to and fro he stretcheth himself now this way and anon that and so is variously inflected and tumbled up and down in so much that sometimes being entangled in his own Navel-string he is strangely insnared True it is that all Animals while they lye still and sleep do for the most part draw in and contract themselves and direct themselves toward an Oval or Conglobated figure So likewise Embryo's which pass their time most in slumbers do compose their bodies in that posture wherein they are formed as being the most natural most easie and most advantagious for their sleep And therefore the Infant in the Womb is commonly found with his Knees drawn up to his Belly his Thighs bent backwards his Feet hanging down and his Hands elevated to his Head whereof the one is placed about his Temples or Ears and the other at his Cheek in which parts there are white spots discovered in the skin as being the signes of his confrication His Spine is bent round and his Neck being inflected his Head hangs neer his Knees The Embryo is scituated with that position of parts wherewith we commonly apply our selves to rest with his Head uppermost and his Face directed towards his mothers Spine But a litle before his Birth his head being bent downwards he dives towards the bottom and the Orifice of the Matrix as if he were seeking his way out So Aristotle All Animals do naturally come into the world with their head formost but those that lye cross or come with their heels formost are unnatural births But yet this is not constant in all Animals but according to their several site or position in the Womb so is their Birth various as in Bitches Sows and other Multiparous Animals And the Great-bellied Women know full well that even the humane Embryo doth sometimes acquire a different scituation when they find the Child kick sometimes above sometimes below and now on this side and at other times on that So also the Matrix being neer delivery doth bear down groweth soft and openeth its Orifice The Waters also as they commonly call them are Gathered that is a certain part of the Chorion in which the fore-said humour is conteined doth usher in the Foetus and slide down from the Matrix into the Vagina or Sheath of the Womb and the neighbouring parts also are loosened and ready to distend also the Articubation of the Holy bone and the Share-bone to the Hanch-bone which Copulation or Articulation is by Synchondrosis or a gristly ligament is so softened and losened that the fore-said bones do easily give way to the parting Infant and by gaping open do amplifie the whole region of the Hypogastrium or Lower belly And when these things are in this condition it is certain that the Birth is at hand And that so the Foetus like a ripe fruit may come forth into the World Nature makes this provision of dilating the parts as she likewise concocteth the Milk which is sent before into the Breasts that the Infant now ready to be born may have his entertainment ready to wellcome him being now to be susteined from without And these are the fore-runners of the Birth Wherefore the Milk is counted amongst the chiefest signes of an imminent birth I mean such Milk which both for store plenty and consistence is convenient to feed the Child which according to Aristotle is never so qualified but neer the time of the Birth and therefore is never found before the seventh moneth Fabricius concludeth upon two queries chiefly in order to the Foetus namely how the birth is and when the last whereof relates to the time of Bearing the first to the manner of the Birth it self The times of bearing are by Aristotle conceived to be various There are saith he peculiar times of bearing to all kind of Animals for the greatest part as long as they live for the race of Animals which is longer liv'd then others must of necessity be more durable But the magnitude of the Animals is by him assigned as the chiefest cause of the variety of the times of bearing For saith he the great fabrick either of Animals or any thing else cannot be easily absolved in a short space Wherefore Mares and those Animals that are of kin to them though they live but a shorter time yet they are longer in bringing forth And therefore the Elephant as they say is two years in her production because of its excessive magnitude But every Animal hath certain bounds of magnitude which it cannot exceed and therefore they have a definit matter out of which they are made he addeth moreover But there is exceeding good reason why Animals do receive the dimension or measure of their times of ingravidation generation and their lives also by certain Circulations Now I call a Circulation a day a night a moneth a year and all those times which are described by them as also the motions of the Moon for these are the common beginnings of Generation to all Animals For it stands to good reason that the Circulations of less principal things should follow the Circulations of more principal And therefore Nature hath defined or limited the generation and decease of Animals by their motions And as the Births of Animals do depend upon the Revolutions or Circuits of the Sun and Moon so do their times of Coition and bearing their young vary and are either more prolixe or breifer The time of going with young saith Aristotle in the same place is enormous onely in Women For all other creatures have some one time but a Woman hath several for a Child may be borne either the Seventh or the Tenth moneth and likewise in the moneths intervening between the Seventh and the Tenth For they that are borne in the Eighth moneth though they do seldom live yet they may live Diverse Animals have indeed a set time of bringing forth and specially in the Spring when the Sun returnes diverse in the Summer and some in the Autumne as the Gristley Fishes And hence it happens that when the time of bringing forth approacheth they direct themselves to their wonted places where they may safely build their Stalls or Nests where they may bring forth cherish and sustaine their young Hence it is that those Winds which
descend form the Kidnies on both sides which Kidnies are large and ample and seated in the cavity or hollow of the back and do end in the cavity or common sink But their Out-let is so obscure and concealed in the very entrance of the cavity that to discover it from without or to search it with the most slender probe is altogether impossible Nor is it indeed any great wonder for in all creatures even in the greatest of all the insertion of the Ureters neer the neck of the Bladder is dark and winding that though urine nay and stones too do sometimes glide through them into the bladder not so much as the aire it selfe can go back that way nor the urine be it never so much forced All these things are clear in an Ostrich in which I have found beside the outward orifice of the common cavity which was vailed by the Covering another orifice within the Fundament which was round and gathered up and shut as it were with a sphincter muscle But to pass these and return to our purpose The Orifice of the Womb or Lap namely the passage out of the publik cavity into the womb of the Hen is as it were a certain soft protuberance or rising loose wrinkled and orbicular just like the end of the Fore-skin closed up or a prominence of some interiour coat of the matrix But it is scituate as I said before between the perforation of the fundament and the rump tending something to the left hand which Ulysses Aldrovandus conceives so to be disposed for more convenient coition and more commodious reception of masculine incursion But I have often observed that the Hen doth indifferently incline her back parts towards the Cock on which side soever he prepare his ascent be it on the right or left I finde no Penis or Yard at all in a Cock neither could Fabricius finde any though it appear most manifest in Drakes and Ganders But instead thereof I finde an Orifice in a Cock not different from that of a Hen but it is less and narrower which Orifice is like wise found in the Swan the Drake and the Gander but the Penis of the Drake and Gander in the act of Coition is sent out of this orifice In a black Drake I saw a Penis of that extent that after coition the Duck pursued it as it trailed upon the ground with intent to devour it deeming as I suppose that it had been a worm which occasioned the Drake to retract it sooner then his custom is In a Male-Osirich I found within this orifice of the Privy-parta a very large glans or nut of the yard and a ruddy nerve of the form and magnitude of a Deers tongue or small Neats tongue which I observed him many times brandish in coition stiffe and something embowed which when he had dispatched into the female he detained there a good space without any commotion of these parts at all as they had been staked together yet all the while strange were the gesticulations of their Heads and Necks as if they had approved their Nuptials proclaiming their full complacence I have read in D. du Val a most learned Physitian of Rouen that a certain Hermaphrodite was delivered up to the Chirurgians and Midwives to determine whether he was a Man or a Woman They upon discovery judged him to be a woman and thereupon he was enjoined to habit himselfe like one of that sex He notwithstanding was in the mean time accused of soliciting women and playing the mans part And at last he had a penis issuing out of its hidden prepuce as out of a womans secrets which executed the mans office I my self once saw a mans penis so shrunk up excepting onely when it was provoked that nothing appeared in the wrinkled prepuce above the scrotum but the meer extremity of the Glans In a Horse and some other creatures the vast dimension of that part is shut forth from within In a Mole also that litle Animal there is a great retraction of the penis into the skin and muscles of the Abdomen and his female also hath a longer and deeper Matrix then is usual I conceive it is with a Cock who hath no penis as it is with the lesser sort of Birds which quickly conclude their acts of coition and do perform them by affriction onely For the Orifices of the Privities of the Cock and Hen by often conjunction as by repeated salutes do celebrate coition not by one continued inition which orifices being turned outward do protuberate wax stiffe and stretch after the manner of a Glans especially that of the Cock which onely doth outwardly press upon the female and as I suppose doth not enter in In the Coition of Horses Dogs and Cats and other creatures when the male presenteth his penis the female proportioneth her parts stiffe and extended And Birds also that are tame suffer themselves to be gently stroked and swelling with Venereal appetite expose that Orifice which you may by your finger perceive to be hardened and resisting Nay sometimes birds are so lustfull that if you only gently smooth their backs they will instantly incline and extend and make bare their Uterine Orifice which if your finger softly comply with they will declare their accepted recreation in extravagant murmurs and flutterings of their wings And that the females will even thence conceive eggs both Aristotle beareth witness and I my self have found in a Thrush a Black-bird and others and this experiment I gained long since and by chance but at my own cost For my wife had an excellent a well instructed Parrat which was long her delight which was now grown so familiar that he was permitted to walk at liberty through the whole house where he missed his Mistresse he would search her out and when he had found her he would court her with a cheerfull congratulation If she had called him he would make answer and flying to her he would grasp her garments with his claws and bill till by degrees he had scaled her shoulder whence he descending by her arm did constantly seat himself upon her hand If she bad him talk or sing were it night and never so darke he would obey her Many times when he was sportive and wanton he would sit in her lap where he loved to have her scratch his head and stroke his back and then testifie his contentment by kinde mutterings and shaking of his wings I still interpreted all this to proceed from his customary familiarity and obsequiousness for I alwaies thought him to be a Cock-Parrat by his notable excellence in singing and talking For amongst Birds the females seldom sing or provoke to discourse but the males onely charm the females by the pleasant musick of their voice and allure them to pay their homage to Venus And therefore Aristotle saith If Partridge-hennes stand over against the cocks and the winde blow from whence the cocks are they conceive
in that the whole Worm grows and so becomes a dearticulate animal namely in growing it becomes to be jointed or distinguished We have indeed cause to wonder that the Rudiments of all Creatures whatsoever especially of Creatures that have blood viz. of a Dog a Horse a Deere an Oxe a Henne a Viper nay of Man himselfe should so exactly resemble the shape and consistence of a Magot that you can perceive no difference at all Towards the end of the Fifth day or the beginning of the Sixth the Head is distinguished into three vesicles or litle bladders whereof the first and greatest which is round and blackish is that of the Eye in whose center the Pupilla is discovered like a crystalline Point Under this a lesser vesicle whereof part is hidden represents the Brain â—â— which the third like a crest adjoyned or a smal â—â—nd knobb appears uppermost of which at last â—he Cerebellum or After-brain is made yet in all â—â—ese you shall finde nothing besides a cleare water And now the Rudiment of the Body which we all the Keel doth more distinctly represent the â—pina dorsi or Chine of the Back to which sides begin to be built and appear for the Wings and legs do now jut out from the Magot And the vessels do now plainly express the Navel The fifth Inspection of the Egge EXER XIX THe sixth day the three Bullae of the Head doe more plainly appear and the coats of the eyes are now distinct also the Legs and Wings do bud forth as at the end of June the Gyrini which the Italians call Ravabottoli and we Tadpoles begin to have leggs when now they forsake the waâ—ers loose their tayl and put on the shape of Frogs The form of the Chickens Rump is yet no other then that which is seen in all other animals may in very vipers namely a round slender tail The Parenchyma of the heart now groweth to the vesicula pulsans and a litle after the Rudiments of the Liver and Lungs are discovered and also the Bill all appearing exceeding white especially the Bill And about this time all the Viscera and the Guts may be seen But the heart exposeth it â—â— first to sight and the Lungs before the Liver or the brain But before all are the eyes visible because oâ— their largeness and blackness of their colour And now the foetus moves and gently tumbles and stretcheth out the neck though nothing of a brain be yet to be seen but meerly a bright water shut up in a small bladder And now it is a perfect Magot differing onely from those kinde of wormâ— in this that those when they have their freedome crawle up and down and search for their living abroad but this worm constant to his station and swimming in his own provision draws it in by his Umbilical Vessels The Viscera and the Guts being now erected and the foetus being furnished with motion too yet the fore-part of the Body still lyes wide open being deprived of the Thorax and Abdomen and the Heart it selfe the Liver and the Guts hanging out About the end of this day and the beginning of the seventh the claws are distinguished and the foetus begins to have the Effigies of a Chicken it opens the bill and kicks lastly all the parts are delineated especially the Eyes But the Viscera or bowels are yet so obscure that Coiterus truly affirmeâ— That he saw indeed the Eyes and the Bill but could discover no Viscus at all though never so concealed or confused That which followeth from the beginning of the sixth day to the end of the seventh cometh â—â— pass sooner in some and in some eggs later Noâ— are the coats of the Eyes seen though they have nothing in them but a liquid clear humor the Eyâ— themselves are something prominent or hanging out of their seats and each of them doth no leâ— exceed the brain in magnitude then the head the rest of the body that is fastned to it A litle bubble like a crest placed out of the circuit of the brain supplied the place of the cerebellum and that is also full of a clear water The brain seemeth obscurely divided and shines not so much as the cerebellum doth though it look whiter And as the Heart is now to be seen without the inclosure of the chest so is the cerebellum out of the Confines of the cerebrum In cutting off the Head I saw by the benefit of â—â—y Perspective in the Necke a bloody speck of â—â—e veine which ascends to the braine And by â—his means onely could I distinguish the rudiment of the Spine from the other Pulpe it was of a milkey complexion but firmer consistence then milk And so also like slender cobwebs narrow white lines wanâ—ing through the pulp of the body to give some â—â—imen of the Ribbs and other bones and this is much more discernable in the formation of other Viviparous Animals The Heart the Lungs the Liver and instead of Guts the most slender threds â—re all white The Parenchyma of the Liver â—ows to the Umbilical vein there where it enters â—o the Liver upon thin fibrous strings in like manner as the Rudiment of the Body grows to the â—â— passing from the Heart or to the Vesicula pulâ—â—s For as Grapes grow to the cluster buds to â—â—eir stalks and the eares of corn to the straw So â—â—th the Liver to the Umbilical vessels like mushâ—â— out of Trees or proud flesh in Ulcers or fleshy â—â—â—rs which border upon the branches of the Arâ—â—â—â—es by which they are fed and spread sometimes â—â—â— vast tumor Having had an Eye upon this emploiment of Arteries or circulation of the blood I have sometimes perfectly cured exceeding great Herniae carnosae beyond all expectation providing onely that the litle artery being tyed or cut off no nutriment or spirit might have accession to the part affected by which it fell out that the fatal tumor was afterwards easily extirpated either by incision or adustion A certain man besides other infirmities and of this story I can produce many testimonies had a Sarcosis or fleshy tumor in his Scrotum or God bigger then a mans head hanging down to his Knees and from it another Hernia carnosa as thick as ones wrist or a cable passed into his Abdomen so that the disease growing to so great a height no man would undertake the Cure by incision or otherwise Yet I perfectly cured this so vast excrescence which so much distended the Scrotum and encompassed the Testicle by the means aforesaid and yet left the leading and preparing vessel to the use of the Testicle without any prejudice or touch upon the other vessels descending into the Sâ—â—tum by the Tunica vaginalis or coat of the Testicles so called But these and other Cures accomplished clean beside the common opinion I shall in my Physical Observations if God grant me life discover at large I mention these things with this intent that men may
sleepy that nothing could recover her I being called in to her cure finding that Clysters and other proper remedies had been applied to no purpose and that nothing could go down her throat I put up a feather which was dipped in a strong Sneezing medicine into her Nose by which being moved though she was so overwhelmed with a deep stupidity that she could neither sneeze nor be awaked she began to be seized by a kind of general Convulsion all her body over which beginning at the shoulders did by degrees extend it self to the lower parts But as often as I applied this provocation to her her delivery was advanced and came on and at last the Mother being insensible of it her self and remaining still in her sleepy condition a healthy and sprightly Child was born into the world We may observe the manner of their throwes in other Animals as in the Ewe the Bitch and in great Cattel wherein we shall discover that it is not by the sole action of the Uterus or Belly either but is the joint conflict of all the whole body And how much the Foetus doth conferre to the acceleration and facilitating of his owne Birth is cheifly evident in Oviparous Creatures for it is apparent that the Foetus it self and not the Mother doth break through the shell By which it is probable that in Viviparous births also the chiefest cause of being born is owed to the Foetus it self and that to his industry and indeavour and not to his weight as Fabricius conceiveth For what doth the weight thereof conduce to the birth in four-footed beasts which stand upright or sit down or in Women which lye along nor doth the endeavour of the foetus proceed as he supposeth from its largeness of bulk or the plenty of the water the Water indeed is the cause of the delivery of the foetus which is dead and putrified in the womb in that by its corruption and acrimony it doth extimulate the Uterus to relieve it self but the foetus himself sets open the Gates of the Womb with his head turned downward and unlocks their inclosure by his own force and so struggleth himself into the world by conquest And therefore that kind of birth is counted the nimbler and more fortunate But when the Child comes into the world thrusting his feet formost saith Pliny the birth is counted unnatural and those that are so born are called Agrippae quasi aegre parti born with much difficulty For their birth is slow and painful And yet notwithstanding in abortment and where the foetus is dead or that there would be a hard delivery any other way so that there is necessity of handy-work in the business the more convenient way of comming forth is with the feet formost for by that means the streights of the Uterus are opened as it were by a Wedge Wherefore when the hope of delivery relieth chiefly upon the foetus as being strong and lively we must endeavour to further his comming out with his head fore-most but in case the task is like to depend upon the Uterus we must procure his comming out with his feet fore-most That the assistance of the foetus is chiefly required in the birth is evident not in Birds onely which do by their own industry without the help of their Parent break up the shell but also in other Animals for all Flies and Butterflies doe perforate the litle membranes in which they did lurk when they were the Worme Aurelia and likewise the Silk-worm doth at his appointed time mollifie and erode the litle Silken bagge which he had weaved for his defence and security and so gets out without any forraign aide And in like manner Wasps Beetles and other Insects and all Fishes are borne without others helps as doth chiefly appear in the Raie the Fork-fish the Lamprey and all cartilagineous Fishes which do conceive their Egges within themselves and those perfect ones and party-coloured being furnished with a Yolk and White and concluded in a strong cartilagineous quadrangular shell out of which being detained within the Belly and the Uterus they do form their young which breaking open the shell by force do get abroad as also the young Vipers by their erosion of the membrane which conteineth the Egge do sometimes in their Mothers Bowels and sometimes as they stick in the very passage and other times at the end of two or three daies after their nativity expose themselves to the wide World From whence that Fable that the Vipers do eat their way through their Mothers bowels and so revenge the death of their Father took its foundation When yet they do no more then all other issues which come into the world breaking through the membranes which encompass them either in their very Birth it self or a litle after it But how great furtherance the foetus doth conferre to its own Birth several observations doe clearly evince A certain Woman here amongst us I speak it knowingly was being dead over night left alone in her Chamber but the next morning an Infant was there found between her Leggs which had by his own force wrought his release Gregorius Nymmanus hath collected certaine examples of this nature out of approved Authors I also knew a Woman who had all the interiour part of the neck of her Womb excoriated and torne by a difficult and painful delivery so that her time of Lying in being over though she proved with Child againe afterward yet not onely the sides of the Orifice of the Neck of the Womb neer the Nymphae did close together but all the whole Cavity thereof even to the inner Orifice of the Matrix whereby there was no entrance even for a small probe nor yet any egress to her usual fluxes Hereupon the time of her delivery being now arrived the poor soul was lamentably tortured and laying aside all expectation of being delivered she resigned up her keys to her Husband and setting her affairs in order she took leave of all her friends When behold beyond expectation by the strong contest of a very lusty Infant the whole tract was forced open and she was miraculously delivered the lusty Child proving the author of his own and his Parents life leaving the passage open for the rest of his Brethren who should be borne in time to come For proper applications being administered his Mother was restored to her former health I shall adde one example more memorable then this The Queen had an exceeding white Mare excellently shaped presented unto her whose genitall parts lest by going to Horse shee might endanger the beauty of her proportions and become unfit for use were as the custome is locked up all with iron rings Notwithstanding which this Mare by what accident I cannot tell nor could the Groomes inform me was made big with Foale and at last when they feared no such matter she foaled by night and the Foale was found alive next morning by the mares side