from Woman as Galen says but only in having the Genitals outward For if a Woman be dissected we shall find that she has within her two Testicles two Spermatic Vessels and one Matrix together with the figure of the Masculine Member without missing the least Representation Which is so true that if Nature making a perfect Man had a mind to turn him into a Woman she has no more to do than to turn the Parts of Generation inward And if after she has made a Woman she had a mind to convert her into Man she need no more than turn out her Genitals This has chanced many times in Nature as well to the Foetus in the Womb as to the Child after the Birth Of which Histories are full though some have held them only for Fables as coming from the Hands of Poets yet the thing carries much of Truth For divers times has Nature made a Female that has continued such in the Mothers Womb a Month or two afterwards and abundance of Heat upon Occasion falling on the Genitals they have struck out and she steps forth a Male. To whom this change of Sex has happened in the Mothers Womb is afterwards made known by certain Motions unbecoming a Man being altogether Womanish and Effeminate their Voice Shrill and Squeaking Such persons are addicted to Woman's works and fall ordinarily into awkard Offences On the contrary Nature has often made a Boy with his Genitals outwards and some Cold supervening she has inverted them and the Boy has turned into a Girl This appears after she is Born in that she has a Masculine Air as well in her Speech as in all her Motions and Gestures This seems difficult to prove but easy to believe if we reflect on what we are assured by many Authentic Histories And that Women have been turned into Men after they were Born the Vulgar are not surprised to hear of for besides what many Antient Authors have delivered for truth 't is a thing that happened in Spain but few Years since and what Experience teaches admits no Dispute or Argument What the Cause or Reason may be that the Genitals are engendred within or without and they come forth Male or Female is a plain Case if we recollect that Heat dilates and extends all things and Cold contracts and closes them And therefore it is the Conclusion of all the Philosophers and Physitians that if the Seed be Cold and Moist a Girle is produced and not a Boy and if it be Hot and Dry a Boy is produced and not a Girle Whence may be clearly inferr'd that there is no Man can be call'd cold in respect of a Woman nor any Woman hot in respect of a Man Aristotle said that the Woman should be cold and moist to be fruitful and if she were not so it were impossible she should have her Terms or Milk to preserve the Foetus nine whole Months in her Womb and two Years after the Birth but the same would be dissipated and wasted All the Philosophers and Physitians assert that the Womb bears the same Proportion to humane Seed as the Earth does to Wheat or any other Grain But we see if the Earth be not cold and moist the Husbandman dares not Sow it and though he should it comes to nothing Also among Lands those are most fertile and fructify most that have most Cold and Moisture as appears by experience considering the Northern Regions England Flanders and Germany where the abundance of all Fruits surprises those that know not the reason of it and in such Countries a Married Woman rarely fails of Children neither do they know what 't is to be Barren all the Women there are fruitful and prolific because of the great Cold and Moisture But though it be true that a Woman should be cold and moist for Conception nevertheless that may be in such an Excess that the Seed may be choaked as we see the Grain is opprest with too-much Rain and cannot thrive when it is over-cold Which shews us that these two qualities require a certain Mediocrity which if they exceed or come short of Fertility is in danger to be lost Hippocrates held that Woman fruitful whose Matrix was temperate in such sort as the Heat exceeded not the Cold nor the Moisture the Dryness therefore he said that Women who have a cold Womb could not conceive no more than those that have a very moist or a very hot and dry one so for the same reason that a Woman and her parts of Generation should be Temperate it were impossible for her to conceive or be a Woman For if the Seed of which she first was formed had been Temperate the Genitals had issued forth and she had been a Man So would a Beard grow on her Chin and her Courses have stopt and she become as perfect a Male as Nature could produce Likewise the Womb in a Woman should not have a predominant Heat for if the Seed whereof she was formed had had this Temperament she had been born a Man and not a Woman 'T is a thing then absolutely certain that the two Qualities which render a Woman fruitful are Cold and Moisture inasmuch as the Nature of a Man requires much Nourishment for his Production and Conservation Accordingly we see that of all the Females of Brute-Animals none have their Courses as Women Therefore it was no less than necessary to make her altogether cold and moist and to such a degree that she might breed abundance of Flegmatic Blood and be able neither to dissipate nor consume it I said Flegmatic Blood because the same is proper to breed Milk With which as Hippocrates and Galen are of Opinion the Foetús is nourished all the time it is in the Womb but if the same should be Temperate it would make much Blood which would be very unfit to breed Milk and which would wholly resolve as it does in a Temperate Man and so nothing be left to nourish the Foetus Therefore I hold for certain that it is impossible any Woman be either Temperate or Hot they are all both cold and moist If this be not so let Physitians and Philosophers tell me why all Women are Beardless and yet have their Terms if in Health Or for what cause if the Seed of which she is form'd was Temperate or Hot she was born a Female and not a Male But though it be true that all Women are cold and moist yet they are not so in the same Degree some are in the First others in the Second and the rest in the Third And in each degree they may conceive if the Man answer them in the proportion of Heat which we shall hereafter explain By what Marks these three Degrees of Cold and Moisture in Women may be known and how we may discern which is in the First which in the Second and which in the Third no Philosophy or Physic has yet declar'd But considering the
the Beasts Seed not being of that Strength served only for Nourishment and no more And that the Seed of these Irrational Creatures might yield Nourishment to Human Seed is a matter easy to be conceived for if each of these Women had eat a piece of the Bears Flesh or Dogs boiled or rosted she would thereby have been Nourished though not so well as if she had eaten Lamb or Partridge The like happens to Human Seed whose real Nutriment in the formation of the Child is a Man's Seed though that failing the Seed of Brute Beasts might well supply its Place But one thing these Histories specify is that the young ones born from such Copulation gave proof by their Manners and Conditions that they were not begot in the ordinary course of Nature From what has been said though we have digress'd a little too far we may now draw an Answer to the principal Problem which is that wise Mens Children are in a manner always form'd of the Mothers Seed because that of the Fathers for reasons already alledged is not fruitful for Generation serving only in Generation for the Aliment And the Child that is formed of the Womans Seed cannot be Witty or Ingenious by reason of the great coldness and moisture of the Sex whence it is certain that a Child proving wise and discreet by an infallible indication was form'd of the Fathers Seed But if he be a Blockhead or Fool it may be concluded that he was made of the Mothers Seed To which the Wiseman alluded saying A wise Son maketh a glad Father but a foolish Son is the heaviness of his Mother It may also happen by some Accident that the Wise Man's Seed may be the Agent and Form-giver and that of the Mother serve for Aliment But the Child thus begot will prove of slender Capacity for though cold and dry are two Qualities requisite to the Understanding yet they ought to keep a certain Measure and Quantity which once exceeded they do rather harm than good As appears in very old Men who through the abundance of Coldness and Dryness doat and fall into many Follies Put case then that there yet remain ten years for a Wise Man to live with a Coldness and Dryness capable of Reasoning yet that being expired he will doat If of such a ones Seed a Child be got he will be till ten years old of great Ability having drawn a conveninet coldness and dryness from the Father but at eleven years he will presently begin to fail having past the Pitch those two Qualities hold Which we see by daily Experience in Children got in old Age who when Young are very Witty but grown Men are Fools and short liv'd The Reason is they were formed of the cold and dry Seed of a Man that had liv'd about half his Race Likewise if the Father skill in the works of the Imagination through much Heat and Dryness and be married to a Woman cold and moist in the third Degree the Child born from such a Conjunction will be an errant Blockhead if he be form'd of the Father's Seed having layn in so cold and moist a Womb and having been fed with such Distemper'd Blood The contrary happens the Father being a Fool whose Seed ordinarily is hot and exceeding moist The Child then begot will be dull till fifteen years so long as he partakes of the superfluous moisture of the Father but that being spent by the Course of Age it comes to a Consistence when the Fool 's Seed becomes more Temperate and less Moist It also helps the Wit to have been nine Months in a Womb so little cold and moist as is that of a Woman cold and moist in the first Degree whence proceeds such scarcity and want of Nourishment All this ordinarily happens for the Reasons we have specified but there is a certain Race of Men whose Genitals are of such force and vigor as they utterly spoil their Aliments of their good Qualities converting them into their evil and gross Substance Whence all the Children that are begot though they have eat delicate Meats are dull and rude There are others on the contrary feeding on Meats of gross and evil Temperament are so Strong to overcome them that though they eat Brawn or Bacon they get very Witty Children And so it is certain that there is a Race of Fools and another of Wise Men and others that ordinarily are born Blunt and void of Judgment Some Doubts offer themselves to those that endeavour to pierce to the Root of this matter To which an Answer may be given from what has been already said The first is whence it comes that Bastards for the most part resemble their Fathers And of a hundred Legitimate ninety bear the Figure and Conditions of their Mothers The second Why Bastards are generally Personable Couragious and very Discreet The third What is the Cause that if a light Woman prove with Child though she swallow poyson'd Doses to make her Miscarry and often let Blood yet she never slips her Child But if a Married Woman be with Child by her Husband upon every slight Accident she lightly Miscarries To the first doubt Plato answers affirming that no Man of his own Accord is Evil till first he be incited by his vitious Temperament And alledges for instance Leachers who by abounding in fruitful Seed suffer many Illusions and great Pains And being molested with that Passion to drive it away Marry Of such Galen says that they have very hot and dry Instruments of Generation and for this Cause breed Seed very pricking and apt for Procreation A Man then goes to seek a Woman none of his own and replenished with this fruitful digested and well seasoned Seed Whence it follows of force the Generation must be made because where both are equal the Man's Seed is of greater Efficacy and if a Boy be got of the Seed of such a Father he will resemble him of course The contrary happens in Legitimate-Children for Married Men having their Wives always by their Sides never regard to ripen their Seed or make it Prolific but rather upon the least Motion discharge it with great Commotion and Violence Whereas Women lying quiet in the Act of Love their Seminal Vessels never emit any Seed but what is duly concocted and well seasoned and affords much in quantity Therefore Married Women always make the engendring and their Husbands Seed serves for Nourishment But sometimes it comes to pass that both Seeds are matched in equal Perfection and dispute in such a manner as neither one nor the other give the Formation so as a Child is got that Resembes neither Father nor Mother At other times they concur and part the Resemblance between them the Fathers Seed makes the Nose and Eyes and that of the Mother the Mouth and Forehead Though if the Fathers Seed wholly predominate the Child will be like him in Person and Manners and when the Mothers Seed prevails the same
has big Veins on the contrary to abound with Flesh very soft and smooth is an Indication of much Moisture by means whereof the Natural Heat is dilated and extended throughout The Colour of the Skin likewise if it be Brown Tawny Olive-coloured and Dark is a Mark that the Man is hot and dry in the third Degree and if the Flesh be clear and well-coloured it is a Sign of little Heat and more Moisture The Hair and Beard are Signs to be regarded for these two approach very near to the Temperament of the Testicles If the Hair be much very black and large especially from the Hanches to the Navel 't is an infallible Token that the Genitals partake much of Hot and Dry. Which is yet more confirmed if there grow Hair upon the Shoulders But when the Hair the Beard and the Down are Chesnut coloured soft delicate and thin 't is a sign the Testicles are not so hot nor dry Men very hot and dry are rarely very Handsom but rather hard-favoured and ill shaped because Heat and Dryness as Aristotle said of the Ethiophians wryth the proportions of the Face and so they become disfigured Quite contrary to be well shaped and comely shews a moderate Heat and Humidity which renders the Matter supple and pliant to what Nature designed whence it is manifest that great Beauty in a Man is no Sign of much Heat Touching the Signs of a Temperate Man we have discoursed at large in the foregoing Chapter so that there is no need of Repetition It suffices only to note that as the Physitians place in each Degree of Heat three Degrees of Intention so also in a Temperate Man are to be allowed the extent and latitude of three others For he that stands in the third Degree next to cold and moist is to be reputed cold and moist For when a Degree has exceeded the Mean it resembles the Degree it approaches And that this is true appears clearly in that the Signs given by Galen to know a Man cold and moist are the same with those of a Temperate Man only a little more remiss so he is Wise good-Conditioned and Virtuous has his Voice clear and sweet is fair and of good Flesh smooth and without Hair and if he have any the same is little and yellow Such are ruddy and of beautiful Faces but their Seed as Galen says is waterish and unfit for Generation These are no great Friends to Women nor Women to them Article II. What Women ought to Marry with what Men to have Children TO a Woman who bears no Children when she is Married Hippocrates orders two Applications to be made use of to discover if the Fault be hers or her Husbands The first is to fume her with Frankinsence or Storax her Garments close wrapt and trailing on the Ground that no Fume or Vapour issue out and if after some time she feels in her Mouth the savour of the Incence it is a sure Sign that the Fault lies not at her Door since the Fume found the Passages of the Womb open from which it pierced even to the Nose and Mouth The other is to take a Head of Garlic clean pill'd and put it into the Womb when the Woman goes to Bed and if the next day she have the scent of the Garlic in her Mouth she is of her self assuredly fruitful without any Defect But though these two Experiments produce the Effects Hippocrates speaks of namely that the Vapour pierces from the lower Parts up to the Mouth yet the same concludes not that the Husband is absolutely impotent nor the Wife entirely fruitful but only an ill Correspondence between both so that in this case she proves as barren for him as he for her Which we see by daily Experience for the same Man taking another Wife begets Children and which encreases the Wonder in such as are ignorant of this point of natural Philosophy is that these two separating upon pretence of Impotence and he taking an other Wife and she another Husband they both come to have Children and the reason of it is there are some Men whose Generative faculty is not fit for nor active on one Woman yet for an other is potent and prolific As we see by Experience in the Stomach that a Man has a better Appetite to one Dish and to another though better it is as dead What Correspondence there should be between Man and Wife to have Issue Hippocrates notes thus Vnless the hot with the cold and the dry with the moist answer in measure and equality nothing will come on it For such a wonderful Work as is the Formation of Man requires a Temperament where the Heat exceeds not the Cold nor the Moist the Dry. Therefore if the Man's Seed be hot and the Woman 's so likewise there will be no Issue This being suppos'd let us consider by way of Example a Woman cold and moist in the first Degree of whom we have asserted the Signs to be that she is witty Ill-humoured strong Voiced spare of Flesh swarthy in Complection Hairy and Ill-favoured She will soon conceive by a Fool that is good-natured of Voice sweet and well-sounding very Fleshy Fair and Plump little Hair well Coloured and fair Faced The same may also be Married to a temperate Man whose Seed we said after the Opinion of Galen is most fruitful and answerable to whatever Woman provided she be sound and of Age convenient But yet withal it is very difficult for her to conceive and if she conceives Hippocrates says that within two Months she will Miscarry not having Blood sufficient to nourish her self and the Foetus in her Womb nine Months Yet this may find an easy Remedy by often repeating the Bath before she keep company with her Husband and the Bath ought to be of sweet and hot Water which the same Hippocrates says gives the true Temperament the Woman ought to have relaxing and moistening her Flesh which is also the disposition the Earth ought to have that the Grain may take root and spread It produces yet a greater effect it encreases the Appetite abates the Resolution and causes a greater quantity of natural Heat by which means abundance of flegmatic Blood is bred wherewith to nourish the Foetus during the nine Months The Marks of a Woman cold and moist in the third Degree are these To be Dull Good-natured to have a very delicate Voice much Flesh and the same White and Soft to want Hair and Down and not to be over-handsom Such a one should Marry with a Man hot and dry in the third Degree because this Man's Seed is of such fury and fervence that it ought of necessity to fall into a place very cold and moist that it may hold and take root like Watercresses that wont grow but in Water But if it were less not and dry it would fall into a Womb so cold and moist with the like effect as Wheat
by the Woman else her Seed being ill tempered impedes Generation Therefore it is convenient that they should both wait that both their Seeds may meet and mingle Which is of great importance for the first Effort because the right Testicle and it's Spermatic Vessel in the Opinion of Galen is that which first provokes and emits it's Seed sooner than the Left and if the Generation be not the first Time it is odds the second may give a Girl and not a Boy These two Seeds are known First by the Heat and Cold Secondly by the great or little Quantity Thirdly in this that one issues readier than to'ther The Seed of the right Testicle passes very tickling and is so Hot that it burns the Woman's Matrix is not much in Quantity and passes in hast On the contrary the Seed of the left Testicle is more temperate in greater Quantity and longer in Issuing being Cold and Thick The last Condition was to procure that the Seed of both should fall on the right side of the Matrix because in that place says Hippocrates the Males are form'd as the Females on the left Galen assigns the Reason hereof saying that the right side of the Matrix is very hot because of its neighbourhood to the Liver Reigns and spermatic Vessels that are on the right side which parts we have affirmed and prov'd to be very hot And since all the reason to order that a Boy may be begot consists in this that it have a great deal of heat in the time of its conception it is certain it much imports that the Seed fall in this place Which the Woman can easily do lying upon her right side after her Husbands embraces with her Head low and her Feet raised But she must keep her Bed a day or two because the Matrix embraces not the Seed but after some time The Signs of knowing whether a Woman be with Child or no are clear and manifest to all for if when she stands up the Seed fall presently down Galen says she has not conceived Therefore in this there is one thing to be considered that all the Seed is not fruitful and prolific for part thereof is waterish whose office is to dilute the principal Seed that it may pierce the narrow Passages And this is that which Nature emits and it remains after conception with the prolific part It is known when it is like Water and in little quantity To stand upon her Legs immediately after Coupling is very dangerous And therefore Aristotle advises that she beforehand evacuate her Excrements and Urine that she may have no need to Rise The second Mark to discover if a Woman be with Child is if the day after she feels her Belly empty and especially about the Navel And the Reason of it is that when the Matrix will conceive it stretches and extends extremely because in a manner it is apt to swell and stiffen upon this Occasion after the same fashion as a Mans Yard and stretching out after this manner it takes up more room but at the instant it conceives Hippocrates says that it closes and draws into the form of a little Egg to draw the Seed to it and let nothing out by which means it leaves a great Vacuity Which the Women explain saying that they have no slack Guts left soon after they grow big Besides which they forthwith nauseate their Husbands Caresses the Womb having what it wanted But the most certain Sign as Hippocrates says is when the Menses cease their Brests swell and they loath their Meat Article IV. What is to be observed that the Children may prove Witty and Wise IF the Reason and Cause be not known beforehand whence it proceeds that a Man of great Wit and Capacity is begotten it is impossible to reduce the same to an Art since we attain the End by no other Means but by connecting and ordering the Principles and Causes The Astrologers hold that the Child being born under such an Influence of the Stars will be Wise Witty Well or Ill-condition'd happy or unhappy with a thousand other qualities and properties which we see and observe every day among Men. But if this were true we could not here prescribe any Rules for all would depend upon Chance and not be in our Choice The natural Philosophers as Hippocrates Plato Aristotle and Galen were of Opinon that a Man receives the conditions of his Soul at the time of his Formation and not of his Birth The Stars only causing a superficial Alteration in the Babe communicating to to him Heat Cold Moisture Dryness and not his Substance whereon his Life depends as do the four Elements Fire Earth Air Water which not only add to the Composition heat cold moisture dryness but also a substance that unites and preserves these Qualities during the course of Life So that what is of greatest Importance in begetting Children is to endeavour that the Elements from which they are formed should have the Qualities requisite to Wit because that in the same Weight and Measure the Elements enter into the Composition in the same they remain for ever in the Mixture which is not so in the Mutations and Influences of Heaven What these Elements are and after what manner they enter the Woman's Womb to form the Child Galen tells when he teaches us that they are the same which compound all other natural things but that the Earth is concealed in the solid Meats we Eat such as Bread Flesh Fish and Fruits the Water under the Liquors we Drink and for the Air and Fire he says that they are mingled by order of Nature and enter into the Body by way of the Pulse and Respiration Of these four Elements mingled and digested by our Natural Heat are made the two necessary Principles of the Infants Generation which are the Seed and the Menstruous Blood But that whereof we make the greatest Account for the Mark we aim at are the solid Meats that are Eaten For they include within themselves all the four Elements and from them the Seed draws more Corpulence and Quality than from the Water which we drink or the Fire and Air which we breath Wherefore Galen says that the Parents who would beget wise Children should read the three Books he writ Of the Properties of Aliments for there they should find the Meats by which they should effect the same He makes no mention at all of Water nor of the other Elements as matters of small Consequence But he had no Reason for this for Water alters the Body much more than the Air and no less than the solid Meats we use and as to what regards the Generation of the Seed the Water alone is of as great Importance as all the other Elements together The reason of it is as the same Galen says that the Testicles draw from the Veins for their Nourishment the serous portion of Blood and the greatest part of this
State and yet tho' so Lewd and Blasphemous are nevertheless most potent in Generation and the greatest part of their Children Males and sturdy ones not effeminate Eunuchs or Hermaphrodites like yours The Reason of which is they Eat little Exercise much stroll not always on Horse-back as you do for which Reason they make their Seed hot and dry and so they get Boys and not Girls This Point of Philosophy neither Pharaoh nor his Council understood when they spoke after this Manner Come on let us deal wisely with them lest they Multiply and it come to pass that when there falleth out any War they join also unto our Enemies For the Method he took to prevent the Israelites Multiplying or at least that they should not have so many Males which was what they feared most was to oppress them with Bodily Labours and give them nothing to eat but Leaks Garlic and Onyons which had the contrary Effect for as the sacred Text declares The more they afflicted them the more they Multiplied and Grew Yet he making account that there was no better way than this to follow doubled their Tasks and their Burdens but to no more purpose than if to quench a great Fire he had cast in store of Oyl and Butter But had he or any of his Council understood Natural Philosophy they would have ordered them Barly-bread Lettuce Melons Pompions and Cucumbers and permitted them to live at Ease giving them their fill of Meat and Drink without forcing them to Work For by these means they would have had moist and cold Seed whence would have proceeded more Girls than Boys and in a little time their Lives have been shortened if they had desired it Instead of which in giving them boyl'd Flesh to eat with abundance of Garlic Leeks and Onyons and obliging them to Labour hard as they did it produced hot and dry Seed by which Qualities they were more incited to Generation and got always Male Children In Confirmation of this Truth Aristotle asks in one of his Problems Whence it comes that those who Labour hard or those that are Hectic commit nocturnal Pollutions To which in earnest he knew not what to say for tho' he alledges many Reasons yet none of them reach the Mark. The right Reason is that Bodily Labour and the Hectic Fever heat and dry the Seed and these two Qualities render it sharp and pricking and because all the Natural Powers are fortified in Sleep this happens which the Problem speaks of How fruitful and pricking hot and dry Seed is Galen notes in these Words It is the most fruitful and briskly excites the Animal from the beginning even to coition it is Lascivious and prone to Lust The fourth Condition is not to engage in the Act of Generation till the Seed be setled digested and well seasoned for tho' the three preceeding Cautions be duly observed we cannot know thereby if it have acquired all the Perfection it ought to have Especially it is convenient to use this Caution for seven or eight Days before the Meats we have prescribed to give time to the Testicles to convert into their Nourishment the Seed which at that time was made from the other Aliments and that this which we are describing may Succeed The same Care is to be taken to render human Seed fruitful and prolific as Gardiners take with the Seed they would preserve they wait till they ripen cleanse and dry for if they gather them before the proper Season and point of Maturity tho' they lie in the Ground a whole Year they will not grow at all For this reason I have observed that in places where Venus is much used fewer Children are got than where there is more Continence And light Women prove rarely with Child because they stay not till their Seed be digested and ripe It is convenient then to wait some Days that the Seed may settle concoct and ripen and be duly seasoned For by this means it will duly gain Heat and Dryness and the good Substance it has lost But how shall we know the Seed to be such as it ought to be since the Matter is of so great Importance This may be easily known if there be an Interval of a few Days from the Man's denying to Company with his Wife by the continual irritation and great Desire he will have All which arises from the Seed's being fruitful and prolific The fifth Condition we have directed was that the Man should engage with his Wife six or seven Days before her Courses because a Boy has soon occasion for much Aliment to Nourish him And the Reason of it is that the Heat and Dryness of his Temperament spends and consumes not only the good Blood of his Mother but her very Excrements Wherefore Hippocrates said that the Woman that conceives a Boy is well Coloured and Fair which comes from this that the Child through his great Heat spends for his Nourishment all the Excrements that were wont to make her Thin and Wan And being so greedy it is but fit he should be supplied with Blood for his Nourishment And this Experience clearly proves for seldom is a Boy begot but towards the last Days of the Month It fares quite contrary when she conceives a Girl for through the great coldness and moisture of her Sex she Eats little and makes abundance of Excrements Accordingly a Woman with Child of a Girl looks Yellow and Green and long 's for a Thousand nasty Things and in her lying in must have longer time to cleanse than if she brought forth a Boy On which Natural Reason God grounded when he ordered Moses that the Woman that brought forth a Male being unclean seven Days should not come into the Sanctuary till after thirty three Days but if she bear a Maid-Child she should be Unclean two Weeks and should not come into the Sanctuary till she had accomplish'd threescore and six Days So that the time of her Purification was doubled for the Birth of a Female and the cause of it is that during her Nine Months stay in her Mothers Womb through the much cold and moist of her Temperament she doubled the Excrements of a Boy besides that the same were of a much worse Substance and Quality Whereupon Hippocrates observed that 't is extream Dangerous to stop the Purgation of a Woman delivered of a Girl All this is spoke to the Purpose that it is convenient to stay to the end of the Month to the end the Seed may be supplied with Nourishment sufficient If they couple immediately after the Purgation is over that Seed will not take thro' defect of Blood But I must advise Parents that if their Seed meet not together Galen said it would come to nothing tho' the Man's Seed were never so apt for Procreation The Reason of this we will give hereafter on another Subject It is alike certain that all we have offered must also be observed