Peripateticks vvill ansvvere that sometimes the children are neither like father nor mother but like their grandfathers or great grandfathers vvho neither actiuely nor passiuely did contribute any thing to their generation But I cannot see what they can answere to that argument of hereditary diseases The woman that is troubled with the Gowt bringeth foorth a son subiect to the gowt if she be subiect to the Falling sicknesse she will bring foorth an Epilepticall infant or being troubled with the Stone a childe disposed to that disease these diseases I hope they wil not say come by reason of the fault of the blood For who euer was so mad to say that the Menstruall blood contained in it the Idea or forme of the particular parts The impurity of the blood wil indeede make the childe weake and sickly but to make a calculous impression in the Kidneyes or a gowty impression in the ioyntes is onely proper to the seede which conteyneth in it the fatall necessity of life and death Againe all formation and specification for you must giue vs leaue to vse our Schoole-tearmes in these matters of Art that is all power to set the seale or figure or difference vpon A third any thing proceedeth from the seede alone For the matter as it is a bare matter cannot chaunge the species or sorme of any thing but the species followeth rather the Dam then the Sire For if an Ewe be couered by a Goate she will not bring foorth a Kid but a Lamb with a hard and rugged wooll if a Tup couple with a she-Goat she will bring forth Note this Athenaeus not a Lambe but a Kid with a soft wooll as Athenaeus auoucheth There proceedeth therefore from the Dam a formatiue Faculty now all formatiue facultie as we said is from seed none at all from the blood But there is a place in Galen which seemeth to be against vs. For in the first chap. of his 14. Booke de vsu partium he denieth to the seede of the woman the power of procreation A hard place in Galen A woman saith he because she is colder then a man hath in her Parastatae a thin and vnconcocted humor which conferreth nothing to the procreation of the infant and therefore when it hath done his office it is cast foorth but another humour that is the seed of the man is drawne into the wombe Wee must thus vnderstand Galen that in women beside their seede there is another waterish moysture which delighteth tickleth and washeth Expounded their genitals and that indeede conferreth nothing to generation for so he saith a little after But in the time of coition that humor suddenly and together with the seede yssueth and therefore mooueth the sense at other times it yssueth also by little and litle and sometimes without any sense at all We conclude therefore that women do yeeld seede which hath in it some operatiue or actiue faculty The vse of this seede according to Galen in the eleuenth chapter of his fourteenth booke de vsu partium is manifold First for generation for by it as by a workman concurring together The vses of a womans seed with the seed of a man the parts are figurated and of it as of their matter the membranes are generated wherewith the infant is compassed The second vse is to be an Aliment for the hotter seede of the man For euery hot thing is norished by that which is moderately cold that is lesse hot as saith Hippocrates in his Booke De Alimento The thirde Hippocrates vse is to irrigate or moysten the sides of the wombe for all the parts of the womb could not be lined or moistened by the seede of the man The last vse Galen addeth which is to open the necke of the matrix Argenterius derideth these vses of the seede because nothing is nourished that doth not liue but the seede liueth not Againe the seede of the woman is not eiaculated into the Argenterius the Cauiller sides of the wombe because a womans wombe hath no hornes But he is indeed himselfe ridiculous endeuouring to correct Magnificat as we say when hee cannot sing Te Deum Neither shall you finde any man more forward to carpe at others then those who themselues lye most open to scorne and disgrace as that petulant Author doth in most passages of his workes But for your sakes who may haply learne something by it we will do him the Answered honesty to answer his cauils We say therefore that the seed is potentially Animated when it is cast into the womb that power by the heate of the womb is broght into an act and therefore presently it worketh the workes of the soule for it formeth and figurateth the parts If then it be animated Galen expounded it liueth but that life is the life of a plant Beside when Galen saith that the seed of a man is nourished by the seede of a woman we must not be so grosse as to vnderstand him as if he meant a perfect nourishment which is made by assimulation but because the seede of the man was hotter then the seede of the woman it is tempered and made more dilute or By Hippocrates fluxible by the cold and thin seede of the woman After the same manner we say that the spirits are nourished by the aer and so we must vnderstand Hippocrates where he saith That euery hot thing is nourished by that which is moderately cold That the seede is not eiaculated into the sides of the wombe because the womb hath no hornes sauoureth of Crasse and palpable ignorance of the insertion of the eiaculatory vessels into the sides of the bottome of the wombe and so we let it passe It remaineth now that we make aunswere to the arguments of the Peripatetickes First Answer to the Peripatetiks arguments therefore 1 That double secretion or profusion of blood and seede we do not thinke is made togither and at once but at diuers times that is of seed in the coition and conception of blood immediately after the first discretion or separation of the spermaticall parts 2 There is not the same reason of young boyes and of women For in Boyes there is no remainder of lawdable blood of which seede should bee made because one part of the blood is consumed in their nourishment and the rest in their growth but in women there is abundance of superfluous blood 3 Those women who do conceiue without pleasure haue ill affected wombes 4 Auerrhoes his History we take to be a right old wiues tale and no credit to be giuen thereto 5 That a woman is not an imperfect male but a perfection of mankinde wee haue abundantly prooued before 6 The last argument of Aristotle which carrieth most shew of truth we may thus answere Although a vvoman haue in her selfe the efficient and materiall causes of generation yet cannot she generate in her selfe without the helpe of the man I
Differences of the parts of the Infant the bloud And of these fleshy parts there are three kinds as there are three kinds of flesh For it is either the flesh of the bowelles which wee call Parenchyma or the flesh of the muscles which Hippocrates properly and absolutely tearmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Flesh or the peculiar flesh of euery part which hath not any proper name These things being thus we conceiue That the membranes called Amnion and Chorion The membranes first generated are first of all formed because the inward and most noble part of the seede was to bee defenced and walled about with these curtaynes as we shall shew more distinctly in our next exercise These coates being formed we thinke that the rudiments or stamina and threds of all All the parts formed together the spermaticall parts are formed together at once because the matter is the same alike altered and disposed by the heate the workeman the same to wit the spirit diffused through the whole masse of the seed the Finall cause the same that is the vse of euery singular part For seeing that in the first delineation the Infant needeth not eyther the nourishment of the Liuer or the influence or pulsation of the heart or the sense of the braine but cherrisheth it selfe with his owne in-bred heate why should wee thinke that one of the parts is formed before another If Nature when she vndertaketh the concoction of quitture or Pus which we call Matter dooth bring the whol to an equalitie together and insinuate it selfe equally and alike into all the parts thereof why shall shee not in this first delineation of the Spermaticall parts the Idea of all which the Formatiue Faculty conteyneth in it selfe beginne Hippocrates opinion and accomplish the description of all of them together Neyther is this our opinion but the Conclusion of Hippocrates in his first Booke De Diaeta and in his Booke de Locis in homine In his Booke De Diaeta The partes are all delineated together all together encreased not one or more before or after another or the rest but those that are greater by Nature doe appeare before those that are lesse In his Booke De Locis in homine straight after the beginning hee breaketh out into these The Fleshie parts are the last made and their order wordes It seemeth vnto mee that there is nothing first in the bodye but all thinges are the beginning and all things the end all parts first and all last What could he say more plainely What more breefely Or what indeede could bee eyther spoken or immagined more Diuine The Spermaticall parts therefore which we call solid or first parts are shadowed or lined out at once and together but afterwards they are perfected euery one in their order First those that are more noble and necessarie and those last which are most ignoble and lesse necessary After the delineation of the spermaticall partes are formed the Fleshie and first of all the Parenchymata of the bowelles nexte the proper flesh of the particular parts and finally the emptie spaces of the Muscles are filled vp Among the Parenchymata we thinke that of the Liuer is first gathered together beecause the Vmbilicall Veyne dooth first powre the blood thereinto which beeing concreted How Galen may be excused or caked maketh the substaunce or flesh of the Liuer and this happely Galen meant where he saith that the Liuer is first generated so that in this sense if he spake hee may wel be excused QVEST. XVI Whether the Membranes which encompasse the Infant bee first formed and whether they bee made by the Forming Facultie and of the Seede of the Woman * ⎠* COncerning the Originall of the Membranes which compasse the Infant three thinges are to bee enquired after First whether 3 Questions The first the Formatiue Facultie doe at these beginne the Conformation that is whether these bee first of all formed Wee thinke that they are being taught both by Reason and Experience For That the mēbranes are first formed Experience wee will auouch Hippocrates Aristotle Galen and our owne The Geniture sayeth Hippocrates After it is mixed and reteyned Experience what day or houre soeuer it bee auoyded dooth alwayes appeare couered with a Filme or crust The same vvriteth Aristotle in his Bookes De Generatione Animalium And Galen in his first Booke de Semine I haue often seene the Geniture conceyued onely couered with Membranes Who euer saw a conception although it were vitious and illegitimate which was not couered with a Filme as it were with a Garment The Mola albeit it be verie rude without forme yet is it cloathed with a Membrane a manifest argument that the Formatiue Facultie in all Conceptions beginneth her woorke with the delineation of the Membranes where shee is hindered that shee can proceede no farther To Experience wee may add Reason The Membranes were necessarily first to bee made that the Seede heerein being encompassed might the better manifest his operations as also that the inwarde Spirits thereof might bee kept from Dissipation and vanishing away and that the tender Embryo might not hurt his soft sides against the hardnes of the wombe The second Question is more obscure and the more knurrie knotte a great deale to riue which is whether these Coueringes bee made by the Formatiue Facultie The second question Whether the Membranes are made by the formatiue Faculty Some thinke that they are generated onelie by the heate of the VVombe and for their opinion dooth vrge Hippocrates Authoritie and his Reasons For in his Booke De Natura Pueri he VVriteth that the Geniture beeing heated and puffed is compassed with a Filme euen as Breade when it is baked is compassed with a Crust Now the crust of breade or such like is raysed in the superficies of the Masse onely by the heate of the fire Authoritie His reason is on this manner The seede conteyneth in it selfe the Idea or Forme onely of those partes from whence it floweth but in neyther of the Parents are there Reasons against it any such Membranes how then shall the Seede haue any power at all to make or forme them But wee thinke that the three Membranes are generated by the Forming Facultie of the Seede and not by the onely heate of the wombe because there is no such great heate Our resolutiō in the wombe which in so short a time can burne or puffe the Superficies of the Seedes into such Membranes For if the VVombe shoulde atteine vnto that degree of heate surely there would bee no conception So saith Hippocrates in his Aphorismes Those women who haue hot wombes do not conceiue because when the wombe is too hot the seede is baked and torrified As for the aboue alledged authority of Hippocrates it maketh nothing against vs for he doth but illustrate an obscure thing by a similitude or comparison as if he should say
comming from the hanch-bones which make certaine small muscles called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine suspensores that is hangers vp of which Vesalius maketh no mention These in women haue no communinion with the Testicles albeit in men they haue because they adioyne to the spermaticall vessels Table x. sheweth the portrature of a woman great with child whose wombe is bared and the Kel taken away that the stomacke the guttes and the wombe might bee better seene TABVLA X. The figure of the wombe is round table 8. P tab 9. figure 1. A figure 2. C that it might bee the more capacious and lesse obnoxious to iniuries aboue it is somewhat depressed The Figure of the wombe table 9. figure 3. like the bladder excepting the tops of it which they call the hornes For in woemen with child as in the bladder so in the womb the bottome is long and the necke narrow but in those that be not with childe the bottome is no broader then the necke Soranus and out of him Falopius likneth it to a pressed cupping glasse both for the forme and also for the manner of attraction for the seed of man cannot attaine vnto the bottome of the wombe vnlesse it be drawne Taking it together with the necke it is very well compared by Archangelus Laurentius Pinaeus and Bauhine to a Peare table 9. fig. 3. For the bottome Like a Peare downward directly from the corners becommeth narrower by degrees euen to the Archang Laur. Pinaeus beginning of the necke which is like a long and round passage yet so as that the bottome is of a figure most like vnto roundnes as wee see in a good fayre Peare whose bottome is round and bottle fashion The magnitude of it is not in all women alike but differs according to the age body and impregnation or burthen In Virgins that are growing it is small and lesse then the Bladder but in women growne it is greater so in those that vse not mans helpe and in old women because they are dryed and withered it is but little that it may the lesse trouble the neighbour parts and thicke not much broader then two fingers and in length scarce euer so long as three I meane the bottome seldome reaching aboue the share-bone and the bladder In ful growne women it is greater yet those that haue neuer conceiued are much like to virgins because there is present vse of it and after a woman hath bred in it it remaineth during the strength and ability of their age somewhat larger then when shee was a growne Maide yet not aboue a handfull In a woman with child it is increased into all dimensions for the larger it is stretched the thicker it groweth It hath two sorts of parts simple and compound Table II. the first figure sheweth the wombe of a women with childe opened in the length that the after birth cleauing thereto might be seene The 2. figure sheweth the after birth separated from the wombe The 3. the coate wherein the vrine of the Infant is receiued The 4. figure sheweth the Allantoides and the Amnion opened with the naturall scite of the Infant according to the common receiued opinion of Anatomists The 5. figure sheweth the coates or couerings of the Infant according to Vesalius especially the membranous bladder which receiueth the vrine of the Infant TABVLA XI FIG I II. III IV V Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 3. 4. Fig. 5. Table 12. wherein the after-birth together with the vmbilicall vesselles are exhibited TABVLA XII FIG I. FIG II. Moreouer in the time of conception it is thicke and softer and growes thicker as the conception encreaseth beeing thickest of all at the time of the birth Yet Galen seemeth to say otherwise in his Booke de dissectione vteri and the 8. chapter and the 14. Booke of the vse of parts and the 14. chapter which opinion of his many follow albeit it is against himselfe a little before where hee sayth that it groweth thicke when the courses come because of blood now we know that the greater the infant growes the more bloode accrueth vnto the wombe FIG II. The first Figure sheweth an Infant of 14. dayes olde in which all the parts are exactly delineated The second figure sheweth an abortiue Infant which was auoided the xxv day after conception being depriued of blood to nourish it because the vmbilical vessels were broken The magnitude of that infant is perfectly described Betweene these membranes run Fibres saith Galen in his 14. Booke de vsu partium and The Fibres of the wombe the 14. chapter of all sorts because it must draw and reteine the seede and expell the burthen the fleshy fibres make the proper parenchyma or flesh of the womb that so the heate Comparison may be encreased for conception by which also it may be as by muscles the voluntary motion of the wombe in drawing the seede into his cauity as a Hart draweth a Snake out of the holes of the earth by drawing in his breath at his Nosethrils embracing it afterward is accomplished haply also they haue another vse saieth Archangelus to thrust out some Archangelus recrements of the wombe which cannot be cleansed by the sole compression of the Muscles of the Abdomen But in those that are somewhat gone with childe the trebble kinde of spermaticall Fibres The spermaticall fibres of the wombe do appeare more manifestly the right are inwarde which draw the seede they are but few because the seede is brought euen to the very mouth of the wombe by the yard The oblique are in the middest and are most and most strong that they may retaine that which is conceiued till the due time the transuerse are outward very strong also because of the force that is necessary in the deliuerance The Veynes arteries of the wombe The veines and arteries which passe through the coates of the wombe are twofold for two veins two arteries are led thither from the spermatical Ta. 8. ll Ta. 9. fig. 1. H fig 2 ii fig. 3. bb vessels so many also from the Hypogastrical which run vpward from below tab 9. fig. 2 ◠Tab. 11. fig. 1 FF that from all parts of the body as well below it as aboue it blood might be ministred vnto it for they bring not Aliment onely to the wombe but also to the infant as also they serue to emptie the whole bodye in the menstruall purgation But the The veine frō the spermaticall the veines are greater then the arteries The one of these which proceedeth from the spermaticall and discendeth from aboue is disseminated through his whole bodie especially through his bottome to bring alimen Galen vnto it yet the ends of the vessels which are carried into the left side are vnited become one with the ends of the vessels which are distributed in his right side that so the right side for this is Galens opinion in his 14. Booke de
QVEST. XII Concerning the Acetabula the hornes and coates of the wombe COncerning the endings of the vessels in the bottome of the womb to which the after-birth cleaueth till it be seuered either by the strength of the Infant or after Cotyledones what they are by the dexterity of the Midwife they are called Acetabula in Latine in Greeke Cotyledones which are nothing else but the ioyning of the endes of two paire of veines one comming from the spermaticall another from the Hypogastricall braunch with the mouths of the vmbilicall veine and so making a sumphysis or connexion between the mother and the Infant The latter Anatomists deny that there are any such conspicuous in women but only In what Creatures they are found in Sheep and Goates Aristotle sayth in his 3. Book of the Historie and the second of the Generation of Creatures they are onely to be found in horned Beasts we say There is a 3. fould acceptation of this word Acetabula in Galens Booke of the dissection of the wombe First they signifie visible holes into which the vessels of the wombe doe ende in fashion resembling the hearbe called Venus Nauill which we call in English Penny-grasse or hippewort What Galen meaneth by Acetabula These Acetabula are neuer found in women but in Sheep and Goates are very conspicuous Secondly by Acetabula we vnderstand the mouthes of the vesselles swelling like Nipples And lastly they are the ends of the vessels at the bottom of the wombe ioyning How they are to be found in women with the vmbilicall or Nauill veines In this third acception no man will deny but that they are to be found in the wombe of a woman These mouthes of the vessels sayeth Hippocrates in the 45. Aphorisme of the fift Section A cause of abortion if they be ful of mucous or slimy water are the cause of abortment because it dissolueth the continuity or connexion of the Infant with the mother Concerning the horns of the womb which bud out at the sides therof Diocles first of all Of the hornes of the wombe men made mention of theÌ„ Galen almost all Anatomists following him do confesse them to be in the wombe of a woman but the truth is that they are only conspicuous in Sheep Goates and Kine Indeede the sides of a womans wombe doe swell a little and are raysed where the leading vessels doe end but not sufficiently to expresse the forme of hornes or Nipples Lastly Galen seemeth to speake diuersly concerning the coats of the wombe somtimes Of the coates of the wombe affirming it hath but one as in the third Booke of Naturall faculties againe in his Book of the dissection of the wombe he sayeth it hath two the outward neruous the inward venal Galen reconciled to himselfe the outward simple the inward double but these places may easily be accorded for wheras he sayeth it hath but one he vnderstandeth the proper coate of the wombe which is the thickest of all the coates of the body but when he sayeth it hath two he addeth to the proper a common coate comming from the Peritonaeum or Rim of the Belly QVEST. XIII Of the Membrane called Hymen and the markes of virginitie IT hath been an old question and so continueth to this day whether there be any certaine markes or notes of virginity in women and what they are What the Hymen is thought by some to be Almost all Physitians thinke that there is a certain membrane sometimes in the middest of the necke of the wombe sometimes immediately after the passage of the water placed ouerthwart which they call Hymen This membrane they say is perforated in the middest to giue way to their courses and is broken or torne in their first accompanying with men and therefore they call it The lock of virginity Claustrum virginitatis The lock of virginity for which their opinion they bring testimonies out of the holy scriptures For it was a custome among the Iewes that the Brides should A custome among the Iewes not accompany with their Bridegroomes but vpon a sheete wherein the bloud should bee kept which was giuen to the Brides parents as a witnesse of their daughters true virginity Falopius yeeldeth to this opinion Columbus writeth that he hath seene it Laurentius sayeth Laurentius his opinion that he hath cut vp mayden children borne before their time of three moneths of 3. 4 6. and 7. yeares old and yet hee could neuer finde it though he searched curiously for it with a Probe which sayth he might haue beene felt to resist the Probe if there had beene any such thing and therfore he thinketh that it is but a meere fable Yet notwithstanding thus far he giueth credite to Columbus and Falopius that hee thinketh there is sometimes such a membrane found but if it be stretched ouerthwart in the middle or at the end of the neck of the wombe then hee thinketh it is not Naturall but an Organicall disease or of the instrument being faulty in conformation So oftentimes at the very end or extremity of the lap there groweth sometimes a membrane sometimes a Caruncle or small peece of flesh which affection or disease Auicen calleth clausuram or the inclosure the Grecians call it Imperforatae mulieres 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is imperforatas Some are so from their infancie some by mishap as by an vlcer inflamation or some other tumor against nature but hee that will reade more of this disease let him resort to Aetius Paulus Celsus Albucasis and Oribesius Aeti Tetra 4. ser â— cap. 96. Paul lib. 6 cap. 73. Celsus lib. 7. cap. 28. Albucasis lib. 2. Oribas Colâ—ect mediem lib. 24 who thinketh that there is at all no such matter Wee must therefore finde out some other locke of Virginitie Some thinke the sides of the necke of the wombe do cleaue together in mayds and in the deuirgination are separated Almanzor writeth that the necke of the womb in virgins is very narrow and rugous those foulds or plights are wouen together with many small veines and arteries which are broken in the first coition Laurentius is of opinion that those foure Caruncles described in the history of the womb and placed not ouerthwart but longwise doe so ioyne together in virgines by the interuening of exceeding thin membranes that in the first coition both the Caruncles are fretted and the membranes torne and that thence floweth the blood This ioyning of the Caruncles Seuerinus Pinaeus a learned Chyrurgion belonging to the French King hath notably described in a Booke which hee wrote of purpose concerning the marks or notes of Virginity which wee also remembred before in our discourse And thus much shall suffice to haue spoken concerning the partes of Generation both in men and women and the Controuersies thereto be longing Honi soit que mal y pense The End of
obseruation and our knowledge Notwithstanding I do not thinke fit to transcribe them heere but referre him that desireth satisfaction vnto Aristotle himselfe And thus much shall be sufficient to haue spoken of the infant all the while he is conteyned and contenteth himselfe with the prison of the wombe it remaineth now in the last place that we speake of the birth of the infant QVEST. XXIX Of the Nature and Differences of the birth WE now enter into a vast Sea a huge and enorme Tract when wee vndertake to dispute of the Nature Times and Causes of the birth of Man wherein wee shall meete with many contrary gusts of opinions many vnpassable and thorny wayes How many reciprocall waues in the concertations of the Ancients how many quick sands in the accounts of months and dayes howe many rockes in the search after the causes of things amongst which vnlesse a man bee well steared by reason he must needs set vpon some misaduenture Notwithstanding so necessary and profitable a voyage this is as we will aduenture our selues the Pole we are guided by is fixed truth and the Pilote shall be Hippocrates who as saith Macrobius Coulde neuer deceiue or be deceiued out of his Bookes De Septimestri Octimestripartu De Naturapueri De Principijs de Alimento and De Morbis mulierum will we draw our demonstrations But that we may proceed in order through the whol course of our disputation that the capacities of such as are not throughly grounded may not be confounded we will diuide our Three heads of the questiō discourse into three heads In the first we will open vnto you the Nature of the Birth and all the differences of the same In the second wee will handle the Times of the Birth by a computation of the yeares the months and the dayes In the last place wee will manifest the Causes of the varieties of the Birth as well the Generall as the Particular the Naturall the Physicall the Arithmeticall the Geometricall and the Astrologiall Causes To begin therefore with the first The Birth which the Graecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we define to be an Edition or bringing into the world of an infant perfected and absolued in the womb What a byrth is so that whatsoeuer month day or houre the infant arriueth into the worlde that arriuall may properly and truely be called the birth To this perfection wee speake of there is required not onely a dearticulation of the parts for then if a woman should miscarry at foure moneths that miscarriage should be called a Birth but also their strength growth which because the Infant attayneth not before the seauenth moneth we cannot properly call it a What is required to a perfect birth Birth before the seauenth moneth but either an abortment or a miscarrying An abortment the Grecians call by diuerse names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVe therefore define an abortment to be Either the issuing of an imperfect The names of an abortment The definitiō Infant or his extinction and death in the wombe Some there are who will not haue it called an abortment before the infant hath moued so that a woman shall not bee sayed to abort but from the third moneth to the seauenth and that before the motion it shall be called The error of some an effluxion or miscariage But these men seeme to me not to conceiue Hippocrates meaning aright for Hippocrates after the Embryo is formed vseth to cal it an abortment if it come before the due time whether Hippocrates it be before the motion of the Infant or after it As in the 44. Aphorisme of the first Section Those women that are too much extenuated doe abort at two moneths and in the Aphorisme following in the same Section Those that are naturally disposed doe abort at three What an effluxion is moneths But if the Geniture be auoyded before conformation then is it not properly called an abortment but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Effluxion so sayeth Hippocrates in his Booke de septimestri partu Those corruptions which happen a few dayes after the Conception are called effluxions not abortments Aristotle also in the fourth Chapter of his seauenth Booke de Natura Animalinm calleth those corruptions which fall out before perfect conformation Effluxions Hippocrates all excesed Wherefore some say that Hippocrates is not to bee accused of impiety or of breach of his oath because hee counselled the dauncing Dame hee calleth Psaltria to prouoke an abortment because she lost not an Infant but suffered onely an effluxion seauen dayes after shee had conceiued But howsoeuer we in Schooles may distinguish thus nicely yet God iudgeth after another manner as we may perceiue by his iudgement vpon Onan Neither do we by abortment onely vnderstand an exclusion of an imperfect Infant but we say that a woman may His large acceptation of an abortmēt abort in her wombe though the Embryo be not brought away so sayeth Hippocrates in his first Booke de morbis mulierum When a woman aborteth and the Infant is not excluded So that abortment signifieth not onely an exclusion of the Infant before the due time but also the extinction or death of the same in the wombe before the due time of birth For an Infant may be carried in the wombe after he is dead many yeares as may bee proued by many examples Among the rest that is notable of the Infant which the mother bare in her body 28. yeares which was turned into a stone as it is recorded by Iohannes Albosius a learned Two strange stories Physitian Likewise that about Newarke not many yeares since which after it dyed in the mothers wombe remayned there a good space and after was vomited vp by peece-meale out of the stomacke a Story past all beleefe sauing that it hath so many eye-witnesses yet Octimestris partus is not an abortment liuing and ready to iustifie the trueth of it Thus we see out of Hippocrates what is a Birth what an Abortment and what an Effluxion Birth is when an Infant perfected in the wombe commeth into the world whether it issue aliue or dead So that they are in no small error who call the Infant of eight moneths old an abortment because it is not aliue for it is not simply and absolutely of the essence of the birth that the Infant should be borne aliue but that it should be borne perfect now at eight moneths it is perfect To be aliue or not aliue to be legitimate or not ligitimate are differences of the Birth as wee shall say by and by An abortment is an exclusion or extinction of an vnperfect infant an Effluxion or miscariage is an auoyding of the geniture before perfect conformation Hauing thus made plaine the Nature of the birth wee
Some of the Interpreters that they might auoide these snares haue disallowed of his Booke de Septimestri partu as if it were not Hippocrates owne at least they boldly affirme that this place is corrupted But wee on the other side are as confident that it is truly Hippocraticall That Hippoc. Booke de Sept. partu is legitimate For not onely Galen Commented vpon it a few fragments of whose labour remaine to this day but also the Lawyers of that time vvhen Learning did most flourish at â—ome and Athens did translate this very sentence according as we at this day read it into the number of their Sanctions Wherefore these diuers not contrary places concerning the number of dayes we will thus reconcile The Latitude of the seauenth month is very great neither is the seauenth-moneth birth Hip. interpreted alwayes brought into the world in one and the same day There is a seauenth moneth beginning and a seauenth month perfected The Beginning consisteth of a hundred eighty daies a part the perfection consisteth of two hundred ten dayes Before an hundred eighty two dayes no infant suruiueth so that this is the first limit of the seauenth moneth After two hundred and ten daies it is no more called a seuenth-month but an eight-month birth The first births in the beginning of the seauenth moneth are indeede vitall yet verie languid and weake the latter are very strong Wherefore Hippocrates in the places before quoted expressed onely the two extreame times of the seauenth-month birth that is to say the first and the last The middle times he maketh no mention of as of two hundred foure daies because they are sufficiently knowne by the nature of that extreame vnto The vtmost time of the seuen-month birth which they approach the neerest And this is not my interpretation of Hippocrates but Hippocrates owne For as in his Booke de Octimestripartu he calleth those Decimestres not onely who accomplish ten whole months but also that reach a few dayes within the tenth month So those are called Septimestres who beside six full months do attaine some dayes of the seauenth And yet more plainly in his Book de Alimento after he hath described the Septimestres Octimesters Nonimestres and Decimestres partus at length he breaketh out into these words In these months are begotten or rather breede more and fewer according vnto the whole and the parts that is either in a part of the moneth or in the whole and full moneth And in his Booke de Septimestri partu he saith that the fiue months which come between the first and the seuenth must be numbred whole but the first and the seuenth it skilleth not much though they be imperfect So in the computation of the Critical dayes those daies which go before the Crisis must be accompted whole but the Criticall day it selfe wherein Nature endeauoureth the Crisis hath a great latitude for a Crisis yea a happy and prosperous one may fal out in the beginning The intermediate daies months are onely perfect in the middest or in the end of the seauenth or the fourteenth daies wherefore those months which go before the birth must be al accompted whol excepting the first againe the very month of the birth which is of the same nature for accompt with the Criticall day hath two extreames and many intermediate times In any of which if the infant be borne he may suruiue And thus I thinke you may cleare your selfe out of the Thornie and intricate passages of months and dayes in the Computation of the legitimate or illegitimate times of the birth QVEST. XXXI What are the vniuersall and particular Causes of the Birth DEmocritus a great Philosopher of his time complaineth that the truth is drowned in a deepe well The Pyrronij or Scepticke Philosophers thinke that all Democritus The Septickes Aristotle things are vncertaine and that nothing can be determinately knowne Aristotle the Father of the Schoole of Philosophers saith that the certaine and Naturall causes of all things naturall are onely knowne to Philosophers which before Philosophy it selfe was borne our admired maister Hippocrates in his Booke de Aere aquis locis hath thus expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing in Nature is done vvithout Hippocrates Nature that is without a naturall cause These causes if any man with Heraclitus shal deny he shall not onely entangle himselfe in a thousand Labyrinths of absurdities but also for feite Heraclitus all knowledge and assured demonstration for to know saith the Philosopher is to vnderstand the Causes of things Seeing therefore the birth is a naturall action and that the times therof are very different it shal not be amisse a little in this place to enlarge our selues in the disquisition of the causes thereof The Causes therefore of the birth are some of them vniuersall others particular The vniuersall causes are common not onely to man but also to al creatures and some of then The vniuersal causes of the birth are on the part of the birth others on the part of the Matrix or woombe because the byrth proceedeth from an equall contention of the birth and the bearer The Cause on the part of the birth Hippocrates in his Booke de Natura pueri elegantly expresseth to be the defect of both sorts of aliment Spirituous and Solid on this manner When the Infant becommeth larger and stronger the Mother cannot supply it with fit and sufficient Aliment which while it seeketh with often kicking it breaketh the Membranes and being vnloosed from those bandes yssueth foorth On the partof the infant The Mola or Moone calfe may be carried in the womb many yeares because it is neither nourished nor doth transpire wherefore desiring neither Aliment nor ayre it is stil retayned Why the Mola and many monsters lie long in the womb There are ingendred oftentimes in the wombes of women Monsters and Creatures of diuers kindes as Serpents and Mould-warps which because they haue little bloud haue also little heate and being contented with transpiration alone doe lurke many yeares in the corners of the wombe neither would euer issue of their owne accorde vnlesse they were driuen forth either by the contention of the wombe or by the helpe of the Physitian The want therefore of nourishment is the first cause of the birth There is also another vniuersall cause on the part of the wombe for the wombe hauing The vniuersal cause of the birth on the part of the wombe Hippocratci a determinate quantity magnitude beyond which it cannot be extended when once vpon the increase of the Infant it is come to that extent it laboureth to lay downe the burthen wherby it is oppressed and according hereto Hippocrates saith in his first book de morbis mulierum that abortments do happen when the wombe is too little that is when the Infant is so encreased that it can be no longer contayned in the wombe The