Читать книгу The Female Physician - John Maubray - Страница 16

CHAP. IX Of the MATURATION of the INFANT.

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NATURALISTS allow the Infant, for its ripening in the Womb, and to the legitimate Time of Birth, treble the Space that Animation had; as Physicians agree in allowing this treble the Time that the first Motion had from Conception: and from hence the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, &c. are called ripening Months.

IN the fourth Month, Astrologers will have the Planet Sol to reign over the Infant; whose calid Quality gives it entire Life, fully perfecting the Members, excavating the Bones, and amplifying the Pores and Passages of the Body.

AS, in the Fifth, Venus presides over the Infant; who, by her Frigidity and Humidity, mitigates the Heat and Siccity impressed on it by the superiour Planets, absolutely perfecting the Lineaments of the external Members. According to which Principles, she, in a word, forms the Privities of both Sexes; and adds Beauty and Ornament to the Nose, Mouth, Hands, Fingers, and all the rest of the visible Parts.

AS also, in the sixth Month, Mercury takes his Turn to assist the Infant, which puts the last finishing Hand to the Work; perfecting the Organs of the Voice, enlarging the Eyes, Eye-lids, Brows, and Nails; promoting and confirming the Instruments of Motion; and at last, absolving and compleating whatever the others have commenced.

I shall only farther hypothetically observe, that, if the Infant was perfectly form’d about the 35th Day, it was animated about the 70th, and consequently will be born about the 210th Day, the last of the 7th Month.

IF the Formation was perfected about the 40th Day, the Animation happen’d about the 80th, and the BIRTH will (unluckily) happen towards the close of the 8th Month.

IF Formation happen’d the 45th, Animation follow’d the 90th Day, and the BIRTH will succeed about the close of 9 Months.

IF Formation was compleated the 50th, Animation follow’d the 100th Day, and consequently the BIRTH^[21] will appear about the last of 10 Months; and so of any other certain Time, definite Day, or stated Hour.

IT is, in all the above-mentioned Cases, to be farther animadverted, that the Male, as he proceeds from the more calid, siccid, and spirituous Seed, arrives sooner to Perfection in Formation and Animation; and is consequently sooner born than the Female, whose Nature is more cold, flaccid, and weak, even in the Womb: Hence an Allowance of a few Days more or less^[22], may be justly made, according to the Sex.