The Female Physician / Containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, their degrees of danger, and respective methods of prevention and cure: to which is added, the whole art of new improv'd midwifery; comprehending the necessary qualifications of a midwife, and particular directions for laying women, in all cases of difficult and preternatural births; together with the diet and regimen of both the mother and child.

CHAP. I.
Of the SYMPTOMS peculiar to the State of MAIDEN-HOOD.

SUCH Distempers as are incident to this Sex in Childhood, are generally common to the Other; wherefore I shall take another Opportunity to treat of them more particularly, and conduct the Child, whether Male or Female, thro’ all the Indispositions, to which its tender Age, or flexile Nature, may subject it, from the Moment of Birth, until the Time of Puberty: At which Age, the more delicate Constitution of Females, takes a quite different Turn from That of the other Sex.

AT this Crisis, or Juncture of Time, the Imbecility of their natural Dispositions begins to display itself, by various and different SYMPTOMS; to which, some are more, and some less, expos’d from Henceforward; very few being altogether exempted from what is so peculiar to their State: Wherefore (in the first place) I shall undertake to lay down the Causes, the Symptoms, the Degrees of Danger, and the respective Methods of Curing such Diseases as are incident to Virgins: Which leads me previously to define the Virgin-State, in