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. V.
Of VOMITING, or NAUSEATING.

VOMITING is a strong and sudden Contraction of the whole Stomach, occasion’d by the Animal Spirit’s being preternaturally expanded in its orbicular as well as oblong Fibres, and the too quick and violent Exertion of their Elastick Power: Or otherwise, it is a Convulsive Motion of the Stomach, whereby, when the Fibres, which compose its middle or muscular Tunick, are all at once strongly contracted, it endeavours to eject through the Oesophagus and Mouth the Contents of its Cavity; to which the Gullet itself (being of a piece with the Stomach) and the Muscles of the Belly contribute not a little.

WHICH Definition comprehends the immediate Cause of all Vomitings; and tho’ there be many external and internal mediate Causes, yet, I think, in the present Case of the pregnant Woman, the Cause of this Symptom proceeds chiefly from the Vapours of the exhaled Humours, and the worse Part of the Blood; infesting the Tunicks of the Orifice of the Ventricle, and flying into the Cavity of the Stomach.

WHICH, if slightly affected, occasions only a nauseous Spitting, or gentle Vomiting; but if more severely, it excites a far worse Vomiting, with a certain grievous Pain and Torment of the Person afflicted. Now if those Vapours be of a calid Quality, they commonly occasion a stinking and burning kind of Belching; but if frigid, perhaps, on the contrary, a troublesome sour, acid, breaking of Wind: Both of which promote frequent Vomiting, that carries off the vicious Juices; so that the Symptom commonly ceases (of itself) in the second or third Month. Wherefore this ill Habit need not be industriously restrain’d, unless very Troublesome; as in the above-mention’d Case, when attended with extreme Severity of Pain: For then it is not without Danger, and therefore requires immediate Remedy or Cure.

WHICH Cure, I humbly conceive, maybe judiciously effected by expelling the Cause, and strengthening the Ventricle; so that it may be capable to repel those Vapours, or Humours, ascending from the Womb; and may either entirely subvert or repress Those previously receiv’d.