CHAP. IX.
Of the WOMB.
I Say this is that Body, which the Learned Great Men of all Ages have esteem’d and look’d upon as the most wonderful Miracle of Nature, not only because of its singular Substance and Structure, but also of its peculiar Qualities and Faculties.
AS to the Substance and Structure, I have before observed in Chap. 6. of this Section, that it is singularly composed, of an innumerable Multitude of Fibrous Vessels and Muscular Parts; which being All most curiously interwoven, are admirably form’d together in its Constitution.
BUT how particular soever I have been on this Head, in Chap. 5, and 6. I must resume this Topick here, and add, that the Womb, and its Vagina or Neck, are closely join’d together: For it terminates in a Point near its Orifice, intrudes itself into the Vagina, and hangs so down, that in Women not with Child, and sometimes also in the first Months of Pregnancy, This sharp Point may be perceiv’d by the Touch.
AND how closely soever this Orifice of the Womb is shut after Conception or during Pregnancy; yet in a BIRTH it is so expanded, that the Womb and Vagina both seem to have but One and the same Cavity, like a Bag of equal Dimensions; there being then no Difference perceivable between that Orifice and the Vagina, excepting that the VAGINA is Softer and Thinner.
THE Womb may be otherwise aptly compar’d to the Earth; because the same Degree of Affinity that the Earth has to the Seed of Plants, the Womb bears to the Seed of Men: It being the very Secundary Cause in the Constitution of the Human Conception; not indeed the Instrumental only, but also the Active Cause: For whereas the Instrument takes Motion from, and operates by Virtue of Another, the Womb only acts of itself and operates by Virtue of its own Active Faculties.
BUT more particularly, the Womb has sundry proper Actions in this Constitution, which are peculiarly dependent of, and accordingly discharged by Itself only; and therefore it is not the sole or pure Instrumental Agent. But the Reason that I call it the Secundary or Disponent, not the Primary Cause, in constituting the Foetus, is, because the Actions of the Womb do not precisely terminate in this Constitution, but chiefly in disposing the Causes constituting the Man. And as (I think) there are Eight such Actions belonging to the Womb, I shall undertake to define them all particularly in a few Words. And,
I. THE FIRST Action of the Womb is, that by its attractive Faculty, it may allure the Masculine Seed infus’d by Coition into the Fund of its Capacity, after the same manner as a famishing Stomach snatches at the Victuals by the Gullet from the Mouth of the Eater.
II. THE SECOND is like unto the FIRST, and consists in attracting (after the same manner) the Muliebrian Seed from the Vessels of the Testicles, into the same Cavity.
III. THE THIRD Function of the Womb, is the Copulation and mutual Conjunction of the Seeds of both Parents; which it prepares and perfects by its innate Power, constricting itself in all Parts: And this Action, I do not (in this place) call a Permistion of these Seeds, as it is generally term’d, because a Mixture is properly perform’d only by the concording Qualities and mutual Actions of two or more miscible Copulatives, without any Assistance of the Thing Containing.
IV. THE FOURTH Office of the Womb, is an Effusion of the Menstruous Blood upon the aggregated Seed, from a Relaxation of the little Orifices of the Veins terminating in its interiour Surface.
V. THE FIFTH Action of the Womb, is, the Retention of those three conjoin’d Bodies; to effect which Work, the Womb contracts itself on all sides, and shuts up all its Orifices, even to the sensible Animadversion of the Woman.
VI. THE SIXTH Function of the Womb, is to excite the Virtue of the Torpent Lifeless Seed, and rouze it up from Idleness to Activity; as the latent Virtue of Physick in the Body is excited to Operation by the natural Heat of the Viscera.
VII. THE SEVENTH Office of the Womb, is (after the Foetus is Form’d and Organiz’d) the Attraction of the Blood from the Maternal Veins, into the Umbilical Vessels, for its Nutrication and Growth.
VIII. THE EIGHTH and last Function of the Womb, is Birth, which I shall remember to speak more particularly of in its proper Place.
FROM all which we may easily collect the sundry proper Uses of the Womb, and readily comprehend that it is not only destin’d by Nature to admit the Seed, and receive the impregnated Egg from the Ovarium and the Fallopian Tube; but also to contain the Organizing Matter, and all necessary Principles (Active and Passive) for constituting the Conception; fomenting the receiv’d Seeds, by its natural Calidity, preserving the same, and preparing the Maternal Blood by its inherent Temperament, for the Use of the Foetus: Which Foetus it surrounds and defends from external Accidents, by its Substantial Corpulency; containing and nourishing the Infant, about the Space of 9 or 10 Months, by its Faculties of Extension and Attraction; and at last forcing it into the World, by that of Expulsion.
UPON which Occasion, that the MIDWIFE may the better discharge her Duty, and assist the Labouring Woman more effectually, without Fear or Danger, and without committing any Blunder or Mistake; as I have already taught her in what Place the Womb is seated, to what Parts it tends, and how it is annexed, &c; so I shall now proceed to describe its Qualities and Faculties, so far as is necessary, and absolutely requisite in the Practice of MIDWIFERY. And, First, then——