As to this Month, many Authors[129] agree to legitimate its BIRTH; because of several repeated Instances that really happen’d in their Days: To which I can add ONE of my own proper Experience, during my itinerant Practice in the City of Prague. Where, as I came recommended to the Acquaintance of some Eminent Physicians of the Place, I happen’d once to be call’d (by one of them) to a Lady in Labour; whom I had the good Fortune to deliver immediately, of a fine, lusty, and lively Girl. After which, I had the Honour to attend her in Child-Bed; I mean, to visit and prescribe for her, by the concurring Advice of my Honoured Friend (the most Learned and Ingenious Dr. Von Overberg, who was her near Relation) in order to prevent some Disasters under which she had formerly suffer’d on the like Occasion. Upon This, she was pleas’d to tell me out of her own Mouth, that, before the Day of her Delivery, her Husband, (who was a Colonel in the Imperial Service) had been gone to the Army, then in Sicily, Ten Months and two Days; so that this Proculean Child was born (at soonest) the Third Day of the Eleventh Month. And in this Case, I dare say, I was no ways mistaken, or impos’d upon; that Lady being endued with no less true Honour and strict Virtue, than she was otherways deservedly esteem’d, of a singular good Character, and great Distinction in that Place.
UPON which happy Occasion, I was the first Time fully satisfy’d, and convinc’d, as to the due Proportion and Distinction of the Four controverted Terms; viz. that, by how much the latter Part of the Tenth Month is preferable to the Beginning of the Ninth; by so much is the Beginning of the Eleventh, preferable to any BIRTH[130] happening in the latter Part of the Seventh Month: So that, upon the whole Matter, I can find no plausible Reason why All Those may not be accounted Legitimate terms of Time in Child-Bearing, as well as the latter Part of the Ninth, and Beginning of the Tenth Month.
WHICH probable Opinion we may the more readily agree to, and acquiesce in; especially because (if what has been said of the rest of the Planets, in the respective Chapters of This and the First SECTION, be true) the Sun in this Eleventh Month returns to take care of the Infant (yet unborn;) by virtue of whose vivacious Influence and beneficent Quality, BIRTHS of this Month are accounted no less vital and successful, than any others differently time’d.
THERE are also many Authors, over and above, who make mention of BIRTHS, in the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Month. Yes verily, and there is one remarkable Instance, of the Physical College at Montpelier, where a grand Consultation was held about the Year 1590, in Favour of a certain Marchioness; who (after some fair Legitimate BIRTHS) had Two[131] running successively, the one in the Eighteenth, the other in the Twentieth Month: upon which, divers curious Reasonings happened, and various Sentiments were deliver’d. However, because such Precedents are so very few and uncommon, I shall take up no more Time about them. Only
AS to what is said in this, and the preceding Chapters, touching the Months, I desire to be understood, as meaning Solar, not Lunar Months: By Solar Months, I mean that Space of Time, which the Sun continues in either, or every, Sign of the Zodiack, comprehending thirty Days.
BUT it may (perhaps) be objected, that the Antients (especially the Greeks) reckon’d their Years by Lunar Revolutions only, and had none else but Lunar Months. To which I answer, that the Wise and Divine HIPPOCRATES computes[132] the Time of Birth by Decads of Weeks; which Decad contains Seventy, as every Week consists of Seven full Days: Hence He makes out the Legitimacy of a Seven-Months Child; because that Term comprehends three Decads of Weeks, or 210 Days: And hence it is evident, that he has measur’d that Time of Gestation by Solar Months, of which each contains 30 Days, answering alike in Births of all Months. For if we divide those 210 Days by 7, for the Number of Months, we shall find a Quotient of 30 Days to each; or if we multiply 30 by 7, we’ll find a Product of 210 Days in all. And this Computation he farther elucidates, saying[133], As thirty Suns form the Fœtus, so seventy move it, and two hundred and ten perfect it. Hence it is evident and certain, that Hippocrates also considered and regarded the Circuits of the Sun. Which leads me farther, to