WHAT has been said in the Seven preceeding Chapters particularly, concerning Months, Weeks, &c. leads me directly to descant upon THESE in general: Which Topick, tho’ I could willingly resign it to the more Judicious to enter upon, and recommend to the more Learned to discuss; yet lest I may be thought to evade or omit any material Point which I have undertaken, I shall endeavour (according to the Best of my weak Capacity) to explain, en passant, and to unfold this Mystery, by declaring the most plausible Orthodox Reasons why ONE Number of Days, Weeks and Months, is more Auspicious to the BIRTH, and affords more Vitality to the Child than ANOTHER.
IN handling of which Subject-Matter, as I propose to be very Brief, so I shall only observe in short, that such Reasons are chiefly founded upon a double Principle; That is, of daily Experience, and natural Knowledge.
I. UPON daily Experience; in that it is notoriously well known that Children born in different Months, are not equally Vital or Lively; and in that it is evidently manifest, that the 7th, 9th, and 10th, and perhaps the 11th Month also, are endued with some certain Virtues, and prevalent Qualitys before all Others in this Case.
II. UPON Natural Knowledge; insomuch that it is the Opinion of all Judicious Naturalists (either Philosophers or Physicians) that this inferiour World is moved and govern’d by superiour Bodys, and that all Terrestrial Vicissitudes and Changes depend upon Cælestials, and those chiefly upon the Sun and Moon: which both possess great influential Virtues, and exercise great directing Powers over all Inferiour Bodys. From hence the Antients always maintain’d, that the Periodical Accessions and Circulations of many Distempers depended entirely on their noxious Influences; especially upon that of the Moon, because of her Proximity.
NAY, some Authors have advanced so far, as to ascribe the only Cause of them to the Powers of the Stars and Planets. But tho’ I am no ways to countenance These Notions to this ridiculous Length, nor in the least to defend the vain Fictions, or foolish Ostentations of the vulgar ASTROLOGERS; yet I shall make no scruple to assert that both the Stars and Planets are concurring or co-operating, tho not sole efficient Causes, in these Cases: And This, I hope, I may rationally be allow’d to do, supposing I had not the direct Authority of such a Great Man, as the most Learned and Excellent Dr. Mead[134], over and above to back me; who says, “It is moreover to be consider’d, that the rest of the Stars and Planets have each their Power and Influence, which tho’ they be not Equal to that of the Sun and Moon; yet notwithstanding they conspire to augment or diminish their Powers on human Bodys; and this Concourse is of so great Consequence (says this Eminent Author) that we must refer to it the sudden and hidden Power of most Distempers in all Countries, &c.”
BUT the Powers of the two great and glorious Luminarys, we are more sensible of, as they are more manifestly conspicuous; and These we may in many other Cases, (as well as in BIRTHS) hold for efficient Causes.
FOR who knows not that the Influence of the Sun fructifies all sorts of Grain, and ripens Fruit, Corn, &c? Who knows not that by its Force or Influx only, divers Animals, Insects, &c. engender and spring out of the Dust and the Earth? Or, who knows not that its Power prompts all Creatures to Coition, and excites them to propagate their respective Species, each one its own Kind, &c.
NEITHER is the Influence of the Moon less evident: For does it not change the Constitution of the Weather, raise the Air, heighten the Winds, swell and exagitate the Surface of the Sea, and finally, augment and increase the very Tides of the Ocean? Do not all Animals, as well as the Menstruous and Pregnant Woman sensibly feel the Power of the Lunar Influence? Yes verily, as my last quoted Author justly[135] observes, unless their REGIMEN be perverted, by which means the Body may be disqualify’d or rendred unapt to receive the Impression.
NOW this does not only happen to Four-footed Beasts, and all that possess the dry LAND; but also more especially to the Inhabitants of the SEA: And how remarkable is it, that the very Shell-Fish, (how closely soever shut up, and how low soever buried, as it were, in the very ABYSS of the Deeps) cannot be exempted from the sensible Impression of this Lunar Power? To this Point and Purpose (I think) Lucilius[136], that Learned Poet, manifestly alludes, saying,
And after Him, Manilius[137], that great Astronomer, writes à propos upon this Topick, when he says,
THESE Things then being evidently so, and it being a most certain and undeniable Truth, that the Sun and Moon have each their respective Influence upon all Inferiour Bodys: (as has also been already shewn in Sect. I. Chap. 8.) I come now to observe that such Mutations as are Quick and Brief, or such Changes as are accomplished in a Few Days, may be entirely ascribed to the Power of the Moon: As in the Reverse of these Cases, which cannot be determin’d under a Long Time; the Course of the Sun is more chiefly to be consider’d and principally regarded.
SO Acute Fevers (because SHORT) are generally assuaged and dissolved in 14 Days: Whereas Quartans (because LONG) on the contrary are only determin’d in six Months. It’s true indeed, the Antients ascribed these Laws of Nature, to Pythagorean Numbers, and distinguish’d the Times of Fevers according to their Critical Days, which they strictly animadverted, as they laid great Stress upon that Ceremonious Observation.
HOWEVER, Galen made a far stricter Disquisition in this Matter, and conceiv’d (as the Truth indeed is) that the Accessions and Crises of Fevers had no Connexion with any NUMBERS or odd Days, but took Origin only from the Efficacy of the Moon: (as is more fully explain’d in Chap. 28. of this Section.) According to which MAXIM[138], Acute Distempers have their Circulations in Seven Days, and take their Accesses and Declinations from the Course of the Moon; which every Seventh Day, when New, Half-Full, or Full, has her greatest Influence.
HE farther observes that the Quarter-Day of the Moon may fall upon the 6th or 8th Day of the Distemper, and consequently either of these Days may determine it as well as the SEVENTH. For (according to Dr. Mead’s excellent Judgment) the Dissolution of a Fever sometimes happens To-day, which according to the ordinary Course of the Distemper ought to happen To-morrow; or, on the contrary, the same may be procrastinated till To-morrow, which might be expected To-day: And That for the various Reasons[139] most ingeniously by him alledg’d and irrefragably established.
IN fine, such Mutations and Circulations of Things as are perfected and perform’d in a few Days, are directed by the Property of the Moon: whereas such Changes and Alterations as require the Dissolution and Determination of Months, refer only to the Government of the Sun. Which I would have thus candidly understood, viz.
AS from the beginning of the Month to the Full-Moon are almost 14 Days, which accomplish half the Lunar Circuit, and comprehend two Quarter-Changes; so from the Beginning of Spring to the End of Summer are six Months, which comprehend two Seasons or half of the Year: And so that Mediety or Half of the Month, from FULL-MOON, to the Time of Occultation or NEW-MOON, answers to the other six Months, from the beginning of Autumn to the last of Winter, which conclude the other Half of the Year.
FOR as we divide the Course of the MOON by 4 Weeks, according to its 4 quarter Changes; so we distribute the Course of the SUN into 4 Stations, according to the four Seasons of the Year: Hence it is that all Times of the Year answer in proportion to the different Weeks of the Month, and all Stations of the SUN (in like manner) to the different Changes of the MOON. Wherefore as the 7th Day, which is the 4th Part of the Lunar Month, determines acute Distempers; so the Change of the Season of the Year dissolves Diuturnal Diseases. The SPRING commonly shakes off any Malady generated in WINTER, as the SUMMER does what is begun in the SPRING; and the AUTUMN discusseth any Affection excited in SUMMER, as the WINTER does what happen’d in AUTUMN.
THESE Things being thus cleared-up by the way, we have now only to consider, that the Time of GESTATION is no Acute, but a Diuturnal Effect; and that Birth is nothing else but the Crisis of the same Affection, according to[140]Hippocrates’s Sense. Which, if so, it is evidently manifest that, in defining the Time of Birth, we ought chiefly to regard the Course of the SUN, and strictly observe the Number of MONTHS; However so, as not to neglect the Motions of the MOON, and consequently, we ought also to consider duly the neat Number of DAYS: Wherefore (I say) in Birth we are to have a just Regard to, and take a strict Observation of, not only the Changes of the MOON, but also of the Mutations of the SUN; because both the One and the Other act very powerfully in BIRTH. Which I thus beg leave to illustrate as follows, viz.
AS the first seven Days have the greatest Power of determining Acute Diseases, so the first three Months of GESTATION (which answer to those Days) determine the CONCEPTION: And as of those the 7th Day is the most powerful, so of these the third Month is the most prevalent. From hence it is that the Foetus suffers such manifest Alterations and Changes of Nature in this Month: For it is now metamorphos’d or chang’d from an Inanimate into an Animate Being: It now becomes a Living and Moving Body, subsisting henceforward by its own proper vivacious Faculties; yet not so however, that this Month can be presum’d to produce a vital Birth: No, because as every perfect and plausible CRISIS of the 7th Day, requires the Concurrence of the digested Humour, together with the Ability and Strength of the PATIENT; so in Birth, the Disposition of the INFANT must necessarily concur with all These, which it can never be suppos’d to do in the short Space of Three Months.
MOREOVER again, as the Days of the Interval from the 7th to the 14th, have but small Power in dissolving acute Diseases; so neither have the 4th or 5th Months (which assimilate these Days) any Efficacy tending to Birth. Wherefore if an unlucky Ejection of the Foetus happens in these Months, it can be no otherwise judged of, than as when Symptomatical (not Critical) Excretions fall out on Days not Decretory: Hence we (of consequence) may collect, that the very First Time, in which a legitimate Term can be suppos’d to concur effectually, together with the Disposition and Strength of the INFANT, in case of Birth, will be (as Hippocrates has well observed[141]) about the 182d Day, or at the half Year’s End: Which (however) he calls a Septimestrian Birth, because the Ancients reckon’d their Year by Lunar Months, as they did their Months by the Course of the Moon; whereof 13 with some Days of the 14th Month constitute the Solar Year: Not that I mean they in the Interim were at all ignorant of the Solar Periods. And however, tho’ this Number of 182 Days make but up six Solar Months; yet, as it comprehends seven Lunar Months, and almost constitutes three Decades of Lunar Weeks, there can be no Repugnancy in that Wise Man’s Meaning, whatever some literal Interpreters may imagine to the contrary.
NOW this sixth Month being the second Solar Mutation, in it the Womb begins to be more severely oppress’d with the Weight and Bulk of its Burthen; for now the INFANT has assum’d Perfection, and (perhaps) got Strength sufficient to undergo its Fatigue in Labour, and Power enough to support Life, after its Birth; especially if procreated of the more vivid, valid, or excellent Seed; whose powerful Faculty and vigorous Quality may perhaps have perform’d the Work of Formation in 30, which otherwise would require 35, or more Days: In this Case (of consequence) the Birth will succeed at the above-mentioned happy Time; as appears more amply from what has been already set forth in Sect. 1. Chap. 9.
NOW from what has been said, I hope it appears highly reasonable to compute the legitimate Time of Birth, not only by Months and Moons, but also by Weeks and Days: Which however yet, I look not upon to be any very full, exact, or sufficient satisfactory Calculation; because (I think) we have also just Reason to compute this Time even by Hours and Minutes. Therefore how just soever Aristotle’s Observation (mentioned by Pliny[142]) may be, that no Animal expires but in the Reflux or Ebb of the Sea; I am yet positive, that Monsieur Paschal’s Notion (mentioned by Doctor Mead[143]) that all Births as well as Deaths fall out in the Reflux, and that no Animal is born or dies in the Flux, may be rationally controverted: For I must needs assert that, without any regard to his Senarian Fluxes and Refluxes, Births happen at every Hour of the Day or Night: and perhaps more naturally too in the Flux, than in the Reflux of the Sea. And this, I think, may appear evident, even from the self-same Reasons by which he endeavours to make out the Contrary[144]; namely, that intermitting Fevers have their greatest Paroxisms in the Time of the Flux, whereas they cease in the Reflux by sweating: collecting from hence, that the Motion, Vigour, and Force of Distempers are chiefly advanc’d in the Senary of the Flux; and on the contrary, that they are dissolved in the Senary of the Reflux. Which Observation, with respect to Fevers, this most excellent Doctor has found experimentally[145] True, as a great many others have also done.
BUT in the Case of a Woman in Labour, as (with Submission) I judge the Paroxisms to differ from the Nature of those in a Fever, so I humbly conceive that the Effect must prove the Reverse. For the Paroxisms in Birth, are nothing else than the Pains or Pangs of Labour; and who knows not that (in Case of a natural Situation of the INFANT and the WOMB) the greater These are, the more Success and Expedition attends the Birth? And who again knows not, that in this Case, the more vigorous Motion the INFANT makes, and the more Force and Strength that attends the Pains, the sooner the Delivery is perfected? Which, of consequence, according to his own Opinion, will fall out in the Senary of the Flux? In fine, again I farther observe, that, as the Reflux may be the appointed Time of Nature destinated to Death, so may the Flux be allotted to Birth; which (in my Mind) is as opposite to Death, as the Flux is to the Reflux of the Tide of the Sea.
WHEREFORE I am obliged to repeat it again here, that we ought to calculate the Legitimate Time of Birth, not only by Months, Weeks, and Days, but perhaps also by Hours and Minutes; and that because, according to the Great Galen’s Observation[146], as the Year, Month, or Week does not consist of entire Days, so neither does the Day of entire Hours: For as the Year consists of 365 Days, six Hours, and a few Minutes; and the Month of thirty Days, ten and a half Hours; and the Week of seven Days, two Hours, and twenty-seven Minutes; so the Day (in proportion) consists of 24 Hours and 21 Minutes: From whence I conclude (with that wise Man) that we can make no very nice Computation in this Affair, by full Days, without Fractions.
WHEREFORE it is that the most Learned and Inquisitive Boethogynists, or Female Physicians maintain, that they have always observed their Women to bring forth the self-same Hour of the Night or Day, in which they conceived: And This also daily Experience seems to confirm for Truth; because it is certain, that most Births happen in the Night-Time, or Dawning of the Day; at which Times, we may very probably suppose the Generality of Parents to be most employ’d that way: Whereupon, if This be True, Mr. Paschal’s Position will fall of course; and then that Assertion of a Legitimate BIRTH’s requiring, not only a certain and prefinite Number of Days, but also of Hours and Minutes, will more rationally be establish’d in its Room: Notwithstanding that Saying of Hippocrates[147] himself, after having distinguished upon the Times of BIRTH, That these Things fall out in a few Days more or less.
HOWEVER, in fine, from what has been said, (I hope) the Reasons I have given here, why one Number of Months, Weeks, and Days is more auspicious to the BIRTH, and more fortunate to the Child, than another, are by this Time made manifestly clear and self-evident. Now these Things being thus briefly accounted for, I must proceed in the next place (with the Reader’s good Leave) to provide for and prepare the Pregnant Woman, against the Expiration of these Months, Weeks, and Days.