Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 2 of 2).djvu/11

 ON PARTURITION. 529

felt both by herself and her sister, who occupied the same bed with her. No arguments of mine could divest her of this be- lief. The symptoms depended on flatulence and fat. Hence the best ascertained signs of pregnancy have sometimes de- ceived not only ignorant women, but experienced midwives, and even skilful and accurate physicians so that as mistakes are liable to arise, not only from deception on the part of the women themselves, but also from the erroneous tokens of preg- nancy, I should say that no rule is to be rashly laid down with respect to births taking place before the seventh or after the fourteenth month.

Unquestionably the ordinary term of utero-gestation is that which we believe was kept in the womb of his mother by our Saviour Christ, of men the most perfect ; counting, viz. from the festival of the Annunciation, in the month of March, to the day of the blessed Nativity, which we celebrate in Decem- ber. Prudent matrons, calculating after this rule, as long as they note the day of the month in which the catamenia usually ap- pear, are rarely out of their reckoning ; but after ten lunar months have elapsed, fall in labour, and reap the fruit of their womb the very day on which the catamenia would have ap- peared, had impregnation not taken place.

As regards the causes of labour, Fabricius, besides that of Galen 1 (who held " that the foetus was retained in utero until it was sufficiently grown and nourished to take food by the mouth," according to which theory weakly children ought to remain in utero longer than others, which they do not), gives another and a better reason, viz. " the necessity the foetus feels for more perfectly cooling itself by respiration, since the child breathes immediately on birth, but does not take food by the mouth. This is not only the case," he continues, " in man and quadrupeds, but has been particularly observed in birds : these, small as they are, and furnished as yet with but tender bills, peck through the egg-shell at the point where they have need of respiration ; and they do this rather through want of breath than of food, since the instant they quit the shell the function of respiration begins, whilst they remain without eat- ing for two days, or longer." This point, however, whether

1 De Non Part. lib. xv, cap. 7.

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