fe ‘ 
2g CULPEPER’s ENGLISH PHYSICIAN, 
Some women indeed are more healthy during their pregnancy than at any other 
time; but this is by no means the general cafe: moft of them breed in forrow, and 
are frequently indifpofed during the whole time of pregnancy. Few fatal difeafes, 
however, happen during that period; and hardly any, except abortion, that can be 
called dangerous. Every pregnant woman is more or lefs in danger of abortion. 
This fhould be guarded againft with the greateft care, as it not only weakens the 
conftitution, but renders the woman liable to the fame misfortune afterwards. Abor- 
tion may happen at any period of pregnancy, but it is moft common in the fecond 
or third month. Sometimes, however, it happens in the fourth or fifth. If it hap- 
pens with the firft month, it is ufually called a falfe conception ; if after the feventh 
month, the child may often be kept alive by proper care. The common caufes of 
abortion are, the death of the child; weaknefs or relaxation of the mother; great 
evacuations ; violent exercife; jumping, or ftepping from an eminence; vomit- 
ing, coughing, convulfion-fits, ftrokes on the belly, falls, fevers, difagreeable 
fmells, excefs of blood, indolence, high living, or the contrary, violent paflions or 
affections of the mind, as fear, grief, &c.. When any figns of abortion appear, the 
woman ought to be laid in bed on a mattrafs, with her head low. She fhould be 
~ kept quiet, and her mind foothed and comforted. She ought not to be kept too hot, 
nor to take any thing of a heating nature. Her food fhould confift of broths, rice 
- and milk, jellies, gruels made of oat-meal, and the like, all of which ought to be 
taken cold. If fhe be able to bear it, fhe fhould lofe, at leaft, half a pound of blood 
from the arm. Her drink ought to be barley-water, fharpened with juice of lemon; 
or fhe may take half a drachm of powdered nitre, in a cup of water-gruel, every 
five or fix hours. If the woman be feized with a violent loofenefs, fhe ought to 
drink the decoétion of calcined hartfhorn prepared. If the be affeéted with vomit- _ 
“ing, let her take frequently forty drops of the Lunar Tinéture in a wine-glafs of cold 
{pring water. In general, opiates are of fervice, but they fhould always be given 
with caution. Sanguine robuft women, who are liable to mifcarry at a certain time 
of pregnancy, ought always to be bled a few days before that period arrives. By 
this means, and Lsielietie: in the Lunar. Dae they might always efcape that : 
OF CHILD- BIRTH. 
THOU the: management of women in child-bed has been practifed as an em- 
ployment fince the earlieft accounts of time, yet it is ftill, in moft countries, on a 
very bad footing. Few women think of following this employment till they be re- 
duced to the neceffity of Going i it for bread. Hence not one in a hundred of them 
have any education, or proper knowledge of their bufinefs. It is true, that nature, 
if left to herfelf, will gaeedly expel d the foetus ; but it is equally true, that moft 
women 
