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. 



34 



