The true cause of this fleshy mole is due both to
the man and from the menstruous blood in the woman both mixing together
in the cavity of the womb. Nature finding herself weak there (and yet
wishing to propagate her species), labours to bring forth a defective
conception rather than nothing and instead of a living creature produces
a lump of flesh.
SIGNS.
The signs of a mole are these. The _menses_ are suppressed, the appetite
becomes depraved, the breasts swell and the stomach becomes inflated and
hard. So far the symptoms in a pregnant woman and in one that has a mole
are the same, but now this is how they differ. The first sign of
difference is in the movements of a mole. It may be felt moving in the
womb before the third month, whereas an infant cannot be so felt; yet
this motion cannot proceed from any intelligent power in the mole, but
from the capabilities of the womb, and of the seminal vigour,
distributed through the substance of the mole, for it does not live an
animal, but a vegetable life, like a plant. _Secondly_, in a mole the
stomach swells suddenly, but in true conception it is first contracted,
and then rises by degrees. _Thirdly_, if the stomach is pressed with the
hand, the mole gives way, and returns to its former position as soon as
the hand is removed.
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