To conclude, the most certain sign to give credit to, is the motion of
the child, for the male moves in the third month, and the female not
until the fourth.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XIII
_Of Untimely Births._
When the fruit of the womb comes forth before the seventh month (that
is, before it comes to maturity), it is said to be abortive; and, in
effect, the children prove abortive, that is, do not live, that are born
in the eighth month. Why children born in the seventh or ninth month
should live, and not those born in the eighth, may seem strange, and yet
it is true. The cause of it is ascribed by some to the planet under
which the child is born; for every month, from conception to birth, is
governed by its own planet, and in the eighth month Saturn predominates,
which is dry and cold; and coldness, being an utter enemy to life,
destroys the natural constitution of the child. Hippocrates gives a
better reason, viz.:--The infant, being every way perfect and complete
in the seventh month, wants more air and nourishment than it had before,
and because it cannot obtain this, it tries for a passage out. But if it
have not sufficient strength to break the membranes and to come out as
ordained by nature, it will continue in the womb until the ninth month,
so that by that time it may be again strengthened.
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