Only let me advise you, that
many children that are born seemingly dead, may soon be brought to life
again, if you squeeze six or seven drops of blood out of that part of
the navel-string which is cut off, and give it to the child inwardly.
(2) As to the place in which it should be cut, that is, whether it
should be cut long or short, it is that which authors can scarcely agree
in, and which many midwives quarrel about; some prescribing it to be cut
at four fingers' breadth, which is, at best, but an uncertain rule,
unless all fingers were of one size. It is a received opinion, that the
parts adapted to the generation are contracted and dilated according to
the cutting of the navel-string, and this is the reason why midwives are
generally so kind to their own sex, that they leave a longer part of the
navel-string of a male than female, because they would have the males
well provided for the encounters of Venus; and the reason they give, why
they cut that of the female shorter is, because they believe it makes
them more acceptable to their husbands. Mizaldus was not altogether of
the opinion of these midwives, and he, therefore, ordered the navel
string to be cut long both in male and female children; for which he
gives the following reason, that the instrument of generation follows
the proportion of it; and therefore, if it be cut too short in a female,
it will be a hindrance to her having children.
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