Aristotle's manual of choice secrets shewing the whole mystery of generation : with receipts to prevent barrenness, and cause conception : very necessary to be known and practiced by all midwives, nurses, & young married women / translated out of Latin by J.P.

CHAP. IV. Shewing by the Signs, whether a Woman shall be delivered of a Boy or a Girl.

THe Midwife having given her Opinion the Wo∣man is certainly with Child, many times a Nice Question is started, viz. Whether it be a Boy or a Girl? For Mothers are very desirous to know what they carry, if it be pos∣sible for them to be certi∣fied in it: Then as before, she must Deliberate, and not Determine by Guess, for so, notwithstanding she may some times be in the right, but oftener in the Wrong, and be accounted of no know∣ing

Experience in this Nice Point.

If it be a Boy, the Nipple waxeth Red and sometimes Blackish, especially about the third or fourth Month, when the Woman begins to quick∣en, and the colour in the Mothers Face rather grows more Lively and fresh, than decreasing or declining to Paleness. The right Breast is harder and firmer; and the Milk grows whiter and thicker, and being spirted against a Looking-glass, or smooth Steel, the small Sparkles continue round like Pearls, and in Water mingles not, but sinks directly to the bottom; and if you make a Cake with Milk, it will in

the Baking continue firm and very close, if the Milk of a Boy; if not, it will be Spungy. The Right Side of the Belly will be bigger and more Cop∣pid than the Left. The stir∣ring of the Womb is oftener and more lively. The Male Child lieth above the Navel, by reason of it's heat. The Mother will be quick and Nimble, and of a healthful Constitution in her condition, &c.

If it be a Girl, it lieth low in the Belly, as it were at the bottom, because of the Coldness and Weight of the matter that forms it. The Mother at sundry times has a Pale, Heavy, and Dusky Com∣plexion, her Eyes not bright and sparkling or Lively. She

is Froward, Fretful, and of∣ten Pained in the Back and Shoulders. Her Left Breast bigger than the Right, the Milk thin and blewish, her Belly often flatting, and the Motion lieth on the Left side; and is seldom quick till the fourth Month: The Veins of her Thighs and Groin are bigger and knotti∣er on the Left side than on the Right. To make a further Experiment, take an equal quantity of Claret, and the first Urin in the Morning, put them in a Urinal, and let them stand twelve hours, and if a gross Cloud appear in the middle, it denotes a Girl, but if at the bottom, a Boy; if nothing, that she is not with Child.