CHAP. VIII.

How the Child grows in the Womb, and one part after the other successively made.

MEn are of several minds concerning the time when each part is made; I think they are in the right, who maintain that the membranes are first made which wrap the Child, with the Navel-vessels by which the Child is fastned to the Mothers womb, and draws nutriment from her, and all parts are made sooner or later, as dignity and necessity Page  133 of the parts require, but this is thought to be the hardest piece of Anatomy, because it is sel∣dome to be observed, because if women dye in child-bed they first miscarry and dye after∣ward. Some follow Galen herein, who ne∣ver saw a woman Anatomized▪ others Colum∣bus, some Vesalius, but few or none know the truth. The stones of a woman for generati∣on of seed, are white, thick and well con∣cocted, for I have seen one, and but one and that is more by one than many Men have seen. In the act of Copulation both eject their seed, which is united in the womb▪ and Boys or Girls are begotten as the seed is that prevails stronger or weaker, so the greater light puts out the lesser, the Sun the light of a Candle. Nature desires to beget its like in all things, a Man a Man-child, a woman one of her own sex; but we follow desire not nature when we with the contrary. If the Horse or Mare trot, it were strange that the Filly should amble.

The seed of both persons being joyn'd, the Matrix presently shuts as close as may be, to keep in, and to fasten the seed by its native heat, and so womens bellies seem lank at their first conception. The first thing that works is the spirit of which the seed is full, this is stir'd up to action by heat of the womb, Page  134 and though the seed seems to be homogeneous and all one substance, yet it consists of very different parts, some pure and some impure; the spirit then in the seed divides between these parts, and makes a separation of the earthy, cold, clammy, grosser parts, from the more aerial, pure, and noble parts. The impure are cast to the outside, to circle in and keep close the seed which is pure, and of the outside are the Membranes made, by which the seed inclosed is kept from danger of cold and other ill accidents▪ just as it is in Trees so it is here, the cold winter congeals the vital spirits of the Tree, but the Suns heat revives it in the Spring, and opens the pores of the Tree, and separates the clean from the which is unclean, making of the pure juyce flowers, of the impure and gross juyce leaves and bark.

The first thing Nature makes for the child, is the Amnios or inward skin that surrounds the Child in the womb, as the Pia mater doth the brain: next is the Chorion or outward skin made, which compasseth the Child, as the dura mater the brain▪ this is soon done by nature, for God and nature hate idleness, and no sooner are these two coats made, but presently the Navel-Vein is bred, piercing both these skins whilest they are exceeding tender; and conveighs a drop of blood from Page  135 the mothers womb-veins to the seed; of this one drop is formed the Childs Liver, from the Liver is bred the hollow Vein, and this Vein is the fountain of all other Veins of the body, so this being done, the seed hath blood suffi∣cient to feed it and to form the rest of the parts by. It is a vain fancy that some hold, how that all the parts are formed together, others that the heart is first framed; it must receive a right construction what Aristotle saith, that the Heart lives first and dyeth last, for the Liver is made much before the Heart. Nor is that if it be well understood to be found fault with, that a Man lives successively, first the life of a Plant, then of a Beast, and lastly of a Man. For first the Child grows, then it begins to move, last of all it becomes a reasonable Soul. Next to the hollow Vein of the Liver being made, are the arteries of the navel made, then the great Artery which is the Tree, and all the small Arteries are but branches coming from it; & last of all the Heart is framed, as Columbus proves upō very sufficient reason, for all the ar∣teries are made before it, for the Body receives its life by Arteries, and the Navel arteries are bred from the Mothers arteries, and there∣fore are made next to the Veins, to give vital blood to the Seed, as the Liver feeds it with natural blood to build a frail house for poor Page  136 mortals. Next in order, so far as reason and Anatomy can guide us, the Liver sends blood to the Arteries to make the Heart, for the ar∣teries are made of seed, but the heart and all fleshy parts are made of blood; last of all the brain, and then the Nerves to give feeling and motion are produced. If the most noble parts were first framed, as the Peripateticks suppose, then the brain and heart should be first made, which is not agreeing to reason and observation. As for the forming of the bones in order, I think Aristotle said true, that the whirl bones and the skull are first made. I confess all these things have been questioned by some, but I love not impertinent disputes, as it was the quality of the Grecians, who have made a large dispute, whether the Elephants Tusks be Horns or Teeth. Hippocrates divides the forming of the infant into four divisions:

First the seed of both sexes mixed have not lost their own form, but resemble curdled milk covered with a film or cream: the next form is a rude draught of the parts, or a chaos like a lump of flesh. And next in order there is a more curious draught, wherein the three chief parts, the Brain, the Heart, and the Liver, may be seen together with the first three, and as it were the warp of all the seed parts, and this is called Embrion: But Page  137 fourthly, To perfect the whole work, all the parts are set in order and perfected, so that Nature hath nothing to do but to hasten to delivery, that this work of hers may be brought forth into the world. When the spirit in the seed begins to work, it parts the more noble from the base, and the pure from the impure, so that the thick, cold, clammy parts are kept out to cover the more thin and pure parts, and to defend and preserve them. Nature begins her conformation with the cold clammy parts of the seed, and makes skins and membranes of them to cover the rest, and stretcheth them out as need requires. Men have only two membranes, the outward or Chorion which is strong and nervous, and wraps the infant round, and this membrane is like a soft pillow for the Veins and Navel-arteries of the Child to lean upon, for it had been dangerous for the Childs Vessels coming from its Navel to pass far unguarded: but the inward Coat which is wonderful soft and thin, called the Amnios or Lamb-skin is loose on each side ex∣cept it be at the cake, where it growes so fast to the skin that it cannot easily be parted; this skin receives the sweat and Urine, and from thence the Child is much helped, for it swims in these waters like as in a bath, and time is for delivery, it moistneth the orifice of Page  138 the Matrix, makes it glib and slippery where∣by the woman is more easily and more speedi∣ly delivered.

These two Coats grow so close together that they seem to be but one garment, and it is called the Secundine or after-burthen, be∣cause it comes forth after the Child is born, for the Child first breaks through it, & sometimes brings along with it a piece of the said Lamb-skin upon the face and head, which is called by Midwives the Caule, and strange reports they give of it.

Some think it ridiculous and fabulous, but as all extraordinary things signifie something more than is usual, so I am subject to believe that this Caule doth foreshew something nota∣ble which is like to befall them in the course of their lives.

But notwithstanding all that hath been said, some Anatomists do a little vary from it, for they maintain, that within the first seven days wherein the generative seed is mingled and curdled in the Mothers womb by the heats motion, many small fibres are bred, in which shortly the Liver and his principal Organs are formed first, and through these Organs the vital spirits coming to the seed in ten days makes all the distinction of parts, and through some small Veins in the Secundine the Page  139 blood runs, and of that is the Navel made, and there appears at the same time three clods of seed or white lumps like curdled Milk, & these are the foundation of three principal parts, viz. the Brain, the Liver, and the Heart. But the Liver is confest to be first made of a blood ga∣thered by one branch of this Vein, for the Li∣ver it self is nothing else but a lump of clotted blood full of Veins which serve to attract and to expell; but immediately before the Liver is made, there is a two-forked Vein formed through the navel, to suck away the grosser part of the blood that rests in the seed. In the other branch of this vein more veins are made for the spleen and lower belly, and all of them coming to one root meet in the upper part of the Liver in the hollow Vein, & from hence o∣ther Veins are sent out of the Midriff to the thighs below, & to the upper part of the back∣bone; next this the heart is made with its veins, for these veins draw the hottest part of the blood & that which is most subtil, & so make the heart: within the membrane called the Peri∣cardium or skin that covers the heart, the hollow Vein runs through the inward part of the right side of the heart carrying blood to it to feed it: from the same branch of this vein and the same part of the heart is there another vein that beats but faintly, there∣fore Page  140 called the still Vein, amongst the pulsative Veins, and this is provided to send the more pure blood by from the heart to the Lungs, they are covered with a double Coat as the Arteries are.

The Artery called Aorta, that conveighs the vital spirits through the whole body from the heart by the beating Veins or arteries, is bred in the hollow of the left Vein of the heart, and under this artery in the same hollow place of the heart is another Vein bred which is called the vein-artery, that brings the cold air from the Lungs to cool the heart, for the Lungs are made by many Veins that run from the hollow of the heart, and come thither to frame the Lungs; and they have their sub∣stance from a very thin subtil blood that is brought thither from the right hollow of the heart.

The breast is first framed by the great Veins of the Liver, and after that the outmost parts, the legs and arms.

But last of all the Brain is made in the third little skin I speak of, for the seed being full of vital spirits, the vital spirits draw much of the natural moisture, into one hollow place where the brain is made, and covered with a Coat which heat drieth and bakes into a skull.

The Veins come all from the Liver, Arte∣ries Page  141 from the Heart, Nerves from the brain, of a soft gentle nature, yet not hollow as Veins are, but solid; the Brain retains and changes the vital spirits, from hence are the beginnings of sense and reason.

After the Nerves the pith of the back-bone is bred which cannot be called Marrow, for Marrow is a superfluous substance made of blood to moisten and strengthen the bones, but the pith of the back and brain are made of seed, not to serve other parts, but to be also parts of themselves, for sense and motion, that all the Nerves might grow originally from thence; also Bones Gristles, Coats, and Membranes are bred from the seed, Veins for the Liver, Arteries for the Heart, Nerves for the Brain, besides all other pannicles and co∣verings the child is wrapped in. But all fleshy substance as the Heart it self, Liver, and Lungs, are made of the proper blood of the birth; this is all ended in eighteen days of the first month, and all that time it carrieth the name of seed, and afterwards is called the birth; and this birth so long as it is in the womb is fed with blood received through the Navel, and therefore when women are with child the courses cease; for after conception this blood is severed into three parts, the best and finest serves for the childs nourishment, the next Page  142 in pureness though not so pure as the first, ri∣seth to the breasts to make milk, and the grossest part of the three stays in the womb and comes away with the birth and after-birth.

But this is a long dispute how the child comes to be fed in the womb. Alcmeon thought the childs body being soft like a sponge did draw nourishment by all parts of its body, as a sponge sucks water, not only drinking from the mothers veins but from the womb also. Hippocrates as well as Democri∣tus or Epicurus seems to say, that the child sucks both nourishment and breath at the mouth, from the mother when she breaths, for these two causes.

1. Because it could not suck so soon as it is born were it not used to it before.

2. There are excrements found in the Guts of a new born child; but all creatures that suck will do it presently by instinct of nature; as Chickins that never fed before, will present∣ly pick up their food; and as for the excre∣ments found in the Guts they are not excre∣ments of the first concoction, for they stink not, but are gross blood that came from the Vessels of the spleen to the Guts and are dried there; but now it is agreed by all since the truth is found out, that the child in the womb Page  143 is fed by its Navel, only they differ about the food it lives on, the Peripateticks say it is fed by menstrual blood which is the excrement of the last nutriment of the fleshy parts, which at certain times is purged forth by the womb in a moderate quantity, but primarily ordained for the generation and nutriment of the child.

But Fernelius, Pliny, Columella, and Colum∣bus deny this, because such blood is impure, and will, where it falls, destroy Plants, and Trees, Dogs will run mad that eat it, and ofttimes hurts the women themselves, causing swimmings of the head, pains, swel∣lings, and suffocations, this then were ill food for a tender infant.

But to answer all: If the woman be in good health, her monthly courses are no bad blood for quality though they hurt in quanti∣ty being more than she can concoct▪ and therefore she sends forth what is too much▪ but if her body be ill affected, the blood that stays in the womb is naught as well as that she voids by her terms, but when the courses are not duly voided but stay, in being stopt beyond their time of evacuation, then they cause those ill effects formerly mentioned, else not: but women have not these courses the greatest part of the time they are with child, Page  144 nor yet when they give suck, for the most part; if the child be not fed with this blood what becomes of this blood when women are with child? certain it is it turns into milk, when time serves, to suckle the infant with. Yet Hippocrates was mistaken, who says, that the last part of the time the child lieth in the womb after it is quick, its fed partly by the mother milk; but this is certain that the infant in the womb is fed with pure blood convey∣ed in the Liver by the Navel-vein which is a branch of the great vein, and spreads to the small veins of the Liver. And here this blood is more refined, the thick, gross, crude part goes to the Spleen and Kidneys, and the gross excrement of it to the Guts, and that is it is found in the Guts as soon as they are born. The most pure part goes into the hollow vein, and from thence through the whole body by small branches; this blood hath a watry sub∣stance with it, as all blood hath, to make it run and keep it from clodding, and this water in men and women breaths forth by sweat, & so it doth in a child, and is contain'd in the Lamb-skin, as I told you. This watry sub∣stance that is joined with the blood, when the blood comes to the kidneys, parts from the blood, and is sent by the kid∣neys, that make their separation, by the Ure∣ters Page  145 to the bladder; nor doth the infant piss as he lieth in the womb by the Yard, but the Urine is carryed by the Ʋrachos, a vessel to carry it, which is long and without blood, to the Allantois, •or skin that is made to hold the childs water in, so long as it remains in the womb; this Ʋrachos or passage goeth from the bottom of the bladder to the Allantois, and hath no muscle belongs unto it, that the child may void the Urine when nature requires, but when the child is born it hath muscles at the root of the bladder, to shut and open that we may make it not a meer natural, but partly a mixed action, to follow our business, and make water, not alwayes but when we please; but this is not the course with the child continually, for the first month the childs Urine comes out through the passage of the Navel, but in the last month by the Yard▪ but it never goes to stool in the womb because it takes no nutriment by the mouth. After for∣ty five days, the child lives, but moves not, commonly he moves in double the time he was formed, and is born in thrice the time af∣ter he began to move. If the child be fully formed in forty days, her will move in ninety days, and be born in the ninth month, but he receives daily more food after the third and fourth month to the day of his birth. A child Page  146 born in six months is not perfect and must die, but one born in seven months is perfect, but one born in the eight month cannot live, be∣cause in the seventh month the child useth all its force to come out, and if it cannot, it must stay two months longer to recover the strength lost upon the former attempt that had made it too feeble to get forth in the eighth month, for if it come not forth at the seventh month it removes its station and changeth it self to some other place in the womb; these two motions have so weak∣ened it, that it must stay behind a month longer, for if it come forth before, it is almost impossible for it to live. But Astrologers de∣termine this business another way, for they af∣firm, that children born in the seventh month do live by reason of the compleating of the motion of the seven planets, allowing one month to each of them, beginning with Sa∣turn thus; Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna. Now if the child come not forth at the seventh month, but stay till the eighth month, the Planets having ruled every one his month, Saturn begins to rule again, who is an enemy to conception in all his qua∣lities, and so the child born in the eighth month will be born dead, or live a very short time; yet other Philosophers maintain, that Page  147 Saturn is no enemy to conception, but ruling in the first month▪ by his influence and reten∣tive faculty, the child is fixed in the womb; but as the celestial bodies have their influence upon the terrestial and upon all the elements, they cause all the changes here below, and are not changed themselves: for that the Heaven•, and the fixed Stars, and the Planets are still the same they were in the first creation, and that the twelve Signs and Planets do rule o∣ver the bodies of men and women; and how that Scorpio which is the house of Mars, rules over the womb and makes it fruitful; and that Leo is a barren Sign, because Lions sel∣dom bring forth young, and so is Virgo for they are no maids that conceive with child. But then why should not Taurus be a barren but a fruitful Sign, when Bulls never bring forth any. But not to trouble the reader with Astrological dreams. I think it is not the se∣ven Planets that by this complement of seven make the child to live, but I should rather impute it to the perfection of the number se∣ven, which is easily proved by Scripture to be the most perfect number, and will appear so to be by the Sabbath the seventh day of the week commanded for rest; also the Sabbati∣cal or every seventh year, and the year of Ju∣bilee seven times seven. So that Hippocrates Page  148 was out in three books, where he endeavours to prove that a child born in the eighth month cannot live; Aristotle, Plutarch, Galen, and o∣thers were of the same judgement. But to oppose them, the writers of Spain, Egypt, and of Nanas prove the contrary by divers exam∣ples: Hippocrates might be also misunderstood, whether he meant Solar months that consist of thirty one days a piece, or very near, be∣ing the time the Sun is passing through the Zodiack, or Lunar months, the time the moon is in any Sign of the twelve, and her stay there which is but twenty seven days, with some few hours and minutes; besides all this, the woman, Hippocrates mentions, might not make her reckoning right; for if you trust to womens account you can be at no certain∣ty, scarce one of a hundred can tell you true. And as for Saturn, who is so much blamed for playing the ill Midwife in the eighth month, he is as much commended for his good of∣fice in the first month; but there is no man, or Planet that can alwayes have every mans good word; yet I am of opinion they do him wrong: but Astrologers may say what they please without reason, for they never prove any thing but one dream by ano∣ther. Aries forsooth is not fruitful because it is the House of Mars, and is not Scorpio which Page  149 they praise for fructifying the house of Mars too? Every Planet is maintained by them to rule the severai parts of mans body, and that by degrees according to their signs and several Houses they are in. I have found no Table concerning this business to have any truth in it, wherefore I have drawn forth one exactly which you may safely rely upon, if upon any Table at all, and by this Table you shall find that every Planet when he is in Scorpio, which signifies fruitfulness of the womb, rules those parts of the body which are under the same Sign: the two great Luminaries, I mean the Sun and Moon, excepted, which do it by re∣ception; a clear proof that they have a great influence in framing the child in the womb, and that the two Luminaries in that work; mingle their influence one with the other.