Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

leave to tranfcribe from thence, fuch particulars as feem most applicable to the prefent occafion.

"It is to be regretted that the generality of women are inclined to adopt an opinion fo unfavorable for their own repose, and which not only tends to disturb the mind and fill it with dreadful apprehenfions, but is alfo contrary to experience, found reafon, and the state of the animal oeconomy. To suppose that nature in the production of the human fpecies, fhould thus tranfgrefs her own laws, and be put out of her regular courfe, by trifling accidental caufes, is not only cruelty and difaffection to them. felves, but an affront to the wisdom and goodness of the Creator,

"No anatomift has ever been able to de monftrate the existence of nerves in the umbilical-cord or navel-ftring, which is the medium of all intercourfe between the mother and child; how then can the imagination of the firft extend its influence to

the

[ocr errors]

the last, without the mediation of nerves, which are the organs of all fenfation?

"A child in the womb has a body perfectly distinct from that of the mother, and is not at all affected by her fenfations, which ase entirely confined to her own fyftem; many inftances may be brought to prove that the one fleeps whilft the other is awake; the one is in pain when the other is at ease, and that each has a circulation of blood pes culiar to itself,

"It has been obferved that infants have often been mark'd, where there was no preceding disturbance in the mother's ima gination, and on the other hand, in cafes where it had been violently affected, the child has been free from marks and deformities. Hiftory informs us that Rizzio, fecretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was ftabbed in her prefence whilft she was pregnant, but notwithstanding the hors ror impreffed upon her mind by fuch a fight, fhe was delivered of a child, after

wards

wards James the first, who had not the least appearance of blood-colored marks or ftigmata.

"We are seriously told, that marks refembling red-currants, &c. become more red and vivid when those fruits are ripe; to which, if any reply be neceffary, it may be anfwered, that the palenefs or florid color of the skin depend on the quantity of blood paffing through the fmaller veffels on its furface, confequently it must appear most ruddy, in hot weather, when fuch fruits are in feafon. If the imagination has power to produce colors, as fome have weakly fuggefted; why fhould not the child as often be mark'd with green goofeberries as red currants, fince the mother may long for the one as well as the other.

"But feeing that marks and monfters do fometimes happen, how are they to be accounted for, or from what caufes do they proceed? perhaps from fome accidental vio

lence

[ocr errors]

lence disturbing the tender embryo, or from a difeafed ftamina, where the firft ftamp of its existence is defective.

"In a word, monftrous foetus's happen as often in brute animals, where the imagination is not fuppofed to operate, as in the human fpecies. Even the inanimate bodies of plants are fometimes preternaturally form'd. From the whole of these preceding circumftances, we may reasonably conclude that the mother's imagination can have no power either to alter the ftamina of the fœtus, or change the mode of its exiftence, by giving it additional parts, or taking away those which were already form'd.

SECTION.

SECTION VIII.

Of the Hæmorrhoids or Piles; Obftruction or Incontinence of Urine, Strangury, and Ul ceration of the Bladder.

NDOLENT and inactive women of grofs

INDO

habits are often fubject to the Hæmorrhoids or piles, efpecially during preg nancy, not only from the enlargement and preffure of the womb, but from costiveness so frequent at this juncture; both which obftruct the circulation, and overload the blood-veffels of the rectum fo as to occafion heat, throbbing, and acute pungent pains in the contiguous parts.

This disorder is diftinguished into blind and bleeding piles: The first, are not attended with any rupture of the veffels or discharge of blood, but in the last, the veins are so over charged, as to push outwards in form of irregular prominences which burst and pour out their contents.

The

« ForrigeFortsett »