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OF AN EIGHT-MONTH BIRTH. - Hippocrates, The Writings of Hippocrates and Galen [1846]

Edition used:

The Writings of Hippocrates and Galen. Epitomised from the Original Latin translations, by John Redman Coxe (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1846).

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OF AN EIGHT-MONTH BIRTH.

DE OCTIMESTRI PARTU,FŒSIUS, Treat. vi. p. 258
DE OCTIMESTRI PARTU,HALLER, ii. p. 99.
TRAITÉ DE LA GROSSESSE DE HUIT MOIS,GARDEIL, ii. p. 452.

Haller has no specific preface to this treatise, that of the preceding being apparently intended to answer for both. The argument of its contents is as follows.

Why an eight-month birth is less likely to survive than one of ten months. In what manner the fœtus is more safely nourished. Some observations respecting the umbilicus and the menstrual discharge; also concerning an eleven-month birth.

It is evident, says Gardeil, that the author of this treatise is the same with that of the preceding. The titles of this, and of the following treatise (on Superfœtation) scarcely correspond with their contents. They refer chiefly to parturition, and to the state of females in relation to pregnancy and conception; subjects more extensively treated of, and nearly in the same way, in the treatise on female diseases.

The general contents are the following.

Why all eight-month children die, whilst those of ten months mostly live. The most likely to survive are those born after the full complement of nine months. Of the numerous dangers of the fœtal state, at birth and subsequently. The superiority of a head presentation. Children often contract a disposition to disease in the uterus, from the navel-string being twisted around the neck, and from other causes. Dangers arising from changes in food, situation, clothing, &c., so different after birth. The navel the only medium of communication between the mother and child. Of the measures to be pursued to strengthen and invigorate children. Of births at ten and eleven months. Pregnancy may participate in eleven lunations, without exceeding two hundred and eighty days. Three days the shortest period of menstruation; but for the most part it continues longer. It is from the termination of this, that most females conceive; hence great variation in their statements, &c.