HAVINGalready also particularly defin’d therealortrueConceptioninSect.III. Chap. I. I come now in like manner to theReverseof thatCase, properly call’d afalseConception. But that I may, in this Point, be well understood,——
AFalseConception, in my Opinion, is nothing else, but aProtuberancyof theWoman’sBelly, attended with some, if not with most, of theSymptomsof the Months ofGestation: which however, is no ways occasion’d by a humane FOETUS, but (on the contrary) either byWaterandWinds, orWindandWatervitiously mixed; which is also pertinently call’d aDropsyof theWomb: Or then, by a corruptedViscid, orpituitous Mattercollected in theWomb; and that either proceeding from weak and vitiousSeed, or from some extraordinaryIntemperatureof theWomb, which may hinder theElaborationof theSeedandBlood, and consequently theAccomplishmentof theConception: Or the same may also finally proceed from theImpurityof theMenstrua, which may corrupt theSeed, and convert it toAqueous,purulent, orotherHumours.
THISfalseConceptionis attended (besides the commonSymptomsof atrueConception) with inordinateFevers,Painsof theHead,Neck,Loins,Groins,Back, andBelly: WhichBellyswells sooner than in theConditionofrealConception; and which, if struck with theHand, gives aSoundlike aDrumwhence ’tis also call’d aTympany: The wholeBodyis hence discoloured; theFeet, and sometimes theFaceswells; and only a little (if any)wateryMilkis found in theBreasts.THECureof theCasedepends entirely upon properEvacuations, peculiar to theQualityof what is to be evacuated. Whence I come to treat of theConceptionofMoles.