NATUREhas endued theWombwith thisFaculty, to the end that it may (inPregnancy) extend and dilate itself Day by Day, inProportionto theGrowthof theInfant,Secundine, andHumours.
NOWtheWombin itslower Partbeing straitly tied to theIntestinum RectumandBladder; it is to be understood that theDistentionhappens mostly in its superiour Part orBottom: Which is not only mostFreeand at greatestLiberty, but alsoThickestand aptest forDilatation.
THISwill appear more evident, when we consider how theInfantadheres to that Part, theBottom, by means of theSecundine: How theInfantalso as it grows, begins to separate theHumoursin theSecundine, which (of consequence) encrease as theInfantdoes: And how again the Encrease of theHumoursfill up theChinksandVacuums, as I may call them, which theInfantcannot possess. From hence it is that theWombextends itself in theFormof aPear, only a littlePlainerat Both Ends.
THUStheSecundineadhering[155]to theBottomof theWomb, by itsthicker Part(call’d thePlacenta,) thence it is that theWombencreases and extends itself more in itsBottom, than in anyinferiour Part.
WHEREFOREtheWombbeing most extended in its upper Part, call’d theBottom; and both theBladderandRectumbelow being soft looseParts, it necessarily follows, that theWombmay freelyascendanddescendupon Occasion, as we often find it in theCavityof theBelly; which, however, does not happen to AllWomenalike.
BUT, in short, theseextensiveandascensive Facultiesof theWomb, chiefly residing in itsBottom; I would have it laid down for a certainMaximof Truth, thatTheseexert themselves, without any the leastExtenuationto theUterine Substance: Which Position leads me directly to consider——