On Seven-Month Birth — First Draft Translation

ON SEVEN-MONTH BIRTH. Seven-month births occur from one hundred and eighty-two days plus a fractional part. For if you reckon fifteen days for the first month, and one hundred and forty-seven and a half days for the five months — since two months are completed in close to fifty-nine days (lit. 'sixty lacking one') — then, these being so, there remain more than twenty days into the seventh month, the fractional part of the day being reckoned proportionally toward the half of the year. 1. Whenever, then, [the embryo] comes to the beginning of its completion, the embryo having ripened and gained greatly in strength at the time of completion more than at other periods, the membranes in which it was nourished from the start — like the husks of ears of grain — relaxed before they were forced to, sooner than the fruit had fully ripened. The strongest and most robust of the embryos, having forced their way through and burst the membranes, compelled birth to occur. And most of these perished; for being small, they undergo a greater change than the others; and they are compelled to endure the forty-day hardship after coming out of the womb; and this kills many of the ten-month births as well. 2. There are some of these seven-month births that do survive — few out of many — because the proportion and the time during which [the embryo] was nourished in the womb somehow established it to share in all that the most complete [fetuses] share in — those most likely to survive — and it departed from the mother before contracting the ailments suffered in the eighth month. For if, on top of these travails, it should happen that the child comes to light, it is impossible for it to survive on account of the sufferings I have mentioned, which I assert kill the eight-month births — and many of the ten-month births as well. Most embryos of this seven-month age, when the membranes loosen, have shifted to the place that yielded, and there the embryo takes its nourishment; undergoing distress during the first forty days — some more, some less — on account of the change it underwent from the places that had nourished it, and because the navel-cord was stretched and it shifted position, and because of the mother's travails. 3. For the membranes being stretched and the navel-cord being strained cause pain to the mother; and the embryo, released from its old binding, becomes heavier; and many women also develop fever as these things happen, and some perish together with their embryos. All women use one account about this: they say that the eighth of the months is the hardest, and that they carry their bellies most difficultly — and they say this rightly. But the eighth month is not only this particular period; it would also take in days from the seventh month and from the ninth. However, women do not speak or reckon the days in the same way; for they are misled by the fact that it does not always happen identically — sometimes more days from the seventh month are added to the forty, sometimes from the ninth; for this must happen according to however it chances that the woman has conceived, in terms of the month and of the time. The eighth month itself is undisputed — it occurs in the course of it, so as to make the matter hard to judge — and it is one part in ten months, so that it is easily divided. One must not disbelieve the women concerning births; for they say all these things and they always say them and always will say them; for they could not be persuaded otherwise, either by deed or by argument — only by recognition of what is happening in their own bodies. 4. Those wishing to say something else are free to do so, but those who judge and award the prize in this matter will always say and maintain that both seven-month and eight-month and nine-month and ten-month births occur, and that of these the eight-month births do not survive. They will also maintain that the most miscarriages occur in the first forty-day period, and the other things recorded in each forty-day period and in each of the months; and that when in the seventh month the membranes break and the embryo shifts position, the travails associated with the eighth month and with the sixth forty-day period follow. When this period has passed, in those cases where things are to go well, the inflammations of the embryo and of the mother are loosened, the womb has softened, and the swelling has descended from the hypochondria and the flanks to the lower regions — a turn toward readiness for birth. And the seventh forty-day period is where the embryos spend most of this time; for the regions [surrounding them] are soft, and their movements become easier and more frequent; and for these reasons they settle into a state more readily resolved toward birth. And women carry these last forty days more easily in their bellies, until the embryo begins to turn; after which the labor pains and the travails press on, until she is freed of both the child and the afterbirth. And those women who have given birth to many children, of whom some turned out lame, or blind, or with some other defect, will say that during that particular child's [gestation] the eighth month was harder to get through than during those from which they bore children with no defect; for the embryo that was maimed fell severely ill in the eighth month, so that the illness produced an apostasis — just as severe illnesses have done in men. 5. Whatever embryos fall severely ill at any other time perish before an apostasis can form in them; but whatever eight-month embryos do not fall severely ill, but suffer distress in the natural course of the process, these spend the forty days mostly weakened in the womb because of the necessities described above, yet emerge in health. Whatever is born within these forty days cannot survive; for while it is still sick in the womb, the changes and hardships that follow birth come upon it. But whatever embryo recovers from sickness in the womb and reaches the ninth month, if it is born in that month, does survive — it survives no less than the seven-month births, though few of these too are reared to full health; for they lack the bodily substance that the most complete [births] have, and the travails suffered in the womb are not long in the past for them, so that they emerge thin. 7. It would be most likely to be saved if born at the exit of the ninth month; for it would be stronger and furthest removed from the ailments that befall the eight-month births. And indeed those born in seven forty-day periods — called ten-month births — are for this reason most successfully reared: they are the strongest and stand furthest, in time, from the viable offspring's period of suffering through the forty diseased days around the eighth month. The nine-month births that are born thin — thin in proportion to the length of time they have been in gestation and the size of the body — having arrived from the distress of sickness, also make this clear concerning the ailments and sufferings that befall the eight-month births; they are not born fleshed out and having good bodily substance as the seven-month births are born — [seven-month births] having remained free of illness throughout the time they were carried in the womb. 9. In women, the conceptions of embryos, the miscarriages, and the births are decided in the same [periods] in which illnesses, states of health, and deaths are decided for human beings in general. For all of these things are marked out — some by days, some by months, some by forty-day periods, some by the year; for in all these periods there is much that is favorable and much that is contrary to each [thing]; from the favorable conditions come health and growth; from the contrary conditions come illness and death. Now, the most critical of the days in most cases are the first and the seventh, important both in regard to illnesses and to embryos — for miscarriages also occur most often on these days; [losses] of that size are called fluxes, not miscarriages; and the other days within the forty, less prominent, yet many of them bring decisions. What happens by months is present according to the same proportion as what happens by days. And the monthly flows appear in healthy women each month, as if the month has its own power [to act] in bodies. From this it is that the seventh months bring pregnant women to the beginning of completion; and in seven-month-old children other notable changes occur in the body, and the teeth begin to appear at this time. The same reasoning applies also to critical days, if indeed one should use these as I have described — I will speak of them for the sake of inquiry; for a physician who intends to make sound conjecture toward the preservation of the sick ought to observe all the odd [days], and of the even ones the fourteenth, the twenty-eighth, the fortieth, and the forty-second. This boundary is set by some through the principle of harmonia — the even-natured and complete number; the reason why would be too lengthy to set out at the present time; one should observe in the following manner, by threes and by fours — the threes all joined consecutively, the fours joined two by two and coupled two by two. The forty-day periods first decide in the case of embryos; whatever survives beyond the first forty days escapes the miscarriages that occur throughout; more miscarriages occur in the first forty-day period than in all the rest together. Once this period has passed, the embryos are stronger, and the body is differentiated in each of the limbs; in males everything becomes quite clearly marked; in females, up to this time, only flesh appears bearing outgrowths alone; for what is similar in a similar [environment] remains similar for a longer time, and is differentiated more slowly, on account of familiarity and affinity. And yet in other respects, when daughters have separated from the mother, they mature faster than boys, and come to understanding and to old age faster, on account of the weakness of their bodies and their diaita (regimen / way of living). Another forty-day period: the one in which the embryos in the womb fall ill around the eighth month, about which the whole account is given as stated. A third: the one in which children, when they are born and have undergone hardship, if they escape the forty days, appear clearly stronger and more mentally alert — for they see the light more plainly, and hear sound before they were able to, as this period brings advancement in other respects and in the awareness that [comes] through the body. 9 (50). For the individual awareness is plainly present in the body from the very first day; for in their sleep, immediately upon birth, the children appear laughing and weeping; and waking spontaneously they immediately laugh and weep before forty days have passed; yet they do not laugh when touched and provoked until this time itself has come; for the capacities are dulled in the mucous states. And death has fallen to it by its lot. So that it is for all a proof that all things, being of the same [stuff], have the nature to undergo changes in the times that come upon them. Something of what comes to be and ceases to be is made manifest in each [period]; and in the completed year many illnesses occur and many states of health, according to the proportion of the time, in relation to the months and to each day by sevens; and many other notable things happen to bodies; and in children the teeth fall out and others grow. For what concerns bodies, I will write these things.