with frankincense, commingled with olive oil...

If the seed remain
within for seven days then it is certain that conception has taken
place; for it is during that period that what is known as effluxion
takes place.
In most cases the menstrual discharge recurs for some time after
conception has taken place, its duration being mostly thirty days in
the case of a female and about forty days in the case of a male child.
After parturition also it is common for the discharge to be withheld
for an equal number of days, but not in all cases with equal
exactitude. After conception, and when the above-mentioned days are
past, the discharge no longer takes its natural course but finds its
way to the breasts and turns to milk. The first appearance of milk in
the breasts is scant in quantity and so to speak cobwebby or
interspersed with little threads. And when conception has taken place,
there is apt to be a sort of feeling in the region of the flanks,
which in some cases quickly swell up a little, especially in thin
persons, and also in the groin.
In the case of male children the first movement usually occurs on
the right-hand side of the womb and about the fortieth day, but if the
child be a female then on the left-hand side and about the ninetieth
day. However, we must by no means assume this to be an accurate
statement of fact, for there are many exceptions, in which the
movement is manifested on the right-hand side though a female child be
coming, and on the left-hand side though the infant be a male. And in
short, these and all suchlike phenomena are usually subject to
differences that may be summed up as differences of degree.
About this period the embryo begins to resolve into distinct parts,
it having hitherto consisted of a fleshlike substance without
distinction of parts.
What is called effluxion is a destruction of the embryo within the
first week, while abortion occurs up to the fortieth day; and the
greater number of such embryos as perish do so within the space of
these forty days.
{BK7|CH3 ^paragraph 5}
In the case of a male embryo aborted at the fortieth day, if it be
placed in cold water it holds together in a sort of membrane, but if
it be placed in any other fluid it dissolves and disappears. If the
membrane be pulled to bits the embryo is revealed, as big as one of
the large kind of ants; and all the limbs are plain to see, including
the penis, and the eyes also, which as in other animals are of great
size. But the female embryo, if it suffer abortion during the first
three months, is as a rule found to be undifferentiated; if however it
reach the fourth month it comes to be subdivided and quickly attains
further differentiation. In short, while within the womb, the female
infant accomplishes the whole development of its parts more slowly
than the male, and more frequently than the man-child takes ten months
to come to perfection. But after birth, the females pass more quickly
than the males through youth and maturity and age; and this is
especially true of those that bear many children, as indeed I have
already said.
{BK7|CH4
4
-
When the womb has conceived the seed, straightway in the majority of
cases it closes up until seven months are fulfilled; but in the eighth
month it opens, and the embryo, if it be fertile, descends in the
eighth month. But such embryos as are not fertile but are devoid of
breath at eight months old, their mothers do not bring into the world
by parturition at eight months, neither does the embryo descend within
the womb at that period nor does the womb open. And it is a sign that
the embryo is not capable of life if it be formed without the
above-named circumstances taking place.
After conception women are prone to a feeling of heaviness in all
parts of their bodies, and for instance they experience a sensation of
darkness in front of the eyes and suffer also from headache. These
symptoms appear sooner or later, sometimes as early as the tenth day,
according as the patient be more or less burthened with superfluous
humours. Nausea also and sickness affect the most of women, and
especially such as those that we have just now mentioned, after the
menstrual discharge has ceased and before it is yet turned in the
direction of the breasts.
Moreover, some women suffer most at the beginning of their pregnancy
and some at a later period when the embryo has had time to grow; and
in some women it is a common occurrence to suffer from strangury
towards the end of their time. As a general rule women who are
pregnant of a male child escape comparatively easily and retain a
comparatively healthy look, but it is otherwise with those whose
infant is a female; for these latter look as a rule paler and suffer
more pain, and in many cases they are subject to swellings of the legs
and eruptions on the body. Nevertheless the rule is subject to
exceptions.
Women in pregnancy are a prey to all sorts of longings and to rapid
changes of mood, and some folks call this the 'ivy-sickness'; and with
the mothers of female infants the longings are more acute, and they
are less contented when they have got what they desired.
In a certain few cases the patient feels unusually well during
pregnancy. The worst time of all is just when the child's hair is
beginning to grow.
{BK7|CH4 ^paragraph 5}
In pregnant women their own natural hair is inclined to grow thin
and fall out, but on the other hand hair tends to grow on parts of the
body where it was not wont to be. As a general rule, a man-child is
more prone to movement within its mother's womb than a female child,
and it is usually born sooner. And labour in the case of female