s genus,
because a mole cannot be said to be an animal: secondly, in the species,
because it has not a human figure and has not the character of a man;
thirdly, in the individual, for it has no affinity to the parent, either
in the whole body, or in any particular part of it.

CAUSE.

There is a great difference of opinion amongst learned writers as to the
cause of this affection. Some think, that if the woman's seed goes into
the womb, and not the man's, that the mole is produced thereby. Others
declare that it springs from the menstruous blood, but if these two
things were granted, then virgins, by having their courses or through
nocturnal pollutions, might be liable to the same things, which none
have ever been yet. The true cause of this fleshy mole is due both to
the man and from the menstruous blood in the woman both mixing together
in the cavity of the womb. Nature finding herself weak there (and yet
wishing to propagate her species), labours to bring forth a defective
conception rather than nothing and instead of a living creature produces
a lump of flesh.

SIGNS.

The signs of a mole are these. The _menses_ are suppressed, the appetite
becomes depraved, the breasts swell and the stomach becomes inflated and
hard. So far the symptoms in a pregnant woman and in one that has a mole
are the same, but now this is how they differ. The first sign of
difference is in the movements of a mole. It may be felt moving in the
womb before the third month, whereas an infant cannot be so felt; yet
this motion cannot proceed from any intelligent power in the mole, but
from the capabilities of the womb, and of the seminal vigour,
distributed through the substance of the mole, for it does not live an
animal, but a vegetable life, like a plant. _Secondly_, in a mole the
stomach swells suddenly, but in true conception it is first contracted,
and then rises by degrees. _Thirdly_, if the stomach is pressed with the
hand, the mole gives way, and returns to its former position as soon as
the hand is removed. But a child in the womb does not move immediately
though pressed with the hand, and when the hand is removed it returns
slowly or not at all. _Lastly_, no child continues in the womb more than
eleven months, but a mole continues for four or five years, more or
less, sometimes according as it is fastened to the matrix; and I have
known a mole pass away in four or five months. If, however, it remains
until the eleventh mo