The infant is generated from seeds which have contrary qualities; it is located on the right side if it is male, and on the left if it is female. It is fed and warmed by menstrual blood in the uterus. Man receives his nutrition from such common and weak material from the beginning, by the power of heat; and as nature unites and extends the limbs one by one, little by little, he is formed - but not immediately, for only Christ was formed immediately and separately in the uterus, since he was conceived in the uterus, as Augustine says. When the soul enters, life is poured forth; perceiving by natural sense the surrounding of the membrane, it is moved to break it, and the mother's uterus is agitated and made heavy by this motion. When nature's activity for the creation of a baby is complete, if the parts are healthy then in the eighth, ninth, or tenth month it struggles and strives to leave the uterus.

Original Latin

Caro infantuli recenter nati fluida est et tenella, et ideo necessaria sunt ei varia remedia et fomenta. Et sicut dicit Constantinus libro 3, capite 22. Infantes, inquit, uterum exeuntes, in rosis cum sale tritis involvantur, ut eorum membra confortentur, et a viscosa humiditate liberentur: deinde palatum et gingivae cum digito, melle uncto, fricentur, ut interiora oris mundificentur et confortentur, ut dulcedine et acumine mellis appetitus infantuli provocetur, frequenter balneentur, cum oleo myrtino aut rosaceo ungantur.omnia eorum membra fricentur praecipue masculorum, quorum membra debent esse propter exercitium duriora; somnus eis semper in loco obscuro prouocetur, ut lumen ipsorum coadunetur. Lucidus enim locus nimis visum dispergit, et tenellos adhuc oculos laedit, et saepius luscos facit, et ideo non sunt nimis lucido aeri exponendi, ne spiritus visibilis disgregetur.

Ex bona autem dispositione lactis nutrimentalis, bona sit consistentia prolis, et e converso, et ex corruptione sanguinis nutricis necessario laeditur corpusculum pueri vel infantis, et hoc propter puerilis naturae mollitiem, et propter facilem nutrimenti lactei convertibilitatem. Unde membra infantilia, propter sui teneritudinem, ad diversarum figurarum susceptionem habent flexibilitatem, et ideo fasciis et aliis ligaminibus congruis infantilia membra sunt liganda, ne torta efficiantur seu aliquam incurrant difformitatem.

Ad hoc dicit Aristoteles lib. 2 quod in infantulis abundat cerebrum, et secundum quantitatem sui corporis est valde magnum. Unde superior pars corporis infantum est maior et ponderosior aliis partibus, et ideo infans in principio sui motus ambulat super pedes et super manus, deinde vero erigit suum corpus paulatim, quia pars anterior diminuitur, et per consequens levior redditur, pars vero inferior crescit, per consequens gravior efficitur.