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Besides, our Office of Matrimony solemnly charges and adjures the Persons who come to be joined together, that if they know any such Impediments they should declare them at that time; and, in a manner, protests against the Validity of the Marriage in Case of a failure, and therefore and from that very Protest, such Marriages are afterwards frequently made void by Parliament.
But as the Subject of my Observation is more nice, so it is also more modest, and may with more decency be considered of. The Infirmities on either Side which human Body is subject to are many; I distinguish them not here, only that I profess to mean such Infirmities as regard the Sexes only, Physicians, Acouchers or Surgeons, and Anatomists understand, and can describe them; 'tis none of my Business, much less my Design.
It frequently does, or at least may happen, that when a young Couple come together their Constitutions may, as too often their Tempers may and do, differ from one another, with respect to these Things, to the greatest Extreme; one is weak, faint, the Spirits low, Nature unable to answer what is expected; another perhaps is reduced by Child-bearing, too thick and and too long together, by Accidents in often hard and difficult Travels, Injuries received by unskilful Hands, or many other Incidents and Circumstances not to be named; by these, I say, the Person is reduced, debillitated, and render'd unfit to give the Satisfaction which has formerly been found: On the other hand, the Man is reduced by a tedious, lingring decay, which Physicians call a Consumption; or by other acute Distempers, which he can, as issaid
