the Child is gone and in Old Age they are Contracted again The fundus or Bottom is deriv'd from the Spermatick Vessels or those by which the Vassa Praeparantia are constituted as also from the Hemorrhoidal Branch whence is the great consent between the Womb and the Spleen In Women not with Child the Menstrual Blood always flows through the Arteries What is not thus evacuated returns back again to the heart by the Veins which are join'd to the Arteries In the time of flowing they are opened and gape They resemble Cups or Saucers call'd Acetabula or Cotyledones To these when a Woman is with Child the Placenta is join'd which receive the Blood for its Nourishment The Womb is furnish'd with many Nerves from the Par Vagum and the Nerves of the Os Sacrum which run all along the Mouth of the Womb and the Vulva for quickning the Sense of Pleasure The use of the Womb is to attract receive retain preserve and cherish the Seed in order to Conception and after Conception to contain and nourish the Faetus till the time of Birth The Cavity of the Neck is rough by reason of the wrinkles whose edges tend inwards least the Seed when thrown in should slip out again as we see in Barren Women whose slipperiness prevents Conception At the upper part near the Vulva is the insertion of the Bladder to sight it is like a straw Thence the Urine is voided by the Meatus Vrinarius which is short and straight but dilatable so as to give Passage to a large stone It is cover'd without by a fleshy Muscle call'd Spincter The Membrane call'd Hymen is a Sign or Note of Virginity because 't is not to be found in any but Virgins That there is such a thing 't is not to be doubted we have such great Authorities for it But in Sickly young Girls or such as are of a wanton temper 't is not so perfect as in a Healthy young Maid that is Vertuous in Thought and in Deed. It was taken notice of as an undoubted Sign of Virginity among the Hebrews as Moses has at large declar'd Deut. 22. It is situated in the Neck of the Womb just behind the Insertion of the Neck of the Bladder or a little more inwards This membrane goes cross the Cavity like a Diaphragma or Midriff In the first coition Pain and Bloodshed ensues upon breaking it It s use is to defend the Internal Parts As to the Vulva or External Parts the more Noted are the Pubes or Mons Veneris which is the part where the hair grows and is properly term'd the Privity a soft substance partly skin partly spongy flesh plac'd upon a Portion of hard fat The like of which is not to be seen in the whole Body CHAP. II. Of the Membranes enfolding the Child in the Womb. THE first thing bred in the Womb after Conception is the membranes enfolding the Child which are but two in human kind viz. The Amnios and Chorion to which Last belongs the Placenta or Womb-Cake All these together make what we call the Secundine or After-Birth 't is so call'd by reason 't is the second Habitation of the Child next to the Womb and also because it comes away by a second Birth after the Child or the first Birth The Amnios from its softness and thinness is the first membrane 't is call'd also Agnina Indusium Charta Virginea It is the thinnest of the Tunicles white soft and transparent and furnish'd with some few veins and Arteries which are disperst within its foldings It compasses the Child immediately and cleaves almost every where to the Chorion especially at the ends It is united to it at the middle above the Placenta where the Vasa Vmbilicalia or Navel-string comes forth But 't is easily separated from it It contains within it plenty of humidity and humours in which the child swims that by its floating therein it might be the lighter and less burthensome to the Mother and might avoid striking against any of the Neighbouring hard parts and that the Membranes being broke and the humour running out at the time of Birth the child's way thro the Neck of the womb might be rendered smooth slippery and easy When this humour flows out the Midwives call it the breaking of the waters Part of the Amnios does now and then hang about the head of the child thence the Infant is said to be born with a cawl Some take this for a presage of Good some of Evil some of Short Life some of Long but it has relation to none of these things for it hath been found on the head of both happy and miserable short and long liv'd persons Chorion is the Second membrane and compasses the child like a circle It immediately compasses the former and lies beneath it whose inner and hollow part â—t covers and invellops extending it self according to the magnitude thereof It is with some difficulty separated from the Amnios and strongly bears up and unites the Vessels to the Placenta that side next to the child is smooth and slippery except where it is fastned to the Placenta which is for the most part on the upper and foreside The Placenta Vteri or Womb-Cake because of its shape called also Hepar Vteri the Womb-Liver from its Nature and Office is a round Mass of Flesh furnished with Divers Vessels through which the Child receives its Nutriment it is in Number but one even in those who bear two or more Children at once so many Cells are inserted into it in Divers places its magnitude is various yet it is generally found about ten or twelve Inches Diameter It 's constituted of an Infinite Number of little Fibres with congealed Blood interposed but its Parenchyma is not every where alike for in some parts it is glandulous and thicker being variously Interwoven with Capillary Veins joyn'd together by various Anastomoses through which the Blood in the Child runs back out of the Arteries into the Veins to nourish the Child as the true Liver does in grown Persons This Blood it sucks out of the Veins of the Womb and prepares it for use It sends it through the greater Umbilical Vein to the Liver of the Child that so it may be carried to the Heart out of which it is sent by the Arteries into the whole Body of the Child for Nourishment Vena Vmbilicalis passing through the two Coats of the Peritonaeum is inserted into the Liver by a cleft going thro the Navel it is variously rouled or twisted about that its length might not prove troublesome From the Navel it goes over the right and left sides of the Throat and Neck turning it self back at the hinder part of the head and so over the middle of the Forehead to the Placenta sometimes it encompasses the Neck like a Chain The Child being born this Navel-string must be tyed with a strong thread wound often about the distance of two or three Inches from the belly of
first away they appear very red the third Day they discolour and are less bloody and gradually decay every Day as the Vessels close till at length they turn very Pale and Green To bring these Lochia well down ye must keep the Woman free from any diversion by Looseness or any strong Passions of the Mind as great Fear or Grief or Anger or Swoonings these or great Colds or Astringents produce the worst and most dangerous Symptoms that can befall a Woman after Delivery You may give her Spirit of Hartshorn in every thing she takes Let her drink Broths or Gellies boil'd with Maidenhair or Pellitory of the Wall or Camomile Flowers It is equally dangerous whether there happen too great an abundance of the Lochia or if they be suppress'd unseasonably I have seen when the Floodings have been excessive that Convulsions Syncope's and Fainting Fits have ensued her Legs and Thighs swell'd and after all become Hydropick I have oft times let Blood in such a case with very good success and then gave half an Ounce of Conserve of Roses and two Drams of Diascordium and thirty drops of Liquid Laudanum made into an Electuary with a strong Decoction of Oak-Barks boil'd in Spring Water with some sticks of Cinnamon in it to drink for a Day or two Give the Electuary twice a Day Another Inconvenience that Women in Childbed are liable to is the Relaxation of the Matrix It may proceed from great Fluxes which fall down upon the Ligaments causing them to wax loose or from the Woman's straining her self in Travel before her Time or from the Midwife's putting up her Hand into the Womb and tearing down she knows not what Sometimes Women with Child by lacing themselves too strait cause a conflux of Wind in those parts which makes a Sense as if it were the Head of the Child and hinders her to stand upright or go You must keep her loose with Lenitive Electuary foment the part with a strong Decoction of Oak-bark in Red Wine or Smiths Water or Fume with Mastich upon a hot Iron that the Smoak may go up her Body Morning and Night SECT II. Of the Instruments of Generation in Women the Membranes that enfold the Child in the Womb the Manner of its Generation Encrease and Nourishment in the Womb the Causes of Barrenness and the Means to prevent it the Conduct of a Woman going with Child the Signs of Conception and the Prevention of Miscarriage CHAP. I. Of the Parts serving for Generation in Women I Shall begin this Description of the Instruments of Generation in Women by the Spermatick Preparatory Vessels some of which agree pretty much with those in Men as the Spermatick Vessels the Stones and the Vasa deferentia but differ in some remarkable Circumstances In Women the Spermatick Vessels are shorter by reason of the shortness of the Passage They have more Wreathings Windings and Turnings where they make the Corpus Varicosum about the Testicle that the Seed may have a sufficient stay for its due preparation Secondly they differ in their Insertion In Women they go not whole to the Testicles as in a Man but are divided in the mid-way whence the greater part goes to the Testicles to form the Corpus Varicosum the lesser part to the Womb into whose Sides they are disseminated to nourish the Womb and the Child therein By these Vessels some part of the Menstrual Blood may be purg'd forth in such as are not with Child The second is distributed to the Vas deferens or Trumpet of the Womb. The third creeps along the Sides of the Womb insinuating it self among the Hypogastrick Veins with which and the Arteries they are joyn'd by Anastomoses The Spermatick Veins receive the Hypogastrick Arteries as they pass by the Sides of the Vterus that the Blood might be the better elaborated They are intermix'd with many wonderful Anastamoses for the preparation of Seed for if you blow up the Spermatick Vein both the right and left Vessels of the Womb are blown up From hence ye may understand the Mutual Communication among all the Vessels of the Matrix as hath been observ'd by Fallopius Platerus Riolanus Dr. Tyson Mr. Cooper and others The Testicles in Women are plac'd within the Hypogastrium in some about two Inches above the bottom of the Matrix Their Figure is more broad and flat on the fore and hinder parts they are also more hollow and fuller of Spermatick Juice You may find 'em conglomerated or gather'd into a knob of divers little Kernels or Bladders more or less which contain the thick Seed In Men the Testicles have four Membranes or Coats but in Women only one they are in a closer warmer place and so do not need so thick a covering This single Coat is call'd by some Dartos but where they receive the Seminal Vessels they are half covered over with the Peritonaeum and are knit to the Sides of the Vterus by the two upper Ligaments which are loose and Membranous and out of which in the time of Coition the Seed is thrown They have no Parastatae nor any Cremasters but are stay'd by the broad lateral Ligaments call'd the Batts Wings Their use is to make elaborate and perfect the Seed The Vasa deferentia in Women spring from the lower part of the Testicles and are either inserted with very short passages into the bottom of the Womb or disseminated at the Trumpets of the Womb. They pass by the Membranous Ligaments to the Matrix Their use is partly to carry the Seed to the Trumpets of the Womb to be there further perfected and better elaborated and then reserve it for use These Tubae Fallopianae so call'd from their likeness to a Trumpet of War and found out by Fallopius are two in number one on each side of a nervous thick white and hard substance of a long round Figure hollow within Now as the Vesicae seminales are in Men to preserve the Seed such are these blind Passages in Women through which the concocted Seed is carried and here laid up as in a Storehouse where 't is also better digested by the vertue of the Testicles from whence 't is sent by the Cornua into the Cavity of the Womb. The Vterus Matrix or Womb the receptacle both of the Seed and the Child has its Situation in the middle of the Hypogastrium Call'd Pelvis The Basin by the Os Sacrum and the Flank Bones between the Intestinum Rectum and the Bladder In Virgins tho of a big stature it does not exceed the magnitude of a Wallnut But in Women with Child it dilates it self to such a Capacity as to contain the Child Nature made it at first small to embrace clasp round and cherish the Seed which is but very little in Quantity The substance of the Womb is Membranous that it may be distended or contracted as need shall require 'T is full of wrinkles which in Women impregnated are extended to widen the Womb but after
the Infant three Inches from the binding it must be cut off afterwards the Navel is to be carefully look'd to till it is dry and falls off of its own accord It is plain that Urine is not voided by the Urachus by a Child in the Womb as the Ancients have imagined but it is certainly voided by its Yard into the Membrane Amnios whence it is that it is so full of water a great part of it in some remains in the Bladder which is the Cause that always New-born Children are for the first day continually Pissing CHAP. III. Of the manner of generating the Infant in the Womb and its gradual Nourishment and Encrease from the first Minute of Conception to the Hour of Birth WHen the Womb that by Injoyment Naturally receives Seed for Generation as a Load-Stone attracts Iron or as Heat Straws or Feathers hath now by its Virtue lock'd it up from the first Day until the Sixth or Seventh there arise very many and small Fibres or Hairs The Vital Spirits giving down Seed towards conception and form distinguishing the chiefest Members by the Tenth Day being let in by certain Veins of the Secundine to which the Matrix is fixed the Blood is imported and of which the Navel is generated But at the very same time three small spots not unlike to curds of Milk arise where the Liver Heart and Brain have their places then presently a Vein directed by the Navel attracts the thicker Blood Confused with the Seed and makes it fit for Nourishment In the other Branches are generated those Textures or rather Webs of Veins So from the Aorta or great Arterial Pulsation Veins are derived diffusing the Vital Spirits through the whole Body the Heart is the Fountain and Original of Vital Heat without which no Creature or Member can thrive Within the time aforesaid also is generated the highest and chiefest part of this Noble structure the Brain for the whole mass of Seed being filled with the Animal Spirits that Contracts a great part of the general moisture and includes it in a certain concavity wherein the Brain may be formed but as to the out-side it is inveloped with a certain covering which being toasted and dried with heat is brought into a Bony substance and becomes a Scull As Veins have their Original from the Liver Arteries from the Heart so also Nerves from the Brain All these Parts are distinctly form'd by the Eighteenth Day of the first Month from the very conception and are then called a Child which the Ancients have comprehended in these two Verses Sex in lacte dies ter sunt in sanguine Trini Bisseni carnem ter seni membra figurant Hyppocrates gives this Account viz. If you account the Days double from the time of conception you will find them quicken and the time of quickening being tripled makes up the Day of the Birth As for Example if the Infant be formed in Forty five Days it will stir in Ninety Days which is the third of the time that it lies hid in the Womb for in the Ninth Month it will come forth and make haste to the Birth although Females are often times Born in the tenth Month. So much for the formation increase and perfection of the Infant according to the account of days and times CHAP. IV. Of the Causes of Barrenness and the means to prevent it THE Womb is undoubtedly the Noblest Member of the Body it deserves by far the highest Character and is esteem'd as such by all Mankind 'T is true some unlucky wretches have the impudence to Curse their Parents and Blaspheme against the Womb that hatch'd ' em But their Example is no subject of Imitation They 're only a gang of youthful conceited Sparks that love to see themselves appear gay in their Blooming Feathers and scorn all Subjection to Old Age. Patience is the best remedy for this distemper Let their ruffling Spirits take their course 't is in vain to offer to check 'em tho' their wickedness do oft-times cause the grave tears to drop Nothing but time will change the Scene after they have run on for some time in their Carreer they 'll begin to relent and wish to themselves that they had not taken up with the trifling flatteries of youth or behav'd so unnaturally to the Vertuous Womb that bare 'em or been so forgetful of their own Original We are all the Fruit of the Womb and the whole World is govern'd by its fertile Product And therefore 't is a duty Incumbent upon us to advance the fertility of the womb as much as possible and assist 'em in the removal of the Impediments that block it up and condemn it to an empty Barrenness Fertility was anciently so much esteem'd by our forefathers that when ever the Daughter of a Family was brought to Bed of a Child then all without doors and within with one consent cry'd Heavens and the great God have bless'd our Family by sending a Child amongst us We all Praise him as most wonderful for his mercy towards us But there is no Necessity of amassing Arguments for the encouragement of Fertility or aggravating the curse of Barrenness I could appeal to every Womans thoughts what a blessing it is to have Children tho' with inexpressible Pain and Labour and how uneasie and bitter it is to be depriv'd of 'em by the shutting up of their Womb tho' attended with all the agreeable Circumstances of Health Pleasure and Freedom from Trouble How unhappy was a Fair Lady no less than an Emperess that complain'd passionately of her Misfortune saying there could be no greater Subject of Regreat than to die without Children A Woman that is fit for bearing of Children should be of a good Temperament of a regular Life and Conversation whatever is sit in general for the welfare and healthy Constitution of the Body is conducive to fertility Hippocrates takes notice of eights things that are good for making the Body fair and full The first is to be merry and enjoy content and ease of mind The second is to sleep moderately eat Meat of good Nourishment go warm in Apparrel to use moderate Exercise and keep good Company but above all to be accustom'd to changes of Air not to keep lock'd up in a Chamber and closely confin'd which murders Health Those that have in their youth been expos'd to the schocks of wind or weather are less liable to be hurt by an occasional accident whereas we see it the misfortune of such as have been long accustom'd to Niceties and a Delicate tender way of living that they are apt to be offended by the Sun the Wind the Morning or Evening Air they 're frequently out of Tune always stuffing their Guts with slops having their Chamber Windows adorn'd like an Apothecaries Shop with Pill-Boxes and Gally-Pots And in end they flip off the Stage of a sudden without any Posterity to succeed ' em The Signs and Causes of Barrenness are attributed either to Age or
more they are so plaguy troublesome that tho' taken away they commonly return again After Delivery indeed they use to vanish of their own accord But this Patient was so extreamly afflicted that I never saw a Woman in the like Condition I directed her to the following Ointment Take one Dram of Sperma Ceti half an Ounce of Ointment of Roses two Drams of the Spirit of Vinegar Melt all over the Fire and use it Night and Morning after the Skin is well cleansed CHAP. VIII Of the Cesarean Section or Cutting the Child out of the Mother 's Womb. WHen the Woman dies and the Child is alive in her Belly we sometimes open her up and take out the Child Some foolish People talk of performing this Operation upon living Women in a dangerous Labour to save the Child's Life and therefore would call it Cesarean Section in imitation of Cesar's Birth 't is true there would be some pretext of excuse to make Martyrs of poor Women to bring a second Cesar or some great and new Prophet into our Western World but 't is not known that ever there was any Law Christian or Civil which countenanc'd the Martyrdom of the Mother to save the Child Some Country Gossips will tell you they know such yet living whose Sides have been opened to make way for the Child But such Stories as these are only fit Entertainment for Fools and Children A Surgeon must never practise this cruel Operation whilst the Mother is alive but when she is dead he ought not to neglect it and what he does he must do it quickly because delay will certainly be the Death of the Child The Greeks were acquainted with this Operation and call'd it Embriulie Most Authors would have it made on the left side of the Belly it being more free from the Liver which is on the right Some are for opening just in the middle of the Belly between the two right Muscles because in this place there is only the covering and the white Line to cut To dispatch then with more ease and speed the Surgeon having plac'd himself the dead Body may be a little rais'd Let him take a good sharp Incision-Knife make one or two stroaks into the Peritonaeum and then gently take out the Child CHAP. IX Of the Various Symptoms happening to Women in Childbed and the Methods of Cure THE Womb may be fitly compared to a rough Sea in which the Child floats for the space of nine Months The Labour of Delivery is the only Port but full of dangerous Rocks The Woman after she has arriv'd at the desired Port of Delivery and has disengag'd her self of her Loading has yet much need of help to defend her self against a great many Inconveniencies which may ensue upon her Travel In the first place she must keep a Temperate Diet having a great care not to over-fill her self after so great an Evacuation Indeed her Diet must be like that of Wounded Persons Neither are Nurses Tales to be believed who exhort 'em to fill after so great an emptiness telling them that the loss of Blood must be restor'd These are mere Fooleries for that Blood which she has lost is but unnecessary and useless Blood dam'd up in the Womb for the space of nine Months the Efflux of which must needs be conducive to Health Her Nourishment therefore for the first Days must be but slender for fear of falling into a Feaver and hastening the Milk too fast into the Breasts where 't is in danger of Curding or Apostematising Upon this account she ought to confine her self for some time to Panada's Broths Gellies Potch'd Eggs c. If she be very strong and hearty and can Nurse her Child she may feed a little more plentifully and drink often Barly Water wherein some Coriander or Caraway or Fennel Seeds may be boil'd This will partly add to the Childs Health keeping it free of Gripes Throws and sowre Belchings Some Women after Delivery are troubled with a Tentigo when the Clitoris encreases to an over great measure 't is a Nervous piece of Flesh which the Lips or Wings of the Privities do embrace and which undergoes Erection in the Act of Venery In some 't is as big as the Neck of a Goose and hangs below the Orifice of the Privities Sometimes this may be occasion'd by the Midwife's hurting the part Or it may become loose and porous by often handling which may cause a great concourse of Humours and so the Nervous Body is enlarged to an extraordinary bigness I have oftentimes cur'd this Symptom by cutting it away but so as to avoid Inflammation Some are troubled with Hemorrhoids of the Womb which are little Protuberancies like those of the Fundament produced in the Neck of the VVomb by the abundance of Feculent Blood that resorts thither where the Veins end They are cur'd by revulsion of Humours by mitigating asswaging Insessions and Purging if other Circumstances do not forbid Oftentimes the VVoman receives prejudice from the Bruises and Rents of the outward parts of the VVomb occasion'd by hard Labour The Childs Head in passing makes a violent Distention and Separation of the four Caruncles And those parts having once given way to an Infant are ever after easily relax'd and extended and so every Travel comes with less pain than the preceding Sometimes it happens that the Midwife's Nails have scratch'd and rent the parts through Carelesness and Inadvertency But whenever such Contusions or Rents happen they must not be neglected lest they degenerate into malignant Ulcers After pains are the common Bane of the Welfare of Women in Childbed They say they are not so much troubled with 'em of their first Child as of the following But that is no certain Rule Experience confirms that they happen indifferently after first or last Labours according as their various Dispositions are Let the Nurse lay on a Galbanum Plaister and keep the Belly very hot and then give her some Cinnamon Water with Mithridate and a few drops of the Spirit of Hartshorn or liquid Laudanum This will very often carry off their Gripings Collicks and other After-pains Commonly they go away of themselves in 2 or 3 Days time If they be sharp and obstinate and threaten to continue longer you must give frome one Ounce to two or three of Aqua Bryoniae Composita with some drops of the Spirit of Hartshorn and a Dram of Confectio Alkermes Some give this same Draught to hasten and facilitate the Birth or to bring away the After-birth and cleanse the Womb. As to the Lochia which flow from the Womb in Childbed Galen says They are only Vicious Humours and the residue of the Blood with which the Child was nourished in the Womb which flows out when the Womb is open'd by the Birth Perhaps 't is the same Blood as us'd to be purg'd out every Month before Conception It may proceed from a Wound made by loosening the Burthen from the Womb for when it comes