but something unequal or rough and in that part of it that sticks to the Womb-cake and thereby to the womb there are many Vessels which rise from the Womb-cake it self and the Umbilical Vessels Twins are both encompassed in one Chorion but each a particular Amnios it covers the Egg originally and when the Egg is carried to the Womb and becomes a Conception this membrane sucks up the moisture that abounds in the womb at that time for while the Conception is loose in the Womb it is increased in the same manner as an Egg in a Hen which while it is in the knot it is only a Yolk and when it drops off from thence and falls thro' the Infundibulum it is not at all altered but when it comes into the Cells of the Process of the Womb it begins to gather white tho' it adhere to no part of the Womb nor has any Umbilical Vessels but as Eggs of Fishes and Frogs do without procure to themselves whites out of the Water or as Beans Pease and other Pulse and bread Corn being steep'd in Moisture swell and so acquire Nourishment from the Bud that is springing out of them In like manner does a whitish Moisture flow out of the Wrinkles of the Womb whence the Yolk gathers its white and concocts it by its vegetative and innate heat And indeed the Liquor that abounds in the Wrinkles of the Womb tasts like the white and in this manner the Yolk falling by Degrees is encompassed with a white till at last the outmost Womb having got Skins and a Shell is brought to perfection Even so the Chorion sucks up the albugineous Liquor that from the first Conception increases daily in it and sweats thro' the Amnios wherein the Embrio-swims till the Umbilical Vessels and the Womb-cake are formed from and thro' which the Child may receive Nourishment The Liquor that it sucks up is supposed to be nutritious juice sweating out of the Capillary Orifices of the Hypogastrick and spermatick Arteries That Membrane that immediately contains the Child is called Amnios it is joined to the Chorion only where the Umbilical Vessels pass thro' them both into the Womb-cake it is soft smooth very thin and transparent and loosely invests the Child the shape of it is somewhat oval it has Vessels from the same Origins as the Chorion This Membrane before the Egg is ripened contains a clear Liquor which after impregnation is that out of which the Child is formed In it resides the formative power and the matter from whence the first Lineaments of the Child are drawn But because this Liquor is so very little there sweats thro' this Membrane presently part of that nutritious albugineous humour that is contained in the Chorion which it had suckt out of the Womb and the Child receives its increase by Addition of this humour to its undiscernable Rudiments Yet after the formation of the Umbilical Vessels and the Womb cake the Amnios receives a nutritious humour after another manner and not as before only by transudation Milky Veins come directly to the Womb-cake acrording to the Opinion of some and out of it arise others that carry the Chyle to the Amnios but it is doubted of by others The Membrane call'd Allantoides is the third that encompasses the whole Child it is very probable that this as well as the other two was originally in the Egg yet it does not appear till after the formation of the Umbilical Vessels and Womb-cake and 'till the Albugineous Liquor ceases to be suckt up by the Chorion out of the Womb but as soon as the Child begins to be nourished by the Umbilical Vessels and the Urachus is passable then this Membrane begins presently to appear It contains the Child's Urine brought into it by the Urachus from the Bladder and with which it is filled more and more daily till the birth This Membrane is very thin smooth soft and yet dense it may be distinguished from the Chorion and Amnios because they have a great many Vessels dispersed thro' them but this has neither Vein nor Artery that is visible After opening the Membranes that encompass the Child the Navel-string appears which is membranous wreathed and unequal arising from the Navel and reaching to the Womb-cake it is about half an ell long and a finger thick The Vessels contained in this string are four one vein two arteries and the Urachus wrapt in a common Coat The Vein rises from the Liver of the Child and is larger than the Arteries and from thence passing out of the Navel it runs along the common Coat to the Womb-cake into which it is implanted by many roots but before it reaches it it sends some little twigs into the Amnios It was formerly thought that the only use of this Vein was to carry the blood from the Womb-cake to the Child and some still think that it carries chyle In the common coat are included also two small Arteries they spring from the inner Iliack branches of the great Artery and passing by the sides of the bladder they rise up to the Navel out of which they are conducted with the Womb-cake in the same common cover with the Vein and Urachus wherewith they are twined like a Rope Spirituous blood is driven from the Child by the beating of its Heart to the Womb-cake and the Membranes for their nourishment from which what blood remains circulates back again in the umbilical vein together with the nutritious juice afresh imbibed by its Capillaries dispersed in the Womb-cake but Blood and Vital Spirits are not carried by the Arteries from the Mother to the Child as Galen and many others have taught The Urachus is the fourth Umbilical Vessel which is a small membranous round pipe endued with a very straight Cavity it rises from the bottom of the Bladder up to the Navel out of which it passes along within the common Cover and opens into the allantoides these four Vessels have one common Cover which keeps each of them from touching the other which is called funiculus it is membranous round and hollow and consists of a double Coat it has several knots upon it here and there whereby the Midwives guess how many Children more the Mother shall have but this is vain and superstitious This Navel Rope is wont to be tied when the Infant is born one or two fingers breadth from the Navel with a strong thread cast about it several times and then about two or three fingers breadth beyond the ligature to be cut off what is not cut off is suffer'd to remain 'till it drop off of its own accord There have been great disputes among Physicians with what and by what way the Child is nourished some say by blood alone received by the umbilical Vein others by chile alone conveyed in by the mouth but indeed according to the different degrees of perfection that an Egg passes from a Conception to a Child fit for the Birth it is nourished differently for
a quantity of the nutritious Juice in women with Child that passes to the Womb-cake by the Hypogastrick and Spermatick Arteries for the Nourishment of the Child that the Courses stop after the first or second Month if the Woman be not very sanguine The Child is nourished three several ways by one and the same humour first by apposition whilst it is yet an imperfect Embryo before the Umbilical Vessels are framed But when the Umbilical Vessels are perfected then it receives the same Liquor by the Umbilical Vein the most spirituous and thin part whereof it changes into blood and sends the thicker part by the Umbilical Artery into the Amnios which the Child sucks in at its Mouth and being concocted again in the Stomach is received out of the Guts by the millâ—y Veins as after the Birth The parts of a Child in the Womb differ very much from those in a grown person All the parts are less the bones are softer and many of them grisly and flexible the head is proportionably bigger than the rest of the Body the Crown is not covered with Bone but with a membrane the Bone of the fore-head and under jaw is divided the Bone of the hinder part of the Head is distinguished into three four or five Bones the Brain and Nerves are softer than in grown persons the Bones that serve for hearing are very hard and big the Breasts swell and out of them in Children new born whether Boy or Girl a serous milk flows forth sometimes of its own accord sometimes with a light pressure The spinous processes of the Vertebrae of the Back are wanting the Heart is very big and its Ears large there are two unions of the greater Vessels that are not to be seen in grown persons namely First the Oval Hole whereby there is a passage open out of the hollow Vein into the Vein of the Lungs just as each of them are opening the first into the right ventricle and the latter into the left Ventricle of the Heart and this hole just as it opens into the Vein of the Lungs has a Valve that hinders any thing from returning out of the said Vein into the hole Secondly the Arterial Channel which two fingers breadth from the Basis of the Heart joins the Artery of the Lungs to the Aorta it has a pretty large cavity and ascends a little obliquely from the said Artery to the Aorta into which it carries the Blood that was driven into the Artery of the Lungs out of the right Ventricle of the Heart so that it never comes into the left Ventricle as the Blood that is sent out of the left Ventricle into the Aorta never came to the right but immediatly past into it out of the hollow Vein by the Oval hole so that the Blood does not pass thro' both the ventricles as it does after the Child is born The Lungs will sink before the Child is born whereas if the Child be but born and takes only half a dozen of breaths they become spungy and light that they will swim and by this may be known whether those Children that are murdered by Wenches and which they commonly affirm they are still-born were really so or no for if they were still born the Lungs will sink but if alive so as to breath never so little a while they will swim The Umbilical Vessels go out of the Belly the Stomach is narrower but pretty full of a whitish Liquor the Caul can scarce be seen being somewhat like a Spiders web the Guts are seven times longer than the Body in the small Guts the Excrements are flegmatick and yellow but somewhat hard and blackish sometimes greenish in the thick Gut the blind Gut is larger than usual and often fill'd with Excrements the Liver is very large and has a passage more than in grown People called the Veiny Channel it carries the greatest part of what is brought by the umbilical Vein directly and in a full stream into the hollow Vein above the Liver but as soon as the Child is born this Channel closes presently so do the Urachus and the two umbilical Arteries the spleen is small the Gall Bladder is full of Yellow or Green Choler the Sweet-bread is very large and White the Kidneys are big and unequal and seem as if they were compounded of many Glaudules the Ureteres are wide and the Bladder is stretch'd with Urine SECT IV. Of the formation of the Child in the Womb. CHAP. I. Of the mixture of the Seed of both Sexes as also of its substance and form AFTER that the Womb which is the Genital Member of the Female Sex hath received the Seed of the Man she commixes also her own Seed so that there is now but one mixture made of the Seed of both Sexes The natural forme of a child lying in y e womb But it being unquestionable that the menstruous Blood is the matter of the Womans Seed therefore that ye may know the Original of it it is to be understood that the Menstruous blood is nothing else but an Excrement of the third concoction gathered together every Month and purged out Which Purgation being duly made the Woman is then in perfect health of body but if they come not down according to their accustomed times and seasons or do not come down at all the Woman neither can conceive nor engender Thus the Seeds of both Sexes meeting in the Womb and there mixing together they are presently enclosed in a little Tunicle begot by the heat of the Womb and are there as it were coagulated and curdled together CHAP. II. Of the three Tunicles which the birth is wrapt in in the the Womb. FIRST out of the extreme superficies of the Seed by reason of the more watry moisture of the womans Seed a thin Membrane is generated which by reason of its moist quality is dilated farther being at first transparent but after the Birth comes forth folded up together and is called the Secundine But of the superfluous moisture of these two Tunicles are begot two other Tunicles which defend the Infant from being clogged with any superfluities as from the Flowers retained after Conception which serve neither for the nourishment nor for the increase of the Infant Yet are they retained 'till the very time of the Birth At which time they are either let out by the hand of the Midwife or else bursting the Secondine wherein they are contained they flow out of themselves The second Tunicle is that which was anciently called Allantoides wrapping about all the interiour parts frrom the Navel downwards this is full of folds and wrinckles in which the Urine Sweat and other sharp Humours that distill from the Infant almost grown to maturity are contained and kept to the time of Delivery By this second Tunicle therefore the Infant is delivered and defended from those humours lest they should either corrode and hurt the tender skin of the Infant or else any way defile and foul
the Infant The third Tunicle within all these compasses the whole Birth round about defending it from all sharp exteriour humours being very soft and tender CHAP. III. Of the true generation of the parts and the increase of them according to the several days and seasons AFTER the Womb hath received the Genital Seed and by its heat hath shut them both up curdled and coagulated together from the first to the seventh day are generated many fibres bred by a hot motion in which not long after the Liver with its chief Organs is first formed Through which Organs the vital spirit being sent to the Seed within the tenth day forms and distinguishes the chiefest members This Spirit is let in through certain Veins of the Secondine through which the Blood flows in and out of which the Navel is generated At the same time in the clotted Seed there do appear three white lumps not unlike curdled Milk out of which arise the Liver the Brain and the Heart Presently after this a Vein is directed through the Navel to such the thicker sort of the Blood that remains in the Seed for the nourishment of the parts This Vein is two-forked In the other branch of this Vein is a certain blood collected out of which the Liver is first framed for the Liver is nothing but a certain mass of Blood or Blood coagulated and hardned to a substance And here you may see what a company of Veins it hath which serve both for the expulsive and attractive faculty In the other Branch are generated those Textures of Veins with a dilatation of other Veins as also of the Spleen and the Guts in the lower part of the Belly by and by all the Veins like branches gathering into one Trunk toward the upper part of the Liver meet all in the Concave or hollow Vein This Trunk sends other branches of Veins to constitute the Diaphragme others it sends into the upper part of the back-bone seated about the Diaphragme as also the lower parts as far as the Thighs Afterwards the Heart with its Veins directed from the Navel to that part of the Seed and carried as far as the Back-bone is formed These Veins suck the hottest and most subtil part of the Blood out of which the heart is generated in the membrane of the heart otherwise called the Pericardium being by nature thick and fleshy according as the heat of the Members requires Now the hollow vein extending it self and piercing the interior part of the right side of the heart carries blood thither for the nourishment of the heart From the same branch of this vein in the same part of the heart arises another vein called by some the still vein because it beats not with so quick a Pulse as the others do ordained to send the most purely concocted blood in the heart to the lungs being encompassed with two Tunicles like Arteries But in the concavity of the left part of the heart arises a great beating vein called the Aorta diffusing the vital spirit from the heart into all the beating veins in the body Under the said vein called the Aorta in the concavity of the heart there is another vein called the veiny Artery which was therefore framed to carry the cool air from the lungs to temper the great heat of the heart Now there being many veins which running from the concavity of the heart are inserted into the lungs therefore by these veins the lungs are also framed for the vein which proceeds from the right concavity produces a most subtile blood which is turned into the substance of the lungs By the great veins of the heart and liver the hollow vein and the Aorta is the whole breast generated and after that the arms and legs in order Within the foresaid time is generated the last and chiefest part of this substance that is to say Brain in the third little skin of this mass For the whole mass of the Seed being repleat with vital spirits that vital spirit contracts a great part of the Genital moisture into one certain hollowness where the Brain is formed outwardly it is covered with a certain covering which being baked and dried by the heat is reduced into a bone and so is the Skull made Now the Brain is so formed as to conceive retain and change the nature of all the vital spirits whence are the beginings of Reason and of all the Senses for as out of the Liver arise the Veins out of the Heart arise the Arteries so out of the Brain arise the Nerves of a more soft and gentle nature yet not hollow like Veins but sollid These are the cheifest instruments of all the Senses and by which all the motion of the Senses are made by the vital Spirit After the Nerves is generated by the Brain also the pith of the back-bone which cannot be called Marrow For the Marrow is a superfluous substance begot out of the Blood destined for the moistening and for the strengthening of the bones but the brain and pith of the back-bone take their beginning from the Seed being not destined for the nourishing or strengthning of the members but to constitute certain private and particular parts of the body for the motion and use the Senses that all the other Nerves may take their begining thence for from the pith of the back-bone do arise many Nerves by which the body obtains both sense and motion Here is also to be noted that out of the Seed it self are generated gristles bones tunicles for the Veins of the Liver the arteries of the heart the brain with its Nerves besides the tunicles and pannicles and the other coverings which the Infant is wrapt in Now of the proper blood of the Birth the flesh is formed and whatever parts are of a fleshy substance as the heart the liver the lights Then are all these nourished by the menstrous blood which is attracted through the veins of the Navel This is all distinctly done from the conception unto the eighteenth day of the first month in all which time it is called Seed After which it receives the name of Birth CHAP. IV. Of the nourishment of the Birth in the Womb. WHilst the Birth remains in the Womb it is cherished up with blood attracted through the Navel which is the reason that the flowers do cease alwayes in Women as soon as they have conceived Now this blood presently after conception is distinguished into three parts the purest of it drawn by the Child for the nourishment of it self the second which is less pure and thin the Womb forces upwards to the breast where it is turned into milk The third and most impure part of the blood remains in the Matrix and comes away with the Secondines both in the Birth and after the Birth Now the Infant being thus formed and perfected in the womb for the first month sends forth its Urine thro' the passages of the navel but in the last month that
their design because they know nothing but the outside of things so that in matters of extremity because they are ignorant of the structure of the parts they cannot tell how to go about their work We shall therefore begin with the Anatomy of the privy parts the Organs of generation whereby through procreation is conserved a perennity of mankind which nature has denied to particulars These parts being not alike in both Sexes we must necessarily treat of each apart and first of those of Man In Man some of these parts afford matter for the Seed viz. the Spermatic Arteries others bring back again the blood that is superfluous to the making of the Seed and to the nourishment of the Stones and these are the Spermatic Veins and both the Arteries and Veins were formerly called preparing Vessels Some make the Seed as the Stones some carry the Seed back again some contain the Seed and an oyly matter as the Seed-bladders the first and the Prostats the latter Some discharge the Seed into the Womb and this is done by the Yard CHAP. I. Of the Vessels of Preparation AMong the Spermatic Vessels are to be considered first two veins and two arteries these are carried downward from the small guts to the Testicles and are much bigger in Men than they are in Women The original of these Veins is not always the same for commonly the right Vein riseth out of the Hollow vein a little below the source or original of the Emulgent but the least takes his original from the lower part of the Emulgent it self Yet sometimes it hath a branch carried to it from the trunk of the hollow Vein The middle part of these veins runs directly through the Loyns resting upon the Lumbal Muscle a thin Membrane only intervening and thus having gone above half its journey it branches out and distributes it self to the near adjoyning filmy parts of the Body The uttermost part of these vessels is carried beyond the Midriff to the Stones yet do they not pass through the Peritonaeum but descend with a small nerve and the Muscle called Cremaster through the Duplicity of the Midriff when it approaches near the Stones it is joyned with an Artery and now these Vessels which were before a little severed one from the other are by a film rising from the Peritonaeum closed up and bound both together and so twisting up like the young tendrils of a Vine they are carried to the end of the Stones The arteries which are associated to these veins take their original a little beneath the Emulgent vein whence they descend downward and a little from their beginning or original they are joyn'd to these veins till they are closed together by an Anastomôsis or Inosculation ending like a Piramid It has been generally taught that there are several Inosculations of the Arteries with the Veins in their passage whereby the blood of the Veins and Arteries are mixed but since the knowledge of the Circulation of the Blood this Opinion has been rejected for the blood in the Arteries goes down towards the Stones and that in the veins ascends from them and therefore if these two Vessels should open one into the other the Blood in one of them must necessarily be thrust back or else stopping stretch and break the Vessels but the truth is the blood both for the nourishment of the Stones and the making of Seed flows down by the Arteries only in an even course without any windings and twinings like the tendrils of Vines so much talked of as the excellent Anatomist de Graef says he has found by frequent inspection The Veins carry back from the Stones what of the blood remains from their nourishment and making of Seed and these indeed come out of the Stones with a vast number of Roots whereby they suck up the said Blood and are most admirably interwoven and inosculated one with another 'till about four or five fingers breadth above the Stone which space is called the Pyramidal Body Two things are to be noted First That these spermatic Veins have from their rise to their end several Valves which open upwards and so suffer the Blood to ascend towards the hollow Vein but not to return back again Secondly That tho' the Spermatick Arteries go a direct course in Men yet in Brutes they are more complicated and twisted with the Veins but without any opening of one into another There are Nerves and Lympheducts that pass into the Testicles together with the Vessels of preparation CHAP. II. The Vse of the preparing Vessels THE Use of those Vessels which are called the Vessels of Preparation is chiefly to attract out of the hollow Vein or left Emulgent the most pure and exquisitely concocted Blood which is most apt to be converted into Seed which they contain and prepare giving unto it a certain rude form of Seed in those parts that lie as it were in certain pleights or folds which they do by a peculiar property bequeathed to them Another Use of them is gathered by their situation for as they are now situated that is to say the right Vein coming from the Hollow Vein and the left from the Emulgent This incovenience is avoided that the left Vein is not forced to pass over the great Artery and so be in danger of breaking by reason of the swift motion of the Artery Moreover there being a necessity that Male and Female should be begot it is fit that there should be Seed proper for the generation of both Sexes whereof some must be hotter and some must be colder and therefore Nature hath so ordered it that the hotter Seed should proceed from the right Vein for the generation of man and the colder from the left for the generation of Females The left Vein hath also this property to draw from the Emulgent the more serous and less pure Blood to the intent that the serous humour might stir up Venery by its salt and acrimonious substance and therefore it is observed that those who have the left Stone bigger are most full of Seed and most prone to Venery These Veins are so far from preparing the Seed as that they only bring back what was superfluous from the making it And indeed the Arteries in Men do no more merit the name of preparing Vessels in regard to the Seed than the Gullet in respect of the Chyle or the chyliferous thoracick duct in regard to the Blood But however we continue the old Names declaring only against the reason of them CHAP. III. Of the Parastatae or Vessels where the Blood is first changed THESE four Vessels after many ingraftings and knittings together seem at length to become only two bodies full of little crumplings like the tendril of a Vine white and in the form of a Piramid resting the right upon the right Stone and the left upon the left Stone These are called Parastatae which as they stand pierce the tunicles of each Stone with certain fibers or extraordinary
for them to hang by on both sides one in form oblong and slender These Muscels derive their original from a thick membrane which is joyned to the Hanchbone in the further part of that region where the hair grows and is fastned to this bone with certain fleshy and straight fibres where the oblique Muscles of the Abdomen or Midriff end thence reaching down upon the superiour Members of the Testicles they are extended through the whole length of that round Body These Muscles are never seen in Women being altogether useless because their Stones are not pendent but are inclosed within their bodies CHAP. VII Of the substance and temper of the Stones THE substance of the Stones is glandulous or kernelly white soft loose spongy and hollow having sundry vessels dispersed thorow them Now although the substance of the Testicles be most soft and moist yet doth not this moistness constitute an uniform or homogeneal body for the substance of the Stones is wholly dissimilar and full of fibres These fibres also seem to be of a different substance from that of the Stones being only cloathed with the flesh of the Stones as the fibres of the Muscles are inwardly nervous but covered over with the flesh of the Muscles These fibres again differ in this that the fibres of the Testicles are hollow but the fibres of the Stones full and substantial These fibres are said to come from the spermatic vessels and thence branch themselves forth thorow the Testicles by which that part of the Seed which is over and above what serves for the nourishment of the Testicles is drawn forth and kept for procreation As concerning the temper of the Stones they would sooner be thought cold than hot if that Maxim were true that All white things are cold and all red things hot Notwithstanding because nature is known to abhor all coldness in the work of generation Therefore we must presume to affirm the temper of the Stones to be hot for they always abound with blood and a pure spirit that can never be without heat besides that heat is requir'd for the concoction of this blood and the changing it into seed yet it is very temperate as appears by the softness of the substance for as coldness and driness is the cause of hardness so heat and moisture is the cause of softness Nevertheless we are to understand this that the temper of the Stones are not alike in all for in some they are far colder than in others And therefore those who have hot Testicles are more salacious and prone to venereal actions having the places near about much more hairy and their Testicles much harder than others Those that have their Testicles cold find every thing contrary The greatest heat is in the right Testicle because it receives more pure and hotter blood from the hollow Vein and the great Artery the left colder because it receives a more impure and serous blood from the Emulgent Vein CHAP. VIII Of the Actions of the Testicles THE action and use of the Testicles is To generate Seed a gift which they obtain from an inbred quality which Nature hath bestowed upon them For the blood being received by the spermatic Vessels and there beginning to change its colour is by and by received by the deferent Vessels or the vessels which carry the blood so prepared to the Testicles where it is for a while contained and afterwards being carried to the Stones is by them made Seed and the last work perfected And it may with more easiness be affirmed that the Seed is generated by the Stones because every like is said to generate its like now the substance of the Testicles is very like the Seed it self that is white moist and viscous Whether the Stones are the only efficient cause of the Seed is not here to be disputed being only a nice point and no way profitable We shall rather with silence adhere to that opinion which affirms the function of the Testicles to be the generation of the Seed which is most likely and proceed to the next CHAP. IX Concerning the Utility of the Testicles and their parts THE structure of the Testicles being thus known it remains that we shew you their use This is first discovered from their situation For of those Creatures that have Stones some have them in their bodies as all Fowl others have them without though not pendent others have them hanging downward as men Men therefore have their Testicles without their bodies for two causes first because it is required that the Testicles of the Male should be bigger and hotter than those of the Female so that it were impossible for them to be contained within the body because of their quantity Besides the Seed of the Male being the effective original of the Creature and therefore hottest it is also required that the Seed should be more abundant than could be contained in the Testicles were they placed within the body for the seminary passages must have been less and the veins themselves would not have afforded such plenty of matter as now they do The motion of the Testicles is also to be considered by which they move sometimes upward and sometimes downward The one of these motions which is made upward is voluntary as being made by the Muscles but the motion downward is a forced motion not hapning without the laxity of the Muscles the Testicles through their own weight falling downwards These Muscles are called Cremasters their use being to draw up the Testicles to shorten the way of the Ejaculation of the Seed as also to keep the vessels from being distended too far by the weight of the Testicles The use of the Tunicles is now to be spoken of and first of that which is outermost and is called by the Latins Scrotum being the purse wherein the Testicles are contained It is made to wrinkle it self up and to let it self loose that it may be large enough for the Testicles when they swell with plenty of Seed and to wrinkle up again when the Testicles being emptied and so becoming less are drawn upward The other Coats or Tunicles are also made for the defence of the Stones but so thin and light that they should not oppress the Stones with their weight that which is called Erythroides hath many veins for the nourishment of the adjacent parts The Epididymis was made to wrap the Testicle round about lest the Humid matter of the Testicle should flow about and consequently be wasted CHAP. X. Of the Vessels that cast forth their Seed THat passage which comes from the head of the Testicles to the root of the Yard is called the Ejaculatory Vessel This as I said before rises from the head of the Testicles and joyning downward to the Testicle descends to the bottom and thence being reflected again and annext to the preparing Vessel it returns again to the head of the Testicle from thence it proceeds upward from the Testicles till it
distinct original from the bone of the Pubes The head of this is covered with a most tender skin and hath a hole like the Glans though not quite through in which and in the bigness it differs only from the Yard By a little drawing aside the lips there then appear the Nymphs and Clytoris The Nymphs are so called because they stand next to the Urine as it spouts out from the Bladder and keep it from wetting the lips they are also call'd wings they are placed on each side next within the lips and are two fleshy and soft productions beginning at the upper part of the privity where they are joined in an Acute angle and make that wrinkled membranous production that covers the Clytoris like a fore-skin and descending close all the way to each other reaching but about half the breadth of the Orifice of the sheath and ending each in an obtuse angle They are almost Triangular and therefore as also for their colour are compared to the thrills that hang under a cocks throat They have a red substance partly fleshy partly membranous within soft and spongy loosly composed of small Membranes and Vessels so that they are very easily stretched by the flowing in of the animal Spirits and arterial Blood The Spirits they have from the same Nerves that run thro' the sheath and blood from one of the branches of the Iliack Artery Veins they have also which carry away the arterial blood from them when they become flaccid They are larger in old Maids than in young and larger yet in those that have used Copulation or born Children They never according to Nature reach above half way out from between the lips their use is to defend the inner parts to cover the urinary passages and a good part of the Orifice of the sheath and to the same purposes serve the lips Above betwixt the Nymphs in the upper part of the privities a part bunches out a little that is called Clytoris from a Greek word that signifies lasciviously to grope the privities It is like a mans Yard in shape situation substance repletion with Spirits and erection and differs from it only in length and bigness in some it grows to that length as to hang out from betwixt the lips of the privities yea there are many stories of such as have had it so long and big as to be able to converse with other Women like unto men and such are called Hermophridites who it is not probable are truly of both Sexes but only the Stones fall down into the lips and this Clytoris is stretched preternaturally but in most it branches out so little as that it does not appear but by drawing aside the lips it is a little long and round body consisting like a mans Yard of two nervous and inwardly black and spongy parts that arise on each side from the bunching of the bone Ischium and meet together at the Conjunction of the bones of the Pubes It lies under the hill of Venus at the top of the great Cleft in Venery by reason of the two nervous bodies it puffs up and straightning the Orifice of the sheath contributes to the embracing the Yard more closely It s outward end is like to the Glans of a Mans Yard and has the same name and as the Glans in men is the seat of the greatest pleasure in Copulation so is this in Women It has some resemblance of a hole but it is not pervious It is most of it covered with a thin Membrane by the joyning of the Nymphs which is called the Prepuce The Clytoris has two pair of Muscles belonging to it the upper are round and spring from the bones of the hip and passing along the two nervous bodies are inserted into them these by straitning the roots of the said bodies do detain the Blood and Spirits in them and so erect the Clytoris as those in men do the Yard the other arise from the Sphincter of the fundament it has veins arteries and nerves CHAP. III. Of the fleshy knobs and the greater neck of the Womb. PResently behind the wings before we go far inward in the middle of the Cleft there do appear four knobs of flesh being placed in a quadrangular form one against the other they are said to resemble Myrtle-berries in form In this place is incerted the Orifice of the bladder which opens it self into the fissure to cast forth the Urine into the common Channel Now least any cold air or dust or any such thing should enter into the Bladder after the voiding of the Urine one of these knobs is seated so that it shuts the urinary passage The second is right opposite to the first the other two collateral They are round in Virgins but they hang flagging when Virginity is lost The lips of the Womb being gently separated the neck of the Womb is to be seen In which two things are to be observed the neck it self or the channel and the Hymen which is there placed By the neck of the Womb is understood the channel which is between the said knobs and the inner bone of the womb which receives the Yard like a Sheath The substance of it is sinewy and a little spongy that it may be dilated in this concavity there are certain folds or orbicular pleights these are made by a certain Tunicle so wrinkled as if a man should fold the skin with his fingers In Virgins they are plain in Women with often copulation they are oftentimes worn out sometimes they are wholly worn out and the inner side of the Neck appears smooth as it happens to Whores and Women that have often brought forth or have bin over troubled with their fluxes In old Women it becomes more hard and grisly Now though this Channel be something writhed and crooked when it falls and sinks down yet in time of the flowers and copulation or in time of travel it is erected and extended and this over-great extension in Women that bring forth is the cause of that great pain in Child-bed CHAP. IV. Of the Hymen THE Hymen is a Membrane not altogether without blood neither so tender as the rest but more ruddy and scatter'd up and down with little veins and in a circular form it is placed overthwart and shuts up the cavity of the neck of the Womb. In the middle it hath a little hole through which the Menses are voided This at the first time of Copulation is broken which causes some pain and gushing forth of some quantity of blood which is an evident sign of Virginity for if the blood do not flow there is a suspicion of a former deflowring The Hymen is a thin nervous membrane interwoven with fleshy fibres and endowed with many little Arteries and Veins coming across the passage of the sheath behind the incertion of the neck of the bladder with a hole in the midst that will admit the top of ones little finger whereby the Courses
far as the privities themselves and that chiefly for sense and pleasure for which cause there is a great sympathy between the Womb and the Head This is also further to be noted that the Womb in its situation is not fixed and immoveable but moveable by reason of two ligaments which hang on both sides from the Share-bone and piercing through the Peritonaeum are joined to the bone it self so that it sometimes happens that through those holes of the Peritonaeum which give passage to these ligaments being loosened either the Omentum or the Entrails do swell outwardly and cause the burstness either of the Caul or of the Guts and sometimes it happens by reason of the looseness of those ligaments that the womb is moved with such force that it falls down and in the act of Copulation is moved up and down sometimes it moves upward that some Women do affirm that it ascends as high as their Stomack Now though the Womb be one continued body yet it is divided into the Mouth and the Bottom The Bottom of the Womb is called all that which by still ascending stretches it self from the internal Orifice to the end being narrow toward the Mouth but dilating it self by little and little 'till it come at the entrails The Mouth of the womb is that narrowness between the neck and the bottom it is an oblong and transverse Orifice but where it opens it self orbicular and round the circumference very thick and of an exquisite feeling and if this mouth be out of order and be troubled with a Scirrhous brawn or over-fatness over-moisture or relaxation it is the cause of Barrenness In those that are big with Child there uses to stick to this Orifice a thick viscous glutinous matter that the parts moistned may be the more easily opened For in the delivery this mouth is opened after a very strange and miraculous manner so that according to the bigness of the birth it suffers an equal dilatation from the bottom of the womb to the privy member CHAP. VII Of the preparing Vessels in Women THE Spermatick Preparing Vessels are two Veins and two Arteries differing not at all from those of men either in the number original action or use but only in their bigness and the manner of their insertion For as to their number there are so many veins and so many Arteries as in men They arise also from the same place as in men that is to say the right from the trunck of the hollow vein descending the left from the left Emulgent There are two Arteries also on both sides one which grow from the Aorta these both bring vital blood for the work of Generation As to the Longitude and Latitude of these Vessels they are narrower and shorter in Women only where they are wrinckled they are much more wreathed and contorted than in men for the way being shorter in women than in men Nature required for stretching out these vessels that they should be more wrinckled and crankled than in men that the blood might stay there in greater quantity for preparation of the Seed These vessels in Women are carried with an oblique course through the small guts to the Stones being wrapt up in fatter membranes but in the mid-way they are divided into two branches whereof the greater branch goes to the Stone constituting the various or winding body and those wonderful inosculations the lesser branch ends in the womb in the sides of which it is scattered up and down and chiefly at the higher part of the bottom of the womb for nourishment of the Womb and of the birth and that some part of the flowers may be purged out through those Vessels now because the Stones of Women are seated near the womb for that cause these vessels fall not from the Peritonaeum neither make they such passages as in men neither reach they to the Share-bone The use of these Spermatic Vessels is to minister to the generation of Seed according to the ancient Doctrine but to the nutrition of the Eggs in the Stones according to the new and for the nourishment of the Foetus and of the solid parts and the expurgation of the courses in as much as blood is convey'd by the Arteries to all those parts to which their Ramifications come in which parts they leave what is to be separated according to the law of Nature the remaining blood returning by the Veins CHAP. VIII Of the Stones in Women THE Stones of Women although they do perform the same actions and are for the same use as mens yet they differ from them in situation substance temperament figure magnitude and in their Covering They are seated in the hollowness of the Abdomen neither do they hang out as in men but they rest upon the Muscles of the Loins and this for that cause that they might be more hot and fruitful being to elaborate that matter with which the Seed of man engenders man In this place arises a Question not trivial whether the Seed of Woman be the efficient or the material cause of generation To which it is answered that though it have a power of acting yet it receives the perfection of that power from the Seed of Man The Stones of Women differ from mens also as to their figure because they are not so round and oval as those of men being in their fore and hinder part more depressed and broad the external superficies being more unequal as if a great many knots and kernals were mixed together There is also another difference as to the subject because they are softer and moister than those of men being more loose and ill compacted Their magnitude and temperament do also make a difference for the Stones of Women are much colder and lesser than Mens which is the reason that they beget a thin and watry Seed Their coverings also do make a difference for mens are wrapt up in divers Tunicles because being pendent outward they were otherwise more subject to external injuries but the stones of women have but one tunicle which though it stick very close to them yet are they also half cloathed over with the Peritonaeum They have but one membrane that encompasses them round but on their upper side where the preparing Vessels enter them they are about half way involved in another membrane that accompanies those Vessels and springs from the Peritonaeum When this cover is removed their substance appears whitish but is wholly different from the substance of Mens Stones for mens are composed of Seed-vessels which being continued to one another are twenty or thirty ells long if one could draw them out at length without breaking but Womens principally consist of a great many membranes and small fibres loosly joined to one another among which there are several little bladders full of a clear Liquor thro' whose membranes the nerves and preparing Vessels run Galen and Hypocrates and their followers imagine the
a place furthest removed from the senses near which it were not fit to be by reason of the inconveniencies which would necessarily arise It is most fit to receive the Birth as being hollow in which concavity the birth may increase to its full proportion every way It is most fit for the exclusion of the Birth as being placed downward whereby the birth might help it self with its own weight and also by reason of the Muscles of the Abdomen which serve for compression and do help the endeavours of the mother CHAP. XVI Of the Utility of the preparing Vessels in Women THE Utilities of these Vessels are taken from their Original and from their Insertion the right Vein rising from the Hollow and the left from the Emulgent as in men that the more hot and purer blood might come from the right vein for the procreation of Males and the more serous and watry blood from the Emulgent for the generation of Women The Vessels also in women are shorter than in men because the way is not so far to the Stones which brevity of the Vessels is lengthned out by the many turnings and windings with which those Vessels are endued In the middle way those Vessels divide themselves like a Fork the greater part going to the Stones carrying the matter for Seed the lesser is carried to the womb where it scatters it self all along the sides of it for the nutrition of the Womb. As for the Arteries they afford the blood which is more full of spirits to perfect the Seed CHAP. XVII Of the Utility of the Stones THE use of the Stones in Women is the same as in men that is to say to prepare the Seed and to make it fit for procreation They are seated within that they should not want a continual heat to cherish them for the matter of Seed being colder in women than in men it requires a greater heat which it would of necessity want were the Stones placed outward like those of men and for that cause are they covered only with one Tunicle that the heat of those parts may more easily pass to them And therefore the Stones of women are softer than those of men because they should not perfect so substantial a Seed and that the heat of the adjacent parts should not be wholly taken up in the cherishing of them Their figure is not exactly round but depressed that the little Meanders of the veins dispersed through the Membrane from the Stones to the deferent Vessels might have more room to be incerted for the attraction of the Seed out of the whole substance of the Stones The inequality and ruggedness of them makes for the longer stay of the Seed in those crooked and winding Vessels SECT III. CHAP. I. Of the signs of Conception HAving thus shewed you the Anatomy and Use of the parts it will be requisite to discourse of the Conception it self which is the main and chief end of these Vessels And first of the signs of Conception The signs of Conception on the Mothers side are certain and apparent first if after she hath had the company of her Husband she hath received more content than ordinary Pains in the head giddiness dimness of the eyes all these concurring together portend conception the apples of the eyes decrease the eyes themselves swell and become of a dark colour the veins of the eyes wax red and swell with blood the eyes sink the eye-brows grow loose various colours appear in the eyes little red pimples rise in the face the veins between the Nose and the Eyes swell with blood and are seen more plain the vein under the tongue looks greenish the neck is hot the back bone cold the veins and arteries swell and the pulses are observed more easily the veins in the breast first look of a black colour but afterward turn yellowish the Teats look red if she drink cold drink she feels the cold in her breast she loaths her meat and drink she hath divers longings but her natural appetite is destroyed Continual vomitings follow and weakness of the stomach sour belches worms about her Navel faintness of the loyns the lower part of her belly swelling inward griping of the body the retention of the Seed 7 days after the act of copulation After which act there is a cold and trembling which seizes the external members the attractive force of the womb increases the womb dries up It is also a certain sign of conception if the Midwife touching with her finger the interiour neck of the womb shall find it exactly closed so that the point of a needle will not go between The womb waxeth round and swells the flowers cease to flow for the Veins through which they come down carry the blood to the nourishment of the birth the thighs swell with some pain the whole body grows weak and the face waxes pale the Excrements proceed slower out of the body The Urine is white a little cloud swimming at the top and many atoms appear in the Urine Take the Urine of a Woman and shut it up three days in a glass if she have conceived at the end of three days there will appear in the Urine certain live things to creep up and down Take also the Urine of a Woman and put it in a bason a whole night together with a clean and bright needle in it if the woman have conceived the needle will be scattered full of red speckles but if not it will be black and rusty Conception is an action of the Womb whereby the fruitful Seed of the Man and Woman are received and kept that a Child may be formed There are two kinds of Conception one true to which succeeds the generation of an Infant the other spurious and contrary to Nature in this case the Seed changes into water false Conceptions Moles or any other strange matter It is to be noted that there is no absolute necessity that all the Seed should be received and retained entire nor must we imagine that tho' all of it be not received into the Womb the Child formed out of it will want some Limb as an Arm or Leg or other member for want of sufficient matter for the least drop of Seed nay only a fume of it is sufficient to impregnate and form a Child But when the quantity of the Seed is small the Child may be the less and weaker for it or if the Man or the Woman be disâ—ased or the Womb stuft with ill humours the Child will be sickly or Moles or false Births or Dropsies of the Womb will be occasioned Tho' a Midwife may guess that a Woman has conceived when all the signs concur or most part of them together and successively according to their seasons yet many of these signs happen upon suppression of the courses and none of them are so very certain as not sometimes to fail us wherefore in trials of Women and upon giving physick to them great caution
as soon as an Egg is ripened and falls into the womb it immediately sucks up thro' its outward membranes some of that albugonious liquor wherewith at this time the internal superficies of the womb is much moistened and therefore as soon as the first liniaments of the Child begin to the drawn out of that Humour contained in the Amnios they are immediately increased by the apposition of the said liquor strained out of the chorion thro' the amnios into its cavity but when the parts of the Child begin to be a little more perfect and the chorion is so dense that not any more of the said liquor is suckt up by it the umbillical Vessels begin to be formed and to extend to the side of the amnios which they penetrate and both the Vein and the Arteries pass also through the allantois and Chorion and are implanted into the Womb-cake that at this time first gathering upon the Chorion joins it to the womb and now the hypogastrick and spermatick Arteries that before carried the nutritious juice into the cavity of the womb open by their orifices into the Womb-cake where either by straining through it or by fermenting they put off the said juice which is suckt up by the umbilical Vein and carried by it first to the Liver afterwards to the Heart of the Child where the thin spirituous part of it is converted into blood but the thick and earthy part going down by the aorta enters the umbilical Arteries and by those branches of them that run through the amnios is discharged into the cavity of it Some perhaps may ridicule this passage of the nutritious juice because it is supposed according to this account to chuse its way as if it were a reasonable Creature but they may as well expose the passage of the Chyle from the common duct to the Womb-cake when the Child is in the Womb for how should the Chyle know or the milky Vessels by which it passes that there is any Child in the Womb that the one should offer to go that way and the other give it way to go thither at that time whereas the passage is shut at other times and yet this they that laugh at this passage of the nutritious juice allow and how comes the Chyle to turn its course presently after the Child is born and instead of going down to the womb rise up to the breasts What reason can be given for these and many other things in nature We are therefore forced to confess that there are many things in nature that are only known to Almighty God the maker of all things There is also another objection against this opinion because it allows none of the Mothers blood to be received by the Child thro' the Umbilical Vein but only nutritious juice and how should it come to pass that the blood should be bred in the Child seeing it has blood before the Liver or Heart or any other part that assists in the making blood are in a condition to officiate It is indeed very strange how blood should be made so soon but that it is made out of the Nutritious Juice without the mixture of any from the Mother is manifest by Dr. Harvey's curious Observations concerning the order of the generation of the parts in a Chicken which from first to last receives nothing from the head says he there appears at the very first a red leaping Speck a beating Bladder and Fibres drawn from thence containing blood in them and as far as one can discern by inspection blood is made before the leaping Speck is formed and the same has vital heat before it is stir'd by the Pulse And as the beating begins in the blood and from it so at last at the point of Death it ends in it And because the beating Bladders and the sanguinous Fibres that are made from it and are seen first of all it seems as if the blood were before its Receptacles This Worthy Author in his Treatise of the generation of Animals owns it is a Paradox that blood should be made and moved and have vital Spirit before any Organs for making blood or of motion have a being and that the Body should be nourished and increased before the Stomach and Bowels the Organs of Concoction are framed But neither of these are stranger than that there should be Sense and Motion before there is a Brain And yet he says in his 57 th Exercitation that the Faetus moves contracts and stretches out it self when there is nothing to be seen for a Brain but clear water Now if all these wonderful and unaccountable things do undoubtedly come to pass in an Egg by the warmth of the Hen only why should we count it a wonderful thing that nutritious Juice impregnated with the vital Spirits of the arterial blood wherewith it circulates thro' the Mother's Heart should be turned into blood in a Child comforted with the friendly warmth of the Womb tho' the Mother sends no humour to it under the form of Blood and tho' it self as yet has no perfect Organs to make Blood The thicker nutritious juice being put off in the Amnios by the umbilical Arteries the Child sucks in some of it as soon as the Mouth Stomach and the like are perfectly formed which going down into the Stomach and Guts is received by the milky Veins as in grown people Diemerbrock proves that the Child is nourished this way by the following Reasons first because the Stomach of the Child is never empty but has a milky whitish liquor in it and in the mouth of the Child there is also such an humour 2 dly Because there are Excrements in the guts and the Child voids them by stool as soon as it is born and certainly these are Excrements of some nourishment taken in by the Mouth 3 dly Had not the Stomach been accustomed to perform Concoction in the Womb it would not presently after the Birth perform the same 4 thly Because the Infant presently after it is born knows how to suck the Breast which it cannot be thought it could so readily do if it had taken nothing by suction while it was in the Womb. 5 thly Because many Children vomit up a milky nourishment as soon as they are born before they have suckt any Breast or taken any thing by the Mouth which therefore must needs be received into the Stomach Some say by way of Objection to what has bin before set down if the Child be not nourished by the Mothers blood why should her Courses be stopt all or most of the time she goes with Child to which may be answerâ—d that it is for the same reason that Nurses that give suck commonly want them also for as in Nurses the Chyle passes in a great proportion to the Breasts whereby the Blood being defrauded of its due and wonted share does not increase to that Degree as to need to be lessened by the flowing of the Courses so there is so great
the beginning yet it is afterwards very difficult for by this means the whole body accustoms it self to send forth its excrements this way and the Womb being now weakned gathers excrements apace Sometimes it proceeds from the whole body and then you may perceive the signs of an ill humor through the whole body In the Cure of this you must avoid blood-letting for that the bad humor must not be recalled to defile the blood besides that the disease is a sufficient weakning and consuming of the body The humor is discussed by the decoction of Guaiacum and China and Lentisk-wood For the drying up of the humor the Root of Filipendula doth very much conduce For astringent Medicines you may use chiefly the powder of dead men's bones the ashes of Capons-dung in rain water The Patient must avoid sleeping upon her back lest the heat of the Lungs should carry the humors toward the Womb Frictions also of the upper parts for the diversion of the humor may be used Sometimes it is caused by the Womb it self and then there will appear signs of the affection of the Womb and the Flux is not so great For the Cure of this Suffumigations of Frankincense Labdanum Mastick and Sanders are very requisite Of the Green-Sickness THE Green-Sickness is a changing of the colour of the Face into a green and pale colour proceeding from the rawness of the humors The signs of this appear in the Face to which may be added a great pain in the Head difficulty of breathing with a palpitation of the heart a small and thick beating of the Arteries in the Neck Back and Temples sometimes inordinate Fevers through the vitiousness of the humors loathing of Meat Vomiting distention of the Hypocondriack part by reason of the reflux of the menstrous blood to the greater Vessels a swelling of the whole body by reason of the abundance of humors or of the Thighs and Legs above the heels by reason of the abundance of serous humors The Cause is the crudity and rawness of the humor and quantity withal arising from the suppression of the Courses through the natural narrowness of the vessels or through an acquired narrowness of the vessels by the eating of Oatmeal Chalk Earth Nutmegs and drinking of Vinegar or from the obstruction of the other bowels Hence arises an ill concoction in the bowels and the humors are carried into the habit of the body or become habitual thereunto The Cure is performed by the letting of blood especially in the heel if the Disease be of any continuance by Purgation preparation of the humour being first considered which is performed by the decoction of Guaiacum with â—retan Dittany purging of the humor is performed with Agarick Aloes Succotrin with the â—â—ice of Savin for the unobstructing of the humor prepared Steel the root of Scorzonera Bezoarstone in diet Vinegar is utterly to be avoided The Cure of this Disease is performed by opening Obstructions by purging off vitious Humours by correcting the intemperies of the Bowels and by strengthening them First therefore a gentle purging Medicine must be given that is agreeable to the Constitution that the first region may be emptied and if the Belly be bound a Glister must be given first of all afterwards bleeding must be ordered unless the Disease is very inveterate and the Maid be inclined to a Cachexy But a Vein in the Arm must be opened tho' the Courses are stopt for at that time if you bleed in the Foot the obstructions of the Veins and of the Womb would be increased That quantity of Blood being taken away that is necessary proper purges must be used Take of the Pill Coch. major two scruples of Castor powdered two grains of Peruvian Balsom four drops make four Pills let her take them at five in the Morning and sleep after them if she can Let these Pills be repeated twice or thrice every Morning or every other Morning according to the strength of the sick and their operation After the purging Pills let her take the following Take of the fileings of Steel eight grains with a sufficient quantity of extract of Wormwood make two Pills to be taken in the Morning and they must be repeated at five in the Afternoon She must continue this Course for a Month drinking presently after the Pills a draught of Wormwood-wine If a Bolus be more pleasing Take of the conserve of Roman Wormwood and of the conserve of the inner peell of Oranges each one ounce of candied Angelica and Nutmegs candied and of Venice Treacle each half an ounce of Ginger candied two drams with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Oranges make an Electuary take of this Electuary one dram and an half of the filings of Steel well powdered eight grains with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Oranges make a Bolus to be taken in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon drinking upon it a draught of Wormwood wine Of the suffocation of the Matrix THE signs of the Suffocation of the Womb are a weariness of the whole body with a weakness of the Thighs a paleness and sadness of the Face a nauseousness though seldom vomiting oftentimes a loathing and distate of Meat and that sometimes with a grumbling and noise in the Belly and sometimes without The signs of the present Disease are that when the Vapours are carried up to the Heart and do there stop the vital Spirits a light swooning follows the Pulse changes and is little the Body grows cold all the spirits flying up into the Heart the Vapour being thrust up to the Head and Chaps the Chaps are many times set fast the Patient seeming to be stifled the motion of the Breast and Diaphragm is disturbed and hindred so that the breath is almost stopt the Patient living only by transpiration Sometimes there is joined with it a kind of Uterine fury with talking and anger Sometimes it causes other madness sometimes the Woman falls into a dead sleep which makes her seem as though she were dead It differs from the Epilepsie because in that the Convulsive motions are more general nor is there any memory of those things which happen about them after the Fit the Pulse is great and the Mouth of the Party affected fomes with a froth It differs from the Apoplexy because in that the Fit comes suddenly without any notice and the Patient is affected with a kind of snorting and there is such a Resolution of the parts that they feel not although they be pricked It differs from a Syncope in that there are no signs when the Fit will be the Pulse ceases to the apprehension and the Patient is troubled with cold sweats They differ from dead people by sneezing which may be provoked by putting something for that purpose into the Nose The cause of this is a venemous subtle and thin Vapour piercing in one moment through the whole body and carried up from the matter in the Womb corrupted after a peculiar manner either
bed or to keep it over-warm in apparel or give it too much meat which are things that fatten and enlarge the Flesh whereas the restraint of them diminisheth and dries it up which driness increaseth wit and much availeth toward long life According to this Rule which I have prescribed was He who of all men living that ever the World had was the wisest brought up for as soon as he was born he began to be inur'd to cold and other alterations of the air his first bed was the Earth his apparel coarse and a few days after they went with him to Aegypt a place very hot and the meat they gave him was that which I have already mentioned to have been used by the ancient Greeks Whereupon it is that the Prophet Esay saith He shall eat butter and honey that he may know to eschew evil and chuse the good For though he was very God yet being also perfect Man he omitted not to make use of the same natural remedies as were used by the rest of the sons of men Thus we have shown what the qualities are which the Brain ought to have and what the substance having proved according to the opinion of Heraclitus that driness maketh the wisest soul and that by age from the day of our birth 'till that of our death we still acquire more and more dryness and by consequence more knowledge We have also proved that the subtile and delicate parts of the Brain are corrected by what we eat for those that always feed upon Beef and Pork must of necessity have a Brain so gross and of such evil temperature that the reasonable soul cannot be so capable of eschewing evil or adhering to good CHAP. VIII Some farther Considerations than have before been mentioned concerning the gradual progress of the Births Formation in the Womb. COncerning the Gradual Formation of the Infant in the Womb of the growing up of the Fibrae within the first seven days of the Umbilical Veins and Arteries of the Formation of the Liver the Heart the Brain the Nerves the Gristles c. a particular Discourse hath been already made in this Book It remains only that we touch upon some things in reference to the same matter As the use of the two Membranules that enwrap the Birth whereof the first is called Ambiens Avicius Amnium Aurela Abcas Abigas Sela Aligas or the Armature of the Conception the latter Alanthoides Bilis Ascari Secca Involucrum which hath been formerly delivered is a thing of great consequence to be known and well considered so likewise is the consideration of the Umbilical Veins and Arteries a matter no less important These Veins meeting together a little beneath the Navel and extended along that concavity where the Liver is to be formed serve for the purging of the menstruous blood which is to be destributed through the members The two Arteries are connected with ductile ligatures unto the great Artery Through those the heart of the Embryo receives ventilation and draws spirit and the purer part of the blood from the Womb. Then after the first six or seven days the lineaments of all the members are described Next the Lineation being perfected within the space of between four and eight days after a certain sanguinous matter drawn through the Navel passeth all along through the whole Birth and being pre-disposed toward the formation of the members fills up at that time the lineatures The following days from the ninth to the fifteenth this sanguineous juice is converted into Flesh At which time also the Members receive their colour and that degree of hardness or softness which is peculiar to them like as a Painter when he hath drawn the outward lines of any Picture in the next place he fills it up with various colours according as the nature of each several part requires Thus Nature proceeds to perfect the Formation of the Heart Liver Brain and other principle Members All which things are distinctly brought to pass from the Conception to the eighteenth day of the first Month at which time it is called Seed but afterward it begins both to be called and to be a Feature But for the better retaining of these things in memory that Author did not amiss who thought fit to comprehend them in these following Verses Sex in lacte dies ter sunt in sanguine trini Bis seni carnem ter seni membra figurant Six days compleat to milk thrice three to blood convert the seed Twice six soft flesh do form thrice six do massive members breed Otherwise thus Injectum semen sex primis rite diebus Est quasi lac reliquisque novem fit sanguis at inde Consolidat duodena dies bis nona deinceps Effigiat tempusque sequens producit ad ortum Talis perficitur praedicto tempore forma The first six days to milk the fruitful seed Injected in the Womb remaineth still Then other nine of milk red blood do breed Twelve days turn blood to flesh by Nature's skill Twice nine firm part the rest ripe birth do make And thus foregoing time doth form man's shape To conclude this subject the ancients were of opinion that the heart which in all animals possesseth the middle seat like a King which hath the chief Seat of his Empire in the midst of his Dominions is both the first principal member which is formed in mans body and the last which dies But later Physitians hold that the liver is first formed next the Heart and lastly the Brain CHAP. IX Concerning the Notes of Virginity and whether or no it may be Violated without the knowledge of man ABOUT the orifice of the sinus pudoris vulgarly miscalled the Neck of the Womb is that pendulous production by some termed the Hymen by others more rightly claustrum Virginale and by the French Bouton de Rose for that it beareth a near resemblance with the expanded bud of a Rose or Gilli-flower Hence therefore originally sprung that common expression of the Deflowring of Virgins Forasmuch as the Integrity or Violation of this part is accounted the most certain and infallible sign of Virginity intire or violated some Learned Physitians that have written of this Subject esteem it a great vanity and folly to think that there is any other Hymen Moreover this word Flower is used in divers acceptations for besides the proper signification it is commonly taken for the prime or chief part of any thing and so youth is called the Flower of a Mans age or for that which is handsome or elegant and so Rhetorical expressions are called Flowers or else for such things as are not marred or spoiled by use and according to this sense a Woman deprived of her Virginity may be said to have been Deflowred or to have lost her Flower Now this Claustrum Virginale or Flower consisteth of four Caruncles or Fleshy substances called Myrtle-formed in regard they resemble Myrtle berries These four caruncles are situated as it were in the four Angles of
small Veins which afterwards disperse themselves through the body of those Stones The substance of these Parastatae is between that of the Stones and that of the Preparing Vessels for they neither altogether consist of Membranes neither are they altogether Glandulous or Kernelly Upon the Stones as yet clad with the tunica albuginea are fixed the epididymidae called also Parastatae these do not differ from the Stones only these consists of divers ducts but those after their six or seven Roots that rise out of the Stone are united which they are in a short space but of one only a little thicker and the Parastatae differ not from the vasa deferentia saving that those go by a winding passage and these by a streight and that those are a little softer and narrower CHAP. IV. Of the Testicles in general THE Stones are in number two very seldom one and much seldomer 3 or 4 The situation of the Stones in Men is without the Midriff at the root of the Yard under the belly and that for two causes to keep men more chaste it being observed that those creatures which carry their stones within their Bodies are more salacious and bring forth in great numbers Their bigness is not always alike in all Creatures but in men as big as a Pigeons Egg or as a small Hens Egg and commonly the left is bigger than the right In the Anatomy of the Stones divers things are to be considered Their Tunicles or the skins in which they are wrapt as well those which are common to both as those which are peculiar to either next the muscles then the substance of which they are composed and lastly the Vessels which are dispersed through the body of the stones The Stones in Latin are called Testes either because they testifie one to be a Man or because amongst the Romans none could bear witness but he that had them They have a peculiar substance such as is not in all the Body besides whitish and soft made up of an innumerable little Ropes of Seed carrying Vessels There is no cavity in them but those said Vessels are continued to one another and carry the Seed in their undiscernable hollowness Hippocrates held the right to be bigger and hotter than the left and therefore called it the Male-getter and the left the Female-getter these fancies seem ridiculous seeing there is no such difference of their bigness and that their Vessels are common they have Arteries and Veins from the preparing Vessels which some have thought to reach only to the inmost coat because they are not conspicuous in the inner substance but that comes to pass by reason that the arterial Blood presently loses its colour and by the seminifick faculty of the Stones is turned into Seed which being whitish of the same colour with the Vessels makes them undiscernible yet in those men that have died of languishing Diseases and whose Stones have their faculty impaired Diemerbroeck says that he has often seen Blood-bringing Vessels in the inmost parts of the Stones and has shew'd them to many in the publick Anatomick Theatre As to Nerves Dr. Willis affirms that he could never observe more to go to them than one from a vertebral pair and that too was most of it spent upon the Muscle cremaster Concerning the Use of this Nerve there is a great Controversie Dr. Glisson Dr. Wharton and others will have it convey a seedy Juice which makes the greatest part of the Seed But Dr. Willis is of another Opinion however the Seed must needs consist of a nervous Juice and plenty of Spirits brought from the Brain because of the great weakness and enervation that is induced upon the Brain and Nerves by too great an use of Venery Lympheducts they have also arising from betwixt their coats and ascending upwards into the belly with the Vasa Deferentia these have many valves looking upwards which hinder any thing from descending by them to the Stones but permit the Lympha to ascend which they convey into the Chyliferous Vessels CHAP. V. Of the Tunicles of the Stones THE Tunicles are wrapt up in divers coverings about the number of which there hath been great dissention But they are now reduced to five whereof two are common and are called Scrotum and Dartos three particular the names of which are Elytroides Erythroides and Epididymis The first of these which is like a Satchel or Purse and is common to both consists of a skin and a cuticle This contains the two Stones like a Purse and is obvious to the touch The skin of this part differs from any other part of the skin which covers the body for whereas that is stretched out and spread close over the body this is more loose and made to stretch out or to be wrinkled up together as occasion is that is as the stones either ascend or descend they ascend commonly in the time of Conjunction they descend in Fevers weakness of the Testicles or by reason of old age The second is called Dartos because it is easily separated from the others In this the Testicles lie as it were in a nest wrapping them about more close than the Scrotum doth It takes its original from the Fleshy Pannicle which though it be thinner hereabouts than in any other part of the body yet it is full of little veins and arteries The proper Tunicles are first the Elytroides which is also called Vaginalis by reason it supplies the office of a sheath It takes its original from the production of the Peritonaeum for where the spermatick Vessels pass they do not at all bruise the Peritonaeum but carry it down to the Stones and so constitute or make this Tunicle To know this Tunicle and the original of it is very necessary for Physick because that hollowness which the Processes of the Peritonaeum do make for the passage of the spermatick Vessels is sometimes dilated as far as the beginning or source of this Tunicle and both the small guts and the Kall fall down upon the Testicles which is the cause of that kind of Burstness which by the Physicians is called Enterocele This Tunicle grows to that which is called Dartos being joyned to it by many nervous fibres Underneath this is a Tunicle called Erythroides or the red Tunicle so called from the multitude of red veins which are sprinkled up and down in it It rises from the other Membranes and is encompassed without by the first proper Tunick The third and that which immediately compasseth the stones is that which is called Epididymis it is white thick and strong to preserve the soft and loose substance of the Stones It riseth from the Tunicle of the seminal Vessels being the thickest of all the Tunicles and hath some few veins scattered up and down in it CHAP. VI. Of the suspensory Muscles TO keep the Stones from oppressing or stretching over-much the passages of the seminal Vessels Nature hath provided them two muscles
flow where it is found it is a certain note of Virginity but upon the first Copulation it is broke and bleeds and when it is once broke it never closes again This Blood is called the flower of Virginity and of this the Scripture makes mention Dut. cap. 22. 13.21 But tho' a man when he finds these signs of Virginity may be fully satisfied he hath married a Maid yet on the contrary it will not necessarily follow that where they are wanting Virginity is also wanting for the Hymen may be corroded by acrimonious fretting Humours flowing thro' with the courses or from the falling out or inversion of the Womb or sheath at least It sometimes happens even to Maids for if a Maid be so inconsiderate as to marry while her courses flow or within a Day after then both the Hymen and the inner wrinkled Membrane of the Sheath are so flaggy and relaxed that the Yard may easily enter with out any lett and so give suspicion of Unchastity when really she is unblameable saving for her imprudence to marry at that season Sometimes the Hymen grows so strong in old Maids that a Man is forced to make many essays before he can penetrate it and in some it is naturally quite closed up and these by this means having their courses stopt are in great danger of their life if they be not opened by some Chyrurgical Instrument Close to the Hymen lye the four Myrtle-berry Caruncles so called from their resembling Myrtle-berries The largest of them is uppermost standing just at the Mouth of the Urinary passage which it stops after rendring the Urine Opposite to this in the bottom of the sheath there is another and one on each side but of these four there is only the first in Maids the other three are not indeed Caruncles but little knobs made of the angular parts of the broken Hymen roll'd into a heap by the wrinkling of the sheath These three when the sheath is extended in Womens labour loose their roughness and become smooth so that they disappear until it be again contracted and indeed the sheath near its outer orifice has a Muscle near three Fingers broad that upon occasion contracts it so that Men and Women need not be solicitous concerning their Genitals being proportionable one to the other CHAP. V. Of the Vessels that run through the neck of the Womb. BEtween the Duplicity of the two Tunicles that constitute the neck of the Womb there are many Veins and Arteries that run along arising from those Vessels that descend on both sides the thighs and are incerted into the side of the neck of the Womb The great quantity and bigness of them deserves admiration for they are much bigger than the nature and openness of the place seems to require The cause of this is twofold first Because it being requisite for the neck of the Womb to be filled with abundance of spirits and to be extended and dilated for the better taking hold of the Yard there is required a great heat for these kind of motions which growing more intense by the act of frication doth consume a great quantity of moisture so that great Vessels are requisite and only able to make that continual supply that is needful There is another cause of the longness of these Vessels which is this Because that the monthly purgations are poured through those veins for the flowers must not come only out of the Womb but out of the neck of the Womb also Whence it happens that Women with Child do sometimes continue their purgations because that though the womb be shut up yet the passages in the neck of the womb are open This is also further to be noted in the neck of the womb that as soon as ever your sight is entred within the female fissure there do appear to the view two certain little holes or pits wherein is contained a serous humour which being pressed out in the act of copulation does not a little add to the pleasure thereof This is the humour with which women do moisten the top of a mans Yard not the Seed but a humour proper to the place voided out by the Womb. CHAP. VI. Of the Fabrick of the Womb. TO the neck of the Womb the Womb it self is adjoined in the lower part of the Hypogastrium where the hips are widest and broadest which are greater and broader thereabouts than those of men which is the reason also that they have broader Buttocks than men have The Womb is placed between the Bladder and the streight gut being joined to the bladder and leaning upon the streight gut where it lies as between two Cushions this situation of the womb was fittest that so it might have liberty to be stretched or contracted according to the bigness of the Fruit contained in it The figure of the womb is round and not unlike a Gourd that lessens and grows more acute at the one end The bottom of the womb is knit together by Ligaments of its own which are peculiar The neck of the womb is joined by its own substance and by certain Membranes to the Share-bone and the Sacred bone As to the bigness of it that varies according to the age or constitution of the body and use of Venery For it is much greater in Women that have brought forth than in those that are with Child and after the birth It is of a substance so thick as that it exceeds a thumbs breadth in thickness which after conception is so far from decreasing that it increases still to a greater bulk and proportion This substance the more to confirm it is interweaved with all manner of fibres streight oblique and overthwart The Vessels of the Womb are Veins Arteries and Nerves There are two little Veins which are carried from the spermatick Vessels to the bottom of the womb and two greater from the Hypogastricks which go not only to the bottom but to the neck The mouth of these veins pierce as far as the inward concavity in which place the extremities of them are called Acetabula which in the time of the Flowers gape and open themselves by reason of the great plenty and stream of blood that pours it self from thence and therefore they are at that time most conspicuous in women with Child that which is called the Liver of the Womb is joined to them that it might draw blood for the nourishment of the Child at which time their veins do so swell especially in the time of or near Delivery that they are as big as the Emulgent veins or at least half as thick as the Hollow vein It hath two Arteries on both sides the Spermatick and the Hypogastrick which every where do accompany the Veins The Womb hath also divers little nerves knit together in form of a Net which are carried not only to the interior part of the bottom of the Womb but also to the Neck and as
have happened when the Egg being received out of the stone into it has been stopt in its passage to the womb either from its own bigness or some obstruction in the tube The substance of the tubes is not nervous as Fallopius affirms but membranous for they consist of two membranes the outer and inner the inner springs from or at least is common with that which covers the inner substance of the womb But whereas it is smooth in the womb it is very wrinkled in the tubes the outer is common with the outmost of the womb and this is smooth The capacity of these passages varies very much for in the beginning as it goes out of the womb it only admits a bristle but in his progress where it is most capacious it will receive ones little finger but in the extremity where it is jagged it is but about a quarter so wide their length also is very uncertain for they sometimes increase from four or five to eight or nine fingers breadth long Their use is in a fruitful Copulation to grant a passage to the finer part of the man's Seed or of a seminal fume towards the stones to bedew the Eggs contained in them which Eggs one or more being thereby ripened and dropping off from the stone are received by the extremity of the tubes and carried along their inner cavity to the womb Two objections may be made against this use First That the end of the tube not sticking close to the stone when one of the Eggs drops from the stone it would more probably fall into the cavity of the belly than light just pat in the mouth of the tube Secondly when it is received by it its passage is so narnow that it is hard to imagin how it can pass by it But as to the first the same objection may lye against the use of the oviduct in Hens for in them it does not join quite close to the Ovarium and yet it is certain that the rudiments of the Eggs do all pass by them to the womb Moreover it is probable that when all the other parts of the Genitals are turgid in the act of Copulation these tubes also may be in some measure erected and extend their open mouth to the stones to impregnate the Eggs with the seminal fume thro' their passage and if any one be ripened and separate to receive it afterwards by its orifice As to the second objection against the narrowness of these tubes he that considers the straightness of the inner orifice of the womb both in maids and in women with Child yet observes to dilate so much upon occasion as to grant a passage to the Child out of the womb cannot wonder that to serve a necessary end of Nature the small passages of the tubes should be so far stretched as to make way for an Egg seeing its proportion to their passage is much less than of the Child to the usual largeness of the said orifice CHAP. X. Of the Actions and Uses of the Genital parts in Women IN the privie part are seen the Pubes the mountains of Venus the two lips the orifice under which the two wings lye hid the little knobs of flesh resembling Myrtle-berries the passages of the Urine and the Clytoris As for the Pubes and the Mountains of Venus they serve for this use that the great Orifice might be the better shut and to avoid compression in copulation for which cause they are beset with hair and are covered with a hard kind of fat the great Orifice receives the Yard and gives passage to the Urâ—ne and the birth The use of these Wings or knobs of flesh like myrtle-berries are for the defence of the internal parts shutting the Orifice of the neck lest cold air dust or any other annoyances should hurt it from without and while they swell up they cause titillation and desire in those parts Lastly the passages of the Urine being shut up by the knobs of flesh resembling myrtle-berries hinders the unvoluntary passage of the Urine CHAP. XI Of the Action of the Clytoris THE action of the Clytoris is like that of the Yard which is erection which erection is for the motion and attraction of the Seed CHAP. XII Of the action and use of the Neck of the Womb. THE action of the neck of the Womb is the same with that of the Yard that is to say Erection which is occasioned divers ways First all this passage is erected and made streight for the better conveyance of the Yard to the Womb Then while the whole passage is erected it is repleted with spirit and vital blood whereby it becomes narrower for the more streight embracing of the Yard The causes of this erection are first because if the womb were not erected the Yard could not have a convenient passage into the womb secondly it would hinder convenient affrication without which the Seed could not be drawn forth Lastly it hinders any hurt or damage which might be done by the violent force of the Yard CHAP. XIII Of the uses of the vessels running through the neck of the Womb. FIRST it is required that there should be a concurrence of divers Veins and Arteries for the nourishment of that part and though that part it self being full of Membranes does not require much nourishment yet by reason that it is to suffer Erection that could not be done but by blood and spirits which are contained in these vessels Besides although the substance of this part be of a cold temperament being notwithstanding still heated by the act of Copulation that heat would soon consume a slender nourishment which nature hath supplied by the concourse of these Vessels Another cause of the plenty of these veins is nourishment of the Birth and the exclusion of flowers CHAP. XIV Of the actions of the Womb. THE first use of the Womb is to attract the Seed by a familiar sympathy just as the Second use is to retain it which is properly called Conception The third is to cherish the Seed thus attracted to alter it and change into the Birth by raising up that power which before lay sleeping in the Seed and to reduce it from power into act The fourth action of the Womb is to send forth the birth at the time prefixed the apt time of expulsion is when the expulsive faculty begins to be affected with some sense of trouble that is when the Birth afflicts and oppresses the Womb with its own weight Besides these uses it hath these moreover To nourish the Birth and to dilate it self which it doth by the help of Veins and Arteries which do fill more and more with matter as nature requires The chiefest action of the Womb and most proper to it is the retention of the Seed without which nothing of other actions could be performed for the Generation of man CHAP. XV. Of the Utility of the Womb. FIRST it is the most fit place for Copulation as being in
sending gross vapours to the head yet can they not be freed by any Purgation taken in at the mouth but it would be much to the purpose to take pertinent Clysters which hinder the foresaid evils causing their breasts to become full and to become stiff taking them as occasion requires once in two or three days There are some unskilful women that not understanding the ill consequences which may follow do give Sena to Women in the first days of their lying in of which some have been very ill and others have died For Nature being now weakned by the Travel and while it is labouring to restore the body to its former Estate is not to be disturbed with violent Purgations And therefore Clysters are always most proper Neither are laxative broths nor the broth of prunes nor baked apples fasting for these do engender wind but rather some good Suppositories would be more useful CHAP. XIX Of the second washing for Women THE second washing for Women ought to be with Province Roses put into little bags and boiled in water and wine of each a like proportion and this is to be done for the second eight days CHAP. XX. What is to be done to Infants as soon as they are born IT is an approved Maxim that as soon as a Child is born you ought to give it a spoonful of pure wine for that assists and helps the Child to regain its spirits Another advantage is this that the wine cuts the flegm which the Child has in its throat besides the spirit of the wine rising up to the head comforts and strengthens it and it hinders also from the Epilepsie which proceeds from the debility of the brain This being done and the Mother fully delivered you must tye the Navel-vein with a silk well twisted and many times doubled and if there be any blood in the vein you must be sure to empty it for fear if it should be left it should turn into corruption then it must be well dried with powder of rotten wood You must tye it two fingers breadth from the belly and leave it long three fingers breadths above the tying place and if it be fat you must close it over and above that the vein may be well closed then wind the string twice about it knitting as many knots But if the Child be come afore its time you need not tye it so strong for fear of cutting it with the silk but if the Navel-vein be full of water and wind you ought then having tied it one time and wrapt a linnen cloth about the end of it which is still to be held upward to uncover it again about half an hour after and then to tye it and wrap it about again still keeping the end up for fear that if the vein were not fully closed there might be some danger in the bleeding Some people give to the Infant Treacle dissolved in Wine but this must be done warily in a very small quantity and that not commonly neither The Infant must be washed with water and wine luke-warm to cleanse it afterwards wash the face as also chafe the throat the arms and hands with Oyl of Walnuts drawn without fire which some say will keep them from Sun-burning then put one hand upon the bone of the Fore-head and another upon the bone called the Coronal bone and softly close up the gap which was made during the time of travel closing also the Sutures one against another exactly then gently put your finger under the tongue to see if the Infant have the string or no and if it have it may be clipt away with the point of a pair of sharp Cizzers without danger There are some that think they can shape the head and nose of a Child as if it were of Wax But let such take notice that have flat nosed Children rather to let the nose alone than by squeezing and closing it too much to render the nose obstructed for that compressing the Gristles of the nose renders the Child liable either to speak alway in the nose or to lose his smelling There are some Children that are born with their noses awry for the help of which you may with your finger moistned in fair water gently stroke the nose but lay no stress upon it That happens by reason that the nose of the Child lights upon some bone of the Mother as it was coming into the World CHAP. XXI Of the last washing for Women THE last washing for Women is to be for four days with Province Roses boyled in Wine and Myrrh-water CHAP. XXII Of an Astringent for Women when they shall have occasion TAke Galls Cypress-nuts and Pomgranate-flowers Roch-Allome of each two ounces Province Roses four ounces Knot-grass a good handful the rind of Cassia the rind of Pomegranates Scarlet berries of each three ounces the nature or Sperm of a Whale one ounce Rose-water Myrrh-water and Burnet-water of each an ounce and a half Wine and water of a Smiths forge of each four ounces and a half then make two little bags about a quarter of a Yard long and half a quarter of a Yard broad then boil all these in the foresaid water in a new Pot using the bags one after another as occasion serveth CHAP. XXIII To make Cere-cloaths for Women TAke white Wax half a pound the sperm of a Whale and Venice-Turpentine well washed in Rose-water and Plaintain-water of each an ounce and a half then melt all these together then mingle with them an ounce of Venice white Lead then order your Cloath as you please making some for the Belly and some for the nipples having first rubbed it over with Oyl of Acorns or the sperm of a Whale CHAP. XXIV To cleanse a Woman before she rises TAke bitter Almonds and peel them make thereof a Paste with the Powder of Orris and the yolk of Eggs and put it in a little bag of Tammy and temper within the bag with black Wine luke-warm and afterwards use it upon the places where the sear-cloaths had been laid then wash the places with black Wine mingled with Orange flower CHAP. XXV How a Woman lying in of her first Child may avoid the gripings of her belly THere are some women lying in of their first Child who are troubled much with gripings in the belly and these Women commonly endure Pains when their Terms come down by reason of the smalness of the Veins which conveigh the blood into the Matrix such women have Gripings in their bellies when they lie in of their first Child which other women are not troubled with by reason that they have larger Vessels yet although they have them not in their first lying in it would not be amiss to use some proper remedies that so they may be never troubled with them which if they receive not at their first lying in they will be uncapable of receiving them ever after for though they may take remedies afterwards to lessen the pain yet they can
it forth 'till it appear all come forth observing still that the Belly and the Face be still kept downward Now if the woman hath a flux of blood and that the neck of the Matrix be open the Chirurgion ought to consider whether the Infant or the Secondines come forth first of all for it oftentimes happens that the Secondines passing toward the mouth of the Matrix do so stop and obstruct it that they do not give leave for the Child or the Waters to come forth so that some perceiving that softness are presently of opinion that the mouth of the Womb is not open But this the Midwife or Chirurgion may easily discern by thrusting up the middle finger as high as may be and feeling therewith the circumference of the neck of the Womb by which they will soon perceive whether the Womb be dilated or no and whether it be the Secondines that present themselves Now when it is found to be the Secondines and that they cannot easily come forth the Midwife may with her two fingers widen the passage that she may have thereby the liberty to put up her hand and seek for the Infant Now if the Secondines be not placed in the middle they must be turned a little as quickly as may be that you may more conveniently seek for the feet of the Infant to draw it forth as we have said In such a case as this all care must be had that nothing be broken and that every thing be brought out whole for so though the woman should die the Midwife or Chirurgion would be blameless If the Secondines come first the best way is to deliver the Woman with all the expedition that may be by reason of the great fluxes of blood that will follow by reason that the veins are opened But here are two things to be considered the first is whether the Secondines are much or little come forth if they are but little advanced they must be put back with care and diligence and if the head of the Child appear first it must be guided directly toward the neck of the Womb as in the most natural birth but if there appear any difficulty in the birth by reason of the weakness either of the Child or of the Mother then the most convenient way will be to seek for the Feet as we have said before Another thing to be observed is that if the Secondines be so far advanced that they cannot be put back and that the Child follow it close then are the Secondines to be pulled away with all the care and expedition that can be and to be laid aside without cutting the Entrail that sticks to them for by that you may be guided to the Infant which whether it be alive or dead is to be pulled out by the feet with as much care and quickness as may be though it is not to be done but in case of great necessity for otherwise the Secondines ought to come last If the Child be dead in the Womb of the Mother the Woman is then to be situated in the same posture as when she is troubled with a flux of blood If it present it self dead with the head foremost and that there is little or no hope that the woman may be delivered without assistance and that her strength begins to fail her the most certain and safe way is to put up the hand For the Chirurgion must then slide up his left hand being hollowed as when a Man strives to hold water in it causing it to slide in the neck of the Womb along the lower part thereof toward the feet and that between the head of the Infant and the neck of the Matrix And having thus opened the Womb with his left hand he shall with his right put up his hook above his left hand between the head of the Child and the flat of his hand and fix in in the bone of the temple toward the ear or else in the hollow of the eye or in the Occipital bone keeping his left hand still in its place after this gently moving and stirring the head with his left hand with his right hand holding the hook well fixed he shall draw the Child forth by degrees exhorting the Woman all the while to force and strain her self with all her power and then is the best time to draw forth the Child when the pains shall seize her now if it happen that he lose his hold in one place the danger is nothing for he hath the liberty to fix his Instrument better in another place The head being thus drawn forth he must with all speed that may be slip his hands down the Child's arm-holes to draw forth his shoulders and the rest of his body In the mean while it will be requisite to give the Woman a small draught of wine or a tost sopt in wine of Hipocras If after these Medicines following adhibited the Child make no haste into the World but lies unmoved in the Womb then you may proceed to Instruments after another manner First of all as soon as the Woman is brought to bed let her take this following potion hot and abstain from all other meat and remain quiet for the space of an hour or two 'till she feel the power and efficacy of the Medicine Take seven cut Figs Fenugreek Motherwort-seed and Rue of each two drams water of Peny-royal and Motherwort of each six ounces boil all these to the consumption of half strain them and to the straining add Trochischs of Myrrh one dram three grains of Saffron Sugar as much as is sufficient make one draught of this and spice it with a little Cinamon After she hath rested a little upon this let her again return to her travel at what time certain perfumes must be made ready of Trochischs composed of these following Spices to be cast on the coals and so used as that the perfume may only come to the Matrix and no further Take Castor Sulphur Galbanum Opoponax Pigeons-dung Assa-faetida of each half a dram mingle all these with the juyce of Rue and make a Trochisch of them in the form of a Filberd If these produce no effect you may use this following Emplaister Take Galbanum an ounce and a half Coloquintida without the grains two drams the juyces of Rue and Motherwort new wax as much of each as is sufficient of each make a plaister Let this be spread upon a cloth to reach from the Navil to the Privities and in breadth to both the sides which she may keep on for the space of an hour or two A Pessary may be also convenient made of Wool and closed over with silk and then moistned in the following Decoction Take of round Birth-wort brought from France Savin and Coloquintida with Grains Staves-acre black Ellebore of each half a dram bruise these together and make a Pessary with as much of the juyce of Rue as is sufficient But now if all these things
upon them and upon those another handful of Herbs covering the platter with a close cloth that the woman may receive the smoak this is a remedy which hath been much approved and experimented To remedy the fall of the Fundament in Infants TAke of the green shrub whereof they make â—rooms and cut it small and lay it upon the Coals and set the Child over the smoak thereof and it will certainly cure it Of the diseases of Women and first of the inflammation of the breast THe Inflammation of the Breasts is a hard swelling together with a beating pain redness and shooting The chief cause of this is the abundance of blood drawn up together in that place though there be sometime other causes also as the suppression of the courses the Haemorrhoids or a blow received upon the Breasts The signs of it are easie to be known that is to say a certain redness and burning heat oft-times joined with a Fever For the cure of this there are four sorts of remedies First the order of diet which must be comforting and moistning as Broth of Pullets where Endive Borage Lettice and Purslain may be boyled also she may drink the Juyce of Pomgranates or Barley water with Anniseeds boyled in it the use of Wine and all sorts of Spices are very dangerous and if the Woman go not freely to the stool there is nothing better than a Lenitive Clysteâ— she may sleep much and must not disturb her self with any passion The next way of Remedy is by diverting the humours which is done by frictions letting blood in the foot scarrification of the legs or veficatories applied to those places especially if the flowers are stopped or ready to come down if not it will be expedient to open a vein in the arm You may also prepare the humour to void it out of the place affected by opening either the middle vein or the Basilic or the Vena Saphena which may be done two or three times as occasion serves after blood-letting purge but let this be done with gentle Medicines such are Cassia Manna Tamarind Syrup of Roses or Violets Solutive having a little before used certain Syrups which may asswage and temper the humours Take syrup of Roses and Purslain of each one ounce Endive water and Plantain-water of each an ounce give this to the Patient neither will it be amiss to give her Syrup of Succory or Endive or such like for these Syrups have a cooling and refreshing faculty especially being mingled with Plantain or Endive-water or such like or the decoction of the said Herbs now when the humour is thus prepared you may give her some gentle Purges As for Example take of the pulp of Cassia and Tamarinds of each six drams of this make a little Bolus with some Sugar and give it to the Patient or with this Potion Take of the Leaves of Italian Orach three drams of Aniseed one scruple infuse these into four ounces of the foresaid waters Into this being strained infuse an ounce of Cassia and into the streining of this dissolve an ounce of Solutive Syrup of Roses of this make a Potion and give it The fourth way of cure consists in Topicks such as may drive back and repress the humour though care must be had that they be not over-strong lest you thereby do cool the heart too much and thereupon drive the humour upon the heart it self And therefore temperate Medicines are chiefly to be chosen and such especially as are to digest and dissolve the humour Wherefore it shall not be amiss to apply a linnen cloth dipt in white strong vinegar and a little cold water which must be applied to the Breasts and often changed Or else you may dip linnen cloaths also in a decoction of Camomile-flowers and Violet-flowers with a small quantity of Oyl of Roses and a drop of vinegar or two or you may use this Fomentation Take of the juyce of Night-shade and Oyl of Roses of each an ounce and a half of the decoction of Fenugreek Camomile and Line-seed two ounces vinegar one ounce This Medicine you may use by dipping a spunge therein and so washing and fomenting the Breast therewith Or you may apply this Cataplasm take of the leaves of Night-shade and Mellilot half a handful of each let them be boyled and extracted through a course cloth then add to them Bean-meal two ounces Oxymel and Oyl of sweet Almonds of each one ounce of this make a Cataplasm and apply it If the Disease be be more prevalent you must use more forcible Remedies and among the rest this Fomentation Take of the leaves of Mallows Violets Dill of each one handful flowers of Camomile and Mellilot of each a small handful and a half boyl these together adding to them a little Wine and Oyl of Dill or Mustard first let the Breast be fomented with this and afterwards with an Oyntment composed of equal parts of new butter Oyl of Violets and Hens fat But if these things avail not to dissipate the humour you must observe whether the inflammation tend either to a suppuration or induration If you find that it tends to a hardness you must try all means to hinder it by the way of mollifying Plaisters among which this is not a little experimented Take the Marrow of a Calves leg two ounces Sheeps-grease one ounce Saffron four Scruples Cumin-seed bruised two Scruples mingle all these and make a Plaister If the inflammation doth not harden but doth altogether tend to a suppuration which may be known by these signs that is to say the increasing of the tumour the beating and excessive heat and pain which rages about those parts so vehemently that they do not admit them to be touched But now the suppuration is to be hastned with hot and moist Medicines which have an Emplastick faculty for which purpose this is much commended Take the leaves of Mallows one handful roots of Marsh-mallows one ounce boyl these together and when they are mashed draw them out and add to them Bean-meal and Fenugreek of each one ounce the whites of two Eggs Myrrh and Assa faetida of each one dram Saffron one scruple mingle all these together and make a Cataplasm for your use to this you may either add Capons-grease Hogs-grease or fresh butter If these Remedies do not suddenly bring the inflammation to a suppuration you must then take of the shels of Snails bruised and lay them upon the Cataplasm in such a manner that the Snail-shells may come to touch that part of the tumour which is most elevated and pointed whence it appears that the matter will first issue if these Remedies avail not it will be necessary to open the said Aposthume with a Lancet and this must be done when you are sure that the matter is ready to come forth which may be known by these signs when the beating ceases when the Fever the pain and the Heat of the part do begin to diminish when you perceive the
the hand to take away the root of the disease but this is not to be done 'till you have used all other means to soften and dispell the humour which may perhaps be done by the use of Diachylon or by a plaister of melilot to which you may add half an ounce of Ammoniach an ounce of Oly of Lillies and an ounce and an half of the root of Flower-deluce of Florence Neither may this following Plaister be amiss Take of the roots of Marsh-mallows two ounces boil them and strain them and add to that Oyl of Lillies Ganders-grease of each an ounce burnt Lead and roots of Orrice of each an ounce and an half mingle all these together and make of them an Emplaister If this avail not the operation of the Hand must be used in which the skill of the Surgeon must be very able and ready Of the Scirrhus of the Breasts THE Scirrhus of the Breasts is a hard swelling without pain Of this there are two kinds the one ingendred of a Melancholy and produced by a feculent and gross blood or else from a thick Flegm now this exquisite Scirrhus is without pain in which it differs from the other The other is not so exquisite an hardness perhaps because it is not yet come to its full maturity or else because it hath certain other humours mixt with it This exquisite kind of Scirrhus is ingendred either because the Spleen is obstructed and cannot purge away the melancholy Blood which for that reason abounding in the Body discharges and empties it self upon the Breasts or by reason of the supression of the Courses which causes the feculent and gross humour to disgorge it self upon the Breast gathering together in the Veins and Flesh of the same Many times the ignorance of the Surgeon is the cause of it when they apply an unreasonable company of refrigerating Medicines to the inflammations of the Breast or too many resolving and heating Medicines to it in case the Breasts be over-hard This Scirrhus is known by its hardness without pain from the unevenness of the Body and the colour of the part either inclining to black or brown Now though the cure of these hardnesses be something difficult yet is there great hopes that they may be overcome which is to be done two ways by mollifying diligently that which is hard and by taking that away which remains hard and knotty in the Breast And first of all care is to be had to keep good order of diet to which purpose she must use Wheaten bread rear Eggs Pullets Capons Partridge Veal and Mutton which must be boiled with Spinage Bugloss and Borage she must abstain from Beef Venison Hares-flesh and Brawn from Pease and Beans and unlevened Bread from all Salt and Smoaked Meats as also from all things that have a sharp biting quality also she must abstain from all care and sadness immoderate exercise and going in the Winds If the monthly Courses be stopt you must seek to provoke them gently which may be done by letting Blood in the Foot or to let blood with Horse-leeches In the next place it will not be amiss to purge well with Sena and Rheubarb to which you may add Catholicon or Triphera Persica if you find that the Disease needs a more strong purgation Between every purge it will not be amiss to take good Cordial and Comfortable things as Confection of Alkermes Triasantalon Electuarium de gemmis conserve of the Roots of Borage Conserve of Orange-flowers You may after all this use Topicks that is to say such Medicines as heat and dry moderately being hot in the second degree and dry in the first such are Sheeps grease especially that greasie substance that grows upon the flank of a Sheep Wax Oyl of sweet Almonds Oyl of Camomile Oyl of Dill Capons-grease Goose-grease Hogs-grease Bears-grease c. Veal-marrow Deers-marrow Emulsions of Mallows Lillies and other things of more force As liquid-pitch Liquid Storax Galbanum Cummin-seed Rue-seed Broom-flowers and Dill-seed If this swelling come of a hard Flegm which is known because it yields not so much to the touch as the other you must use the same Topicks to this as to the watry tumour before rehearsed If melancholy be the cause of it you may use a Fomentation of the leaves of Mallows and Marsh-mallows of each a handful and a half of Fenugreek and Lineseed of each two drams Cucumbers Bears-foot of each two ounces boil them in as much water as is sufficient and Foment the breast with this twice or thrice a day After that take this Oyntment Take of the root of Mallows one ounce when it is boiled and bruised take it out and add to it Sheeps grease and Capons-grease of each two ounces and with a little Wax make an Ointment This you may use for some few days after which you may if need require use this Ointment Take Hysop-leaves Dill-leaves and Thyme-leaves of each half a handful roots of Mallows and Fenugreek-seed of each half an ounce boil them in as much Wine and Vinegar as is sufficient 'till half be boiled away then take of the aforesaid Vinegar Goose-grease Ducks-grease and the marrow of the leg of a Hart of each two ounces boil it to the Consumption of half the Vinegar You may add to this two drams of Diachylon and make it into the form of a Plaister You may also use for this purpose plaisters of Melilot or Oxycroceum At length if all remedies fail the operation of the hand must be the last succour which we leave to the Surgeon In the Cure of a Scirrhus three intentions are required the first is the regulation of Diet and manner of living the second is the preparing and evacuating the antecedent or peccant Humour the third is the application of external Medicines in order to the first the Air ought to be clear and temperately hot and moist their Food such as may breed good blood as new laid Eggs Chicken Pullets Mutton Veal Lamb Kid and these boyled with Spinage Borrage Endive Succory Lettice Sorrel and the like their Bread ought to be of good Wheat and well baked their Drink a well boiâ—ed small Ale or small white Wine Rhenish or the like their exercise and sleep must be moderate their minds must be chearful and their bodies soluble by Glisters or otherwise The second intention is the evacuation of the Humour which abounds in the Body whether flegm or Melancholy be the cause of the Scirrhus or whether it proceeds from obstructions of the Courses or a suppression of the Hemorrhoids if from any of these causes blood abounds and be feculent bleeding is allowed but if Bloud do not abound forbear bleeding and proceed in preparing and evacuating the humours the Antients used for preparatives the Syrrups of the juice of Borrage Bugloss of Hops of Apples and the Bizantine Syrup and the like and also the destill'd waters of the same Plants or Whey The following are also used Gerion's decoction of
loins and hips yet she was not sick or pained but eat her dinner well she at length grew weary of Medicine and with patience endured the remaining accidents of her disease 'till it killâ—d her She was seiz'd with this Scirrhus in May and died the August following Of the Cancer in the Breast THE Cancer is a venomous tumour hard and very much swelled hot and durable more exasperated oftentimes by remedies than asswaged The Cancer proceeds from a feculent and gross humour which being gathered together in the spleen is chased away from thence after it grows too hot which when Nature cannot void it most commonly in Women empties it self upon the Breasts by reason of their cavernous and spongy nature the matter of it is a hot melancholy blood and it is known by the crooked windings and retored veins that are about it stretching out long roots a good way from it being sometimes blackish and sometimes inclined to black and blue It is soft to see to but it is very hard to the touch extending the pain as far as the shoulders It will sometimes remain for two years together no bigger than a Bean afterwards it grows to be as big as a Nut then to the bigness of an Egg and after that increasing to a larger size When the skin breaks there issues out a great deal of pestilent matter thin and blackish and having a very bad smell The Ulcer it it self is very unequal the lips and orifice thereof being swell'd with hardness and inverted a light Fever possesseth the body and often swoonings And many times the pestilency of the humour having corroded a Vein there issues out a great deal of blood If the Cancer be ulcerated or in any inward part of the body no Medicine can prevail for remedies do more exasperate than help it To burn it with Iron is pestilent and if it be cut with a Pen knife it returns again as soon as it is but skinâ—d over But if it be an exulcerated Cancer which is easily known and arises from a more sharp matter for then the flesh is corrupted sending forth a very noysom matter being very irksom to the sight and accompanied with a gentle Fever and swooning and issuing out of blood The cure of this is to be done by drying and refrigerating Medicines or by incision to the quick and expression of the corrupted blood afterwards after which the wound must be well cleansed For which purpose the powder which is called Hartman's blessed Powder is very prevalent The diet must be of meats that moisten and refrigerate blood letting also is profitable as also preparation of the Humour with the juyce of sweet smelling Apples and extract of Ellebore and often purgation with Lapis Lazuli pills and particularly if the Cancer be not ulcerated you may apply this Ointment Take Litharge one ounce beat it in a marble Mortar with a leaden Pestle incorporating into it two ounces of Rose-water and Oil of Roses In case the pain be great use this remedy Take white Poppy-seed one ounce Oil of Roses four ounces Henbane seed and Opium of each a dram and a half Gumme Arabick half an ounce a little Wax of which you may make an ointment If the Cancer be already ulcerated take this water Take of the juyces of Night-shade Housleek Sorrel Scabious Honey-sucles Mullein Figwoâ—t Dropwort Plantain Toads flax Agrimony of each half a pound juice of green Olives one pint the Flesh of Frogs and River-Crabs of each a pound and a half the whites of six Eggs Alum three ounces Camphire one dram let all these be distilled in a leaden Limbeck and with the distilled water foment the part affected Take also Allum as much as a Nut Honey two penniworth red Wine a pint seeth them together 'till the fifth part be spent strein it through a cloth and wash the Cancer therewith A Woman having a pain in her Breast advised with a Surgeon who felt one of the Glands swell'd he advised her to forbear handling it and to forbear lacing her self too strait It lay some Years quiet but then the death of her Husband happening and one affliction following another and the Courses stopping the humours â—omented in this Gland and afterwards the breast swell'd and seemâ—d to apostumate Some assured her it was a simple aposthumation and requir'd digestives and she was perswaded to follow their advice 'till she became extreamly pained It was without inflammation but swell'd very big and seem'd to be full of matter it was not without hard tubercles and other symptoms to shew it would end in a Cancer whensoever it should break therefore a skilful Surgeon refused to open it but advised the best he could to give her ease and promised to come to her if after it brake she would send for him Some Months after she sent for him and shew'd him a great quantity of curdled matter newly burst forth the Breast was lank but very hard Glands lay within and in the circumference of the tumour there were some tubercles that required to be eradicated to which purpose he design'd to have slit open the abscess and to have pull'd away the Cancerated Glands but she would not permit him so much as to enlarge the orifice upon which consideration he left her and she died within half a year after Of the greatness of the Breasts THE greatness of the Breasts is very unsightly the cause of their greatness is often handling of them store of windy Vapours and retention of the monthly Courses The cure of them is not to be neglected because the lesser the Breasts be the less subject they are to be cancered they are cured by diet first wherein the use of astringent meats is to be recommended so that they be not windy by repercussion of the humours and blood which flow to that part such are the juyce of Hemlock and the anointing of the place with Partridge Eggs Or you may use this following Cataplasm Take of the juyce of Hemlock three ounces of white lead Acacia and Frankincense of each three drams of Vinegar one ounce mingle all these together to which you may add powder of Spunge burnt Alum burnt Lead bole Armoniack and of these with a sufficient quantity of Wax and oyl of Myrtle make a very profitable Ointment Thirdly by the discussion of that which is gathered together in that part for which purpose you may make an Ointment in this manner take of the mud or lome found in molis Tonsorum two ounces Oil of Myrtle one ounce Vinegar half an ounce or thus take of the same lome and Bole Armoniack of each an ounce white Lead two drams Oil of Mastick two ounces and a half of the Emulsion of Henbane-seed one dram and a half anoint the Breast with this and then upon that put a linnen cloath dipt in the decoâ—tion of Oke-apples Fourthly by compression of the part which is done by using a kind of plate of Lead upon the Breast anointed
venemous which are said to be contagious they are to be washed in a water thus made Take of Aloes the quantity of a Pea of the flower of brass the quantity of half a Pea powder these and mingle them in an ounce of white-wine Plantain-water and Rose-water of each an ounce which is to be kept in a glass vessel Condyloma's are certain swelling wrinckles in the neck of the Womb with pain and heat There is no need to tell the signs of these for they are apparent to the eye the wrinkles are like those which appear in the hand when you close the first but are much bigger when the courses flow they are caused by adust and thick humours some of these are with an inflamation which have more pain and heat and the swelling is hard In the cure of which you must use insessions and fomentations that ease pain sometimes they come without any inflammation which if they be new come are to be dried up if they be old they are first to be softned afterwards to be digested and dried up for which purpose you may use powder of Egg-shels burnt or this Oyntment Take of the Trochisques of Steel one dram powdered mixt with a little Oyl of Roses and Wax with half an ounce of the juyce of Mullein if this profit not the Warts are to be shaved away with a knife and an astringent powder laid upon them Hemorrhoids of the Womb are little protuberancies like those of the Fundament produced in the neck of the Womb through the abundance of feculent blood the subject is the neck of the Womb for where the Veins end there do grow these extuberancies just as in the Hemorrhoids The signs are evident and easily seen by the help of the Speculum Matricis The women who are thus affected look pale and are troubled with a weariness The cause is a feculent blood which flowing to these Veins before its season and setling there grows thicker so that it cannot pierce the orifice of the Veins They are cured by a revulsion of the humour First by letting blood in the Arm. Secondly by drawing it to another part as by letting blood in the heel Sometimes these Hemorrhoids are very painful and are distinguished from that menstruous effluxion by the pain which they bring they are cured by mittigating and asswaging inâ—eâ—â—ions â—s also by Opiates carefully applied Others are without pain to which the foresaid remedies may be applied Others are open and do sometimâ—s run moderately and then Nature is to be â—et alonâ— or violentâ—y so that thereby the strength of the person is impaired in which case a Vein must be opened in the arm two or three times purgation is also to be used by Myrobolans Tamarind and Rheubarb and at length you must apply those things which cease the blood Others are termed blind out of which there issues no blood they are cured by blood-letting the part is to be also softned and fomented with things that soften and open the orifices of the Veins and dispel the humour such are an Oyntment made of the pith of Coloquintida and Oyl of sweet Almonds or the juyce of Capers mixt with Aloes neither is the applying of Horseleaches amiss The Cure of these Excrescences at their first budding forth may be attempted by drying and astringent Medicines as with the tops of Brambles and Horse-tail with the Leaves and Berries of Myrtles and Sumach with the rind of Pomgranats Balaustins scales of Brass wash'd Lime Allom and the like made into fomentations or powder'd and mixed with Oyntments and applied upon Tow. If these do not check their growth you may cut them off with a Knife or Scizers and consume the remaining roots by Escharoticks or actual Cautery and then proceed in the cure by digestion and Epuloticks accordingly To prevent their growing again Authors commend the ashes of Vine and Bean-stalks mix'd with Vinegar to apply upon the part The Cure of Chaps or Fissures consists in removing the Callosity and Cicatrizing them smooth if moisture abound things that are dry must be used To which purpose Take of the flowers of Red-Roses of Myrtle-Berries of the tops of Brambles each one handful of the roots of Tormentil and Bistort each one ounce of Allom one dram boyl them in a pint and an half of Steel-water towards the end of boyling add four ounces of red wine wherewith foment the part then apply what follows Take of Litharge and Ceruse each three drams of Sarcocoal Mastick and Frankincense each one Scruple of Sealed-earth two Scruples of Oyl of Roses four ounces of Wax a sufficient quantity mingle them over the fire then beat them in a leaden Mortar for use If dryness be the fault you must dress them with Medicines that are moistening as Take of Calves fat of Ducks and Hens-grease each two drams of Litharge of Gold one dram mingle them in a leaden Mortar according to art The material cause of all these sorts of Excrescences is flegmatic or gross clammy blood thrust forth by the strength of the expulsive faculty out of the Pores of the skin and dry'd up into these forms in which you see them All these species of Excrescences are for the most part Symptoms of the French Pox. Of the Ulcers of the neck of the Womb. THE signs of these Ulcers is a pain and perpetual twinging which increases if any thing that hath an abstersive quality be cast in the issuing out of putrid humours and matter with blood if the Ulcer be great or the Flowers come down often making water and the water hot as also a pain in the fore-part of the head toward the roots of the eyes as also some kind of gentle Fever The Cure of this is hard because of its being in a place of so exquisite sense and moist and having such a sympathy with other parts of the Body For the easing of the pain Chalybeated milk is very much conducing and to the drying of them up drying baths are the best and most prevalent remedy These differ much coming either from external causes as rash Physick hard labours and violent coiture or from internal causes as the corruption of the Secondines the Courses retained and the Urine flux a virulent Gonorrhea the Pox inflammations turned into Apostems humors flowing from other parts of the body and there setling all which must be duly considered in the Cure Others are in the outward part and may be easily come at with Medicines others deep and must be come at only with injection for which purpose use this following Take whites of four Eggs beat them well and put to them an equal quantity of Rose water and Plantain-water as much in quantity as they come to Câ—mphire Ceruse Litharge of Gold and Bole-Armoniâ—ck of each a like quantity green Copperas half as much as of any of them beat all to powder mix it and strain it through a cloth and make your injection 'till the part infected be whole and if there be
Ulcer you must apply a drying and cicatrizing Ointment Take of Tutty washed half an ounce and of Litharge Ceruse and Sarcacoal each two drams of Oyl and Wax a sufficient quantity make an Ointment Sometimes the Ulcer penetrates the right gut and sometimes the bladder which may be known by the matter evacuated by those parts if it flow by the right gut lenitive cleansing and drying Glisters must be injected but if it flow from the Bladder gentle and cooling diureticks must be used as an emulsion of the greater cold Seeds Turpentine and the like If the Ulcer turn to a Fistula which chiefly happens when it is opened outwardly towards the Hip tho' it may happen in the womb it self or in the neck of it In this case we must consider whether it be best to leave the accustomed passage untouched thro' which nature endeavours to evacuate various Excrements or to undertake the â—ure of it But if that be thought most proper for the sick a Cure that is call'd palliative must be instituted by purges frequently-repeated and by sweatlng twice a Year and by cleansing and strengthening injections and by applying over a plaister of Diapalma or the like but if there be any hopes of a Cure the same Remedies must be used which are proper for other Fistula's If the Ulcer be occasion'd by the French Pox it cannot be cured without an universal Cure in performing which the fumes of Cinnabar receiv'd thro' a Tunnel into the womb are peculiarly proper Also the anointing the inner parts of the womb with a Mercurial Ointment In all Ulcers of the womb if there be a troublesome itching about the neck as it frequently happens by reason of a defluxion of an acid and Salt Humour to the part a pessary must be made to qualifie it dipt in the ointment of Elecampane with Mercury or in Aegyptiacum dissolved in Sea or Allom-water or in fresh Butter wherein Quick-Silver has been extinguished to which must be added Sulphur Of the Diseases of the Womb. Of the Womb being out of temper THE intemperance of the Womb is when it hath lost its natural temper and is affected with a preternatural intemperancy arising both from inward and outward causes The one of these is hot and is known by the womans proneness to Venery by the small Flux of the Monthly Courses by their adustness sharpness inordinate and difficult Flux Hence in process of time they are very Hypochondriack by early growing of the hairs about the Privities by redness of the Face and driness of the lips and frequent pains of the head and abundance of cholerick humours in the Body it ariseth either at first from the Birth which causes Women to be Virago's and to be barren or after their Nativity from outward causes as the use of hot things overmuch Venery and such Medicines as bring the heat and blood to the Womb. The cure consists in a contrary diet and cooling Medicines both internal and external which are to be applyed to the back and sides which must be very moderate that the heat which is necessary for Conception may not be weakened and the cold and membranous substance of the womb come to any harm or lest the Vessels which serve for the carrying away of the Courses should be thickned and the Nerves of the back and sides be any way mischieved The next way of cure is performed by evacuating Medicines namely Rheubarb and solutive Syrup of Roses Manna also profiteth much the flower of Vitriol of Venus and Mars taken from three grains to six and put in any proper Syrup purges the Womb. There is another intemperancy which comes of cold which is known by a lesser proneness to Venery and little pleasure taken in it a setling in the Courses with a slimy and flegmy matter mixed and an inordinate flowing of them by reason of the plenty of Humours collected in the Womb which causes obstructions by reason of abundance of windy vapours in the Womb crudities and watriness of the Seed which causes it to flow without any pleasure a pale colour in the Face It arises from causes contrary to the former it is cured by contrary diet by hot Medicines applyed to the womb among which the roots of Birthwort Clove-Gilliflowers Angelica and Eringo's are very much commended The leaves also of Mercury Balm Dittany Penny-royal Sage Rosemary Mugwort flowers of Centaury Marigolds Sage Rosemary Borage and sundry spices as Nutmegs Cubebs Saffron and Cinamon These kind of Compounds are also very useful as Oyl of Mace Oyl of Amber Oyl of Myrrh and of Cinamon There is another intemperancy of the womb which comes of moisture and is joined most commonly with the cold intemperancy it is known by the plenty of the Courses and by the thinness and watriness of them as also the moistness of the Privities by reason of the moistness of the Excrements no pleasure in the act of Venery and proneness to abortion by reason of the growth of the Birth It hath the same original with the frigid intemperancy and happens most commonly to Women who are lazy and sedentary It is cured with the same Medicines as the former only this may be added that a fume may be made of the shavings of Ivory And the decoction of Sage being received into those parts before supper is very much commended Baths of Sulphur do also profit much There is another distemper of the Womb which is dry which is discerned by the want of Seed and the defect of the Courses by slowness to Venery driness of the Mouth of the Womb by a blackish colour of the lower lip which is always chopt It sometimes arises from the very Nativity which causes a dry and lean constitution of Body sometime through age and then Women cease to bring Children sometimes from inflammations and such like Diseases sometimes from a defect of blood which ought to moisten the parts which happens either through a narrowness and obstruction of the Veins or else because it being voided out at the neck of the Womb cannot pierce to the bottom The cure of this is performed first by a contrary diet where you must also avoid much labour watching hunger and sadness Secondly by the use of moistning things amongst which are most commended Borage Bugloss Mercury Mallows Violets Among outward means Baths of sweet water and unctions with Oyl of sweet Almonds Oyl of white Lillies Hens-grease and the marrow of Calves legs The cure is the more hard if the driness have been of any long continuance There is another which is a compound distemper which is most often cold and moist which is discerned by comparing the signs of the simple distemperatures together It arises from Flegmy humours The cure is performed by preparing the matter with hot things by evacuation of the matter with such Medicines as are most proper to purge Flegm As also by a particular purgation of the Womb it self to which purpose pessaries do very much conduce as
also sulphury and drying baths as also the use of Sudorificks or things that provoke sweat may be very profitable as the decoctions of Lignum sanctum China Sarsaparella and Mastick wood Of the narrowness of the Vessels of the Womb. THE signs of the narrowness of the vessels of the Womb are partly the retention of the Flowers so that they cannot flow as also the hindrance of conception by reason that the passage of the blood is intercepted The causes are partly external as from astringent baths and medicines which is known from the relation of the party affected it is cured more easily by moistning and mollifying Medicines The other causes are internal as from Flesh or Membrane clinging to the orifice of the Womb or by a closing up of the orifices of the veins by reason of some violent extraction of the Secondines which is commonly incurable the only cure which may be tryed is by mollifying applications Another cause is deduced from obstruction which arises from certain thick viscous and copious humours flowing from other parts of the Body the heat of those places not being able to attenuate them or else gather together in the Womb it self by reason of the weakness of the heat of that part it is discerned by the same signs as the cold Distemper there being also a slimy matter which now and then comes down from the Womb It is cured as other obstructions by sharp and bitter Medicines and steel-wine as also baths made with opening and mollifying things Sometimeâ— this narrowness arises from a compression of the parts occasioned either by some swelling or Schirrus either within or without the Womb if this be there do appear manifest signs of swelling It is an evil for the most part incurable many times it is occasioned by an over-fatness of those parts which is plain to the sense Of the puffing up of the Womb. THE puffing up of the Womb is a windy swelling of that part occasioned from cold flegmy and flatulent matter which is increased through the defect of natural heat in the Womb. This is called the windy Mole it giving hopes of a conception The signs of this are a distention of the Womb not far from the Midriff which is now increased now diminished sometimes extending it self to the Navel sometimes to the Loins and Diaphragm It differs from the Dropsie partly because the swelling is not so great and the party affected is not much troubled with thirst by the increasing and diminishing of the tumor and by the upper part not being so lean It is distinguish'd from the Dropsie of the Womb by the fore apprehension of the causes that beget those windy vapors by the sound and less ponderosity as as also by a feeling of an extensive and pricking pain in the womb and parts adjoyning It is also distinguished from the inflammation of the intestines because here is no great pain neither is the Patient hard bound yet the Flowers are suppressed and the feet and hollow of the eyes do swell and the colour of the body is changed the woman draws her breath short and is sad and when she awakes is fain to lift up her head to take breath It differs from a Mole because there is not that heaviness and ponderosity in the womb besides the woman doth not feel the burden of her womb tumble from one side to the other It is distinguished from conception by the sound and by the increasing and decreasing of the swelling and by the deadness of the motion not unlike that of a dead Infant for if the Midriff be violently compressed the wind being then compelled to the part adjoyning there is a kind of palpitating motion perceived through all the Midriff The matter of this distemper is generated either in the Womb it self or by reason of the suppression of the Courses or by the interception of due purgation after delivery Many times it comes through the veins and seminal vessels Now the weakness of the heat proceeds sometimes from the external air sometimes from hard Delivery from the suppression of the Courses from abortion c. The Cure is performed after the same way that other Cures are managed among those things that purge Species Hierae and Diaphaenicon with Castor are most commended for Fumes Nutmeg is counted the best for Potions Nutmegs bruised and boyled with the roots of Mather and drunk in six ounces of wine and two drams of Sugar Sometimes this wind gets into the cavity of the Womb and then the neck and orifice of the Womb is closed so that nothing can go forth when the woman is moved or when the Midriff is pressed down with her hand and then a kind of noise and sound is perceived Sometimes the wind gets into the tunicles of the Womb and then the mouth of the Womb may be open by reason of the shutting up of the windy vapours in a narrow place there goes a noise forth and the pain grows greater and extends farther This is more hard and difficult to be cured than that which is in the concavity of the Womb. Of the inflammation of the Womb. THE inflammation of the Womb is a swelling of the same through the putrefaction of blood which is fallen down into its substance having many symptoms and now tending to a Scirrhus now towards an Apostem The signs are various there is a swelling in the Womb with heat and pain and a retraction of the Womb to the more inward parts the neck of the Womb appears red with little veins scattered up and down in it like the web of a Spider There is sometimes a difficulty of breathing with some kind of Pleurisie because the interior tunicle of the Womb being extended which rises from and is joyned to the Peritonaeum thâ— parts also to which that coheres are stretched The excrements of the belly and bladder are detained by reason of the heat and driness of the belly and the compression of the passages Sometimes the whole body of the belly seems empty or filled with water and the Navel hangs forward and the mouth of the womb is made very slender and close and upon a sudden few depraved courses come down then happens a burning Fever by reason of the great sympathy with the womb and the heart occasioned through the Arteries and great Vessels There is a pain in the breasts with a swelling in them by reason of the consent and agreement between the groyns the hips the septum transversum claviculare and the forepart of the head which is extended to the roots of the eyes as also from vapours which rise from the putrified blood to the head through the Arteries that run along through the neck passing by both parts of the infundibulum into the fore part of the head The cause of this consists in the blood which is sometimes with Choler and sometimes with Melancholy The Cure is difficult if the blood in that part be wholly putrified for that causeth a sordid
humor which consumes the Patient with a continual Fever If it be an Erisypelas or St. Anthonies fire there is no cure at all because the Birth dies by reason of the excessive heat which causes abortion to follow which kills the Woman if it turn to a gangrene it is deadly it is cured as other inflammations which may be observed in the following Chapters Only observe that for revulsion you must not let blood in the veins of the thighs for that draws down the blood to the womb but in the arm the blood flowing from the Liver and the parts adjoyning For deriving of the matter you may cut a vein in the ham unless the Woman be with Child for that will cause abortion Refrigerating and moistning Topicks without any binding faculty may be well applied to which purpose the decoction of wild Thyme prepared with Chalybeat water and outwardly applied with a sponge is an excellent Remedy These inflammations sometimes affect the whole womb and sometimes either side of the Womb which causes the heat to descend into the Hip because of the ligaments of the Womb which are carred thither the thigh is difficultly moved and the groins are inflamed sometimes the inflammation possesseth the posterior part which causes the belly to be bound and a pain in the loins and back-bone sometimes it possesseth the forepart which because it coheres to the bladder the Urine is suppressed or made very difficultly and the pain is extended above the Privities Semetimes it possesses the bottom of the Womb which causes such a pain in the lower part of the Belly that it is hardly to be touched and the pain extends to the Navel There is another inflammation which degenerates into a Scirrhus whereall the symptoms are not so dangerous yet there is a great heaviness perceived in the parts adjoyning This evil is diuturnal and commonly ends in the Dropsie sometimes it turns to an Apostem swelling 'till it break In this case the body is troubled with a shivering especially towards the Evening when the Apostem is broken sometimes it empties it self into the concavity of the Womb wherein there is less danger and sometimes in other parts of the Body which causes sometimes a stoppage in the Urine and sometimes in the Belly with a swelling of the hairy parts and the feeling of something floating up and down Of the Schirrus of the Womb. THE Schirrus of the Womb is a hard swelling of the said part without pain begot by some thick earthly and feculent Humour the signs besides others that are general are these in particular The Flowers at the beginning are either wholly stopt or flow very sparingly the evil increasing there is a great flux of blood by intervals the mouths of the Veins being opened more than ordinary or because the Womb is not able to receive or to retain its wonted proportion of blood It is distinguish'd from the Mole because in that distemper the Flowers if they flow flow inordinately the Breasts swell with Milk which in the Schirrus grow very lank The cause of this is a gross feculent humour being a thick blood sometimes Flegmy sometimes melancholy which happens to those who decline in their age or to those who have been troubled with a squeamish and naughty stomach Often it arises from an ill cured Inflammation through the use of Medicines that cool too much The Cure is difficult either because having been dried for a long time they cannot be softned or because the natural heat in those places where the Schirrus is is for the most part extinct and then because while the humour is mollifying if it have conceived any putrefaction it easily turns to the Cancer For the cure it is the same as of the Breasts It differs either as being in and possessing the substance of the Womb which causes the Womb to lean downward upon the Hip and Back and there begets pain sometimes possessing the neck of the Womb which is discerned by touching it and is cured more easily than the former If it be in the upper part of the neck of the Womb the Woman is hindred in the lower part of the neck of the Womb the streight gut is affected Of the Dropsie of the Womb. THE Dropsie of the Womb is a distemper from water collected in the Womb either by some fault in the part it self or in the parts adjoining The signs of this are a loose swelling at the bottom of the belly extending it self according to the proportion of the Womb the fewness and naughtiness of the Courses a moistness and slenderness of the neck of the Womb softness of the Breast want of Milk a shivering in the Body and sometimes a Fever It differs from an inflammation by the symptoms above related and from an inflation in the defect of sound and distention from a Mole because in this there is a greater weight perceived at the bottom of the belly and the Breasts at the time of delivery are not without milk It differs from Conception because in the Dropsie the swelling is just according to the form of the Womb but in Conception it is always sharper In Women with Child the Flowers do not flow but in this Disease there flows such a certain bloody vitious humour without any order which ceases quickly It differs from the Dropsie of the Belly because the face of the Patient is coloured unless the Liver be any way affected the want of thirst and the ascent of the swelling from the lower part to the upper The cause of this is a water gathered there through some defect of the Liver or Spleen or through some weakness in the Womb by reason whereof it is not able to concoct or expel the Excrements or through a too immoderate defluxion of the Courses which oppresseth the natural heat or through a suppression of them which suffocates the heat The cure is to be performed by the eduction of the water and strengthening of the Womb for which purpose the use of Antimonial Pills is not a little to be commended Her diet must be of meats that breed good Juice she must drink little she must use instead of drink a Ptisan or Barly-broth made with Sassafras or Sarsaparilla if her Courses be stopt you may let her blood in the foot if the repletion be great then to let her blood in the arm will not be amiss The use of Clysters is not amiss and Fomentations are also very necessary made with the decoction of Broom wild Cucumbers Flowers of Camomile Melilot with Origan Cumin Fenel Aniseed of which you may make several injections Ointments also may be useful made of Oil of Lillies or Oil of Dill Then may you apply upon the Belly this Plaister Take of the emplaister of Laurel berries two Ounces Oil of Camomile and Melilot two ounces and a half Pigeons dung and Goats dung of each half an ounce mix them altogether and make a Plaister adding thereto a little Venice Turpentine Of the falling
of the Womb. THE falling of the Womb is the falling of it down below the Abdomen or Midriff proceeding from a looseness of the Ligamants The general signs of this are a pain in the loins and hairy parts and of the Os sacrum or holy Bone to which the Womb is fastned at the beginning the pain is not very great nor after long continuance by reason of use The weight thereof being only troublesome which is an impediment to the Patient in going The particular signs do vary according as the fall is greater or less for in the one the Womb descends to the middle of the Hips and lower in the latter there is perceived the distention of the skin and as it were the weight of a good big Egg about the Privities The Cure of this is difficult if there be the greater falling of the Womb if the Woman be in Age if a Fever Convulsion or other symptoms happen if that be in women with Child it is deadly and sometimes it is corrupted by the ambient Air and turns into a Gangrene The Cure consists in the re-putting of it into its own place where you must observe first to stop the inflammation if there be any or if there be any swelling caused by the cold Air you must foment the part first with decoction of Mallows Marsh-mallows Flowers of Camomile and Lawrel Berries If there be any wind or excrement in the Gut you must use Clysters first it is also to be fomented and anointed with agglutinating and astringent or binding Medicines there is a Fumigation to be made of the skin of a salt Eel dried and poudered When it is to be put into its place the woman must be laid with her Belly upwards then must the Midwife or other Party employed with a linnen Cloth dipt in Oyl of Roses a little warmed gently thrust up the part affected which is fallen as gently as may be turning a little Now to keep it up the woman must be kept lying on her back with her thighs stretched out and one laid upon another across the Belly must not be too much bound lest in the ejection of the excrement the Womb should be again precipitated neither must it be loose lest the Membranes binding the Womb should be unloosed Then must you use agglutinating Medicines Pessaries Fomentations and Injections yet great care must be had lest you suppress the Courses Of this there be some differences either by reason of the looseness of the Ligaments which are four which is discerned in that it is generated by degrees and with less pain It arises either from hard labour or a ponderosity or heaviness of the Child or from the concourse of flegmy humours it is cured by the evacuation of humors and by the use of astringent and corroborating Medicines such as are the decoction of Musk of the Oak Harts-horn Laurel-leaves and the astringent Plaister Another cause and difference ariseth from the rupture of the Ligaments which is discerned by this that the evil comes suddenly and is more painful and is sometimes followed with a Flux of blood it arises from the heaviness of the birth or from a difficult labour or from Abortion or a difficult and violent extraction of the Secondines Sometimes it happens because the Ligaments are eaten away and then the signs of some Ulcer are discerned by the flowing forth of matter Of the ascent of the Matrix as also of the Wounds and Ulcers of the same SOme have thought that it is possible for the Womb to ascend up to the Stomach which opinion is altogether false for first it is tyed so fast with four Ligaments that it is impossible for it to move to the upper parts Besides suppose it had a natural motion by the Fibres yet the Womb being so firmly annexed to the right gut and to the Privities it would necessarily follow that those parts should be also stretched And though it happen to be stretched and distended by the windy vapours yet it follows not that therefore it should be moved upward and whereas women do say that they do sometimes perceive a certain round body moving about the region of the Navel that may rather be said to be the stones and that blind Vessel than the Womb. Of the wounds of the Matrix this must be noted that they are very difficult to be cured Yet the cure is to be assayed five manner of ways by the use of things which do evacuate the peccant humor which is done partly by a good order of diet and living in a dry and temperate air longer sleep than ordinary and the avoiding of exercise in this case is to be observed and instead thereof to use moderate frictions All repletion and a loose belly are naught the meat that she eats must be little and contrary to the humour that offends as rear Eggs Milk Chicken-broths and the meat of them dry Raisins Almonds and Pistaches For her drink it ought to be chiefly the decoction of Barly or Liquorish In the next place it will not be amiss to let blood in the Basilick Vein let her take some convenient purge according to the humour which abounds Vomitings also and frictions may be used and the provoking of sweat by the decoction of Guaiacum Salsaparil and China-root which are very proper to turn away the humors from the Matrix Sometimes this happens from an intemperancy of the womb which if it be cold the womb is not able to concoct sufficient quantity of nourishment and therefore heaps up together many excrements if it be moist it is not able to contain either the blood or the seed or the birth as it should do The cure of this is above touched in the Chapter of Distempers There is another difference which is taken from the occult qualities which the womb is seen to have there being a sympathy and antipathy between that and divers things as to covet the seed of Man and to love sweet things and then the affection arises from no evident cause there being no excess of coldness or moisture to be apprehended The Medicines which are to be applied for the cure of this must be proper in their whole substance Sometimes the difference ariseth in this that the natural heat is either suffocated or dissipated this affection is something dangerous because it is a difficult matter to restore the natural heat In the cure of this restoratives must be notwithstanding used such are Cinamon Nutmeg Species diaxylo Aloes Aromaticum Rosatum Of the pain of the Womb. THere is no need to give other signs of this than the complaint of the Woman it affects both women that are free and women that are with Child It happens sometimes from corroding humors especially caused by Ulcers or vitious Flowers The cure whereof is referred to these heads sometimes it happens from a distention caused either by some curdled blood sticking in the cavity of the Womb and then there is a copious Flux of blood
out of the Womb and the pain is fixed chiefly about the orifice of the Womb the right Gut and the Bladder being affected by reason of the continual desire of expelling forth the humor In the Cure first you must seek to dissolve the clotted blood which is done by the use of Treacle dissolved in wine and then to evacuate which is performed with Agaric Aloes with the juice of Savin decoction of Rosemary with the Flowers of Cheiri in Wine Sometimes it is caused by the menstruous blood when the vessels are more open or the blood too thick which happens through the over-much use of cold drink especially when the woman is hot The cure may be found in the cure of the suppression of the Flowers Sometimes it is caused by other vitious humours collected in the concavity of the womb or adhering to the other Vessels and then these humours are to be removed with purging and evacuating Medicines Sometimes windy vapours are the cause hereof arising from the heat of the vitious humors caused by copulation It is cured by things that discuss the wind to which purpose it may not be amiss to use a Clyster made of Malmsey and Oyl of Nuts of each three ounces of Aqua vitae one ounce of Oyl of Juniper and distilled Rue of each two drams and applied warm or a mixture of spirit of wine and spirit of Nitre of each half a dram or two scruples exhibited in the spirit of Wine Sperma ceti with Oyl of sweet Almonds or a Plaister of Caranna and Tachamahacca applied to the Navel Sometimes it is occasioned by the retention and corruption of the seed For the Cure look the Chapter of the suffocation of the Matrix Of the Suppression of the Flowers THE suppression of the Flowers is the retention of the menstrual blood either by reason of the narrowness of the vessels or through some corruption of the blood The signs are evident from the relation of the Woman Yet if they are loth to confess it may be discerned by this for in Virgins the suppressed blood wanders up and down the Veins and begets obstructions changing the colour of the Body and causing Fevers In Women because the blood is carried down to the Womb where it begets many diseases it is distinguished from retention after Conception because women with Child find no alteration of affections of the mind and retain the native colour of their bodies and in the third month they shall perceive the motion and situation of the Infant and lastly the mouth of the womb is closed up The Causes of this distemper are the narrowness of the Veins and the vitiousness of the blood The Cure of this must be hastened because this suppression if it stay long begets many more diseases as Fevers Dropsies Vomiting of blood and the like The Cure is hard if it be of any continuance and if it stay beyond the sixth month it is almost incurable especially if it happen through any perversion of the neck of the Womb for then the woman is troubled with often swooning and vomiting of blood and a pain seizes the parts of the Belly the Back and the Back-bone which is attended with a Fever and the excrements of the Belly and Bladder are suppressed a weariness possesses the whole Body because of the diffusion of the retained blood through the whole body and especially the hips and thighs because of the sympathy of those parts with the veins of the Womb. In the first place the letting of blood is commended for the blood which every month stays in the body and sticks in the Veins is to be provoked downward to the Womb and therefore a vein is to be opened in the heel for so the plenty of blood is diminished and the motion of the blood is made toward the Womb if necessity requires that it should be done more than once one day a vein must be opened in one thigh and another day in the other and that which is opened for evacuation must be first opened that which is opened in the ham or heel must be done after Purgation three or four or five days before the time that the accustomed evacuations of the Woman ought to come down Cupping-glasses also are to be applied first to the more remote places as to the thighs and then to the nearer parts as to the hips Ligatures or bindings and frictions at the time of the coming down of the Flowers after Purgation of the whole body are not to be omitted In the second place the matter is to be prepared for which purpose in bodies troubled with Flegm the decoction of Guaiacum with Cretan Dittany doth much avail without provoking sweat In the third place evacuation is to be made at several times Among evacuating Medicines are commended Agaric Aloes with the juice of Savin and these Pills Take Aloes Succotrine three drams the best Myrrh one scruple extract of sweet smelling Flag Carduus Saffron of each three drams Roots of Gentian and Dittany of each five grains make them up with Syrup of Laurel-berries taking the quantity of one scrupâ—e at evening before supper In the fourth place by opening obstructions by those things which provoke the Flowers of which these are most to be commended the decoction of Rosemary with Flowers of Cheiri Pennyroyal-water twice distilled and mingled with Cinnamon-water Extract of Zedoary Angelica and Castor and the Earth which is found in Iron Mines prepared in the same manner as Steel spirit of Tartar the fat of an Eel Colubrina with the distill'd water of Savin And in the fifth place by the discussion of the dregs and relicks that remain by sudoroficks or things that provoke sweat with a potion made of a Chalybeate decoction with spirit of Tartar c. The differences of this Disease arise partly from the obstruction of the Veins of the Womb caused by a cold and thick blood and thick slimy humours mixed with the blood and coming either from some hot distemper of the Womb which dissipates the sharp and subtil humours and leaves behind the gross and earthy parts or from the cold Constitution of the Liver and Spleen especially if at the time of the menstrual Flux at what time the Flux of Blood is more violent those subtil humours happen to be dissipated and then at the time of the monthly Purgation the Party affected feels a great pain in the loins and parts adjoining and if any thing come down it is slymy whitish and blackish The whole Body is possessed with a numness the Colour pale a slow Pulse and raw Urines The Cure is the same with the former great care being taken of a gross and ill diet There is another difference of this Disease when it happens by Compression which arises from external causes as the Northern wind and long standing in cold water which may be known from the relation of the sick Person The Blood in this case is to be drawn to the lower parts by
Frictions and Baths or from internal causes as fatness or swelling of the Womb or of the lower parts in which case Medicines must be applied that asswage the swelling There is another difference which is in the hardness of the skin which happens either from the first Nativity and then the disease is not easily taken away or long after from some cold and dry distemper Concerning which look the former Chapters Another difference there is when there happens a closing up of the skin which is caused after Cicatrising of an Ulcer or by reason of some skin or Membrane growing to the Vessels of the Womb or by reason of frequent Abortion after which these Veins to which the Secondines adhere do grow together so close that they cannot be afterwards opened Another difference of this Disease there is when it happens through want of Blood which is not generated either by reason of external causes as Famine over much evacuation Issues and such like or through internal causes as a frigid Constitution of the principal parts old Age and Fevers or when it is converted to other uses as before full growth to the nourishment of the Body In Women with Child to the nourishment of the Birth In those that give suck to the increase of Milk And in fat people to the augmentation of the Fat Or when it is consumed either by External causes as over much Exercise Affrights Terrors Sadness Baths overmuch Sweating which do consume the serous quality of the Blood or through Internal Causes as are hot and dry Diseases or over-great evacuations in other parts of the Body Sometimes another difference of this Disease proceeds from the dryness of the Blood which happens to Women who in the Winter time do too much heat their lower parts by putting Coals under their Coats For the cure thereof you must use refrigerating and moistning Medicines Of the dropping of the Flowers and the difficulty of their coming down THE dropping of the Flowers is when they are coming down for many days together drop by drop This happens both from external causes as over hard labour c. And sometimes from the drossiness of the blood the passage not being wide enough For the cure of this it is convenient to open a Vein in the Arm with gentle purging as in the former Chapter Sometimes from the weakness of the retentive faculty there being at that time great plenty thinness and serosity of the blood In this case there is no pain Medicines that bind and corroborate the Stomach here must have place The difficulty of the Flowers is when they come down with pain and trouble either through defect in the Veins or in the Blood The signs of this are gathered from the relation of the sick person who is then much troubled with pain in the Head Stomach and Loins and lower parts of the body And they do either flow altogether or drop by drop as in the former disease It is a Disease more incident to Maids than married Women because the Veins of the Womb are less open in them than in those who brought forth Children It happens sometimes from a corruption of the blood that is from the drossiness and thickness thereof and then the blood clots together and there is a great pain long before the Flowers begin to come down The Cure of this is performed by attenuating Medicines Sometimes from the sharpness and acrimony of the Blood which proceeds from a mixture of sharp humours with the Body and then the genital parts do itch It is cured by those Medicines that temper the sharpness of the Humour as the four greater Seeds Violets and Flowers of Nenuphar Sometimes from windy Vapours and then the pain comes by intervals and is suddenly exasperated rumbling up and down and when the wind is forth the pain ceaseth The cure hereof is procured by evacuation of the matter and dispelling of the wind as is before declared Of the discolouring of the Flowers THE discolouring of the Flowers is when their right colour which ought to be red declines either to paleness whiteness greenness yellowness or blewishness through some defect or vitiousness of the blood The signs are apparent by the sight of the blood besides that it is accompanied with an ill smell many times also it is the cause of Fevers trembling of the body loathing of the meat pain in the stomach c. The differences of this disease consist first in the vitiousness of the blood which is caused through some distemper either of the whole body or some part thereof Sometimes the blood is affected by reason of some stoppage thereof and then the Flowers are suppressed which causeth pains in the Breast and strong beating of the Breast and if the woman begin to amend the Blood flows out with a stinking putrefaction which continues 'till the eighth day or it may be because the Blood is foul'd by the Womb being full of excrements and then you may perceive the signs of a foul Womb. Sometimes the difference of this disease consists in the mixture of the Blood with other vitious humors The Cure consists in preparation and evacuation but care must be had that because the thick humors need attenuation and that over attenuating things do melt the serous humor that you therefore do not use over attenuating things as Vinegar c. Another difference is when the Flowers decline to a whitish colour which ' proceeds from abundance of Flegm or from Putrefaction and then Ulcers follow in the Womb and barrenness follows unless the womans Flowers do happen to flow for seven or eight days together by which the woman is freed from the disease or else they break out to the parts above the groin without any tumor and burst forth a little above the Hypochondrium and then the woman seldom lives or else there will appear after some few days a great swelling in the Groyn without a head of a red colour because the Flesh is there filled up with the Blood When it inclines to yellowness or greenness the distemper comes of Choler when to a blackness and blewness from Melancholy Of the inordinate Flux of the Flowers THE disorderly Flux of the Courses is either the coming of them down before their time or else the stoppage of them for some time after the usual course of Nature They come down sometimes before their time partly by reason of internal Causes and partly by reason of external Causes as falls blows and such like casualties that open the veins Or from the expulsive faculty of the Womb too much provoked First by the plenty of blood which is known by this that the blood which is sent to the womb from all part is fluid and of its natural constitution signs of a Plethora or fulness of blood are apparent in the Woman It is Cured by blood letting if the blood abound by good diet and frequent though gentle exercise Secondly it proceeds from the Acrimony and sharpness of
the blood which is known by the hot temper of the body the blood it self is more thin and yellowish It must be Cured by evacuating Medicines as Rheubarb and such things as temper the blood whereof we have already spoken It comes also when the retentive faculty of the womb grows lank which may be known by the looseness of the Vessels of the Womb besides a moist and faint habit of the body In the Cure beware of things which are too Astringent baths wherein the force and strength of Iron may be effectual may with safety be used The subsistence and stay of the Courses beyond the accustomed time proceeds from a frustration of the expulsive faculty as when there is small store of blood which is known by this that the Woman is not troubled with the stay of the Courses and especially if she have over-exercised her self or used a spare diet before Secondly the thickness of the blood which is known by the whiteness and clamminess thereof In the performance of the Cure you must purge before too much blood be gathered together Next the Courses are to be attenuated for the performance of which Calamint and Mercurialis are to be most commended In this Case scarification of the heels is not amiss There is another difference of this Disease which arises from the weakness of the expelling faculty caused either by the frigid distemper of the Womb of which we have spoken already or by a kind of numness thereof of which we shall speak anon Of the over abundance of the Courses THE over much flux of the Courses is either a more abundant or a more lasting Purgation of the Courses through some defect either in the blood or the womb or the veins of the womb The signs are evident viz. want of Appetite Crudities a bad colour in the face a swelling in the feet and the rest of the body a waxing lean of the body and in brief a general ill habit of body The Cure if it be of any continuance is difficult if it happen to an aged woman there is none at all It requires a revulsion or drawing back of the blood interception and incrassation or thickning thereof and a closing up of the Vessels by astringent Medicines Yet observe that they must be stopt by degrees To this effect you may take this Powder Take of the seed of White Henbane red Coral of each half a dram white Camphor half a scruple and give the quantity of half a dram at a time powder of Amber Dragons-blood Bloodstones Red Coral Lettice seed of each one dram Balaust two scruples Bole armoniack two drams given in three ounces of Plantain-water Asses milk heated with Steel You may externally also apply a girdle made of the bruised leaves of Bares-foot Of this Disease there are many differences Sometimes it happens from the blood which is derived from the bottom of the Womb where for the most part lies the blackest and most clotted blood or from the neck of the Womb which is more red and fluid Another difference ariseth from the plenty of blood which appears by this that the Vessels are either broken or much opened especially in those women who have had a stoppage in their Courses for a time which presently break out again The signs of this are evident that is to say a fulness of blood in the body besides that the blood which comes forth easily curdles In the Cure you must have recourse to blood-letting which if you do for evacuation it must be done in the Hepatick Vein If the woman be weak in Salvatella of both hands In the next place the use of Cupping-Glasses is to be commended being applied with scarification to the back c. Or without scarification to the Breast being used again when the woman is troubled with difficulty of breathing In the third place ligatures and frictions of the Arms are to be used Another difference of this disease arises from a sharp blood which is known by the gnawing of the humor upon the Vessels In the Cure you must purge with syrup of Roses solutive or with leaves of Sena a pessary of Sows dung and Asses dung which is made up with Plantain water and the muscilage of the seed of Quinces is here of use if need require Another difference arises from a serous and watry blood for either the Liver is weakned or the Veins so debilitated that it cannot attract the serous or wheyie humour in the blood in this case the blood flows not forth in such a quantity nor is easily curdled If a Cloth be dipped in it and then dried in the shade it presently discolours In the Cure hereof you must look to the rectifying of the weakness of the Reins and Liver with convenient remedies for which purpose the Livers of Foxes Calves Hens c. are very good Sometimes from a Rupture of the Veins which proceeds either from a fulness of blood or from Causes that do vehemently stir up the blood especially from hard labour if it be needful you must let blood and apply conglutinating Medicines Or from a gnawing of the Vessels which is known by this that sometimes there flows forth little blood and that purulent and full of the wheyie or serous humor It arises from a sharp and corrupt blood and sometimes from the use of sharp Medicines Among the astringent Medicines the root of Filipendula is much to be commended or a decoction of the same Root Of the Whites and Gonorrhea in Women THE Whites is an inordinate eruption of an excrementitious humour collected together through some vitiousness of the blood It affects Women chiefly and sometimes also Virgins of which there are Examples Yet it is more often in women especially if they be of a moist constitution and live an idle and delicate life eating such things as are cold and moist Old women also are affected herewith through the abundance of Flegm and the weakness of the concoctive faculty It differs from the Gonorrhea because in that the seminal matter is white and thicker and flows by long intervals and issues forth in a lesser quantity from a nocturnal pollution for that is joyned with venereal imaginations and only happens in the time of sleep It differs from the discolouring of the Flowers for they though not exactly do always observe their times of Flowing Besides they happen not to Women with Child or such whose Courses are stopped It differs from the putrid humour that issues from the Ulcers of the Womb because that is joyned with the signs of an Ulcer and the putrefaction is thicker and whiter if it be mattery it is coloured with blood and issues forth with pain The Cure of this must be hastned because in a short time it endangers the making of women barren causing them to be lean to fall into a Consumption Melancholy the Dropsie fall of the Womb Swoonings and Convulsions which is the cause that though it be not hard to be cured in
go before it is impregnated with saline particles whereby the Citron colour is to be imparted to it whereof we have daily experiment in those that drink much especially of thin and attenuating Liquors for then their Urine is very clear in which case the blood being over-power'd by that quantity of serum and being wholly unable to retain it puts it off quite clear not yet died by the juice of the Body by reason of its too short stay As to the Cold by which the external parts are so often chilled it is very manifest that that happens because the Spirits forsaking their stations too officiously intrude themselves into this or that part Nor is it to be doubted that weeping and laughing fits which often seise hysterical women without any occasion are procured by the Animal Spirits forcing themselves violently upon the Organs that perform these Animal functions And now I suppose it is manifest that this whole Disease is occasioned by the Animal Spirits being not rightly disposed and not by seed and menstruous blood corrupted and sending up malignant Vapours to the parts affected nor from I know not what depravation of the juices and congestion of acrid humors as others think but from those Causes we have assignâ—d for that the fomes of the Disease does not lurk in matter will plainly appear by this one instance viz. A Woman that used to enjoy perfect health being delicate and of a thin habit of body if she chance to be weakned and exhausted by some error or by some strong Vomit or Purge will certainly be afflicted with some one of those Symptoms that accompany this Disease which would rather be removed than occasioned by such Vomiting or Purging if the fomes of the Disease was contained in matter The same may be said of a great loss of blood whether it is taken away by opening a vein or flows immoderately in Labour or of emptiness or too long abstinence from Flesh all which would rather prevent hysteric Diseases than occasion them if the fomes of them was involved in some matter whereas on the contrary nothing does so constantly occasion this Disease as these evacuations But tho' it is apparent enough that the Original fomes of this Disease is not lodged in the humors yet it must be confessed that the confusion of the Spirits produces putrid humors in the Body by reason the function as well of these parts which are distended by the violent impulse of the Spirits as of those which are deprived of them are wholly perverted and most of these being as it were separatory Organs designed for the reception of the impurities of the blood if their functions are any way hurt it can not be but a great many feculencies will be heaped up which had been elimmated and so the mass of blood purified if the Organs had performed their office which they had certainly done if a due Oeconomy of the Spirits had invigorated them To this Cause is to be attributed great Cachexies loss of appetite a Chlorosis and the White Fever in young Women which is a species of hysteric Diseases and the source of many miseries From what has been said it is very manifest that that is the chief indication in this Disease which directs the corroboration of the blood that is the Fountain and Origin of the Spirits which being done the invigorated Spirits can preserve that tenure that is agreeable to the Oeconomy of the whole body and the particular parts and therefore when the confusion of the Spirits has vitiated the humors by long continuance it will be proper first to lessen those humors so corrupted by bleeding and purging if the Patient has sufficient strength before we endeavour to corroberate the blood and which indeed we can scarce do whilst a feculent heap of humors lies in the way But forasmuch as Pains Vomiting and Looseness are sometimes so very severe that they will not bear a truce so long until we have satisfied the first intention of fortifying the blood therefore sometimes we must begin the Cure by quieting the effects the cause being let alone a little while with some anodyne Medicine and then we must endeavour to rectifie the Spirits whose infirm constitution is the cause of this Disease by which we may again endeavour to Cure such kind of Symptoms And because experience teaches that there are many stinking things that will repell the inordination of the Spirits and contain them in their places which are therefore call'd hysterics we must make use of them when we would answer such intentions According to what has been said I order the Sick to be blooded in the arm and that after bleeding she be purged three or four Mornings following The Woman thinks her self worse of those days she is blooded and purged for these evacuations promote the confusion of the Spirits which I take care to forewarn her of that she may not despair the Disease of it self being apt to incline her so to do But however those ill humours heapt up by the long continuance of the Disease are in some sort to be evacuated before we can well answer the prime intention After these evacuations some steel Remedy must be prescribed to be taken about a Month to comfort the blood and so consequently the Spirits that proceed from it and nothing will more certainly answer your intention in this case than steel for it raises a volatile ferment in the vapid and languid blood whereby the weak Spirits are roused that before were kept down by their own weight and this is very manifest for as often as Chalybeats are given in the Green Sickness the Pulse are presently greater and quicker and the outward parts grow warm and the pale and dead Countenance is changed and becomes fresh and lively But here we must take notice that bleeding and purging must not always be used before Chalibeats or when the Woman is weak and almost worn out by the long continuance of the Disease they may and ought to be omitted and you must begin with steel which must be well minded I think steel is most conveniently given in substance and as I never observed nor heard that so taken it ever injur'd any person so I have been fully satisfied by frequent experience that the bare substance performs the Cure sooner and better than any of the common Preparations of it for busie Chymists make this as well as other excellent Medicines worse rather than better by their perverse and over-officious diligence I have also heard and if it be true it much strengthens our assertion that the crude Mine as it is digg'd out of the Earth is more effectual in curing Diseases than Iron that has pass'd the Fire and bin purified by fusion So the Author affirms but I have not yet try'd whether it be so or not This I certainly know that there is no excellent and powerful Remedy which has not received its chief Vertues from Nature Upon which account grateful Antiquity
Sick has vomited a great while you must give Laudanum without delay and such a dose as is not only equal to the violence and duration of the symptom but such an one as is sufficient to vanquish it Of Barrenness BArrenness is an impotence to conceive coming from defect either of the Genitals or of the blood or of the menstruous blood First through the defect of the Genitals either by the closing up of the Orifice of the womb which may be cut and opened by Art or through the narrowness of the parts for so they will not admit the Yard or by reason of some Ulcers or Excrescencies in the neck of the womb Or by reason of some fault in the seed either the woman being too young or too old or through some distemper in the Vessels dedicated to generation and then the woman perceives very little or no pleasure in the act of Copulation The Cure of this is referred to the Chapter of the distempers of the womb Or when there is not that due proportion of seed which ought to be in both parties which chiefly arises from the use of those things that extinguish barrenness as Mint Rue Camphire Or from Inchantments and then the man cannot lye with his wife or though he should yet cannot emit the seed Against which it is affirmed that the drinking a draught of cold water that drops from the mouth of a young Stone-horse as he drinks and saved in a little vessel is very potent Or when the womb doth not draw the seed which is ejected and that by reason of some cold and moist distemper in which case all sorrow anger and much sleep are to be avoided as also the eating of Milk fresh Cheese and any thing that is made of dough Neither is she to eat Endive Spinage Beets Lettice Nuts Cherries Purslane Onions Garlick or such like nor much broth vinegar and fat flesh In the next place the womb must be cleansed from over-abundance of moisture with syrup of Wormwood with the decoction of Harts-tongue Fennel Cumin and Aniseed After this take once every 14 days a dram of blessed Pills fasting five hours after them Take also of these following Pills Take of Labdanum Agaric Wax and Sheep suet tryed of which you may make Pills to take two or three of them every morning or use this confection Take shaven Ivory Ash keys yellow and wild Rape-seed Siler mountain with red and white Behen of each one dram Cinamon Galingale long Pepper Cloves and Mace Balsam-wood Rosemary-flowers Blatrae Byzantiae Marjoram Penny-royal of each four scruples Baulm Bugloss Citron Pils of each two scruples Pearls one scruple Musk 2 grains white sugar twenty four ounces seeth this with Malmsey and make thereof a Confection Or because of some Diseases in the parts where note that too much fatness of the Call doth close the mouth of the womb such women must not sleep much especially in the day time they must use strong Clysters that are warm and dry and purge often Or when the Womb doth not attract the seed when it is cast in which proceeds from a moist intemperance which is by the looseness of the fibres of the Womb so that the Womb cannot contract it self which is cured as in the moist distemper Or by reason of the thickness of the Womb for then the blood that increases the seed doth not slide down to that place The cure hereof requires a thin diet purging and sweating or by reason of the slipperiness thereof which happens by reason of the running of the whites in women The cure whereof consists in the stopping of the whites which hath been already treated of or by reason of the gaping of the Orifice which hath been occasioned either by difficult birth or by some abortion The cure is performed by astringent Medicines among which the chiefest are the fomentation of Lentisk and Myrtle or by reason of some sudden cough or sneezing immediately after copulation by which the seed is shaken forth Or when the Womb doth not alter the seed that is cast in through an immoderate cold distemper Sometimes through heat and then it would be requisite to avoid hot air and to keep the part about the womb cold the eating of hot meats and spices must be avoided Purge after blood-letting in the Basilick vein of the right hand with Electurium de Epythymo and juyce of Roses of each two drams and a half whey four ounces mix them well together and take them in the morning sleeping on and fasting four hours upon Purge also with Triphera Saracenica and Rheubarb with potions prepared and mixed with syrup of Roses Violets and Endive Take Pistacia Eringo's of each half an ounce of Saffron a dram Lignum Aloes Galangal Avens Mace red and white Behen Baulm-flowers of each four scruple shavings of Ivory and Cassia rinds of each two scruples syrup of Ginger confected twelve ounces white Sugar six ounces seeth these together with the syrup in 12 ounces of Baulm-water untill it be all boyled away when it is cold put some more water to it and stir them together and at last of all mix with it a scruple and a half of Musk and Amber of this Conserve let the woman take thrice a day to wit in the morning an hour before supper and an hour after dinner Or it proceeds from obstruction of the Flowers in which case first let blood in the Basilick vein then purge with Opoponax and Hiera Composita of each half a dram to be made up into seven Pills to be taken in the morning sleeping upon them an hour and a half with a draught of sugar'd water five hours after or with a potion of syrup of vinegar compounded syrup of Hemp agrimony of each three quarters of an ounce Feverfew Mugwort and Elecampane roots of each an ounce and mix them together Then she may put up into the Womb a pessary of Musk Amber Aloes-Wood and Ash keys of each three grains Saffron half a scruple Hares rennet as much as suffices which being made up like a good big Tent she must keep a whole day in her Body Of the bringing up of Children and of their Diseases Of the Diseases of the Head THE Diseases common to Children are first certain little ulcerous risings chiefly in the Head sometimes in the whole Body they arise from some vitious humour either collected in the Womb or out of the Womb by reason of the badness of the milk containing a serous salt and nitrous quality If there be no ill to be suspected the humour may be driven forth by giving the Child some Syrup of Fumatory or Harts-horn burnt The Nurse is to be purged and the matter offending to be tempered with Syrup of Borage or Fumary If there be much corruption under the Crust of the Scab the Head of the Child is to bo bathed with some softning decoction and then to be anointed with some drying Ointments Sometimes they are troubled with an inflamation of