instruct the Learned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Noctuas Athenas lest I seem to bring Owls to Athens but to inform the less knowing And ending this Preface we will begin with Generation it self and the rest in Order SECT I. Of the True generation of the Parts and Increase of the Infant in the Womb according to the daies and times till the time of the Birth The property of the womb WHen the womb whose property it is naturally to receive seed unto generation as a Loadstone attracts iron or as Jeat straws or feathers hath received the seed for generation and by its virtue hath shut up the seed for generation Presently from the first day untill the sixth or seventh there grow and arise very many and very small fibres or hairs beginning with a hot motion See the figure marked by which vital heat the liver with his chiefest organs are generated by a natural virtue as this following Scheme may the more illustrate marked as in the margin The small first fibres For the vital spirits giving down seed towards conception forms and distinguisheth the chiefest members by the tenth day being let in by certain veins of the secundine The navil ' how generated to which the matrix is fixed and by which the blood is imported and of which the navil is generated But at the very same time three smal spots not unlike to curds of milk arise where the liver the heart Nourishment of the Infant by the navil Vena bifurca and the brain have their places and then presently a vein directed by the navil attracts the thicker blood confused with the seed and makes it fit for nourishment from whence also there ariseth a vein with two forks which is generated according to the form of this figure In the one of which branches there is a collection of blood of which first the liver is generated by a natural faculty The genetion of the Liver From whence it easily appears the liver to be a congealed and concrete blood and also it may be manifest how many and various veins it hath prepared and fitted for the expulsive and attractive virtue But in the other branch are generated those textures or rather web of veins with the dilatation of other veins as of the stomack spleen and intestines in the lower part of the belly And from hence immediately all veins are recollected together as so many branches into one trunk in the upper texture of the liver towards the hollow vein Venae Cavae truncus ascendens descendens Diaphragma truncus descendens and this trunk by and by sends down branches to make the midriff and directs not a few branches to the lower parts even to the very thighs and then the heart with his veins extended into seed from the navil is generated by a vital virtue Spina dorsi and is directed towards the spine of the back as is demonstrated in this figure 3. But those do attract the hottest and more subtile blood The generation of the heart Pericardium vel Capsula Cordis of which the heart is generated incased in a membrane naturally fleshy and thick necessary upon the account of so hot a member But the hollow vein extending it self and penetrating the inward concavity of the right side in the heart c. derives thence blood for the nourishment of the heart From the same branch also of this his vein and in the same part another vein ariseth called by some Truncus Phrenicus vel Diaphragmatis by some the immoveable or quiet vein because according to the account of the pulsation of other veins it beats not at all but lyes quiet ordained for this end Vena Coronaria that it should let go the purest blood to the lungs being vested with a double tunicle like an Arterie from whence it is called the Arterial vein Vena arteriosa er Pulmonaria But in the left concavity of the heart there are two Arteries that is to say the Venal Arterie and the Great Arterie which carries a great pulse with it and diffuseth the vital spirits by the blood of the heart into all the pulsatile veins of the body For as the hollow vein is the original of all veins by which the body doth attract its whole nourishment of blood so Aorta Venae pâ—…satiles Aorta from the Aorta or great Arterie all pulsatile veins are derived diffusing the vital spirits through the whole body For the heart is the fountain and original of vital heat without which no creature or member can thrive Arteria Venosa Under the abovesaid Arterie in the left concavity of the heart another vein ariseth called the Venal Arterie And although that be really a pulsatile vein and doth direct the vital spirits yet according to the manner of all pulsatile veins that have blood It hath but one coat and therefore made for that end that it should derive the cold air from the lungs to refresh the heart as also to attemper its over-much heat The generation of the lungs And because veins issue out from both the concavities of the heart and are inserted into the lungs and of which the lungs are formed for the vein that proceeds from the right concavity of the heart produceth the most subtile blood which by small fibres dispersed here and there is changed into the fleshy substance of the lungs But from the great vein of the heart viz. the Aorta and from the great vein of the liver viz. the Vena Cava Vena Cava the great vein of the liver whence the brest arms and thighs proceed or hollow vein the whole brest is generated and so successively the Arms and Thighs Within the time aforesaid also is generated the highest and chiefest part of this noble structure The generation of the brain the Brain in the third Region of this mass for the whole mass of seed being filled with the animal spirits that contracts a great part of the genital moysture and concludes it in a certain concavity wherein the brain may be formed but as to the out-side The Cranium or the Dura mater The Scull it is inveloped with a certain covering which being toasted and dried with heat is brought into a boney substance and becomes a scull as appears by this precedent figure But the brain is so formed that it may conceive retain and change the natures of all the vital spirits from whence also proceed the beginnings of all Reason and of the Senses For as veins have their original from the liver The original of the nerves and as arteries have their rise from the heart so also nerves being of a softer and milder natural existence arise from the brain and are not hollow as the veins are but solid for they are the first and chiefest instruments of all the senses by which the motions of all the senses by which the motions of all the
senses by reason of the vital spirit are justly made After the nerves The original of the pith of the back-bone called the Silver cord Eccles cap. 12. ver 6. from the brain also is formed the pith of the back-bone not of an unlike nature from the brain so that it scarce can be called marrow because it hath no likeness to marrow either by sight or in substance for the marrow is a kind of superfluous aliment arising from the blood of the members The marrow what and how generated The Spinalis medulla what appointed to moisten and make the bones of the body grow but the brain and pith of the back have their original from the seed not deputed for the nourishment and growth of the other members but that by themselves they might make private parts of the body The brain and Spinalis medulla ordained for the use and motion of the senses for the use and motion of the senses that from thence all the other nerves may take their rise For from the pith of the back many nerves arise from which the body hath sense and motion as may appear by the difference betwixt the vital and animal faculties as hath been before hinted Cartilages bones c. generated from the seed Moreover here it is to be observed that from the seed it self cartilages bones coats of the veins of the liver and of the arteries of the heart the brain with the nerves and again the tunicles and as well other pannicles or membranes as those that wrap up the infant are generated but from the proper blood of the infant is the flesh it self ingendred and all those parts that are of a fleshy substance as the heart the liver and lungs And then at length all these grow together by the menstruous blood attracted by the small veins of the navil which are observed to be directed with their orifices into the womb All parts distinct by 18 daies All which are distinctly made by the eighteenth day of the first moneth from the very conception at which time it may be called seed but afterwards it becometh to be and is called a child When called a child which the Ancients have comprehended in these two verses Sex in lacte dies ter sunt in sanguine trini Bisseni carnem ter seni membra figurant The lesser figure denotes the Nerves derived frō the Back and dispersed through the whole The explanation of the larger figure see in the following page Cross sculpsit ' Englished thus Six daies in milk thrice three the seed's in blood Twice six makes flesh thrice six makes members good FF Sheweth a young one of 18 daies though some hold it but 14 daies in which all the members may be discerned apart GG The four Umbilical Vessels meeting in one HH How the Umbilical Vessels become thick by degrees that that doubt amongst some may be resolved whether they spring from the womb or no. III Sheweth how the Umbilical veins and arteries are spread throughout the Chorion by infinite branches KKK Sheweth the membrane called Amnios in which sweat and urine are gathered together in which the infant swimmeth and sits as safe as in a Bath SECT II. Of the Nutriment of the child in the womb and by what nourishment it is preserved and when it groweth up to be an Infant Infant how nourished WHilest the young one is in the womb it is nourished by blood attracted by the navil by which it is that women after they have conceived have their terms stop'd Why courses stop'd after conception for then the infant begins to crave and attracts much blood For the blood presently after conception is discerned by a three-fold difference A threefold dist nction of blood after conception The first and purest part of it the young one attracts for nourishment The second less pure and thin the matrix forceth upwards by certain veins to the breasts Venae mammariae The generation of milk where it becomes milk by which the infant is nourished so soon as it is born The third and more impure part of the blood remains in the matrix and floweth out with the secundine both in the birth and after the birth Hence it is that Hippocrates saith Hippocratis Aphor. lib. 5.39 52. there is much affinity betwixt the flowers and the milk since the one happeneth to be made out of the other And Galen also by reason of this thing The infant hath more from the mother than the father elegantly adviseth that the infant hath more from the mother than from the father for this reason because the seeds are first increased by the menstruous blood and then by these the infant is presently nourished in the womb and again being newly born it is nourished with milk And as roots have more nourishment from the earth than the plant that bare them that is from whence they came so also infants receive more from the mother than from the father And hence he saith that it comes to pass that so much more is attributed to the mother by how much more she contributeth more towards generation A rule to know it If the infant be formed in 45 daies it will stir in 90 daies which is the middle time that it lies hid in the womb for in the ninth moneth it will come forth and make haste to the birth although females are oftentimes born in the tenth moneth And so much for the formation increase and perfection of the infant according to the account of daies and times SECT III. How the infant doth in the womb the fifth the sixth the seventh and eighth moneth and also of the difference of sexes and forms AFter the third and fourth moneth the infant useth a more plentiful nourishment by which it groweth more and more untill the time of birth shall come Therefore it is to be understood that when it is born in the sixth moneth it cannot in nature live because though it be formed distinctly yet it is not of its just perfection But if it be born in the seventh moneth Why an infant born in the seventh moneth may live it may easily live because then it is sufficiently perfect And whereas those that are born in the eighth moneth can rarely live whereas such as are born in the seventh moneth are often times living it is not without reason for on the seventh moneth the infant is ever moving towards the birth at which time if it be strong enough it comes to the birth but if not it remaineth in the womb till it groweth stronger viz. the other two moneths After the motion at seven moneths end if it be not born it removes it self into some other place of the womb and is so weakned by that motion that should it come to the birth in the following eighth moneth Two mortal signs by the infants moving it cannot live by reason of that motion and neither is the
the vessels of the after-burden Epar Uterinum which immediately sticks to the womb by a certain fleshy mass that is formed being round and of somewhat a ruddy colour not compassing the whole infant by reason of innumerous springs of veins and arteries by which the blood is inter-woven as if it were poured in and by which the infant is nourished This towards the infant is smooth but that part which is towards that fleshy round mass is rougher Of the Placenta Uteri or Epar Uterinum This round fleshy substance is called the liver of the womb or the cake of the womb which having a parenchyma such a substance as the liver hath no wonder if it should make and prepare blood for the nourishment of the infant On that side towards the womb it is rough and unequal like clefts in a bak'd cake and being cut in this part it sheweth an infinite company of fibres which if you trace they will bring you to the orifice of the veins themselves And although there be twins or more yet there is but one placenta for into one placenta so many navil-strings are inserted in divers places as there are young ones Embryones though it may differ as to the bigness according to the body and condition of the infant yet the ground is still the same in the diameter The use of the Placenta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The use serves as a support of the unibilical vessels for which it serves as a pillar it is also called secundae the secundine The third is called Allantoides 't is a coat betwixt the Chorion and Amnios 't is difficulty Be it as it will wheresoever these make but the least stay I must endeavour all that I can to bring them forth for when they are deteined longer than their due time they cause bad symptoms Symptoms as a horrible stench which fumes up to the stomach heart liver midriff and so consequently to the brain from whence ariseth great pains in the head at the heart decay of spirits faintings swounings often Convulsions cold Sweats Apoplexies Epilepsies sometimes Gangrenes and often death it self but of this Cure hereafter Sir I shall beg your advice Philadel Quest Mrs. you shall have it at your pleasure you answer expertly tell me now how they must be perswaded out Eutrap Answer I shall Sir I must first anoint my left hand with convenient oyles and after I have laid hold of it must not violently draw it away Secundine how to be brought away nor yet force it directly downward lest I draw down the womb and all together but I must shake it lightly and gently to and fro till I perswade it to follow my intention and whilest they are thus reteined I must refresh her with Caudles A Caudlebroth or Panatells wherein the yelks of Eggs in Wine with some Saffron and Cinnamon strewed or broth of a Hen or Capon with mace saffron and cinnamon boyled in it As to other means where the danger is more I think it ever best and safest to consult with learned Physitians or with experienc'd Ladies whose Closets are furnished with choice praescriptions which they have had from Doctors in such cafes Philadel But Quest Mrs. we have formerly discoursed of Births natural and praeternatural with their respective schemes Tell me now A dead child how delivered and how of a Mola how you will deliver a woman of a dead child and how of a false Conception or Mola Especially where no pains or throws are which are most commonly occasioned by the motion and force of the child only alive as hath been shewed in the 21th Page and 4th Section Eutrap Answer Here Sir is great danger and difficulty I have by Gods blessing with safety to the women delivered them of many a dead child and of a Mola or false Conception also and believe the method of curing one of them will serve to cure the other as I have been informed by learned Physitians but where Chirurgical Instruments or other Physical means must be used I ever recommend such a case to learned Physitians and Chirurgeons expert in Anatomy both for assistance and direction SECT XXVII Of the signs of Conception in general and the different Sexes in particular DR Philadelphos Good Mrs. Eutrapelia Quest vouchsafe me your observations about Conceptions Signs of Conception and let me understand what are the signs of Conception in general and what signs distinguish the Sexes Eutrap Although Sir Answer 't is hard to know whether a woman hath conceived yea or no yet it may be conjectured by many experienced Arguments as for instance First it is thought a credible sign of Conception if a woman either the tenth day after coition or sooner perceive by reason of any humors any of her terms be they whites or reds Stopping of the courses no sure sign And though the stopping of those be accounted for a sign yet that fails often because it may be as well before conception as after But waving this let us find out other marks and prognosticks of a true conception gathered from the state and condition of the woman her self being seriously examined from head to foot Secondly pains and giddiness in in the head and a mist over the sight if they meet together these portend conception Thirdly the apples of the eyes are lessened the eyes swell and become swarthy the veins of the eyes grow red and are full with blood the eyes fink the eye-lids are remiss divers colours are seen in the eyes and are observed in a looking-glass the veins betwixt the eyes and the nose are turgid with blood and are seen clearer the veins under the tongue are somewhat greenish Fourthly the chest is warm and the back cold Fifthly the veins and arteries are turgid and the pulse easier the veins in the breast are first black then either yellow or blew Sixthly The breasts grow big and hard with pain the nipple grows red if she drinketh that which is cold she feels cold in her breast Seventhly there is a great loathing of meat and drink and destruction of the natural appetite with longings after various meats with an absurd appetite a continual vomiting and weakness of stomach sower belchings loathing of wine an inordinate pulsation of the heart sudden joy and after that as sudden grief pains about the navil Invicem cedunt dolor voluptas heaviness about the loins swelling toward the bottom of the belly inward pricking in the body chilness of the outward parts after coition retention of the seed seven daies after copulation about the beginning of conception a shooting pain about the back and belly The courses are stop'd for those veins from which they flow carry the blood through certain holes that are at the end of them for the nourishment Acetabule of the infant by the navil and part of it
〈◊〉 word which signifieth The womb It is called by most women The Mother Fits and that from another Greek b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word which signifieth the Matrix which is from another word which signifieth a Mother because women after they have brought forth are Mothers and hence Fits of the Mother Which is What is the suffocation of the womb a retraction of the womb to the upper parts making the principal parts fellow-sufferers of the distemper For although the womb may be concluded to be moved out of its place yet except it be carried downwards it never causeth a suffocation for a suffocation is nothing else but a defect in breathing Therefore it is necessary that the upper parts that serve for Respiration be affected The parts affected what and how and carried upwards by reason of that suffocation and amongst all the chiefest are the heart lungs the midriff and the brain to which the force of the affection cometh viz. to the heart by the veins and arteries and so to the lungs to the brain and midriff by the nerves and membranes of the spine of the back The cause is from the womb The causes which being full of some naughty humor as menstuous blood Menstruous blood Vitious seed or vitious and putrid seed offendeth the noble parts with some stinking malignant sharp griping cold vapours The symptoms The symptoms that follow are various either according to the greatness of the efficient cause or the variety of some qualities or natures for some women are without any sense or motion and seem to have no pulse at all or at least that very small and weak and sometimes lye without any manner of breathing at all that can be perceived Others there are that neither want sense nor motion and seem not to be troubled with any passion of the mind but they faint and very hardly fetch breath some also seem to have Convulsions in their joynts as in their hands arms feet but these generally are the signs of the fit at hand viz. a Signs of the Fit coming in augmente A dulness of the mind a laziness weakness of the thighes paleness and clamminess about the face b Signs of the Fit present but when the fit is come then there cometh a c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profound sleep like those in an Apoplexy or Lethargy the mind is dotish the senses are intercepted the voice ceaseth the thighes are contracted the cheeks look red and the face is swelled Signs of the declination of the distemper But when the suffocation declineth a certain moysture distilleth from the privities with great rumbling and murmuring of the belly and the womb by little and little is relaxed and so the sense returneth This disease is moved also by d Suppose of the moon course as is the Falling-sickness and doth most of all infest young women desirous of husbands and that about Autumn and the Winter as also those that are childless or unfruitful or such whose womb is chilled upon any account This differs from * How it differs from a Syncope or swouring fainting Fits in this viz. In a Syncope there is no pulse but in the strangulation of the womb there is ever a pulse though small rare weak In fainting Fits or swounings there are cold sweats and paleness of the face but in this the countenance is plump How from an Apoplexy and ruddy It differs also from an Apoplexy for women that have these Fits have not their parts deprived of sense and motion and although their senses be benummed yet if they are pinched or pricked they are sensibly disturbed and will make signs with their hands that they are strangled now it is clean contrary in an Apoplexy And again those in an Apoplexy do snore which is never seen in these hysterick Fits How they differ from an Epilepsie or Falling-sickness Spasmus Cinicus A distortion of the mouth Lastly these Fits differ from an Epilepsie or Falling-sickness in this that these parts affected are not contracted with Spasmes or Convulsions neither do they foam at mouth except the woman be vehemently suffocated and especially when an Epilepsie is not stirred up out of the womb it self as oftentimes it doth happen Having thus discoursed of the causes symptoms and signs we now come to the Cure The Cure First then let the lower parts be strongly rubbed with clothes and tyed with strong ligatures as also let Cupping-glasses Cupping-glasses how to be used be applyed to the hips groynes * Os pubis or Pectinis Beware the navil share-bone but not to the navil Next sneezing is commended to which Hippocrates agrees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aphor. lib. 5. 35. And though I have given you one Receipt for a sneezing-powder in the beginning of the 31th Section which is proper not only in difficult births but here also I now will leave with you the Receipt of another powder A sneezing powder which shall be this Take white Pepper Mustard-seed Pellitory of Spain Castoreum of each a scruple Euphorbium and white Hellebore of each one scruple Twenty grains make a scruple and make a subtile powder which may be used so long as there is no redundance of humors perceived in the head Suppositories Suppositories are good as Take of Agarick Troschisc of the species of Hiera logodii of each a drachm 60 Grains make a drachm of Rats-dung Figs Rue-leaves and Cummin-seeds all made into powder and with honey made up into a Suppository An Ointment Take oyle of St. Iohn's-wort of Orange-flowers of Rue of each one ounce oyle of Mace by expression half an ounce of a Beasts gall dryed and powdered six drachms Venice-Treacle half an ounce Spiders alive in number forty infuse all these for ten hours in a vessel well stop'd on the embers that it neither boyle too fast not evaporate too much of this make an Ointment with which anoint the back and loynes and the navil avoiding all cold A fume to sit over A Suffumigation of Nutmegs powdered and set in a close-stool to burn receiving the smoak by sitting over it is excellent Stinking things to smell to Stinking things are ever best to smell to such as are Partridge-feathers old Leather Brimstone burnt all Assafoetida Castoreum Galbanum Rue malaxed with Vinegar Contrarily all sweet things are proper to be tyed to the thighes in a bag but not smell'd to Sweet things best to be tyed to the thighes The scrapings of Goats-horns and Assafoetida mixed and burnt is excellent Take Assafoetida dissolved in distilled vinegar of Castor prepared into powder Pills of each a scruple Laudanum two grains made into six Pills and taken just before the Fit Lastly if these Fits proceed from the stoppage of the flowers those medicines must be given proper to provoke them but if from the retention of the