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 Now of the next matter of the birth there is a difference among the learned which being unnecessary for this place we shall let go and stick close to them who affirm that the seeds of both sexes being confused in the womb doth make up the first matter of the birth so that if there were not a mixture of both seeds it were impossible that any generation could be Yet though there be of necessity a confusion of both seeds we deny not but that their qualities are different for the seed of a man exceeds the seed of a woman both in thickness and heat which is more cold and moist and therefore more watry Yet though they differ thus in quality it is not to be denied but that the seed of the woman gives a mutual assistance to the seed of man in the work of generation But it being unquestionable that the menstruous bloud is the matter of the womans seed therfore that ye may know the original of it it is to be understood that the Menstruous blood Of the monstruous bloud is nothing els but an excrement of the third concoction gathered together every moneth 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 womb FIrst out of the extreme superficies of the seed by reason of the more watrie moisture of the womans seed a thin membrane is generated which by reason of its moist qualitie is dilated farther being at first transparent but after the birth comes forth folded up together and is called the secondines But of the superfluous moisture of these two tunicles are begot two other tunicles which defend the infant from being cloged 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 Allancoides wrapping about all the inferior parts from the navel downward this is full of folds and wrinkles 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 least they should either corrode and hurt the tender skin of the Infant or else any way defile and foul the Infant The third tunicle with in all these compasses the whole birth round about defending it from all sharp exterior humours being very soft and tender CHAP. III. Of the true generation of the parts and the increase of them according to the several dayes 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 bloud 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 suck the thicker sort of the bloud 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 bloud collected out of which the liver is first framed The Liver framed for the liver is nothing but a certain mass of bloud or bloud coagulated and hardened to a substance and here you may see what a company of veines 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 veines to constitute the Diaphragma others it sends into the upper part of the back-bone seated about the Diaphragma as also the lower parts as far as the thighs The Heart formed 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 subtile part of the bloud out of which the heart is generated in the membrane of the heart otherwise called the Pericardium being by nature thick and fleshie according as the heat of the member requires Now the hollow vein extending it self and piercing the interiour part of the right side of the heart carries bloud 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 bloud 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 veines 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 bloud 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 the 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 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 Cranium made Now the brain is so formed as to conceive retain and change the natures of all the vital spirits whence are the beginnings of reason and of all the sences 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 solid These are the chiefest instruments of all the sences and by which all the motions of the sences 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 bloud destined for the moistening and for the strenghthening 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 strengthening of the members but to constitute certain private and particular parts of the body for the motion and use of the sences that all the other nerves may take their beginning thence for from the pith of the back-bone do arise many nerves by which the body obtaines both sence 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 bloud of the birth the flesh is formed and whatever parts are of a fleshie substance as the heart the liver and the lights Then are all these nourished by the menstruous bloud which is attracted through the veins of the navel This is all distinctly done from the conception unto the eighteenth day of the first moneth 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 VVHile the birth remaines in the womb it is cherished up with blood attracted through the navel which is the reason that the flowers doe cease alwayes in women as soone as they have conceived Now this blood presently after conception is distinguished into three parts the purest part of it is drawn by the child for the nourishment of its selfe the second which is less pure and thin the womb forces upwards to the breast where it is turned into Milke The third and most impure part of the blood remaines 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 moneth sends forth its Urine through the passages of the navel but in the last month that passage being shut up through the privie members yet notwithstanding while the Infant is in the womb he voyds nothing out at the fundament because he hath taken no nourishment in at the mouth After the fourty fifth day it receives life and is then called an Infant Now though the infant hath by this time obtained sence yet doth he not move He most commonly moves in twice the time that he was formed and in thrice the space after he began his motion he hastens into the world as for example if the Infant were formed in forty five dayes it will move in ninetie and be born the ninth month after that and thus much of the formation and nourishment of the child in the womb CHAP. V. Of the condition of the Infant in the womb in the sixth seaventh and eighth moneth AFter the third and fourth moneth the infant is nourished with more plenty of nourishment until the time of deliverie approach Now you must observe that a childe born in the sixth month cannot live by reason that it is not come to its just perfection but if it be born in the seventh moneth it will very easily live because it is come to its full perfection Now the reason why those that are born in the eight moneth doe not live when as those which are born in the seventh doe is plaine for in the seventh moneth the Infant stirs it self to come forth so that if it have so much strength it easily performes its desire if not it remaines in the womb till it have gathered two months more strength After this motion of the seventh month if it be not able to come forth it changes it self into another part of the womb by which motion it is so weakened that if it should be born in the eight moneth it were impossible that it should live for it is weakened by a double motion not only that of the seventh moneth but also by that motion whereby it strives to go forth in the eight moneth SECT IV. CHAP. I. Of the situation of the child in the womb COncerning the scituation of the child in the womb it may be considered either generally or specially specially either as it concerns the male or the female The male is commonly scituated in the right side of the womb the female in the left The general situation of the childe either male or female in the womb is always the same Which hath been observed and seen to be in this posture when the infant lies with his back and his buttocks leaning against the back of the mother the head enclined and touching his breast with his chin resting his two hands upon his knees his navel and his nose between his two knees with his two eyes upon his two thumbs his legs folded backward and touching his buttocks with each leg This figure is the most natural as being least subject to suffer any accident being less inconvenient and less troublesome to the mother The most naturall form for the childe to come into the world is when the head comes forward the hands being stretched upon the hips The things which are the causes of a womans delivery are three first the want of respiration and air for the infant The second is the want of nourishment of which when the infant finds a defect in his mothers womb he is forced to seek it in another place The third is the narrowness of the place where the infant lies so that he is forced to seek room other-where which makes him to break the membranes wherein he was contained pressing and constraining the mother by the sharpness of those waters to do her
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 Sene 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 humor 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 dryed in the shade it presently discolours In the cure hereof you must look to the rectifying of the weaknes 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 medecines 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 humour It arises from a sharp and corrupt blood and sometimes from the use of sharp medecines Among the astringent medecines the root of Filipendula is much to be commended or a decoction of the same root Of the Whites Gonorrhea in women THe Whites is an inordinate eruption of an excrementitious humour collected together through some vitiousnesse 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 flegme and the weakness of the concoctive faculty If differs from the Gonorrhea because in that the seminal matter is white and thicker and flows by longer intervals and issues forth in a lesser quantity from a nocturnal pollution for that is joyned with venereal imaginations and onely 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 childe 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 signes of an ulcer and the putrefaction is thicker and whiter if it be mattrie it is coloured with blood and issues forth with pain The cure of this must be hastened 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 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 signes of an ill humour through the whole body In the cure of this you must avoid blood-letting for that the bad humours must not be recalled to defile the blood besides that the disease is a sufficient weakning and consuming of the body The humour is discussed by the decoction of Guaiacum and China and Lentisk wood For the drying up of the humour the root of Filipendula doth very much conduce For astringent medecines you may use chiefly the powder of dead mens 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 humours towards the womb Frictions also of the upper parts for the diversion of the humour Sometimes it is caused by the womb it self and then there will appear signes of the affection of the womb and the flux is not so great For the cure of this suffumigations of Frankincense Ladanum Mastick and Santalum are very requisite Of the Green-sicknesse THe Green-sicknesse is a changing of the colour of the face into a green and pale colour proceeding from the rawnesse of the humors The signes 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 vitiousnesse of the humours loathing of meat vomiting distention of the Hypochondriack parts by reason of the reflux of the menstruous blood to the greater vessels a swelling of the whole body by reason of the abundance of humours or of the thighs and legs above the heels by reason of the abundance of serous humours The cause is the crudity and rawnesse of the humour and quantity withall arising from the suppression of the courses through the natural narrownesse of the vessels or through an acquired narrownesse 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 humours are carried into the habit of the body or become habitual thereto 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 Cretan Dittany purging of the humour is performed with Agarick Aloes Succotrin with the juice of Savine for the unobstructing of the humour prepared steel the root of Scorzonera Bezoar stone and oyle of Chrystall in diet vinegar is utterly to be avoided Of the Suffocation of the Matrix THe signes of the suffocation of the womb are a wearines of the whole body with a weakness of the thighs a palenes and sadness of the face a nauseousness though seldom vomiting oftentimes a loathing and distast 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 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 Diaphragme is disturbed and hindred so that the breath is almost stopt the Patient living only by transpiration
one and much seldomer three or four The scituation 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 greater 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 then 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 particular to either next the muscles then the substance of which they are composed and lastly the vessels which are dispearsed through the body of the stones CHAP. V. Of the Tunicles of the stones THe Testicles 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 Elytroydes 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 spred close over the whole 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 febers weakness of the Testicles or by reason of old age The second Tunicle 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 then the Scrotum doth It takes its Originall from the fleshie Pannicle which though it be thinner hereabouts then in any other part of the body yet is it full of little Veines and arteries The proper Tunicles The proper Tunicles are first the Elytroides which is also called Vaginalis by reason it supplyes the office of a sheath It takes its originall from the production of the Peritoneum for where the spermatic vessells pass they do not at all bruse the Peritoneum but carie it downe 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 Processess of the Peritoneum do make for the passage of the spermatic vessels is somtimes dilated as far as the beginning or source of this Tunicle and both the small guts and the caule fall down upon the Testicles which is the cause of that kind of birstness which by the Physitians is called Enterocle This Tunicle grows to that which is called Dartos being ioyned to it by many nervous fibres Underneath this is the Tunicle called Erythroides or the red Tunicle so called from the multitude of red veines which are sprinkled up and down in it It rises from the other membranes and is encompassed without by the first proper tunicle 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 ftom the Tunicle of the seminal vessels being the thickest of all the Tunicles and hath some few veines scattered up and dovne 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 for them to hang by on both sides one in form oblonge and slender These Muscles derive their original from a thick membrane which is joyned to the hanch bone in the further part of that region where the hair grows The original of these Muscels and is fastened to this bone with certaine fleshie and straight fibers where the oblique Muscles of the Abdomen or Mideriff 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 enclosed 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 sundrie vessels dispersed through them Now although the substance of the Testicles be most soft and moist yet doth not this moistness constitute a uniforme or homogeneal body for the substance of the stones is wholly dissimilar and full of fibres These fibres also seeme to be of a different substance from that of the stones being only cloathed which the flesh of the stones as the fibres of the Muscles are inwardly nervous but coverd over which the flesh of the Muscles These fibres again differ in this that the fibres of the Testicles are hollow but the fibres of the Testicles full and substantiall These fibres are said to come from the spermatick vessels and thence branch themselves forth through the Testicles by which that part of the seed which is over and above what serves for the nourishment of the testicles as drawn forth and kept for procreation As concerning the Temper of the stones they would sooner be thought cold then hot if that Maxime were true that all white things are cold and all red things hot Nothwithstanding because nature is known to abhor all coldness in the work of generation Therefore we must presume to affirme the temper of the stones to be hot for they always abound with blood and a pure spirit that can never be whichout heat Besides that heat is required for the concoction of this blood and the changing it into seed yet is it very temperate as appeares 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 is not alike in all for in some they are far colder then in others And therefore these who have hot testicles are more salacious and prone to venereal actions having the places neer about much more hairie and their testicles much harder then 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 veine and the great Artery the left colder because it receives a more inpure and serous bloud from the Emulgent veine CHAP. VIII Of the Actions of Testicles THe action and use of the Testicles is to Generate seed a gift which
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 quantitie of moisture so that great vessels are requisite and onely able to make that continual supply that is needfull There is another cause of the longness of these vessels which is this because that the monthly purgations are poured through those veines for the flowers must not come onely out of the womb but out of the neck of the womb also whence it happens Note that women with child do somtimes continue their purgations because that though the wombe be shut up yet the passages in the neck of the womb are open The two holes or pits near the lips of the pudendum This is also further to be noted in the neck of the womb that as soone as ever your sight is entered within the female fissure there do appeare to the view two certaine little holes or pits where in is contained a serous humor which being pressed out in the act of copulation doe not a little add to the pleasure thereof This is the humor with which women doe moisten the top of a mans yard not the seed but a humor proper to the place voided out by the womb CHAP. VII Of the fabrick of the womb TO the neck of the womb the wombe it self is adjoyned in the lower part of the Hypogastrion where the Hips are widest and broadest which are greater and broader thereabouts then those of men which is the reason also that they have broader buttockes then men have The womb The womb is placed between the bladder and the straight Gut being joyned to the bladder and leaning upon the streight Gut where it lies as between two cushions this situation of the wombe was fittest that so it might have libertie to be stretched or contracted according to the biggness of the fruit contained in it The figure The figure of the wombe is round and not unlike a Gourd that lessens and growes more acute at the one end the bottome of the womb is knit together by Ligaments of its own which are peculiar The neck of the womb is joyned by its own substance and by certaine membranes to the share bone and the sacred bone As to the bigness The bigness of it that varies according to the age constitution of the body and use of venerie For it is much greater in women that have brought forth then in those that are with child and after the birth for the most part it exceeds the bigness of the bladder but in virgins it is for the most part equal to the bladder It is of a substance so thick as that it exceeds a thumbs bredth 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 confirme it is interweaved with all manner of fibres The fibres streight oblique and overthwart The Vessels of the womb are Veins The veins Arteries and Nerves There are two little veines which are carried from the spermatick vessels to the bottom of the wombe and two greater from the Hypogastricks which go not onely to the bottom but to the neck The mouth of these veines pierce as farr as the inward concavitie 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 bloud that powres it selfe from thence and therefore they are at that time most conspicuous In women with Child that which is called the Liver of the wombe is joyned to them that it might draw blood for the nourishment of the child at which time these veins doe so swell but especially in the time of neer deliverie that they are as bigg as the Emulgent veines or at least half as thick as the Hollow veines It hath two Arteries The Arteries on both sides the Spermatick and the Hypogastrick which every where doe accompany the veines The womb hath also divers little Nerves knit together in forme 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 far as the privities themselves and that cheifly for sence and pleasure for which cause there is a great sympathy between the womb and the head This is also further to be noted Note 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 joyned to the bone it self so that it somtimes happens that through those holes of the Peritonaeum which give passage to these ligaments being loosned either the Omentum or Call or the Entrailes doe swell outwardly and cause the burstness either of the Caule or of the Guts and sometimes it happens by reason of the loosnes of those ligaments that the womb is moved with such a force that it falls down and in the act of Copulation is moved up and downe somtimes it moves upward that some women doe affirme that it ascends as high as their stomach Now though the womb be one continued body yet is it divided into the mouth and the bottom The bottom of the womb is called all that which by still assending 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 entrailes 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 selfe orbicular and round the Circumference very thick and of an exquisite feeling and if this mouth be out of order and be troubled with schirrus 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 moistened may be the more easily opened For in the deliverie 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. VI. Of the preparing vessels in women THe spermatick preparing vessels The vessels are two veins and two arteries differing not at all from those of men either in their 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 trunk of the hollow vein descending the left from the left Emulgent There are two arteries The Arteries also on both sides one which grows from the Aorta these both bring vital bloud for
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 the flowers CHAP. XIII Of the actions of the womb THe first use of the womb is to attract the seed by a familiar sympathy just as the load-stone draws iron The second use is to retain it which is properly called conception The third is to cherish the seed thus attracted to altar it and change it 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 sence 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 The proper actions of the womb is the retention of the seed without which nothing of other action could be performed for the generation of man CHAP. XIV Of the utility of the womb FIrst it is the most fit place for copulation as being in 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 its 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. XV. Of the Utility of the preparing vessels in women THe Utilities of these vessels are taken first 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 bloud might come from the right vein for the procreation of males and the more serous and watry bloud from the Emulgent for the generation of women The vessels also in women are shorter then in men because the way is not so far to the stones which brevity of the vessels is lengthened 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 bloud which is more full of spirits to perfect the seed CHAP. XVI 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 the seed being colder in men then in women 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 then 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 Their figure but depressed that the little Meanders of the veins dispersed through the membrane from the stones to the deferent vessels might have more roome to be inserted for the attraction of the seed out of the whole substance of the stone 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 signes of Conception 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 signes of conception on the mothers side are certaine and apparent first if after she hath had the company of her husband she hath received more content then ordinary Pains in the head vertigo dimness of the eys 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 veines 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 looke red if she drink cold drinke she feeles the cold in her breast she loaths her meat and drinke she hath divers longings but her naturall appetite is destroyed continual vomitings follow and weakness of the stomach sower belches wormes about her navel faintness of the loynes the lower part of her belly swelling inward griping of the body the retention of the seed seaven dayes 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 swels the flowers cease to flow for the veins through which they come down carry the bloud 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 rustie CHAP. II.
courses from abortion c. The cure is performed after the same way that other cures are remedied 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 boiled with the roots of Mather and drunk in six ounces of wine and two drams of sugar Sometimes this winde 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 Midriffe is pressed down with her hand and then a kinde of noyse and sound is perceived Sometimes the winde 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 noyse forth and the pain grows greater and extends farther This is more hard and difficult to be cured then 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 now tending to a Scirrhus now toward an Apostem The signes 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 kinde of pleurisie because the interior tunicle of the womb being extended which rises from and is joyned to the Peritoneum the parts also to which that coheres are stretched The excrements of the belly and bladder are detained by reason of the heat and drinesse of the belly and the compression of the passages Sometimes the whole body of the belly seemeth empty and filled with water and the navell hangs forward and the mouth of the womb is made very slender and close and upon a sudden a 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 breastâ— with a swelling in them by reason of the consent and agreement between the groyns the hips the septum transversum clavicularum and the fore-part of the head which is extended to the roots of the eyes as also from the 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 mixed 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 vvhich consumes the patient vvith 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 kils the woman if it turn to a gangreen 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 veinâ—s 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 hamm unlesse the woman be with child for that wil cause abortion Refrigerating and moistning topicks without any binding faculty may be wel applyed to which purpose the decoction of Serpillus prepared with Chalybeat water and outwardly applyed 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 carried 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 loines 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 paine is extended above the privities sometimes 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 Scitrhus where all 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 til 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 lesse danger and sometimes into 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 Scirrhus of the Womb. THe Scirrhus of the Womb is a hard swelling of the said part without paine begot by some thick earthy and feculent humor the signes â—esides 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 veines being opened more then ordinary or because the Womb is not able to receive or to retaine its wonted proportion of blood it is distinguished from the Mole because in that distemper the Flowers if they flow flow inordinately the breasts swel with milk which in the Scirrhus grow very lank The cause of this is a gross feculent humor 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 squeamishand naught stomach often it arises from an ill cured inflammation through the use of medecines that cool too much The cure is difficult either because having been dryed for a long time they cannot be softned or because the natural heat in those places where the Scirrhus 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 Canker 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 then the former if it be in the upper part
from the place where it begins to the end of the spermatick vessels and the neck of the blader and the warty forestanders where There arises a thin and tender membrane which the Chirurgions ought to take a great deale of care least they break while they thrust their siringes toward those parts It is endued with an exquisite sense to stir up pleasure and venereal desire As to tbe substance of the Glans The use of the Glans it is the same with that of the yard only it is not envelop'd with any nervous body For this ought to be repleted and increased but not hardened lest it should injure the bone of the womb by rubbing too hard upon it The figure of the Glans is such that at the top where it is most acute it hath a hole for the issuing forth both of seed and Urine which part coming to the mouth of the wombe casts the seed into that concavitie at which time the neck of the wombe with her overthwart fibres seems to take hold and embrace the glans and that it might take the better hold nature hath framed a round Circle at the bottom of the yard for that purpose with a convenient jeting out round about from the body of the yard by the benefit of which circle the seed is kept in the womb and not suffered to flye out Lastly the Glans is so constituted as if all the actions of the yard consisted in the Glans whether in the act of erection or copulation or as to the pleasure which a man perceives that lies all in this place SECT II. CHAP. I. Of the Genitals of Women AT the lower part of the belly appears the pubes or the region of the hair Under this place are as it were lips of flesh which in women that are ripe for man are clad with hair at the upper part because of the heat and moisture of the place and this part is that which is most properly called the privy member being the exteriour orifice into which the yard of the man enters In the middle it hath a cleft on both sides of which are two fleshy protuberances beset with hair being two soft oblong bodies composed of skin and a spungy kind of flesh CHAP. II. Of those parts called Mymphs and Clytoris THe Nymphae or wings are a membraine or filmy substance soft and spungy and partly fleshy they are of a ruddy colour like the comb of a Cock under his throat they are two in number though in the beginning they are joyned together by an acute Angle where they produce a carneous substance like the preputium which cloaths the Clytoris Sometimes these wings so far encrease that there is many times need of incision a disease common among the Egyptians The Clytoris The Clytoris is a certain substance in the upper part of the great cleft where the two wings concur This in women is the seat of venereal pleasure It is like the yard in scituation substance composition and erection and hath something correspondent both to the prepuce and to the glans in men Sometimes it grows out to the bigness of the yard so that it hath been observed to grow out of the body the breadth of four fingers This Clytoris consists of two spungie and sinewy bodies having a 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 CHAP. IV. Of the fleshie knobs and the greater neck of the womb PRresently behinde 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 inserted the orifice of the bladder which opens it self into the fissure to cast forth the Urine into the common channel Now lest 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 flaging when virginity is lost The lipps of the womb being gently separated the neck of the womb is to be seen The neck of the womb in which two things are to be observed the neck it selfe 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 The substance of it is sinewie and a little spungie that it may be dilated In this concavitie there are certaine 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 plaine in women with often copulation they are oftentimes worn out sometimes they are wholy worn out the inner side of the neck appeares 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 somthing writhed and crooked when it falls and sinkes downe 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. V. Of the Hymen THe Hymen The Hymen is a membrane not altogether without blood neither so tender as the rest but more ruddie and scattered up and downe with little veins 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 virginitie for if the blood do not flow there is a suspition of a former deflowring CHAP. VI. Of the vessels that run through the neck of the womb BEtween the Duplicitie of the two tunicles that constitute the neck of the womb there are many veines and arteries that run a long arising from those vessels that descend on both sides to the thighs and are inserted into the side of the neck of the womb the great quantity and bigness of them deserves admiration The cause of the largness of the vessels for they are much bigger then the nature and openness of the place seems to require The cause of this is two fold first because it being requisite for the neck of the bladder to be fil'd with abundance of spirits to be extended and dilated for the
the work of generation As to the Longitude and Latitude of these vessels they are narrower and shorter in women only where they are wrinkled they are much more wreathed and contorted then in men for the way being shorter in women then in men nature required that for stretching out of these vessels that they should be more wrinkled and crankled then in men that the bloud might stay there in greater quantity for the preparation of the seed These vessels The insertion of the 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 varicous or winding body and those wonderful inoculations 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 bottome 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 peritoneum neither make they such passages as in men neither reach they to the share bone CHAP. VII 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 scituation Their scituation 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 Loynes and this for that cause that they might be more hot and fruitful being to elaborate that matter which with the seed of man engenders man In this place arises a question not trivial A doubt 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 that it receives the perfection of that power from the seed of man The stones of women differ from mens also as to their figure 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 kernels were mixed together There is also another difference as to the subject because they are softer and moister then those of men being more loose and ill compacted The bigness and temper Their magnitude and temperament do also make a difference for the stones of women are much colder and lesser then mens which is the reason that they beget a more 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 cloth'd over with the Peritoneum CHAP. VIII Of the deferent or ejaculatory vessels THe deferent vessels are two blind passages on both sides one nothing differing in substance from the spermatick veines They rise in one part from the bottom of the womb neither doe they reach from their other extremitie either to the stone or to any other part but are shut up and unpassable adhering to the womb just as the the blind gut adheres to the Colon but winding halfe way about the stones are every waies remote from them no where touching them onely are tied to them with certaine membranes not unlike the winges of Bats through which certaine veines and arteries being produced from the stones doe run and end in these passages where they begin at the bottom of the womb they are hollow and large but as they proceed further on they grow narrower till near their end they do again obtain a larger bigness these two passages thus running from the corners of the womb to the stones are taken only to be certaine ligaments by which the stones and the womb are strongly knit together and these ligaments in women are the same things with the Cremasteres in men CHAP. IX Of the Actions and Uses of the Genital parts in Women IN the privie part are seen the Pubes the mountaines of veins the two lipps the Orifice under which the two wings lye hid the little knobs of flesh resembling myrtle berries the passages of the Urin and the Clytories 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 avoyd compression in copulation for which cause they are beset with haire and are covered with a hard kind of fat the great orifice receives the yard and gives passage to the Urine and the birth The use of the wings or knobs of flesh like Myrtle berries are for the defence of the internall parts shutting the orifice of the neck least cold aire 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 unvoluntarie passage of the Urine CHAP. X. 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. XI 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 repleated with spirit and vital bloud 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. XII 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 bloud and spirits which are contained in these vessels besides although the fubstance 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
of two children THe travaile of a woman bringing forth two Infants is more tedious and it many times happens that one of the children comes forth very well and the other comes forth very scurvily And this is certain that that which comes forth first is always the strongest having the power to goe before the other and to break the membranes that enveloped it And ofttimes while the second is born the other remaines behinde wrapt in such membranes as the former was so that it remaines a good space behind the other somtimes two houres and yet it hath bin very well borne Now knowing that that which came first was the stronger it would not be amiss to assist the other in coming forth by breaking the membranes that contain the waters and if that faile by giving strong Glysters to excite the paine which were it not many times done the child would never be able to endure the paine of coming into the world by reason of its extraordinary weaknes which is so great somtimes that the bone of the forehead is devided and separated down to the nose although the Infant being born it joynes together againe and the Infant does very well which if it happen you must have a great care to bind some kind of soft pillow upon the place that the aire may not enter in If the second Child come forth ill you must not delay to breake the membranes and to draw the Infant gently out by the feet for having used all its endeavour to come forth to keep it there or to prolong the travaile any longer is more dangerous then profitable sometimes two come so suddainely the one after the other that there seemes to be but one deliverie of both there being but a little membrane that separates them In this case holding the first you must cut the navel string and bind it about and tye it about the Hipp while they draw forth the other Infant which by a longer stay would be much weakened CHAP. XVIII Of the danger that a woman hath to purge her selfe for the first days of her lying in IT is an ordinary thing for women that lye in by reason of their bed to loose the benefit of their bellyes which hinders the evacuation of their milke which causes fevers by sending gross vapours to the head yet can they not bee freed by any purgation taken in at the mouth but it would be much to the purpose to take pertinent Glisters which hinder the foresaid evills causing their breasts to become full and to be come stiff taking them as ocasion requires once in two or three dayes There are some unskilfull women that not understanding the ill consequences which may follow who doe give Sene to women in the first days of their lying in of which some have bin very ill and others have dyed For nature is now weakned by the travaile and while it is labouring to restore the body to its former Estate is not to be disturbed with violent purgations And therfore Glisters are always most proper Neither are laxative broths nor the broth of prunes nor baked apples fasting for these things doe engender wind but rather some good suppositories would be more usefull CHAP. XIX Of the second washing for women THe second washing for women ought to be with Province roses put into little baggs and boyld in water and wine of each a like proportion and this to be done for the second eight dayes CHAP. XX. What is to be done to Infants assoon as they are born IT is an approved Maxime that as soon as a child is born you ought to give it a spoonfull of pure wine for that assists and helps the child to regaine its spirits Another advantage is this that the wine cutts the flegme which the Child has in its throat besides the spirits of the wind rising up to the head comforts and strengthens it and them less subject to be drunk it hinders them also from the Epilepsie which proceeds from the debilitie of the braine This being done and the Mother fully delivered you must tie the Navel Veine with a silk well twisted and many times doubled and if there be any blood in the veine you must be sure to emptie it for feare if it should be left it should turne into corruption then it must be well dryed with pouder 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 fatt you must close it over and aboue that the veine may be well closed then wind the string twice about it knitting as many knots but if the child be come a fore its time you need not tye it so strong for feare of cutting it with the silke but if the Navel veine be full of water and wind you ought then having tyed it one time and wrapt a linnen cloth about the end of it which is still to be held upward to uncover it againe about half an hour after and then to tye it and wrap it about againe still keeping the end up for feare that if the veine were not fully closed that there might be some danger in the bleeding Some people give to the Infant Treacle dissolved in wine but this must be don warily in a very small quantitie and that not commonly neither The Infant must be washed with water and wine luke warm to clense it After wards wash the face as also chafe the throate the Armes and hands with oyle of wallnuts drawn without fire which some say will keep them from sunburning then put one hand upon the bone of the forehead and another upon the bone called the Coronal bone and softly close up the gap which was made during the time of travaile closing also the suture 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 poynt of a paire of sharp cizers without danger There are some that thinke 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 then 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 speake alway in the nose or to lose his smelling There are some children that are borne with their noses awry for the help of which you may with your finger moystened 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 comming 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
and first what is to be done to a woman who in her travail is accompanied with a flux of bloud and with convulsions IN the first place great care must be had as to the situation of the woman The woman in this case must be laid cross her bed where she must be held by some one that hath strength that she may not slide or move her self in the operations of the Chirurgion Her thighes must be held hard and wide abroad with her leggs bent backwards towards her hipps and her head leaning upon a bolster the reines of her back and her Crupper being alittle elevated with certaine pillows put under neath her thighes besides this she must be well covered with linnen cloaths laid upon her stomacke belly and thighes to defend her from the cold and wind Being thus situated the Chirurgion ought to putt up his hand being first well opened with in the neck of the womb to remove all those clotts of blood which may lie there to obstruct the passages of the blood He may then trye if the interior neck of the womb be sufficiently dilated that he may put in his hand and move the Infant if it be needfull which must be done as gently and with as little violence as may be he must anoynt it on all parts with sweet butter or good Pomatum and so opening it by little and a little he may put his hand quite in and if the waters are not yet come downe he may without any difficultie let them forth and then at the same instant if the Infant Come with the head forwards he shall gently turn it to find out the feet and when he hath found one of them he shall gently draw it forth and immediately tye a riband about it with a knott hanging downe ward then let him put it in a gaine suffering part of the riband to hang out that he may more easily be able to find out the other foot which he shall quickly doe by thrusting up his hand a long the thigh of the Infant when he hath found it he shall take the other foot and draw them both together at an even length giving the woman now and then some leisure to breath but urging her still to streine her selfe when she feeles the paines coming on her then shall the Chirurgion or midwife take a fine linnen cloath and wrap about the thighs of the child least by taking it naked his fingers should slip in that manner drawing it forth till it appeare all come forth observing still that the belly and the face be still kept downward Now if the woman have a flux of bloud and that the neck of the Matrix be open the Chirurgion ought then to consider whether the Infant or the secondine 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 childe 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 wil 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 he may have thereby the liberty to put up his hand and seek for the Infant Now if the secondines are 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 dye the Midwife or the Chirurgion would be blameless If the secondines come first the best way is to deliver the woman withall 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 appeare first it must be guided directly toward the neck of the womb as in the most naturall birth but if there appear any difficulty in the birth by reason of the weakness either of the childe 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 secondine be so far advanced that they cannot be put back and that the childe follows 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 it 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 cases of great necessity for otherwise the secondines ought to come last If the childe be dead in the womb of the mother Of the child dead in the mothers belly the woman is then to be situated in the same posture as when she is troubled with a flux of bloud If it present it selfe dead with the head formost and that ther is little or no hope that the woman may be delivered without assistance and that her strength begins to faile her the most certaine 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 betweene 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 it in the bone of the temples toward the eare 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 streine her selfe with all her power and then is the best time to draw forth the child when the paines shall seize her now if it happen that he loose his
Centinode a good big handfull the rind of Cassia the rind of Pomegranates Scarlet Graines of each three ounces the nature of a whale one ounce Myrrh water rose water and sloe water an ounce and a half thick wine and smiths water of each foure ounces and a half then make two little baggs of a quarter of a yard long causing them to boyle in the foresaid waters in a new pot using one after another as you have occasion leting it lye upon the bone of the Pubes passing in between the hipps chafing her often and holding her head and her reines low using in the morning somtimes a little mastick in an eg or somtimes plantaine seed if the disease be not too old it may be cured by this meanes but if it be of a long standing you must make a pessarie halfe round and half oval of great thick cork peirced through in the middle tye a little packthred to the end then cover it over with white wax that it may doe no hurt and to make it more thick this must be dipped in oyle of Olives to make it enter and it must be streit that it may not easily fall out and if it be too little to have an other bigger when the woman goes to do her necessary occasions she must hold it in least she should force it out the hole is made that the vapors of the womb may have a vent and to give way for her purgations to flow neither must it be taken away till after the purgations are passed the thicknes causes the matrix to mount up as long as it is very thick for the ligaments being close doe then retire If they be women that beare children the midwife ought not to suffer them to force themselves but as nature constraines her having her own hand ready after the throw to put back the Matrix with her finger and when she is brought to bed lay her low with her head and with her reines raising her up with pillows put under her hipps and for women that are troubled with this disease they ought not to lace themselves over hard for that thrusts down the matrix and makes the woman pouch bellyed and hinders the Infant form being well situated in her body causing her to carrie the child all upon her hipps and makes her belly as deformed as her wast is handsome Of a disease that happens by reason of the fall of the Matrix THere is somtimes a relaxation of the membrane that covers the rectum Intestinum when the head of the child at the beginning of the travaile falls downward and draws it low often-times it comes by reason of women with child lacing themselves which causes such a conflux of wind to these parts that it seemes to the woman to be the head of the child in so much that she is hardly able to stand upright neither can she goe For remedy hereof you must keep the woman soluble giving her Anise and Coriander seeds to dissipate the winds You must take Sage Agrimony Mother-wort balme White wormwood Margerome a little rue and a little Thyme and Camomile and having picked all the above written herbs you must cut them very small and having well mingled them put them into a maple platter and then put hot cinders upon them and upon those another handfull of herbes covering the platter with a close cloth that the woman may receive the smoake this is a remedie which hath been much approved and experimented To remedie the fall of the fundament in Infants TAke of the green shrub wherof they make broomes and cut it smal and lay it upon the coales and set the child over the smoake thereof and it will certainly cure it Of the diseases of women and first of the inflammation of the brest THe inflamation of the brests is a hard swelling together with a beating paine redness and shooting The cheif cause of this is the abundance of blood drawn up together in that place though there be somtimes other causes also as the suppression of the courses the Haemorrhoids or a blow received upon the breasts The signes of it are easie to be known that is to say a certain rednes and burning heat oftimes joyned with a fever For the cure of this there are four sorts of remedies first as the order of dyet which must be comforting and moistning as broth of pullets where endive borage lettice and purselaine may be boyled also she may drinke the juce of Pomegranates or barly water with aniseeds boyled in it the use of wine and all sorts of spices are very dangerous and if the woman goe not freely to the stoole there is nothing better then a lenitive glyster she may sleep much and must not disturb her selfe with any passion The next way of remedy is by diverting the humours which is done by frictions letting bloud in the foot scarification of the legs or vesicatories applied to those places especially if the flowers are stopped or ready to come down if not it will be expedient to open a veine in the arme 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 if occasion serve after bloud-letting purge but let this be done with sweet medicines such are Cassia Manna Tamarind syrrup of Roses or Violets Solutive having a little before used certain syrrups which may asswage and temper the humours Take syrrup 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 syrrup of Succory or Endive or such like for these syrrups 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 to the patient or with this potion Take of the Leaves of Italian Orach three drams of Aniseed one scruple infuse these in 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 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 able to digest and dissolve the humour Wherefore it shall not be amiss to apply a linnen cloath dipt in white strong vineger and a little cold water which must be applied to the breasts and
which proceeds of thick flegme or else of a thick mattrie blood hardned under the skin they are caused many times by the detention of the flowers the bloud often times mounting up into the breast The cure of these is undertaken two waies by softning the hard tumor and preventing the Canker and then also a strict diet is to be observed which must be moderately attenuating by keeping themselves warm which is performed by moderate exercise before meales as also by using sulphury bathes but ful Diet ease idleness and meats of hard digestion are very dangerous and indeed in all respects beside the cure is the same as is set down in the foregoing Chapter But if the kernel be swelled up with a sharp humour those topicks are to be used that are prescribed also in the foregoing Chapter onely in case the fluxion remain any time you may mingle those things which do a little more refresh such are oyl of Roses and oyl of violets When the flux of humours ceases you may then add oyl of Camomil and Lillies and other such like things to dissolve and dissipate the humor If you find that this kernel is become a kind of Kings Evil you must then use stronger Medecines adding to the forementioned purgation a dram and a half of the root of Mechoacan or three drams of Diaturbith For topicks you may use such as do soften and dispel but such as are stronger then these we have expressed in the former Chapter You must at length when all other waies do fail use the operation of the hand to take away the root of the disease but this is not to be done til you have used all other means to soften and dispel the humour which may perhaps be done by the use of Diachylon or by a plaister of Melilot to which you may adde halfe an ounce of Ammoniack an ounce of Oyl of Lillies and an ounce and a half of the root of Flower deluce of Florence neither may this following Plaister be amiss Take of the roots of Althea two ounces boile them and straine them and add to that oyl of Lillies Ganders grease of each an ounce burnt lead and roots of Iris of each an ounce and a half mingle all these together and make of them an Emplaster if this avail not the operation of the hand must be used in which the skil of the Chirurgion 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 grosse blood or else from a thick flegme now this exquisite Scirrhus is without paine in which it differs from the other The other is not so exquisite an hardnes perhaps because it is not yet come to its ful maturity or else because it hath certain other humours mixt with it This exquisite kinde 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 suppression of the courses which causes the feculent and grosse humor to disgorge it self upon the breasts gathering together in the Veins and flesh of the same Many times the ignorance of the Chirurgion 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 hardnesse without pain from the unevennesse 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 wayes 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 reare egges pullets capons partridge veale and mutton which must be boyled with Spinage Bugloss and Borage she must abstain from Beefe Venison Hares flesh and Brawn from Pease and Beans and unleavened bread from all salt and smoked meats as also from all things that have a sharp biting quality also she must abstain from all care 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 hors-leeches in the next place it will not be amisse to purge well with Sene and Rheubarb to which you may adde Catholicon or Triphera Persica if you find that the disease needs a more strong purgation Between every purge it will not be amisse to take good cordiall 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 moderatly 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 oyle of sweet Almonds oyle of Camomil oyle of Dill Capons grease Goose grease Hogs grease Bears grease c. Veale marrow Dears marrow emulsions of Mallows Lillies and other things of more force as liquid pitch liquid Storax Galbanum Cumin seed Rue seed Broom flowers and Dill seed If this swelling come of a hard flegme which is known because it yeelds 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 halfe of Fenugreek and Lineseed of each two drams Cucumbers Bears foot of each two ounces boyle them in as much water as is sufficient and foment the breast with this twice or thrice a day After that take this ointment take of the root of Mallows one ounce when it is boyled 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 dayes 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 boyl them in as much wine and vinegar as is sufficient til halfe be boyld away then take of the aforesaid vinegar Goose grease Ducks grease and the marrow of the leg of a Hart of each two ounces boyl 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 faile the operation of the hand must be the last succour which we leave to the Chirurgion Of the Canker in the Breasts THe Canker is a venemous tumour hard and very much sweld hot and durable more exasperated oftentimes by remedies then asswaged The Canker proceeds from a feculent and grosse humour vvhich being gathered together in the spleen is chased away from thence after it growes too hot vvhich vvhen Nature cannot void it most commonly in Women empties it self upon the breast by reason of this cavernous and spongy nature the matter of it is a hot melancholy blood and it is known by the crooked vvinding and retorted veins that are about it stretching out long roots a good vvay from it being sometimes blackish and sometimes inclined to black and blew It is soft to see to but it is very hard to the touch extending the pain as far as the shoulders It wil sometimes remain for two years together no bigger then a bean afterwards it grows to be as big as a nut then to the bigness of an Egg and after that increasing daily to a larger size When the skin breaks there issues out a great deal of pestilent mattier thin and blackish and having a very bad smel The ulcer it self is very unequal the lips orifice thereof being sweld with hardness and inverted a light fever possesseth the body and often swoonings And many times the pestilencie of the humor having corroded a vein there issues out a great deal of blood If the canker be ulcerated or in any inward part of the body no medicine can prevail for remedies do more exasperate then help it To burn it with iron is pestilent and if it be cut with a penknife it returns again as soon as it is but skind over But if it be an exulcerated canker which is easily known arises from a more sharp matter for then the flesh is corrupted sending forth a very noysom mattier 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 refrigerating medicines or by incision to the quick expression of the corrupted blood afterwards after which the wound must be wel cleansed for which purpose the powder which is called Hartmans blessed powder is very prevalent The diet must be of meats that moisten refrigerate blood-letting also is profitable as also preparatiō of the humor w th the juice of sweet smelling Apples and extract of Ellebore and often purgation with Lapis Lazuli pills and particularly if the Canker 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 oyle of Roses In case the pain be great use this remedy Take white poppy-seed one ounce oyle of Roses four ounces Henbane-seed and Opium of each a dram and a halfe gum Arabick halfe an ounce a little wax of which you may make an ointment If the Canker be already ulcerated take this water Take of the juices of Nightshade Housleek Sorrell Scabious Honysuckles Mullein Figwort dropwort Plantain Linarum Agrimony of each halfe a pound juyce 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 with the distilled water foment the part affected Take also Alum as much as a Nut Hony two peny worth red wine a pint seeth them together till the fifth part be spent strein it through a cloth and wash the Canker therewith 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 cankered 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 humors and bloud which flow to that part such are the juice of hemlock and the anointing of the place with partridge eggs or you may use this following cataplasm Take of the juice 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 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 mood or lome found in molis Tonsorum two ounces oyl 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 oyl of mastick two ounces and a halfe of the emulsion of henbane-seed one dram and a halfe anoint the breast with this and then upon that put a linen cloth dipt in the decoction of Oke Apples 4ly By compression of the part which is done by using a kind of plate of lead upon the breast anointed within side with oyle of Henbane-seed Of the defect abundance and coagulation of the Milk THe defect of milk arises from a double cause for either it is a defect in the blood which is dried up by reason of some hot maladies of the body either through intemperancie of the Liver through fasting or too much evacuation If the deficiency of milk come from these causes it may be increased again either by prepared chrystal the leaves also root and seed of Fenel do avail much in this particular and the powder of Earth-worms prepared and drunk in Wine as also the Electuary called Electuarium Zacuthi There is another cause which proceeds from the Lactifying quality which is many times so weak that it can neither attract nor concoct the blood by reason of some outward refrigerating and astringent qualities or by reason of some other diseases The cure of which being looked after in their respective places much conduceth to the restoring of that defect The redundance of blood proceeds from too great a plenty of blood and a strong lactifying quality In the cure of which the increase of blood is to be impeded which is done by drying up that humor and diversion to which blood-letting conduceth much Medicines also that drive it back are to be put upon the breasts toward the arms to which purpose Hemlock boyld in Chervile water and vinegar avails Curdling of the milk is when the thinner part of the milk exhales and the more grosse and heavy part stayes behinde which many
powder laid upon them Hemorrhoids of the VVomb are little protuberances 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 signes 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 bloud 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 humor first by letting blood in the arm secondly by drawing it to another part as by letting blood in the heel Sometimes these Hemmorrhoids are very painful and are distinguishd from that menstruous effuxion by the pain which they bring they are cured by mitigating and asswaging insessions as also by opiates carefully applyed Others are without pain to which the foresaid Remedies may be applied Others are open and do sometimes run moderately and then nature is to be let alone or violently 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 Myrobalans Tamarinds and Rheubarb and at length you must apply those things which cease the blood Others are termed blinde 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 humor such are an Ointment made of the pith of Colocynthis and Oyl of sweet Almonds or the juice of Capers mixt with Aloes neither is the applying of Hors-leeches amiss Of the Vlcers of the neck of the Womb. THe signes of these Ulcers is a paine and perpetual twinging which increases if any thing that hath an abstersive quality be cast in the issuing out of putrid humors and mattier with blood if the Ulcer be great or the flowers come down often making water and the water hot as also a paine in the fore part of the head toward the roots of the eyes as also some kinde 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 paine Chalybeated milk is very much conducing 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 labour and violent coiture or from internal causes as the corruption of the secundines the courses reteined and the uterine flux a virulent Gonorrhea the pox inflammations turned into Apostemes 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 medecines others deep and must be come at only with injection for which purpose use this following Take whites of four Eggs beat them wel and put to them an equal quantity of Rosewater and Plantain-water as much in quantity as they come to Camphire Ceruse Litharge of gold and Bole Armoniack of each a little quantity green Copperas half as much as of any of them beat all to powder mix it and strein it through a cloth and make your injection til the part affected be whole and if there be any paine sometimes inject a little new warm milk Others are more gentle with a little stinking mattier flowing from them For the cure of which gentle abstersives are profitable as hony of Roses with Barly-water whey with sugar and the decoction of Lentils after these gentle astringents must be applied Others are sordid with much mattier flowing from them In which case stronger medecines must be appli'd Others do eat into the flesh having a colour'd green stinking mattier flowing from them For the cleansing of which Aloes and wormwood are very much commended or the foresaid injection There are another sort of ulcers little and long which eat the skin of the neck of the womb they are known by the pain and blood which they produce immediatly after congression they are seen also by looking into the neck of the womb being much like Childblains that come upon the hands in Winter-time They are caused divers wayes either by a difficult lying in or by a violent coiture and cured by an astringent Clyster or they are produced by some inflammation or Flux of sharp humors purgations are here needfull before Topicks be applied among which is much commended the grease that fries out of wooden ladles much used in Kitchins being held to the fire as also the ointment called Pomada 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 pronenesse to Venery by the small Flux of the monethly courses by their adustnesse sharpness inordinate and difficult flux Hence in processe of time they are very hypochondriack by early growing of the hairs about the privities by rednesse of the face and dryness of the lips and frequent pains of the head and abundance of cholerick humors 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 applied 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 waies mischieved The next way of cure is performed by evacuating medicines namely Rheubarb and solutive syrup of Roses Manna also profits 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 pronenesse to Venery and little pleasure taken in it a setling in the courses with a slimy and phlegmy matter mixed and an inordinate flowing of them by reason of the plenty of humors collected in the womb which causes obstructions by reason of abundance of windy vapours in the womb crudity and watrinesse 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 applied to the womb among which the roots of Birthwort Clove-Gilliflowers Angelica and Eringos are very much commended The leaves also of Mercury Baulm Dittany Penyroyall Sage Rosemary Mugwort flowers of Centaurie Marigolds Sage Rosemary Borage and sundry spices as Nutmegs Cubebs Saffron and Cinamom These kinde of compounds are also very usefull as oyle of Mace oyle of Amber oyle of Myrrhe and of Cinamom There is another intemperancie of the womb which comes of moisture and is joyned most commonly with the cold intemperancie it is known by the plenty of the courses and by thinnesse and watrinesse of them as also the moistnesse of the privities by reason of the moistnesse of the excrements no pleasure in the act of venery and pronenesse to abortion by reason of the growth of the birth It hath the same original with the frigid intemperancie and happens most commonly to women who are lazy and sedentary it is cured with the same medecines as the former onely 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 slownesse to venery drinesse of the mouth of the womb by a blackish colour of the lower lip which is alwayes chapt It sometimes arises from the very nativity which causes a dry and lean constitution of body sometimes 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 narrownesse 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 sadnesse Secondly by the use of moistning things amongst which are most commended Borage Bugloss Mercury Mallows Violets Among outward means Bathes of sweet water and unctions with oyle of sweet Almonds oyle of white Lillies Hens-grease and the marrows 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 signes of the simple distemperatures together It arises from flegmie humors The cure is performed by preparing the matter with hot things by evacuation of the matter with such Medecines as are most proper to purge flegme as also by a particular pargation 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 Sarsaparilla and mastick wood Of the narrowness of the Vessels of the VVomb THe signes 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 Medecines 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 orifices 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 humors 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 Sometimes this narrowness arises from a compression of the parts occasioned either by some swelling or Scirrhus either within or without the womb if this be there do appear manifest signes 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 a cold flegmie 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 signes 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 loyns and Diaphragma 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 parts not being so lean It is distinguished from the Dropsie of the womb by the fore-apprehension of the causes that beget those windy vapours by the sound and less ponderosity as also by a feeling of an extensive and pricking pain in the womb and parts adjoyning It is also distinguished from an inflation 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 swel 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 like that of a dead infant For if the Midriffe be violently compressed the winde being then compelled to the part adjoyning there is a kinde 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 weaknesse of the heat proceeds sometimes from the external aire sometimes from hard delivery from the suppression of the
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 somtimes 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 then 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 assayd five manner of wayes by the use of things which do evacuate the peccant humor which is done partly by a good order of dyet and living in a dry and temperate aire Longer sleep then ordinary and the avoiding of exercise in this case is to be observed and instead thereof to use moderate frictions all repletions and a loose Belly are naught the meat that she eats must be little and contrary to the humor that offends as reare 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 liquorice 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 Sarsaparil China root which are very proper to turn away the humors from the Matrix Sometimes this happens from an intemperancie 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 excesse of coldnesse or moisture to be apprehended The medecines 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 naturall heat is either suffocated or dissipated this affection is something dangerous because it is a difficult matter to restore the naturall heat In the cure of this restoratives must be notwithstanding used such are Cinamom Nutmeg Species diaxyloaloes Aromaticum Rosatum Of the pain of the womb THere is no need to give other signes of this then the complaint of the woman it affects women that are both free and women that are with childe It happens sometimes from corroding humours 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 continuall 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 evacuation which is performed with Agaric Aloes with the juice of Savine 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 overmuch 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 then these humours are to be removed with purging and evacuating medecines Sometimes windy vapours are the cause hereof arising from the heat of the vitious humours caused by copulation It is cured by things that discusse the winde to which purpose it may not be amisse to use a Clyster made of Malmesey and oyle of Nuts of each three ounces of Aquavitae one ounce of oyle of Juniper and distild Rue of each two drams applied warm or a mixture of spirit of wine and spirit of Nitre of each half a dram or two scruples exhibited in spirit of wine Sperma Coeti with oyle 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 signes are evident from the relation of the woman yet if they are loath to confesse 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 minde and retain the native colour of their bodies and in the third moneth they shal 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 sixt moneth 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 paine 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 moneth staies in the body 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 then 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 hamm or heel must be done after purgation 3 or 4 or five dayes before the time that the accustomed evacuations of the Woman ought to come down Cupping-glasses also are to be applyed first to the more remote places as to the thighs and then to the neerer 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 flegme 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 Medecines are commended Agaric Aloes with the juice of Sabina and these pilâ— Take Aloes Succotrine three drams the best myrrh one scruple extract of Calamus Aromaticus Carduus Benedictus 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 scruple at evening before supper In the fourth-place by an obstructing the humour by those things which provoke the flowers of which these are most to be commended the decoction of Rosemary with flowers of Cheiri Peny-royal water twice distilled and mingled with Cinamom water Extract of Zedoar 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 Eele Colubrina with the distilled water of Savine and in the fift place by the discussion of the dreggs and relicks that remaine by sudorificks or things that provoke sweat with a potion made of a Chalybeat 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 humors mixed with the blood and coming either from some hot distemper of the womb which dissipates the sharp and subtile humors and leaves behinde 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 subtile humors happen to be dissipated then at the time of the monthly purgation the party affected feeleth a great pain in the loyns and parts adjoyning and if any thing come down it is slimy 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 dyet 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 knwn 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 fatnes or swelling of the womb or of the lower parts in which case Medecines must be applyed 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 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 secundines 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 principall 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 externall causes as overmuch exercise affrights terrors sadnesse bathes overmuch sweating which do consume the serous quality of the blood or through internall 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 drynesse 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 medecines 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 dayes together drop by drop This happens both from externall causes as over-hard labour c. And sometimes from the drossinesse 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 weaknesse of the retentive faculty there being at that time great plenty thinnesse and serosity of the blood In this case there is no pain Medecines that binde and corroborate the stomack 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 signes of this are gathered from the relation of the sick person who is then much troubled with pain in the head stomack and loyns 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 then married women because the veins of the womb are lesse open in them then in those who have 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 great pain long before the flowers begin to come down The cure of this is performed by attenuating medecines Sometimes from the sharpnesse 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 medecines that temper the sharpnesse 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 palenesse whitenesse greennesse yellownesse or blewishnesse through some defect or vitiousnesse of the blood The signes 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 stomack c. The differences of this disease consist first in the vitiousnesse of the blood which is caused through some distemper either of the whole body or of 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 flowes out with a stinking putrefaction which continues till the eighth day or it may be because the blood is fould by the womb being full of excrements and then you may perceive the signes of a foul womb Sometimes the difference of this disease consists in the mixture of the blood with other vitious humours The cure consists in preparation and evacuation but care must be had that because the thick humours need attenuation and that over-attenuating things do melt the serous humour 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 flegme or from putrefaction and then ulcers follow in the womb barrenness follows unlesse the womans flowers do happen to flow for seven or eight dayes together by which the woman is freed from the disease or else they break out to the parts above the groyn without any tumour and burst forth a little above the Hypochondrion and then the woman seldom lives or else there wil appear after some few dayes 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 yellownesse or greennesse the distemper comes of choler when to a blacknesse and blewnesse from melanlancholy 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 usuall course of nature They come down sometimes before their time partly by reason of internall causes and partly by reason of external causes as falls blows and such like casualities that open the veins Or from the expulsive facultie of the womb too much provoked 1. by the plenty of blood which is known by this that the blood which is sent to the womb from all parts is fluid and of its natural constitution signes of a Plethora or fulnesse 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 sharpnesse of the blood which is known by the hot temper of the body the blood it selfe is more thin and yellowish It must be cured by evacuating medecines 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 faint habit of the Body in the cure beware of things which are too astringent baths where in 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 smal 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 dyet before Secondly the thickness of the blood which is known by the whitenes and clammines 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 weaknes 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 shal 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 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 therof and a closing up of the vessels by astringent medecines Yet observe that they must be stopt by degrees To this effect you may take this powder R. Of the seed of Hyoscyam alb red Coral of each half a dram Caphura half a scruple and give the quantity of half a dram at a time powder of Amber Dragons blood Lap. Haematit 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 Helleboraster 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 of their Courses for a time which presently break out again The signes 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 applyed with scarification to the back c. or without scarification to the Breast being taken away again
Take shaven Ivory Ash keyes yellow and wild Rape-seed Siler mountain with red and white Behen of each one dram Cinamom Galangall long pepper Cloves and Mace Balsam wood Rosâ—mary flowers Blattae Byzantiae gentle Marjoram penyroyal of each four scruples Baulme Buglosse Citron pils of each two scruples Pearls one scruple Musk two grains white sugar four and twenty ounces seeth this with Malmesey and make thereof a confection Or because of some diseases in the parts where note that too much fatnesse 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 loosness 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 which increases the seed does 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 medecines among which the chiefest are the fomentation of Lentisk and Myrtle or by reason of some sudden cough or sneezing immediatly 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 aire and keeping the parts about the womb compleat or the eating of hot meats and spices purge after blood-letting in the Basilick vein of the right hand with Electuary hom de Epithymo juice of roses of each two drams and a half whey four ounces mix them wel together and take them in the morning sleeping one and fasting four hours upon it Purge also with Triphera Saracenica and Rheubarb with potions prepared and mixed with syrup of Roses Violets and Endive Take Pistacia Pingles Eringus of each half an ounce of Saffron a dram Lignum Aloes Galangall Garyophyllata Mace red and white Behen Baulme-flowers of each four scruples shavings of Ivory and Cassia rindes 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 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 houre before supper and an hour after dinner Or it proceeds from obstruction of the flowers in which case first let blood in the Basilic vein then purge with Opoponax and Hiera Composita of each half a dram to be made up in seven pils to be taken in the morning sleeping upon them an houâ— and a half with a draught of sugard water five hours after Or with a potion of syrup of Vinegar compounded syrup of Eupatorie of each thrâ—e quarters of an ounce Fever Mugwort and Elecampane roots of each an ounce and mix them together then she may put up into the womb a pessary of muâ—k Amber Aloes Wood and Ash keyes 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 humor 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 humor may be driven forth by giving the Child some syrup of Fumarie or Harts-horn burnt the Nurse is to be purged and the matter offending to be tempered with syrup of Borage or Fumarie if there be much corruption under the crust of the scab the head of the Child is to be bathed with some softning decoction then to be anointed with some drying Ointments Sometimes they are troubled with an inflammation of the head with which is joyned a hollowness in the fore-part of the head and in the eyes it may arise from the milk if the Nurse be subject to drink over-much strong drink in the Cure you must beware of applying things which are too refrigerating They are also many times affected with a kind of Epilepsie which proceeds sometimes from extraordinary frights from milk that lies corrupted in the stomack and sometimes from worms moving themselves in the guts and sometimes it is the consequent of other Diseases The cure is to be observed partly in the fit and partly after the fit the Smaragd-stone and the hoof of a wild Alx put into the lâ—fâ— ear are very profitable and take good effect Vomiting also and this Emplaster of white Amber Frankincense and Mastick of each a dram and a half Galbanum Opoponax of each a scruple Visci of an Oak two drams Ambergreize six grains Musk three grains seed of male Peonie half a dram Ladanum one dram and a half a little Oile of Nutmeg and sprinkled with the dust of Cubebs the fore-part of the head may be also anointed with Oyl of white Amber Fears and startings in the Childs sleep which being occasioned from the putrid vapours which are carried up with the animal spirits and arise from the stomack therefore they happen to Infants that suck greedily in the cure care must be taken that the Child do not fil it self too unreasonably and provide that good sound milk may be generated and that the Children be not put to sleep upon a ful stomack the stomack of the Child anointed neer the orifice with Oyl of Quinces and mastick and Oyl of Nutmeggs Before sleep dissolve a little roll of Diamoschus in milk and give the Child and unless the child be over much troubled with heat you may give it a little Treacle once in a week overmuch watching or wakefulness which is occasioned by sharp vapours which arise out of the stomack by reason of the badness of the milk sometimes it is occasioned by Fevers and pain of some peculiar parts there is nothing better then to anoint the soles of the Childs feet with marrow which hath no danger in it rather then to give the child stronger Opiates A looking a squint which in new-born children is cured by putting a candle opposite to