lethale The particular causes of Abortion are all the accidents mentioned in the preceding chapters as violent and frequent vomitings because there is not only want of sufficient nourishment for Mother and Child when the food is so continually vomited up but also great reachings and endeavours by which the Womb being often compressed and as it were shaken is at last constrained to discharge it self before its time Pains of the Reins great Cholicks and Gripes may likewise cause the same accident as the Strangury also for there are then made strong compressions of the Belly every moment to expel the Urine Great Coughs by their frequent agitation suddenly thrusting the Diaphragma with force downwards give also violent shocks to the Womb. Great Loosnesses endanger a Woman to miscarry according to the 34th Aphorism of the 5th Book and sooner if a Tenesmus follows which is great needings whereby the right Gut seeks to expel the sharp humours that irritate and provoke it This makes us take notice of the 27th of the 7th Book Mulieri utero gerenti si tensio supervenerit facit abortum for in this case the Womb which is scituated upon the Rectum receives a great commotion by its continual needings If a Womans Courses flow immoderatly it is impossible her Fruit can be in health as it is in the 60th Aphorism of the 5th Book for besides that the Infant is not sufficiently nourished the Womb also by being too much moistened is easily relaxed and opened Letting Blood immoderately doth the same for the same reason especially if the Child be great according to the 31th Chapter of the same Book But one of the worst accidents which cause Abortion is that Flooding which proceeds from the separation of the After-birth from the Womb of which we treated in the 20th Chapter of this first Book The Dropsie of the Womb hinders the Child from growing to perfection for the great abundance of Water extinguisheth the natural heat which is already at that time much debilitated and the Pox in the Mother infects the Child and often Kills it in her Belly as we have demonstrated in the preceeding Chapter and whatever very much agitates and shakes the big-bellied Womans body is capable of making her miscarry as great labour strong contorsions or violent motions of what manner soever in falling leaping dancing and running or riding going in a Coach or Waggon crying aloud or laughing heartily or any blow received on the Belly because that by such agitations and commotions the ligaments of the Womb are relaxed yea and sometimes broken as also the After-birth and Membranes of the Faetus are loosned A great noise suddenly and unexpectedly heard may make some Women miscarry as the noise of a Cannon and chiefly Thunderclaps and yet more easily if to this noise be added the fear they usually have of such things which happens rather to the young than elderly Women because their bodies being more tender and transpirable the air which is strongly forced by that noise being introduced into all her pores offers a great violence by its impulsion on the Womb and on the Child within it which the elder being more robust thicker and closer resist with more ease Great watchings causing a dissipation of the Womans strength and much fasting for want of food hinders the Infant from acquiring its perfection fetid and stinking smells do much contribute to abortion and amongst others the smell of Charcoal as appears by the History recited in the 10th Chapter of this Book The indispositions of the Womb produce the same effect as when it is callous or so small or so much compressed by the Epiploon that it cannot be extended as it ought to be sufficient to contain the Child and Burthen with ease together with the Waters which may likewise happen if the Woman be too strait laced or keeps in her Belly with strong and stiff Busks for to be well shap'd or by this subtilty to conceal a great-belly as some do frequent copulation especially towards the end of her reckoning may effect the same thing because then the Womb being very full bears much downwards and its inward orifice being very near is subjected to violence If a Woman miscarries without any of these accidents and that one desires to know the cause of it Hippocrates explains it in his 46th Aphorism of the 5th Book where he saith Quae veró mediocriter corpulentae abortum faciunt secundo mense aut tertio fine occasione manifesta iis acetabula uteri mucoris sunt plena nec prae pondere faetum continere possunt sed abrumpuntur any Woman indifferently corpulent that miscarries the second or third month without manifest or apparent cause it is because the Cotylâ—dons of the Womb which are the inward closures of its vessels are full of viscous filth by reason of which they cannot retain the weight of the Faetus which is loosened from it To this accident phlegmatick Women are very subject and those who have the Whites exceedingly which by their continual affluence moisten and make the Womb within so slippery that the After-burthen cannot adhere to it which also relaxeth it and its inward orifice that the least occasion causeth abortion But if the passions of the body cause so much hurt to a big-bellied Woman those of the mind do no Iess and specially Choler which agitates inflames disperses and troubles all the Spirits and mass of Blood by which the Child suffers extreamly because of the tenderness of its body but above all sudden fear and the relation of bad news are capable to make the Women miscarry at that instant as it happened to the Mother of that Cousin of mine whom I mentioned in the 10th Chapter of this first Book which likewise the other passions may cause according as they are more or less violent but not so easily There are yet other causes of miscarrying which may be said to proceed from the Infant as when they are monstrous because they do not then follow the rule of Nature as likewise when they have an unnatural scituation which makes them torment themselves because of their incommodity and they oblige the Womb to expel them not being able to endure the pains they cause which it yet does when it is so great that it cannot contain it to the full time nor the Mother furnish it with sufficient nourishment If we find one or more of the above specified accidents and that the Woman withall hath a great heaviness in her Belly so that it falls like a ball on her side when she turns and that there proceeds out of her Womb stinking and cadaverous humors it is a sign she will soon miscarry of a dead Child moreover her Breasts will confirm it if having been hard and full in the beginning they become afterwards empty and flabby as is specified in the 37th Aphorism of the 5th Book and the 38th of the same Book saith That if one of a big-bellied Womans Breasts who hath
above the lest near the Privities drawing likewise with that very gently resting the while the Fore-finger of the same hand extended and stretched forth along the String towards the entry of the Vagina as may be seen in the annexed Figure alwaies observing for the more facility to draw it from the side where the Burthen cleaves least for in so doing the rest will separate the better just as we see a Card which is glewed to any thing is better separated from the place where it begins to part then where it is close joyned Chap IX lib. 2. pag 190 Assoon as the Woman is delivered of both Child and Burthen it must then be considered whether there be all and care had that not the least part of it remain behind not so much as the Skirts or any Clods of Blood which ought all to be brought away with the first for otherwise being retained they cause great Pains all which being done things fit for Mother and Child in this condition must be provided which we will mention in their place When a Woman hath two Children she must be delivered in the same manner as if she had but one observing only for the reasons given in the precedent Chapter not to fetch the Burthen till all the Children are born and then it may be done without danger shaking and drawing it alwaies gently sometimes by one String sometimes the other and sometimes by both together and so by turns till all is come proceeding in it according to the directions already given When the Infant comes right and naturally the Woman is brought to Bed and delivered with little help observing what hath been taught in the two last Chapters of which the meanest Midwives are capable and oft times for want of them a simple Nurs-keeper may supply the place but when it is a wrong Labour there is a greater mystery belongs to it for then the skill and prudence of a Chirurgeon is for the most part requisite Which we intend now in the remaining part of this Book to treat of CHAP X. Of laborious and difficult Labours and those against Nature their Causes and Differences together with the means to remedy them FOr the easier and better explaining these things we say that there are three sorts of bad Labours to wit the Painful or Laborious the Difficult and that which is altogether contrary to Nature The Laborious is a bad Labour in which the Mother and Child though it comes right suffer very much and are harassed more than ordinary The Difficult is not much unlike the first but besides is accompanied with some accident which retards it and causeth the difficulty but the wrong Labour or that against Nature is caused by the bad scituation of the Child and can never be helped but by manual Operation or the Chirurgeons hand In the laborious and difficult Labours Nature alwaies doth the Work being a little assisted but in that contrary to Nature all its endeavors are vain and useless and there is then no help but in an expert Chirurgeon without whom she must certainly perish The Difficulties of Labour proceed either from Mother Child or both From the Mother by reason of the indisposition of her Body or it may be from some particular part only and chiefly the Womb or also from some strong passion of the Mind with which she was before possest In respect of her Body either because she may be too Young having the Passages too strait or too old of her first Child because her parts are too dry and hard and cannot be so easily dilated as happens also to them which are too lean they who are either small short or mishapen as crooked Women have not a Breast strong enough to help their Pains and to bear them down nor those that are weak whether naturally or by accident and crooked persons have sometimes the Bones of the Passage not well conformed the tender and too apprehensive of Pain have more trouble than others because it hinders them from doing their endeavour and they likewise who have small Pains and slow or have none at all Great Cholicks hinder Labour also by preventing the true Paius all great and acute diseases make it very troublesome and of a bad consequence according to Hippocrates's opinion in the 30th Aphorism of the Fifth Book Mulierem gravidam morbo quopiam acuto corripi lethale As when she is taken with a violent Feaver a great Flooding frequent Convulsions Dysentery or any other great distemper Excrements retained cause much difficulty as a Stone in the Bladder or when it is full of Urine without being able to void it or when the great Gut is repleted with hard Ordure or the Woman troubled with great and painful Piles and their ill scituation sometimes retard it extremely As touching the difficulty proceeding from the Womb only it must either be from its bad Scituation or Conformation having its Neck too strait hard or callous whether naturally or by any accident as having had there a Tumor Apostume or Ulcer or Superfluous flesh whether on the Neck or inward Orifice or because of any Cicatrice caused by a preceding bad Travail Besides these those things which are or may be contained in the Womb with the Child do also cause difficult Travail as when the Membranes are so strong that they cannot be broken which sometimes hinders them from advancing into the Passage or so tender that the Waters break too soon for then the Womb remains dry When there is a Mole or the After-burthen comes first which alwaies causeth flooding and certainly the death of the Infant if the Woman be not presently delivered of them by Nature or Art yea and when the Navel-string comes first the Child is suffocated if not speedily after born strong Passions of the Mind do likewise contribute much to it as Fear Sorrow and others the like The Woman that miscarries hath more pain than a Woman at her full time as also than one that is hurt although she be very near her time As to the hinderances caused by the Infant they are when either its Head or whole Body are too large when the Belly is Hydropical when it is monstrous having two Heads or being joyned to another Child Mole or any other strange thing when it is dead or so weak that it contributes nothing to its Birth when it comes wrong or when there are two or more besides all these different difficulties of Labour there is yet one caused by the Midwife's ignorance who for want of understanding her business instead of helping hinders Nature in its work Let us now treat of the means by which all these may be prevented and the Woman succoured in her bad and difficult Labour as may easily be done if we perfectly know the causes of all these difficulties as when it happens by the Mothers being too young and too strait she must be gently treated and the passages anointed with Oyl Grease and fresh Butter
reflects the light which it receives so likewise I hope that this small Work may by the reflection of the Sun of your Doctrine of which I have received many rayes enlighten the young Chirurgeons and Midwives in the difficulties which they often meet with at Labours Accept then Gentlemen this small Production of one of your Children who conjures you by the love of Fathers that never disown their Children how deformed soever to defend it against Envy and Detraction which will never dare to attaque it when you have vouchsafed it your Protection which is the Favour desired from you by Gentlemen Your very affectionate Brother and Companion Francis Mauriceau The Approbation of the four Sworn Provosts and Wardens of the Master-Chirurgeons of Paris VVEE under-written Sworn Provosts and Wardens of the Master-Chirurgeons of the City of Paris do certifie that we have seen and examined a Book composed by FRANCIS MAURICEAU sworn Master-Chirurgeon of Paris intituled The Diseases of Women with Child and in Child-bed With a true Method of assisting them in their natural Labours and the means of remedying all those contrary to Nature and the Diseases of Infants new-born Likewise an exact Description of all the Parts of a Woman destin'd to generation together with many Figures suitable to the subject Which Book We esteem very profitable for the Publick and necessary for young Chirurgeons and all Midwives to learn perfectly the practice of the Art of Deliveries in confirmation of which we have signed this present Certificate Paris the 15th of March 1668. Le Filastre Vivien L'Escot L'Eaulte An Extract of the Kings Priviledge BY the Grace and Priviledge of the King given at St. Germans the 10th day of June 1668. signed Le Gross it is granted to Francis Mauriceau sworn Master-Chirurgeon of Paris to print sell and distribute by such Printers and Booksellers as he shall think good a Book composed by him entituled The Diseases of Women with Child and in Childbed c. With express Injunction and Prohibition to all persons of what quality or condition soever not to print the said Book nor to sell nor vend any other Impression than this which the said Mauriceau hath caused to be made or such as he hath authorized nor likewise to copy or counterfeit any of the Figures of the said Book for the space of Ten years commencing from the time that the Impression shall be compleated Upon pain of Confiscation of the Counterfeit Copies and of 300 l. and reimbursing all charges and damages whatsoever as it is more amply recited in the said Priviledge of which this present Extract shall serve for sufficient notice The Author to the Reader Friendly Reader SInce in the Age we live in we see that most people are govern'd rather by Opinion than Judgment I desire that if you mean to profit by reading my Book you will reade and examine it without any critical Envy and free from all sort of preoccupation which may obscure your Judgment and hinder you from acknowledging the Truth of those Things I pretend to teach Therefore be not of their humour who condemn a Conception when they understand it not and believe it false because 't is new neither imitate such who seeking alone to carp at words neglect the sense of the Discourse For even as it happens very often that Purging though proper for a Disease doth no good to a Patient when his Body is not well prepared and disposed for its Operation so the Doctrine of Books which is one of the most wholsom effectual Remedies we have to chase away ignorance is wholly useless to mens wits if they are not disposed to receive it I believe I may hope you will easily grant me this request because it is for your advantage In the mean time though I design to instruct you here in whatsoever concerns Women with Child or in Labour yet I would not divert you from reading of many learned Authors who have treated of it but only advise you that the most part of them having never practised the Art they undertake to teach resemble in my opinion those Geographers who give us the description of many Countries which they never saw and as they imagine a perfect accompt of them which makes it very difficult not to say impossible they should ever obtain their end For it is certain as Plutarch hath very well noted that the speculative part of Arts is improfitable and unfruitful when destitute of the practice You may then as to this subject relye on the Method I show you since to conduct you in it I faithfully recite what I have with very happy success observed these many years in the practice of Deliveries Furthermore blame me not for being of a Judgement different from the common opinion of many for I declare I have only bound my self to acquaint you with the truth of which I hope you will have more Satisfaction and be better pleased than if I had always blindly followed the thoughts of others having likewise endeavoured not to extend my self in superfluous discourse to the end I might be more intelligible to yong Chirurgeons and Midwives to whom this Book if I be not mistaken will be as usefull as any to teach them the safe practice of the Art of Deliveries I have not stuft it with a great number of long Receipts which serve only to swell a Volumn and confound their Wits in the uncertainty of the choice of so many different Remedies composed of Drugs which very often are unknown to them but singly contented my self to teach them the best and principally such as we ordinarily use in our practice But if in all this you find some of my Opinions not wholly Satisfactory or that others according to your Opinion are not fully agreeing with the Truth remember that as amidst the best Corn there alwayes spring Tares or some other Weeds so in like manner you meet with few Books whose doctrine is so pure as not to find something in them to reject and if I may hope for any respect from you in recompence of my pains it will be but proportionable to what you may have for many others who never had in this occasion a greater desire than my self to render you service F. M. The Translator to the Reader Courteous Reader HAving long observed the great want of necessary directions how to govern Women with Child and in Childbed and also how new-born Babes should be well ordered I designed a small Manual to that purpose but â—…ing sometime after in France with this Treatise of Mauriceau which in my opinion far exceeds all former Authors especially Culpeper Sharp Speculum Matricis Sermon c. being less erronious and inriched with divers new Observations I changed my resolution into that of translating him whom I need not much commend because he is fortified with the approbation of the Wardens of the Chirurgeons Company of Paris His Anatomy at the beginning of the Book I have omitted there being
it hardly differs either in colour consistence or quality from that which remains in the vessels except in the small alteration which is caused by the heat of the place whence it proceeds and by the mixture of some humours with which the womb is alwayes plentifully furnisht This evacuation if in order ought to be every month but once though some have them every fourtnight or at the end of three weeks according as they are more or less sanguine or cholerick or have their blood heated and to continue two or three days together or six at most and that by little and little constant without interruption and also more or less according to the difference of their particular temperaments If a Woman have few of them as when she grows in years she becomes barren forasmuch as this blood seems to nourish the Child in the Womb and likewise if she have too many because the Woman thereby grows too weak and the Womb too cold There are notwithstanding some Women who void more of them in two days than others in eight They must flow by little and little without interruption and not all at once for great and sudden evacuations cause great dissipation of spirits of which abundance are necessary for generation and the interruption of these evacuations shews some impediment in nature or some vice or evil disposition of the Womb. If all these signs concur we may very probably judge the Woman fruitful I say probably because there are many who have them all and yet cannot conceive though they do their endeavours and observe thereto all the requisite and necessary circumstances which we shall hereafter mention There are likewise others who notwithstanding they have not all these conditions are fruitful Now if all the above named patticulars are found in a Woman that is barren and that you desire to inquire more narrowly and to be informed more certainly whether she be capable of conception Hippocrates teacheth a way to know it to which I give little credit because the reasons of it are very obscure It is in his 59 Aphorism of his 5th Book where he saith Si mulier non concipiat scire placet an sit conceptura vestibus undique obvolutam subter suffito ac si odor corpus pervadere videatur ad nares os usque non sua culpa sterilem esse scito If a Woman doth not conceive and you are desirous to know whether she is capable or no wrap her close round with clothes and put a perfume under her and if she perceive the sent to pass through her body to her nose and mouth be assured saith he it is not her fault she is barren Fertility was anciently so esteemed by our fore-fathers that they believed Barrenness to be a mark of reprobation by reason of which the fruitfull Servant despised her barren Mistress as we reade in the 16th Chapter of Genesis where mention is made of Sarai Abraham's Wife who seeing that she could have no Children and being past the age of hoping for any and that her Husband was displeased at it bid him take her Aegyptian Chamber-maid named Agar to lie with him that by her means the might give him lineage which good Father Abraham quickly did and had by her afterwards a Son which was called Ishmael but from the time this Maid had conceived she began to despise her Mistress Sarai who was as yet barren The Women of our times are not so earnest to have lineage after this fashion there being but few that will suffer their Husbands to caress their Chamber-maids much less * Lovingly charitably to excite them to follow this example which custom is abolished amongst us I also admire the great passion which many have who complain of nothing with greater regret than to the without Children especially without Sons For my part I believe they that descend from Caesar or the Family of Bourbons may with some reason be led away with this superstitious and common inclination of preserving their kind and be vexed with these sorts of inquietudes which no wayes become ordinary people though excusable and may be permitted to great Monarchs and illustrious men When we perfectly understand the natural dispositions we may the easier discern those contrary to nature wherefore the signs of fruitfulness easily teach us those of barrenness The signs and causes of barrenness proceed either from the age or evil temperature and vicious conformation of the Womb and parts depending on it or the indisposition and intemperature of the whole habit The evil conformation of the Womb renders Women barren when its neck called the Vagina is so narrow that it cannot give way to penetration and when it is wholly or in part closed by some external or internal membrane which is very rare if at all or by any tumour callosity or cicatrice which may hinder the Woman from the free use of copulation But it is not sufficient that the Man's Yard enter the Vagina which is the anti-chamber to the Womb for if in the act of copulation he knocks at the door which is the internal orifice and it be not opened all is to no purpose This orifice is likewise hindred from opening by some callosity proceeding from abundance of ill humours which usually slow down from the Matrix or by some tumour which may happen to it or also by some part which may so compress it that it cannot dilate to receive the Seed as doth the Epiploon or cawl in fat Women according to the opinion of Hippocrates in his 46th Aphorism of his 5th Book where he saith Quae praeier naturam crassae non concipiunt iis os uteri ab omento comprimitur priusquam extenuentur non concipiunt Women exceeding fat do not conceive because the Cawl compresseth the orifice of their Womb neither can they till they grow lean I do not willingly admit amongst the causes of barrenness this compression of the inward orifice by the Epiploon forasmuch as Aritin hath very well remedied it by some of the postures invented by him by which this orifice need not be so compressed in the action The most frequent reason why this orifice opens not in this act to receive the Man's Seed is the insensibility of some Women who take no pleasure in the venerial act but when they have an appetite the Womb desirous and covetous of the Seed at that instant opens it self to receive it and be delighted with it But though the Vagina or neck of the Womb and the inward orifice opens to give passage to the Seed yet may they very often continue barren if the scituation of this orifice be not rightly placed but either backwards towards the * Great or right Gut Intestin rectum or towards either side all which hinders the Man from †shooting darting his Seed directly into it and consequently the Woman from conceiving Hippocrates seems to have noted all the signs and causes of barrenness which usually
had made an impression on them nor given them this prolifick vertue which is absolutely necessary to this purpose This may convince us that diversity of sex is necessarily requisit as well to those Animals as to the more perfect which is Man Diversity of sex would profit little if copulation did not likewise follow though some subtile Women to cloak their shamelesness would perswade one that they were never touch'd by any Man who could get them with Child as she of whom Averroes speaks who conceived in a Bath in which a Man had washt himself a little before and had cast forth his Seed into it which was drawn and suckt in as he saith by the Womb of this Woman but this is a story fit to amuse little children Now to the end these different sexes should be obliged to come to this touch which we call Copulation besides the desire of begetting their like which naturally incites them to it the parts of Men and Women destined to Generation are endued with a delightful and mutual itch to stir them up to the action without which it would be impossible for a Man so divine an Animal born for the contemplation of heavenly things to joyn himself to a Woman in regard of the uncleanness of the parts and of the act And on the other side If Women did but think of a thousand pains and inconveniences which their great Bellies cause them of the pains they endure and the hazard of their lives when they are in labour to which may be added the loss of their beauty which is the most precious gift they have and which makes them be beloved by those that possess them certainly it might also afright them from it But neither the one nor the other make these reflections till after the action whence comes the saying Post coitum omne animal triste considering nothing before but the mutual pleasure they receive by it It is then from this voluptuous Itch and the desire of begetting their like that Nature obligeth both these sexes to this congression As to the mixture of both seeds it is certain that the diversity of sexes and their congression are but for this end without which Generation cannot be though some would have Womens seed serve to no purpose yea that they neither have any nor eject any as Aristotle saith but we have proved the contrary in the Chapter of Conception by the example of daily experience to which you may have recourse to avoid repetition All these three Circumstances to wit the diversity of sexes their congression and the mixture of their matters which is called Seeds must precede Conception to which succeeds Generation on this fashion As soon as the Woman hath conceived that is hath received and retained in her Womb the two prolifick seeds it is every way compressed to imbrace them closely and is so exactly closed that the point of a Needle as saith Hippocrates cannot enter it without violence after which it reduceth by its heat from power into action the several faculties which are in the seeds it contains making use of the Spirits with which these frothy and boyling seeds abound and are as instruments with which it begins to trace out the first lineaments of all the parts to which afterwards making use of the menstruous blood flowing to it it gives in time growth and the last perfection Generation may be divided into three different seasons which are the beginning middle and the end The beginning is when there is no other matter in the Womb but the two seeds which continue so to the sixth day as Hippocrates notes and calls them for that time the geniture as much as to say from whence generation must proceed he speaks of it in his Book De Natura Pueri and he saith that by the experiences he brings of it one may judge of the other times He relates a story of a Woman which at six dayes end cast forth with a noise at once out of her Womb the seeds she had conceived resembling a raw egg without a shell having only the small skin over it or to the abortive eggs which have no shell which little membrane was on the outside a little coloured with red and involved in it this seed which was of a round figure in the internal part might be seen white and reddish fibres with a thick humour in the midst of which was found something like the umbilick vessels Hippocrates calls this first time of generation Geniture as is already mentioned during which time neither figure nor distinction can be observed but only some beginning of a disposition to receive the form of the parts after which follows the second time which begins where the first ends that is at the sixth day and lasts to the 30th The time that the same Hippocrates assures us the males are compleatly formed and the females not till the 42d. After the first six dayes are past and the Womb hath wrought according to the fashion we have explained upon the seeds which are there yet without any mixture of blood having disposed them to receive it it is brought thither in some sooner in some later according to the Womans being nearer to or further from her time of having her Courses when she conceived which produceth effects according to these different dispositions for if they flow too soon or in too great abundance as it befals such as conceive at the point of having their purgations the seeds are drowned and corrupted by it which often causeth a flooding or at least the generation of a false-conception but if they are far from their having them the conception is so much the more stable Now then this blood distilling by little and little into the Womb of the Woman who hath sometime since conceived serves as a fit matter to form and figure out all the parts of the Infant which was only traced out by the seed and yet doth it according to my opinion much like a Painter who after he hath drawn the out-lines with a chauk upon his cloth begins to lay colour upon colour to paint by degrees all the parts of the person whose picture he draws Some little space after the beginning of this second time appears as it were the figure of those three bubbles of which Hippocrates speaks or rather three masses of this matter which grosly represent the three parts called principal the first of which composeth the Head the second in the middle the Heart and the other the Liver there may be likewise seen the after birth with the umbilick vessels fastened to it and the membranes which wrapt up the whole after which from day to day all the other parts of the body are figured in such sort that at thirty dayes end the males are compleatly formed and the females the 42th day ordinarily which is about the time the Faetus begins to be animated though as yet there is no sensible motion Hippocrates seems by these different terms
forth many young ones who usually answer the number of the little cells of their Womb this is very true in respect of other Animals but the Womb of a Woman hath but one only cavity unless they would have the two sides taken for cavities for there is in the Womb only a simple long line without any other separation We see daily Women brought to bed of two Children at once sometimes of three and very rarely of four Yet I knew one Mr. Hebert Couverer of the King's Buildings who was so good a Couverer that his Wife about seventeen years since brought forth four living Children at a birth which the Duke of Orleans deceased coming to hear of to whom because of his jovial humour he was very welcom the Duke asked him in the presence of divers Persons of Quality whether it were true that he was so good a Fellow as to get his Wife with Child of those four at one bout He answered very coldly Yes and that he had certainly begat at the same time half a dozen if his foot had not slipt which made them all laugh very heartily But I esteem it either a Miracle or a Fable what is related in the History of the Lady Margaret Countess of Holland who in the year 1313 was brought to bed of 365 Children at one and the same time which happened to her as they say by a poor Womans Imprecation who asking an Alms of her related to her the great misery she was in by reason of those Children she had with her To which the Lady answered She might be content with the inconvenience since she had had the pleasure of getting them Now since the most usual number is two that Women have at once who have more than one Child at a time We will give the signs of it which do not appear in the first months nor sometimes till they are quick There is some likelihood of it if the Woman be extraordinary big and yet suspects no Dropsie and more if there be on each side of the Belly a little rising and as it were a line a little depressed or not so elevated about the middle and most of all if at the same time one feels many and different motions on both sides and if these motions are more frequent than usually which is because the Infants being straitned inconvenience one the other and cause each other to move in that fashion If all these signs concur 't is then very probable the Woman goes with more than one Child CHAP. VIII Of SuPERFAETATION THere is a great dispute whether a Woman who hath two or more Children at once conceived of them at one or at several Coitions We see indeed daily that Bitches Sows and Rabits have divers young with but once copulating which may very well make us judge the same of a Woman Some will have this to be by Superfaetation but there are signs by which we may know the difference whether both Children were begotten at once or successively one after the other Superfaetation according to Hippocrates in his Book which treats of it is a reiterated conception when a Woman being already with Child conceives again the second time That which makes many beleive there can be no Superfaetation is because as soon as a Woman hath conceived her Womb closeth and is exactly firm so that the Seed of the Man absolutely necessary to conception finding no place nor entry cannot as they say be received nor contained in it so to cause this second conception To this may be added that a pregnant Woman dischargeth her Seed which is as necessary for it as a Mans by a vessel which terminates on the side of the exteriour part of the inward orifice which Seed by this means is shed into the Vagina and not into the bottom of the Womb as it should for this purpose However it may be said in answer to these objections which are very strong that though the Womb be usually exactly shut and close when a Woman hath conceived and besides that she then sheds her Seed by another conveyance yet this general rule may have some exceptions and that the Womb so closed is sometimes opened to let pass some serous slimy excrements which by their stay offend it or principally when a Woman is animated with an earnest desire of copulation in the heat of which action she sometimes dischargeth by the passage that terminates in the bottom of the Womb which being dilated and opened by the impetuous endeavour of the Seed agitated and over-heated more than ordinary and this orifice being at the same time a little opened if the Mans Seed be darted into it at the same moment it is thought a Woman may then again conceive which is called Superfaetation This is confirmed by a History of a Servant related by Pliny who having the same day copulated with two several persons brought forth two Children the one resembling her Master the other his Proctor And also of another Woman who likewise had two Children the one like her Husband and the other like her Gallant but this different resemblance doth not altogether prove Superfaetation because sometimes different imaginations may cause the same effect This second conception is effectively as rare as we find the decision of it uncertain nor must we imagine that alwayes when a Woman brings forth two Children or more at once there is a Superfaetation because they are almost alwayes begot in the same act by the abundance of both Seeds received into the Womb nor believe neither that it may be at all times of a Womans being with Child for when it happens it cannot be either the first or second day of conception because if the last Seed be received into the Womb it would make a mixture and confusion with the first which is not yet involved with this little pellicle that might otherwise separate it nor is it formed perfectly till the sixth or seventh day as Hippocrates saw in a Woman who about that time expelled this geniture Besides the Matrix again opening it self could not hinder the first Seed from slipping out being not as yet wrapt up in this little membrane which could preserve it This makes me not believe the History of the Woman whom Pliny mentions that it happened for the reasons alledged by him to wit that she used copulation the same day with two several persons for the last would certainly have caused this confusion of Seed as I have said and so destroyed the work begun but I rather believe that this Superfaetation may happen from the sixth day of conception or thereabouts till the thirtieth or fourtieth at the most because then the Seeds are covered with membranes and that which is contained in the Womb is not yet of a considerable bigness but after this time it is impossible or at least very difficult because the Womb being extended more and more by the growth of the Child can hardly receive new Seed and as hardly
and in what manner whether it is the ordinary Courses or a real Flooding If it be the ordinary Courses the blood comes away periodically at the accustomed times and flows by degrees from the neck near the inward Orifice of the Womb and not from its Fund as may be discovered if trying with a finger one finds the inward Orifice exactly closed which could not be if the blood proceeded from the bottom as also if it proceeds without pain all which circumstances do not meet in a flooding but others very different as will appear in the following Chapter It must likewise be considered whether these Courses flow onely because of the superfluity or because of the acrimony of the Blood or the weakness of the Vessels which contain it that so fit Remedies may be applyed If they proceed from the sole abundance being more than the Fruit can consume for its nourishment it is so far from hurting either Mother or Child that being moderate it is very profitable to them because if the Womb were not discharged of this superfluous blood the Fruit which is as yet but little would be drowned by it or as it were suffocated And if it should chance that they were unduely stopt or retained bleeding will supply the defect of the natural evacuation which ought to have been but if there be no sign of abundance or plenitude and that before she was with Child she had her Courses in a small quantity which still continue to flow after she hath conceived it is a sign that the flux proceeds from the heat and acrimony of the blood or the weakness of the Vessels appointed to receive it It is of this sort of Women that Hippocrates pretends to speak in the 6th Aphorism before mentioned whose Children cannot be healthful when their Courses flow whilst they are breeding because there remains not blood enough behind for her and the nourishment of her Infant which puts her in great danger of miscarrying for as the proverb saith Hunger drives the Wolf out of the Wood so likewise want of nourishment forceth the little prisoner out of his hiding-place before his time To hinder this Flux from effecting so evil and sinister an accident the Woman must keep her self very quiet in bed abstaining from all things that may heat her Blood shunning Choler above all the passions of the mind using a strengthening and a cooling diet feeding on meat that breeds good Blood and thickens it as are good broths made with Poultry necks of Mutton knuckles of Veal in which may be boiled cooling Pot-herbs newlayd Eggs Gelly's Rice-milk Barly-broths which are proper for her let her Drink be Water in which Iorn is quenched with a little Syrup of Quince she must refrain from Copulation because by heating the Blood it excites it to flow more If notwithstanding all this the Flux continues some commend large cupping-glasses under the Breasts to make a revulsion and to turn the Blood according to Hippocrates Aphorism 50 of the 5th Book Mulieri si velis menstrua sistere cucurbitulam quam maximam ad Mammas appone but it will do no great matter however to satisfie the Patient and to shew that nothing is omitted that may make for her cure they may be applied I should rather choose to make this Revulsion by bleeding in the Arme if her strength permitted And because in this condition the Child is very weak through this great evacuation it must be fortified by applying to the Mothers Belly about the region of the Womb Compresses steeped in strong Wine in which is boyled a Pomegranat with its peel Provence-Roses and a little Cinamon but the best way to strengthen it is to correct the Mothers Blood and hinders its evacuation CHAP. XX. Of Floodings THere is a great difference between the menstruous Blood of which we have discoursed in the preceeding chapter which happens sometimes to Women with Child and this Flooding which we have now in hand for as I have said the Courses come periodically at the times accustomed without pain destilling by little and little from the neck of the Womb during pregnancy after which it totally ceaseth but much the contrary this loss of Blood comes from the bottom of the Womb with pain and almost of a sudden and in great abundance and continues flooding daily without intermission except that some clods formed there which seem somtimes to lessen the accident by stopping for a little time the place whence it flows but soon after it returns with greater violence after which follows death both to Mother and Child if not timely prevented by delivering the Woman as shall be hereafter declared If this Flooding happens when young with Child it is usually because of some Fals-conception or Mole of which the Womb endeavours to discharge it self by which it opens some of the Vessels in the bottom of it from whence the Blood ceaseth not to flow until in hath cast forth the strange bodies it contained in its capacity and the hotter and subtiller the Blood is then the more abundantly it flows But when this Flouding happens to a Woman truly conceived at whatsoever time it be it proceeds likewise from the opening of the Vessels of the fund of the Womb caused by some blow slip or other hurt and chiefly because the Secundine in such cases and sometimes in others separating in part if not totally from the inside of the bottom of the Womb to which it ought to adhere that it might receive the Mothers Blood appointed for the Infants nouriture by which separation it leaves open all the orifices of the vessels where it was joyned and so follows a great flux of Blood which never ceaseth if so caused till the Woman be brought to bed for the Secundine being once loosened although but part of it never joyns again to the Womb to close those Vessels which can never shut till the Womb hath voided all that it contained for then compressing and closing its self and as it were entering within it self as it happens presently after delivery the orrifices of the vessels are closed and stopt up by this contraction whereby also this flooding ceaseth which alwayes continues as long as the Womb is distended by the Child or any thing else it contains for the reason aforesaid much like to a Spunge whose pores or holes being very large when swelled disappear and close with their own substance when squeezed and compressed so likewise by this contraction of the Matrix which during pregnancy became as it were spongeous in the place whence the Secundine was separated the orifices of the vessels are closed assoon as it is cleansed from whatsoever it contained in its capacity Although I have said that a Woman in this condition for the reasons alledged must necessarily be delivered that the Flooding may be stopt I do not intend it should be done assoon as perceived because some small Floodings have sometimes been suppressed by keeping quietly in bed bleeding in the Arme
while she must be near her Woman to observe her gestures diligently her complaints and pains for by this they guess pretty well how the Labour advanceth without being obliged to taste her body so often Mr. de la Cuisse deceased who often slept near the Woman in Labour was so used to it that he never awaked till just the Child was in the passage at which time the Woman changeth her moans into loud cries which she strongly repeats because of the greater and more frequent pains which she then feels the Patient may likewise by intervals rest her self on her bed for to regain her strength but not too long especially little or short thick Women for they have alwaies worse Labours if they lye much on their beds in their Travail and yet much worse of their first Children than when they are prevailed with to walk about the Chamber supporting them under their arms if necessary for by this means the weight of the Child the Woman being on her Legs causeth the inward orifice of the Womb to dilate sooner than in bed and her pains to be stronger and frequenter that her Labour be nothing near so long Qualms and Vomitings which often happen to Women in Labour ought not to amaze any for on the contrary it furthers the Throws and Pains provoking downwards we shewed the cause of this Vomiting in the Second Chapter of this Book and the reason why it is not dangerous When the Waters of the Child are ready and gathered which may be perceived through the Membranes to present themselves to the inward orifice of the bigness of the whole dilatation the Midwife ought to let them break of themselves and not as some that impatient of the long Labour break them intending to hasten their business which on the contrary they retard by so doing before the Infant be wholly in the passage for by the too hasty breaking of these Waters which ought to serve him to slide forth with greater facility he remains dry which hinders afterwards the Pains and Throws from being so effectual to bring forth the Infant as else they would have been it is therefore better to let them break of themselves and then the Midwife may easily feel the Child bare by the part which first presents and so judge certainly whether it comes right that is with the Head which she shall find hard big round and equal but if it be any other part she will perceive something inequal and rugged and hard or soft more or less according to the part it is Immediately after * That being the right time when all Women ought to be delivered if nature perform its office let her dispatch to deliver her Woman if she be not already and assist the Birth which ordinarily happens soon after if natural and may be done according to the directions in the next Chapter But if she finds the Child to come wrong and that she is not able to deliver the Woman * Mark 't is not enough to lay a Woman if it might be done by another with more safety and case to either or both as she ought to be by helping Nature and so save both Mother and Child who both are in danger of their lives let her send speedily for an expert and dextrous Chyrurgeon in the practice and not delay as too many of them very often do till it be reduced to extremity There are many Midwives who are so afraid that the Chirurgeons should take away their practice or to appear ignorant before them * Good avoiding such Midwives if Women value their lives that they chuse rather to put all to adventure then to send for them in necessity others are so presumptuous as to believe themselves as capable as the Chirurgeons to undertake all And some there are indeed who are not so wicked yet for want of knowledg and experience in their Art hope still in vain that the Child in time may change to a better posture and that the accidents will cease if it please God as they say and some do maliciously put such a terrour and apprehension of the Chirurgeons in the poor Woman * For the most part undeservedly characterizing them like butchers and hangmen that they choose rather to dye in Travail with the Child in their Womb than to put themselves into their hands But indeed such Midwives do more justly deserve this fair title unless they behave themselves with more prudence and equal conscience in so important an occasion and send * A necessary note in time for some help in their business before the Child be as very often engaged in a wrong posture in the passage so as it is almost impossible to give it a better without extream violence to the Woman which is also the cause of the death of the Child and they would be so far from losing their reputation that they would augment it because by so doing it would be manifest they were not ignorant of the danger both of time and place and the Chirurgeon being called assoon as necessity required it could have no just cause to impute any ill consequence of the Labour to them though it should so fall out and rheir conscience would be discharged of it for in this case as we have said both the Mothers and Childs life is at stake Assoon then as the Waters are broke and the Midwife finds the Child to come wrong she must advise the Woman not to forward her Pains lest by bearing down she engage the Child too much in the passage and so give the Chirurgeon more pains to turn it and must send for him assoon as may be for to deliver her as occasion requires and according as shall be directed hereafter in this Book It is now time after having declared what must be done whilst the Woman is in Labour to shew how she must be helped and comforted in a natural Delivery This Figure doth very well represent the globe of the Womb which is opened but in part to shew in what manner the Child is brought forth in a natural Labour A A A Shews the body of the Womb. B B A part of the Vagina or neck of the Womb opened just at the inward orifice C C The inward orifice which surrounds the Childs head like a Crown wherefore it is called the crowning or garland CHAP. VIII Of a natural Labour and the means of helping a Woman therein when there is one or more Children Chap VII lib 2. pag 184. The Bed must be so made that the Woman being ready to be delivered should lye on her back upon it having her body in a convenient Figure that is her Head and Breast a little raised so that she be neither lying nor sitting for in this manner she breathes best will have more strength to help her Pains than if she were otherwise or sunk down in her Bed Being in this posture she must spread her Thighs abroad folding her Legs
he sleeps however if his sleep be very immoderate it may be a little broken to which purpose let his Nurse carry him in her Arms to the light singing with a soft and sweet voice shewing him some glistering thing to please his sight and dancing him a little to awake him out of his drowsiness for by too long Sleep the natural Heat doth so retire inwards that it is as it were buried there by means of which all the Body and chiefly the Brain is so cooled that the Infants Senses are thereby quite dull and their functions languishing and stupified When he is in the Cradle let it be so turned as it may be towards the Fire the Candle or the Chamber Window that having the light directly in its Face he may not be allured to look continually on one side for doing so often his sight will be so perverted that he will grow squint-eyed Wherefore for the better security throw some Covering over the head of the Bed as we have said to hinder him from seeing the light because by this means his sight being staied from rouling from side to side will be the better fortified Let us now see how a Nurse must daily cleanse her Child from the Excrements As the young of all other Animals have their bodies free without the trouble of any coverings so they easily discharge themselves of their Excrements without being befouled and they no sooner empty their Belly but their Dam if they cannot do it themselves perceiving it casts it forth of their Nest or at lest rangeth it in some one part where it cannot hurt them but it is not the same with Infants who for being bound and swathed with Swathes and Blankets as we are forced to give them a strait Figure only suitable to mankind cannot render their Excrements but at the same time they must be befouled and in which because it cannot be perceived for their Clothes they often remain until the ill scent of it offends the Nurses nose or that she doubts it because of the Cryes and Tears of the Child which is incommoded by the Moistness and Acrimony of it to avoid which let the Child be opened and changed at least twice or thrice a day and also sometimes in the night if necessary to cleanse him from his Excrements and change the bed which ought to be well washed and not slightly as most part of hired Nurses do which causeth a great itching and galleth the Childs body because of a certain salt coming from the Excrements and not easie to be dissolved when the Blanket hath once imbued it but by putting it into a Bucking-tub The best time to shift the Child is immediatly after the Excrements are rendred without suffering him to lye longer in them than 'till he awakes if he were then asleep Now since he may render them at any hour indifferently no other time can be appointed to do it but when there is no need that is as often as it is necessary to keep him alwaies clean The Child must alwaies be opened before the fire and his Beds and Clouts well warmed and dried before he be put into them lest their coldness and moisture cause a Cholick and Gripes the Nurse likewise must be careful from time to time to put soft Rags behind the Ears and under the Arm-pits to dry up the moisture there found being very careful during the first four or five daies not to make the remaining part of the Navel-string fall off too soon and before the Vessels of it be perfectly closed Let her likewise see every time she opens him whether the Navel for want of being well tyed at first do not bleed or because the thread is loosened and after the end is quite fallen off let her still for some time swath the Navel ever laying a boulster on the top of it until it be well cicatriced and wholly depressed and as it were sunk inwards Besides this let her put upon the Mould of the head under the Biggen another Compress as well to keep the Brain warm as to defend it from outward Injuries which might easily hurt it because of the tenderness of that place not yet covered over with any bone let her also be very careful not to let the Child cry too-much especially at first lest the Navel be forced outwards and that there happen to him by its dilatation an Exomphale or a rupture in the Groine nor must she hearken to the sayings of some good people who affirm it necessary a Child should sometimes cry to discharge its Brain the two best waies to quiet him when he cryes is to give him suck and lay him clean and dry 't is likewise good to present to his sight things that rejoyce him and to remove what may affright or grieve him All these directions in this present Chapter concerning the Diet and Order of a new-born Babe must be understood for one in health for if he be any waies indisposed he must be treated according as the case requires This is what we intend to examine in all the remaining part of the Book CHAP. XIX Of the Indispositions of little Children and first of their weakness YOung Trees are scarce raised out of the Earth which is their Mother but often many of them soon after dye because their small bodies by reason of the tenderness of their substance easily receive alteration and cannot without great difficulty resist the smallest opposition until they become a little bigger and have taken stronger and deeper root So likewise we see daily above half of the young Children dye before they are two or three years old as well because of the tenderness of their Bodies as by reason of the feebleness of their Age they cannot otherwise express the incommodities they suffer within but by their cryes We have heretofore discovered how they ought to be governed in the beginning for the preservation of a good health we will now discourse of the indispositions to which they are subject principally from their birth 'till they are seven or eight Months old Let us first mention some they are born with and then wee 'l entertain you with those that usually happen to them afterwards The first Accident to be remedied is the weakness many Children bring into the world with them which often happens not because they are so by Nature but by the violence of a bad Labour or the length of it during which they suffer so much that sometimes after they are born they are so weak that it is hard to be discovered whether they are dead or alive not any part of their Body being perceived to stir which sometimes is so blew and livid especially the Face that one would think they were quite choaked And many times after they have been thus for whole hours they recover by little and little from their weakness as if they revived and were returned from Death to Life One may guess that the Child is not effectually dead although