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cause_n	action_n	evil_a	good_a	2,361	5	3.9166	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78521	The compleat midwifes practice, in the most weighty and high concernments of the birth of man. Containing perfect rules for midwifes and nurses, as also for women in their conception, bearing, and nursing of children: from the experience not onely of our English, but also the most accomplisht and absolute practicers among the French, Spanish, Italian, and other nations. A work so plain, that the weakest capacity may easily attain the knowledge of the whole art. With instructions of the midwife to the Queen of France (given to her daughter a little before her death) touching the practice of the said art. / Published with the approbation and good liking of sundry the most knowing professors of midwifery now living in the city of London, and other places. Illustrated with severall cuts in brass. By T.C. I.D. M.S. T.B. practitioners.	Chamberlayne, Thomas.; Boursier, Louise Bourgeois, ca. 1563-1636.	1656 (1656)	Wing C1817C; Thomason E1588_3; ESTC R14527	137,828	305

delivered of a very lusty child which lived about two dayes I came thither about noon and the was brought to bed before 9. at night I wrote this thus particularly to let you know that oft-times for want of knowing where the mischief lies the Remedies are mis-applyed and indeed a Woman Travayling in the ninth moneth ought chiefly to be succored with Clysters Of a Woman here in Town that bare her Childe elevent Moneths and could not be Delivered BEing called to a Woman in this Town that thought her self three moneths and a half gene which is one of the Termes of time wherein commonly the Moles and false births are delivered having then some loss of blood and paine I was sent for and judged it to have been some imperfect Conception and therefore I used all the meanes that art imposeth to assist her yet could she not expel it for all these long paines whereupon finding some strange apprehensions in her I wondered for in all the time of my practice I never knew such a thing as that dangerous in my life But I afterwards found this apprehension to come from a certain accident that had hapned to a Sister of hers who being with child carried it very wel to the end of the ninth moneth at the end of which she began to be in paine as if she would have cryed out the paines were great and long which they were not at all astonished at by reason that it was her first childe yet were not these paines accompanied with any signes of Labour as the opening the exterior orifice of the Womb and they continued thus for the space of two dayes and two nights many Medicines were used to facilitate the birth but to no purpose and now she felt not the child stir any more And now it was concluded that she had mistaken her time and now being at rest for four or five dayes and growing weary of the City she went into the Country and being returned without taking notice that she had received any harm she was taken with the same paines as before which continued a day and a night and then ceased as before this was adjudged to be certain paines of the colick after this she endured one moneth longer in her former estate which was now the eleventh moneth compleat at the end of which she felt some little pain like throws which presently affected her heart upon which she was laid upon her bed and they brought her Wine but at the very instant she dyed without having any time to cal for assistance seeing her dead they perceived upon the right side of her belly a very black mark about the breadth of a dollar being opened they found the child all putrified Hence we must observe that in Women that are bigg with child who have frequent pain and nothing coming forth the Matrix that should open rather shutting it self closer whether it be at the time or no you must imagine these to be clysters that expel wind which are to be reiterated as occasion requires which rule if it had been observed in this Woman she nor the Fruit of her Womb had not perished in that manner Of the common opinion that a Woman seven moneths gone ought to walk very much and of the accidents that happen thereby IT is a common error among Midwives vvhich is not to be passed by that a Woman vvith child vvhen she hath gone seven months of her time is to vvalk much upon a conceit that exercise is very proper for her for that they say doth loosen the child from the reins and facilitates the birth I confess as to facilitating of the birth it may something avail only I must add this also that it is better to dravv avvay the child then to break it and moreover it is better to be something longer in Travail then to incur 2. or 3. evils vvhich ordinarily happen the first is that the Child in the end of the eleventh moneth doth make certain indeavours to free it self from the belly of the Mother and vvithout doubt his first indeavour is to turn himself in the belly of the Mother for the Infant turns himself a good vvhile before the time of Labour and therefore I say exercise is very dangerous the first reason is because by pushing dovvnvvard the belly is dilated and especially in such as carry their children lovv and besides oft-times the head drags dovvn all the body of the Womb and loosens the ligaments in such a sort that after Delivery it can hardly be put into its place again Besides the children having their heads between the bones of the Mother by much walking of the Mother they come to be bruised so that the Infants do many times dye and no man is able to give a cause why for the branches of veins which are for the nourishment of the brain open in an instant letting out the blood which is contained in them and when the corruption is ingendred there follows immediatly Fevers and corruption of the Infant At other times Women coming to sit upon a hard seat do bruise the head of the Infant which causes like accidents and in all these accidents none but the Midwife is to blame unless the belly it self be spoiled This they say is the fault of the Nurse who did not apply Remedies fit to restore the fault I must confess that Remedies do much avail to the recovery of the fore-said malady and do much avail to the healing of that disease marring of the belly but to restore it to such an estate as it was in before I say it is a thing impossible for Medecines to perform for the skin which is once separated cannot be closed again without a scar I would now not only blame those that assist them but by putting the actions of people before them shew them where lies the fault and what reason I have so to do I must confesse that false accusations have made the most able Midwives timorous for they lye liable to so many causes of detraction that all that are either but indifferent good or else not good are all accused alike if any thing fall out amiss with the Patient as if they were the absolute causes of the evil or that it lay absolutely in their power to hinder it it happens also many times that a Midwife worthy of that name doth deliver a Woman from death and yet in the place of much praise she incurs many times much blame so that they are oftentimes constrained to avoid the scandal to advertise the of their ill procedures and to give place to those that know not how to do things with that sweetness and judgement The fault is no where but in the ignorance scandal and ingratitude of Women toward those of this Calling Besides there are a company of young Women that because they have had one child do give themselves a great deal of liberty to talk of these things Cries one I like not these

Whether she have conceived a Male. Conception of a Male. IF she have conceived a male childe the right eye will move swifter and look clearer then the left The right pap will also rise and swell beyond the left and grow harder and the colour of the teats will change more suddainly The milk will increase more suddainly and if it be milked out and be set in the Sun it will harden into a clear mass not unlike pearl If you cast the Milk of the woman upon her Urine it will presently sink to the bottom Her right cheek is more muddy and the whole colour of her face is more cheerful she feels less numness The first motion of the child is felt more lively in the right side for the most part upon the sixtieth day If her flowers flow the fourtieth day after conception The belly is more acute toward the navel As the woman goes she always puts her right leg forward and in rising she eases all she can her right side sooner then her left CHAP. III. Whether she have conceived a Female IF she have conceived a Female Conception of a Female the signs are for the most part contrary to those aforesaid The first motion is made most commonly the nintieth day after conception which motion is made in the left side Females are carried with greater pain her thighs and Genital members swell her colour is paler she hath a more vehement longing Her flowers flow the thirtieth day after conception Girles are begot of parents who are by nature more cold and moist their seed being more moist cold and liquid CHAP. IV. Of the Conception of Twins IF a woman have conceived twins Conception of Twins the signes thereof appears not till the third or fourth moneth after her conception and then it will appear by the motion of the Infant and by the extraordinarie swelling of her belly As to the motion it is plaine that she doth beare twins if she perceive a motion on the right and left side at the same instant which she perceives more quick and violent As for the greatness of the belly if the woman perceive it bigger then at any other times of her being with child as also if the two flanks be swelled higher then the middle of the belly if there doe appeare as it were a line of devision from the navel to the groine making a kind of channel all a long if the woman carrie her burden with more then ordinary paine These are commonly the signes of twins CHAP. V. Of false Conception False Conception VVOmen doe oftentimes deceive themselves concerning their conception for they doe many times beleive themselves to be big with child when it is nothing else but either the retention of their flowers which doe not fall down according to their accustomed periods of time or else that which is called the Moon-calfe which is a lump of flesh for the most part like the guisern of a bird greater or lesser according to the time of its being there which is most commonly not above foure or five months Several sorts of Moles Of moles there are two sorts the one is called the true mole the other is called the false mole The true mole is a fleshie body filled with many vessels which have many white green or black lines or membranes it is without thought without motion without bones without bowels or entrailes receiving its nourishment through certaine veines it lives the life of a plant without any figure or order being engendered in the concavitie of the matrix adhearing to the sides of it but borrowing nothing of its substance Of the false mole Of the false mole there are four sorts the windie mole which is a conflux of wind the watrie mole which is a conflux of watrie humours the Humorous mole which is a conflux of various humours the Membranous mole which is a thin bag filled with blood All these four are contained in the concavity of the womb These moles Sign of moles are somtimes engendered with the Infant though they do oftentimes cause the Infant to die either because it doth deprive the Infant of that nourishment which goes from the infant to the encrease of that or else because it hinders the growth and perfection of the Infant The cause of the fleshy mole doth not always proceed from the mother for the man doth often contribute to the encrease of it when the seed of the man is weak imperfect and barren or though it be good if there be too small a quantity of it which after it is mingled with the seed of the woman is chok'd by the menstrual bloud and so not being sufficient for the generation of the Infant instead thereof produces this little mass of flesh which by little and little grows bigger being wrapt about in a caule while nature strives to engender any thing rather then to be idle It happens also when the woman during her monethly purgations receives the company of her husband her body being not yet purged and void or else when the woman lies with a great desire and lust with her husband after she hath conceived or when she hath retained her monethly courses beyond her time The windy mole The windy mole is engendered by the weak heat of the matrix and the parts adjoyning as the liver and the spleen which engender a quantity of winde which fix in the concavity of the matrix The watry Mole The watry mole is engendered of many confluences of water which the womb receives either from the speen or the liver or the parts adjoyning or else from the weakness of the liver which cannot assimulate the bloud which is sent thither for the nourishment of the thing contained in it part whereof turns into water which cannot be voided but remains in the womb That which is called the Humorous mole is engendered of many moist humours serosities or the whites or certain watry purgations which sweat forth from the menstruous veins and are contained in the concavity of the matrix The Membranous mole The membranous mole is a skin or bag which is garnished with many white and transparent vessels filled up with bloud This being cast into the water the bloud goes out and the membrane is seen only to gather like a heap of clotted seed False Conception hath many signes The signs of false conception common with the true conception as the supression of the flowers depraved appetite vomitings swelling of the belly and of the breasts so that it is a hard thing to distinguish the one from the other only these that follow are more properly the signs of false then true conception For in false conception the face is ordinarily puffed up the breasts that at the first were swollen afterwards become every day more then other softer and lanker and without milk In fine the face the breast the arms the thighs and groynes grow lank and meager

The belly waxes hard as happens to those who are troubled with the Dropsie and almost of an equal roundness with many pricking pains at the bottom of the belly which have scarce any intermission which is the cause that they can hardly sleep being encombered with a heavy and dead burthen It may be known also by other signs for in the conception the Male Infant begins to move at the beginning of the third moneth for the most part and the female at the beginning of the third or fourth moneth now where any motion happens the woman ought to observe whether she have any milk in her breasts or no if she have milk in her breasts it is a sign of true conception if she have not it is a sign of a false one Besides in true conception the mother shall perceive her child to move on all sides oftner though to the right flank then to the left sometimes up sometimes down without any assistance but in false conception although there be a kind of motion which is not enliven'd that proceeds from the expulsive faculty of the mother and not from the mole The mother shall also perceive it to tumble always on that side she lies not having any power to sustain it self beside as she lies on her back if any one do push gently downward the burthen of her belly she shall perceive it to lie and rest in the place where it was pushed without returning thither Beside that which will confirm it more is when after the end of nine moneths the woman shall not come to her travel but that her belly still swels and is puffed up more and more all the rest of the parts of the body growing thin and meager this is a sign of a mole notwithstanding that many women have been known to go ten or eleven moneths before their delivery The signs of the windy mole are these when the belly is equally stretched and swelled up like a bladder more soft then when it bears the fleshie mole and especially near the groynes and small of the belly if it be struck on it sounds like a drum sometime the swelling decreases but by and by it swels more and more the woman feels her self more light it is engendered and encreases swifter then the fleshie mole or the watry and it makes such a dissention of the belly as if one were tearing it a sunder For the watery and humorous mole the signs are almost the same the belly increases and swels by little and little as the woman lies upon her back the sides of her belly are more swelled and distended then the middle or the bottom of the belly which grows flatter then by reason that the water and the humours fall down to the sides of the belly moving up and down on the belly as if there were a fluctuation of water there This distinction is more to be observed in the watry mole that the flank and thighs are more stretched and swollen then the humoral because that the waters flow thither oftentimes and that which comes forth through natures conduite is as clear as rock water without any ill savour but that which flows out in the humoral distemper is more red like water wherein flesh hath been washed and is of an ill savour This is also to be marked in false conception that the flowers never come down and the navel of the mother advances it self little or nothing both which happen in true conception There are besides these above written certain other tumours which the women do take for moles These occasion a rotundity and swelling in the belly which are not discovered till the woman be opened and then there doth appear though the body of the womb be clean and neat without any thing contained in it at one or both corners of the womb a quantity of water contained as it were in little bags in others are to be seen a heap of kernels and superfluous flesh clustered up together in the womb which cause it to swell Yet in these women it hath been observed that their purgations have been very regular which hath been a sign that the womb it self hath been in good temper There is also another excrescency of flesh which may be termed a pendent mole The pendent mole which is a piece of flesh hanging within the inner neck of the womb which at the place where it is fastened is about a fingers breadth still increasing bigger and bigger toward the bottom like a little bell This flesh hanging in the interior neck of the womb possesses the whole orifice of the privy member sometimes appearing outward as big as the fist as hath been observed in some women Of the cures of all these we shall treat in due place CHAP. VI. How women with childe ought to govern themselves IN the first place she ought to chuse a temperate and wholsome air neither too hot nor too cold nor in a watry and damp place nor too subject to fogs or winds especially the South winde which is a great enemy to women with childe causing oft times abortion in them The North winde is also hurtful engendring Rhumes and Catarrhs and Coughs which do often force a woman to lie down before her time Likewise the winds which carry with them evil odours and vapours for these being sucked with the air into the Lungs are the cause of divers diseases For her diet Her Diet. she ought to chuse meat that breeds good and wholsome nourishment and which breeds good juice such are meats that are moderately drie the quantity ought to be sufficient both for themselves and for their children and therefore they are to fast as little as may be for abstinence unless upon good occasion renders the child sickly and tender and constrains it to be born before its time to seek for nourishment as the over-much diet stuffs it up or renders it so big that it can hardly keep its place All meats too cold too hot and too moist are to be avoided as also the use of salads and spiced meats and the too much use of salt meats are also forbidden which will make the childe to be born without nails a sign of short life Her bread ought to be good wheat well baked and levened Her meats ought to be Pigeons Turtles Phesants Larks Partrige Veal and Mutton For herbs she may use Lettice Endive Bugloss and Burrage abstaining from raw Salads for her last course she may be permitted to eat Pears Marmalad as also Cherries and Damsons she must avoid all meats that are diuretick and provoke urine or the termes and such meats as are windy as Pease and Beans Of Longing Yet because there are some women that have such depraved stomachs by reason of a certain salt and sower humor contained in the membranes of the stomach as that they will eat coles chalke ashes cinders and such like trash so that it is impossible to hinder them to such therefore we can only

often changed Or else you may dip linnen cloaths also in a decoction of Camomil flowers and Violet flowers with a small quantity of oyl of Roses and a drop of vineger or two or you may use this fomentation Take of the juyce of Nightshade oyl of Roses of each an ounce and a half of the decoction of Fenugreek Camomil and Lineseed two ounces vineger one ounce This medicine you may use by dipping a spunge therein and so washing and fomenting the breast therewith Or you may apply this Cataplasme take of the leaves of Nightshade and Melilot half a handful of each let them be boyled extracted through a course cloth then add to them bean meal two ounces Oxymel and oyle of sweet Almonds of each one ounce of this make a Cataplasm and apply it If the disease be more prevalent you must use more forcible remedies and among the rest this fomentation Take of the leaves of Mallows Violets Dill of each one handful flowers of Camomil and Melilot of each a small handful and a halfe boyl these together adding to them a little wine and oyl of Dill or Mustard first let the breast be fomented with this and afterwards with an oyntment composed of equal parts of new butter oyl of violets and Hens fat But if these things avail not to dissipate the humour you must observe whether the inflamation tend either to a suppuration or induration If you find that it tends to a hardness you must try all means to hinder it by the way of mollifying plaisters among which this is not a little experimented Take the marrow of a Calves leg two ounces Sheeps grease one ounce Saffron four scruples Cumminseed bruised two scruples mingle all these and make a plaister If the inflamation doth not harden but doth altogether tend to a suppuration which may be known by these signs that is to say the increasing of the tumour the beating and excessive heat pain which rages about those parts so vehemently that do not admit them to be touch'd But now the suppuration is to be hastened with hot and moist medicines which have an Emplastick faculty for which purpose this is much commended Take the leaves of Mallows one handful roots of Althea one ounce boyl these together and when they are mashed draw them out and add to them bean meal and Fenugreek of each one ounce the whites of two eggs myrrh and Assa faetida of each one dram Saffron one scruple mingle all these together and make a Cataplasm for your use to this you may either add Capons grease Hogs grease or fresh butter If these remedies do not suddenly bring the inflammation to a suppuration you must then take of the shells of snails bruised and lay them upon the Cataplasm in such a manner that the snail shell may come to touch that part of the tumour which is most elevated and pointed whence it appears that the matter will first issue If these remedies avail not it will be necessary to open the said Apostem with a Lancet and this must be done when you are sure that the matter is ready to come forth which may be known by these signs when the beating ceases when the fever the pain and the heat of the part do begin to diminish when you perceive the place pointed and raised and enclining to a blackish colour When the wound is open you must first apply to it a digestive composed of an ounce of turpentine half an ounce of oyl of Roses and the yolk of an egge After this you must cleanse it with honey of roses Turpentine and barly meal or with the oyntment of the Apostles or the oyntment called Aegyptiacum then you may put on the top of the place the oyntment called Basilicon or Paracelsus plaister which doth digest cleanse carnifie cicatrize after a very extraordinary manner This is furthermore to be observed that an ulcer in the breast is not easily cured if the milk be not dried out of the other breast and therefore the milke is to be dried up by keeping the child from sucking and by putting upon the breasts of the woman cloaths dipped in cold water together with bean barly and vineger and such like remedies THE COMPLEAT MIDWIVES Practice Of windy Tumours in the Breasts THe flatuous tumor of the breasts is caused by a thick vapour which rises from the menstruall blood which is retained or corrupted in the Matrix The causes of which are first the suppression of the flowers or when the flowers are not discharged into their proper place and in their proper time as also from the corruption of the humours by which are ingendred divers bad fumes and vapours for this being received into the breasts cause a distention much like a true swelling The signes by which it is known is the pain which it brings along with it which is sharp and pricking causing a distention of the part The heart is not a little out of order by reason of the windinesses which lie so neer it and commonly the left breast is most swoln communicating its pain to the arm shoulder and ribs of the same side And these signes differ from those of a Canker for in this distemper the breast is white and shining by reason of the distention and if you touch it it sounds like a Drum And if you presse it with your hands you wil finde that it is sweld in all parts alike and not in one more then another This is cured first by a good order of diet taking little victuals whereby crudities may be avoided that do afford matter to the obstructions and increase windinesse for which cause she must also drink little that water boyld with Cinamom Anis-seed and rinde of Citrons The next remedy is by using things which are good to provoke the courses among which use this receit strein Selandine stampt into posset-ale and drink it four dayes before the new moon and four dayes after And it will not be amisse to let blood three or four times in the year about the time that the courses ought to begin For by this means you may provoke the flowers hinder the increase either of a Scirrhus or of a Canker to which purpose bathes frictions and infections are not a little to be used In the next place you must prepare the humours that foment this windinesse both in the Matrix and in the veins and that by syrups which do expell flegme and melancholy after which you must purge your patient for which purpose you may take of the leaves of Sene three ounces Anis-seed one scruple let them boyle in foure ounces of Borage water vvhen it is streined infuse into it Confection Hamech vvithout Scammony Colloquint and Cathol Dupl Rheo of each an ounce and a halfe when it is streined dissolve in it one ounce of syrup of Roses solutive this potion must be given two hours before eating You may also use this gentle Apozem Take of the