attenuating and heating Potions made of opening Roots of Calaminth Fennel Saxifrage Burnet Hysop and the like Saffron and Cinnamon being added to them and the Cure must be begun presently after the Purgation of the Courses Let the Woman take every Morning five or six Ounces of the following Apozem Take of the Roots of Smallage Fennel and Parsley each two Ounces of the Leaves of Feverfew Cat-mint Penny-royal Maiden-hair each one Handful and an Half of the Seeds of Anise and Fennel each one Drachm and an Half boyl them in a sufficient quantity of Water to a Quart in the strained Liquor dissolve of the Syrups of Mugwort and Maiden-hair each three Ounces the Syrup of Hysop or of the Five Opening Roots made without Vinegar is also very good being mixed with the Waters of Fennel Cat-mint Penny-royal and Parsley and other things may be used which are mentioned in the Chapter of the Suppression of the Courses 3dly She must be Purged with Agarick Trochiscated or with the Pill of Mastick Or Take of the Pills of Agarick and Aloephargin each two Scruples with the Syrup of Mugwort make four Pills Fourthly Those things which draw the the Blood downwards must be used as bleeding in the Foot three or four days before the accustomed time of the Courses these things being done the Legs and lower Belly must be fomented with a decoction of Fenugreek Camomile Dill Melilot Fennel Parsly Daucus And while she is bathing let her take one of the Tablets called Diacalaminth afterwards let the Parts be fumed with Spices and use Frictions and Ligatures to the Legs and let Cupping-glasses be applyed to the Claves of the Legs without scarification and if the Courses do not yet flow let the Woman be purged every third day with four or five of the Pills mentioned before Let the lower Belly be anointed with the Oyls of Capers White Lillies Dill Cinnamon and Saffron and let Uterine Glisters be injected made of four Ounces of the Decoction of Penny-royal Horse-mint Thym and Cresses with two Ounces of Oyl of Rue or of Dill which wonderfully rouze the dull sense of the Womb. CHAP. VI. Of the Courses corrupted or suppurated THE Courses may be corrupted four several ways First from drawing a putrid quality from the whole Body Secondly from the mixture of some putrid humour in the passages Thirdly by a long suppression Fourthly from an intemperies in the Womb or from an abundance of putrid humours contained in and about it and are coloured and disordered according to the nature of the humours they are White Pale Livid Green Black Skinny Fibrous Membranous Windy Fetid and they have Sand and Worms in them The Cure is in a manner the same which is proposed for the Cure of the Whites for an exact course of Diet being ordered the Woman must be purged with Agarick trochiscated or with the Pill of Mastich if a Phlegmatic humour abounds if a bilious humour be the cause let her be purged with Rhubarb as Take of the best Rhubarb four Scruples of yellow Myrobalans one Drachm and an Half infuse them a Night in three Ounces of Succory Water to the strained Liquor add of Syrup of Roses Solutive and of Manna each one Ounce If Melancholy Humours abound Take of Senna one Ounce of the Seeds of Annise one Drachm infuse them in four Ounces of Fumitory-water to the strained Liquor add of Pulp of Cassia and of Syrup of Roses Solutive each one Ounce If the Courses are suppurated such things must be used now and then as evacute a dust and Cholerick humours which may be easily prepared with Agarick Rhubarb and Senna and sometimes Glisters must be used and moderate exercise which purge the Body and Womb and if the Stomach abounding with Flegm be the cause a Vomit used by Intervals is proper that what is daily heapt up there may be purged off before it enters the Veins Thirdly Such things must be used as are able to eradicate the Disease and if the Humours are cold and gross sudorifics must be used as a Decoction of Sarsaparilla Guiac China and the like But if Choler or Melancholy be the cause bathing is most proper but gentle Frictions and Pessaries are proper for both and anoint the Belly with the Oyl of Sweet Almonds or with the Oyl of Violets which are also to be put up the Womb. But if these things do no good an Issue must be made in one or both the Arms which is of excellent use CHAP. VII Of the Complication of the Courses with other Diseases THere is scarce any thing that does disturb Physicians more and which makes them err so much as the complication of the Courses with Diseases and this happens chiefly six ways First When a Disease happens just when the Courses are about to come Secondly If by reason of the invasion of a Disease the Courses come before their due time Thirdly If the time of the Courses and of the Disease are complicated so that they come together Fourthly If the Courses being suppressed delayed or lessened a Disease comes upon them upon an other account Fifthly If by reason of a Disease pre-existing a suppression or delay of the Courses is the cause of the increase of the Disease and its Symptoms Sixthly If when there is a Disease the Courses flow If therefore the Courses are just about to flow when the Disease is beginning or in the process of it we must consider whether the Disease be one of those which is occasioned by the Womb in which case if the Disease requires bleeding without any delay we must draw it from the foot that it may be let out by a convenient way that the Womb may be evacuated and the cause expelled But if the Disease arises from the whole Body or from some principal member of it that Vein of the Arm most affirm must be opened which chiefly respects the part affected but this opinion if it be generally received seems to me injurious and we ought rather to distinguish concerning the number of the days the acuteness of the Disease and the plenitude of the Body for if the Disease be not acute Blood ought to be drawn from the Foot and especially if the Woman be within three or four days of her Courses and in this case she ought to be blooded in the Foot although the Disease be acute and this both reason and experience confirms for Nature is to be evacuated that way she tends if it be a convenient place for if the Woman be blooded in the upper parts we often see that she becomes delirious and that watchings sleepy Diseases difficulty of Breathing and at length Death it self follow But if there be eight days or thereabouts before the time of the Courses and there is a great plenitude and the Woman cannot be so sufficiently evacuated by the Foot as the Disease requires then all agree that she must be blooded in the Arm especially if the Disease be acute but purging Medicines
Also Directions for making Compound Waters Syrups Simple and Compound Electuaries Pills Powders and other sorts of Medicines Moreover the Gums Balsams Oyls Juices and the like which are sold by Apothecaries and Druggists are added to this Herbal and their Virtues and Uses are fully described 8 o The Storehouse of Physical Practice Being a General Treatise of the Causes and Signs of all Diseases afflicting Human Bodies Together with the shortest plainest and safest way of curing them by Method Medicine and Diet To which is added for the Benefit of Young Practisers several Choice Forms of Medicines used by the London Physicians 8 o These Five by the Author of this Treatise Pains afflicting Human Bodies Their various Difference Causes Parts affected signals of Danger or Safety shewing the Tendency of Chronick and Acute Diseases for a seasonable prevention of fatal Events With a Tract of Issues and Setons By E. Manwaring M. D. 8 o The Compleat Chyrugeon or the whole Art of Chyrurgery explain'd by way of Questions and Answers Containing an exact account of its Principles and several parts Viz. Of the Bones Muscles Tumours Ulcers and Wounds Simple and Complicated or those by Gun-shot as also of Venereal Diseases the Scurvey Fractures Luxations and all sorts of Chyrurgical Operations together with their proper Bandages and Dressings Whereto is added a Chyrurgical Dispensatory shewing the manner how to prepare all such Medicines as are most necessary for a Chyrurgeon and particularly the Mercurial Panacaea Writen in French by M. Le Clerc Physician in Ordinary and Privy Counseller to the French King Faithfully Translated into English 12 o Pia Desideria or Divine Addresses In three Parts 1. Sighs of the Penitent Soul 2. Desires of the Religious Soul 3. Extasies of the Enamour'd Soul Illustrated with 47 Cuts Written in Latin by Herm. Hugo Englished by Edm. Arwaker 8 o The Art of Catechizing or the Compleat Catechist In four Parts 1. The Church Catechism resolv'd into Easie Questions 2. An Exposition of it in a continued full and Plain Discourse 3. The Church Catechism resolv'd into Scripture Proofs 4. The Whole Duty of Man reduced into Questions Fitted for the meanest capacities the Weakest Memories the Plainest Teachers and the most uninstructed Learners 12 o Country Conversations Being an Account of some Discourses that happened in a Visit to the Country last Summer on Divers Subjects chiefly of the Modern Comidies of Drinking of Translated Verse of Painting and Painters of Poets and Poetry 8 o The Christians Manual In two Parts 1. The Catechumen or an account given by the Young Person of his Knowledge in Religion before his admission to the Lords Supper as a Ground Work for his Right understanding the Sacrament 2. An Introduction to the Sacrament Or a short safe and plain way to the Communion Table being an Instruction for the Worthy Receiving the Lords Supper To which is added the Communicants Assistant being Devotions to that purpose fitted to be used before at and after the Receiving the Blessed Sacrament Collected for and Familiarly addressed to every particular Communicant By L. Addison D. D. Dean of Litchfield 12 o Letters of Religion and Virtue to several Gentlemen and Ladies to excite Piety and Devotion with some short Reflections on Divers Subjects 12 o A Practical Discourse of the Sin against the Holy Ghost Shewing plainly 1. What it is 2. How any Person may certainly know whether he has been Guilty of it Designed to bring Incouragement to the Faithful Penitent Tranquility of mind to the Obedient Joys to them that love and the Returning Sinner from Desparation 8 o A Discourse Proving from Scripture and Reason that the life of Man is not Limited by any Absolute Decree of God By the Author of the Duty of Man 8 o The Best Gnide to Devotion being short Prayers Meditations and Thanksgivings taken out of Scripture and fitted to all occasions 24 o Advertisement EXcellent Purging Pills prepar'd by the Author are to be sold by Mr. Henry Bonwicke at the Red Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard They cure the Scurvey the most reigning Disease of this Kingdom they Purge the Head Breast Stomach and Reins and Cleanse the Blood and are a very proper Purge for those that cannot confine themselves when they want Purging but are forced to go abroad about their Business The Price of each Box is One Shilling Six Pence with Directions for use FINIS
A General TREATISE OF THE DISEASES OF Maids Bigbellied Women Child-bed-Women and Widows TOGETHER With the best Methods of Preventing or Curing the same By J. PECHEY of the College of Physicians in London LONDON Printed for Henry Bonwick at the Red-Lyon in St. Paul 's Church-Yard 1696. THE PREFACE WOMAN of all the Creatures is the Fairest and most Beautiful kind Nature having bestow'd on her a delicate and fine habit of Body and design'd her only for an easie Life and to perform the tender Offices of Love whereas she compos'd Man of more robust Principles that he might be able to protect the Woman to delve and manure the Earth and to undergo the other Toils of Life But by reason of this Curious Frame the Fair Sex as other fine things are is subject to many Injuries for besides the common Calamities there are many great and dangerous Diseases peculiar to Women arising from their Constitutions monthly Purgations Pregnancy Labours and Lying in Their Constitution disposes them to Hysteric Diseases which resemble almost all the Diseases Mankind is subject to viz. An Apoplexy Epilepsie Palpitation of the Heart Coughs Violent Vomiting Colick Stone in the Kidnies and many other Pains and sometimes Swellings in the Jaws Shoulder Hands Thighs and Legs accompany these Diseases Nor can the Teeth free themselves from this Disease but the most cmomon Pain is the Pain of the Back A dejection of Mind also accompanies this Disease continually A Suppression or Immoderate Flux of the Courses causes many disorders in the Body so also does their Flowing before their due time or their staying longer than they should and their complication with other Diseases renders the Cure difficult All the time their being with Child which is a nine Months Sickness they are inclined to Nauseousness Vomiting to Pains of the Back Reins and Hips violent Coughs Swellings of the Legs and Thighs Piles and many other Diseases and upon some Indispositions of the Body to Miscarriage which is the worst and most dangerous of all When they are in Labour and when they lie in they are encompassed with many difficulties and dangers viz. an ill position of the Child suppression of the Lochia Floodings Fevers after Pains Apostemations of the Breasts and many other Diseases So that if Nature had not wisely tacked an Appetite to things necessary we must conclude the Preservation of Individuals and of Species too would not have been near so well provided for as now it is The following Treatise is a Collection from Rodericus a Castro and others that have wrote well of Womens Diseases and I judge it may be serviceable to Ladies and Gentlewomen who charitably dispence Physick and give advice to their poor Neighbours in the Country where there is no Physician near and it may be also of use to Physicians Chyrugeons and Midwives it being a general Treatise of Womens Diseases and the Methods and Medicines contained in it being approved and frequently practised by the most Renowned Authors of each Physical Province From the Angel and Crown in Basing-Lane London June the 16th 1696. John Pechey THE INDEX Page ABscesses 194 Acrocordo 233 Acute Diseases of Women in Child-bed 165 After-pains 161 Allantois 84 Amnios 82 Back pains 98 Barrenness 53 Bath-waters 8 Belly-bound 96 Bloody-Flux 103 Breasts Cancerated 214 Caesarian Delivery 150 Chaps in the Nipples 173 Child-bed Purgations 161 Child dead 148 Choice of a Nurse 182 Clefts of the Privities 233 Clitoris 61 Conception 73 Condyloma 233 Corion 82 Cough 100 Courses 14 19 22 28 30 37 45 46 104 Decoction 99 Delirium 170 Dropsie of the Womb 203 Eggs 69 Emulsion 99 Epilepsie 170 Fallopian Tubes 71 Ficus 233 Flooding 105 158 Green-sickness 13 Hermophrodites 61 Hill of Venus 59 Hip-Pains 98 Hymen 63 Hysteric Diseases 1 Infant nourished 88 Inflation of the Womb 203 Labour hard 143 Labour contrary to Nature 122 Legs swell'd 100 Liquid Laudanum 12 Loosness 102 Lozenges 115 Madness 170 Melancholy ibid 245 Milk 173 179 Miscarriage 107 Mole 75 Myrtle berry Caruncles 64 Navel-string 86 Nymphs 60 Piles 101 Privities 59 106 191 Reins pain'd 98 Scabs of the Privities 233 Secundine retain'd 155 Sphincter 64 Stone of the Womb 226 Suckling of a Child 182 Superfaetation 78 Testicles 68 Thymus 233 Tumours from Milk 173 Vlcers corrosive 194 Vomiting 97 Vrachus 87 Vrine difficult 100 Warts 233 Water breaking 121 Whites 52 Womb closed 42 Womb 65 Womb-Cake 80 Woman with Child managed 95 Womb bearing down 106 Womb falling 201 Womb Cancerated 214 Womb Worms 226 Wrinkles in the Belly 188 A General TREATISE OF Womens Diseases CHAP. I. Of the Hysteric Disease THIS Disease proceeds from a weakness and confusion of the Spirits and is not only very frequent but also so wonderfully various that it resembles almost all Diseases Mankind is subject to For after hard Labour or some great disturbance of the Mind it occasions an Apoplexy which ends in a Palsie of half the Body Sometimes it produces violent Convulsions very like the Falling-Sickness and these are commonly call'd Mother-fits Sometimes it possesses the outward part of the head causing violent pain continually fixt in one part which may be cover'd with the top of the Thumb and violent Vomiting accompanies this pain It also occasions sometimes a great Palpitation of the Heart and sometimes the Woman coughs without intermission but spits up nothing Sometimes rushing violently upon the region under the Heart it causes violent pain much like the twisting of the Guts and the Woman Vomits exceedingly and casts up a green Matter and sometimes Matter of an unusual Colour and often after the Sick have been almost destroy'd by the said pain and the reachings to Vomit it is at length carried off by the Jaundice tincturing the surface of the Body like Saffron The Sick is much dejected and Despair as certainly accompanies this kind of Hysteric Disease as the Pain and Vomiting above mention'd When this Disease falls upon one of the Kidnies it plainly represents by the pain it causes there a fit of the Stone and it is difficult to distinguish it from the Stone unless perchance some unlucky accident disturbing the Womans mind a little before she was taken ill shews that it was an Hysteric Disease Nor is the Bladder free from this false Symptom for it does not only cause pain there but it also stops the Urin. Sometimes falling upon the Stomach it causes continual Vomiting and sometimes a Loosness when it is settled upon the Guts but no pain accompanies either of these Symptoms And as this Disease afflicts almost all the inward parts so sometimes it seizes all the outward parts occasioning pain and sometimes a Swelling in the Jaws Shoulders Hands Thighs Legs but the Swelling of the Legs is plainer seen than the rest and contrary to Swellings in the Dropsie is most in the Morning nor being pressed does it leave a pit and most commonly it swells only one of the Legs Nor can the Teeth free themselves from
the assaults of this Disease tho they are not hollow and tho there is no apparent Defluction that may occasion the pain yet it is no whit gentler nor shorter nor easier Cured But the pain of the Back is most common which most certainly all feel how little soever they are afflicted with this Disease Moreover this is common to the foresaid pains that the place whereon they were is tender and akes as if it were soundly beaten but this tenderness goes off by degrees And this is worth observing that often a notable coldness of the outward parts makes way for these Symptoms which for the most part does not go off till the fit ends which coldness is almost like that wherewith a Carcass grows stiff yet the Pulse is good Moreover all Hysteric Women complain of a dejection and sinking of the Spirits and sometimes laugh excessively and at other times cry as much without any real cause for either But the most proper and almost inseparable Symptom is a Urin as clear as Rock-water Sometimes ill fumes are belched up and sometimes the Wind that comes from the Stomach is sower just like Vinegar But their Minds are more affected than their Bodies for an incurable Desperation is mixt with the very nature of the Disease A day would scarce be sufficient to reckon up all the Symptoms belonging to this Disease and I think Demetrius reckn'd pretty right tho he mistook the cause of the Disease when he said in an Epistle to Hippocrates that the Womb was the cause of Six hundred Miseries and of innumerable Calamities The external causes of this Disease are either violent motions of the Body or which is much oftner vehement disturbances of the Mind to these disorders of the Mind which are usually the occasion of this Disease is to be added emptiness of the Stomach by reason of long fasting inmmoderate Bleeding a Vomit or Purge that works too much In order to the cure I order that eight Ounces of Blood be taken from the right Arm and that the following Plaister be apply'd to the Navel Take of Galbanum dissolved in Tincture of Castor and strain'd three Drachms of Tacamahaca two Drams mix them make a Plaister The next Morning let her use the following Pills Take of the Pill Coch-major two Scruples of Castor powder'd two Grains of Peruvian Balsam four drops make four Pills let her take them at five in the Morning and sleep after repeat them twice or thrice every Morning or every other Morning according to the Womans strength and as they work Take of the Waters of Black-Cherries Rhue and Compound Briony each three Ounces of Castor ty'd up in a rag and hanged in the Viol half a Dram of Fine Sugar a Sufficient quantity make a Julep whereof let her take four or five Spoonfulls when she is faint dropping into the first dose if the fit is violent twenty drops of the Spirit of Harts-horn After the Purging Pills just described are taken let her use the following Take of the filings of Steel eight Grains with a sufficient quantity of extract of Wormwood make two Pills let her take them early in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon for Thirty days drinking upon them a draught of Wormwood Wine Or if she like a Bolus better Take of the Conserves of Roman Wormwood and of the yellow peel of Oranges each one Ounce of Angelica and Nutmegs candied and of Venice Treacle each half an Ounce of candied Ginger two Drachms make an electuary with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Oranges Take of this electuary one Drachm and an half of the filings of Steel well rub'd eight Grains make a Bolus with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Oranges to be taken in the Morning and at five in the Evening drinking upon it a Glass of Wormwood-wine Take of choice Myrrh and Galbanum each one Drachm and an half of Castor fifteen Grains with a sufficient quantity of Balsam Peru make twelve Pills of every Drachm let her take three every Night and drink upon them three or four Spoonfuls of Compound Briony Water through the whole course of this process But if these Pills move the Body which sometimes they do in Bodies that are very easily purged the following may be used instead of them Take of Castor one Drachm of Volatile Salt of Amber half a Drachm with a sufficient quantity of extract of Rue make twenty-four small Pills let her take three every Night But Steel Medicines which must be noted occasion sometimes in Women great disorders both of Body and Mind and not only on the first days which is usual almost in every body but also all the time they are taken In this case the use of Steel must not presently be interrupted but Laudanum must be given every night for some time in some Hysteric water that they may the better bear it But when the Symptoms are mild and it seems the business may be done without Steel I think it sufficient to Bleed and to Purge three or four times and then to give the altering Hysteric Pills above-mentioned morning and evening for ten days which method seldom fails when the Disease is not violent yea the Pills alone Bleeding and Purging being omitted do often a great deal of good But some Women can't bear Hysteric Medicines and are much injured thereby therefore they must not be given to such If the Blood is so very feeble and the confusion of the Spirits so great that Steel ordered to be used according to the method prescribed is not sufficient to cure the Disease the Sick must drink Tunbridge-waters or the like for they cure Diseases more efectually than any preparation of Iron but if in drinking of them any Sickness happen that belongs to Hysteric Symptoms the Sick must forbear drinking them a day or two till that Symptom that hindred their passage is quite gon And it is to be noted that Purging must be avoided all the time the Woman drinks these waters But if this Disease does not yeild to Steel-waters the Sick must go to the Bath and when she has used the waters of it three mornings following the next day let her go into the Bath and the day following let her drink them again and so let her do by turns for two months for in these and others of what kind soever they are the Patient must persist in the use of them till she is quite well Venice-treacle used often and a long time is a great remedy in this Disease Spanish-wine with Gentian Angelica Worm-wood Centory and other strengthening things infus'd in it does a great deal of good some spoonfuls of it being taken thrice a day if the Woman be not thin and of a cholerick habit of Body And truly a large draught of Spanish-wine taken by it self at bed-time for some nights has been very beneficial to some Women Jesuits-powder also wonderfully comforts and invigorates the Blood and Spirits a Scruple of it being taken morning and
naribus erumpere bonum est The cause of this Disease is most commonly some violent Passion of the Mind or some great disturbance happening when the Courses are near flowing it comes also from Obstructions of the Womb or by reason of violent Pains and great Diseases of the upper Parts also from the weakness of them when the VVomb and lower Parts are strong for the weak Parts always receive what the stronger put upon them It also comes from some external Cause as by drinking cold Water unseasonably or by washing the Feet and Legs unseasonably or by the use of Vinegar when the Courses are near The Scope of the Cure is Two-fold the First is the Evacuation of the Blood abounding the other is the Recalling of it to the lower Parts which is chiefly done by Cooling the upper Parts and by Heating Moistning and Opening the lower Parts but both may be well answered by Bleeding in the Foot three or four days before the Blood flows and by applying Cupping-glasses to the Thighs Legs and Hips sometimes Dry but most commonly with Scarification and also by provoking the Hemorrhoids by Frictions by Walking by hot Baths natural or artificial by Fomentations made of opening Herbs by Unctions Pessaries and uterine Glisters But see more of this in the Chapter of Suppression of the Courses The two following Remedies are peculiarly proper for this Disease viz. Bleeding in the Foot for several Months at the times we have mentioned and the Bath-waters wherein the Woman must be Bathed early in the Morning and must continue a while in them but this must be noted that the Waters must not reach above the region of the Liver and in the mean while the upper Parts must be â—anned CHAP. V. Of the Courses coming before their due time and of staying longer than they should IN many Women the Courses flow before their accustomed time and sometimes they stay longer than they should and this anticipation and delay are sometimes orderly and sometimes disorderly The Causes are either the Vice of the Womb as the ill Figure of it or a Solution of the Continuum and sometimes a hurt on some other account as a Vitious humour that irritates before the time by reason of plenty of Blood or the thinness or sharpness of it the quantity of humours occasioning it may be known by the dulness of the Body by the sanguine habit of the Woman by a sedentary and idle Life by excess in eating and drinking or by some other Evacuation stopped or lessened The Acrimony of the Blood may be known by the Heat Erosion and Pain in the Excretion or by the Vitious habit of the Womans Body and the course of her Life foregoing or by the Diet she was wont to use and the like But if it come leasurely and without pain the retentive faculty is weak it may also be occasioned by a blow or fall If it proceed by reason of the Loosness and fault of the retentive faculty it must be strengthened by proper Remedies if it come from a plenitude it must be remedied by a sparing Diet and moderate Exercise and by taking away so much Blood as is agreeable to the strength in the middle of the Month or a little before the Courses flow Frictions also in the Arms and in all the upper parts of the Body are proper the Woman must abstain from Wine and all Strong-waters and instead of them Chalybeats must be used and if these things do not do the business she must be blooded in the Arm but if it proceed from the Acrimony of the Humours she must eat freely Meat of good nourishment and must exercise a little and such Medicines must be used as attemperate the humours and she must be purg'd and Uterine Glisters must be injected made of two Ounces of Oyl of Violets and four Ounces of the Decoction of Mallows but care must be taken that the Courses be not quite stopped because it is dangerous Lastly if a blow a fall or difficult labour occasion this disease the following Cataplasm must be applied to the Womb and Neighbouring parts Take of the Powders of Dragons-blood Frankincense Mastich and of the greater Comfry each two Drams with a sufficient quantity of Turpentine make a Cataplasm If the Woman be of a hot Constitution apply the following Plaister Take of the Powders of Roses Myrtles and Balaustins and Mastich each one Drahom of fine Flour one Ounce with the Whites of Eggs make a Plaister The Courses stay beyond their time by reason of age when they are about to go away or by a vice of the whole Body or of the womb If it proceed on the account of age you must only endeavour to prevent those inconveniences which are wont to follow especially the Gout and a pain in the Hip which may be done by a spare Diet much exercise and by bleeding yearly till Nature has been accustomed to the want of the menstruous Purgation But if it proceed from a Vice of the whole Body it must be treated as a suppression of the Courses If it proceed from a peculiar disorder of the Womb it requires a peculiar Cure and is a Symptom of the kind of the vitiated action of Excretion either because it is hindred by the ill Formation or a gross Humour that Obstructs The Causes therefore are these three which are contrary to the anticipation of the Courses viz. the weakness of the Faculty the fault of the Humours and the dulness of the Sense The impotence of the Faculty is occasioned by the frigidity or moisture of the Temperament or by the depraved Figure of the Instrument the Humour is faulty upon the account of its thickness siccity and clamminess The Sense is rendred dull most commonly by moisture abounding The weak Faculty by reason of Frigidity is known by the Womans perceiving a weight and disturbance after the time of the coming of her Courses is past The fault of the Instrument may be known by what went before as by hard labour a tumour cicatrix leaping or a fall whereby the Womb or a part subservient to it is displaced or the figure of it deformed The fault of the Humour may be known by those things that are evacuated by the Blood as if it be whitish it may be seen if it be gross and clammy a sedentary life and a gross and flegmatic Diet went before the Woman is of a soft pale and leaden habit of body and is fat and by the Bloods flowing slowly and by the long continuance of the Courses sometimes and by their ending in a slime If when they stay a long time before they come the Woman does not perceive any disturbance in the Womb and neighbouring Parts the Sense is dull If the Disease arise from a thick and clammy Humour as it does most commonly it must be cured according to Galen with three sorts of Remedies First by a thin and heating Diet by moderate exercise and frictions of the Legs Secondly by
The Courses as was said before come sometimes drop by drop and sometimes plentifully sometimes by intervals and sometimes continually sometimes orderly and sometimes disorderly It is most commonly occasioned by the same Causes from whence a suppression of the Courses proceeds but gentler for there is not a total Suppression but an unequal Obstruction of the Vessels of the Womb by reason of thick clotted and feculent blood which stretches the Vessels and Nature violently endeavouing to Evacuate it a gross wind arises which distending the Vessels and the neighbouring parts occasions the violent pain which continues untill the clods are ejected Sometimes the Blood flows plentifully yet the Courses are counted difficult and lessened because tho a great quantity is evacuated yet it is not answerable to the plenitude The second Cause is an Ulcer or some preternatural Tumour in the Womb or neighbouring parts which are provoked and hurt by the commotion of the Blood The third is the acrimony of the Humours This Disease is known by a pain in the Head a pain in the Stomach Restlesness pains in the Loins and of the lower Belly just like the pains of Child-bearing coming with the Courses or eight days before There is often also fainting and convulsions and a palpitation of the Heart and by these you may know that the Blood is clotted or thick and a small swelling is sometimes perceived in one or both of the Groins by reason of clotted Blood contained in it and just before the evacuation of the clotted Blood the pain is most violent and at the same time if wind be joined with it it breaks from the Womb or backwards with a noise and there are wandring pains about the Loins and Hips If an Ulcer be the cause Sanies or Pus is mixed with the Blood and the Courses flow always with a fixed pain This Disease afflicts Virgins and those that are Barren The Cure is two-fold the first respects the Cause the second the mitigating the Pain If it proceed from feculent gross and clotted Blood a thin Diet and moderate Exercise must be ordered and Medicines that cause Revulsion and Evacuation must be used Blood therefore must be drawn from the Arm if there be a great quantity of it but if the quantity be small from the Foot and the clotted Blood that cannot be evacuated must be drawn out by Cupping-glasses applied to the Thighs and Legs with Scarification and by Ligatures upon the Legs and the Humour may be turned by applying Leeches to the Fundament if the pain continue after the Courses are stopp'd but they must not be used before Secondly Evacuation must be used with this distinction when feculent and grumous Blood is the cause you must Bleed when an Ulcer Wind or an Acrid Matter you must Purge most Thirdly The Passages must be Relaxed and Opened and the Pain mitigated wherefore if the matter be thick slatulent feculent or clammy a Dram of Venice Treacle or of Mithridate must be taken at Bed-time in three Ounces of Balm-water and Baths must be provided and Lotions for the Legs made of a Decoction of Marsh-mallows of the Seeds of Flax Fenugreek Dill Rhue and Mugwort and the Feet must be bathed in it hot a while and the vapours must be received and a Spunge dipt in it must be applyed to the Privities and the lower Belly must be Fomented afterwards with Flannel dipt in Wine and Oyl of Roses or with a Bladder half full of warm Oyl but it will be better to anoint the Navel and the region below it with Oyl of Saffron of White-lillies the Seeds of Flax of Capers of Yolks of Eggs or of sweet Almonds among which or with one of them must be dissolved a Drachm of Treacle a Pessary dipt in the same is also is of great use or the foresaid Parts may be annointed with Hens-fat and Butter or with Butter and some of the foresaid Oyls The following Oyntment is also very proper Take of the juice of Angelica one Drachm of Oyls of Capers and of White-lilies each one Ounce and an half of White-wine half an Ounce with Wax make an Oyntment The following Cataplasm is also very good Take of common Oyl of sweet Wine and fresh Butter each two Ounces of Bran three Ounces boyl them gently apply them hot and repeat them frequently But if acrid and eroding Matter be the cause you must use gentle Oyntments and Fomentation of warm Water or Purslain and Lettice Water with Emulsions of the cold Seeds and the Parts must be anointed with the Oils of sweet Almonds of Violets and of Roses If the Disease proceeds from an Ulcer you must endeavour the Cure of it and you must mitigate the Pain by injecting uterine Glisters made of four Ounces of warm Water and if the heat be very much the Water must be sweetned with Sugar and you must add one Drachm of the white Troches of Rhasis Or the Glister may be made with three Ounces of Allum-water which is of excellent use or with so much Barly-water with an Ounce of Syrup of Roses or with Milk-water with Sugar or with an Ounce and an half of Milk it self with the like quantity of a Decoction of the Leaves and Seeds of Plaintain to which may be added half an Ounce of the emulsion of the cold Seeds and if the Pain and Heat is very violent inject two Ounces of the Decoction of Henbane or white Poppies But if these things will not do the business some Opium must be mixed with the Decoction before mentioned Lastly if other remedies will not do the business an Issue must be opened in the Leg. CHAP. IX Of the Closure of the Womb. VIrgins labouring under this Disease are said to be Imperforate This closure is wont to be in three places viz. in the mouth of the Womb in the neck of it and in the Privities It is occasioned either in the first Formation when a Membrance covers the Orifice of the Womb or its Neck or by a Wound or Ulcer preceding which growing together stops the Neck of the Womb or joins the Lips or it is occasioned by Humours or a Compression If the Closure be in the Privities it may be easily known but if it be in the Neck or Orifice of the Womb it is not found out till the Courses begin to flow or till Women are Married for at the time of the menstruous Purgation Pains and Gripes are perceived in the region of the Womb at certain times with a sense of weight yet no Flux follows Moreover you may guess at it if the Maid be of good habit of Body not Cachetical and without Obstruction the Disease continuing the Womb swells so that Virgins seem to be with Child and sometimes the whole Body which looks livid But if the Neck of the Womb be closed it may be known in the first Copualtion because it cannot admit the Virile Member Lastly if the Orifice of the Womb be shut it is difficultly known but it
to the consistence of a Pultiss apply them often with a rag Or infuse Galls in Rain-water eight days and with soft Wool sprinkled with Sulphur and dipt in this Water and dried without pressing make a Pessary But Secondly And chiefly you must use Astringents Foment the Genitals with the Water or Decoction of Acorns unripe Sloes and of Horse-tail or Foment the Parts with Allom-water or with Stiptic-Wine that is red and rough Wine boyl'd with Galls Leaves of Myrtles Red Roses Pomgranet-peel Balaustines and Cypress Nuts Or Take of Cypress Nuts and Galls each one Pound of Roch-allom and the filings of Iron prepared in Vinegar each half a Pound boyl them in a sufficient quantity of the Waters of Galls which Tanners use and Foment the Parts often with it The following Water is counted excellent Take of Galls and of Cypress Nuts each half a Pound of Allom six Drams Bole-armonick half a Pound of the Meal of Acorns and of old Beans each half a Pound the Whites of twelve Eggs of Powder of Brick one Pound let them be all finely powdered and infuse them three Days in Smiths Water or in a decoction of Sloes Medlars or Horse-tail with half a Pint of Rose Vinegar then Distill them in a cold Still with a gentle Fire add to the Water that comes off of the Powders of Mastick Myrrh and Dragons Blood each two Drams Set the water in the Sun in the Summer for ten days this straitens the Privities smoothens the Belly and makes the Breasts solid CHAP. XXXV Of Abscesses and Corrosive Vlcers arising from Distempers of the Womb in Childbed THE Womb is sometimes terribly affected in Child-bed and produces Fevers of very Malignant and Venomous Natures which soon cause Phlegmons and worse Tumours in the Womb it self and sometimes in other parts of the Body there being none of them on which the Uterine Ferment has not an influence The Exhorbitances or Degenerations of that whether from an hurt in Labour from part of the After-birth left behind from cold taken or the Lochia stopt soon produce such Virulent Distempers in the Blood as make it cast out a Tumor either upon the part it self or else outwardly upon the Muscles of the Body where when they light they prove corrosive sometimes eating out the Flesh in which they lodge which falls off in whole pieces without that change of colour in the Skin which is in Gangreens so that sometimes the Bone it self is laid bare by them The Causes are hard Labour the Womb hurt or part of the Secundine left behind Cold taken in Child-bed and a predisposition in the Humours by reason of their peccancy in quantity or quality The Prognostick may be taken from the largness or other qualifications of the Abscess and the Symptoms that happen to the Body thereupon If the Tumor happens only from some little disturbance in the Womb of a Person otherwise of a good habit of Body the cure is hopeful If part of the After-birth be retained there is no hope 's of Cure till that be removed nay if it stay so long as to induce Putrefaction of the part it will be too late then to remove it If the Body be of an ill Habit the Tumours are apt to Degenerate into very Venomous and Malignant Abscesses which if they do not suddenly kill do at least produce ill conditoned Ulcers hard of Cure and for the most part mortal in the long course of the Disease In the Cure of these Abscesses you are to inform your self how the Womb is disturbed and appease that and if any part of the After-birth be left behind to endeavour the bringing that away and by good Sudorificks Cordials and the like to expel the Venom and fortifie the Spirits against the Malignity that is thereby contracted and to attemperate the heat and the Acrimony by Julips and Emulsions The Swellings arising from these require to be treated in their beginning with moderate Repellents and Discutients afterward according as the Matter prepredominates make way for its discharge A young Woman after Child-bed was seized with a great Pain and Swelling in her Groin with a Fever Bleeding and Lenient Purgatives to Evacuate the Humours were prescribed also Cordial Juleps and the like to attemperate the Heat and fortifie the Spirits and Moderate Repellents mixed with Discutients in Fomentations and Plasters with Bandage were used which dispersed the Humor in the Thigh and restored that part to its former temper But in the mean time the Tumor increased in the Groin and was suppurated after the manner of a Bubo it was opened and a detersion was endeavoured but the Sinus reaching down the Twist the Matter could not be discharged without laying it more open as in Sinous Ulcers by which method it was cured A Gentlewoman in Child-bed was seized with a Fever and the Ninth Day complained of a pain in her Foot Discutients were prescribed together with things proper for the Fever to breath out the impacted Matter in her Foot but the pain increasing the upper part of the Foot from the Instep to the Toes were Oedematous but from the inside of the Ancle to the middle of the Sole of her Foot inflamed and seeming to apostumate The ill consequences of an Apostumation in that part amongst the Tendons and Bones and where the Skin is usually so hard and tough that our strongest Causticks could difficultly penetrate being feared It was resolved to endeavour the restraint of the Influx and so to dry up the Humour affecting the part to which purpose was applied the following Plaster Take of Barley Meal Six Ounces of Flax Seeds powdered Six Drams of the Flowers of Camomile and Elder each three Drams of the Flowers of Red Roses and Balaustins each one Ounce these with the addition of Honey of Roses and Oyl of Myrtles were boyled to the consistence of a Plaster in red Wine and at Bed-time an Anodyne Draught was given to cause rest The next Morning the Patient was somewhat relieved and when the Dressings were taken off the Tumor and Inflammation seemed less This way of dressing was continued with Compress and Bandage and the Humour was in few Days dried up and the Foot seemed well but there appeared again a Swelling on the Foot and Apostumated in the Sole of the Foot in three several places which were opened with a Caustick to prevent the increase of the Matter and the Eschars were divided to give a vent and they were dressed with Basilicon and the Plaster as before and the flowing of the Matter was indeavoured to be hindred dayly by Compress and Bandage but the Position of the Foot gave way and it sunk lower so that there was a necessity of applying another Caustick which proved effectual to the Discharge of it so that the upper Orifices healed but this last Eschar separated slowly and left the great Tendon bare the Separation was furthered by the use of Oyl of Turpentine with Basilicon applied warm and the
the first day after a difficult Labour and is accompanied with a long train of Hysteric Symptoms and as it happens only on the first days so usually does not last long for if a thickning diet be order'd it soon abates The following Drink may be also used Take of Plantain water and Red wine each one Pint boil them till a third part be consumed sweeten it with a sufficient quantity of white Sugar and let her take half a pint twice or thrice a day and in the mean while the following Medicine tyed up in a rag may be often held to her Nose Take of Galbanum and Assa foetida each two Drams of Castor one Dram and half of Volatile Salt of Amber half a Dram mingle them Or instead of it Spirit of Sal armoniac may be used But as to the Flux which happens out of Child-bed you must bleed in the Arm and eight Ounces of Blood must be taken away the next Morning the following Purge must be given Take of Tamarinds half an Ounce of Sena two Drams of Rubarb one Dram and an half infuse them in a sufficient quantity of Fountain water in three Ounces of the strain'd Liquor disolve of Manna and Syrup of Roses solutive each an Ounce make a Purging Potion which is to be repeated every third day for twice Every Night at bedtime through the whole course of the Disease give an Ounce of Diacodium mixt with two Ounces of Black Cherry water Take of the Conserve of dried Roses two Ounces of the Troches of Lemnian Earth a Dram and an half of Pomgranate peel and of red Coral prepared each two Scruples of Blood Stone Dragons Blood and Bole-armenic each two Scruples with a sufficient quantity of Simple Syrup of Coral make an Electuary whereof let her take the quantity of a large Nutmeg in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon drinking upon it six Spoonfuls of the following Julip Take of the waters of Oakbuds and of Plantain each three Ounces of Cinnamon water hordeated and of Syrup of dried Roses each one Ounce of Spirit of Vitriol a sufficient quantity to make it pleasantly acid Take of the Leaves of Plantain and Nettles each a sufficient quantity beat them together in a Marble Mortar and press out the juice clarifie it and give six Spoonfuls of it cold three or four times in a day after the first Purge apply the following Plaister to the region of the Loins Take of the Plasters of Diapalma and ad herniam each equal parts mix them and spread them on Leather A cooling and thickening Diet must be order'd only it may be proper to allow once or twice a day a small glass of Claret to recover the strength CHAP. XII Of the Whites THis obstinate and lasting Disease may be cured by bleeding once and by Purging with two Scruples of Pill Coch-Major four times and by the following strengthening Medicines Take of Venice Treacle one Ounce and an half of the Conserve of the Yellow Peel of Oranges one Ounce of Diascordium half an Ounce of Ginger candied and Nutmegs candied each three Drams of compound Powder of Crabs eyes one Dram and an half of the outward Peel of Pomgranats of the roots of Spanish Angelica and of the troches of Lemnian Earth each one Dram of Bole-Armenic two Scruples of Gun-arabic half a Dram with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of dried Roses make an Electuary whereof let her take the quantity of a large Nutmeg in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon and at Night drinking upon it six Spoonfuls of the following infusion Take of the roots of Elecampane Masterwort Angelica and Gentian each half an Ounce of the Leaves of Roman Wormwood white Horehound the lesser Centory and Calaminth each one handful of Juniper-berries one Ounce cut them small and infuse them in five pints of Canary Wine let them stand in infusion and strain them only as you use them CHAP. XIII Of Barrenness BArrenness proceeds from many causes but they may be reduced to four Heads according to the four Natural Operations which are required to perfect Conception The first is that the Woman in Copulation receive the Mans seed Secondly that it 's retain'd a due time Thirdly that it is nourished in the Womb Fourthly that the Woman afford due Matter for the forming and necessary increase of the Embroy and hence four impediments of Conception arise First The Reception of the Seed is hindered by many causes as immature Age when by reason of the narrowness of the Genital passages the Woman cannot admit the Mans Yard or at least not without great pain which makes her dislike Copulation and Old Age has the same effect for in elderly Virgins the Genital parts for want of use are rendr'd so strait that they can't easily receive the virile Member and such as are lame or have their Limbs distorted or their Hips depressed can scarce lye in such a posture as is necessary for a fit Reception of the Seed too much fat also stops the passages and makes the Copulation incommodious And lastly a cold intemperies of the Womb makes the Woman dull so that she scarce injoys any pleasure in Copulation or is so flowly moved that the inward Orifice of the Womb does not open seasonably to receive the Mans Seed The Passions of the Mind also are a great hinderance especially hatred between Man and Wife whereby the Woman having an aversion for such pleasure does not supply Spirits sufficient to make the Genital parts turgent at the time of Copulation nor does the Womb kindly meet the Seed and draw it into its Cavity from whence and from mixture of both the Seeds Conception arises The Reception of the Seed may be also hinder'd by Swellings Ulcers Obstructions Narrowness or Distorsions of the Genital parts or of the Neighbouring parts or by a stone in the Bladder or the like Conception may be also hindred by reason the Seed is not retained upon the account of too great moisture of the Womb namely when it s fill'd with many excrementitious humours whereby being render'd too laxe it cannot be contracted as it ought to retain the Seed received but this chiefly happens by reason of miscarriage or hard labour whereby the Fibres of the Womb and its inner Orifice are torn but the Whites are the most common cause of Barrenness Conception is also hindred when the Seed is not sufficiently nourished in the Womb as when the Intemperies of the Womb is so very cold that it extinguishes the Seed or so hot as that it dissipates it or over-moist or dry The Age fit for Conception is from fourteen to fifty and therefore those Women that are younger or older do not conceive by reason of a defect of Seed and menstruous Blood yet it must be confessed that some Women have conceived who never had their Courses A disproportion betwixt the Mans and Womans Seed is also the occasion of Barrenness tho there is no sensible defect in
Take of Vinum benedictum six Drams of the Water of Carduus Benedictus one Ounce of Oxymel of squills half an Ounce mingle them make a Vomit let it be taken about four in the afternoon and she must drink a large draught of Posset Drink after every time she Vomits The days the Sick does not Purge a Vulnerary Decoction must be used a long while in the following manner Take of the leaves of Agrimony Knot-grass Burnet and Plantine each one handful of the roots of China three Drams of Coriander one Dram of Raisins half an Ounce of red Sanders one Scruple boyl them in Chicken broth strain it let the Sick drink it Morning and Evening If there be a Fever and if a great quantity of matter be evacuated Whey is very proper half a pint or more being taken in a Morning with a little Honey of Roses and if there is an Hectick Fever and the Body begins to wast Asses milk must be taken with Sugar of Roses for a whole Month. Turpentine washed in some proper water for the Womb as in Mugwort or Feverfew water or in some water proper for the Ulcer as Plantain or Rose water and taken with Sugar of Roses cleanses and heals the Ulcer To cleanse dry and heal the Ulcer various injections are proposed but they must not be used till the Inflammation is taken off and till the pain is quieted and therefore upon account of the Inflammation an Emulsion of the cold Seeds or the Whey of Goats Milk or Milk it self may be injected first and if necessity requires a Decoction of Poppy heads and tops of Mallows may be injected Some Practitioners say the Sick may be much relieved by injecting frequently warm water and when the heat and pain is quieted we may use such things as cleanse beginning with the gentle and proceeding gradually to the stronger The gentle are Whey with Sugar a Decoction of Barly with Sugar or Honey of Roses but Simple Hydromel cleanses most But if the Ulcer be very sordid the following Decoction may be used Take of the roots of Gentian Rhaponticum Zedoary and round Birthwort each one Ounce of White-wine three pints boyl them to the consumption of a third part in the strain'd Liquor dissolve half a pound of Sugar and keep it for use a little Vnguentum Aegyptiacum may be added to it if there be occasion to cleanse more If the Ulcer be deep the fume mention'd above may be used when the Ulcer is very obstinate Cinnabar must be added which is of excellent use If these Diseases happen when a Woman is with Child the difficulty is greater because bigbellied Women cannot so easily bear all kind of remedies yet lest being destitute of all help they shou'd remain in extream danger of Miscarriage and Death some kind of Remedies are to be used therefore if she be too full of Blood she must have a Vein opened tho she be with Child especially in the first Month and so twice or thrice if need be but much Blood must not be taken away at a time And when there is abundanee of ill humours gentle purging must be used and repeated especially in the middle Months and in the mean while those astringent and strengthening Medicines must be used all the time the Woman is with Child that are proper to hinder Miscarriage Take of Kermes Berries and Tormentil roots each three Ounces of Mastich one Dram and an half make a Powder whereof give now and then half a Dram or as much as will lie on the point of a knife or let her take every Morning some grains of Mastich Or Take of conserve of Roses two Ounces of Citron Peel Candied six Drams of Myrobolans candied of the Pulp of Dates each half an Ounce of Coral prepared Pearl prepared and shavings of Harts-horn each one Dram with Syrup of Quinces make an Electuary of which let the Woman take often the quantity of a Nutmeg The following Lozenges are very good for they strengthen and by little and little free the Body from Excrements tho they do not sensibly purge sometimes Take of Mace of the three Sorts of Sanders Rubarb Sena Coral Pearl each one Scruple of Sugar dissolved in Rose-water four Ounces make all into Lozenges weighing three Drams apeece let her take one twice a Week by it self or dissolved in a little Broth. The following Plaster may be apply'd to the Reins Take of the Plaster ad Herniam and de Minio each equal parts spread it on Leather and apply it to the small of the Back But Plasters must not be worn long together lest they should cause an heat of Urin and the Stone in the Kidnies In the use of these things the Woman must keep her self as quiet as possibly she can both in Body and Mind and must abstain from Copulation But if notwithstanding the Medicines aforesaid by reason of the Vehemence of the cause whether it be outward or inward the Sick be ready to miscarry we must do the best we can with the following remedies and in the first place so soon as Pains and Throws shall be perceived in the lower part of the Belly and in the Loins we must endeavour to allay them both by Medicines taken inwardly and outwardly apply'd according to the variety of the Causes and if Crudities and Wind are the cause as they are most usually when the cause is within a Powder must be given made of Aromaticum Rosatum and Coriander Seeds and we may give of the Imperial Water if Flegm and Wind abound At the same time let Carminative Medicines be apply'd below the Navel of the Patient such are Bags of Anise Seeds Fennel Seeds Fenugreek Seeds Flowers of Camomile Elder Rosemary and Stechas mixt together or a Rose Cake fryed in a Pan with rich Canary and sprinkled with Powder of Nutmegs and Coriander Seeds or the Gaul of a Wether new kill'd or his Lungs lay'd on warm If by these means the pains cease not let a Glister be injected made of Wine and Oyl wherein two Drams of Philonium Romanum may be dissolved or Narcoticks may be given inwardly in a small quantity to allay the Violence of the humours and wind as we are wont to do in pains of the Colick But if Blood begins to come away Frictions and painful Ligatures of the upper parts must be used to turn the course of the Blood and if the Woman be full of Blood it will not be amiss to take some Blood from her especially before it begins to low but it must be taken away at several times a little at once And if the Flux of Blood continues we must proceed to an astringent and thickening Diet and Medicines as mentioned above Astringent Fomentations may be also used outwardly made of Pomgranate-peels Cypress Nuts Acorn Cups Balaustines and the like boyl'd in Smiths water and Red wine Or a little bag full of Red Roses and Balaustines may be boyl'd in Red Wine and apply'd hot to the
Lotion to fortifie and settle those parts which have been much relaxed as well by the great extension they received as by the Humours wherewith they have been so long time soak'd this Remedy may be composed with an Ounce and an half of Pomgranat Peel an Ounce of Cypress Nuts half an Ounce of Accorns an Ounce of seal'd Earth an Handful of Provence Roses and two Drachms of Roch-allom all which being infused in a Quart and half a Pint of strong Red-wine or that it may not be too sharp some Smiths water may be mixed with the Wine afterwards boil it to a Quart then strain it squeezing it strongly and with this Decoction Foment the inferior parts Night and Morning to strengthen and confirm them But they will never be reduced to the same state they were in before the Woman had Children A small Plaister of Galbanum with a little Civit in the middle may be also applyed to the Womans Navel As for Swaiths they need not be used the first Day or at least very loosly especially if there has been hard Labour because the least compression of the Womans Belly which is then very sore as the Womb also is proves a great inconvenience to her wherefore let her not be swaithed until the second Day and that very gently at the beginning The use of Swaiths and of a good large square Bolster over the whole Belly may be continued the first seven or eight Days to keep it a little steady but they must be taken off and removed often to anoint the Womans Belly all over if it be sore and if she has After-Pains with Oils of sweet Almonds and St. Johns-wort mixed together which may be done every Day But after that time they may be degrees begin to swaith her straiter to contract and gather together the parts which are greatly extended during her going with Child which may be then safely done because the Womb by these former cleansings is so diminished that it cannot be too much compressed by the Swaiths Proper Remedies may be applied to the Breasts to drive back the Milk if the Woman will not be a Nurse but if she intends to be a Nurse it will be sufficient to keep her Breasts very close and well covered with gentle and soft Cloaths to keep them warm and to prevent the curdling of the Milk and if there be danger of too much Milk being carried thither anoint the Breasts with Oyl of Roses and a little Vinegar beat together and put upon them some fine Linnen dipt in it observing that if the Woman do Suckle the Child she give not the Breast the same day she is brought to Bed because then all her Humours are extreamly moved with the pains and agitation of the Labour therefore let her defer it at least till the next day and it would be yet better to stay four or five days or longer to the end the fury of the Milk and the abundance of the Humours which flow to the Breast at the beginning may be spent in which time another Woman may give it Suck Although a Woman be naturally Delivered yet notwithstanding she must observe a good Diet to prevent many ill accidents which may happen to her during her Child-bed at the beginning whereof she must be directed in her Meat and Drink almost in the same manner as if she had a Fever that so it may be prevented in as much as she is then very subject to it for this reason she must be regular in her Diet especially the three or four first Days in which time she must be nourished only with good Broaths new-laid Eggs and Gellies without using at the beginning more solid Meats but when the great abundance of her Milk is a little past she may with more safety eat a little Broath at Dinner or a small piece of boyl'd Chicken or Mutton afterwards if no accident happens she may be degrees be nourished more plentifully provided that it be a third part less than she was accustomed to take in her perfect health and that her Food be of good and easie Digestion as for her Drink let it be a Ptisan made of Liquorish Figs and Anniseeds boyled in Water She may also if she be not Feverish drink a little white Wine well mixed with Water but not till after the fifth or sixth Day But it is to be noted that laborious Women of a strong Constitution require a more plentiful feeding yet notwithstanding if they do not change the quality they must at least retrench the quantity of their ordinary Food The Child-bed Woman must likewise keep her self very quiet in her Bed lying on her Back with her Head raised and not turning often from side to side that so the Womb may be the better settled in its first Situation She must free her self at that time from all care of Business let her talk as little as may be and that with a low Voice and let no ill News be brought to her which may affect her because all these things do cause so great a commotion of the Humours that Nature not being able to overcome them cannot make the necessary Evacuation of them which has been the Death of many The Woman ought always to keep her Body open with Glisters taking one once in two Days which not only evacuate the gross Excrements but also by drawing downwards cause her to Cleanse the better When she has observed this Rule a Fortnight or three Weeks which is very near the time of having Cleansed sufficiently that those Parts may be throughly cleansed before she goes abroad and begin upon a new Score let her take a gentle Purge of Senna Cassia and Syrup of Cichory with Rubarb which is good to Purge the Stomach and Bowels of those ill Humours Nature could not evacuate by the Womb This Purge may be repeated upon occasion Women in their first Labours have many times bruises and rents of the outward parts of the Womb and they must never be neglected lest they degenerate into malignant Ulcers for the heat and moisture of these Parts besides the filth which continually flows thence easily contributes to it if convenient Remedies be not timely applied wherefore as soon as the Woman is laid if there be only simple contusions and excoriations apply a Pultiss made of yolks and whites of new-laid Eggs and Oil of Roses seethed a little over warm Embers continually stirring till it be mixed and then spread it upon a fine Cloath and apply it very warm for five or six Hours when being taken away lay some fine Rags dipt in Oil of St. Johns-wort on each side the bearing place and renew them twice or thrice a Day Foment these parts with Barly-water and Honey of Roses to cleanse them from the Excrements which pass and when the VVoman makes water let them be defended with fine Rags to hinder the Urine from causing pain and smarting Sometimes the bruises are so great that the Bearing-place is inflamed
and a very considerable abscess follows in which Case it must be opened just below the Swelling in the most convenient place and after the Matter is evacuated a detersive Decoction must be injected into the Cavity made of Barly-water and Oyl of Roses to which Spirit of Wine may be added if there be any danger of Corruption and afterwards the Ulcer must be Dressed according to Art Sometimes it happens that the Perineum is so rent that the Privities and the Fundament is all in one in this case having cleansed the Womb from such Excrements as may be there with Red-wine let the Rent be strongly stitched together with three or four stiches or more according to the length of the separation taking at each stich good hold of the Flesh that so it may not break out and then dress it with Linimentum Arcaei or the like claping a Plaister on and some Linnen above to prevent as much as may be the falling of the Urine and other Excrements upon it because the acrimony of them would make it smart and cause Pain and that these parts may close together with more ease let the Woman keep her Thighs close together without the least spreading until the Cure be perfected but if afterwards she happens to be with Child she will be obliged to prevent the like mischief to anoint those parts with Emollient Oyls and Oyntments and when she is in Labour she must forbear helping her Throws too strongly at once but leave Nature to perform it by degrees together with the help of a Midwife well Instructed in her Art for usually when these parts have been once rent it is very difficult to prevent the like in the following Travail because the Scar there made does straighten the parts yet more wherefore it were to be wished for greater security against the like accidents that the Woman should have no more Children CHAP. XXII Of hard Labour MAny Causes may be assigned that occasion hard Labour as the natural weakness of the Mothers Body or her Age she being too Young or too Old or it may be occasioned by Diseases that she had with her big Belly leanness or too much dryness of the Body or Fat compressing the passages of the Womb the ill conformation of the Bones encompassing the Womb as in those that are Lame may also occasion it Wind swelling the Bowels a Stone or Preternatural Tumour in the Bladder that presses the Womb may be the occasion so may the ill constitution of the Lungs or of the parts serving respiration for the holding of the Breath conduceth much to the Exclusion of the Child Various Diseases of the VVomb may also render the Delivery difficult as swellings Ulcers Obstructions and the like The hard Labour is occasioned by the Child when by reason it is Dead or Putrified or any way Diseased it cannot confer any thing to its own exclusion also when the Body or Head is too large or when there are more than one so Twins most commonly cause hard Labour or the ill situation of the Child is the cause or when the Hands or the Feet offer first or when one Hand or one Foot comes out first or when it is doubled or when the Membranes break too soon so that the VVater flows out and leaves the Orifice of the VVomb dry at the time of Exclusion or when the Membranes are too thick so that they cannot be easily broken by the Child Cold and dry Air and a North-wind are very injurious to VVomen in Labour because they bind the Body and drive the Blood and Spirits to the inner parts and they are very injurious to the Child coming from so warm a place And hot Weather dissipates the Spirits and weakens the Child Crude Nourishment and such as is difficultly concocted and binds taken in a great quantity before Labours renders it difficult the Stomach being weakned and the common passages contracted which ought to be open in this Case Drowsiness hinders the action of the Mother The unseasonable motion of the VVoman much retards the Delivery as when she refuses upon occasion to stand walk lie or sit or slings her self about unadvisedly so that the Child cannot be Born the right way being turned preposterously by the restlesness of the Mother Urine in the Bladder or Excrements in the right Gut or the Piles when they are much swell'd hinder Natures endeavours by narrowing the Neck of the VVomb Fear Sorrow Anger make the Labour difficult A Blow a Fall or a Wound may also much obstruct the Labour Want of good assistance to lift the Woman up just at the time of Delivery and an Ignorant Midwife who orders the Woman to endeavour an expulsion and to stop her breath when the ligaments of the Fetus stick firmly to the Womb so that the Woman is tired before the time of her Delivery In hard Labour Women commonly give a Spoonful or two of Cinamon-water or Cinnamon powder'd with a little Saffron or half a Dram of Confection of Alkermes in Broth or half a Scruple of Saffron alone in some Broth or every hour a lit-VVine If these things are not sufficient the following may be used which have been frequently found very effectual Take of Dittany of Creet and both the Birthworts and of Troaches of Mirrh each half a Scruple of Saffron and Cinnamon each Twelve Grains of confection of Alkermes half a Dram of Cinnamon-water half an Ounce of Orange-flower-water and of Mugwort-water each one Ounce make a Potion Oyl of Amber and of Cinnamon and extract of Saffron are very effectual in a small quantity namely five Grains of extract of Saffron four or five drops of Oyl of Cinnamon twelve or fifteen drops of Oyl of Amber in Wine Broth or some other Liquor and let the Woman take Sneesing Powder for it hastens delivery The Midwife must frequently anoint the Womb with the Oyls of Lilies or of Sweet Almonds and the Belly must be fomented with a Decoction of the Roots of Marshmallows and Lilies of the Leaves of Mallows Violets Mugwort of the Seeds of Fenugreek and Flax of the Flowers of Camomile and Melilote Sharp Glisters must be also injected to stimulate the Womb and to carry off the Excrements Anoint the Navel with Oyl of Amber If the Child begins to come forth preposterously as with one Arm or Foot the Midwife must thrust them back and turn the Child right which may be done by placing the Woman on her Back upon a Bed with her Head low and Feet high CHAP. XXIII Of a dead Child WHEN the Child is dead the motion of it ceases which either the Woman felt before in the Womb or the Midwife with her Hand a sense of weight with pain afflicts the Belly and the Child falls like a Stone from side to side the Belly feels cold the Eyes are Hollow the Face and Lips pale the extream parts cold and livid the Breasts flaccid and at length the Child putrifying stinking matter Flows from the Womb
and an ill and strong smell exhales from the Womans Body and her Breath stinks If the Secundine be excluded first it is a certain sign that the Child is dead The whole cure consists in the exclusion or extraction of the Child Take of the Leaves of Savine dryed of the roots of round Birthwort of the Troches of Myrrh and of Castor each one Dram of Cinnamon half a Dram of Saffron one Scruple mingle them make a Powder whereof let her take one Dram in Savine Water Foment the Pubes Privities and Perineum with an Emollient Decoction made of the Leaves of Mallows and Marsh-mallows and the like and let a Pessary be put up the Privities Take of the Roots of round Birthwort Orris Black Hellebore of Coloquintida and Myrrh each one Dram of Galbanum and Opopanax each half a Dram with Ox Gall make a Pessary If after having tried Medicines a long while the Child cannot be ejected it must be extracted by a Surgeon either with Instruments or with the Hand alone CHAP. XXIV Of the Caesarian Delivery THE Caesarian Delivery is a dextrous extraction of a Living or Dead Child from the Mothers Womb which cannot be other ways excluded and that without endangering the Life of both or of either and without spoiling the Faculty of conceiving and by this Art the first Scipio Africanus of the Romans was cut out of his Mothers Womb and therefore was called Caesar This Caesarian Section is thought to be necessary when the Mother and the Child are so weak that they cannot be preserved any other way The use of it is twofold one that a living Child may be extracted the other that the Mother may be preserved alive and tho' it is very hazardous yet in a desperate case it is better to do something than nothing especially when a confederacy is like to be broken by the death of a Wife or when a Family is like to be extinguished or some Kingdom or Principality is like to be lost In this manner we find in the Annals of Spain the King of Navar was preserved for his Mother being wounded in the Belly by the Saracens as she was Hunting a Noble Man coming to her help saw the Child put its hand out of the Wound and drew it forth and educated it privately and afterwards when the Nobility was contending about the Election of a Prince he brought out the young King and so the Controversie ended The causes which require this operation are a too great Child or Twins or more that endeavour to be born together or if a fleshy Mole join to the Child the ill posture of it and if it cannot be reduced to a better either by its own help or the help of others or because it is dead or so much swell'd by a Disease that the Naturall passage is too narrow But in this case it is best to take it away peece-meal The causes on the Mothers part are the narrowness of the passages either naturally by reason she is too young or too old or because the VVomb is shut either by a Cicatrix or a Callous Moreover many tumours in the Womb or the Mouth of it may be the cause In these cases tho it be very dangerous yet it is very necessary to use Section and the operation may be happily performed as may appear by several Experiments to him that reads Rousel But before you enter upon this Operation you must consider whether the Child can be Extracted any other way that is safer and easier You must moreover consider whether there are Signs of Death and if so you must not enter upon the Operation lest the Womans Death be laid upon the Section and your rashness But when you have througly weighed all things if the Woman be of a strong Nature tho by reason of the Labour she is weak you may venture upon the Operation Most Authors would have it made on the left side of the Belly because it is more free from the Liver but I says Mauriceau think it will be better and more skilfully made just in the middle of the Belly between the two right Muscles because in this place there is only the coverings and the white line to cut To dispatch then with more ease and speed the Chyrugeon having placed the Woman so that the Belly may be a little raised let him take a good sharp incision Knife very sharp on one side with which he must quickly make an Incision just in the middle of the Belly between the two right Muscles unto the Peritoneum of the length and extent of the Womb or thereabouts after that he must only peirce the Peritoneum with the point of his Knife to make an Orifice for one or two of the Fingers of his left hand into which he must immediately thrust them to cut it lifting it up with them and conducting the Instrument for fear of pricking the Guts in proportion to the first incision of the coverings which having done the Womb will soon appear into which he must make an Incision in the same manner as he did in the Peritoneum being careful not to thrust his Instrument at once too far in having then so opened the VVomb he must likewise make an incision in the Infants Membranes taking care not to wound it with the Instrument and then he will soon see it and must immediatly take it out of the burthen which he must nimbly separate from the bottom of the VVomb and finding it to be yet living let him praise God for having so blessed and prospered his Operation But the Children so delivered are usually so weak if not quite dead as it often happens that it is hard to know whether it is alive or dead yet one may be confident the Child is living if by touching the Navel-string the Umbilical Arteries are perceived to move as also the Heart by laying the Hand on the Breast and if it prove so means must be used to fetch it to it self by spouting some VVine into the Nose and Mouth and by warming it until it begins to stir of it self But it is to be noted that Mauriceau much disapproves this cruel Operation and says it ought not to be performed until the VVoman is dead for that the VVoman always dies in the operation or presently after CHAP. XXV Of the Secundine retained IN a natural Birth the Secundine is usually excluded presently after the Child and when it is not the Life of the Woman is much indangered It is retained by the too great thickness of the Coats the swelling of them and by an afflux of Humours occasion'd by hard Labour also by the strutting of the Mouth of the Womb after the exclusion of the Child The External Causes are Coldness of the Air whereby the Secundine is repelled and the Orifice of the Womb shut Certain perfumes whereby the Womb is allured upwards violent passions of the Mind as Fear and sudden Frights the perverseness of the Woman who will not
three Ounces of Oyntment of Marsh-mallows two Ounces of Ducks Fat and Goose Grease each one Ounce of Deers Suet two Ounces of Liquid Storax half an Ounce with a sufficient quantity of Wax make a Cerat Hemlock boyled in Wine and beaten up with Hogs Lard resolves the hardness of the Breasts Green Mints or Chickweed are common applications and of good use either alone or mixed with other Medicines in all the hard Swellings of the Breast occasioned by Milk All Plasters applied to the Breasts must have a hole sniped in them for the Nipples lest they be fretted by them especially that the Milk may be drawn forth whilst the Medicines lye on But it is best to prevent such Swellings at the beginning by procuring an ample and large Evacuation of the Lochia For the Chaps and Excoriations of the Niples Rags dipt in Plantain-water may be applied or the Oyntment called Diapompholigos may be used But great care must be taken that nothing be applied to disgust the Child wherefore some only use Honey of Roses But if the Excoriation and Pain be much the Woman must forbear giving the Child suck If the Child has wholly sucked off the Nipples the Milk then must be quite dried away that so the Ulcers which remain may be the sooner healed CHAP. XXXI Of want of Milk THE cause of want of Milk is a Vice of the Blood the weakness of the Body or of the Child the smallness of the Breasts the narrowness of the Vessels any immoderate Evacuation by another part as by the Mouth by the Courses by the Nostrils or by the Hemorrhoids by immoderate Cold ill Diet Fasting great Labour or Sorrow The whole Cure in a manner consists in Diet. If therefore it be occasioned for want of Blood or by a dry Intemperies from whence it chiefly proceeds it must be cured by a hot and moist Diet and the Air must be moist and moderately warm Sleep is better than immoderate Watching The Bread must be Wheaten and well fermented Goats or Sheeps Milk boil'd with Yolks of Eggs and sweetned is good so is Rice boild with Milk and Honey Potched Eggs Chicken Broath Mutton or Veal Broath or Broath of Phesants or the Flesh of them with a Sauce made of Rocket and Honey the Udders of Animals are also good Of Fishes a Trout Mullet a Salmon Soles Place Pikes and the like are good and for the second Course Sweet Almonds Raisins of the Sun Pistaches Pine Nuts Rocket Parsnips roasted under the Embers or prepared with Honey Diascorides and Avicenna commend Fennel and Smalage Lettice is also good so are Cabbage Wild Thime Leeks Rocket Fennel Let her drink be sweet Wine or White-wine or Barley water with the Seeds of Fennel or Ale wherein if you boyl Butter Sugar and Bread you 'll Scarce find a better Diet for this purpose The German Women use this for their Meat and Drink almost all the time they give suck All things that are acid acrid bitter and very hot must be avoided But if this defect proceed from heat or choler you must use cooling things and the Body must be purged according to the Nature of the Humour But if the Blood be Flegmatick and the Vessels obstructed you must open the Obstructions and attenuate the Blood therefore you must give hot things as Smallage Dill Penny-royal with Wine But you must be careful not to give things that are too hot for they dry up the Milk And as those things which Moderately provoke the Courses breed Milk so those that violently force them lessen it Blood is never to be drawn nor are strong Purges to be used But if it be necessary to use Purging by reason of the fault of the Humours the Nurse must take four days before such things as increase the Milk and such Medicines must be given as increase the Milk As Take of thee Seeds of Fennel of Leeks and Rocket each two Drams of Mace one Dram of the Leaves of Mallows half a handful boyl them in Chicken Broath and let her take six Ounces of the Broath and wash the Breasts with the Broath But if the want of Milk proceeds from the smallness of the Breasts foment them with a Decoction of Fenugreek and Camomile made in Wine or with hot Beer and Butter But if these things do not good you must chuse another Nurse but you must try all things first for change of Milk is very injurious to the Child CHAP. XXXII Of a Woman suckling her own Children and of chusing a Nurse THE Mothers Milk is fittest for the Child because it is most agreeable to it Nature Besides the Mother will be more vigilant and careful than a hired Nurse for none can love the Child so well as the own Mother who upon the account of her affection is unwearied in the attending of the Child and thinks she never does enough for it and is presently awaked by its crying whereas mercenary Nurses often overlay Children and suffocate them Moreover the Body and the disposition of the Mind are more framed by the Milk and Nourishment than by the nature of the Seed and as you often observe that the Child is purged when the Nurse is Purged so the Body and Humours are in a manner the same with hers as Trees partake of the nature of the Soil they are planted in Besides it is the duty of a Mother to nurse her own Child for those that do not are but half Mothers and to be sure cannot love them so well as those that do Upon this account a Roman Youth of the Family of the Gracchi returning Rich and Victorious from the Wars being met by his Mother and his Nurse gave his Mother a Silver Ring and his Nurse a Gold Chain whereat his Mother being offended You said he nourished me only Nine Months in the Womb and then rejected me this Woman received me into her Arms and suckled me two Years and taught me to be orderly The Water nourishes what is bred in the Water and the Earth nourishes what is bred in the Earth Nor is there any Beast so cruel as not to nourish its young ones Tygers Lions and Vipers take care of their young ones and only Man makes Foundlings of his Oh! incredible and execrable Villany what can be more cruel than to expose a tender Infant that implores his Mothers help as soon as possibly she can get rid of it But God in his Providence often punishes their Inhumanity for their Milk often curdles in their Breast and occasions dreadful pains so that those Breasts which were denied their Children are forced to be suckt by Puppies nor is this all for their Breasts are often Inflamed and Suppurated and must be cut with Knives or burnt with red hot Irons or becoming Cancerous the rotten Flesh drops from them piece-meal But some will object in their excuse that they are either too young or too weak yet without doubt if they are able to Conceive they may Suckle too
evening for some weeks But if the Remedies above-mentioned don't well agree which often happens in thin and choleric Constitutions then a Milk-dyet may be used for some Women which one would wonder at at first that have been a long while afflicted with Hysteric Diseases and could be relieved no other way have been recovered by Dieting themselves for some time only with Milk and especially those that Labour with an Hysteric Cholick which can't be appeased by any thing but Opiates to which repeated Women are much accustom'd the pains returning as soon as the vertue of the Opiate fades But riding on Horse back or in a Coach every day for a long while is the best remedy This is the general way of Curing this Disease which is apply'd to the original cause namely the weak constitution of the Blood and so is to be used only when the Fit is off therefore as often as the Fit comes join'd with any one of the fore-said Symptoms if the Disease be such or so great an one that it will not bear a Truce till it may be cured by Medicines that strengthen the Blood and Spirits we must presently make use of Hysteric Medicines which by their strong and offensive smell recall the disorderly and deserting Spirits to their proper Stations whether they are taken inwardly or smelt to or outwardly apply'd such are Assa-faetida Galbanum Spirit of Sal Armoniac and lastly whatever has a very ungrateful and offensive smell In the next place you must take notice that if some intollerable pain accompanied the fit or violent Vomiting or a Loosness then besides the Hysterics above-mentioned Laudanum is to be used which is only able to restrain these Symptomes But in quieting the pains which Vomiting occasion we must take great care that they are not mitigated either by Laudanum or any other Opiat before due evacuations have been made unless they exceed almost all humane patience Therefore in lusty Women and such as abound with Blood a Vein must be opened and the Body purged especially if they have been lately seized with the fit But if weak Women and those of a quite contrary Constitution labour with such a fit and pain and have been afflicted with it not long ago it will be sufficient to cleanse their Stomachs with a gallon of Posset drink taken in and ejected by Vomiting and then to give a large Dose of Venice-Treacle and a few spoonfuls of some Spirituous Liquor that is pleasing to the taste with a few drops of Liquid Laudanum to be taken presently after But if the Sick has Vomited a great while and there is danger lest by a further provocation by Vomits the Spirits should be put into a rage and the Sick too much weakened in this case you must give Laudanum without delay and such a Dose that is sufficient to vanquish it But here two things are to be chiefly noted first that when you have once begun to use Laudanum after due and necessary evacuations it must be taken in the same Dose and must be often repeated till the Symptom is quite conquered only such a space must be betwixt each Dose that we may know what the former has done before we give another and then when we treat the Disease with Laudanum we must do nothing else and nothing must be evacuated for the gentlest Glister of milk and sugar is sufficient to spoil whatever has been repaired by the Laudanum and to occasion a return of the Vomiting and pain But though the Pains above mentioned are apt to overcome the vertue of the Laudanum yet violent Vomiting indicats the largest Dose of it and that it should be very often repeated for by reason of the Vomiting the Laudanum is cast up before it can do any good unless it be given afresh after every time the Sick Vomits and chiefly in a solid form and if it be given in a liquor the quantity must be so small that it must but just wet the Stomach so that by reason of the small quantity of the matter it cannot be cast up for instance some drops of Liquid Laudanum in one spoonful of strong Cinnamon-water or the like and the Sick must be admonished to keep her self quiet presently after taking the Laudanum and that she keep her Head as much as is possible immoveable for the smallest motion of the Head provokes Vomiting more than any thing else and when the Vomiting ceases and is as it were tam'd it is expedient to give a Dose of Laudanum morning and evening to prevent a relapse which also ought to be observed after a Loosness or Hysteric pains And because frequent mention has been made of Liquid Laudanum in this Chapter and it is much used in other Diseases Women are subject to I will here set down the best way of making it Take of Spanish-wine one pint of Opium two ounces of Saffron one ounce of the Powders of Cinnamon and Cloves each one Drachm let them be infused together in a Bath for two or three days till the liquor comes to the consistence of a thin Syrup strain it and keep it for use The Dose is sixteen or twenty Drops to be taken in a small draught of Beer or in some distilled-water CHAP. II. Of the Green-Sickness THE Green-sickness is an ill habit of the Body proceeding from Obstructions it is accompanied most commonly with a beating of the Heart difficulty of breathing and a longing for absurd things and an unfitness for motion and other Symtoms the Face and whole Body are pale and sometimes of a leaden and green colour there is an inflation and as it were a swelling upon the Eye-lids the Legs also swell especially about the Ankles there is a heavy and often a lasting pain of the Head the Pulse is quick the Sick are drowsie and have an aversion for wholsome food lastly the Disease increasing and the Obstructions being multiplied a suppression of the Courses at length follows which shews the Disease is confirmed This Disease most commonly is not dangerous but if it be neglected too much it occasions great Diseases as hard Swellings a Dropsie and other grievous Diseases which at length kill the Patient When the Disease is small and chiefly arises from Obstructions of the veins of the Womb it is easily cured by Marriage in young Virgins Those that have had this Disease a long while are either Barren or bring forth Children that are Sickly and short lived The Cure is to be perform'd by the same Method and Medicines proposed in the foregoing Chapter for the cure of the Hysteric Diseases CHAP. III. Of Women that never had their Courses THE flux of the Courses is an undoubted sign that a Woman is mature yet there are some Women that never had them tho' they have had conversation with their Husbands and some of them have had Children and others not some of them have enjoyed good health and others have been sickly the cause of this defect is in general two-fold
the first is common to the whole Body namely because a Woman is fleshy laborious and her parts are so disposed that every Member takes up and expels what is convenient for it so that there is no room for a menstruous purgation these are of a hot Constitution and such as are termed Virago's they are of a brown Colour of a compact Body and their Loins and Buttocks are large so are the Breasts and Shoulders they have a great voice are strong and hairy and this Constitution tho' it be the reason that Women are in health yet it is contrary to their Sex and the Course of Nature and therefore to be accounted vitious But other Women are sickly upon this account If this Disease proceed from an hot Intemperies of the Womb it may be known by a great pain in the part and by the heat of the whole Belly a dry Imtemperies may be known by long Fevers going before and a thin habit of Body but in time they grow Gross and Cachectical by reason of the want of this evacuation If it proceed from an ill Formation there are swellings of the Belly pain and a weight If it arise from a hot Intemperies as it doth most commonly it must be Cured by four kinds of Remedies first by cooling Diet they must eat Chicken Veal or the Broth wherein hath been boiled cooling Herbs as Endive Sorrel Lettice Spinage and the like Oranges are also good and roasted Apples and stewed Prunes their Drink must be small Beer their Sleep and Exercise must be moderate for violent Exercise and frequent walking are plainly injurious and so are disturbances of the Mind Secondly they must Bleed twice or thrice a Year in the Foot and for some days they must take such things as are proper to qualifie the hot and bilious Humours as the waters and syrups of Purslain Succory Endive Violets and the like and let them be Purged with the following Medicines Take of the best Rhubarb two Scruples infuse it a whole night in four ounces of Endive water strain it in the morning and add to it an ounce of Manna or of the pulp of Cassia and an ounce of syrup of Roses solutive Thirdly let them use such things as leisurely attemperate the heat of the Humours and Part as Conserve of Roses or of Violets with Endive-water or a Ptisan before Meals or Goats-milk in the morning with the flowers of Violets and Borrage But the use of Cooling Apozems is much praised in this Case Take of cleansed Barly three pugils of the Roots of Borrage and Succory each Ounce of the leaves of Burrage Succory Endive Fumitory and Sorrel each one Handfull of the Cordial Flowers and of the Cold Seeds each one Pugil of Anniseeds one Dram of Prunes Twelve of Raisons one Ounce Boyl them in a sufficient quantity of Water to one Pint and an Half to the strained Liquor add a sufficient quantity of Sugar make a clear Apozem aromatize it with a Drachm of the Species of the three Sanders But if you intend to have it Purge a little add towards the latter end the Leaves of Senna and of the Pulp of Tamarinds each one Ounce and after it is boyled three Ounces of Syrup of Roses solutive or of Succory with Rhubarb Fourthly Topicks must be applied to the lower part of the Belly Take of Oyl of sweet Almonds washed with the Waters of Barly Gourds and Roses each a like quantity one Drachm of Hens-fat Butter and Goats-milk each half an Ounce of the Juice of Gourds Endive or Violets each six Drachms with Wax make a Liniment Oyntment or Plaister as the Woman likes best But it will do most good if the Part be Fomented before with a Decoction of Lettice Violets Marsh-mallows Fumitory Mallows and the like and to open the Passages add the Leaves of Maiden-hair Mercury and Mugwort a Bath may be also made of these Night Glisters also wonderfully Cool the Womb and the whole Body Take of Chicken-broath altered with the foresaid Herbs six Ounces of the Oyl of Sweet-almonds and Violets each two Ounces of Suggar one Ounce Yolks of Eggs two mingle them let it be retained if she can all the Night and when the Heat is very much stuff the Chicken for this Decoction with Conserve of Roses If the Disease proceed from Dryness it must be Cured with moistning Meats of good Nourishment and with Drinks and the Woman must walk often but not so much as to tire her self and Frictions must be used above the region of the Womb that the parts may be dilated so that the menstruous Blood may be allured to the Womb. Baths are also proper and Oyntments made of mucilages of the Seeds of Psyllium and Quinces and the like and Glysters also do good Take of the Decoction of Marsh-mallows Mallows and Violets six Ounces of fresh Butter three Ounces mingle them make a Glyster But all Evacuations must be avoided for they increase the Dryness If the Disease proceeds from an ill Formation Medicines are most commonly unprofitable and therefore you must endeavour to lessen the Blood if it abound or to divert it another way therefore you must Bleed three or four times a Year in the Arm or in the Foot if Blood seem to abound in the Womb. But if the strength of the Woman cannot bear Bleeding then she must use a thin Diet and frequent Exercise and Frictions all over the Body especially early in the Morning for so the Blood may be turned from the Inner Parts to the Outward and part of it discussed Baths moderately hot are also good and these things may be sufficient for Married Women which by conversation with their Husbands are somewhat discharged but they will not be sufficient for Maids and Widows and therefore it will be necessary to provoke the Hemorrhoids or to open Issues But if the Disease proceed from obstinate Obstructions it must be treated as is proposed in the Chapter of the Suppression of the Courses CHAP. IV. Of the Courses breaking out by places not Natural THE Menstruous Flux happens to break out by contrary wayes upon two accounts for either Nature providing for the safety of the Womans Body when she knows there is any Impediment in the Womb and the Veins of it that hinder the Blood from passing seeks another passage whereby she may be unburthened and the health of the Woman preserved or forgetting the Natural passages she either accustoms her self to another or wandring about she sometimes uses this passage sometimes that for in some the menstruous Blood is discharged by the Mouth in others through the Nostrils by the Eyes and Bloody Tears by the Dugs and Piles also by the Fingers and Urine and sometimes by a Redness in one of the Cheeks and if there be an Impediment in the Womb that hinders the passage of the Blood that way it is better it should flow these ways than not at all for so says Hippocrates Menstruis deficientibus sanguinem e