to Lust have few Courses yellow or black or burnt or sharp they have hairs betimes upon their privities they are subject to the Headach and there are signs of much Choler their Lips are dry When this distemper is strong The Prognostick they have few terms and out of order they are bad and hard to flow and in time they are Hypochondriacks and for the most part barren and there is sometimes a Frenzy of the Womb. Use Coolers The Cure so that they offend not the Vessels that must be open for the Flux of the terms therefore Use inwardly Succory Endive Violets Waterlillies Sorrel Lettice Sanders and Syrups and Conserves made thereof As Take Conserve of Succory Violets Waterlillies Borage each an ounce Conserve of Roses half an ounce Dâ—amargariton frigid Diâ—trio santalon each half a dram with Syrup of Violets or Juyce of Citrons make an Electuary Outwardly use Oyntment of Galens Cooler Oyntment of Roses Cerot of Sanders Oyl of Roses Violets Waterlillies Gourds Venus-navel to the Back and Loins or make Cataplasms of Barley meal Roses powdered Violets Waterlillies Sanders with Juyce or water of Plantane Waterlillies Succory Lettice Oyl of Roses Violets Waterlillies Baths are good to sit in and cooling Fomentations and after let her take some of the Coolers mentioned In great heat use this cooling Pessary Take Opium a scruple Goose grease two scruples Eras de pass mulic cap. 7. Wax and Honey each four scruples Oyl at ounce whites of two Eggs. This was from an opinion the Ancients had that Opium was cold but take heed of the using it too much lest the narcotick quality hurt Let the Air be cool her Garments thin let her meat be with Lettice Endive Succory Barley give no hot meats nor strong Wine except it be waterish and thin Rest is good both in body and mind She must not copulate but she may sleep much Chap. 3. Of the cold Distemper of the womb THis causeth many Evils and Barrennesse They are contrary to those of a hot Distemper The Causes cold Air Rest and Idlenesse and cooling Medicines The Signs It is known by their not desire of Lechery not receiving pleasure in the time of Copulation when they spend their Seed The terms are flegmatick thick and slimy and flow not rightly there is wind in the womb the Seed is crude waterish with a Gonorrhoea The Prognostick The Cure It is the cause of Obstructions and Barrenness and is hard to be cured Use things proper to heal the womb as this Water Take Galangal Cinnamon Nutmeg Mace Cloves each two drams Ginger Cubebs Zedoary Cardamoms each an ounce grains of Paradice long Pepper each half an ounce beat them and put them in six quarts of Wine for eight dayes then add Sage Mints Balm Motherwort each three handfuls let them stand eight dayes more then pour off the Wine and beat the Herbs and the Spices and then pour on the Wine and distil them Ano her Take Cinnamon Nutmegs Cloves Mace Ginger Cubebs Cardamom grains of Pa adice each an ounce and half Galangal six drams long Pepper half an ounce Zedoary five drams bruise them and add six quarts of Wine put them in a Cellar nine dayes daily stirring them then add Mints two handfuls then let them stand fourteen dayes pour off the Wine and bruise them and then pour on the Wine again and distil them Quercetan hath an Hysterick Extract In phar doc restit cap. 25. a greater and a less use outwardly Fomentations Baths Baggs of hot Roots as Birthwort Lovage Valerian Angelica Burnet Masterwort Calamus Madder Elicampane Orris and Herbs as Mugwort Balm Motherwort Savin Penny-royal Calamints Organ Dittany Marjoram Rue Bettony Rosemary Lavender Sage Stoechas flowers Seeds of Smallage Parsley Rue Carrots Anise Fennel Cummin Lovage Parsley Anoint with Oyl of Lillies Rue Angelica Bays Cinnamon Cloves Mace Nutmeg Or Take Labdanum two ounces Frankincense Mastick liquid Storax each half an ounce Oyl of Cloves Nutmegs each half a scruple Oyl of Lillies Rue each an ounce with Wax make a Plaister A Fume Take Frankincense Mirrh Mastich each a dram Bayberries a dram and half Labdanum two drams Storax Cloves each a dram Gum Arabick and Wine make Troches or Pessaries of the same Let the diet be warming and the air the meat of easie concoction seasoned with Anise Fennel Thyme Avoid Milk-meats and raw Fruits Chap. 4. Of the moist Distemper of the Womb. THis is commonly joyned with a cold Distemper and causeth Barrenness and is from the same causes as a cold distemper for commonly cold things do moisten It is commonly in women that are idle The Signs They that have moist wombs abound in Courses but they are waterish and thin the privities are wet they have the VVhites and desire not Copulation much and delight not in it they retain not the seed and if they conceive when the child is big they abort or miscarry The Prognostick The Cure If it last long it is hard to be cured If it be much they conceive not It is by Driers and things that cure the cold distemper are good against the moist because all Healers have a drying power Use Sulphur Baths and Injections Beware of Astringents lest the evil humors be stopt and the disease increased Chap. 5. Of the dry Distemper of the Womb. IN this the womb is hardned of it self it is fleshy and soft and moistned by blood for Conception It is sometimes from the birth or old age when they are past child-bearing If it be from drying causes they are barren before they are old The Causes Diseases and Medicines dry the womb as Inflammations Feavers and when blood flows not to it nor goes to the bottom of it by reason of the straitness of the Veins or Obstructions as in Viragoe's and such as never conceived and if they void any blood it is from the neck of the womb and not from the bottom The Signs They void little seed and are slow in Venery the terms are few the mouth of the womb is dry and they are slender of a dry Constitution their lower Lip is alwayes chapt and blackish red This distemper is hard to be cured in any part especially if it be old The Prognostick The Cure Use Moistners as Borage Bugloss Mercury Mallows Althaea Violets sweet Almonds Pistachaes Pine-nuts Jujubes Dates Figs Raisins Of which are made Syrups Conserves Emulsions Candies c. Outward Remedies are made of the same adding Time Fenugreek-Seeds Lillies Brank-ursine Pellitory c. Fomentations are made with Milk and after bathing anoint the region of the womb and the belly to the privities with oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies Lin-seed Jesamin fresh Butter Hens and Goose grease Let the Diet be moistning the Air moist the meat fatning of much nourishment and small excrement Leet sleep be a little longer than usual Great labour anger sadness fasting do hurt Chap. 6. Of Compound Distempers and first of
half an ounce with good Wine distil them give a spoonful or two Apply outwardly a Cataplasm of Rue Mugwort Chamomil Dill Calamints Nip Penny-royal Thyme with Oyl of Rue Cheir Chamomil and make Baths of the same Bags of Milium Salt Chamomil-flowers Melilot Bayberries Cummin Fennel-seed or lay a Plaister of Bayberries Let Clysters to expel wind be put into the womb As Take Calamints Agnus castus Rue each half an handful Anniseeds Costus Cinnamon each two drams boil them in Wine for half a pint Apply a Cupping-glass with much flame to the Breast and over against the Womb. Use Sulphur-baths and Spaw-waters inward and outward for they expel wind If it come from cold after Child-bearing and she is not well purged by her Terms heat the womb and purge and give strong Wine Let the Diet be hot cutting and attenuating The Diet. with things that expel wind and little at a time Question Whether the wind is in the Cavity when there is Inflation of the Womb It is so by Experience though some deny it nor is there any cause why wind should not be bred in the womb as well as in any other part both by reason of the Excrements that come thither and the natural heat that turns them into wind these also stretch the womb though it be thick as in Dropsies and Conception Also the retentive or altering faculty of the womb is never idle so that when it receives diseased and unfruitful seed it suffers it not to corrupt but turns it into wind As Hippocrates writes When the Womb is stretched by wind from the Belly Lib. de nat pueri women think they have conceived Chap. 11. Of the Dropsie of the Womb. THey are also deceived and think they are with child when there is water that swells the womb Ves lib. 6. de corp hum Fab. Mar. Do de hist me mira l. 4. c. 21. Tetrab 6.4 ser 4. c. 79. this is a Dropsie of the womb This water is either in the Cavity or between the Coats of the womb or in its Vessels Vesalius Marcellus Donatus shew that water is in the Cavity for it doth not presently by its plenty or quality force its passage out because the Orifice is not alwaies open and Nature gathers it by degrees and is used to it Aetius saith There are sometimes Bladders of water in the womb And Christopher Vega saith that Leonora thought that she had gone 6 months and then voided sixty Bladders of water and seven pieces of flesh like that of the Spleen in Membranes Lib. 4. obser cent 2. obser 56. The Causes There is sometimes a Dropsie of the Womb with Conception as Schenstius and William Fabricius saith of his own wife Are gathering of water from moistness mixed with the terms and from an evil Sanguification in the Liver and Spleen from their weakness or from errors in Diet or from weakness of the womb from hard travel or often mischances cold air or water or whatsoever hurts the heat of the womb Also stoppage of the terms doth cause gathering of water for the water useth to be evacuated with them Many take this for the only cause Sometimes the tunicles of the womb may be divided in some place and water may be gathered between them Hippocrates saith the terms are fewer The Signs 1. De morb mulier and cease before the time the bottom of the Belly swells and the Paps are soft without Milk and she thinks she is with child By these you know it is a Dropsie But because Doctors and Midwives are often deceived you must distinguish this from other Swellings When a woman is sound and useth a sound man the womb by degrees swells and the child moves in its time but often there is a Dropsie with Conception before or after therefore in a Dropsie the tumor is equal according to the largeness of the womb and belly and not pointed as in a woman with child Secondly If the woman be in years and hath not conceived before and hath a good colour it is a sign of a Dropsie rather then a Conception If the tenth month be past and the child moves not nor the Breasts swell but are soft say there is Dropsie of the womb Thirdly In a true Conception women are better after some months and the Symptoms abate but in a Dropsie they increase still It is distinguished from a Mole by the weight in the bottom of the Belly From an inflation because the Belly is stretched in that and sounds being stricken but is soft in a Dropsie It differs from the Dropsie of the Belly because the Face is pale or wane in that from the distemper of the Liver there is thirst but in the Womb-dropsie she is of a good colour except the Liver be also bad It differs from Inflamation in the womb for that is with a constant Feaver and the Symptoms of it and from other tumors which are harder but in a Dropsie of the womb if the Belly be pressed it yields You shall know whether it be from the fault in the womb principally or from some other part thus If the Woman be of a good colour and there were only some diseases and causes that might hurt the womb as abortion hard travel stoppage of terms or too many of them then the womb is chiefly affected But if there be signs of a distemper in the whole body or in the Liver or Spleen and the colour is bad it is consent from other parts You shall know whether the water be in Bladders or in the Cavity of the womb thus If you find the Orifice of the womb closed and there is little pain it is in the Cavity But if the Orifice be open and there is great pain it is in Bladders or without the Cavity The Prognostick If the humor in the womb be not corrupt this disease is of long continuance but may be easily cured It is easier cured in the cavity then when it is in bladders and between the tunicles A woman after Conception having a Dropsie of the womb her child dieth and she is in danger The Cure When it is from stoppage of terms and new and the strength firm open a Vein in the Legs otherwise bleed not Purge according to the Humor with respect to the Womb as in Chap. 6. of a cold Distemper Then purge Water Take Angelica and Madder roots each half an ounce Calamints Penny-royal Mugwort Lovage each a handful Savin a pugil boil them in Wine and sweeten it with Sugar Or make Broaths with the same Take Dianisum Diagalangal each half a dram Oyl of Aniseeds Cloves each five drops Sugar three ounces make Rouls Inject into the Womb as in Dropsies Take Asarum roots three drams Penny-royal Calamints each half a handful Savin a pugil Mechoacan a dram Aniseed Cummin each half a dram boil them and take six ounces strained Oyl of Elder and Orris each an ounce make a Clyster Or use Pessaries Take
by the Nose For the blood being thin hot cholerick and sharp opens the mouths of the vessels and causeth a flux Diaeresis is from much blood when there is great motion as when there is long copulation with a strong man that hath a great tool or a hard travel or abortion a fall or stroke also when sharp humors corrode or sharp pessaries The Signs Diapedesis is from the thinness of the vessels and loosness and the thinness of the blood or from much moisture or use of Baths Much blood is a sign the vessels are open you shall know the causes that open them thus In Anastomosis the blood drops and is thin and there are signs of much blood or sharp and thin If there be a Diaeresis the blood flows more and there are clodders and there were causes that broke the Vessels as sharp Suppositories Diapedesis is known when the woman is of a thin and loose habit of body the blood thin or she hath used much bathing If the Vessels open from much blood in a sound body there is less dagger The Prognostick and it is easier cured then in a Cacochymy In an Anastomisis give things that thicken without slime as Roses Mirtles Medlars Services The Cure Pomegranate-peels and flowers Sanders Coral Harts-horn Cypress-nuts In Diaeresis give things that thicken with slime Comfry Plantane Gum-traganth whites of Eggs troches of Amber Bole Starch Rice Quinces sanguis Draconis Sarcocol and Izing-glass But because there are divers causes and these diseases are not cured but by taking them away we shall speak of them in the Chapter of immoderate terms Chap. 9. Of a double Womb the wanting of a Womb and evil shape of the Womb and strange things found in it Julius Obsequens saith that one woman had two wombs and Bauhinus saith that a Maid had her womb in two parts as in Bitches Columbus saith that one wanted a womb Lib. 15. anato but her privities were as in other women and part of the neck of it hung out Worms in the Womb. Lib. de morb mul. Hippocrates writes that worms are found in the womb And Gynaecea writes it is a sign that Nature is wanton c. And Joen de Tornamira writes that he saw a Woman that had an intolerable itching in her womb from the Ascarides he gave a Womb-clyster of the Decoction of Wormwood and Hiera and she voided many small worms and was cured An Addition * Wheresoever foul humors stop in any parts it is no wonder if it breed worms if other things agree which are required for the breeding of them Fat and Hair found in a Womb. Cent. obser 5. obser 49. William Fabricius mentions that in a dead woman the womb was taken out and it weighed eighty seven pounds and was full of divers humors in the middle there were hairs like yellow Wooll An Addition * This was by Magick or a humor lay there fit to breed this strange matter by preternatural heat Stones bred in the Womb. Lib. 4. de morb mulier c. 11. Lib. 5. epid Mercurialis doubts of stones being bred in it but thinks it is clotted blood like stones But it cannot be denied which many worthy Authors write First Hippocrates writes that a Woman of sixty after noon alwaies was pained as one in travel After she had eaten many Leeks she had one fit worse then the rest and she arose and found something rough in the Orifice of her womb and she fainted and another woman thrust in her hand and took out a great stone and the woman recovered Aetius also saith Tetrab 4. serm 4. c. 98. Hard stones are bred in the Womb sometimes c. Nicholas Florentine and Marcellus Donatus say the same Chap. 10. Of the Magnitude of the Womb increased and first of the Inflation of the Womb. INflation is a stretching of the Womb with wind it is called by some a windy Mole Math. de grad in 9. Rhasis See Matthew de gradibus and Thadeus Dun lib. miscel c. 8. This wind is from a cold matter The Causes either thick or thin contained in the Veins of the Womb which overcomes the weak heat of the womb It is gathered there by cold meats and drinks or flows from other parts Cold Air may be the cause also if women that lie in expose themselves to it This wind is contained either in the Cavity of the Vessels of the Womb or between the Tunicles There is a swelling in the region of the womb The Signs sometimes reaching to the Navel Loins and Diaphragma and as wind increaseth or decreaseth it ariseth or abateth It is different from a Dropsie because it is never swollen so high And lest a Physitian be deceived and take it for a Conception observe the signs of women with child for if one sign be wanting you may suspect an Inflation Also in Inflation the tumor increaseth and decreaseth but in Conception it still increaseth Moreover if you strike upon the Belly there is a noise but not in Conception It differs from a Dropsie in the Womb for there is no such heaviness they move more easily and the Belly is not so swelled there were causes that bred wind and things against wind do good It differs from a Mole for there is in that a weight and hardness in the Belly and when they move from one side to another they feel a weight that moveth which is not in this of which Hippocrates 2. De morb mulier The feet and the face swell in the hollow parts the colour is bad the terms are stopt there is wind c. If the wind is without the cavity of the womb there is more pain and larger nor is there a noise because the wind is in a straighter place The Prognostick It is neither a lasting nor a deadly disease if well look'd after If it be in the Cavity of the womb it is easier discussed The Cure Give Hiera Diaphoenicon with a little Castor sharp Clysters that also expel wind If it be in travel purge not till she be delivered Bleed not because it is from a cold matter if it come after Child-bearing and the terms were not sufficient after and there is fulness of blood open the Saphaena After these give things mentioned in Tympany that respect the womb As Take Conserve of Bettony Rosemary each an ounce and half candied Eryngus Citron-peels candied each half an ounce Diacymium Diagalangal each a dram Oyl of Aniseeds six drops with Syrup of Citrons make an Electuary Or Take Conserve of Rosemary Balm each three ounces candied Citrons and Oranges each an ounce Diacymium a dram with syrup of Citrons make an Electuary Or give the Woman Aqua vitae or this Take Angelica roots two ounces Masterwort Elicampane Orange peels each six drams Calamints Penny-royal Rue Sage Rosemary each a handful Cummin Fennel Aniseed each half an ounce Juniper-berries a handful Zedoary Galangal Cubeb each
swelled under the ribs for want of concoction and there are crudities in the stomach and wind and also in the parts adjacent The Hypochondria are hard and puffed up The Signs and there is straitness in the mouth of the stomach and short breath It is easily cured with good dyet The Prognostick The Cure Give a thinner dyet that the crudities may be concocted Give no fresh nourishment till the first be digested then give Honey of Roses to purge Or the Decoction of Cardiaca which is good for the heart and mouth of the stomach it opens obstructions and cleanseth flegm Or powder of Piony-roots Cummin-seed Jesamine or make it up with Honey Oyl of sweet Almonds or Sugar for a Liniment Foment the sides with the Decoction of Cardiaca Chamomil-flowers and Cummin-seed Chap. 21. Of the Flux of the Belly IT is 1. From breeding of Teeth with a Feaver commonly and the concoction is hindred and the nourishment corrupted 2. From much watching 3. From pain 4. From stirring of the humors by a Feaver 5. When they suck or drink too much in a Feaver Sometimes they have a flux without breeding of teeth from outward cold in the guts or stomach that hinders concoction The Signs If it be from teeth it is knwon by the signs in breeding of teeth if from external cold there are sings of no other causes If from a humor flowing from the head there are signs of a Catarrh and the excrements are froathy If crude humors are voided there is wind belching and flegmatick excrements If they be yellow gre n and stink the flux is from a hot and sharp humor The Prognostick Hipp. lib. de dentitio The Cure It is best in breeding of teeth when the belly is loose but if it be too great and you fear Atrophy it must be stopt if black excrements are voided with a Feaver it is bad A sucking child needs not cure so much as the Nurse you must chiefly observe the condition of the milk and mend it if not change the Nurse and let her not eat green fruit and things of hard concoction If the child suck not take away the causes of the flux with purges that bind after as Syrup of Honey of Roses or a Clyster Take the decoction of Milium Myrobalans each two or three ounces with an ounce or two of Syrup of Roses make a Clyster After cleansing if the cause be hot give Syrup of dried Roses Quinces Mirtles Coral Currans or the powder of Diamargariton Coral Mastich Harts-horn red Roses or powder of Mirtles with a little Sanguis Draconis Anoint with Oyl of Roses Mirtles Mastich Or Take red Roses an ounce Mirtles Mastich each two drams with Oyl of Mirtles and Wax make an Oyntment Or Take red Roses Moulin each a handful Cypress-roots two drams make a Bag boyl it in red Wine apply it to the belly or use the Plaister of Bread or Stomach-Oyntment If the cause be cold and excrements white give Syrup of Mastich and Quinces with mint-Mint-water Use outwardly Mints Mastich Cummin As Take Rose-seeds an ounce Cummin Aniseeds Lib. 3. par 2. cap. 5. 6. each two drams with Oyl of Mastich Wormwood and Wax make an Oyntment Chap. 22. Of Binding of the Belly IT is from a cold and dry distemper of the guts from birth in some 2. From slimy flegm that wraps the dung which sticks in the guts This is from bad milk when the Nurse eats gross food slimy and astringent or drinks little 3. It is from a hot distemper of the Kidnies or Liver that dries the excrements 4. It is when choler doth not stir up the guts to expel If it be from a dry distemper of the guts The Signs it is hard to be cured if it be from slimy flegm the dung is wrapt in it If choler comes not to the guts to provoke them to stool the dung is white and the body yellow It is best in children to have a loose belly The Prognostick Hipp. 2. Aph. 53. The Cure and they are more healthful for if it be bound the belly is pained and there is a head-ach First take away the cause if it be from a hot distemper of any bowel or dry wash the child often to moisten and cool it in a Bath of Succory and Lettice boyled In a cold distemper use hot for the stomach and in a dry use moist things as Oyl of Lillies Dialthaea Hens-grease Butter Let the Nurse avoid astringent meats as Quinces Medlars Beans and use Emollients If the child be big give juyce or Decoction of red Colworts with a little Salt and Honey If it be from slimy Flegm give Honey or Syrup of Roses Correct the hot distemper of the Liver and Reins with Syrup of Violets and Emulsions of the four great cold Seeds If choler come not from the Gall to the Guts give the Decoction of Grass-roots Fennel Sparagus Maidenhair Give Clysters to cut and cleanse tough Flegm As Take Althoea-roots Mallows Pellitory each half a handful Foenugreek and Linseed each a dram Chamomil-flowers a pugil boyl and to three or six ounces add three drams of Cassia Oyl an ounce and the yolk of an Egg. To the Navel apply Hens-grease and Ox-gall Or Take Aloes two drams Ox-gall a dram Scamony a scruple with Butter make an Oyntment Fill a Walnut-shell with it and apply it to the Navel Anoint the Belly with Emollients Take fresh Butter Goose and Hens-grease each half an ounce Oyl of sweet Almonds and Linseed each two drams Veal-marrow Dialthaea each two drams with Wax make an Oyntment Bran and juyce of Danewort make a loosning Cataplasm for the Belly Only keep it from the Stomach as you must do other Cataplasm Chap. 23. Of the Worms Ex authore lib. 4. de morb IT is observed that children have had worms in their mothers belly and voided them after they were born But they are chiefly bred by mixing milk with other meats in a hot and moist constitution and from sweet meats which worms love and Summer fruits they are round and long or broad and little The Signs Besides what is said in Lib. 3. Part 2. Sect. 2. Cap. 5. Worms are known to be in a body when there is much spittle and a stinking breath troublesome sleep gnashing of teeth crying and bawling a dry cough loathing vomiting hickets want of appetite or too much thirst a belly swelled or bound or too loose thick white urin with pain when the belly is empty and the worms want food There is a cold sweat over the face and a high colour with sudden paleness sometimes a Feaver and Convulsion which ceaseth presently These are signs of round worms rather than of the flat Infants are often long troubled with worms without any great inconvenience The Prognostick sometimes there are great Symptomes The long round worms are worst and have eaten sometimes the guts and belly through with a Feaver they are more dangerous few
and Althaea or anoint with Oyl of Lillies then keep it in with astringents As Take red Roses Pomegranate-peels and flowers Cypress-nuts each half an ounce Sumach Frankincense Mastich each two drams boyl them in red Wine foment with a Spunge then sprinkle on this Powder Take red Roses and Pomegranate-flowers each half a dram Frankincense Mastich each a dram allay it upon a clout and lay it to the Fundament See Lib. 3. Part 2. Sect. 1. Cap. 6. Chap. 28. Of the Stone in the Bladder Lib. 3. par 3. sec 1. c. 6. par 8. sec 1. c. 1. THe stone in the bladder is usual in Infants as that of the kidnies is in elder people How it is cured we shewed before In Infants it is from gross unclean milk made of tough meats this too much taken in causeth crudities fit to breed the stone or pap of Barley-meal and milk may cause it There is also a weakness in the Liver and Stomach when they do not separate unprofitable food but much earthy juyce remains in the chyle that breeds stones Also a hot distemper in the reins by which the chyle is drawn to the bladder and if there be a native hereditary disposition to breed the stone an earthy part is in the humor which makes the urine thick this is in bigger Boyes more then in Infants They piss by drops with itching and pain the urine is stopt often and that which is pissed is like clear water white or like milk or whey sometimes blood is pissed and the yard often stands It increaseth daily if it be not opposed The Prognostick and cannot be cured without cutting which is dangerous for young or old Prevent the breeding of it when you see the least disposition to it The Cure Let the belly be alwaies kept loose and the Nurse eat no gross slimy food make a bath of the decoction of Althaea Mallows Pellitory Parsley Dill Foenugreek Lineseed then anoint the bladder with Althaea Oyl of Lillies and Scorpions and apply a Cataplasm of Pellitory boyled with Oyl of Lillies A Powder Take Magistery of Crabs-eyes Lib. 3. pra decal ves white Amber Goats-blood prepared each a scruple with Parsley-water give it often Or give two drops of spirit of Vitriol with half a dram of Cypress Turpentine Chap. 29. Of Difficulty and Stoppage of Urine THere are many causes in ripe age that are mentioned but in Infants they are chiefly two causes the thick humor that breeds the Stone that makes a Strangury and Dysury and the Stone that stops the bladder It is voided by drops and the child cries The Signs and the Urine is thick you may try with the Catheter if there be a Stone If it be not presently cured The Prognostick it turns to the Stone and all natural evacuation in Children being stopt is dangerous The Cure It is as in the Stone you must evacuate humors from the first passages with Honey of Roses Cassia Turpentine foment and anoint as before with Grass-water Rest-harrow Dropwort-water and decoction of red Pease Or Take the blood of an Hare an ounce Saxifrage-roots six drams calcine them give from a scruple to half a dram with white Wine or Saxifrage-water Chap. 30. Of not holding the Urine SOme piss not only in their sleep but alwayes because the muscle that should close the orifice of the bladder is weak and when much water pricks it it suffers it to come forth sometimes a stone in the Bladder hurts the Sphincter so that it cannot do its duty The cause of weakness is a cold humor and moist from gross tough meats from gluttony and the like The Signs It cannot be known in Infants but it may in elder children that know they ought not piss a bed The Prognostick If it come by custome it turns to an habit or a disease and is hard to be cured in ripe years if it be from distemper is easie to be cured The Cure Alter the cold and moist distemper dry and consume the flegm let the Nurse have a hot drying diet with Sage Hysop Marjoram let not the child drink much keep the Belly Outwardly anoint the Region of the Bladder with Oyl of Castus Orris and other driers make a Bath of Sulphur Allum and Oak-leaves or use Sulphur or Allum-baths give this Powder Take Hogs-bladders burnt roasted stones of a Hare Cocks throats roasted each half a dram Acrons two scruples Nip Mace each a scruple give half a dram with Oak-leaves-water See Lib. 3. Part 8. Sect. 2. Cap. 6. Chap. 31. Of chafing in the Hips called Intertrigo IT is the separation of the Scarf-skin from the true in the Hips that causeth pain and unquietness It is from sharp Piss The Causes when the clouts are not changed often in such as are fat to whom filth sticks easily The skin is off and it looks red The Signs The Prognostick It is troublesome by reason of the pain and causeth want of sleep and ulcerateth if it be not cured Change the clouts often The Cure wash and cleanse the child often sprinkle on this fine Powder Of Litharge of Silver seeds and leaves of Roses burnt Allum and Frankincense or anoint with white Oyntment and Diapompholigos Chap. 32. Of Leanness and Fascination SOmetimes children and men grow lean the elder from Feavers Consumptions and other diseases but children pine away and the cause is not known and though they eat and perform other actions they are not nourished nor grow The Causes The causes of Consumption in Infants are little or bad milk by which no blood is bred fit to nourish the body so that they thrive not till they change the Nurse The second is worms that sucks away the nourishment The third is worms about the body without as in the Back Arms or Legs and all parts these are very small and breed in musculous parts and stick in the skin and never come wholly out but after rubbing in baths they put forth their heads like black hairs and run in when they feel the cold air they breed of slimy matter shut up in the capillar veins which turns to worms from transpiration hindred The fourth cause in the opinion of people is fascination or witchcraft either from the eyes of Witches or by vapors or by touch or by words from a Witch these are alledged by many Authors I neither allow nor plainly deny all these waies of fascination though it is not credible that a child should suffer by words or looks only I deny not but diseases may be sent from sick bodies to others as the Leprosie the French Pox Consumption and the like and many infect Infants And I believe that they may be hurt by Witches and malitious persons by the help of the Devil and Gods permission Bas in hode invidia as Basil the Great writeth for wicked people make a league with the Devil that they may hurt such as they look enviously
Cold and Moist THere is seldom a simple Distemper in the part and commonly there is matter which feeds it It is usually cold and moist which gathers excrements of that sort either in the whole body or in the womb after the terms The Causes Are all things that breed cold and flegmatick humors in the whole body or the womb The Cure They conceive not and are of an ill habit of body the terms seldom flow right and they have sometimes the whites The Prognostick The Cure It is harder to cure than a simple distemper The cold humor is in fault therefore prepare it with Syrup of Mugwort Mints Bettony Hysop with a Decoction proper As Take Fennel roots an ounce Valerian Elicampane Masterwort each half an ounce Penny-royal Mugwort Motherwort Nep Marjoram each a handful Rosemary and Sage-flowers each two pugils Siler Montane Fennel Anniseed Parsnep-seed each a dram boil them to ten ounces strained add Sugar syrup of Mugwort two or three ounces Cinnamon-water half an ounce make a Portion for three doses Then purge it with Agarick Mechoacan Turbith and if other humors be mixed with Flegm add Senna and the like or use Pills de tribus Aloephanginae Mastich of Hiera with Agarick Sine quibus Or Take Agarick a dram and half Senna two drams infuse them in Mugwort-water to three ounces strained add Diaphoenicon or Diacarthaemum two drams strain and add syrup of Mugwort half an ounce Cinnamon-water half a dram After universal Evacuation use Pessaries As Take Mercury bruise it and put it in a bag of white Silk anoint it with Butter or Honey of Roses Or Take Benedicta laxativa three drams Agarick two drams Gith seed a dram Pease meal six drams with juyce of Mercury make Pessaries in a Sarsnet Bag. Or Take Hiera a dram Agarick half a dram Bdellium a dram with Honey make a Pessary or make it with powder of Agarick and Troches of Coloquintida or five sweats of Guajacum China and Sarsa As Take Guajacum a pound and eighteen ounces infuse them in twelve pints of water twenty four hours then boyl them to the consumption of the third part give six or eight ounces hot in the morning and let her sweat Pour water to the reliques and boyl them to the consumption of the third part for an ordinary drink You may use China and Sarsa the same way and because in a decoction some strength is lost and so great a quantity is tedious for women you may distil them and give a less quantity with things proper for the womb As Take Guajacum a pound or Sarsa eight ounces Angelica Elicampane each an ounce Mugwort two handfuls Dittany half a handful add six pints of water or wine steep them two dayes then distil them and give two ounces of the water Let her meat be roasted Birds Hens Capons Partridges Mutton sweet Almonds Raisins Let her abstain from salt and sharp things If these sweats are unpleasant give them in the third and fourth Chapter internal and external As Take Conserve of Marjoram Rosemary Bettony each two ounces of Balm an ounce Diamoschu dulcis Diamargariton calid each a dram â—â—ndied Eryngus and Citrons each half an ounce with furup of Mugwort make an Electuary and use Baths to sit in mentioned Drying Spaw-waters are good to drink or to sit in Let the diet be as in Chap. 3. and 4. give the flesh of wild Mountain fowl Pidgeons Hens Capons Mutton roasted and spiced and old wine and let her exercise Of the hot and dry Distemper of the Womb with Choler Do as in Chap. 5. purge the Choler whether it be from the whole body or from the Liver with Syrup of Roses Manna Tamarinds Rhubarbs Senna c. Chap. 7. Of the ill shape of the Womb and first of the straitness of it and its vessels THis is a Disease of evil conformation from Nature when it can be stretched out no further this makes an abortion in the fourth or fifth month But it is wonderful in its natural shape when it will stretch according to the proportion of the child and after child-bearing be as small as at first Of straitness of the vessels of the Womb. This is usual and hinders the flux of the terms and conception it is in the vessels of the womb and of the neck thereof The Causes Are thick tough humors that stop the mouths of the veins and arteries these are bred of gross or much nourishment when the heat of the womb is so weak that it cannot attenuate the humors these either flow from the whole body or are gathered in the womb Sometimes vessels are closer by inflammation or Schirrhus or other tumor 3. They are stopt by astringent Medicines 4. By compression 5. From a Scar or Flesh or a Membrane that grows after a wound Stoppage of the terms shews straitness The Signs which hinders conception and this stoppage is known by crudities abounding in the body which are known by their signs Sometimes thick flegm comes from the womb if there was a wound before or the Secundine was pulled out by force Stoppage of terms from an old obstruction by humors is hard to be cured The Prognostick if it be from disorderly use of astringents it is more curable if it be from a Schirrhus or other tumor that compresseth or closeth the vessels that cannot be cured the disease is incurable Obstructions are taken away by the means mentioned in the cold and moist Distemper of the Womb flegm must be purged The Cure and she must be let blood as in stoppage of the terms After Universals come to the obstruction with Medicines that move the terms these take away the cause as in the Chapter of the cold distemper of the Womb. Or Take Asparagus roots Parsly roots each an ounce Madder roots half an ounce red Pease half a handful Penny-royal Calamints each a handful Wall-flowers Dill-flowers each two pugils boil strain and add syrup of Mugwort an ounce and half Or Take Birthwort and white Dittany roots each an ounce Costus Cinnamon Galangal each half an ounce Rosemary Penny-royal Calamints Bettony-flowers each a handful Anise and Fennel seeds each a dram Saffron half a dram with Wine Or use Topicks as Take Mugwort Marjoram Calamints Mercury Penny-royal each two handfuls Sage Rosemary Bays Chamomil-flowers each a handful boyl them in water foment the groins and the bottom of the belly or let her fit in a Bath up to the Navel and then anoint about the groins with Oyl of Rue Lillies Dill c. Or use Pessaries and Fumes mentioned If straitness be from other diseases cure them first Chap. 8. Of the opening of the Vessels of the Womb besides Nature THis when there is great bleeding The Causes The vessels are opened preternaturally three wayes by Anastomosis Diaeresis and by Diapedesis as in the Lungs Anastomosis is from much blood which the Liver doth produce and send out by the womb as in some
the liver-veins on the right side or the spleen on the left as they are filled more or less It also falls down by the loosning of the parts to which it is fastned but how that can be it is not clear 1. 2. De morb mulier Hippocrates saith It comes from external causes as from cold of the feet or loins from leaping or fear cutting of wood or running down a hill and the like these make the ligaments moist and loose Also it may be from cold after child-bearing getting into the womb when the terms flow sitting upon a cold stone and the like Platerus Others say It comes from the solution of the connexion of the fibrous neck and the parts adjacent and that is from the weight of the womb descending this we deny not But when the ligaments must be loose or broken But women in a dropsie could not be said not to have the womb fall down if it came only from loosness But the cause in them is the saltness of the water which dries more then it moistneth The Signs If there be a little tumor within or without the privities like a skin stretched or a weight felt about the privities it is only a descent of the womb but if there be a tumor like a Goose-Egg and a hole at the bottom there is at first a great pain in the parts to which the womb is fastned as the loyns the bottom of the belly and the privities and the Os sacrum from the stretching or breaking of the ligaments but a little after the pain abateth and there is an impediment in walking Sometimes blood comes forth from the breach of the vessels and the dung and urine are stopt and a Feaver and Convulsion When it is near it is easily cured when old The Prognostick it is hard to be cured but not deadly only it is troublesom and nasty It hinders conception and keeps terms from flowing orderly If it be with pain Feaver or Convulsion it is deadly especially in women with Child That which comes from corrosion of the ligaments is dangerous First put it up before the air alter it The Cure or it be inflamed or swollen Therefore first give a Clyster to remove the excrements Then lay her upon her back with her legs abroad and thighs lifted up her head down and take the tumor in your hands and thrust it in without violence If it be swollen by alteration and cold foment it with the Decoction of Mallows Althaea Line Foenugreek-seed Chamomil-flowers Bayberries and anoint it with oyl of Lillies and Hens-grease If there be an inflammation Roder a. casuo de morb mul. 1. 2. c. 17. put it not up yet It may be frighted in by shewing of red hot iron and acting as if you would burn it First sprinkle upon it the powder of Mastich Frankincense and the like As Take Frankincense Mastich each two drams Sarcocol steept in Milk a dram Mummy Pomegranate-flowers Sanguis Draconis each half a dram When it is put up let her lie with her leggs stretched one upon the other for eight or ten dayes and make a Pessary like a Pear of Cork or Spung put into the womb dipt in sharp wine or juyce of Acacia with powder of Sanguis Draconis Bole Mastich or the Countesses Oyntment with Galbanum and Bdellium Apply a Cupping-glass with great flame under the navel or paps or to both kidnies and lay this Plaister to the back Take Opopanax two ounces Storax liquid half an ounce Frankincense Mastich Pitch Bole each two drams with Wax make a Plaister Or Take Labdanum a dram and half Frankincense Mastich each half a dram wood Aloes Cloves Spike each a dram Ash coloured Amber-greece four grains Musk half a scruple make two round Plaisters to be laid on each side the Navel Make a Fume of a Snail skin salted or of Garlick and let it be taken in by a Funnel Use astringent Fomentations of Bramble leaves Plantane Horstails Mirtles each two handfuls Wormwood two pugils Pomegranate-flowers half an ounce boil them in wine and water Or inject this with a Syringe Take Comfrey-roots an ounce Snakeweed Pomgranate-flowers each half an ounce Rupture-wort two drams Yarrow Mugwort each half an ounce boil them in red Wine Then use Sulphur Baths To strengthen the Womb Take Harts-horn Bayes each a dram Mirrh half a dram make a powder for two doses give it with sharp Wine Or Take Zedoary Parsnep-seeds Crabs eyes prepared each a dram Nutmeg half a dram give a dram in powder but use astringents warily lest you stop the courses and cause worse mischief If it fall out from evil humors that flow to the womb and loosen the ligaments purge the body and then use dryers as the decoction of China Sarsa and Guajacum To keep it in its place make Roulers and Ligatures as for the Rupture and use Pessaries into the bottom of the womb that may force it to remain Lib. de partu Caesar sect 6. cap. 3. 4. of which Francis Rousset hath written at large and shews that they neither hinder Conception nor bring any inconvenience nay that they help Conception and retain it and cure this disease perfectly And Gaspar Bauhinus confirms the same in his Appendix to Rousset You may use Circles or Balls instead of Pessaries As Take roots of wild Vine make round Circles or Balls of them greater or less as the neck of the womb is Then Take Virgins Wax melted with white Rosin or Turpentine dip the balls in till they are fit put one in the neck of the womb that will hold in being just fit let it not be taken out till it fall out and then put in another if she be not cured If it gangrene and sphacelate cut it quite off Lib. de partu Caes sect 4. cap. 5. hist 6. Ibid. sect 4. cap. 5. if she fear cutting take it off by Ligature of which Rousset who shews the way and saith that it may be cut off without danger of life He tells also of the place where you must cut and in Sect. 4. de partu Caesareo where the Ligature is to be made Let the diet be drying and astringent and glewing as Rice Starch Quinces Pears green Cheese Avoid Summer-fruits Let the Wine be astringent and red The Cure of the inclining of the Womb. When it inclines to the sides after Universals apply Cupping-glasses to the other side and let her still lie on the other side and let the Midwife anoint her finger with Oyl of sweet Almonds and draw it a little by degrees to the other side Chap. 17. Of the Rupture of the Womb. FEw Physitians have seen this I never read of any but once I saw it of which in my Institutions lib. 2. part 1. cap. 9. Chap. 18. Of Wounds and breaking of the Womb. The Signs IT is seldom wounded by reason of the divers defences it hath but sometimes the Chirurgions wound it in
with it to the veins of the womb and stops them This thick blood comes from a cold distemper of the stomach liver and spleen from thick and gross food and drinking cold water when the Terms flow Lib. de venae sec adversus Erasistrat So thought Galen in his time of the Roman women that drank Snow-water and had few or no courses Straightness is when the body of the womb is made thicker either by Nature or other causes as a cold and dry or hot and dry distemper Thirdly Straitness is from compression of the vessels by a Scirrhus or hardness of the parts adjacent as the straight gut or by the stone in the bladder and the womb displaced Fourthly The flesh may grow together by a membrane that grows to the vessels or a scar after a wound Or after a mischance when the veins annexed to the Secundine grow so together that they cannot be opened of which in the first Question They are not the same in women and Virgins The Signs for blood stopt in Virgins goes to and fro changeth the colour and brings Feavers especially the white Feaver or Green-sickness But in women it goes more to the womb and brings Symptomes loathing vomiting and Pica Galen hath other signs as heaviness 8. De lo. aff c. 5. a lazy pain in the loyns neck and behind in the head that reacheth to the roots of the eyes from the spreading of the blood stopt through the whole body This laziness is chiefly in the thighs and leggs by reason of the veins there consenting with the womb And are of a green complexion and hairy with a beard and shrill voice You may know women with child from such as want their Terms only by proper signs First the women with child keep their colour but the other are pale and ill-coloured they are merry the other sad 2. Their Symptoms daily grow milder but in the other they daily grow worse 3. You may feel the child move 4. It is perceived in a month You shall know from what causes the terms are stopt thus If the Liver be cold there is no blood made that is superfluous and there are signs of a cold Liver and you may know that blood is not sent to the Womb when there is no heaviness pain or tumor about the Womb the Liver or Spleen are stopt The Prognostick If it be from Flegm or Melancholy which is often there are signs of their abounding as laziness paleness seldom pulse crude urin Hippoc. de morb mulier Gal. 6. de loc aff c. 5. Hippoc. 5. aphor 23. Hippocrates saith That if the Terms stop there are diseases in the Womb Tumors Imposthumes Ulcers and Barrenness and diseases in the whole Body Green-sickness Leucophlegmacy Dropsie Vomiting of blood Heart-ach Cough And the longer they have been stopt the harder they are to be opened If the blood stopt go out at the Nose it is good If it have great Symptoms there is fear of death You must not give Medicines to move the terms to extenuate lean persons nor to such as want blood and have a weak Liver but they must be fed high Com. in 6. epid 3. c. 29. First see if blood abound and then after a Lenitive open a Vein and let that blood which is in the Veins be drawn to the Womb. Galen took three pints of blood at three times from a lean Woman and cured her of an old stopping of the Terms You must open the Ankle-veins the first day the right the next the left four or five daies before the time Or you may cup and scarrifie the Legs And bind the parts below and rub them after general Evacuation opening of the Haemorrhoids doth hurt and so do Issues because they draw from the Womb. Hiera picra half an ounce or Pills de Tribus or Hiera simple are good first Then prepare As Take water of Mugwort Calamints Maiden-hair each three ounces Syrup of the five Roots and of Mugwort each two ounces make it for two Doses Or Take opening Roots half an ounce Madder Burnet each three ounces Mugwort Bettony Germander Calamints each a handful red Pease half a handful flowers of Bugloss Dill each a pugil boil and sweeten it with Sugar For flegmatick Bodies take the Decoction of Guajacum Sassaphras Dittany for fifteen daies without sweating Then evacuate with Agarick Mechoacan Turbith Scammony Coloquintida black Hellebore As Take Agarick two drams infuse it in Mugwort-water two ounces Oxymel an ounce strain and the Extract of Mechoacan a scruple Or Take opening Roots half an ounce Mugwort Bettony each two pugils Senna half an ounce Agarick two drams Fennel and Aniseed each a scruple Galangal half a dram Rosemary-flowers a pugil infuse them to three ounces and half add syrup of Senna an ounce and half Cinnamon-water half a dram Or if they drink Wine Take Turbith Mechoacan Agarick each two drams Senna an ounce and half Maiden-hair Balm Rosemary each two pugils Cinnamon Galangal each a dram hang them in Wine give six ounces with half an ounce of Manna Or Take Diaturbith with Rhubarb half an ounce Mechoacan two drams Agarick a dram Diarrhodon Cinnamon each half a dram Steel prepared a dram with Raisons make an Electuary give as much as a Walnut Or give Pills of Agarick foetida and so continue purging and preparing if the matter be stubborn Or Take Agarick two drams Madder a dram with Syrup of Mugwort make Pills Or Take Aloes three drams de Tribus one dram with juyce of Savin make Pills If the stomach is foul give a Vomit lest it get into the veins Par. 1. sec 2. ca. 2. Then give provokers of the Terms which are hot and thin about the time they used to flow they are three degrees in strength and many sorts of Medicines are made of them A Powder Take Cinnamon a dram Amber a scruple Saffron half a scruple Or Take Troches of Mirrh of Wall-flowers each a scruple Saffron five grains Or Take Castor Penny-royal each a scruple with Wine or proper Waters Physical Wine Take Madder-roots an ounce Orris half an ounce Balm Penny-royal Mugwort Rosemary each a handful Wall-flowers half a pugil Cinnamon an ounce Galangal half an ounce with Wine give four ounces Or Take the Decoction of red Pease Or Take Smallage Fennel-roots each half an ounce Mugwort Bettony Penny-royal Balm each a handful red Pease half an handful Juniper-berries half an ounce Wall-flowers a pugil boil and sweeten it Or Take ten ounces of it with three ounces of Mugwort for three doses Quercetan commends this Take Gromwel-seeds Anise Misleto of the Oak each three drams Dittany a dram Saffron a scruple bruise and keep them twenty four hours in Wine then boyl them give four ounces for three daies together Or make the Womans Aqua vitae Or Take Balm Bettony Penny-royal Mugwort Nep Motherwort Dittany each four handfuls Wine thirty pints distil them add three handfuls of each herbs and distil them again
we spake at large If blood be superfluous loose it not nor open the Ankle-vein lest you draw it more to the Womb but take away the Cacochymy If it be from weakness of the retentive Faculty strengthen the womb with Dryers and Astringents Chap. 6. Of the overflowing of the Terms IT is when it is too much or too long and hurts any Woman and brings diseases but a certain proportion of bleeding is not to be defined but too much is lost when the actions are hurt The Causes Gal. 3. de symp Causis c. 2. 5. aph com 57. The immediate Cause is the opening of the Vessels and the immediate Cause is the blood in quantity or quality offending or by its force or disorderly motion Vessels are opened by Anastomisis Diapedesis Diaeresis or ruption or by Diaurosis or corrosion Anastomosis is from a moist distemper of the Vessels which loosneth the Orifices or from external causes as Baths hot and moist or use of Aloes The flux is seldom too great from a Diapedesis for it is but a sweating through Ruption is from Plethory when the terms have long been stopped and then break out and when the blood is hot by Air Baths c. The outward causes are falls strokes hard travel great burthens lifted Erosion is from sharp blood or humor or from Medicines that corode as Pessaries long kept For this great Flux is chiefly from the Veins in the bottom of the Womb. The Signs The Flux of Blood is too great when the strength abateth and Cachexy follows with paleness swollen feet and the blood that comes from the bottome of the Womb is blacker and clotted That from the neck redder and thinner The signs of the causes If it be from much blood there are signs of plethory and it easily clotted together If the blood be sharp and cholerick it is putrified in the womb you shall know waterish blood by its colour and the signs of that humour abounding and if you dip a clout in it and dry it in the shade you may see it If the womb be too moist such causes went before If it be from breaking of Veins they will tell you of violence If it be from corrosion it is little and slow sometimes pure sometimes serous It weakneth the whole Body The Prognostick the Liver and Bowels there is Swounding the Whites and paleness and Dropsie sometimes That which hath been long is hard to be cured and causeth death and in an old woman it is deadly If there be fulness abate the blood Indications and keep it from flowing to the womb revel it repel cool and astringe it that it may not flow so fast and then amend the blood If it is from plenty of blood The Cure open the Liver-veins in the right Arm bleed little and often because it makes better revulsion and weakens not open the Salvetella if there be weakness Gal. 5. aph com 50. and cup the Back and Breast against the Liver beneath the Paps where are Veins from the womb cup not beneath but in the Shoulders or Back and Arm with Scarification but scarifie not under the Breasts Bind and rub the arms and shoulders and temper and thicken the sharp thin humors with Decoctions and water of Plantane Purslane Sorrel Knot-grass Shepheards-purse Pomegranate-Syrup and of dried Roses Sorrel Purslane Coral Conserve of Roses Bole sealed Earth If it be urgent use Narcoticks Syrup of Poppies Treacle Philonium Laudanum If it still continue it is fed with Choler therefore purge it with Syrup of Roses Manna Rhubarb Senna If it be fed with serous blood help the Reins that do not their duty and the Liver and sweat with China You must not provoke urin but use astringents As Take the juyce of Ass-dung Syrup of Mirtles each half an ounce Plantane-water an ounce Give it her and let her not know what it is Decoctions Take Comfrey-roots Tormentil each two drams Purslane Plantane each a handful boil them add to six ounces Syrup of Currans Quinces Mirtles each six drams give it at twice Or Take Syrup of Purslane juyce of Nettles each two ounces Purslane-water four ounces Troches of Amber of sealed Earth each a dram Blood-stone half a dram give two spoonfuls every day A Water Take eight pints of water with Starch Barley-meal and Rice dried Roses a handful juyce of Yarrow Plantane each half a pint Comfrey-roots and all three ounces Horstail Blood-wort each half a handful Pears and Quinces Pomegranate-flowers all Sanders each half an ounce Mastich an ounce Distil them and give two ounces with half an ounce of Syrup of Roses or Purslane Electuaries Conserve of Roses two ounces Quinces an ounce and half Troches of burnt Ivory and sealed Earth each a dram Crocus Martis Bole red coral prepared Mastich each half a dram with Syrup of Mirtles make an Electuary Powders Take Mastich red Coral prepared each a dram Pearl Smaragds prepared each a scruple Blood-stone half a scruple Bole half a dram make a powder Michael Paschal cured many with this Powder Lib. de curat morb cap. 55. Take two Egg-shells burnt Frankincense Mastich each half an ounce Pearl red Coral and Amber each two drams Blood-stone Smaragds prepared each half a scruple Barley-flour two pugils whites of four Eggs with steeled water make Cakes Give from half a dram to a dram in powder with Trotter-broath in the morning Or give every day a dram of the powder of Mulberry-tree roots Or Ex petrafores to Take plump Turtle drawn and pluckt wash it in Rose-water and red Wine put an ounce of Mastich in the belly of it stick it on and roast it and bast it with Vinegar of Roses Then put it into a glass close luted to be dried in an Oven then beat all of it to powder Give a spoonful with Plantane-water or an astringent Decoction Anoint the bottome of the Belly Reins and Groyns with the dropping of it Or make Rouls thus Take Bole half a dram Magistery of Coral a dram Pearl prepared a scruple Sorrel and Plantane-seed each half a dram Aromatiacum rosatum Traganth each half a dram with Sugar dissolved in Plantane-water make Rouls In the use of cold Astringents take heed you stop not the Veins and the heat be cooled If these help not use Narcoticks as Troches of sealed Earths and Amber with Opium these astringe also Use no Pessaries except the Veins in the neck of the Womb be open As Take Snakeweed Tormentil each half an ounce Pomegranate-flowers Plantane-seed each two drams Comfry-roots half an ounce Frankincense Mastich each a dram Acacia Sanguis Draconis each two scruples Blood-stone Starch each a dram and half with the white of an Egg and Gum traganth dissolved in Rose-water make Pessaries with red Silk Womb-Clysters Take juyce of Yarrow Solomons-seal each two ounces Mucilage of Gum Arabick made in Plantane-water two ounces make a Clyster A Fume Take Frankincense Mastich each two drams Mirtles Labdanum each a
dram red Roses Pomegranate-flowers each half a dram with Gum traganth make Troches to be burnt Oyntments Take Oyl of Mirtles Quinces each two ounces juyce of Plantane Solomons-seal Horse-tail each an ounce boil the juyces away add Bole Plantane-seed Mirtle-berries Ceruss each half an ounce with Wax make an Oyntment Or use the Countesses Oyntment to the Loins and Pecten Cataplasms Take Quinces Pearls boiled in red Wine add Bole Mastich Sanguis Draconis Acacia make a Cataplasm or a Cerot Or Take Sorrel and Plantane-seed Purslane-seed Bole Sanguis Draconis each two drams Frankincense Mastich Mirrh each three drams Turpentine an ounce with juyce of Plantane and Yarrow and Wax make a Cerot after the Juyces are boiled away Fomentations are better than Baths for they make the humors flow more Let them be astringent and cool Or wash the Legs and Hips in cold water Lay Epithems to the Liver Oyntments Cerots or Plaisters If Choler offend give Rhubarb and Conserve of Roses to evacuate the Cacochymy If blood flow from a vein broken use Coral Bole Mirtles Comphry Acacia Hypocistis or apply a Pultis of whites of Eggs and astringent Powders If it come from a vessel corroded use stoppers and glutinaters that are slimy as Dropwort-roots a dram with a rear Egg. Let the diet be as the Physick is In a flux from plethory eat little and that of little nourishment and in other cases give things to close the vessels Sleep long and use little Venery little or no exercise Anger hurts and other passions Question Whether Frictions or Ligatures in the Legs may be made for Revulsion Hippocrates and Galen are misconstrued in his 8. Book of Blood-letting and they are not to be used in the flux of the Terms Chap. 7. Of the Terms-flowing with pain and Symptoms THe Symptoms are pain in the Loyns or Thighs Head-ach biting at the mouth of the Stomach pain in the Belly and Loyns fainting They are as in suppression of Terms The Causes but less vehement and are in them that have not conceived There is obstruction thick and gross blood that stretcheth the vessels and the blood flows not orderly A little before the Terms there is head-ach The Signs biting at the stomach pain in the loyns and bottom of the stomach with beating at the heart and fainting When the pain is from thick blood it comes forth in clodds and the pain is worse than before If it be from wind it is sudden and staies not in a place and there is rumbling in the belly The Prognostick Take heed it turn not to the stoppage of terms if it be neglected It is greater in barren women and Virgins then in those who have had children The Cure Take away the cause if they be thick humors evacuate them after they are prepared If sharp temper them These attenuate blood water of Grass-roots Maidenhair Decoctions of the opening Roots Syrup of Maidenhair of the five Roots Treacle and the like in the stoppage of the Terms Against pain use the Fomentations and Oyntments in the Chapter of pain of the Womb. Chap. 8. Of evil discoloured Terms THis is called the Terms depraved by bad humors and so they are voided The Causes Blood is foul either from evil diet or evil humors or stoppage of it The humors are flegm choler or melancholy mixed with it and then the Terms are either pale blew green or black and stinking or white and flegmatick They are so from a fault in the stomach The pale and yellow are from too great heat in the Liver The black are from the spleen disordered The Signs That blood which is natural is different from the bad in colour and substance it is like that of a new slain sheep nor thicker nor thinner and the bad Terms come not seasonably but sooner or later of which Hippocrates Lib. de morb mulier You may know by the colour what humor predominates and by the substance The flegmatick and melancholy are long in coming and the cholerick waterish Terms come quicker The more they differ from the natural state The Prognostick the worse they are black and stinking are worst The mattery are worst of all If these flow seven eight or nine daies she is cured if they ulcerate the womb she is barren Hippocrates saith The Cure 5. Aphor. 36. they must be purged and prepared with proper things as we shewed in the distempers of the womb But take heed that you move not the Terms when you attenuate for that will melt the serous humors and fix them more in the vessels use neither Vinegar nor sharp things After purging consume the reliques by sweat if choler be in fault that must not be sweated out discuss it with warm Baths and do so in melancholy Use Pessaries Fomentations and Fumes to the womb Give Treacle Mithridate or the Decoction of Angelica-roots if cold humors are the cause Chap. 9. Of Terms coming before their time THese shew an ill constitution And it is a depraved excretion of the Terms that comes for the time often for sometimes they flow sooner or twice in a month The immediate Cause is hurt of the retentive and expulsive faculty The Causes so that the blood flows not or sooner or later or oftner the cause why they come sooner is in the blood that stirs up the expulsive faculty in the whole body or in the womb sometimes all causes meet the blood is too much or too sharp and hot and if the retentive faculty in the womb be weak and the expulsive strong and of quick sense it is sooner A fall stroke or passion are the evident Causes The Signs They will relate it and the signs of the causes are these If it be from much blood there are the signs of plethory heat thinness and sharp humors are known by the distemper of the whole The weakness of the retentive faculty and loosness of the vessels is known from a loose and moist habit of body The Prognostick The Cure It is not dangerous but troublesome and hinders conception If they come too soon from hurt in the faculty provoked by too much plethory Let blood use a spare diet and much exercise If it be from sharp blood temper it by good diet and Medicines as in the cholerick distemper of the womb Use Baths of Iron-water that corrects the distempers of the bowels then evacuate If it come from the retentive faculty and loosness of the vessels correct the cold and moist distemper with gentle astringents If it be from a stroke or fall cure it as the vessels opened are cured of which before Chap. 10. Of the Terms that come after their usual time WHen they stay longer then ordinary and return without order at no set time the causes are little and thick blood straitness of the passages weakness of the expulsive faculty and dulness Either of these causes may stop the Terms but if all meet the disease is
it by one Sometimes there is only short breath sometimes the animal actions are hurt the whole Body is cold from a malignant vapor sent up from the Womb. The Causes The immediate Cause is a vapour malignant and venomous sent up by the Arteries Veins and Nerves that hurt the actions of the parts it goes to This vapor is like air or wind thin and little but very strong to get presently through the whole Body It chiefly ascends to the Gullet and causeth choaking as eating of Mushrooms Hellebore and other poysons There is often short difficult breathing with Heart-ach Vomiting and Loathing If the vapor go first to the heart the motion of it ceaseth and there is swounding and she falls down If it go to the Brain the animal actions are hurt When seed and terms corrupt in the Womb with other bad humors they breed this evil vapor because they are the best substance and the beginning of generation they are worst when corrupted especially seed to hurt the whole Body Gal. cit 1. Sometimes it is in Women with child when they have not their after-purging but evil humors are left and corrupt in the Womb. The chief cause of this humor is in the trumpet of the womb and stones the body of which is hollow and loose the stones being in Bladders and have hollowness full of water which in hysterical women is yellow and thicker then ordinary Vesal de corp human Fabr. lib. 5. c. 15. This trumpet and the stones are often taken from the womb it self when they are swollen with corrupt seed and humors and wind and reach to the Navel of which in the Chapter of Ascent of the Womb. This disease is breeding sooner or longer as the matter is more or less sometimes corrupt humors lie still and if they be stirred they send a venom or vapor to the whole body Now in women subject to this disease sweet scents to the Nose or taken in or anger will move these humors and vapors They are according to the variety of the Symptoms and efficient cause or venomous humors The Differences for corrupt blood especially seed puts on another Nature That Suffocation is at hand The Signs it appears by laziness weakness of the Legs paleness sad countenance and the motion of something like a Ball in the Belly with noise like Frogs Snakes or Crows so that some think it is devillish There is also Belching Yawning Yexing short Wind Heart-beating Loathing Dulness Laughter at the coming of the fit from the vapor getting into the Membrane of the Breast that tickle them some cry some both laugh and cry These Symptoms increase when the fit comes and the Jaws are closed that she seems to be choaked and sense and motion is gone or depraved Some have Convulsions some hear what is done about them but cannot speak the pulse is less the whole body is cold and the Eyes shut as if they were dead When the fit declines humors flow from the Privities the Guts rumble the Eyes open the Cheeks grow red and the body warm the animal actions return and the Patient sighs and comes to her self It is known to be from corrupt seed if the terms are in order and short breath and low voice Suffocation and Convulsions and all Symptoms are then more vehement and at the end of the fit there flows a humour like seed out of the privities It is from the terms if they be stopt or flow not orderly and if there be a disease in the womb it is neither from the seed nor the terms The Prognostick 1. If there come Swounding or a great Convulsion or quenching of natural heat it is deadly 2. Suffocation from corrupt seed is more dangerous then that which is from the terms mixt with melancholick humors 3. The longer it lasts and the worse the Symptoms the more is the danger It ceaseth in young Women when they begin to bear children 4. The oftner the fit comes the more you may fear the quenching of the natural heat by weakning of the Heart often and if she foam at the mouth she dies The Cure of the Fit In the fit you must discuss the malignant vapors that rise from the womb and turn it from the principal parts and you must evacuate the matter that breeds it and prevent its return Call upon her loud pluck the hairs of her privities and Ears make strong Ligatures and Frictions cup the Legs and Thighs and Groyns hold stinks to the Nose as Partridge-feathers burnt hairs Leather Horn Castor Assa-foetida Galbanum Oyl of Amber Rue the warts on Horses legs dried and the powder upon coals burnt makes a Fume which if taken in the nose suddenly raised them Apply sweet Scents to the Privities as Civet Musk Gallia and Alipta moschata or powder of Cloves Or Take Storax calamita Benzoin each a dram Gallia moschata half a scruple make Troches with Gum traganth and let the Fume be taken into the VVomb by a Fennel A Liniment Take Storax Benzoin each a dram Gallia moschata half a scruple Civet four grains liquid Storax half a scruple with Cotton put it into the Womb. Clysters to discuss wind draw down the matter Take the Carminative Decoction a pint Electuary of Hiera six drams Benedicta laxativa an ounce Oyl of Rue and Bayberries each a dram Use VVomb-clysters and Pessaries to women that have known man Take Electuary of Hiera and Diaphaenicon each two drams Turpentine half an ounce Honey of Mercury an ounce Castor half a dram with Wooll make a Pessary Oyl of Tin applied to the Navel doth remove the fit Or Rue Castor and sneesing Powders As Take white Hellebore half a scruple long Pepper and Ginger each half a dram or put Oyl of Amber into the Nose and Ears Apply to the VVomb this Take Oyl of Rue Bayes each two ounces Cummin-seed Castor dissolved in Vinegar each two drams with Wax make a Liniment Or use a Plaister of Galbanum Castor and Assa-foetida A Compound distilled VVater Take Zedoary Parsnep-seeds Lovage-roots each two ounces Mirrh Castor each half an ounce Piony-roots four ounces Misleto of the Oak gathered in the wain of the Moon three ounces and water of Motherwort four ounces and half Spirit of Wine a pint and half steep them eight daies distil and give a spoonful with Tile-flower or Mugwort-water or Oyl of Amber some drops Or Take Castor Assa-foetida each a scruple Pepper half a scruple with syrup of Mugwort make Pills give three The Cure out of the Fit First prevent the seed from corrupting in the womb and if it be corrupt evacuate it presently with Womb-Clysters and Pessaries then disperse the reliques and strengthen the womb But first give a general Purge that is gentle often and use things that prevent the breeding of Seed Strengthen with Plaisters and Oyntments to the Region of the Womb. As Take liquid Storax two drams Avens Agnus castus seeds Angelica each half a dram
prevent take heed of Venery in the terms or before the terms or when the body is soul or obstructed or the womb When it is 1. De morb mulier take it away presently with things that send forth a dead child Hippocrates sheweth the Cure in few words First foment the whole body c. Therefore if she be plethorick let blood largely in the foot at divers times Then purge often with strong Physick Take Althaea Lilly-roots each half an ounce Althaea Mercury Pellitory Brank-ursine each a handful Chamomil Melilot-flowers each half a handful Faenugreek and Lin-seed each six drams boyl them in Broath to a pint add sweet Butter Oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies each an ounce make a Clyster repeat it often To Conquer all Infirmities Study my Sennertus Platerus Bartholinus and Riolanus of the last Editions Make Baths Liniments Fomentations then move the Terms with Dittany Birthwort Briony c. Take Briony Birthwort each half an ounce Asarum two drams Rue Savin Mugwort Dittany Penny-royal Motherwort each half a handful Elder and Chamomil-flowers each half a handful Line and Foenugreek-seeds each half an ounce boyl them to a pint add Hiera an ounce and half Troches of Alkandal a dram Oyl of Rue and Keir each an ounce and half make a Clyster of the residents make a Cataplasm for the belly Or this Pessary Take Troches of Mirrh Galbanum Opopanax dissolved in Wine each two drams Sowbread-roots a dram white Hellebore half a dram with juyce of Rue Fab. cent 2. obs 52. If these will not do let the Midwife take it out with her hand if it be half rotten Or leave it to Nature which doth it in time To stop the flux of blood after a Mole is taken out use strings against overflowing of the Terms As Take Plantane Shepheards-purse Brambles Oak-leaves red Roses each a handful boyl them in steeled Water then take Barley-bran two ounces Pomegranate-flowers Cypress-nuts Pomegranate-peels red Roses Comfrey-roots in powder each an ounce Frogs burnt Bole Sanguis Draconis each half an ounce with the Decoction aforesaid and a little Vinegar make a Cataplasm for the Region of the Womb. Take away pain with Anodynes mentioned in pain of the Womb keep up the strength with meat of a good juyce Question Whether a Mole may be without the company of a Man and without his Seed To speak freely of this which many doubt I suppose that many are made of a weak mans seed mixed with the woman seed and much blood But Histories confirm that Widows have had them without mans seed but not of the shape with the others And being voided they melted being in the air into water I think Virgins cannot have them but from wantonness or in sleep they may spend their seed but because it is weak and the blood necessary for formation neither is drawn by the womb nor flows to it of its own accord as it doth in those that have had children and the vessels of the womb in Virgins are straiter than in Widdows and others that have had children Therefore though the seed of Virgins flow into the womb yet they cannot have a Mole for want of blood which is necessary for the forming of the same This is to be understood of Moles which are not vital for vital Moles that have some life cannot be got in Virgins or Widdows without the seed of Man Chap. 10. Of Monsters HIstories tells of many Monsters brought forth by women We spake of Worms Sect. 2. Chap. 8. They are like Toads or Mice or Fish Par. 7. cap. 12. lij Gordonius saith it is usual in Lumbardy Lycosthenes saith and others also That Serpents Dogs and other Monsters with parts like brute beasts have been brought forth In appen Franc. Ros de par Caes Gasper Bauhin speaks of one Anne Troporim which 1575. brought forth two Serpents with her child In Harvest hot weather she had drunk water in a Brook in a Wood near Basil where she thought she drank the Spawn of a Serpent for a little after that her belly swelled and three months after she was big with child and the Serpents grew as the Child did Her belly was so big that she carried it in a swathing band She was delivered at last of a lean male child and because they suspect Worms or Snakes from the gnawing and strange motion she felt that year they put a bason of milk under her and when they expected an after-birth out came a Serpent which she saw and perceived another coming forth they were an ell long and as thick as a childs arm Thus Bauhin and he speaks of others if you please to peruse him A Monster is that which is either wholly or in part like a beast or that which is ill shaped extraordinary Histories witness that a Monster may be from humane seed The Causes and the seed of a beast It is seldome for the forming faculty doth not err of it self but is seduced by the imagination or frustrated of its ends from a fault of the Spirits the heat or matter Therefore imagination is the cause of Monsters For Histories mention That women with child by beholding men in vizards have brought forth Monsters with horns and beaks and cloven feet The same is when Spirits or heat seed or blood are weak or little And though Doctors cannot cure Monsters yet they are to admonish women with child not to look upon Monsters and to strengthen their spirits and heat and to keep the seed and blood right and not to allow copulation in time of their terms lest any monstrous Birth should be from much and impure blood Chap. 11. Of false Conception and Swelling FAlse Conception or Gravidation is when the terms are stopt and the belly swells and there are signs like those of a true Conception then they think themselves with child and as Hippocrates saith They believe not to the contrary till ten months are past The causes are wind in the womb or water Causae p. 1. s 2. c. 10. matter or thick flegm These are bred from sickly seed retained upon which Nature works in vain or from a fault in the terms that corrupts the seed and breeds bad humors The like appears in Virgins when they begin to have their terms but it is discovered by pain The terms flow not as in a true Conception The Signs but in this there is pain of the head loyns belly and groyns of which Hippocrates saith thus 2. Prorrhet They have a false Conception without terms appearing with a swollen belly have the head-ach and there is no milk in their breasts but what is like water and very little Morveover the belly swells sooner then in a true Conception their colour changeth their face and feet swell they loath meat faint and have a depraved appetite The surest sign is the time of child-bearing being past The Prognostick The Cure They are commonly barren or have ulcers in their Privities
Chap. 5. Of the Symptoms in Women with Child in the middle Months THey are cough heart-beating fainting watching pains in the loyns and hips and bleeding 1. The cough is from a sharp vapor that comes to the jaws and rough artery from the terms or from a thin part of that blood gotten into the veins of the breast or falling from the head to the breast This endangers abortion and strength fails from watching therefore purge the humors that fall from the head to the breast with Rhubarb Agarick and strengthen the head as in a Catarrh and give sweet Lenitives as in a Cough 2. Palpitation of heart and fainting is from vapors that go to it by the arteries or from blood that aboundeth and cannot get out at the womb but ascends and oppresseth the heart Use Cordials as in Syncope inwardly and outwardly If it be from too much blood as in Plethory open a vein 3. Watching is from dry sharp vapors that trouble the animal Spirits Then use Frictions and wash the feet at bed time and give Syrup of Poppies dryed Roses Emulsions of sweet Almonds and white Poppy-seeds 4. There is pain in the loyns and hips from the weight of the child or from the terms stopt or growth of the child that stretcheth the ligaments of the womb and parts adjacent if there be Plethory bleed If it be from weight of the child hold it up with swathing Bands about the neck 5. There is flux of bood at the womb nose or Hoemorrhoids from plenty or from the weakness of the child that takes it not in or from evil humors in the blood that stir up nature to send it forth Also the vessels of the Womb may be broken or torn by motion fall cough or trouble of mind This is dangerous 5. Aphor. 60. of which Hippocrates saith The child cannot be well if it be from blood only there is less danger so it flows by the veins of the neck of the womb for it takes away Plethory or take not nourishment from the child If it be from the weakness of the child that draws it not abortion often follows or hard travel or she goes beyond her time If it flow by the inward veins of the womb there is more danger by the openness of the womb If it come from evil blood the danger is alike from Cacochymy which is like to fall upon both If there be Plethory open a vein warily and use astringents As Take Pearls prepared a scruple red Coral two scruples Mace Nutmegs each a dram Cinnamon half a dram make a powder or with Sugar Rouls or give this powder in Broth. Take red Coral a dram Pearl half a dram pretious Stones each half a scruple red Sanders half a dram Bole a dram sealed Earth Tormentil-roots each two scruples with Sugar of Roses and Manus Christi with Pearl six drams make a powder You may strengthen the child at the navel If there be Cacochymy alter the humors and if you may evacuate You may use Amulets in the hands and about the neck In flux of Haemorrhoids beware of the pain Let her drink hot Wine with a roasted Nutmeg Chap. 6. Of the Symptomes that are in the last Months 1. THe Urin is stopt from suppression of the neck of the bladder Let her then lye down and let the bladder be fomented with a Bag of Pellitory Parsly-roots Mallows Linseed and the like or use the Catheter 2. The belly is bound from a hot and dry Liver when the child draws all the moisture to it or presseth the guts Let her then use Moistners as Butter Mallows Borage in Broaths or that Clysters in a small quantity 3. The veins appear in the hips and legs as varicous only then keep them from walking and let their feet be laid upon a stool 4. The legs swell from serous blood but this goes away with the After-birth and is the signs of a female child but if she cannot walk foment with Lye made of Vine branches and Wine or with a Decoction or Organ Penny-royal Chamomile Calamints Or Take Bean and Lupine-flour each two ounces Tartar an ounce Pidgeons-dung half an ounce with steeled-water and juyce of Coleworts make a Pultis Rub and wash the feet with salt water in which Chamomil Organ and Dill were boyled 5. The skin of the belly is cleft with stretching after the fourth month therefore use loosning Liniments to keep off deformity as marrow of Veal and Sheeps-legs Oyl of sweet Almonds Hens-grease 6. The water gathered in time of being with Child between the membranes that hold the Child comes forth too soon because the membranes are broken by leaping or a contusion This makes difficult birth for that water was to moisten the parts Therefore let her keep a good diet and strengthen the child inwardly and outwardly Chap. 7. Of Weakness of the Child THis is either from weak seed or little nourishment or bad and causeth many diseases in the child To hinder abortion and death of the child know rightly the weakness as Hippocrates saith 5. Aph. 53. They that will abort have first breasts that fall away which is from want of nourishment in the common veins of the womb and breasts 5. Aph. 52. Hippocrates hath a second sign which is this If a Woman with child hath much milk flowing from her breast her child is weak 3. Hippocr 5. aph 56. If the terms flow often the nourishment is taken from the child 4. A mother often and long being sick shews that her child is weak because her blood is not good and the bad humors with the blood go to nourish the child which makes him sick 5. When the mother hath a flux of the belly the child is weak 6. When it begins to move and is scarce felt it is weak If it be from these causes take them away and strengthen the child first seed the mother high with meats of good juyce and sweet Almonds steept in Honey Raisins Quinces outwardly thus Take Malmsey three pints dissolve it in Oyl of Nutmegs by expression half an ounce add powder of Cloves Rue each half an ounce Rose Sage Marjoram Penny-royal-water each a pint Aqua-vitae three ounces Dip Spunges in it and apply them under the left breast to the arm-pits hams pulses soles of the feet and when they dry wet them again Chap. 8. Of Crying in the Womb. CHildren have sometimes cryed in the womb as Fabricius saith in his Epistle to his Brother James Fincel and Weinridick of Monsters writes thus In this City of Bressa a Child was heard to cry in the Womb three daies before the Travel when he was a man he was miserable with poverty and diseases till he died Andreas Libavius writes the same and others Some say It portends evil to the Mother or Child or Countrey It is a voice by the expulsion of the air through the rough artery The Causes and some air may in the cavities from vapors or spirits as in
Savin an ounce of Leeks and Mercury each half an ounce boyl them to the consumption of the juyce add Galbanum dissolved in Vinegar half an ounce Myrrh two drams Storax liquid a dram round Birthwort Sowbread Cinnamon each half a dram Saffron a scruple with wax make an Oyntment Also neesing provoke the Birth and Amulets 5. Aphor. 35. Levi. Lemn de oc nat mir lib. 4. c. 12. as a Snakes-skin about her middle the Eagle-stone bound to her thigh If weakness be the cause refresh her with Wine and sops to the nose Confect Alkermes Diamosc Diamarg If there be Twins let the Midwife order them with her hands and help the foremost If the passages be not slippery use an emollient Fomentation and Oyl of sweet Almonds Hens or Ducks-grease c. If the belly be bound give a Clyster or Suppository When Medicine will not do it Aetius tetra 4. c. 23. break the Membrane with the fingers dipt in Oyl or cut them When the Child is still-born let the Midwife chew Spices and blow in its mouth or drop Aqua-vitae in it or anoint it with Honey Chap. 6. Of a vitious disorderly Birth or difficulty preternatural IF the hand come not forth first and the hands and feet are upwards there is an ill birth Hippocrates reckons two causes The Causes the largeness of the womb Lib. de nat pu and disorderly motion of the mother from pain also the thickness of the membrane which when it cannot break with the head it attemps to do with the feet and hands The Signs The Midwife may perceive in what figure the child comes forth The Prognostick All disorderly coming forth is dangerous to mother and child but there is least danger when both feet come forth this is called by the Latins Partus Agrippinus The Cure Let the Midwife reduce it into the cavity of the womb when it comes not forth right and place it right When the feet cannot be thrust upwards let the Midwife supple the parts with Oyl and take hold of the arm and help it and give neesings Let her alwaies labour to put the child in a right posture by moving it with her hand or taking the mother from the bed and compose her in such a posture as may bring the child into a right posture and that soon Chap. 7. Of a slow Birth THis is when the Child is longer coming forth then ordinarily Epistol lo. 2. 29. epis of this Massa writes That a Venetian Matron conceived of a husband of seventy years of age and brought forth a child in the fifteenth month blind and without hands which lived five months Consil 85. ad christ vuolcken Cardanus writes That his father said he was born in the thirteenth month And Mercurialis writes thus That it was never seen or written that a woman had a live child four years in her belly c. but these are rare and miraculous The cause is the weakness of the seed and want of heat in the womb which makes the expulsive faculty weak Chap. 8. Of a Child dead in the Womb. WHen at the time of Child-birth there is pain and breaking forth of water which ceaseth presently without delivery the child remaining in the womb then the mother or child dies or both When the travel is vehement from divers causes they may also cause no birth The Causes for either the more she may lose her strength and the child not come forth or both may die And if the child be weak and move little or the mother may be weak and the child great the travel is hard and both die or if the child come not forth in a right posture Or if the passages are ill proportioned Fabri cent 1. obs 64. 67. as when the bones of the Pubes do not give way or when there is Schirrhus or other tumor that straitneth the passages there is no delivery Or the child dies by a disease for want of nourishment or a fall stroak or leap or passion in the mother Search if the child be living or dead The Signs for if it be dead it will hurt the mother by rotting and if the mother die and child be alive take it out before the mother be buried A child is known to be dead if the Mother and Midwife perceive no motion but it is raised by any strengtheners given and when the mother moves from side to side it moves like a stone or when the face and lips of the mother are pale and her extream parts livid and the breasts that were plump are fallen her breath stinks water and stinking matter flows from the womb there is a Feaver horrour and fainting or Convulsion or if the Secundine come forth before the Child The Prognostick If a dead child be not presently taken out the mother is in great danger there are great Symptomes and strange diseases of which see Francis Rousset and others The Cure When the child comes not forth in time and is alive it must be taken out by the Midwife or Chyrurgion by cutting the belly and womb of which in the Chapter following If it be dead you must drive or take it out before it stinks either by Medicines or Chyrurgery The Medicines are such as stir up the expulsive faculty but they must be stronger then before because the motion of the child ceaseth as Take Savin round Birthwort Troches of Mirrh Castor each a dram Cinnamon half an ounce Saffron a scruple give a dram with Savin-water Or Take Borax Savin Dittany each an ounce Mirrh Asarum-roots Cinnamon Saffron each half a dram make a Powder give a dram Purge first and put her in an emollient Bath and anoint about the womb with Oyl of Lillies sweet Almonds Chamomil Hens and Goose-grease Foment to get out the child with a Decoction of Mercury Orris wild Cowcumber Stoechas Broom-flowers Then anoint the Privities and Loyns with Oyntment of Sowbread Or Take Coloquintida Agarick Birthwort each a dram make a powder add Ammoniacum dissolved in Wine Ox-gall each two drams with Oyl of Keir make an Oyntment Or this Pessary Take Birthwort Orris black Hellebore Coloquintida Mirrh each a dram powdered add Ammoniacum dissolved in Wine Ox-gall each two drams Or make a Fume with Asses-hoof burnt or Galbanum or Castor and let it be taken in with a Funnel If these will not do use Chyrurgery It is done with the hand only or with instruments of which Aegineta and Aetius Lib. 6. c. 23. terrab serm 4. cap. 23. Charles Stephens shews how to use the hand without instruments When you know the child is dead saith he place the woman in the best posture and tye her so very fast c. see the rest John Bauhin takes the same course out of Schenks Observations And because the strength faileth Lib. 5. cap. 2. de disect part corpore human refresh her and abate pain cherish the torn parts and
make a Pessary The stronger are of the Decoction of wild Cowcumber Coloquintida Staphisacre Hellebore Honey and gall of an Ox. Fumes are made of Cassia lignea Nard Mugwort Savin Penny-royal Dittany Or Take Myrrh Castor Galbanum each half a dram Opopanax Cinnamon each a dram with Honey make Troches for to be burnt Then foment the Belly with the Decoction of those Plants Or Take Lupine-meal an ounce powder of Wormwood half an ounce Mirrh Rue each three drams with Ox-gall and Honey make a Cataplasm If it come not forth give a Womb-clyster of the Decoction of Sage Mugwort Mercury Calamints Penny-royal If all fail inject things to suppurate into the womb and let it be turned to matter and come out by degrees and inject strengtheners into the womb Of the Mole left after Child-bearing You may know it by the signs of a Mole mentioned she hath no ease after travel there is pain in the navel back and groyns and much clotted blood comes away and yet she hath no ease the Cure is mentioned before in the Mole Chap. 3. Of the Purgation after Child-bearing diminished or detained THis is not alike in all women for in some women the blood is fresh in others it is waterish cholerick or melancholick And some bleed more then others according to the constitution and Countrey It is either not at all or too much or too little The Causes When they are stopt or lessened the vessels are too strait or the blood flows another way or it is too thick or the vessels of the womb are pressed from its position the blood is drawn away by passions fears or goes hastily to the breasts The Signs The just quantity is not to be defined when it is stopt the belly swells the pain is in the bottom of the belly and groyns there is chilness and a Feaver after it fainting weak swift unequal pulse there is soot in the urin Sometimes the belly inflamed or she voids blew or black clodds or blood The Prognostick Gal. 1. epid com 3. t. 21. The Cure It is bad of it self to have any thing left after Child-bearing and worse if it staies long and grows melancholick therefore it is a cause of many diseases First endeavor to evacuate the blood from the womb by Frictions Ligatures and Cupping if they will not do open a vein in the foot Then open the passages with external and internal meats anoint the Belly with loosning Oyls or foment thus Take Lilly-roots Birthwort Briony Angelica each half an ounce Mercury Mugwort Penny-royal Savin Calamints each a handful Tansey Chamomil and Elder-flowers each half a handful Faenugreek and Linseed each two drams bruise them grosly and put them in a bag and boyl them in Water and Wine lay it to the Privities and bottom of the Belly Give emollient Clysters and if some dayes are past purge with Agarick Rhubarb Senna Or Take Lilly-roots Althaea each half an ounce Birthworts two drams Pellitory Mercury Althaea each a handful Calamints Chamomil Elder-flowers each two pugils Foenugreek and Linseed each two drams boyl them to ten ounces strained add Oyl of Dill Lillies each an ounce Hiera simple half an ounce Oyntment of Sowbread three drams make a Clyster Or give Pessaries that provoke the Terms Give things to melt and attenuate the blood As Take opening Roots three drams Bettony Maiden-hair Endive Schoenanth each two pugils Anise Fennel-seed each a scruple red Pease a spoonful boyl them to a pint and half add Cinnamon-water two drams syrup of the five Roots three ounces give four ounces Chap. 4. Of too great a flux of blood after Child-bearing THat is too much which makes weak It is blood abounding which hath been gathered nine months in the womb The Causes It is thick or spends the Spirits and weakens The Signs There is loathing of meat pain the Hypochondria belly-ach weak and often pulse dark sight noise in the ears fainting and Convulsion It is dangerous when long The Prognostick Hippoc. 9. aphor 55. The Cure and with fainting and Convulsion Therefore observe the Pulse lest she dye suddenly See what strength she hath and stop it not suddenly If it be not very great order a dyet of roasted Hens basted with red Wine or Pomegranate of Starch Almonds Rice Quinces Conserve of Roses steeled Water and make Revulsions use gentle things and strengthen the loose passages Anoint the belly with Oyl of Roses Mirtles cup under the breasts and sides without scarrification Apply a Cataplasm of red Roses Bole and Rose-water to the Liver Then use stronger and give a higher diet often in small quantity and give Syrups to stop blood As Take old Conserve of Roses two ounces of Tormentil an ounce of Quinces without species half an ounce Bole red Coral each half a dram with syrup of Currans and Coral make an Electuary Anoint the belly with the Oyntment of the Countess and other Astringents or use Astringent Fomentations or let her take into the womb a Fume of Mastich Frankincense red Roses c. Then open a vein in the arm and let blood by degrees See Sect. 2. Chap. 6. Of Overflowing of the Terms Chap. 5. Of the pains after Travel and torments in the Belly THese are not in the body and bottom of the womb but in the vessels and membranes by which the womb hangs and that goes to the sides and belly The Causes They are from a constant labour in travel when the bottom of the womb is pricked to send forth from cold air let into it or clotted blood detained or sharp blood sticking to the womb and pricking it The Signs They are in the womb it self you may know if they came from cold by what hath been done and clotted blood will manifest it self The Prognostick The Cure They weaken much and are very troublesome therefore they must be abated First take away the cause or abate the pain and make that which hurts the womb fit to be evacuated by these Pills Take Cinnamon a dram Saffron a scruple Diacymini Diagalangal Zedoary each half a dram make a Powder give a dram in Penny-royal or cinnamon-Cinnamon-water Or Take of Cummin-seed steept in Spirit of Wine and dried again a dram Ameos-seed and Ginger each half a dram Cinnamon a scruple Castor half a scruple make a Powder If she faint add Cordial Waters As Take Diacyminum a dram Diamargariton frigid Citron-peels Zedoary each half a dram make a Powder If she be cholerick or the humor thin and sharp cure it as a Cholick from Choler As Take Syrup of Violets Borage each an ounce Mucilage of Quince-seeds made with Violet-water half an ounce water of Borage Scorzonera each two ounces give it at twice Extenuate the humors and loosen the passages outwardly Take Bean-flour Faenugreek and Linseed each an ounce Chamomil-flowers and Cummin-seeds each half an ounce boyl them in Oyl of Lillies for a Cataplasm You may fume the womb with Decoctions of Herbs Chap.
often handling of the Breasts by which the blood and the heat is drawn to the Breasts The Cure It is easier to keep them from growing great then to abate them when too big with good dyet and Topicks that repel by cooling and binding and drying As Take Mirtle-leaves Horstail Plantane Mints red Roses each a handful Pomegranate-flowers two pugils boyl them in red Wine and Vinegar and with a Spunge apply it to the Breasts and let it dry or apply Hemlock bruised with Vinegar Or Take Powder of Comfrey-roots two drams Pomegranate-flowers red Roses Frankincense Mastich each half an ounce Barley-flour red Oaker each an ounce and half with Rose-water the white of an Egg and a little Vinegar make a Cataplasm These may be laid to the Breasts and under the Arm-pits to astringe the Vessels and hinder the blood from flowing to them Hemlock Henbane and other Narcoticks are forbidden because they weaken the natural heat and hinder the breeding of milk Dryers and Discussers are good in women that have great Breasts after weaning to consume the moisture As Take Bean and Orobus-meal each two ounces and half Comfrey-roots in powder half an ounce Mints three drams Wormwood Chammomil-flowers and Roses each two drams boyl and add two ounces of Oyl of Mastich make a Cataplasm The Breasts are too little when the Flux of blood to the Breasts is hindred diminished intercepted revelled or turned another way or when the blood is not drawn by the Breasts as in a dry Liver-famine much Labour or in Watchings Feavers and other diseases that consume the body The same is when the radical moisture of the Breasts is consumed You must remove the cause that breeds it and often friction will attract blood and foment with warm water in which Emollients have been boyled with white Wine and then anoint with Oyl of sweet Almonds or of Indian-nuts Loosness of the Breasts is cured by Astringents Chap. 2. Of Sweelling of the Breasts with Milk WHen the milk-carrying veins are too full the Breasts swell all over or in part and are pained by stretching and red Sometimes the milk congealed and is a hard Tumor The cause is abundance of milk or blood that makes it or the weakness of the child that cannot suck or because he is weaned It often ceaseth without Remedies Sometimes it is an inflammation or the milk hardens to a tumor The Cure You must hinder the breeding of much milk of which hereafter and consume that which is bred in women that give suck the child will draw them or a Puppy Or use a Glass to suck with they which will not give suck may use this Take Barley-meal of Lentils Althaea-roots Chamomil-flowers and Mints each half an ounce Agnus-castus-seeds two scruples boyl them in Wine add a little Vinegar Oyl of Dill two ounces make a Cataplasm Chap. 3. Of Inflammation and Erysipelas of the Breasts SOmetimes the tumor in the breast is inflamed from blood for though plenty of milk cause an inflammation blood is the immediate cause for milk as it corrupts and grows hot increaseth pain and so the blood staying in the small capillar veins being out of the vessels is hot putrid and inflamed There are other causes as strokes falls straitness of cloaths and other hurts of the Breasts The Signs A hard and red swelling shews inflammation with beating pain and a Feaver The Prognostick These inflammations are commonly without danger but because the Breasts are so loose and have many kernels and little heat they turn to Cancers and Scirrhus The Cure If you fear a great flux of blood that will increase the inflammation let blood in a Plethorick body But if it come from stopping of the terms or after-flux first open the vein in the ankle and scarifie the leggs then if need be open the arm If bad humors coming to the Breasts nourish the Inflammation give a gentle Purge of Manna Senna and the like If the blood be too hot or mixt with hot humors that help the motion of the blood Use Alterers as Lettice Endive Purslane Plantane Water-lillies and the like Use Repellers after these To be a skilful Physitian study my Sennertus Platerus Riverius Bartholinus and Riolanus of the last Editions but such as are weak and not too cold as a clout dipt in Water and Honey with Oyl of Roses applied to the Breasts Or Take Lettice Purslane each a handful red Roses half a handful boyl them in Water add Vinegar two ounces make an Epithem Or Take Nightshade Lettice each a handful boyl them stamp them and add Barley-meal two ounces powder of Chamomil-flowers half an ounce Oxymel Oyl of Roses each a dram make a Cataplasm When the beginning of the Inflammation is past add Discussers with your Repellers As Take white Bread crums Barley-flour each an ounce and half Bean and Foenugreek-flower each half an ounce powder of red Roses and Chamomil-flowers each two drams boyl them add Rose-winegar an ounce Oyl of Roses and of Chamomil each an ounce make a Cataplasm At length use only Discussers As Take Bean-flower and of Lupines and of Foenugreek and Linseed and powder of Chamomil-flowers each an ounce make a Cataplasm If the matter grow hard use Emollients and Attenuates As Take Mallows a handful boyl them till they are soft add powder of Linseed Althoea and Chamomil-flowers each an ounce boyl them again add Oyl of Jesamine an ounce make a Cataplasm If it tend to suppuration lay a Plaister of Diachylon Or Take Mallows and Althoea each half a handful boyl them till they are soft stamp them and add powder of Althaea-roots two ounces powder of Line and Foenugreek-seeds each an ounce Leaven half an ounce add Oyntment of Althaea two ounces make a Cataplasm When there is matter and the Imposthume breaks of its own accord it is well otherwise open it with a Lancet or some sharp Medicine and let out the matter and then cleanse it thus Take Turpentine Honey of Roses each an ounce Mirrh a scruple The ulcer will be hard to be cured except you dry up the milk in the other Breast by reason of much blood that will flow thither to breed milk Question Whether the Inflammation of the Breasts be from blood alone or from milk also The inflammation and swelling in women in Child-bed upon their Breasts is from the afflux of too much milk and it is with redness and pain and beating or pulsation and it is not only from blood for tumors as in other parts are seldom pure or unmixed but there are other humors with it Therefore it is certain that when blood is drawn by heat or pain or comes of it self to the Breasts and begins to corrupt the milk also may be corrupted Of the Erysipelas of the Breasts This Erysipelas is from fright or anger and it turns presently to a Phlegmon and is cured as the Inflammation of the Breast Lay no cold astringent Repellers or fat things but things
are better then many and small then great white are better then those of other colours The other Prognosticks are mentioned in other places Preservation It is better to prevent the breeding of worms then to expel them by eating of meats of good juyce with Oranges and Pomegranates and avoiding sweet fat and slimy meats fish milk and Summer-fruits and figs. Drink thin Wine and Grass and Sorrel-water with it and with powder of Harts-horn Let the belly be kept loose with Clysters for children or give the Decoction of Sebestens before meat or of Wormwood and Scordium but children will not take bitter things therefore give Grass-water and juyce of Lemmons or Citrons or a drop or two of Spirit of Vitriol When you know by the signs The Cure that there are worms kill and repel them with Powder of Coralline Wormseed Harts-horn or eight grains of Mercurius dulcis Infuse them a night in Grass-water and cast away the substance of the Mercury and give the Water Or Take Wormseed two drams Coralline Harts-horn prepared each a dram roots of Piony Dittany Magistery of Coral each a scruple make a Powder or give the Essence of Peach-flowers or the Decoction of Fern-water half an ounce or an ounce If there be a Feaver use colder as juyce of Lemmons Pomegranates Oranges Vinegar Harts-horn Bezoar Confection of Hyacinth or this Portion Take Grass-water four ounces Syrup of Juyce of Citrons an ounce of Violets half an ounce Spirit of Vitriol two drops give two spoonfuls Give bitter things at the mouth and sweet at the fundament as a Clyster of Milk Or Take Raisons ten Figs seven boyl them in water take of it four ounces add Sugar an ounce and half make a Clyster Use varieties that the worms may not be too familiar with one Apply Peach-leaves to the Navel bruised or a Cataplasm of Ox-gall Wormwood and St. Johns-wort Or Take Powder of Wormwood Gith Centaury Wormseed Lupines each half an ounce with Oyl of Wormwood and Wax half an ounce make an Oyntment Or Take Treacle half an ounce with juyce of Wormwood apply it to the Navel or make a Bath of Peach-leaves and Wormwood put the child into it up to the Navel If there be a Feaver use colder things mentioned Chap. 24. Of the Rupture IT is from the Peritonaeum loose or broken when the small guts fall into the cods from crying cough straining at stool and from vehement motion or a fall Sometimes the Peritonaeum is well and a water falls from the belly into the cods The tumor is visible if it be from a gut The Signs it is in one part only as the right or left and it may be felt and the hole also through which it fell If from water it is even all over and there was no cause of other Rupture It is easier cured in Infants then in elder persons for it is safer The Prognostick but worse then that of water which goes away of it self when the water is consumed Let the belly be kept open The Cure let not the child cry Avoid vehement motion lay him upon his back and thrust it up gently and apply this Plaister Take Lambs-tongue Sanicle each half an ounce Lentills and Lupines and red Roses in Powder each two drams Frankincense a dram Allum half a dram with the white of an Egg. Or Take Frankincense Cypress-nuts Aloes Acacia each two drams Mirrh a dram with Izing-glass make a Plaister Or apply Gum Elemni steept in Vinegar till there be a Cream at the top and with Oyl of Eggs make a Cerot Inwardly Take Sanicle Lambs-tongue each half a handful Agrimony a handful Comphry the greater half an ounce boyl them to a pint strained add Sugar give it often Or give Powder of Mouse-ear or Moonwort with Wine If it be from water anoint with Oyl of Elder Bayes Rue or apply a Cataplasm of Powder of Beans Foenugreek Linseed Chamomil-flowers Cummin-seeds with these Oyls Chap. 25. Of sticking out of the Navel IT is without Inflammation 1. When is was not well tyed and too much left that sticks out 2. When the Peritonaeum is loose and hath water or wind in it from crying or coughing 3. When the Navel is ulcerated and the guts fall into it this is called properly Exomphalon The Navel yields to the touch but in an inflamation it is hard there is neither heat nor redness and it lasts longer than an Inflammation The Signs If the Navel was not well cut there will be too great a quantity if the Peritonaeum be not broken but loose the Navel starts not much out and is not greater by crying if it be broken the tumor scarce appears when he lyes upon his Back but it increaseth by crying or walking The Prognostick If the Midwife did not cut the Navel well it is more troublesome then dangerous If it be too large or ulcerated at first it is easily cured but afterwards it may cause a deadly Iliack passion when the guts that fall in are inflamed The Cure When the Peritonaeum is loose wind stretcheth the Navel then use a Cataplasm of Cummin Bayberries and Lupines powdered in red Wine or a Bag of Cummin and Spike boyled in red Wine Then lay on an Astringent and roul it If the Peritonaeum be broken first put in the gut then bind it close after you have laid on astringent Powders Or Take powder of Cypress-nuts Frankincense Mirrh Mastich Sarcocol Allum Izing-glass each a dram with the whites of Eggs make a Pultis and give Medicines against Ruptures Chap. 4. Of Inflammation of the Navel IT is from pain when it is not well tied that draws blood to it There is redness hardness heat and beating If it turns to an Imposthume and breaks The Prognostick The Cure the guts come forth and the child usually dies First abate pain Take Mallows boyled and stampt two ounces Barley-meal half an ounce Lupines Foenugreek each two drams with Oyl of Roses make a Cataplasm To repel Blood Take Frankincense a dram Acacia Fleabane-seed each half a dram with the white of an Egg make a Cataplasm Hinder Suppuration as much as may be but if it doth suppurate Take Turpentine half an ounce the yolk of an Egg and Oyl of Roses two ounces Chap. 27. Of Falling out of the Fundament WHen the muscle that shuts the Arse-hole is loose the Fundament comes forth the cause is moisture of the muscles after a flux or straining at stool in Tenesmus or Needing or when the belly is bound The people will tell you the causes The Signs and you may see it The Prognostick It is easily cured when it is from straining at stool if it have not been long out If it be from great store of moisture it is hard to be cured especially if there be a loosness of the belly for then Medicines cannot lie on The Cure First put it up if it be swollen foment it with the decoction of Mallows
same scents are put to the privities the womb is refreshed with them and the Spirits are quiet or move to the scents And so the humors if there be any are still or else move downward But stinks on the contrary by reason of their Antipathy with the Womb voided by the Spirits and so the humors move downwards and often there is an abortion thereby What is spoken of sweet Scents may be understood of all sweet things and this is our Judgement in a matter so difficult THE FOURTH BOOK THE SECOND SECTION Of the Symptoms in the Terms and other Fluxes of the Womb. Chap 1. Of the Flux of the Terms BY Divine providence the blood which is voided every month is kept in when there is a Child For if it be its Nature it is not ill but only superfluous till they conceive nor is it more an Excrement then Seed and Milk The terms commonly begin at fourteen and then the hair appears on the privities the breasts swell and women begin to be lecherous and the blood can no longer stay in the Veins but breaks out at the Veins of the Womb. In some they begin at twelve and they are very lustful commonly and of shorter lives they continue till fifty and some till sixty and then stop In some they begin at seventeen or eighteen And in some they stop before fifty according to the variety of Nature and Diet. Nature doth not send forth every day what is gathered but staies till the plenty offends and doth only once in a month otherwise it would be filthy and unpleasant and hinder Conception Nor do they flow at one time in all exactly but there are twenty two daies or at most thirty between the purgings In some they last three daies which was usual in the time of Hippocrates In some four or five or more as their Liver is greater or their diet is higher or lower Hippocrates saith they should bleed but a pint and half or two pints this is is not alike in all but differs in respect of age and diet As for the quality it must not be too thick nor too thin but of a middle substance without scent of a red colour yellower in cholerick persons in melancholick black in flegmatick whiter and it must flow without any great Symptom The passages are the veins of the womb being double from the double branch on both sides it the Spermatick and Hypogastrick that they may evacuate superfluities from all parts And from this Description of a natural Flux you may gather what is preternatural Question Whether can a Woman conceive that never had Terms They are called by some Flowers because they go before Conception as flowers do before fruit but many have conceived that never had their flowers being hotter by Nature as the Indians that never had any Flowers and Viragoes that use more exercise but if these have no more blood then will nourish their body they are barren If any thing abound that is not required for nourishment of the parts and is so much that Nature cannot endure it in the body the Womb draws it to it when it hath conceived to make up the child of which hereafter Question 2. Whether Menstruous blood is only superfluous in quantity or bad in respect of quality Writers disagree about this Some say it is bad in quantity and quality and venomous by the effects as making Ivory obscure and infecting Looking-glasses corrupting Wine by a Vapor from the Body of a Woman that hath her Flowers Others say they offend only in plenty for if it were venomous it would not be a whole month in the body and it could not from the child nor would Nature make Milk of it Therefore menstruous blood only offends in quantity and not in any manifest or hidden quality But it hath strange qualities when it is mixed with bad humors or is kept too long in the Body to be corrupted and cause great Symptoms but this is when it is mixed with bad humors or is out of its Vessels and so corrupt Question 3. Of the Text of Aristotle 7. de hist. Animalium cap. 2. and how it is to be understood Aristotle writes thus 7. De histo ani c. 2. Constantly every month some have their Terms but most in the third as if he should say Few women have their courses every month but many have them every third month This is against Galen and against experience For it is certain that among six hundred women scarce one hath them every third month Therefore this is either an errour in the Greek Text or in the Translation or great Men do often lie which is probable and so did Aristotle in this of Physick therefore it is in vain to defend their Errour Chap. 2. Of the Terms flowing too soon ORdinarily they begin at fourteen but many have had them sooner A child of eleven daies old had a bloody humor flowing Her saxonia vidit venetiis ser 6. part 5. c. 16. from the Privities Another of five years old had every month a moderate flux Fernel reports that a Girl of eight years old had the terms but are rare and for the most part very lecherous and short lived Chap. 3. Of want and stopping of the Terms SOme Women have them not till eighteen or twenty Some before and then they stop for a time without either giving suck or being with child Some have been without them three five or seven months and then they came again This is an evil constitution or suppression of that which it ought to flow from the fault of the blood and stoppage of the passages The Causes When Terms are wanting either blood is wanting or stopt It is wanting either because it is not made or dispersed or turned to other uses for nature being more sollicitous to preserve the individual person then to propagate the species spends it in preserving of the person Blood is not made from divers causes as age cold constitution of Liver Heart or a disease which distempers the bowels Or often bleeding from great Vessels or from having many issues which take from the blood It is spent other waies as before ripe age and when women are with child or give suck or in hot Natures and fat women in whom it is turned to fat It is in vain to provoke Terms in these They are either external evident causes of stopping of the Terms as too great labour troubles sadness fear but these last do not only waste the blood but cool and corrupt it and cause obstructions 2. Epid. sec 8. in fine as Hippocrates speaks of Phatusa the wife of Pytheus The proper causes are the straitness of the passage or evil conformation of the parts through which it should flow Or the closing of the womb of which we spake but I speak here of the vessels The usual cause of obstructions is thick slimy humors from the blood too thick or mixed with melancholy which comes