that meanes the Matrix will both be drawne backe and also retained and held still being reduced into her proper place But that the Matrix being reduced and brought into the wombe may remaine and continue there nor suddenly fall downe againe it must be strengthened according to these precepts and rules following First let the woman lie a whole day upon her backe after the reducing of the Matrix into her proper place But the next day let her sit in a bathe boiled with these herbes about the space of one houre Take red Roses Myrtles seede of Sumach A Bathe leaves of the Medler-tree of a Service-tree the bark of an Oke Acornes Origanum Sage Rue Comfrey of each a handfull let them all be mixed and beaten together and let a decoction or bathe be made with them in raine water or in water in which burning-iron hath beene quenched When she commeth out of the bathe let her drinke this powder boiled in Wine very hot Take Rue Mugwoort of each halfe a handfull Castofeum two drams mingle them and make a powder of them Then take the best white Wine so much as sufficeth straine it and to the straining adde two drams of Mithridate And let a hot Potion be made of it Afterward the secrets are to be Fomented and bathed nine daies together and likewise Pessaries are to be used A Plaister And the tenth day this Plaister following spread upon white Leather shall be laid to the lowest part of the belly and to remaine there for some weekes together But let the Cerot or Plaister be made in this manner Take Frankincense Masticke Opopanax Turpentine Galbanum Serapium Rosine of the Pine-tree Styrax liquida Colophonie of each two drams yellow wax three drams temper them together and let a Cerot be made with them Or else Take Galbanum halfe a dram Gallia Muscata one dram Cloves halfe a dram Rosine of the Pine-tree and Colophonie so much as sufficeth mixe them and let a Cerot or Cerecloth be made of them We let passe here of set purpose nor without great cause something in this Cure which is onely knowne to the learned and skilfull which may be demanded of them so often as neede shall require Further you shall consider that when the aforesaid sicknesse shall arise from cold wind or over-much moistnesse of the Matrix that you must proceede altogether in the same manner which wee have prescribed and set downe before discoursing of the windie and waterish false conception named Mola I say concerning a Tympany and Hydropsie CHAP. X. Of the superfluities of the Termes and of the Cure of the same EVen as the Termes may be stopped contrary to the course of Nature so they may issue forth too immoderately contrary to the custome of Nature and as by them being stopped so by them flowing abundantly many diseases are caused unto women as Hippocrates doth advise us But as the naturall issue of the Termes which otherwise we call the Menstruall The unnatural issuing forth of the Termes or monthly purgation should issue forth every Moone naturally in women being well disposed in body and age I say from the third or fourth day after the new-Moone untill the eighth day although in this case there be many differences of ages complexions and disposition of body so wee say that issuing forth of the Termes not to be naturall which passeth beyond that time And we say that this doth happen two waies that is outward and inward Causes The outward causes are these Externall Causes as if some little veine be broken in the mouth or necke of the Matrix through immoderate exercise or some hurt chancing unto it as over-lifting stroke fall violence or exulceration Also some such like thing may be caused by aborcement and hard birth and also by the ulcers or fores of the Matrix Notwithstanding it happeneth sometime that Fluxes and issues are found to be in women conceived with childe every moneth yet they are never the weaker by them neither doe they substract or withdraw any nourishment from the Infant Inward causes are to be judged and discerned from Nature it selfe or from the blood Internall Causes From Nature when shee being strong doth expell the blood or being feeble and weake cannot hold or retaine it For the blood when it is too hot or sharp or over cold and thinne againe when by idlenesse immoderate meate and drinke too much nourishment is afforded to the blood Moreover certaine signes doe happen Signes of the Causes by which it may certainly be found out whether they come from an outward or inward cause If the Flux happen from an outward cause as from a veine being broken through some immoderate exercise by some hurt or fall then the colour of the blood will be red at the first but by and by blackish or blacke If it issue forth straight-way it will appeare in his naturall colour but being retained sometime in the Matrix it will issue forth with an ugly and thicke colour if it shall remaine there long it will be altogether full of corrupt matter But if the blood shall issue forth because of ulcers and sores of the Matrix First it will be cleare and thin but by by it wil be ful of filthy matter without all colour If the strong and mighty force of Nature doe expell it then it will be done without paine that also the body is alleviated and eased by it because Nature voideth no more of that which is ingendred but that which is superfluous either in quality or quantity If it shall happen by defect of retentive vertue it will issue forth by drops by little and little and disorderly without any intermission and the woman which shall be affected and afflicted with this issue shall waxe pale leane and very feeble in all her members but the blood doth retaine still his naturall colour and flowing abroad it doth not burne bite or molest with any paines But the cause of this Flux for the most part doth happen to women having passed beyond the fiftieth yeere when as their Termes doe generally depart away When it chanceth to young women oftentimes it h ppeneth by vehement and grievous fits of a Tertian Quartan Ague and paines of the head For these things doe dissipate and drive away Naturall vertue and power and do easily bring upon them such a Flux and immoderate issue If it proceed and be caused by intemperate heate or acrimony and egernesse of the blood the issue doth burne bite inflame and corrode the entrance and mouth of the Matrix The woman pained with this passion doth endure intolerable thirst and her lips are grieved with chaps bred and caused by most sharpe and hot vapours of the blood fuming and steaming upward Most grievous dolours and paines are felt in the niples of the Dugs by reason of the affinity and fellowship that they have with the Matrix The blood resembleth the colour of Saffron and is
judgement that it sendeth and committeth to Memory to be reserved as it were in a treasury or store-house and to be directed concerning his acts and effects 2. The Sensitive faculty The second vertue is the Sensitive faculty the which although we know that it is variable and diverse in respect of the senses yet we may understand that it is caused and effected in this manner The Animal spirit whose place of late we said to be in the braine proceeding from the interiour and inward little caves and ventricles of the braine The Animal Spirit doth forme and frame the senses by the mediation and assistance of certaine subtile and slender sinewes doth forme and frame the Senses and by his vertue through the ministry and furtherance of the sinewes directeth and transposeth sight to the eyes smelling to the nostrills hearing to the eares and tasting to the palate of the mouth which senses wee see onely to be numbred and nominated of the senses of the head The third is the Moving vertue 3. The Moving faculty ingendred and bred in the braine to whom it is said to be proper to move and give motion For as the Animal spirit disposeth and directeth the orders and properties of the senses The Animal spirit directs the motions as is before declared so by the benefit of the same facultie the motions also are directed by which the vertues and faculties of the Spirit are dilated opened and enlarged and are likewise conveyed and sent abroad to the other members But for the perfection and complement of all these vertues and faculties Spirit is necessarily required Spirit necessary for the perfection of the former faculties by whose benefit and continuall motion as well the senses as the faculties are instigated and provoked to performe and finish their faculties and actions And they say that the Spirit is a certaine airy substance which continually exciteth and stirreth up the powers and faculties of the body to fulfill and accomplish their actions And indeed this Spirit is a certaine subtile body What spirit is ingendred by the force of heat because of blood flowing and streaming in the Liver attracted and drawne by breathing and the Arteries and afterward diffused by the veines to all the members quickning the bodies serving to promote and further motion by the meanes and aide of the nerves and Muscles But first this is directed and conduced to the Liver in this manner Heate remaining in the blood How naturall spirit is ingendred there is caused a certaine boyling in the Liver from whence a certaine fume or vapour issueth and proceedeth forth which eft-soones being purified by the veines of the Liver is changed and transmuted into a certaine airie substance and is called Naturall Spirit which purifieth and clarifieth the blood and afterward is sent and distributed to the particular and severall members Afterward the same Spirit is transferred and carried from the Liver by certaine veines to the Heart How vitall spirit is ingendred where by the motion of the parts of the Heart and a mutuall coagitation it is made more pure and is converted into a more subtile and finer Nature and beginneth to be Vitall and truely Spirit because is diffuseth and spreadeth it selfe from the Heart by Arteries to the members of the whole body and doth augment and further the vertue of Naturall Spirit And againe How Animal spirit is ingendred the same Spirit mounting and penetrating upward from the Heart through Arteries to the little caves and ventricles of the braine is there more exactly laboured and refined and is transmuted and altered into the essence and substance of the Animal Spirit Animal Spirit most pure which is most pure of all from whence streight-way it is sent and conducted againe by the organs and instruments of the senses to corroborate and strengthen those senses in some measure Although therefore it be the selfe-same one Spirit yet because of his divers offices and functions in divers parts Why the Spirit is called Naturall Vital Animal it is diversly taken and understood as in the Liver it is named Naturall in the Heart Vitall and in the braine Animal But we must not beleeve that this Spirit is the immortall soule infused into man of God Whether the Spirit be the Soule but it is onely the instrument and as it were the Charriot of the same The Spirit but the instrument or Charriot of the Soule For by the meanes alone of this Spirit the soule is conjoyned and united to the body neither yet also is there any perfect exercise of the soule without the ministry and service of this spirit which thing might easily be proved but that already this discourse concerning the faculties and Spirit hath beene overlong CHAP. V. Of the true Generation of the parts and the increase of the Feature according to the daies and moneths A little while after also a veine directed by the Navell A two-forked veine ingendred attracteth the grosser blood confused in the seed fit and convenient for nourishment whereby a two-forked veine is ingendred according to the forme of this Figure And these veines doe attract sucke and draw unto them the hottest the most subtile and purest blood of which the heart is ingendred in the membrane or skinne of the heart involving and lapping the same round about named in Latin Pericardium and the heart is fleshie What the Heart is and of a grosse substance by nature as is necessary for such a hot member But the notable and great veine Vena cava spreading out himselfe and penetrating into inward concavitie vault or privie-chamber of the right side of the heart deriveth and carrieth blood thither for the nourishment of the heart The unmoveable and still veine Also from the same branch of that veine in the same part of the heart a certaine other veine doth spring up named of some the unmoving or still veine in Latine Vena immota vel tranquilia so named because it doth not beat and move as other pulsive moving veines of the heart doe named in Latine Venae pulsatiles but lieth hidden being calme and still ordained and destinated to this office namely The office of the unmoveable and still veine that it should conduct and convey blood digested in the Heart unto the Lungs and Lights which veine is environed and lapped about for which cause it is named Vena arteriosa an arteried veine with two coats like unto the Arteries But in the concavity hollow of the left part in the heart a most great and notable pulsive or beating veine Aorta called Aorta doth spring up diffusing and sending abroad vitall and lively spirit by the blood of the heart into all the pulsive and moving veines of the body For as Vena cava is the originall fountain and spring of all the veines by which the body attracteth and draweth to it the whole nutriment of blood Even so
that manner as wee have declared in the Cure of dispersing Ventositie and windie matter Divers experiments leting Abortion Furthermore other experiments also are approved A little bone which they call Saltus or Astragalus Leporis to bee carried about the woman and to drinke of it daily the stomacke being empty Also the stone named Lapis-stellatus so enchased in gold or silver that it may touch the naked body Some women beare about them a claw taken from the foot of a Beare Also the ashes gathered together of a Hedgehog being burnt and tempered with oyle affordeth an oyntment very commodious and profitable for this affection and passion Little wormes are found underneath herbes which if they be hanged alive on the womans necke shee shall never Aborte neither bring forth before due season as some are bold to promise and let the truth of the matter depend upon their credit For they say they have such great efficacy to hinder the birth that the woman cannot be delivered unlesse they bee removed Wherefore they admonish that they must bee alwaies removed and taken away in time Also the stone named Lapis Aetiles which some say is found in an Eagles nest is proved against Aborcements and over hastie birthes which in like manner is reported to further and promote a lingring and over-flow birth 10. There are likewise some other external things which chance outwardly and for all that doe cause aborting to women by a naturall cause as if a woman-conceived with childe doe tread upon a serpent viper the egge of a Crow as some doe write or a dead serpent with two heads named Amphisbaena Some also doth attribute this property to Castoreum carried in the bosome But if it happen that the Termes issue forth after Conception 11. they are not straight way to be stopped unlesse the woman become weake with Flowing of them If they issue forth moderately this thing is to bee permitted because they signifie that much slyminesse and distempered humours and abundance of bloud is deteyned in the wombe If they flow forth more copiously they shall bee stayed and restreyned with Acacia Hypocisthis and Lin-seed sodden in water to be used by a bathe or Fomentation If the legs shal be swoln which thing often time happeneth the three former monethes regard is to bee had of the liver and stomacke that they may bee lightened and eased from superfluous humors and let meats bee given them of another quality If the liver grow hard to women-conceived with childe it is a hard thing to remedy it because as Galen witnesseth in this passion they are not able to endure strong medicines Wherefore the most gentlest shall bee administred to them But because it falleth out that dead Features sometime doe proceed forth more slowly and sometimes never even as the Secundines doe wee must understand that most great dangers doe happen to women also sicknesses swooning failing of life especially in sommer-time by reason of venemous vapours fuming and flying upward from the putrefying Feature and so greatly vexing and molesting the heart and the brain that oftentimes they are deprived of the use of reason and understanding Therefore all care is to bee used and imployed that dead Features may speedily be expelled the poore women freed from so great dangers which thing how it may bee done wee have taught in the former books by a large discourse CHAP. V. Of the signes of Conception ALthough it be a hard thing to know the true conception of women yet we may give a coniecture by many signes and attaine unto it by some arguments confirmed and ratified by experience It is credited for certaine signe of conception if the woman the tenth day or some day sooner after shee had company carnally with man shall perceive the Termes to bee white or red by reason of humours also the stopping and retention of the Termes is accompted for a signe yet it deceiveth because it happeneth also often times without conception Therefore this being omitted wee will prosecute other notes and signes taken from the body of the woman herselfe concerning true conception every member and part examined and first the beginning shall proceed from the head The paines of the head swimming of the brain and dymnesse of the eyes if they concurre and chance together doe signifie conception The apples of the eyes are lessened The eyes swell and are changed into a swartish colour The little veines doe waxe red and begin to swell with bloud The eyes sinke downe into the head The eye-lids become feeble Divers colours are seene in the eyes and perceived in a looking-glasse Red pimples doe arise in the face The little veines placed betwixt the nose and eyes are swolne with bloud and are seene more clearely and plainely than they were wont The veine under the tongue waxeth greenish The necke is hot the backe-bone cold The veines and arteries are full the pulses are easily perceived The veines situated in the breast at first wax blacke afterward begin to be yellow or to be of a blewish-colour The dugs begin to swell and wax hard with paines The nipples beginne to be reddish If cold water be drunke a coldnesse is felt in the breasts A loathing and refusing of meat and drinke creepeth upon the woman Divers appetites longings are ingendred A destruction and decay of Naturall appetite and desire is caused and procured A continuall casting and parbreaking and weakenesse of the stomach Sower and slow belchings A loathing of wine A disordered and intemperate beating of the heart Sudden ioyes after these sudden sorrowes Wringings and gripings about the Navell Paine of the loynes The lower part of the belly is affected with swellings There are inward compunctions and prickings in the body The seed is reteyned seaven daies after carnal company A coldnesse and chilnesse of the outward members after the act of Generation The attractive faculty and vertue of the Matrix is increased The Matrix is dryed by and by A great delight and pleasure in the Venerious act but after conception a disdayning of Venus The Matrix is restreyned and closed But because this thing is procured by other causes also it may bee observed and noted by an infallible and certaine difference when it foresheweth conception For then it is slender and soft but if it be restreyned and closed for any other cause as by too much heate or swelling then it remayneth harder The secret parts of the woman are wrinkled even unto the seaventh moneth The wombe waxeth round and swelleth About the beginning of Conception paines of the belly and backe 〈◊〉 felt as it were beating The Termes or Flowres are stopped For the veines from whence they doe flow carrie and conveigh by the mouthes and speckes named Acetabula bloud to nourish the Feature through the Navel and some of that matter is drawne upward to the breasts where it is transmitted and changed into milke For so also Hippocrates admonisheth us saying
Plantane the lesser or Ribwoort Galls Psidia of each one dram Let all of them be mixed and incorporated with juyce of Plantane and Rue and let Pessaries be made of them Or else take unripe Galls burn'd quenched with Vinegar two drams Gumme Arabick halfe a dram Sanguis Draconis powder of the roots of Walwoort or Asse-eare Sumach Masticke Acorn-cups Hypocisthidos Acacia Harts-horne burnt Colophony Myrrh drosse of Iron of each one dram Camphire one scruple mingle and incorporate all together with the juyce of Knot-grasse Housleeke Night-shade Wormegrasse or Stonegrasse and of Plantane as much as sufficeth and let a Pessary be made of it Or otherwise Take the ashes of Egs-shels burn'd the shels of Crab-fish Sanguis Draconis Bole Armenie Oxe-dung dried of each two drams leaves of Silver or Gold most diligently beaten one dram Haire of Goats of Hares Cotton all burned of each halfe a dram temper them with the juyce of Rue and Plantane so much as may suffice and let a Pessary be made of it But if intemperate heate of the blood shall inforce the Fluxe If the Flux do arise from the heate of the blood how it is to be cured and shall ingender great thirst the diet shall be directed to a cold and dry temperature and the use of all outward things to be ordained and disposed of as they may strengthen and make the body prosper Let her drinke Water wherein red-hot Steele hath beene quenched mingled with syrup of Pomegranates And such an Electuary may first be prepared of which let her eate morning and evening and after meat a little morsell the bignesse of a Chesse-nut Take old conserve of Roses one ounce Diaolibanum two ounces red Corall prepared one dram Pearles prepared one scruple Cummin-seed infused the space of a day in Vinegar one dram and a halfe dry Mints foure scruples Olibanum two scruples Mastick Cypress-nuts roots of Bistort of each halfe a dram Spica Indica one scruple Let al things that are to be beaten to powder be powdred and let an Electuary gilded be made of them being tempered with syrup of Pomegranates so much as sufficeth Also she shall use these pills following five of them taken in the morning or three houres before supper the waight of a dram Take Frankincense Mastick Mumia Allom Harts-horne burn'd washed Cypresse-nuts Runnet of a Hare or Kid of each a dram Gumme Arabicke one dram mixe them and let a masse or lumpe be made wherewith pills may be formed with the juyce of the Thistle named Carduus Mariae our Ladies Thistle or white Thistle Here also Pilulae de Bdellio prepared with the juyce of a Leeke This Plaister prepared either in a hard or liquid forme after the manner of an Vnguent shall have great efficacy by annointing the woman with it before and behind Take oile of Masticke two ounces oile of Myrtles juyce of Mints red Roses of each one ounce powder of Mastick two ounces Cypressenuts Mumia Bistort Olibanum Myrtles red Roses of each two drams Chalk burnt Allom Galls Acorne-cups of each one dram Bole Armeniack Terra Sigillata of each halfe a dram white Waxe so much as sufficeth and let a Plaister be made of them After shee hath beene annointed with this Vnguent shee shall weare this Cere-cloth following continually laid before and behind upon her Take Masticke one dram and a halfe Ladanum Olibanum of each two drams Galls Cypresse-nuts Bistort Mumia of each one dram Myrrhe Galbanum Terra sigillata of each two scruples temper them with Oyle of Masticke and Wax so much as sufficeth and let a Cere-cloth bee made of it which being spred over white Leather must bee laid upon the woman before and behind afflicted with this unnaturall flux Hot Bathes do profit and availe in this case not such as consist of Brimstone but of Copper and Allome But if the flux of blood shall arise only from a cold cause then you must proceed altogether in the same manner as we have prescribed before in curing barrennesse engendered of a phlegmaticke humour CHAP. XI Of the the Causes and Cure of the stopping of the Termes BVt because in the former Chapter we have given instructions concerning the immoderate Fluxes and issuings of the Termes and of the Cure of the same The next thing is that wee should also speake a little concerning the retention and stopping of them For thereby many sicknesses and diseases are bred and ingendred if they be detained contrary to Nature nor doe not issue forth in such a quantity as they should every Moone in women well disposed in respect of age and constitution of body And we must understand that this happeneth by outward and inward Causes Outward causes of the stopping of the Termes Externall causes are the aire intemperately hot cold and dry meats over hot and binding whereby the humours are burned the body dried and concoctions are hindred also meats which are too cold congealing and freezing as it were the rest of the humours of the body by their coldnesse and letting them from issuing forth by restraining and binding them To these causes also these following doe pertaine too much watching immoderat fasting every unseasonable and sudden commotion or perturbation of the body as great anger sudden fury great sadnesse great lamentation over-much solitarinesse great labour any great diseases sharp fits a Quartane Fever paine of the Head the Fever Hecticke too much fatnesse issuing forth of the blood of the nostrils or any other member Vlcers and great Apostems Inward causes Inward causes are partly bred by the corruption of some humour and partly without the corruption of any humour Causes without the corruption of the humour are over-much heat coldnesse and drinesse For to those which are cholericke the humours are exsiccated and dried up through immoderate heat and therefore the Termes are stopped But to the melancholicke The corruption of the qualities the same thing happeneth by immoderate coldnesse and drinesse But when they happen without the corruption of the humour we must allege the qualities to be the cause and we may observe certaine signes from what quality they doe proceede and againe whether from a simple or a compound quality If they happen from coldnesse and drinesse the issue of the Termes is little the colour will be pale no desire of Venus the urine thin white and without any convenient subsidence or grounds in the bottome If they chance from hotnesse and drinesse the Termes will be few the colour redder the greater desire of Venus the urine thinne reddish but almost no subsidence or dregs in the bottome of it But for the most part this retention and stopping of the Termes The corruption of the humours doth happen by the corruption and fault of some humour as of Phlegme Choler and Melancholy but not of blood at all because they are onely retained and stopped through the other humours bearing sway in the blood Moreover common signes by which it is
to be under which also lyeth the great gut named Colon. In the middle part of the necke of the Matrix The Virgin Pannicle is the Virgin-pannicle or skinne not unlike unto a most slender racket lincked woven together with many Fibraes or threds which is corrupted by the losse and decay of Virginty Some call it Eugion Hymen Cento and Hymen Further in the same part on the right and left side two hornes as it were doe bosse out called the Ligaments or binders of the Matrix with which it is bound The Hornes or Ligaments fastned and basted and also cleaveth affixed to the backe-bone or Spina dorsi on both parts To those Ligaments The testicles or stones or stay-bands the testicles or stones are annexed and combined by their nature lesser and harder than those are which belong unto men Moreover both of them are environed and compassed about with white sinewes I say seed-vessells being both also compacted of Arteries To these also small veines are united and affixed derived and springing from the great veine Vena cava diffused and dispersed into the Matrix by divers branches to nourish and cherrish the Feature in the wombe and to send forth the Flowers or Termes in their due season The Kidnies The Kidnies doe hang neere the wombe by certaine Ligaments or binders behinde the backe-bone or Spina dorsi being of a hot and dry temperature by the which all the wheyish and watrish humidity is attracted and drawne to be carried from the veines into the bladder and also receiveth his colour and tincture by them The Paps or Dugs of a cold and moist quality The Paps or Dugs intermingled and interlaced with Veines and Arteries being not unlike unto a Spunge consisting and composed of soft flesh like unto the lungs have power and faculty to transmute blood into a white colour and to convert and turne it into milke For as the Liver transmuteth the juyce of the meat attracted unto it into blood so the Dugges or Paps The Dugs or Paps change the blood into milke alter and change the blood into milke Further two veines doe descend from the Paps into the Matrix which draw blood from thence to be digested and turned into milke Whereby it commeth to passe the Infant being borne the Termes due by and by mount and ascend up by these passages and beginne to change into milke also the Dugges begin to swell and are hardned untill they be made lanke and soft with giving of suck Because it doth not a little availe The qualities of the Matrix to know the qualities and properties of the Matrix you shall be able briefly to observe and perceive them by these markes and signes It is hot in them which have a swift pulse much thirst Signes to know when it is hot their urine of a very high colour a love and desire to Venus a speedy pleasure and delight store and plenty of seed the haires curled the Termes inclining to a yellowish colour and not issuing out beyond the third day It is cold in them which have a slow pulse Signes to know when it is cold little thirst their urine thinne and white no love or appetite to Venus small store of seed no pleasure or delight a lasie sluggishnesse few store of haires Signes to know when it is dry the Termes inclining to whitenesse It is dry in them which have a hard pulse thinne urine the lips dry small pleasure or delight in Venus few Termes It is moist in them which have a soft pulse Signes to know when it is moist the urine thicke the lips moist and slippery no pleasure And in this manner simple qualities are knowne Concerning compound and mixt properties there is another judgement CHAP. III. Of what great profit it is to have an exact knowledge of this Tractate I Would have the Reader to be here diligently admonished rightly to esteeme regard of what great utility and profit it is What more profitable than this knowledge for preserving and recovering of health What better than to consider the end of our excellent and wonderfull building to have an exquisite and exact knowledge of this Tractate For what is more profitable than this knowledge and science for preserving and recovering of health and for the preservation and restauration of all the parts of the body What will frame and instruct our mindes better than to have considered the end of so excellent and wonderfull a building and worke-manship What more pleasant than to understand the artificiall framing of our bodies What is more pleasant and beautifull than to have understood the artificiall framing and forming of our proper Nature and body which we inhabite and continually abide in Also the proportion of these parts considered To be mindfull of sobriety temperance will command us to be mindfull of sobriety and temperance left that due concoction be not perfected and accomplished they being filled more than is convenient For when as the first digestion or concoction is diverted from the course of Nature The first digestion being hindred occasion of grievous diseases is offred by and by also the other faile and are frustrated whereby it commeth to passe that the humours being corrupted and the blood infected the body is burdened and surcharged and occasion is offered for breeding of most great and grievous diseases Instructions of temperance to be learned frō the condition and scituation of the generative members also the condition and scituation of the Generative members and seed-vessells being so secret and hidden with so many windings and turnings what other thing do they yeeld unto us than documents and instructions of temperancie namely that they serve only for propagating and increasing man-kind and for the alleviating and easing their bodies and for preserving and maintaining health Neither is it doubtfull for that same cause naturally also the forces of man-kind to be weakned and diminished and further that they are exceedingly decayed and debilitated through the immoderate use of these parts What shall I say that by the framing building of these things diligently considered By the admirable work manship of Nature wee are admonished of our duty and by the admirable Art and work-manship of Nature in perfecting man wee are also alwaies admonished of our duty that so much as lieth in us we may carefully preserve those things which Nature with so much businesse and labour hath hardly produced and brought forth and also mindfull of charity love we do not mutually rage against those bodies which we possesse procreated by Nature the common and generall mother the same compact and uniting together of one body of divers members throughly pondred and considered which Nature hath most excellently framed contrived and joynted together with a strict band of a sociable law And that which is most principall and chiefe of all The artificiall frame of our bodies should
bee confected and laid upon the swolne belly Take of the seed of Rue Cummine Garden-cresses Centaurie the lesse Majoram Anise wilde Penny-royall of each one handfull let all of them be shred into pieces and beaten together and make an Emplaster of them with wine CHAP. III. Of unperfect children also of monsterous Births WEE see that it commeth to passe in divers manners by experience of matters testimony of the times that many monsters and imperfect or mishapen children are borne But when as that thing is specially to bee attributed and ascribed to the Iudgements of God yet afterward also the corruption and fault of the seed is to bee acknowledged to wit which was either too much or too little or corrupted from whence those monsters are ingendred But we will hereafter give you some Figures of those shapes not to the intent to handle all things to the full perfection but that by a few of them wee may propound some knowledge of the Iudgements of God by divers monsters against Nature as it were prognosticating things to come and that we may see how much the fault and corruption of seed avayleth in this case In the yeare 1552 in England not far from Oxford a certaine deformed birth was borne with two heads foure armes with so many hands with one belly having the secret parts of a woman and one fundament On the one side there were two feete over-thwart on the other one onely stretched out right of forme of two feet having tenne toes One of them lived fifteene daies and the other lived one day more They wept seldome in this time One of them was very merry but the other drowsie and sad the length and breadth of them was the bredth of twenty fingers But if it be demanded of the cause of such conceptions and birthes The causes of Monsters we must know before all things that they come not to passe without the providence of the Almighty and Omipotent God but also that they are permitted oftentimes by his just judgement for to punish and admonish men for their sinnes Likewise we allege the immoderate desire of lust to be a cause whereby it commeth to passe Immoderate desire of last a cause that the seeds of men and women are caused to be very feeble and imperfect whereby of necessity a feeble and imperfect Feature must ensue The defect of the seede causeth the defect of the Feature For the defect of seede going before the consequence is that a defect of the Feature doth follow and contrariewise if the seed shall be superfluous it is easily collected and concluded that superfluous things are ingendred of a superfluous matter But if at any time two Infants doe grow together The causes of two children growing together sometime this thing is caused of thinne and corrupt seede sometime by terrours and affrightments and also other evill chances whereby it falleth out that the children already conceived before in the wombe are squashed together and the seeds being broken doe grow together in some part Similies For as Creame or the fatnesse of milke although it be congealed and clotted together notwithstanding with some motion is troubled and spoiled and even as the flowers blossomes of the trees are cast down with any windâ— so also the conceived seeds by an easie and small mischance may be corrupted that they may flow abroad and by flowing abroad are altogether commixed and mingled together or at least doe in some sort grow and increase together whereby it must needes be that some deformed and mishapen birth must follow which God the first Authour doth permit and suffer to be formed so and shaped for the punishment and admonition of men The causes of cloven or Hare-lips Many also are ingendred with cloven lips after the forme and manner of the mouth of a Hare and are named Hare-lips either in one or in both parts of the lips and they grow together with that evill deformity which things we must understand to be caused by terrours and sudden sights of Hares Swine or other Cattell this sudden terrour troubling and moving the conceived seed Againe through longing terrors many are borne The causes of spots marks in children which have divers spots and markes imprinted on the body to wit of Hares of Mice of divers colours of a bunch or cluster of grapes of flames of fire and other things Which things because they are common and often we would not let them out to view by severall Figures It happeneth also that some are ingendred and do grow and increase untill some time that hee that vieweth them cannot determine and be resolved of what sex or kinde they may be of The more unskilfull doe suppâ—â—â—â—â—em to be of both kindes but they are farre 〈◊〉 For it falleth out by some chance that the seed gathereth some corruption about these members For example sake An Example It happened that such a child was brought before us concerning whom it was not apparent of what sex or kind he should be The testicles or stones did appeare outwardly but no privie member besides under the testicles there was a rupture and division from which the water did issue forth But because by reason of the defect of the yard or urine-pipe standing outwardly for it was not altogether wanting but turned inwardly toward the rupture even new spoken of Nature had given this way to the urine it seemed good that it should not be baptized for a maiden childe nor for such a one as is both Male and Female The conjecture of the mother but for a man-childe And the mother did confesse that she was greatly affrighted and terrified by a certaine thing she had seene so that she did conjecture that by that meanes that was so contracted and shrunck unto the child But because such things are rather perceived by the understanding than the eyes wee would not frame any Figure peculiar to such a birth But now 〈◊〉 returne to another Figure That of brutes such various shapes are borne it is lesse wonder therefore when as Pliny reports of living creatures in Africa that have such various formes and shapes seeing their coupling and conception is of divers creatures Rabbi Moses in his Aphorismes Particle 25. Rabbi Moses his report writeth thus In Sicilie there happened a great Eclipse of the Sunne and in that yeere women brought forth very many deformed double-headed children It may be demanded here whether beasts may conceive by men Whether beasts may conceive by men or in like sort women of beasts We affirme this may come to passe for three reasons First by naturall appetite Secondly by the provocation of Nature by delight Thirdly by the attractive vertue of the Matrix Histories of some that have had carnall copulation with beasts which in beasts and women is alike Examples are at hand For Plutarch in his lesser Paralells hath these words Aristonymus
stones bones iron and innumerable such like things through the Matrix all which things verily the wicked Spirit had subtilly and maliciously conveyed underneath and brought in The same Vincentius citeth some other Histories serving to this matter and question in the twenty sixt and twenty seventh Chapter of his Booke named Naturale Speculum Namely that a certaine young-man caught a woman by the haire of the head bathing her selfe in the Sea about the evening whom he tooke to wife after he had brought her home to his house and begot a sonne by her But she not speaking a word at all hitherto that her husband compelled her to speake moved by instigation of others which said she was a spirit making a shew as if hee would murther the child begotten of her unlesse shee would declare her of-spring But shee having uttered forth sorrowfull things to have vanished away and also to have drowned this childe washing himselfe in the Sea being growne to ripenesse of age and that hee was afterward found in no place cast out to the shore side Therefore that hee was not a true man although he was borne and brought up in shape of a true man Moreover that many did believe that this spirit which by a false apparition did seeme to be a woman The Divell named Succubus to be a divell which is named Succubus It is not unlike to this which hee bringeth forth in the aforesaid place Namely that at Colonia Agrippina many Noble men sate in Councell in a certaine Palace sometime neere the shore of the river Rhenus which while by chance they did looke downe into the water did see a certaine souldier carried in a little boat a Swanne swimming before drawing the little boat with a silver chaine put upon his neck suddenly to leap upon the shore the Swan being sent away with the little boat there to have married a wife and to have begotten many children of her And some yeeres being ended the empty boat swimming backe againe and the Swanne swimming before it as hee did before time that the same souldier did returne againe into the same boat and to have appeared to no man againe and that his children lived there a long time But many have believed that he was a Divel whom they named Incubus who dwelling so long with the woman and so many yeeres in the shape of a man having used such great coozenages and deceits did shew forth counterfeited tumours of her wombe and counterfeited births children conveyed underneath taken by stealth from some other place Whether the Divell may conceive seed of men and by the same seed cast forth into women ingender or not But whereas many doe labour by this perswasion and contend that the Divell named Succubus may be able to conceive seede from man and by and by being changed into a Divell named Incubus to cast forth the same seede into the wombe of a woman and of her to ingender a man as it is most false so it ought to deserve no credit at all For it is most contrary and repugnant both to Religion and also to Nature For if this were possible with how many monsters of wilde beasts had wee seene mankinde so long space of time to have beene tormented and vexed of such a great enemy of mankind by the change and alteration of seeds made in brute beasts men and women Wherefore Conciliator in his Booke de Medicina the twenty and fifth Difference determineth well of these things saying Wee must know that the testicles or stones of man are the principall parts of the generative or begetting vertues but not the sole or onely parts because the beginning of Generation is not caused by them alone neither are they alone able to perfect Generation For the first beginning is from the heart by reason of vitall and lively faculty and vertue reposed and laid up in the same so that no living thing can be ingendered without the helpe and aid of the power and vertue of it For at last the vertue and faculty of the testicles doe consist by vitall vertue and naturall heat Wherefore that the Divell named in Latine Succubus may be able to conceive with men and being changed into the Divell termed Incubus may cast forth the same seede conceived into women and beget a man is not only a fabulous thing to be spoken but also impious wicked and odious to be believed But whether the Divell hath power to steale to carry from one place to another to convey and change children one for another is a matter that needeth no great enquiry For that some such like thing may be brought to passe some time wee must understand but that it is not done by his owne power but by the permission of the most just and omnipotent God for the sinnes of men especially when wicked Parents having no religious care of their children do not strengthen and fortifie them with the blessing of God and overwhelme them with the curse of the Divell Therefore let all because they are the children of God learne to bring them up religiously and to consecrate them to God and not to object them to the maledictions of the Divell The sixth Booke Of the divers causes of Sterility and barrennesse and of the speciall maladies of the Matrix and also of the divers remedies of all of them CHAP. I. Of the Sterilitie of men and women also of the cause and signes of the same WEe say that sterility or barrennesse of which wee have purposed to speak at this present is not onely a disability and unaptnesse of bringing forth children in women contracted and caused by some cause that may be corrected and remedied but in men also of ingendering and sending forth fruitfull seede Aristotle attributeth this disability and impotency principally to fat men and women because of the evill proportion and ill disposition of the generative members that is to say in whom the seed is procured and derived from a more remote place and so vitall spirit inclosed in it doth vanish away sooner by that delay But not onely that habite and disposition of the body is a cause but there are many other causes also besides of this difficulty and infirmitie For when we see oftentimes man and wife joyned together not to ingender and beget children but being separated both of them to procreate children and on the contrary part that those which being coupled together doe beget children are not fruitfull when they are separated it must needes be that without doubt there is some hidden cause Where wee thinke it will not be an unprofitable thing to declare and bring forth those things which are best knowne For there are many outward and inward causes which doe concurre together in this case But as fertility and fruitfulnesse hath his helpes and furtherances by many outward things as in a convenient diet in an accustomed temperature of the aire by bathes warme by nature such as are the Helvetian
and Vallesian bathes with the waters of Embs so also sterility and difficulty of ingendring have very great help and succour by them whereby they are caused and increased as by an unconvenient diet by the permutation and change of accustomed aire by drinking of the water of Ice and by bathes Further barrennesse may be judged to proceede from the disposition and quality of the generative members For it commeth to passe that not a few infirmities and grievances doe happen to them by reason of which man and wife are not onely made impotent and barren but are unfit to dwell together husbands with their wives and wives with their husbands In which place the strictnesse and narrownesse of the mouth of the Matrix doth very much disprofit and annoy by which it falleth out that not only the Termes being stopped doe let and hinder generation but moreover also doe breed and bring forth very many other evills Againe when the secrets themselves are too wide or too strait and therefore are not convenient neither for conception nor generation Retention and staying of the Termes causeth the same thing which doth much distemper and molest the Matrix and suffocateth and choketh the seede cast forth into the wombe through abundance of evill humours Among women also they which are over man-like are not so apt for generation and among men those which are more effeminate and woman-like than is requisite For these women almost universally doe want the issuing forth of the Termes at their due seasons and also the nourishing humours And such men being intemperatly cold and moist cannot send forth seed possessed with a generative vertue Hitherto pertaineth both the weake and feeble attractive power of the Matrix and also the sudden alteration of the same For the attractive and expulsive vertue of the Matrix either too strong or weake doe equally cause the difficulty of ingendering Likewise the maladies of the Matrix tumours inflammations ulcers Apostemes the mouths of the veines named Acetabula being broken the Termes issuing forth immoderately or stopped and such like things doe afford and minister great occasion to the same difficulty Many also say the veines placed behinde the eares to wit which give way to the spirits which the braine communicateth and imparteth to the seed being cut asunder to be a cause to the same difficulty and debility of ingendering as Hippocrates admonisheth They affirme that the incision of the bladder doth bring the same which of it selfe it is deadly There are also many things which being taken doe properly procure sterility and barrennesse as Camphire Hemlocke and other herbes and roots like unto these and all things which offend and hurt the braine kidnies and testicles being the principall members of generations Hitherto also belongeth many other things Externall causes as over much repletion emptinesse immoderate exercises intemperate heat deadly cold Likewise Theophrastus doth attribute a certaine peculiar force to some waters to cause sterility For the most part diversity of complexions hath the superiority among the causes when man and wife doe want the due temperature of the qualities But where they shall be mixed yea but little they shall be able to ingender more easily Old age also of it selfe in men and women doth hinder generation through the defect of humours although it be found by experience as yet that many men being threescore and ten or foure-score yeeres of age have begotten children Lastly there is also a great cause of sterility which happeneth by the witchcraft of Witches Let it suffice to have spoken these things concerning the evident and knowne causes of barrennesse Signes of barrennesse Moreover there are many signes whereby the difficulty of conceiving or begetting children may be noted and observed The first are to be taken from the constitution and habit of the privie members as if they be diseased with any corruption or defect or be too large or too strait and narrow they are knowne not to be apt and fit for generation The seed also is unfit if it be too hot or too cold which thing they say may not onely be observed by the colour of the urine but also of the substance of the same Also many judge of sterility and fruitfulnesse by the habite and colour of the body that the women which are of a pale colour are supposed to be also more moist than others If they be more moist they are not so apt to retaine and cheerish the seed This experiment following is put in practice of some When they goe about to make a triall concerning the unfruitfulnesse or fertility of any one they poure the urine of the party on Barley If this sprout out within tenne daies they acknowledge it for a signe of fruitfulnesse if it doe not they acknowledge it for a certaine argument of sterility and barrennesse But others pouring the urine upon Huskes or Bran if they see wormes to be bred and ingendered in it doe observe a signe of barrennesse from that Hippocrates doth counsell us to search out this thing by fumes made underneath so that if a fume being used underneath be perceived above by smelling the woman being close covered about the lower parts then hee saith it may be thought to be a signe of fruitfulnesse because the secret members are not strict and narrow If it be not perceived by smelling at the nostrills he saith it is a very certaine note and signe of the strictnesse and narrownesse of the Matrix and so consequently of barrennesse Some would have the same thing to be found out by annoynting the corners of the eyes with liquid oyntments so that if the oyntments of some kindes of colours being laid upon the corners of the eyes doe not change the colour of the spittle then it should be a signe of constipation and stopping and therefore of barrennesse also because the eyes are members communicating with the seede because they quickely sinke downe and waxe hollow when it is immoderatly sent forth and dispersed Some old women likewise have their signes by which they observe whether the greater sterility or unfruitfulnesse be in the husband or in his wife for they sprinkle two hand fulls of Sage laid severally by themselves with urine one of them with the urine of the man and the other with the urine of the woman and they say that the handfull which shall wither first is a testimony of barrennesse of the party with whose urine it was sprinkled and watered They receive the same experiments also by Beanes and Barley that whose part doth sprout first in him or her they thinke there is most fertility and fruitfulnesse Further wee must consider here also that fruitfull women and such as are apt to ingender children doe sooner seeme to be old in the outward habite of body than those which are barren and fruitlesse also they waxe leane sooner and become weake notwithstanding they live more healthfull in their old age than they which never
panting of the heart shortnesse of breath distemperature of reason because of vapours mixed with the spirits a debility and weakenesse of all the members cold sweates continuall paine in the wombe And indeed evill humours retained and increased in the wombe doe cause and breed all these things partly neere unto it partly removed farther from it which distemper and molest the braine and other members of the body by stopping and intercepting naturall heat proceeding from the heart untill they suffocate and destroy all the senses at once and also the strength and forces of the body But in the cure of the present fit of this sicknesse first you shall mingle Salt with Vinegar The cure of the present fit in the suffocation of the Matrix and shall rub the uttermost parts of the members of the body I meane the soles of the feete and palmes of the hands and pulses of the armes afterward binders being tied neere unto the secrets the hips and hammes you shall apply cupping-glasses neere unto the place without Scarification Afterward you shall apply to her nostrills all things which being burnt have a strong and stinking savor as Castoreum Assa Foetida Feathers Haire Leather Horne Hooses of Horses or Kine or such like things For these things stirre up and move the Animal spirit being as it were asleepe which by and by inforced with such a stinking favour making haste to come to the braine by the nerves and instruments for the purpose doth stirre up the motive facultie in the same Moreover this motion by the great force of this strong savour commeth to the heart with the Animal Spirit where both of them together doe repaire vitall spirit in the same being oppressed and as it were laid asleepe At last all of them joyned together doe oppose themselves against the Matrix rising up towards the Midriffe and stir up the expulsive force of it so that the corrupt humours being expelled which are in it the Matrix may fall downe and give more roome and space unto the superiour vitall Organs or Instruments In this case the dung of a Horse fed with Oates boiled in the best Wine drunke very hot is very much approved Also halfe a dram of the confection Diacastoreum taken in broth made of a Hen. An Vnguent Likewise such an Vnguent may be prepared wherewith her secrets may be annoynted inwardly which suffereth this swooning Take Muske one scruple Gallia Muscata one dram Oile of Lillies two ounces Temper them and make an Vnguent Suffumigations also being thus prepared Suffumigations from which a fume may ascend up to the nostrills will profit in this case Take Castoreum Galbanum dissolved in Vinegar of each halfe an ounce Brimstone one ounce Assa Foetida one dram If you prepare these Fumes or Trochiskes you shall confect them with Oile of Castoreum But if you would use them with Vinegar you shall put pure and cleane wooll into her nostrills dipped in Vinegar in which these powders are dissolved or you shall apply it outwardly to them But if this deadly malady shall proceed from the Termes being retained in the Matrix or from corrupt seede it may be cured in the same manner as wee will declare in the Chapters following But if the cause of this disease shall come from cold it will be the wisest course to use hot bathes when due purgation hath beene performed such as are the bathes in that part of Germany which is named Helvetia A certaine diet and order of bathing being prescribed and set downe of a skilfull Physician because that water doth consist of much Brimstone and some Allome it sooner resolveth dispelleth and driveth away cold heateth the Matrix and comforteth all other Members and parts of the body of a woman CHAP. IX Of the Precipitation or falling downe of the Matrix of the causes and cure of the same THe Precipitation of the Matrix is the departure and digression of the Matrix from her naturall place into some other place or the comming forth and outward appearing of it through the privities This hapneth either by a fall blow or some other vehement hurt or through wind inclosed in the Matrix or corrupt humours or by the intemperate moistnesse putrefying the ligaments and binders of the same or else through difficulty and painfulnesse of Aborcement or the birth and negligence of Midwives or by violent extraction and pulling forth of the Secundine whereby it falleth out that the ligaments and stay-bands of it are broken and the Matrix is throwne downe suddenly to issue forth This removing of the Matrix is caused in a diverse manner that is to say toward the right or left side or lower and into the fore-part and hinder part of the body But although the causes of these diseases may easily be judged and discerned by these things going before yet they may as yet be divided into outward and inward Outward causes are Outward Causes falling blowes or strokes some hurt lifting of some thing which is of great waight swift running leaping dauncing unseasonable riding all immoderate exercise and such things as are like unto them Also long sitting upon the cold earth or cold pavement long-tarrying in cold water over-much and often drinking of cold water Also the violent breaking forth of the child the hard and painfull birth the rashnesse of the Midwives the violent extraction of the Secundine often coughing great crying out vehement sneesing The disease Tenasmus binding the body and all these things do minister occasions to the Matrix to fall downe Inward Causes The inward causes are long stopping of the Flowers with whose weight the Matrix being pressed downward doth suddenly descend and fall downe the ligaments and binders thereof being oftentimes broken in sunder Also humours inclosed in the same wind enforcing it and removing it from her place Likewise over-much humidity and moisture putrefying and corrupting the ligaments or tying-bands and by that infection enforcing it to issue forth The signes of this disease are not unlike to the causes Signes The party will easily rehearse the signes of the outward causes Whosoever is grieved with this disease But the inward signes are to be considered according unto the removing of the Matrix For if it bend toward Diaphragma or the Midriffe without any strangling or choking wee may perceive that the woman doth feele paines and heaving above the Navell to feele a round lumpe like a Globe in her belly to fetch her breath and wind very short and quicke as though her bowells were swiftly crushed together with the hand a dimnesse of the eyes paine of the head loathing of meat and often belchings going before and accompanying it sometimes also a sound of the belly being heard especially when as the removing from her place shall arise from wind inclosed in the same But if it shall fall downe to the lower parts then many paines shall be about the kidnies loynes and secret members and a round
blacke neither doth it issue forth copiously although it be constrained If it arise through subtility and thinnesse of the blood then the blood is pure and cleare and the Flux is small If heate be mixed with it it shall easily be discerned in the Matrix and by other tokens and signes If cold be mixed with it it shall in like manner be observed and found out If the blood shall issue forth because it is liquid and thin the cause of this is the evill disposition and state of the body and the debility of the concoctions caused and ingendred by abundance of many moistures and winds or vapors inclosed and imprisoned in the Matrix But if you will have certaine knowledge of the humor constraining this unnaturall issue looke upon a linnen cloth sleightly coloured and dipped in the menstruous blood If the colour of it doth incline to rednesse you may know that the cause of the Fluxe doth proceed from blood If it bend toward Citrine or yellow colour from Choler if it incline to whitenesse from Phlegme But if it incline to a black colour you may know the cause of the Fluxe to arise from Melancholy What Fluxes are to be stopped Further you shall consider when as the Flux shall be tolerable and easie to be indured which doth not make the body leane nor weaken it but doth dis-burden it and make the same more light and nimble that such a Flux is inforced and moved by naturall vertue and power only expelling and voyding that which is superfluous in the blood and therefore such Flux and issue ought not to be restrained or stopped But if the contrary thing happen it is to be restrained and staied altogether lest it bring the Patient to cholerick Fevers because that blood being evacuated and exhausted Choler doth beare the whole sway and play the Tyrant and being freed from his bridle doth furiously vex and torment the Patient For blood as it is commonly said is the bridle of Choler But because also naturall colour is nourished cherrished with blood that flowing away it is necessary that a defect and decay of heat must follow and ensue and by that all the members and parts of the body to waxe cold the whole body to be debilitated and weakened the whole appetite to be taken away the concoctions to be hindred the Consumption and Hydropsie and also other most miserable diseases at the last to hasten after the same But because it is not sufficient to know the diversities of the diseases onely unlesse wee be resolved likewise of the fit and convenient cure of repelling them wee will hereafter also declare a few things of many which shall seeme to be the choisest and most speciall concerning the cure and remedy of these evills And as the Causes of these Fluxes and issues are inward and outward so the cure shall be inward and outward also The inward cure of unnaturall Fluxes And truely first of all if this unmeasurable or unnaturall Fluxe shall happen by some inward cause before all things the diet and use of all outward things shall be ordered and directed to a cold and dry temperature that blood may decrease and be diminished Therefore it will greatly profit to decoct and seethe all convenient and agreeable meats in Milke or Water in which Steele red-hot hath beene quenched and to eate Colewoorts boiled with Lentills or Beanes Or if it please you such a decoction shall first be prepared wherein other meats afterward shall be boiled Take Plantane-leaves flowers of Wool-blade or Lungwoort with the leaves of each one handful the roots of Symphytum or comfrey one ounce mingle them together and boile them with water or Milk in which burning Iron hath beene quenched straine it and squeise it out hard With this decoction all other meates may be prepared as Almonds Lentills Beanes the graine Milium Rice Amylum and the like things rosted flesh is to be preferred before sodden Also sauces may be prepared of the juice of Goose-berries Sorrell and Barberries to be mingled with other meats Let her abstaine from Spices and all things which are of a hot nature but specially from Saffron Let her drinke thicke red Wine allaied with water wherein Steele hath beene quenched It will likewise be profitable that Gold should oftentimes be extinguished and quenched in that Wine after it hath beene made red-hot in the fire Let her use no exercise but as much rest as may be Let her use much sleep let her wholly shake hands with Venus and flie from her as from a deadly poison Her belly being constipated and bound by reason of this continuall Fluxe shall be relaxed and unloosed with a gentle Clyster but thou shalt not by any meanes restraine and stop the Flux unlesse it shall induce and bring debility and feeblenesse lest thou oppose thy selfe against Nature of her owne accord expelling and voiding out superfluous things when thy resistance shall procure great evill When and how Fluxes are to be restrained But when necessity shall require then at last it will be convenient and profitable to binde and stop this Flux And first of all you shall use this powder of which you shall give one dram to be drunke at a time in water in which Gold heat red-hot hath bin quenched And the powder shall be thus prepared Take Terra Sigillata Carabe or Amber Succus Acacia of each halfe an ounce Hypocistis or Hypoquistidos Harts-horne washed and burnt the Runnet of a Kid or Hare of each two drams red Corrall prepared and beaten to powder one dram Gumme Arabicke Costus Sanguis Draconis Bole-Armeniacke prepared of each one dram and a halfe Comfrey flowers of Quinces the pills or rindes of Pomgranates of each one dram Pearles prepared one scruple Mumia halfe a dram Myrtles Olibanum of each one dram Lapis Haematites or the Blood-stone roots of the water-Lilly of each one dram and a halfe Mix them all together and let a powder be made of them Also you shall not unprofitably give this powder following to be eaten in an Egge Take Bole-Armenie prepared Terra Sigillata red Sanders Anthera of each one scruple and a halfe Rindes of Pomegranates Acorne-cups Nut-meg of each halfe a dram Mixe them and make a Powder Or let her use this Electuary morning and evening Take of the Antidote Athanasia Micleta of each one ounce old conserve of Roses one ounce and a halfe Rindes of Pomegranates Acorne-cups Nut-meg Corall prepared of each one scruple and a halfe Pearles prepared halfe a scruple Terra Sigillata halfe a dramme Sanguis Draconis Bole-Armenie prepared Lapis Hematites of each one scruple Temper them with syrup of Pomegranates as much as sufficeth and let an Electuary be made of it Adde to it if neede be Philonium Persicum one dram Moreover against Thirst Water wherein red-hot Steele hath beene quenched mingled with the syrup of Quinces and Pomegranates and with the juyce of Gooseberries and Acetosa simplex shall
from this great veine Aorta are derived all the pulsive moving and beating-veines on every side dispersing pouring forth vital spirit thorowout the whole body The heart the fountaine of lively heat For the heart is the source and fountaine of vitall and lively heat without which no living creature no member can be cherrished Vnder the great veine Aorta even now spoken of The Veyned Arterie in the left cavity and vault of the heart another veine as yet springeth forth called in Latine Arteria venosa the veined Artery Although that truely be a pulsive and moving veine and convey vitall spirit yet it hath only one coat as those veines have which convey blood and that is framed and ordained that it may drive and transport cold aire from the Lungs to the Heart to refrigerate coole and refresh it and to temper and allay the immoderate heat But because veines doe breake forth from both the concavities and hollow cells of the Heart The generation of the lungs and are implanted and inserted to the Lungs the Lungs also formed and framed by them For a veine proceeding from the right cavity and hollow of the heart proceedeth and bringeth forth most subtile and pure blood which the Fibraes threds or haires being from thence afterward dispersed is altered changed and transmuted into the flesh of the Lungs And from the great veines of the Heart and Liver that is to say Vena cava and Aorta The brest legs and armes ingendred the whole brest is ingendred and also the legges with the armes successively and in their due order And the braine is so formed that it may be able to conceive retaine and alter the natures and qualities of all the vitall and lively spirits From the braine also the beginnings both of Reason The Originall of Reason and the Senses and all the senses doe proceed and have their originall For as the veines derive their progeny from the Liver and the Arteries from the Heart The Originall of the Nerves and Sinewes So also the Nerves and Sinewes being of a softer and milder nature doe spring and grow from the braine not being hollow after the manner of veines but solid and massie For indeede they are the first and principall instruments of all the senses by which all the motions of the senses are duely caused and procured through vitall and lively spirit After the Nerves and Sinewes the Marrow of the backe-bone The Marrow of the backe-bone in Latine Spina dorsi is ingendred from the braine not unlike to the nature of the braine so that it may scant be called and termed Marrow Not unlike to the nature of the braine both because it hath no similitude nor likenesse unto Marrow and also because it doth not resemble the same in substance What Marrow is For Marrow is a certaine superfluity of the nutriment of the members proceeding from blood ordained and destinated to moisten and cherrish the bones of the body but the braine and Marrow of the backe-bone or Spina dorsi The Marrow of the backe-bone derived from the seed doe draw and derive their originall and primacie from the seede not deputed or allotted to nourish other members and to make them prosper in good plight but that they should by themselves ordaine and constitute private and particular parts of the body for the motion emolument and use of the senses that from thence all other nerves and sinewes may take their roots and beginnings Many nerves do spring from the Marrow of the back bone For many nerves doe spring from the Marrow of the back-bone or Spina dorsi from which the bodie may have sense and motion as it is evident by the Vital and Animal faculty and vertue by good defence as hath beene declared in the former Chapters Further wee must here note and consider that of the seede are ingendred Cartilages or gristles Of the seede a e Cartilages or gristles bones c ingendred bones the coats of the veines of the Liver and of the Arteries of the heart the braine with the nerves and sinewes againe the coats and also both the other pannicles or caules and wrappers and coverings of the Feature But of the proper and convenient blood of the Feature Of the blood of the Feature the flesh is ingendred also the Heart Liver and lungs the flesh is ingendred and those things which are fleshie as the Heart Liver and Lungs And afterwards all these things doe flourish prosper and are nourished with menstruall blood a tracted and drawne by the little veines of the Navell which veines are observed to attaine to the Matrix from the orifices or mouths of the veines All which things are distinctly and orderly caused and brought to passe from the conception even unto the eighteenth day of the first Moneth at which time it is called seed but afterward it beginneth both to be called and to be a Feature Feature which thing also some ancient Writers have comprehended in these Latine verses Sex in lacte dies ter sunt in sang vine trini Bis seni carnem ter seni membra figurant Et aliter Injectum semen sex primis certe diebus Est quasi lac reliquisque no vem fit sanguis at inde Consolidat duodena dies bis nona deinceps Effigiat tempusque sequens producit ad ortum Talis enim praedicto tempore figura confit Which verses for the benefit of the unskilfull in the Latine tongue may thus be Englished Sixe daies to milke by proofe thrice three to blood convert the seed Twice sixe soft flesh doe forme thrice sixe doe massive members breed Or otherwise The first sixe daies like milke the fruitfull seed Injected in the wombe remaineth still Then other nine of milke red blood do breed Twelve daies turne blood to flesh by Natures skill Twice nine firme parts the rest ripe birth doe make And so foregoing time doth forme such shape CHAP. VI. Of the food of the Feature in the wombe with what nourishments it is nourished and when it groweth to be an Infant SO long as the Feature remaineth in the wombe it is nourished and cherrished with blood attracted and drawne to it by the Navell The Feature in the wombe nourished 〈◊〉 with blood attracted to it by the Navell whereby it commeth to passe that the Termes of women are stayed and cease to issue forth after the conception For then the Feature beginneth to covet and to attract unto it much blood Three differences of menstruous blood after conception But the blood is discerned to have a three-fold difference after the time of conception The first and most pure part of it the Feature attracteth for his nourishment The second and not so pure and thin the Matrix forceth and driveth upward to the brests by certaine veines The breeding of milke where it is converted and changed into milke and for that cause it is that certaine
passages doe bend and incline upward from the Matrix to the brests as in the booke following shall appeare in the Anatomicall demonstration The third the most grosse and impure part of blood remaineth in the Matrix and issueth and floweth forth with the Secundine in the birth and after the birth Thereby it is Great affinity between milke and the terms that Hippocrates saith that there is great affinity betweene the milke and the Termes when as it happeneth that the milke is bred and made of them Galen also because of this matter doth elegantly and excellently advertise us that the Infant taketh and hath more from the mother The Infant receiveth more from the mother than from the father than from the father because first that the seedes are augmented and increased by the Termes next because the Feature is nourished by them in the wombe by and by thirdly because being borne hee is nourished with her milke and even as any sprigs or slips have more from the earth than from the Plant being as it were the Father So Infants have more from their Mother Hereby he saith it commeth to passe that so much the more is retributed and yeelded backe againe to the Mother by how much the more they have given The Infant being perfected in the wombe the first month sendeth forth urine by the passages of the Navell but the last moneth by the privie members But now the Infant being formed and perfected in the wombe the first Moneth it voideth and sendeth forth urine by the passages of the Navell but the last Moneth that passage and conveyance being stopt and shut up hee voydeth it by the privie members as hath bin before declared in the third Chapter Nothing expelled by the fundament so long as the Infant is in the wombe concerning the three coats or caules But by the Fundament so long as hee is in the wombe he voydeth and expelleth nothing at all because he hath as yet attracted no nutriment by the mouth The time of the life of the Infant After the forty and fift day by the advertisement of Hippocrates he taketh life and with it the Soule infused into him from Heaven by the judgement of many so that then he beginneth to have sense and feeling But at this time although he be able to have sense and feeling yet hee wanteth motion to wit being as yet very tender and feeble The time of moving but concerning the time of his moving Hippocrates doth excellently instruct us in this wise A rule to know the time of motion and the time of the birth If you double the number of the daies from the conception you shall finde out the time of motion and the number of the time being tripled accompted thrice will declare the day of the birth For example sake An Example It the Infant should be formed in forty five daies hee will move and stirre himselfe the nintieth day after which is the middle day of the Infant lying in the womb but in the ninth Moneth hee will proceede hasten and come forth to the birth although maiden-children for the most part are borne the tenth Moneth And let these things suffice concerning the forming growing increase and perfection of the Infant in respect of the daies and times The end of the first Booke The second Booke Of the Matrix and parts thereof also of the condition and state of the Infant in the womb and of the care and duty to be observed of women with childe CHAP. I. How necessary a thing it is to insert and annex the Anatomy of the Matrix to this worke But because there is no difference in the bowells of the body of man and woman No difference in the bowels of man and woman but in the privities and seede-vessells except only in the privie parts and in the Spermaticall or seed-vessells we distinguish and divide them severally as the intent of our Tractate requireth and doe propound to sight the Matrix with the Orifice or mouth of the necke thereof with the annexed Vrine-pipes or water-conduits and also the whole frame of the same to be viewed and seene in this Figure But the Figure following doth demonstrate and shew the wombe mother or Matrix with the necke cut from it with the mouth or port-passages of the Matrix being closed and shut up within the which the conceived seede is fashioned formed and detained even unto the houre of the birth The same Figure also doth in like sort shadow out the bladder cut from the neck But we accounted it a superfluous thing to marke and point out every severall thing with Letters and Characters because they are extant and are to be seene every where in the bookes of those which have written of Anatomies CHAP. II. Of the substance forme qualities of the Matrix and parts annexed THe Matrix mother or wombe a member proper and peculiar to the Female sexe is made and framed of Nature to be the receptacle and receiver of seed in which it being conceived is conteined until it grow to the due forme and shape of a body The forme of the Matrix The forme of this is somewhat square at length it is also round not unlike unto a bladder The parts are two The parts of it are two The first is the receptacle concavity or hollow vault 1. The receptacle whose substance is full of sinews having one coat of sinewes ligaments and mixed flesh mingled together and the substance is indowed with small sense or feeling closed together with a strict straight narrow passage greedy and desirous of receiving altering and distributing that naturall humor That part is called the Matrix Mother Wombe or the Generative member in which the seede is conceived and formed The passage and gate of this after conception The passage of the wombe after conception so closed that a needle cannot enter into it is so fast and firmely shut and closed together that a needle cannot enter into it without violence and danger which thing is a most certaine argument and signe of conception A certaine signe of conception Also this passage or wombe-port is not opened but in the conception Carnall-copulation birth issuing forth of the Termes The latter part of it is called Cervix or the neck 2. The Necke or Cervix full of sinewes as it were consisting of Cartilaginous or gristled flesh yet not without fat having a wrinckle in the upper part and being of it selfe very sensible That part is called the womans privity or privie-passage in the top of which there are two lips or brims called the foreskinnes in Latine Praeputia by which the wombe and secret parts are covered fortified and defended against externall aire comming underneath About the sound and bottome of this part under the bone named in Latine Os sacrum the necke of the bladder and conduit of the water or urine is discerned