form of a plaister You may also use for this purpose plaisters of Melilot or Oxycroceum At length if all remedies faile the operation of the hand must be the last succour which we leave to the Chirurgion Of the Canker in the Breasts THe Canker is a venemous tumour hard and very much sweld hot and durable more exasperated oftentimes by remedies then asswaged The Canker proceeds from a feculent and grosse humour vvhich being gathered together in the spleen is chased away from thence after it growes too hot vvhich vvhen Nature cannot void it most commonly in Women empties it self upon the breast by reason of this cavernous and spongy nature the matter of it is a hot melancholy blood and it is known by the crooked vvinding and retorted veins that are about it stretching out long roots a good vvay from it being sometimes blackish and sometimes inclined to black and blew It is soft to see to but it is very hard to the touch extending the pain as far as the shoulders It wil sometimes remain for two years together no bigger then a bean afterwards it grows to be as big as a nut then to the bigness of an Egg and after that increasing daily to a larger size When the skin breaks there issues out a great deal of pestilent mattier thin and blackish and having a very bad smel The ulcer it self is very unequal the lips orifice thereof being sweld with hardness and inverted a light fever possesseth the body and often swoonings And many times the pestilencie of the humor having corroded a vein there issues out a great deal of blood If the canker be ulcerated or in any inward part of the body no medicine can prevail for remedies do more exasperate then help it To burn it with iron is pestilent and if it be cut with a penknife it returns again as soon as it is but skind over But if it be an exulcerated canker which is easily known arises from a more sharp matter for then the flesh is corrupted sending forth a very noysom mattier being very irksom to the sight and accompanied with a gentle Fever and swooning and issuing out of blood The cure of this is to be done by drying refrigerating medicines or by incision to the quick expression of the corrupted blood afterwards after which the wound must be wel cleansed for which purpose the powder which is called Hartmans blessed powder is very prevalent The diet must be of meats that moisten refrigerate blood-letting also is profitable as also preparatiō of the humor w th the juice of sweet smelling Apples and extract of Ellebore and often purgation with Lapis Lazuli pills and particularly if the Canker be not ulcerated you may apply this ointment Take Litharge one ounce beat it in a marble mortar with a leaden pestle incorporating into it two ounces of Rose water and oyle of Roses In case the pain be great use this remedy Take white poppy-seed one ounce oyle of Roses four ounces Henbane-seed and Opium of each a dram and a halfe gum Arabick halfe an ounce a little wax of which you may make an ointment If the Canker be already ulcerated take this water Take of the juices of Nightshade Housleek Sorrell Scabious Honysuckles Mullein Figwort dropwort Plantain Linarum Agrimony of each halfe a pound juyce of green Olives one pint the flesh of Frogs and river Crabs of each a pound and a half the whites of six Eggs Alum three ounces Camphire one dram let all these be distilled in a leaden Limbeck with the distilled water foment the part affected Take also Alum as much as a Nut Hony two peny worth red wine a pint seeth them together till the fifth part be spent strein it through a cloth and wash the Canker therewith Of the greatness of the Breasts THe greatness of the breasts is very unsightly the cause of their greatness is often handling of them store of windy vapours and retention of the monthly courses the cure of them is not to be neglected because the lesser the breasts be the less subject they are to be cankered they are cured by diet first wherein the use of astringent meats is to be recommended so that they be not windy by repercussion of the humors and bloud which flow to that part such are the juice of hemlock and the anointing of the place with partridge eggs or you may use this following cataplasm Take of the juice of hemlock three ounces of white lead Acacia and Frankincense of each three drams of Vinegar one ounce mingle all these together to which you may add powder of spunge burnt alum burnt lead Bole Armoniack and of these with a sufficient quantity of wax and myrtle make a very profitable ointment Thirdly by the discussion of that which is gathered together in that part for which purpose you may make an ointment in this manner Take of the mood or lome found in molis Tonsorum two ounces oyl of myrtle one ounce Vinegar half an ounce or thus take of the same lome and Bole Armoniack of each an ounce white lead two drams oyl of mastick two ounces and a halfe of the emulsion of henbane-seed one dram and a halfe anoint the breast with this and then upon that put a linen cloth dipt in the decoction of Oke Apples 4ly By compression of the part which is done by using a kind of plate of lead upon the breast anointed within side with oyle of Henbane-seed Of the defect abundance and coagulation of the Milk THe defect of milk arises from a double cause for either it is a defect in the blood which is dried up by reason of some hot maladies of the body either through intemperancie of the Liver through fasting or too much evacuation If the deficiency of milk come from these causes it may be increased again either by prepared chrystal the leaves also root and seed of Fenel do avail much in this particular and the powder of Earth-worms prepared and drunk in Wine as also the Electuary called Electuarium Zacuthi There is another cause which proceeds from the Lactifying quality which is many times so weak that it can neither attract nor concoct the blood by reason of some outward refrigerating and astringent qualities or by reason of some other diseases The cure of which being looked after in their respective places much conduceth to the restoring of that defect The redundance of blood proceeds from too great a plenty of blood and a strong lactifying quality In the cure of which the increase of blood is to be impeded which is done by drying up that humor and diversion to which blood-letting conduceth much Medicines also that drive it back are to be put upon the breasts toward the arms to which purpose Hemlock boyld in Chervile water and vinegar avails Curdling of the milk is when the thinner part of the milk exhales and the more grosse and heavy part stayes behinde which many
the face it arises from causes contrary to the former it is cured by contrary diet by hot medicines applied to the womb among which the roots of Birthwort Clove-Gilliflowers Angelica and Eringos are very much commended The leaves also of Mercury Baulm Dittany Penyroyall Sage Rosemary Mugwort flowers of Centaurie Marigolds Sage Rosemary Borage and sundry spices as Nutmegs Cubebs Saffron and Cinamom These kinde of compounds are also very usefull as oyle of Mace oyle of Amber oyle of Myrrhe and of Cinamom There is another intemperancie of the womb which comes of moisture and is joyned most commonly with the cold intemperancie it is known by the plenty of the courses and by thinnesse and watrinesse of them as also the moistnesse of the privities by reason of the moistnesse of the excrements no pleasure in the act of venery and pronenesse to abortion by reason of the growth of the birth It hath the same original with the frigid intemperancie and happens most commonly to women who are lazy and sedentary it is cured with the same medecines as the former onely this may be added that a fume may be made of the shavings of Ivory and the decoction of Sage being received into those parts before supper is very much commended Baths of Sulphur do also profit much There is another distemper of the womb which is dry which is discerned by the want of seed and the defect of the courses by slownesse to venery drinesse of the mouth of the womb by a blackish colour of the lower lip which is alwayes chapt It sometimes arises from the very nativity which causes a dry and lean constitution of body sometimes through age and then women cease to bring children sometimes from inflammations and such like diseases sometimes from a defect of blood which ought to moisten the parts which happens either through a narrownesse and obstruction of the veins or else because it being voided out at the neck of the womb cannot pierce to the bottom The cure of this is performed first by a contrary diet where you must also avoid much labour watching hunger and sadnesse Secondly by the use of moistning things amongst which are most commended Borage Bugloss Mercury Mallows Violets Among outward means Bathes of sweet water and unctions with oyle of sweet Almonds oyle of white Lillies Hens-grease and the marrows of Calves legs The cure is the more hard if the driness have been of any long continuance There is another which is a compound distemper which is most often cold and moist which is discerned by comparing the signes of the simple distemperatures together It arises from flegmie humors The cure is performed by preparing the matter with hot things by evacuation of the matter with such Medecines as are most proper to purge flegme as also by a particular pargation of the Womb it self to which purpose pessaries do very much conduce as also sulphury and drying baths as also the use of sudorificks or things that provoke sweat may be very profitable as the decoctions of Lignum sanctum China Sarsaparilla and mastick wood Of the narrowness of the Vessels of the VVomb THe signes of the narrowness of the vessels of the Womb are partly the retention of the flowers so that they cannot flow as also the hindrance of conception by reason that the passage of the blood is intercepted The causes are partly external as from astringent baths and Medecines which is known from the relation of the party affected it is cured more easily by moistning and mollifying medicines The other causes are internal as from flesh or membrane clinging to the orifices of the womb or by a closing up of the orifices of the veins by reason of some violent extraction of the secondines which is commonly incurable the only cure which may be tryed is by mollifying applications Another cause is deduced from obstruction which arises from certain thick viscous and copious humors flowing from other parts of the body the heat of those places not being able to attenuate them or else gather together in the womb it self by reason of the weakness of the heat of that part it is discerned by the same signs as the cold distemper there being also a slimy matter which now and then comes down from the womb It is cured as other obstructions by sharp and bitter Medicines and steel wine as also baths made with opening and mollifying things Sometimes this narrowness arises from a compression of the parts occasioned either by some swelling or Scirrhus either within or without the womb if this be there do appear manifest signes of swelling it is an evil for the most part incurable many times it is occasioned by an over fatness of those parts which is plain to the sense Of the puffing up of the Womb. THe puffing up of the Womb is a windy swelling of that part occasioned from a cold flegmie and flatulent matter which is increased through the defect of natural heat in the Womb This is called the windy mole it giving hopes of a conception The signes of this are a distention of the womb not far from the midriff which is now increased now diminished sometimes extending it self to the navel sometimes to the loyns and Diaphragma It differs from the Dropsie partly because the swelling is not so great and the party affected is not much troubled with thirst by the increasing and diminishing of the tumor and by the upper parts not being so lean It is distinguished from the Dropsie of the womb by the fore-apprehension of the causes that beget those windy vapours by the sound and less ponderosity as also by a feeling of an extensive and pricking pain in the womb and parts adjoyning It is also distinguished from an inflation of the intestines because here is no great pain neither is the Patient hard bound yet the Flowers are suppressed and the feet and hollow of the eyes do swel and the colour of the body is changed the woman draws her breath short and is sad and when she awakes is fain to lift up her head to take breath It differs from a mole because there is not that heaviness and ponderosity in the womb besides the woman doth not feel the burden of her womb tumble from one side to the other It is distinguished from conception by the sound and by the increasing and decreasing of the swelling and by the deadness of the motion not like that of a dead infant For if the Midriffe be violently compressed the winde being then compelled to the part adjoyning there is a kinde of palpitating motion perceived through all the Midriff The matter of this distemper is generated either in the womb it self or by reason of the suppression of the courses or by the interception of due purgation after delivery Many times it comes through the veins and seminal vessels Now the weaknesse of the heat proceeds sometimes from the external aire sometimes from hard delivery from the suppression of the
courses from abortion c. The cure is performed after the same way that other cures are remedied among those things that purge Species Hierae and Diaphaenicon with Castor are most commended for Fumes Nutmeg is counted the best for potions Nutmegs bruised and boiled with the roots of Mather and drunk in six ounces of wine and two drams of sugar Sometimes this winde gets into the cavity of the womb and then the neck and orifice of the womb is closed so that nothing can go forth when the woman is moved or when the Midriffe is pressed down with her hand and then a kinde of noyse and sound is perceived Sometimes the winde gets into the tunicles of the womb and then the mouth of the womb may be open by reason of the shutting up of the windy vapours in a narrow place there goes a noyse forth and the pain grows greater and extends farther This is more hard and difficult to be cured then that which is in the concavity of the womb Of the inflammation of the Womb. THe inflammation of the womb is a swelling of the same through the putrefaction of blood which is fallen down into its substance having many symptoms now tending to a Scirrhus now toward an Apostem The signes are various There is a swelling in the womb with heat and pain and a retraction of the womb to the more inward parts the neck of the womb appears red with little veins scattered up and down in it like the web of a spider There is sometimes a difficulty of breathing with some kinde of pleurisie because the interior tunicle of the womb being extended which rises from and is joyned to the Peritoneum the parts also to which that coheres are stretched The excrements of the belly and bladder are detained by reason of the heat and drinesse of the belly and the compression of the passages Sometimes the whole body of the belly seemeth empty and filled with water and the navell hangs forward and the mouth of the womb is made very slender and close and upon a sudden a few depraved courses come down then happens a burning Fever by reason of the great sympathy with the womb and the heart occasioned through the Arteries and great vessels There is a pain in the breastâ— with a swelling in them by reason of the consent and agreement between the groyns the hips the septum transversum clavicularum and the fore-part of the head which is extended to the roots of the eyes as also from the vapours which rise from the putrified blood to the head through the arteries that run along through the neck passing by both parts of the infundibulum into the fore-part of the head The cause of this consists in the blood which is sometimes mixed with choler and sometimes with melancholy The cure is difficult if the blood in that part be wholly putrified for that causeth a sordid humor vvhich consumes the patient vvith a continual Fever If it be an Erisypelas or St. Anthonies fire there is no cure at all because the Birth dies by reason of the excessive heat which causes abortion to follow which kils the woman if it turn to a gangreen it is deadly it is cured as other inflammations which may be observed in the following Chapters Only observe that for revulsion you must not let blood in the veinâ—s of the thighs for that draws down the blood to the womb but in the arm the blood flowing from the liver and the parts adjoyning For deriving of the matter you may cut a vein in the hamm unlesse the woman be with child for that wil cause abortion Refrigerating and moistning topicks without any binding faculty may be wel applyed to which purpose the decoction of Serpillus prepared with Chalybeat water and outwardly applyed with a sponge is an excellent Remedy These inflammations sometimes affect the whole womb and sometimes either side of the womb which causes the heat to descend into the hip because of the ligaments of the womb which are carried thither the thigh is difficultly moved and the groins are inflamed sometimes the inflammation possesseth the posterior part which causes the Belly to be bound and a pain in the loines and back bone sometimes it possesseth the forepart which because it coheres to the Bladder the urine is suppressed or made very difficultly and the paine is extended above the privities sometimes it possesses the bottom of the womb which causes such a pain in the lower part of the Belly that it is hardly to be touched and the pain extends to the navel There is another inflammation which degenerates into a Scitrhus where all the symptoms are not so dangerous yet there is a great heaviness perceived in the parts adjoyning This evil is diuturnal and commonly ends in the Dropsie sometimes it turns to an Apostem swelling til it break In this case the body is troubled with a shivering especially towards the evening when the Apostem is broken sometimes it empties it self into the concavity of the womb wherein there is lesse danger and sometimes into other parts of the body which causes sometimes a stoppage in the Urine and sometimes in the belly with a swelling of the hairy parts and the feeling of something floating up and down Of the Scirrhus of the Womb. THe Scirrhus of the Womb is a hard swelling of the said part without paine begot by some thick earthy and feculent humor the signes â—esides others that are general are these in particular The flowers at the beginning are either wholly stopt or flow very sparingly the evil increasing there is a great Flux of blood by intervals the mouths of the veines being opened more then ordinary or because the Womb is not able to receive or to retaine its wonted proportion of blood it is distinguished from the Mole because in that distemper the Flowers if they flow flow inordinately the breasts swel with milk which in the Scirrhus grow very lank The cause of this is a gross feculent humor being a thick blood sometimes Flegmy sometimes Melancholy which happens to those who decline in their age or to those who have been troubled with a squeamishand naught stomach often it arises from an ill cured inflammation through the use of medecines that cool too much The cure is difficult either because having been dryed for a long time they cannot be softned or because the natural heat in those places where the Scirrhus is is for the most part extinct and then because while the humour is mollifying if it have conceived any putrefaction it easily turns to the Canker for the cure it is the same as of the Breasts It differs either as being in and possessing the substance of the womb which causes the womb to lean downward upon the hip and back and there begets pain sometimes possessing the neck of the womb which is discerned by touching it and is cured more easily then the former if it be in the upper part
and when the wind is forth the pain ceaseth The cure hereof is procured by evacuation of the matter and dispelling of the wind as is before declared Of the discolouring of the Flowers THe discolouring of the Flowers is when their right colour which ought to be red declines either to palenesse whitenesse greennesse yellownesse or blewishnesse through some defect or vitiousnesse of the blood The signes are apparent by the sight of the blood besides that it is accompanied with an ill smell many times also it is the cause of Fevers trembling of the body loathing of the meat pain in the stomack c. The differences of this disease consist first in the vitiousnesse of the blood which is caused through some distemper either of the whole body or of some part thereof Sometimes the blood is affected by reason of some stoppage thereof and then the flowers are suppressed which causeth pains in the breast and strong beating of the breast and if the woman begin to amend the blood flowes out with a stinking putrefaction which continues till the eighth day or it may be because the blood is fould by the womb being full of excrements and then you may perceive the signes of a foul womb Sometimes the difference of this disease consists in the mixture of the blood with other vitious humours The cure consists in preparation and evacuation but care must be had that because the thick humours need attenuation and that over-attenuating things do melt the serous humour that you therefore do not use over-attenuating things as vinegar c. Another difference is when the flowers decline to a whitish colour which proceeds from abundance of flegme or from putrefaction and then ulcers follow in the womb barrenness follows unlesse the womans flowers do happen to flow for seven or eight dayes together by which the woman is freed from the disease or else they break out to the parts above the groyn without any tumour and burst forth a little above the Hypochondrion and then the woman seldom lives or else there wil appear after some few dayes a great swelling in the groyn without a head of a red colour because the flesh is there filled up with the blood When it inclines to yellownesse or greennesse the distemper comes of choler when to a blacknesse and blewnesse from melanlancholy Of the inordinate flux of the Flowers THe disorderly flux of the courses is either the coming of them down before their time or else the stoppage of them for some time after the usuall course of nature They come down sometimes before their time partly by reason of internall causes and partly by reason of external causes as falls blows and such like casualities that open the veins Or from the expulsive facultie of the womb too much provoked 1. by the plenty of blood which is known by this that the blood which is sent to the womb from all parts is fluid and of its natural constitution signes of a Plethora or fulnesse of blood are apparent in the woman It is cured by blood-letting if the blood abound by good diet and frequent though gentle exercise Secondly it proceeds from the acrimony and sharpnesse of the blood which is known by the hot temper of the body the blood it selfe is more thin and yellowish It must be cured by evacuating medecines as Rheubarb and such things as temper the blood whereof we have already spoken It comes also when the retentive faculty of the womb grows lank which may be known by the looseness of the vessels of the womb besides a moist faint habit of the Body in the cure beware of things which are too astringent baths where in the force and strength of iron may be effectual may with safety be used The subsistence and stay of the courses beyond the accustomed time proceeds from a frustration of the expulsive faculty as when there is smal store of blood which is known by this that the Woman is not troubled with the stay of the Courses and especially if she have over-exercised her self or used a spare dyet before Secondly the thickness of the blood which is known by the whitenes and clammines thereof In the performance of the cure you must purge before too much blood be gathered together next the Courses are to be attenuated for the performance of which Calamint and Mercurialis are to be most commended In this case scarification of the heels is not amiss There is another difference of this disease which arises from the weaknes of the expelling faculty caused either by the frigid distemper of the Womb of which we have spoken already or by a kind of numness thereof of which we shal speak anon Of the over-abundance of the Courses THe over-much flux of the Courses is either a more abundant or a more lasting purgation of the Courses through some defect either in the Blood or the Womb or the veins of the womb The signs are evident viz want of appetite crudities a bad colour in the face a swelling in the feet and rest of the body a waxing lean of the body and in brief a general ill habit of body The cure if it be of any continuance is difficult if it happen to an aged Woman there is none at all It requires a revulsion or drawing back of the blood interception and incrassation or thickning therof and a closing up of the vessels by astringent medecines Yet observe that they must be stopt by degrees To this effect you may take this powder R. Of the seed of Hyoscyam alb red Coral of each half a dram Caphura half a scruple and give the quantity of half a dram at a time powder of Amber Dragons blood Lap. Haematit Red Coral Lettice seed of each one dram Balaust two scruples Bole-armoniack two drams given in three ounces of Plantain water Asses milk heated with steel You may externally also apply a girdle made of the bruised leaves of Helleboraster Of this disease there are many differences sometimes it happens from the blood which is derived from the bottom of the Womb where for the most part lies the blackest and most clotted blood or from the neck of the womb which is more red and fluid Another difference ariseth from the plenty of blood which appears by this that the vessels are either broken or much opened especially in those Women who have had a stoppage of their Courses for a time which presently break out again The signes of this are evident that is to say a fulness of blood in the body besides that the blood which comes forth easily curdles In the cure you must have recourse to blood-letting which if you do for evacuation it must be done in the hepatick vein if the Woman be weak in Salvatella of both hands In the next place the use of Cupping glasses is to be commended being applyed with scarification to the back c. or without scarification to the Breast being taken away again
when the Woman is troubled with difficulty of breathing In the third place ligatures and frictions of the arms are to be used Another difference of this disease arises from a sharp blood which is known by the gnawing of the humor upon the vessels In the cure you must purge with syrup of Roses solutive or with leaves of Sene a pessary of sows dung and Asses dung which is made up with Plantain water and the muscilage of the seed of Quinces is here of use if need require Another difference arises from a serous and watry blood for either the liver is weakned or the veins so debilitated that it cannot attract the serous or wheyie humor in the blood in this case the blood flows not forth in such a quantity nor is easily curdled if a cloth be dipped in it and then dryed in the shade it presently discolours In the cure hereof you must look to the rectifying of the weaknes of the reins and liver with convenient remedies for which purpose the livers of Foxes Calves Hens c. are very good Sometimes from a rupture of the veins which proceeds either from a fulness of blood or from causes that do vehemently stir up the blood especially from hard labour if it be needful you must let blood and apply conglutinating medecines Or from a gnawing of the vessels which is known by this that sometimes there flows forth little blood and that purulent and full of the wheyie or serous humour It arises from a sharp and corrupt blood and sometimes from the use of sharp medecines Among the astringent medecines the root of Filipendula is much to be commended or a decoction of the same root Of the Whites Gonorrhea in women THe Whites is an inordinate eruption of an excrementitious humour collected together through some vitiousnesse of the blood It affects women chiefly and sometimes also Virgins of which there are examples yet it is more often in women especially if they be of a moist constitution and live an idle and delicate life eating such things as are cold and moist Old women also are affected herewith through the abundance of flegme and the weakness of the concoctive faculty If differs from the Gonorrhea because in that the seminal matter is white and thicker and flows by longer intervals and issues forth in a lesser quantity from a nocturnal pollution for that is joyned with venereal imaginations and onely happens in the time of sleep It differs from the discolouring of the flowers for they though not exactly do always observe their times of flowing Besides they happen not to women with childe or such whose courses are stopped It differs from the putrid humour that issues from the ulcers of the womb because that is joyned with the signes of an ulcer and the putrefaction is thicker and whiter if it be mattrie it is coloured with blood and issues forth with pain The cure of this must be hastened because in a short time it endangers the making of women barren causing them to be lean to fall into a consumption melancholy the dropsie fall of the womb swoonings and convulsions which is the cause that though it be not hard to be cured in the beginning yet it is afterwards very difficult for by this means the whole body accustoms it self to send forth its excrements this way and the womb being now weakned gathers excrements apace Sometimes it proceeds from the whole body and then you may perceive the signes of an ill humour through the whole body In the cure of this you must avoid blood-letting for that the bad humours must not be recalled to defile the blood besides that the disease is a sufficient weakning and consuming of the body The humour is discussed by the decoction of Guaiacum and China and Lentisk wood For the drying up of the humour the root of Filipendula doth very much conduce For astringent medecines you may use chiefly the powder of dead mens bones the ashes of Capons dung in rain-water The patient must avoid sleeping upon her back lest the heat of the Lungs should carry the humours towards the womb Frictions also of the upper parts for the diversion of the humour Sometimes it is caused by the womb it self and then there will appear signes of the affection of the womb and the flux is not so great For the cure of this suffumigations of Frankincense Ladanum Mastick and Santalum are very requisite Of the Green-sicknesse THe Green-sicknesse is a changing of the colour of the face into a green and pale colour proceeding from the rawnesse of the humors The signes of this appear in the face to which may be added a great pain in the head difficulty of breathing with a palpitation of the heart a small and thick beating of the arteries in the neck back and temples sometimes inordinate Fevers through the vitiousnesse of the humours loathing of meat vomiting distention of the Hypochondriack parts by reason of the reflux of the menstruous blood to the greater vessels a swelling of the whole body by reason of the abundance of humours or of the thighs and legs above the heels by reason of the abundance of serous humours The cause is the crudity and rawnesse of the humour and quantity withall arising from the suppression of the courses through the natural narrownesse of the vessels or through an acquired narrownesse of the vessels by the eating of oatmeal chalk earth nutmegs and drinking of vinegar or from the obstruction of the other bowels Hence arises an ill concoction in the bowels and the humours are carried into the habit of the body or become habitual thereto The cure is performed by the letting of blood especially in the heel if the disease be of any continuance by purgation preparation of the humour being first considered which is performed by the decoction of Guaiacum with Cretan Dittany purging of the humour is performed with Agarick Aloes Succotrin with the juice of Savine for the unobstructing of the humour prepared steel the root of Scorzonera Bezoar stone and oyle of Chrystall in diet vinegar is utterly to be avoided Of the Suffocation of the Matrix THe signes of the suffocation of the womb are a wearines of the whole body with a weakness of the thighs a palenes and sadness of the face a nauseousness though seldom vomiting oftentimes a loathing and distast of meat and that sometimes with a grumbling and noise in the belly and sometimes without The signs of the present disease are that when the vapours are carried up to the heart and do there stop the vital spirits a light swooning follows the pulse changes is little the body grows cold all the spirits flying up into the heart the vapour being thrust up to the head and chaps the chaps are many times set fast the Patient seeming to be stifled the motion of the breast and Diaphragme is disturbed and hindred so that the breath is almost stopt the Patient living only by transpiration
bring vital bloud for the work of generation As to the Longitude and Latitude of these vessels they are narrower and shorter in women only where they are wrinkled they are much more wreathed and contorted then in men for the way being shorter in women then in men nature required that for stretching out of these vessels that they should be more wrinkled and crankled then in men that the bloud might stay there in greater quantity for the preparation of the seed These vessels The insertion of the vessels in women are carried with an oblique course through the small guts to the stones being wrapt up in fatter membranes but in the mid-way they are divided into two branches whereof the greater branch goes to the stone constituting the varicous or winding body and those wonderful inoculations the lesser branch ends in the womb in the sides of which it is scattered up and down and chiefly at the higher part of the bottome of the womb for nourishment of the womb and of the birth and that some part of the flowers may be purged out through those vessels Now because the stones of women are seated near the womb for that cause these vessels fall not from the peritoneum neither make they such passages as in men neither reach they to the share bone CHAP. VII Of the Stones in Women THe stones of women although they do perform the same actions and are for the same use as mens yet they differ from them in scituation Their scituation substance temperament figure magnitude and in their covering They are seated in the hollowness of the Abdomen neither do they hang out as in men but they rest upon the muscles of the Loynes and this for that cause that they might be more hot and fruitful being to elaborate that matter which with the seed of man engenders man In this place arises a question not trivial A doubt whether the seed of woman be the efficient or the material cause of generation to which it is answered that though it have a power of acting yet that it receives the perfection of that power from the seed of man The stones of women differ from mens also as to their figure Their figure because they are not so round and oval as those of men being in their fore and hinder part more depressed and broad the external superficies being more unequal as if a great many knots and kernels were mixed together There is also another difference as to the subject because they are softer and moister then those of men being more loose and ill compacted The bigness and temper Their magnitude and temperament do also make a difference for the stones of women are much colder and lesser then mens which is the reason that they beget a more thin and watry seed Their coverings also do make a difference for mens are wrapt up in divers tunicles because being pendent outward they were otherwise more subject to external injuries but the stones of women have but one tunicle which though it stick very close to them yet are they also half cloth'd over with the Peritoneum CHAP. VIII Of the deferent or ejaculatory vessels THe deferent vessels are two blind passages on both sides one nothing differing in substance from the spermatick veines They rise in one part from the bottom of the womb neither doe they reach from their other extremitie either to the stone or to any other part but are shut up and unpassable adhering to the womb just as the the blind gut adheres to the Colon but winding halfe way about the stones are every waies remote from them no where touching them onely are tied to them with certaine membranes not unlike the winges of Bats through which certaine veines and arteries being produced from the stones doe run and end in these passages where they begin at the bottom of the womb they are hollow and large but as they proceed further on they grow narrower till near their end they do again obtain a larger bigness these two passages thus running from the corners of the womb to the stones are taken only to be certaine ligaments by which the stones and the womb are strongly knit together and these ligaments in women are the same things with the Cremasteres in men CHAP. IX Of the Actions and Uses of the Genital parts in Women IN the privie part are seen the Pubes the mountaines of veins the two lipps the Orifice under which the two wings lye hid the little knobs of flesh resembling myrtle berries the passages of the Urin and the Clytories As for the pubes and the Mountains of Venus they serve for this use that the great Orifice might be the better shut and to avoyd compression in copulation for which cause they are beset with haire and are covered with a hard kind of fat the great orifice receives the yard and gives passage to the Urine and the birth The use of the wings or knobs of flesh like Myrtle berries are for the defence of the internall parts shutting the orifice of the neck least cold aire dust or any other annoyances should hurt it from without and while they swell up they cause titillation and desire in those parts Lastly the passages of the Urine being shut up by the knobs of flesh resembling myrtle berries hinders the unvoluntarie passage of the Urine CHAP. X. Of the action of the Clytoris THe action of the Clytoris is like that of the yard which is erection which erection is for the motion and attraction of the seed CHAP. XI Of the action and use of the neck of the womb THe action of the neck of the womb is the same with that of the yard that is to say erection which is occasioned divers ways First all this passage is erected and made streight for the better conveyance of the yard to the womb Then while the whole passage is erected it is repleated with spirit and vital bloud whereby it becomes narrower for the more streight embracing of the yard The causes of this erection are first because if the womb were not erected the yard could not have a convenient passage into the womb secondly it would hinder convenient affrication without which the seed could not be drawn forth Lastly it hinders any hurt or damage which might be done by the violent force of the yard CHAP. XII Of the uses of the vessels running through the neck of the womb FIrst it is required that there should be a concurrence of divers veins and arteries for the nourishment of that part and though that part it self being full of membranes does not require much nourishment yet by reason that it is to suffer erection that could not be done but by bloud and spirits which are contained in these vessels besides although the fubstance of this part be of a cold temperament being notwithstanding still heated by the act of copulation that heat would soon consume a slender nourishment
times is the cause of tumors kernels and Apostems In this case the infant is not to suck the part affected though that breast is also to be suckt for fear lest the milk which is newly generated should be curdled and knotted by that which is there already and so that part of the coagulated milk may be hindered from putrifying To the dissolving of the milk it much conduceth to wash the breast with water wine and vinegar mixt together as also a Fomentation made of the decoction of Marsh-mallows Fenugreek and melilote and then anointing them with a liniment of Oyl of Roses Oyl of sweet Almonds juice of Parsley and Vinegar wherein let the gall of a Hare be first dissolved Hemlock water in this case also is not a little commended Of the Diseases of the neck of the Womb and first of the Disease called Tentigo TEntigo is a Disease in Women when the Clitoris increases to an over-great measure the subject of this disease is the Clitoris or nervous peece of flesh which the lips or wings of the privities do imbrace and which suffers erection in the act of venery the signes of it are evident for it hangs below the orifice of the privity as bigg as the neck of a Goose the causes hereof are a great concourse of humours or nutriment by reason of the laxity of it which happens by often handling The cure is performed by the diminution of the bloud and drawing out of the other humors A slender and refrigerating dyet is also necessary and such things as have a discussive faculty as the leaves of Mastick tree and the leaves of Olive tree In the next place by taking away the excrescence to which purpose gentle causticks may be first applyed as Alum and the Aegyptiac oyntment and that lye whereof sope is made being boyled with Roman Vitriol to which at last you may add some opium and form the composition into Trochisques which being afterwards made into a powder is to be sprinkled upon the fleshieexcrescence at length the flesh is to be cut away either by binding hard or by section care being taken that you avoid an inflammation There is another disease which is called Cauda which is a carnous substance proceeding from the mouth of the womb which sometimes fils up the privy parts and sometimes thrusts it self outwards like a tayl The cure of this is the same with the former onely if it come to section it may be done either with a horse-hair or a silken thread wound about it being first dipt in sublimate water or else with a knife Of the narrowness of the neck of the Womb. THis narrowness is either of the Womb it self or of the orifice of the Womb the signes are the stoppage of the Courses followed with a depressing and weighty paine The cause is partly natural from the nativity and partly varies according to the differences of the disease the difference is in this it hapning sometimes that this streightness consists in the exterior orifice whereby neither the flowers have free passage neither can she enjoy coition or conceive with child because she cannot receive either the man or the seed Sometimes the narrowness is in the interior orifice of the Womb into which the flowing retires back again to the absolute hindrance of conception sometimes it is occasioned by way of compression when the Caul being fatter then ordinary lies upon the neck of the Womb. Sometimes the splaying of the thighs stone in the bladder or some tumor in the streight gut Sometimes it happens by the clinging of other parts together which happens either from the birth and then either the flesh which appears red and is soft to the touch intercepts the passage or else the membrane which seems white feels hard being touched In the cure of this the use of moist fomentations is very prevalent and an insection is to be made perpendicularly great care being taken for feare of hurting the neck of the bladder The humour is next to be provoked forth and a Tent dipt in some suppurating plaister is to be put up the next day it is to be washed with water and honey and cicatrizing plaisters to be applied if it come after the birth it is either occasioned by an ulcer and then either the sides of the neck cling together in which case either incision or cauterization is to be used or else there is a brawnie substance which is to be cut away with a penknife or else some spungie luxuriant flesh in which case drying and discussing Medecines are to be used as Birthwort Frankincense Myrrh and Mastick afterwards you may apply things to eat it away and last of all to cut it away by incision Of Wheals condylomas of the Womb and of the Hemorrhoids THe Wheals of the VVomb are certaine risings in the neck of the womb which by their acrimony excite both paine and itching The signes of them are an itching paine and fall of scurf from that part for the better searching of which the instrument called speculum Matricis is to be used The cause of this are certain cholerick sharp and adust humors and thick which falling upon these moist and loose places do there easily make their way The cure depends upon the consideration of the causes Among the preparing Medecines syrup of Fumitory is much commended and Cichorie with a decoction of Lupines Topicks also are useful that discuss and mitigate the humor as baths and insessions and the washing of the place with wine and Nitre which is often to be used These wheals are divided into gentle and venemous which are said to be contagious they are to be washed in a water thus made Take of Aloes the quantity of a pea of the flowr of brass the quantity of half a pea powder these and mingle them in an ounce of white wine Plantain-water and Rose-water of each an ounce which is to be kept in a glass vessel Condylomas are certaine swelling wrinkles in the neck of the Womb with pain and heat There is no need to tel the signes of these for they are apparent to the eye the wrinkles are like those which appear in the hand when you close the fist but are much bigger when the courses flow they are caused by adust and thick humors some of these are with an inflamation which have more paine and heat and the swelling is hard In the cure of which you must use insessions and fomentations that ease paine sometimes they come without any inflammatiō which if they be new come are to be dryed up if they be old they are first to be softned afterwards to be digested and dryed up for which purpose you may use powder of Egg-shels burnt or this Ointment Take of the Trochisques of steel one dram powderd mixt with a little Oyl of Roses and wax with half an ounce of the juice of Mullein if this profit not the warts are to be shaved away with a knife and an astringent
toward the womb if necessity requires that it should be done more then once one day a vein must be opened in one thigh and another day in the other and that which is opened for evacuation must be first opened that which is opened in the hamm or heel must be done after purgation 3 or 4 or five dayes before the time that the accustomed evacuations of the Woman ought to come down Cupping-glasses also are to be applyed first to the more remote places as to the thighs and then to the neerer parts as to the hips ligatures or bindings and frictions at the time of the coming down of the flowers after purgation of the whole Body are not to be omitted In the second place the matter is to be prepared for which purpose in bodies troubled with flegme the decoction of Guaiacum with Cretan Dittany doth much avail without provoking sweat In the third place evacuation is to be made at several times Among evacuating Medecines are commended Agaric Aloes with the juice of Sabina and these pilâ— Take Aloes Succotrine three drams the best myrrh one scruple extract of Calamus Aromaticus Carduus Benedictus Saffron of each three drams roots of Gentian and Dittany of each five grains make them up with syrup of Laurel berries taking the quantity of one scruple at evening before supper In the fourth-place by an obstructing the humour by those things which provoke the flowers of which these are most to be commended the decoction of Rosemary with flowers of Cheiri Peny-royal water twice distilled and mingled with Cinamom water Extract of Zedoar Angelica and Castor and the earth which is found in iron mines prepared in the same manner as steel spirit of Tartar the fat of an Eele Colubrina with the distilled water of Savine and in the fift place by the discussion of the dreggs and relicks that remaine by sudorificks or things that provoke sweat with a potion made of a Chalybeat decoction with spirit of Tartar c. The differences of this disease arise partly from the obstruction of the veins of the womb caused by a cold and thick blood and thick slimy humors mixed with the blood and coming either from some hot distemper of the womb which dissipates the sharp and subtile humors and leaves behinde the gross and earthy parts or from the cold constitution of the liver and spleen especially if at the time of the menstrual flux at what time the flux of blood is more violent those subtile humors happen to be dissipated then at the time of the monthly purgation the party affected feeleth a great pain in the loyns and parts adjoyning and if any thing come down it is slimy whitish and blackish the whole Body is possessed with a numness the colour pale a slow pulse and raw urines The cure is the same with the former great care being taken of a gross and ill dyet There is another difference of this disease when it happens by compression which arises from external causes as the Northern wind and long standing in cold water which may be knwn from the relation of the sick person The blood in this case is to be drawn to the lower parts by Frictions and Baths or from internal causes as fatnes or swelling of the womb or of the lower parts in which case Medecines must be applyed that asswage the swelling There is another difference which is in the hardness of the skin which happens either from the first nativity and then the disease is not easily taken away or long after from some cold dry distemper concerning which look the former Chapters Another difference there is when there happens a closing up of the skin which is caused after cicatrising of an Ulcer or by reason of some skin or membrane growing to the vessels of the womb or by reason of frequent abortion after which these veins to which the secundines adhere do grow together so close that they cannot be afterwards opened Another difference of this disease there is when it happens through want of blood which is not generated either by reason of external causes as famine over much evacuation issues and such like or through internal causes as a frigid constitution of the principall parts old age and fevers or when it is converted to other uses as before full growth to the nourishment of the body in women with child to the nourishment of the birth in those that give suck to the increase of milk and in fat people to the augmentation of the fat or when it is consumed either by externall causes as overmuch exercise affrights terrors sadnesse bathes overmuch sweating which do consume the serous quality of the blood or through internall causes as are hot and dry diseases or over great evacuations in other parts of the body Sometimes another difference of this disease proceeds from the drynesse of the blood which happens to women who in the winter time do too much heat their lower parts by putting coals under their coats For the cure thereof you must use refrigerating and moistning medecines Of the dropping of the Flowers and the difficulty of their coming down THe dropping of the flowers is when they are coming down for many dayes together drop by drop This happens both from externall causes as over-hard labour c. And sometimes from the drossinesse of the blood the passage not being wide enough For the cure of this it is convenient to open a vein in the arm with gentle purging as in the former chapter Sometimes from the weaknesse of the retentive faculty there being at that time great plenty thinnesse and serosity of the blood In this case there is no pain Medecines that binde and corroborate the stomack here must have place The difficulty of the Flowers is when they come down with pain and trouble either through defect in the veins or in the blood The signes of this are gathered from the relation of the sick person who is then much troubled with pain in the head stomack and loyns and lower parts of the body And they do either flow altogether or drop by drop as in the former disease it is a disease more incident to maids then married women because the veins of the womb are lesse open in them then in those who have brought forth children It happens sometimes from a corruption of the blood that is from the drossiness and thickness thereof and then the blood clots together and there is great pain long before the flowers begin to come down The cure of this is performed by attenuating medecines Sometimes from the sharpnesse and acrimony of the blood which proceeds from a mixture of sharp humours with the body and then the genital parts do itch It is cured by those medecines that temper the sharpnesse of the humour as the four greater seeds violets and flowers of Nenuphar Sometimes from windy vapours and then the pain comes by intervals and is suddenly exasperated rumbling up and down
navel Of Looseness in Children LOoseness of the belly happens either in the time of Teeth breeding or out of the time in the time of breeding teeth either by reason of the corruption of the nutriment or by reason of over-much watching through the pain of the teeth or by reason of a Fever and some unnatural heat it must not be suddenly stopt if it be not overcopious and that the infant can indure it the belly must be afterwards cleansed with Roses solutive and afterwards stopped great observation being had whether the cause come from a hot or cold distemper Of Burstness in Children BUrstness happens to children either by reason that the peritonaeum is burst through crying or falling or splaying with the thighs For the cure whereof the child must be kept quiet and stil from crying upon which after the part affected is wel bound up you may give the child inwardly of the essence of the greater Consound one spoonful with two drops of Balsam of sal Gemma You may also foment the place with a Fomentation made of the roots of the greater Consound and Osmundi regulis the bark of Elme and Fraxi of each half an ounce the leaves of Plantain Mullein Centinode Herniar Horsetail flowers of Camomil red Roses and Meliot of each a handful and a half Balust Cypress nuts and acrons of each two drams put these into two sacks and boyl them in equal parts of sour wine and Smiths water for a Fomentation to be used for a quarter of an hour then you may lay on a Plaister of the red drying Ointment eleven ounces powder of Mastick Olibanum and Sarcocol Cypress-nuts of each one dram with a little wax and oyl of Mastick to make a plaister which must be put upon the place affected and bound down with a little pillow Sometimes this burstness proceeds from a watry humor abounding in the Abdomen which descending into the Codds causeth them to swel for which you may use with good success this Ointment Take of Vnguent Comitiss and the red drying Ointment of each two ounces Pigeons dung half an ounce live Sulphure three drams powder of Lawrel berries and mustard-seed of each a dram oyle of Dill and Venice Turpentine of each 3 drams wax as much as sufficeth this is also an extraordinary Remedy for the Burstness proceeding from wind Of the Inflammation of the Navell THe inflammation of the Navel ariseth when the blood gathers thither by reason of some external hurt the danger is very great if it should apostemate and so the guts fall down and therefore suppuration must be hindred as much as may be Of the jutting forth of the Navel THis differs from the inflammation because here the Navel doth not give way to the touch neither is the colour of the skin changed neither is there any very great paine or pulse unless the intestines are very much fallen it proceeds from the ill binding thereof at first which is incurable or when a greater portion then necds of the Navel string is left Secondly from a laxation of the Peritonaeum and then the tumor is equal nor doth the Navel jut forth very far in the cure hereof you must let the child abstain from all windy meats and from much crying Sometimes it is occasioned by the rupture of the Peritonaeum and then the swelling is hardly perceived when the child lies upon his back but increaseth and swels forward when he walks sits cries and bawls in the cure of this the mosse that grows upon the wild Prune-tree is very much commended or you make little Swathbands of Leather and anoint them with Oxycroceum Of the Stone in the Bladder THis is known by the coming forth of the Urine by drops and with paine which is sometimes unmixed sometimes containing a kinde of serous humor sometimes dyed with a little blood it is produced either by the milk which is ingendered of meats that do increase the Stone or through a hot distemper of the Liver which attracts the Chylus and sends it unaltered to the bladder for the Cure you must use Baths among which this is commended to anoint the bladder withall take Oyl of Scorpions oyl of bitter Almonds Conies-grease and Hens grease of each an ounce and a half and of the juice of Parietarie Or take sal Tartar one ounce parsley-water a pint mix them through a fine paper rubd over with the rindes of Oranges and give a smal quantity thereof Of the not holding of the Vrine THis ariseth either from the muscle which shuts the orifice of the Bladder which is so disposed that it is loosed upon the least exciting of the Urine and grows so into a habit that it many times accompanies them to their graves or from the stone in the bladder or from the weakness of the sphincter proceeding from a cold moist distemper which is cured partly by the good dyet of the Nurse and partly by convenient Medecines among which a bath made of Sulphure Nitre and the leaves of Oak is exceeding good Of the Intertrigo WHen the little skin in the hips is separated from the true skin it arises first from the sharpness of the Urine especially in children that are more corpulent by reason of the dirt which frets the skin being gathered together in the wrinkles Bathe the place and then sprinkle upon it either white Nihili or anoint it with oyl of Litharge Of Leanness THis arises either from a subtle kinde of Worms which are generated in the most musclely parts of the back and arms and consume the body They break forth sometimes like to black haires if you wash those parts with a Bath mixed with bread and hony they are taken away either with a Razor or with a crust of bread Secondly it arises from the smal quantity of milk which is often-times remedied by changing the Nurse Of the difficulty which Children have to make water IF the Disease proceed from sharpness of the Urine the Nurse must use such a way of dyet as is proper for the tempering and cooling of the blood she must be purged let blood using afterwards cooling refrigerating broths If it proceed from any gross humor ingendered in the bladder the Nurse must abstain from all meats that do breed gross humors as milky meats Pease and Beans and such like If the child be troubled with gravel which may be perceived by the whiteness and rawness of the Urine with a gravelly setling at the bottom and the continual pain in making water if the Child be any thing bigg let a potion be given him of an ounce and half of sweet Almonds an ounce of Pellitory water and two drams of the juice of Limons use as much of this at a time as is convenient Or take of this powder of the blood of a Hare six ounces of the root of Saxifrage one ounce burn them in an earthen â—ot if the Infant suck give him a scruple of this powder in a little milk
in women c. 15. p. 42. Of the utilitie of the stones c. 16. p. 43. Sect. 3. Of the signs of conception c. 1. p. 44. Whether she hath conceived a Male c. 2. p. 46 Whether a Female c. 3. p. 47. Of the conception of Twins c. 4. p. ibid. Of false conception c. 6. p. 48. How women with child ought to govern themselves c. 6. p. 54. How to govern themselves in the time of their going with child c. 7. p. 57. c. Sect. 4. Of the mixture of the seed of both Sexes as also of its substance and form c. 1. p. 62. of the three tunicles which the birth is wrapt in in the womb c. 2. p. 64. Of the true generation of the parts and the increase of them according to the several daies and seasons c. 3. p. 65. Of the nourishment of the birth in the womb c. 4. p. 69. Of the condition of the Infant in the womb in the sixth seventh and eight moneth c. 5. p. 71 Sect. 4. Of the situation of the child in the womb p. 72. Sect. 5. Of Midwifes c. 1. p. 75. What ought to be observed when shee is neer the time of her lying down c. 2. p. 76. How to expell the Collick from women in child-bed c 3. p. 79. How the Midwife may know when the pains of travail do seize a woman c. 4. p. 80. Of the falling down of the waters a good while before the woman travails c. 5. p. 81. What the Midwife ought to do in time of travaile c. 6. p. 82. How to draw forth the Secondines c. 7. p. 84. What may be given to a woman in travaile c. 8. p. 85. How to put the Womb again in its place c. 9. p. 86. Against the extreme losse of blood which happen to women immediately after their delivery c. 10. p. ib. What is done to a woman presently after her delivery c. 11. p. 88. Of women that have a great deal of bloud and purge not neither in their travail nor after c. 12. p. 90. For those who have but a little bloud c. 13. p. 92. What is to be done to the Infant c. 14. p. ib. How to govern women in Child-bed c. 15. p. 93. Of the bathings that a woman is to use for the first eight dayes of her lying in c. 16. p. 95. How a woman ought to govern her self in case she be to be delivered of two children c. 17. p. 95. Of the danger that a woman hath to purge her selfe for the first dayes of her lying in c. 18. 97. Of the second washing for women c. 19. p. 98. What is to be done to Infants as soon as they are born c. 20. p. 98. Of the last washing for Women c. 21. p. 101. Of an Astringent for Women when they shall have occasion c. 2â— p. ibid. To make searcloaths for women c. 23. p. 102. To cleanse a woman before she rises c. 24. p. ibid. How a woman lying in of her first child may avoid the gripings of her belly c. 25. 103. The Queen of France her Receit p. 104. Certain precepts hindering the delay and difficulty of bringing forth c. 26. p. 105. How the secondines are to be hastened out c. 27. p. 108. Pills for the purpose p. 111. Of Cases of Extremity and first what is to be done to a woman who in her travail is accompanied with a flux of bloud and with convulsions c. 28. p. 112. Of ordering the woman after she is delivered c. 29. p. 129. What is to be done to the breast Belly and lower parts of the woman in child-bed p. 131. An Oyntment p. 132. An oynment to keep the milk from clotting p. 133. A Fomentation much commended ibid. Of the choise of a good Nurse p. 135. What is to be done in the extream parts of a child p. 1. 36. What is to be done to such children as are troubled with flegme p. 137. What is to be done to children that have their Cods full of wind p. 138. How to take away the Canker out of the Infants mouth ibid. What is to be done to children whose intestines are fallen p. 139. To make an oyntment to strengthen the thighs and legs of a child and make him goe ibid. Of the relaxations of the Matrix and the cause p. 140. of a disease that happens by reason of the fall of the Matrix p. 143. To remedie the fall of the fundament in Infants p. 144. of the Diseases of women and first of the inflammation of the brest ibid. of windy Tumours in the breasts p. 1. of the watry tumour in the brests p. 4. of the kernell in the breast p. 7. of the Scirrhus of the breasts p. 9. of the Canker in the breasts p. 12. of the greatnesse of the breasts p. 14. of the defect abundance and coagulation of the Milk p. 16. of the Diseases of the neck of the womb and first of the disease called Tentigo p. 17. of the narrownesse of the neck of the womb p. 19. of wheales condilomas of the womb and of Hemorrhoids p. 20. of the Vlcers of the neek of the womb p. 23. of the womb being out of temper p. 26. of then arrownesse of the vessels of the womb p. 30. of the puffing up of the womb p. 31. of the inflammation of the womb p. 33. of the Scirrhus of the womb p. 36. of the Dropsie of the womb p. 38. of the falling of the womb p. 40. of the ascent of the Matrix as also of the wounds and ulcers of the same p. 42. of the paine of the womb p. 44. of the suppression of the flowers p. 46. of the dropping of the flowers and the difficulty of their comming down p. 51. of the discolouring of the flowers p. 53. of the inordinate flux of the Flowers p. 54. of the over-abundance of the Courses p. 56. of the whites Gonorrhea in women p. 59. of the Green sicknesse p. 61. of the suffocation of the Matrix p. 62. of barrennesse p. 66. of bringing up of children and their diseases of the diseases of the head p. 71. Bignesse and swelling of the head in little children p. 73. of the diseases of the eyes ears and noses in children p. 75. of certain ulcers in Childrens mouths p. 76. of certain other tumors called Paroulis and Espoulis p. 77. of the two strings under the tongue of a child p. 78. of the Coughing children ibid. of breeding teeth p. 79. of the inflammation of the Navel-string in Infants p. 80. of the Worms ibid. of the convulsion in Infants p. 81. of the swelling of the Hypocondria in Infants p. 83. of Costivenesse in children ibid. of loosenesse in children p. 84. of Burstnesse in children ibid. of the inflammation of the Navel p. 86. of the jutting forth of the Navel p. ibid. of the stone in the bladder p. 87. of the not holding of the Vrine ibid. of the Intertrigo p. 88. of Leannesse ibid. of the difficulty that children
one and much seldomer three or four The scituation of the stones in men is without the Midriff at the root of the yard under the belly and that for two causes to keep men more chaste it being observed that those creatures which carry their stones within their bodies are more salacious and bring forth in greater numbers Their bigness is not always alike in all creatures but in men as big as a Pigeons egg or as a small Hens egg and commonly the left is bigger then the right In the Anatomy of the stones divers things are to be considered Their Tunicles or the skins in which they are wrapt as well those which are common to both as those which are particular to either next the muscles then the substance of which they are composed and lastly the vessels which are dispearsed through the body of the stones CHAP. V. Of the Tunicles of the stones THe Testicles are wrapt up in divers coverings about the number of which there hath been great dissention But they are now reduced to five whereof two are common and are called Scrotum and Dartos three particular the names of which are Elytroydes Erythroides and Epididymis The first of these which is like a satchel or purse and is common to both consists of a skin and a cuticle This contains the two stones like a purse and is obvious to the touch The skin of this part differs from any other part of the skin which covers the body for whereas that is stretched out and spred close over the whole body this is more loose and made to stretch out or to be wrinkled up together as occasion is that is as the stones either ascend or descend they ascend commonly in the time of conjunction they descend in febers weakness of the Testicles or by reason of old age The second Tunicle The second is called Dartos because it is easily separated from the others In this the testicles lie as it were in a nest wrapping them about more close then the Scrotum doth It takes its Originall from the fleshie Pannicle which though it be thinner hereabouts then in any other part of the body yet is it full of little Veines and arteries The proper Tunicles The proper Tunicles are first the Elytroides which is also called Vaginalis by reason it supplyes the office of a sheath It takes its originall from the production of the Peritoneum for where the spermatic vessells pass they do not at all bruse the Peritoneum but carie it downe to the stones and so constitute or make this Tunicle To know this Tunicle and the original of it is very necessary for Physick because that hollowness which the Processess of the Peritoneum do make for the passage of the spermatic vessels is somtimes dilated as far as the beginning or source of this Tunicle and both the small guts and the caule fall down upon the Testicles which is the cause of that kind of birstness which by the Physitians is called Enterocle This Tunicle grows to that which is called Dartos being ioyned to it by many nervous fibres Underneath this is the Tunicle called Erythroides or the red Tunicle so called from the multitude of red veines which are sprinkled up and down in it It rises from the other membranes and is encompassed without by the first proper tunicle The third and that which immediately compasseth the stones is that which is called Epididymis it is white thick and strong to preserve the soft and loose substance of the stones It riseth ftom the Tunicle of the seminal vessels being the thickest of all the Tunicles and hath some few veines scattered up and dovne in it CHAP. VI. Of the suspensory Muscles TO keep the stones from oppressing or stretching over much the passages of the seminal vessels Nature hath provided them two Muscles for them to hang by on both sides one in form oblonge and slender These Muscles derive their original from a thick membrane which is joyned to the hanch bone in the further part of that region where the hair grows The original of these Muscels and is fastened to this bone with certaine fleshie and straight fibers where the oblique Muscles of the Abdomen or Mideriff end thence reaching down upon the superiour members of the Testicles they are extended through the whole length of that round body These Muscles are never seen in women being altogether useless because their stones are not pendent but are enclosed within their bodies CHAP. VII Of the substance and temper of the stones THe substance of the stones is glandulous or kernelly white soft loose spongy and hollow having sundrie vessels dispersed through them Now although the substance of the Testicles be most soft and moist yet doth not this moistness constitute a uniforme or homogeneal body for the substance of the stones is wholly dissimilar and full of fibres These fibres also seeme to be of a different substance from that of the stones being only cloathed which the flesh of the stones as the fibres of the Muscles are inwardly nervous but coverd over which the flesh of the Muscles These fibres again differ in this that the fibres of the Testicles are hollow but the fibres of the Testicles full and substantiall These fibres are said to come from the spermatick vessels and thence branch themselves forth through the Testicles by which that part of the seed which is over and above what serves for the nourishment of the testicles as drawn forth and kept for procreation As concerning the Temper of the stones they would sooner be thought cold then hot if that Maxime were true that all white things are cold and all red things hot Nothwithstanding because nature is known to abhor all coldness in the work of generation Therefore we must presume to affirme the temper of the stones to be hot for they always abound with blood and a pure spirit that can never be whichout heat Besides that heat is required for the concoction of this blood and the changing it into seed yet is it very temperate as appeares by the softness of the substance for as coldness and driness is the cause of hardness so heat and moisture is the cause of softness Nevertheless we are to understand this that the temper of the stones is not alike in all for in some they are far colder then in others And therefore these who have hot testicles are more salacious and prone to venereal actions having the places neer about much more hairie and their testicles much harder then others Those that have their testicles cold find every thing contrary The greatest heat is in the right testicle because it receives more pure and hotter blood from the hollow veine and the great Artery the left colder because it receives a more inpure and serous bloud from the Emulgent veine CHAP. VIII Of the Actions of Testicles THe action and use of the Testicles is to Generate seed a gift which
some certain space for the ureter yet they are joyned together about the middle of the share bone where they lose about the third part of their nervous substance The interiour substance which is wrapt about by the exteriour nervous substance The Ureter hath this worthy observation that there appears stretched through the whole length of it a thin and tender artery proportionable to the bigness of the body which is diffused through the whole loose substance of the yard reaching as far the root of the yard Besides these two there is another body which lies between these two as proper or rather more peculiar to the yard then they are This is a pipe placed at the inferiour part of the yard being called the Vreter though it be a passage as proper to the seed as to the urine which is encompassed by the two fore-mentioned bodies This is a certain Channel produced in length and running through the middle of those nervous bodies consisting of the same substance that they do being loose thick soft and tender every way equal from the neck of the bladder to the nut of the yard saving that it is a little wider at the beginning then it is toward the place where it ends which is at the head of the glans or nut of the yard At the beginning of this Channel there are three holes one in the middle The holes of thâ— Ureter and something bigger then the other two arising from the neck of the bladder the other two on both sides one being something narrower proceeding from the passage that goes out of the seminary vessels and conveighs the seed into this channel This is further to be noted in this place that in the channel where it is joyned to the glans together with the nervous bodies Note there is a little kind of cavern in which sometimes either putrid seed or any other corroding humour as happens in the gonorrhaea being collected is the cause of ulcers in that part the cause of very great pain and it many times also comes to pass that there is a certain little piece of flesh which grows out of this ulcer that oftentimes stops up the passages of the urine To the structure of the yard The Muscles of the Yard there do moreover concur two pair of muscles one more short and thick proceeding from a part of the hip near the beginning of the yard and being of a fleshy substance The use of these two muscles is to sustain the yard in the erection and to bend the fore-part of the yard which is to be inserted into the womb the other pair is longer and rises from the sphincter of the fundament where they are endued with a more fleshy substance being in length full as long as the yard under which they are carried downward ending at the sides of the ureter about the middle of the yard Their use is to dilate the ureter both at the time of making water and at the time of conjunction lest it should be stopped up by the repletion of the nervous bodies and so stop up the passage of the seed They are also thought to keep the yard firm lest it should lean too much to either side and also to press out the seed out of the prostatae or forestanders The vessel of the Yard There are vessels also of all sorts in the yard first of all certain veins appearing in the external parts and in the cuticle which branch themselves out from the Hypogastrion In the middle betwen the space of the fibres they send out certain branches from the right side to the left and from the left to the right These veins swelling with a frothy bloud and spirit erect the yard There are also certain nerves which scatter themselves from the pith or marrow of the holy bone quite through the yard bringing with them the cause of that pleasure and delight which is perceived in the erection of the yard CHAP. XV. Of the Action of the Yard THe main scope of Nature in the use of the yard was the injection of seed into the womb of the woman which injection could not be done till the seed were first moved neither could the seed be moved but by frication of the parts which could not be done till it were sheathed in the womb nor that neither till the yard were erected This distension is caused by repletion which is caused by the plentie of seed Secondly by superfluitie of wind which if it be too violent is the cause of priapisme A Third cause proceeds from the abundance of urine contained in the bladder Somtimes the heat of the reines is a cause thereof CHAP. XVI Of the use of the Yard in general THe Yard is scituated under the midriff over against the womb And is also placed between the thighes for the greater strengthning of it in the act of copulation Neither is this the only strength which it hath for at the lower part it appears more fleshie which flesh is altogether muscly for the greater strength thereof Neither is it only contented with this Musclie flesh it having too muscles also for the same purpose on both sides to poise it even in the act of erection which though they are but little yet are they exceeding strong The figure of the yard is not absolutly round but broader on the upper side lest it should be hindered by the convexity of the superior part in the casting forth of the seed Concerning the biggness of the yard it is by most estemed to be of a just length when it is extended the bredth of nine thumbs CHAP. XVII Of the use of the parts constituting the Yard THe first thing in the constitution of the yard that offeres it self to view is the skin which is long and loose by reason that the yard which is sometimes to be extended somtimes to fall downe againe so requires it The extremity of the skin is so ordered that it somtimes covers the glans and somtimes draws back that whilst it covers the nut of the yard it may defend the yard from frication or provoking the motion of the seed Moreover this skin in the act of copulation shuts up the mouth of the womb and hinders the ingress of the cold air Concerning the two nervous bodyes constituting the substance of the yard their use is for the vital spirit to run through the thin substance of them and fill the yard with spirits Moreover by their thicknesse they doe prevent the two hastie empting and flying out of the spirits which are to stay in for the greater and longer erection of the yard The use of the Ureter is for the passage of seed and urine through it The substance of the Ureter is much the same with the two former bodys the inside being more thin and loose the outside more nervous and thick which is so ordained that it may be more apt to be erected with the yard It goes forward
better taking hold of the yard there is required a great heat for these kind of motions which growing more intense by the act of frication doth consume a great quantitie of moisture so that great vessels are requisite and onely able to make that continual supply that is needfull There is another cause of the longness of these vessels which is this because that the monthly purgations are poured through those veines for the flowers must not come onely out of the womb but out of the neck of the womb also whence it happens Note that women with child do somtimes continue their purgations because that though the wombe be shut up yet the passages in the neck of the womb are open The two holes or pits near the lips of the pudendum This is also further to be noted in the neck of the womb that as soone as ever your sight is entered within the female fissure there do appeare to the view two certaine little holes or pits where in is contained a serous humor which being pressed out in the act of copulation doe not a little add to the pleasure thereof This is the humor with which women doe moisten the top of a mans yard not the seed but a humor proper to the place voided out by the womb CHAP. VII Of the fabrick of the womb TO the neck of the womb the wombe it self is adjoyned in the lower part of the Hypogastrion where the Hips are widest and broadest which are greater and broader thereabouts then those of men which is the reason also that they have broader buttockes then men have The womb The womb is placed between the bladder and the straight Gut being joyned to the bladder and leaning upon the streight Gut where it lies as between two cushions this situation of the wombe was fittest that so it might have libertie to be stretched or contracted according to the biggness of the fruit contained in it The figure The figure of the wombe is round and not unlike a Gourd that lessens and growes more acute at the one end the bottome of the womb is knit together by Ligaments of its own which are peculiar The neck of the womb is joyned by its own substance and by certaine membranes to the share bone and the sacred bone As to the bigness The bigness of it that varies according to the age constitution of the body and use of venerie For it is much greater in women that have brought forth then in those that are with child and after the birth for the most part it exceeds the bigness of the bladder but in virgins it is for the most part equal to the bladder It is of a substance so thick as that it exceeds a thumbs bredth in thickness which after conception is so far from decreasing that it increases still to a greater bulk and proportion This substance the more to confirme it is interweaved with all manner of fibres The fibres streight oblique and overthwart The Vessels of the womb are Veins The veins Arteries and Nerves There are two little veines which are carried from the spermatick vessels to the bottom of the wombe and two greater from the Hypogastricks which go not onely to the bottom but to the neck The mouth of these veines pierce as farr as the inward concavitie in which place the extremities of them are called Acetabula which in the time of the flowers gape and open themselves by reason of the great plenty and stream of bloud that powres it selfe from thence and therefore they are at that time most conspicuous In women with Child that which is called the Liver of the wombe is joyned to them that it might draw blood for the nourishment of the child at which time these veins doe so swell but especially in the time of neer deliverie that they are as bigg as the Emulgent veines or at least half as thick as the Hollow veines It hath two Arteries The Arteries on both sides the Spermatick and the Hypogastrick which every where doe accompany the veines The womb hath also divers little Nerves knit together in forme of a net which are carried not only to the interior part of the bottom of the womb but also to the neck and as far as the privities themselves and that cheifly for sence and pleasure for which cause there is a great sympathy between the womb and the head This is also further to be noted Note that the womb in its situation is not fixed and immoveable but moveable by reason of two ligaments which hang on both sides from the share bone and piercing through the Peritonaeum are joyned to the bone it self so that it somtimes happens that through those holes of the Peritonaeum which give passage to these ligaments being loosned either the Omentum or Call or the Entrailes doe swell outwardly and cause the burstness either of the Caule or of the Guts and sometimes it happens by reason of the loosnes of those ligaments that the womb is moved with such a force that it falls down and in the act of Copulation is moved up and downe somtimes it moves upward that some women doe affirme that it ascends as high as their stomach Now though the womb be one continued body yet is it divided into the mouth and the bottom The bottom of the womb is called all that which by still assending stretches it self from the internal orifice to the end being narrow toward the Mouth but dilating it self by little and little till it come at the entrailes The mouth of the womb is that narrowness between the neck and the bottom it is an oblong and transverse Orifice but where it opens it selfe orbicular and round the Circumference very thick and of an exquisite feeling and if this mouth be out of order and be troubled with schirrus brawn or over-fatness over-moisture or relaxation it is the cause of barrenness In those that are big with child there uses to stick to this orifice a thick viscous glutinous matter that the parts moistened may be the more easily opened For in the deliverie this mouth is opened after a very strange and miraculous manner so that according to the bigness of the birth it suffers an equal dilatation from the bottom of the womb to the privy member CHAP. VI. Of the preparing vessels in women THe spermatick preparing vessels The vessels are two veins and two arteries differing not at all from those of men either in their number original action or use but only in their bigness and the manner of their insertion For as to their number there are so many veins and so many arteries as in men They arise also from the same place as in men that is to say the right from the trunk of the hollow vein descending the left from the left Emulgent There are two arteries The Arteries also on both sides one which grows from the Aorta these both
it is often seen that children do partake more of the conditions of the Nurse then the Mother and therefore care must be taken that the Nurse be good conditioned good teeth brown hair of a healthy generation that neither she nor her husband may have had the French disease that she be not peevish nor cholerick that she have milk in abundance and a good fleshy breast that her breast be not over-fleshy that she be not too fat and above all that she be not of too amorous a humour and desirous to be with her husband for that is perfect venome to the milk What is to be done in the extream pains of the childe IF a child have extream throws presently after it be born you must rub it with Pelitory and fresh butter or Spinach or else with Hogs grease and apply it upon the navel having first a great care that it be not too hot Or else make a little cake of eggs and oyl of nuts and apply in the very same place if this avail not give it a little Glyster of milk the yolke of an egge and a little Sugar this easeth the pain of the intestines What is to be done with those children that are troubled with flegme THere are some children born of ill constitution'd women or else of women that have not used good nourishment in the time of their being with child who are very full of flegme these you must lay upon one side and sometimes upon the other for if you lay them upon their backs you may perchance choak them you must be sure to keep their bellies soluble causing them to void that bloud kept in the entrails from the time of their being in the womb by giving it a little suppository of black soap well rubbed in fresh butter to take away the Acrimony of it then give it a spoonful of syrrup of violets this causes the flegm to pass down if you perceive that the Infant hath not much heat you may mix with it half the quantity of oyl of sweet Almonds and half of the syrrup of violets and continue it stroaking the stomach and the belly of the Infant with fresh butter every time that they undress him That which ought to he done to children that have their cods full of wind VVHen Infants have their cods full of wind ye must examin whether it be with wind or water if it be water by rubbing and chafing the skin with fresh butter the waters will sweat out if it be wind the children must be stirred and swung gently mingling in their drinke the decoction of aniseeds How to take away the canker from the mouths of Infants THere have been known certaine children which have been nourished with cold milk which hath bin thick and in great quantity which a few days after its birth hath heated the mouth of the infant in such a fashion that it caused a white canker which presently possessed the tongue palate the gums the throat and all the mouth whereupon it was taken with a fever and it could no longer suck all the assistance that could be was still applyed and when no other medicine did avayle there was found one a particular remedie which was half a handfull of sage a handfull of cherveil brused a little and boyled in a sufficient quantitie of water a bout a dozen seethings to which you must add a spoonfull of vinegre when you have streined it you must put to it an ounce of mel rosatum then you must have a little hooked stick with a little peice of scarlet tyed at the end then putting the water in a sawcer dip the end of the stick where the scarlet is tyed and then rub the place affected gently and you shall find the cancer to asswage by little and a little What is to be done to children whose intestines are fallen THere are a great many infants whose great gut fals which is a thing very easily remedyed at the beginning and therfore you must put it up againe first lay the child with his head lowermost then you must have a thick cushion soaked in smiths water then you must have an emplaister made of the roots of great Consound scraped and put upon it as an oyntment then looking to it every day taking care that it crie but little and never unbind him but as hee lyes lest the gut tumble down againe and so the cure be delayed as the child grows big the hole lessens and the Intestine grows big This is an experienced way To make an oyntment to strengthen the thighs and leggs of a child and make him goe TAke Sage Marjoram Dwarfe Elder-bruise them a good while together till you have beaten out a good deale of juice then put it into a glass viol till it be full and stop up the hole with past and round the sides also put the said past put it then in an oven to bake as long as a good bigg loafe then draw it forth and suffer it to coole then breake the past which is round the viol breake the bottle and keep up that which is with in which you shall find turnd to an oyntment and when you would use it you must add to it some of the marrow of the hoofe of an oxe melting it all together and when you have so done you must rub the hinder part of the leggs and thighs of the child This hath been done to a child whom a famous Physitian after three yeares having in hand gave over saying that it would never goe Of the relaxations of the Matrix and the cause There are many causes of the relaxation of the Matrix the one proceeding from great fluxes which fal down upon the ligaments thereof causing them to wax loose Others come to this disease by some falls others by reason of carring in their womb too great burdens others by streining themselves in travaile before their time and because the orifice of the womb is not open somtimes and very often by reason of the midwifes who putting up their hands into the womb teare downe they know not what which is often times apart of the Matrix to the bottom of which the secondines adhere drawing down part of the womb which they take to be the secondines which is often times brought also to a worse condition when the unskilfull women force her to the remedies for bringing down the secondines as holding baysalt in her hand streining to vomit and the like For remedie wherof all these relaxation of the Matrix by the same remedies except those which are occasioned by strong fluxes for in this case other remedies are not sufficient being that you are to take away the cause of those defluxions before you can proceed to the cure of the relaxation Among the rest I will relate one that hath been found very profitable and experienced which is this astringent Take Gall nuts Cypress nuts and Pomegranate flowers Roche Alum of each two ounces Province Roses four ounces
Centinode a good big handfull the rind of Cassia the rind of Pomegranates Scarlet Graines of each three ounces the nature of a whale one ounce Myrrh water rose water and sloe water an ounce and a half thick wine and smiths water of each foure ounces and a half then make two little baggs of a quarter of a yard long causing them to boyle in the foresaid waters in a new pot using one after another as you have occasion leting it lye upon the bone of the Pubes passing in between the hipps chafing her often and holding her head and her reines low using in the morning somtimes a little mastick in an eg or somtimes plantaine seed if the disease be not too old it may be cured by this meanes but if it be of a long standing you must make a pessarie halfe round and half oval of great thick cork peirced through in the middle tye a little packthred to the end then cover it over with white wax that it may doe no hurt and to make it more thick this must be dipped in oyle of Olives to make it enter and it must be streit that it may not easily fall out and if it be too little to have an other bigger when the woman goes to do her necessary occasions she must hold it in least she should force it out the hole is made that the vapors of the womb may have a vent and to give way for her purgations to flow neither must it be taken away till after the purgations are passed the thicknes causes the matrix to mount up as long as it is very thick for the ligaments being close doe then retire If they be women that beare children the midwife ought not to suffer them to force themselves but as nature constraines her having her own hand ready after the throw to put back the Matrix with her finger and when she is brought to bed lay her low with her head and with her reines raising her up with pillows put under her hipps and for women that are troubled with this disease they ought not to lace themselves over hard for that thrusts down the matrix and makes the woman pouch bellyed and hinders the Infant form being well situated in her body causing her to carrie the child all upon her hipps and makes her belly as deformed as her wast is handsome Of a disease that happens by reason of the fall of the Matrix THere is somtimes a relaxation of the membrane that covers the rectum Intestinum when the head of the child at the beginning of the travaile falls downward and draws it low often-times it comes by reason of women with child lacing themselves which causes such a conflux of wind to these parts that it seemes to the woman to be the head of the child in so much that she is hardly able to stand upright neither can she goe For remedy hereof you must keep the woman soluble giving her Anise and Coriander seeds to dissipate the winds You must take Sage Agrimony Mother-wort balme White wormwood Margerome a little rue and a little Thyme and Camomile and having picked all the above written herbs you must cut them very small and having well mingled them put them into a maple platter and then put hot cinders upon them and upon those another handfull of herbes covering the platter with a close cloth that the woman may receive the smoake this is a remedie which hath been much approved and experimented To remedie the fall of the fundament in Infants TAke of the green shrub wherof they make broomes and cut it smal and lay it upon the coales and set the child over the smoake thereof and it will certainly cure it Of the diseases of women and first of the inflammation of the brest THe inflamation of the brests is a hard swelling together with a beating paine redness and shooting The cheif cause of this is the abundance of blood drawn up together in that place though there be somtimes other causes also as the suppression of the courses the Haemorrhoids or a blow received upon the breasts The signes of it are easie to be known that is to say a certain rednes and burning heat oftimes joyned with a fever For the cure of this there are four sorts of remedies first as the order of dyet which must be comforting and moistning as broth of pullets where endive borage lettice and purselaine may be boyled also she may drinke the juce of Pomegranates or barly water with aniseeds boyled in it the use of wine and all sorts of spices are very dangerous and if the woman goe not freely to the stoole there is nothing better then a lenitive glyster she may sleep much and must not disturb her selfe with any passion The next way of remedy is by diverting the humours which is done by frictions letting bloud in the foot scarification of the legs or vesicatories applied to those places especially if the flowers are stopped or ready to come down if not it will be expedient to open a veine in the arme You may also prepare the humour to void it out of the place affected by opening either the middle vein or the Basilic or the Vena Saphena which may be done two or three times if occasion serve after bloud-letting purge but let this be done with sweet medicines such are Cassia Manna Tamarind syrrup of Roses or Violets Solutive having a little before used certain syrrups which may asswage and temper the humours Take syrrup of Roses and Purslain of each one ounce Endive water and Plantain water of each an ounce give this to the patient Neither will it be amiss to give her syrrup of Succory or Endive or such like for these syrrups have a cooling and refreshing faculty especially being mingled with Plantain or Endive water or such like or the decoction of the said herbs now when the humour is thus prepared you may give her some gentle purges As for example take of the pulp of Cassia and Tamarinds of each six drams of this make a little bolus with some sugar and give to the patient or with this potion Take of the Leaves of Italian Orach three drams of Aniseed one scruple infuse these in four ounces of the foresaid waters Into this being strained infuse an ounce of Cassia and into the streining of this dissolve an ounce of solutive Roses of this make a potion and give it The fourth way of cure consists in Topicks such as may drive back and repress the humour though care must be had that they be not over strong lest you thereby do cool the heart too much and thereupon drive the humour upon the heart it self And therefore temperate medicines are chiefly to be chosen and such especially as are able to digest and dissolve the humour Wherefore it shall not be amiss to apply a linnen cloath dipt in white strong vineger and a little cold water which must be applied to the breasts and
often changed Or else you may dip linnen cloaths also in a decoction of Camomil flowers and Violet flowers with a small quantity of oyl of Roses and a drop of vineger or two or you may use this fomentation Take of the juyce of Nightshade oyl of Roses of each an ounce and a half of the decoction of Fenugreek Camomil and Lineseed two ounces vineger one ounce This medicine you may use by dipping a spunge therein and so washing and fomenting the breast therewith Or you may apply this Cataplasme take of the leaves of Nightshade and Melilot half a handful of each let them be boyled extracted through a course cloth then add to them bean meal two ounces Oxymel and oyle of sweet Almonds of each one ounce of this make a Cataplasm and apply it If the disease be more prevalent you must use more forcible remedies and among the rest this fomentation Take of the leaves of Mallows Violets Dill of each one handful flowers of Camomil and Melilot of each a small handful and a halfe boyl these together adding to them a little wine and oyl of Dill or Mustard first let the breast be fomented with this and afterwards with an oyntment composed of equal parts of new butter oyl of violets and Hens fat But if these things avail not to dissipate the humour you must observe whether the inflamation tend either to a suppuration or induration If you find that it tends to a hardness you must try all means to hinder it by the way of mollifying plaisters among which this is not a little experimented Take the marrow of a Calves leg two ounces Sheeps grease one ounce Saffron four scruples Cumminseed bruised two scruples mingle all these and make a plaister If the inflamation doth not harden but doth altogether tend to a suppuration which may be known by these signs that is to say the increasing of the tumour the beating and excessive heat pain which rages about those parts so vehemently that do not admit them to be touch'd But now the suppuration is to be hastened with hot and moist medicines which have an Emplastick faculty for which purpose this is much commended Take the leaves of Mallows one handful roots of Althea one ounce boyl these together and when they are mashed draw them out and add to them bean meal and Fenugreek of each one ounce the whites of two eggs myrrh and Assa faetida of each one dram Saffron one scruple mingle all these together and make a Cataplasm for your use to this you may either add Capons grease Hogs grease or fresh butter If these remedies do not suddenly bring the inflammation to a suppuration you must then take of the shells of snails bruised and lay them upon the Cataplasm in such a manner that the snail shell may come to touch that part of the tumour which is most elevated and pointed whence it appears that the matter will first issue If these remedies avail not it will be necessary to open the said Apostem with a Lancet and this must be done when you are sure that the matter is ready to come forth which may be known by these signs when the beating ceases when the fever the pain and the heat of the part do begin to diminish when you perceive the place pointed and raised and enclining to a blackish colour When the wound is open you must first apply to it a digestive composed of an ounce of turpentine half an ounce of oyl of Roses and the yolk of an egge After this you must cleanse it with honey of roses Turpentine and barly meal or with the oyntment of the Apostles or the oyntment called Aegyptiacum then you may put on the top of the place the oyntment called Basilicon or Paracelsus plaister which doth digest cleanse carnifie cicatrize after a very extraordinary manner This is furthermore to be observed that an ulcer in the breast is not easily cured if the milk be not dried out of the other breast and therefore the milke is to be dried up by keeping the child from sucking and by putting upon the breasts of the woman cloaths dipped in cold water together with bean barly and vineger and such like remedies THE COMPLEAT MIDWIVES Practice Of windy Tumours in the Breasts THe flatuous tumor of the breasts is caused by a thick vapour which rises from the menstruall blood which is retained or corrupted in the Matrix The causes of which are first the suppression of the flowers or when the flowers are not discharged into their proper place and in their proper time as also from the corruption of the humours by which are ingendred divers bad fumes and vapours for this being received into the breasts cause a distention much like a true swelling The signes by which it is known is the pain which it brings along with it which is sharp and pricking causing a distention of the part The heart is not a little out of order by reason of the windinesses which lie so neer it and commonly the left breast is most swoln communicating its pain to the arm shoulder and ribs of the same side And these signes differ from those of a Canker for in this distemper the breast is white and shining by reason of the distention and if you touch it it sounds like a Drum And if you presse it with your hands you wil finde that it is sweld in all parts alike and not in one more then another This is cured first by a good order of diet taking little victuals whereby crudities may be avoided that do afford matter to the obstructions and increase windinesse for which cause she must also drink little that water boyld with Cinamom Anis-seed and rinde of Citrons The next remedy is by using things which are good to provoke the courses among which use this receit strein Selandine stampt into posset-ale and drink it four dayes before the new moon and four dayes after And it will not be amisse to let blood three or four times in the year about the time that the courses ought to begin For by this means you may provoke the flowers hinder the increase either of a Scirrhus or of a Canker to which purpose bathes frictions and infections are not a little to be used In the next place you must prepare the humours that foment this windinesse both in the Matrix and in the veins and that by syrups which do expell flegme and melancholy after which you must purge your patient for which purpose you may take of the leaves of Sene three ounces Anis-seed one scruple let them boyle in foure ounces of Borage water vvhen it is streined infuse into it Confection Hamech vvithout Scammony Colloquint and Cathol Dupl Rheo of each an ounce and a halfe when it is streined dissolve in it one ounce of syrup of Roses solutive this potion must be given two hours before eating You may also use this gentle Apozem Take of the
of the neck of the womb the Woman is hindred in the lower part of the neck of the womb the streight gut is affected Of the Dropsie of the Womb. THe Dropsie of the womb is a distemper from water collected in the womb either by some fault in the part it self or in the parts adjoyning The signes of this are a loose swelling at the bottom of the Belly extending it self according to the proportion of the womb the fewness and naughtiness of the Courses a moistness and slenderness of the neck of the womb softness of the Breast want of Milk a shivering in the body and sometimes a Fever It differs from an inflammation by the symptoms above related and from an inflation in the defect of sound and distention from a Mole because in this there is a greater weight perceived at the bottom of the Belly and the Breasts at the time of delivery are not without Milk It differs from Conception because in the Dropsie the swelling is just according to the form of the womb but in Conception it is alwaies sharper In women with Child the flowers do not flow but in this disease there flows such a certain bloody vitious humor without any order which ceases quickly It differs from the Dropsie of the Belly because the face of the Patient is coloured unless the liver be any way affected the want of thirst and the ascent of the swelling from the lower part to the upper The cause of this is a water gathered there through some defect of the Liver or Spleen or through some weaknesse in the vvomb by reason whereof it is not able to concoct or expel the excrements or through a too immoderate defluxion of the courses which oppresseth the naturall heat or through a suppression of them which suffocates the heat The cure is to be performed by the eduction of the water and strengthening of the womb for which purpose the use of Antimonial pils is not a little to be commended Her diet must be of meats that breed good juice she must drink little she may use in stead of drink a Ptisane or Barly-broth made with sassafras or salsaparil if her courses be stopt you may let her blood in the foot if the repletion be great then to let her blood in the arm wil not be amisse Some have commended the decoction of the root of Fugere to take at meals and between meals without any other drink The use of Clysters is not amisse and Fomentations are also very necessary made with the decoctions of Broom wild Cucumbers flowers of Camomill Melilot with Origan Cumin Fenel Anis-seed of which you may make severall injections Ointments also may be useful made of oyle of Lillies or oyle of Dill then may you apply upon the belly this plaister Take of the emplaster of Laurel berries two ounces oyle of Camomill and Melilot two ounces and a half Pigeons dung and Goats dung of each half an ounce mix them all together and make a plaister adding thereto a little Venice Turpentine Of the falling of the Womb. THe falling of the womb is the falling of it down below the Abdomen or Midriffe proceeding from a loosnesse of the Ligaments The generall signes of this are a pain in the loyns and hairy parts and of the Os sacrum or holy bone to which the womb is fastned at the beginning the pain is not very great nor after long continuance by reason of use the weight thereof being onely troublesom which is an impediment to the patient in going the particular signes do vary according as the tall is greater or lesse for in the one the womb descends to the middle of the Hips and lower in the latter there is perceived the distention of the skin and as it were the weight of a good big Egg about the privities The cure of this is difficult if there be the greater falling of the womb if the woman be in age if a Fever Convulsion or other symptoms happen if that be in women with child it is deadly and sometimes it is corrupted by the ambient aire and turns into a Gangrene The cure consists in the reputting of it into its own place where you must observe first to stop the inflammation if there be any or if there be any swelling caused by the cold aire you must foment the part first with the decoction of Mallows Marsh Mallows flowers of Camomill and Laurel-berries If there be any winde or excrement in the gut you must use Clysters first it is also to be fomented and anointed with agglutinating and astringent or binding medecines there is a Fumigation to be made of the skin of a salt Eele dried and powdered When it is to be put into its place the woman must be laid with her belly upwards then must the Midwife or other party imployed with a linen cloth dipt in oyle of Roses a litle warmed gently thrust up the part which is fallen as gently as may be turning it a little Now to keep it up the woman must be kept lying on her back with her thighs stretched out and one laid upon another acrosse the belly must not be too much bound lest in the ejection of the excrement the womb should be again precipitated neither must it be loose lest the membranes binding the womb should be unloosed then must you use agglutinating medecines Pessaries Fomentations and Injections yet great care must be had lest you suppresse the courses Of this there be some differences either by reason of the loosnesse of the Ligaments which are foure which is discerned in that it is generated by degrees and with lesse pain It arises either from hard labour or a ponderosity or heavinesse of the childe or from the concourse of flegmie humors it is cured by the evacuation of humours and by the use of astringent and corroborating Medecines such as are the decoction of musk of the Oak Harts-horn Laurel leaves and the Astringent plaister Another cause and difference ariseth from the rupture of the Ligaments which is discerned by this that the evil comes suddenly and is more painful and is sometimes followed with a flux of Blood it arises from the heaviness of the Birth or from a difficult labour or from Abortion or a difficult and violent extraction of the secundines Sometimes it happens because the ligaments are eaten away and then tne signes of some ulcer are discerned by the flowing forth of mattier Sometimes it happens because the ligaments are eaten away and then the signes of some ulcer are discerned by the flowing forth of mattier Of the ascent of the Matrix as also of the Wounds and Vlcers of the same SOme have thought that it is possible for the womb to ascend up to the stomack which opinion is altogether false for first it is tied so fast with four Ligaments that it is impossible for it to move to the upper parts Besides suppose it had a naturall motion by the Fibres yet the womb being
with a viscous and slimy flegme which lies in the passages of espiration if the humor flowing down be hot the face of the Infant will be red if it come of a cold humor the child must be kept indifferently warme giving it a little oyl of sweet Almonds and sugar candy it wil not be amiss also to wash the feet of the child in ale wherein certain Cephalick herbs have been boyled and after that to anoint the plants or soles of his feet with Gooses fat The breast of the child may be also rubbed with oyl of sweet Almonds and fresh butter and upon this put little linnen clothes something warm If it be accompanied with any viscous matter or flegme you may give the Infant a little syrup of Maidenhaire or syrup of Liquoriss and Hysop mingled together or give the Infant this water to drink Take of Rain water and Fountain water of each a pint white sugar one ounce honey an ounce Vinegar two drams boyl them all together and clarifie them and let the Infant drink it Of breeding Teeth IN breeding Teeth the difficulty and paine that the child endures is easily perceived and whether that be the thing which the child is afflicted with may be easily guessed at by the time of breeding teeth which is about the seventh moneth beside the Infant is perceived to be often putting his fingers in his mouth and the Nurse perceives the infant to gripe her breasts hard c. the place where the teeth are about to break out looks white watchings and the sense of a very great paine The swelling gums are to be anointed with Hares brains boyled or the fat of it If they be inflamed wash them with oyl of Roses and white wax and the juice of Nightshade if they be exulcerated anoint them with butter that hath no salt in it with a little honey and powder of Frankincense Of the inflammation of the Navel-string in Infants SOmetimes after the binding of the Navel-string it happens to exulcerate For the cure use an Emplaster of Pompholyx or anoint iâ— with oyl of Roses and a little Populeon Of the Worms OFtentimes children are extreamly troubled they are generated of a viscous and flegmie humour they are sometimes round and then commonly the children are troubled with a Fever and grow lean their appetite fails them they start in their sleep they have a dry cough joyned with it with a stinking breath and an ill colour in their faces the eyes hollow and dark with a kind of irregular Fever which comes three or four times a night and they often rub their noses if they be little worms they have alwayes a desire to go to the stoole and their excrements are very purants If the Infant be young the Nurse must be sure to keep a good dyet abstaining from all raw fruits pease and Beans and all milkie things and any thing that shall be of a hard concoction next you may lay a plaister of the mass of Pils sine quibus half a dram powder of Wormwood one dram myrrh and Aloes of each two scruples meale of Lupines a dram and a half the gall of an Ox as much as sufficeth if the Infant be any thing grown you may give him in a little broth a smal quantity of Harts-horn You may also give the Child if he be able to take it a little of the decoction of Pourpied and the shavings of Harts-horn adding to it a little of the juice of Citron Of the Convulsion in Infants THe signes of Convulsion are the hanging backward of the head insomuch that the hinder part of the head seemeth to touch the shoulders sometimes the head and the neck hang so far forward that the chin touches the breast The cure of this if it come of too great abundance of humors let the aire wherein the child is nursed be hot and dry and exercise much let her not sleep long especially after dinner and let her dyet be rather drying then any way moist If the child do not suck he must avoid meats that do trouble the head and fil it with vapours or slimy meats that may stop the passages of the veins sweet things are very hurtful but honey and water wherein a little Sage and Betony have been boiled it wil not be amiss to give him if purgation be needful let the Nurse rather then the child purge which may be performed with Cassia or Manna If the Child be any thing bigg let his belly be kept loose by giving him a little water wherin Sena hath been steeped for four and twenty hours tempering therewith a very smal quantity of the juice of Citron or you may give him a little of the powder of Diacarthamum in the pap of an apple If the Convulsion come of driness or emptines or by reason of some great evacuation flux of the belly vomiting hunger or the like the child must be nursed in an aire more moist then dry his dyet must be the same The best and most approved Remedy is to apply a cautery in the hinder part of the head to the nook of the neck between the second and third Vertebrae which may be done to new-born Children Frictions also of the leggs backbone and thighs are very profitable as also Cupping-glasses applied to the thighs and leggs It the Convulsion come by reason of the Worms you may give him this Clyster Take of simple Hydromel 4. ounces new butter one ounce powdered Aloes half a dram and make a clyster Or you may give him two drams of Earth-worms killed dryed and powdered sugar powdered one ounce and let the child take two drams of it every day in a spoonful of Lettice water If any venemous vapour be the cause hereof let him take six grains of Treacle or Mithridate in Pourpied water Of the swelling of the Hypochondria in Infants WHich causeth children by reason of the narrowness of the mouth of the stomack to be troubled with a difficulty of breathing it ariseth from the greediness of the Infant which either sucks too great a quantity of milk or of other meats The inward cure of this is performed by administring the powder of the root of Orrice or Paeonie Of Costiveness in Children THis proceeds from the unskilfulness of the Nurse in the dyeting of the child or from a cold and dry distemper of the guts or from the hot and dry distemper of the bowels in this case the belly may be well loosened with Cassia or with a liniment composed of new oyl of sweet Almonds Goose fat May-butter Ointment of Dial thea of each two drams Colocynth gr 16 one scruple of salt Species Hierae one scruple Diagridion 4 grains make of this anointment and anoint the navel Or it proceeds from a viscous flegme which wraps about and holds the dreggs which may be remedied by a suppository of Mouse-dung and Goats suet or by the use of an Emplaster of Aloes Buls gall Myrrh and May-butter to be laid upon the
have to make water p. 89. of the inflammation of the Almonds of the eares p. 90. of vomiting ibid. of the Hicquet p. 91. of the pain of the belly in children ibid. of the small pox in children p. 92. Certain other instructions grounding upon practicall observations fit to be known by all Midwives and child-bearing women c. p. 95. A Second observation of a Woman that had been in Travail nine dayes p. 99. of a Woman here in Town that bare her Child eleven Moneths and could not be Delivered p. 101. of the common opinion that a woman seven moneths gone ought to walk very much and of the accidents that happen thereby p. 1â—3 of a child which they thought sick of the Epilepsie occasioned by the sicknesse of the Mother and of the cause p. 106. of a young woman who being struck upon the belly by her Husband with his foot was in great pain could not be brought to bed without the help of a Chirurgion p. 108. of two Deliveries of one Woman p. 109. of a Woman that because she would not be ruled in her Lying in died p. 111. of certain Women that bear children and lye in before their time and others at their full time who grow big and full of humors which causeth the death of the child presently after their Delivery their children being nourished in their Bellies like fish only with water p. 113. The observation of a woman who was thought unable to bear any more Children yet contrary to expectation was delivered of one and the reason thereof p. 114. A good observation in the choice of Nurses p. 115. of a Woman which I laid two several times and of the difference of her bearing of two children proceeding from several causes p. 117. Instruction of a famous and dying Midwife to her Daughter touching the practice of this Art p. 119. The natural forme of a child lying in the womâ— To be sold by N Brooke at the Angel in Cornhil G. F. 〈◊〉 THE COMPLEAT MIDWIFE HER PRACTICE Of the Genitals or vessels dedicated to Generation in Men and Women THe consideration of these things is so necessary for the purpose of this book that they require not onely a deep meditation but the praeeminence to take up the first thoughts of those who would arrive to the knowledg of a thing so much needful to all mankinde And it may be lawfully feared that many women do miss their design because they know nothing but the outside of things so that in matters of extremity because they are ignorant of the structure of the parts they cannot tell how to go about their work We shall therefore begin with an easie Anatomy of the privy parts both of men and women so far as shall be requisite to the gaining of so great a skill In the first place therefore we shall begin with man in whom those things which are called the vessels of preparation are first to be considered CHAP. I. Of the vessel of preparation AMong the Spermatic vessels are to be considered first two veins and two arteries these are carried downward from the small guts to the Testicles and are much bigger in men then they are in women The original of these veines is not alwayes the same for commonly the right vein riseth out of the hollow veine a little below the source or original of the Emulgent but the least takes his original from the lower part of the Emulgent it self Yet sometimes it hath a branch carried to it from the trunk of the hollow vein The middle part of these veines runs directly through the Loyns resting upon the Lumbal Muscle a thin Membrane only intervening and thus having gone about half its journey it branches out and distributes it self to the near adjoyning filmy parts of the body The uttermost part of these vessels is carried beyond the Midriff to the Stones yet do they not pass through the Peritonaeum but descends with a small nerve and the muscle called Cremaster through the Duplicity of the Midriffe when it approaches neer the stones it is joyned with an artery and now these vessels which were before a little severed one from the other are by a film rising from the Peritoneum closed up and bound both together and so twisting up like the young tendrils of a vine they are carried to the end of the stones fig 1. fig 2. CHAP. II. Of the Parastatae or vessels where the bloud is first changed THese four vessels after many ingraftings and knittings together seem at length to become onely two bodies full of little crumplings like the tendril of a vine white and in the form of a Piramid resting the right upon the right stone the left upon the left stone These are called Parastatae which as they stand pierce the tunicles of each stone with certain fibers or extraordinary small veines which afterwards dispearse themselves through the body of those stones The substance of these Parastatae is between that of the stones and that of the preparing vessels for they neither altogether consist of Membranes neither are they altogether Glandulous or kernelly CAAP. III. The use of the preparing vessels THe use of those vessels which are called the vessels of preparation is chiefly to attract out of the hollow vein or left Emulgent the most pure and exquisitely concocted bloud which is most apt to be converted into seed which they contain and prepare giving unto it a certain rude form of seed in those parts that lie as it were in certain pleights or folds which they do by a peculiar property bequeathed to them Another use of them is gathered by their scituation for as they are now scituated that is to say the right vein coming from the hollow vein and the left from the Emulgent this inconvenience is avoided that the left vein is not forced to pass over the great artery and so be in danger of breaking by reason of the swift motion of the artery Moreover there being a necessity that male and female should be begot it is fit that there should be seed proper for the generation of both sexes whereof some must be hotter and some must be colder and therefore nature hath so ordered it that the hotter seed should proceed from the right vein for the generation of man and the colder from the left for the generation of females The left vein hath also this property to draw from the Emulgent the more serous and less pure bloud to the intent that the serous humour might stir up venery by its salt and acrimonius substance and therefore it is observed that those who have the left stone bigger are most full of seed and most prone to venery The use of the Parastatae is this to contain the bloud and stay it in their windings and wrinkled bodies and by power received from the stones to change the colour of the bloud CHAP IV. Of the Testicles in general THe stones are in number two very seldome
which nature hath supplied by the concourse of these vessels Another cause of the plenty of these veins is nourishment of the birth and the exclusion of the flowers CHAP. XIII Of the actions of the womb THe first use of the womb is to attract the seed by a familiar sympathy just as the load-stone draws iron The second use is to retain it which is properly called conception The third is to cherish the seed thus attracted to altar it and change it into the birth by raising up that power which before lay sleeping in the seed and to reduce it from power into act The fourth action of the womb is to send forth the birth at the time prefixed the apt time of expulsion is when the expulsive faculty begins to be affected with some sence of trouble that is when the birth afflicts and oppresses the womb with its own weight Besides these uses it hath these moreover to nourish the birth and to dilate it self which it doth by the help of veins and arteries which do fill more and more with matter as nature requires The chiefest action of the womb and most proper to it The proper actions of the womb is the retention of the seed without which nothing of other action could be performed for the generation of man CHAP. XIV Of the utility of the womb FIrst it is the most fit place for copulation as being in a place furthest removed from the senses near which it were not fit to be by reason of the inconveniencies which would necessarily arise It is most fit to receive the birth as being hollow in which concavity the birth may increase to its full proportion every way It is most fit for the exclusion of the birth as being placed downward whereby the birth might help its self with its own weight and also by reason of the muscles of the Abdomen which serve for compression and do help the endeavours of the mother CHAP. XV. Of the Utility of the preparing vessels in women THe Utilities of these vessels are taken first from their original and from their insertion the right vein rising from the hollow and the left from the emulgent as in men that the more hot and purer bloud might come from the right vein for the procreation of males and the more serous and watry bloud from the Emulgent for the generation of women The vessels also in women are shorter then in men because the way is not so far to the stones which brevity of the vessels is lengthened out by the many turnings and windings with which those vessels are endued In the middle way those vessels divide themselves like a fork the greater part going to the stones carrying the matter for seed the lesser is carried to the womb where it scatters it self all along the sides of it for the Nutrition of the womb As for the Arteries they afford the bloud which is more full of spirits to perfect the seed CHAP. XVI Of the Utility of the stones THe use of the stones in women is the same as in men that is to say to prepare the seed and to make it fit for procreation They are seated within that they should not want a continual heat to cherish them for the matter of the seed being colder in men then in women it requires a greater heat which it would of necessity want were the stones placed outward like those of men and for that cause are they covered only with one tunicle that the heat of those parts may more easily pass to them And therefore the stones of women are softer then those of men because they should not perfect so substantial a seed and that the heat of the adjacent parts should not be wholly taken up in the cherishing of them Their figure is not exactly round Their figure but depressed that the little Meanders of the veins dispersed through the membrane from the stones to the deferent vessels might have more roome to be inserted for the attraction of the seed out of the whole substance of the stone The inequality and ruggedness of them makes for the longer stay of the seed in those crooked and winding vessels SECT III. CHAP. I. Of the signes of Conception Signs of conception HAving thus shewed you the Anatomy and use of the parts it will be requisite to discourse of the conception it self which is the main and chief end of these vessels And first of the signs of conception The signes of conception on the mothers side are certaine and apparent first if after she hath had the company of her husband she hath received more content then ordinary Pains in the head vertigo dimness of the eys all these concurring together portend conception the apples of the eyes decrease the eyes themselves swell and become of a dark colour the veins of the eyes wax red and swell with blood the eyes sink the eye-brows grow loose various colours appear in the eyes little red pimples rise in the face the veines between the nose and the eyes swell with blood and are seen more plain the vein under the tongue looks greenish the neck is hot the back-bone cold the veins and arteries swell and the pulses are observed more easily the veins in the breast first look of a black colour but afterward turn yellowish the teats looke red if she drink cold drinke she feeles the cold in her breast she loaths her meat and drinke she hath divers longings but her naturall appetite is destroyed continual vomitings follow and weakness of the stomach sower belches wormes about her navel faintness of the loynes the lower part of her belly swelling inward griping of the body the retention of the seed seaven dayes after the act of copulation after which act there is a cold and trembling which seizes the external members the attractive force of the womb increases the womb dries up It is also a certain sign of conception if the Midwife touching with her finger the interiour neck of the womb shall find it exactly closed so that the point of a needle will not go between the womb waxeth round and swels the flowers cease to flow for the veins through which they come down carry the bloud to the nourishment of the birth the thighs swell with some pain the whole body grows weak and the face waxes pale the Excrements proceed slower out of the body the Urine is white a little cloud swimming at the top and many atoms appear in the Urine Take the Urine of a woman and shut it up three days in a glass if she have conceived at the end of three days there will appear in the Urine certain live things to creep up and down Take also the Urine of a woman and put it in a bason a whole night together with a clean and bright needle in it if the woman have conceived the needle will be scattered full of red speckles but if not it will be black and rustie CHAP. II.