birth For believe me neither is it only my opinion but also the opinion of the most Learned Doctors that there is nothing worse to child-bearing women than the cold air Rodericus a Castro parte 2 lib. 4. Cap. 12. because that entring into the womb the womb it self is distended waxeth cold and swelleth and its orifices are shut from whence cometh the menstruous matter and thence arise grievous symptoms and often times death it self But as to the suppression of them and their cure we shall by divine assistance treat more largely e're we leave this subject in hand This precedent figure is the form of a child lying in the womb according as cut in Tho. Bartholinus in Page 197. naked and out of all its coats both proper and common The description of it appears by the explanation of these letters in it viz. AA Shews the parts of the Chorion diffected and removed from their proper place B A portion of the membrane Amnios CC The membrane of the womb diffected DD The placenta Uteri or hepar uterinum being a fleshy substance full of many vessels by which the infant receives its nourishment E The varication of the Vessels which makes up the navil string FF The navil string by which the Umbili or vessels are carried from the placenta to the navil GG The infant as it lyes perfect in the womb near the time of travel H How the umbilical vessels are inserted into the navil of the infant SECT VI. Of the site of the child in the womb The infant how it lyeth in the womb THE infant in the womb lyeth altogether bowed and contracted together his knees to his belly and head to his knees the anckles being joyned to the buttocks cross-legg'd his hands lifted up towards his head on which he so leaneth his head that his eyes seem to be fixed to the thumbs of his hands the one placed on the temples the other on the cheeks insomuch that white spots may be seen in the skin as if they had been fretted the one against the other The former part of the body tends towards the lower part of the belly of the mother if it be a male and the hinder part towards the back but if it be a female the posture is clean contrary But the usual posture is as in this figure which goeth before SECT VII Of difficult births whether praeternatural or whether they proceed from Causes external or internal DIfficult births from external causes may be either first from excessive heat dissolving the strength of the women or second excessive cold condensing the womb Their canses or third from sweet things often applied to the nostrils of the woman that by smelling to sweet things she may recover her strength and faintings for sweet smells do attract the womb upwards and so render the birth more difficult Difficult birth from internal causes may be either first from the woman second from the womb third from the infant fourth from the membranes of the womb 1. From the woman as when she is too angry too fearful or too modest or if she be in age above 40 years Women of above 40 years bring forth with difficulty from whence the muscles of the womb may be concluded to be dry and so the less extensible or when she is so thick and fat that the passages be narrow Or 2. From the womb it self as when it is so small nature so weak and feeble that it cannot expell the birth Or if there be any inflammation Inflammation The stone Costiveness Haemorrhoids or other preternatural affect in the privities be it the stone or haemorrhoid's or extraordinary costiveness all which may so compress the womb with their weight that it cannot expell the birth 3. Is from the infant it self as if it be of an unusual bigness of a great head or a monstrous birth hydropical gibbous that is crook-back'd full of wind dead in the womb or lying there in a posture beyond nature as when it comes overthwart with the feet forward and not the head or if the thigh before the head 4 th From the membranes of the womb as when they are so forcibly broken by the child in the womb that the moysture floweth thence leaving the infant behind that when the child should come forth that moysture faileth and so the membranes being dryer maketh the birth the more difficult or when it is so firm and sollid that it is broken with much difficulty and so makes the labour the harder SECT VIII Of the Schemes Fashions and Figures of the birth lying in the womb and how they are born or may be born THE postures of the infant in the womb are generally four First they offer to come with their heads forward which is the natural birth Secondly with the feet forwards Thirdly overthwart Fourthly doubled to all which the Midwives care and skill is required but especially in the three later But chiefly very many postures and schemes have been observed and are to be found by continuance of practise for that child that comes with his head forward sometimes hath his head right as to the orifice of the matrix but the rest of the body crooked and sometimes overthwart and sometimes the infant pitcheth his head either in the former part from the orifice or backward or comes crooked and sometimes also these schemes are without any tye as to the bottom of the matrix and sometimes with it sometimes also it puts forth one hand or both so as that they are twisted above the head sometimes it cometh forward with its feet asunder and those fixed in the parts of the womb sometimes the feet being doubled it endeavours to come forth with the knees forward sometimes it is so doubled that it shews forth its little buttocks like one that is sitting or contrarily may be so doubled that you may find the soles of the feet joyned to the head in the orifice of the matrix but those that lye o'rethwart sometimes lye on one side and sometimes with the face upwards and sometimes downwards But if there be twins then that which presenteth it self fairest must be laid hold on and the other put back As to all which the next 15 or 16 Sections will not only furnish with schemes but with directions Hitherto having described the Midwife and her office together with the site of the infant in the womb as natural together with difficult births in general and their causes It is reasonable good Mrs. Eutrapelia that we discourse of praeternatural births because those bring the greatest danger with them both to the mother and infant SECT IX Scheme the first Of praeternatural Births Quest 1 DR Philad Courteous Mrs. Eutrapelia If you perceive a child come with his feet forwards and the hands drawn downwards to the thighs according to this next ensuing form How will you deliver the woman Eutrap In this I will take care to be furnished with Oyles
its overmuch moysture and an evil temperature of qualities and ventosities included in the womb as also Ulcers and Apostemations in the womb besides other distempers As are too many Courses too great a Flux of blood A caution to the Irish where these distempers are Epidemical and Sporadical too great a Looseness of the belly or too great Costiveness a Tenasmus called commonly a Needing a Cough a constant Sneezing and all things that shake the body too much and lastly any acute sickness which doth so afflict the womans body that by them the infant is deprived of its nourishment Quest The external causes of Abortion Answer Philadel Now then Mrs. pray inform me vvhat are the external causes of Abortion Eutrap Sir the external causes are many As first to fall to run to leap to ride to exercise too immoderately and to be smitten vvith strokes Again too much cold and too great heat for over-much cold killeth the child and too great heat intercepts the air from the infant and so suffocateth it in the womb and this may be done by hot baths if women use them in the first moneths after their conception Thirdly Stinking smells as the snuff of a candle or lamp newly extinguished Fourthly an absurd appetite and manner of eating and drinking as to cat salt coals dirt c. by which either ill humors or a dangerous thirst are procured Fifthly too great hunger for by overmuch fulness the infant is sooner suffocated the passages appointed for nourishment being the sooner obstructed Sixthly immoderate exercise and labours overmuch sleep and a continual laziness unseasonable and unreasonable watchings besides other accidents As sudden fury great wrath over-much fear and sorrow sudden joy and a dull appetite longing for that which is not to be had unsatiable copulation and lust Dr. Philadel Quest You have now discovered the causes of Abortion What I pray Mrs. Eutrapelia are the signs of Abortion Eutrap Answer Sings The signs of Abortion are twofold First before conception in those that use to miscarry as superfluous moysture sudden and unusual fatness against nature which was wont to be of slender and lean constitution or which are ever pained about the loyns and kidneys or fall suddenly into other dangerous diseases Signs of Abortion Secondly the signs of Abortion after conception are these viz. when the breasts that at first were turgid and hard are observed to grow flaccid and soft of a sudden if there be too great a flux and a continual flowing of the terms Moreover if there be horrors colds pains in the head or a swimming there be in the eyes these be sure signs of Abortion Dr. But Quest what are the signs of a dead child Answer Of a dead child Eutrap Where the child is dead Sir there is no motion perceived when the eyes of the woman sink when her colour is turned into a tawny whiteness when there are great pains about the navil and loyns when by reason of the lower parts being compressed there happeneth a Strangury a * A Needing â—enesmus Again when the ears the lips the top of the nostrils are taken with a pale coldness and the face swells and the belly though it sinketh not yet groweth soft so that lying to either side by the touch there may be perceived a hard mass Stinking breath a sign that the child beginneth to putrifie as also stinking breath an argument that the infant doth begin to putrifie These are manifest signs of a dead child The cure whereof I leave to the care of the expert Physitians and Chirurgeons SECT XXIX Rules for Child-bearing Women EUtrap According to your promise I beseech you Doctor lay me down some Rules to be observed by Child-bearing women Dr. Philadel Good Midwife I shall and that very necessary ones too that she may know how to go on safely through by Gods blessing to the last hour or by neglecting them may make her delivery the harder and I shall reduce them under ten heads First let her be chearful not breaking her self with mourning and careful anxiety for this doth exhilarate the infant Res sex non naturales and stirs up all the faculties and confirms it in its parts and members Secondly let her avoid all violent motion and abstain from all hard labours not rising up too hastily not leaping running dancing riding not lacing her self too streight or carrying too heavy a burden but surely sleep is very fit for her Thirdly let her beware of sharp and cold winds of excessive hear anger perturbations of the mind affrights terrors over-much venery and of intemperancy of eating and drinking Fourthly let the diet of breeding women be frugal and moderate abstaining from gross meats hard of digestion let her eat eggs chickens land-fowl birds of the mountains c. variety of broths grewels panadoes mutton veal lamb kid rabbets she may use in her meats nutmeg and cinamon she may drink wine moderately Fifthly in the first four moneths let her open no vein use no cupping or scarrifications fontanells nor use any pills or other Physick without the advice of a prudent Physitian for in these moneths the ligaments of the child are very tender soft and feeble and therefore the easier destroyed and the nourishment kept from him Sixthly if it shall happen that the woman be too costive by which many miscarry let her boyl spinage Against Costiveness and lettuce well buttered with salt and vinegar or wine which if they will not move the belly Suppositories let her use suppositories with honey and the yelk of an egg or of Castile-soap and if these common things will not do let her advise with an expert Physitian Seventhly if it happen that she conceive with grievous symptoms Symptoms and after conception is troubled with faintings let her take this Cordial following Take of Sorrel-water and red-Rose-water of each one ounce of Cinamon-water one ounce Against fainting of Manus Christi pearled called in the Shops Saccharum tabulatum perlatum simplex half an ounce or as much Diamargariton this may be taken as need requires Eighthly if she fear that she may come too soon that is before her time as in the seventh moneth or some other unscasonable time and feels throws as of child-bearing occasioned by immoderate exercise too great costiveness from a Fever or some other disease A suffumigation Let her sit over a suffumigation of Frankincense for that contributes no small strength both to the matrix and to the infant also Ninthly if she nauseate her meat she may use a plaister of Mastich to her stomack and take this following Cordial every morning fasting to strengthen her stomack The Cordial Take syrup of Pomegranates one ounce and half of Mosch and Amber-greece of each two grains of Lignum Aloes finely powdered one scruple of Cinamon half a scruple the water of Sorrel three ounces let these be mingled and drank off
seldome blameable Then use the decoction of Myrtle-berries and red Roses and with clothes dipped in it lay them on the breasts Or else clothes imbibed in Vinegar wherein Cummin-seeds bruised have been infused with Myrrh and Camphire The inconveniency of too thick milk By reason of the thickness of the milk all those excrements that the child should send forth are intercepted as by Stool by Urine c. The passages for transpiration are stuffed up so that the progress of the aliment being stop'd of necessity the milk must be regurgitated and vomited up after which will follow much flegmatick matter a sure argument of crudities Cause of Botches c. Sometimes there will arise botches and apostemations about the body much matter and snot and quittor will come out of the nose and corners of the eyes and eye-lids and the appetite will be lost Of too thin milk the cause of gripings Contrarily from the thinner and sharper sort of milk the belly is looser than it ought being troubled with pinches and gripes in the belly of the infant Also very angry pustules and whelks will arise about the body like the small Pox and the body groweth weak by little and little Cause of pustules the infant not caring for food for the strength of the appetite will be more remiss by reason of the acrimony of that which the infant desires so that it is not much sensible of that aliment which it hath and that aliment of which it is sensible is naught and vicious Of overmuch milk Now from the over-abundance of milk the infant oftentimes when it sucks is over-whelmed being so puffed up and the belly distended as if it would break untill by much pissing or breaking wind it is slacker But where there is too much scarcity of milk Of too little milk here the infant being altogether destitute of its nourishment will pine away Marasmus and all the parts of the body being starved in those years when it most wants nourishment by reason of the vehemency of the innate heat Vehemency of the innate heat and that habit of body that the least blast will puff down which requires much and constant aliment By all which women ought to be the more provident lest all these mischiefs happen especially not to make choice of such a Nurse A good caution not to choose a Nurse in poverty Another Nurse to be chosen whose poverty must needs starve her self and her nursery and if they should so happen to amend them as hath been said before e're they grow incurable and require the help of another Artificer that may cure it Or if the fault in the milk cannot be cured and amended in the Nurse which she hath contracted Then you have no more to do but presently to look for another Nurse that hath none of these inconveniencies that so the infant may have suck enough which is all it requires for want of which you may hear sad ejulations crying and weeping And this may be discovered by their dreams Dreams as by the often motion of the lips in the cradle as if they were sucking when they are a sleep The infant participates of that food which the Nurse eats or drinks Neither is it strange that the infant should be sensible of and participate of whatsoever food as meat drink and physick that the Nurse taketh which maketh our modern Physitians purge the Nurse to cure the child And this also is concluded on by Hippocrates * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippoc. Epidem vi That if a woman take any purging Physick she purgeth her child also So Galen reports of Goats feeding in Asia where Scammony did grow did communicate a purging faculty to their milk And so the milk of Asses generally accounted the best in Consumptions is counted better if the Asse be fed with Capillary herbs such as are Maiden-hair c. And again when young Goats suck Sheeps-milk the rough hair shall lose its coursness and become like a fleece of wooll and so contrarily when lambs are brought up by Goats their wooll groweth the more hairy If then the qualities of the milk pass into those that suck them Qualities of the milk pass into those that suck them and so impurities as without doubt they do it is easie to gather that other impurities follow thither also neither is it improbable Surely then we ought to take no less care of the Nurse than of the child as in her diet exercise physick c. since whatsoever conduceth to the benefit of the Nurse tends to the good and welfare of the infant I have been the larger in this Section of Nurses and Milk because tender infants can neither make choice of their Nurses themselves nor discover or plead for their wants Their own mothers surely if they are able both by duty and nature being the most fit to nurse their own children The greatest Ladies and all Mothers fittest to nurse their own children which the greatest Ladies may do with the greatest conveniences by reason of their plenty of all things besides their attendance of servants who can bring their nurseries to them at all hours be it by night or day and take it from them again not to disturb their rest which also they may intend at their own pleasures The time of sucking not above twelve moneths The longest time that a child need be suckled is not to be above one year I shall leave only one caution for Nurses and wind up this Section and 't is this Let Nurses ever milk out some milk e're they suckle the child and after it is suckled Nurses not to rock the infant too violently after sucking that they rock it not too much presently after lest violent rocking disturb the meat in the stomack or the other parts draw away the milk in the stomack as yet unconcocted SECT XXXIV EUtrap Sir I was unwilling to interrupt you in your discourse it being so profitable till you had done and truly Sir I must beg your pardon if I mind you of some distempers incident to women and are peculiar to the womb and though there may be more yet I shall trouble you but with two And the first is concerning your judgement of Fits of the Mother and the second of the Falling out of the womb which sometimes hapneth after hard Labours or an unskilful Midwife Philadel Mrs. Eutrapelia I shall readily do both as well to satisfie You as other Ladies whom I am willing to gratifie Of Suffocation of the womb commonly called Fits of the Mother Section 34. AMongst all the fierce distempers that women are affected with the strangulation of the womb is accounted none of the least This by the Latines Uteri suffocatio is called the Suffocation of the womb and so by the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greeks which we render Hysterical Fits from a a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉