The Compleat DOCTORESS OR A Choice Treatise of all Diseases insident to Women WITH Experimentall Remedies against the same Being Safe in the Composition Pleasant in the Use Effectuall in the Operation Faithfully translated out of Latine into English for a common good LONDON Printed for Edward Farnham and are to sold at his Shop at the entrance into Popes-head-alley out of Cornhill 1656. THE FIRST BOOK OF Womens Diseases The Proem by the Author IT is acknowledged by the most able Physitians that it requires great diligeuce and Judgement to contrive an exact Partition or Explanation of Womens Diseases and to oblige the World with a right Method and Meanes to cure them because sometimes a part is diseased by consent and sometimes primarily by it selfe or without any communication of distemper either with or without matter from any other part The Ancients whose studious endeavours conspired the subduing of these Diseases have left behinde them most honourable testimonies of their labours in favour of that Sex Modern men also have been stirred up to their defence as Mercurialis and Mercatus the former indeed with sufficient elegance but the latter with somuch tediousness and confusion that you may sooner finde your Patient dead then a remedy in his writings for her recovery to correct this inconvenience Rodericus a Castro engaged his pen in their quarrell but with no great successe for if my Judgement be any thing considerable his writings are more learned then usefull When I had noted these deficiencies I thought with my selfe that if I culled out the choicest Medicines omitting the superfluous and digested them into a little worke by themselves it might prove an undertaking worthy of a generall acceptation This was the birth and growth of my designe warrantable enough as I conceive if not praise worthy and if I flatter not my selfe in an opinion of my own paines I have proceeded with so much perspicuity and tender circumspection as will make the event answerable AN INDEX OF THE CHAPTERS The first Chapter OF the consent of the Diseases of the Matrix with the other Parts The second Chapter Of the suppression or staying of the Courses The third Chapter Of the immoderate running of the Courses The fourth Chapter Of the coming away of the Courses by Drops the vehement Symptomes thereof and of the Whites The fifth Chapter Of the Complication of the Courses with other Diseases The sixth Chapter Of hard swellings in the Breasts The second Book The first Chapter OF the Mother The second Chapter Of the Epilepsy in the Matrix And the severall kindes thereof The third Chapter Of Melancholy proceeding from the Matrix The fourth Chapter Of a cold Distemper and windy humours in the Matrix The fifth Chapter Of a hard swelling in the Matrix The sixth Chapter Of the Dropsey in the Matrix The seventh Chapter Of the falling down of the Matrix The eighth Chapter Of an Itch Chaps and an Inflammation in the Matrix The ninth Chapter Of a Cancer and an Vlcer in the Matrix The tenth Chapter Of Wormes and the Stone in the Matrix and of the Piles The third Book The first Chapter OF Barrennesse both Absolute and Respective The second Chapter Of a Mola or shapeless lump of Flesh The third Chapter Of Womens longings The fourth Chapter Of a bad stomach proceeding from vomiting The fifth Chapter Of a Pain in the belly the Passion of the Heart and of sounding Fits The sixth Chapter Of a Cough in great bellied Women The seventh Chapter Of the swelling of womens legs when they are with Childe The eighth Chapter Of Costiveness in Women with Childe The ninth Chapter Of the bloud which commeth away from the Matrix of a woman with Childe The tenth Chapter Of the water which cometh away from the Matrix of a woman with Childe The eleventh Chapter Of acute Diseases which happen to women with Childe The fourth Book The first Chapter OF a Naturall â—irth and of Abortivenesse The second Chapter Of a hard Labour The third Chapter Of the After-Birth The fourth Chapter Of the Dead Childe The fifth Chapter Of the Paines and the suppression of the Courses after the woman is delivered The sixth Chapter Of the immoderate flowing of the Courses after the woman is delivered The seventh Chapter Of the Diseases which commonly befall a woman after her delivery The eighth Chapter Of an inflammation in the Matrix after her delivery The ninth Chapter Of too little and too much milke The tenth Chapter Of sore Breasts The eleventh Chapter Of wrinckles remaining in the Matrix after a womans delivery and of the meanes to contract the Matrix FINIS VVomens DISEASES The first Chapter Of the consent between the Diseases of the Matrix and those of the other parts WOMEN were made to stay at home and to looke after Houshold employments and because such business is accompanied with much ease without any vehement stirrings of the body therefore hath provident Nature assigned them their monethly Courses that by the benefit of those evacuations the feculent and corrupt bloud might be purified which otherwise as being the purest part of the bloud would turne to ranke poyson should it remaine in the body and putrifie like the seed ejaculated out of its proper vessells Hippocrates had a perfect understanding of these things as may appeare by those words in his booke de locis in homine where he saith that the Matrix is the cause of all those diseases which happen to women and it is no strange thing which he speaketh for the Matrix hath a Sympathie with all the parts of the body as with the Braine by the Nerves and Membranes of the parts about the spine from whence sometimes ariseth the paines in the fore part and the hinder part of the head with Heart also both by the Spermatick and the Epigastrick arteries or those that lie about the Abdomen at the bottome of the bellie from hence cometh the paine of the heart fainting and swounding fits the passion of the Heart anxietie of minde dissolution of the spirits insomuch as you cannot discerne whither a woman breaths or not or that she hath any pulse it hath likewise a consent with the breasts and from hence proceed those swellings that hardness and those terrible Cancers that afflict those tender parts that a humour doth flow upwards from the Matrix to the Breasts and downwards again from the Breasts to the Matrix is the unanimous assertion of Galen Hippocrates Laurentius Duretus and others moreover it hath a sympathie with the Liver and thus the sanguification is perverted and the body inclines to a Dropsie and with the stomach and the Kidneys also as those paines which great bellied women doe feele and the torments which some Virgins undergoe when they have their Courses sufficiently witnesse And lastly Hippocrates hath taught us that this consent holdeth with the bladder and the straight 〈◊〉 for saith he when that part is inflamed then the urine commeth
as Hippocrates affiâ—meth concerning the Son of Erotelaus lying sick of a bloudy Flux for when he had drunk whey in which red hot flints were quenched his evacuations were more moderate although they were bloudy and in a short time they ended here is to be noted that whey although upon a slight consideration it may seeme to be Diureticall and â—o to provoke rather then to stay the flux yet if steele be frequently quenched in it till the thin and fiery parts thereof be wasted away it stayeth the Flux If these Remedies prevaile not to perfect the Cure I shall counsell you to make an Issue upon the knee for this being kept open the corrupt humours are evacuated without any decay of the spirits which otherwise doe many times produce grievous and vehement Symptomes we have spoken of the coming away of the Menstruum by Drops with the terrible Symptome which accompanies it namely a vehement and insupportable paine but because this paine proceeds from divers causes the Cure must be also diversified Women therefore which are of a cold Constitution especially if they be young prone to Venery Black and Hairy must be purged that the Cause may be taken away and therefore their bodies must be first prepared before you can hope to appease the paine You may evacuate the humour with Diaphenicon Benedicta laxativa or with Pills of Hiera and you may prepare the humour with smallage and fennill roots with agrimony and Motherwort leaves boiled in water wherein steele hath been quenched with Rhodomel The paine must be appeased with unguent Populeum unto which you may add a few graines of opium or else you may apply fomentations to the head A vein also must be opened as we have shewed you above If a woman or Virgin have the whites which come away of a thick and fattish substance you must proceede as in the former Cure but you must be exceeding cautious how you let bloud for such bodies are full of raw humours by reason whereof the spirits are much exhausted and her body is weake and infirme according to the Judgement of Galen in his book de Sanguin missione chap. 11. wherefore in such cases I counsell the Patient to goe to the Spaw waters or some other of the like Nature for they purge away the thick humour both by siege and by urine but especially the melancholy juice which is the cause of this disease A Decoction of China and Saâ—zapavilla cannot be improper nor Leeches applied to the Hemorrhoids Note that the Caul of a Ram or Weather newly killed must be laid to the affected part being first anointed with oyle of Castor for as the skull of a man is good against the Falling Sicknesse and the Lungs of a Fox against the stoppage of the pipes by a specificall vertue or hidden similitude so is this good for the stomack and the Loynes The Whites are defined to be a lasting distillation from the Matrix however it be affected for Nature indevoureth to expell that superfluous moist and excrementiâ—ious bloud thorough the Matrix and even at the same time disburtheneth the body from this unprofitable and offensive humour This evill is reckoned among the Symptomes of those things which are immoderately expelled out of the body the Causes whereof are divers for sometimes a predominancy of choler sometimes a phlegmatick juice many times melancholy and very often bloud is evacuated this is easily known because a snottie kinde of humour drops and distills continually from the Matrix which if it be red it proceeds from bloud if white from phlegme if yellow it takes beginning from choler The sick woman complaines of a general weaknesse over all the parts of the body her legs and eyelids are swelled she cannot digest her meat her stomack failes her she is lazie and loves no exercise and cares not to stir up and down so that at length her strength decayeth and her spirits faile through the abundance of bloud which hath come from her wherefore this disease calls for early help least it degenerate as not seldome it doth into a Dropsey or a Consumption or the like terrible Diseases If the body therefore abound with much bloud let a veine be opened in the arme to draw back the course of the humour which is hastening from all parts of the body to the Matrix Thus we read that Galen cured the wife of Boetius unto whomâ— other Physitians had preposterously prescribed Medicines without opening aâ— veine Afterwards you must prepare the phlegmatick humour with a decoction of wormewood unto which add Syr. of Roses or Syr. de artemisia the cholerick humour must be prepared with a decoction of endive sorrell unto which may be added Oxysaccarum or Syrup de succo Cichorii if it be a Melancholy humour prepare it with a decoction of Fumitary Buglos unto which add Syr. of Fumitary and Syr. Lupuli Then expell the humour with some gentle purge if it be phlegmatick Take three scruples of white agarick Trochischt Two scruples of the root of Mechoacha A dram of Annise seeds Macerate them the space of a night in a sufficient quantitie of fennill water in the morning to two ounces and a halfe of the liquor which you presse out add Three drams of Diacarthamum Halfe an ounce of Diacnicum Mingle them together for a Potion If Cholerick humours abound in the body Take two drams and a halfe of the best Rubarb Citron myrobalans Cinamon of each a scruple Macerate them a whole night in a sufficient quantity of endive water presse them with all your might and add An ounce and a halfe of Syrupe of roses laxative Mingle them and give it her to drinke in the morning If Melancholy humours be predominant Take two drams and a halfe of Sena A dram of Annise seeds Macerate them over night in a sufficient quantity of fumitary water in the morning presse out the liquor and add To two ounces and a halfe of the liquor strained and prest Two drams of Confectio Hamech Halse an ounce of Syrup of fumitary Mingle them for a Potion If the Disease yield not to these Medicines expell the humour by an Epicrasis that is by some Decoction that by degrees will digest open and evaâ—uate the humour and also mightily provoke urine this Apozem following hath all these vertues Take the roots of Parsly Fennell Buglos Polypody of the Oake of each halfe an ounce The leaves of Maidenhaire Agrimony Motherwort of each a handfull Six drams of Sena Two drams of rubarb One dram of agarick As much Epithymum as you can graspe between your thumb and two fingers Two drams of Annise seed Macerate them together a whole night in two pints of barley water upon hot embers in the morning allow them one or two gentle bublings and when you have strained them add Syrupe of fumitary Syrupe of roses laxative of each an ounce Mingle them for an Apozem Every other morning let her have foure ounces of it fasting If all these
things prove ineffectuall infuse a whole night six graines of Antimony in wine and let her drinke it if her body be strong enough to abide the conflict of the medicine for besides that it draws back the humours from the Matrix by provoking to Vomit it likewise purgeth away by stool that tenacious phlegmatick and thick humour which is the cause of the Disease Wormewood beere is not unwholsome for her or instead thereof prescribe to her beer wherein China roots have been infused for this disperseth the humour to the skin and dries up the superfluous moisture for the same purpose we advise with Galen that a Bath of hot sand be prepared that after the use thereof the body be well rubbed and anointed with honey heated by the fire then as we prescribed above make an Issue in her knee CHAP. V. Of the Complication of the Menstrunm with other Diseases THe Complication of the Menstruum with other Diseases is hard to be known and not easie to be cured for if any woman be sick of any Disease and if her Courses be supprest or appeare not the Physitians are at a stand what is most fit during this Judication to be done for if we follow the motions of Nature who worketh rightly and open a vein in the ankle this will not cure the Disease which is rooted in the upper parts And if you draw bloud from the arme you pervert the course and order of Nature to the great disadvantage of the sick woman But you will say in such a case as this what is to be done I shall tell you in few words The Disease is either vehement or moderate and of long continuance if the Courses appeare or come down in a disease of long continuance you may defer the opening of a vein till a more convenient season be it either a vein in the arme or in the ankle which you intended to cut for you can doe no hurt by omitting or at least suspending this remedy But if the Disease be acute and require a speedy evacuation you must observe whither the Menstruum be answerable to the plentie of bloud which abounds in the body if her Courses come down according to the prescription of Hippocrates you must not be busie but leave the whole matter to Nature of the same opinion is Galen also for saith he if at that time when you are letting bloud it should so fall out that her Courses come down or that she should on a sudden have the Piles you must desist from phlebotomy and commit the whole businesse to Nature if you are satisfied that the Menstruum commeth away in a sufficient quantity but otherwise take from her so much bloud as may make good the deficiency of her Courses But if a burning Fever be upon her if she have not her Courses according to custome and to the satisfaction of her own desires then this defect must be supplied with medicines by opening a veine in her ankle applying Cuppinglasses with scarification to the calfes of her legs or Leeches to the Hemorrhoids to take away the superfluity of the bloud One thing must be considered namely if a woman after her delivery have a burning Fever upon her her Courses actually flowing whither it be lawfull in regard of the vehemence of the Fever to open the upper veines Fernelius Valeriola Amatus Lusitanus and divers others of good account assent the lawfulnesse and expediency thereof for although some have imagined that if the upper veines be opened the bloud will ascend to the upper parts yet if it be true which they imagine more profit and advantage will accrew thereby to the sick woman then hurt or danger for when a veine in the ankle is cut although it bring down the Courses and supply the defective motion of Nature in respect of the part particularly affected yet is it not equally prevalent against a most vehement inflâ—mmation nor altogether so profitable in a most acute disease because the bloud must be drawn out from some vessell that is nearer to the part affected that the conjunctive cause may be taken away and although by cutting a vein in the ankle we can draw the whole masse of bloud out of the body yet the bloud is not so fitly taken from one part as from another for in a Quinsey or a Pleurisey 't is more commodious to open the Basilick veine to temper the heat then any other veine in the whole body CHAP. VI. Of hard swellings in the Breasts THe Breasts are naturally thin spongy or fungous and loose for this reason they are apt to entertaine any crude and melancholy humours flowing to them either from the Matrix or from any other parts these if they are not rightly and duly expelled they breed painefull yea malignant and cankerd Vlcers wherefore you must addresse your selfe to the Cure without any truce or delay and this consists in three things in prescribing a Diet in the manuall operations of Surgery and in outward and inward Medicines Let her therefore make choise of a pure ayre let her drink be small beer boiled with annise and snakeweed let her meat be of good concoction and easie distribution as Mutton broth Cock broth and rosted Chickens let her avoid meats that thicken the bloud as milke cheese bacon fish and the like open a veine if she have not her Courses in her ankle or cut the Basilicâ— veine twice or thrice to ease the Liver the Spleen and the Kidneys as the multitude oâ— bloud shall require it Note that the humour must be prepared and attempted with this Apozem Take the roots of Succhory Polipody of each an ounce The barke of the root of the Caper anâ— Tamarisk tree of each halfe an ounce The leaves of Buglos Fumitary Balme of each a handfull Two drams of Fennill seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantitie oâ— barley water to two pints and to the strained liquor add Syrupe of Borage Syrupe of â—umitary of each an ounce and a halfe Ten graines of Spirit of Vitriol Mingle them and make an Apozem Because the humour is thick and dreggish you must purge her body severall times till it be perfectly cleansed this may be done with this decoction following Take an ounce of Polypody of the oake The leaves Fumitary Hops Borage Endive of each a handfull Epithymum Century the less of each halfe a handfull Boile them in a sufficient quantity of Barley water to two pints and in the strained liquor infuse a whole night An ounce of Sena Foure drams of Rubarb Agarick Troch Creame of Tartar of each two drams Epithymum and The flowers of borage buglos and rosemary of each as many as you can grasp between your thumb and two fingers at twice Two drams of annise seeds In the morning give it one or two bublings straine and presse it and to the liquor add Syrupe of violets Syrupe of fumitary of each an ounce Make an Apozem or Take the leaves of buglos Fumitary of each a
is also lessened and the crude humours become so much the more crude this was Avicens feare as is manifest by these words of his beware least you precipitate your Patient into one of these extreams either into an ebullition of chollerick or an indigested abundance of cold humours this we confesse to be true yet not so but that sometimes all other administrations being rightly and duely premised with Galen we may take away bloud by fits then exhibit Mellicratum Then againe open a vein either the same day or the day following as the disposition of the matter shall dictate to your reason we leave much also to nature her selfe who many times concocts the thick humours the veine in the ankle must be opened if women are thus affected but wheâ— men are troubled with these windy humours the Basilick vein is the most propeâ— to be opened CHAP. V. A Schirrhus in the Matrix A Schirrhus in the Matrix is a hard and stony swelling bread of earthie humours and of a thick and melancholy bloud retained in the body This is either produced by a cold distemper in the Matrix or else it proceeds from a weaknesse in the upper parts from whence thick humours doe arise This disease is very easie to be known because in those who languish under it the Matrix appeareth hard in the circumference like unto some great bowle or a round Spheare It differs from a swelling which is caused by winde because in this winde is heard within which yieldeth to the touch and is moved from place to place but a Schirrus is a hard unmoveable swelling of a black colour and sometimes of a palish wan colour if any phlegmatick humour be mixed with it It differs from an inflammation in the Matrix because in this there is a burning Fever conjoyned and other signes which manifest an inward fiery Disposition This is a Chronicall Disease continuing many times beyond the space of a yeare for the Matrix not being numbred among the more noble parts doth better endure these molestations it is also a contumacious affect despising ordinarie remedies and if you oppose such as are vehement it degenerates into a Cancer After this sometimes followes a Dropsey in the Matrix which when it is much hardned becomes void of sense incurable drawing the neighbouring parts into consent with it and so weakning them that many times the Creature perisheth for lack of wamrth and cherishing heat She must forbeare all those things that yield a thick juice and what these things be we have already in good part told you for her drink allow her a mixture of wine and water in which tamarisk roots or the barke of the Caper tree have been boiled The first regions of the body must be gently cleansed and then that humour which nourisheth the swelling must be rooted out with some peculiar and elective medicine if it proceed from a suppression of the Courses or Hemorrhoids open a veine in her ankle or open the hemorrhoidall veines with leeches but if it arise from some fault in the Liver or the Spleen cut the basalick veine Having thus shewed your selfe carefull of the whole body you must in the next place be solicitous of the affected part first by applying such things as will gently mollifie it as the fat of a hen the marrow of a deare or of a calfe with ammoniack Storax or bdellium or with discutient fomentations after this manner Take an ounce of the roots of Polypody of the Oake The barke of the root of the Caper tree The barke of the tamarisk tree of each halfe an ounce The leaves of wormewood Sage Savine Penniroyall of each two handfulls Balme Motherwort Hops of each a handfull The seeds of broome Fennill of each halfe an ounce Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water wherein steele hath been quenched to six pints and bath the affected part with the strained liquor This oyntment following hath a like efficacy Take unguent Agrippe Vnguent Martiatum of each an ounce Halfe an ounce of unguent de althea Oyle of wormewood Capers Dill of each three drams Mingle them and make an Oyntment Plaisters also are very profitable Take Diachylon cum gummis Emplastrum de meliloto of each an ounce Mingle them for the use aforesaid or You may make ready this plaister following Take ammoniack Sagapenum of each an ounce Opoponex Bdellium of each halfe an ounce Dissolve them in strong wine vinegar thicken them to the forme of a hard oyntment and then add The powder of ireos Ceterach Auripiguentum of each a dram With oyle of Capers make a masse of plaistering stuffe and spread it upon a piece of leather cut into a convenient forme If these medicines availe not prescribe sweating drinks for her made with Guaiacum China and Salsa parilla for as Fallopius an Author of good account saith Salsa parilla hath a soveraine faculty to dissolve a skirrhus or any hard knotty swelling Sulphureous Baths are also most excellent in their operations Some commend a poultis made of Goats duâ—â— for this draweth away the winde strengthens and mollifies the part afflicted and consumes the thick matter whereof the schirrus is bred I usully made it after this manner Take three ounces of Goats dung Meale of Lupines Fitches or Vetches of each two ounces An ounce of Bran. Half an ounce of Sulphur in powder With the sharpest and strongest vinegar wherein steele hath been ten times infused make a Poultis Steele is commended by all Authors it mollifies and opens the Matrix quickens the naturall heat of the upper parts and brings down the Courses the stoppage whereof is the undoubted cause of this disease this as hath already been declared at large is taken many wayes either in water or in the forme of a Bolus or in Lozenges or in powder or in some conserve as it shall seeme good to the Physitian and most acceptable to the sick womans palate Issues will be profitable for whatsoever slimy or clammy humour doth daily fall downe more and more from the upper parts into the Matrix findes a passage out of the body againe so long as these are kept open CHAP. VI. Of the Dropsey in the Matrix VVE affirme with Galen that an universall Drosey can by no meanes be generated without the fault of the Liver seeing that the first instrument of sanguification is the author of the bloud which if it faile in its action 't is no wonder if water and winde be generated in the body instead of laudable and pure bloud But we confesse with Hippocrates that a particular Dropsey may be produced without any fault in the Livâ—r thus there is a Dropsey of the Chest in the Foot the Finger the Arme the Matrix which we our selves have often seen the Cause thereof is a waterish swelling rising in the hollow parts of the Matrix partly by reason of the suppressed Menstruum and partly by some violent labour or some vehement Abortivenesse or by
distribution potentially cold and moist that is cold and moist in their qualities and operation though they be actually hot when she eats them it would be superfluous to name them having already sufficiently spoken of them in the precedent chapters of a hot dihemper in the Matrix and an inflammation in the Matrix It will be convenient to draw bloud from the basilick vein in the right arme and if the hot dishemper be the cause that the Patient hath not her Courses cut a veine in her ankle Moreover you may prepare cooling and moistning Juleps after this manner Take Syrup of Violets and water lillies of each two ounces Twelve ounces of Endine water Six drops of Spirit of 〈◊〉 mingle them or Take Syrup of horage and Syrupe of purselane of each an ounce and a halsâ—â— A decoction of letâ—uce wash â—â—cumber citrull gourd and melon feeds of 〈◊〉 a diam and a halfe take a pint and alhalfe of the decoction mingled with the Syrups and 〈◊〉 her drink it at three doses Prescribe a Purge also to evacuate â—holer Take three drams of the best rubarb A scuple and a halfe of citron seeds Macerate them a night in a sufficient quantity of a decoction of tamaâ—inds to two ounces and a halfe in the morning straine and presse them and to the liquor add three drams of the Electuary Diaprun laxative Halfe an ounce of Syrupe of Violets by infusion mingle them and give it in the morning Whey of it selfe is exceeding wholsome or else you may thus compound it for your Patient Take an ounce of borage roots Two handfulls of sorrell leaves with the roots Endive and borage leaves of each a handfull Six drams of tamarinds Boyle them in a sufficient quantity of whey to a quart and in the strained liquor infuse for a whole night Halfe an ounce of choise rubarb Two scruples of Cinamon In the morning let them bubble a little over a gentle fire and when you have prest them hard add Three ounces of Syrupe of roses laxative Mingle them together for an Apozem Which is of most excellent vertue to correct the heat and distemper of all the veynes and principall parts this Bath also will be very effectuall to coole the body Take foure handfulls of vine leaves The leaves of mallowes violets and endive of each two handfulls A handfull and a halfe of bran A handfull of salt Boyle them in a sufficient quantity of water to eight quarts let her hold her feet in the strained water two or three houres together You may likewise prepare fomentations of the hearbe aforesaid and bath the privities the Liver and the Reynes of the back and afterwards you may make use of this oyntment Take two ounces of unguent infrigidantis Galeni An ounce of Cerat Sautalin Oyle of roses and oyle of violets of each halfe an ounce Two drams of the powder of red corall Halfe an ounce of vinegar of roses With a sufficient quantity of white wax make an oyntment according to Art Take the liquor which is distilled out of Cockles Snailes or Frogs mingle it with Saccharum perlatum and give it her to drink as a most effectuall remedy against this Disease A decoction of young Chickens boiled with prunes and borage leaves and taken every morning upon an empty stomack doth refresh the body strengthen the spirits moisten the Matrix cleanseth away the foulnesse that groweth in those parts and very powerfully resists the causes of barrennesse When unfruitfulnesse proceedoth from a cold distemper you must observe a contrary method of cure as for example The ayre must incline to hot and dry the meat must be also potentially hot and dry and because this cold distemper in perpetually consociated with moistuâ—â— whereby cloudy and grosse vâ—pours get into the Matrix which is cold and neâ—vous therefore it will be requisite to correct this coldnesse to take away the moisture and to consume and dissipate those windy vapours from hence you may gather that this is a very frequent cause of barrennesse and abortivenesse and so likewise are flatulent and windy humours for they extreamely swell the Matrix so that the seed cannot be perfectly retained neither can the child be held fast by the Cotyledous When you attempt the Cure abstaine from Phlebotomy unlesse it be preparative onely to disburthen the oppressed vessells when the Patient is in the spring of her yeares and at the Spring of the yeare least by taking away the bloud the spirits should be wasted the humours should become more cold and indigested which otherwise were not the bloud prodigally let out might be seasonably concocted and this you may observe with the learned Fernelius to prescribe a Purge before you open a veine in crude bodies that the first region may be cleansed if any man shall rashly proceed to a contrary course doubtlesse with great disadvantange to the Patient he shall pervert the right order of Nature for when as he hath emptied the veines by Phlebotomy he will fill them again with that filthy accumulation of corrupt humours which they suck in with greedinesse from the first places and so he shall not lessen but double the disease the Purge may be made as followeth Take a dram and a halfe of the whitest agarick Two drams of bastard Saffron seeds A scruple of Ginger Halfe a dram of Anniseeds Macerate them a whole night in a sufficient quantity of marjoram water to three ounces in the morning presse them hard and add Diaphenicon and Diacuicum of each halfe an ounce Mingle them and let her drink it in the morning If her body be not sufficiently open give the same potion every third day or else prescribe this Glyster following Take nine ounces of a mollifying decoction made with marjoram and groundpine or germander of each a handfull Diacarthamum and Diaphenicon of each an ounce An ounce and a halfe of honey of roses strained Mingle them and make a Glyster When you have thoroughly purged the body and taken away the cause the parts must be strengthned and the distemper must be corrected with these pills Take a dram of right lign aloes beaten to powder Two scruples of aloes ro sat Musk and amber of each a scruple With a sufficient quantity of alkermes make thirty five pills Let her swallow five of them or fewer every morning they are exceedingly provocative and withall they strengthen the braine the heart the liver and the Matrix when the man and the woman intend conjunction let him anoint his yard with oyle of mastick and wormewood mingled with a few graines of musk and civet and let the woman also anoynt her privie parts therewith as well within as without for by this meanes there is raised a mutuall inclination to Venery and the seed is received with a greater pleasure and is more duely retained and elaborated reason it selfe will convince us that sweating remedies made of ebony and Salsapaâ—illa will mightily help and prepare the Matrix for they expell
of a small wine â—lasse If these remedies overcome not the disâ—â—se apply an exceeding great Cuppinglasse â—o the heart by the force whereof the winâ—y vapour will evaporate for although â—lysters doe draw back the humour from â—â— affected part yet in reference to great bellied woman you ought to suspect the event of them because they raise too great a disturbance by provoking nature down wards and many times cause abortivenesse yet if the paine be insupportable then inject carminative glysters and omit all bitter ingredients as Hieâ—a benedicta Laxativa or Scammoniata but to prevent all errour prescribe this following Take a handfull of mallow leaves The flowers of melilot The tops of Dill of each halfe a handfull Two drams of fennill seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of barley water to nine pints to the strained liquor add two ounces of Syrup of â—â—seâ— Laxative An ounce of red Sugar Mingle them and make a glyster Or Take the flowers of melilot And mallowes of each a handfull Annise and Fennill seeds Of each two drams Boyle â—them in a sufficient quantity â—â— broth made with an old Cock to niâ—â— ounces to the inward liquor add Calabrian Manna And red Roses of each an cunce and halfe An ounce of oyle of rue Mingle them and make a glyster It might doe much good if you gave her a draught of balme water in the morning in which water you may sâ—eep lignum aloes the space of a night and afterwards put to the strained liquor a sufficient quantity of Syrup of mint for this expells the winde cleanseth away the phlegme and powerfully strenghthens the stomack You must frequently and laboriously rub her lower parâ—s tye ligatures about them and apply Cuppinglasses to them if there be no imaginable cause to feare abortivenesse but if there be the least suspicion of that omit all such applications as may procure a revulsion of the bloud nay let me give you this caution absolutely to forbeare them unlesse she be taken with desperate trembling and fainting fits or swounding in the spring time too when her spirits require them You must cause her Basilick veine to be opened if she be young fleshy and strong for this Remedy besides that it letteth out the thick dreggish and black blood it refresheth the childe also and the heart is sweetly easily and safely delivered from that burthensome humour which 〈◊〉 presse and almost overwhelme it CHAP. VI. Of a Cough in Women with Childe MOst certaine it is that great-bellied Women by reason of their being with childe have not sometimes a free vent for their crude and indigested aliments either by Stoole or by Urine or by any other Eâ—unctories of the body these being unduly kept in the body putrifie wax hot and communicate noysome fumes and vapours to the spiritous parts which by their clamminesse thicknesse and sharpnesse together with the bad quality that is in them gripe and twitch the Woman and force her to cough Some perhaps may demand why doth this Coughing happen in the last months the answer is obvious namely because in those moneths a greater plenty of excrements are lodged in the body then were accumulated at the first The cause of the Cough according to Hippocrates iâ— a viscous thick and tough homour impâ—cted in the Pipes of the Lungs which humour sometimes also thorough that consent which is between the Matrix and the Chest invadeth that part and raiseth a Coughing and these are these are set down as the true signes of this evill As for the Prognostick's you must know that a Cough befalling a woman with childe is a bad Symptome seeing that by the least stretching and shrinking the Cotyledons or vessells of the wombe are many times loosned yea sometimes burst asunder and from thence comes abortivenesse The Cure is perfected with sweet wine mild beere and the frequent use of a Ptisaâ— sharp sowre and cold things must be avoided meats also must be forborne which breed a thick nourishment and are hard to digest vehement evacuations likewise are not good wherefore having given order for the observation of a good Diet prescribe some gentle lenifying medicines to provoke her to spit as manna Syrup of roses laxative Diacnicu and the like These things being administred proceed to Electuaries and expectorating medicines and especially to this Apozem following Take an ounce of cleansed Barley The roots of Aristolochy Licoras scraped of each two drams The leaves of Asarabacca Nettles White Maidenhaire of each a handfull Two drams of raisins pickt The flesh of Dates Fat Figs of each three drams Boyle them in a sufficient quantity of water to two pints and to the strained â—â—quor add Two ounces of Diacodium Mingle them and make an Apozem or You may prescribe Lozenges after this manner Take a dram of the species Diatragacâ—nâ—â— frigid Diaireâ—â— Poppy seeds of each a scruple Two ounces and a halfe of Sugar dissolved in rose water according to arâ— make them into Lozenges Then prescribe this Conserve Take Conserve of red Roses Elecampane candied of each an ounce Conserve of Violet flowers Rosemary flowers of each halfe an ounâ—â— Two drams of meale of beanes A dram of Diaireos Ten graines of Sâ—lphur With Syrup of Colt's foot make a Conserve Meale of â—eanes according to Galen doth cleanse and mundifie the Chest digests the crude spittle contained in the pipes and makes it easie to be excerned beanflower water is exceeding good for the Lungâ— especially if she drinke it with Syrupe of Maydenhaire or Oxymel Sâ—iâ—â—iticum the same faculties hath the distilled waters of red Poppies The yolke of an egg taken in the morning with Sugar and the oyle of sweet Almonds is a most incomparable remedy and hath done good to thousands Anoynt her Breast with this Oyntment which is good to prepare the crude and thick matter which stops her pipes Taken an ounce of the oyntment of marish mallowes The axungia of a hen Of a Duck of each halfe an ounce Oyle of sweet Almonds Oyle of Violets of each two drams Ten graines of Saffron Mingle them and according to art make an oyntment heat it when you use it and anoynt the whole region of her Chest therewith CHAP. VII Of the swelling of the Legs in Women with Childe FRom the same cause namely from abundance of phlegme and crude humoâ—rs especially in the last moneths proceed the swelling of the legs face and eye-browes and when I have told you that the flesh of the whole body groweth soft and that she looketh white and wan in the face I have discovered unto your consideration the fignes of this disease Women in this condition cannot be restored to perfect health till she be delivered yet may we not delay our helps least a worse evill happen unto her for whereas the legs and feet are outward parts and at a great distance from the fountaine of heat they are quickly affected with cold and mortified through the abundance of crude humours which many times
of assa faetida Trochishs of myrrhe of each a scruple Troch Alhandal Borace of each ten graines Nutmog Saffron of each five graines Two ounces of a decoction of Savine Two ounces of muscadine Mingle them for a Draught or Take the powder of Euphorbium Dittany of Creet of each a scruple Ten graines of borace Five graines of Cantharides prepared Three ounces of a decoction of Savine Mingle them for a Draught Glystars and Suppositaries are of great concernment and thus make you them Take a dram of rest-harrow roots The leaves of Savine Pennyroyall Birthwort Motherwort of each a handfull Origanum Sage Dittany of Creet of each halfe a handfull Fennill seeds Nettle seeds The pulp of Coloquintida of each two drams Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water to nine ounces to the strained liquor add Two ounces of benedict a laxativa Halfe an ounce of hiera picra Mingle them and make a Glyster or Take Troch Allhandall Scammony of each a scruple A dram of common salt With a sufficient quantity of white honey boiled according to Art make your Suppository Outwardly you may apply oyntments made of oyle of Castor oyle of Foxes oyle of Euphorbium with unguentum Agrippe unâ—o which may be added a little coloquintida powder of dittany scammony the gall of an One. Take two ounces of Vnguentum Agrippâ— Oyle of Castor Foxes Euphorbium of each halfe an ounce The pulp of coloquintida Dittany of Creet Scammony of each two drams The gall of an Oxe Euphorbium of each a dram Mingle them and make an oyntment Suffumigations may be prepared by this forme following Take halfe an ounce of live Sulphur Opoponax Galbanum Assa faetida of each two drams The powder of rue Savine of each a dram and a halfe The gall of an Oxe The juice of an onyon of each a sufficient quantity Make them into Trochischs for your use Pessaries must not be forgotten therefore Take three drams of Hiera piera in the species A dram and a halfe of myrrhe A sufficient quantity of unguentum Agrippâ— With a piece of cotton according to Art make a Pessary Or Take Ammoniack Assa faetida Black hellebore of each two drams Troch Alhandall Scammony of each a dram The juice of rue Soldanella The gall of an Oxe of each halfe a dram Two dramâ— of Turpentine With wooll and cotton according to Art make a long Pessary If these things will not bring away the childe and if the Mother be sadly fallen into an agony the safest method will be to draw out the childe with instruments if no contraindications appeare as a bad pulse and a difficulty of breathing with anxiety and unchearfulnesse of disposition in the woman CHAP. V. Of the Torments and the suppression of the Courses after the Birth WOmen in labour must be gently handled and carefully lookt unto both in respect of the roome where she is laid and also in regard of the Diet which is most proper for her in that condition As for the place it must be darke far and free from noise or any other disturbance that way least she should be offended by any accidents of feare or sadnesse or by any sudden surprizalls of anger or griefe The Diet consists in meats of good juice and easie concoction and such as are not slow in their distribution to the severall parts because they thicken the bloud and obstruct the passages Let her drinke be small beer cleare and well setled from dregs Barley water in which birthwort and borage leaves have been boiled is incomparably the best drinke you can device for her and next to it we prefer Rhenish wine conditionally that the presence of a Fever doth not forbid it The whole hope of preserving the Woman yea of curing the Diseases which happen after the birth is placed in the evacuation of the feculent menstruous bloud and therefore 't is the duty of our skill to provoke and urge down that bloud least that evill be fall her which Physitians call Torment This is a paine in the whole lower region of the belly felt upon the privie parts neere the small guts the inward cause thereof is a multitude of thick menstruous bloud retained in the body The outward cause is the inclemency of the outward ayre in regard of the coldnesse and the passions of the minde thick meats as creame custards and the like coarse bread salt flesh hard fish and many other things which are hard to digest and not kindely distributed to all the regions of the body You may most easily discover this affect by the signes for the Courses are retained at least they come downe not so freely nor in such plenty as at other times they were wont a wandring and unquiet paine is perceived beneath the navell with gurgulations and rumbling in the guts the woman breaks winde both upwards and downwards and this winde is bread of a thick and feculent bloud This affect must not be despised by neglect for the matter making way by degrees to the affected part augmenteth the paine yea and introduceth inflammations with a Fever wherefore when you have duely considered the age of the woman the Climate in which she liveth the time of the yeare and the menstruum you must without delay open a veine in the ankle and not once onely but twice or thrice as it shall seeme expedient for by this administration the thick and feculent bloud is drawn out rub her legs till by her complaints you know she feeles paine and apply Cuppinglasses to the inward part neither may you forget to lay Leeches to the Fundament by reason of its neernesse to the Matrix and the spleen A Purge be it strong or be it gentle must be exhibited the first dayes because the belly is not sufficiently open and inclined to evacuate the menstruum for should you afterwards purge her body it would take off Nature and interrupt her in her duty as Avicen sheweth in his fourth Fen. and and first chapter Therefore let the bloud be made fluid and the passages kept open and then mitigate the paines with mollifying fomentations mixt with Anodynalls Take the Caul of a weather newly killed and clap it upon the part for by the actuall and asswaging heat thereof it takes away the paine and the same vertue hath the bladder of an Oxe if it be filled halfe full of this decoction following Take the leaves of mallowes Vialets Pellitory of the wall Pennyroyall of each a handfull and a half The flowers of Camomile The flowers of melilot of each a handfull Line feeds Fennill seeds of each halfe an ounce Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water to three pints unto which add Three ounces of oyle of sweet almonds Oyle of Dill Oyle of poppies of each an ounce and a halfe use it as was said above Anoynt her belly with this oyntment following Take unguentum de Althâ—a Vnguentum Agrippe of each an ounce Oyle of Lillies Oyle of camomile of each two drams A
and of no lesse efficaciâ— is this Julep following Take Endive and Borage water of each six ounces Syrup of Betony and Pomegranets of each an ounce Mingle them together for a Juleâ— or Take twenty graines of Mithridate Ten graines of Alkermes without Musk or Amber Three ounces of Buglos water Mingle them and let her drinke it at one draught If the Disease yield not to these remedies wee judge it expedient to let her bloud againe but in the Ankle if you suspect that Obstructions occasion the disâ—ase as commonly indeed they are to be suspected you may observe the same way of Cure as is approved in a Fever arising from Obstructions and Take halfe an ounce of parsley roots The leaves of betony and carduus Benedictus of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of white Maidenhaire The flowers of Bâ—rage Buglos Violets or Roses of each as many as you can take up between your thumb and two fingers at twice Boile them in a sufficient quantity of Barley water to a pint and a halfe in the strained liquor infuse foure drams of the choicest Rubarb the space of a night setting the vessell upon hot ashes with foure scruples of agarick Trochiscated and a scruple of cinamon all put in together In the morning boile them a little and when you have strongly prest out the liquor add three ounces of Syrup of roses laxative and make an Apozem or a Decoction Let her drinke three ounces of this Decoction every other morning Hereupon ensueth a Lask or Loosenesse in the belly but without any paine acrimony or griping and so long as it continueth free from any of those bad qualities you may by no meanes stay it but if it last longer with the Fever the most prudent course will be to open a veine in her Ankle having alwayes a diligent regard to the strength of her body for this evacuation is Symptomaticall as Physitians speake and according to the Prognostications of Galen it is either mortall or very difficult to be judged his words are these when any disease beginneth if any thing be evacuated it is not evacuated by any help or curtesie of Nature but all such things happen by chance in regard of those dispositions which are in the body besides nature for it is impossible that any thing should be well purged out when Nature is oppressed as then she is with the crudenesse of the humours with those causes which did produce the disease for that the Crisis and Judgement upon this disease may be sound and good it is requisite that those crudities must first be concocted and afterwards duly purged out wherefore if the Loosenesse happen at the beginning you must neglect that and be intentive to cure the Fever yet with an eye to the loosenesse by letting her bloud but very sparingly least the spirits should be wasted if the loosenesse continue so long as to weaken the body and bring the sick creature very low then stay it but with caution and tender warinesse but above all things avoid the use of such things as will thicken the humours for thus indeed you might stop the Loosenesse but then withall you should stay the menstruum which inconvenience you ought chiefly to feare Your safest way therefore will be to apply strengthning Fomentations and Plaisters that will moderately binde and with such you may furnish your selves above It would not be unprofitable to purge away the cause of the Loosenesse that so one Flux might be cured by another therefore Take halfe a dram of tosted Rubarb Ten graines of that sort of Myrobalaâ—â— called Chebule Halfe an ounce of Syrupe of dried roses Three ounces of plantane water Mingle them and make a Potion Many times this Loosenesse turnes to the Bloudy-Flux with cruell paines want of sleep a continuall Fever and frequent going to stoole This must be helped with Glysters of a binding qualifying and cleansing faculty as for example Take the roots of Comphrey and marsh-mallowes of each three drams A handfull of plantane leaves Halfe a handfull of red roses Boile them in a sufficient quantity of barley water to nine ounces and to the strained liquor put in Two ounces of honey of roses strained An ounce of red Sugar The yolke of an egg Mingle them and make a Glyster Or Take violet leaves plantane and pellitory of the wall of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of red roses Halfe an ounce of whole barley Boile them in a sufficient quantity of broth made with sheeps feet to nine ounces to the strained liquor add Two ounces of honey of roses strained The yolke of an egg Mingle them and make a Glyster You must not neglect to open the Basilick veine and the Salvatella a veine which brancheth out of the â—ephalick veine on the outside of the elbow for these administrations will be wonderfully helpfull to cure a flux of bloud arising from a distemper in the Liver those astringent fomentations also with the oyntments and Epithems whereof we have spoken at large in the precedent chapters will be of singular use The next Disease unto which women are subject after their delivery is a Lientery so called because the meat passeth thorough the body as it was chewed in the mouth without any change or alteration this is a most dangerous disease and therefore all diligence imaginable must conspire to stop it no lesse terrible and perillous is that other named by the Doctors Iliaca Passio when the guts are so bound up or inflamed or enwrapped one about another that whatsoever is swallowed down is presently cast up againe by vomit this also requires a seasonable and prudent use of remedies least the Patient should pine away and perish for want of sustenance besides it is so much the more dangerous because by those frequent Vomitings Nature is interrupted and distracted and that menstruous matter is driven upwards which should have been purged out from beneath But note that these Vomitings proceed from severall causes First from a certaine contagious vapour ascending from the Matrix and with the noysome odour thereof irritating and pricking the stomack so that it suddenly parts with all the aliment that was contained in it You must be exceeding industrious with all convenient speed to free the woman from this infirmity the vapours must be opposed and forced downwards that so by the discreet helps of art Nature may be assisted to expell those faulty and offensive humours by the Matrix This may be accomplish't by tying Ligatures about the lower parts and by rubbing of them till she complaines you hurt her by putting Pessaries up into the Matrix and applying Cuppinglasses to her thighes also by holding things of a strong and unpleasâ—nt odour to her nose and by opening a vein in her Ankle When her body is duely nourished and well refresh't give her this Glyster Take the leaves of violets pellitory of the wall and beares-breech of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of red rose leaves Two drams of fennill
if the humour fall down againe into the legs by reason of an habituall distemper in the upper parts you must either make an issue upon the knee or else provoke her to sweat with a decoction of Salsaparilla and China roots for by the vertue of these Simples the humour is made thin and more apt for expulsion and the lower parts wax more firme and strong CHAP. VIII Of an inflammation in the Matrix after a womans Delivery THe Cause of an Inflammation in the Matrix is a hot and boiling bloud retained in the vessells and putrifying The signes are a paine in her secret Parts a vehement Fever much heat swelling and a great itching about all the parts of the Matrix hereupon the woman becomes very prone to fainting fits to lye as if she were stupified to talke idely and the like by reason of the consent between the Matrix and the other parts as we have already shewed Lastly she can neither goe to stoole nor make water without great difficulty because the parts are so exceedingly swelled This is a most terrible disease as well in regard of the Symptomes as of the Imposthume which if it be broken leaves behinde it an incurable Vlcer from whence filthy and noysome exhalations are communicated to the principall parts which is an unerring signe of Death The Cure is Universall and Particular the universall is the opening of a veine in the ankle regard being had onely to the part inflamed and the motion of nature but afterwards we deny not but it may be expedient and efficacious to draw bloud from the arme in respect of the Fever The Particular is accomplisht by lenifying medicines and by washing the part the one is done by a Cataplasm made after this manner Take two ounces of the crums of white Bread The Pap of rosted apples The Pulp of cassia newly drawn out of each an ounce Half an ounce of the mucilage of Fleabaneseeds Ten graines of Saffron Make a Cataplasme according to Art But if the Inflammation seeme to hasten to suppuration which you may perceive by the Fever and the vehemence of the paine then you must discreetly assist Nature by an application of suppurating medicines but by no meanes adventure to give her a purge remedies of the former sort are as follow Take an ounce of marish mallow roots The leaves of mallowes And marish mallowes of each a handfull and a halfe Line seed Fenugreek of each halfe an ounce Boile them in a sufficient quantity of breast-milke unto softnesse pulp them thorough a Sieve and add to the pulp Two ounces of Hogs-grease An ounce of oyle of roses Make your Cataplasm When you have overcome the Imposthume use this Injection with a Syringe Take six ounces of a decoction made with wole barley and rose leaves An ounce and a halfe of honey of roses strained Make an Injection and wash the ulcerated part very often every day till the paine cease and the Vlcer be healed though she continue the use thereof for weeks months and yeares CHAP. IX Of too little and too much Milke WAnt of milk ariseth from these three severall Causes First from the fault of the milk Secondly from some impediment which hinders the transmission of the milke to the breasts or if it be transmited it is not retained Thirdly a penury or lack of bloud either for want of necessary food or by reason of some immoderate issue of bloud from the Matrix or from some other part The Signes of these things are the slendernesse of the breast a sharp taste in the milke and a bad smell other signes you need none because the disease is manifest of it selfe in the meane time you must take heed that this corrupt milke doe not settle in the Breasts and exulcerate them wherefore beginning with the first cause you must correct and amend the faults of the milke by purging out the bad juice if phlegme abound give her hot things not onely to purge her but also to nourish her body if choler be predominant prescribe cooling and moistning things But when the Breasts doe neither draw the bloud nor retaine it you must be solicitous to strengthen the Breasts by drawing bloud unto them to this purpose you must rub her body apply fomentations and Cataplasmes that will moderately heat and expell made of marish mallow roots the leaves of Violets mallowes melilot fenugreek the crum of white breead and the yolks of Eggs. Moreover if the parts want nourishment then let her seed upon the choicest dishes or at least appoint such things for her as are good to increase bloud and milke as eggs butter milke boiled with fennill par snips and the like Rock her to sleep by peaceable and sweet admonitions and exercise your wits to keep her from anger melancholy and all other perturbations of the minde It will not be hurtfull but rather expedient to allow her the use of good wine but then remember to put into it the powder of earth wormes Contrary to this is the immoderate plenty and superfluitie of the milke which you may easily discerne by that which comes away therefore if you suspect that the bloud will congeale and grow clotted then lessen the abundance of the mike with a thin and spare diet enjoyne her to be very abstemious and moderate in her drinke and if her Courses be stopped open a veine in her ankle but otherwise in her arme rub her legs and use all other meanes to divert the bloud from the Breasts but above all things let her use Exercise which is the best remedie in this case Yet if the bloud be congealed and if by the exhalation of the thinner part the rest wax thick then you must administer attenuating and drying medicines to cut make thin and dissolve the clotted bloud of this sort are Emplastrum de muciloginibus and emplastrum de Meliloto among which you may mingle the juice of Smallage and Frankincense CHAP. X. Of the Inflammations of the Breasts VVOmens Breasts those delicate and tender parts are not only frequently afflicted with the congealing of the bloud but they are likewise very apt to be inflamed by reason of a mixt plenty of bloud and milke whereby they swell exceedingly looke of a high red colour and are full of paine and sorenesse This Inflammation is accompanied with a Fever which the Physitians call Lactaria that is by Interpretation the Fever of the milke or the milky Fever and the learned Midwives call it Pila because presently unlesse the Breasts be well chafed and rubbed there appeareth to the touch an exact resemblance of a Ball This taketh not beginning from any venomouâ— humour contained in the Breasts but is rather to be accounted a Symptome driver to the Breasts by the motion of Nature and the bloud it is likewise very hardly distinguishable from a true Fever in which all the signes are conspicuous and manifest as appeare in this the swelling in the Breasts onely being excepted which is not some Ball accidently swallowed with the drinke as many learned men have vainely and irrationally surmised for how is it possible that a Ball should slip from the stomack thorough those slender passages of the Messentery and the Liver the hollow veine and the Axillary veines to the region of the Breasts therefore in my Judgment it is a phlegmatick matter ravelled as it were by the burning heat of the part into long threads as it happeneth to the slow matter contained in the Kidneys and the Bladder If the Fever and the Inflammation be urgent you must immediately command a veine in her ankle to be opened if it happen presently after her delivery but if a moneth be overpast let the Basilick vein on the same side be opened You must prescribe medicines to repell the humour but be carefull that they be not extreame cold least the humour should retire back to the principall parts a Glyster also must be first injected and you may afterwards prescribe this Poultis following which will mollifie and dissolve the humour and be very profitable Take an ounce of marish mallow roots The leaves of mallowes Violets Plantane of each a handfull and a halfe Boile them altogether in milke to softnesse and pulp them thorough a Sieve and to the pulp add Foure ounces of the crum of white Bread A scruple of Saffron Mingle them and make a Poultis Many times the Breasts and the Nipples are full of chaps which exceedingly torment and paine a woman these are caused by a sharp waterish humour falling down upon them and may be cured with mallowes boiled in breast-milke or with the white of an egg or with Lilly leaves moistned in oyle or with Vnguentum Pompholygos or which will exceed all the former with oyle of Nutmegs among which you may mingle bolearmenick with Cerus and some drops of oyle of Lead or some other oyle by it self CHAP. XI Of wrinckles remaining in the Matrix after a Womans Delivery and of the meanes to contract the Matrix VVHen a woman is delivered there appeare Chaps or Wrinckles by reason of the coming forth of the Childe and the flux of the Menstrunm these we have often cured with gentle astringent medicines having first administred this Injection thorough a Syringe Take halfe an ounce of Comphrey roots Two drams of Cyprus nuts Pomegranet flowers Red roses of each as many as you can containe between your thumb and two fingers at twice Myrtle seeds Shumach seeds of each a dram Boile them in a sufficient quantity of red wine to sixteen ounces and reserve the strained liquor for an Injection or Take a dram of Comphrey roots Cyprus nuts and the seeds of rhois Of each halfe a dram As many red roses as your thumb and two fingerscan grasp Beat them to a grosse powder and with an ounce of unguent Pompholygos and a piece of Cotton make a Pessary With the same medicines intermingling some other things that are greater binders you may help the loosenesse and widenesse of the secret parts which if they be not seasonably and prudently contracted may possibly be a cause that the woman will have no more Children Some Midwives use water wherein shee le hath been infused which we dislike not provided that when you boile the water you put in a quantity of Sumach seeds Medlar seeds and red Roses FINIS
away by drops and the Patient hath frequent desires and solicitations to goe to stoole but but without any performance Womens diseases are divided into foure Classes whereof the first containeth the diseases that are common to all women the second comprehendeth such as are peculiar to Widowes and Virgins The third specifieth those Affects that concern barren women and such as are fruitfull And the fourth treateth of such diseases as befall Women with Childe and Nurses of all which we shall now speak one after another in their order Those diseases that are common both to widowes and wives both to barren women and women that are fruitfull as also to young Maids and Virgins proceed from the retention or stoppage of their Courses as the most universall and most usuall cause when these come from them in a duc and regular manner their bodies are preserved from most terrible diseases but otherwise they are immediately subject to the falling Sickness the Palfie the Consumption the Whites the Mother Melancholy Burning Fevers the Dropsey inward inflammations of all the principall parts the suppression of the urine nâ—e eating vomiting loathing of meat yexing and a continuall paine in the Head arising from ill vapours communicated from the Matrix to the Braine Wives are more healthfull then Widowes or Virgins because they are refreshed with the mans seed and ejaculate their own which being excluded the cause of the evill is taken away This is evident from the words of Hippocrates who adviseth young Maids to marrie when they are thus troubled that women have stones and seed no true Anatomist will denie the womans seed I confess in regard of the small quantity of heat is more imperfect then the seed of the mans yet is it most absolute in it selfe and sit for Generation Another cause also may be added besides that which is alledged from Hippocrates namely that married women by lying with their husbands doc loosen the passages of the seed and so the Courses come down more easily thorow them Now in Virgins it falls out otherwise because the bloud is stopped by the constipation and obstruction of the veines and being stopped putrifies from which putrifaction grosse vapours doe arise and from thence heâ—vinesse of minde and dulnesse of spirit a benummednesse of the parts tim orousnesse and an aptness to be frighted with a sudden propensitie to fall into fits of the Mother by reason of much bloud oppressing and burthening the heart also continuall anxiety sadness and want of sleep with idle talking and an alienation of the minde but that which most commonly afflicts them is a difficulty and paine to fetch their breath for the chest by a continuall dialatation and compression draweth the bloud from the Matrix to it selfe in a large proportion and sometimes produceth asthmaticall effects But what shall we say concerning Widowes who lye fallow and live sequestred from these Venereous Conjunctions we must conclude that if they be young of a black complexion and hairie and are likewise somewhat discoloured in their cheeks that they have a spirit of salacity and feele within themselves a frequent titillation their seed being hot and prurient doth irritate and inflame them to Venery neither is this concupiscence allaid and qualified but by provoking the ejaculation of the seed as Galen propounds the advice in the example of a widow who was afflicted with intolerable symptomes till the abundance of the spermatick humour was â—iminished by the hand of a skilfull Midwife and a convenient oyntment which passage will also furnish us with this argument that the use of Venery is exceeding whol some if the woman will confine her self to the Lawes of moderation so that shâ— feele no wearisomnesse nor weaknesse iâ— her body after those pleasing conflicts Most certaine it is that barren womeâ— are more tormented with sicknesse theâ— those that are fruitfull because they whâ— have children live in a more healthfulâ— condition by reason of the opening of thâ— veines and the comming away of the superfluous bloud which being of an earthy and feculent substance must needs introduce prodigious symptomâ—s in the bodies of other women who have no seasonable meanes to vent and purge it out and daily experience doth witnesse it to the private consideration of such women that very many obstructions breed in their Liver Mesenteries and Matrices That women in Child-bed also and such as nurse their owne children are subject to most bitter and vehement affects Galen doth daily teach us by an undeniable reason for whereas the childe in the wombe is nourished by the sweetest fattest and most elaborate part of the menstruous Bloud in its own nature filthy and dreggish when the woman is delivered that bloud is forcibly evacuated by a criticall kinde of motion and violent ebullition whereupon the spirits are exhausted and the feeble creature is precipitated into mortall infirmities as fainting fits incredible torments and frequent soundings Many times also besides that perticular fulnesse of the womb through the swelling and strutting of the veines such women all the time that they be great with childe are oppressed with an abundance of ill humours contracted and heaped up together by a bad diet after which the upper parts of their bodies are many times most wofully inflamed After the same manner also Nurses are tormented with sore breasts painfull swellings Ulcers and Cancers and the like crueii diseases by reason that the Menstruum floweth in an unmeasurable quantitie to the breasts and there settles But now by the permission of Heaven we shall set down a particular Explanation of these Diseases CHAP. II. The suppression of the Courses THe suppression of the Courses is an interception or stoppage of that usuall evacuation of bloud which is wont to flow from the Matrix every month There is a twofold cause hereof one inward the other outwardâ— the inward cause is also manifold for sometimes it is one kinde of distemper sometimes another and sometimes againe a humour is the cause thereof the distemper is either hot or cold and concerning the former this is controverted among the Doctors how a hot distemper can stay the Courses for if we will credit the bâ—st Authors or submit our judgements to the generall Vote of Philosophy it is the property of heat to open to rarifie to make thin and to dilate as on the contrary it is the property of cold to obstruct to thicken to binde and to condensate the answer is easie and obvious wherefore we say that heat properly doth not stay the Courses but onely by accident as namely by attenuation dissipating and consuming the thinner parts of the Menstruum for any humour is reasonably conceived to become more drie and thick when the thinner part thereof is wasted away and againe the thicker and dryer it is it must needs be so much the more unapt to be expelled and this is the reason that sturdie women in the Country who are accustomed to labour and take much paines
Halfe an ounce of syrup of Quinces Two ounces and a halfe of Plant ane water Mingle them and let her drink it Divers Authors as Rondeletius Hollerius Amatus Lusitanus and others condemn thâ— boiling of Rubarb and the reason is this as things say they become more milde and weake in their operations when they have past the fire so those things which arâ— gentle become more vehement having acquired a new kinde of faculty by the forcâ— of the fire this I grant most willingly buâ— in the meane time they purge lesse anâ— binde more which we desire and as foâ— any corrupt quality which the power oâ— the fire may have contributed to it that iâ— easily washt away by the help of Plantanâ— water or the juice of Quinces if you demand whither this humour should be prepared I answer evacuate it without any delay for you must not expect or waiâ— the concoction thereof Binding Glysters will be very usefull you may make them after this manner Take foure drams of the roots of Consolida major The leaves of plantane and horsetayle of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of red Roses Two drams of shaled Pease Boile them in a sufficient quantity of plantane water to nine ounces to the strained liquor add a dram of the Trochischs de Carabe two ounces of syrup of Roses made with dried Roses The whites of two Eggs. Mingle them and make a glyster Or Take foure drams of the greater Comphrey roots The leaves of knotgrasss and plantane of each a handfull As many red Roses as your thumb and two fingers can take up Sumach and Quince seeds of each two drams Three drams of barley parched and beaten to a grosse powder Boile them in a sufficient quantity of plantane water to nine ounces To the strained liquor add two ounces of syrup of Myrtles A dram of terra sigillata Mingle them and make a glyster After these glysters are injected anoint the Matrix with astringent oyntments Take as many plantane leaves as you can grasp between your thumb and two fingers at twice Red Roses Mulberry leaves Oake leaves of each halfe the quantity aforesaid A dram of Sumach seeds Boile them gently in foure pints of oyle of Quinces Straine and presse the liquor hard and then put in True Bolearmanick Trochischs de Carabe of each a dram With a sufficient quantity of white wax make a soft oyntment according to art or Take two ounces of unguentum Comitisse Oyle of myrtles and oyle of quinces of each two drams Mingle them and make a liniment You must likewise bath the Matrix with fomentations made after this manner Take the leaves of plantane Knotgrasse Oake leaves Red Roses of each a handfull The seeds of plantane Sumach Quinces of each three drams Boile them in a sufficient quantity of red wine or water wherein steele hath been quenched to three pints use the strained liquor as was said above That which remaines after the straining may be kept for a Poultis unto which you may add oyle of quinces and unguentum Comitisse of each two ounces and mingling them together you have an excellent Poultis But if the disease yield not to these Remedies you may exhibit half a dram of new Treacle or Philonium Persicum or a scruple of the masse of Pils de Cynoglossa if the Patient incline to a Consumption give her Cowes milk prepared rightly with steele to drink in a morning fasting if the evill still persevere and you suspect the heat of the Liver to be the Cause of the disease make an issue in her leg that the Liver may exhale at that vent and the other bowells may evaporate or else let her goe into a Bath the waters whereof run from an iron Mine for these naturally binde and thicken CHAP. IV. Of the coming away of the Courses by Drops of the vehement Symptomes thereof and of the Whites AS the urine irritates the expulsive faculty so many times doth the Menstruum for as that when it is too hot doth prick burn and is frequently pist out so the Menstruum being vehemently hot doth cause an itch and an irritation and produceth a Disease which the Doctours call Stillicidium Vterinum which we may english to be a coming away of the Courses by drops The Disease proceeds from the same Causes as doth the immoderate flowing of the Courses therefore the same Remedies will be also proper to overcome them yet in this present cure you need not prescribe so many Remedies nor so often When any notable Symptomes accompanie this Disease as a vehement burning torments in the Matrix a paine about the secret parts it is called the Stillicide or Dropping of the Matrix from a sharp humour arising through the hot distemper of the Liver and the Kidneys and whereas it takes beginning from a hot distemper from whence sharpe hot and fiery humours are generated your Method must be first to root out the Cause and then to cure the distemper wherefore her body must be cooled her bloud must be thickned and the Flux must be drawn back to the upper parts this is done by a coole Ayre by giving her whey to drinke wherein steele hath been often quenched and lastly you may prescribe for her the cold thickning Dyet which we have set down above You may let her bloud in both armes and appoint the opening of the veine called Salvatella Leeches must be applied to the Hemorrhoids that the adust and melancholly bloud may be drawn out Purge her often with Rubarb and Cassia Syrupe of Violets Citron Myrobalaus Manna Tamarinds Diaprun sumpl and the like Simples which gently bring away choler Cooling and thickning Juleps will be very necessary which you may make after this manner Take twelve ounces of plantane water Foure ounces of Rose water Two ounces of Syrupe of the juice of Quinces Mingle them and make a Julep or Take the waters of Plantane Purselane of each eight ounces Syrup of Poppy Syrupe of restharrow of each an ounce and a half Mingle them and make a Julep If the chiefest fault lie in the Kidneys Take ten ounces of Bean water distilled The waters of Plantane Mallowes of each two ounces Syrupe of Myrtles Syrupe of Poppy of each an ounce A scruple and a halfe of Lapis Prunelle Mingle them and make a Julep But note if the Patient have a hot Liver and a cold stomack it will be convenient to lessen the quantity of the distilled mallow water or to prescribe an equall part of Rose water the vertue whereof strengthens the inward parts Baths made with binding Simples are highly profitable in this Disease for they doe not onely attemper the sharpnesse of the humours but they drive the humours to the outward parts and so defend and fortifie the Matrix from that annoyance which they threatned unto it and in a while the Flux is stayed Whey although it be Diureticall and provoke urine yet when steele is quenched in it it is wonderfull wholsome for her
with childe are seldome invaded by it You must apply your Remedies in the â—â—t and after the fit in the fit the humour â—ust be drawn back with rubbing the parts â—ying painfull Ligatures about them and â—pplying Cuppinglasses with scariffication to â—he calfes of her legs have such Glysters in â—eadinesse as will take away the paine disâ—olve draw back and purge out the thick â—umours you may compound them by â—hese formes following Take halfe an ounce of Elecampane roots The leaves of rue penniroyall Motherwort â—nd pellitory of the wall of each a handâ—ull Three drams of sena Bran Camomile flowers and the tops of Dill of each halfe a handfull Bastard Saffron and Annise seeds of each â—wo drams Boile them in a sufficient quantitie of birthwort water to nine ounces to the strained liquor being squeezed and presâ— very hard add Diaphenicon and benedicta laxativa of each an ounce Oyle of dill and oyle of rue of each sâ— drams Halfe an ounce of butter A dram and a halfe of salt Mingle them and make a Glyster Carminative medicines must be laid upoâ— the whole inward region as fomentatioâ— made of the leaves of Rue Motherwort Penniroyall the flowers of Melilot and Camâ—mile or unguent de Althea with the oylâ— of Camomile Dill and Rue for this looseneth the passages by opening the pores an expelling the winde pessaries may be pâ—â— up made with Civet Musk and Amber but you must affront her nose with stinking odours as the steame of brimstone thâ— smoke ascending from old shoes burnâ— Partridge feathers sagapenum galbanum asâ—fetida and the like cast into the fire because the Matrix doth as it were abhor râ—treat and flie from these things whereaâ— sweet things doe allure to them But some curious braine may here dâ—mand why sweet things held to the nosâ— doe breed the fits of the Mother and on the contrary stinking things appease those fits I answer sweet things applyed to the Matrix in regard that they are hot doe expell the winde cut into the slow and tenacious phlegm and afterwards purge it out but stinking things applied to the Nose consume the ascending vapours with their heat but you may still demand if hot stinking things be good to break the winde why may they not be laid to the Matrix as well as sweet things I answer the Matrix embraceth and meeteth sweet odours and perfumes but unsavory and stinking sents it abhors and flies from for 't is a most certaine truth that every creature even by naturall instinct shunneth inconveniences and affecteth things convenient If the evill still increase and if the Virgin be of a good habit fleshie and for a long time hath not had her Courses or for too long a time hath had them the safest course although upon the approach of the Fit will be to open a veine in the ankle without delay especially if any excretion of bloud appear either at the nose or at the mouth for as Hippocrates hath excellently taught us as the coming down of the Courses is a present Remedie for those who vomit bloud so in a body that is plethorick by reason that the Menstruum hath been long suppressed you may help a woman who vomits bloud if you cut one of her lower veines the same opinion iâ— favoured by Galen in his Commentry saying in this case we ought to endeavour arâ— evacuation namely such an one as is correspondent to nature when she is obedient to her own lawes After the Phlebotomy if her body bâ—strong and the Disease continue apply Cuppinglasses with scarification to her thighes Leeches to the Hemorrboids and with iterated Glysters and medicines given agaiâ— and again into the body purge out thâ— Melancholy juices Many who are more rash then learned more bold then skilfull because of thâ— cold and the winde which are the causeâ— of this Disease at the beginning will unadvisedly be offering wine to the sick which being odoriferous is apt to allure the Matriâ— to the upper parts therefore I counsel all those that value the health of theiâ— friends to forbeare this temerity yet if shâ— faint and her spirits be so far spent thaâ— she swounds or is ready to swound in such an exigence you may allow her wine yet in a small quantity When the Fit is over let her live soberly and feed upon hot meats that yield a thin and subtle nourishment and be very carefull to preserve her self least she fall into a Relaps hearbs and roots and such thinge as thicken the bloud or are hard to digest must be no part of her diet Wormewood beer may be allowed her or in her beer mingle Cinamon water or boile Annise seeds or China roots in it The humour must be prepared with cutting Syâ—ups as Rhodomell Syrupe of Wormewood Syrupe of Mint or Syrupe of the five roots You may prescribe the Purge of Mechoaca Hiera Picra pills of agarick of Hiera with Confectio Hamech or Sena You must open a veine in the ankle again and because this thick and stubborne humour will not obey a single evacution you must also purge her body againe with agarick hellebore Pills of Mastick or of Rubarb Steele taken in powder or mingled among the other medicines will much advance the Cure so will an Issue and an artificiall Bath made with Sulphur or a decoction of Salsa parilla Guaiacum and China Lastly if the Disease take beginning from the seed because in Physick no peculiar or elective purging medicine is consecrated to it you must lessen her diet enjoyne her an abstinence from hot wine and let her continually weare plates of lead upon heâ— back for it is most certaine that these doâ— diminish the seed if the Patient for twelvâ— mornings together upon an empty stomack drink three ounces of a decoction of agnus castus seeds boiled with six graines oâ— Camphire CHAP. II. Of the Epilepsy in the Matrix And thâ— severall kindes thereof PHysitians reckon up a twofold Epileps in the Matrix one by Consent thâ— other by Propriety the Cause of this is thick viscous and slow humour obstructing the hollow parts of the Nerves thâ— cause of that is a cold distemper of the Matrix and a contagious vapour assaulting and shaking the Braine and the nervouâ— parts for when the animall faculty strives to expell that humour or vapour from it selfe the hollow parts of the Nerves are crusht together and the passages are stopt and thus there happens a constipation or an obstruction the insides of the Nerves being as it were straightned bound and closed up together That there is such a Disease as an Epilpsy by Consent we are warranted by Galen to beleeve who in his book de Locis propounds the example of a boy who being lame in his legs fell afterwards into an Epilepsy and after the same manner Virgins who are troubled with obstructions winde or a malignant vapour in their Matrices doe frequently fall into the Falling Sicknesse This is easily known for imminent
much moisture in that part whereby the Matrix becomes soft and loose 't is needlesse to set down any signes whereby to know this disease for of it selfe it is conspicuous Yet in the meane time you must not let passe any opportunity of help because it is accompanied with a diuturnall Fever many times with Convulsion Fits and a trembling of the parts Wherefore if the disease proceed from an excesse of moisture prescribe a drying dietâ— and open the basalick veine for Revulsion sake A purge must by no meanes be granted her for 't is exceeding hurtfull because it precipitates the humours to the part affected and there breeds an inflammation but a Vomit is very proper in this case because by drawing the humours to some other part it doth derive them from the Matrix When you have done these things labour to settle the Matrix in its former place and to this purpose the woman must be laid upon her bed with her legs stretched out then the Matrix must be gently bathed with mollifying fomentations afterwards to the end it may not fall down againe rub the parts well tye ligatures upon her armes yea apply stinking things to her Matrix as assa faetida galbanum Castor and stinking pisse but to the nose hold sweet things as musk civet and amber When you have thus done dry up the moisture digest the slimy humour and expell the winde with this Fomentation Take half an ounce of tormentill The leaves of wormewood Mint Sage Penniroyall of each two handfulls The flowers of Camomile Red roses of each a handfull Burnt alum Live Sulphur of each three drams Boile them in sowre red wine to three pints and with the strained liquor bath her secret parts After the fomentation lay on this plaister Take two ounces of Emplastrum pro matrice Pitch Gummi laranne of each a dram Two drams of the Trochischs de Gallia Moschata The powder of red roses Red Corall Acornes of each a dram and a halfe With a sufficient quantity of wax make a Masse and spread it upon a piece of leather cut into a convenient forme If it cannot be reduced to its naturall site and position by the dexterity of the hand but begins to mortifie by the inclemency of the ayre cut it off and afterwards fasten it by actuall Cauterizing onely be carefull of some ligaments and feare not the incision because it is none of those principall parts without which we can live no longer but it is a part intended by Nature for Conception onely and generation Avicen reports of some women who lived eighteen yeares without a Matrix and the possibility hereof we affirme to be true upon our owne experience CHAP. VIII Of an Itch Clefts Chaps and an Inflammation in the Matrix AN Inflammation in the Matrix is a preternaturall swelling arising from a hot bloud or from the suppression of the Menstruum in the hollow parts thereof The Causes of this swelling are either inward or outward the inward Causes are a great plenitude or fulnesse of the whole body begot by a hot distemper of the Liver and the veines By the vehemence of this distemper the bloud it selfe is compelled in a large proportion to the Matrix and thus the retained bloud being no wayes able to get out either putrifies or else without putrifying produceth an inflammation sometimes also an Vlcer in the Matrix or clefts or chaps or the Piles doe most speedily draw the bloud unto them by reason of the paine and heat The outward Causes are a fall a blow a stroke a hard labour immoderate coition and the like which weakning the Matrix the bloud flowes unto it and settles there without resistance after this inflammation in the Matrix there followes an acute Fever bred of the putrifaction of the bloud which Fever Galen saith must be numbred among the continuall Fevers She complaines of a great paine in her head by reason of vapours ascending from her Matrix also her eyes ake and her neck is drawn to one side her stomack is affected by consent with nauseating vomiting and a griping paine and from hence many times proceeds a paine in her back and idle talking the excrements are suppressed by the compression of the straight gut and from hence comes a difficulty to make water or a pissing by drops Every one knoweth how dangerous and mortall this disease is by reason of the consent which it hath with the parts aforesaid wherefore you must presently addresse your selfe to the Cure first prescribing a thin and cold Diet which Hippocrates enjoynes to be observed in all Fevers and inflammations and afterwards opening a veine Many Physitians have been puzled to finde out Galens meaning who first commands the Basilick veine to be cut Secondly the Saphena or veine in the ankle but the reason is obvious for whereas in the beginning of the disease the body is full he prescribed the opening of the basilick veine to expedite the Revulsion otherwise he had drawn the humours by a precipitate motion to the part affected and so superinduced an inflammation When this is done he proceeds to lessen the predominancy of the bloud by cutting a veine in the ankle and not without sound reason for by the proximity or nearnesse of that part the labouring parts are soonest disburthened A Purge is in this case inconvenient by reason of the inflammation of the part and the drawing faculty of the purging simples Glysters may be profitable both to bring away the antecedent cause and also to free the afflicted part from the peccant matter Make them by this example Take the leaves of Violets Mallowes Beet of each a handfull The flowers of dwarfelder Violets of each a handfull Roses Prunes ten in number The seeds of Melons Cucumbers Citrons Gourds of each two drams Boile them in a sufficient quantity of whole barley water to nine ounces to the strained liquor add Two ounces of Electuarium lenitivum Oyle of Roses Oyle of Violets of each an ounce Mingle them and make a glyster To appease the paine you may mingle Topicall remedies with the Anodynall and apply them Take the leaves of Mallowes Violets of each a handfull Boile them to softnesse then set them into an oven and dry them beat them to powder sift them and to the sifted matter add The whites of two eggs beaten together The meale of marish mallowes Unsalted butter Oyle of Violets of each an ounce Two drams of Opium dissolved in wine vinegar Mingle them and make a Poultis or Take foure ounces of the crums of whitâ— bread The whites of two egs Oyntment of Roses Oyntment of Poplars of each an ounce Two scruples of Saffron Mingle them and make a Poultis This Inflammation will either be dissolved or hasten to suppuration you may guesse by the vehemence of the fever when it will dissolve for seeing that the greatnesse of the fever doth accompany the greatnesse of the inflammation if the fever remit which depends upon the
inflammation 't is a certaine signe that the inflammation shortly will be dissolved but if after the universall administrations the fever still continue vehement it is a true signe of suppuration and the rather if the paine be increased according to that Oracle of Hippocrates whilest Matter or Corruption is ripening the paines and the Fevers are more importunate then when it is full ripe The proper signe of suppuration is a most vehement paine upon the privie parts and therefore to humour the evill and to hasten the suppuration prescribe this Poultis following Take the heads of white Lillies The roots of marish mallowes of each two â—unces The leaves of mallowes Marish mallowes of each a handfull Bran Camomile flowers of each half a handfull Twelve fat figs. Boile them all to softnesse pulp them thorough a haire sieve and add to the pulp Two ounces of the meale of line seed Unsalted butter The oyle of sweet almonds of each halfe an ounce Hogsgrease The fat of a hen of each half an ounce A dram of Saffron Mingle them and make a Cataplasme A Fomentation made of these things and with sponges applied to the secret parts are of knowne vertue but then note that when you use it it must be hot or luke-warme for the Matrix being a part full of Nerves is easily offended with cold things When there is an itching in the Matrix by reason of an influx of some cholerick and biting humour usually there follow chinks chaps and clefts all which require one and the same manner of cure with an inflammation If the Itching continue long give whey or an infusion of Ruharb to driâ— lay cooling Epithems upon her Liver â— then wash her Matrix with this Injectioâ— Take a dram of Trochisch All. Rhasis Mallow water Breast milk of each three ounces Mingle them together for an injection From hence if there be occasion proceâ— to issues CHAP. IX Of a Cancer and an Vlcer in the Matrix A Cancer is an uneven blewish swellinâ— with paine and filthy to behold thâ— is twofold either with or without an Vâ—cer the one hath â—ordid lips from whence issueth a black corruption unsavory anâ— stinking but the other namely that without an Vlcer is called almost by all Antiquity a hidden Vlcer The cause of this is the menstruous bloud detained in great abundance and afterwards dried and burnt up to adustion sometimes it is produced by a dry humour falling down from the upper parts upon the Matrix from whence that accumulation of â—did and blackish bloud floweth away You may discerne the signes by a paine â—ut the groine the abdomen the bottome the belly and in the loines of her back is a stubborne disease both in respect of â—e incommodiousnesse of the place which the sinke of all the humours and also in â—gard of her frequent desire and indeaâ—ur to make water which render the meâ—cines so moist that they cannot stick to â—e part moreover light remedies it conâ—mnes and vehement medicines make it â—orse wherefore Hippocrates in one of his â—horismes most wisely adviseth us not to â—re a hidden Cancer because they who â—e cured quickly perish they who are not red live so much the longer and we say â—e same of a Cancer which is exulcerated â—e paines whereof are greater and doe â—ore torment the woman when the Cure â—f the Vlcer is attempted We must therefore content our selves with palliative Cure that the Patient may live â—e longer for in the midst of misery life sweet this may be done by appointing good Diet and forbidding the use of Meâ—ncholy meats Upon the approach of the Spring and about the end of Autumne let her blâ— from the basilick veine but if she have nâ— her Courses open a veine in the ankle Prescribe such simples as are good â— purge Melancholy as Sena Hellebore myâ— balans epithymum and annise seeds Soâ— of these must be infused a whole night â— whey and so strained and dranke but â— hibit not stronger Physick because the hâ—mour is so apt to be outragious Locall remedies which are moderately cold and binding may be applyed to â— privie parts as roses myrrhe the juice of uâ— ripe grapes mingled with rosewater bred milke and the white of an egg or Take Cerus wash't Tutia of each an ounce and a halfe Burnt Lead Frankincense of each two drams With foure ounces of oleum Omphaciâ—â—â— stirred much and long in a marble morter and Three drams of white wax make an oyntment or Take foure ounces of Litarge of silver wash't in the juice of Pomegranets and for two whole dayes worne to dust in a marble morter Frankincense Burnt Lead Auripigment of each two drams Hogsgrease The grease that is gathered from sheeps wool New butter of each halfe an ounce Foure ounces of oyle of roses Foure drams of wax According to the rules of Art make an oyntment If any filthy matter or bloudy corruption run from the Vlcer beat the shells of Crab fishes to ashes having first dried them in an oven and strow the ashes upon the Vlcer and anoynt it twice a day with oyle If the paine increase and grow insufferable inject this decoction into her Matrix with a Syringe Take an ounce of the sperme of Frogs The leaves of mallowes Marish mallowes Violets Mercury of each a handfull Coriander seeds Poppy seeds of each two drams Boile them in a sufficient quantity of whole barley water to eighteen ounces to three ounces of the strained liquor add Syrup of the juice of Pomegranets Hony of roses strained of each an ounce and a halfe Mingle them together and make an injection for six times to be injected twice every day Purge her body once a moneth with this Medicine following Take three drams of Sena A dram of Agarick Trochischated Halfe a dram of black hellebore A dram of annise seeds Macerate them a whole night in a sufficient quantity of fumitary water to three ounces in the morning set them upon the fire and after one or two bublings add to the liquor which you presse out halfe an ounce of Syrup of the juice of fumitary Two drams of Confectio Hamech Mingle them for a draught If her body be sufficiently strong open a veine yet be sparing of her bloud the Surgeons worke which may be profitable when the breasts or the other parts are infested with a Cancer must in this case be omitted first because he cannot have a full view of it and secondly being irritated by his administrations it would cast the Patient into Convulsion Fits in regard of the consent which it hath with the braine which by this meanes would presently perish Vlcers happen in the Matrix severall wayes either upon the coming down of the whites proceeding from an acrimonious and sharp humour or else from clefts and chaps which are not easily curable because of the humour which insinuating it selfe corrodes and exulcerates the part The signes of an Vlcer in the Matrix are a pricking paine about
the privie parts fluxes of a virulent and corrupt humour a gentle Fever idle talking and sometimes sounding Fits These Vlcers are very hard to cure partly because of the distance of the place the virulency and malignity of them and partly also because it is so full of Nerves that they hinder the coalescence and healing of it The most proper and convenient diet which in this case you can prescribe is that which is moderate and temperate let her surrender her whole desires to sleepe not fearing any excesse hot meats must be avoided and exercise must be forborne but above all things let her refuse her husband in his loving offers of Benevolence for by heat and motion the humours melt and falling down upon the Matrix they exasperate the Vlcers When you let bloud open the black vein a Vomit may be given with security and safety but the event of a Purge is doubtfull yet if you prescribe one let it be very gentle for the reasons aforesaid Locall remedies are very proper and profitable so are Baths and the Injections which we have already commended to you provided that you add a dram and a hall of the Trochisch alb Rhasis with two ounces of Hydromel and the whey of Goaâ—â— milke If you can gather from the confession of the sick woman that these Vlcers owe their beginning to the French Pox having first made triall of all these remedies aforesaid as well universall as particular prescribe compositions which receive Mercury the severall formes whereof if God permit when we describe the Cure of the French Pox we shall set down at large CHAP. X. Of Wormes the Stone in the Matrix and the Hemorrhoids THat wormes breed in all the parts of our bodies is a truth not to be denyed The Cause of these wormes is a viscous phlegmatick raw and cold humour sticking by its clamminesse to the very Matrix or to the neck thereof and by degrees putrifying The signes of them are a dew or moisture upon the lips of the Matrix slendernesse troublesome sleeps an itching in the belly and a slow Fever This is a disease full of molestation in regard of the Fever and the want of sleep which waste and consume the sick Creature To facilitate the Cure a dry regiment is necessary meats that yield a thick cold and moist juice must be avoided her beer should be boiled with rubarbe purselane or sorrell and you may purge her body with pills of mastick or de Hiera cum agaries or Take an ounce of grasse roots The leaves of planâ—ane Tansie of each a handfull Two drams of ciâ—â—n seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of balme water to a pint in the strained liquor infuse for the space of a night Three drams of the choisest Rubarb A dram and a halfe of agarick Troch Coralline Hartshorne prepared of each a dram In the moring set them upon a gentle fire allow them one or two bublings straine them and presse out the liquor and then add Foure ounces of Diacniâ—u Mingle them for an Apozem Every other day let her drinke three ounces of it You may make your injections after this manner Take halfe an ounce of Dittany roots The leaves of Tansie Calamint of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of Century the lesse Two drams of citron seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of honied water to nine ounces add An ounce and a halfe of Syrup of Wormewood Two drams of aloes in powder Meale of Lupines Rubarb in powder of each a dram Mingle them and make an Injection to serve three times or Take the roots of Costmary Aristolochy the long of each two drams Coloquintida Aloes The gall of an Ox of each three drams Two drams of hartshorne prepared Boil them in a sufficient quantity of wormwood water to nine ounces every morning inject three ounces of the strained liquor Or make a plaister of the things aforesaid according to art and lay it to the privie parts The same administrations will serve against the stone in the Matrix provided that you are sure that that is the Materiall and efficient Cause that is a thick slow and viscoâ—â— humour the other namely the efficient is an immoderate heat Stones many times also are generated of a corruption or matter congealed in the Matrix and grown dry the Cause is twofold one inward the other outward the inward hath already been declared the outward is a thick cold and waterish meat suppeditating matter to the Concretion of the stone as milke fish pulse and other grosse aliments as cheese and muddy ale The Stone in the Matrix is known by the paine in the part and if you presse down the Matrix the paine is exasperated The woman conceives not her Courses come down immoderately and if she put her finger up her fundament she may feele the Stone Use your utmost speed and diligence to cure it for whereas the Matrix is as the sinke or common shore into which Nature empties out all the grosse and superfluous bloud it may be feared that that corrupt matter will turne to a Stone which in continuance of time growes sometimes to such a bignesse as we of our own knowledge can testifie that it fills the whole capacity of the Matrix and totally suppresseth the Courses breeding Vlcers full of corruption and purulency The Cure consists in a good regiment in the preparation of the humours and in the evacuation and expurgation of them to prepare the humours give her this Apozem following Take the roots of parsly Eryngos Fennill Alexander of each halfe an ounce The leaves of Germander Violets of each a handfull White Maidenhaire Century the lesse of each halfe a handfull The seeds of grummell Nettles of each two drams Six drams of raisins pickt and stoned Foure drams of licoras Boile them in a sufficient quantity of barley water to two pints to the strained liquor add Syrupe of the five roots Syrup of Lemons of each an ounce and a halfe Mingle them and make an Apozem When she hath drunk the Apozem make ready this Potion Take the roots of Polypody Marish mallowes The leaves of Violets Mallowes of each a handfull The leaves of Sena Bastard saffron seeds of each halfe an ounce Agarick Trochischated Mechoacha of each two drams Macerate them a whole night in a sufficient quantity of Rhenish wine to eight ounces and boyle them gently in the morning straine and presse out the liquor with a strong hand and add to it Halfe an ounce of Electuary Diacarthamum Mingle them together and make a Potion for two doses to be taken every other day We have already furnisht you with Fomentations Poultisses Oyntments Plaisters and halfe tubs to bath in which are very serviceable in this cure but above all things inject these glysters following very often throughout the whole progresse of the Cure Take nine ounces of some emollient decoction Diacatholicon Benedicta Laxativa of each an ounce Oyle of Dill. Oyle of bitter
Almonds of each six drams A dram of Sal gemme Mingle them and make your glyster or Take the roots of restharrow Marish mallowes of each halfe an ounce The leaves of mallowes Violets Pellitory of the wall Mercury of each a handfull The tops of Dill Camomile flowers of each half a handfull Line seed Fenugreek of each three drams Two drams of nettle seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water to nine ounces to the strained liquor add Diaphenicon Benedicta laxà tiva of each an ounce Oyle of Lillies Unsalted butter of each an ounce and a halfe Mingle them and make a glyster When these things are done let the Midwife put her finger up into the Patients Fundament and artificially presse downe the belly upon the bones that joyne neer the privie parts that the place where the stone lies may be raised up this being dryed put in a hooked instrument and draw it out as we have sometimes seen it done but afterwards let issues made in her body be kept open THE THIRD BOOK OF Barrennesse and such Diseases as befall Women with Childe The first Chapter OF Barrennesse both Absolute and Respective PRovident Nature that she might contrive the continuation of Mankinde for a long time if not in the Individuall yet at least in the Species hath imprinted in those parts dedicated to generation a vehement continuall and inexpressible appetite to propagation and thus by a due commixture of the womans bloud with the seed of the man she formeth and fashioneth a Creature in the Matrix which at a certaine and appointed time she sends forth into the world compleat and perfect in its Conformation Wherefore in my Judgement Conception is nothing else then a receiving of the mans seed in the Matrix being exquisitely and proportionably intermingled aptly retained and fully perfected and therefore by the rule of Contraries we may affirme Barrennesse to be a Depravation or defect of these operations Barrennesse is either naturall and acquired from the first Elements of the Conformation or introduced by sicknesse or lastly Respective namely in reference to the Man or the Woman the first is incurable for no Physitian can correct those errours which Nature commits in the mysterious purpose of our generation one of these errours is the straightnesse of those passages which lead to the Matrix being sometimes so narrow that they hinder the right transmission of the seed into the vessells of Generation or if it be injected yet is it received with so much paine and labour that the Matrix doth neither concoct nor perfect it another errour is the widenesse of those parts into which although the seed be duely ejaculated yet it presently slips out againe because the capacity of the Matrix is too wide the crookednesse of the vessells also may be another impediment for we may many times meet with jesting errours as I may call them in the workmanships of Nature thus in one body a double Matrix hath been seen in another two hearts in a third the Spleen placed where the Liver should stand and many other such like recreations of Nature as Realdus Columbus hath discoursed of the◠at large in his Anatomy The second kinde of barrennesse is that which is contracted by some disease for whereas the seed is a certaine spirituall substance generated of the purest part of the bloud it is necessary that it should be concocted in a temperate wombe but if the Matrix be too hot it consumes the seed as a little water thrown into a fire is presently dryed up and on the contrary if it bee too moist and cold the actions that are ordained for conception are weakned and disabled because cold is unprofitable and uselesse for any function it shuts up the mouthes of the veines in the Matrix it renders a woman averse from and indisposed to the pleasure of the Lawfull sheets for a waterish seed cooles the Testicles and makes them unapt to elaborate the seed and make it fit to unite and mix with the mans seed unto these impediments Hippocrates hath also added another which in his Aphorisms he calls a thick Matrix From all which it is manifest that the temperate Matrix is most fruitfull namely that which obtaines a mediocrity approaching to no excesse either of an active or passive quality by the universall Constitution of the whole body you may best discerne the temperature of the wombe which is most fit for conception for such women are fresh coloured and of a rosie complexion gentle of behaviour affable in their cariage merry and pleasant in their conversation not dull and drowsie and full of pensivenesse The third cause of barrennesse proceeds neither from the Nativity of the Patient nor from any sicknes but relates to the man as for example one and the same woman may have had Children by a former husband and yet no children by a second husband not because she is now barren or unfruitfull but she is so called because of her husband by whom she hath now no children the case is likewise the same on the mans part respectively to the woman but perhaps you will demand a reason hereof I answer because the proportion and temperature of both the seeds which ought to concur to generation are contrary the one to the other for the seed both of the man and the woman if it be prolificall and fruitfull will be of a white and shineing colour not thin and waterish but of a thick and compacted substance in sent like unto the flowers of the Dwarfelder tree and being put into water it will sinke to the bottome but that which is unfit for generation will swim upon the top of the water and is in all respects contrary to the former the man ought to be of a strong constitution well set full of museles and neither too slender nor too thick for those that are slender are usually too weak to get children at least such is are healthfull strong and lively and those who are to grosse are commonly of a cold temper have a thin and slippery seed and are more desirous of Venery then able to performe it Barren men are commonly beardless slow in imagination and dull in practise because their seed is cold and containes not any spirit to tickle and warme their Phantasies but they sit like images and are sad and insociable on the contrary hairy men that have Testicles of an indifferent size and a well concocted seed are cheerefull affable ever frequenting the young company of Maids and Virgin◠being excited by the flagrancy of their eyes to Venereous dalliances and lustfull speculations After the same manner we must give judgement concerning women which besides the signes aforesaide if they be bald and harelesse in the privie parts they are suspected to be barren but if they be rough and full of haire it is a signe that they are fruitfull the wiser sort of Physitians know that much haire is an undeniable argument of much heat and
the windy humours strengthen the Matrix and dissipate the fuliginous and grosse vapours naturall Baths are excellent for the same purposes and so are Treacle Mithridate Alkermes Aromaticum rosatum Diarrhodon Abbatis Diamargarit calidum and Diacinnamomum and lastly if you desire any satisfaction from our opinion concerning Issues we answer that they evacuate those cold and thick juyces which daily flow unto and settle in the Matrix and therefore as we said almost every where we affirme the use of them to be very expedient and conducible CHAP. II. Of the shapeless lump of Flesh called Mola A Mola is an unprofitable and shapeâ—â—â—â— lump of flesh bred in the Matrix of the menstruous bloud as the Materiall cause thereof according to the opinion of Galen in sundry places of his works He saith of the menstruous bloud that it such as is very thick and much hardned in the Matrix but note that he doth not here exclude the seed of the man for every Physitian knowes that a Mola proceeds from a mixture of the menstruum and â— corrupted seed which indeed doth somewhat indeavour Conception but cannot perfect it neither is there any cause of wonder that such a lump of deformity should be fashioned in the wombe seeing that severall kindes of monsters are bred there according to the variety of thâ— humour which floweth into the Matrix hâ— that would acquaint himselfe with thâ— knowledge of these things may reaâ— Skenkius his Observations and the wonderfull stories related by Marcellus Donatus if also he would search into and examine the true cause of these things let him read Laurentius his book of Anatomy But why doth this breed in the Matrix onely of a woman and not in some other part I answer because although the bloud may congeale and become clotted in the other parts of the body yet it happens so more frequently in the Matrix of a woman then in any other part of her body because the Matrix is as the common shoore of the body where most of the excrements are exonerated But why doth a Mola breed in women onely I answer because women onely have an abundance of this menstruum more then other Creatures and that their bodies are full of grosse thick and tenacious humours by reason that for the most part they use a moist diet and abandon themselves to a reproveable and disorderly course of life This Mola is of severall kindes for sometimes it is waterish sometimes windy and humorall and sometimes againe 't is skinnie and bloudy this last is the most ordinary and all Physitians have granted it this is that which is most usually presented to our observation and lastly this is that which so often hath deceived women who boasted themselves to be with childe and were not and their Physitians also who told them they were with child when they were not Wherefore to avoid these common couzenages let us be circumspect in the knowledge and right understanding of the signes which are a swelling with a drawing back of the Hypochondriacall parts the women grow leane are full of paine and very apt to long the belly is burthened her back aketh her breasts swell and her Courses are stopped and that at the beginning of her conception but afterwards in processe of time she seemes to have the Dropsey her belly is so immoderately swelled but you may know this from a Dropsey for in that the belly sounds like a Drum the woman feeles within a kinde of fluctuation or waving motion and if a finger be laid hard upon her belly the print of it remaines A Mola is distinguished from a perfect conception by three most certain signes that is by the motion by the milk and by the time that a woman beareth her childe in the motion because there is a great difference between the motion of a childe and the motion or stirring of a Mola because the childe kicks and turneth about to all the parts of the bottome of the belly but a Mola moveth like a Globe now on the right side and anon on the left this also if you presse down the womans belly with a gentle hand removeth from the place and returnes not suddenly into it againe and from the milke you may gather a never-failing signe because the breasts swell all the time a woman is with childe but in the other it happeneth otherwise the time likewise affords a never-failing signe for if the swelling of the belly continue beyond the eleventh moneth which is the most constant and certaine period of a womans Reckoning and no signes of a Dropsie at that time appeare you may warrant your owne confidence that she hath a Mola but no childe in her belly This is a most dangerous disease for many times a woman carries it in her wombe the space of two or three yeares and sometimes longer insomuch that the naturall heat is suffocated therewith moreover in the expulsion of it there is no small danger for many times it groweth to such a bignesse that it comes not away without extreame hazard of the womans life for a great Issue of bloud ensueth whereby the spirits being spent and exhausted she waxeth feeble wan and pale and many times perisheth in the very act of expelling it This evill hath a twofold manner of Cure one Preservative to prevent the Generation or breeding of the Mola and the other curative to destroy and bring it away when it is bred and this last is also twofold for the first designe must be to exclude it and the second to save the woman in the very act of excluding it The Preservation consists in a due observation of these things following the ayre she lives in must be hot and dry and the place healthfull being scituate towards the East let her keep a good diet feeding upon meats that yield a wholsome nourishment to the body and such as are soone concocted and distributed to all the parts let her choice also be rather of hot then cold meats avoiding such as are fat salt and hardned with smoak fish which breed thick windy and viscous juyces are unwholsome for her she cannot desire a more wholesome drink then Wormewood wine or excellent generous French wine her belly must be kept open and soluble exercise must be used and sleep refrained angry chidings and cares of the minde must be moderated and all such things for borne as dry the bloud and diminish the naturall heat In the next place prepare the thick and grosse humours with Rhodomel Syrupe of wormewood Syrupe of mint and the like mingled with some convenient water afterwards prescribe this Purge Take three drams of Sena A scruple of Agarick Trochischt A dram of the root Mechoaca A dram and a halfe of anniseeds Boile them a short space in a sufficient quantity of pure water to three ounces then straine and presse them and to the remaining liquor add three drams of Diaphenicon Mingle them and let her drink it in
the morning early If her Courses be stopped cut a veine in her ankle Leeches also may be applyed to the Hemorrhoids but with caution and warinesse least thereby you more and more weaken such women whose bodies are full of raw and indigested humours afterwards you must purge her body again with a scruple of extract Catholic and as much of mass pillul faetidar and lastly prescribe an Apozem or Decoction to cut asunder and evacuate the grosse and tough humours to provoke urine to open the obstructions of the Matrix and to bring down the Courses all which vertues meet together in this Composition following Take the roots of smallage Eryngos And Fennill of each halfe an ounce The barke of the root of the Caper And Tamarisk tree of each two drams The leaves of penniroyall and birthwort of each a handfull Germander Maidenhaire Balm of each halfe a handfull Ten drams of Sena Three drams of agarick trochischt A dram and a halfe or two drams of Epythymum Boile them all according to art in a sufficient quantity of water wherein steele hath been infused to a quart when you have strained and with a strong hand presâ— out the liquor add Three ounees of Syrup of roses Mingle them and make an Apozem or Take the roots of Butchers broome Asparagus Polypody of the oak And fennill of each halfe an ounce The leaves of Penniroyall And motherwort of each a handfull A dram and a halfe of annise seeds The flowers of Violets Rosemary and Borage of each as many as you can take up between your thumb and two fingers An ounce of raisins of the Sun Boyle them in a sufficient quantity of barley water to a quart In the strained liquor infuse for a night Ten ounces of Sena Three drams of the whitest agarick Two drams of the best rubarb A dram of Epithymum In the morning let them buble once or twice and then to the liquor which you presse out add Syr. Byzantin And Syr. de eupatorio of each an ounce Mingle them and make an Apozem Of this or of the former let her take twice in a day the quantity of three ounces for a week together once in the morning and the second time at foure a clock â—n the afternoon Excellent Lozenges may be made of the species Diamosch and Diacinnamomum or you may compound them with Treacle Mithridate and Bezoar stone When the Mola hath obtained some growth if it be waterish it must be brought away with such simples as have a faculty to purge out waterish humours or iâ— it be windy you must prescribe such medicines as are of a known and approved vertue to strengthen the Matrix and to expell winde and Carminative glysters in such cases will be very convenient so also will plaisters and fomentations applyed to her privie parts but that which is humorall skinny and bloudy may be overcome with the same remedies as are set down at the beginning against the stoppage of the Courses When Nature indeavours to expell this unprofitable burthen and an issue of bloud ensueth thereupon with fainting and swounding fits then you must be diligent to strengthen the Patient with broths made of the flesh of Capons and Partridges and with such things as will stay the bloud and refresh the exhausted spirits such as are Chalybeated wine Sugar of Pearle Corall c. You will object that wine cannot be seasonable because by the heat thereof it makes the bloud thin and makes it more apt to flow away in greater measure by opening the passages rather then it can any way help to stay it I answer it is not guilty of this mischiefe if it hath a reddish Tincture for if good Claret wine be chalybeated as hath bin said besides that it nourisheth the bâ—dy it is also a binder for it comforteth the spirits and refresheth the whole body which vermes must needs be profitable for and welcome unto a Creature who is hourely subject to faint and swound and although it might provoke the bloud to flow yet a greater good must be preferred before a small inconvenience and therefore give her wine to refresh her spirits which will be more to her advantage then the issue of bloud can be to her prejudice for she may perish suddenly in one of those fits but the flux of bloud may be restrained by degrees Note that foure things require an abstinence from wine First an inflammation of the bowells Secondly a vehement paine in the head Thirdly a Phrensie And fourthly a burning Fever in a crude disease and of this opinion was Galen as appeares in his first book ad Glauconem and the 14. chapter Moreover the Patient should be refreshed with the choicest meats and then the Mola should be disposed to come forth by softning and loosening fomentations made of a decoction of marishmallowes mallowes motherwort Mercury Birthwort Sage Hyssope Calamint the seeds of line marishmallowes fenugreek camomile melilot and rosemary in this you may dip a clout and bath her privie parts But if the bloud come not away rub her legs and apply drie Cuppinglasses to the calfes of her legs and binde most painfull ligatures about them and in a word make tryall of all such remedies as will draw down Nature the humours and the Mola to the lower parts CHAP. III. Of Womens Longings WOmen are sometimes so extravagant and preposterous in their appetite that they refuse wholsome meat and long after colaes chalke a piece of an old wall starch earth and the like trash which they devoure as ravenously as a hungry Plowman will winde downe a good bag-pudding Now perhaps you may also long to know the cause hereof which is no other then the menstruous bloud especially if it be retained about the middle of their time and grow corrupt for the child in the wombe is nourished with the sweetest part of the bloud and the other part remaining which is vitious filthy and dreggish noisome exhalations especially in the middle moneths arise from it and in such a manner contaminate all the upper partts that the worst things are vehemently desired and the most wholsome refused the signes are apparent from the depravation and irregular temper of their stomack This Disease is hard to cure yet not so much in respect of the disease it selfe as of the subject wherein it is generated which is a woman with childe now we know that such women must be warily â—nd religiously dealt withall and unlesse it be in extreame necessity their bodies ought not to be purged By this unavoidable abstinence the disease is increased and the bad humour being long retained in the body becomes daily more and more corrupt by the tetrous exhalations which ascend up from the pollutions of the Matrix therefore having first appointed a strengthning and drying dyet you must indeavour to rid away that humour with Syrup of roses solutive and afterwards when the body is cleansed and free from the humour you may prescribe a gentle Purge of Rubarb
wherefore if you will prescribe any physick follow the directions of Hippocrates and exhibit it between the fourth and the seventh moneth because then there is a firme connexion between the Membranes and the Cotyledons If you desire exactly to know these middle moneths I answer they are the fifth the sixth and part of the seventh If you object the words of Galen who saith that a child three months old is strong and able to resist the injuries of physick I answer that he reckons the end of the third to be compleat not till the fourth moneth be begun concerning which argument the learned may consult the Epistles of Mainendus THE FOURTH BOOK OF VVomens Diseases The first Chapter OF a Naturall Birth and of Abortion PRovident Nature at all times hath not a greater care of any thing then of the propagation of mankinde and this although it appeare not so much in the species yet it is cleare and manifest in the individuall and thus she hath framed women to a delight in Venereous conjunctions that they might with greedinesse suck in the mans seed and dispose and cherish it to Generation So soone as the woman hath conceived Nature hath an especiall care to fashion augment nourish adorne and perfect the childe and at determined time to send it out into the world in all respects compleat and absolute This sending forth of the childe is twofold either naturall or preternaturall the first is when Nature at a time prefixed sends out into the Province of the world a perfect Citizen with an exact dearticulation of all the parts with a little paine without any fever or passions of the minde this sometimes comes forth before its time with great paine to the woman in her back and belly as in the fifth seventh or eighth moneth or else it stayes beyond the ordinary date of time There are severall opinions among the Physitians why a childe that is borne in the eighth moneth should be weake and not healthfull whereas a childe borne in the seventh moneth is held to be both strong and healthfull Laurentius in his book de re Anatom handles these things with much elegance and thither we refer the Reader and for our own opinion we shall most readily declare it to be this that I hold it impossible that the childe should be able to undergoe two afflictions the one immediately following the other namely one in the seventh and the other in the eighth moneth in which it is very obnoxious to sufferance and danger and therefore most commonly perisheth in the eighth moneth for it comes to passe that the childe is doubly or consequently afflicted first with that affliction which befalls it in the wombe and afterwards with that which happeneth in the birth but this bâ—â—alleth not the childe which comes forth in the seventh moneth because it comes into the world perfect strong and without the labour of the seventh and eighth moneth Galen describes Abortion to be an imperfect Emission of the Childe or a violent Excretion of the Childe The Causes hereof are many and various some inward some outward the outward cause which for the most part is subjected to the arbitrement of sense is a vehement fever which kills the childe especially if it continue long for it is destructive both to the Mother and the Childe the fiery heat thereof devoures the whole substance of the moisture wastes the spirits consumes the flesh and so weakens the body and destroyes the childe by exhausting the spirits and dissipating the aliment to this we have already adjoyned an excessive or lasting loosenesse because as we have said it looseneth the Cotyledons and by the sharpnesse of the humours irritates the Matrix shaking agitating and assaulting it till provoked Nature excern the Childe dancing leaping loud crying long fasting doe all presage that the woman will miscarry so also are the relations of some unexpected events anger chiding thunder the sudden noise of some pistoll or musket a fall the denyall of some ardent request and an innumerable company of other such things The inward are reduced to three Causes namely to the weight or heavinesse of the humour whereby the suffocated childe is overwhelmed and perisheth the second is the great bulke of the Matrix by reason whereof the childe is scarce held fast but slides away and slips out or the small and narrow capacity of the Matrix wherein it neither groweth to any bignesse or perfection but perisheth for want of roome the third is a skirrosity or hard swelling which is an impediment to the childe that it cannot lye stretcht out to its full dimensions but endures a compression and dieth Galen reckons up those signes which goe before abortion the first whereof is an extenuation of the nipples the second a diminution of the milke the third when the child is not perceived to stir in the belly the fourth the slendernesse of the woman the fifth the loosenesse or lanknesse of the whole belly the sixth the depravation of the appetite the seventh which is a true signe that she is now ready to miscarry is a paine in her back in her privie parts and torments all over her belly with a thin humour distilling from her Matrix This is far more dangerous then a lawfull and naturall birth in regard of the perturbations and violence which is offered to nature As for the Cure the woman having already miscarried that consists in the point of preservation namely to prevent the supervening of a Fever or the Whites this may be done by the help of those things which we have noted above sleep must be â—rocured then the belly and the Matrix must be strengthned with fomentations litâ—â—e bags such like administrations as are â—ood to expell winde To prevent obortion and to preserve the woman from miscarrying we approve if the danger be threatned from an extreame fulnesse of humours the cutting of the Basilick or the middle veine for this counsell we have the Authority of Fernelius who in his second book de Meth. Med. saith unlesse many veines be unlockt about the mouth in which the woman looketh she will miscarry for the childe is overwhelmed and choak't with too much bloud but if it proceed from the amplitude and large capacity of the Matrix apply astringent decoctions if from the narrownesse of the part mollifying medicines will be most proper yea and such as resolve and consume away hard swellings may be convenient for this cure CHAP. II. Of a hard Labour VVE call a womans Labour hard and difficult for five conditions or five reasons the first whereof is an Anticipation of or as we use to say when she comes before her due time in the fourth fifth or sixth moneth which because it is excerned by nature before the naturall time it is imperfect precipitating the woman into many straights and bitter pangs the second is a transversall or preposterous Egresse as when one foot onely or an arme appeareth or when the breech cometh
Althaea Vnguentum Resumptivum of each an ounce Oyle of white lillies Oyle of Dill Hensgrease of each halfe an ounce Saffron Dittany beaten to powder of each two drams With a sufficient quanty of wax make an oyntment But if nature be culpable in both namely in the weaknesse of the Mother and the expulsive faculty and also in the strength of the retentive then against one you must administer corroborating medicines as hath already been said and to rectifie the other fault you must adhibit loosening remedies such namely as are recited above CHAP. III. Of the Retained Secundine GAlen in his book de usu partium hath rekoned up three membranes which enwrap the childe in the wombe the first whereof is called Ammios this on every side is spread over the whole childe and receiveth the childs sweat that it may swim in it The second is named Allantoeides or Intestinalis or as others name it better Vrinaculum whose use is to receive the urine the third is called Chorion our Midwives call it the Secundine which is nothing else but a multitude and connexion of vessells and membranes thorough which as by little springs or rivolets the child draweth bloud and ayre these membranes are burst when the childe begins to â—â—ick his way out into the world from whence that liquor distilleth as we have noted above which makes the passages slippery after the nativity of the childe these membranes are excerned but if they chance to be retained they introduce most outragious Symptomes and a disease of number in the excesse The Causes of the retention are diverse for many times the Matrix is confirmed after the childe is borne many times the immoderate passions of the minde make nature forget her selfe in his duty sometimes odoriferous things draw the Matrix upwards and so nature is disturbed in her purposes of exclusion an unseasonable drinking of cold water is a very frequent cause of it and so are grosse meats that stuffe the body and thicken the bloud You may know by the Midwives relation that the Secundine is retained unto whom if she be skillfull you ought at the command of Hippocrates yield up your beliefe or you may conjecture it if the woman be sad in minde subject to faint and swound full of tossing and unquietnesse if she feele a heavinesse in her wombe or a round substance like unto a fixt and immoveable ball This is a most lamentable disease for if he Secundine be retained for any consideraâ—le time it putrifies and communicates poiâ—sonous exhalations to the principall parts as the heart the brain the liver from whence arise swounding fits anxiety of minde giddinesse in the head and direfull torments Wherefore let it be the Midwives care with all speed to attempt the cure bringing down the Secundine with her fingers besmeared with oyle and let her hold fast the umbilicall vessells till the Secundine follow but what if it remaine behinde then according to the Oracle of Hippocrates delivered in the fortieth Aphorisme of his fifth book you may exhibit sneezing medicines to the nostrills for these by that motion compresse the upper parts and the expulsive faculty being irritated out comes the Secundine Take black pepper Mustard seed Sagapenum of each a dram and a halfe Tobacco Castor White hellebore of each a dram A scruple of Euphorbium Make a fine powder of them and upon the point of a knife or thorow a quill let her sniffe up a little of it at a time or you may prescribe this Potion for two Doses it hath often done the Cure Take eight ounces of penniroyall water An ounce and a halfe of aqua Hysterica Two scruples of Castor in powder Mingle them for a Potion to be taken at twice or Take two scruples of the Trochischs de Carabre A scruple of Borace Halfe an ounce of the Syrup of juice of betony Three ounces of a decoction of Savine Mingle them for a Draught Suffumigations are also very profitable to bring away the Secundine Take Storax Benjamin Lign aloes of each two ounces Musk Civet of each a scruple Make a pessarie of them adding Vnguentum Agrippe and the juice of Mercuty Liniments must not be omitted made with unguentum de Althaea de Agrippa oyle of Almonds and oyle of Dill fomentations and halfe tubs are equally necessary made of a decoction of camomile pellitory of the wall Motherwort Birthwort Origanum Sage Savine annise fennill and Line seeds unto all which may be added oyle of Almonds and oyle of Dill Glysters must also be injected and with good successe you may continually rub her hips and her thighes tye ligatures about her legs apply Cuppinglasses and cut a veine in her ankle When the Secundine is ejected or drawn out give the woman Cordialls as Bezoar stone Treacle Confect de hyacintha or Alkermes all which things are of undoubted vertue to restraine the malignity of the vapours sometimes a Mole remaineth in the Matrix after the birth which by reason of the congealed bloud and the fleshie substance whereof it is compounded is as difficult to cure as the recention of the Secundine wherefore you must indeavour to expell that by the help of those remedies which we have prescribed above in the chapter of a Mola and here also a little above Note the difference betweene the Secundine and a Mole this is fixt and unmoveable but that is moveable from one place to another in a Mole or when a woman is troubled with that halfe conception so called a black and clotted bloud drops from the Matrix which upon the retention of the Secundine appeares not CHAP. IV. Of the Dead Childe CErtaine it is that the Childe dyes in the Mothers wombe for many causes the first of these is an inward cause as a defect of aliment or the corruption of it the second is a most vehement burning Fever which by the excessive heat thereof wastes the spirits and destroyes the naturall heat The third cause is an unseasonable evacuation of bloud at the nose the mouth the Matrix or by phlebotomy The fourth is an exuperance or an immoderate predominancy of humours in the body The fifth is a great quantity of moysture loosening the vessells The sixth is some vehement medicine The first outward cause is some blow the second a Cough the third vociferations or loud and clamorous yawlings the fourth sneezing the fifth sad tydings the sixth some horrible and dreadfull sights The Childe may be known to be dead by a coldnesse about the Mothers navell and by a kinde of sixt and immoveable weight in her belly by a bad taste in her mouth and by her stinking breath Use your utmost activity and cunning to bring away the dead childe both by inward administrations and by outward applications inwardly let her take this Potion Take a a dram of the Trochishs of myrrhe Castor Storax Borace of each ten graines Foure ounces of a decoction of Savine Mingle them for a draught or Take the powder
seeds Boile them to nine ounces in a sufficient quantity of a decoction of an old hen and to the strained liquor add Two ounces of honey of roses strained An ounce of new butter Make a Glyster This being given you must strengthen the stomack with the stomachicall Plaister already prescribed and with these Lozenges Take a dram of aromaticum rosatum in the species Red corall and pearl prepared of each half a dram With two ounces and a halfe of white Sugar dissolved in a sufficient quantity of rose water make little Lozenges according to Art or Take old Conserve of red roses Roman wormewood The Conserve of Quinces of each an ounce Halfe an ounce of the Conserve of Acacia A dram and a halfe of aromaticum rosatum in the species A dram of the Trochichs de carabe Two scruples of red corall prepared With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Pomegranets make a mixture Sometimes the Vomiting is accompanied with yexing and they both proceed from the same causes and therefore may both be cured with the same remedies but if it be of long continuance the most rationall and best grounded proceeding is to apply a Cuppinglasse to the mouth of the stomack with a mighty flame After all these follow two more namely spitting of Bloud and a Cough the former whereof is cured by cutting a veine in the Ankle which kinde of remedy is approved by Hippocrates in the thirty two Aphorisme of his fifth book saying a woman is freed from spitting or vomiting bloud if the menstruum breake forth and frequent experience justifies this truth for divers women by the omission hereof as Galen hath observed in his booke of Letting Bloud fell into the Tissick and other most lamentable diseases But the Cough is twofold either dry or moist the cause of the former is a certaine contagious vapour communicated to the spiritous parts provoking the Midriffe the Lungs and the other instruments of breathing to expell whatsoever is faultie and offensive the cause of the latter is a crude and raw humour ascending up from the Matrix to the Chest and sticking fast unto it This is cured by rubbing the parts and tying straight Ligatures about them by Pessaries Glysters Cuppinglasses opening a veine in her ankle by Electuaries Ptisans expectorating Potions to cleanse away the bad humour by laying on Emplâ—strum Resumptivum Pectorale or Vnguentum de Althaea among which you must mingle Cummin seeds and Saffron After the same manner Women in Child-bed are troubled to fetch their breath because by a mutuall and frequent stretching and compression of the Chest the vapours are transmitted to the Lungs and they who feele themselves molested with such vapours do seldome escape that Cough we last mentioned Moreover to this Catalogue belongeth the Pleurisie which is a most acute and therefore a most dangerous disease this you may discerne by these signes following an acute and burning Fever a Cough difficultie to fetch breath a pricking paine and a hard pulse Open a veine and you overcome this without any further remedy but the question will be in what part of the body I answer if it be a most violent Pleurisie that torments the sick if her Courses come down after a right manner and yet the evill abates not then cut a veine in her ankle but if this availe not so as the Patients life is now in danger then open a veine in her arme especially if she be full of bloud that the vitious humour may be drawn away from the inflamed place and seasonably evacuated this advice of mine is justified by the approbation of Mercurialis Mercatus Alphonsus a Castro Meschius Valeriola and the leared Zacutus Lusitanus neither will it be incovenient if you interchange this administration of phlebotomy namely first to draw bloud from the ankle then from the arme then from the ankle againe and so keeping turnes as need shall require for thus you will give ease both to the part inflamed and likewise to the Matrix which is the part mandant or that from whence the evill is communicated and distributed to the other regions This being carefully performed your next designe must be to mitigate and take away the paine with fomentations liniments Electuaries and Ptisans Take an ounce of the roots of marish mallowes The leaves of mallowes marish mallows and white Maidenhaire of each a handfull Halfe a hundfull of the flowers of dwarf-elder Annise and Line seeds of each halfe an ounce Boyle them in water to a quart and give her the strained liquor to drinke at severall times then Take a dram of unguentum de Althaea The Axungia of a hen and new butter of each halfe an ounce Two ounces of oyle of sweet Almonds Mingle them and make an oyntment then Take Syrup of Violets compound and Syrup of Maidenhaire of each an ounce and a halfe Mingle them and make a mixture to be licked from the point of a knife Afterwards Take two ounces of cleansed barley An ounce of raisins pickt stoned and washt Two drams of the best Licoras Boile them in raine water to a quart and give her the strained liquor to drinke Note that in all diseases of the Membranes the upper part of the throate and the Jawes yea and in the Falling-Sicknesse the Apoplexy the Palsie and the Convulsions you must begin the Cure by letting bloud if plentie of bloud give occasion to the Disease The swelling of the feet is the last of all those Symptomes which invade a woman after her Delivery and this proceeds from a disorderly and negligent Diet during the time of her being with Childe for by that meanes raw humours are bread in her body which after her Delivery settle in her legs as being cold parts full of nerves and far distant from the Liver which is the fountaine of bloud in which places you shall perceive soft kinde of swellings which being crusht down retaine the print of your fingers This must be cured with strengthning administrations and such medicines as are good to expell the raw humours and likewise with such as will moderately binde for should you give her strong binders you would thereby allure the humours towards the upper parts therefore to avoide that errour prepare this Bath following Take two ounces of marish mallow roots The leaves of mallowes Mint Wormewood Sage Rosemary of each two handfulls The leaves of red roses and camomile Of each a handfull An ounce of Laurell Berries Saltpeter Sulphur of each half an ounce Boile them to eight pints in a sufficient quantity of water wherein steele hath been often quenched and let her put her feet into the strained liquor Then take the dreggish substance which remaines after the straining of the said liquor and add to it The meale of Orobus And Lupines of each three ounces Foure ounces of Oxymel With a sufficient quantity of brine made with the juice of Lemmons reduce them into the forme of a Poultis and lay it to the swelled feet But