But if there be twins then that which presenteth it self fairrest must be laid hold on and the other put back As to all which the next following Sections will not only furnish you with figures but with directions Hitherto having described the Midwife and her office together with the site of the infant in the womb as natural together with difficult births in general and their causes It is reasonable good Mrs. Eutrapelia that we discourse of unnatural births because those bring the greatest danger with them both to the mother and infant SECT X. Figure the first Of unnatural Births DR Courteous Mrs. Eutrapelia If you perceive a child come with its feet forwards and the hands drawn downwards to the thighs according to the next ensuing form How will you deliver the woman Mid. In this I will take care to be furnished with Oyles and convenient liniments and only to help the coming forth of the infant by anointing and cherishing it lest it go back again but that it may come forth the same way as it began But first of all I shall take care that both arms of the infant so stretched downwards be so secured by me that the infant may not have power to draw them back again but that I may compel it to come forth after the very same manner But if the infant breaking forth after this manner and by reason of its bigness as well as his arms drawn down be so streightned by the narrowness of the matrix that of it self it cannot wholly come to the birth then the womb of the woman is to be anointed with oyl of Lillies or sweet Almonds or hogs grease some sneezing Powder blowed up he nose to help the sending forth of the birth and the womb gently to be compressed with both hands that it tend not upwards but downwards as it ought until it come forth entirely Here most Authors advise to change the Figure and place the head so that it may present it self first to the birth which is very difficult and almost altogether impossible to be performed if we desire to avoid the dangers that by such violent endeavours both the Mother and the Child must inevitably be put into and I wish they would have shown us any way how it might be safely acted that we might have followed their examples wherefore 't is better to draw it forth by the feet then to venture a worse accident by turning it Now to perform this the Midwife must have her Nails well pared and no rings on her fingers but her hands well anointed with Oyl or fresh Butter then the woman being seated to the best advantage let her gently put her hand into the entry of the Womb which if it be not wide enough let her open it a little and little by degrees with her fingers by spreading them one from the other after they are entred together so continuing to do till it be sufficiently enlarged then finding the Child's feet let her draw it forth in this posture following but if there shall but one foot present it self then she shall consider whether it be the right or the left and in what fashion it comes for thefe reflections will be a means to inform her on what side the other may be which as soon as she knows let her seek for it and then gently draw it forth together with the first and then also let her be very careful and well assured that this 2d be not the foot of another Child for if it should chance to prove so she may sooner split both Mother and Children then draw them forth the which she may easily prevent it by sliding her hand up the first leg and thigh to the twist she find both thighs joined together and depending from one and the same body and which is likewise without doubt the best means to find the other foot when it comes but with one Being then secured of both the Childs feet she may draw them forth and holding them together she may bring them by little and little in this manner by taking hold of the Legs and Thighs aftewards as soon as she can come at them and drawing them so till the hips be come forth in the mean time let her observe to wrap the parts in a single napkin to the intent that her hands being already greasy slip or slide nor from the Infants body which is very slippery because of the slimy humors which are all over it and hinder her from taking fast hold of it which being done she may on both sides with her hand bring away the arms being careful that the Belly and Face be downwards lest being upwards the Head be stopt by the chin over the share-bone so that if it be not so she must turn it to that posture which is easily done if by taking hold of the body when the breast and arms are forth she shall draw it with turning it in proportion on that side it most inclines to till it be as it should be that is with the Face downwards and having brought it to the shoulders let her lose no time desiring the Women at the same instant to bear down that so in drawing the head at that very moment may take its places and not be stopt in its passage There are indeed some Children that have their Head so big that when the whole body is born yet that stops in the passage notwithstanding all the care that can be used to prevent it in this case the Midwife must not only endeavour to draw forth the Child by the shoulders least she sometimes separates the body from the Head but she must disingage it by little and little from the bones in the passage with the fingers of each hand sliding on each side oppofite the one to the other sometimes above and sometimes under until the work be ended endeavouring to dispatch it as soon as possible least the Child be cloaked or stifled as it will certainly be if it remain long in that posture wâ—ich being artificially and well effected she may soon after fetch away the after-birth SECT XI Figure the Second DR But tell me I pray Mrs. Eutrapelia What if an infant come with the feet forward and the hands lifted above the head and not drawn downwards to the thighs as in the follwing figure what course will you take with most safety Mid. Sir I am not at all to receive it so lying except the Infant be very small and little and the Womb so extensive and open that it may be hoped a safe delivery both to the Woman and to the Child neither must I receive it before the Womb and the Infant be diligently anointed But it were much better to thrust back the Infant into the Womb and to turn it to the right form which may be done after this manner Let the woman lye on her back upon a bed with her buttocks raised higher and her head lower which done I must swathe her belly
Anti-Chamber to the Womb for if in the act of Copulation he knock at the door which is the inward orifice and it be not opened all is to no purpose and this may likewise be hindred from opening by some callosity proceeding from abundance of ill humors which usually flow from the Matrix or from some swelling which may happen to it or also by some part which may so press it that it cannot open to receive the Seed as the cawl doth in fat Women according to Hippocrates who says they cannot conceive till they grow lean But the most frequent reason why this orifice opens not in this Act to receive the seed is the insensibility of some Women who take no pleasure in the Venereal Act but when they have an appetite the Womb being covetuous of the Seed opens it self to receive it The same Hippocrates seems to have noted all the signs and causes of Barrenness from the evil temper of the Womb when he saith in his 62 th Aphorism book 5. that all such Women whose Womb is cold and close cannot conceive nor they who have it too moist because the Seed is extinguished in it and likewise such who have it too dry and hot because for want of aliment the seed corrupts but such as are of a moderate temper are fruitful Of all which in my opinion the most common is the cortinual moisture of the Womb fed by an abundance of the whites with which many are much inconvenienced the humors of the whole dody being accustomed to stear their course this way which can very hardly be turned away when inveterate and the Womb being imbued with these vicious moistures becomes inwardly so unctious and slippery that the seed though glutinous cannot cleave to it nor be retained within it and that 's the cause it slips away immediately or shortly after 't is received Barrenness may also proceed from the whole habit as when a Woman is too old or too young for the Seed of the young is not prolific neither have they menstruous blood both which are requisite to fruitfulness and that of the aged is in small quantity and too cold who likewise want menstruous blood then an universal distemper though of convenient years renders them Barren as when they are Hectick Dropsical Sickly c. and especially so much the more as the whole parts are fallen from their temper and natural constitution There are however many Women which seem Barren for a long time by reason of some of the aforementioned reasons yea till 35 or 40 years old and sometimes longer who yet at last conceive being cured of the distempers which hindered them and having changed their temperament by their Age. Now some of these Barrennesses may be cured by removing their causes and procuring the dispositions needful to fertility yea of those proceeding from an universal intemperament by reducing their body by a convenient regiment to a good order according to their respective dispositions Wherefore if one have the Neck of the Womb narrow and not from some of the causes abovesaid she ought to be joyned to a Man whose Yard is proportionable and if that will not do which happens very seldom she must relax it and open it with softning oils and ointments If it be compressed by any humor it must be resolved and suppurated according to its nature and situation having always a care to prevent the corruption of these parts which are very subject to it being hot and moist because the Womb serves as a sink by which all the bad humors of the body are purged so that you must take great care that these swellings turn not to a Cancer When the Neck is not clear by reason of any scar after a rent caused by some violence or hard labor or after an Ulcer which caused the two sides to be agglutinated whether inwardly or outwardly it must be seperated which being the Chirurgeon's work I here omit it If the inward orifice of the Womb be displac'd it may be in some sort remedied by making the Woman observe a convenient posture in the act of Generation and if the whites or other impurities of the Womb cause Barrenness they must be helped by evacuations purgations and a regular dyet concerning which the learned Physitian is to be consulted Mid. Thus far Sir having heard your account of the signs and causes of Fertility and Sterility I having heard learned men discourse of Superfetation I would humbly intreat you Sir that you would please to let me hear your opinion about that matter Dr. That you shall willingly good Mrs. Eutrapelia and therefore I shall begin first to tell you what it is SECT II. Of Superfaetation Dr. SVperfaetation according to the discription of Hippocrates is a repeated conception that is when a Woman being already with Child conceives again the 2 d time now there is a great dispute about this for we see daily Bitches Sows and Rabits have divers young but with one Copulation which may make us judge the same of a Woman some will have this to be by Superfetation but there are signs by which we may know the difference whether both Children were begot at once or one after the other That which makes many believe there can be no such thing as superfetation is because as soon as a Woman hath conceived her Womb closeth firmly so that the Man's seed absolutely necessary to conception finding no place nor entry cannot be received nor contained in it so as to cause this 2d conception To this may be added That a bearing Woman dischargeth her seed which is as necessary as a Mans by a Vessel which terminates on the side of the outward part of the inward Orifice which seed by this means is shed into the Neck of the Womb and not into the bottom as it ought for this purpose However it may be said in answer to these objections which are very strong that though the Womb be clos'd c. yet this general rule may have some exception so that it may be sometimes opened to let pass some slimy excrements which by their stay offend it or chiefly when a Woman is animated with an earnest desire of Copulation in the heat of which action she sometimes dischargeth by the passage that terminates in the bottom of the Womb which being opened by the impetuous endeavor of the seed more then ordinarily over-heated and this Orifice being at the same time a little opened if the Man's seed be darted into it at the same moment 't is thought a Woman may then conceive again This may be confirmed by a story of a Servant related by Pliny who having the same day copulated with two several Persons brought forth two Children the one resembling her Master the other his Proctor and also by a story of another Woman who had two Children one like her Husband and the other like her Galant but this different resemblance doth not always prove superfetation because sometimes different
carries them away And now to come home to the purpose let me tell you the first and principal of all the qualities in a good Nurse is that she be the Child 's own Mother as well because of the mutual sympathy of their tempers as that having much more love for it she will be much more careful then an hired Nurse who commonly loves her Nurse Child but with a feined love so that the Mother though she be not the best Nurse should always be prefer'd before another But because there are divers that either will not or cannot suckle their own Children there is then an Obligation to provide another Nurse which should be chosen for the Child 's good as near as may be For even as we see trees of the same kind and growing in the same yet being afterwards transplanted to another Soil do produce fruits of a different taste by reason of the nourishment they draw from thence even so it fares with the health of Children and their manners sometimes depend on the nourishment they receive at the beginning for as the health of the body answers to the humors that all the parts are nourished with which humors always retain the nature of the food whereof they are engendred and as for the manners they commonly follow the temperament which likewise proceeds from the nature of the humors and the humors from the food from whence may be drawn this consequence that as the Nurse is so will the Child be both in body and mind by means of the nourishment it draws from her This may plainly appear in Animals that suck a strange dam for they always purchase something of the nature of the Creature they suck being accordingly either of a mild or fierce nature of a strong or weak body as may be seen in young Lions which will become tame by sucking a domestic Animal as a Cow Ass or Goat and on the other side a Dog will become more furious if it sucks a Wolf Now the necessary conditions requisite in a good Nurse are usually taken from her Age the time and manner of her Labor the Constitution of all the parts of her Body and particularly of her Breasts the nature of her Milk and lastly from her manners As concerning her Age the most convenient is from 25 to 35 years of Age Then as to the time and manner of her Labor it must be at least a month or 6 weeks after that and not above 5 or 6 months she must not have miscarried and she must have layn in of a 2d or third Child that she may know the better how to perform her Office As to the healthful constitution of her body 't is the principal thing on which almost all the rest depend for she ought to come of Parents that never had the stone in the Reins or Bladder or Gout Kings-Evil Falling-sickness or any other hereditary distemper that she have no Scab or Itch and that she be strong neither too tall nor too low not too fat nor too lean and above all she must not be with Child let her be of a Sanguine Complexion which is known by her Vermilion color not altogether so red but inclining to white of a firm fast flesh not subject to the Whites for that 's a sign of a bad habit not red hair'd nor mark'd with red spots but black hair'd or of a Chesnut brown neat in her Cloaths of a sprightly Eye and a smiling countenance sound and white Teeth for if they be rotten her breath may smell having a good voice to please and rejoice the Child and a clear and free pronuntiation that the Child learn not an ill accent from her as usually red hair'd have and sometimes those that are very black hair'd with white Skins for their Milk is hot sharp and stinking and also of an ill Tast Her Breasts ought to be pretty big to receive and concoct a sufficient quantity of milk being sound and free from scars proceeding from former Impostumes being indifferent firm and fleshy that their natural heat may be the stronger she must be broad breasted that her Milk may have the more room to be prepared and digested in and because 't is a sign of a great deal of vital heat As to her Nipples they must be well shap'd as you observ'd not too big nor too hard nor gristly nor sunk in too deep but they must be a little raised and of a moderate bigness and firmness with many little holes that she may be soft milch'd to the end the Child may not take too much pains to draw the milk by sucking them and pressing them with its Mouth All these good qualities being found in a Nurse respecting all the parts of her Body there needs be no fear but her Milk will be good The which may be known first by its quantity the which ought to be sufficient for the Child's nourishment and not too much lest it not being all drawn forth it curdâ—e and inflame the Breast by its too long stay there however it is better to have too much then too little for she may give the overplus to another Child it must not be too waterish nor to thick but of a middle consistence the which may be easily judged if she milking some into her hand and turning it a little on one side it immediately turns off but if it remains fixt 't is a mark 't is too thick and clammy and this if she have but little of it will stick upon the Childs tongue pallate and throat and so cause as it were a white Cancer which is more and more heated by reason of their forceable sucking in vain and they are hereby hindred from sucking These Nurses will after this Milk a drop or two out of their Breasts and cry look ye the Child cares not for sucking There is no greater abuse in any thing then in Nurses for let them make what pretence they will 't is nothing but necessity makes them be such and therefore Mothers ought to have a great care and to make it their business to surprize the Nurse at her own House that if there be any miscarriage they may find it out As to the colour of her Milk the whitest is the best and the less white it is so much the worse it must be of a sweet and pleasant smell which is a sign of a good temper as may be seen in red hair'd Women whose Milk hath a sour bad scent and to be compleat in every quality it must be of a good taste that is sweet and sugar'd without any sharpness or saltness or other strong tast Lastly to come to the principal and best conditions of a Nurse which consists in her good manners I say that she ought to be careful to cleanse the Child as soon as there is occasion she ought to be prudent not Cholerick nor quarrelsome as well because it may make bad impressions on the Child as because it heats her
should send forth are intercepted as by Stool by Urine c. The passages for transpiration are stuffed up so that the progress of the aliment being stop'd of necessity the Milk must be vomited up after which will follow much flegmatick matter a sure argument of crudities Sometimes there will arise botches about the Body much matter and snot and quittor will come out of the Nose and cornerâ— of the Eyes and Eyelids and the appetitâ— will be lost Contrarily from the thinner and sharpeâ— sort of Milk the Belly is looser than iâ— ought being troubled with pinches anâ— gripes in the belly of the infant Also very angry pustules and whelks will arise about the body like the small Pox and the body groweth weak by little and little the Infant not caring for food for the strength of the appetite will be more remiss by reason of the sharpness of that which the Infant desires so that it is not much sensible of that aliment which it hath and that aliment of which it is sensible is naught and vicious Now as from the over-bundance of Milk the Infant oftentimes when it sucks is overwhelmed being so puffed up and the belly distended as if it would break until by much pissing or breaking wind it is slacker So where there is too much scarcity of milk there the Infant being altogether destitute of its nourishment will pine away and all the parts of the body being starved in those years when it most wants nourishment by reason of vehemency of the innate heat and that habit of body that the least blast will puff down which requires much and constant aliment By all which Women ought to be the more provident lest all these mischiefs happen especially not to make choice of such a Nurse whose poverty must needs starve her self and her Nursery and if they should so happen to amend them as hath been said before e're they grow incurable and require the help of another Artist that may cure it Or if the fault in the milk cannot be cured and amended in the Nurse which she hath contracted Then you have no more to do but presently to look for another Nurse that hath none of these inconveniencies that so the Infant may have suck enough which is all it requires for want of which you may hear sad crying and weeping And this may be discovered by their dreams as by the often motion of the lips in the cradle as if they were sucking when they are a sleep Neither is it strange that the Infant should be sensible of and Participate of whatsoever food as meat drink and Physick that the Nurse taketh which maketh Physitians purge the Nurse to cure the Child if a woman take any purging Physick she purgeth her Child also So Galen reports that of Goats feeding in Asia where Scammony grow did communicate a purging faculty to their milk And so the milk of Asses generally accounted best in Consumptions is counted better if the Asse be fed with such herbs as Maiden-hair c. And again when young Goats suck Sheeps-milk the rough hair shall lose its coursness and become like a fleece of wooll and so contrarily when Lambs are brought up by Goats their wooll groweth the more hairy If then the qualities of the milk pass into those that suck them as without doubt they do it is easie to gather that other impurities follow thither also neither is it improbable Surely then we ought to take no less care of the Nurse than of the Child as in her diet exercise physick c. since whatsoever conduceth to the benefit of the Nurse tends to the good and welfare of the Infant I have been the larger upon this Sir of Nurses and Milk because tender Infants can neither make choice of their Nurses themselves nor discover or plead for their wants Their own Mothers surely if they are able both by duty and nature being the most fit to Nurse their own Children which the greatest Ladies may do with the greatest conveniences by reason of their plenty of all things besides their attendance of servants who can bring their Nurseries to them at all hours be it by night or day and take it from them again not to disturb their rest which also they may tend at their own pleasures The longest time that a Child need be suckled is till it have teeth to chew with I shall leave only one caution for Nurses and and so wind up and 't is this Let Nurses ever milk out some Milk e're they suckle the Child and after it is suckled that they rock it not too much presently after lest violent rocking disturb the meat in the stomach or the other parts draw away the Milk in the stomach as yet unconcocted Dr. Thus far have you done very well good Mrs. Eutrapelia as in all other things so as to what concerns the Choice and office of Nurses and now if you please you shall hear a few of my observations about the same matter which it may be may not be unwelcome to you Then you must know that I have taken notice of 2 sorts of Nurses which I have observ'd in the World The one sort is such as are of an ill humor or blood the which settle in their Milk being the place at that time where they discharge themselves Now you must note that these sort of Women are in a better condition when they are Nurses then when they are not for when they are not Nurses they are subject to pains in their Arms sometimes and sometimes in their Shoulders and sometimes in their Legs or Thighs or elce they are subject to waterish Eyes or swelling in their Eyes or Nose Now the Infants which suck these Nurses if they be fat 't is not good but soft fat and they are dull and sottish and coming to breed Teeth they are very sickly and commonly dye by reason of the reum pushing out of too many Teeth at once and if they escape this they are more troubled with bad juices in their Infancy then their Parents in their old age and if the reum be salt the Milk is of a blackish and blewish colour but if it be of Choler 't is yet the more dangerous and venemous to the Children There is another sort of Nurses and they are such as who after they have layen in about some 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 months are taken with their purgations a thing which never happens to good Nurses and when this does happen they are more dangerous then the former and the Child must presently be taken away for they are more apt to conceive then to Nurse and if they do continue Nurses they do but ruine the Children for there dyes a third part of the Children for want of taking care in this particular which yet seem fat and in good case for this is the cause of great colic and windiness in Infants which kils them in a moment for the least Feaver that takes them