will do well to consume the Moisture that is superfluous Take the Meal of Beans and Orobus of each two ounces and a half Powder of Comfrey roots half an ounce Mints three drams Wormwood Cammomile Flowers Roses of each two drams when they are boiled with two ounces of oil of Mastick make a Cataplasme or take red Roses Myrtle leaves Horstail Mints Plantain a handful of each Flowers of sowr Pomegranates two Pugils boil all in Vinegar and red wine and with a spunge lay it warm to the breasts and let it dry on If Milk be too much in the breasts after the child is born and the child be not able to suck it all the breasts will very frequently inflame or Imposthumes breed in them they swell and grow red and are painful being over-stretched whence hard tumours grow too much blood is the cause of it or the child is too weak and cannot draw it forth Sometimes it goeth away without any remedies but if you need help then hinder the breeding of more milk and try to consume that which is bred if the child cannot draw it forth Glasses are made to suck it forth The woman must eat and drink with moderation and use a drying diet if she nurse not the child her self or if the child be weaned to dry up the milk take a good quantity of Rozin mingle it with Cream and being luke-warm lay it all over the breasts or make a plaister to dry up the Milk with Bean meal red Vinegar and oil of Roses lay it on warm If the Breasts be inflamed keep a good reasonable cooling Diet moistening and comfortable it is blood and not milk that causeth inflamation for milk when it grows hot makes pain and thereby the blood that staies in the small capillar veins being out of the vessels is inflamed and corrupt it may also come from Falls or bruises or strait lacing of the breasts if there be a Feaver and a throbbing pain and a red hard swelling the breasts are inflamed Inflammations may be without danger but the breasts that are loose and full of Kernels will soon turn to a Schirrhus or a Cancer If the body then be full of blood open a vein but if the Courses be stopt open a vein in the Ancle and after that in the arm You may purge bad humors easily with Manna or Senna if the blood be over hot eat Endive Lettice Water-Lillies Plantane Purslain use repercussives and moderate cooling things Apply a cloth dipt in oil of Roses with Honey and Water when the strength of the inflammation is past use Discussers as well as repercussives as take white-bread Crumbs Barley-flour of each one ounce and a half Flour of Beans and Fenugreek of each half an ounce Powder of Cammomile Flowers and red Roses of each tow drams boil them then mingle Rose Vinegar one ounce and as much of oyle of Roses and Camomil lay it over the breasts then use onely Discutients as take Bean Meal Lupines Fenugreek Linseed and Powder of Camomil Flowers each an ounce make a Cataplasme if the Matter begin to grow hard use things that soften and attenuate as take a handful of Mallowes and boil them soft Powder of Linseed Marshmallows and Camomil Flowers each one ounce boil all again and with an ounce of oyl of Jessamine make a Cataplasme If you find that it will come to suppuration lay on a Plaister of Diachylon if it turn to Matter and the Impostume break otherwise open it with a Lancet and let out the Matter then câ—eanse it thus Take Turpentine and Honey of Roses of each one ounce Myrrh a scruple it will be hard to cure the Ulcer unless you dry the Milk in the other breast because much blood will run thither to breed Milk An Erisipelas of the breasts comes from great Anger or some Fright which turns to an inflammation and is cured as the former apply no fat things nor cold repercussives to discuss the thin blood that makes the inflammation lay on a clout dipt in Elder-water and give her Harts-horn Terra Sigillata and Carduus with Elder-water to make her sweat Some womens breasts are too small when the blood cannot find a way to the breasts but is repelled and forced some other way or when the Liver is dry and the woman Feaverish toils over much or watcheth or from some cause that wasts the body Therefore feed well and foment the breasts with Warm water and white-wine wherein softning things have been boiled then anoint them with oyl of sweet Almonds and rub the Breasts often to attract the blood Sometimes hard cold swellings will breed in womens breasts and Phlegmatick swellings as we see in persons that have the Green-sickness their breasts will pill for the part is loose and spungy it is larger when the terms are like to flow and when they are gone it abateth for a while If it come from an ill habit of the body derived from the womb it is to be feared otherwise it may be discust or dissolved dry and hot meats and means are best If the Courses be stopt open them and cure the ill habit then use Topicks to discuss and strengthen the part they must be temperately hot otherwise you will cause a Schirrhus by resolving the thin parts and leave the thick to grow harder Make a ly of Colewort and vine Ashes and brimstone or a decoction with Hyssop Sage Origanum and Camomile Flowers then anoint with oyl of Lillies Bays and Camomile or take four ounces of Barley Meal and half an ounce of Linseed and of Fenugreek Dill and Camomile Flowers as much one ounce of Marshmallow Roots with oyl of Dill and Camomile make an application These Phlegmatick swellings must be discust at first or they may turn into Cancers She must eat Bread well baked parched Almonds dryed Raisins let her drink a decoction of China Roots Sassafras and Sarsa forbear Milk-meats unleavened Bread and Sleeping presently after meat Besides watry and Hydropick humours there are Kernels growing in the breasts which are small round spungy bodies and sometimes swell by humors flowing thither there grow sometimes other hard swellings caused by that they call the kings-Kings-evil it is engendred of gross Phlegm or thick mattery blood and grows hard under the skin the stopping of the Courses is the ordinary cause when the Menstrual blood runs back to the breasts this will soon become a Cancer if it be not prevented by softning means and a moderate thin Diet keeping her self warm and using good exercise before Meats avoid idleness and meats of hard digestion Baths of Brimstone are good to be prescribed against windy and watry swellings But Celsus saith That the Scrofula of the Breasts is seldome seen for that must proceed from a thick Phlegmatick humor mixt with a melancholy humors it is sometimes painful and somewhat like a Cancer or will soon be turned to one but stands often times at the same pass for many years It comes from disorder or stopping
which the womb hangs and so it passeth to the sides and belly The causes are the cold air that is got in by her sore travel in child-birth or sharp or clotted blood sticking in the womb and pricking for expulsion these pains make the woman weak and very troublesome wherefore you must strive to abate them Some women are so hardy that to hinder this they will drink cold water so soon as they are delivered if the woman be cholerick she may do it with a crust of tosted bread otherwise it is dangerous CHAP. VII Of the Chollick some women are afflicted within the time of their travel SOme women have the Chollick at the time they should bring forth a child which hinders the delivery and the pains surpass the pain of their travel you can scarce distinguish one of these pains from the other but whilst the chollick lasts the birth comes not forward at all the causes of this disease are great crudities and indigestions of the stomach Let her take Cinnamon water one ounce with two ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds newly drawn if this do it not then give her a Glister against wind or use fomentations against wind both are good in this cases More remedies there are against wind for Child-bed Women but these may suffice CHAP. VIII Of Womens Miscarriage or Abortment with the Signs thereof THere are abundance of causes whereby women are driven to abort or miscarry and I have spoken somewhat of this before I shall add a little more to it the better to know the signs causes and remedies against it it is the bringing forth an untimely birth or fruit before it be ripe if it happen in seven daies after conception it is but an effluxion but if in fourteen daies after it is an untimely birth sometimes an untimely birth may be alive but it is very seldom that it continues the elder and stronger it is the more hopes for life some women have such large wombs or slippery full of slimy humours that the Seed cannot be contain'd but slips away sometimes it is an imposhumation causing pain that hinders retention but this is rather Effluxion than abortment But sometimes the Cups or Veins whereby the conception is tied to the womb through which also nourishment passeth to it as we said before are stopt with viscous ill humours and so swollen with wind or inflamed that the Cups break and the fruit is lost for want of food this happens commonly in the second or third month so Hippocrates tells us that this is the certain cause if the woman that miscarries be of a good state of body not too fat nor too lean Sometimes the right Gut or the womb may have an Ulcer or Piles or the Bladder or Ureters swollen with the Stone or Strangury and the pains thereof may break the Cups or if she have a Tenasmus great provocation to stool and can do nothing she brings forth her birth by straining downward and that before she should Also great coughs make the woman feeble and consumptive and the child consumes within her great bleeding at the nose or any great loss of blood or too great flux of her courses after conception cause miscarriage if they flow in in the third month else not Also opening of a vein may cause it if the woman want blood but such as are sanguine may let blood after the fourth month and before the seventh month but it is good to see there be cause for it else not Violent purging before the fourth month or after the seventh causes abortment But gentle purging between the fourth and the seventh month are safe Violent fluxing or vomiting make women strain too much especially lean folks and may perish the child and break the Cups If the woman hunger much for want of food Nature hath nothing to spare to keep the child alive it is the same thing with Beasts and Plants that want nutriment and too much will choak it Sharp diseases or Pestilential Feavers Imposthumes in the breast Palsies falling-sicknes kill the child and sometimes the child is sick in the womb Also change of weather may cause miscarriage saith Hippocrates when the winter is hot and moist and the Spring cold and dry that follows it the women that conceive in that Spring will easily abort and if they do not they will suffer hard labour in child-birth and the child will be weak and short liv'd the reason may be because the body is opened and made more tender by the foregoing heat and moist weather and then the succeeding cold makes it more dangerous Great labour as dancing leaping falls or bruises great passions suddenly coming not lookt for may make a woman miscarry let all women beware of it for it is more painful than a true delivery because one is natural and the other against nature nature helps the one but not the other Signs of Abortment I have spoken of in part but commonly about the third and fourth month womens bodies that will swell and puff up with hardness and stiffness stitches and windiness running about her yet she feels no more weight in her body this is a sign of miscarriage if it be not prevented There is nothing better after conception to prevent abortment than good natural food moderately taken and to use all things with moderation to avoid violent passions as care and anger joy fear or whatsoever may too much stir the blood use not Phlebotomy without great cause nor yet violent purgatives If the Matrix be too much dilated use things that contract and fasten as Baths prepared Unguents Ointments Fumes Odours Plaisters Some remedies are specifical against miscarriage and if the woman be in danger she may use them and that in divers ways that she may take them as thus take red Coral in powder two drams shavings of Ivory one dram and a half Mastick half a dram and one Nutmeg in powder give half a dram in a rear egg c. A Powder to hinder Abortion Take Bistort-roots one scruple Kermes berries Plantane and Purslain seeds of each one dram Coriander prepared two scruples Sugar all their weight take every day one scruple with a little Maligo Wine if the body be not costive For an Ague Sometimes women with Child fall into an Ague then take Barley meal juice of Sloes and of Housleek a sufficient quantity and with Vinegar make a Cataplasme and lay it upon a double cloth and lay it often upon the womans belly and this will preserve the child from it For the wind Some are much troubled with wind that will cause them to miscarry then take Cumminseed and boyl it in water give her four spoonful of it twice a week with a dram of Methridate Against sudden frights Take Mastick Frankincence of each one dram Dragons blood Myrtles Bolearmoniak Hermes berries of each half a scruple make them into powder and give half a dram at once with White Wine or Chicken broth To strengthen the Child in
burns and hot swellings and head-ach that comes of heat by a likeness and affinity it hath to draw hot vapours to it so Linseed oil is good against burnings Scaliger affirms that Camphire increaseth Venery it may do so if it be used seldome but often used it is certain that it will destroy it There is moreover from ill tempered seed and melancholly blood in the vessels near the Heart which contaminates the Vital and Animal Spirits a melancholy distemper that especially Maids and Widows are often troubled with and they grow exceeding pensive and sad for melancholy black blood abounding in the Vessels of the Matrix runs sometimes back by the great arteries to the heart and infects all the spirits when this blood lieth still they are well but if it be stirred or urged then presently they fall into this distemper they know not why and the arteries of the spleen and back beat strongly and melancholly vapours fly up They are sorely troubled and weary of all things they can take no rest their pain lieth most on their left side and sometimes on the left breast in time they will grow mad and their former great silence turns to prating exceedingly crying out that they see fearful spirits and dead men when it is gone so far it is hard to cure it is vain then to try to make them merry they despair and wish to die and when they find an opportunity they will kill or drown or hang themselves At first when the blood is hot and fiery open a vein in the arm if they have their courses if not in the foot or ancle to bring the courses down Cooling moistening cordials and such things as revive the spirits and conquer melancholy wil do much driers are naught for melancholly is dry Confectio Alkermes is commended for those that can away with it but Confectio de Hyacintho is better use a moistening diet To breed mirth give her waters of Balm and Borage of each three ounces sirrup of the juices of Borage and Bugloss of each one ounce and a half take this at twice and use it often To purge melancholly take six drams of Senna Agarick one dram and a half Borage and violet flowers of each a small handful two drams of Citron peels infuse all six hours in good Rhenish wine strain them and put to them sirrup of Violets one ounce CHAP. II. Of the Falling Sickness WHen Women by reason of the ill affections of the womb fall into Epilepsies and Falling sickness it is worse than any other cause as the symptomes prove for the poisonous vapor is not only in the Nerves as when it is from the brain but also in the membranes veins and arteries The same foul vapour that causeth strangling of the womb produceth this for it causeth divers diseases according to the parts it takes hold on but when it lights forcibly on the Nerves then it causeth the Falling-sickness Sometimes there is a convulsion of the whole body and sometimes but of some parts as of the head or tongue hands or legs eyes or ears some cannot hear others cannot see all lose the sense of feeling some cry out but know not wherefore They that fall if the vapour be not too strong when they rise they go to their work again as if they had no harm but here is not only convulsions as in those that have the Falling-sickness from other parts but stopping the breath as in the strangling of the womb but these seldome some at the mouth as those do for the brain is entire or not much offended nor is their hearing taken away quite by the vapour fastening upon the roots of the Nerves of the ears Rue and Castor that cure fits of the Mother are good here the cure is almost the same only you must add some things that respect the nerves and the Brain Use these Pills twice in a week before supper one hour and take a scruple or half a dram Take Senna and Peony root of each half an ounce Mugwort Rue Betony Yarrow half a handful of each boil them then clarifie the decoction put to it Aloes one ounce and a half of juice of the herb Mercury one ounce let it stand and settle pour off the clear liquor then add two drams of Rhubarb sprinkled with water of Cinnamon Agarick half an ounce Mastick and Epileptick powder of each half a dram make the pills with sirrup of Mugwort To mend the distemper of the head and Womb take conserve of Rosemary flowers and of the Tile tree of Balm and Lillies of the valley of the root Scorzonera Candied of each one ounce Diamoschu dulce one dram with two drams of the roots of Peony and seeds of Agnus Castus and sirrup of Stoechas make an Electuary to take at your pleasure Nor are these all the ill consequences of the wombs distempers but sometimes violent head-ach springs from it which is the greatest pain of all the rest and sometimes it is all over the head or but upon one side or in the eyes the ill vapours rising by the veins and arteries of the Womb to the membranes and films of the brain when the vessels are full of a thin sharp blood that is carried from the womb to the membranes it stretcheth and rends them and corrodes and bites so that the pain is intollerable the cure is to purge away the peccant humour that lieth in the Womb for this is not as other head-ach is that comes from other causes the pain runs also to the Loins and the Membranes there by some capillary veins from the womb The pain of the head by affection with the womb is in all the head commonly but is chiefly iâ— the hinder part of the head because the womb being Nervous consents with the membranes of the brain by the membrane of the Marrow of the back hence it is that women are more subject to the head-ach than men are because of the womb that holds such affinity with the Nerves of the head The violent beating of the heart and Arteries both in the Sides and Back is by consent from the womb when evil humors therein contained pass by the Arteries and Poysonous vapours arise to those parts Cordials are good as Cinnamon Water and Aqua Monefardi or Mathiolas his water the Disease seems small but it is not safe because the cause of it is very ill In this Disease the Artery that beats in the Back beats strongly because it is part of the great Artery but the Arteries that beat in the Hypochondrion beat not so strongly for they are smaller branches from the Spleen and Mesentery but the cause is the same The Arteries are inflamed by the ill vapours and humours sent from the womb and the heart is exceedingly heated by them but this hot humor sometimes beats by reason of the great Artery quite over the whole body but it lasts not long for there is little corruption of the humors Some say the blood
for that is ordained to go to the breasts to make milk which is the reason that Nurses have few or no Courses because the blood goes to the breasts to make milk as I said But if this accident fall out that the blood runs forth at the breasts undigested not changed by the faculty of the breasts into Milk as it ought to be then open the Saphaena vein in the Foot and that will pull it back again and cure this Distemper There is so near agreement between the breasts and the womb that any distemper of the womb will change the very colour of the Nipples and therefore it is not well to prejudicate and to think they are not Maids when their Nipples change colour when it is onely a sign that their wombs are distempered The Nipples are red after Copulation red I say as a Strawberry that is their natural colour but Nurses Nipples when they give Suck are blew and they grow black when they are old If there be pain in the breasts from abundance of milk onely the pain is not very great it is onely by overstretching them but if the milk be sowr or sharp or salt or corroding the pain is more and will be greater if there be inflammation but when there is an Ulcer or a Cancer the pains are out of measure great you may know the câ—use of the pain by the greatness of it and you have sufficient directions before how to cure them But having made way for it I shall now proceed to speak a few words of Nurses and Nursing of Children CHAP. V. How to Chuse a Nurse THis dispute about Nurses who are fit for it and who are not is much handled by Physicians and some there be that will tye every woman to Nurse her own Child because Sarah the wife to so great a Man as Abraham was nursed Isaac And indeed if there be no other obstacle the Argument may carry some weight with it for doubtless the mothers milk is commonly best agreeing with the child and if the mother do not Nurse her own Child it is a question whether she will ever love it so well as she doth that proves the Nurse to it as well as Mother and without doubt the child will be much alienated in his affections by sucking of strange Milk and that may be one great cause of Childrens proving so undutiful to their Parents The Lacedemonians chose the youngest son after his Father to succeed in the Kingdom rejected all the rest because the mother gave suck onely to the youngest Tacitus gives a reason why the Germans are so exceeding strong because saith he they are commonly sucked by their own Mothers Yet Alcibiades a strong and valiant Captain was thought to have come to his great strength by sucking the breasts of a Spartan woman for they are great vigorous and usually very strong women I cannot think it alwayes necessary for the mother to give her own Child suck she may have sore breasts and many infirmities that she cannot do it Moreover a Nurse ought to be of a good Complexion and Constitution and if the Mother be not so it will be good to change the milk by chosing a good wholesome nurse that may correct the natural humors of the Child drawn from the ill complexion of the Mother Many children dye whilest they are sucking the breasts or else get such Diseases if the milk be naught that they can hardly ever be cured and the chief cause is the Nurses milk If a Nurse be well complexioned her milk cannot be ill for a Fig-Tree bears not Thistles a good Tree will bring forth good Fruit. But few can tell when they see a Nurse whether her complexion be good or not wherefore I shall give you such Rules whereby you may be able to know that and I have gained most of it by my own experience Many Physicians have troubled themselves and others with unnecessary directions but the chifest is to choose a nurse of a sanguine complexion for that is most predominant in children and therefore that is most agreeing to their age but beware you choose not a woman that is crooked or squint-eyed nor with a mishapen Nose or body or with black ill-favoured Teeth or with stinking breath or with any notable depravation for these are signs of ill manners that the child will partake of by sucking such ill qualified milk as such people yield and the child will soon be squint-eyed by imitation for that age is subject to represent and take impression upon every occasion but a sanguine complexioned woman is commonly free from all these distempers unless by accident it fall out otherwise and her milk will be good and her breasts and nipples handsome and well proportioned she is of a mean stature not too tall nor too low not fat but well flesht of a ruddy merry cheerful delightsome countenance and clear skin'd that her Veins appear through it her hair is in a mean between black and white and red neither in the extream but a light brown that partakes somewhat of them all Such a woman is sociable not subject to melancholy nor to be angry and fretful nor peevish and passionate but jovial and will Sing and Dance taking great delight in children and therefore is the most fit to Nurse them whereas all the other tempers except sanguine as Flegm or Choler or melancholy breed milk that will agree well with no child and their own constitutions are not agreeable to the nursing of children though her complexion then be not exactly sanguine for that is seldom found let it suffice if blood be predominant above the rest Moreover be her temper naturally never so good yet if she be diseased she is not for your turn or if she be above fourty years old or under eighteen years she must be of ability to live well that there be no want and one that hath had good Education to instruct her for if she be not well bred she will never breed the child well she must have prudence and care to see to it But there is one rule from the Sex That a female Child must suck the breasts of a Nurse that had a Girl the last child she had and a Boy must suck her that lately had a boy But the Nurse must not company with Man so long as she gives suck to the child for if she conceive the child will suffer by it she must live in a well-tempered pure Air she must sleep well when she is sleepy that she may soon wake if the child cry She must use moderate exercise and indeed the Dancing and Rocking of the child will hardly suffer her to be idle and therefore all such as put their children to Nurse should do well to consider the great care and pains of the Nurse by well rewarding them when they have made a good choice for if the Nurse be not good they had better be without them Nor is it onely
in this building for the seed is the workmaster that makes the Infant and therefore the stones that make this seed must needs be Principal parts though some exclude them making only the Heart the Brain and the Liver to be of the first rank but the stones may in some sort be put in the first rank not onely to make the body fruitful but to work a change in the whole Take away a Mans stones and he is no more the same man but growes cold of constitution though he were never so hot before and is subject to Convulsion fits also their voice grows shrill and Feminine and their manners and dispositions are commonly naught Eunuchs may live without them and it hath been an approved cure for the Leprosy in former times but Hippocrates tells us that the stones are the strength and vigour of Manhood and that a convulsion of the stones threatneth Death and the firmness or looseness of them is a great sign of good or evil and that applications to the stones are very effectual to the strengthning of the body It is then very needful for all to keep the Organs of procreation pure and clean that they may send forth good seed to make the work perfect and that Children may be long lived which they cannot well be nor of sound constitutions if they are begotten from corrupt Seed or unnatural blood Alchymists lay the cause of all Childrens diseases on the Seed of the Parents as plants have not the causes of their destruction from the Elements but from their own Seed as also we see that when the Plague or any Epidemical disease rageth all are not infected because they have not that matter in them that will so soon take as it doth with others That therefore the matter may be fit for the work of nature there are two things very useful good diet moderately taken and conveniet labour and exercise of body Ill diet causeth ill blood and excess in meat or drink choakes the natural heat causeth raw crude humours which will never make good blood and ill blood will never make good seed for every part hath its natural propriety to change the nutriment into its own likeness as the Breasts change blood into Milk the stones change it into seed alwayes supposing such previous preparations that are needful or it cannot be done as it should be Temperance in eating and drinking will make both Parents and Children to be long lived and there is as much difference between good and bad nourishment as there is between pure Fountain water and ditch water but temperance is not to be understood as if there were a set proportion for all alike for it is according to every ones constitution what is too much for one Man or woman may be too little for another it is then such a quantity of meat or drink that the stomach can well master and digest for the feeding of the body Those that work hard must eat more than Schollars that follow their studies for the work of the stomach is called off by the intention of the mind their meat must be less and of easier digestion They that live in hot climates or near the Sun have not so strong stomachs as in colder regions nor is it with us all one in Summer and winter but every man or woman of years by good observation may know his own temper and what quantity will best agree with him and so if he be not a fool he may be his own Physician Youth and age cannot feed alike Children are often feeding because they want both for growth and nourishment but old age not near so much sick and healthful differ in the same kind I never could endure that preposterous way that most persons observe to the destruction of their Friends that when they are sick they will never let them alone but provoke them to eat whereas fasting is the better Doctor so it be not out of measure The causes of great eating and drinking beyond the bounds of nature are a liquorish appetite and a fancy beyond reason But having found out the causes I shall prescribe some remedies withal It is easy to know when you have eat or drank too much or what agrees not with you when you find nature charged with it and is not able to digest it vapours rising from the stomach that is glutted will choak the brain and cause defluxions and multitudes of diseases if you be sleepy after meat and drink you have taken too much for moderation makes a Man cheerful and not sleepy Also refrain from all meats and drinks that agree not with your constitution for they will never breed good blood but if you have done amiss in surfeiting your self or over eating or using any thing that agrees not with you remember that nature abhors all sudden changes and therefore you must not withdraw all at once but by degrees till you can bring your selves safely to a moderation This intemperance of Parents is the cause that many Children die before their time for what is too much can never be well concocted but turns to ill and raw humours and if the stomach turn the food into crude juyce or chyle the Liver that makes the second concoction can never mend it to make good blood nor can the third concoction of the stones to turn that blood into seed make good seed of ill blood for what is bad in the first concoction the second concoction nor third can ever rectify but if the chyle be good blood and seed will be good But you must know that nothing furthers good concoction more than moderate labour for it stirs up natural heat whereas idle persons breed crude humours And therefore Lycurgus the Lacedemonian Law-giver commanded Maids to work for saith he this keeps their bodies in good temper and free from crudities and when they come to marry their Children will be strong There 's as much difference between labour and sloth as between the earth in Summer and Winter in Summer the Sun by its heat makes it fruitful in Winter it is chill for want of the Suns heat Convenient labour sends the spirits to all parts of the body when the Elements are unequally divided death follows so the better the spirits are distrubuted to the seed the better will the seed be and your Children the stronger which is no small effect of moderate exercise when sloth is the cause of their hasty dissolution moderate labour open the pores of the body and by sweat or insensible transpriation sends forth all fuliginous and smoky vapours that choke the spirits and cause divers maladies we find all this to be true in reason and experience confirms it for Countrey people that work hard digest what they eat and their Children are usually strong and long liv'd But Citizens and such as refuse to labour and live idle lives I do not say all I hope there will be the fewer for what I have taken the pains to
write now for their better instruction and reformation then will Men wonder no longer what becomes of so many Children as are born in the City one can hardly find as many living as are born in half a years time I am perswaded not so many can be found to have lived to seven years of age They that love their Children will take my advice and they and their Children will have good cause to thank me for it and besides the avoiding the mischiefs of intemperance to themselves and posterity they shall find the blessing of God upon them as a great reward of this vertue of moderation and the poor will have just cause to pray for me and them for what is wastfully spent by the riotous may be charitably bestowed upon their poor neighbours that stand in need of it CHAP. II. Of true conception TRue Conception is then when the seed of both sexes is good and duly prepared and cast into the womb as into fruitful ground and is there so fitly and equally mingled the Man's seed with the womans that a perfect Child is by degrees framed for first small threads as it were of the solid and substantial parts are formed out and the womans blood flowes to them to make the bowels and to supply all parts of the infant with food and nourishment Conception is the proper action of the womb after fruitful seed cast in by both sexes and this Conception is performed in less than seven hours after the seed is mingled for nature is not a minute idle in her work but acts to the utmost of her power it is not copulation but the mixture of both seeds is called conception when the heat of the womb fastens them if the woman conceives not the seed will fall out of the womb in seven daies and abortion and conception are reckoned upon the same time The Seeds of both must be first perfectly mixed and when that is done the Matrix contracts it self and so closely embraceth it being greedy to perfect this work that by succession of time she stirs up the formative faculty which lieth hid in the seed and brings it into act which was before but in possibilty this is the natural property of the womb to make prolifick Seed fruitful it is not all the art of man that setting the womb aside can form a living child To conceive with child is the earnest desire if not of all yet of most women Nature having put into all a will to effect and produce their like Some there are who hold conception to be a curse because God laid it upon Eve for tasting of the forbidden fruit I will greatly multiply thy conception but forasmuch as encrease and multiply was the blessing of God it is not the conception but the sorrow to bring forth that was laid as a curse We see that there is in women so great a longing to conceive with child that ofttimes for want of it the womb falls into convulsions and distracts the whole body The womb as I said is fast tied at the neck and about the middle but the bottom hangs lose so that it doth ofttimes fall into strange motions The natural motion of it comes from the moving faculty but the unnatural motions from some unhealthful and convulsive cause which is most commonly bred in it for want of conception and not bearing of children we see no women ordinarily that are better in health than those that often conceive with child and some are so fruitful that they conceive with many children about the same time so that considering his magnitude surely no creature multiplies more than man for he hath a priority in this blessing above the beasts Twins are frequent and sometimes two or three children at one birth are not the same thing with superfetation when children are got again before the first be delivered you must not think divers Cells in the womb to be the cause of this multiplicity of children for there is no such thing in the womb to be the cause of this multiplicity of children for there is no such thing in the womb but only one line that parts one side from the other but such women have larger wombs than others and so the seed divided finds place to form more children than one if their be sufficient strength in the several parts of the seed to do it Yet when Twins are begotten they have no more than one cake called Placenta that both their Navel vessels are received by though they have different Secundines or Coats that cover them It may be discerned but with some difficulty that a woman will have more than one child by their heavy burden and slow motion also by the unevenness of their bellies and that there is a kind of separation made by certain wrinkles and seams to shew the children are parted in the womb and if she be not very strong to go through with it in her Travel she is in danger both she and her children If the twins be both boys or both girls they will fare the better Yet one is found by frequent examples to be more lusty longer liv'd than the other be they both of one sex or one a boy the other a girl that which is strongest encreaseth but the weaker decayes or fails by reason of the prevailing force of the other Sometimes the woman conceives again a long time after her conception the womb opening it self by reason of great delight in the action though it were shut so close as no air could enter for the Matrix attracts and makes room for it And this may fall out not only for once but at a third Copulation that a woman may have one mischance and two children yet no twins It may be discerned by the several motions of the Infants but the mother is in great danger of her life by losing of so great a quantity of blood as she must needs lose at two births in so short a compass of time It is most dangerous to spurr nature to delivery before her period wherefore in such cases leave it to the work of nature using only Corroboratives and some such remedies as may facilitate her progress therein But women may avoid this mischief that often happens if they will rest themselves content when they have once conceived But that Story which I touched before seems to me to be but a meer Romance of Margaret Countess of Hennenberge and sister to William King of the Romans as some writers record that when she was forty years old she was delivered at one birth successively of as many children as there are daies in the year namely three hundred sixty five the one half boys and the other half girls and the odd child was divided to both sexes an Hermaphrodite partly male partly female and that the cause of this miracle was from a curse of her sister some say a poor beggar woman at her door laid upon her for her causeless jealousie and
farther it is constantly reported that these children were all baptized living at the Church of Lardune in Holland near the Hague and the boys were all called Johns the girls Elizabeths there were two Silver Basons that they were Christned in and Guido the Suffragan of Vtrecht keeps them for to shew to strangers and one of these Basons as it is reported was brought for a present to King Charles the second before he came from thence and they say farther that presently after they were baptized the mother and all her children died Some write of another Countess in Frederick the eleventh's daies who had five hundred boys at one birth But to leave this and to proceed to the causes of Conception Notwithstanding that God gave the blessing generally to our first Parent and so by consequent to all her succeeding generations yet we find that some women are exceeding fruitful to conceive and others barren that they conceive not at all God reserving to himself a prerogative of furthering and hindering Conception where he pleaseth that men and women may more earnestly pray unto God for his blessing of Procreation and be thankful unto him for it so Psal 127.3 the Psalmist tells us Loe Children and the fruit of the Womb are an heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord. So Hannah pray'd in the first of Samuel and gave thanks when God had heard her prayer Some women are by nature barren though both they themselves and their husbands are no way deficient to perform the acts of Generation and are in all parts as perfect as the most fruitful persons can be Some think the cause is too much likeness and similitude in their complexions for God having framed an Harmonious world by a due disposing of contraries they that are too like of constitution can never beget any thing this I confess is hard to find that they should agree in all respects no difference of complexion at all yet sometimes Physicians judge barrenness proceeds from too great similitude of persons but I should rather think from some disproportion of the Organs or some impediment not easily perceived else how comes it to pass that some that have continued barren many years at last have proved fruitful I remember a story that I heard of a Watch-maker who had an excellent Watch that was out of tune and he could never make it go true what the fault was he could not find at length he grew so angry that he threw the watch against the wall and took it up again and then he found it goe exceeding true and by that means he came also to know the cause of the former defect for indeed it proved to be nothing else but some inequality in the Case of the watch which by throwing it against the wall accidentally was amended wherefore a small matter sometimes will remove the impediment if we can but find what it is Some say again the cause of barrenness is want of love in man and wife whose Seed never mixeth as it should to Procreation of children their hatred is so great as it is recorded of Eleocles and Polynices two Theban Princes who killed each other and when their bodies were afterwards burn'd as the manner of burial was in their daies to preserve only their ashes in a pot as if the hatred still continued in their dead bodies the flames parted in the midst and ascended with two points and this extream hatred is the reason why women seldom or never conceive when they are ravished and it proves as ineffectual as Onan's Seed when he spilt it upon the ground The cause of this hatred in married people is commonly when they are contracted and married by unkind Parents for some sinister ends against their wills which makes some children complain of their Parents cruelty herein all the daies of their lives but as Parents do ill to compel their children in such cases so children should not be drawn away by their own foolish fansies but take their Parents counsel along with them when they go about such a great work as marriage is wherein consists their greatest woe or welfare so long as they live upon the earth Another cause that women prove barren is when they are let blood in the arm before their courses come down whereas to provoke the Terms when they flow not as they should Women or Maids ought rather to be let blood in the foot for that draws them down to the place nature hath provided but to let blood in the arm keeps them from falling down and is as great a mischief as can be to hinder them wherefore let the Terms first come naturally before you venture to draw blood in the arm unless the cause be so great that there is no help for it otherwise The time of the courses to appear for maids is fourteen or thirteen or the soonest at twelve years old yet I remember that in France I saw a child but of nine years old that was very sickly until such time as she was let blood in the arm and then she recovered immediately but this is no president for others especially in our climate blood-letting being the ordinary remedy in those parts when the Patient is charged with fulness of blood of what age almost soever they be There is besides this natural barrenness of women another barrenness by accident by the ill disposition of the body and generative parts when the courses are either more or fewer than stands with the state of the womans body when humours fall down to the womb and have found a passage that way and will hardly be brought to keep their natural rode or when the womb is disaffected either by any preternatural quality that exceeds the bounds of nature as heat or cold or dryness or moisture or windy vapours Lastly There is barrenness by inchantment when a man cannot lye with his wife by reason of some charm that hath disabled him the French in such a case advise a man to thred the needle Nouer C'eguilliette as much as to say to piss through his wives wedding ring and not to spill a drop and then he shall be perfectly cured Let him try it that pleaseth CHAP. III. Signs that a woman is conceived with Child and whether it be a Son or a Daughter YOung women especially of their first Child are so ignorant commonly that they cannot tell whether they have conceived or not and not one of twenty almost keeps a just account else they would be better provided against the time of their lying in and not so suddenly be surprised as many of them are Wherefore divers Physicians have laid down rules whereby to know when a woman hath conceived with Child and these rules are drawn from almost all parts of the body The rules are too general to be certainly proved in all women yet some of them seldom fail in any First if when the seed is cast into the womb she feel the womb shut close and a
the child by his calcining heat what is bred by moisture and heat is fixed by cold and dryness Mars heats with a fiery calcination but Venus she tempers the heat of Mars by her moisture for she is a cold moist Planet and fitly added to abate the courage and violent heat of warlike Mars there is a great sympathy between Mars and Venus and therefore surely the Poets speak so much of their conjunction for they are eminent in this of mans generation You may by this find out the causes of sympathy and antipathy in natural things and seeing all things are made up of such contrary qualities what is generated must in time be corrupted nothing is eternal in this world but a perpetual motion breeds mutation and not man nor any thing else can continue in the same stay Mars and Venus do here play their parts in mans production for they are the nearest of the five Planets to the earth but next to them is Mercury of a changeable disposition and applieth himself to the rest of the Planets with several aspects and he causeth the desire of knowledge in man sense and reason also some maintain to be the work of Mercury by his influence upon the child in the womb It is not denied but a piercing acute humour proceeds from him which is most likely to effect not alone the sensible but the rational part in man CHAP. IX Of the Posture the child holdeth in the Womb and after what fashion it lieth there HEre Physicians are at a stand and are never like to agree about it not two in twenty that can set their horses together the speculation is very curious insomuch that the Prophet David ascribes this knowledge as more peculiar to God Psalm 139. My reins are thine thou hast covered me in my mothers womb I will give thanks unto thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well my bones are not hid from thee though I be made secretly and fashioned beneath in the earth thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect and in thy Book were all my members written which day by day were fashioned whenas yet there was none of them Yet Anatomists have narrowly enquired into this secret Cabinet of nature and Hippocrates that great Physician tells us in his Book De natura Pueri that the infant lieth in the womb with his head his hands and his knees bending downward towards his feet so that he is bended round together his hands lying upon both his knees the thumbs of his hands his eyes meeting each with other so saith Bartholinus the younger of the two Likewise Columbus's opinion is that the child lieth round in the womb with the right arm bended and the fingers of the right hand lying under the ear of it above the neck the head bowed so low that the chin meets and toucheth the breast and the left arm bowed lying above the breast and the face and the right elbow bended serves to underprop the left arm lying upon it the legs are lying upwards and the right leg is lifted so high that the infants thigh toucheth its belly the knees touch the Navel and the heel toucheth the left buttock and the foot is turned backward and hides the privy members as for the left thigh that toucheth the belly and the left leg is lifted up to the breast the stomach lyeth inward But the expert Spigelius hath the fashion of a child near the birth whose figure I have here laid down and I believe it is very proper for as well as I am able to judge by the figure it is the very same with that of a child that I had once the chance to see when I was performing my office of Midwifry Here insert the Figure of the Child near its Birth The Figure Explained Being a Dissection of the WOMB with the usual manner how the CHILD lies therein near the time of its Birth BB. The inner parts of the Chorion extended and branched out C. The Amnios extended DD. The Membrane of the Womb extended and branched E. The Fleshy substance call'd the Cake or Placenta which nourishes the Infant it is full of Vessels F. The Vessels appointâ—d for th◠〈…〉 This is a general observation that the Male Child most commonly lyeth on the right side in the womb and the Female on the left side but Hippocrates layeth it down as the most universal way to have his hands knees and head bending down toward the feet his nose betwixt his knees his hands upon both knees and his face between them each eye touching each thumb but he is wrapt as he lieth in two mantles or garments as I said for a boy hath no more that which immediately covers him and lieth next to his skin is called Amnios the skirt or Lamb-skin it is wonderful soft and thin and is loose on all sides only it grows so fast to the Cake that it can hardly be parted from it the use of it farther is to receive the Childs sweat and Urine which moisteneth the mouth of the Matrix also and makes the birth more easie but the outward coat called Chorion is very strong and sinewy and encloseth the child round about and like a soft pillow or bed bears up all the veins and Arteries of the Navel which would have been in danger to have been carried so far without some soft bolster to sustain them These coats growing fast together seem to be but one coat or one to be the beginning of the other and this altogether taken is called the after-burden or Secundine for when the Child is grown strong enough to come out of the womb and the time of his birth is at hand he breaks through these coverings and the coverings come forth after the child is born yet sometimes a piece of the Amnios covers the childs face and head when he is born and women call it the caule and hold it to be a Sign of some great happiness that will befall the child in the following part of his life but some think it is neither here nor there one born without this caule may be as happy as he that is born with it There belong to the child whilest it lieth in the womb some things that are proper for it some to cloath it and are only for that time that it lieth in that place and afterwards of no known use though some have tried to make use of them in Physick and Chirurgery but commonly they cast it away Some things again serve to nourish and feed it in the womb and those are the Navel-vessels which are four in number two arteries one vein and that vessel which is called Vrachos which carrieth away the childs water in the womb to that skin that is prepared to hold that water so long as the child staies in the womb and it is called Allantois The vein I speak of comes from the Infants Liver and
this straitness as I said But the straitness of the womb it self and its vessels are sometimes natural by ill conformation and such women will miscarry in the fourth or fifth month because the womb that naturally stretcheth as the child grows in bigness will after the woman is delivered shrink as small as it was before in some women will not be extended But if the straitness be in the vessels or neck of the womb Conception is hindered because the terms cannot flow gross humours especially when the womb is cold and weak stop the mouths of the veins and arteries Inflammations or Swellings or Scars or Schirrhus or the like may be the causes sometimes thick Flegm abounds if there were a wound or the after-burden were forcibly pulled out If the terms be stopt from an old obstruction of grown humors the cure is hard a Schirrhus or humour that shuts up the vessels cannot be cured what is to be cured must first be done by general evacuations of purging and bleeding then use means to provoke the terms if the straitness come from diseases first cure them Sometimes the Secrets of women are full of pushes and scurf with itching and pain wheals rising in the neck of the womb They are of two sorts some are gentle but most commonly they are venemous and come from the foul disease and will impart it unto men They proceed from burnt sharp cholerick malignant humours hard to be cured Sirrup of Fumitory is very good in such cases it is also profitable to wash the parts with wine and Salt-Peter Draw blood if it abound first in the arm then in the ancle but first if be the disease drink the decoction of Sarsa and Guaicum for it Avoid sharp sowr meats it is good to purge with Confectio Hamech or Fumitory Pills You may see the cause of this great itching and scurf if you search with Speculum Matricis an instrument Chirurgeons use Sometimes Tubercles grow in the neck of the womb with heat and pain you may see them them for they are a kind of swelling wrinkles like the wrinkles you see when you close your Fist but they are much larger and when they swell they make these Tubercles they are usual in the secrets or Fundament and come from the same malignant causes with the former and some are more enflamed and painful than others are The swellings are hard proceeding from thick burnt humours Powder of egg-shels burnt is good to strew upon them to dry them up if they be new and there be no inflammation but if they be old and dry they must first be softened These wrinkled skins when they are many resemble a bunch of Grapes Cure the Pox first for usually that is the cause and then they will vanish of themselves If Medicaments prevail not some old authors bid us to use an actual Cautery and to burn them away Likewise Warts in the secrets are bred by a gross dreggy ill humour and is of kind with the forementioned Nature sends it forth to the outward skin and there it becomes Warts if they be hard or blew and painful you may know what they are the Pox is in them and hard to be got out and they lie where medicines can scarce be applied to them to remain if you apply sharp Topicals use a defensative of Bole and Vinegar that you hurt not the parts and so you may touch them with Aqua fortis or Spirit of Vitriol or of Brimstone There are several sorts of these Excrescences there are those that are called Myrmeciae leave an Ulcer if you cut them off Thymi Clavi will grow again but Acrocordanes leave no root if they be once cut away The powder of Mulberries is good to cure Warts and swellings upon the privities of men and I recommend it to women in the same cases Sometimes women have the piles of the womb like those in the Fundament they proceed from gross blood that staies about the ends of these veins in the neck of the womb Women that are thus troubled look pale and are very faint and weary this may come from too long flowing of the courses and grow thick and cannot get forth they are painful and bleed disorderly you may see them by the help of Speculum Matricis and touch them The cure is by revulsion of the humour by letting blood in the arm or heel and by gentle applications if the pains be great if nature open them and they bleed moderately you may give way to nature but if they run violently open a vein in the arm two or three times Purge with Rhubarb Tamarinds and Mirobolans mingled and use Topicals to stay the blood The blind Piles bleed not at all they are cured by letting young women bleed freely and by softening the parts with emollient Fomentations to open the veins and to dispel the humour made with mallows Marshmallows Cammomile Melilot Maâ—lius Linseed Fenugreek Anoint where the pain is with butter Populeon and Opium if the pain be gone and they bleed not use Driers of Bole Ceruss Allum burnt Lead wash'd if the veins swell with blood rub them with Fig leaves or with Horse Leeches applied draw blood from them This disease of the Piles of the womb differs from the flowing of the courses because this is with great pain and moreover the courses run from the veins of the womb and the neck of it but the Piles are caused when the blood runs too much to the veins that force the secrets and either stops there or comes forth sometimes by them but some say they differ from the courses namely by their great pain but that they make the body lean if they last long and the blood comes not forth so orderly nor at certain periods and set times as the courses use to do Sometimes the womb hath Ulcers bred there some are cleaner and some again are sordid and malignant all hard to be cured They proceed generally from a virulent Gonorrhoea or the Pox but they may rise from inflammation by abundance of sharp corroding humors from abortion or hard labour or sharp medicines or when the after-birth is pulled out by force and rends the womb The pain of Ulcers is biting and increased by sharp injections of Wine or Honey and Water All Ulcers are hard to heal there because of the sensibility and moistness of the part and a light Excoriation or rawness will not easily be healed but eating Ulcers never are cured there almost but by Death Ulcers by Venery if they be cured you must first cure the Pox. All Ulcers in the secrets of Wombs may be cured if they be not Cankered and the way to cure them is by Purging and bleeding to cleanse and carry away and divert the ill Humours and moisture from the Womb if there be great pain abait that with Mucilage of Fleabane and whites of Eggs or an Emulsion of Poppey Seeds Warm Injections into the Womb will help forward the Cure made of
in the Veins is too hot and over-heats the Artery but if this heat of the Artery affect the Brain the Patient will be mad if it go over the whole body she falls into a Consumption lay your hand on the left side and you shall feel the Arteries beat much So then this Disease hath several considerations and must be cured partly as hypochondriacal Melancholy partly as in the cure for stopping of the Courses and partly as Melancholy arising from the womb Physitians can hardly tell which way to proceed oftentimes in these Distempers because it is hard to say what Disease the woman is sick of when the Spleen and left Hypochondry are afflicted from the womb The womb hath two Arteries the one from the Hypogastrick Artery and another from the preparing Arteries that which comes from the Hypogastrick runs almost through the whole Abdomen when the foul corrupt blood in the womb runs backward to the Hypogastrick Artery it passeth to the Caeliac Artery and so to the Spleen and the parts near it and it is Natures present way to thrust ill humors to the ignoble parts When the courses are stopt these ill humors are thought to be onely in the Veins but the veins and Arteries mouthes are so joyned that they pass from the Veins to the Arteries and that is the reason that elderly women whose courses were stopt when they were young are troubled oftentimes with the Spleen hypochondriack Melancholy These cannot endure to smell to sweet Scents they are short breathed Costive and Belch often they have pain in the left side and are very sad when the thin part of the blood is inflamed they grow very hot and red in the Face but that lasts not long the disease it will produce if not cured is chiefly a Schirrhus of the Spleen open a Vein if the blood be hot and the Courses stopt use Leeches to the haemorroids and Purge often but very gently with Quercetan's Pill of Tartar or Fernelius his Cum Ammoniaco and Birth-wort or prepared Steel to open the Courses and to cure Melancholy that ariseth from the womb When the liver is hurt by the gross blood running back to the holow vein from the womb as it often doth if the courses be stopt blood abound it breeds raw flegmatick blood and causeth the Green-sickness for there are many more great veins in the womb than in any other part of the body and they are often obstructed and sometimes by this stopping not onely sundry Diseases but Hair will grow over the whole body for hairs grow from the Excrementitious part of the blood and if that Excrement be sent over the body it will produce hair So Hippocrates tells us of a woman with a great beard and it is not long since there was a woman to be seen here in England which had not onely a long beard but her whole Body covered with hair It is also by reason of the womb or by consent from it that many women have no stomach others have a very large Appetite and sometimes a desire to eat strange things not fit for Food they Vomit and have the Hiccough many such ill symptomes as the vapors are so are the Diseases if Cold then they breed cold diseases if hot such diseases as proceed of heat For these filthy vapors when the way is large easily ascend from the Arteries of the womb and get into the Hypogastrick and Caeliac Arteries hot vapors cause Thirst cold vapors destroy concoction and are the cause of many cruel diseases by their Malignity When the stomach is hurt by the womb it is easily perceived for the signes of it go away sometimes and come again onely when the Fumes fly to the stomach There is no cure for this but by first curing the womb for this disease is worse than if the stomach were originally the cause of the distemper Cure the womb and if there be no other cause the stomach is cured first give a vomit to cleanse the stomach and use often to take pills of Aloes and Mastick for these fortifie the stomach If one womb in a woman be the cause of so many strong and violent diseases she may be thought a happy woman of our sex that was born without a womb Columbus reports that he saw such a woman and that her secrets were as the secrets of other women and part of the neck out It will be needless to tell you what some have written that it hath been often seen that worms and Hair and Fat and Stones and many other strange things have been found in womens wombs but what a miserable case is she in that was born with two wombs Such a woman Julius Obsequeus related that he saw and Bauhinus speaks of a maid who had a Matrix like that of a Bitch divided in two parts But some perhaps may think these things fabulous I confess they are monstrous and out of the ordinary course of nature and I know no cure for them if such things should happen I forbear therefore to speak any more of them and shall proceed to some things more material to be known and such things as few women living but have frequent occasion to be provided with remedies for CHAP. III. Of Womens Breasts and Nipples NAture within some convenient time after the Child is conceived in the womb begins to provide nourishment for it so soon as it shall be born The breasts are two in number lest by accident one Breast should fail and sometimes women have Twins and more children than one to give suck to Some women saith Gardan have been seen with more than two breasts for they have had two breasts on each side but that is very rare The form of the breast is round and sharp at the Nipple yet these differ in many women for some have breasts no bigger than men and some have huge overgrown swoln breasts by reason of much blood abounding and strong heat to draw and to concoct it The breasts should be of a moderate size neither too great nor too small not too soft nor too hard it is not necessary to have them over-big though they can hold but little milk thee may hold sufficient but large breasts are in danger to be cancerated and inflamed besides that the milk is not so good because their wants a moderate heat The immediate causes of great Breasts is partly natural by birth the passages being loose and large and sleep and idleness furthers it and much handling of them heats and draws the blood thither their causes are not many It is best to prevent their growing too big at first for it is not easily done afterward Cooling Diet and drying and astringent repercussive Topical means are the best Binding things help loose breasts and make them hard all cold Narcotick stupefying Medicaments are forbidden they will bind the Vessels but they abate Natural heat and will let no milk breed When children are weaned Discussers and Driers