like wherein there is power to provoke the flowers as with scammony in powder let them be as bigge as ones thumbe sixe fingers long and rowled in lawne or some such like thinne linnen cloath of the same things nodula's may bee made Also pessaries may be prepared with hony boyled adding thereto convenient powders as of scammony pellitory and such like Neither ought these to stay long in the necke of the wombe lest they should exulcerate and they must be pulled backe by a threed that must bee put through them and then the orifice of the womb must be fomented with white wine of the decoction of pennyroyall or mother-wort But it is to be noted that if the suppression of the flowers happeneth through the default of the stopped orifice of the womb or by inflammation these maladies must first bee cured before wee come unto those things that of their proper strength and vertue provoke the flowers as for example if such things be made and given when the wombe is enflamed the blood being drawne into the grieved place and the humours sharpened and the body of the wombe heated the inflammation will be encreased So if there be any superfluous flesh if there be any Callus of a wound or ulcer or if there be any membrane shutting the orifice of the wombe and so stopping the fluxe of the flowers they must first bee consumed and taken away before any of those things bee administred But the oportunity of taking and applying of things must be taken from the time wherein the sicke woman was wont to be purged before the stopping or if she never had the flowers in the decrease of the moone for so we shall have custome nature and the externall efficient cause to helpe art When these medicines are used the women are not to bee put into bathes or hot houses as many doe except the malady proceed from the density of the vessels and the grossenesse and clamminesse of the blood For sweats hinder the menstruall fluxe by diverting and turning the matter another way CHAP. LIIII The signes of the approaching of the menstruall fluxe WHen the monethly fluxe first approacheth the dugges itch and become more swollen and hard than they were wont the woman is more desirous of copulation by reason of the ebullition of the provoked blood and the acrimony of the blood that remaineth her voice becommeth bigger her secret parts itch burne swell and waxe red If they stay long shee hath paine in her loynes and head nauseousnesse and vomiting troubleth the stomacke notwithstanding if those matters which flow together in the wombe either of their owne nature or by corruption be cold they loath the act of generation by reason that the wombe waxeth feeble through sluggishnesse and watery humours filling the same and it floweth by the secret parts very softly Those maides that are marriageable although they have the menstruall fluxe very well yet they are troubled with head ache nauseousnesse and often vomiting want of appetite longing an ill habite of body difficulty of breathing trembling of the heart swouning melancholy fearfull dreames watching with sadnesse and heavinesse because that the genitall parts burning itching they imagine the act of generation whereby it commeth to passe that the seminall matter either remaining in the testicles in great abundance or else powred into the hollownesse of the womb by the tickling of the genitalls is corrupted and acquireth a venemous quality and causeth such like accidents as happens in the suffocation of the wombe Maides that live in the country are not so troubled with those diseases because there is no such lying in wait for their maiden-heads and also they live sparingly and hardly and spend their time in continuall labour You may see many maides so full of juice that it runneth in great abundance as if they were not menstruall into their dugges and is there converted into milke which they have in as great quantity as nurses as we read it recorded by Hippocrates If a woman which is neither great with child nor hath born children hath milke she wants the menstruall fluxes whereby you may understand that that conclusion is not good which affirmeth that a woman which hath milke in her breasts either to be delivered of childe or to be great with childe for Cardanus writeth that hee knew one Antony Buzus at Genua who being thirty yeeres of age had so much milk in his breasts as was sufficient to nurse a child for the breeding and efficient cause of milke proceeds not onely from the engrafted faculty of the glandulous substance but much rather from the action of the mans seed for proofe whereof you may see many men that have very much milk in their breasts and many women that almost have no milke unlesse they receive mans seed Also women that are strong and lusty like unto men which the Latines call Viragines that is to say whose seed commeth unto a manly nature when the flowers are stopped concoct the blood and therefore when it wanteth passage forth by the likenesse of the substance it is drawne into the duggs and becommeth perfect milk those that have the flowers plentifully and continually for the space of foure or five daies are better purged and with more happy successe than those that have them for a longer time CHAP. LV. What accidents follow immoderate fluxes of the flowers or courses IF the menstruall flux floweth immoderately there also followes many accidents for the cocoction is frustrated the appetite overthrown then followes coldnesse throughout all the body exolution of all the faculties an ill habite of all the body leannesse the dropsie a hecticke feaver convulsion swouning and often sodaine death if any have them too exceeding immoderately the blood is sharpe and burning and also stinking the sicke woman is troubled with a continuall feaver and her tongue will bee dry ulcers arise in the gummes and all the whole mouth In women the flowers doe flow by the veines and arteries which rise out of the spermaticke vessels and are ended in the bottome and sides of the wombe but in virgins and in women great with childe whose children are sound and healthfull by the branches of the hypogastrick veine and artery which are spred and dispersed over the necke of the wombe The cause of this immoderate flux is in the quantity or quality of the blood in both the fault is unreasonable copulation especially with a man that hath a yard of a monstrous greatnesse and the dissolution of the retentive faculty of the vessels oftentimes also the flowers flow immoderately by reason of a painfull a difficult birth of the child or the after-birth being pulled by violence from the cotyledons of the wombe or by reason that the veines and arteries of the necke of the wombe are torne by the comming forth of the infant with great travell and many times by the use of sharpe medicines
and exulcerating pessaries Often times also nature avoides all the juice of the whole body critically by the wombe after a great disease which fluxe is not rashly or sodainely to be stopped That menstruall blood that floweth from the wombe is more grosse blacke and clotty but that which commeth from the necke of the wombe is more cleere liquid and red CHAP. LVI Of stopping the immoderate flowing of the flowers or courses YOu must make choice of such meats and drinkes as have power to incrassate the blood for as the flowers are provoked with meats that are hot and of subtle parts so they are stopped by such meates as are cooling thickening astringent and stipticke as are barly waters sodden rice the extreme parts of beasts as of oxen calves sheep either fryed or sodden with sorrell purslaine plantaine shepheards purse sumach the buds of brambles berberries and such like It is supposed that a harts horne burned washed and taken in astringent water will stoppe all immoderate fluxes likewise sanguis draconis terra sigillata bolus armenus lapis haematites corall beaten into most subtle powder and drunke in steeled water also pappe made with milk wherein steele hath often times been quenched and the floure of wheat barly beanes or rice is very effectuall for the same Quinces cervices medlars cornelian berries or cherries may likewise be eaten at the second course Juleps are to be used of steeled waters with the syrupe of dry roses pomegranates sorrell myrtles quinces or old conserves of red roses but wine is to bee avoided but if the strength be so extenuated that they require it you must choose grosse and astringent wine tempered with steeled water exercises are to be shunned especially venereous exercises anger is to bee avoided a cold aire is to be chosen which if it be not so naturally must bee made so by sprinkeling cold things on the ground especially if the summer or heat bee then in his full strength sound sleeping stayes all evacuations except sweating The opening of a veine in the arme cupping glasses fastened on the breasts bands and painfull frictions of the upper parts are greatly commended in this malady But if you perceive that the cause of this accident lieth in a cholerick ill juice mixed with the blood the body must bee purged with medicines that purge choler and water as Rubarbe Myrobalanes Tamarinds Sebestens and the purging syrupe of roses CHAP. LVII Of locall medicines to bee used against the immoderate flowing of the Courses ALso unguents are made to stay the immoderate fluxe of the tearmes and likewise injections and pessaries This or such like may bee the forme of an unguent ℞ ol mastich myrt an ʒii nucum cupres olibani myrtil an ʒii succi rosar rubr ℥ i. pulv mastichin ℥ ii boli armen terrae sigillat an ʒss cerae quantum sufficit fiat unguentum An injection may be thus made ℞ aq plantag rosar rubrar bursae pastor centinodii an lb ss corticis querni nucum cupressi gallar non maturar an ʒii berberis sumach balaust alumin. roch an ʒi make thereof a decoction and inject it with a syringe blunt pointed into the wombe lest if it should be sharpe it might hurt the sides of the necke of the wombe also snailes beaten with their shells and applied to the navell are very profitable Quinces roasted under the coals and incorporated with the powder of myrtills and bole armenick and put into the necke of the wombe are marvellous effectuall for this matter The forme of a pessary may be thus ℞ gallar immaturar combust in aceto extinctar ʒii ammo ʒss sang dracon pul rad symphyt sumach mastich succi acaciae cornu cer ust colophon myrrhae scoriae ferri an ʒi caphur ℈ ii mixe them and incorporate them all together with the juice of knot-grasse syngreen night-shade henbane water lillies plantaine of each as much as is sufficient and make thereof a pessary Cooling things as oxycrate unguentum rosatum and such like are with great profit used to the region of the loines thighes and genitall parts but if this immoderate flux doe come by erosion so that the matter thereof continually exulcerateth the necke of the wombe let the place be anointed with the milke of a shee Asse with barly water or binding and astringent mucelages as of psilium quinces gumme trugacanth arabicke and such like CHAP. LVIII Of womens fluxes or the Whites BEsides the forenamed fluxe which by the law of nature happeneth to women monethly there is also another called a womans fluxe because it is onely proper and peculiar to them this sometimes wearieth the woman with a long and continuall distillation from the wombe or through the wombe comming from the whole body without paine no otherwise than when the whole superfluous filth of the body is purged by the reines or urine sometimes it returneth at uncertaine seasons and sometimes with pain and exulcerating the places of the wombe it differeth from the menstruall fluxe because that this for the space of a few dayes as it shall seeme convenient to nature casteth forth laudable blood but this womans fluxe yeeldeth impure ill juice sometimes sanious sometimes serous and livide otherwhiles white and thicke like unto barly creame proceeding from flegmaticke blood this last kind thereof is most frequent Therefore wee see women that are flegmaticke and of a soft and loose habite of body to be often troubled with this disease and therefore they will say among themselves that they have the whites And as the matter is divers so it will staine their smockes with a different colour Truely if it bee perfectly red and sanguine it is to be thought that it commeth by erosion or the exolution of the substance of the vessels of the wombe or of the necke thereof therefore it commeth very seldome of blood and not at all except the woman be either great with childe or cease to bee menstruall for some other cause for then in stead of the monethly fluxe there floweth a certaine whayish excrement which staineth her cloaths with the colour of water wherein flesh is washed Also it very seldome proceeds of a melancholy humour and then for the most part it causeth a cancer in the wombe But often times the purulent and bloody matter of an ulcer lying hidden in the wombe deceiveth the unskilfull Chirurgian or Physitian but it is not so hard to know these diseases one from the other for the matter that floweth from an ulcer because as it is said it is purulent it is also lesser grosser stinking and more white But those that have ulcers in those places especially in the necke of the wombe cannot have copulation with a man without paine CHAP. LIX Of the causes of the Whites SOmetimes the cause of the whites consisteth in the proper weaknesse of the wombe or else in the uncleannesse thereof and sometimes by the
〈◊〉 The signes The prognostications 〈◊〉 history Remedies for the ascension of the wombe For the falling downe of the wombe properly so called A discussing hearing fomentation How vomiting is profitable to the falling down of the wombe The cutting away of the womb when it is patrefyed Lib. 6. Epist 3â— lib. 2. Epist 〈…〉 â—ract de mirand morbor caus A history Antimonium taken in a potion doth cause the wombe to fall downe The signes of the substance of the wombe drawne out Whether there be a membrane called Hymen A history Lib. 11. cap. 16. Lib. 3. sent 21. fract 1. cap. 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 of midwives about the membrane called Hymen What virgins at the first time of copulation doe not bleed at their privie parts Lib. 3. The filthy deâ—… of bauds harlots Lib. deprost demon cap. 38. What is the strangulation of the wombe Why the womb swelleth The accidents that come of the strangling of the wombe Why the strangulation that commeth of the corruption of the seed is more dangerous than that that comes of the corruption of the bloud The cause of the divers turning of the wombe into divers parts of the body The wombe is not so greatly moved by an accident but by it selfe Whereof come such divers accidents of strangulation of the wombe The cause of sleepiners in the strangulation of the wombe The cause of a drousie madnes A hisrie The ascention of the womb is to be distinguished from the stangulation The wombe it selfe doth not so well make the ascention as the vapour thereof Women living taken for dead How women that have the suffocation of the wombe live only by transpration without breathing How flies gnats and pismires do live all the winter without breathing A history The 〈…〉 when iâ—… of the suppossion 〈◊〉 the flowers Why the supprossion the 〈…〉 â—eri 〈◊〉 or deadly â—â—men The pulling the haire of the lower parts both for this malady and for the cause of the same A Pessary The matter of sweet fumigations By what power sweet fumigations do restore the womb unto its owne nature and place Stinking smels to be applied to the nostrils Avicens secret for suffocation of the wombe Castoreum drunken Expressions into the wombe The matter of pessaries A glyster scattering grosse vapours A quick certain a pleasant remedy for the suffocation of the wombe Tickling of the neck of the wombe The reason of the names of the monthly flux of women What women do conceive this flux not appearing at all What women have this menstruall flux often abundantly for a longer space than others What women have tâ—â— fluxe more seldome lesse and a far more shorrtime than others Why young women are purged in the new of the Moone Why old women are purged in the wane of the Moone The materiall cause of the monthly fluxe When the monthly flux begins to flow The final cause A woman exceeds a man in quantity of bloud A man execedeth a woman in the quality of his blood A man is more hot than a woman and therefore not menstruall The foolish endeavour of making the orifice of the wombe narrow is rewarded with the discommodity of stopping of the flowers What women are called viragines Lib. 6. epidem sect 7. The women that are called viragines are barren Why the strangâ—… or bloodinesse of the urine followeth the suppression of the flowers Histories of such as were purged of their menstruall flux by the nose and dugges To what women the suppression of the moneths is most grievous Why the veine called basilica in the arme must be opened before the vein saphena in the foot Horse-leeches to be applied to the neck of the wombe Plants that provoke the flowers Sweet things An apozeme to provoke the flowers What causes of the stopping of the flowers must be cured before the discase it selfe The fittest time to provoke the flowers Why hot houses do hurt those in whom the flowers are to be provoked What women â—…and what women due loath the act of generation when the moneths are stopped With what accidents those that are manageable and 〈◊〉 marâ—â—â— aâ—… troubled Aph. 36. sect 5. Lib. 2. de subt The efficient cause of the milke is to be noted By what pores the flowers due flow in a woman and in a maide The causes of an unteasionable flute of blood The criticall fluxe of the flowers The signes of blood dowing from the womb or necke of the wombe The institution or order of 〈◊〉 Purging An unguent An astringent injection Astringent pesâ—… The reason of the name The differences What women are apt to this fluxe Womens fluxe commeth very seldome of blood By what signes an ulcer in the wombe may be known from the white flowers How a womane fluxe is wholsome How it causeth diseases How it letteth the conception Why it is hard to be cured A history If the fluxâ— of a woman be red whâ—â—ein it difâ—erâ—th â—roâ— the â—…uall â—lux A womans flux is not suddenly to be stopped What baths are profitable An astringent â—njâ—â—tion The signes of a putrefyed ulcer in the wombe The virulent Gonorrhaea is like unto the duxe of women The differences of the hoemorrhoides of the necke of the wombe What an Acrochordon is What a thymus is St. Fiacrius figges What warts of the womb must be bound and so cut off Three sâ—opâ—â— of the cure of waâ—ts in the wombe An effectuall water to consume warts Unguents to consume warâ—â— What 〈◊〉 arâ— The 〈◊〉 What coâ—dylâ—matâ— arâ— The cure What the itch of the womb iâ— Thdifferences and signes An abscesse not to be opened A history The time of breeding of the teeth The cause of the paine in breeding teeth The signes The cure What power scratching of the gums hath to asswage the pain of them A history what a monste is What a prodigie is Lib. 4. cen anim cap. 4. Monste seldome loâ— lived Arist in problem 〈◊〉 3. 4. de gen anim cap. 4. Lib. 7. cap. 11. Cap. 3. The ninth book of the Polish history Lib. 4. de gen anim cap. 4. Lib. 4. de generanim cap. 5. Sect. 2. lib. 2. epidem The force of 〈◊〉 upon the body and humours Gen. chap. 30. That the straitnesse or littlenesse of the wombe may be the occassion 〈◊〉 monsters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 64. There are sorcerers and how they come so to be What induceth them thereto Exod. cap. 22. Levit. cap. 19. Hebr. 1. 14. Galat. 3. 19. 〈◊〉 Thes 4. 16. John 13. Mar. 16. 34. The power of ev'll spirits over mankind The differences of devills The delusions of devills Their titles names What the devills in Mines doe Devills are spirits and from eternity The reason of the name Lib. 15. de civit Dei cap. 22. 23. A history Another An opinion confuted Averrois his history convict of falshood The illusions of the devills A history Our sins are the cause that the devils abuse us Lib. 2. de abdit caus cap. 16. Witches
to plentifull feeding it endureth almost for the space of seven dayes Some call them purgations because that by this fluxe all a womans body is purged of super fluous humours There bee some also that call those fluxes the flowers because that as in plants the flower buddeth out before the fruits so in women kinde this flux goeth before the issue or the conception thereof For the courses flow not before a woman bee able to conceive for how should the seede being cast into the wombe have his nourishment and encrease and how should the child have his nourishment when it is formed of the seed if this necessary humour were wanting in the wombe yet it may bee some women may conceive without this fluxe of the courses but that is in such as have so much of the humour gathered together as is wont to remaine in those which are purged although it bee not so great a quantity that it may flow out as it is recorded by Aristotle But as it is in some very great and in some very little so it is in some seldome and in some very often There are some that are purged twice and some thrice in a moneth but it is altogether in those who have a great liver large veines and are filled and fed with many and greatly nourishing meats which sit idely at home all day which having slept all night doe notwithstanding lye in bed sleeping a great part of the day also which live in a hot moyst rainie and southerly ayre which use warme bathes of sweet waters and gentle frictions which use and are greatly delighted with carnall copulation in these and such like women the courses flow more frequently and abundantly But contrariwise in those that have small and obscure veines in those that have their bodies more furnished and bigge either with flesh or with fat are more seldome purged and also more sparingly because that the superfluous quantity of bloud useth to goe into the habit of the body Also tender delicate and faire women are lesse purged than those that are browne and endued with a more compact flesh because that by the rarity of their bodies they suffer a greater wasting or dissipation of their substance by transpiration Moreover they are not so greatly purged with this kind of purgation which have some other solemne or accustomed evacuation in any other place of their body as by the nose or hemorrhoids And as concerning their age old women are purged when the Moone is old and young women when the Moone is new as it is thought I thinke the cause thereof is for that the Moone ruleth moyst bodies for by the variable motion thereof the Sea floweth and ebbeth and bones marrow and plants abound with their genitall humour Therefore young people which have much bloud and more fluxible and their bodies more fluxible are soone moved unto a fluxe although it bee even in the first quarter of the Moones risingor increasing but the humours of old women because they wax stiffe as it were with cold are not so abundant and have more dense bodies and straighter vessels are not so apt to a fluxe nor do they so easily flow except it bee in the full of the Moon or else in the decrease that is to say because the bloud that is gathered in the full of the Moon falls from the body even of its own weight for that by reason of the decreasing or wane of the Moone this time of the month is more cold and moyst CHAP. L. The causes of the monethly flux or courses BEcause a woman is more cold and therefore hath the digestive faculty more weake it commeth to passe that shee requireth and desireth more meate or foode than shee can digest or concoct And because that superfluous humour that remaineth is not digested by exercise nor by the efficacy of strong and lively heat therefore by the providence or benefit of nature it floweth out by the veines of the wombe by the power of the expulsive faculty at its owne certaine and prefixed season or time But then especially it beginneth to flow and a certaine crude portion of bloud to bee expelled being hurtfull and maligne otherwise in no quality when nature hath laid her principall foundations of the encrease of the body so that in greatnesse of the body she hath come as it were in a manner to the highest toppe that is to say from the thirteenth to the fiftieth yeare of our age Moreover the childe cannot bee formed in the wombe nor have his nutriment or encrease without this fluxe therefore this is another finall cause of the monethly flux Many are perswaded that women do farre more abound with bloud than men considering how great an abundance of bloud they cast forth of their secret parts every moneth from the thirteenth to the fiftieth yeare of their age how much women great with childe of whom also many are menstruall yeelde unto the nutriment and encrease of the childe in their wombes and how much Physicians take from women that are with childe by opening of a veine which otherwise would bee delivered before their naturall and prefixed time how great a quantity thereof they avoid in the birth of their children and for ten or twelve daies after and how great a quantity of milk they spend for the nourishment of the child when they give sucke which milke is none other thing than blood made white by the power of the kernels that are in the dugges which doth suffice to nourish the childe be he great or little yet notwithstanding many nurses in the meane while are menstruall and as that may be true so certainely this is true that one dramme that I may so speake of a mans blood is of more efficacy to nourish and encrease than two pounds of womans blood because it is farre more perfect more concocted wrought and better replenished with abundance of spirits whereby it commeth to passe that a man endued with a more strong heat doth more easily convert what meat soever he eateth unto the nourishment substance of his body if that any superfluity remains he doth easily digest and scatter it by insensible transpiration But a woman being more cold than a man because shee taketh more than shee can concoct doth gather together more humours which because shee cannot disperse by reason of the unperfectnesse and weakenesse of her heat it is necessary that shee should suffer and have her monethly purgation especially when shee groweth unto some bignesse but there is no such need in a man CHAP. LI. The causes of the suppression of the courses or menstruall fluxe THe courses are suppressed or stopped by many causes as by sharpvehement and long diseases by feare sorrow hunger immoderate labours watchings fluxes of the belly great bleeding hoemorrhoides fluxes of blood at the mouth and evacuations in any other part of the body whatsoever often opening of
is rent or torne by a small occasion without any signe of injury or solution of continuity apparent on the outside as by a little jumpe the slipping aside of the foote the too nimble getting on horseback or the slipping of the foote out of the stirrop in mounting into the sadlde When this chance happens it will give a cracke like a Coachmans whip above the heele where the tendon is broken the depressed cavity may be felt with your finger there is great paine in the part the party is not able to goe This mischance may be amended by long lying and resting in bed and repelling medicines applied to the part affected in the beginning of the disease for feare of more grievous symptomes then applying the Blacke plaister or Diacalcitheos or some other such as neede shall require neither must we hereupon promise to our selves or the patient certaine or absolute health But on the contrary at the beginning of the disease we must foretell that it wil never be so cured but that some reliques may remaine as the depression of the part affected and depravation of the action and going for the ends of this broken or relaxed Tendon by reason of its thickenesse and contumacie cannot easily be adjoyned nor being adjoyned united CHAP. XXXIX Of the wounds of the joynts BEcause the wounds of the joynts have something proper and peculiar to themselves besides the common nature of wounds of the Nerves therefore I intend to treat of them in particular Indeede they are alwayes very dangerous and for the most part deadly by reason of the nervous productions and membranous Tendons wherewith they are bound and engirt and into which the Nerves are inserted whereby it comes to passe that the exquisite sense of such like parts will easily bring maligne symptomes especially if the wound possesse an internall or as they terme it a domestique part of them as for example the armepits the bending of the arme the inner part of the wrist and ham by reason of the notable Veines Arteries and Nerves of these parts the loosed continuity of all which brings a great flux of blood sharpe paine and other malignant symptomes all which we must resist according to their nature and condition as a flux of blood with things staying bleeding paine with anodynes If the wound be large and wide the severed parts shall be joyned with a future leaving an orifice in the lower part by which the quitture may passe forth This following pouder of Vigoes description must be strewed upon the future ℞ thuris sang draconis boli armen terrae sigill an ʒij an.ʒj. fiat pulvis subtilis And then the joynt must bee wrapped about with a repercussive medicine composed of the whites of egges a little oyle of Roses Bole Mastich and barly floure If it be needefull to use a Tent let it be short and according to the wound thicke lest it cause paine and moreover let it bee annointed with the yolke of an egge oyle of Roses washed turpenetine and a little saffron But if the wound bee more short and narrow it shall be dilated if there be occasion that so the humour may passe away more freely You must rest the part and beware of using cold relaxing mollifying humecting and unctuous medicines unlesse peradventure the sharpenesse of the paine must be mitigated For on the contrary astringent and desiccant medicines are good as this following cataplasme ℞ furtur macri farin hordei fabarum an ℥ iiij florum cham ae melil an m. ss terebinth ℥ iij. mellis communis ℥ ij ol myrtini ℥ j oxymelitis vel oxycrat vellixivij com quantum sufficit fiat cataplasma ad formam pultis Or you may compose one of the Lees of wine Wheate branne the pouder of Oaken barke cypressenuts galls and Turpentine and such like that have an astringent strengthning and drying qualitie and thereby asswaging paine and hindering the defluxion of humours This following medicine is astringent and agglutinative ℞ Terebinth venet ℥ ij aq vitaeparum pulveris mastich aloes myrrhae boli armen an ℈ ij And also our balsame will be good in this case if so be that you adde hereto so much pouder which dryes without acrimonie as occasion shall serve I admonished you before to take heede of cold and now againe for it is hurtfull to all wounds and ulcers but especially to these of the nervous parts hence it is that many dye of small wounds in the winter who might recover of the same wounds though greater in the Summer For cold according to Hippocrates is nipping to ulcers hardens the skin and hinders them from suppuration extinguisheth naturall heate causes blackenesse cold aguish fits convulsions and distentions Now divers excrements are cast forth of wounds of the joynts but chiefely albugineous that is resembling the white of an egge and mucous and sometime a very thinne water all which favour of the nature of that humour which nourisheth these parts For to every part there is appropriate for his nourishment and conservation a peculiar Balsame which by the wound flowes out of the same part as out of the branches of the Vine when they are pruned their radicall moisture or juice flowes whence also a Callus proceeds in broken bones Now this same mucous and albugineous humour slow and as it were frozen flowing from the wounded joynts shewes the cold distemper of the parts which causes paine not to be orecome by medicines onely potentially hot Wherefore to correct that we must apply things actually hot as beasts and swines bladders halfe full of a discussing decoction or hot bricks quenched in wine Such actuall heate helps nature to concoct and discusse the superfluous humour impact in the joynts and strengthens them both which are very necessary because the naturall heate of the joynts is so insirme that it can scarse actuate the medicine unlesse it be helped with medicines actually hot Neither must the Chirurgion have the least care of the figure and posture of the part for a vicious posture increases ill symptomes uses to bring to the very part though the wound be cured distortion numnes incurable contraction which fault least he should runne into let him observe what I shall now say If the forepart of the shoulder be wounded a great boulster must be under the armepit and you must carry your arme in a scarfe so that it may beare up the lower part of the arme that so the top of the shoulder may be elevated some what higher and that so it may be thereby more speedily and happily agglutinated and consolidated If the lower part be wounded when flesh begins to be generated and the lips of the wound to meete you must bid the patient to moove and stirre his armes divers wayes ever and anon for if that be omitted or negligently done when it is cicatrized then it wil be more stiffe and lesse pliable to every motion and yet there
to bee oppressed and choaked shee complaineth her selfe to bee in great paine and that a certaine lumpe or heavie thing climes up from the lower parts unto her throat and stoppeth her winde her heart burneth and panteth And in many the wombe and vessels of the wombe so swell that they cannot stand upright on their legs but are constrained to lye downe flat on their bellies that they may bee the lesse grieved with the paine and to presse that downe strongly with their hands that seemeth to arise upwards although that not the wombe it selfe but the vapour ascendeth from the wombe as wee said before but when the fitte is at hand their faces are pale on a sudden their understanding is darkened they become slow and weak in the legges with unablenesse to stand Hereof commeth sound sleepe foolish talking interception of the senses and breathe as if they were dead losse of speech the contraction of their legs and the like CHAP. XLVI How to know whether the woman be dead in the strangulation of the wombe or not I Have thought it meet because many women not onely in ancient times but in our owne and our fathers memory have beene so taken with this kind of symptome that they have beene supposed and layd out for dead although truly they were alive to set downe the signes in such a case which do argue life and death Therefore first of all it may be proved whether she be alive or dead by laying or holding a cleere and smooth looking-glasse before her mouth and nostrils For if she breathe although it be never so obscurely the thin vapour that commeth out will staine or make the glasse duskie Also a fine downish feather taken from under the wing of any bird or else a fine flocke being held before the mouth will by the trembling or shaking motion thereof shew that there is some breath and therefore life remaining in the body But you may prove most certainly whether there be any sparke of life remaining in the body by blowing some sneesing powders of pellitory of Spaine ellebore into the nostrils But though there no breath appeare yet must you not judge the woman for dead for the small vitall heat by which being drawn into the heart she yet liveth is contented with transpiration onely and requires not much attraction which is performed by the contraction dilatation of the breast and lungs unto the preservation of its selfe For so flyes gnats pismires and such like because they are of a cold temperament live unmoveably inclosed in the caves of the earth no token of breathing appearing in them because there is a little heat left in them which may be conserved by the office of the arteries and heart that is to say by perspiration without the motion of the breast because the greatest use of respiration is that the inward heat may be preserved by refrigeration and ventilation Those that do not mark this fall intâ—…haâ— errour which almost cost the life of him who in our time first gave life to anotomicall administration that was almost decayed and neglected For he being called in Spaine to open the body of a noble woman which was supposed dead through strangulation of the wombe behold at the second impression of the incision knife she began suddenly to come to her selfe and by the moving of her members and body which was supposed to be altogether dead and with crying to shew manifest signes that there was some life remaining in her Which thing strooke such an admiration horror into the hearts of all her friends that were present that they accounted the Physician being before of a good fame and report as infamous odious and detestable so that it wanted but little but that they would have scratched out his eyes presently wherefore hee thought there was no better way for him if he would live safe than to forsake the countrey But neither could hee so also avoyde the horrible pricke and inward wound of his conscience from whose judgment no offender can be absolved for his inconsiderate dealing but within few dayes after being consumed with sorrow he dyed to the great losse of the common wealth and the art of physick CHAP. XLVII How to know whether the strangulation of the wombe comes of the suppression of the flowers or the corruption of the seed THere are two chiefe causes especially as most frequently happening of the strangulation of the wombe but when it proceedeth from the corruption of the seed all the accidents are more grievous and violent difficulty of breathing goes before and shortly after comes deprivation thereof the whole habit of the body seemeth more cold than a stone the woman is a widow or else hath great store or abundance of seed and hath been used to the company of a man by the absence whereof she was before wont to be pained with heavinesse of the head to loath her meat and to bee troubled with sadnesse and feare but chiefly with melancholy Moreover when she hath satisfied and every way fulfilled her lust and then presently on a sudden begins to containe her selfe It is very likely that shee is suffocated by the supprossion of the flowers which formerly had them well and sufficiently which formerly hath bin fed with hot moist and many meats and therefore engendring much bloud which sitteth much which is grieved with some weight and swelling in the region of the belly with paine in the stomacke and a desire to vomit and with such other accidents as come by the suppression of the flowers Those who are freed from the fit of the suffocation of the wombe either by nature or by are in a short time their colour commeth into their faces by little and little and the whole body beginneth to wax strong and the teeth that were set and closed fast together begiâ— the jawes being loosed to open and unclose againe and lastly some moisture floweth from the secret parts with a certaine tickling pleasure but in some women as in those especially in whom the necke of the wombe is tickled with the mydivives singer in stead of that moysture comes thick and grosse seed which moysture or seed when it is fallen the wombe being before as it were raging is restored unto its owne proper nature and place and by little and little all symptomes vanish away Men by the suppression of their seede have not the like symptomes as women have because mans seed is not so cold and moyst but far more perfect and better digested and therefore more meet to resist putrefaction and whiles it is brought or drawn together by little and little it is dissipated by great and violent exercise CHAP. XLVIII Of the cure of the strangulation of the wombe SEeing that the strangulation of the wombe is a sudden and sharp disease it therefore requireth a present and speedy remedy for if it be neglected it many times causeth present