into her Broths those herbs which purifie it as Sorrel Lettice Succory and Borrage she must avoid hot-seasoned Pyes and baked Meats and especially Crust because being hard of digestion it extreamly overchargeth the stomach If she hath a mind to Fish let it be new and not salted Fish of Rivers and running streams forasmuch as Pond-Fish tasts of mud and breeds ill juyce But if big-bellied Women cannot absolutely refrain their extravagant longings it is better as we have already said to suffer them to deviate a little from this rule or dyet provided it be moderate than too much to oppose their appetites They may drink at their meals a little good old Wine well temper'd with Water and rather Claret than White-wine which will help make a good digestion and comfort the stomach which is alwayes weak during prenancy and if they were not used to drink it before let them accustom themselves to it by degrees and as well in drinking as eating they must shun all things hot and diurectick because they provoke the courses which is very prejudicial to the Child By moderate sleep all the natural functions of a Woman are fortified and particularly the concoction of food in the stomach which then is very subject to loathings and vomitings We say it must be moderate because as excessive watchings dissipate the Spirits so too much sleep choak them Let therefore Women with Child sleep nine or ten hours at least in four and twenty and twelve at most and let it be rather in the night-time as most fit for rest than in the day as persons of quality are accustomed who frequenting the Court ordinarily turn night into day However they who have gotten this ill habit had better continue it than change too suddenly because this custom is become natural to them For what respects exercise and rest let them govern themselves according to the different time of their being with Child for at the beginning of the conception if the Woman perceives it she ought if she can to keep her bed at least till the fifth or sixth day and by no means to use copulation all the time forasmuch as the Seeds being not yet covered with the membrane which is formed in that time as we have said already are in the beginning by the agitation of the body very apt in some persons to slip forth She ought neither to go in Coach Chariot or Waggon nor on Horseback whilst with Child and much less the nearer she comes to her time because this kind of exercise doubles the weight of what is contained in the Womb by the jolts she receives and often makes her miscarry But she may walk gently go in a Sedan or Litter She ought neither to carry or lift heavy burdens nor lift up her arms too high and therefore she ought not to dress her own head as she used to do because it cannot be done without stretching her arms too much above her head which hath caused many to miscarry before their time because the ligaments of the Womb are at once loosned by these violent extensions Let her exercise be gentle walking and the heels of her shoes low because Women cannot for the bigness of their bellies see their feet and so are subject to stumble and fall In short she must govern her self in these exercises rather to err in too much rest than in too much exercise for the danger is greater by immoderate motion than in too much rest It is impossible for me in this point to be of the opinion of all Authors although all the World follows them in this their evil and dangerous counsel who would have a pregnant Woman exercise her self more than ordinary toward the latter end of her reckoning that so as they say the Child may sink lower But if they consider the point well they would without doubt find it to be the cause of more than half of the hard Labours and that on the contrary rest would be more advantagious to them as I shall prove by the following explication First We must know and take for granted that the birth of a Child ought to be left to the work of Nature well regulated and not to provoke it by shaking it with this exercise for to dislodge it before its full time which hapning though it be but seven or eight dayes sooner proves sometimes as prejudicial to the Infant as we see it is sometimes to Grapes which we find four or five dayes before they are full ripe to be yet almost half Verjuice But to explain more clearly than by this comparison that these kind of exercises often cause hard labours as we have already said consider that the Infant is naturally scituated in the Womb with the head uppermost and the feet downwards with its face towards the Mothers belly just till it hath attained to the eighth month at which time and sometimes sooner and sometimes also later his head being very great and heavy he turns over his head downward and his heels upwards which is the sole and true scituation in which he ought to come into the World all other postures being contrary to Nature Now just when the Child is about to turn according to custom into his intended posture Instead of giving her self rest she falls a jumping walking running up and down stairs and exercising her self more than ordinary which very often causes it to turn cross and not right as it ought to be and sometimes the Womb is depressed so low and engaged in such sort towards the last month in the cavity of the Hypagastres by these joltings that there is no liberty left the Infant to turn it self naturally wherefore it is constrained to come in its first posture to wit by the feet or some other worse Moreover it would be very convenient that the Woman to this end should abstain from Coition during the two last months of her reckoning forasmuch as the body is thereby much moved and the belly compressed in the action which likewise causeth the Child to take a wrong posture I believe that they that will seriously reflect on these things will make no difficulty to quit this old error which hath certainly caused the death of many Women and Children and much pain to divers others for the reasons above-mentioned Some Women have miscarried only with the noise of a Cannon as also with the sound of a great Bell but especially with a clap of Thunder when of a sudden it surpriseth them and frights them Big-bellied Women are sometimes subject to be costive because the Womb by its weight pressing the Rectum hinders the Belly from discharging its excrements with ease They that are troubled with this inconvenience may use Damask-Prunes stewed Veal-Broth and Herb-Pottage with which they may gently moisten and loosen the Belly If these things are not sufficient they may give her gentle Clysters of Mallows Marsh-mallows Pellitory and Anise-seeds with two ounces of brown Sugar dissolved in it adding a
Womb taking heed not to pinch the Womb and that the Instrument be alwaies conducted by the Finger first introduced which will judg and distinguish by the touch between this Conception and the substance of the Womb in doing which there being no other way he will certainly accomplish his business I thought of causing such an Instrument to be made upon an occasion where it would have stood me in good stead if I had had it with which I have since proceeding according to the directions I have just now given lately drawn forth a false Conception of the bigness of a Walnut which without doubt had else that day been the death of one named Madam le Roy dwelling near the great Stairs at the place Maubert by reason of the horrible loss of Blood which it occasioned and which ceased assoon as I had drawn forth this Conception which I could never have done any other way because the inner Orifice of the Womb was not open nor could be dilated more than for one Finger alone after the manner I have declared besides the pressing danger of the accident the delay of the Operation had indubitably been the death of this Woman who thanks be to God is since well recovered CHAP. XXXIII Of the Caesarean Section WHen a big-bellyed Woman is effectively in Labour 't is very rare but that an expert Chirurgeon can deliver the Child dead or alive whole or in pieces in a word that he may do the work completely if he behaves himself as the case requires and according to the directions given in each particular Chapter foregoing treating of the several unnatural Labours without being necessitated in a very inhuman cruel and barbarous manner to have recourse to the Caesarean Operation during the Mothers life as some Authors have too inconsideratly ordered and somtimes practised themselves In truth there would seem some pretext of a lawful excuse to make Martyrs of these poor Women if it were to bring a second Caesar from them whom they say was born in that manner or some great and new Prophet In the times of the ancient Pagans they did use to sacrifice innocent Victims for the publick good but never for a private I know very well that they palliate it with a pretence of baptizing the Infant which else would be deprived of it because the Mothers death is for the most part cause of the Childs but I do not know that there ever was any Law Christian or Civil which doth ordain the martyring and killing the Mother for to save the Child 'T is rather to satisfie the avarice of some people who care not much whether their Wives die provided they have a Child to survive them not so much for the sake of Children but to inherit by them afterwards for which cause they do easily consent to this cruel Operation which is a damnable policy If they say to render the fact less horrible in appearance that it must never be undertaken but when the Woman is reduced to the utmost extremity to that I answer that a Woman often recovers beyond hope or probability And if they object that she may likewise escape after this Operation I do utterly deny it by the testimony of the most expert Chirurgeons that have practised it who alwaies had bad success all the Women ever dying in a short time after I do highly commend Guillemeau who to disabuse the world for such a wicked and pernicious practise confesseth speaking of this fatal Operation and ownes by way of repentance that he did himself twice in the presence of Ambrose Parê put it into practise and saw it thrice done more by three several very expert Chirurgeons who omitted never a circumstance to make it succeed well and notwithstanding all the Women died As for Parê he will not acknowledg that he saw those two Operations of Guillemean because he will not have Posterity know that he was able to consent to so great a cruelty but contents himself with advising only that it should never be undertaken till the Woman is dead because there is no possibility she should escape it not only because of the irregular wound which is convenient to make for this purpose in the Belly but chiefly for that in the Womb and for the excessive Flux of Blood which will immediatly follow However contrary to the opinion of two such famous Chirurgeons there are some rash persons who do obstinately maintain though with but as little reason as Rausset that it is not impossible for a Woman to escape because they have seen some that have had the Bones of their dead Children come forth by an abscess of the Belly after that the Flesh of them had passed the natural way in Supâ—uration which Bones by little and little had pierced the Womb and the Belly also and after that they were so drawn forth yet the Women recovered As also others did not dye whose Wombs after Precipitation and perfect putrefaction and Gangrene was totally cut away Indeed we must acknowledg what experience hath many times taught us as it hath these things which I believe have happened and may again as well as those though rarely but it doth not follow that this Caesarean Operation must needs succeed as well because here is made at one stroak a very great wound in the Belly and Womb which is ever the death of the poor Woman immediatly or soon after But when Nature it self begins to separate and pierce these parts by means of these Bones to cast them forth by some new way which it makes not being able to do it by the common and natural for want of the help in due time of skilful persons it doth it by degrees and not all at once and according to the measure it drives these preternatural Bodies forth of the Womb so it reunites and rejoins it at the same time proportionably and without the least Flux of Blood which happens quite otherwise in the artificial Operation and if it be true that some Women have ever escaped it we must believe it a Miracle and the express hand of God who can when He pleaseth raise the dead as he did Lazarus and change the course of Nature when 't is his good pleasure rather than an effect of humane prudence There are many good Women who for having only heard some Gossips speak of it are very confident that they know such and such yet living whose sides had been so opened to fetch the Child so out of their Belly Nay more there are some that affirm they know those that have had this Operation practised on them three or four times successively and yet alive and the better to confirm so notable a lye which they had only heard recited by others and after having three or four times told it believe it themselves for truth as much as if they had seen it with their own eyes will tell so many circumstances and particulars that they easily perswade those that do not understand
proceed from the evil temper of the Womb in his 62 Aphorism of the 5th Book where he saith Quae frigidos densos habent uteros non concipiunt quae praehumidos habent uteros non concipiunt extinguitur enim in ipsis genitura Et quae plus aequo siccos adurentes Nam alimenti defectu semen corrumpitur Quae vero ex utrisque nactae sunt moderatam temperiem eae faecundae evadunt All such Women whose Womb is cold and close cannot conceive nor they who have it too moist because the Seed is extinguished in it And likewise such who have it too dry and hot because for want of aliment the Seed corrupts but such as are of a moderate temperament are fruitful Of all these which Hippocrates recites in this Aphorism the most common according to my opinion is the continual Humidity of the Womb fed by an abundance of the Whites with which many are very much inconvenienced the humours of the whole Body being accustomed to steer their course this way which can very hardly be turned away when inveterate and the Womb being imbued with these vicious moistures becomes inwardly so unctuous and slippery that the Seed though viscous and glutinous cannot cleave to it nor be retained within it which is the cause that it slips immediatly away or in some short time after it is received Barrenness may also proceed from the whole habit of the Body as when a Woman is too old or too young for the Seed of the young is not yet prolifick neither have they the menstruous blood which two things are requisit to fruitfulness and that of the aged is in too small a quantity and too cold who likewise want the menstruous blood An universal intemperature though the Woman be of convenient years renders them however barren as it happens when they are hectick hydropick feaverish and sickly and especially so much the more as the noble parts are fallen from their temperament and natural constitution There are however many Women which seem barren for a long time because of some of the fore-mentioned Reasons yea till they are thirty five or forty years old and sometimes longer who yet at last conceive being cured of the indispositions which hindred them and having changed their temperament by their age of which we have had a remarkable example in the person of Queen-mother lately deceased who was above two and twenty years married and without Children and yet afterwards to the great joy and content of all France she had our invincible Monarch Lewis the 14th now reigning to whom God grant a long and happy life Some of these Barrennesses may sometimes be cured by removing their causes and procuring the dispositions we have said are necessary to fruitfulness yea of those which proceed from an universal intemperament by reducing the Body with a good and convenient regimen to a good order and this according to their respective indispositions Wherefore if a Woman have naturally the Vagina too narrow and not from some of the causes above-mentioned she ought to be joyned to a Man whose Member is proportionable if possible and if that will not do which happens very seldom she must endeavour to relax it and dilate it with emolient Oyls and Oyntments if the neck of the Womb be compressed by any humour it must be resolved and suppurated according to its nature and scituation having alwayes care to prevent the corruption of these parts which being hot and moist are very subject to it because the womb serves as a sink by which all the ill humours of the body are purged so that you must take great care that these kind of Tumours turn not to a Cancer which is a very mischievous malady and causeth the poor Women miserably to languish which are afflicted with it and which after many insupportable pains brings them almost alwayes to an inevitable death When the Vagina is not clear in its capacity because of any scar after a rent caused by some force or violence to the Woman or of some hard labour or after an ulcer which caused the two sides to be agglutinated whether inwardly or outwardly it must be separated the best that may be with a * A kind of large Incision-knife Bistory or some other Instrument according as the case requires hindring by interposed Linnen that it do not again agglutinate When a Woman hath no Vulva or outward entry of the Womb pierced which is very rare it must be opened by making a long Incision Fabricius recites the like case in a Girl of thirteen years of age who was like to die of it because her Terms could not come down there being no perforation wherefore he did the like operation which succeeded very well and made her by that means capable of generation As to the inward orifice of the Womb if it be displaced either towards the back or sides it may be in some sort remedied by making the Woman to observe in the act of generation a convenient posture that the Man's Seed may be ejaculated towards the orifice and if the Whites or other Impurities of the Womb cause barrenness as it is for the most part by the discharge of the whole habit on this place it must be helped by Evacuations Purgations and a regular Diet according to their different causes and qualities of these ill humours Having thus discovered the most certain signs of Fertility and the marks of Sterility I will now the better to pursue the order I have proposed treat of Conception CHAP. II. Of Conception and the conditions necessary for it IT is most certain according to the Rule of Nature that a Woman is incapable of conceiving if she have not the conditions requisit for fruitfulness we have mentioned them in the foregoing chapter let us now examine in this what is Conception and how it is caused Conception is nothing else but an action of the Womb by which the prolifick seeds of the Man and Woman are there received and retained that an infant may be engendred and formed out of it There are two sorts of Conceptions the one true according to Nature to which succeeds the generation of the Infant in the Womb the other false which we may say is wholly against Nature and there the seeds change into water false-conceptions moles or any other strange matter The qualifications requisit for a Woman to conceive according to Nature are that the Woman receive and retain in her Womb the Mans and her own prolifick seed without which it cannot come to pass for it is necessary that both seeds should be there nor is it at all true what Aristotle and some other of his followers affirm that the Woman neither hath nor can yeeld any seed a great absurdity to believe for the contrary may easily be discovered by seeing the Spermatick Vessels and Testicles of a fruitful Woman appointed for this use which are wholly filled with this seed which in coition
most essential and ordinary by which a Chirurgeon may be assured of it of which some may presently be perceived others not till afterwards He shall first examine and inform himself whether the Woman hath all or most part of the signs of fertility which are already named in the discourse of them if not he must impute them to some other cause and supposing she be fruitful you may then know whether she have conceived by their agreement and more then ordinary delight in the act It is not enough for a Woman to be certain she hath conceived and to yeeld and receive her seed with the Man 's into her Womb unless it close at that instant and retain it There is an Article amongst the customs of Paris in which it is said that to give and keep is not good but it is not so in Conception for a Woman gives and casts her Seed into her Womb and there retains it She may know whether she retains the Seeds if she perceives nothing flow down from the Womb after Copulation The Woman some few months after perceives also some small pain about her Navel and some little commotions in the bottom of her Belly caused by the Womb 's closing it self to retain the Seeds and contracting it self so as to leave no empty space the better to contain them and embrace them the closer The light pain of the Navel comes from the Blader of the Urine from the bottom of which proceeds the Urachus which is fastened to the Navel which is a little agitated by that contraction and kind of motion that happens to the Womb when it is closed to retain the Seeds and from the like agitation comes also those little commotions of the Belly These are the signs of Conceptions which may be known at the moment they happen and may be yet more certainly known if you perceive the inward Orifice exactly close Besides these signs there are others which cannot be known till some time after as when the Woman begins to have loathings having no other Distemper loseth her appetite to meats which she did love longs to eate strange things to which she was not accustomed which happens according to the quality of the humours predominating in her and with which her stomach abounds She hath often nauseatings and vomitings which continue a long time the Tearms stopping no other cause appearing having alwayes before been in good order her Breasts swell wax hard and cause pain from the flowing of the blood and humours to them wanting their ordinary evacuation their upper parts are firmer and larger because of the repletion the Navel starts her Nipples are very obscure or dark coloured with a yellowish livid circle round about her Eyes are dejected and hollow the whites of them dull and troubled her blood when she hath conceived some time is alwayes bad because the superfluities of it not being then purged as accustomed is altered and corrupted by their mixture Moreover there is a sign which all the Women esteem and hold in this doubtful case for very certain which is en ventre plat enfant y a in a flat Belly there is a Child Indeed there is rime in this proverb and something of reason but not as they imagin that the Womb closing it self after Conception draws in a manner the Belly inwards and flatten's it which cannot be because the Womb free and wavering not fastened forwards to the Belly whereby to draw it back after that manner but it may possibly be by reason that Women grow lean by the indispositions of their pregnancy and wax thinner and smaller not only in their Belly but also throughout their whole body as may be known the two first months of their pregnancy during which time that which is contained in the Womb is yet very small but when the Womans blood begins to flow to it in abundance then the Belly waxeth daily bigger and bigger afterwards until her reckoning be out All these signs concurring in a Woman who hath used copulation or the most part of them together and successively according to their seasons we may pass our judgment that she hath conceived notwithstanding that many of them may happen upon the suppression of the Terms which usually produce the like for every one knows that it causeth also in Virgins disgusts nauseatings and vomitings but not so frequently the swelling hardness and pains of the breasts as also extravagant appetites a livid colour of the Eyes and others to which you must have regard The Matrix may be yet exactly close and the Woman not conceived Yea there are some in whom they almost never open unless very little to give passage to the Tearms which happens to some naturally to others by accident as by some callosity proceeding from an Ulcer or other malady If all these signes of Conception which sometimes may deceive us though rarely if they concur together do not give us a sufficient assurance of it and that we desire a better Hippocrates teacheth us a way to know it which I believe to be no more certain than the rest it is in his 42d Aphorism of his 5th Book where he speaks in this sort Si velis noscere an conceperit mulier dormiturae aquam mulsam potui dato si ventris tormina patiatur concepit sin minus non concepit If you desire to know whether a Woman hath conceived or no give her going to rest a draught of Metheglin and if afterwards she feels pains in her Belly caused by wind she hath conceived if none she hath not as he saith Which is grounded as I believe upon the supposition that Metheglin breeds wind which cannot pass easily downwards because the Womb being full compresseth with its greatness the * The great Gut Intestin rectum on which it is scituated and causeth those winds to rumble which are constrained to recoyl back into the other Intestines If there be any occasion where Physicians or Chirurgeons ought to be more prudent and to make more reflections upon their Prognosticks for an affair so important as this is it is in this which concerns their Judgments as to conception and Womens being with child to avoid the great accidents and misfortunes which they cause who are too precipitate in it without a certain knowledge The faults which are committed through too much fear at such a time are in some sort excusable and to be pardoned but not those caused by temerity which are incomparably greater There are but too many poor Women who have been caused to miscarry by Medicines and bleeding not beleiving they were with Child which are so many murders they are guilty of who caused it either through ignorance or rashness besides the death which they bring to those little innocent creatures by destroying them in their Mothers belly they often thereby put the Mothers into great danger We have lately had in Paris in the year 1666 a miserable example of this kind in a Woman hanged and
and Linseed Oil of sweet Almonds Poppies and Water-Lillies well beaten together with the yolk of an Egg and ground in a leaden Mortar are very anodine and proper to ease pain and if the inflammation be great anoint it a little with Uuguentum Refrigerans Galeni and Populean equally mixed After a good diet bleeding and the application only of these cooling and anodine Remedies Repercussives being not then to be used lest they repel the impure Blood or harden the Piles if their swelling doth not abate Leeches must be applied to draw and empty the Blood there gathered or they may be opened with a Lancet if soft or any kind of inundation but Leeches is more proper for hard Piles and as it were fleshy because they do not put one to so much pain as the Lancet Although some men by the help of these Piles have an evacuation almost natural being relieved by it when they bleed moderately Nature being accustomed to it yet it is not so in Women but alwayes contrary to Nature because the evacuation which happens to those men by the Piles ought always to be made by the Womb in Women if not with Child but if they are it may in some manner in case the Woman be plethorick supply also the defect of the natural for provided they bleed moderately and without pain she may thereby be also relieved but if they flow in too great quantity there is danger that both Mother and Infant will be weakened by it and to avoid it 't is convenient to make astringent Fomentations with the Decoction of Granat flowers the rinds of Pomegranates and Province-Roses made with Smiths-water and a little Alum or this Cataplasm may be applyed to it made with Bole-armonack Dragons-blood and Terra Sigillata with the white of an Egg As also to turn back the Blood from these parts by bleeding in the Arm and by dry cupping-glasses applied to the region of the Reines and other remedies convenient for this distemper and such as the accident requires CHAP. XVIII Of the several Fluxes which may happen to a Woman with Child and first of a Loosness THree several Fluxes may befall a great-bellied Woman to wit the Flux of the Belly the Flux of the Terms and Floodings We shall first speak of the Flux of the Belly and afterwards we will examine the other two in the two following Chapters There are ordinarily reckoned three sorts of Loosnesses which in general is a frequent dejection of what is contained in the Guts by stool the first is called Lienteria by which the Stomach and the Guts not having digested the nourishments received lets it pass almost quit raw The second is called Diarrhaea by which they simply discharge the humours and excrements which they contain And the third which is the worst is Dysenteria by which the Patient together with the humours and excrements voids Blood with violent pains caused by the ulceration of the Guts Of what kind soever the Flux is if it be great and continue long it puts the Woman in great danger of miscarrying which Hippocrates tells us in the 34th Aphorism of his 5th Book Mulieri in utero gerenti si alvus plurimum profluat periculum est ne abortiat For if it be a Lienteria the Stomach not containing the Food received and letting it immediatly pass away before it be turned into Chyle of which Blood ought to be made for the nourishment of Mother and Child it is not possible but they must be both thereby extreamly weakned for want of nourishment If it be a Diarrhaea and continues long it will occasion the same accident because there is a great dissipation of the Spirits together with the evacuation of humours But the danger is much greater when a Dysenteria forasmuch as the Woman hath then great pains and gripes in the Guts caused by their ulceration which excites them continually by constant stimulations to discharge themselves of the sharp and bilious humours with which they are extreamly annoyed which causeth a great disturbance and violent commotion of the Womb being placed upon the right Gut and to the Child contained in it and by the compression which the Muscles of the Belly make on all sides as also those that are made by them of the Diaphragma which force themselves downwards in the endeavours a Woman makes so often to go to stool with pain the Child is constrained because of this violence to come before its time which arrives so much the oftner by how much these stimulations and needings are greater as the same Hippocrates notes in the 27th Aphorism of his 7th Book Mulieri utero gerenti si tentio supervenerit facit abortum If there happens a tenesme saith he to a Woman with Child it make her miscarry This tenesme is a great passion of the right Gut which forceth it to make these violent endeavours to discharge it self without being able to avoid any thing but cholerick humors mixt with Blood with which it is continually irritated When this Flux of the Belly happens to a big-bellied Woman it is ordinarily because they have alwayes the digestion of their stomach weak by reason of their bad dyet which their strange appetites cause them often to long for by the continual use of which being at length weakned it suffers the food to pass immediately without digestion or if it stay longer it is converted into a corrupted Chyle which descending into the Guts irritates them by its acrimony to discharge themselves as soon as they can Now to proceed safely to the cure of these different Fluxes of the Belly to which 't is fit care should be taken in good time lest the Woman miscarry as we have already said the nature of it must be considered to the end the cause which maintains it should be remedied If it be a Lienteria following as is usual continual Vomitings which have so debilitated the Stomach and relaxed its membranes that having no longer strength to vomit up that food it suffers it to pass downwards without digestion In this case a Woman must abstain from all those irregular appetites and accustom her self to good food of easie digestion and little at a time that so her Stomach may be able the easier to concoct and digest it she should drink a little deep Claret-Wine mixed with Water in which Iron hath been quenched instead of Ptysan which is not proper in this case provided she have not a strong Feaver for if it be but a small Feaver Wine on this manner is to be preferred forasmuch as the fewer she hath at that time is but symptomatick caused by this debility of Stomach and will vanish as soon as this is fortified which will be yet more promoted if the Woman before and after meals takes some Corroberatives as a little of that Burnt-Wine we mentioned for the Cough in the 15th Chapter of this Book or a little good Hippocras or right Canary of any of them according to
Twins sometimes both are of the same Sex sometimes not and indifferently scituated on the right or the left This is all can be said in general of the scituation of Children in the Womb. But in particular when we consider the several Figures it makes it differs according to the different times of Pregnancy for when the Woman is young with Child the little Foetus called Embryo is alwaies found of a round Figure a little oblong having the Spine moderately turned inwards the Thighs folded and a little raised to which the Legs are so joined that the Heels touch the Buttocks the Arms are bending and the Hands placed upon the Knees towards which the Head is inclining forwards so that the Chin toucheth the Breast It resembles in this posture very well one sitting to void his Excrements and stooping down his head to see what comes from him The Spine of its Back is at that time placed towards the Mothers the head uppermost the face forwards and the feet downwards and proportionable to its growth and grandeur it extends by little and little its members which were exactly folded in the first months It keeps usually this posture till the seventh or eighth month at which time the head being grown very big is carried downwards by its weight towards the inward orifice of the Womb tumbling as it were over its head so that then the feet are uppermost and the face towards the Mothers great gut Some believe that only Males are so turned downwards when they are born and that the Females are with their face upwards but both the one and the other are alwaies turned downwards with their face towards the Rectum of their Mother as is abovesaid and when it happens otherwise it is unnatural for the Childs face coming upwards will be extremely bruised and the nose wholly flatted because of the bones hardness in the passage It may be noted that when the Child hath thus changed its first scituation being not yet accustomed to this last it stirs and torments it self so much sometimes that the Woman by reason of the pains she feels is apt to believe it her Labour And if this circumstance be well considered they will find it to be that first pretended endeavour which Authors imagine the Child makes for to be born in the Seventh moneth and not being able to accomplish it remains so till the Ninth and that reiterating it in the eighth if it be born it lives not long because it was not able to endure two such puissant endeavors so near together But it is a meer abuse for if the Child turnes it self so with the head downwards or rather is turned it is but by a natural disposition of the weight of the upper parts of the body and if it stirs much at that time and soon after it is not from a desire to be born but from the inconvenience it receives from this new posture to which it was not before accustomed as already hath been mentioned And it begins to turn thus sometimes from the Seventh month rarely before but by accident oftenest about the eighth Moneth and sometimes in the ninth only and at other times also it doth not turn at all as we way easily perceive in those that come in their first scituation that is with their feet foremost From whence it is easie to conjecture and I hold it for a certain truth that the Children are the more strong and robust and consequently may more likely live by how much the nearer they approach to the more natural and perfect time which is at the end of the ninth Month. The Infant then is turned on this manner with his Head downwards towards the latter end of the Reckoning to the end only that he may be the better disposed for its easier passage into the world at the time of Labour which is not then far off For in this posture all its joints are easily extended in comming forth and the Arms and Legs cannot hinder its birth because they cannot be bended against the inward orifice of the Womb and the rest of the body which is very supple passeth very easily after the Head which is hard and big be once quite born When there are many Children they ought if it be natural to come in the same Figure as when there is but one but usually by their different motions they do so incommode one the other that almost alwaies one of them presents wrong at the time of Labour yea and before which is the cause that one comes often with the Head the other with the Feet or any other worse posture and sometimes both come wrong However the Infant may be scituated in the Mothers belly or in whatsoever fashion it be that it presents at the birth if it be not according to the posture above described it is alwaies against Nature and the natural scituation is so necessary to a good and legitimate Delivery that those which are against nature do cause for the most part bad Labours When a big-bellyed Woman is happily arrived near her haven she ought then to take great care she suffers not shipwrack there which she will avoid if she observes exactly at the end of her reckoning the Rules which follow CHAP. VI. What a Woman ought to do when she hath gone her full time I Am not of the opinion of most Mid-wives who advise Women with Child that they may as they say have the better labour to use more than ordinary exercise towards the end of their reckoning as Liebaut also directs who orders them to ride in Coaches or trotting Horses which is a very dangerous advice and causeth daily many wrong Births for as we said in the precedent Chapter 't is about that time that ordinarily the Child turns its head downwards and its heels upwards for to be born right and the poor Women often believing they may procure an easie labour make it by this extraordinary exercise very unhappy which because of the agitation and commotion of the body causeth the Child to take a wrong posture or makes the Womb so to bear down and be engaged in the cavity of the Hypogastrium that afterwards it hath not at due time liberty to be turned which is often the reason why it comes in its first posture that is with the feet besides that labour which ought to be Natures work if the Child come right is thereby excited before the full time and though it were but four or five days it hinders not as I have said elsewhere from being as prejudicial to them as we see it is to the taste goodness and conservation of Fruit gathered but few days before its perfect maturity Wherefore I counsel a Woman though almost contrary to the unreasonable opinion of every one to keep her self more quiet than ordinary when she draws near her time that so her Child may be able to turn it self directly right and that she by all means avoids being strait laced that so
a little towards her Buttocks somewhat raised by a small Pillow underneath to the end that the Coxcyx or Rump should have more liberty to retire back and have her Feet stayed against some firm thing besides this let her hold some persons with her hands that she may the better stay her self during her Pains She being thus placed near the side of her Bed with her Midwife by the better to help upon occasion must take courage and help her Pains the best she can bearing them down when they take her which she may do by holding her breath forcing her self all she can just as when she goeth to Stool for by such endeavors the Diaphragma being strongly thrust downwards doth force down the Womb and Child in it in the mean time the Midwife must comfort her and desire her to endure her Labour bravely putting her in hopes of a speedy Delivery Some would have another Woman at that time to press the superior parts of her Belly and so to thrust gently the Child downwards but I am not of their opinion because such compressions will rather hurt then profit by indangering the bruising of the Womb which is extream sore at that time and I have seen some Women very ill afterwards for having been used in this manner But the Midwife may content her self only having neither Ring nor Bracelet on and her Hand anointed with Oyl or fresh Butter to dilate gently the inward orifice of the Womb putting her Fingers ends into its entry and stretching them one from the other when the Pains take her for to endeavour to forward the Child thrusting by little and little the sides of the Orifice towards the hinder part of the Childs Head anointing these parts also with fresh Butter if it be necessary When the Infants Head begins to advance into this inward Orifice t is commonly said it is crowned because it girds and surrounds it just as a Crown and when it is so far that the extremity begins to appear manifestly without the Privy-parts it is then said that the Child is in the Passage and the Woman in Travail imagines although untruly and it may be is not so much as touched by her that her Midwife hurts her with her Fingers finding her self as it were scratched and pricked with pins in those parts because of the violent distention and sometimes Laceration which the bigness of the Childs head causeth there When things are in this posture the Midwife must seat her self conveniently to receive the Child which will soon come and with her Fingers ends her Nails being close pared endeavour to thrust as abovesaid this crowning of the Womb back over the Head of the Child and assoon as it is advanced as far as the Ears or thereabouts she may take hold of the two sides with her two hands that when a good Pain comes she may quickly draw forth the Child taking care that the Navel-string be not then intangled about the Neck or any other part lest thereby the After-burthen be pulled with violence and possibly the Womb also to which it is fastened and so cause flooding or else break the string whereby the Woman may come to be more difficulty delivered It must also be observed that the Head be not drawn forth strait but shaking it a little from one side to the other that the Shoulders may the sooner and easier take its place immediately after it be past which must be done without losing any time lest the Head being past the Child be stopt thereby the bigness and largeness of the Shoulders and be in danger of being suffocated and strangled in the passage but assoon as the Head is born if there be need she may slide in her Fingers under the Arm-pits and the rest of the Body will follow without any difficulty Assoon as the Midwife hath in this manner drawn forth the Child she must put it on one side lest the Blood and Waters which follows immediatly after should incommode it or it may be choak it by falling into its Mouth or Nose as it would do if it were laid on the back after which there remains nothing but to free her from the After-burthen which I will show how in the next Chapter but before that let her be very careful to examine whether there be no more Children in the Womb for it happens very often that there are two and sometimes more which she may easily know by the continuance of the Pains after the Child is born and the bigness of the Mothers belly besides this she may be very sure of it if she puts her Hand up the entry of the Womb and finds there another Water gathering and a Child in it presenting to the passage if it be so she must have a care not to go about to fetch the After-birth till the Woman be delivered of all her Children if she have never so many because Twins never have but one Burthen to which there are fastned as many Strings and distinct Membranes as there are Children and if one should go to draw it forth assoon as the first is born the rest would be in danger of their lives because that part is very necessary to them whilst they are in the Womb and besides it endangers a flooding Wherefore the first String must be cut being first tyed with a thread three or four double as we shall shew more exactly hereafter and fasten the other end with a string to the Womans Thigh not so much for fear that the String should enter again into the Womb as to prevent the inconvenience it may cause to the Woman by hanging between her Thighs afterwards this Child being removed they must take care to deliver her of the rest observing all the same circumstances as was to the first which being done it will be then convenient to fetch the After-birth as we shall shew in the following Chapter CHAP. IX How to fetch the After-burthen MOst Animals when they have brought forth their young cast forth nothing else but some Waters and the Membranes which contained them but Women have an After-birth of which after Labour they must be delivered as of a thing useless and inconvenient Wherefore assoon as the Child is born before they do so much as tye or cut the Navel-string lest the Womb close they must without losing time free the Woman from this fleshy mass which was destined to furnish the Infant with Blood for its nourishment whilst it was in the Womb and which at that time is called with much reason the After-birth because it follows the Child and is to the Woman like another Birth for being brought forth she is totally delivered To perform this the Midwife having taken the string must winde it once or twice about one or two of her Fingers of her left Hand joyned together the better to hold it with which she may then draw it moderately and with the right hand she may only take a single hold of it
being taken away lay some fine Rags dipt in Oyl of St Johns-wort on each side the bearing-place and renewing them twice or thrice a day foment these parts with Barley Water and Honey of Roses to cleanse them from the Excrements which pass and when the Woman makes Water let them be defended with fine Rags to hinder the Urine from causing smarting and pain by touching them Sometimes the Bruises are so great that the Bearing-place is inflamed and a very considerable Abscess follows which I have met with in which case it must be opened just below the swelling in the most convenient place and after the matter is evacuated a Detersive Injection must be injected into the Cavity with the same Fomentation above-mentioned viz. Barley-water and Oyl of Roses which may be a little heightned with Spirit of Wine if there be any danger of Corruption and afterwards the Ulcer must be dressed according to Art But sometimes it happens by an unlucky and deplorable accident that the Perinaeum is rent so that the Privity and Fundament is all in one if it were so let alone without reunion the Woman afterwards happening to be with Child would indeed be delivered with more ease and without danger of suffering the same again as is usual when healed after such an accident but likewise if it remains in this manner 't is so great an inconvenience that her Ordure comes both waies Wherefore having cleansed the Womb from such Excrements as may be there with red-Wine let it be strongly stitched together with three or four stitches or more according to the length of the separation and taking at each stitch good hold of the flesh that so it may not break out and then dress it with an agglutinative Balm such as is Linimentum Arcei or the like clapping a Plaister on and some linnen above it to prevent as much as may be the falling of the Urine and other Excrements upon it because their acrimony would make it smart and put it to pain and that these parts may close together with more ease let the Woman keep her Thighs close together without the least spreading until the cure be perfected But if afterwards she happen to be with Child she will be obliged to prevent the like mischief to anoint those parts with emollient Oyls and Ointments and when she is in Labour she must forbear helping her Throws too strongly at once but leave Nature to perform it by degrees together with the help of a Midwife well instructed in her Art who being warned by the first disgrace will do her best to avoid a second for usually when these parts have been once rent it is very difficult to prevent the like in the following Travail because the Scar there made doth straighten the parts yet more wherefore it were to be wished for greater security against the like accident that the Woman should have no more Children Now if by neglecting such a rent the Lips of it be cicatriced and that Cure be desired you must with a good pair of Scissers cut off those Scars in the same manner as is done in a Hare-lip and it must afterwards be drest accordingly or as if it newly happened CHAP. VIII Of after-Pains which happen to a Woman new-laid and of their several causes THe most common accident that usually troubles most Women during their lying in is after-Pains We have formerly shewed how they are accustomed to be prevented in giving the Woman immediatly after she is laid two Ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds drawn without fire with as much Syrup of Maiden-hair but since notwithstanding this Remedy the Woman is much pained in her Belly let us enquire what may be the cause of all these gripes which are usually called without distinction After-pains and are sometimes felt about the Reins Loins and Groins sometimes in the Womb only and sometimes about the Navel and all over the Belly either continually or by fits with some remission in a certain place or sometimes on one side and somtimes on another all which reflections teach exactly their several causes and accordingly the Remedies must be varied The Pains of the Belly for the most part proceed from one only of these four causes or several of them together the first is by Wind contained in the Bowels by which they are easily filled after Labour as well because they have more room to dilate then when the Child was in the Womb by which they were comprest as also because the nourishment and matter contained as well in them as in the Stomach have been so confused and agitated from side to side during the pains of Labour by the frequent Throws which alwaies much compress the Belly that they could not be well digested whence this wind is afterwards generated and consequently the Gripes which the Woman feels running in her Belly from side to side according as the Wind moves more or less and sometimes also towards the Womb because of the compression and commotion which the Bowels make being extremely thereby agitated The Second Cause of these Gripes which torments the Woman as much as the former is that which proceeds from some strange body resting in the Womb after Labour which it endeavors to expel by continual Throws and it is sometimes a false Conception or a piece of the Burthen and very often clodded Blood which cause this torment and never cease til what is so contained in the Womb be come away these Painâ— are very like the same that a Woman endures before she is delivered and are not abated by Clysters as those are that proceed from Wind but on the contrary are rather thereby excited and augmented Thirdly These Pains are often caused by the sudden suppression of the * Childbed cleansing Lochia which abundantly filling the whole substance of the Womb causeth a great distention and by its long stay an inflammation which is communicated by means of the Peritonaeum to all the parts of the lower Belly by eason whereof it swells and is extended and grows extreamly hard which accident continuing very often kills the Woman in a short time after The Fourth and last cause of these Pains is the great extension of the Ligaments of the Womb by reason of a hard Labour here they remain more fixt about the Reins Loins and Groins than any other part because they are the places where these Ligaments are fastened however these Pains do sometimes communicate themselves by continuity to the whole Womb and the rather when it hath been bruised by a violent Labour 'T is commonly held that a Woman is not troubled with these Pains so much of her first Child as of the following but daily experience confirms us that it happens indifferently according as the present and various dispositions contribute to it either more or less there being no certain rule in respect either to first or last Labours All these Pains must be cured according to their several causes and to prevent thoes
which we say are excited by wind give the Woman immediatly after Delivery Oyl of sweet Almonds and Syrup of Maiden-hair mixt together some do more esteem Oyl of Walnuts provided it may be made of good Nuts but this hath a worse taste than the other This remedy serves to lenify and line the inside of the Intestines with its Unctuousness by means whereof that which is contained within them passeth away the easier but as we have said elsewhere this mixture is so nauseous that it doth often for that reason more hurt than good wherefore I prefer a good warm Broth for those who have an aversion to the Oyl Others give half a glass of good Hippocras but that in the condition the Woman is in may do more hurt by causing a Fever Now for the better preventing these kind of Pains let the Woman keep her Belly very hot and be careful not to drink her Drink too cold and if they torment her very much hot Clothes from time to time must be laid on her Belly or a Pan-cake fryed with Walnut-oyl may be applied to it without swathing her Belly too strait And for the better evacuating the wind out of the Intestines give her a Clyster which may be repeated as often as necessity requires but if by this means the pains of the Belly are not appeased 't is certain they are maintained by some other cause If it be known that some strange body is retained in the Womb the expulsion of it must be procured or it must be fetcht away by putting the Fingers into the Entry of it according to the direction already given for the extracting of a false Conception and if it be great Clods which retained do also cause these pains they will not fail to cease assoon as they are fetcht away but also the same accident will soon return if new Blood flowes into the cavity of the Womb and coagulates there again as it often happens for it cannot endure to keep any thing in its capacity after the Childs birth If the Womans Cleansings be suddenly stopt which a little before came down in great abundance you need not search for any other cause of the pains she endures and the speediest remedy is to bring them down which is effected by Clysters that draw downwards by hot and aperitive Fomentations to the bearing place and by bleeding in the Foot preceded by that of the Arm if the case require it As to the Pains the Woman feels in her Loins and Groins which come by reason of the great distention or in part ruption of the Ligaments of the Womb thereabouts fastened rest alone and a good scituation of the body will be sufficient to fortifie and reunite them without greater Medicines because they cannot be actually applied to the part affected alwaies observing a good Diet and not forgetting in all these several sorts of pains to provide for the natural evacuation of the Lochia for 't is one of the principal means to obtain a good issue CHAP. IX Of the Lochia which flow from the Womb in Child-bed Whence they come and the Signs when they are good or bad I Do not find that Authors have so sufficiently enquired into the cause of the Lochia which are evacuated in Child-bed as to make us truly understand what they are either in respect of their Nature affirming it to be the blood usually purged away every Moneth before they were with Child which being collected about the Womb flowes away when it opens after the birth of the Child or in respect of the quantity of this evacuation and the length of time it ought to continue Hippocrates in his Book De Naturâ Pueri would have at the beginning an Hemine and an half a day of which measure though common in his time we have no certain knowledg for some will have it to be our half Pint others a Pint or therebouts and that they continue for a Male-child thirty daies for a Female fourty diminishing every day by little and little until there comes no more and the evacuation is compleated Galen saies that these Lochia are only vitious humours and the residue superfluity of the Blood with which the Child was nourisshed in the Mothers Womb. But I will as near as I can here describe to you the manner how I conceive this evacuation to be made and the reason why they diminish day by day and change their colour consistence and quality according to the several times Assoon as the Child is born there flowes away from the Womb at the same moment some waterish humours besides those which came away before at the breaking of the Membranes These Waters then are very often bloody not that they are so by Nature but because there is for the most part Blood mixed with them which comming from the Vessels of the Womb because of the agitation and commotion they received in the Birth become so reddish but immediatly after the Burthen is compleatly loosened then pure blood flows away and the reason why these Lochia flow freely and are very red the first day is because the Vessels against which the Burthen was fastened in the Womb are but newly opened but the Blood flowing by little and little in less abundance because the greatest plenitude hath been at first evacuated doth clod in small drops on the extremitie of all those Vessels whereby they are stop'd and then there comes away onely the most serose part of it and therefore the Lochia begin the second and third day to be more pale and less coloured and after that the colour of them is less bloody every day as the Vessels close until they are at length very pale which happens when the Vessels being almost perfectly reunited there distills only the meer moisture of them as also of the whole substance of the Womb through which a quantity of it doth likewise transude Now these serose Humidities acquire by the heat of these places a consistence somewhat thick and that more or less according as they come away in greater or lesser quantity and according to the length of time they stay there And then the Lochia do almost resemble in colour and consistence troubled Milk which makes the World believe it is Breast Milk which is in that manner emptied downwards but in truth it is an Abuse as great as common For my part I know no other cause of this ordinary change of the colour and consistence of the Lochia nor of the diminution of their quantity than that which we daily find in the Suppuration of a great wound somewhat incarnated for assoon as the wound is first made it bleeds fresh and in good large quantity because the Vessels are then open but a little after during the first and second daies it yields only bloody Serosities forasmuch as some small portions of the Blood being clodded about the mouths of the Vessels do in part stop them and afterwards stopping them more it yeilds a white *
will alwaies be separated in the very same place just close to the Belly because it is a part which remains wholly * Without life inanimate after the Child is come into the World wherefore whether Boies or Girles let the Knot be made at least an inch from the Belly as we have already directed and not nearer lest it pain or inflame the Childs Navel It will not be from the purpose to mention here a business of great consequence which is sometimes capable to kill the new-born Babe without almost knowing the cause of it 't is a very bad custome some Midwives have before they make the Knot they drive all the blood out of the String into the Infants Belly believing that by this means they fetch it to it self and strengthen it when it is weak but 't is no such matter for assoon as these Vessels are never so little cooled the blood it contains quickly loses its spirits and is half coagulated in an instant which is the reason that being driven back into the Infants Liver it is enough to cause very great Accidents not because of its abundance but because having quite lost its natural heat it is afterwards soon corrupted and changeth and spoileth the Childs Blood with which it comes to mix They commonly put this ill custome in practice when the Child is weak but this doth sooner suffocate them for if they need Blood to give them vigour it must be good and laudable and not that which is half clodded and destitute of its natural heat Wherefore whether the Child be strong or weak if you will not put it in danger of its life or at least cause to him great oppressions pains and gripes forbear driving his blood thus out of the String into the Infants body Now having thus tyed and cut the String wash the Child presently all over for to swaddle it afterwards as we shall direct CHAP. XVII Hôw a new-born Babe must be washed and cleansed from the Excrements as also how it ought to be wrapped up in swadling Cloaths WHen the Midwife hath ordered the Childs Navel-string just as we have directed in the foregoing Chapter let her presently cleanse it from the Excrements it brings with it into the world of which some are within the body as the Urine in the Bladder and the Moeconion found in the Guts and others without which are thick whitish and viscous proceeding from the slimyness of the Waters there are Children sometimes so covered all over with this that one would say they were rubbed over with soft Cheese and certain Women of easie belief do really imagine it was because they had often eaten some while they were with Child that their Infants are thus full of this thick white Excrement which in colour and consistence is not unlike white Cheese Let the Child then be cleansed from all these Excrements with Wine and Water a little warmed and every part of his body where this Excrement is as principally the Head because of the Hair and the folds of the Groins and Arm-pits and the Cods which parts must be gently cleansed with a soft Rag or a soft Spung dipt in this luke-warm Wine If this viscous Excrement stick so close that it will not easily be wash'd off of these places it may be fetcht off with Oile of sweet Almonds or a little fresh Butter melted with the Wine and afterwards well dried off one must also cleanse and unstop with tents of fine Rags wet in this liquour the Ears and Nostrils for the Eyes they may be wiped with a soft dry rag not dipt in this Wine that it may not pain them and make them smart After the Child is thus washed and cleansed from these Impurities and Blood which comes away in the Labour with which sometimes its whole Body is besmeared all the parts of it must be visited to see if there be any fault or dislocation whether the Nose be straight or its Tongue tyed whether there be no bruise or tumor of the Head or whether the Mould be not overshotten or whether the Scrotum in case it be a Male be not blown up and swelled in short whether it suffered any violence in any part of its Body and whether they be well and duely shaped that so Remedies may be used according to the nature of the indisposition discovered But as it is not sufficient to cleanse the outside of the Childs body you must above all observe that it must discharge the Excrements retained within wherefore examine whether the Conduits of the Urine and Stool be opened for some have been born without having them perforated who have died for want of voiding their Excrements because timely care was not taken of it as to the Urine all Children as well Males as Females do render it assoon as they are born especially when they feel the heat of the fire and sometimes also the Maeconion of the Guts but nevertheless usually a little after If the Infant doth not render it the first day that it may not remain too long in his Belly and cause very painful Gripes put up into his fundament a small Suppository to stir it up to be discharged to this purpose a sugar'd Almond may be used anointed over with a little boiled Honey or else a small piece of Castile-soap rubb'd over with fresh Butter you may also give the Child to this purpose at the Mouth a little Syrup of Roses or Violets mixt with some Oyl of Sweet Almonds drawn without fire anointing the Belly also with the same Oyl or a little fresh Butter It may be known when the Child hath voided all its Maeconion if the Stools change from black and become pale which is about the second or third day losing by degrees this tincture in proportion to the generation of new Excrements from the Milk which about this time mixes with the first As to the Maeconion which is an Excrement in colour and consistence like to the Pulp of Cassia found in the Childs Guts when it comes into the World 't will be enough to the purpose to examine what it is and from whence it proceeds wherefore without dwelling upon the different explications of Authors touching its generation I will ingeniously give my thoughts of it which is that it comes from the superfluous Blood daily discharged as it doth in all persons and of all ages by means of the Hepatick channel which coming from the hollow of the Liver goeth and emptyeth into the Intestine Duodenum out of which is formed the Moeconion which afterwards serves to keep the Intestines of the Foelus open and dilated that so they may the better perform their office after its birth and to make it appear that it is truely thus made and that the superfluous Blood is continually discharged by the Hepatick channel into the Duodenum as I do say there are some people of Fourscore years of age that were never let Blood nor never lost any outwardly who nevertheless
be a greater hinderance to the Childs sucking and that it turn not into an ill natured Ulcer CHAP. XXIV Of Gripes and Pains of the Belly of a young Child MAny Children are so griped that they cannot forbear crying night nor day for the great pains they feel in their Belly with which some are so vext and tormented that they dye of it 'T is very often the first and most common distemper which happens to little Infants after their Birth which in general and for the most part comes from the sudden change of their nourishment forasmuch as having alwaies received it by the Umbilical Vessels whiles they were in their Mothers Belly they come to change it of a sudden not only the manner of receiving it but the nature and quality of it assoon as they are born for instead of purified Blood only which was conveyed to them by means of the Umbilical Vein they are obliged for want of it to be nourished with their Mothers Breast-milk which they suck with their Mouth and from which are engendered many Excrements causing the Gripes as well because it is not so pure as the Blood with which it was fed in the Womb as because the Stomach and Intestines cannot yet make a good Digestion nor an easie Distribution being not accustomed to it The particular causes of these Gripes are either when the Moeconion amassed during all the time of Pregnancy is not evacuated soon after the Infants birth and that by its too-long stay in the Intestines it acquires a sharp and pricking Acrimony or that becoming hard the Infant cannot void it nor the new Excrements which proceed from the Milk which he hath taken at the first 't is also sometimes because the Child not being able to suck with ease he swallows in sucking the Milk with difficulty much air and wind which being retained in the Stomach and sliding into the Intestines doth painfully distend them This Wind sometimes is caused when a Child takes a greater quantity of Milk than he can digest or because of its ill quality as when the Woman gives her Breast-milk assoon as she is delivered without staying to have it purified Cold may also make it suffer the same But very often it is for giving him Pap too soon as also when it is not enough boiled because this nourishment which is gross and viscous cannot be easily digested by a new-born Babe whose Stomach is not yet accustomed to it and Worms that are engendred in the Intestines by their stirring and biting do also much torment them Besides all these things already mentioned the Midwife also may cause great pains in the Childs Belly by driving back into it the cold and clodded Blood out of the Navel-string before it be tyed For to remedy all these pains in the Belly which Women usually call all by one common name of Gripes respect must be had to their different causes as to that which is the general cause the too sudden change of the nourishment To avoid it one must forbear giving the Child suck until the next day lest the Milk being mixt with the Phlegm which is then in the Stomach corrupt and at first it must suck but little until it be accustomed to digest it If it be the Moeconion of the Intestines which by its long stay causeth these pains for to help to discharge them of it give them at the Mouth a little Oyl of sweet Almonds and Syrup of Roses as we have directed before and to provoke it further give it Beets-stalk covered over with Honey for a Suppository or a sugar'd Almond also dipt in common Honey or one may give it a small Clyster If a Child cannot suck with ease regard must be had to that which hinders it for if it be Tongue-tyed it must be cut as is above directed and if it be because the Nurse is hard milcht change her for one whose Milk is better purified and let her rather suckle it a little and often than more at once than the little Stomach can easily digest at a time And above all whiles the Child is griped give it no Pap because this food by its viscositie doth easily cause obstructions which afterwards engender Wind. If it be Wormes lay a cloath dipt in Oyle of Wormwood mixt with Ox-gall upon the Belly or a small Cataplasme mixt with Powders of Rue Wormwood Coloquint Aloes and the seed of Citrons incorporated with Ox-gal and flower of Lupines and to draw drive them more downwards if the little Infant can take any thing by the Mouth give it a small infusion of Rhubarb or half an Ounce of compound Syrup of Succory having before given it a small Clyster of sugar'd Milk for by this means the Wormes which shun the bitterness of the Medicines and seek after the sweetness of the Milk are easily brought away by Stool When these Gripes are caused by Wind as it often happens or by any sharp Humours in the Intestines anoint the Childs Belly all over with Oyl of Violets or with Oyl of sweet Almonds or else with Oyl of Walnuts Camomil and Melilot mixt together having first warm'd them in which also a Cloath may be dipt to lay upon it or a small Pancake may be made with an Egg or two fried in Oyl of Walnuts for to be applied to it and they may take a little Anodine or Carminative Clyster according as the cause of the Gripes is known above all ever keeping the Child very warm CHAP. XXV Of the Inflamation Ulceration or shooting forth or rupture of the Navel of a young Infant THe continual cries of little Children because of the Pains and Gripes which they feel at the beginning doth somtimes cause such an agitation of the Belly that the Navel-string falling off too soon and before it be entirely closed and cicatrized there happens there an Inflammation and Ulceration at other times also for the same reason although it be outwardly healed not being so within it is dilated and thrust outward the bignesse of a small Egg and sometimes bigger which is usually called Exomphale or shooting forth of the Navel There are some who imagine when it is so inflamed and ulcerated that it was because the String was tied too-near the Belly which caused a great pain and inflamation to follow Others say that Nature having used to discharge the Urine by this part during the Childs being in the Mothers Belly doth at first still continue to send it this way and that it causeth this Accident by its acrimony for which there is no reason for 't is impossible the Urine should regorge from the Bladder to the Navel by the Urachus forasmuch as it is not hollow in an humane Foetus as we have elsewhere made appear And how near the Belly soever the Navel-string is tied and how hard provided some of the true skin which is sensible be not also tied with it it can cause no manner of pain to the Child because it is a dead and
inanimate part assoon as a Child is born and likewise insensible because there is no Nerve distributed into it But this Inflamation usually comes as I have mentioned because the Infant feeling the great pains and gripes in his Belly doth continually cry and thereby hinders the Navel from healing it may likewise be caused by a violent and frequent Cough because by these efforts the Blood is forced back into the remaining end of the Umbilical Vein which it alwaies keeps dilated and being corrupted by its stay there failes not to make an inflammation of the Navel and that which was tyed coming to fall off before it was perfectly healed there remains a very bad Ulcer upon which sometimes follows great loss of Blood and it may be Death The principal thing to be observed in the cure of this Malady is to appease the Cough and quiet the Childs crying respecting that which causeth it without which it would daily increase and if it were the Gripes it must be remedied as is directed in the foregoing Chapter as to the rest if the Navel be inflamed one must lay upon it Vnguentum refrigerans Galeni mixt with as much Populeon or a small Boulster dipt in Oyl of Roses with a little Vinegar Unguentum Rosatum Album mixt together is also good for it If the Navel continues ulcered after the String is fallen off Deficcative and Astringent Medicines must be applied to it such as is small Rags dipt in Lime water which is not too strong or Plantane water wherein a little Allom hath been dissolved If the Ulcer be small a Pledgit of dry Lint will be sufficient Many put to it only a little powder of a Post These things are better for this purpose than Plaisters which are never so drying because of the Oyles and Grease which enter into their composition But if notwithstanding one would use them he may take Desiccativum rubrum or Diapompholigos particularly observing to put a good linnen Compress on the top of these Remedies with a Swath to keep them fast until the Navel be ciccatrized and perfectly healed lest besides its Ulceration it be forced outwards and that its Vessels open by the violence of a great Cough or by the agitation which the Gripes cause in the Childs Belly As to the rupture of the Navel in young Children whether great or little the cure of it must not be otherwise undertaken than by Swathes and Compresses fitted for the purpose 'till they have acquired a more reasonable Age when if the Malady be not cured by the Swathes the Operation may be done if desired But if after the inflamation there growes an Imposthume which causeth the shooting forth of the Navel and that the tumor of it be very great then it ever kills the Children and if it be opened the matter indeed may be emptied but there is great danger that together with it the Guts come forth in the same place the first time the Child cries which may afterwards persuade those that understand not the Art that this accident happened through the Chirurgeons ignorance For this reason Ambrose Parè in his 94th Chapter of his Book of Generation adviseth you not to meddle with it but rather to let the Child die without doing any thing to it as he saith he did himself when he was sent for by a Taylor in the like case He recites in the same place a story of a Chirurgeon of his time called Mr. Peter de la Rock who was in very great danger of his life for having opened an Impostume of the Navel of a Child of Monsieur de Martigues which being done the Intestines came forth by the orifice and soon after the Child died which the servants of the house reported was thereby caused and therefore although without reason they would have killed him if the said Monsieur de Martigues had not hindered them but I believe the Chirurgeon had shunned the danger they put him in and that disgrace if he had before made a good Prognostick of what would follow and the danger wherein the Infant was for it may be resembling many of our time who undertake such things that they may be thought more able than others and being but simple fellows boast themselves capable to work miracles he had promised speedily to cure the Child of this Maladie which was incureable that under so fair hopes he might have a good summe in hand paid him In this we must follow Parey's advice with some distinction for if the Impostume be small and the Child strong one must not forbear having first made a good Prognostick to open it and when there is never so little hopes 't is better to practise what Art commands than to forsake the sick in a certain despair CHAP. XXVI Of the Smartings Redness and Inflammation of the Groin Buttocks and Thighs of the Infant IF the Nurse doth not keep the Child very cleanly not changeing the Beds or washing them each time or assoon as they are fouled with their Excrements their acrimony will not fail to cause redness and smartings in the Groins Thighs and Buttocks and afterwards because of the pain these parts will inflame which easily happens by reason of the tenderness and delicacy of their Skin from which the * The outward skin of the body Epidermis is at length separated and worn away if timely care be not taken The cure of these Indispositions is twofold that is first to keep the Child cleanly and secondly to take off the sharpness of its Urine As to the first the Nurse must cleanse the Child of his Excrements assoon as he hath voided them shifting it each time with a clean bed washed in the Buck as to the second thing to be observed of tempering the Childs Urine that cannot be executed but by the Nurses keeping a cooling Diet that so her Milk may have the same quality wherefore let her abstain from all things that may heat her Besides these two generals cooling and drying Remedies must be applyed to the inflamed parts Wherefore each time the Childs excrements are wip'd off let the parts be bathed with Plantane water mixt with a fourth part of Lime-water and if the pain be very great let it only be fomented with luke-warm Milk Many Women ordinarily use the powder of a Post to drie it or a little Mill-dust which they strew upon it Unguentum Album or Diapompholigos spread upon a small rag in form of a Plaister will not be amiss above all when the Nurse opens the Child let her be very careful to wrap the inflamed parts with fine white rags that those parts may not by rubbing together be more galled and pained CHAP. XXVII Of the Ulcers or Thrush of the Mouth of an Infant VEry frequently the Milk of a Nurse that is Red-haired given to Wine or very amorous may by its heat and acrimony cause small Ulcers in an Infants Mouth which are called Aphthae and vulgarly Cancers sometimes also