far as the privities themselves and that chiefly for sense and pleasure for which cause there is a great sympathy between the Womb and the Head This is also further to be noted that the Womb in its situation is not fixed and immoveable but moveable by reason of two ligaments which hang on both sides from the Share-bone and piercing through the Peritonaeum are joined to the bone it self so that it sometimes happens that through those holes of the Peritonaeum which give passage to these ligaments being loosened either the Omentum or the Entrails do swell outwardly and cause the burstness either of the Caul or of the Guts and sometimes it happens by reason of the looseness of those ligaments that the womb is moved with such force that it falls down and in the act of Copulation is moved up and down sometimes it moves upward that some Women do affirm that it ascends as high as their Stomack Now though the Womb be one continued body yet it is divided into the Mouth and the Bottom The Bottom of the Womb is called all that which by still ascending stretches it self from the internal Orifice to the end being narrow toward the Mouth but dilating it self by little and little 'till it come at the entrails The Mouth of the womb is that narrowness between the neck and the bottom it is an oblong and transverse Orifice but where it opens it self orbicular and round the circumference very thick and of an exquisite feeling and if this mouth be out of order and be troubled with a Scirrhous brawn or over-fatness over-moisture or relaxation it is the cause of Barrenness In those that are big with Child there uses to stick to this Orifice a thick viscous glutinous matter that the parts moistned may be the more easily opened For in the delivery this mouth is opened after a very strange and miraculous manner so that according to the bigness of the birth it suffers an equal dilatation from the bottom of the womb to the privy member CHAP. VII Of the preparing Vessels in Women THE Spermatick Preparing Vessels are two Veins and two Arteries differing not at all from those of men either in the number original action or use but only in their bigness and the manner of their insertion For as to their number there are so many veins and so many Arteries as in men They arise also from the same place as in men that is to say the right from the trunck of the hollow vein descending the left from the left Emulgent There are two Arteries also on both sides one which grow from the Aorta these both bring vital blood for the work of Generation As to the Longitude and Latitude of these Vessels they are narrower and shorter in Women only where they are wrinckled they are much more wreathed and contorted than in men for the way being shorter in women than in men Nature required for stretching out these vessels that they should be more wrinckled and crankled than in men that the blood might stay there in greater quantity for preparation of the Seed These vessels in Women are carried with an oblique course through the small guts to the Stones being wrapt up in fatter membranes but in the mid-way they are divided into two branches whereof the greater branch goes to the Stone constituting the various or winding body and those wonderful inosculations the lesser branch ends in the womb in the sides of which it is scattered up and down and chiefly at the higher part of the bottom of the womb for nourishment of the Womb and of the birth and that some part of the flowers may be purged out through those Vessels now because the Stones of Women are seated near the womb for that cause these vessels fall not from the Peritonaeum neither make they such passages as in men neither reach they to the Share-bone The use of these Spermatic Vessels is to minister to the generation of Seed according to the ancient Doctrine but to the nutrition of the Eggs in the Stones according to the new and for the nourishment of the Foetus and of the solid parts and the expurgation of the courses in as much as blood is convey'd by the Arteries to all those parts to which their Ramifications come in which parts they leave what is to be separated according to the law of Nature the remaining blood returning by the Veins CHAP. VIII Of the Stones in Women THE Stones of Women although they do perform the same actions and are for the same use as mens yet they differ from them in situation substance temperament figure magnitude and in their Covering They are seated in the hollowness of the Abdomen neither do they hang out as in men but they rest upon the Muscles of the Loins and this for that cause that they might be more hot and fruitful being to elaborate that matter with which the Seed of man engenders man In this place arises a Question not trivial whether the Seed of Woman be the efficient or the material cause of generation To which it is answered that though it have a power of acting yet it receives the perfection of that power from the Seed of Man The Stones of Women differ from mens also as to their figure because they are not so round and oval as those of men being in their fore and hinder part more depressed and broad the external superficies being more unequal as if a great many knots and kernals were mixed together There is also another difference as to the subject because they are softer and moister than those of men being more loose and ill compacted Their magnitude and temperament do also make a difference for the Stones of Women are much colder and lesser than Mens which is the reason that they beget a thin and watry Seed Their coverings also do make a difference for mens are wrapt up in divers Tunicles because being pendent outward they were otherwise more subject to external injuries but the stones of women have but one tunicle which though it stick very close to them yet are they also half cloathed over with the Peritonaeum They have but one membrane that encompasses them round but on their upper side where the preparing Vessels enter them they are about half way involved in another membrane that accompanies those Vessels and springs from the Peritonaeum When this cover is removed their substance appears whitish but is wholly different from the substance of Mens Stones for mens are composed of Seed-vessels which being continued to one another are twenty or thirty ells long if one could draw them out at length without breaking but Womens principally consist of a great many membranes and small fibres loosly joined to one another among which there are several little bladders full of a clear Liquor thro' whose membranes the nerves and preparing Vessels run Galen and Hypocrates and their followers imagine the
the thighs and groyns grow lank and meager The belly waxes hard as happens to those who are troubled with the Dropsie and almost of an equal roundness with many pricking pains at the bottom of the belly which have scarce any intermission which is the cause that they can hardly sleep being encumbered with a heavy and dead burthen It may be known also by other signs for in the conception the Male-Infant begins to move at the beginning of the third Month for the most part and the Female at the beginning of the third or fourth Month now where any motion happens the woman ought to observe whether she have any milk in her breasts or no if she have milk in her breasts it is a sign of true conception if she have not it is a sign of false conception Besides in a true conception the Mother shall perceive her Child to move on all sides oftner though to the right flank than to the left sometimes up sometimes down without any assistance but in a false conception although there be a kind of motion which is not enlivened that proceeds from the expulsive faculty of the Mother and not from the Mole The Mother shall also perceive it to tumble always on that side she lies not having any power to sustain it self besides as she lies on her back if any one do push gently downward the burden of her belly she shall perceive it to lie and rest in the place where it was pushed without returning thither beside that which will confirm it more is when after the end of nine months the woman shall not come to her Travel but that her belly still swells and is puffed up more and more all the rest of the parts of the body growing thin and meager this is a sign of a Mole notwithstanding that many Women have been known to go ten or eleven months before their delivery The signs of the windy Mole are these when the Belly is equally stretched and swelled up like a Bladder more soft than when it bears the Fleshy mole and especially near the groins and small of the belly if it be struck on it sounds like a drum sometime the swelling decreases but by and by it swells more and more the woman feels her self more light it is engendered and encreases swifter than the fleshy mole or the Watry and it makes such a distention of the belly as if one were tearing it asunder For the watry and humorous mole the signs are almost the same the Belly increases and swells by little and little as the woman lies upon her back the sides of her belly are more swelled and distended than the middle or the bottom of the belly which grows flatter then by reason that the water and the humours fall down to the sides of the belly moving up and down on the belly as if it were a fluctuation of water there This distinction is to be observed in the Watry Mole that the flank and thighs are more stretched and swollen than in the humoral because that the waters flow thither oftentimes And that which comes forth through Nature's Conduit is as clear as Rock-water without any ill savour but that which flows out in the humoral distemper is more red like water wherein flesh hath been washed and is of an ill savour This is also to be marked in false conceptions that the flowers never come down and the Navel of the Mother advances it self little or nothing both which happen in true conceptions There are besides these above-written certain other Tumours which the Women do take for Moles These occasion a rotundity and swelling in the belly which are not discovered till the woman be opened and then they do appear though the body of the womb be clean and neat without any thing contained in it at one or both corners of the womb a quantity of water contained as it were in little bags in others are to be seen a heap of kernels and superfluous flesh clustered up together in the womb which cause it to swell Yet in these women it hath been observed that their purgations have been very regular which hath been a sign that the womb it self hath been in good temper There is also another Excrescency of Flesh which may be termed a pendent Mole which is a piece of flesh hanging within the inner neck of the womb which at the place where it is fastned is about a fingers breadth still increasing bigger and bigger toward the bottom like a little bell This flesh hanging in the interiour neck of the womb possesses the whole Orifice of the privy member sometimes appearing outward as big as the fist as hath been observed in some Women Of the cures of all these we shall treat in due place CHAP. VI. How Women with Child ought to govern themselves IN the first place she ought to chuse a temperate and wholesome air neither too hot nor too cold nor in a watry and damp place nor too subject to fogs and winds especially the South-wind which is a great enemy to Women with Child causing oft-times abortion in them The Northwind is also hurtful engendring Rheums and Catarrhs and Coughs which do often force a woman to lie down before her time Likewise those winds which carry with them evil odours and vapours for these being sucked with the air into the Lungs are the cause of divers diseases For her Diet she ought to choose meat that breeds good and wholsome nourishment and which breeds good juice such are meats that are moderately dry the quantity ought to be sufficient both for themselves and for their children and therefore they are to fast as little as may be for abstinence unless upon good occasion renders the child sickly and tender and constrains it to be born before its time to seek for nourishment as the over-much diet stuffs it up and renders it so big that it can hardly keep its place All meats too cold too hot and too moist are to be avoided as also the use of Salads and Spiced meats and the too much use of salt meats are also forbidden which will make the child to be born without nails a sign of short life Her bread ought to be good wheat well baked and levened Her meats ought to be Pigeons Turtles Pheasants Larks Partridge Veal and Mutton For herbs she may use Lettice Endive Bugloss and Burrage abstaining from raw Salads for her last course she may be permitted to eat Pears Marmalade as also Cherries and Damsins she must avoid all meats that provoke urine or the terms and such meats as are windy as Pease and Beans Yet because there are some Women that have such depraved stomachs by reason of a certain salt and sowre humour contained in the membranes of the stomach as that they will eat coals chalk ashes cinders and such like trash so that it is impossible to hinder them to such therefore we can only say thus much that they
evacuation downward is apt to occasion miscarriage The Womans mind ought to be kept sedate and quiet all melancholly news and frightful objects must be removed far from her nor must any thing that may cause sorrow be suddenly told her She must moderate her passions and excessive anger must by all means be avoided for the passions do wonderfully affect the Child and often cause miscarraige some have been born dumb others have had a continual shaking of their Limbs and the like when the Mother has been suddenly and violently surprized or frighted wherefore it is best to be discoursing of such things before big-bellied Women as may moderately rejoyce them and that such objects be presented as may please and divert them and if it be absolutely necessary to acquaint them with sorrowful things great care and caution must be used and the misery must be discovered piece-meal Some Women are so very vain that they will lace themselves hard with Bodice stifned with Whale-bone to preserve their shapes forsooth but they do not consider what injury they do themselves for their Breasts being prest too much are apt to be inflamed and impostumated and the growth of the Child is hindered and the Limbs of it too often disfigured thereby and sometimes miscarriage happens They ought therefore at this time to have their Cloaths more loose and easie Some Women have also a custom to bleed once or twice when they are with Child tho' they have no need of it but this is certainly an errour for Women with Child ought not to bleed but upon necessity some having miscarried by bleeding but once a little too much blood being taken away tho' others I confess having blouded nine or ten times whilst they were with Child and yet have not miscarried Now seeing all are not of the same constitution they must not be all treated alike Those that have most blood can best bear bleeding If Purging be thought necessary gentle things must be only used as Manna Rhubarb or the like Women with Child are subject to many accidents the first is Vomiting whereby they often judge they are breeding it is not always occasioned by ill humours in the stomach but sometimes from a sympathy betwixt the Stomach and the Womb by the nerves inserted in the upper Orifice of the Stomach which have communication by continuity with those that pass to the Womb. Now the Womb which has a very exquisite Sense because of its membranous composition beginning to wax bigger feels some pain which being at the same time communicated by this continuity of nerves to the upper Orifice of the Stomach cause there these Vomitings for Women that were in good health before they conceived Vomit from the first day of their being with Child tho' they have no ill humours in their Stomach If the Vomiting continues a long while it weakens the Stomach very much and hinders digestion tho' it oftentimes continues till the Women are quick and then they recover their Appetite but in some it does not go off till they are delivered and some are most afflicted with it towards the end of their reckoning and this sort seldom ceases before they are brought to Bed Vomiting at the beginning if it be gentle and without great straining is not much minded and sometimes it is beneficial but if it continue after the third or fourth Month it ought to be remedied because the nourishment being daily Vomited up the Mother and the Child will be much weakened and moreover the continual subversion of the Stomach causing great agitation and compression the Belly occasions miscarriage It is very difficult to prevent wholly this Vomiting yet it may be much lessened by a good Diet and by eating little at a time and to strengthen the Stomach let her eat her meat with the juice of Oranges or the like Marmalade of Quinces is also very good being eaten after dinner or after meals and she ought to drink Claret-wine with water and it is convenient to quench Iron in her drink She must forbear fat Meats and Sauces for they much soften the membranes of the Stomach which were too weak and relaxed Sweet and Sugar Sauces are also injurious But if the vomiting continue tho' regular diet has bin used the corrupt humours must be purged off by stool by some gentle purge made of Mallows Cassia Rhubarb and the like but if the vomiting continues tho' the woman observes a good diet and tho she has bin purged we must do no more for there is great danger of miscarriage There are sometimes great pains in the back reins and hips especially the first time the woman is with child by reason of the dilatation of the womb and the compression it makes by its greatness and weight on the neighbouring parts The ligaments as well round as large cause these pains being much straightened and drawn by the bigness and weight of the womb namely the large one of the back and loins which answer to the reins because these two ligaments are strongly fastned towards these parts the round ones cause pains in the groins and thighs where they end they are some times so violently extended by this extream bigness and great weight of the womb that they are torn especially if the woman happen to stumble which causeth violent pain and much mischief A woman being six Months gone with Child upon stumbling felt something crack in her belly near the loins and she presently felt great pain in her back and in one side of her belly she vomited violently and the next day was seized with a continual Fever this lasted seven or eight days without sleeping or resting an hour and all the while she vomited up all she took and she was also very much troubled with Hicoughs and had great pains like those of labour But by keeping her bed twelve days and by bleeding in her arm thrice and by the use of a grain of laudanum divers times and by corroborating cordials she was somewhat eased and all the symptoms went off by little and little and she went her full time and indeed there is nothing that will mitigate the pains of the back and reins better than rest in bed and bleeding in the Arm especially if they were occasioned by the ligaments broke or two much extended it may be convenient to keep up the belly with a broad swaith if the Woman cannot keep her Bed Oftentimes when a Woman has conceived the courses being stopt a great quantity of blood flows to the Breasts which makes them swell and be painful therefore to prevent inflammations Women ought to take great care that they are not strait-laced so as to compress the breasts and this is all that needs to be done at the beginning only she must be sure that she receives no blows upon them but it 's better to bleed in the Arm after the third or fourth Month if a great deal of blood flow to the Breasts then to endeavour to repel
it on some other part by astringent or repelling Medicines because it does least hurt in the breasts than any where else It may be also convenient to use an orderly cooling Diet to lessen the quantity and qualifie the heat of the humours Big bellied Women sometimes are troubled with incontinence and difficulty of Urine because the Womb by its bigness and weight presses the Bladder so that the common extension of it being hindred it is rendred incapable of holding such a quantity of water as it uses to do and therefore the nearer a Woman is to her time the oftner she is forced to make water but on the contrary if the neck of the Womb be pressed she makes water with great difficulty and sometimes an heat and inflammation in the neck of the Bladder is the occasion of the suppression of the Urine and sometimes a stone is the cause and if so the pain is more violent and much more dangerous than at another time the Womb by its weight and bigness causing the stone perpetually to press upon the bladder These frequent endeavours to make water ought to be prevented if possibly because the continual forcing downwards to make water loosens the Womb and so sometimes occasions miscarriage and therefore when it comes from the bigness and weight of the Womb as it dos most commonly the Woman must ease her self by lifting up the bottom of her Belly when she has occasion to make water or she may have a large swaith fitted for that purpose to keep her Belly from bearing too much upon the Bladder But keeping in Bed is the best and surest remedy If an Inflammation of the neck of the Bladder be occasioned by sharp humours the Woman must have a cooling Diet and forbear Wine and Morning and Evening she must take an Emulsion made of Whey Syrup of Violets and the cold Seeds and this is very safe for it cools and cleanses the passages of the Urine and is no way injurious to the Mother or Child But if the pain and inflammation do not go off by the use of these things to prevent any ill accident that may happen a little blood mâ—y be taken from the Womans Arm and the outward entry of the neck of the bladder may be bathed with a cooling and Emollient Decoction made of Mallows Marsh-mallows Violets and Linseeds or Injections made of the same Decoction with honey of Violets or warm Milk may be cast into the Bladder But if these things do not do the business a Catheter may be used from time to time to draw forth the water and if the pain be violent a half bath luke-warm may be used if she be not too much moved thereby But all Medicines that force Urine must be forborne for they are very injurious to Women with Child for they are apt to occasion miscarriage And if a Stone be the cause it must for the present be only thrust back with the Catheter for if you should endeavour to draw it out the life of the Child or Mother will be hazarded wherefore it is best to let it alone till the Woman is delivered When the Child lies high coughs and difficulty of breathing afflict big-bellied Women and when the cough is so much as to cause Vomiting it is a very dangerous Symptom being the most apt to occasion miscarriage because the Lungs endeavouring to cast out the offending matter depresses the Diaphragm and thereby all the parts of the belly and especially the Womb. Many things may also occasion this cough as salt Rheums flowing from the whole Body to the Breast the suppression of the course cold taken and the like If it proceed from sharp humours or salt rheums salt and high seasoned meats must be avoided and also such things as are sharp as Vinegar Oranges and the like and instead of them she ought to use such things as smoothen the passages of the Lungs and Breast as Sebestins Jujubes Raisons of the Sun Liquorish Sugar-candy Syrup of Violets and the like It is also proper to turn the humours downwards by a gentle Glyster If these things will not do the business and there is a sign of a great deal of blood the Woman must be blooded in the Arm and tho' it is not common practice to bleed at the very beginning of being with Child yet it must be done when the cough is continual for moderate bleeding is not so dangerous as such a cough If the cough be occasioned by a cold the Woman ought to keep her Chamber and to have her neck well defended from the cold with cloaths and at Bed time let her take three spoonfuls of Syrup of burnt Wine which is very good for the Breast and helps digestion It is made of half a pint of good Wine two drams of Cinnamon bruised half a dozen of Cloves four ounces of Sugar boyl them over the fire burn the Wine and afterwards boyl it to the consistence of Syrup It is to be noted that in this case the Woman must be never strait-laced and some gentle Medicine to cause sleep ought be given for such things are particularly proper to stop Rheums and to thicken the matter The following Anodyne may be used every other night at Bed time upon occasion Take of Cowslip-water two ounces of the Syrrups of Jujubes and Meconium each half an ounce mingle them make a draught Some Women by their first Child are so much oppressed in their Breast that they fear they shall be choaked presently after eating walking or going up Stairs the Child lying very high by reason the Ligaments that support the Womb are not yet relaxed and if upon this account the Lungs be full of Blood they will breath more easily after a little Blood is taken from the Arm. But if the difficulty of breathing is occasioned by the Womb 's pressing upon the Midrife the Cloaths must be worn loose and the Woman must eat little at a time and often for full feeding oppresses the Midrife and increases the difficulty of breathing and she must be sure to avoid windy Meats as Pease eaâ—ns and the like And Grief and Fear if possible must be far removed for thereby Women are in danger of being suffocated when their Heart and Lungs are before oppressed Women with child are subject to Pains and swellings of the Legs and Thighs which are sometimes also full of red Spots which much obstructs their walking these are occasioned by abundance of Blood for Women that are sanguine are most subject to these swellings and pains much walking and excercise do also occasion them to remedy or prevent which a Woman so affected should keep her Bed and if there be signs of fulness of Blood she may be blooded in the Arm but if she be forced to walk about her Legs must be swaithed beginning below and swaithing upwards But in some Women these swellings are occasioned by weakness and flegmatick humours and if you press the swelling it will pit as is
it ought to be stopt the Woman must keep in Bed and forbear all things that may heat her blood and must observe a cooling and strengthening Diet and feed on Meat that breeds good Blood and thickens it as Broths made of Chicken Knuckels of Veal and the like wherein may be boiled cooling Herbs Rice Milk and Barley Broth is also very good and in all her Drink quench Iron She must forbear Conversation with her Husband And to comfort the Child which in this case is usually very weak Linnen dipt in strong Wine wherein Cinamon and Pomgranat Peel has bin infused must be applyed to the Mothers Belly Flooding is much more dangerous than a Flux of the Courses for the Blood comes from the bottom of the Womb with pain and in great Abundance and continues flooding daily without Intermission only sometimes Clods of Blood stop it for a while but afterwards it flows more violently and destroys both Mother and Child if not seasonably stop'd by the delivery of the Woman A false Conception or a Mole which the Womb endeavours to expel is usually the Cause when the flooding happens when young with Child whereby some Vessels at the bottom of the Womb continually cast forth Blood until the strange Body is ejected But when a flooding comes upon a woman that has truly conceived at whatsoever time it be it proceeds likewise from the opening of the Vessels of the bottom of the womb occasioned by some blow slip or other hurt and especially because the after-birth separating in part if not wholly from the in side of the womb opens all the Orifices of the Vessels where it was joined and for this reason a great flux of blood follows and never stops 'till after the delivery of the woman for if but part of the after-birth only be once loosened it never joins again to the womb and therefore the opening of the Vessels cannot be stopt 'till all that is in the womb is expelled and afterwards the womb like a spunge squeezed contracts it self and stops the Vessels But tho' it be necessary to deliver the Woman presently to stop a great flooding which manifestly endangers the womans life yet it is to be noted that when the flooding is small other things are to be first tryed for some small floodings have for sometimes bin suppressed by keeping quietly in bed by bleeding in the arm and proper remedies and perhâ—ps it may in a short time be found to be only an ordinary flux of the Courses if therefore the strength of the woman keeps up and the flux be not attended with ill symptoms it is best to leave the whole business to Nature but if the flux be very much and the woman is afflicted with Convulsions and Fainting she must be instantly delivered whether she has pains and throws or no. Sometimes women with child are oppressed with a great weight at the bottom of their bellies by reason the womb bears down and sometimes she cannot walk without pain and difficulty In this case the large ligaments of the womb are much relaxed either by the burthen upon them or by a fall shaking or great pains or bad labour in a former delivery Sometimes also a great many humours are the cause for they moisten and relax the ligaments This bearing down of the womb hinders coition and causes numness in the Hips and Thighs and difficulty of Urine and costiveness The best remedy in this case whatsoever is the cause of the bearing down is keeping the Bed for the ligaments are continually more and more relaxed by the weight when she is up but if her condition or circumstances are such as will not admit of continual rest in the bed she ought at least to keep up her belly with a swaith and if the weight causes a difficulty of rendring her water she must lift up her belly as oft as she has occasion to make water if humours be the cause of the relaxation of the ligaments of the womb a drying dyet must be constantly used and her meat must be roasted and the woman must be very careful when there is such a weight and relaxation of the womb from whatsoever cause it proceeds that she be not strait laced because thereby the womb is forced down but above all when she is in labour care must be taken that neither by means of the throws which strongly force down the womb nor by the birth of the Child nor the violent extraction of the Burthen she gets a precipitation instead of a bearing down as is seen often If a woman chance to be infected with the Venereal Disease during her pregnancy the case is very difficult for those Methods and Medicines that are proper for the Cure of it are apt to occasion a miscarriage and yet notwithstanding if she be infected at her first being with Child or if the symptoms are violent and dangerous when she is â—ear her time something must be done for should the disease lie unregarded upon her seven or eight Months her mass of blood would be corrupted and the venom imparted to the Child in her Belly and tho' she be near her time if the symptoms are violent she will be in great danger of being ruined if Medicines be not presently used to mitigate them If it be only a Gonorrhea or running of the Reins ten grains of Mercurius dulcis more or less according to her strength must be given at Bed time in form of a Bolus in conserve of Roses or the like and some gentle purge the next Morning and at Bed-time after the purge you must be sure to give some Anodyne to appease the commotion raised by the Purge The Bolus and Purge must be repeated twice a Week or oftner if the strength will permit and if no ill accident intervene If the Urine be very hot and sharp it will be convenient to use an emulsion to mitigate the pain and heat the following is of good use Take of blanched Almonds number 12 of the four greater cold Seeds each one dram and an half of the Seeds of Lettice and white Poppies each half a dram beat them in a marble Mortar and pour on them a sufficient quantity of barly Water make an emulsion for two Doses add an Ounce of Syrrup of Violets and half a dram of Sal Prunella If the privy parts are excoriated or swelled you must foment them with a decoction of Mallows and Fenugreek-seeds and afterwards anoint the excoriated parts with the white Ointment with Camphor but if the Disease arise to a confirm'd Pox a gentle Salivation must unavoidably be ordered Some venture to raise it with a Mercurial Ointment but I think it is much safer to do it by Mercurius dulcis inwardly taken and great care must be taken to prevent sickness of the stomach gripes and stools therefore as soon as ever you perceive any sickness of the Stomach faintness or gripes you must leave off the use of Mercury for a while 'till the
her hand being anointed first with fresh butter and if she perceive the inner neck of the womb to dilate it self 't is a certain sign that the pains of Child-bed are upon the woman or if she perceive any thing to push forwards her travel is also undoubtable CHAP. V. Of the falling down of the waters a good while before the woman travels THere are some women who have their waters come from them a long time before their travel sometimes twelve days sometimes eight Days sometimes six and sometimes four though the ordinary time be not above three Hours before her travel they remaining for the most part not above twenty four Hours This is caused by some Ruptures of the Membranes where from the beginning of the formation of the Child the Humour is contained rather than by the abundance of Humours and therefore though a Woman that hath abundance and that the Membranes containing them are so strong that they will not break suddenly though the Woman shall not travel 'till they break yet the Midwife ought not to break them but rather hold the Voman over a Vessel of warm Water and also use some softning Liniment to soften the Membranes that so the Mother straining the Head or other Member of the Child may break them more easily But for those Women that have these evacuations so long before they travel they must refrain going into the Air for fear of injuring themselves the passages being open for though the Air cannot hinder the Child from coming forth by reason of its weight yet oftentimes getting within the Secondine it not only streightens the Vessels and Mouths of the Veins that are at the bottom of the Womb but also causes several Convulsions to the great danger of the Woman But it is an easie thing to remedy these accidents by keeping close in her Chamber having also a special regard to distinguish whether they be the Waters of the Birth or any Hydropick humour of the Matrix CHAP. VI. What the Midwife ought to do in time of Travel THE Midwife seeing the Birth come naturally the Pains now coming thicker and thicker the Womb also opening to be deliver'd of its Burden and the endeavours of the Child being seen to come forth the Midwife must now encourage her Patient admonishing her to shut her Mouth and to hold her breath and to strain and endeavour with her lower parts Neither ought the Midwife to be too hasty either to widen or force the passage of the Infant or to break the Membranes but to stay 'till the Membranes do burst of their own accord And here is to be noted the ignorance of some Women who for haste to be gone to other Women do tear the Membranes with their Nails to the danger both of the Woman and of the Child which then remains dry without that moisture which makes the passage slippery which must of necessity augment the pain of the Woman When the Head comes forth of the Womb the Midwife must take it gently between her two Hands and then when her Pains encrease slipping down her Hands under the Arm-holes gently drawing forth the Infant yet staying her Hand always but when the Pains come upon the Woman This must be done with a very delicate and tender Hand lest the Child by any rude or harsh handling should receive any deformed shape of Body When the Child is come into the World which is commonly with his Face downward it must be suddenly turned upon his back lest it should be stifled for want of Air. Then let her cut the Navel-string leaving the length of four Fingers tying it with a silk Thread as near the Belly as may be Which done the Child if it be well may be laid aside only care must be had that the Head and the Stomach be well covered and that nothing come upon his Face CHAP. VII How to draw forth the Secondines THE Child being thus drawn forth and in safety the Midwife must now apply her self to the drawing out of the Secondines which must be done by wagging and stirring them up and down and then gently drawing them forth causing the Woman to take Salt in both her Hands and to shut them close and then to blow in them whereby you shall know whether they be broken or no It may be done also by causing her to put one Finger in her Mouth to provoke a desire of vomiting or else by stirring as when she is doing the ordinary deeds of Nature or as Nature it self constrained her to do before the Head of the Child was come forth All this must be done speedily yet if this be not sufficient she may take the Yolk of an Egg raw or she may take a small draught of raw Elder-water or you may cause her to smell to a piece of Assa Foetida If she be troubled with Wind-Cholicks or have taken Cold which oftentimes doth breed Wind which is a great hindrance to the coming forth of the Secondines the Midwife ought to chafe the Womans Belly with her Hand which doth not only break the wind but causes the Secondine to come down If this fails the Midwife may with her Hand dilate the Orifice of the womb drawing it forth gently and by Degrees CHAP. VIII What may be given to a Woman in Travel IN the first place hot and violent Remedies are to be avoided but in cases of great necessity for it many times happens that they are the cause of dangerous â—eavers Two other things are also very dangerous to a Woman in Travel too much repletion and too much emptiness for the Stomach of a Woman with Child doth not digest her meat in so short a time as Women that are not with Child do Therefore the Midwife ought to inform her self how long it was since she eat and in what quantity and if it were long since she did eat and that she grow feeble they may give in the intermissions of her Pains some warm cherishing and Cordial Broths or the Yolk of a poached Egg If her Travel endure long then to strengthen her and comfort her she may take a draught of Cinnamon-water not exceeding an ounce or at twice a dram of the Confection of Alkermes dissolved into two spoonfuls of Claret-Wine and not more than one of these three things For if they take two much as is before said it causes Fevers and Heats in the whole Body of which follow many inconveniencies for it stops the Purgations of which many strange Diseases ensue CHAP. IX How to put the Womb again in its place SOME Women newly brought to Bed are many times afflicted with greater Pains than those of their Travel by reason that the womb is not well put into its place or if it have the Swathe-band being loose it is apt to roul upwards in the Belly This happens to Women that are not well purged after their Delivery for remedy hereof having put the Matrix right into its place rowl up two linnen
venemous which are said to be contagious they are to be washed in a water thus made Take of Aloes the quantity of a Pea of the flower of brass the quantity of half a Pea powder these and mingle them in an ounce of white-wine Plantain-water and Rose-water of each an ounce which is to be kept in a glass vessel Condyloma's are certain swelling wrinckles in the neck of the Womb with pain and heat There is no need to tell the signs of these for they are apparent to the eye the wrinkles are like those which appear in the hand when you close the first but are much bigger when the courses flow they are caused by adust and thick humours some of these are with an inflamation which have more pain and heat and the swelling is hard In the cure of which you must use insessions and fomentations that ease pain sometimes they come without any inflammation which if they be new come are to be dried up if they be old they are first to be softned afterwards to be digested and dried up for which purpose you may use powder of Egg-shels burnt or this Oyntment Take of the Trochisques of Steel one dram powdered mixt with a little Oyl of Roses and Wax with half an ounce of the juyce of Mullein if this profit not the Warts are to be shaved away with a knife and an astringent powder laid upon them Hemorrhoids of the Womb are little protuberancies like those of the Fundament produced in the neck of the Womb through the abundance of feculent blood the subject is the neck of the Womb for where the Veins end there do grow these extuberancies just as in the Hemorrhoids The signs are evident and easily seen by the help of the Speculum Matricis The women who are thus affected look pale and are troubled with a weariness The cause is a feculent blood which flowing to these Veins before its season and setling there grows thicker so that it cannot pierce the orifice of the Veins They are cured by a revulsion of the humour First by letting blood in the Arm. Secondly by drawing it to another part as by letting blood in the heel Sometimes these Hemorrhoids are very painful and are distinguished from that menstruous effluxion by the pain which they bring they are cured by mittigating and asswaging inâ—eâ—â—ions â—s also by Opiates carefully applied Others are without pain to which the foresaid remedies may be applied Others are open and do sometimâ—s run moderately and then Nature is to be â—et alonâ— or violentâ—y so that thereby the strength of the person is impaired in which case a Vein must be opened in the arm two or three times purgation is also to be used by Myrobolans Tamarind and Rheubarb and at length you must apply those things which cease the blood Others are termed blind out of which there issues no blood they are cured by blood-letting the part is to be also softned and fomented with things that soften and open the orifices of the Veins and dispel the humour such are an Oyntment made of the pith of Coloquintida and Oyl of sweet Almonds or the juyce of Capers mixt with Aloes neither is the applying of Horseleaches amiss The Cure of these Excrescences at their first budding forth may be attempted by drying and astringent Medicines as with the tops of Brambles and Horse-tail with the Leaves and Berries of Myrtles and Sumach with the rind of Pomgranats Balaustins scales of Brass wash'd Lime Allom and the like made into fomentations or powder'd and mixed with Oyntments and applied upon Tow. If these do not check their growth you may cut them off with a Knife or Scizers and consume the remaining roots by Escharoticks or actual Cautery and then proceed in the cure by digestion and Epuloticks accordingly To prevent their growing again Authors commend the ashes of Vine and Bean-stalks mix'd with Vinegar to apply upon the part The Cure of Chaps or Fissures consists in removing the Callosity and Cicatrizing them smooth if moisture abound things that are dry must be used To which purpose Take of the flowers of Red-Roses of Myrtle-Berries of the tops of Brambles each one handful of the roots of Tormentil and Bistort each one ounce of Allom one dram boyl them in a pint and an half of Steel-water towards the end of boyling add four ounces of red wine wherewith foment the part then apply what follows Take of Litharge and Ceruse each three drams of Sarcocoal Mastick and Frankincense each one Scruple of Sealed-earth two Scruples of Oyl of Roses four ounces of Wax a sufficient quantity mingle them over the fire then beat them in a leaden Mortar for use If dryness be the fault you must dress them with Medicines that are moistening as Take of Calves fat of Ducks and Hens-grease each two drams of Litharge of Gold one dram mingle them in a leaden Mortar according to art The material cause of all these sorts of Excrescences is flegmatic or gross clammy blood thrust forth by the strength of the expulsive faculty out of the Pores of the skin and dry'd up into these forms in which you see them All these species of Excrescences are for the most part Symptoms of the French Pox. Of the Ulcers of the neck of the Womb. THE signs of these Ulcers is a pain and perpetual twinging which increases if any thing that hath an abstersive quality be cast in the issuing out of putrid humours and matter with blood if the Ulcer be great or the Flowers come down often making water and the water hot as also a pain in the fore-part of the head toward the roots of the eyes as also some kind of gentle Fever The Cure of this is hard because of its being in a place of so exquisite sense and moist and having such a sympathy with other parts of the Body For the easing of the pain Chalybeated milk is very much conducing and to the drying of them up drying baths are the best and most prevalent remedy These differ much coming either from external causes as rash Physick hard labours and violent coiture or from internal causes as the corruption of the Secondines the Courses retained and the Urine flux a virulent Gonorrhea the Pox inflammations turned into Apostems humors flowing from other parts of the body and there setling all which must be duly considered in the Cure Others are in the outward part and may be easily come at with Medicines others deep and must be come at only with injection for which purpose use this following Take whites of four Eggs beat them well and put to them an equal quantity of Rose water and Plantain-water as much in quantity as they come to Câ—mphire Ceruse Litharge of Gold and Bole-Armoniâ—ck of each a like quantity green Copperas half as much as of any of them beat all to powder mix it and strain it through a cloth and make your injection 'till the part infected be whole and if there be
out of the Womb and the pain is fixed chiefly about the orifice of the Womb the right Gut and the Bladder being affected by reason of the continual desire of expelling forth the humor In the Cure first you must seek to dissolve the clotted blood which is done by the use of Treacle dissolved in wine and then to evacuate which is performed with Agaric Aloes with the juice of Savin decoction of Rosemary with the Flowers of Cheiri in Wine Sometimes it is caused by the menstruous blood when the vessels are more open or the blood too thick which happens through the over-much use of cold drink especially when the woman is hot The cure may be found in the cure of the suppression of the Flowers Sometimes it is caused by other vitious humours collected in the concavity of the womb or adhering to the other Vessels and then these humours are to be removed with purging and evacuating Medicines Sometimes windy vapours are the cause hereof arising from the heat of the vitious humors caused by copulation It is cured by things that discuss the wind to which purpose it may not be amiss to use a Clyster made of Malmsey and Oyl of Nuts of each three ounces of Aqua vitae one ounce of Oyl of Juniper and distilled Rue of each two drams and applied warm or a mixture of spirit of wine and spirit of Nitre of each half a dram or two scruples exhibited in the spirit of Wine Sperma ceti with Oyl of sweet Almonds or a Plaister of Caranna and Tachamahacca applied to the Navel Sometimes it is occasioned by the retention and corruption of the seed For the Cure look the Chapter of the suffocation of the Matrix Of the Suppression of the Flowers THE suppression of the Flowers is the retention of the menstrual blood either by reason of the narrowness of the vessels or through some corruption of the blood The signs are evident from the relation of the Woman Yet if they are loth to confess it may be discerned by this for in Virgins the suppressed blood wanders up and down the Veins and begets obstructions changing the colour of the Body and causing Fevers In Women because the blood is carried down to the Womb where it begets many diseases it is distinguished from retention after Conception because women with Child find no alteration of affections of the mind and retain the native colour of their bodies and in the third month they shall perceive the motion and situation of the Infant and lastly the mouth of the womb is closed up The Causes of this distemper are the narrowness of the Veins and the vitiousness of the blood The Cure of this must be hastened because this suppression if it stay long begets many more diseases as Fevers Dropsies Vomiting of blood and the like The Cure is hard if it be of any continuance and if it stay beyond the sixth month it is almost incurable especially if it happen through any perversion of the neck of the Womb for then the woman is troubled with often swooning and vomiting of blood and a pain seizes the parts of the Belly the Back and the Back-bone which is attended with a Fever and the excrements of the Belly and Bladder are suppressed a weariness possesses the whole Body because of the diffusion of the retained blood through the whole body and especially the hips and thighs because of the sympathy of those parts with the veins of the Womb. In the first place the letting of blood is commended for the blood which every month stays in the body and sticks in the Veins is to be provoked downward to the Womb and therefore a vein is to be opened in the heel for so the plenty of blood is diminished and the motion of the blood is made toward the Womb if necessity requires that it should be done more than once one day a vein must be opened in one thigh and another day in the other and that which is opened for evacuation must be first opened that which is opened in the ham or heel must be done after Purgation three or four or five days before the time that the accustomed evacuations of the Woman ought to come down Cupping-glasses also are to be applied first to the more remote places as to the thighs and then to the nearer parts as to the hips Ligatures or bindings and frictions at the time of the coming down of the Flowers after Purgation of the whole body are not to be omitted In the second place the matter is to be prepared for which purpose in bodies troubled with Flegm the decoction of Guaiacum with Cretan Dittany doth much avail without provoking sweat In the third place evacuation is to be made at several times Among evacuating Medicines are commended Agaric Aloes with the juice of Savin and these Pills Take Aloes Succotrine three drams the best Myrrh one scruple extract of sweet smelling Flag Carduus Saffron of each three drams Roots of Gentian and Dittany of each five grains make them up with Syrup of Laurel-berries taking the quantity of one scrupâ—e at evening before supper In the fourth place by opening obstructions by those things which provoke the Flowers of which these are most to be commended the decoction of Rosemary with Flowers of Cheiri Pennyroyal-water twice distilled and mingled with Cinnamon-water Extract of Zedoary Angelica and Castor and the Earth which is found in Iron Mines prepared in the same manner as Steel spirit of Tartar the fat of an Eel Colubrina with the distill'd water of Savin And in the fifth place by the discussion of the dregs and relicks that remain by sudoroficks or things that provoke sweat with a potion made of a Chalybeate decoction with spirit of Tartar c. The differences of this Disease arise partly from the obstruction of the Veins of the Womb caused by a cold and thick blood and thick slimy humours mixed with the blood and coming either from some hot distemper of the Womb which dissipates the sharp and subtil humours and leaves behind the gross and earthy parts or from the cold Constitution of the Liver and Spleen especially if at the time of the menstrual Flux at what time the Flux of Blood is more violent those subtil humours happen to be dissipated and then at the time of the monthly Purgation the Party affected feels a great pain in the loins and parts adjoining and if any thing come down it is slymy whitish and blackish The whole Body is possessed with a numness the Colour pale a slow Pulse and raw Urines The Cure is the same with the former great care being taken of a gross and ill diet There is another difference of this Disease when it happens by Compression which arises from external causes as the Northern wind and long standing in cold water which may be known from the relation of the sick Person The Blood in this case is to be drawn to the lower parts by
the blood which is known by the hot temper of the body the blood it self is more thin and yellowish It must be Cured by evacuating Medicines as Rheubarb and such things as temper the blood whereof we have already spoken It comes also when the retentive faculty of the womb grows lank which may be known by the looseness of the Vessels of the Womb besides a moist and faint habit of the body In the Cure beware of things which are too Astringent baths wherein the force and strength of Iron may be effectual may with safety be used The subsistence and stay of the Courses beyond the accustomed time proceeds from a frustration of the expulsive faculty as when there is small store of blood which is known by this that the Woman is not troubled with the stay of the Courses and especially if she have over-exercised her self or used a spare diet before Secondly the thickness of the blood which is known by the whiteness and clamminess thereof In the performance of the Cure you must purge before too much blood be gathered together Next the Courses are to be attenuated for the performance of which Calamint and Mercurialis are to be most commended In this Case scarification of the heels is not amiss There is another difference of this Disease which arises from the weakness of the expelling faculty caused either by the frigid distemper of the Womb of which we have spoken already or by a kind of numness thereof of which we shall speak anon Of the over abundance of the Courses THE over much flux of the Courses is either a more abundant or a more lasting Purgation of the Courses through some defect either in the blood or the womb or the veins of the womb The signs are evident viz. want of Appetite Crudities a bad colour in the face a swelling in the feet and the rest of the body a waxing lean of the body and in brief a general ill habit of body The Cure if it be of any continuance is difficult if it happen to an aged woman there is none at all It requires a revulsion or drawing back of the blood interception and incrassation or thickning thereof and a closing up of the Vessels by astringent Medicines Yet observe that they must be stopt by degrees To this effect you may take this Powder Take of the seed of White Henbane red Coral of each half a dram white Camphor half a scruple and give the quantity of half a dram at a time powder of Amber Dragons-blood Bloodstones Red Coral Lettice seed of each one dram Balaust two scruples Bole armoniack two drams given in three ounces of Plantain-water Asses milk heated with Steel You may externally also apply a girdle made of the bruised leaves of Bares-foot Of this Disease there are many differences Sometimes it happens from the blood which is derived from the bottom of the Womb where for the most part lies the blackest and most clotted blood or from the neck of the Womb which is more red and fluid Another difference ariseth from the plenty of blood which appears by this that the Vessels are either broken or much opened especially in those women who have had a stoppage in their Courses for a time which presently break out again The signs of this are evident that is to say a fulness of blood in the body besides that the blood which comes forth easily curdles In the Cure you must have recourse to blood-letting which if you do for evacuation it must be done in the Hepatick Vein If the woman be weak in Salvatella of both hands In the next place the use of Cupping-Glasses is to be commended being applied with scarification to the back c. Or without scarification to the Breast being used again when the woman is troubled with difficulty of breathing In the third place ligatures and frictions of the Arms are to be used Another difference of this disease arises from a sharp blood which is known by the gnawing of the humor upon the Vessels In the Cure you must purge with syrup of Roses solutive or with leaves of Sena a pessary of Sows dung and Asses dung which is made up with Plantain water and the muscilage of the seed of Quinces is here of use if need require Another difference arises from a serous and watry blood for either the Liver is weakned or the Veins so debilitated that it cannot attract the serous or wheyie humour in the blood in this case the blood flows not forth in such a quantity nor is easily curdled If a Cloth be dipped in it and then dried in the shade it presently discolours In the Cure hereof you must look to the rectifying of the weakness of the Reins and Liver with convenient remedies for which purpose the Livers of Foxes Calves Hens c. are very good Sometimes from a Rupture of the Veins which proceeds either from a fulness of blood or from Causes that do vehemently stir up the blood especially from hard labour if it be needful you must let blood and apply conglutinating Medicines Or from a gnawing of the Vessels which is known by this that sometimes there flows forth little blood and that purulent and full of the wheyie or serous humor It arises from a sharp and corrupt blood and sometimes from the use of sharp Medicines Among the astringent Medicines the root of Filipendula is much to be commended or a decoction of the same Root Of the Whites and Gonorrhea in Women THE Whites is an inordinate eruption of an excrementitious humour collected together through some vitiousness of the blood It affects Women chiefly and sometimes also Virgins of which there are Examples Yet it is more often in women especially if they be of a moist constitution and live an idle and delicate life eating such things as are cold and moist Old women also are affected herewith through the abundance of Flegm and the weakness of the concoctive faculty It differs from the Gonorrhea because in that the seminal matter is white and thicker and flows by long intervals and issues forth in a lesser quantity from a nocturnal pollution for that is joyned with venereal imaginations and only happens in the time of sleep It differs from the discolouring of the Flowers for they though not exactly do always observe their times of Flowing Besides they happen not to Women with Child or such whose Courses are stopped It differs from the putrid humour that issues from the Ulcers of the Womb because that is joyned with the signs of an Ulcer and the putrefaction is thicker and whiter if it be mattery it is coloured with blood and issues forth with pain The Cure of this must be hastned because in a short time it endangers the making of women barren causing them to be lean to fall into a Consumption Melancholy the Dropsie fall of the Womb Swoonings and Convulsions which is the cause that though it be not hard to be cured in
215 Of the suppression of the Flowers p. 216 Of the dropping of the flowers and the difficulty of their coming down p. 220 Of the discolouring of the Flowers p. 221 Of the inordinate flux of the Flowers p. 222 Of the over-abundance of the Courses p. 224 Of the Whites and Gomorrhea in Womâ—n p. 226 Of the Green-Sickness p. 228 Of the Suffocation of the Matrix p. 230 Of Barrenness p. 243 Of bringing up of Children and their diseases p. 246 Of the Diseases of the Head ibid. Bigness and swelling of the head in little Children p. 248 Of the Diseases of the eyes ears and noses in Children p. 249 Of certain Vlcers in Childrens mouths p. 250 Of certain other Tumours called Paroulis and Espoulis ibid. Of the two strings under the tongue of the Child p. 251 Of the Coughing of Children p. 252 Of breeding Teeth ibid. Of the Inflammation of the Navel-string in Infants p. 253 Of the Worms ibid. Of the Convulsion in Infants ibid. Of the swelling of the Hypocondria in Infants p. 255 Of Costiveness in Children ibid. Of looseness in Children ibid. Of Burstness in Children p. 256 Of the inflammation of the Navel p. 257 Of the jutting forth of the Navel ibid. Of the Stone in the Bladder p. 257 Of the not holding of the Vrine p. 258 Of the Intertrigo ibid. Of Leanness ibid. Of the difficulty that Children have to make water p. 259 Of the Inflammation of the Almonds of the ears ibid. Of Vomiting p. 260 Of the Hicquet ibid. Of the pain of the Belly in Children p. 261 Of the Small Pox in Children ibid. The Contents of the SVPPLY 1. OF the generative Seed its beginning and particularly of the four Concoctions pag. 263 2. The Generation of Man compared with the production of Plants p. 266 3. By what means Parents may get wise Children p. 268 4. The Signs of the several degrees of hot and dry in a Man p. 272 5. What Women ought to marry with what Men that they may have Children p. 273 6. How Males are gotten and not Females and contrary p. 275 7. How to preserve Childrens wit when formed p. 278 8. Further Considerations of the gradual progress of the births formation in the Womb. p. 283 9. The Notes of Virginity whether violable but by Man ibid. 10. Whether there may be a mutation of Sexes and of Hermaphrodites The Contents of Sir Theodore Mayern's Rare Secrets in MIDWIFRY TO know the time of Delivery whereby the woman may know the better how to prepare her self pag. 295 Signs which precede Delivery p. 296 To cause the Woman to contain the Birth p. 297 An Emplaister to hinder the monthly flux in Women with Child p. 297 An Emplaister for a Woman that is fearful of containing the Birth ibid. Preparatory Oyntments to be used before the time of Delivery p. 298 In case of Vomiting ibid. Regulation of Diet. p. 299 Other Advertisements relating to the several Accidents which may happen p. 300 To accelerate and hasten the Labour before the time of Child-bearing p. 305 An Oyntment for the Midwife's hands p. 310 After Delivery p. 310 If the pains cease not c. ibid. To strengthen the Womb. ibid. To strengthen the Womb without the help of Swathe-bands p. 311 A fomentation to provoke the After-birth ibid. Another for the same p. 312. A Pessary for the same ibid. Two other Pessaries for the same ibid. To expel the Child and after-birth in time of great necessity ibid. Another to expel the after-birth p. 313. To expell the Birth whether alive or dead ibid. Against pains of the heart ibid. To dry up the Milk ibid. Another for the same p. 314. A Fomentation for the same ibid. Another ibid. An Oyntment against the curdling of the milk in the Breast p. 315 To curdle the milk ibid. Against Fissures in the Breasts p. 316 Another for the same ibid. Pain in the Breasts after Delivery ibid. An Opiate to be given to Children newly born ibid. Against Barrenness p. 317 Another for the same ibid. To increase Lust and help Conception p. 320 An Opiate for the same ibid. Another for the same ibid. An Application to be made upon the Privities presently after Delivery p. 321 The next day foment these parts with this Fomentation ibid. A Bath in Summer p. 322 The third Bath p. 323 After she hath bathed let her foment for one or two days the lower parts of her Belly ibid. A Fomentation for the Womb the second day after the Bath p. 324 To cause the swelling of the belly to fall p. 324 Pain after Delivery ibid. Against the swelling of the Belly after Delivery p. 325 Against wrinkles of the skin after Child-bearing ibid. An oyntment to be used before a woman lyes down ibid. Another for the same p. 326 A Pomatum for the same ibid. An oyntment for the same ibid. Another for the same ibid. Certain Instructions grounding upon practical Observations fit to be known by all Midwives and Child-bearing Women c. p. 327. A second observation of a Woman that had been in Travel nine days p. 330 Of a Woman here in Town that bare her Child eleven Months and could not be delivered p. 331 Of the common opinion that a Woman seven months gone ought to walk very much and of the accidents that happen thereby p. 333 Of a Child which they thought sick of the Epilepsie occasion'd by the sickness of the Mother and of the cause p. 336 Of a young Woman who being struck upon the belly by her Husband with his foot was in great pain and could not be brought to bed without the help of a Surgeon p. 337 Of two Deliveries of one Woman ibid. Of a Woman that because she would not be ruled in her lying in died p. 339 Of certain women that bear children and Lye-in before their time and others at their full time who grow big and full of humours which causeth the death of the Child presently after their Delivery their Children being nourished in their bellies like fish only with water p. 340 The observation of a woman who was thought unable to bear any more Children yet contrary to expectation was delivered of one and the reason thereof p. 341 A good observation in the choice of Nurses p. 342 Of a woman which I laid two several times and of the difference of her bearing of two Children proceeding from several Causes p. 344 Instruction of a famous and dying Midwife to her Daughter touching the practice of this Art p. 345 THE COMPLETE MIDWIFE'S Practice Enlarged Of the Genitals or Vessels dedicated to Generation in Men and Women THE consideration of these things is so necessary for the purpose of this Book that they require not only a deep meditation but the preheminence to take up the first thoughts of those who would arrive to the knowledge of a thing so much needful to all mankind And it may be reasonably feared that many Women do miss
distinct original from the bone of the Pubes The head of this is covered with a most tender skin and hath a hole like the Glans though not quite through in which and in the bigness it differs only from the Yard By a little drawing aside the lips there then appear the Nymphs and Clytoris The Nymphs are so called because they stand next to the Urine as it spouts out from the Bladder and keep it from wetting the lips they are also call'd wings they are placed on each side next within the lips and are two fleshy and soft productions beginning at the upper part of the privity where they are joined in an Acute angle and make that wrinkled membranous production that covers the Clytoris like a fore-skin and descending close all the way to each other reaching but about half the breadth of the Orifice of the sheath and ending each in an obtuse angle They are almost Triangular and therefore as also for their colour are compared to the thrills that hang under a cocks throat They have a red substance partly fleshy partly membranous within soft and spongy loosly composed of small Membranes and Vessels so that they are very easily stretched by the flowing in of the animal Spirits and arterial Blood The Spirits they have from the same Nerves that run thro' the sheath and blood from one of the branches of the Iliack Artery Veins they have also which carry away the arterial blood from them when they become flaccid They are larger in old Maids than in young and larger yet in those that have used Copulation or born Children They never according to Nature reach above half way out from between the lips their use is to defend the inner parts to cover the urinary passages and a good part of the Orifice of the sheath and to the same purposes serve the lips Above betwixt the Nymphs in the upper part of the privities a part bunches out a little that is called Clytoris from a Greek word that signifies lasciviously to grope the privities It is like a mans Yard in shape situation substance repletion with Spirits and erection and differs from it only in length and bigness in some it grows to that length as to hang out from betwixt the lips of the privities yea there are many stories of such as have had it so long and big as to be able to converse with other Women like unto men and such are called Hermophridites who it is not probable are truly of both Sexes but only the Stones fall down into the lips and this Clytoris is stretched preternaturally but in most it branches out so little as that it does not appear but by drawing aside the lips it is a little long and round body consisting like a mans Yard of two nervous and inwardly black and spongy parts that arise on each side from the bunching of the bone Ischium and meet together at the Conjunction of the bones of the Pubes It lies under the hill of Venus at the top of the great Cleft in Venery by reason of the two nervous bodies it puffs up and straightning the Orifice of the sheath contributes to the embracing the Yard more closely It s outward end is like to the Glans of a Mans Yard and has the same name and as the Glans in men is the seat of the greatest pleasure in Copulation so is this in Women It has some resemblance of a hole but it is not pervious It is most of it covered with a thin Membrane by the joyning of the Nymphs which is called the Prepuce The Clytoris has two pair of Muscles belonging to it the upper are round and spring from the bones of the hip and passing along the two nervous bodies are inserted into them these by straitning the roots of the said bodies do detain the Blood and Spirits in them and so erect the Clytoris as those in men do the Yard the other arise from the Sphincter of the fundament it has veins arteries and nerves CHAP. III. Of the fleshy knobs and the greater neck of the Womb. PResently behind the wings before we go far inward in the middle of the Cleft there do appear four knobs of flesh being placed in a quadrangular form one against the other they are said to resemble Myrtle-berries in form In this place is incerted the Orifice of the bladder which opens it self into the fissure to cast forth the Urine into the common Channel Now least any cold air or dust or any such thing should enter into the Bladder after the voiding of the Urine one of these knobs is seated so that it shuts the urinary passage The second is right opposite to the first the other two collateral They are round in Virgins but they hang flagging when Virginity is lost The lips of the Womb being gently separated the neck of the Womb is to be seen In which two things are to be observed the neck it self or the channel and the Hymen which is there placed By the neck of the Womb is understood the channel which is between the said knobs and the inner bone of the womb which receives the Yard like a Sheath The substance of it is sinewy and a little spongy that it may be dilated in this concavity there are certain folds or orbicular pleights these are made by a certain Tunicle so wrinkled as if a man should fold the skin with his fingers In Virgins they are plain in Women with often copulation they are oftentimes worn out sometimes they are wholly worn out and the inner side of the Neck appears smooth as it happens to Whores and Women that have often brought forth or have bin over troubled with their fluxes In old Women it becomes more hard and grisly Now though this Channel be something writhed and crooked when it falls and sinks down yet in time of the flowers and copulation or in time of travel it is erected and extended and this over-great extension in Women that bring forth is the cause of that great pain in Child-bed CHAP. IV. Of the Hymen THE Hymen is a Membrane not altogether without blood neither so tender as the rest but more ruddy and scatter'd up and down with little veins and in a circular form it is placed overthwart and shuts up the cavity of the neck of the Womb. In the middle it hath a little hole through which the Menses are voided This at the first time of Copulation is broken which causes some pain and gushing forth of some quantity of blood which is an evident sign of Virginity for if the blood do not flow there is a suspicion of a former deflowring The Hymen is a thin nervous membrane interwoven with fleshy fibres and endowed with many little Arteries and Veins coming across the passage of the sheath behind the incertion of the neck of the bladder with a hole in the midst that will admit the top of ones little finger whereby the Courses
a place furthest removed from the senses near which it were not fit to be by reason of the inconveniencies which would necessarily arise It is most fit to receive the Birth as being hollow in which concavity the birth may increase to its full proportion every way It is most fit for the exclusion of the Birth as being placed downward whereby the birth might help it self with its own weight and also by reason of the Muscles of the Abdomen which serve for compression and do help the endeavours of the mother CHAP. XVI Of the Utility of the preparing Vessels in Women THE Utilities of these Vessels are taken from their Original and from their Insertion the right Vein rising from the Hollow and the left from the Emulgent as in men that the more hot and purer blood might come from the right vein for the procreation of Males and the more serous and watry blood from the Emulgent for the generation of Women The Vessels also in women are shorter than in men because the way is not so far to the Stones which brevity of the Vessels is lengthned out by the many turnings and windings with which those Vessels are endued In the middle way those Vessels divide themselves like a Fork the greater part going to the Stones carrying the matter for Seed the lesser is carried to the womb where it scatters it self all along the sides of it for the nutrition of the Womb. As for the Arteries they afford the blood which is more full of spirits to perfect the Seed CHAP. XVII Of the Utility of the Stones THE use of the Stones in Women is the same as in men that is to say to prepare the Seed and to make it fit for procreation They are seated within that they should not want a continual heat to cherish them for the matter of Seed being colder in women than in men it requires a greater heat which it would of necessity want were the Stones placed outward like those of men and for that cause are they covered only with one Tunicle that the heat of those parts may more easily pass to them And therefore the Stones of women are softer than those of men because they should not perfect so substantial a Seed and that the heat of the adjacent parts should not be wholly taken up in the cherishing of them Their figure is not exactly round but depressed that the little Meanders of the veins dispersed through the Membrane from the Stones to the deferent Vessels might have more room to be incerted for the attraction of the Seed out of the whole substance of the Stones The inequality and ruggedness of them makes for the longer stay of the Seed in those crooked and winding Vessels SECT III. CHAP. I. Of the signs of Conception HAving thus shewed you the Anatomy and Use of the parts it will be requisite to discourse of the Conception it self which is the main and chief end of these Vessels And first of the signs of Conception The signs of Conception on the Mothers side are certain and apparent first if after she hath had the company of her Husband she hath received more content than ordinary Pains in the head giddiness dimness of the eyes all these concurring together portend conception the apples of the eyes decrease the eyes themselves swell and become of a dark colour the veins of the eyes wax red and swell with blood the eyes sink the eye-brows grow loose various colours appear in the eyes little red pimples rise in the face the veins between the Nose and the Eyes swell with blood and are seen more plain the vein under the tongue looks greenish the neck is hot the back bone cold the veins and arteries swell and the pulses are observed more easily the veins in the breast first look of a black colour but afterward turn yellowish the Teats look red if she drink cold drink she feels the cold in her breast she loaths her meat and drink she hath divers longings but her natural appetite is destroyed Continual vomitings follow and weakness of the stomach sour belches worms about her Navel faintness of the loyns the lower part of her belly swelling inward griping of the body the retention of the Seed 7 days after the act of copulation After which act there is a cold and trembling which seizes the external members the attractive force of the womb increases the womb dries up It is also a certain sign of conception if the Midwife touching with her finger the interiour neck of the womb shall find it exactly closed so that the point of a needle will not go between The womb waxeth round and swells the flowers cease to flow for the Veins through which they come down carry the blood to the nourishment of the birth the thighs swell with some pain the whole body grows weak and the face waxes pale the Excrements proceed slower out of the body The Urine is white a little cloud swimming at the top and many atoms appear in the Urine Take the Urine of a Woman and shut it up three days in a glass if she have conceived at the end of three days there will appear in the Urine certain live things to creep up and down Take also the Urine of a Woman and put it in a bason a whole night together with a clean and bright needle in it if the woman have conceived the needle will be scattered full of red speckles but if not it will be black and rusty Conception is an action of the Womb whereby the fruitful Seed of the Man and Woman are received and kept that a Child may be formed There are two kinds of Conception one true to which succeeds the generation of an Infant the other spurious and contrary to Nature in this case the Seed changes into water false Conceptions Moles or any other strange matter It is to be noted that there is no absolute necessity that all the Seed should be received and retained entire nor must we imagine that tho' all of it be not received into the Womb the Child formed out of it will want some Limb as an Arm or Leg or other member for want of sufficient matter for the least drop of Seed nay only a fume of it is sufficient to impregnate and form a Child But when the quantity of the Seed is small the Child may be the less and weaker for it or if the Man or the Woman be disâ—ased or the Womb stuft with ill humours the Child will be sickly or Moles or false Births or Dropsies of the Womb will be occasioned Tho' a Midwife may guess that a Woman has conceived when all the signs concur or most part of them together and successively according to their seasons yet many of these signs happen upon suppression of the courses and none of them are so very certain as not sometimes to fail us wherefore in trials of Women and upon giving physick to them great caution
ought to forbear as much as in them lies assuring them that such trash does not only endanger their own health but the health of the child Yet if they cannot command that depraved appetite let them so provide though it be by giving some small satisfaction to their depraved longings that they do not hasten any further inconvenience for though those strange meats be very contrary to nature yet the strange desire that they have to them does not a little avail to the disgestion of them For her drink let it be small Ale though now and then a cup of pure Wine does not amiss to comfort the Stomach and the parts dedicated to Generation Her time of sleep is best in the night for the concoction of those meats which she hath eat in the day time She must avoid by all means the sleeping after dinner she may sleep full out nine hours her sleeping beyond that time is prejudicial She may exercise her self moderately for violent excrcise loosens the Cotyledones through which the Infant receives its nourishment the riding in Coaches is forbid especially for the last three months She ought to avoid great noises as the noise of Guns or great Bells Laughing and crying if it be immoderate is extreamly hurtful as also immoderate anger In the first four months she ought not to lye with her Husband for that shakes and moves the fruit of her Womb and causes the Flowers to descend she must also abstain in the sixth and eighth but in the seventh and ninth it is not denied and is thought to facilitate the Delivery She ought also to keep her body soluble which if it should not come of it self she must take loosening Syrups to help nature as soon as ever they perceive themselves to be with Child they must lay aside their Busks and not streighten themselves any way for fear of hurting the fruit of their Womb by not giving it its full liberty of growth A Woman with Child ought to be accounted sick for the time of going with Child is called a sickness of nine Months and she is indeed subject to many inconveniences on that account therefore she ought to use her utmost endeavour to prevent those many accidents she is then subject to and that she may preserve her self in health as much as her present condition will allow of let her be careful to observe a good diet agreeable to her constitution and condition The air of the place where she dwells ought to be temperate for if it be too hot it dissipats the humours and spirits and if it be moist and cold it occasions rheums and coughs whereby miscarriages have been caused ill smells are also very offensive to Women with Child as the stink of a candle the smell of char-coal Their Stomach generally loath Meat and are weak and therefore they must please their Stomachs and let them not fast too long for thereby their blood is unfit to nourish the Child but they must not eat too much at a time especially for Supper because the bigness of the belly hinders the Stomach from containing much wherefore let the Woman eat little and often Her bread must be made of good Wheat white and well baked her meat may be Mutton Veal Fowl or Pullets Pidgeons or Partridges boyled or roasted according as she likes best New laid Eggs are also a good Diet and to purifie the Blood which is generally ill during the time of pregnancy she ought to eat sometimes Broths with succory borrage or sorrel boyled in it but hot seasoned Pyes and baked meats must be avoided if she long for Fish River fish and those of running streams are to be preferred before others But note that this ought to be a general rule in this case viz. That if Women earnestly long for any thing they must have it And because their Stomachs are always weak they ought to drink some good Wine or some other good Liquor at Meals to help digestion All things very hot and such things as force Urine ought to be shunned because they are apt to force the courses and so to cause miscarriage They ought to sleep moderately because by sleep the functions and the concoction are strengthened whereas excessive watchings waste the Spirits and weaken the faculties therefore a Woman with Child ought to sleep nine or ten hours at least in a Night As to exercise and rest respect must be had to the various times of pregnancy At the beginning of the Conception if the Woman perceives it she ought if her condition will allow of it to keep in Bed at least till the fifth or sixth day and not to converse with her Husband all that time for then a little matter will cause miscarriage She must not ride on Horse-back or in a Coach or Waggon all the time she is with Child especially when she is near her time because these kind of motions increase the weight of that which is contained in the Womb and often causes abortion But she may be carried in a Chair or Litter or walk gently She must forbear carrying or lifting heavy burthens nor must she raise her Arms too high or dress her own head for many have miscarried the ligaments of the Womb being relaxed on this account And it must be câ—refully noted that when she walks she must walk in low heeled shoes for big bellied Women are apt to stumble because they cannot see their feet by reason of the bigness of their bellies and she must rather rest too much than use motion too much for immoderate motion is very dangerous and I believe the exercise of bigg bellied Women when it has been immoderate towards the latter end of their reckoning has been the chiefest and most general cause of hard Labours for many times the Child is put into a wrong position by the motion and exercise of the Mother or the Birth is unduly hastned both which sometimes prove very prejudicial The Woman ought rather the two last Months of her reckoning to abstain from Copulation the Body being thereby much moved and the Belly compressed which makes the Child sometimes take a wrong posture and without doubt if these things that have been said concerning exercise and rest were well regarded the lives of many Women and Children would be saved and much pain and sorrow prevented Some Women are so very apt to miscarry that being frightned or surprized by the noise of a great Gun or the sound of a Bell or a clap of Thunder they have miscarryed Women with Child are subject to be bound in the Bodies the Womb by its weight pressing the right gut and so hindring an easy discharge of the Excrements In this case such things as loosen the belly are to be frequently used She may now and then eat stewed Prunes or Veal-broth or a Glister of Mallows may be injected but sharp Glisters and things that purge too much must be avoided for Hypocrates says that too great an
upon them and upon those another handful of Herbs covering the platter with a close cloth that the woman may receive the smoak this is a remedy which hath been much approved and experimented To remedy the fall of the Fundament in Infants TAke of the green shrub whereof they make â—rooms and cut it small and lay it upon the Coals and set the Child over the smoak thereof and it will certainly cure it Of the diseases of Women and first of the inflammation of the breast THe Inflammation of the Breasts is a hard swelling together with a beating pain redness and shooting The chief cause of this is the abundance of blood drawn up together in that place though there be sometime other causes also as the suppression of the courses the Haemorrhoids or a blow received upon the Breasts The signs of it are easie to be known that is to say a certain redness and burning heat oft-times joined with a Fever For the cure of this there are four sorts of remedies First the order of diet which must be comforting and moistning as Broth of Pullets where Endive Borage Lettice and Purslain may be boyled also she may drink the Juyce of Pomgranates or Barley water with Anniseeds boyled in it the use of Wine and all sorts of Spices are very dangerous and if the Woman go not freely to the stool there is nothing better than a Lenitive Clysteâ— she may sleep much and must not disturb her self with any passion The next way of Remedy is by diverting the humours which is done by frictions letting blood in the foot scarrification of the legs or veficatories applied to those places especially if the flowers are stopped or ready to come down if not it will be expedient to open a vein in the arm You may also prepare the humour to void it out of the place affected by opening either the middle vein or the Basilic or the Vena Saphena which may be done two or three times as occasion serves after blood-letting purge but let this be done with gentle Medicines such are Cassia Manna Tamarind Syrup of Roses or Violets Solutive having a little before used certain Syrups which may asswage and temper the humours Take syrup of Roses and Purslain of each one ounce Endive water and Plantain-water of each an ounce give this to the Patient neither will it be amiss to give her Syrup of Succory or Endive or such like for these Syrups have a cooling and refreshing faculty especially being mingled with Plantain or Endive-water or such like or the decoction of the said Herbs now when the humour is thus prepared you may give her some gentle Purges As for Example take of the pulp of Cassia and Tamarinds of each six drams of this make a little Bolus with some Sugar and give it to the Patient or with this Potion Take of the Leaves of Italian Orach three drams of Aniseed one scruple infuse these into four ounces of the foresaid waters Into this being strained infuse an ounce of Cassia and into the streining of this dissolve an ounce of Solutive Syrup of Roses of this make a Potion and give it The fourth way of cure consists in Topicks such as may drive back and repress the humour though care must be had that they be not over-strong lest you thereby do cool the heart too much and thereupon drive the humour upon the heart it self And therefore temperate Medicines are chiefly to be chosen and such especially as are to digest and dissolve the humour Wherefore it shall not be amiss to apply a linnen cloth dipt in white strong vinegar and a little cold water which must be applied to the Breasts and often changed Or else you may dip linnen cloaths also in a decoction of Camomile-flowers and Violet-flowers with a small quantity of Oyl of Roses and a drop of vinegar or two or you may use this Fomentation Take of the juyce of Night-shade and Oyl of Roses of each an ounce and a half of the decoction of Fenugreek Camomile and Line-seed two ounces vinegar one ounce This Medicine you may use by dipping a spunge therein and so washing and fomenting the Breast therewith Or you may apply this Cataplasm take of the leaves of Night-shade and Mellilot half a handful of each let them be boyled and extracted through a course cloth then add to them Bean-meal two ounces Oxymel and Oyl of sweet Almonds of each one ounce of this make a Cataplasm and apply it If the Disease be be more prevalent you must use more forcible Remedies and among the rest this Fomentation Take of the leaves of Mallows Violets Dill of each one handful flowers of Camomile and Mellilot of each a small handful and a half boyl these together adding to them a little Wine and Oyl of Dill or Mustard first let the Breast be fomented with this and afterwards with an Oyntment composed of equal parts of new butter Oyl of Violets and Hens fat But if these things avail not to dissipate the humour you must observe whether the inflammation tend either to a suppuration or induration If you find that it tends to a hardness you must try all means to hinder it by the way of mollifying Plaisters among which this is not a little experimented Take the Marrow of a Calves leg two ounces Sheeps-grease one ounce Saffron four Scruples Cumin-seed bruised two Scruples mingle all these and make a Plaister If the inflammation doth not harden but doth altogether tend to a suppuration which may be known by these signs that is to say the increasing of the tumour the beating and excessive heat and pain which rages about those parts so vehemently that they do not admit them to be touched But now the suppuration is to be hastned with hot and moist Medicines which have an Emplastick faculty for which purpose this is much commended Take the leaves of Mallows one handful roots of Marsh-mallows one ounce boyl these together and when they are mashed draw them out and add to them Bean-meal and Fenugreek of each one ounce the whites of two Eggs Myrrh and Assa faetida of each one dram Saffron one scruple mingle all these together and make a Cataplasm for your use to this you may either add Capons-grease Hogs-grease or fresh butter If these Remedies do not suddenly bring the inflammation to a suppuration you must then take of the shels of Snails bruised and lay them upon the Cataplasm in such a manner that the Snail-shells may come to touch that part of the tumour which is most elevated and pointed whence it appears that the matter will first issue if these Remedies avail not it will be necessary to open the said Aposthume with a Lancet and this must be done when you are sure that the matter is ready to come forth which may be known by these signs when the beating ceases when the Fever the pain and the Heat of the part do begin to diminish when you perceive the
Ulcer you must apply a drying and cicatrizing Ointment Take of Tutty washed half an ounce and of Litharge Ceruse and Sarcacoal each two drams of Oyl and Wax a sufficient quantity make an Ointment Sometimes the Ulcer penetrates the right gut and sometimes the bladder which may be known by the matter evacuated by those parts if it flow by the right gut lenitive cleansing and drying Glisters must be injected but if it flow from the Bladder gentle and cooling diureticks must be used as an emulsion of the greater cold Seeds Turpentine and the like If the Ulcer turn to a Fistula which chiefly happens when it is opened outwardly towards the Hip tho' it may happen in the womb it self or in the neck of it In this case we must consider whether it be best to leave the accustomed passage untouched thro' which nature endeavours to evacuate various Excrements or to undertake the â—ure of it But if that be thought most proper for the sick a Cure that is call'd palliative must be instituted by purges frequently-repeated and by sweatlng twice a Year and by cleansing and strengthening injections and by applying over a plaister of Diapalma or the like but if there be any hopes of a Cure the same Remedies must be used which are proper for other Fistula's If the Ulcer be occasion'd by the French Pox it cannot be cured without an universal Cure in performing which the fumes of Cinnabar receiv'd thro' a Tunnel into the womb are peculiarly proper Also the anointing the inner parts of the womb with a Mercurial Ointment In all Ulcers of the womb if there be a troublesome itching about the neck as it frequently happens by reason of a defluxion of an acid and Salt Humour to the part a pessary must be made to qualifie it dipt in the ointment of Elecampane with Mercury or in Aegyptiacum dissolved in Sea or Allom-water or in fresh Butter wherein Quick-Silver has been extinguished to which must be added Sulphur Of the Diseases of the Womb. Of the Womb being out of temper THE intemperance of the Womb is when it hath lost its natural temper and is affected with a preternatural intemperancy arising both from inward and outward causes The one of these is hot and is known by the womans proneness to Venery by the small Flux of the Monthly Courses by their adustness sharpness inordinate and difficult Flux Hence in process of time they are very Hypochondriack by early growing of the hairs about the Privities by redness of the Face and driness of the lips and frequent pains of the head and abundance of cholerick humours in the Body it ariseth either at first from the Birth which causes Women to be Virago's and to be barren or after their Nativity from outward causes as the use of hot things overmuch Venery and such Medicines as bring the heat and blood to the Womb. The cure consists in a contrary diet and cooling Medicines both internal and external which are to be applyed to the back and sides which must be very moderate that the heat which is necessary for Conception may not be weakened and the cold and membranous substance of the womb come to any harm or lest the Vessels which serve for the carrying away of the Courses should be thickned and the Nerves of the back and sides be any way mischieved The next way of cure is performed by evacuating Medicines namely Rheubarb and solutive Syrup of Roses Manna also profiteth much the flower of Vitriol of Venus and Mars taken from three grains to six and put in any proper Syrup purges the Womb. There is another intemperancy which comes of cold which is known by a lesser proneness to Venery and little pleasure taken in it a setling in the Courses with a slimy and flegmy matter mixed and an inordinate flowing of them by reason of the plenty of Humours collected in the Womb which causes obstructions by reason of abundance of windy vapours in the Womb crudities and watriness of the Seed which causes it to flow without any pleasure a pale colour in the Face It arises from causes contrary to the former it is cured by contrary diet by hot Medicines applyed to the womb among which the roots of Birthwort Clove-Gilliflowers Angelica and Eringo's are very much commended The leaves also of Mercury Balm Dittany Penny-royal Sage Rosemary Mugwort flowers of Centaury Marigolds Sage Rosemary Borage and sundry spices as Nutmegs Cubebs Saffron and Cinamon These kind of Compounds are also very useful as Oyl of Mace Oyl of Amber Oyl of Myrrh and of Cinamon There is another intemperancy of the womb which comes of moisture and is joined most commonly with the cold intemperancy it is known by the plenty of the Courses and by the thinness and watriness of them as also the moistness of the Privities by reason of the moistness of the Excrements no pleasure in the act of Venery and proneness to abortion by reason of the growth of the Birth It hath the same original with the frigid intemperancy and happens most commonly to Women who are lazy and sedentary It is cured with the same Medicines as the former only this may be added that a fume may be made of the shavings of Ivory And the decoction of Sage being received into those parts before supper is very much commended Baths of Sulphur do also profit much There is another distemper of the Womb which is dry which is discerned by the want of Seed and the defect of the Courses by slowness to Venery driness of the Mouth of the Womb by a blackish colour of the lower lip which is always chopt It sometimes arises from the very Nativity which causes a dry and lean constitution of Body sometime through age and then Women cease to bring Children sometimes from inflammations and such like Diseases sometimes from a defect of blood which ought to moisten the parts which happens either through a narrowness and obstruction of the Veins or else because it being voided out at the neck of the Womb cannot pierce to the bottom The cure of this is performed first by a contrary diet where you must also avoid much labour watching hunger and sadness Secondly by the use of moistning things amongst which are most commended Borage Bugloss Mercury Mallows Violets Among outward means Baths of sweet water and unctions with Oyl of sweet Almonds Oyl of white Lillies Hens-grease and the marrow of Calves legs The cure is the more hard if the driness have been of any long continuance There is another which is a compound distemper which is most often cold and moist which is discerned by comparing the signs of the simple distemperatures together It arises from Flegmy humours The cure is performed by preparing the matter with hot things by evacuation of the matter with such Medicines as are most proper to purge Flegm As also by a particular purgation of the Womb it self to which purpose pessaries do very much conduce as
Frictions and Baths or from internal causes as fatness or swelling of the Womb or of the lower parts in which case Medicines must be applied that asswage the swelling There is another difference which is in the hardness of the skin which happens either from the first Nativity and then the disease is not easily taken away or long after from some cold and dry distemper Concerning which look the former Chapters Another difference there is when there happens a closing up of the skin which is caused after Cicatrising of an Ulcer or by reason of some skin or Membrane growing to the Vessels of the Womb or by reason of frequent Abortion after which these Veins to which the Secondines adhere do grow together so close that they cannot be afterwards opened Another difference of this Disease there is when it happens through want of Blood which is not generated either by reason of external causes as Famine over much evacuation Issues and such like or through internal causes as a frigid Constitution of the principal parts old Age and Fevers or when it is converted to other uses as before full growth to the nourishment of the Body In Women with Child to the nourishment of the Birth In those that give suck to the increase of Milk And in fat people to the augmentation of the Fat Or when it is consumed either by External causes as over much Exercise Affrights Terrors Sadness Baths overmuch Sweating which do consume the serous quality of the Blood or through Internal Causes as are hot and dry Diseases or over-great evacuations in other parts of the Body Sometimes another difference of this Disease proceeds from the dryness of the Blood which happens to Women who in the Winter time do too much heat their lower parts by putting Coals under their Coats For the cure thereof you must use refrigerating and moistning Medicines Of the dropping of the Flowers and the difficulty of their coming down THE dropping of the Flowers is when they are coming down for many days together drop by drop This happens both from external causes as over hard labour c. And sometimes from the drossiness of the blood the passage not being wide enough For the cure of this it is convenient to open a Vein in the Arm with gentle purging as in the former Chapter Sometimes from the weakness of the retentive faculty there being at that time great plenty thinness and serosity of the blood In this case there is no pain Medicines that bind and corroborate the Stomach here must have place The difficulty of the Flowers is when they come down with pain and trouble either through defect in the Veins or in the Blood The signs of this are gathered from the relation of the sick person who is then much troubled with pain in the Head Stomach and Loins and lower parts of the body And they do either flow altogether or drop by drop as in the former disease It is a Disease more incident to Maids than married Women because the Veins of the Womb are less open in them than in those who brought forth Children It happens sometimes from a corruption of the blood that is from the drossiness and thickness thereof and then the blood clots together and there is a great pain long before the Flowers begin to come down The Cure of this is performed by attenuating Medicines Sometimes from the sharpness and acrimony of the Blood which proceeds from a mixture of sharp humours with the Body and then the genital parts do itch It is cured by those Medicines that temper the sharpness of the Humour as the four greater Seeds Violets and Flowers of Nenuphar Sometimes from windy Vapours and then the pain comes by intervals and is suddenly exasperated rumbling up and down and when the wind is forth the pain ceaseth The cure hereof is procured by evacuation of the matter and dispelling of the wind as is before declared Of the discolouring of the Flowers THE discolouring of the Flowers is when their right colour which ought to be red declines either to paleness whiteness greenness yellowness or blewishness through some defect or vitiousness of the blood The signs are apparent by the sight of the blood besides that it is accompanied with an ill smell many times also it is the cause of Fevers trembling of the body loathing of the meat pain in the stomach c. The differences of this disease consist first in the vitiousness of the blood which is caused through some distemper either of the whole body or some part thereof Sometimes the blood is affected by reason of some stoppage thereof and then the Flowers are suppressed which causeth pains in the Breast and strong beating of the Breast and if the woman begin to amend the Blood flows out with a stinking putrefaction which continues 'till the eighth day or it may be because the Blood is foul'd by the Womb being full of excrements and then you may perceive the signs of a foul Womb. Sometimes the difference of this disease consists in the mixture of the Blood with other vitious humors The Cure consists in preparation and evacuation but care must be had that because the thick humors need attenuation and that over attenuating things do melt the serous humor that you therefore do not use over attenuating things as Vinegar c. Another difference is when the Flowers decline to a whitish colour which ' proceeds from abundance of Flegm or from Putrefaction and then Ulcers follow in the Womb and barrenness follows unless the womans Flowers do happen to flow for seven or eight days together by which the woman is freed from the disease or else they break out to the parts above the groin without any tumor and burst forth a little above the Hypochondrium and then the woman seldom lives or else there will appear after some few days a great swelling in the Groyn without a head of a red colour because the Flesh is there filled up with the Blood When it inclines to yellowness or greenness the distemper comes of Choler when to a blackness and blewness from Melancholy Of the inordinate Flux of the Flowers THE disorderly Flux of the Courses is either the coming of them down before their time or else the stoppage of them for some time after the usual course of Nature They come down sometimes before their time partly by reason of internal Causes and partly by reason of external Causes as falls blows and such like casualties that open the veins Or from the expulsive faculty of the Womb too much provoked First by the plenty of blood which is known by this that the blood which is sent to the womb from all part is fluid and of its natural constitution signs of a Plethora or fulness of blood are apparent in the Woman It is Cured by blood letting if the blood abound by good diet and frequent though gentle exercise Secondly it proceeds from the Acrimony and sharpness of
by it self or from external means such are perfumes anger fear c. and not only ascending through the veins but also through all the other breathing holes and secret passages of the body The Cure is doubtful if it have possessed old Women for a time for it begets weakness consumes the strength and shews abundance of humour or if it possesseth Child-bearing Women either after a difficult Travel or after an Abortion or if it possesseth Women with Child because it induces fear of Abortion there is more hope if the act of Respiration be not too much impeded and if the Fits do not return too often The Cure regards first the time of the Fit being performed first by means of interception which may be done by binding the Belly under the Navel with a girdle made of the skin of a Hart killed in the very act of Copulation Secondly by keeping the natural Spirits awaked and rouzed up by painful friction by pulling the hairs of the Privities with violence and suffumigations made with Partridge feathers burnt as also Eel-skins the application of Assa faetida and Oil of Tartar to the mouth Thirdly by way of revulsion of the humour by Frictions and Glysters dispelling the winds and the application of Cupping-glasses with much flame first to the Thighs and then to the Hips putting sweet things into the Privities such as are Oil of Sivet half a scruple Oil of Nutmegs one scruple Fourthly by discussion of the humour which is performed inwardly by the Oil of white Amber with the pouder of Walnut Flowers extract of Castor externally by an Emplaister of the fat of a black Heifer Sclarea boiled in butter adding to it a sufficient quantity of Tachamahacca and Caranna After the fit is past evacuation is to be regarded first with purgation for which purpose it will not be amiss to use these ensuing Pills Take Siler mountain Pennyroyal Madder the innermost part of Cassia Pipe Pomegranate Kernels Piony roots and Calamus of each three drams Muscus and Spike of India of each half a dram then make Pills thereof with the juice of Mugwort of which she may take every day or every other day before Supper If the disease proceed from the terms let the Woman affected take an Ounce of Agarick poudered in Wine or honied water or a dram of Agnus Castus powder'd with an ounce of Honey of Roses The Womb is also to be strengthned by the internal and external application of such things as resist the malignity of the Disease among which are numbred Faecula Brioniae and Castor The difference of this Disease consists in this that sometimes it happens that it is occasioned by the retention of the Seed which is known by this that the symptoms of the Disease are more violent and after the fit is past there flows out of the Womb a matter like to that of the seed It is cur'd by evacuation of the seed such as are Rue and Agnus Castus and anointing with odoriferous salves especially if the woman be to live without the use of man If it come from the suppression of the terms which is known by the Courses being mingled with a melancholy blood take powdered Agaric a dram of Pioney seeds or the weight of a dram and a half of Triphera magna But take this for a secret that for a married Woman in case of the present suffocation there is nothing better than for the Man to anoint the top of his Yard with a little Oyl of Gilliflowers and Oyl of sweet Almonds together and so to lye with her for this assuredly brings down the Matrix again This Disease is very frequent the Procatartick or external Causes of it are either violent motions of the body or which is much oftner vehement commotions of the Mind from some sudden assault either of Anger or Grief or the like Passions Therefore as often as Women are troubled with this or that disorder of Body the reason whereof cannot be deduced from the common Axioms for finding out Diseases we must diligently enquire whether they are not chiefly afflicted with that indisposition which they complain of when they have been disturbed in their minds and afflicted with grief which if they confess we may be fully satisfied that this disorder proceeds from this Disease we are now speaking of especially if Urine as clear as Chrystal evacuated copiously some certain times makes the Diagnostick more manifest But to these disorders of the Mind which are usually the occasions of this Disease is to be added emptiness of the stomach by reason of long fasting immoderate bleeding and a Vomit or Purge that worked too much and certainly this Disease proceeds from a confusion of the Spirits upon which account too many of them in a crowd contrary to proportion are hurried violently upon this or that part occasioning Convulsions and pain when they rush upon parts indued with exquisite sense perverting the functions of the Organs both of that into which they thrust themselves and also of that from whence they departed both being much injured by this unequal distribution which is quite contrary to the Oeconomy of Nature The Origen and Antecedent Cause of this confusion is a weak constitution of the Spirits whether it is natural or adventitious for which Reason they are easily dissipated upon any occasion and their System soon broke For as the outward Man is framed with parts obvious to sense so without doubt the inward Man consists of a due Series and as it were a Fabrick of the Spirits to be viewed only by the eye of Reason and as this is nearly joyned and as it were united with the constitution of the Body so much the more easily or more difficultly is its frame disordered by how much the Constitutive Principles that are allotted us by Nature are more or less firm That the said Confusion of the Spirits is the cause of Hysteric Diseases will appear by Mother-Fits wherein the Spirits are crowded in the lower Belly and rushing together violently towards the Jaws occasion Convulsions in every region thro' which they pass blowing up the Belly like a great Ball which is yet nothing but the rowling together or conglobation of the parts seized with the Convulsion which cannot be suppressed without great violence The external parts in the the mean while and the Flesh being in a manner destitute of Spirits by reason they are carried another way are often so very cold not only in this kind but in all other kind of Hysteric Diseases that dead Bodies are not colder but the Pulse are as good as those of People that are well nor is the Womans life in danger by this cold unless it is occasioned by some very large evacuation going before And the inordinate agitation of the Spirits disturbing the blood is the cause of the clear and copious Urine for when the Oeconomy of the blood is interrupted the Sick cannot long enough contain the serum that is imported but lets it
the said Sinus Pudoris and are connected together by certain Membranes or Ligatures which are each of them situated in the interstices or spaces between each Caruncle with which they are in a manner equally extended which Membranes being once dilacerated are an apparent sign of devirgination nor can it be denied but that this dilaceration may be caused by other accidents besides the accompanying with a man as by violent Coughing Sneezing or loud Vociferation all which may occasion a violent flowing down of humours to the breaking of those ligatures or membranes but as for any Stories of a Hymen as that it should be a transverse membrane situated now in the lower extremity of the Sinus Pudoris now in the midst of the concavity that it is perforated all about in the manner of a Sieve or in the middle only with one larger hole or that the breaking of this Hymen should be the only cause of Devirgination are all to be rejected as vain and Frivolous CHAP. X. Whether there may be a mutation out of one Sex into another and of Hermaphrodites BEfore any thing can be positively determined concerning this argument so much of uncertainty there is in it it will be convenient to recite what hath been delivered both as to the negative and the affirmative by Authors that have maintained each contrary opinion Severinus Pinaeus who holds the Negative writes to this effect viz. That the genital parts of both Sexes are so unlike each other in substance much more in composition situation figure action and use that scarce any thing can be found more unlike and by how much the more all other parts of the body excepting the Breasts which in women are more tumid because of their secondary use have an exact resemblance so much the more unlike are the genital parts of the one Sex compared with those of the other and if their figure be thus different much more is their use True it is indeed that both are appointed for generation but in a different manner for women contribute the matter but men the form The Venereal appetite also proceeds from different causes for in men it proceeds from a desire of emission in women from a desire of repletion In women also the chiefest of those parts are concave and apt to receive but in men they are only porous and in a manner solid These things considered I cannot but wonder saith he how any one can imagine that the Genital Members of Female Birth should be changed into those that belong to Males since by those parts only the difference and distinction of Sexes is made Nor can I well impute the cause of this vulgar error to any thing but a mistake of some not over-expert Midwives who have been deceived by the evil conformation of the parts which may have happened in some Male-births to have had so small a protrusion as not to have been discerned as appeared by the example of a Child Christned at Paris by the name of Joan as if it had been a Girl when as it proved afterwards a Boy And on the contrary the over-far extension of the Clitoris in female Births may have occasioned the like mistake But notwithstanding what hath been thus said in the Negative there have not been wanting some learned Physitians who have firmly asserted the affirmative part of which number Galen himself is one A man saith he is different from a woman in nothing else except in the having his genital members without his body And this is certain that if Nature having formed a man would convert him into a Woman she hath no other task to perform but only to turn his genital members inward and if a woman into a man to do the contrary And this however held for a Fable hath chanced many times in nature as well while the Creature hath been in the Mothers Womb as after the same hath been born For divers times Nature hath made a Female Child and she hath so remained in her Mothers belly for the space of one or two Months and afterwards plenty of heat growing in the genital Members upon some occasion they have issued forth and the Child hath become a Male but yet retaining some certain gestures unbefitting the Masculine Sex as a shrill voice womanish actions and the like Contrariwise Nature hath often made a Male and cold growing on and turning the genitals inward it hath become a Female yet still retaining a manlike fashion both in voice and gesture Now to give an impartial judgment of these two opinions I cannot but hold that the latter of them carrieth a greater semblance of truth with it for as to what Pinaeus affirms of the great difference of figure in the genital members of each it will not be of so much force if we consider that the inversion of them is that which chiefly occasioneth this difference of form the reason of which is evidently deduced from the contrary natures of heat and cold heat enlarging and extending all things and cold retaining and closing them up Now as to the business of Hermaphrodites or those that enjoy both Sexes in one person many there are that will not afford any belief or at the least doubt whether or no there are any such things in nature but although there cannot be so apparent a reason given for this as for the mutation of Sexes yet in this we may suffer our selves to be guided by the same Criterium as in the business of Specters and Apparitions of Spirits concerning which although it hath puzled many learned men to find out what should be the true causes and reasons that such things come to pass yet it argues much indiscretion not to give credit to them both in regard Histories have abounded with frequent examples of them in all ages and also considering the daily reports we have of such things both from the mouths and pens of serious and judicious men Perhaps it may be judged by some to have been more decent that these things should have been delivered in the Latin than in the vulgar Tongue that so the secrets of Nature might not have been prostituted to every unworthy Reader that makes use of such things only for a mockery and a May-game and to promote idle and lascivious discourse yet forasmuch as they are written for God's Glory and the benefit and help of mankind and intended only for the use of sober pious and discreet Matrons and that the want of skill and knowledge in these mainly important Secrets hath been the occasion of very many mistakes to the great misery oftentimes of Women in travail and prejudice of the poor Infant the concealment of them had been much more inexcusable than the publishing can be Exod. 1.17 But the Midwives feared God verse 20 Therefore God dealt well with the Midwives Deo Gloria RARE SECRETS Brought to LIGHT Which for many years were locked up in the Breast of that most Famous and Learned Physician Sir Theodore
Mayern Physician to His late Majesty King CHARLES the First Of Ever Blessed Memory In which are contained the sufficient Testimonies of the renowned and happy successes of his management in his general Practice on the greatest Ladies of the Court and Country in the use of so publick a benefit as that of the Excellent Art of MIDWIFRY LONDON Printed in the Year 1696. TO THE Understanding Reader I Shall not need to spend many words in recommending to the World these present Observations and Experiments in Midwifry since had not my own knowledge and experience of them warranted me to give a sufficient testimony of them It had been enough to say that they were the Collections of a Person of so great a fame and therefore of so general a practice for a long series of years both abroad and in this Nation that not to mention his universal insight in all parts of Learning his judgment chiefly in matters of this nature ought not to be suspected He must needs be an absolute stranger to all the Concerns of publick fame and the knowledge of eminent men who hath not been very well acquainted though living in the remotest part of this Nation with the high reputation of Sir Theodore Mayern who not only as he was Physician to the late King but by the proof he had given of his eminent skill and perfection in his faculty has gained the greatest esteem and generality of practice at Court and among the Nobility of any man in his time By which it appears that these present Receipts extracted from the Musaeum of this excellent Person have been frequently made use of by himself among the greatest Ladies of Court and Countrey Upon this account I having had the fortune as being a near Relation of his to get these among several other of his Papers into my hands should have thought my self very injurious to the World if I had not taken the first opportunity to communicate to the publick view a matter of so publick a benefit especially since it is a business of no less importance than the preservation of Life to be very cautious what to make choice of and not easily to be satisfied with every thing that may have rashly and without mature judgment been publisht of this Subject The truth is among all the Treatises of Midwifry that I have seen set forth in our Language I have not met with any to which I can more willingly subscribe my approbation than to the works of Madam Lowise Burgeoise late Midwife to the Queen of France Therefore hearing of a second Edition of the said Treatise to come forth I thought it most convenient to annex thereunto this collection more considerable for its quality than quantity the experiences of the one having been no less approved among the Ladies of the French Court than those of the other among our great Ladies of England To conclude I shall not for this supplement go about to implore the favourable censure of the Courteous Reader but commit it to the fortune of that free reception which it cannot but meet with both from the advantageous Testimony I have alledged and the beneficial Effects I dare promise it will produce RARE SECRETS Brought to LIGHT Which for many years were locked up in the breast of that most Famous and Learned Physician Sir Theodore Mayern Physician to His late MAJESTY King CHARLES the First of ever Blessed Memory To know the time of Delivery whereby the woman may know the better how to prepare her self THE natural time of Delivery falls out to be at the end of nine months especially if at that season the Woman be wont to have her natural purgations or else if at nine Months end she happen to be near the full or the new Moon For these things hapning together not only hasten her Delivery but also facilitate the Labour To this end it is necessary that a Woman should be careful to remember and take notice of the time of her Conception that she may be able to govern her self according to the seasons as she grows near her time It is also very necessary for Women to have in memory the days and seasons of their natural Purgations not only in regard of their delivery but also in regard of several Maladies and Diseases which upon this occasion happen at the said time and of which no person can rightly judge of the cause unless those things be well known Now if it happen that a woman have mistaken or forgot as not being rightly able to observe either because of some retention extraordinary or some extraordinary and tedious flux of her natural Purgations she may redress her self by the means which follow Most commonly and ordinarily women have their natural Purgations from the age of fourteen years to twenty one at the new Moon after that from twenty one to thirty in the first quarter from thirty to thirty seven or thirty eight they have them at the full of the Moon from thirty seven to the time that they begin to cease in the last quarter Signs which precede Delivery THE Woman having a regard to the end of the nine Moons as also to the times of the full and new Moons as also to the time that she uses to have her Purgations as hath been said she must be provided of all things for her assistance and preservation Now when her Delivery is near she shall know by these signs Great pains in her groins thighs the small of her belly and all the lower parts of the Navel together with swellings and hardness in the said places Shiverings and shakings through the whole body as at the coming of an Ague after that again a sudden heat feebleness lassitude and small sweats upon the face after which the blood being inflamed rises up into the face which causes a heat and redness great unrest and changing from hot to cold from strong to weak from weak to strong and she shall feel the Child to make violent thrusts There will come bloody water from the lower parts When these signs but especially the bloody waters appear then she ought to commit her self to the care of the Midwife for before 't is in vain and may prove dangerous Nature hath so well ordered her works that the Matrix never opens it self before the time prefixed at which time these signs appear and therefore a woman ought to be very diligent in the observance of the said seasons and signs To cause the Woman to contain the Birth TAke Mint Roses Marjoram Saffron Musk as much as suffices of each put them into a bag to be hung about the neck so that it may reach to the stomach this will keep the womb from falling low An Emplaister to hinder the Monthly Flux in Women with Child TAke Oyl of Roses white Wax juyce of Male-knot-grass of each 2 ounces Bole-Armoniack Crocus Martis each six drams of this make a plaister when the Flux comes down let the woman contain
accidents and in all these accidents none but the Midwife is to blame unless the belly it self be spoyled This they say is the fault of the Nurse who did not apply remedies fit to restore the fault I must confess that remedies do much avail to the recovery of the aforesaid malady and do much avail to the healing of that disease but to restore it to such an estate as it was in before I say it is a thing impossible for medicines to perform For the skin which is once separated cannot be closed again without a scar I would now not only blame those that assist them but by putting the actions of people before them shew them where lies the fault and what reason I have so to do I must confess that false accusations have made the most able Midwives timorous for they lye liable to so many causes of detraction that all that are either but indifferent good or else not good are all accused alike if any thing fall out amiss with the Patient as if they were the absolute causes of the evil or that it lay absolutely in their power to hinder it It happens also many times that a Midwife worthy of that name doth deliver a woman from death and yet in the place of much praise she incurs many times much blame so that they are oftentimes constrained to avoid the scandal to advertise them of their ill procedures and to give place to those that know not how to do things with that sweetness and judgment The fault is no where but in the ignorance scandal and ingratitude of Women toward those of this Calling Besides there are a company of young Women that because they have had one Child do give themselves a great deal of liberty to talk of these things Cries one I like not these Midwives that handle me I will change mine cries another for that trick also so that many out of a kind of fear have a greater desire and will to be complacent than to do well and so sitting with their hands before them entertain their Patients with discourse who for all that feeling their pains are constrained to thrust forward upon which the head of the Infant coming first for the most part the womb serves for a Head-band which comes forth before it whereas might the Midwife be permitted to touch the Patient they might put back the Womb and prevent many accidents that happen in Lyings-in which happen sometimes to be a total relaxation of the Matrix of which when the Women complain to their complacent and flattering Midwives they reply why Mistress you know I did not touch you and besides I am not in fault if you have been touched This is the fruit of their reproaches You will say there are abundance of Countrey-women that the Midwife never touch at all and they do not know scarcely whether a Woman lye in or no unless they see the Infant appear But they are not free from the Disease whereof I speak for I have seen so great a company of them that I have been afraid to behold them This comes say the Midwives because they touched them not and that it is occasioned either because the Infant is too big or they say it is a burstness or the coming down of the great gut the most subtile put up a Clew of Thred the others a Ball of wax which easeth a little while but comes out again every hour Of a Child which they thought sick of the Epilepsie occasioned by the sickness of the Mother and of the cause ONE day there came to me a Gentle-woman to desire me that I would give her something for her Daughter that was sick of the Mother When her Mother related what she ailed I desired to see her I saw her and she had in one hour two several fits which was an affrightment attended with very much yawning after which she remained in a very great weakness all which time the mouth of the Child was drawn more to one side than the other the eyes when she was out of the fit were open and fixed in one place I inquired of the Mother at what age her daughter came to be first troubled with it who answer'd that she had been in this Town somthing more than a year and that before that time she was never troubled with any such thing I gave her the best Counsel that I could and first of all I bid her to carry her again to the place where she was first nursed using some few remedies that were convenient which prospered so well that after she came thither she had but one fit though she had them so frequently before Of this no other cause can be given but that the air of the place where she lived for that year being thicker then that where she was nursed caused in her a stirring of the humours with which the mother was continually afflicted she being disposed naturally to that kind of disease Of a young Woman who being struck upon the belly by her Husband with his foot was in great pain and could not be brought to bed without the help of a Chirurgeon I Will here relate a thing which I have seen in a young Woman that if the like accident should happen the same Remedies may be applied There came a Woman to me to declare to me a disease with which she was troubled desiring me to do my utmost for that hitherto she could not lye in without the help of a Chirurgeon who had already killed two of her Children I knowing what an ill Husband she had and that he had given her a blow upon the belly with his foot and had broken the Peritonaeum which was the reason that part of her guts hung down upon the share-bone like the bag of a Bag-pipe to which place being big the Womb jutted out so that when the time came the Infant had not liberty to turn it self so that the Midwife seeing she could not have the Child without losing the Woman was fain to make use of Chirurgeon I considered her disease and ordered her to carry a swatheband such a one as Women with Child carry to support their bellies only made a little more hollow and I caused her to wear it as they that are burst do wear half-flops lying smooth with cushionets within and never to rise without this whether big or no which she did and still does and bears as fine Children and lyes in as well as any other Woman Of two Deliveries of one Woman THere was a Woman who being come to a sufficient age became big she causeth two of the best Midwives of the Countrey to assist her in her Lying in the hour being come they did as Art commanded them which was The Child coming well into the world to keep her in a good situation to cause her to eat things which were only for the purpose to keep her moderately warm and then to bring her pains to a good issue
Tablet weigh six drams The observation of a Woman who was thought unable to bear any more Children yet contrary to expectation was delivered of one and the reason thereof THere are certain Women who have the neck of the Womb long and hardned by a cold humor that falls down thereon and renders them uncapable of conceiving One I have heard of who was afflicted with this Disease and voided a great deal of putrified blood by a certain fumigation that I taught her she was cured I can say this of a certainty that after this Woman had voided this putrefaction she came to see me with a very lusty Child and was big of another for being discharged of the burden of putrified blood she found her self marvellously free for Conception for the Matrix that began to be ulcerated was now fortified and strengthned again and the natural heat began to take possession there again A good observation in the choice of Nurses THere be two sort of Nurses which I have found The one is of such Women as are of an ill humor or juice which humors settle all in the milk for that is the place where these fluxes discharge themselves These Women are in a better condition being Nurses than when they are not Nurses and being not Nurses are subject to pains sometimes in the arms and sometimes in the shoulders sometimes in one of their legs or thighs or else they are subject to the watring of the eyes or swelling in the corner of the eye or nose These are good Nurses as long as Children are fat but the fat is soft and the Infants dull and sottish giving no great signs of vivacity coming to bear teeth they are very sickly and do ordinarily die by reason of the flux that pusheth out too great company of teeth at once The Children that escape this are more ill juic'd in their infancy than are their Fathers and Mothers in their old Age. If the flux that afflicts them be salt the milk is of a blackish and blewish colour if it be of Choler it is more dangerous than the other for that is more dangerous and venomous to the Children There is another sort of Nurses more dangerous than these I have now spoken of who presently after they have Lain in that is three or four or five or six months are taken with their Purgations a thing which never happens to good Nurses for this is the course of Nature that all the blood which is retained is dedicated to the nourishment of the Infant This is caused by a moderate heat which is in their blood and to say true as soon as ever this happens the Infant must be taken away for they are more apt to conceive than to nurse and if they continue Nurses they do but ruine the Children This is but too much experimented and I speak this to save the lives of a great many Children when seeing them suck I have discovered their want of milk so that I may say there dies a third part of the Children for want of taking care in this particular which yet seem fat and in good case This is the cause of great Cholicks and windinesses in Children which kills them in a moment for the least Feaver that takes them carries them away Besides this there are some whose milk is so little but withal so thick that it sticks upon the tongue palate and throat which causes as it were a white canker which is more and more heated by reason of their forcible drawing in vain and possesseth all the throat whereby they are hindred from sucking These Nurses will milk after this a drop or two out of their breasts crying Look ye the Child cares not for sucking I never knew more abuse in any thing than in Nurses for let them make what excuse they will it is nothing but necessity that reduceth them to be such Although the greatest part do say that it is to get acquaintance yet when they have a Child whether they have milk or no yet they desire not to part with it no more than they do to drown themselves whereby the Parents are often deceived And therefore the Mothers ought to have a great care and to make it their business to surprize the Nurses at their own houses that if there be any miscarriage they may find it out And indeed it is very reasonable that the cause of these poor creatures that cannot complain should not be neglected and these She-murderers be made known that they may not go unpunished Of a Woman which I laid two several times and of the difference of her bearing of two Children proceeding from several causes I Was called to lay a Woman who said she was gone her full time she had the same pains that women are wont to have in the time of Travail but her waters came not down At one forcible Throw she cast forth a great membrane like a Hogs-bladder all united within and without only that it had divers branches of veins as you shall see in a bladder which I presently cut and found therein a little Infant well shaped swiming in black waters it had gone its full time and was so lean that it resembled a meer Picture it had the Navel-string holding fast to the bladder where it is to be supposed those small branches of the veins do end Here as I guess as long as it found any blood it lay languishing but that beginning to fail it died and presently voided those excrements that were contained in the intestines which being mingled in the waters made them black And as for the Woman her self she was the fullest of humours that ever I saw in my life Another time I brought the same Woman to bed who was delivered of a Child that came the ordinary way into the World with the head foremost now I perceiving her in Labour found nothing at first but a certain softness as if the waters were coming down Afterwards I perceived a certain bag with hair athwart which I saw certain great knobs or heads The Infant being come forth was not yet formed the face and the head were like vizards more than any face it had the form of a nose but it was soft like wooll The head was full of water and those knobs which appeared were nothing but the futures of the head which the too great abundance of water had disjoyn'd in the hands it had nothing but hair instead of bones and the toes were of the same The woman her self was said to be extream cholerick and moist Instructions of a famous and dying Midwife to her Daughter touching the practice of this Art DAughter if the excellencies of what is to be known in this World are to be found not in one but in several Countries certainly they are most able to instruct who have had the greatest experience and longest travel in the World which is the reason that in this small Treatise I have not tyed up my self to the
the beginning yet it is afterwards very difficult for by this means the whole body accustoms it self to send forth its excrements this way and the Womb being now weakned gathers excrements apace Sometimes it proceeds from the whole body and then you may perceive the signs of an ill humor through the whole body In the Cure of this you must avoid blood-letting for that the bad humor must not be recalled to defile the blood besides that the disease is a sufficient weakning and consuming of the body The humor is discussed by the decoction of Guaiacum and China and Lentisk-wood For the drying up of the humor the Root of Filipendula doth very much conduce For astringent Medicines you may use chiefly the powder of dead men's bones the ashes of Capons-dung in rain water The Patient must avoid sleeping upon her back lest the heat of the Lungs should carry the humors toward the Womb Frictions also of the upper parts for the diversion of the humor may be used Sometimes it is caused by the Womb it self and then there will appear signs of the affection of the Womb and the Flux is not so great For the Cure of this Suffumigations of Frankincense Labdanum Mastick and Sanders are very requisite Of the Green-Sickness THE Green-Sickness is a changing of the colour of the Face into a green and pale colour proceeding from the rawness of the humors The signs of this appear in the Face to which may be added a great pain in the Head difficulty of breathing with a palpitation of the heart a small and thick beating of the Arteries in the Neck Back and Temples sometimes inordinate Fevers through the vitiousness of the humors loathing of Meat Vomiting distention of the Hypocondriack part by reason of the reflux of the menstrous blood to the greater Vessels a swelling of the whole body by reason of the abundance of humors or of the Thighs and Legs above the heels by reason of the abundance of serous humors The Cause is the crudity and rawness of the humor and quantity withal arising from the suppression of the Courses through the natural narrowness of the vessels or through an acquired narrowness of the vessels by the eating of Oatmeal Chalk Earth Nutmegs and drinking of Vinegar or from the obstruction of the other bowels Hence arises an ill concoction in the bowels and the humors are carried into the habit of the body or become habitual thereunto The Cure is performed by the letting of blood especially in the heel if the Disease be of any continuance by Purgation preparation of the humour being first considered which is performed by the decoction of Guaiacum with â—retan Dittany purging of the humor is performed with Agarick Aloes Succotrin with the â—â—ice of Savin for the unobstructing of the humor prepared Steel the root of Scorzonera Bezoarstone in diet Vinegar is utterly to be avoided The Cure of this Disease is performed by opening Obstructions by purging off vitious Humours by correcting the intemperies of the Bowels and by strengthening them First therefore a gentle purging Medicine must be given that is agreeable to the Constitution that the first region may be emptied and if the Belly be bound a Glister must be given first of all afterwards bleeding must be ordered unless the Disease is very inveterate and the Maid be inclined to a Cachexy But a Vein in the Arm must be opened tho' the Courses are stopt for at that time if you bleed in the Foot the obstructions of the Veins and of the Womb would be increased That quantity of Blood being taken away that is necessary proper purges must be used Take of the Pill Coch. major two scruples of Castor powdered two grains of Peruvian Balsom four drops make four Pills let her take them at five in the Morning and sleep after them if she can Let these Pills be repeated twice or thrice every Morning or every other Morning according to the strength of the sick and their operation After the purging Pills let her take the following Take of the fileings of Steel eight grains with a sufficient quantity of extract of Wormwood make two Pills to be taken in the Morning and they must be repeated at five in the Afternoon She must continue this Course for a Month drinking presently after the Pills a draught of Wormwood-wine If a Bolus be more pleasing Take of the conserve of Roman Wormwood and of the conserve of the inner peell of Oranges each one ounce of candied Angelica and Nutmegs candied and of Venice Treacle each half an ounce of Ginger candied two drams with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Oranges make an Electuary take of this Electuary one dram and an half of the filings of Steel well powdered eight grains with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Oranges make a Bolus to be taken in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon drinking upon it a draught of Wormwood wine Of the suffocation of the Matrix THE signs of the Suffocation of the Womb are a weariness of the whole body with a weakness of the Thighs a paleness and sadness of the Face a nauseousness though seldom vomiting oftentimes a loathing and distate of Meat and that sometimes with a grumbling and noise in the Belly and sometimes without The signs of the present Disease are that when the Vapours are carried up to the Heart and do there stop the vital Spirits a light swooning follows the Pulse changes and is little the Body grows cold all the spirits flying up into the Heart the Vapour being thrust up to the Head and Chaps the Chaps are many times set fast the Patient seeming to be stifled the motion of the Breast and Diaphragm is disturbed and hindred so that the breath is almost stopt the Patient living only by transpiration Sometimes there is joined with it a kind of Uterine fury with talking and anger Sometimes it causes other madness sometimes the Woman falls into a dead sleep which makes her seem as though she were dead It differs from the Epilepsie because in that the Convulsive motions are more general nor is there any memory of those things which happen about them after the Fit the Pulse is great and the Mouth of the Party affected fomes with a froth It differs from the Apoplexy because in that the Fit comes suddenly without any notice and the Patient is affected with a kind of snorting and there is such a Resolution of the parts that they feel not although they be pricked It differs from a Syncope in that there are no signs when the Fit will be the Pulse ceases to the apprehension and the Patient is troubled with cold sweats They differ from dead people by sneezing which may be provoked by putting something for that purpose into the Nose The cause of this is a venemous subtle and thin Vapour piercing in one moment through the whole body and carried up from the matter in the Womb corrupted after a peculiar manner either