copulation The signs of a dry wâ—mb whereby it may be made slippery by the moisture of the seed by the fissures in the neck thereof by the chaps and itching for all things for want of moisture will soon chap even like unto the ground which in the summer by reason of great drought or driness will chap and chink this way and that way and on the contrary with moisture it will close and join together again as it were with glew A woman is thought to have all opportunities unto conception when her courses or flowers do cease for then the womb is void of excremental filth and because it is yet open A meet time for conception it will the more easily receive the mans seed and when it hath received it it will better retain it in the wrinkles of the cotylidones yet gaping as it wese in rough and unequal places Yet a woman will easily conceive a little before the time that the flowers ought to flow because that the menstrual matter falling at first like dew into the womb is very meet and fit to nourish the seed and not to drive it out again or to suffocate it Those which use copulation when their courses fall down abundantly will very hardly or seldome conceive and if they do conceive the childe wil be weak and diseased and especially if the womans blood that flows out be unâ—ound but if the blood be good and laudable the childe will be subject to all plethorick diseases Theâ—e are some women in whom presently after the flux of the termes the orifice of the womb will be closed so that they must of necessity use copulation with a man when their menstrual flux floweth if at least they would conceive at all A woman may bear children from the age of fourteen untill forty or fiftie which time whosoever doth exceed will bear untill threescore years because the menstrual fluxes are kept the prolifical faculty is also preserved therefore many women have brought forth children at that age but after that time no woman can bear as Aristotle writeth Arist l. 7. de hist anim c. 2. c. 5. Yet Plinie saith that Cornelia who was of the house of the Scipioes being in the sixtie second yeer of her age bare Velusius Saturnius who was Consul Valescus de Tarenta also affirmeth that he saw a woman that bare a childe on the sixtie second year of her age having born before on the sixtieth and sixty first year Lib. 7. ca. 14. Lib. 6. cap 12. Therefore it is to be supposed that by reason of the variety of the air region diet and temperament the menstrual flux and procreative faculty ceaseth in some sooner Lib. 7 de hist anim c. 1. â— 6. in some later which variety taketh place also in men For in them although the seed be genitable for the most part in the second seventh year yet truly it is unfruitful untill the third seventh year And whereas most men beget children untill they be threescore years old which time if they pass they beget till seventie yet there are some known that have begot childâ—en untill the eightieth year Moreover Plinie writeth that Masinissa the King begot a son when he was fourscore and six years of age Lib. 7. cap 14. and also Cato the Censor after that he was fourscore CHAP. XL. Of the falling down or perversion or turning of the womb What is the falling down of the womb THe womb is said to fall down and be perverted when it is moved out of its proper and natural place as when the bands and ligatures thereof being loosed and relaxed it falleth down unto one side or other or into its own neck or else passeth further so that it comes out at the neck The causes and a great portion thereof appears without the privie parts Therefore what things soever resolve relax or burst the ligaments or bands whereby the womb is tied are supposed to be the causes of this accident It sometimes happens by vehement labor or travail in childe-birth when the womb with violence excluding the issue and the secundines also follows and falls down turning the inner side thereof outward And sometimes the foolish rashness of the Midwife when she draweth away the womb with the infant or with the secundine cleaving fast thereunto and so drawing it down and turning the inner side outward Furthermore a heavie bearing of the womb the bearing of the carriage of a great burthen holding or stretching of the hands or body upwards in the time of greatness with childe a fall contusion shaking or jogging by riding either in a Waggon or Coach or on horse back or leaping or dancing the falling down of a more large and abundant humor great griping a strong and continual cough a Tenesmus or often desire to go to stool yet not voiding any thing neesing a manifold and great birth difficult bearing of the womb an astmatical and orthopnoical-difficulty of breathing whatsoever doth weightily press down the Diaphragma or Midriff or the muscles of the Epigastrium the taking of cold air in the time of travail with childe oâ— in the flowing of the menstrual flux sitting on a cold marble-stone or any other such like cold things are thought oftentimes to be the occasion of these accidents because they may bring the womb out of its place Aâ—ist Lib. 7. de histor anim cap. 2. It falls down in many saith Aristotle by reason of the desire of copulation that they have either by reason of the lustiness of their youth or else because they have abstained a long time from it You may know that the womb is fallen down by the pain of those parts where hence it is fallen that is to say by the entrails The signes loines os sacrum and by a tractable tumor at the neck of the womb and often with a visible hanging out of diverse greatness according to the quantity that is fallen down The prognostâ—caâ—ions It is seen sometimes like unto a piece of red flesh hanging out at the neck of the womb of the bigness and form of a Goose-egg if the woman stand upright she feeleth the weight to lie on her privie parts but if she sit or lie then she perceiveth it on her back or go to the stool the strait gut called intestinum rectum will be pressed or loaden as if it were with a burthen if she lie on her belly then her urine will be stopped so that she shall fear to use copulation with a man When the womb is newly relaxed in a young woman it may be soon cured but if it hath been long down in an old woman it is not to be helped If the palsie of the ligaments thereof have occasioned the falling it scarce admits of cure bur if it falls down by means of putrefaction it cannot possibly be cured If a great quantity thereof hang out between the thighs it can hardly be cured but it
of water adding thereto cinnamon Ê’ ii in one pint of the decoction dissolve after it is strained of the syrup of mugwort and of hyssop an â„¥ ii diarrhâ—d abbat Ê’i let it be strained through a bag with Ê’ ii of the kernels of Dates and let her take â„¥ .iiii in the morning Let pessaries be made with galbanum ammoniacum and such like mollifying things beaten into a mass in a mortar with a hot pestel and made into the form of a pessary and then let them be mixed with oil of Jasmine euphorbium an ox-gall the juice of mugwurt and other such like wherein there is power to provoke the flowers as with scammony in powder let them be as big as ones thumb six fingers long and rowled in lawn or some such like thin linnen cloth of the same things nodula's may be made Also pessaries may be prepared with hony boiled adding thereto convenient powders as of scammony pellitory and such like Neither ought these to stay long in the neck of the womb least they should exulcerate and they must be pulled back by a thred that must be put through them and then the orifice of the womb must be fomented with white wine of the decoction of penniroyal or mother-wort What causes of the stopping of the flowers must be cured before the disease it self But it is to be noted that if the suppression of the flowers happeneth through the default of the stopped orifice of the womb or by inflammation these maladies must first be cured before we come unto those things that of their proper strength and virtue provoke the flowers as for example if such things be made and given when the womb is inflamed the blood being drawn into the grieved place and the humors sharpned and the body of the womb heated the inflammation will be increased So if there be any superfluous flesh if there be any Callus of a wound or ulcer or if there be any membrane shutting the orifice of the womb and so stopping the flux of the flowers they must first be consumed and taken away before any of those things be administred But the opportunity of taking and applying of things must be taken from the time wherein the sick woman was wont to be purged before the stopping or if she never had the flowers The fittest time to provoke the flowers Why hot houses do hurt those in whom the flowers are to be provoked in the decrease of the Moon for so we shall have custom nature and the external efficient cause to help art When these medicines are used the women are not to be put into baths or hot houses as many do except the malady proceed from the density of the vessels and the grosness and clamminess of the blood For sweats hinder the menstrual flux by diverting and turning the matter another way CHAP. LIV. The signs of the approaching of the menstrual flux WHen the monthly flux first approacheth the dugs itch and become more swoln and hard then they were wont the woman is more desirous of copulation by reason of the ebullition of the provoked blood and the acrimony of the blood that remaineth her voice becommeth bigger her secret parts itch burn swell and wax red If they stay long What women do love and what women do loath the act of generation when the months are stopped With what accidents those that are marriageable and are not married are troubled The cause of so many accidents she hath pain in her loins and head nauseousness and vomiting troubleth the stomach notwithstanding if those matters which flow together in the womb either of their own nature or by corruption be cold they loath the act of generation by reason that the womb waxeth feeble through sluggishness and watery humors filling the same and it floweth by the secret parts very softly Those maids that are marriageable although they have the menstrual flux very well yet they are troubled with headach nauseousness and often vomiting want of appetite longing an ill habit of body difficulty of breathing trembling of the heart swouning melancholy fearful dreams watching with sadness and heaviness because that the genital parts burning and itching they imagine the act of generation whereby it commeth to pass that the seminal matter either remaining in the testicles in great abundance or else poured into the hollowness of the womb by the tickling of the genitals is corrupted and acquireth a venemous quality and causeth such like accidents as happen's in the suffocation of the womb Maids that live in the country are not so troubled with those diseases because there is no such lying in wait for their maiden-heads and also they live sparingly and hardly and spend their time in continual labor You may see many maids so full of juice that it runneth in great abundance as if they were not menstrual into their dugs and is there converted into milk which they have in as great quantity as nurses as we read it recorded by Hippocrates Aph. 36 sect 5. If a woman which is neither great with childe nor hath born children hath milk she wants the menstrual fluxes whereby you may understand that that conclusion is not good which affirmeth that a woman which hath milk in her breasts either to be delivered of childe or to be great with childe Lib. 2. de subt for Cardanus writeth that he knew one Antony Buzus at Genua who being thirty years of age had so much milk in his breasts as was sufficient to nurse a childe The efficient cause of the milk is to be noted for the breeding and efficient cause of milk proceeds not only from the engrafted faculty of the glandulous substance but much rather from the action of the mans seed for proof whereof you may see many men that have very much milk in their breasts and many women that almost have no milk unless they receive mans seed Also women that are strong and lusty like unto men which the Latines call Viragines that is to say whose seed commeth unto a manly nature when the flowers are stopped concoct the blood and therefore when it wanteth passage forth by the likeness of the substance it is drawn into the dugs and becommeth perfect milk those that have the flowers plentifully and continually for the space of four or five daies are better purged and with more happy success then those that have them for a longer time CHAP. LV. What accidents follow immoderate fluxes of the flowers or courses IF the menstrual flux floweth immoderately there also follow many accidents for the concoction is frustrated the appetite overthrown then follows coldness throughout all the body exolution of all the faculties an ill habit of all the body leanness the dropsie an hectick fever convulsion swouning and often sudden death By what pâ—res the flowers do flow in a woman and in a maid The causes of an unreasonable flux of blood if any have them too exceeding
Sena at one time brought forth seven children of which four were baptized In our time betweeen Sarte and Main in the parish of Seaux not far from Chambellay there is a family and noble house called Maldemeure the wife of the Lord of Maldemure the first year she was married brought forth twins the second year she had three children the third year four the fourth year five the fifth year six and of that birth she died of those six one is yet alive and is Lord of Maldemeure In the valley of Beaufort in the countie of Anjou a young woman the daughter of Mace Channiere when at one perfect birth she had brought forth one childe the tenth day following she fell in labor of another but could not be delivered untill it was pulled from her by force and was the death of the mother The Picture of Dorithie great with childe with many children Martin Comerus the author of the Polish historie writeth that one Margaret The ninth Book of the Polish Historie a woman sprung from a noble and ancient familie neer Cracovia and wife to Count Virboslaus brought forth at one birth thirtie five live children upon the twentieth daie of Jan. in the year 1296. Franciscus Picus Mirandula writeth that one Dorothie an Italian had twentie children at two births at the first nine and at the second eleven and that she was so big that she was forced to bear up her bellie which lay upon her knees with a broad and large scarf tied about her neck as you may see by this figure And they are to be reprehended here again who affirm the cause of numerous births to consist in the variety of the cels of the womb for they feign a womans womb to have seven cels or partitions three on the right side for males three on the left side for females and one in the midst for Hermophrodites or Scrats and this untruth hath gone so far that there have been some that affirmed every of the seven cels to have been divided into ten partitions into which the seed dispersed doth bring forth a divers and numerous encrease according to the varietie of cels furnished with the matter of seed which though it may seem to have been the opinion of Hippocrates in his Book De natura Pueri notwithstanding it is repugnant to reason and to those things which are manifestly apparent to the eies and senses The opinion of Aristotle is more probable who saith twins and more at one birth Lib. 4. de gen anim cap. 4. are begot and brought forth by the same cause that the sixth finger groweth on the hand that is by the abundant plentie of the seed which is greater and more copious then can be all taken up in the natural framing of one bodie for if it all be forced into one it maketh one with the parts encreased more then is fit either in greatness or number but if it be as it weâ—e cloven into divers parts it causeth more then one at one birth CHAP. IV. Of Hermophrodites or Scrats ANd here also we must speak of Hermophrodites because they draw the cause of their generation and conformation from the abundance of seed and are called so because they are of both sexes the woman yeelding as much seed as the man For hereupon it commeth to pass that the forming facultie which alwaies endeavors to produce something like it self doth labor both the matters almost with equal force and is the cause that one bodie is of both sexes Yet some make four differences of Hermophrodites the first of which is the male Hermophrodite who is a perfect and absolute male and hath only a slit in the Perinaeum not perforated and from which neither urine nor seed doth flow The second is the female which besides her natural privitie hath a fleshie and skinnie similitude of a mans yard but unapt for erection and ejaculation of seed and wanteth the cod and stones the third difference is of those which albeit they bear the express figures of members belonging to both sexes commonly set the one against the other yet are found unapt for generation the one of them only serving for making of water the fourth difference is of those who are able in both sexes throughly perform the part of both man and woman because they have the genitals of both sexes complete and perfect and also the right brest like a man and the left like a woman the laws command those to chuse the sex which they will use and in which they will remain and live judgeing them to death if they be found to have departed from the sex they made choice of for some are thought to have abused both and promiscuously to have had their pleasure with men and women There are signs by which the Physicians may discern whether the Hermophrodites are able in the male or female sex or whether they are impotent in both these signs are most apparent in the privities and face for if the matrix be exact in all its demensions and so perforated that it may admit a mans yard if the courses flow that way if the hair of the head be long slender and soft and to conclude if to this tender habit of the body a timid and weak condition of the minde be added the female sex is predominant and they are plainly to be judged women But if they have the Perinaeum and fundament full of hairs the which in women are commonly without any if they have a a yard of a convenient largeness if it stand well and readily and yeeld seed the male sex hath the preheminence and they are to be judged men But if the conformation of both the genitals be alike in figure quantity and efficacy it is thought to be equally able in both sexes although by the opinion of Aristotle Lib. 4. de gener anim cap. 5. those who have double genitals the one of the male the other of the female the one of them is alwaies perfect the other imperfect The figure of Hermophrodite twins cleaving together with their backs Anno Dom. 1486. in the Palatinate at the village Robach near Heidelberg there were twins both Hermophrodites born with their backs sticking together The effigies of an Hermophrodite having four hands and feet The same day the Venetians and Geneses entred into league there was a monster born in Italy having four arms and feet and but one head it lived a little after it was baptized James Ruef a Helvetian Cirurgian saith he saw the like but which besides had the privities of both sexes whose figure I have therefore set forth Pag. 647. CHAP. V. Of the changing of Sex AMatus Lusitanus reports that in the village Esquina there was a maid named Maria Pateca who at the appointed age for her courses to flow had instead of them a mans yard laying before that time hid and covered so that of a woman she became a man and therefore laying
was contained in that little close chamber was partly consumed by the fire of coals no otherwise then the air that is contained in a cupping-glass is consumed in a moment by the flame so soon as it is kindled Furthermore it was neither cold nor temperate but as as it were inflamed with the burning fire of coals Thirdly it was more gross in consistence then it should be by reason of the admixtion of the grosser vapor of the coals for the nature of the air is so that it may be soon altered and will very quickly receive the forms and impressions of those substances that are about it Lastly it was noisome and hurtful in substance and altogether offensive to the aiery substance of our bodies For Charcoals are made of green wood burnt in pits under ground and then extinguisht with their own fume or smoak as all Colliers can tell These were the opinions of most learned men although they were not altogether agreeable one unto another yet both of them depended on their proper reasons For this at least is manifest that those passages which are common to the brest and brain were then stopped with the grossness of the vapors of the coals whereby it appeareth that both these parts were in fault for as much as the consent and connexion of them with the other parts of the body is so great that they cannot long abide sound and perfect without their mutual help by reason of the loving and friendly sympathy and affinity that is between all the parts of the body one with another Wherefore the ventricles of the brain the passages of the Lungs and the sleepy Arteries being stopped the vital spirit was prohibited from entring into the brain and consequently the animal spirit retained and kept in so that it could not come or disperse it self thorough the whole body whence happeneth the defect of two of the faculties necessary for life It many times happeneth and is a question too frequently handled concerning womens maiden-heads whereof the judgment is very difficult Of the signs of virginity Yet some antient women and Midwives will brag that they assuredly know it by certain and infallible signs For say they in such as are virgins there is a certain membrane of parchment like skin in the neck of the womb which will hinder the thrusting in of the finger if it be put in any thing deep which membrane is broken when first they have carnal copulation as may afterwards be perceived by the free entrace of the finger Besides such as are defloured have the neck of their womb more large and wide as on the contrary it is more contract strait and narrow in virgins But how deceitful and untrue these signs and tokens are shall appear by that which followeth for this membrane is a thing preternatural and which is scarce found to be in one of a thousand from the first conformation Now the neck of the womb will be more open or strait according to the bigness and age of the party For all the parts of the body have a certain mutual proportion and commensuration in a well-made body Joubertus hath written that at Lectaure in Gascony Lib. de error popul a woman was delivered of a childe in the ninth year of her age and that she is yet alive and called Joan de Parie being wife to Videau Bechâ— the receiver of the amercements of the King of Navare which is a most evident argument that there are some women more able to accompany with a man at nine years old then many other at fifteen by reason of the ample capacity of their womb and the neck thereof besides also this passage is enlarged in many by some accident as by thrusting their own fingers more strong thereinto by reason of some itching or by the putting up of a Nodule or Pessary of the bigness of a mans yard for to bring down the courses Aph. 39. sect 5. Neither to have milk in their brests is any certain sign of lost virginity For Hippocrates thus writes But if a woman which is neither with childe nor hath had one have milk in her brests then her courses have failed her Moreover Aristotle reports that there be men who have such plenty of milk in their breasts that it may be sucked or milked out Cardan writes that he saw at Venice one Antony Bussey some 30. years old Lib. 4. de hist animal c. 20. Lib 12 de subtilitate who had milk in his brest in such plenty as sufficient to suckle a childe so that it did not only drop but spring out with violence like to a womans milk Wherefore let Magistrates beware lest thus admonished they too rashly assent to the reports of women Let Physicians and Chirurgions have a care lest they do too impudently bring Magistrates into an error which will not redound so much to the judges disgrace as to theirs But if any desire to know whether one be poysoned let him search for the symptoms and signs in the foregoing and particular treatise of poysons But that this doctrine of making reports may be the easier I think it fit to give presidents in imitation whereof the young Chirurgion may frame others The first president shall be of death to ensue a second of a doubtful judgement of life and death the third of a impotency of member the fourth of the hurting of many members I A. P. Chirurgion of Paris A certificatâ— of death this twentyeth day of May by the command of the Counsel entred into the house of one John Brossey whom I found lying in bed wounded on his head with a wound in his left temple piercing the bone with a fracture and effracture or depression of the broken bone scales and meninges into the substance of the brain by means whereof his pulse was weak he was troubled with raving convulsion cold sweat and his appetite was dejected Whereby may be gathered that certain and speedy death is at hand In witness whereof I have signed this Report with my own hand By the Coroners command I have visited Peter Lucey whom I found sick in bed Another in a doubtful case being wounded with a Hilbert on his right thigh Now the wound is of the bredth of three fingers and so deep that it pierces quite through his thigh with the cutting also of the vein and artery whence ensued much effusion of blood which hath exceedingly weakned him and caused him to swound often now all his thigh is swoln livid and gives occasion to fear worse symptoms which is the cause that the health and safety of the party is to be doubted of By the Justices command I entred into the house of James Bertey to visit his own brother In the loss of a member I found him wounded in his right arm with a wound of some four fingers bigness with the cutting of the tendons bending the leg and of the veins arteries and Nerves Wherefore I
left side c. the left ureter inserted into the bladder neer to r. dd the spermatick vein which goeth to the left testicle marked with i. ee the spermatick vein which goeth to the left testicle with i also f. the trunk of the great artery from whence the spermatical arteries do proceed gh the spermatical arteries ii the two testicles ll a branch which from the spermatick vessels reacheth unto the bottom of the womb mm. the leading vessel of the Seed which Fallopius calleth the tuba or trumpet because it is crooked and reflected n. a branch of the spermatick vessel compassing the leading vessel oo a vessel like a worm which passeth to the womb some call it Cremaster p. the bottom of the womb called fundus uteri b. a part of the right gut r. s the bottom of the bladder whereto is inserted the left Ureter and a vein led from the neck of the wome neer unto r. t. the neck of the bladder u. the same inserted into the privity or lap x. a part of the neck of the womb above the privity yy certain skinny Caruncles of the Privities in the midst of which is the slit and on both sides appear little hillocks The Figures belonging to the Dugs and Breasts αα The veins of the Dugs which come from those which descending from the top of the shoulder are offered to the skin β. the veins of the Dugs derived from those which through the arm-hole are led into the hand γ. the body of the Dug or Breast δδ the kernels and fat between them εε the vessels of the Dugs descending from the lower part of the neck called Jugulum under the breast-bone It hath a middle temper between hot and cold moist and dry It hath the same use as a mans Praeputium or fore-skin that is that together with the Nymphae it may hinder the emeance of the air by which the womb may be in danger to take cold The lips of the Privities called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latines Alae contain all that region which is invested with hairs Alae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and because we have faln into mention of these Nymphae you must know that they are as it were productions of the musculous skin which descend on both sides from the upper part of the share-bone downwards even to the orifice of the neck of the bladder oft-times growing to so great a bigness that they will stand out like a man's yard Wherefore in some they must be cut off in their young years yet with a great deal of caution lest if they be cut too rashly so great an effusion of blood may follow that it may cause either death to the woman or barrenness of the womb by reason of the refrigeration by the too great effusion of blood The latter Anatomists as Columbus and Fallopius besides these parts have made mention of another Particle which stands forth in the upper part of the Privities and also of the urinary passage which joyns together those wings we formerly mentioned Cleitoris tentigo Columbus calls it Tentigo Fallopius Cleitoris whence proceeds that infamous word Cleitorizein which signifies impudently to handle that part But because it is an obscene part let those which desire to know more of it read the Authors which I cited CHAP. XXXV Of the Coats containing the Infant in the womb and of the Navel THe membranes or coats containing the Infant in the womb of the Mother are of a spermatick and nervous substance Their substance magnitude figure and composure having their matter from the seed of the Mother But they are nervous that so they may be the more easily extended as it shall be necessary for the child They are of good length and bredth especially near the time of deliverance they are round in figure like the womb Their composition is of veins arteries and their proper substance The veins and arteries are distributed to them whether obscurely or manifestly more or fewer from the womb by the Cotyledones which have the same office as long as the child is contained in the womb as the nipples or paps of the nurses after it is born For thus the womb brings the Cotyledones or veins degenerating into them through the coats like certain paps to the Infant shut up in them These coats are three in number according to Galen one called the Chorion Secundine or After-birth The number the other Allantoides the third Amnios I find this number of coats in Beasts but not in Women unless peradventure any will reckon up in the number of the coats the Cotyledones swollen up and grown into a fleshy mass which many skilful in Anatomy do write which opinion notwithstanding we cannot receive as true I could never in any place find the Allantoides in Women with child neither in the Infant born in the sixth seventh eight or in the full time being the ninth month although I sought it with all possible diligence the Midwives being set apart which might have violated some of the coats But thus I went about this business I divided the dead body of the Mother croswise upon the region of the womb and taking away all impediments which might either hinder or obscure our diligence with as much dexterity as was possible we did not only draw away that receptacle or den of the Infant from the inward surface of the womb to which it stuck by the Cotyledones but we also took away the first membrane which we called Chorion from that which lies next under it called Amnios without any rending or tearing for thus we poured forth no moisture whereby it might be said that any coat made for the containing of that humor was rent or torn And then we diligently looked having many witnesses and spectators present if in any place there did appear any distinction of these two membranes the Allantoides and Amnios for the separating the contained humors and for other uses which they mention But when we could perceive no such thing we took the Amnios filled with moisture on the upper side and having opened it two servants holding the apertion that no moisture might flow out of it into the circumference of the Chorion or Womb then presently with spunges we drew out by little and little all the humidity contained in it the Infant yet contained in it which was fit to come forth that so the coat Amnios being freed of this moisture we might see whether there were any other humor contained in any other coat besides But having done this with singular diligence and fidelity we could we see no other humor nor no other separation of the membranes besides He shews by three several reasons that there is no Allantoides So that from that time I have confidently held this opinion that the Infant in the womb is only wrapped in two coats the Chorion and Amnios But yet not satisfied by this experience that I might yet
be more certain concerning this Allantoides having passed through the two former coats I came to the Infant and I put a quill into its Bladder and blew it up as forcibly as I could so to try if by that blowing I might force the air into that coat which we questioned as some have written But neither thus could I drive any air from hence through the navel into the controverted coat but rather I found it to fly out of the bladder by the privities Wherefore I am certainly perswaded that there is no Allantoides Moreover I could never find nor see in the navel that passage called the Urachus which they affirm to be the beginning and original of the coat Allantoides But if it be granted that there is no such coat as the Allantoides what discommodity will arise hereof specially seeing the sweat and urine of the Infant may easily and without any discommodity be received collected and contained in the same coat by reason of the small difference which is between them But if any object That the urine by its sharpness and touching will hurt the Infant I will answer there can be no so great sharpness in the urine of so small an Infant and that if that there be any it is tempered by the admixture of the gentle vapor of sweat Besides if you consider or have regard to the use of such an humor which is to hold up the child lest by its weight it break the ties by which it is bound to the womb we shall find no humor more fit for this purpose than this serous as which by its thickness is much more fit to bear up a weight than the thin and too liquid Sweat For so we see the Sea or Salt-water carries greater weights without danger of drowning than fresh Rivers do Wherefore I conclude that there is no need that the urine should be kept and contained in one coat and the sweat in another The Ancients who have writ otherwise have written from observations made in Beasts Wherefore we make but only two coats the Chorion and Amnios the one of which seeing it contains the other they both so encompass the child that they vest it on every side Fallopius in some sort seems to be of this opinion for he only makes two coats the Chorion and Amnios but he thinks the Infant makes the water into a certain part of the Chorion as you may perceive by reading of his Observations Both these coats are tyed between themselves by the intercourse of most slender nervous fibers and small vessels penetrating from the outer Chorion to the inner Amnios Wherefore unless you warily handle these coats you may easily tear the Amnios in separating it They are of the same temper with other membranes Their temper and use Their use is different for the Chorion is made both for the preservation of the vessels which it receives from the womb for the generating of the umbilical veins and arteries as also to keep whole and safe the parts which it invests But the Amnios is to receive and contain the excrementitious and serous humors which the childe shut up in the womb is accustomed to evacuate But this coat is very thin and soft but strong and smooth lest by its touch it might hurt the Infant whereupon it is called the Lambskin-coat CHAP. XXXV Of the Navel THe Navel follows these coats It is a white body What the Navel is somewhat resembling the wreathen cord or girdle of the Franciscan-friers but that it hath not the knots standing so far out but only swelling in certain places resembling a knot only lifted up on one side it arises and takes its original from a fleshy mass The Navel is the center of the body which we expressed by the name of swelling Cotyledones and goes into the midst of the lower belly of the Infant yea verily into the midst of the whole body whose root it is therefore said to be For even as a tree by the root sucks nourishment from the earth so the Infant in the Womb draws its nourishment by the Navel The greatness of it in breadth and thickness equals the bigness of the little finger But it is a foot and a half long so that children are brought forth with it encompassing their middle neck arms The figure and composure or legs The figure of it is round It is composed of two Arteries one vein and two coats It hath these vessels from that great multitude of capillary veins and arteries which are seen dispersed over the Chorion Wherefore the vein entring in at the Navel penetrates from thence into the hollow part of the Liver where divided into two according to Galens opinion Lib. de format foetus in utero it makes the gate and hollow-veins But the arteries carryed by themselves the length of the Navel cast themselves into the Iliacae which they make as also all other that from thence the vital spirit may be carryed by them over all the Infant It hath its two coats from the Chorion But seeing they are mutually woven and conjoyned without any medium and are of a sufficient strength and thickness over all the Navel they may seem to make the Infants external skin and fleshy Pannicle I know very many reckon two Umbilical veins as also arteries and the Urachus by or through which the Urine flows into the coat Allantoides There is only one Vein in a childs Navel but no Urachus But because this is not to be found in Women but only Beasts I willingly omit it because I do not intend to mention any parts but such as belong to humane bodies Yet if there be any which can teach me that these parts which I think proper to brute beasts are to be found in women I will willingly confess that to his credit from whom I have reaped such benefit The other things that may be required concerning the Navel as of its number site connexion temper and use may easily appear by that we have spoken before For we have apparently set down the use when we said the Navel was made for that purpose that the Infant may be nourished by it as the tree by the root by reason of the continuation of the vessels thereof with the preparing spermatick vessels made by God for that purpose To whom be honor and glory for ever and ever Amen The End of the third Book The FOURTH BOOK Treating of the Vital parts contained in the CHEST The PREFACE HAving finished the first Book of our Anatomy in explanation of the natural parts contained in the lower Belly Now order requires that we treat of the Brest that so the parts in some sort already explained I mean the Veins and Arteries may be dispatched after the same order and manner without interposition of any other matter And besides also that we may the more exactly and chearfully shew the rest of the parts which remain as the Head and Limbs knowing already
mortal wherefore you must provide a skilful Physitian for the cure of this Disease which may appoint convenient diet purging and bloud-letting In the mean time the Chirurgeon shall make way for the virulent and venenate matter by making Incision in the inner part of the finger even to the Bone alongst the first joint thereof for Vigo saith there is not a presenter remedy if so be that it be quickly done Lib. cap. 4. tract and before the maturation of the matter for it vindicates the Finger from the corruption of the Bone and Nerves and asswages pain which I have often and happily tryed immediately at the beginning before the perfect impression of the virulency But the wound being made you must suffer it to bleed well then presently let him dip his finger in strong and warm Vinegar in which some Treacle being dissolved may draw forth the virulency But to appease the pain the same remedies must be applyed to the affected part as are used in Carbuncles as the leaves of Sorrel Henbane Hemlock Mandrake roasted under the Embers and beaten in a Mortar with new Unguentum Populeon or Oyl of Roses or new Butter without Salt for such like medicines also help forward suppuration whilst by their coldness they repress the extraneous heat affecting the part and so strengthen the native heat being the author of suppuration which reason moved the ancient Physitians to use such medicines in a Carbuncle but if by reason of the fearfulness of the Patient or unskilfulness of the Chirurgeon no Incision being made a Gangrene and Sphacel shall possess the part it remains that you cut off with your cutting Mullets as much of the part as shall be corrupt and perform the rest of the cure according to Art Yet it doth not seldom happen that there may be no need to cut off such a finger because it being corrupted together with the Bone by little and little dissolves into a purulent or rather sanious or much stinking filth But in this affect there is often caused an Eschar by the adustion of putredinous heat and superfluous flesh indued with most exquisite sense groweth underneath it which must in like manner be cut off with the Mullets that the part may receive comfort the pain being asswaged by the copious effusion of Bloud CHAP. XX. Of the swelling of the Knees Gal. com ad sent 1 ser 4. lib. 6. Epid. Gal. Com. ad sent 67. sect 2. prog AFter long and dangerous diseases there oftentimes arise Tumors in the Knees and also in Plethorick Bodies and such as have evil juyce after labours and exercise This kind of disease is frequent because the humor easily falls into the part which hath been heated by labour But if such Tumor follow long Diseases they are dangerous and difficult to cure and therefore not to be neglected for bitter pain accompanyeth them because the humor falling thither distends the Membranes which being many involve the part besides that this humor participateth of a certain virulent and malign quality whether it be cold or hot when it hath setled into those parts being such as we find in the pains of the joynts and in the bitings of venemous creatures The Cure For the cure if the tumor be caused by Bloud let a slender and refrigerating diet be appointed and phlebotomy for the revulsion of the antecedent cause divers local medicines shall be used according to the variety of the four times But for to asswage the pain Anodynes or mitigating medicines shall be appointed of all which we have sufficiently treated in the Chapter of the cure of a Phlegmon And because these parts are of exact sense if there be necessity to open the tumor yet must we not do it rashly or unconsiderately for fear of pain and evil accidents This kind of tumor is oft-times raised by wind contained there in which case the Chirurgeon must be very provident that he be not deceived with the shew of flowing of the humor which he seems to perceive by the pressure of his fingers as if there were matter and humor contained therein and so be brought to open the tumor For the wind breaking forth in stead of the humor causeth evil symptoms by reason of the section rashly made in a part so sensible But if waterish humors shall tumefie the part the Body shall first be purged with medicines purging flegm And then inciding attenuating rarifying discussing and very drying local medicines shall be used Of which we have abundantly spoken in the Chapter of the Oedema Yet this humor divers times lies deep between the Whirl-bone and the Joynt which causeth it that it cannot be discussed and resolved by reason of the weakness of the part and defect of heat so that the adventitious humor often moves and excludes the Bones from their seat As I have observed it to have happened to many In which case Irrigations of red Wine falling something high whereby the force of the medicine may enter and more easily penetrate are much commended CHAP. XXII Of the Dracunculus It is not as yet sufficiently known what Dracunculi are I Cannot chuse but explain in this place those things which may be spoken of that kind of Tumor against Nature which by the Ancients is called Dracunculus The matter and reason of these hath been variously handled by divers Authors so that hitherto we have nothing written of them to which we may by right and with good reason adhere as a firm foundation of their essence For first for Galen's opinion Lib. 6. de Loc. affect cap. 3. The generation saith he of those hairs which are evacuated by the Urin is worthy no less admiration than the Dracunculi which as they say in a certain place of Arabia breed in the Legs of men being of a nervous nature and like worms in colour and thickness Therefore seeing I have heard many who have said they have seen them but I may self never saw them I cannot conjecture any thing exactly neither of their original nor essence Lib 4. cap. ult Paulus Aegineta writes that the Dracunculi are bred in India and the higher parts of Aegypt like worms in the musculous parts of Mans Body that is the arms thighs and legs and also creep by the intercostal muscles in children with a manifest motion The cure out of Aegineta But whether they be creatures indeed or only have the shape of creatures they must be cured with a hot fomentation by which the Dracunculus raised to a just tumor may put forth it self and be pluckt away piece-meal with the fingers also suppurating Cataplasms may be applyed composed of Water Hony Wheat and Barly-Meal Avicen being various having no certainty whereon to rest inclineth one while to this and another while to that opinion Cap. 21. lib. 4. sent 3 tract 3. for now he speaketh of the Dracunculi as of creatures then presently of a matter and humor shut up in a certain place for
boulsters and splints as shall be fit But if the bone be dislocated or forth of joint then presently after the extension thereof When instruments or engins are necessary it will be requisite to bend it somewhat about and so to draw it in The Surgeon is sometimes forced to use engins for this work especially if the luxation be inveterate if the broken or luxated bones be great and that in strong and rustick bodies and such as have large joints for that then there is need of greater strength than is in the hand of the Surgeon alone For by how much the muscles of the Patient are the stronger by so much will they be contracted more powerfully upwards towards their originals Yet have a care that you extend them not too violently lest by rending and breaking asunder the muscles and nerves you cause the forementioned symptoms What bodies are sooner hurt by violent extension pain convulsion a palsie and gangrene all which sooner happen to strong and aged bodies than to children evnuches women youths and generally all moist bodies for that they are less hurt by violent extension and pulling by reason of their native and much humidity and softness For thus skins of leather moistened with any liquor are easily retched and drawn out as one pleaseth but such as are dry and hard being less tractable will sooner rend and tear than stretch further out Therefore the Surgeon shall use a mean in extending and drawing forth of members as shall be most agreeable to the habits of the bodies Signs of a bone well set You may know the bone is set and the setting performed as is fit if the pain be asswaged to wit the fibres of the muscles and the other parts being restored to their former site and all compression which the bones moved out of their places have made being taken away if to your feeling there be nothing bunching out nor rugged but the surface of the membrane remain smooth and equal and lastly if the broken or dislocated member compares with its opposite in the composure of the joints and knees as the ankles answer justly and equally in length and thickness For which purpose it must not suffice the Surgeon to view it once but even as often as he shall dress it For it may happen that the bone which is well set Causes and signs of the relapse of a set bone may by some chance as by the Patients unconsiderate turning himself in his bed or as it were a convulsive twitching of the members or joints whilest he sleeps the muscles of their own accord contracting themselves towards their originals that the member may again fall out and it will give manifest signs thereof by renewing the pain by pressing or pricking the adjacent bodies which pain will not cease before it be restored to its place and hereof the Surgeon ought to have diligent care For if whilest the Callus is in growing one bone ride over another the bone it self will afterwards be so much the shorter and consequently the whole member so that if this errour shall happen in a broken leg the Patient will halt ever after to his great grief and the Surgeons shame Wherefore the Patient shall take heed as much as in him lies that he stir not the broken member before that the Callus be hardned Such diligent care needs not be had in dislocations For these once set and artificially bound up do not afterwards so easily fall forth as broken bones The second scope is that the bones which shall be restored may be firmly kept in their state and place that shall be done by Bandages as ligatures boulsters and other things whereof hereafter we shall make particular mention Hither tend proper and fit medicins to wit applying of oil of Roses with the whites of Eggs and the like repelling things and then resolving medicins as the present necessity shall require It will be convenient to moisten your rowlers and boulsters in Oxycrate for this purpose or else in Rose-vinegar if the Fracture be simple or with red wine Ad. sent 21. sect 1. de fract or the like liquor warm in Galens opinion if a wound be joined to the fracture and it will be fit to moisten fractures oftner in Summer For so the part is strengthened the defluxion being repelled whereby the inflammation and pain are hindered You must desist from humecting and watering the part when the symptomes are past lest you retard the generating of a Callus for which you must labour by these means which we shall hereafter declare To this purpose also conduces the rest and lying of the part in its proper figure and site accustomed in health that so it may the longer remain in the same place unstirred Besides also it is expedient then only to dress the part when it is needfull and with those things which are requisite shunning as much as may be inflammation and pain That figure is thought the best which is the middle that is What the middle figure is and why best which contains the muscles in their site which is without pain so that the Patient may long endure it without labour or trouble All these things being performed the Patient must be asked whether the member be bound up too strait If he answer No unless peradventure a little upon the fracture or luxation for there it is fit it should be more straitly bound then may you know that the binding is moderate Fit time for loosing of Ligatures in fractures and dislocations And this same first ligation is to be kept in fractures without loosing for three or four dayes space unless peradventure pain urge you to the contrary In dislocations the same binding may be kept for seven or eight dayes unless by chance some symptom may happen which may force us to open it before that time for the Surgeon must with all his art have a care to prohibit the happening of evil accidents and symptomes which how he may bring to pass shall be declared in the following Chapter CHAP. V. By what means you may perform the third intention in curing Fractures and Dislocations which is the hindring and correction of accidents and symptoms THat We may attain unto this third scope Four choice means to hinder accidents it is requisite we handle as gently and without pain as we may the broken or dislocated member we drive away the defluxion ready to fall down upon the part by medicins repelling the humour and strengthening the part we by appointing a good diet hinder the begetting of excrements in the body and divert them by purging and phlebotomy But if these accidents be already present we must cure them according to the kind and nature of each of them The causes and differences of itching for they are various Amongst which is reckoned itching which in the beginning torments the Patient this ariseth from a collection and suppression of subacrid vapours arising from
the microcosmos or lesser world there are windes thunders earth-quakes showrs mundations of waters sterilityes fertilities stones mountains sundry sorts of fruits and creatures thence arise For who can deny but that there is winde contained shut up in flatulent abscesses in the guts of those that are troubled with the colick Flatulencies make so great a noise in divers womens bellies if so be you stand near them that you would think you heard a great number of frogs croaking on the night-time That water is contained in watery abscesses and the belly of such as have the dropsie is manifested by that cure which is performed by the letting forth of the water in fits of Agues the whole body is no otherwise shaken and trembles Of stones then the earth when it is heard to bellow and felt no shake under our feet He which shall see the stones which are taken out of the bladder and come from the kidnies and diveâ—â—e other parts of the body cannot deny but that stones are generated in our bodies Furthermore we see both men and women who in their face or some other parts shew the impression or imprinted figure of a cherry Of fruits from the first conformation plumb service fig mulberry and the like fruit the cause hereof is thought to be the power of the imagination concurring with the formative faculty and the tenderness of the yielding and wax-like embryon easie to be brought into any form or figure by reason of the proper and native humidity For you shall finde that all their mothers whilst they went with them have earnestly desired or longed for such things which whilst they have to earnestly agitated in their mindes they have trans-ferred the shape unto the childe whilst that they could not enjoy the things themselves Now who can deny but that the bunches of the back and large wens resemble mountains Who can gain-say but that the squalid sterility may be assimilate to the hectick driness of wasted and consumed persons and fertility deciphered by the body distended with much flesh and fat so that the legs can scarce stand under the burden of the belly But that â—ivers creatures are generated in one creature that is in man and that in sundry parts of him the following histories shall make it evident The figure of a scorpion It makes Hollerius conjecture of the cause and original of this Scorpion probable for that Chrysippus Dyophanes and Pliny write that of basil beaten between two stones and laid in the sun there will come Scorpions Lib. 5. de part morbic cap 7. Fernelius writes that in a certain souldier who was flat nosed upon the too long restraint or stoppage of a certain filthy matter that flowed out of the nose that there were generated two hairy worms of the bigness of ones finger which at length made him mad he had no manifest fever and he died about the twentieth day this was their shape by as much as we can gather by Fernelius his words The effigies of worms mentioned by Fernelius Lues Duret a man of great learning and credit An history told me that he had come forth with his urine after a long and difficult disease a quick creature of colour red but otherwise in shape like a Millepes that is a Cheslop or Hog-â—ouse The shape of a Millepes cast forth by urine Count Charls of Mansfieldt last Summer troubled with a greivous and continual sever in the Duke of Guises place cast forth a filthy matter at his yard An history in the shape of a live thing almost just in this form The shape of a thing cast forth by urine Monstrous creatures also of sundry forms are also generated in the wombs of women somewhiles alone other whiles with a mola and sometime with a childe naturally and well made Nicolaus Flor God lib. 7. c. 18. as frogs toads serpents lizzards which therefore the Antients have termed the Lombards brethren for that it was usual with their women that together with their natural and perfect issue they brought into the world worms serpents and monstrous creatures of that kind generated in their wombs for that they alwayes more respected the decking of their bodies then they did their diet For it happened whilest they fed on fruits weeds trash and such things as were of ill juyce they generated a putrid matter or certainly very subject to putrefaction corruption and consequently opportune to generate such unperfect creatures Joubertas telleth that there were two Italian women that in one moneth brought forth each of them a monstrous birth Lib. error popul the one that marryed a Taylor brought forth a thing so little that it resembled a Rat without a tail but the other a Gentlewoman brought forth a larger for it was of the bigness of a Cat both of them were black and as soon as they came out of the womb they ran up high on the wall and held fast thereon with their nails Lycosthenes writes that in Anno Dom. 1494. a woman at Cracovia in the street which taketh name from the holy Ghost was delivered of a dead childe who had a Serpent fastned upon his back which fed upon this dead childe as you may perceive by this following figure The figure of a Serpent fastened to a Childe Levinus Lemnius tells a very strange history to this purpose Some few years agone saith he a certain woman of the Isle in Flanders which being with child by a Sailor Lib. de occult nat mir cap. 8. her belly swelled up so speedily that it seemed she would not be able to carry her burden to the term prescribed by nature her ninth month being ended she calls a Midwife and presently after strong throws and pains she first brought forth a deformed lump of flesh having as it were to handles on the sides stretched forth to the length and manner of arms and it moved and panted with a certain vital motion after the manner of spunges and sea-nettles but afterwards there came forth of her womb a monster with a crooked nose a long and round neck terrible eyes a sharp tail and wonderful quick of the feet it was shaped much after this manner The shape of a monster that came forth of a Womans womb As soon as it came into the light it filled the whole room with a noise and hissing running to every side to finde out a lurking hole wherein to hide its head but the women which were present with a joynt consent fell upon it and smothered it with cushions at length the poor woman wearied with long travel was delivered of a boy but so evilly entreated and handled by this monster that it died as soon as it was christned Lib. de divinis natur Characterismis Cornelius Gemma a Physician of Lovain telleth that there were many very monstrous and strange things cast forth both upwards and downwards out of the belly of a certain maid of
so much as hurt some third man You may also observe the same in purging medicines For the sume purge given to diverse men in the same proportion will purge some sooner some later some more sparingly others more plentifully and othersome not at all also with some it will work gently with othersome with pain and gripings Of which diversity there can no other cause be assigned then mens different natures in complexion and temper which no man can so exactly know and comprehend as to have certain knowledg thereof how much and bow long the native heat can resist and labour against the strength of poyson or how pervious or open the passages of the body may be whereby the poyson may arrive at the heart and principal parts For in such for example sake as have the passages of their arteries more large the poyson may more readily and speedily enter into the heart together with the air that is continually drawn into the body CHAP. IV. Whether such creatures as feed upon poysonous things be also poysonous and whether they may be eaten safely and without harm Such things as feed upon poyson may be eaten without danger DUcks Storks Herns Peacocks Turkies and other birds feed upon Toads Vipers Asps Snakes Scorpions Spiders Caterpillers and other venomous things Wherefore it is worthy the questioning whether such like creatures nourished with such food can kill or poyson such persons as shall afterward eat them Matthiolus writes that all late Authors who have treated of poysons to be absolutely of this opinion That men may safely and without any danger feed upon such creatures for that they convert the beasts into their nature after they have eaten them and on the contrary are not changed by them This reason though very probable yet doth it not make these beasts to be wholly harmeless especially if they be often eaten or fed upon Dioscorides and Galen seem to maintain this opinion whereas they write that the milk which is nothing else then the relented blood of such beasts as feed upon scammony hellebore and spurge purgeth violently Therefore Physicians desirous to purge a sucking child give purges to the nurses whence the milk becoming purging becomes both meat and medicine to the child The flesh of thrushes which feed upon Juniper-berries savors of Juniper Birds that are fed with worm-wood or garlick either tast bitter or have the strong sent of garlick Whitings taken with garlick so smell thereof that they will not forego that smell or tast by any salting frying or boyling for which sole reason many who hate garlick are forced to abstain from these fishes The flesh of Rabbits that feed upon penny-royal and Juniper savor of them Physicians wish that Goats Cows and Asses whose milke they would use for Consumptions or other diseases should be fed some space before and every day with these or these herbs which they deem fit for the curing of this or that disease Lib. de simp facult For Galen affirms that he doubts not but that in success of time the flesh of creatures will be changed by the meats whereon they feed and at length savor thereof Therefore I do not allow that the flesh of such things as feed upon venemous things should be eaten for food unless it be some long space after they have disused such repast and that all the venom be digested and overcome by the efficacy of their proper heat so that nothing thereof may remain in tast smell or substance but be all vanished away For many die suddenly the cause of whose deaths are unknown The occasion of sudden death in many which peradventure was from nothing else but the sympathy and antipathy of bodyes for that these things cause death and disease to some that nourish othersome according to our vulgar English proverb That which is one mans meat is another mans poyson CHAP. V. The general signs of such as are poysoned WEe will first declare what the general signs of poyson are Common signs of such as are poysoned and then wee will descend to particulars whereby we may pronounce that one is poysoned with this or that poyson We certainly know that a man is poysoned when as he complains of a great heaviness of his whole body so that he is weary of himself when as some horrid and loathsome tast sweats out from the orifice of the stomach to the mouth and tongue wholly different from that tast that meat howsoever corrupted can send up when as the colour of the face changeth suddenly somewhiles to black sometimes to yellow or any other colour much differing from the common custom of man when nauseousness with frequent vomiting troubleth the patient and that he is molested with so great unquietness that all things may seem to be turned upside down We know that the poyson works by the proper and from the whole substance when as without any manifest sence of great heat or coldness the patient swounds often with cold sweats for usually such poysons have no certain and distinct part wherewith they are at enmity as cantharides have with the bladder But as they work by their whole substance and an occult propriety of form so do they presently and directly assail the heart our essence and life and the fortress and begining of the vital faculty Now will wee shew the signs whereby poysons that work by manifest and elementary qualities may be known Those who exceed in heat burn or make an impression of heat in the tongue the mouth throat stomach guts and all the inner parts Signs of hot poysons with great thirst unquietness and perpetual sweats But if to their excess of heat they be accompanied with a corroding and putrefying quality as Arsenick Sublimate Rose-ager or Rats-bane Verdegreace Orpiment and the like they then cause in the stomach and guts intolerable pricking pains rumblings in the belly and continual and intolerable thirst These are succeeded by vomitings with sweats somwhiles hot somwhiles cold with swoundings whence sudden death ensues Sgins of cold Poysons Poysons that kill by too great coldness induce a dull or heavy sleep or drowziness from which you cannot easily rouze or waken them somtimes they so trouble the brain that the patients perform many undecent gestures and antick tricks with their mouths eies arms and legs like as such as are frantick they are troubled with cold sweats their faces become blackish or yellowish alwaies ghastly all their bodies are benummed and they die in a short time unless they be helped poysons of this kinde are Hemlock Poppy Night-shade Henbane Mandrag Dry poysons are usually accompanyed by heat with moisture for although sulphur be hot and dry yet hath it moisture Signs of the dry poysons to hold the parts together as all things which have a consistence have yet are they called dry by reason that dryness is predominant in them such things make the tongue and throat dry rough with unquenchable thirst the
emplasters and so applied it asswageth pain by stupefaction hindering the acrimony of pustles and cholerick inflammations But by its humidity it softneth scirrhous tumors dissolveth and dissipateth knots and tophous knobs besides it causeth the breath of such as are annointed therewith to stink by no other reason then that it putrefies the obvious humor by its great humidity Avicens experiment confirms this opinion who affirmeth that the blood of an Ape that drunk Quick-silver was found concrete about the heart the carcass being opened In l. 6 Dios c. 28 Matthiolus moved by these reasons writes that Quick-silver killeth men by the excessive cold and humid quality if taken in a large quantity because it congeals the blood and vital spirits and at length the very substance of the heart as may be understood by the history of a certain Apothecary An history set down by Conciliator who for to quench his severish heat in stead of water drunk of a glass of Quick-silver for that came first to his hands he died within a few hours after but first he evacuated a good quantity of the Quick-silver by stool the residue was found in his stomach being opened and that to the weight of one pound besides the blood was found concrete about his heart Others use another argument to prove it cold and that is drawn from the composition thereof because it consists of Lead and other cold metals But this argument is very weak For unquencht Lime is made of flints and stony matter which is cold yet nevertheless it exceeds in heat Lib. 4. de nat rerum Paracelsus affirmeth that Quick-silver is hot in the interior substance but cold in the exterior that is cold as it comes forth of the Mine But that coldness to be lost as it is prepared by art and heat only to appear and be left therein so that it may serve instead of a tincture in the trans-mutation of metals And verily it is taken for a Rule amongst Chymists that all metals are outwardly cold by reason of the watery substance that is predominant in them but that inwardly they are very hot which then appears when as the coldness together with the moisture is segregated for by calcination they become caustick Moreover many account quick-silver poison Tract de casu offen yet experience denies it For Marianus Sanctus Boralitanus tells that he saw a woman who for certain causes and effects would at several times drink one pound and a half of quicksilver which came from her again by stool without any harm Moreover he affirmeth that he hath known sundry who in a desperate Colick which they commonly call miserere mei have been freed from imminent death by drinking three pounds of quick-silver with water only For by the weight it opens and unfolds the twined or bound up gut nnd thrusts forth the hard and stopping excrements he addeth that others have found this medicine effectual against the colick drunk in the quantity of three ounces Antonius Musa writes that he usually giueth Quick-silver to children ready to die of the worms Avicen confirmeth this averring that many have drunk Quick-silver without any harm wherefore he mixeth it in his ointments against scales and scabs in little children whence came that common medicine amongst country people to kill lice by annointing the head with Quick-silver mixed with butter or axungia Quick-silver good for women in travel Matthiolus affirmeth that many think it the last and chiefest remedy to give to women in travel that cannot be delivered I protest to satisfie my self concerning this matter I gave to a whelp a pound of Quick-silver which being drunk down it voided without any harm by the belly Whereby you may understand that it is wholly without any venomous quality Verily it is the only and true Antidote of the Lues Venerea and also a very fit medicine for all malign ulcers as that which more powerfully impugns their malignity then any other medicines that work only by their first qualities For the disease called Malum sancti manis Besides against that contumacious scab which is vulgarly called Malum sancti manis there is not any more speedy or certain remedy Moreover Guido writes that if a plate of lead be besmeared or rubbed there with and then for some space laid upon an ulcer and conveniently fastned that it will soften the callous hardness of the lips thereof and bring it to cicatrization which thing I my self have often times found true by experience Lib. de comp med socurd loc Against malign ulcers Certainly before Guido Galen much commended Quick-silver against malign ulcers and cancers Neither doth Galen affirm that lead is poisonous which many affirm poisonous becaus it consists of much Quick-silver but he only saith thus much that water too long kept in leaden pipes cisterns by reason of the drossiness that it useth to gather in lead causeth bloody fluxes which also is familiar to brass and copper Otherwise many could not without danger bear in their bodies leaden bullets during the space of so many years as usually they do It is reported It is declared by Theodoret Herey in the following histories how powerful Quick-silver is to resolve and asswage pain and inflamations Not long since Against the Parotides saith he a certain Doctor of Physick his boy was troubled with parotides with great swelling heat pain and beating to him by the common consent of the Physicians there present I applied an Anodine medicine whose force was so great that the tumor manifestly subsided at the first dressing and the pain was much asswaged At the second dressing all the symptoms were more mitigated At the third dressing I wondring at the so great effect of an Anodine Cataplasm observed that there was Quick-silver mixed therewith and this happened through the negligence of the Apothecary who mixed the simple Anodine medicine prescribed by us in a mortar wherein but a while before he had mixed an ointment whereinto Quick-silver entred whose reliques and some part thereof yet remained therein This which once by chance succeeded well I afterwards wittingly and willingly used to a certain Gentlewoman troubled with the like disease possessing all the region behind the ears much of the throat and a great part of the cheek when as nature helped by common remedies could not evacuate neither by resolution nor suppuration the contained matter greatly vexing her with pain and pulsation I to the medicine formerly used by the consent of the Physicians put some Quick-silver so within a few daies the tumor was digested and resolved But some will say it resolves the strength of the nerves and limbs as you may see by such as have been anointed therewith for the Lues Venerea who tremble in all their limbs during the rest of their lives This is true if any use it too intemperately without measure and a disease that may require so great a remedy for thus we see the Gilders
delicious food Cap. 10. John Lereus in his history of Brasil writes that the Salvages of that country willingly feed upon Crocodiles and that he saw some who brought into their houses young ones wherewith their children gathering about it would play without receiving any harm thereby True saith Pliny is that common opinion Lib. 9. cap. 2. Whatsoever is brought forth in any part of Nature that also is in the Sea and many other things over and above that are in no other place You may perceive that there are not only the resemblances of living creatures but also of other things if you look upon the sword saw cucumber like in smell and color to that of the earth that you may less wonder at the Sea-feather and grape whose figures I have here given you out of Rondoletius The sea-feather is like those feathers of birds which are worn in hats for ornament after they are trimmed and drest for that purpose The fishermen call them sea-pricks for that one end of them resembleth the end of a mans yard when the prepuce is drawn off it As long as it is alive it swells and becomes sometimes bigger and sometimes lesser but dead it becomes very flaccid and lank it shines bright on the night like a star You may by this gather that this which we here express is the Grape whereof Pliny makes mention because in the surface and upper part thereof it much resembles a fair bunch of Grapes it is somewhat longish like a mis-shapen club and hangs upon a long stalk the inner parts are nothing but confusion sometimes distinguished with little glandules like that we have here figured alone by itself The figure of the Sea-feather and Grape In the Sea near the Island Hispaniola in the West Indies there may be seen many monstrous fishes amonst which Thevet in his Cosmography thought this most rare and observâ—ble which in the vulgar language of the natives is termed Aloes For it is just like a goos with a long and strait neck with the head ending sharp or in a Cone not much unlike a sugar-pear it is no bigger than a goose it wanteth scales it hath four fins under the belly for swimming when it is above water you would say that it were a goos The Sarmatian or Eastern German Ocean contains fishes unknown to hot countries and very monstrous Such is that which resembling a snail equals a barbel in magnitude of body and a stag in the largeness and branches of her horns the ends of her horns are rounded as it were into little balls shining like unto pearls the neck is thick the eyes shining like unto little candles with a roundish nose set with hairs like to a cats the mouth wide whereunder hangs a piece of flesh very ugly to behold It goes on four legs with so many broad and crooked feet the which with a long tail and variegated like a Tiger serves her for fins to swim withall This creature is so timerous The blood of great Tortoises good for the leprosie Tom lib. 20. that though it be an Amphibium that is which lives both in the water and ashore yet usually it keeps it self in the sea neither doth it come ashore to feed unless in a very clear season The flesh thereof is very good and grateful meat and the blood medicinable for such as have their livers ill affected or their lungs ulcerated as the blood of great Tortoises is good for the Leprosie Thevet in his Cosmography affirmeth that he saw this in Denmark In a deep lake of fresh water upon which stands the great city or town of Themistitian in the Kingdom of Mexico which is built upon piles like as Venice is there is found a fish of the bigness of a calf called by the Southern Salvages Andura but by those of the place and the Spaniards the conquerors of that place Hoga It is headed and eared almost like a swine from the chaps hang five long bearded appendices of the length of some half a foot like the beard of a Barbel It hath flesh very grateful and good to eat It bringeth forth live young like as the Whale As it swims in waters it seems green yellow red and of many colours like a Chameleon it is most frequently conversant about the shore-sides of the lake and there it feeds upon the leavs of the tree called Hoga whence also the fish hath its name It is fearfully toothed and a fierce fish killing and devouring such as it meeteth withal though they be bigger then her self which is the reason why the Fishermen chiefly desire to kill her as Thevet affirmeth in his Cosmography The monstrous fish Hoga Andrew Thevet in his Cosmography writes that as he sailed to America he saw infinite store of flying fishes called by the salvages Bulampech who rising out of the water flie some fifty paces escaping by that means from other greater fish that think to devour them This kinde of flying fish exceeds not the bigness of a Mackrel is round headed with a blewish back two wings which equal the length of almost all their body They oft-times flie in such a multitude that they fall foul upon the sails of ships whilest they hinder one anothers flight and by this means they fall upon the decks and become a prey to the sailers which same thing we have read confirmed by John Lereus in his history of Bresil In the Venetian gulf between Venice and Ravenna two miles above Quioza Anno Dom. 1550. there was taken a flying fish very horrible and monstrous being four foot long it had a very great head with two eyes standing in a line and not one against another with two ears and a double mouth a snout very fleshy and green two wings five holes in her throat like those of a Lamprey a tail an ell long at the setting on whereof there were two little wings This monster was brought alive to Quioza and presented to the chief of the city as a thing whereof the like had not been formerly seen The figure of a monstrous flying Fish There are so many and different sorts of shels to be found in the Sea that it may be truly said that Nature the hand-maid of the Almighty disports it self in the framing of them In so great diversity I have chiefly made choice of three to treat of here as those that are worthy of the greatest admiration In these lie hid certain little fishes as snails in their shels 4. de hist anim cap. 4. which Aristotle calls Cancelli and he affirmeth them to be the common companions of the * By crusted is meant Crâ—bâ— Lobsters Shrimps and such like The description of the Hermite cray-fish crusted and shell fishes as those which in their species or kinde are like to Lobsters and use to be bred without shels but as they creep into shels and there inhabit they are like to shell fishes It is one of these that is termed the Hermite