womb There are women that bear the childe in their womb ten or eleven whole moneths and such children have their conformation of much quantity of seed wherefore they will be more big great and strong and therefore they require more time to come to their perfection and maturity for those fruits that are great will not be so soon ripe as those that are small But children that are small and little of body do often come to their perfection and maturity in seven or nine moneths if all other things are correspondent in greatness and bigness of body it happeneth for the most part that the woman with childe is not delivered before the ninth moneth be done A male will be born soonner then a female or at the leastwise in the same moneth But a male childe will be commonly born at the beginnâ—ng or a little before the begining of the same moneth by reason of his engrafted heat which causeth maturity and ripeness Furthermore the infant is sooner come to maturity and perfection in a hot woman then in a cold for it is the property of heat to ripen CHAP. XXXI How to preserve the infant in the womb when the mother is dead IF all the signes of death appear in the woman that lieth in travel and cannot be delivered there must then be a Surgeon ready and at hand which may open her body so soon as she is dead whereby the infant may be preserved in safety neither can it be supposed sufficient if the mothers mouth and privie parts be held open for the infant being inclosed in his mothers womb Why it is not sufficient to preserve life in the childe to hold open the mouth and privie parts of the mother so soon as she is dead and the childe alive in her body and compassed with the membranes cannot take his breath but by contractions and dilatations of the artery of the navel But when the mother is dead the lungs do not execute their office function therefore they cannot gather in the air that compasseth the body by the mouth or aspera arteria into their own substance or into the arteries that are dispersed throughout the body thereof by reason whereof it cannot send it unto the heart by the veiny artery which is called arteria venalis for if the heart want air there cannot be any in the great artery which is called arteria aorta whose function it is to draw it from the heart as also by reason thereof it is wanting in the arteries of the womb which are as it were the little conduits of the great artery whereinto the air that is brought from the heart is derived and floweth in unto these little ones of all the body and likewise of the womb Wherefore it must of necessity follow that the air is wanting to the cotyledons of the secundines to the artery of the infants navel the iliack arteries also and therefore unto his heart and so unto his body for the air being drawn by the mothers lungs is accustomed to come to the infant by this continuation of passages How the bellie of the woman that dieth in travel must be cut open to save the childe Therefore because death maketh all the motions of the mothers body to cease it is far better to open her body so soon as she is dead beginning the incision at the cartilage Xiphoides or blade and making it in a form semicircular cutting the skin muscles and peritonaeum not touching the guts then the womb being lifted up must first be cut lest that otherwise he infant might perchance be touched or hurt with the knife You shall oftentimes finde the childe unmoveable as though he were dead but not because he is dead indeed but by reason that he being destitute of the accesse of the spirits by the death of the mother hath contracted a great weakness yet you may know whether he be dead indeed or not by handling the artery of the navel for it will beat and pant if he be alive otherwise not but if there be any life yet remaining in him How it may be known whether the infant be aâ—ive or not shortly after he hath taken in the air and is recreated with the access thereof he will move all his members and also all his whole body In so great a weakness or debility of the strength of the childe by cutting the navel string it must rather be laid close to the region of the belly thereof that thereby the heat if there be any jot remaining may be stirred up again But I cannot sufficiently marvel at the insolency of those that affirm that they have seen women whose bellies and womb have been more then once cut and the infant taken out when it could no otherwise be gotten forth and yet notwithstanding alive which thing there is no man can perswade me can be done without the death of the mother by reason of the necessary greatness of the wound that must be made in the muscles of the belly and substance of the womb for the womb of a woman that is great with childe by reason that it swelleth and is distended with much blood must needs yield a gread flux of blood which of necessity must be mortal And to conclude when that the wound or incision of the womb is cicatrized it will not peâ—mit or suffer the womb to be dilated or extended to receive or bear a new birth For these and such like other causes this kinde of cure as desperate and dangerous is not in mine opinion to be used CHAP. XXXII Of superfetation SUperfetation is when a woman doth bear two or more children at one time in her womb What superfetation is and they be enclosed each in his several secundine but those that are included in the same secundine are supposed to be conceived at one and the same time of copulation by reason of the great and copious abundance of seed and these have no number of daies between their conception and birth but all at once For as presently after meat the stomach which is naturally of a good temper is contracted or drawn together about the meat to comprehend it on every side though small in quantity as it were by both hands so that it cannot rowl neither unto this or that side so the womb is drawn together into the conception about the seeds assoon as they are brought into the capacity thereof and is so drawn in unto it on every side that it may come together into one body not permitting any portion thereof to go into any other region or side so that by one time of copulation the seed that is mixed together cannot engender more children then one which are divided by their secundines A womans womb is not distinguished into diverse cells And moreover because there are no such cells in the wombs of women as are supposed or rather known to be in the wombs of beasts which therefore bâ—ing forth many
flint a spark thereof by accident fâ—ll into the mortar whereupon the powder suddainly catching fire casts the stone or tile which covered thâ— mortar up on high he stood â—mazed at the n velty and strange effect of the thing and withal oâ—served the formerly unknown faculty of the powder so that he thought good to make experiment thereof in a small Iron trunk framed for that purpose according to the intention of his mind When all things were corr spondent 〈◊〉 his expectation â—e first shewed the use of his Engine to the Venetians when they warrâ— with thâ— Geâ—veses about Fossa Clodia Cap. 8. prim par var. lect in the year of our Lord 1380. Yet in the opinion of Peter Messias this invention must have been of greater antiquity for it is read in the Chronicles of Alphonsus the eleventh King of Castile who suâ—dued the Isles Argezires that when he besieged the chief Town in the year of our Lord 1343. the besieged Moores shot as it were thunder against the assailants out of Iron Mâ—rtars But we have read in the Chronicles written by Peter Bishop of Leons of that Alphonsus who conquered Toledo that in a certain sea-fight fought by the King of Tunis against the Moorish King of Swâ—ll whâ—se part King Alphonsus favoured the Tunetans cast lightning out of certain hollow Engins or Trunks with much noise Which could be no other than our Guns though not attained to that perfection of art and execution which now they have I think the deviser of this deadly Engin hath this for his recompence that his name should be hidden by the darkness of perpetual ignorance as not meriting for this his most pernicious invention any mention from posterity Who the inventer of Guns Yet Andrew Thevet in his Cosmography published some few years agone when he comes to treat of the Sâ—evi the inhabitants of Germany brings upon the authority and credit of a certain old Manuscript that the Germane the inventer of this warlike Engine was by profession a Monk and Philosopher or Aâ—cimist The reason of the name born at Friburg and named Constantine Anclzen Howsoever it was this kind of Engine was called Bombarda i. a Gun from that noise it makes which the Greeks and Latines according to the sâ—uâ—d call Bombus then in the following ages time art and mans maliciousness added much to this rude and unpolisht invention For first for the matter Brasse and Copper metalls farre more tractable fusible and lesse subject to rust came as supplies to Iron Then for the form that rude and undigested barrel or mortar-like masse hath undergone many forms and fashions even so far as it is gotten upon wheels that so it might run not only from the higher ground but also with more rapid violence to the ruin of mankind when as the first and rude mortars seemed not to be so nimbly traversed nor sufficiently cruel for our destruction by the only casting forth of Iron and fire Hence sprung these horrible monsters of Cannons double Canons Bastards Musquits Field peeces hence these cruel and furious beasts Culverins Serpentines Basilisques Sakers Falcons Falconets and divers other names not only drawn from their figure and making but also from the effects of their cruelty Wherefore certainly I cannot sufficiently admire the wisdome of our Ancestors who have so rightly accommodated them with names agreeable to their natures as those who have not only taken them from the swiftest birds of prey as Falcons but also from things most harmful and hateful to mankind such as Serpents Snakes and Basilisques That so we might clearly discern that these Engines were made for no other purpose nor with other intent but only to be imployed for the speedy and cruel slaughter of men and that by only hearing them named we might detest and abhor them as pernicious enemies of our lives I let passe other engines of this offspring being for their quantity small but so much the more pernitious and harmeful for that they neerer assail our lives nay traiterously and forthwith seise upon us not thinking nor fearing any such thing so that we can scarse have any means of escape such are Pistols and other small Hand-guns which for shortness you may carry in your pocket and so privily and suddainly taking them forth oppress the câ—reless and secure The danger of Pistols Fowling peeces which men usually carry upon their shoulders are of the middle rank of these engines as also Muskets and Caleeveres which you cannot well discharge unless lying upon a Rest which therefore may be called Breast-guns for that they are not laid to the cheek but against the Breast by reason of their weight and shortness All which have been invented for the commodity of footmen and light horsmen This middle sort of engine they call in Latine by a general name Sclopus in imitation of the sound and the Italians who term it Sclopetere the French call it Harquebuse a word likewise borrowed from the Italians by reason of the touch-hole by which you give fire to the peece for the Italians call a hole Buzio It is tearmed Arcus i a Bow for that at this present it holds the same place in martial affairs as the Bow did of old and as the Archers formerly so at this day the Musquetiers are placed in front From the same wretched shop and magazine of cruelty are all sorts of Mines Countermines ports of fire trains fiery Arrowes Lances Crossebowes barrels balls of fire burning Faggots Granats and all such fiery engines and Inventions which closely stuffed with fuell and matter for fire and cast by the defendants upon the Bodies and Tents of the Assailants easily take fire by the violence of their motion Certainly a most miserable and pernicious kind of invention whereby we often see a thousand of heedlesse men blown up with a mine by the force of Gunpowder otherwhiles in the very heat of the conflict you may see the stoutest souldiers seised upon with some of these fiâ—ry Engines to burn in their harnesse no waters being sufficiently powerful to restrain and quâ—nch the râ—ging and wasting violence of such fire cruelly spreading over the body and bowels So it was not sufficient to have armes Iron and fire to mans destruction unlesse also that the stroak might be more speedy we had furnished them as it were with wings so to fly more hastily to our own perdition furnishing sithe-bearing death with wings so more speedily to oppress man for whose preservation all things contained in the world were created by God Verily when I consider with my self all the sorts of warlike Engines A comparison of the ancient weapons with the modern which the Ancients used whether in the field in set battels as Bowes Darts Crossbowes S ings or in the assault of Cities and shaking or overturning their walls as Rams Horses woodden Towres Slings and such like they seem to me certain childish sports and games made only in imitation
be under-layed whither the foot did incline before it was restord The form of little Boots whereof the one is open and the other shut CHAP. XII By what means Arms Legs and Hands may bee made by art and placed in stead of the natural Arms Legs or Hands that are cut off and lost NEcessitie oftentimes constrain's us to finde out the means whereby wee may help and imitate nature and supplie the defect of members that are perished and lost And hereof it cometh that wee may perform the functions of going standing and handling with arms and hands made by art and undergo our necessarie flexions and extensions with both of them I have gotten the forms of all those members made so by art and the proper names of all the Engines and Instuments whereby those artificially made are called to my great cost and charges of a most ingenuous and excellent Smith dwelling at Paris who is called of those that know him and also of strangers by no other name than the little Lorain and here I have caâ—ssed them to be portraied or set down that those that stand in need of such things after the example of them may caus som Smith or such like work-man to serv them in the like case They are not onely profitable for the necessitie of the bodie but also for the decencie and comliness thereof And here followeth their forms The form of an Hand made artificially of iron This figure following sheweth the back-side of an Hand artificially made and so that it may bee tied to the arm or sleev The form of an Arm made of iron verie artificially The description of Leggs made artificially of iron The form of a wodden Leg made for poor men A. Sheweth the stump or stock of the woodden Leg. BB. Sheweth the two staies which must bee on both sides of the Leg the shorter of them must bee on the inner side CC. sheweth the pillow or â—â—lster whereon the knee must rest in the bottom betweene the two staies that so it may rest the softer DD. Sheweth the thongs or girths with their round buckles put through the two staies on either side to stay the knee in his place firm and immoovable that it slip not aside E. Sheweth the thigh it self that you may know after what fashion it must stand It happen's also manie times that the patient that had the nervs or tendons of his Leg wounded long after the wound is whole and consolidated cannot go but with verie great pain and torment by reason that the foot cannot follow the muscle that should draw it up That this maladie may bee remedied you ought to fasten a linnen band made verie strong unto the shoo that the patient weareth on that his pained foot and at the knee it must have a slit where the knee may com forth in bowing of the Leg and it must bee trussed up fast unto the patient 's middle that it may the better lift up and erect the foot in going This band is marked in the figure following with the letters AA CHAP. XIII Of amending or helping lameness or halting HAlting is not only a great deformity but also very troublesome and grievous Therefore if that any be grieved therewith by reason that one of his legs is shorter then the other it may be holpen by putting under his short foot this sitting crutch which we are now â—â—out to describe For by the help of this he shall not only go upright but also more easily and with little labor or no pain at all It was taught me by Nicolas Piccard Chirurgian to the Duke of Lâ—â—in The form thereof is this A. Sheweth the staff or stilt of this crutch which must be made of wood B. Sheweth the seat of iron â—hereon the thigh resteth just under the buttock C. Sheweth a prop which stayeth up the seat whereon all the weight of the Patients body resteth D. Sheweth the stirrup being made of iron and bowing crooked upwards that the foot may stand firm and not slip off it when the Patient goeth E. Sheweth the prop that stayeth or holdeth up the stirrup to strengthen it F. Sheweth the foot of the stilt or crutch made of iron with many pikes and compassed with a ring or ferule so to keep it from slipping G. The cross or head of the crutch which the Patient must put under his arm-hole to lean upon as it is to be seen in the figure The end of the three and twentieth Book The FOUR and TVVENTIETH BOOK Of the GENERATION of MAN THE PREFACE The distinction of male and female GOD the Creator and maker of all things immediately after the Creation of the World of his unspeakable counsel and inestimable wisdom not onâ—y distinguisâ—ed mankinde â—uâ— all 〈◊〉 living Creatures also into a double sex to wit of Male and Female that so they 〈◊〉 moved and enticed by the allurements of lust might desire copulation thence to have â—â—â—creation The cause of this distinction For this bountiful Lord hath appointed it as a solace unto every living creature against the most certain and fatal necessity of death than for as much as each particuâ— living creature cannot continue for ever yet they may endure by their species or kind by prâ—pagation and succession of creatures which is by procreation so long as the world endureth In this conjunction or 〈◊〉 repleniâ—hed with such delectable pleasure which God hath chiefly established by the law of Matrimony the male and female yield forth their seeds which presently mixed and conjoyned are received and kept in the females womb What seed is For the seed is a certain spumâ—us â—r foamy humor replenished with vital spirit by the benâ—fit whereof as it were by a certain ebullition or fermentation it is puffed up and swoln bigger and both the seeds being separated from the more pure bloud of both the Parents are the material and formal beginning of the issuâ— for the seed of the male being cast and received into the womb is accounted the principal and efficient cause but the seed of the female is reputed the subjâ—cent matter or the matter wherein it worketh Gooâ— and laudable seed ought to be white The conditions of good seed shining clammy knotty smelling like unto the elder or palm delectable to Bees and sinking down in the bottom of water being put into it for that which swimmeth on the water is esteemed unfruitful for a great portion cometh from the brain yet sâ—me thereof falls from the whâ—le bâ—dy and from all the parts both firm and soft thereof Seed falleth from all the parts of the body For unless it come from the whole body and every part thereof all and every part of the issue cannot be formed thereby because like things are engendred of theâ—â— like and therefore it cometh that the childe resemâ—leth the Parents not only in stature and favâ—ur but also in the conformation and proportion of his limbs and members and complexion and
head one of the fundament and another of the yard or conduit of the bladder and furthermore in women one of the neck of the womb without the which they can never be made mothers or bear children When all these are finished nature that she might polish her excellent work in all sorts hath covered all the body and every member thereof with skin Exod. 20 qu â—2 Into this excellent work or Micrecâ—smâ—s so perfect God the author of nature and all things infuseth or ingrafteth a soul or life which St. Augustine proveth by this sentence of Moses If any man smite a woman with child so that thereby she â—e delivered before her natural time and the childe be dead being first formed in the wâ—mâ— let him die the death but if the child hath not as yet obtained the ful propertion and conformation of his body and members let him recompence it with mâ—ny Therefore it is not to be thought that the life is derived propagated or taken from Adam or our parents as it were an hereditary thing distributed unto all mankinde by their parents but we must beleive it to be immediately created of God even at the very instant time when the childe is absolutely perfected in the lineaments of his body and so given unto it by him The meâ—a in the womb liveth not as the childe So therefore the rude lumps of flesh called molae that engender in womens wombs and monsters of the like breeding and confused bigness although by reason of a certain quaking and shivering motion they seem to have life yet they cannot be supposed to be endued with a life or a reasonable soul but they have their motion nutriment and increase wholly of the natural and infixed faculty of the womb and of the generative or procreative spirit that is ingraffed naturally in the seed But even as the infant in the womb obtaineth not perfect conformation before the thirtieth day so likewise it doth not move before the sixtieth day at which time it is most commonly not perceived by women by reason of the smallness of the motion But now let us speak briefly of the life or soul wherein consisteth the principal original of every function in the body and likewise of generation CHAP. XI Of the life or soul The liâ—e goeth not into the mass of seed that doth engender the childe before the body of the childe and each part thereof hath his perfect proportrien and â—â—rm Why the life or soul doth not presently execute all his offices THe soul entreth into the body so soon as it hath obtained a perfect and absolute distinction and conformation of the members in the womb which in male-children by reason of the more strong and forming heat which is ingraffed in them is about the fourtieth day and in females about the fortie fifth day in some sooner and in some later by reason of the efficacie of the matter working and pliantness or obedience of the matter whereon it worketh Neither doth the life or soul being thus inspired into the body presently execute or performe all his functions because the instruments that are placed about it cannot obtain a firm and hard consistence necessary for the lively but especially for the more divine ministeries of the life or soul but in a long process of age or time Those instruments of the soule are vitiated either in the first conformation as when the form or fashion of the head is shaped upwards or pyramidal as was the head of Thersites that lived in the time of the Trojan war and of Triboulet and Tonin that lived in later years or also by some casualtie as by the violent handling of the midwife who by compression by reason that the seal is tender and soft hath caused the capacitie of the ventricles that be under the brain to be too narrow for them or by a fall stroak disorder in diet as by drunkenness or a fever which inferreth a lethargie excessive sleeepiness or phrensie 1. Coâ—c 12. Presently after the soul is entred into the body God endeth it with divers and sundry gifts hereof it commeth that some are endued with wisdom by the spirit others with knowledg by the same spirit others with the gift of healing by the same spirit others with power dominion and rule others with prophesie others with diversities of tongues and to others other endowments as it hath pleased the divine providence and bounty of God to bestow upon them against which no man ought to contend or speak For it is not meet that the thing formed should say unto him that formed it why hast then made me thus hath not the Potter power to make of the same lamp of clay one vessel to hâ—nor and another to dishonor It is not my purpose neither belongeth it unto me or any other humane creature to search out the reason of those things but only to admire them with all humility But yet I dâ—re affirm this one thing that a noble and excellent soul neglecteth elementary and a transitory things and is ravished and moved with the contemplation of ceâ—eâ—â—â—al which it cannot freely enjoy before it be separated from this earthly inclosure or prison of the body and be restored unto its original Therefore the soul is the inward Entelechia or perfection What the 〈◊〉 or life is or the primitive cause of all motions and functions both natural and animal and the true form of man The Antients have endevoured to express the obscure sence thereof by many descriptions For they have called it a celestiâ—â—l spirit and a superior incorporeal invisible and immortal essence which is to be comprehended of its self alone that is of the mind or understanding The life is in all the whole body and in every portion thereof The life or soul is simple and indâ—â—sible Divers names and the reason of divers â—â—mes thâ—t are given to humane forms Others have not doubted but that we have our souls inspired by the universal divine minde which as they are alive so they do bestow life on the bodies unto whom they are annexed or united And although this life be dispersed into all the whole body and into every portion of the same yet iâ— it void of all corporal weight or mixtion and it is wholly and alone in every several part being simple and invisible without all composition or mixture yet endued with many virtues and faculties which it doth utter in divers parts of the body For it feeleth imagineth judgeth remembreth understandeth and ruleth all our desires pleasures and animal motions it seeth heareth smelleth tasteth toucheth and it hath divers names of these so many and so great functions which it performeth in divers parts of the body It is called the soul or life because it maketh the body live which of it self is dead It is called the spirit or breath because it inspireth our bodies It is called reason because it discerneth 〈◊〉 from falshood as it
or breadth so much is wanting in their length The cause of the divers turnings of the womb into divers parts of the body and therefore it happeneth that the womb being removed out of its seat doth one while fall to the right side towards the liver sometimes to the left towards the milt sometimes upwards unto the midriff and stomach sometimes downwards and so forwards unto the bladder whereof cometh an Ischury and strangury or backwards whereof cometh oppression of the straight gut and suppression of the excrements and the Tenesmus But although we acknowledge the womb to decline to those parts which we named yet it is not by accident only as when it is drawn by the proper and common ligaments and bands when they are contracted or made shorter The womb is not so greatly moved by an accident but by it self being distended with fulness but also of it self as when it is forced or provoked through the grief of something contrary to nature that is contained therein it wandreth sometimes unto one side and sometimes unto another part with a plain and evident natural motion like unto the stomach which embraceth any thing that is gentle and milde but avoideth any thing that is offensive and hurtfull Whereof come such divers accidents of strangulation of the womb yet we deny that so great accidents may be stirred up by the falling of it alone unto this or that side for then it might happen that women that are great with childe whose wombs are so distended by reason that the childe is great that it doth press the midriff might be troubled with a strangulation like unto this but much rather by a venemous humor breathing out a malign and gross vapor not only by the veins and arteries but also by the pores that are invisible which pollutes the faculties of the parts which it toucheth with its venemous malignity and infection and intercepts the functions thereof Neither doth the variety of the parts receiving only but also of the matter received cause variety of accidents For some accidents come by suppression of the terms others come by corruption of the seed but if the matter be cold The cause of sleepiness in the strangulation of the womb it brinketh a drowsiness being lifted up unto the brain whereby the woman sinketh down as if she were astonished and lieth without motion and sense or feeling and the beating of the arteries and the breathing are so small that sometimes it is thought they are not at all but that the woman is altogether dead If it be more gross it inferreth a convulsion if it partipate of the nature of a gross melancholick humor it bringeth such heaviness fear and sorrowfulness that the party that is vexed therewith shall think that she shall die presently and cannot be brought out of her minde by any means or reason The cause of drowsie madness if of a cholerick humor it causeth the madness called furor uterinus and such a pratling that they speak all things that are to be concealed and a giddiness of the head by reason that the animal spirit is suddenly shaken by the admixtion of a putrified vapour and hot spirit but nothing is more admirable then that this disease taketh the patient sometimes with laughing and sometimes with weeping for some at the first will weep and then laugh in the same disease and state thereof But it exceedeth all admiration which Hollerius writeth A history usually happened to two of the daughters of the Provost of Roven For they were held with long laughter for an hour or two before the fit which neither for fear admonition nor for any other means they could hold and their parents chid them and asked them wherefore they did so they answered that they were not able to stay their laughter The ascention of the womb is to be distinguishâ—d from the strangulation The ascention of the womb is diligently to be distinguished from the strangulation thereof for the accidents of the ascention and of the strangulation are not one but the woman is only oppressed with a certain pain of the heart difficulty of breathing or swouning but yet without fear without raving or idle talking or any other greater accident Therefore oftentimes contrary causes inferr the ascention that is overmuch driness of the womb labouring through the defect of moisture whereby it is forced after too violent and immoderate evacuations of the flowers and in childe-bed and such like and laborious and painfull travel in childbed through which occasion it waxeth hot contrary to nature and withereth and turneth it self with a certain violence unto the parts adjoyning that is to say unto the liver stomach and midriff if haply it may draw some moisture there-hence unto it I omit that the womb may be brought unto its place upwards by often smelling to aromatick things yet in the mean while it inferrs not the strangulation that we described before CHAP. XLV The signs of imminent strangulation of the Womb. BEfore that these fore-named accidents come the woman thinks that a certain painfull thing ariseth from her womb unto the orifice of the stomach and heart and she thinketh her self to be oppressed and choaked she complaineth her self to be in great pain and that a certain lump or heavy thing climbs up from the lower parts unto her throat and stoppeth her winde her heart burneth and panteth And in many the womb and vessels of the womb so swell that they cannot stand upright on their legs but are constrained to lie down flat on their bellies that they may be the less grieved with the pain and to press that down strongly with their hands The womb it self doth not so well make the ascention as the vapor thereof that seemeth to arise upwards although that not the womb it self but the vapor ascendeth from the womb as we said before but when the fit is at hand their faces are pale on a sudden their understanding is darkned they become slow and weak in the leggs with unableness to stand Hereof cometh sound sleep foolish talking interception of the senses and breath as if they were dead loss of speech the contraction of their legs and the like CHAP. XLVI How to know whether the woman be dead in the strangulation of the womb or not I Have thought it meet because many women not only in ancient times Women living taken for dead but in our own and our fathers memory have been so taken with this kind of symptom that they have been supposed and laid out for dead although truly they were alive to set down the signs in such a case which do argue life and death Therefore first of all it may be proved whether she be alive or dead by laying or holding a clear and smooth looking-glass before her mouth and nostrils For if she breath although it be never so obscurely the thin vapor that cometh out How women that have the
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
should not dye in my hands and commanded the said Impostor to dress the said Lord of Martigues And that he should have no other Physicians nor Surgeons but him he came presently to the said Lord of Martigues who told him Senor Cavallero el senor Duge me ha mandadâ— que veniasse a curar vastra herida yo os juro a Dios que antes de achio dias yo os haga subir a Cavello con la lansa en puno contasque no ago que yo quos tâ—gâ—e Comeris y biberis to dis comidas que sueren de vastro gusto y yo hare la dieta pro V. M. y desto os de veu aâ—eguirar sobre de mi yo he sanaâ—o mun hos que tenian magores heridas que la vastra That is to say Lord Cavallere Monsieur the Duke of Savoy hath commanded me to come dress thy wound I swear to thee by God that before eight dayes I will make thee mount on hors-back with thy Lance in thy hand provided that no man may touch thee but my self thou shalt eat and drink any thing that thou hast a minde to I will perform thy diet for thee and of this thou mayest be assured upon my promise I have cured divers who have had greater wounds then thine and the Lord replied God give you grace to do it He demanded of the said Lord a shirt and tore it in little rags which he put across muttering and murmuring certain words over the wounds and having dress him permitted him to eat and drink what he would telling him he would observe a diet for him which he did eating but six prunes and six bits of breatd at a meal and drinking but beer Notwithstanding two dayes after the said Lord of Martigues died and my Spaniard seeing of him in the Agony eclipst himself and got away without bidding farewell to any body and I beleive if he had been taken he had been hangd for his false promises which he had made to monsieur the Duke of Savoy and to divers other Gentlemen He died about ten of the clock in the morning and after dinner the said Lord of Savoy sent Physicians and Surgeons and his Apothecary with a great quantity of Drogues to embalm him they came accompanied with divers Gentlemen and Captains of the Army The Emperors Surgeon came near tome and prayed me kindely to open the body which I refused telling him I was not worthy to carry his plaster-box after him he prayed me again which then I did for his sake if it so liked him I would yet again have excused my self that seeing he was not willing to embalm him that he would give this charge to another Surgeon of the company he made me yet answer that he would it should be I and if I would not do it I might here after repent it knowing this his affection for fear he should not do me any displeasure I took the razor and presented it to all in particular telling them I was not well practised to do such operations which they all refused The body being placed upon a Table truly I purposed to shew them that I was an Anatomist declaring to them divers things should be here too long to recite I began to tell all the company that I was sure the bullet had broken two ribs and that it had pass'd through the Lungs and that they should find the wound much enlarged became they are in perpetual motion sleeping or waking and by this motion the wound was the more dilacerated Also that there was great quantity of blood spilt in the capacity of the brest and upon the midriff and splinters of the broken ribs which were beaten in at the entrance of the bullet and the issuing forth of it had carried out Indeed all which I had told them was found true in the dead body One of the Physicians asked me which way the blood might pass to be cast out by urine being contained in the Thorax I answered him that there was a manifest conduit which is the Vena Azygos which having nourish'd the ribs the rest of the blood descends under the Diaphragm and on the left side is conjoined to the emulgent vein which is the way by which the matter in Pleurisies and in Empuema do manifestly empty themselves by urine and stool As it is likewise seen the pure milk of the brests of women newly brought to bed to descend by the Mammillarie veins and to be evacuated downwards by the neck of the womb without being mixt with the blood And such a thing is done as it were by a miracle of nature by her expulsive and sequestring virtue which is seen by experience of two glass-vessels called Mount-wine let the one be filled with water and the other with Claret-wine and let them be put the one upon the other that is to say that which shall be filled with water upon that which shall be filled with wine and you shall apparently see the wine mount up to the top of the vessel quite through the water and the water descend atraverse the wine and go to the bottom of the vessel without mixture of both and if such a thing be done so exteriorly and openly to the sence of our eye by things without life you must believe the same in our understanding That nature can make matter and blood to pass having been out of their vessels yea through the bones without being mingled with the good blood Our discourse ended I embalmed the body and put it into a coffin after that the Emperors Surgeon took me apart and told me if I would remain with him that he would use me very well and that he would cloath we anew also that I should ride on hors-back I thank'd him very kindly for the honor he did me and told him that I had no desire to do service to strangers and enemies to my country then he told me I was a fool and if he were Prisoner as I he would serve the devil to get his liberty In the end I told him flat that I would not dwell at all with him The Emperors Physician returned towards the said Lord of Savoy where he declared the cause of the death of the said Lord of Martigues and told him that it was impossible for all the men in the world to have cured him and confirmed again that I had done what was necessary to be done and prayed him to win me to his service and spake better of me then I deserved Having been perswaded to take me to his service he gave charge to one of his stewards named Monsieur dn Bouches to tell me if I would dwel in his service that he would use me kindly I answered him that I thanked him most humbly and that I had resolved not to dwell with any stranger This my answer being heard by the Duke of Savoy he was some what in choler and said he would send me to the Gallies Monsieur de