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
an Art For so we find it recorded in ancient Histories before the invention of Physick that the Babylonians and Assyrians had a custom amongst them to lay their sick and diseased persons in the porches and entries of their Houses or to carry them into the streets or market places that such as passed by and saw them might give them counsel to take those things to cure their diseases which they had formerly found profitable in themselves or any other in the like affects neither might any pass by a sick man in silence Also Strabo writes that it was a custom in Greece that those which were sick should resort to Aesculapius his Temple in Epidaurum that there as they slept by their dreams they might be admonished by the God what means they should use to be cured and when they were freed from their diseases they writ the manner of their infirmities and the means by which they were cured in Tables and fastned them to the pillars of the Temple not only for the glory of the God but also for the profit of such as should afterwards be affected with the like Maladies All which tables as fame reports Hippocrates transcribed and so from those drew the Art of Physick Beasts also have added much to his Art For one Man was not only instructed by another but learned also much from brute beasts for they by the only instinct of nature have found out divers herbs and remedies by which they freed and preserved themselves from infirmities which might presently be transferred to mans use Wherefor considering that such and so many have concurred to bring this Art to perfection who hereafter dare call in question the excellency thereof chiefly if he respected the subject thereof Mans body a thing more noble than all other Mundane things and for which the rest were created Which thing moved Herophilus in times past to call Physitians The hands of the Gods For as we by putting forth our hand do help any man out of the water or mud into which he is fallen even so we do sustain those that are thrown down from the top of health to the gates of death by violence of diseases with happy medicines and as it were by some special and divine gift delivâ—r them out of the jaws of death Homer the Prince of Greek Poets affirms that one Physitian is far more worthy then many other men All Antiquity gave Physitians such honour that they worshipped them with great veneration as Gods or the sons of their Gods For who is it which is not much delighted with the divine force of healthful medicines with which we see by daily experience Physitians as armed with Mercuries rod do bring back those languishing souls which are even entring the gates of Death Hence it cometh to pass that the divine Poets of ancient times as Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and the most renowned Philosophers Pythagoras Plato Aristotle Theophrastus Chrysippus Cato Censorius and Varro esteemed nothing more excellent than to excell in the knowledg of Medicines and to testifie the same by written monuments to Posterity For what can be more noble and worthy of a generous disposition than to attain to that by the benefit of Physick that adorned with the ornaments of dignity thou mayest have power over other men and favoured of Princes Kings and Emperors mayest appoint and prescribe to them those things which are profitable to preserve health and cure their diseases But if thou look for benefit by Sciences then known that the professors hereof have beside sufficient gain acquired much honour and many friends Hippocrates coming to Abdera to cure Democritus of his madness not only the men of the City but also the Women Children In what esteem Physitians have formerly been and people of every age sex and rank went forth to meet him giving him with a common consent and loud voice the title of a Tutelary Deity and father of their Countrey But the Athenians for freeing their Countrey from the Plague with triumphant pompe celebrated playes to his honour and bountifully set upon his head as if he had been a King a Crown of Gold weighing a 1000. pieces of their Golden coin and erected his statute for a perpetual monument of his piety and learning Erasistratus the Nephew of Aristotle by his daughter received freely given him by Ptolomy King of Egypt for the cure of his son 100. Talents of gold The Emperor Augustus honoured Antonius Musa with a golden statue Quintus Stertinius yearly received out of the Emperors Treasury 12500. pieces of gold In the time of our Grandfathers Petrus Aponensis called Conciliator was so famous through all Italy for his knowledg in Physick that he could scarce be intreated to come to any man of fashion that was sick unless he gave him 50. crowns for every day he was absent from home but when he went to cure Heronius the Bishop of Rome he received 400. crowns for every day he was absent Our French Chronicles relate in what credit and estimation James Cotterius the Physitian was with Lewis the 11. King of France for they report he gave him monthly out of his Treasury 10000. crowns Physick in times past hath been in such esteem with many famous and noble personages that divers Kings and Princes delighted with the study thereof and desirous to attain glory and credit thereby called sundry herbs after their own names For so Gentian took its name of Gentius King of Illyria the herb Lysimachia of Lusimachus Names given to Plants the King of Macedon the Mithridatick herb or Scordium of Mithridates the King of Pontus and Bithinay Achilla of Achilles Centory of Chiron the Centaure Artemisia of Artemisia the Queen of Carias Attalus King of Pergamus Solomon of Judea Evax of Arabia and Juba the King of Mauritania were not only inflamed with a desire of the knowledg of Plants but either they have written books of it or for the great commodity of posterity invented by their skil many choice antidotes compounded of divers simples neither the desire of learning this noble science is yet altogether extinct as may appear by that Indian plant Tabacco called by some the noble herb Catherines herb and Medices herb but commonly the Queens herb because Catherine Medices the Mother of our Kings by her singular study and industry made manifest the excellent vertue it hath in curing malign ulcers and wounds which before was unknown to the French For these worthy men understood that their glory thus fastened and ingraffed into the deep and as it were ever living roots of plants would never decay but should be propagated to all posterity in many succeeding ages growing up with their sprouting and budding shouts stalks flowers and fruits Neither did these famous men whilst they adorned this part of Physick suffer the other which treats of the dissection of mans body be buried in oblivion and without their knowledg as instructed with the precepts and learning of the wisest men
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