Substance of the Cystis or of its Neck remain beyond the Ligature but that only the common Ductus Cholidochus and the bilary Porus may run directly toward the Intestines and then tying another Knot near the Jejunum a remarkable Quantity of Choler will be collected together and evacuated out of a small Wound made beyond the Ligature in the mid Way which Knot may be several times unty'd that the Porus Bilarius being plentifully fill'd may be emptied again XLIII To which Experiment may be added three or four Observations of Riolanus Anthropog l. 2. c. 22. From whence it appears as plain as Day that the Choler flowing from the Gall-bladder never ascends thorough the Bilary Porus to the Liver And that no Choler often descends from the bladder yet in the interim flows in great quantity from the Liver through the Poras Communis to the Intestines and therein if it be endu'd with bad qualities produces Diarrhoeas Dysenteries the Disease Cholera cruel Gripings and other Distempers XLIV Concerning the use of the Bladder there have been hitherto great Disputes among the most Eminent Doctors Aristotle thought it to be separated from the Blood as a meer noxious Excrement whose Opinion is followed by many And hence it is that Bauhinus Anat. l. 1. c. 45. makes a doubt whether the Collection of the Choler in the Bladder be necessary to Life when the ancients affirm'd the cause of long life to be the emptiness of the Gall-bladder deducing their Argument from Harts that have no Gall and yet live long Haly Abbas and Avicen say that it heats and strengthens the Liver and helps its Concoction Zirbus writes that it defends the Liver and other parts from Putrefaction Which Opinion tho' it be exploded by Vesalius yet does it not displease Riolanus Helmont asserts it to be the Balsom of the Liver and all the Blood Glisson asserts that it does not only preserve the Liver from Putrefaction but prevents its Obstructions purifies the Blood and hinders its Coagulation Veslingius also says that it preserves the very Chylus from Putrefaction Many Neoterics according to the Opinion of Galen have design'd only to promote the Evacuation of the Excrements out of the Guts which Bartholine says are thereby made fluid and fit for motion And thus all have made a doubt concerning the Use of this Noble Juice which is found to be wanting in no Man and which no Man can live without and of which Fernelius writes that many People have dy'd in whom there has been found no other cause of their Death than that the Gall-bladder was altogether empty of Gall. XLV Manifest therefore it is that Choler has a more noble Use than hitherto has been ascrib'd to it by Physicians and Philosophers And indeed the chiefest Use of it is to be serviceable to Fermentation Of which more at large c. 17. CHAP. XVI Of the Spleen I. THE Spleen call'd by the Latines Splen by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Organic Part or Bowel seated in the left Hypochondrium under the Diaphragma between the Stomach and the Ribs II. It is very rare or rather prodigious as both Aristotle and Pliny testifie that the Spleen should change places with the Liver that is that this should be in the left and the other in the right Hypochondrium which nevertheless has been observ'd by Cornelius Gemma and Talentonius And such an unusual Accident Cattierus describes and Bartholine relates two or three Histories to the same purpose Observat Anat. Rar Cent. 2. Hist. Also it is as unusual for the Spleen to be wanting which defect nevertheless Hollerias reports that he saw in a certain Woman and was found in Ortelius as has been said c. 14. Andrew Laurentius also makes mention of a Body dissected at Paris that had no Spleen in which the Splenetick Branch ended in a small Glandulous Body Thus Kerckringius in his Anat. Observ. writes that in two Births dissected at Amsterdam he observ'd the Spleen to be wanting Aristotle also testifies that the Spleen is wanting in several Creatures L. 3. de part Animal All Creatures saith he that have Blood have a Liver but all have not a Spleen And c. 24. All most perfect Creatures only have a Spleen Thus Riolanus following Aristotle's Opinion Creatures that have none or very small Lungs have none or a very small Spleen Ent also in Apolog. writes that he has observ'd several Birds to have no Spleen III. In Men it is generally but one and seldom exceeds that number Nevertheless Cabrolius Observ. 15. as also Posthius and Dominic de Marchettis have foâ—…nd two Fallopius observes in Observ. that he has seen three frequently in Dogs there are two not so often three unequal in bigness out of each of which there is a vessel extended to the Splenetick branch And the same thing perhaps may fall out in other Creatures For Aristotle de Generat Animal l. 4. c. 4. writes that some brute Creatures have a double Spleen and that some have none at all IV. The Convex part of it is knit to the Diaphragma not so fast and tite as the Liver but superficially as also to the left Kidney by small membranous Fibres springing from the Peritonaeum And yet in Novemb. 1668. we found so fast a Connexion of it to the Diaphragma the left Kidney and the left Lobe of the Liver extended so far that the Connexion could hardly be sever'd without dilaceration but this rarely happens The flat part adheres to the Caul and the adjoyning Parts and being so bound in sane bodies seldom descends beyond the lowest Rib but the Ligaments being loosen'd it is felt in a lower place to the great disturbance of health but the Ligaments being quite broken somtimes it slides down into the Hypogastriâ—…m which Cabrolius observ'd to have happened to a certain Noble Man whose Spleen swam upon the whole Concavity of his belly And which by Riolanus was seen in a Parisian Woman whose Spleen rested upon her Womb and for two years deceiv'd the Physicians who took it for a Mole whereas when the dead body was open'd the cause of the Swelling and the Womans Death were both found together to have proceeded from the Spleens being fall'n down out of its place V. The bigness of the Spleen in Men is various according to the diversity of Bodies and Constitutions For generally it is six Inches long three broad and about the thickness of the Thumb Iâ—… diseased bodies it sometimes grows to an enormous bigness so that its protuberancy beyond the Ribs may be both felt and seen Theâ—… that inhabit moist Regions and Fenny Places have large Spleens Lindan reports also That the Common People of Friezland that use for their common Drink sowre Butter-milk have great Livers In the Year 1657. I dissected a body wherein I found a four square hard Spleen about the bigness of a mans head Fernelius also writes that there was a Liver seen that
and the Eggs themselves might the more easily slip into them be receiv'd by them and hasten'd forward into the Womb. Now that this is the true cause of this relaxation no man will wonder who has try'd how strait the Genitals of honest Women are if that afflux do not happen that is when they Copulate without any Lust so that it is a trouble to 'em to receive the Yard and then again how loose they are and with what pleasure they Copulate and admit the Yard where that afflux plentifully happens for I do not speak of Curtizans who by the overmuch use or rather abuse of Copulation have their Genital Parts so worn and loose that they can never be contracted and wrinkled again He also that shall consider how much the same afflux relaxes the Orifice and Sheath of the Womb when a large and mature Birth endeavouring to pass through those narrow passages by its kicking and motion afflicts and pains those Parts will easily confess the same For then all those Parts dilate themselves the former to transmit the Eggs the latter to exclude the mature Birth and that not being endu'd with any Art or Knowledge but as being relax'd and mollify'd by a copious afflux of Blood and Animal Spirits at that time flowing more to those parts than at other times through the determination of the Mind Which afflux afterwards ceasing all those Parts so vastly relax'd within a few days return to their pristine constitution and straitness XXXVII From what has been said it is manifestly apparent that Eggs are carried from the Womens Stones or Ovaries through the Tubes to the Womb. Which is confirm'd yet more by the Observations of some credible Physicians by whom in the dissections of Big-belly'd Women it has been found that by reason of those Eggs being detain'd in the Tubes through some unnatural cause and not passing through into the Womb that the Births were found in the Tubes and found therein by dissection after Death of which Regner de Graef brings some Examples out of Riolanus and Benedict Vassalius Which tho' we look'd upon formerly as Oldwomens Fables now upon better knowledge of the Eggs and Tubes we believe to be true XXXVIII Besides these Observations this whole business was plainly demonstrated at the Theatre in Amsterdam April 15. 1673. by Ocular Inspection by the Learned Frederic de Ruisch a most famous Physician and Professor of Surgery and Anatomy And this in a Woman who in a short time after she had conceiv'd dy'd of some suddain Accident of whom he thus writes Not only the Tube of the right but also of the left side were somewhat more ruddy thicker and more distended than usual to the admiration of all the Beholders The Tube of the right side was somewhat writh'd toward the opening of the Ovary The Womb without any foregoing preparation we cut up in the presence of a noble Company of Physicians There we observ'd the Womb to be somewhat thicker than ordinary more ruddy and more spungy and its Concavity fill'd with a Lympid Liquor upon which there swam the beginnings of a Birth of a mucilaginous Substance which rude Mass was afterwards so dissolv'd by the Air that there was no footstep of it to be seen In that same rude foundation of a Birth I could not perceive any shape of Human Body And therefore whether that Foundation were an Embryo or only an impregnated Egg I much question 'T is also worthy observation That the hollowness of the Ovary out of which the Egg had fallen was not only of a deep red colour but also spungy as we find in the Womb the Birth being newly deliver'd so that to me the Egg seems to be cherish'd in the Ovary as the Birth in the Womb. Moreover I cannot but wonder at what I find also in other ingravidated Bodies why both the Spermatic Veins are so much wider than the Arteries For if the Arteries should exceed the Veins it would be no wonder seeing that the Birth requires much Nourishment I found the Orifice of a Womb not closely shut within as some Authors will have it but gaping more than usually c. XXXIX From this demonstration we may clearly be convinc'd not only how the Substance of the Ovary ready to quit the Egg becomes spungy and open but also how the Fallopian Tubes carrying the Egg from the Ovary to the Womb at that time became more thick and patent But why the Spermatic Veins running through the womb exceed the Arteries we shall give the Reason Cap. 27. but why he found the Orifice of the womb gaping at that more than usual rate is beyond mine and the common Observation of other Anatomists Only this may be said That being open'd to receive the Egg into the womb but a little before the suddain approach of Death gave it not leisure to close again or being relax'd by the suddain and disorderly Commotion of the Spirits continued open XL. In a Womans Egg for I speak not of the Eggs of Brutes three things are to be consider'd 1. It s External little Skins which after Conception constitute the Chorion and Amnion 2. The plentiful Humours or Liquors contain'd in those little Skins 3. The small Crystalline Bubble appearing in a fertile Egg already conceiv'd in the Womb. Of all which in their due places XLI After this History of Eggs one doubt remains that is If the Eggs are carried through the Tubes into the Womb and nothing else of Seed flows from the Stones whence proceeds that pleasure which Big-belly'd Women have in Copulation at what time no Eggs are carried anew to the Womb in regard the Extremities of the Tubes are so exactly shut as also in such as have their Womb cut out for the cure of some Disease particularly the falling down of the Womb Also in Women of fifty who cease to have any more Eggs in their Ovaries Moreover whence proceeds that Seed which flows from Women in Copulation into their Sheath and bursts forth in the Night in Lascivious Dreams I answer That that same great pleasure in Coition does not arise from the Eggs passing from the Ovary to the womb but rather from the Eruption of that Seed if it may be called Seed which proceeds from that glandulous Substance encompassing the Bladder which Seed is equally in Big-belly'd and Empty-belly'd grown women and in such as have their wombs cut out and may break forth with Pleasure into the Sheaths as well in Nocturnal Dreams as otherwise But we must understand that the pleasure of women in Copulation proceeds not so much from the bursting forth of the said Seminal Matter into the Sheath as from the rubbing of the Clitoris as it is with Men by the rubbing of the Nut. XLII There remains to be enquired Whether Women may be castrated and have their Stones cut out I answer That Women cannot be castrated without great hazard of their lives for the small Guts
the most part to the Birth contained in the womb if she be an admirer of herself and of the outward Shape and Form of her own Body the Child will be like her But if she be a Person that is altogether taken with the Shape and Features of her Husband and often imprint his Image into her Imagination the Child will be like the Father But that this Resemblance does not proceed from the Quality or Quantity of the Seed of the Man and Woman is hence apparent for that a bigg-bellied Woman strongly conceiving in her Imagination the external Features of any other Man with whom she never had any Familiarity the Child shall be like to him Nay and many times by beholding monstrous Forms and Shapes imprints and stamps 'em many times upon the Births For wonderful is the Force of Imagination especially in Bigg-bellied Women of which Thomas Fienus has written an excellent Tractate Thus far concerning the Mans Seed Now particularly in a few words concerning the Seed of women the use and necessity of it XXXIX Here presently we meet a Question at the very Threshold whether Women have Seed or no Aristotle affirms that women have no Seed but that their Flowers supply the place of the Seed For which they who follow this same Prince of Philosophers give these Reasons 1. Because there is no way through which the Seed can pass from the Stones to the Womb. 2. Because the womans Seed can contribute nothing to Generation and for that it has been found that Women have many times conceived without being sensible of any Pleasure in Coition and therefore without any emission of Seed 3. Because the same Accidents do not befall women at that time that Seed is said to be generated in them as happen to Men at that age that is to say their Voices do not change their Nerves are not stronger their Body is not dry'd neither are they more perfect in the Gifts of the Mind c. 4. Because by the Testimony of Harvey the Testicles of women in the Act of Generation do not swell nor vary from their wonted Constitution either before or after Coition Neither is there any sign or mark of their Use or Necessity either in Coition or Generation 5. Because that by reason of the injection of the womans Seed into the womb in bigg-bellied women frequent Abortion happens after Copulation For that Seed must either be corrupted in the womb and so bring various Mischiefs and at length Death upon the inclosed Birth or else it must slip out of the womb and so the Orifice of the womb being opened Abortion must follow And hence they conclude that women have no Seed and so that their Stones are only given for Ornament like the Paps of Men. XL. But this Opinion long suspected at length has been deservedly rejected by most men it being sufficiently apparent that women have Seed from hence that they have Stones spermatic Arteries and Veins and deferent Vessels as Tubes and Prostates which Parts not being given 'em in vain no question serve for the Generation of Seed Moreover in the Stones themselves the Eggs are conspicuously to be seen containing a transparent White well deserving the Name of Seed which being matur'd and bedew'd and impregnated with the male Seed are conveighed through the deferent Vessels or Tubes and so carried to the womb Lastly Women in Coition emit a certain seminal Matter out of the Prostates with great Pleasure and after Coition suffer the same Symptomes as happen to Men sadness lassitude conturbation in their Countenances numness and cessation from Desire Thus both the First and Second Reason of the Aristotelians falls to the Ground For that the Seed of women included in the Eggs is altogether necessary for Generation is apparent from hence that nothing is begot by the Male Seed unless the Spirituous Part of it light into the Liquor resembling the white of an Egg as into the sole Matter proper for its use And for that women never conceive that have no Eggs in their Ovaries as in elderly women or at least none that are impregnated and carried out of their Ovaries to the womb As neither do they Conceive who never emit with Pleasure any seminal Liquor out of their Prostates And therefore there is no Credit to be given to those that cry they were ravished by Force and conceived without Pleasure Lastly Because that among Brutes Bitches Sowes and other female Creatures being spay'd become Barren as being depriv'd of the Organs generating Seed-bearing Eggs. To which we may add that the Holy Scripture makes mention of the Seed of the Woman as most necessary to Generation The Third Reason of the Aristotelians is of no Value For that at the time that Seed is generated their Voices do not change nor their Nerves grow stronger c. The Reason of that is because the whole Temperament of their Bodies is much colder and moister than Mens and therefore the Seed included in their Eggs is much more crude and moist than the Seed of Man nor does it diffuse such a hot and sharp Fermentaceous Expiration through the whole Body as a Mans Seed No less vain is the Fourth Argument for that the Constitution of the Stones was observed by Harvey not to vary either before or after Copulation that was so imagin'd by Harvey because that in a Beast killed before Copulation he could neither discern nor know what was the difference of the Constitution in the Copulation itself and in another killed after Copulation he could not find what was the Constitution in the Coition For if perhaps the Stones did swell in Coition the swelling of the Genital Parts most certainly fell through the terror of Death and Death ensuing and so return'd to their former lank Constitution in like manner as a Mans Yard tho' stiff with Lust flaggs upon the least Fear or apprehension of Death Furthermore neither in Coition nor after Coition does any manifest Difference outwardly appear to the Eye neither in the Stones of Men or Women only that they are drawn upward in Men yet whether or no there happens any pleasing Alteration in the Stones of Females in the venereal Act when the Eggs are impregnated with the due of the Male Seed this tho' Brute Animals cannot discover in Words yet their Gesticulation sufficiently declares it And therefore rational Women confess it that they feel an extraordinary Pleasure in their Wombs and all the adjacent parts among which are the Stones adhering to the Sides of the Womb. The Fifth Argument proves nothing for they who at the time of Ingravidation from the Eggs injected into the womb by Coition are afraid of Dammage to the Birth and future Abortions they are mistaken in that to think that in the Copulations of bigbellied women any Seed bearing Eggs fall anew into the Cavity of the womb not knowing that those Passages after Conception remain clos'd up till the Delivery As also the
the Birth to the Placenta and the Venal Blood from the Placenta to the Birth Or the same thing may be try'd after another manner without a Ligature if you squeez the Blood with your fingers through the Vein from the Placenta toward the Birth for so it easily moves but it cannot be forc'd the contrary way by reason of the resistance of the Valves but the Blood is with great difficulty forc'd through the Arteries to the Birth whereas it flows readily and of its own accord to the Placenta XIV Many there are that write several things of the Anastomoses of the Arteries with the Veins and of the Veins with the Arteries quite repugnant to Ocular Inspection seeing that no such Anastomoses can be found in the Placenta Which Hoboken has accurately taken notice of who by the injection of Liquor has perfectly examin'd this matter XV. Now what is to be thought of the union of the Umbilical Veins and Arteries with the Womb let us briefly enquire Ga'en and Aristotle teach us That the Orifices of the Umbilical Vessels are united with the Ends or Orifices of the Vessels of the Wombs So that the Roots of the Umbilical Vein draw Blood from the Veins of the Womb and the Arteries Spirit from the Arteries To which Opinion Aquapendens Sennertus and several other famous Men have submitted their consent Others confirm'd by Ocular Inspection deny this union of the Vessels with whom we also agree For there are several Arguments to shew that there are no Union or Anastomoses of the Umbilical Vessels and the Womb. 1. Because such a Union of the Vessels would bind the Birth so strongly to the Womb as not to be dissolv'd in time of Travail Or if by the violent strainings of the Woman in Labour it should be violently torn away there would happen so many and such pernicious Wounds by the rending of the several united Vessels that the Effusion of Blood would soon be the death of the Woman in Travail 2. Because the Blood may descend by degrees into the Placenta through the gaping Vessels of the Womb to be prepared therein for the growth and nourishment of the Child But never any Anatomist hitherto could observe any farther productions of the Vessels of the Womb either toward or into the Placenta so that whatever has been written concerning this matter has been written by Conjecture 3. Because that such a Union of the Vessels of the Womb and the Umbilicals being granted there could be no use of the Uterine Placenta for the Blood flowing through that continuity nothing of it could either come into the Substance of the Placenta it self or be elaborated therein 4. Because the Umbilical Veins do not proceed to the Womb but spread their Roots only through the Uterine Liver and from thence and not from the Womb immediately assume the Alimentary Blood which is to be carried to the Womb as Plants by means of their Roots suck up their Alimentary Juice out of the Earth 5. Because the Arteries draw nothing from the Womb or its Arteries but convey Vital Blood from the Birth to the Placenta and end there in little Branches 6. Because in the beating of the Umbilical Arteries the measure is altogether different from the Pulse of the Mother 7. Because it has sometimes happened that the Mother being dead the Birth has sometimes supervived in the Womb which could never be if the Birth should receive its Vital Blood from the Arteries of the Mother For the Mothers Pulse failing the Birth must dye either sooner or at the same time XVI Hence the mistake of Vesalius and Columbus is apparent who following Galen thought that the Umbilical Vessels were not only joyn'd together with the Uterine Vessels but also by continuation were deriv'd from them and extended from the Womb to the Birth Which Error is easily evinc'd by this not to repeat what has been already said That in the Abortive Embryo seen and describ'd by us the beginning of the Navel-string did not arise from the Womb but from the Birth Besides that in Chickens the beginning of the Umbilical Vessels manifestly arises from the Chicken it self which being separated into several Branches are extended from the Chicken to the Yolk of the Egg. In like manner as in Vegetables the Roots are not extended out of the Earth into the Plants but out of the Plants into the nourishing Earth which is more apparent in Onions which being hung up without the Earth send forth Roots from themselves XVII From the foresaid Opinion proceeded another as absurd That the Umbilical Veins and Arteries were generated and form'd before the rest of the Bowels as Bauhinus endeavours to perswade by divers Reasons as if the Bowels could not be form'd without blood conveyed from the Womb. Whereas among the more acute Philosophers it is undoubtedly concluded that they are form'd of the Prolific part of the Seed and that after their Formation already finish'd the Nourishment of the said Vessels proceeds to the farther part from those Bowels and hence they first grow to a greater length and are extended to the Placenta XVIII But here some one will make a Query How those Vessels when they have grown out to that length from the Belly of the Birth as to reach the Membranes can penetrate through the Chorion and Amnion to the Uterine Liver I answer 'T is done after the same manner as the Roots of Plants and Trees penetrate into the hard Earth and sometimes enter Walls and Stones which Water cannot penetrate For so the sharp and slender ends of the Umbilical Vessels insinuate themselves by degrees into the Pores of the Membranes and pass through 'em tho' the Humours contain'd within the Membranes cannot pass thorough But afterwards when those Vessels adhering to the Pores grow out more in length the said Pores are also more and more dilated to which the Vessels are already united and indissolubly joyn'd XIX Riolanus makes mention out of Avicen and Varolius before the Generation of the Veins and Umbilical Arteries of two Capillary Vessels which he calls the Dorsal Roots of the Birth which are from each horn of the Womb inserted into the upper and hinder part of the coagulated Seed through which necessary Blood is supplied to the Formation of the Parts in the mean while that the Umbilical Vessels are strengthened and which afterwards vanish when the Foundations of the Parts are laid But that these are mere Figments is apparent from hence because the Birth is neither form'd nor generated out of the coagulated but melted and dissolved Seed and out of the subtile part of that which is call'd the Flower Besides these Dorsal Roots would be to no purpose when the Parts ought to be delineated out of the Prolific Flower only of the Male Seed which is apparent from the Egg wherein tho' there be no Blood contain'd nor can be supply'd from any other place yet the Parts are form'd and
conceiv'd any where out of the womb yet in this Age it has been discover'd and observ'd by famous Men tho' it rarely happen that the Birth has been conceiv'd in the Uterine Tubes But that same Story seems incredible related by Philip Salmuth of a certain man that ejected his Seed by a Lip Copulation into his Wives moâ—…th who upon that conceiv'd a Child in her Stomach and afterwards vomited it up as big as ones finger as if a Child could be conceiv'd out of the Seed of the man without the womans Egg and that in the Stomach too full of fermentaceous Juices and Aliments to be concocted I admire that Philip Salmuth a Learned Man should give so much credit to an old Womans Fable as to think it worthy to be inserted among his Observations Nor does that Story of a Child born at Pont a Moâ—…sson conceiv'd and form'd in the middle of the Abdomen and found there after the death of the Mother deserve more credit Which Story was printed by Laurence Strasius at Dormstadt in the Year 1662. with the Judgments of several famous Physicians and Professors upon it Which Story I know not how it can be true unless you will say that perhaps the Egg being before impregnated by the dew of the Male-seed in the Ovary and ready to fall out of the Stones into the Tubes coming by chance to the Borders of the Tubes should slip into the Cavity of the Abdomen before its entrance into the Tube and so by the cherishing heat of that place the Birth should be form'd therein which nevertheless seems very improbable and therefore such Stories as these not without reason are derided and exploded by the Learned Guido Patinus Bartholine and others XXVIII Concerning the motion of the womb there is a famous Question started whether it ascend or tumble to and fro as it is said to do in the Hysteric Passion or Fits of the Mother The affirmative part is defended by Aretaeus Fernelius Laurentius Spigelius and especially by Daniel Sennertus who Prax. l. 4. part 1. sect 2. c. 15. cites and applauds the Opinions of the foresaid Physicians as infallible Oracles and makes a great addition of farther Proof and rejects the contrary Opinion of Galen as altogether repugnant to truth Now the Reasons that perswaded those Learned Men into the affirmative were chiefly these two 1. The Perswasions of idle women who affirm that they not only perceive it within the Globe of the womb as big as a Goos-egg ascend in the Hysteric Passion as high as the Diaphragma but also feel it outwardly with their hands nay some are so confident as to tell you they feel it as high as their Throats Fernelius l. 6. patholog c. 16. writes That he being induc'd by the Complaints and Intreaties of the Women has sometimes felt it with his hand carried up into the Stomach like a little Globe by which it has been strangely oppress'd 2. The Fumes because that in the hysteric Suffocation stinking Smells held to the Nostrils either diminish or take away the Effect but sweet Smells exasperate and bring the fit Of which the first they say proceeds from hence because the womb which is endu'd as it were with a sort of reason flies stinking smells which being held to the Nose it presently descends to avoid ' em The latter because it is delighted with sweet smells and therefore if they be apply'd to the Nostrils it presently ascends to meet ' em And that which seems to confirm this Opinion the more is this because the same sweet things being rubb'd about the inside of the Privity immediately abates the fit because the womb as they say descends to those things with which it is delighted From whence they conclude That the Womb ascends with a spontaneous Motion and may be mov'd any way nor ought that to be wonder'd at say they when its Motion upward in Women with Child and downward in the falling of the Womb is a thing so well known These Reasons were thought to be of so much weight by many that they led men of great repute into the Labyrinth of Error But on the other side That the womb does not ascend upward of its own accord nor is mov'd with a wandring Motion through the lower Belly may be demonstrated by several Reasons 1. The Ligaments prevent it not only the Vermiform those in the shape of a Worm but chiefly the Lateral like to the Wings of Batts which are so strong that they can by no means suffer such a suddain Extension Add to this That the Uterine Sheath is also firmly fastened to the neighbouring parts the Bladder the right Intestine the Privity c. All which parts in the ascent of the womb would be likewise drawn up together toward the upper parts with great pain and trouble and yet we never hear those that are troubled with fits of the Mother ever complain of any such painful Attraction 2. The womb is so small in empty women that it cannot extend it self to the Diaphragma tho' it should be violently dragg'd up by the hand or attenuated by extraordinary Extension into the thinnest Membrane that can be 3. In a Woman with Child tho' it be large yet no rational man will say that in an hysteric Suffocation the womb with the birth included in it is able to ascend to the Diaphragma and the Throat 4. In the dissected Bodies of those that have dy'd of the hysteric Passion of which I have dissected many I have often observ'd that neither the womb was swell'd nor any way remov'd out of his place tho' while they liv'd at the very last gasp they have complain'd extreamly of its ascent to the Diaphragma and their very Throats Nay more in the said Distemper I have rarely met with any fault in the womb but have â—…ound it in one or both Stones XXIX The Globe or Substance which is said to ascend from the lower Belly to the Stomach and higher is not the Womb nor as Riolanus believes the Stones or Tubes of the Womb swelling with putrify'd Seed and violently agitated up and down for those parts are not so loose nor so bigg as to ascend above the Stomach or to be felt as big as a Hen or a Goose-egg but the Intestines or Guts which are struck and torn by some malignant and sharp Vapors ascending from the Womb or the Stones as in the Epilepsie a sharp malignant Vapour arises from the great Toe or some other part to the Head and there by its Vellication causes an unusual and vehement Contraction of the Nerves Now this pain in the Guts being communicated to the Sense in the Head presently to repel the Mischief and exclude the Cause a great number of Animal Spirits are posted into their Fibres by the swelling of which the Guts are contracted and then if there be any wind in the Guts as generally there is they contract themselves about that wind and by compressing and
sometimes through Lankness slides to the sides and lower parts XXXVI But against this our Conclusion another Difficulty opposes it self That is if the Womb do not move it self of its own accord how comes it to pass that sometimes after the Death of the Mother the Birth in the womb is expell'd forth Thus Bartholinus in the Treatise entitled Phinx Theologico Philosophica relates the Story of an Infant that with a loud cry was brought safe and sound out of the womb of the dead Mother And such was the Birth of Scipio and Manlius upon the Records of History Eber also produces an Example of a Child born after the Death of his Mother and Rolfinch produces another out of the memorable Speeches of Wolfang Silberus Three more are cited by Philip Salmuth Bartholin also testifies the same thing to have happened at Coppenhagen Hist. Anat. Cent. 1. And I remember another Accident of the same Nature that was told me at Montfurt Harvey also relates another of the same nature Exercit. de part A Woman says he being dead in the Evening was left alone in the Chamber and the next Morning the Child was found between her Thighs having made its own way Now as to the Difficulty we say this That the Mother being dead the Infant may for some time survive in the womb so that being alive and strong and the Orifice of the womb open and the Genitals being slippery and loose by reason of the preceding Labours and the Efflux of the serous Matter it may so happen that the strugling Birth may get forth by its own Endeavours tho' assisted by no Motion of the dead womb and that such Births have been frequently cut out of the Abdomens of the dead Mother is notoriously known But the first Accident rarely happens tho' frequently it falls out that women after most bitter Pangs of Childbearing their Strength failing fall into a profound Swoon so that they are thought to be dead and are sometimes buried for such tho' it has been known that they have afterwards come to themselves VVhich often happens to those that are troubled with the Hysteric Passion and for that reason being thought to be dead are committed fairly to the Ground as the Observations of many Physicians make manifest Iohannes Matthaeus Physician to the Marquis of Baden produces a memorable Example of this Quaest. medicar 4. An Accident deserving Compassion says he happened at Madrid in Spain where a noble Matron of the Family of D. Francis de Lasso after she had lain in a Trance for three days after a hard Travel her Relations believing her dead was carried into the Vault appointed for the Burial of the Family Some Months after the Vault being opened for the Burial of some other Person the Carcass was found in the same place where it was laid holding a dead Infant in her right Arm. Whence it appears that the Matron when she was buried was not really dead but had been delivered of an unfortunate Infant which she held in her Arms. Now in such a case I say it may easily happen that the woman which was thought to be dead the day before the next day was delivered and in a shorttime after expired For in extraordinary Cases of Necessity Nature sometimes performs wonders For which Reason the woman is thought to have been delivered after her Death who nevertheless was not dead at the time of her Delivery So that from hence no spontaneous or proper Motion of the womb can be inferred If after this any one will be so obstinate as to believe that the womb is alive after the Decease of the woman and is mov'd of it self by its own proper Power of necessity with Plato he will split upon a most hard Rock of Absurdity while he concludes that the womb is a Creature of it self not living a Life common to the rest of the Body and hence it will follow that one Creature is composed of two or that one Creature is the perfecting part of the other CHAP. XXVI Of the Parts of the Womb. I. IN the womb particularly are to be considered the Bottom the Neck the Sheath and the Sinus Pudoris or Mouth of the Privity it self II. The Bottom is the uppermost part of the womb properly colled the Matrix Uterus or Womb outwardly smooth and equal besmear'd with a slippery sort of Liquor in women not separated by any winding Prominencies of Horns nor so distinguished with Cells as in most part of Beasts that bring forth living Conceptions It is harder and thicker in those that are not with Child about the bigness of a Pigeons Egg or somewhat bigger which varies however according to the use of Copulation Conception and Age. III. It has one Hollowness yet not exactly round but somewhat stretched forth on both sides as it were like a Horn toward the sides in Persons deceased hardly able to hold a Kidney Bean but without doubt more loose in libidinous Coition somewhat rugged with wrinkles for the better Retention of the Seed and in women before they come to be with Child besmear'd with a viscous kind of Slime This is distinguished with a kind of large Seam into the right and left Part In one of which Males in the other Females are conceived as Hippocrates and Galen have asserted In the narrow Streights of this Cavity the Vivific Spirit of Male Seed infused into the womans Egg finishes out of it self that wonderful Structure of so many Parts so that at length a noble Creature shortly to ascend Heaven it self breaks out of this small close and nasty Prison IV. The Neck of the womb which many confound with the Sheath is the lower and narrower part of the womb containing the innermost Orifice of the womb VVhich Hole is oblong and transverse or overthwart like the Hole in the nut of the Yard in Virgins narrow and smooth but in such as have had Children bigger and furnish'd as it were with two Lips somewhat hard or little pieces of Flesh somewhat Tumid which Lips are hardly or never to be found in Virgins This Orifice is exactly shut after the Reception of the Seed and as it were seal'd up with a slimy viscous yellowish Humour that by the Report of Galen it will not admit the point of a Probe neither does it open before the time of Travel unless by â—…ervent and libidinous Coition whence sometimes happens Superfoetation But at the time of Delivery for the Expulsion of the Birth it dilates and spreads after a miraculous manner like a Rose and then the foresaid Lips of the Orifice as I have observ'd in women deceased when bigg with Child equal in thickness half a Finger very loose slippery and hollow like a Spunge V. Rarely the Yard of a Man in Copulation reaches so far as this Orifice which Riolanus however asserts may happen sometimes It may be says he that a longer Yard when the Orifice is open at the time when the
which for the most part like the inner Substance of the Clitoris by reason of the quantity of coagulated Blood is of a blackish colour is woven out of several little Fibres and Vessels united and twisted one among another which for its resemblance to a Net is call'd Plexus Retiformis the Net resembling Fold This Plexus Retiformis or Net-resembling Fold is in my opinion there plac'd that the Orifice of the Sheath may be so much the closer straiten'd and the Virile Member straitly embrac'd For being distended with that plenty of Blood when by reason of the fleshie Fibres of the Sphincter Muscle compressing it it cannot swell outward it must swell inwardly and straiten the Orifice of the Sheath Now the distension of these parts will appear to the Eye if the bloody Vessels running through along the back of the Clitoris be fill'd with a little breath for then the whole Privity swells together with that same Fold Now because this Chanel of the Sheath is narrower in Virgins many with Soranus believe that the pain which Virgins feel in the first act of Coition and the Blood which breaks forth is caus'd by the Dilatation of this Chanel by the Yard and the Rupture of the little Veins and Arteries passing thorough it which others rather ascribe to the Rupture of the Vagina or Sheath XIII The Use of the Vagina or Sheath is to receive the Yard to embrace and gently gird it self about it To this end it grows warm in the heat of Lust by reason of the Afflux of Blood and Spirits to it So that it is somewhat in a manner erected and dilates it self the more conveniently to admit the Yard Whereas when that heat is over by reason of its laxity and softness it prevents the entrance of the External Air nor if the woman be in a Bathe will it admit water to enter the womb but when a woman has her monthly Purgations or is troubled with the Whites as also in time of Labour it does not dilate it self but the closing sides of it being press'd down by the weight of the Birth and Humours part one from another and so are compelled to give way to necessary Evacuation XIV Now that the Vagina must and ought to be dilated in the same manner as has been said and without that dilatation would hardly admit the Virile Member is plain from those women that take no pleasure either in a violent or unvoluntary Coition but rather on the other side complain of great pains by reason of the violent forcing of the sides of the Vagina one from another through the force of the entring Yard and is yet more apparent from the pain that some Virgins feel that come to be lain withal before they have any understanding and consequently no understanding to warm them to the Action In reference to which Plazzonus relates a very sad Story Lately says he it happened that a young man being to lye with his Bride the first night what with his eager haste and the robustious intrusion of his Member he not only broke the neck of her Bladder but the Intestinum Rectum withal For which I could give no other Reason but that her Privity not us'd to erection slagg'd in its first performance of admitting and receiving her Husband's first Addresses Thus I remember that I knew a young Bride in upper Batavia to whom by the violent immission of the Yard in the first Act of Coition and suddain dilatation of the Vagina there happen'd such a prodigious Flux of Blood that in three hours she lost her Life together with her Virginity And the like unfortunate Accident some years ago befell the Daughter of a certain Citizen of Utrecht who was so wounded the first night that before morning the Flux of Blood not being to be stopp'd she expir'd XV. Below the insertion of the Neck of the Bladder in Virgins there appears a thin nervous Membrane continuous to the Neck of the Substance and sticking orbicularly to its sides interwoven with fleshie Fibres and furnish'd with many little Arteries and Veins and bor'd through the middle for the Efflux of the monthly Purgations that in grown Virgins it will hardly admit the top of the little finger which the Ancients call'd Hymen others the Claustrum of Virginity others the Girdle of Chastity Which being safe and whole is a certain sign of Virginity and being that which must of necessity be broken by the first irruption of the Virile Member and senâ—…s forth a small quantity of Blood which they call Flos Virginitatis the Flower of Virginity but being broken it vanishes and never more grows again XVI This Membrane to the great loss of health has been observ'd by Cabrolius Vesalius and others not thin and perforated as is before mention'd but somewhat thick firm and contiguous and sometimes bor'd through like a Sive So in the Year 1666. in the Month of March we dissected a young Woman of three and twenty years of Age wherein we found that same Membrane continuous not perforated at all and so firm that the stoutest Efforts of a lusty young Bride grown could never have pierc'd it Now when it is so extreamly strong then in grown Women there is a stoppage of the Flowers and other Evacuations that way which is the Death of many Virgins unless cur'd by cutting the Membrane of which sort of Cure there are several Examples to be found in Benivenius Wierus Aquapendens Hildan and several others Here some have been of Opinion That the said Membrane hard and unperforated is a Substance quite different from the Hymen growing there contrary to the order of Nature whereas in truth it is the Hymen it self preternaturally harden'd to that Solidity neither will any man ever find any other XVII Many question the truth of this Membrane others deny that ever it was found and account as Fables whatever has been said concerning the Hymen Others with Oribasius Soranus Fernelius and Laurentius conceited Virginity to be nothing else than the wrinkled straitness of the Female Vagina overspread with Veins the dilaceration of which in the first Act of Coition and the rupture of the little Veins by means of the same violence causes a light Flux of Blood But Vesalius and Fallopius most expert Anatomists have found that Membrane in all Virgins as have also Columbus Plater Picolomni Iubart Spigelius Wierus Regner de Graef and several other eminent Persons to whose Ocular Testimony we must give credit And not only they but I my self at the Dissection of a Virgin about two and twenty years of Age in Decemb. 1671. shew'd that Membrane to several Students in Physic resembling a membranous Ring orbicularly plac'd in the Vagina of the Womb with a hole in the middle as big as the top of the little finger not exactly round but somewhat oblong in the upper part And Swammerdam writes that he took out such a Hymen out of the Body of a
Mare had been open'd the first or second day there would have been no Seed found in her womb But if she had been dissected after the last Coition by which she conceiv'd without doubt there would have been found Seed in her womb And so would Harvey have found had he light upon Does that had conceiv'd For tho' in such a vast Herd of Deer several perhaps might have conceiv'd it does not follow that he dissected those that were impregnated altho' he might have accidentally fallen upon the one as well as the other 2. While those Creatures after a long chace are wearied frightned and at length kill'd 't is not to be wonder'd at that tho' they should have conceiv'd two or three days before if the Seed scarce yet melted should fall out of the womb the Orifice being open'd in that vast conturbation of Spirits both before and after they are taken For daily Experience tells us that many Women upon terrible Frights have not only cast forth the Seed conceived but even the Birth it self already form'd 3. If Bitches Conies and other Creatures urine and dung while they are killing for fear of death nay if the fear of punishment only work the same effects upon some no wonder that the Females of those Creatures a few days or hours after Coition should shed their conceiv'd Seed out of their wombs while they are killing and so that no Seed should be found in their wombs 4. The Seed included in the womb to the end that something may be produc'd out of it undergoes a great alteration in the womb nor does it altogether retain that form of substance which it had when it was first injected and so perhaps Harvey did not believe it to be Seed either being already melted or else imagining it was not there because so little XXIII From what has been said it appears that Harvey's Experiments cannot prove those things which he labours to maintain by them And therefore it is not for any to suffer himself easily to be perswaded that the Seed is of no use in Conception but that it flows out again from the womb either before or after Conception And therefore I think there is more credit to be given to Galen in this particular who being inform'd as well by his own as the Experiments of others found the thing to be otherwise Moreover I do not believe we ought to deny our credit to rational Women themselves who by speaking satisfie us that in Women that conceive the Seed does not flow forth out of the womb of which dumb and irrational Creatures are not able to give any account Lastly I cannot think there is any credit to be given to the Speculations taken from the sole inspection into brute Beasts there being little of certainty in 'em as being explain'd and wrested rather according to the preconceived Opinion of the Inspecter than according to Truth More than all this Harvey himself writes that about the eighteenth or at most the twentieth day of November he has seen sometimes in the right and sometimes in the left Horn of a Does womb a transparent colliquated matter and crystalline contain'd within its own proper Tunicle and in the middle bloody Fibres and a jumping point Which Matter since it was not rain'd down from Heaven I would sain know what else it could be but the Seed of the Female inclos'd in the Egg together with the jumping point and increas'd by the mass of the dissolv'd Masculine Seed encompassed with the Chorion and Amnion Now that he did not find the same Matter in many others no question the Reason was because he seldom lighted upon those Creatures that had conceiv'd XXIV And therefore there is no doubt to be made but that the Seed after Conception neither flows again out of the womb neither is it according to Aristotle rarified into Spirit and dissipated or that it vanishes any other way but that it is detain'd within the womb and thus with that together with that other Seed contain'd in the Womans Egg the Birth is first of all both cherish'd and nourish'd XXV In the mean time I would not have any man think that I propound things absurd while I affirm that the Birth is delineated and form'd out of the Seed and in the beginning by the same Seed is also nourished and so one and the same Seed serves for two several uses For in the Seed there are two distinct parts some spirituous out of which the Birth is delineated and form'd others thicker and less spirituous from whence is taken the next Matter requisite for the first nourishment of the form'd parts their increase and greater perfection yet the Birth can neither be form'd out of those nor â—…ish'd by them For the same thing does not form and nourish but divers parts of the same thing The same thing happens in the Seed of Man and all Creatures producing living Conceptions as in the Seed of a Plant wherein Theophrastes acknowledges two parts one spirituous upon which the prolific or procreating power depends the other thicker that nourishes the spirituous part by vertue of which the Seed of the Plant springs forth and casts out some leaves tho' not set in the Earth as containing in it self the Nourishment first requir'd But now let us return to the Bubble from whence the first Nourishment of the Embryo led us astray XXVI That the first and sole foundation of the Birth is wrought in this Bubble out of the Crystalline humour contain'd therein and surrounded with a peculiar invisible Pellicle Hippocrates has observ'd by that time the Seed has been six days old for he writes that he has seen the Internal Pellicle or little Skin that is the Bubble whose innermost Liquor was transparent out of the middle of which somewhat thin shot it self forth which he thought to be the Navel XXVII As to the time of Formation there is some dispute about it among Physicians Hippocrates tells us that the Seed being receiv'd into the womb ought to have some appearances upon the seventh day and that if the Abortion thrown out within that time be put into water and diligently view'd all the first foundations of all the parts may be manifestly discern'd therein Others affirm this Formation of the parts not to be accomplish'd so soon as seven days but after a longer time Strato the Peripatetic and Diocles Caristius by the report of Macrobius in his Comment upon Scipio's Dream asserted that the human figure was form'd within five weeks or about the thirty fifth day to the Bigness of a Bee yet not so but that all the Members and all the designed Lineaments of the whole Body appeared in that Epitome Aristotle averrs that the little body of the Birth settles as it were in a little Membrane upon the fortieth day which being broken the Birth it self appears about the bigness of a large Emmet with all the Members distinct and all other things Genitals and
mistaken her Reckoning Petrus Aponensis otherwise called the Conciliator by the Report of Cardan asserts himself to have been born in the eleventh Month as if he had kept his Mother's reckoning in her Womb. Homer makes mention of one born in the twelfth Month. Pliny speaks of a certain Woman that was brought to bed in her thirteenth Month and Avicen of another that was brought to bed in her fourteenth Of which we have another Example in Alexander Benedict I omit other Women that went two and twenty Months nay some that went two three four whole years of which Iohn Schenkius quotes Examples I fear me too fictitious out of several Authors VI. But indeed these are all idle Stories without any grounds and prov'd by no certain Experience but taken up from the discourses of tatling Gossips to whom some overcredulous Learned Men have given too much Credit to the end they might underprop these Vanities with some supports of probability For as I believe it to be most certain that the time of delivery may be for certain causes delay'd some few days beyond the Term of nine Months so I believe it impossible that it should be put off one much less many Months seeing that in whatsoever Constitution of a Woman the Increase of heat becomes so great in the Infant that it requires Ventilation by Respiration and for that cause the Birth must seek relief without the narrow straits of the Womb. So that it is manifest those serious maintainers of that Opinion drew too hasty a Conclusion from the false Relations of silly Women For if we narrowly prie into the Matter there lies a Snake in the Grass either wickedness in the Woman or simple Error in the Reckoning Wickedness in the Woman Who if she have no Children upon the death of her Husband that she may enjoy her Estate leagues her self with another Man and being by him got with Child pretends to be delivered Eleven twelve thirteen Months after the death of her Husband that so she may lay the Child to him in his Life-time which is a sort of wickedness so frequent that the Courts are full of these Contentions Which is the reason that these lateward Births seldom happen but among such kind of Widows rarely among Women that live with their Husbands There may be also a simple Error in the Reckoning for that Women generally compute their Reckoning form the first suppression of their Flowers though it may happen from other causes that their Flowers may cease three or four Months before Conception So that if a Woman begin her Reckoning from the first Suppression she must of necessity mistake and through that Mistake the Child shall be said to be born in the eleventh or twelfth Month that came at the appointed time of the end of the Ninth Aristotle believes that Error may proceed from the swelling of the VVomb Women says he are ignorant of the Time of their Conception if when the Womb was swelled before as it often happens they afterwards lye with their Husbands and conceive for they believe this to be the beginning of their Conception because it gave such a Signal VII Through the same Error in Reckoning Children are said to be born in the fifth or sixth Month which nevertheless are not born till the Ninth For that some VVomen for the first two or three Months of their being with Child have their Flowers upon them still at the set times but afterwards they stop and so they begin their Reckoning from that Suppression wherein they greatly err beginning their account from thence when they are three or four Months gone and so a Child shall be said to come in the sixth Month that was duly born in the ninth and this Error is apparent from the just proportion of the Child and the strength of its parts VIII When a Woman draws near her time the Birth turns it self and the Head declining plants it self before the Privity distending upwards the rest of the Body Which turning happens a week or two before the delivery Then the Orifice of the VVomb like a blowing Rose begins to open and dilate it self and to prepare a passage for the Birth that is about to come forth moreover the Infant kicking and sprawling to and fro breaks the Membranes wherein it is infolded and so the humours included therein flow forth which loosen the Privy parts and render the Passages slippery to make the passage easie for the Birth to pass thorough For it rarely happens that the Child is born and comes into the VVorld with the Membranes whole and entire which once I saw in an Infant that was very weak IX This sprawling is painful to the Womb and this pain communicated to the mind in the Brain presently the Animal Spirits are sent in great Quantity through the Nerves to the pursing Fibers of the Womb and the Muscles of the Abdomen which being contracted together cause a strong Expulsion of the Birth X. The Infant comes forth with the Head formost according to Nature says Hippocrates Lib. de nat puer XI Whatever other manner it offers it self to come forth in that Birth cannot be said to be Natural and the more hazardous it is by how much the posture of the Child is more unusual For if it offers one Thigh or one Arm it makes a stop unless that Member be thrust back and the Birth turn'd If two Thighs be offered together the delivery may go forward but with great difficulty if the Buttocks offer themselves first the delivery goes not forward unless very seldom sometimes the Birth comes forth doubled but with great difficulty and great danger If the Sides or Belly offer themselves first the Delivery is impossible How the mature and large Birth should be able to pass through the Straits of the Bones of the Pelvis stuft with Muscles and other parts Galen admires but dares not explain But it is done by reason that the Bones of the Share the Os Sacrum and the Hip-Bone their Cartilages being loosen'd separate a little one from another as we shall shew more at large L. â—… c. 16. XII However it be or at whatever time the Delivery happens Nature expels the Birth out of the Womb through the Uterine Sheath or at least endeavours to do it and that is the only passage appointed for the Expulsion of the Birth I say or at least endeavours to do it for sometimes it happens that that same passage being stopt the Child cannot be expell'd by Nature but must be drawn forth by the skill of the Surgeon and that through the passage already mentioned by the hand either of the Midwife or Surgeon or by the Assistance of Hooks which we have tryed with success in many Women or else by Section made in the Womb and Abdomen which is called the Caesarian Delivery concerning which Francis Rousset has written a famous Treatise But it is rarely seen that Nature her self attempts
simply of it self but by virtue of the appetitive Power or of the Passions of the Mind which occasion various motions of the Spirits and Humors Thus the Imagination and Thought of an extraordinary Danger makes a man tremble fall down grow cold and fall into a Fit and sometimes occasions the Hair to grow grey on a sudden Glad Thoughts revive and warm the Body Obscene Thoughts occasion Blushing and Thoughts of Terror occasion Paleness Venereal Thoughts diffuse Heat through the whole Body loosen the Genitals of Women stiffen those of Men and open the Seminary Passages otherwise invisible in such a manner as to occasion spontaneous nocturnal Pollutions This intent Imagination and desirous Thought of giving the Infant Suck is the reason why the Chyliferous Passages to the Breasts are dilated and open'd especially if some other external Causes contributing to the same purpose cherish and excite those strong Imaginations as lascivious Titillation of the Breasts the stirring of the Child in the Womb or sucking of the Nipples For according to the various Influx of the Animal Spirits the parts are sometimes streightned sometimes loosen'd as every body knows and according to that various Constriction or Dilatation the Blood and other Humors flow more or less into the Parts and are sometimes the occasion of Heat Softness Redness sometimes of Constriction Coldness and Paleness Among these impuls'd Humors is the Chylus which is continually thrust forward by the Muscles of the Abdomen through some Lactiferous Vessels and so through those Vessels that tend to the Breasts provided that a special Influx of the Animal Spirits have loosen'd those Parts through which those Vessels are carry'd and has render'd those Vessels penetrable by removing all manner of Constriction Now that this is the true Cause is apparent from that man mention'd by Santorel who upon the Death of his Wife when his Poverty would not give him leave to hire a Nurse that he might still the Cries of the Infant would often lay the Child to his Breasts no doubt with an ardent desire to give it Suck and so at length through that intent continual Cogitation and often iterated sucking of his Teats the Chyliferous Passages were loosned and his Breasts afforded Milk sufficient for the nourishment of the Infant The like Accident hapned at Viana where the Woman of the Bores-Head was brought to Bed not long after the Death of her Husband and soon after her Delivery dy'd very poor her self leaving the Infant sound and healthy of which the Grandmother taking Compassion and not able to hire a Nurse by reason of her Poverty undertook to bring it up by hand in the 60th Year of her Age at what time putting the crying Infant to her Breasts and giving it her Nipples to suck through that force of Imagination and eager desire to suckle the Child her Breasts began to give Milk and that in a few days so plentifully that the Infant wanted little other Diet to the great admiration of all that saw the Infant suckled with the Milk of an Old Woman whose Breasts had been fallen for many years Many such Examples of Old Women giving Suck Bodin relates in his Theat Natur. And the Truth of this Cause is no less evinc'd by lascivious and prurient Virgins who are full of Libidinous Thoughts and therefore often handling their Breasts sometimes without the loss of their Virginity come to have Milk in them of which sort of Milk-bearing Virgins of undoubted Honesty I happen'd to see two Bartholin witnesses another seen by himself and we find several Examples of Women yielding Milk in Vega Schenkius Caster Castellus and others collected by Bauhinus Neither will any man question but that such like lascivious Thoughts of their own Breasts and handling 'em has also produced Milk in the Breasts of Men. But in Women with Child the stirring of the Birth in the Womb excites every day more and more those Thoughts of suckling the Infant and hence when the Infant begins to move sensibly then the Milk begins to appear in the Breasts XLI I shall add a manifest Domestic Example My own Wife in March 1656. had in her lying in a sufficient quantity of Milk according as she was wont to have but the Infant for six or seven Weeks was so weak that it could not suck so that every one thought it would have died and she not dreaming any more of suckling it her Milk dry'd up But when afterwards the Child recover'd and was able to suck and my Wife had no Milk in her Breasts the Child was of necessity to be put out to Nurse But the Nurse proving bad my Wife nine Months after her Delivery sent for the Child home and while another Nurse could be found would often lay the crying Infant to her Breast wishing her self in a condition to suckle it The next day the Child was sent to another Nurse but that Evening through that same strong Imagination and Thoughtfulness her Breasts that had been dry'd up for above Eight Months began to swell and be full of Milk so that had not the Nurse been hir'd she could have suckl'd the Child her self which proves that strong Thoughts and Imaginations are the first Cause that move the Chylus to the Breasts But some will say if this were true then in those Women that have no Milk in the Flower of their Age after being brought to Bed such ardent Desires to give the Child Suck would bring Milk into their Breast but no such thing happens tho' they desire to suckle the Infant I Answer That all Thoughts are not so intent and strong as to move the Affections of the Mind without a vigorous stirring of which the Animal Spirits are not so impetuously mov'd and hence the Thoughts of Suckling the Infant tho' they frequently occur to the Womans mind yet if they do not happen with a violent and continual Intentness the Animal Spirits cannot be so copiously determin'd toward the Breasts as to be able to dilate and remove the Impediments of the Vessels tending thither Besides that many things may happen which may hinder the passage of the Chylus to the Breasts notwithstanding the present ardent desire and strong imagination of suckling the Infant as scarcity of Chylus thickness of the Breasts obstruction of the Kernels by viscous Humors by Exulceration Fall Blow or other Mischance or a natural Streightness of the Milky Vessels tending to the Breasts or compression from the neighbouring Parts and then the Effects of Thought and Imaginat on are frustrated XLII Hence it appears why Child-bearing Women have such plenty of Milk the Third Fourth or Fifth Day after Delivery Because that being tir'd with their Labour for the first Two or Three Days they do not much employ their Thoughts upon any thing and for want of Appetite eat little and breed less Chylus but the next days following when they eat more and the Infant begins to cry more then they also continually think of
are two in number of which the Right and looser is plac'd next the Vena Cava the Left which is the lesser thicker and firmer joyns to the Pulmonary Vein They are both remarkable for their more than ordinary bigness in the Embryo IV. They are compos'd of a peculiar Nervous Substance though somewhat thin and soft for more easie Dilatation and Contraction V. Their outward Superficies appears to be full of Wrinkles but smooth when fill'd and distended VI. They are both concave and supported on the inside with strong and nervous Fibres as with Pillars between which are to be seen certain little Furrows fewer on the Right side more on the Left VII In the Birth and new-born Infants they are of a ruddy Colour in Persons of ripe years somewhat darker than the Heart which nevertheless in Dilatation by reason of the Blood receiv'd grows more ruddy in Contraction the Blood being discharg'd becomes paler VIII They are dilated and contracted like the Ventricles of the Heart but varying in Time For always the dilatation of the Ventricles concurs with the contraction of the Ears and the contraction of the Ventricles concurs with the dilatation of the Ears as appears by the Dissection of Living Creatures Which teaches us also that they continue a weak palpitation when the motion of the Heart sails and are as it were the last parts that die Hence Harvey and Ent were of opinion that they were first enliven'd and that the beating little Vessel that appears first in the Egg was the little Ear and not the Heart Which Deusingius opposes and which seems to be an Error by the number it self seeing the Heart has two little Ears and only one jumping little Vessel appears in the Egg which in all probability seems rather to constiture the Heart which is single than the Ears that are two IX Their Use is to receive the Blood first of all from the Vessels that bring it in slightly to ferment and prepare it and so prepar'd to send it to the Ventricles Walaeus believes 'em to be the Measures of the Blood carry'd to the Ventricles from the Vessels that bring it in which Opinion Riolanus also approves But Sennertus that they are appointed for the particular Attraction of Air for the making of Spirits But how much he is deceiv'd we have already told you and shall further declare in the following Thirteenth Chapter X. The Heart has two Cavities call'd Ventricles distinguish'd by the Middle Septum which is fleshy close and thick gibbous on the Right side concave on the Left a wonderful piece of Workmanship wrought on both sides with little Pillars or Sinews and several little Caverns but no where pervious These Sinews some take for Muscles and little Fibres proceeding from them and extended as well to the treble-pointed as the Mitral Valves and to be the Tendons of those Muscles conducing to the Contraction of the Valves of the Heart Whence appears the Error of the Ancients who wrote that the Blood pass'd through its broader pores from the Right to the Left Ventricle Certainly if there were any such pores diligent Nature had in vain provided that Oval Hole in the Basis of the Heart and that some middle Vessel which joyns the Pulmonary Artery with the Aorta for then there had been no need of these passages if the Blood could have pass'd through the pores of the Septum from the Right into the Left Ventricle And therefore Realdus Columbus deservedly opposes that ancient Opinion and truly informs us that the Blood is thrust forward into the Lungs out of the Right Ventricle through the Pulmonary Artery and from thence descends into the Left Ventricle through the Pulmonary Vein Farther also he writes That he had found that same Septum by which the Ventricles are distinguish'd to be gristly in some Bodies a certain sign that the Blood could not pass through that from the one to the other Ventricle Let Riolanus therefore hold his peace who so stifly defends the passage of the Blood out of the Right Ventricle to the Left through the Septum that he supposes Figments for Foundations and affirms that the Septum is not only conspicuously pervious toward the Point but also that there are certain little holes in it Perhaps Riolanus might see these holes in his Sleep which never could be found by any Anatomist that was awake either in a raw or boyl'd Heart Only Dominic de Marchettis writes that he found once two holes in the upper part of the Septum which were furnish'd with Valves in the Left Ventricle But without doubt he was deceiv'd by one great oval hole which in new-born Children is always to be seen but afterwards is clos'd altogether and this by reason of its extaordinary Breadth he took to be two XI In the Ventricles sometimes various Things are bred contrary to Nature though the Physician can hardly tell what the Patient ayls Sometimes we have found little Gobbets of Fat and as it were little soft whitish pieces of Flesh about the bigness of half an Egg and sometimes bigger In October 1663. we dissected a Virgin about three and twenty years of Age who in her Life-time had often complain'd of an extraordinary heaviness and palpitation of her Heart and had often fallen into swooning Fits and so dy'd In whose Body we found such a Gobbet of Fat almost filling the Right Ventricle and another little one in the Lest and after a more diligent Search we found that it was no kind of Body bred by the coagulation of Blood but really a firm piece of Fat not to be crumbl'd between the Fingers And this we judg'd to be the Cause of her Death for we could find no other in the whole Body Neither did she complain in her Life of any other Distemper than of that Anxiety and those swooning Fits which the ignorant People of the House took for Convulsions or Fits of the Mother In Decemb. 1668. In another young Wench of the same Age we found in the Right Ventricle such another Body of Fat about the bigness of half a Hen-Egg And both Bauhinus and Riolanus write That they have often met with such pieces of Fat. Smetius also tells us two Stories of a whitish Substance found in the Heart about half a Fingers length a Thumb's breadth resembling the Marrow of the Leg of an Ox furnish'd with several Appendixes Tulpius tells us of a Flegmatic Polypus found by himself in the Left Ventricle Vesalius writes That he found in the Left Ven tricle of the Heart two pounds of a blackish Kernelly sort of Flesh which seems to be an Error of the Printer instead of two Ounces the man before his Death being very sad very wakeful and his Pulse beating very unequally Beniverius tells us That he found in one Body a piece of Flesh like a Medlar and in another a hard brawny Substance about the bigness of a Nut. Nicholas Massa
into the Nerves unless being squeez'd out of the Brain and Pith by the alternate dilatation and falling of the Brain the hinder parts pressing the fore-parts as one Wave drives forward another is apparent from hence for that the motion of the Brain ceasing through a Syncope or depression of the Cranium c. no more Spirits flow into the Nerves but all the parts fall without Motion Thus in an Organ we see that the thin Air which would never of it self descend violently downward into the Pipes by the falling of the dilated Bellows is easily forc'd into them Upon this Subject read more in Sennertus's Institutes l. 1. c. 6. and his Prax. Med. p. 2. c. 33. where he refutes and destroys the foresaid Argument with most convincing Reasons This Opinion therefore being altogether rejected we must hold it for certain and unquestionable with the consent of the greater part of the Philosophers that there are Animal Spirits bred indeed out of the Vital but actually very much differing from them as the Bread differs from the Chylus the Chylus from the Blood and the Blood from the Substance of the Parts for as the Chylus coming into the heart loses its first Constitution and assumes a quite different which has nothing of similitude with the former and so is turn'd into Blood so the most subtil part of the Vital Blood assumes in the Brain a new and altogether different Species together with a new and altogether different strength and efficacy Here if any one will object that the same Spirits were before in the Blood so far as they are afterwards produc'd out of the Blood and cannot be produc'd out of the Blood unless they were in it before I will not contend with him if he mean that the Matter of these Spirits was in it before For those Animal Spirits such as they are made in the Brain are not actually contain'd in the blood but the Matter out of which they are to be made is contain'd therein In the same manner the spirituous Blood is not contain'd in the Meat and Nourishment but the Matter out of which such Blood is generated by the concoctions of the Bowels Or as the Herb or the Tree is not contain'd in the Earth but the Matter out of which the Herb or the Tree is to spring and be rais'd up by the heat of the Sun Or as the Vessel is not contain'd in the Clay but the Matter out of which the Vessel is to be made which is so different from the Vessel that a Child would account him a Fool that should call the formless Clay a Vessel IV. But now 't is the unanimous Opinion of all Physicians that it is the proper Office of the Brain to generate the Animal Spirits and that those Spirits flow through the Nerves out of that Work-House wherein they are generated into the Parts and may be sent forth every way in greater plenty by the Soul with a certain determination as Assistants and Conveyers of the Powers which she diffuses from her self But in what part of the Brain these Spirits are generated is greatly disputed and what they are is altogether unknown and therefore they both require a larger Discourse V. Peter Laurembergius believ'd these Animal Spirits to be generated in the Hollownesses of the Falx From whose Opinion Daniel Sennertus does not differ much But this Opinion proceeds from their not knowing the Use of the Sinus's or Hollownesses of the Falx and therefore they are easily refuted by what we have already said concerning those Hollownesses c. 4. Andreas Laurentius Riolanus Lud. Mercator and many others with whom Regius also consents believe these Spirits to be generated in the Cavities of the Ventricles out of the hottest Arterious Blood exhaling from the Choroidal Fold with which some think the Air to be intermix'd by inspiration and that they are forc'd out of these Ventricles through invisible Pores into the Nerves and so through them flow to the rest of the Parts Some according to the Opinion of the Arabians affirm that they are generated not in all the Ventricles but only in the fourth Ventricle which for that reason they call the most principal Both these Opinions Galen also profess'd as also Hippocrates and Plato But both Reason and Experience evince this Opinion concerning the Cavity of the Ventricles For if the Vital Spirits should exhale out of the Choroidal Fold into the Cavities of the Ventricles there to be turn'd into Animal Spirits I would fain know how the Animal Spirits already generated out of those Vital Spirits shall enter into the Nerves which have no continuity with the Ventricles Shall the Vital Spirits which exhal'd out of the Fold being become Animal again breath into the Nerves which lie at a distance from the Nerves Or can the Soul dispose at pleasure of the Spirits generated and contain'd here and there beyond the Bounds of its Jurisdiction that is to say in the Ventricles Besides if the place be consider'd it will be found no way proper for the generation of the Animal Spirits For in the Ventricles are gather'd together snotty Excrements which are found therein sometimes in greater sometimes in lesser quantity as well in those that are sound as those that are sickly Thus it would come to pass that these thin and most impure Spirits would be generated without the Vessels in the Cavities of these Ventricles among the most impure and cold Excrements of the Brain and thence notwithstanding their being thicken'd by the cold Excrements must flow out again together with the thicker Excrements through most narrow and almost invisible Pores rather into the Nerves far enough seated from the Ventricles then through the broad and open Channels of the Papillary Processes and the Sieve-like Bone which how absurd it is there 's no body but may easily perceive Besides in the watery Disease of the Head call'd Hydrocephalus in which many times there is a great quantity of serous Humour collected in the Ventricles sometimes several pounds as also in an Apostem of the Brain at what time the purulent Matter is pour'd forth into these Vessels I say in these cases neither could these Spirits be generated nor the Animal Actions proceed of which the contrary is manifest from Experience For in a Patient that I dissected in March 1653. whose distended Ventricles containd above half a pound of thick stinking green Pus from the large Apostem of the upper part of the Brain penetrating as far as the upper Ventricles I observ'd that all the time of his Sickness for seven Weeks together he was no way disturb'd in his Intellects nor depriv'd of Motion till the time of his Death Besides that if they did not flow through the already mention'd Vessels evacuating the Flegm yet would those Spirits fly out at the Wounds of the Ventricles and for want of them the Person would be depriv'd of all Animal Action Yet Galen tells us a Story of a young Man
and ordered her to be kept three days in a gentle breathing Sweat which she easily endured as being a Woman of good discretion and very obedient to her Physitian ℞ Barly cleansed Fennel Roots an ℥ j. Elecampane Roots ℥ s. sliced Licorice ʒij red Vetches ℥ j. s. Scabious half a handful Fennel seed ʒ j. s. Figs nō xvij Water q. s. make a Decoction to two Pints When still no signs of the Small Pox appeared again I loosened her Belly with a Glyster and the next day ordered a Vein to be opened in her Arm the third taking the Decoction she sweat moderately and so continued for ten days using the said Decoction afterwards because the Fever and Heaviness seemed again to increase and for that she waxed more drowsy and restless I again gave her the Diaphoretic above mentioned adding Extract of Carduus Benedict ℥ s. which when she had taken and sweat violently the forerunners of the Small Pox began to appear up and down upon her Skin that is to say the red Spots then she continued in a gentle breathing Sweat for two days still drinking the Decoction before mentioned and in that time the Small Pox were very much risen and the Fever with other Symptoms vanished by degrees All the time of the Disease she took no other Food then thin Broths and every other day she had once a day a Stool voluntarily ANNOTATIONS IN this Patient I almost despair'd of any coming forth of the Small Pox and thought I had been deceived in my judgment for I could not believe they would have come forth so late that is to say upon the twentieth day neither did I ever see them break forth so late in any other Person Hence it appeared that Hippocrates was in the Right where he says that Remedies when they are truly administer'd are not to be changed so long as there is no other urgent Indication that requires an Alteration HISTORY IV. THE Son of Edward Wilmer ten Years of Age so soon as the Fever had seized him and that the Small Pox began to appear in several Parts of his Body one Edmund an English Chyrurgeon was sent for who to free the Patient from the Heaviness that oppressed him gave him some Purging Medicine this in a short time encreased his drowsiness a terrible Loosness followed together with an extraordinary wast of the natural strength Presently the Pox fell and the Child died the next Night ANNOTATIONS HIppocrates says thus Where Nature leads there we ought to follow if she lead by ways agreeable to the Law of Nature But in the Small Pox Nature leads from the Center to the Periphery and that this is the most convenient way for the Evacuation of the Malignant Matter fermenting and boyling the Experience of many Ages has taught us therefore in the Cure of this Disease a Physitian ought in the first place to observe Nature either to let her do her own work of her own accord or if she be feeble to assist her in her Action But he must not disturb her true Motion with a Motion contrary to it and when the Malignant Matter is wholsomly and regularly driving to the Exterior Parts recal it back to the Innermost and more Noble Bowels For says Hippocrates such things are to be fetch'd out of the Body which coming forth of themselves are conducible to Health but those things that come forth violently are to be restrain'd stopp'd and retain'd But such things as we ought to fetch out are not brought forth by Evacuation through the Guts neither do they come forth according to the regular Motion of Nature nor by ways agreeable to the Laws of Nature therefore in this Disease Evacuation by Glysters is not to be provoked through the Intestins by Glysters or if it come forth of its own accord it is to be stop'd as soon as may be Hence says Rhases great care is to be taken after the coming forth of the Pustles whether high or broad least the Belly be loosened with Medicaments for they presently cause a Disentery especially where the Pustles are very high thus also Avenzoar never prescribes any Purging Medicaments to those that are Sick of the Small Pox and forbids the Belly to be loosened unless by the help of a Suppository if the Patient be to hard bound This Egmund the Chyrugeon never understood and so by his Ignorance kill'd the Patient as it happens to several others who slighting the Learned Physitians had rather purchase Death with Gold from ignorant Mountebanks and Homicides then buy Health with Copper from prudent and knowing Physitians HISTORY V. TWO Sisters Young Gentlewomen both the one of Twenty Four the other of Twenty Six Years at a Season when the Small Pox were very rife were extreamly afraid of the Disease It fell out by accident as they were going to Church a Young Lad newly cured of the Small Pox was got abroad and coming along in the Street at least thirty Paces distant from them having his Face all spotted with red Spots the remainders of the Footsteps of the Disease with which sight they were so scared that they thought themselves infected already Thereupon I being sent for to visit the Young Ladies endeavour'd by many Arguments to dispel these idle fears and for the better satisfaction of both prescribed them a gentle Purge which after they had taken the next day but one I ordered a Vein to be opened in the Arm and desired them to pluck up a good heart and to the end they might believe themselves to be the more certainly secured from the Distemper I forbid them the eating of all such dyet as might contribute the procuring of this Disease prescribed them certain Apozems of Succory and other cooling things to Drink and ordered them to walk abroad visit their Friends and by pleasant Discourse and Conversation and all other ways imaginable to drive those vain conceits out of their Minds But all that I could do signified nothing so deeply had this conceit rooted it self in their Imagination For after fourteen days of Health wherein they continually walked abroad and were merry with their Friends and Acquaintance yet all the while the Small Pox ran in their Minds at length without any occasion of Infection they were both together seized with a Fever and the next day the small red Spots appeared in their Face and Hands which after I had given them the Decoction of Figs in a short time after coming farther out terminated in the Small Pox which came forth very thick as well upon the Body as the Face and so the Fever the Heaviness and other Symptoms ceased by degrees and they themselves forbearing to shift their foul Linnen in fourteen days and committing no Error in their Diet but observing my Prescriptions exactly without scratching off the Pox with their Nails were both cured with very little or no prejudice to their Beauty ANNOTATIONS HOw wonderful the Strength of Imagination is we have experience in many Persons
as also meats of hard disgestion and bad nourishment but prescribed him fresh Meats broth made of Mutton Lamb and Chicken potched Eggs new Milk and the like And as to other things that concerned his Diet we prescribed as we saw occasion However we continued the use of Vulnerary Pectoral Apozems no Fever troubled him and his Appetite was none of the worst after three or four weeks together with the Blood which in all that time had vented it's self upward through the Leaden Pipe sometimes frothy sometimes watery sometimes curdl'd he began to throw up a good quantity of Matter with his Cough which Spitting of Blood and Matter continued till the sixth Month so that there appeared no hope of recovery for the Patient all wasted away was reduced to utmost leanness and debility however the poor Man willing to live besought us not to give him over so that we could not choose but go forward though we thought it to no purpose in the first place therefore to repair his Strength we ordered him to drink a draught of Goats Milk warm from the Udder three times every day and sometimes we gave him corroborating Amygdalates and Conditements after we had made use of the Goats Milk for sometime his Spiting of Bloody Matter began to abate and at length about the beginning of the tenth Month after his being Wounded surceased altogether as did also his Cough from that time forward continuing the use of his Milk he gathered strength every day more and more and got Flesh upon his Back toward the end of the tenth Month he walked about the Chamber and at the end of the eleventh Month being perfectly cured he walked abroad nor was there any thing that troubled him after so dangerous a Wound and I saw him seven Years afterwards riding sound and well among the rest of the Troops ANNOTATIONS WOunds in the Lungs are very dangerous and for the most part mortal according to the opinion of Hippocrates Galen Avicen Celsus and of all the most Famous Physitians and Chyrurgeons for that being a Spungy Bowel it will hardly admit of any cure but that they are not always mortal experience teaches us in regard that very dangerous wounds of the Lungs given by Swords have been known to have been perfectly cured and others when part of the Lungs have been cut away As Rowland of Parma Theodoric Gemma Valleriola Hildan and others testifie but you shall rarely hear of any that have been shot into the Lungs with Musket Bullets who have escaped and been perfectly cured because the violent contusion of the Bullet seems to admit no cure in that Spungy part but rather threatens an Inflammation a Gangrene or a Mortification though Peter Futman describes such a cure done in an Epistle to Gregory Horstius and such a Cure it was that so luckily besel this Trooper through the use of Goats Milk and other Medicaments and indeed it is to be look'd upon as a very wonderful Cure for my part I never believed before that ever three such VVounds in the Lungs with a Musket Shot could have been cured by any means whatever and should have hardly believed it had I not been an Eye witness we have indeed seen VVounds in the Lungs with Swords and Knives cured but that is not so wounderful because there is no Contusion there nor does an Inflammation so easily happen Besides the said Cure this is also to be admired in reference to this Trooper that being so dangerously wounded he was not infected with the Plague which was then very rise as many that were wounded and sick of other Diseases were but he was a strong Man in the Flower of his Age and of a good Temper of Body in Captain Conyers a English Gentleman's Troop OBSERVATION XXXIX Burstenness of the Guts THE Wife of Iohn Vermulen an Ale Brewer a Woman about forty Years of Age had a Burstenness of her Guts protuberant in her right Groin about the bigness of a Goose Egg it was accompanied with a total obstruction of the Belly by reason the Guts was fallen through the narrow hole of the Rupture into the Groin The sixth day after the beginning of the Malady I was sent for I ordered her to be Glistered twice and the Gut to be gently put back by a Woman that professed that operation but all to no purpose the Guts being so distended with Wind neither the Gut nor the Wind would go back Fomentations nor other proper Topics availed nothing upon which I told her there was nothing but Death or a desperate Remedy that was to dilate the Peritonaeum by Incision that the Gut might be put back through a large hole my advise did not please And therefore when I saw there was nothing else to be done but what they were unwilling to permit I took my leave and left the Patient for gone After that an ordinary fellow a Stone-cutter that wandered about the Country to get business commonly called Mr. Gerrard was sent for who boasted that he would return the Gut in a small time but after he had several times attempted it in vain he was dismissed with more shame then reward four days after his departure the Groin putrifying and breaking a great quantity of Excrements came forth to the great ease of the Patient but her inevitable ruin for the Gut was broken by the compression of the Mountebank which was the reason that the part was putrify'd so soon by the falling of the Excrements into the void hollow of the Groin the last remedy then was to sow up the Gut and enlarge the Peritonaeum but in regard I saw no hope of recovery in so weak a Patient I advised her to let it alone and prepare her self for a more easie Death but such was her desire of life that neither the sharpness of the Pain nor the Apparency of the danger could deter her from the Operation so that presently sending for four eminent Chyrurgeons she desired them to go to work The Skin therefore and the adjoyning parts being opened with great torment we found the thin Gut fallen out and not only a little part of it broken but almost torn asunder quite a cross for hardly the breadth of a Straw held the two ends of the Gut together this was a certain Sign of Death for had the solution been small it might have been cured but of this there was no hope in the mean time the Gut was sowed together with a Silk Thread four times twisted and well wax'd and put up into the Belly after a small dilatation of the Peritonaeum and then Glisters proper Diet and all things requisite were prescribed the Patient complained of a great Pain about her Navel which we could not asswage by any Fomentations Bags or other Topics otherwise she was indifferent well eat with an Appetite neither were her Excrements amiss The fifth day after the operation the Pain about her Navel encreased and the next Night as the Patient was talking
after that was delivered of another Boy and both lived in good Health Therefore we must conclude the last Conception had Nourishment enough in the Womb and was strong and consequently able to retain it self in the Womb during the delivery of the other in regard the Woman's Labour was easie and without any violence OBSERVATION LXI Worms in the Head THE Son of a certain Treasurer of Iuliers a Young Lad about twelve Years of Age from his Child-hood had been always troubled with Worms in his Head at length his Mother by the advice of a Quack washed and daubed his Head with I know not what Lotions and Oyntments and so the Worm was kill'd by which the Mountebank thought to have got himself a great name in the Town but within a few days after the Boy began to complain of a Pain in his Head which every day increasing at the Months end was so intollerable that I was sent for but all to no purpose after tryal of all external and internal Medicaments at nine Weeks end Epileptic Convulsions seiz'd him which in a few days turned to a vehement Epilepsie which afflicted him at first every day then every hour then every quarter of an hour at length the Child died his Head being open'd the Hard Meninx was all over of a red Colour and very Black in that part next the upper-part of the Head somewhat toward the the left side this being dissected there came forth a Blackish and watry Goar which had lain between both the Meninxes the substance of the Brain was very little altered but in the Ventricles of it there was a kind of greenish Humour watry yet not very clammy but the quantity very small in other things there was no alteration ANNOTATIONS IN this manner it was that these Worms were cured by this Mountebank However he was wise in this that upon Notice of the Boys Death he sneaked out of Nimeghen perhaps afraid I should upbraid him with the Death of this Patient like an Ignoramus as he was who had stopp'd up the way by which Nature voided the noxious Excrements of the Brain before he had made any diversion OBSERVATION LXII A Tertian and Intermitting Fever THE Wife of Monsieur de Spieck a strong Child-bearing-Woman the second Week after she was brought to Bed found her self very well but trusting too much to her strength got out of her Bed walked about the Chamber and eat a bit of a dry'd Neats-Tongue but at the end of the third Week she was seiz'd with a violent double Tertian Intermitting Fever with an extraordinary Heat continual Waking her Stomach quite lost unquenchable Thirst with several other bad Symptoms The twenty second of August I was sent for when I found her very anxious and weak and in the midst of her second Fit which most People thought would have carry'd her off I gave her presently Bezoar Stone ℈ s. Confection Hyacinth ℈ j. with six Drams of our Treacle-water which as she said soon after gave her some ease to quench her Thirst I gave her this Julep which pleased her so well that she drank nothing else all the time of her Distemper ℞ Waters of Carduus Benedict Succoury Borage an lb. s. Syrup of Limons ℥ j. s. Violets ℥ j. Oyl of Sulphur q. s. to make it grateful to the Pallat. Toward the Evening I prescribed this Infusion which she took the next Morning ℞ Leaves of Senna well cleans'd ℥ s. Rubarb the best ʒj s. Rhenish Tartar Anniseed an ʒj Succoury water q. s. Steep them all Night the next day boyl them gently then press them strongly adding Syrup of Roses Solutive ℥ s. For a Draught This gave her four Stools which brought away much stinking Excrement and gave her great ease after the Purge I prescribed her Chicken Broth with Sorrel and Chervil boiled together in it with a little juice of Citron to relish it and to quench her Thirst still gave her the Julep before mentioned The next Night she slept indifferently and when she waked found her heat much abated the next expected Fit was so slight that she was hardly sensible of it nor did the Fever after that appear any more being vanquished by these Medicins only ANNOTATIONS CHild-bearing Women not careful of themselves when they lye in oft-times pay for their Rashness as this Gentlewoman did As also did a Neighbour of Ours who going abroad too soon fell into a continued Fever upon which first a Frenzy and then Death ensued Another of our Acquaintance the second week of her Month looking to soon after her House Affairs and presuming to Combe her Head fell into an Epilepsie upon which a Delirium ensued which Maladies though at length they were much abated yet could they never be cured all the while the Gentle-Woman lived OBSERVATION LXIII A Bleeding at the Nose THeodore Bijl about fifty five Years of Age in August about four a Clock in the Morning was taken with a Bleeding at his right Nostril Three hours after being sent for for revulsion I ordered the Chyrurgeon to open a Vein in his right Arm with a large Orifice and to take away ten Ounces of Blood which done by applying cold Water to his Neck and Forhead the Bleeding was stay'd three days after being invited to a Feast where he drank Wine a little too freely upon his return home he was again taken with the same Malady and bled all that Night before I was sent for the next day I ordered him to be let Blood as before but to no purpose nor durst we repeat Blood-letting in regard of his Age and his strength nor would he permit any Tents to be put up into his Nostrils and therefore we apply'd a little lock of Tow moisten'd with this mixture to his Forhead ℞ Bole Armoniack ʒij s. Bloodstone Mastick Frnkincense Red Coral an ℈ ij The white of one Egg. Vinegar of Roses q. s. mix them together Moreover Oxocrate which is actually cold was applied to his Neck Forehead and Testicles and Revulsions by Ligatures and Painful Frictions of the extream Parts and by Cupping Glasses applied to his Shoulders which avail'd nothing at length after the bleeding had continued above thirty six hours and the strength of the Patient through loss of Blood was very much exhausted then he was forced to admit of Astringents to be thrust up into his Nostrils therefore when we had cleansed his Nostrils from the clotted Blood we ordered a Powder of Trochischs of Myrrh of Bole-Armoniac Mastick and Frankincense to be blown through a Quill into his Nostrils and withal thrust up a thick Tent made of Linnen about a Fingers length dipt in Vinegar and the white of an Egg and sprinkled with the same Powder by which means the bleeding seemed to stop for two or three hours but afterwards the Blood began to descend through his Palate into his Mouth and the Tent falling out he bled again at the Nostril Then after we had once more cleansed his
very proper in such cases â„ž Conserve of Roses â„¥ ij s. Rosemary Flowers â„¥ j. Lavender Flowers â„¥ s. Galangale Cubebs Xyloaloes an ℈ j. Aniseed Ê’s Cinnamon Ê’j Calamus Aromaticus Ê’ij Ginger condided â„¥ s. Pine Apples prepared Ê’vj Make these into an Electuary with Syrup of preserved Citron I restored a lost Appetite and a Stomach overwhelmed with Crudities by the use of this Powder â„ž Roots of Zedoary Galangale Calamus Aromat an Ê’j VVhite Ginger Ê’s Cinnamon ℈ ij Cremor Tartar Ê’ij Make a Powder the Dose Ê’s or ℈ ij in the Morning after Dinner and Supper in a Draught of generous VVine Monsieur de Spieck generally made use of this â„ž Root of Calam. Aromatic VVhite Ginger Galangale an Ê’j For a Powder But these kind of Stomachical Electuaries Powders Tablets c. every Physician ought to prescribe according to the Disposition of the Patient Horstius makes use of this Powder â„ž Coriander-seed prepared â„¥ j. s. Anise Fennel-seed an â„¥ s. Ginger Galangale an Ê’j s. Lignum Aloes Ê’s Cinnamon Ê’j Fine Sugar the weight of all the rest for a Powder OBSERVATION LXXIV The Stone RUtger Schorer a little Boy had a small Stone which fell down into his Bladder with extraordinary Pain but being afterwards expelled into the Passage of the Yard because it was too big to pass it stuck in the middle of the Pipe and stopped the Urine Several ways were tried in vain to get it out so that at length to add to the Pain there appeared an Inflammation of the Part by which we found that there was no way but Incision to get it forth Wherefore after the Chyrurgeon had pulled up the Skin somewhat toward the Glans he opened the Ureter on that side where the Stone stopped and took out the Stone and so the Wound was presently consolidated without any hurt to the Child ANNOTATIONS THis sort of Operation mentioned by Aetius Grumelenus and Paraeus seems difficult and dangerous but yet is very secure Plato also recites two Examples of Stones cut out of the Ureter And though some are afraid of a Fistula upon such a Wound yet I never knew any such Consequence OBSERVATION LXXV Nephritic Pain THE Son of Lieutenant St. George about eighteen years of age who had been always troubled with Gravel from his Infancy and had often voided little Stones in Ianuary was so tormented with a Stone that stuck in both Ureters that he knew not where to turn himself For Cure I prescribed him this Apozem â„ž Roots of Fennel Saxifrage an â„¥ s. Licorice scraped Ê’vj Herbs Althea Mallows an m. j. Cammomil Flowers m. j. s. Cleansed Barley â„¥ j. Seeds of wild Carrots Mallows Nettles Burdock an Ê’j Four greater Cold-seeds an Ê’j s. Fat Figs n o ix Dates xi New Milk Common VVater equal parts Biol them and make an Apozem to lbiij This being taken the same and the next day the Pain ceased after he had voided a small Stone and much Gravel The next Month he was troubled with the same Pains but then by taking the said Decoction the Stone was easily brought down through the Ureters into the Bladder but then when it came into the Yard it was so big it could not pass but obstructed the Urine with most cruel Torture which the Father not being able to bear there being no Chyrurgeon to be sent for with a Razor made a small Wound underneath the Urinary Passage where the Stone stuck which done the Stone spurted out and the Urine followed in great quantity The Wound was consolidated afterwards sooner than we imagined with the Application of a few Plaisters OBSERVATION LXXVI Milk in a Virgin 's Breast A Certain Noble young Lady about twenty years of age a Virgin of eminent Chastity in the Month of February complained of a Pain in her right Breast which was also full of Milk When I had diligently examined the place affected I felt a hardness in the middle of the Breast about the bigness of a Pidgeons-egg which pained her upon Compression I also understood from her self that her Purgations had been suppressed for four Months together In order to the Cure I prescribed her first a convenient attenuating Diet then after I had purged her Body I gave her some Apozems to move her Evacuations and three or four days before the time of the Period I opened a Vein in the Heal by which means the Evacuation succesfully ensued which having continued three or four days the Swelling in her Breast fell down nor did any more Milk come forth However in regard the Hardness remained with some Pain I laid this Oyntment spread upon Linnen upon the place affected shifting it once a day â„ž Honey Populeon Oyntment Virgins Wax an â„¥ j. first melt the Wax then mix the rest and stir them with a Spatula till they are cold This Topic very much abated and within four days the hardness came to Suppuration After the Apostem was broken and had cast forth much white Matter within a few days the same Topic cured her ANNOTATIONS CErtainly had not this Lady been a Person eminent for her Chastity she might easily have incurâ—…ed the Scandal of lost Virginity among the Vulgar For rational Physicians will not deny but that upon menstruous Obstructions Milk may sometimes be generated in the Breasts of Virgins For says Hippocrates if a Woman that neither is with Child nor ever brought forth has Milk that Woman labours under a Suppression of her Courses And I remember the same Case in a young Lady of Montfort whose Chastity was above the reach of Scandal who was cured upon the forcing down her Purgations To which purpose Bartholin thus writes Even in Virgins many times Milk may be generated if the Breasts are full of Sperituous Blood and that there happen withal a menstruous Suppression in regard the glandulous Substance concocts more than is necessary for the Nourishment of the VVoman But 't is no wonder that such things should happen in young Virgins that have their Flowers when it is known that the same thing happens to old Women For Bodin reports a Story of an Infant that sucking a dry old Woman upon the Death of her Mother at length drew Milk out of her Breasts and was nourished with it to sufficiency Nay I have seen Milk more than once milked out of the Breasts of Infants not above two years old which is also attested by Cardan and Camerarius But more wonderful it is that Milk should be generated in the Breasts of Men as Aristotle testifies of a certain Lemmian Slave and Abensina who saw Milk milked from the Breasts of a Woman enough to make a Cheese Several other Stories also there are in several other Authors of Men giving Milk too tedious to relate OBSERVATION LXXVII Epileptic Convulsions A Little Son of Iohn ab Udem an Infant of seven Months old was twitched with Epileptic Convulsions almost without intermission for two days together so that nothing but Death was expected