to its natural posture but if it come the feet forward and the legs abroad she must joyn the legs and feet together taking care that she remove not the hands from the place they should hang down close by the side If the infant with one or both the knees first strive to come forth she must put them back that both feet may first come down to the passage If the child come headlong with one hand thrust out then she must put the Child back with her hand upon the shoulders that the hand may goe to its natural place if this will not prevail lay the woman upright with her thighs and belly upwards that it may pass forth as it should do If both hands come out first she must thrust the Child back by the shoulders as formerly till the hands hang down by the sides of the Child If it would come forth arsewards the buttocks first she must return it back with her hands till the legs and feet may present themselves or the head first if it be possible which is most natural If the infant present both hands and both feet together to come forth so all at once she must take the Child carefully by the head and put the legs upward to take it forth If the shoulders come first she must put it back by the shoulders that the head may come first If it come the breast forward the legs and hands lying behind she must take it by the feet or by the head as she finds it to be most easy putting the other part upward that it may come forth right If a Woman have two Children at once that come together headlong she must take forth one after the other but beware the other retreat not back in the mean time so also must she receive them both that come together with the feet forward taking them out one after the other If they come one with his feet the other with the head forward at the same time she must receive that first which is most likely and next the passage and that which cometh with the feet first if she can receive last taking heed that they do not hurt one the other But let this general rule be observed still to annoint the passage with Ducks grease or Oyle of Lillies or sweet Almonds or such things as may smooth the passage and ease womans labour and Iikewise when she toucheth any part of the infant this will help much if there should be any aposthume in the place Particular helps to delivery are to lay the woman first all along on her back her head a little raised with a Pillow and a pillow under her back and another pillow larger than the other to raise her buttocks and rump lay her thighs and knees wide open asunder her legs must be bowed backwards toward her buttocks and drawn upwards her heels and soles of her feet must be fixed against a board to that purpose laid cross her bed Some woman must have a swathe-band above a foot broad four double this must be put under her Reins and two women standing on each side of her must hold it up straight and these two persons must lift up the swathe-band equally just when her throws come or else they may do her hurt and two more of the standers by must lay hold on the upper part of her shoulders that she may with more ease force the child forth The woman must hold her breath in and strive to be delivered and the Midwife must stroke down the birth from above the Navel easily with her hand for that will as I said before make the Infant move downwards CHAP. II. To know the fit time when the Child is ready to be born I Shall desire all Midwives to take heed how they give any thing inwardly to hasten the Birth unless they are sure the Birth is at hand many a child hath been lost for want of this knowledge and the mother put to more pain than she would have been Let not therefore the child be forced out unless there fall down an extreme flux of blood for in such cases it is best to save the Mothers life to drive forth the Child but there is great skill and care to be used or the woman were as good be set upon the Rack It is hard to know when the true time of her travel is near because many women have great pains many weeks before the time of delivery comes But I think the heat of their Reins is the cause of these pains but you may know whether the heat of their reins be the cause of it or not for if their legs swell their reins are too hot and the cure will be to annoint their backs to cool the reins with Oyl of Poppies water Lillies or Violets women whose reins are hot have alwaies hard labour A strong decoction of Plantane leaves and roots in water then strained and clarified with the white of an egg boil'd then to a sirrup with its weight in Sugar is excellent take a spoonful or two when you please or drink often the water and sirrups of Violets and water Lillies But if the birth be at hand you shall know when the skins Amnios and Allantois which as I told you serve to hold the sweat and urine of the child in the womb and by the means of which skins the infant is also supported in the Matrix do break by the violent motion of the child so that these excrements fall down to the neck of the womb Midwives call it the water and when that runs forth then the Birth is near this is the truest sign that is for when those skins are broken the Infant can no longer stay there than a naked man in a heap of snow These waters make the parts slippery and the birth easie if the child come presently with them but if it stay longer till the parts grow dry it will be hard therefore Midwives do ill to rend these skins open with their nails to make way for the water to come nature will make it come forth only when she needs it and not before but if the water breakaway long before the birth it is safe to give medicaments to drive the birth after the water But there are other signs of the birth approaching let the Midwife look well on the womans belly for if the upper part of it be sunk and hollow and the lower part big and full it is certain the child is sunk down again if the womans Throws be quick and strong coming from the reins downward all along the belly and not staying at the Navel but falling still lower to the groins and inwardly to the bottom of the belly where lieth the inmost neck of the womb this is another sure sign Then let the Midwife her hand annointed with fresh butter or with oyl of sweet Almonds put up her hand and if she feel the inward neck of the womb open or any substance to push
life and motion cease the childs must needs cease that depends upon it but it is an error for the child hath a Soul and life of its own and may live a while without the Mother but the Midwife must keep the womb open that it be not stifled till the Chirurgeon cuts it out you shall feel the Child leap when the Mother is dead Charles Stephen shews how to cut out a dead Child And Francis Ruset saith a live Child may be cut out of the womb both child Mother do well it is possible and sometimes necessary to be done and it stands by reason for women receive sometimes wounds in the Peritoneum and the Muscles of the lower belly more dangerous than the Cesarian cut and yet escape well enough A Child may be sometimes very weak yet not dead take heed you do not force delivery in such occasions till you be sure it is time for children may be sick and faint in their Mothers bellies But to prevent danger burn half a pint of white-wine adding no Spice to it but half an ounce of Cinnamon and drink it off if your Travel and throws come upon you be sure it is dead but if it be but sick and weak it will refresh it and strengthen it If the Child be dead in the womb the juyce of Garden Tansey annointed on the secrets or an oyl made in Summer with the herbs before it run to flower and boil'd in oyl till the juyce be wasted and set in the Sun a moneth before you boil it is an especial oyl for Midwives The Eagle-stone held near the privy parts will draw forth the Child as the Loadstone draws Iron but be sure so soon as the Child and after burthen are come away that you hold the stone no longer for fear of danger Any of these herbs half a dram in powder drunk in white-wine will do much viz of Bettony or Sage or Penny-Royal Fetherfew or Centory Ivy-berries and leaves or drink a strong decoction of Master-wort or of Hysop in hot water it soon will bring the dead Child forth because the afterbirth is corrupted in such cases and comes forth by pieces it is fit to drink of the same drink till all be come away or the roots of Polipody stamped and warm'd laid to the soles of her feet presently works the effect The same things almost all are proper when the Child is living and comes to be born but if her Travel be long the Midwife must refresh her with some Chickens broth of the Yolk of a potched Egg with a little bread or some wine or strong water but moderately taken and withal to cheer her up with good words stroaking down her belly above her Navel gently with her hand for that makes the Child move downwards She must bid her hold in her breath as much as she can for that will cause more force to bring out the Child Place here the Picture of all sorts of postures of Children Take notice that all women do not keep the same posture in their delivery some lye in their beds being very weak some sit in a stool or chair or rest upon the side of the bed held by other women that come to the Labor If the Woman that lyeth in be very fat fleshly or gross let her ly groveling on the place for that opens the womb and thrusts it downwards The Midwife must annoint her hands with Oyl of Lillies and the Womans Secrets or with Oyl of Almonds and so with her hands handle and unloose the parts and observe how the Child lyeth and stirreth and so help as time and occasion direct But above all take heed you force not the birth till the time be come and the Child come forward and appears ready to come forth Now the danger were much to force delivery because when the woman hath laboured sore if she rest not a while she will not be able presently to endure it her strength being spent before Also when you see the after-buthen then be sure the Birth is at hand but if the coats be so strong that they will not break to make way for the Child to come forth the Midwife must gently and prudently break and rend it with her nails if she can raise it she may cut a piece of it with a knife or pair of Sciffers but beware of the infant Then follows presently a flux of humours and the Child after that but if all the humours that should make the place slippery chance to run forth by this means before the child come the parts within and without must be annointed with Oyl of Almonds or Lillies and a whole Egg Yelk and white beaten and poured into the privy passage to to make it glib instead of the waters that are run forth too soon If the child have a great head and stick by the way the Midwife must annoint the place with Oyl as before and enlarge the part as much as may be the like must be done when Twins offer themselves if the head comes first the birth is natural but if it come any other way the Midwife must do what she can to bring it to this posture Sometimes the infant comes with the legs forwards and both arms downwards close to the sides this way the Midwife may endeavour to take it forth if it continue the same posture by annointing and gently handling the place but it is safer if she can to turn the Legs upward again by the Belly that the head may first come down by the back of the womb for that is the natural way If the child come forth with both legs and feet first and the Childs hands both lifted above the head this is the worst for danger of all the rest she must strive to turn the Child and if she cannot she must try to bring the hands down to the sides and to keep the legs close that it may come forth or else to bind the feet as they come out with some linnen Cloath and tenderly to help delivery but it will be hard to it Sometimes the Child will come forth with one foot and the other lifted upward Then let the woman in Child-bed be laid upright on her back hold up her thighs and belly that her head be lower than her body then let the Midwife with her hand gently put back the leg that is come forth into the womb again and bid the labouring woman to stir and move her self that by her stirring the birth may offer it self the head downward and if so you may then set her in a Chair as she was at first that she may have a natural delivery but if this cannot be done then the Midwife with her hand must discreetly bring forth that leg that is not yet come forth but beware she put not the Childs hands that lye close down by its sides out of their place if the side of the child come towards the passage she must turn the child
maids are too narrow so that there is no flux of blood thither to make this Mole of as it is in women that have had the use of man but without dispute the principal cause is womens carnally knowing their Husbands when their Terms are purging forth from whence Moles and Monsters distorted imperfect ill qualified Childred are begotten Let such as fear God or love themselves or their posterity beware of it The windy Mole proceeds from an over-cold womb Spleen and Liver which breeds wind that fastneth in the hollow of the part Sometimes the womb is weak and cannot transmute the blood for nourishment but it turns to water which cannot be all sent forth but part of it remains in the womb also the womb ofttimes receives a great confluence of water from the spleen or from some parts nigh unto it The Mole made of many humors flowing to the womb proceeds from the Whites or ill purgations coming from the menstruous Veins The fourth Mole is a skin full of blood with many white diaphanous vessels if you cast it into the water the skin coagulates like a clod of seed and the blood runs away It is very hard to know a false conception from a true until four moneths be past and then the motion of the body of the thing conceived will shew it for if it be a living Child that moves quick and lively but the false conception falls from one side to another like a stone as the woman turns her self in her bed if it stir at all it is but like a sponge trembling and beating and contracts and dilates it self like the beating of the pulse almost This false conception hath many signes whereby it personates and shews like a true Conception for the Terms stop their stomachs fail they loath their meat they vomit and belch sowrly their breasts and belly swell cunning Midwives and women themselves that have them are deceived taking one for the other There are many other things bred in the womb sometimes besides these Moles Two famous Physician of Senon tell us of a woman that had a Child in her womb that did not corrupt nor stink though it lay long dead there untill it was turned into a stone cold and heat and driness might keep the child from corrupting but there was also a petrifying humour mixt with the seed and blood or it could never have been turned into a stone there is but this single History that I ever read of this kind and Authors say the mother lived twenty eight years after she was delivered of it but it is no great wonder why it did not stink nor corrupt in the womb for many aged women live many years with a Mole in the body yet it never stinks nor corrupts though they keep it in them till they dye As for Monsters of all sorts to be formed in the womb all nations can bring some examples Worms Toades Mice Serpents Gordonius saith are common in Lumbardy and so are those they call Soole kints in the Low Countries which are certainly caused by the heat of their stones and menstrual blood to work upon in women that have had company with men and these are sometimes alive with the infant and when the Child is brought forth these stay behind and the woman is sometimes thought to be with Child again as I knew one there my self which was after her child-birth delivered of two like Serpents and both run away into the Burg wall as the women supposed but it was at least three moneths after she was delivered of a Child and they came forth without any loss of blood for there was no after burden Again in time of Copulation Imagination ofttimes also produceth Monstrous births when women look too much on strange objects To distinguish then false conceptions from true but if there be both true and false at once that is very hard to know False Conceptions cause the greatest pains in their Backs and Groins and Loyns and Head their Bellies swell sooner they faint more their Faces and Feet and Legs swell their Bellies grow hard like a Dropsie they have such pain in their Bellies that they cannot sleep because they carry such a dead weight within them and though their Faces and breasts swell they grow daily soft and lank and no milk in their Breasts but what is like water or very little whereas women with Child about the fourth moneth have their Breasts swoln with milk Some women look well with these false Conceptions but most of them look pale and wan and ill favoured If it be a boy that is conceived he will stir at the beginning of the third Moneth and a Girle at the beginning of the third or fourth moneth and so soon as the infant moves there is Milk bred in the Breasts as any one may prove that will The Child that is alive moves to all sides and upward and downward without any help but oftenest to the right flanck A false conception may have a motion from the expulsive faculty but not from it self and being not tied by ligaments as a living Child is it tumbles to one side or other and if she lye on her back and one press it down with his hand gently there it will stay and not remove up again of it self If she go with a Mole nine months compleat her belly will swell more and more but she will wax lean and wan and never offer to be delivered Yet a woman may go ten or eleven months with child before her time be perfect to bring forth but this depends upon the time when the child was begotten and some women ordinarily go longer or shorter before they come to bring forth Those that have Moles are usually barren or their Privities are ulcerated for it hurts the womb and the whole fabrick of their bodies The windy Mole will swell the belly like a Bladder and it will sound like a Drum but it is softer than the fleshy Mole or the watry it grows sooner and sooner disappears and she will feel her self lighter when it abates but sometimes it will heat the belly with such violence as if she were upon the rack The watry Mole is a fluctuation of water from one side to another as the woman turns her self when she lieth and then that lide will be higher where the water falls and the other side will sink down the more and grow flatter The Mole caused from many humours doth not make the belly swell so much as the watry Mole doth because the water comes more in quantity and is clear whereas the humours are reddish and stink when they come forth like water wherein flesh hath been washed There is one observation more concerning false conceptions that when they happen the Flowers stop presently and never come down whereas they do sometimes the first two months in true conceptions because they are superfluous in strong full fed persons before the child comes to want more nutriment also the Navel
the child by his calcining heat what is bred by moisture and heat is fixed by cold and dryness Mars heats with a fiery calcination but Venus she tempers the heat of Mars by her moisture for she is a cold moist Planet and fitly added to abate the courage and violent heat of warlike Mars there is a great sympathy between Mars and Venus and therefore surely the Poets speak so much of their conjunction for they are eminent in this of mans generation You may by this find out the causes of sympathy and antipathy in natural things and seeing all things are made up of such contrary qualities what is generated must in time be corrupted nothing is eternal in this world but a perpetual motion breeds mutation and not man nor any thing else can continue in the same stay Mars and Venus do here play their parts in mans production for they are the nearest of the five Planets to the earth but next to them is Mercury of a changeable disposition and applieth himself to the rest of the Planets with several aspects and he causeth the desire of knowledge in man sense and reason also some maintain to be the work of Mercury by his influence upon the child in the womb It is not denied but a piercing acute humour proceeds from him which is most likely to effect not alone the sensible but the rational part in man CHAP. IX Of the Posture the child holdeth in the Womb and after what fashion it lieth there HEre Physicians are at a stand and are never like to agree about it not two in twenty that can set their horses together the speculation is very curious insomuch that the Prophet David ascribes this knowledge as more peculiar to God Psalm 139. My reins are thine thou hast covered me in my mothers womb I will give thanks unto thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well my bones are not hid from thee though I be made secretly and fashioned beneath in the earth thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect and in thy Book were all my members written which day by day were fashioned whenas yet there was none of them Yet Anatomists have narrowly enquired into this secret Cabinet of nature and Hippocrates that great Physician tells us in his Book De natura Pueri that the infant lieth in the womb with his head his hands and his knees bending downward towards his feet so that he is bended round together his hands lying upon both his knees the thumbs of his hands his eyes meeting each with other so saith Bartholinus the younger of the two Likewise Columbus's opinion is that the child lieth round in the womb with the right arm bended and the fingers of the right hand lying under the ear of it above the neck the head bowed so low that the chin meets and toucheth the breast and the left arm bowed lying above the breast and the face and the right elbow bended serves to underprop the left arm lying upon it the legs are lying upwards and the right leg is lifted so high that the infants thigh toucheth its belly the knees touch the Navel and the heel toucheth the left buttock and the foot is turned backward and hides the privy members as for the left thigh that toucheth the belly and the left leg is lifted up to the breast the stomach lyeth inward But the expert Spigelius hath the fashion of a child near the birth whose figure I have here laid down and I believe it is very proper for as well as I am able to judge by the figure it is the very same with that of a child that I had once the chance to see when I was performing my office of Midwifry Here insert the Figure of the Child near its Birth The Figure Explained Being a Dissection of the WOMB with the usual manner how the CHILD lies therein near the time of its Birth BB. The inner parts of the Chorion extended and branched out C. The Amnios extended DD. The Membrane of the Womb extended and branched E. The Fleshy substance call'd the Cake or Placenta which nourishes the Infant it is full of Vessels F. The Vessels appointâ—d for th◠〈…〉 This is a general observation that the Male Child most commonly lyeth on the right side in the womb and the Female on the left side but Hippocrates layeth it down as the most universal way to have his hands knees and head bending down toward the feet his nose betwixt his knees his hands upon both knees and his face between them each eye touching each thumb but he is wrapt as he lieth in two mantles or garments as I said for a boy hath no more that which immediately covers him and lieth next to his skin is called Amnios the skirt or Lamb-skin it is wonderful soft and thin and is loose on all sides only it grows so fast to the Cake that it can hardly be parted from it the use of it farther is to receive the Childs sweat and Urine which moisteneth the mouth of the Matrix also and makes the birth more easie but the outward coat called Chorion is very strong and sinewy and encloseth the child round about and like a soft pillow or bed bears up all the veins and Arteries of the Navel which would have been in danger to have been carried so far without some soft bolster to sustain them These coats growing fast together seem to be but one coat or one to be the beginning of the other and this altogether taken is called the after-burden or Secundine for when the Child is grown strong enough to come out of the womb and the time of his birth is at hand he breaks through these coverings and the coverings come forth after the child is born yet sometimes a piece of the Amnios covers the childs face and head when he is born and women call it the caule and hold it to be a Sign of some great happiness that will befall the child in the following part of his life but some think it is neither here nor there one born without this caule may be as happy as he that is born with it There belong to the child whilest it lieth in the womb some things that are proper for it some to cloath it and are only for that time that it lieth in that place and afterwards of no known use though some have tried to make use of them in Physick and Chirurgery but commonly they cast it away Some things again serve to nourish and feed it in the womb and those are the Navel-vessels which are four in number two arteries one vein and that vessel which is called Vrachos which carrieth away the childs water in the womb to that skin that is prepared to hold that water so long as the child staies in the womb and it is called Allantois The vein I speak of comes from the Infants Liver and
reason of ill conformity of the generative parts or but one of them for if both be not perfect to all respects as to that work of copulation they shall never have any children and such marriages are not lawful by the Laws of God or man because that procreating and bearing children is one of the chief ends of marriage but accidental barrenness may happen to them by reason of some curable infirmity and when that is removed they may be as fruitful as others that are naturally so Physicians and Midwives have tried many ways to discover when man and wife cannot fructifie where the fault lieth whether the hinderance be from the man or from his wife or from both the best experiment that ever I could find was to take some small quantity of Barley or any other Corn that will soon grow and soak part of it in the mans Urine and part in the womans Urine for a whole day and a night then take the Corn out of both their Urines and lay them apart upon some floor or in parts where it may dry and in every morning water them both with their own Urine and so continue that Corn that grow first is the most fruitful and so is the person whose Urine was the cause of it if one or neither part of these grains grow they are one or both of them barren almost all men and women desire to be fruitful naturally and it is a kind of self-destroying not to be willing to leave some succession after us nay it seems to be more general and to tend to the ruine of the world which cannot be continued without fruitfulness in copulation Virginity and single life in some cases is preferred before Matrimony because it is a singular blessing and gift of God which all people are not capable of But for men or women to mutilate themselves on purpose or use destructive means to cause barrenness besides the means prescribed of Prayer and fasting I cannot think to be justifiable though some persons have presumptuously ventured upon it Let the Votaries of the Roman Church look to it when they make vows of chastity which the greatest part of them doubtless are never able to keep but by using unlawful means I much doubt whether they pray and fast so much as they pretend to The principal cause of barrenness in man or woman lieth in the generative parts and if children be born defective it is not we that are Midwives can cure it what Nature wants Art can hardly make perfect It is not my design so much to speak of unfruitfulness in men but of women in relation to their Conception and Child-bearing and I conceive the chiefest cause of womens barrenness to be from the womb of them that is ill formed or ill disposed and not as naturally it should be in those that may have children There are many infirmities that we women especially are made unfruitful by but God hath appointed several remedies for most accidents that none need to despair of help true it is that the Scripture relates of a woman that had an issue of blood twelve years and could find no cure but had spent all upon Physicians yet at last she was cured by touching the hem of Christ's Garment it is probable God would not have her cured by man that her faith might be confirmed by the surpassing vertue she found in Christ But before I come to speak of this I shall speak of the things that are most proper to follow in order namely concerning delivery of women with child CHAP. II. Of great pain and difficulty in Child-bearing with the Signs and causes and cures I Have done with that part of Anatomy that concerns principally us Midwives to know that we may be able to help and give directions to such women as send for us in their extremities and had we not some competent insight into the Theory we could never know how to proceed to practice that we may be able to give a handsome account of what we come for The accidents and hazards that women lye under when they bring their Children into the world are not few hard labour attends most of them it was that curse that God laid upon our sex to bring forth in sorrow that is the general cause and common to all as we descended from the same great Mother Eve who first tasted the forbidden fruit but the particular causes are diverse according to several ages and constitutions and conformations or infirmities For sometimes Maids are married very young at twelve or fourteen years of age and prove so soon with Child when the passage is very little dilated but is very strait and narrow in such a case the labour in Child-bearing must needs be great for the infant to find passage and for the Mother to endure it and it must of necessity be much greater if some diseases go along with it which happens oft in those parts as Pushes and Pyles and Aposthumes that Nature can hardly give way for the Child to be born Sometimes the Bladder or near parts are offended and the womb is a sufferer by consent and this will hinder delivery And so if her body be bound that she cannot go to stool the belly stopt with excrement will make the pain in travel the greater because the womb hath not room to enlarge it self So if women be too old as well as too young or if they be weak by accident or naturally of feeble constitutions if they be fearful cannot well endure pain be they too lean or too spare bodies too gross or too fat or if they be unruly will not be governed they will suffer the greater pain in Child-birth and it is not without reason maintained also that a Boy is sooner and easier brought forth than a Girle the reasons are many but they serve also for the whole time she goes with Child for women are lustier that are with Child with Boys and therefore they will be better able to run through with it the weaker they are the greater the pain because they are less able to endure it and the strength of the Child is much for it will sooner break forth than when it is weak though it be of the same sex if the Child be large and the passage strait as it is alwayes though not alike in all she must look for a great deal of pain when the time of delivery comes but none more painful and dangerous than Monstrous births Sometimes the Child doth not come at the time appointed by Nature or it offers not it self in such a posture as that it may find a passage forth as when the feet first present themselves to the neck of the womb either both feet together or else but one foot and both hands upwards or both knees together or else more dangerous yet lying all upon one side thwart the womb or else backward or arselong or two Children offer themselves at once with their feet first
or one foot and one head the postures are so many and strange that no woman Midwife nor man whatsoever hath seen them all We have an example in Scripture of two Children that Judah got incestuously upon his Daughter in Law Tamar who offered themselves to the Birth at the same time Gen. 38.26 And it came to pass in the time of her travel that behold Twins were in her womb and when she travelled one of them put forth his hand the Midwife took and bâ—und upon his hand a scarlet thred saying this came out first and it came to pass that as he drew his hand again back his brother came out and she said how hast thou broken forth this breach be upon thee therefore his name was called Pharez And after him came his brother that had the Scarlet thred upon his hand and his name was called Zerah We do not read but that she was safely delivered of them both and neither Mother nor Child died in the Birth But we find an example that will serve to our purpose concerning hard labor and that of Rachel a good woman wife to the Patriark Jacob Gen. 35.17 18. Rachel travelled and she had hard labor and when she was in travel the Midwife said to her fear not thou shalt have this Son also but her soul was departing for she died c. A single birth and a Boy which is easier labour as I said than of a Girle and a young woman who had born one child before yet Child-bearing is so dangerous that the pain must needs be great and if any feel but a little pain it is commonly harlots who are so used to it that they make little reckoning of it and are wont to fare better at present than vertuous persons do but they will one day give an account for it if they continue impenitent and be condemned to a torment of hell which far surpasses all pains in Child birth yet these doubtless are the greatest of all pains women usually undergo upon Earth There are many more causes of great pains in travel than have been yet spoken of for if a woman miscarry before the due time of Child birth if she come in three or four or five Moneths after she hath conceived the womb at that time is close shut by the course of nature and must be forced to open which if the Child come at the just time it should come opens it self but Abortion makes the woman that she ofttimes never can conceive again for she can hardly ever retain the mans Seed any more there is such a weakness caused in the retentive faculty or else she will hardly ever conceive again And I have heard some women complain that have miscarryed of the great pains they have endured at such a time and to profess that they have found less pain in bearing ten Children than when they have miscarryed with one But there is yet something worse than all this when a Child comes to be dead in the womb and is of full age to be born for then it cannot help the woman because it stirs not nor can it be turned that it may be brought forth but with great difficulty and if the woman have been long sick her self the infant cannot be strong in her womb if she have by some accident had her courses come down much after she is conceived with Child or had some extraordinary flux or looseness and if the Child do not stir as a living and healthful Child will these are signes of imbecillity Moreover the Secundine which covers the Child in the womb of which I gave you the description before that it is the Membranes and Coats Chorion and Amnios and these are ofttimes so strong that they will not break to make passage for the Child to come forth it may cause hard labour also if the Secundine be too thin and weak so that it cleaves asunder before the child be turned or fitted to come to the birth for by this means all the moisture and humours run forth of the womb and leave the after-birth dry and the Birth can hardly pass because the womb is not slippery wanting due moisture Cold also shuts the womb closer and heat causeth the woman to faint if either of them exceed so that she must be kept in a due temper or her delivery will not be so easy as it might be otherwise Besides these Diet is to be taken into consideration for sower and binding things will straiten the Orifice of the Matrix as Quinces and Chesnuts and Services and Medlars and Pears all these and such like cause dolour by contracting the womb sweet scents cause hard delivery because they draw the matrix upward too much hunger or thirst weariness or watching extraordinarily and to use cold baths after the fifth moneth or astringent mineral baths of Alum Salts or Iron or of vegetables that bind much will produce the like painful effects The woman may be assured also by the pains she feels before travel if they be above the Navel and in the back only and not below as they should be in time of delivery that all is not so well as not to put her to more than ordinary pain the signes of easie Birth are contrary to these for then the pains bear downwards and not upwards and so they are not so violent if she have usually been delivered with ease if the woman have cold fainting sweats and she swoon away and her Pulse beat out of measure there is much danger but if she be strong and lusty and the Child tumbles and strives much to come forth and the pains fall to the bottom of the belly there is no fear but know this all women are most in danger to miscarry in the first and second moneth after they have conceived for then the ligaments and all parts of it are weak and easily spoiled and torn in sunder and about the end of her going with Child the Child is heavy and the womb begins to open and so causeth danger of abortion but in about four five or six moneths there is least danger in taking Physick or letting blood if the women be oppressed with it for then she will not easily miscarry I told you before that women are all ready to be brought a bed at seven moneths end for that number of seven is the perfection of all numbers Pythagoras saith that seven is the knot that binds Mans life and Hippocrates lib. de Principiis saith that the time of all men is determined by seven every climatericall or seven years breeding a new alteration in the body of Man Children cast their Teeth at seven and Maids courses begin to flow at fourteen Seven times seven is of great danger to Mans life and the great Climaterical which few escape is seven times nine which makes sixty three But the signes of miscarriage in Childbirth are if the Child be faln lower toward the wombs mouth and so out of its
ligaments are so strong that tye it down and the falling of it down is onely by reason of moisture that relax the ligaments but that will not make it ascend and though it be enlarged in conception that is not presently but by degrees nor are the ligaments always much relaxed in Childbearing but what is that if it be not the womb that may sometimes be felt to move above the womans navel as round as a Ball that round ball is the womans stones together with that blind Vessel Fallopius found out like to the great end of a Trumpet and is therefore called Fallopius hiâ— Trumpet the stones they hang and the body of the Trumpet is like a pipe that is loose and moving and when they are full swoln with vapours and corrupt seed they stir to and fro and come up to the navel and Riolanus saith this Trumpet and the stones make this great round Ball. Whasoever fills them with corrupt seed and venemous windy vapours causeth this moving and from thence suffocation of the womb when these poysonous vapours are freely carried by the Nerves veins and arteries to all the principal parts the Brain the Heart the Liver and the rest it is not extream dangerous yet it may turn to the strangling of the womb if means be not used such as are good against suffocations of the womb when they seem to be strangled but of that afterwards Sometimes it falls as low as the middle of the thighs and sometimes near the knees when the ligaments are loose it falls by its own weight when the Terms are stopt and the Veins and arteries are full that go to the womb it is drawn on one side if there be a Mole on one side the Liver veins too full on the right side or the spleen on the left are the cause of it But how it comes to be loose is questioned Hâ—ppocrates saith great heat or cold of the feet or loyns violent causes external leaping or dancing may do it for these moisten and soke the ligaments if the woman take cold after she is delivered and the Terms flow Platerus ascribes it to the loosening of the fibrous neck the adjacent parts by the weight of the Matrix falling down but then the ligatures must be loose or broken but when a woman is so in a dropsie it is the salt water that causeth it and that drieth more than it moisteneth The signs to know it are that the womb is only fallen down if there be a little swelling within or without the privities like a skin stretched but if the swelling be like a Goose egg and a hole at the bottom there is then a great pain in the Os sacrum the bottom of the belly the loyns and secrets to which the womb is tied because the ligaments are relaxed or broken but the pain will abate soon and the woman can hardly go sometimes the vessels breaking blood comes forth the woman falls into Convulsions and a Feaver and cannot void her excrements by stool nor Urine at first it may be easily helpt but hardly afterwards yet it is not mortal though it be filthy and troublesome if it come with a Feaver or convulsion it is mortal in women with child if the ligaments be corroded the danger is the more The cure is thrust it up gently before the air change it or it swell and inflame first administer a gentle Glister to void the excrements then lay the woman on her back her head downwards her legs abroad and thighs lifted up and with your hand thrust it in gently remove the humours with a decoction of Mallows Marsh-mallows Cammomile flowers Bay berries Linseed and Fenugreek and annoint it with Oil of Lillies and Hens-greafe if it be inflamed stay a while before you put it up you may fright it in with a hot Iron presented near it as if you would burn it sprinkle on it the powder of Mastick Frankincense and the like when it is put up let her ly stretcht out with her legs and one leg upon the other for eight or ten dayes and a Pessary with a Sponge or Cork dipt in astringent wine with powder of Dragons-blood Bole or the ointment called the Caunlesses at the Apothecaries apply a large cupping glass to the Navel or breasts or both kidneys use astringent Plaisters to her back fomentations baths injections if evil humors cause it to fall out purge them first away because they sob the ligaments and then use drying drinks of Guaicum China Forta use Pessaries and ligaments as for the Rupture to keep it in its place of which see Francis Rauset you may use circles or balls in place of Pessaries made of Briony roots cut round or of Virgins wax with white Rosin and Turpentine when they are dried if it gangrene cut it off or bind it fast that it may fall of it self Rauset shews when you may ty it or cut it off without danger her diet must be drying and astringent and astringent red wine to drink If it encline to either side apply Cupping Glasses to the other side and the Midwife may annoint her finger with the oyl of sweet Almonds and by degrees draw it to its place CHAP. III. Of Feavers after Child-bearing THis disease frequently follows when she is not well purged of her burden or the purgations are corrupt that stay behind about the third or fourth day they will be Feaverish also by the turning of the blood from the womb to the breasts to make milk but this lasts not long nor is it any danger but you may mistake a putrid Feaver for a Feaver that comes from the milk for the humours may be inflamed from her labour in travel and corrupt though they appear not presently to be so the next day after she is delivered but from thence you must reckon the beginning of the Feaver it is probable then that this Feaver comes from some other cause especially if her purgings be stopt it may proceed from ill humours gathered in her body whilst she went with child and are only stirred by her labour if she be not well purged after travel the blood and ill humours retreat to the Liver by the great veins and cause a putrid Feaver but if they flow too much the Feaver may come long after A feaver from milk will come on the fourth day with pains in the shoulders and the back and the terms may flow well if she kept an ill diet when she was big with child the Feaver comes from ill humours if it come not from milk if it do it will end about eight or ten dayes after but if it come from stoppage of purgations if she have not a loosness it is very dangerous if black and ill savouring matter purge by the womb it is safe But if the Feaver come from ill humours and the body be Cacochymical it is worse for that shews the ill humours are many which nature cannot send forth by the after-purgings and
burns and hot swellings and head-ach that comes of heat by a likeness and affinity it hath to draw hot vapours to it so Linseed oil is good against burnings Scaliger affirms that Camphire increaseth Venery it may do so if it be used seldome but often used it is certain that it will destroy it There is moreover from ill tempered seed and melancholly blood in the vessels near the Heart which contaminates the Vital and Animal Spirits a melancholy distemper that especially Maids and Widows are often troubled with and they grow exceeding pensive and sad for melancholy black blood abounding in the Vessels of the Matrix runs sometimes back by the great arteries to the heart and infects all the spirits when this blood lieth still they are well but if it be stirred or urged then presently they fall into this distemper they know not why and the arteries of the spleen and back beat strongly and melancholly vapours fly up They are sorely troubled and weary of all things they can take no rest their pain lieth most on their left side and sometimes on the left breast in time they will grow mad and their former great silence turns to prating exceedingly crying out that they see fearful spirits and dead men when it is gone so far it is hard to cure it is vain then to try to make them merry they despair and wish to die and when they find an opportunity they will kill or drown or hang themselves At first when the blood is hot and fiery open a vein in the arm if they have their courses if not in the foot or ancle to bring the courses down Cooling moistening cordials and such things as revive the spirits and conquer melancholy wil do much driers are naught for melancholly is dry Confectio Alkermes is commended for those that can away with it but Confectio de Hyacintho is better use a moistening diet To breed mirth give her waters of Balm and Borage of each three ounces sirrup of the juices of Borage and Bugloss of each one ounce and a half take this at twice and use it often To purge melancholly take six drams of Senna Agarick one dram and a half Borage and violet flowers of each a small handful two drams of Citron peels infuse all six hours in good Rhenish wine strain them and put to them sirrup of Violets one ounce CHAP. II. Of the Falling Sickness WHen Women by reason of the ill affections of the womb fall into Epilepsies and Falling sickness it is worse than any other cause as the symptomes prove for the poisonous vapor is not only in the Nerves as when it is from the brain but also in the membranes veins and arteries The same foul vapour that causeth strangling of the womb produceth this for it causeth divers diseases according to the parts it takes hold on but when it lights forcibly on the Nerves then it causeth the Falling-sickness Sometimes there is a convulsion of the whole body and sometimes but of some parts as of the head or tongue hands or legs eyes or ears some cannot hear others cannot see all lose the sense of feeling some cry out but know not wherefore They that fall if the vapour be not too strong when they rise they go to their work again as if they had no harm but here is not only convulsions as in those that have the Falling-sickness from other parts but stopping the breath as in the strangling of the womb but these seldome some at the mouth as those do for the brain is entire or not much offended nor is their hearing taken away quite by the vapour fastening upon the roots of the Nerves of the ears Rue and Castor that cure fits of the Mother are good here the cure is almost the same only you must add some things that respect the nerves and the Brain Use these Pills twice in a week before supper one hour and take a scruple or half a dram Take Senna and Peony root of each half an ounce Mugwort Rue Betony Yarrow half a handful of each boil them then clarifie the decoction put to it Aloes one ounce and a half of juice of the herb Mercury one ounce let it stand and settle pour off the clear liquor then add two drams of Rhubarb sprinkled with water of Cinnamon Agarick half an ounce Mastick and Epileptick powder of each half a dram make the pills with sirrup of Mugwort To mend the distemper of the head and Womb take conserve of Rosemary flowers and of the Tile tree of Balm and Lillies of the valley of the root Scorzonera Candied of each one ounce Diamoschu dulce one dram with two drams of the roots of Peony and seeds of Agnus Castus and sirrup of Stoechas make an Electuary to take at your pleasure Nor are these all the ill consequences of the wombs distempers but sometimes violent head-ach springs from it which is the greatest pain of all the rest and sometimes it is all over the head or but upon one side or in the eyes the ill vapours rising by the veins and arteries of the Womb to the membranes and films of the brain when the vessels are full of a thin sharp blood that is carried from the womb to the membranes it stretcheth and rends them and corrodes and bites so that the pain is intollerable the cure is to purge away the peccant humour that lieth in the Womb for this is not as other head-ach is that comes from other causes the pain runs also to the Loins and the Membranes there by some capillary veins from the womb The pain of the head by affection with the womb is in all the head commonly but is chiefly iâ— the hinder part of the head because the womb being Nervous consents with the membranes of the brain by the membrane of the Marrow of the back hence it is that women are more subject to the head-ach than men are because of the womb that holds such affinity with the Nerves of the head The violent beating of the heart and Arteries both in the Sides and Back is by consent from the womb when evil humors therein contained pass by the Arteries and Poysonous vapours arise to those parts Cordials are good as Cinnamon Water and Aqua Monefardi or Mathiolas his water the Disease seems small but it is not safe because the cause of it is very ill In this Disease the Artery that beats in the Back beats strongly because it is part of the great Artery but the Arteries that beat in the Hypochondrion beat not so strongly for they are smaller branches from the Spleen and Mesentery but the cause is the same The Arteries are inflamed by the ill vapours and humours sent from the womb and the heart is exceedingly heated by them but this hot humor sometimes beats by reason of the great Artery quite over the whole body but it lasts not long for there is little corruption of the humors Some say the blood
Plaister The watry rupture is cured with oil of Elder of Bays and of Rue or else make a Cataplasme of Bean flower Fenugreek Linseed Cummin seed Cammomile flowers and the oils aforesaid XI Sometimes children are weak that they are long before they can go wherefore it is good to strengthen their legs and thighs that they may be able to go betimes and that may be done thus take the juice of Marjoram of Sage and of Danewort an equal quantity of each fill a glass viol with these juices and with Past lute it round and when you set in houshold bread in the oven then set in your glass when you draw it forth break the glass and save the ointment you shall find in it melt this with some neats-Neats-foot oil and rub the Childs Legs and Thighs with it on the hinder parts XII Children have many diseases that chiefly happen about the head outwardly as many ulcerous risings and pushes which come chiefly from the Nurses ill milk wherefore purge the nurse and give the child some sirrup of Borrage or of Fumitory bath the Scabs with softening decoctions then dry them with Allum Camphoratum If these milky Scabs called Achores and Favi be not well cured they turn to a Scald or scabby stinking Ulcer called Tinea a moth because like a moth it will fret as they eat Garments The milk scab comes at the first sucking and after that the Achores which are scabs that are not white and are only upon the head but the white scabs run over all the face and the body Those Ulcers in the head especially still run with matter they are of several colours as white red yellow black but they all come from excrementitious watery salt thick and thin humours that itch and make them to scratch they were gathered in the womb and bad milk increaseth them in time they cure themselves if the cause be not too bad but if the matter be too fierce it will pierce the Scull when it runs it doth children good if it stink it may cause the Falling sickness Carduus and Scabius water and good cordials will drive them out coolers and binders are naught for they strike them in The nurse must keep a good diet and prepare her self with Bugloss Borrage Fumitory Succory Hops Polypody and Dock roots then purge with Senna Epithymum and Rhubarb forbear salt spiced and sharp meats Conserve of Succory roots and Citrons candied of each half an ounce of Borrage Bugloss Violets Fumitory and Succory of each one ounce Harts-horn Diarrhodon Diamargariton frigid of each a scruple make an Electuary with sirrup of Gilliflowers let the nurse take daily two drams Purge the child with Manna wash the Head with a decoction of Mallowes Barley Wormwood Celandine Marshmallow roots boiled in barley water and boys piss make an ointment to use after it with oyl of bitter Almonds oyl of Roses and some Litharge or wash the head with Soap if you fear it may turn to a Scald head or eat into the skull and then with the former decoction or take Ceruss Litharge of each two drams of Agarick and Pomegranate flowers of each one dram oyl of Roses and Vinegar make an oyntment If it come to be a Scald head it is a dry Ulcer in the head onely called Tinea but Achores are moist Ulcers in the head and body sometimes A Scald head is infectious it proceeds from a salt sharp melancholick humor from the Mothers blood or from corrupt Milk These Scabs are like bran sometimes or Scurf with Scales sometimes slimy and when the Scab comes off you shall see red quick knobs of flesh like the in-side of a fig some of them are malignant they run but little but that which comes forth stinks much An old black or ash-coloured scab is hard to cure the other is not so when it is new and yellow matter comes from it The hair will scarce ever come again when it is cured the skin is so exceeding hard rub the skin and if it will not seem red there is no hopes of hair The salt humours make the skin thick and dry wherefore it will be good to moisten with laying on a Beet or a Colewort leaf spread with Hogs grease and remove the scab with such things as cleanse and are some what sharp When the child comes to age and is able to bear it purge with Senna Rhubarb and Agarick then take Brimstone two drams Mustard half a dram Briony roots and Staves-acre of each one dram Vinegar one ounce Turpentine and Bears grease of each half an ounce this ointment will make the scab fall or if you beat Hogs-grease and Water-cresses together and lay it on the scab it will fall off in four and twenty hours when the scab is fallen use a pitcht Cap to pull out the hair by the roots then use softeners to correct the dry distemper Apply things that will consume the excrements that lie deep in the skin as take one ounce of each of these following roots of Docks Lillies and Marshmallows of Mallows Fumitory Sage of each two handfuls and boil all in vinegar and Ly and wash the head daily with it Then make a Cerot of Tar and Wax or take salt-Peter one ounce Oxymel one ounce and a half or mingle with Hogs grease live Brimstone one ounce with Hellebore and Staves-acre of each two drams but beware of poisons such as are Arsenick or Pigment or Mercury for they are dangerous to corrode the part that lieth so near the brain XIII Sometimes childrens heads swell with water and are very big the water is either without the skul or within the skul for this water lieth either between the skin and the pericranium or between the bone and the pericranium or between the bone and the membranes called the Dura and Pia Mater Sometimes abundance of vapours get between the bones and skin of the head make the head so great that they kill the child If it be water the child will be giddy and have Epileptick fits nor can it rest If it be only wind between the skin and the pericranium a decoction of Sage Betony Calamint and Origanum of each one handful of Anniseeds and Fennel seeds of each two drams with a handful of Cammomile flowers and of Melilot and red roses the like quantity boiled in water with some wine will cure it The watry humour is hardly cured A humour from water within the brain is smaller and harder than when it is out of the skull but it is more hard to cure and almost incurable A humour of wind is seldome without water that breeds it apply discussers that make the humours thin to the head the nose and the ears as Cammomile Rue and Origanum Take thirty snails in their shells of Mugwort and Marjoram of each one handful stamp them then put to them Saffron half a dram and a scruple of Camphire and make a poultiss with oil of Cammomile Also take Nutmegs Cubebs
preserve the Lungs When the Pox are fully out then to make them die quickly rub the face with fresh hogs-grease old Lard melted and strained and mingled with water or with oil of sweet Almonds When the Pox are dead and begin to fall away to keep them from Pock-holes anoint the face with a feather dipt in an Ointment made of Chalk and Cream use this two or three daies it will smooth the skin handsomely and take away the spots XXVIII Children are exceedingly prone to breed Lice more than men of age though all people are troubled with them They breed from the Excrements of the head and body it is not only filth that breeds Lice but a certain matter fit for them for fleas will not breed of the same that lice are bred of Children and women that are hot and moist have many excrements to breed such things withall Some meats breed Lice as figs by their gross juice which naturally tends to the skin and variety of meat Lice breed most in Childrens heads and stick fast to the skin and roots of the hair some have died of Lice and Lice will leave some when they are dying To prevent Lice comb and keep childrens heads clean let them eat no rigs but meats of good juice and purge them with hot drying thin medicaments Use â—o Mercury nor Arsenick to childrens heads but use this Lotion take parts alike of round Birthwort Lupines Pine and Cypress leaves boil them in water then anoint the head with powder of Staves-acre three drams of Lupines half an ounce of Agarick two drams quick brimstone one dram and half Ox Gall half an ounce all made up wirh oil of Wormwood XXIX If the child fright in the sleep give it good breast milk but not too much let it not sleep presently but carry it about till the milk descend to the bottom of the stomack give it sometimes the oil of sweet Almonds or honey of Roses two spoonfuls To cleanse the stomack strengthen it with magistery of Coral or Confection of Jacinths with milk anoint the stomach with oil of Worm-wood Nard Mints Mastick Nutmegs if it be from worms you have the remedies before It is for the most part ill vapours that ascend by the Weasand and veins to the head when children cannot concoct what they have in their stomachs XXX Sometimes children cannot sleep it is by reason of corrupt milk that disturbs the animal spirits hence arise Catarrhs Convulsions Feavers driness let better milk be given it the Nurse must eat Lettice sweet Almonds Poppey seeds but sleeping medicaments are not good for infants Wash the feet with a decoction of Dill tops Cammomile flowers Sage Osiers Vine leaves Poppy heads to the Temples use oil of Dill or oil of Roses with oil of Nutmegs with Poppey seeds Breast milk Rose or Nightshade water with Saffron If the Childs brain be very dry moisten the covering of the Cradle XXXI Bad and sharp milk hurts the childs stomach for it cannot endure it for it breeds bad humours all these diseases spring from it the Thrush Bladders in the Gums and inflammation of the Tonsils Bladders in the Gums are cured with powder of Lentils husked and strewed upon them or with a Liviment of the flour of Milian and oil of Roses The inflammation of the Tonsils I suppose it is that disease in children called the Mumps that commonly comes between eleven and thirteen years old the parts being then so hard that the humour cannot breath forth alwaies keep the belly loose and anoint outwardly with oil of sweet Almonds or Cammomile or St. John's wort inwardly first repel secondly mix resolvers with repellers and lastly only resolvers but not too hot in age Gargarismes are best Infants may take Diamoron Honey of Roses sirrup of Myrtles and Pomegranates XXXII Sometimes childrens string of the tongue is so short that they cannot suck a skilful Chirurgeon must help it or use this Liviment boil clarified honey till you can powder it then dry yolks of eggs in a Glass in an Oven powder them take a dram weight Mastick and Frankincense of each one scruple burnt Allum six grains make it up with honey of roses The Frog is when the veins under the tongue swell with gross black blood and if the flegm sweat forth and stick in the passages the swelling is like Mushromes and make them stammer take Cuttlebone Salgem Pepper of each one dram burnt Spunge three drams make a powder or of Honey of Besome rub it under the tongue and lay a plaister of Goose dung and Honey boiled in Wine till the Wine be consumed under the Chin. XXXIII Some children grow lean and pine away and the cause is not known if it be from Witchcraft good prayers to God are the best remedy yet some hang Amber and Coral about the childs neck as a Soveraign Amulet But leanness may proceed from a dry distemper of the whole body then it is best to bath it in a decoction of Mallows Marshmallows Branc-Ursine Sheeps heads and anoint with oil of sweet Almonds if it be hot and dry add Roses Violets Lettice Poppey-heads and afterwards anoint with oils of Violets and Roses The child may be lean from want of milk or bad milk from the nurse remedy that or change the nurse for little or bad milk will breed no good blood and the children cannot thrive by it sometimes worms in the body draw away the nourishment sometimes very small worms breed without the body all over and in the Musculous parts and stick in the skin and will not come quite forth but after you rub the child in a Bath they will put forth their heads like black hairs and run in again when they feel the cold air they breed of slimy humours shut up in the Capillary veins which turn to worms for want of transpiration if you rub the child with Yarhound on the back and especially with Honey and Bread you shall see their black heads when you see the heads come forth run over them with a Rasor do it often XXXIV Children used to be galled with lying in piss'd clouts and the scarf skin comes from the true skin the skin looks red change the clouts often and keep the child clean by washing it then anoint the sore with Diapompholix or cast on this powder finely sprinkled of burnt Allum Frankincense Litharge of Silver and seeds and leaves of Roses XXXV Some children cannot hold their water but piss the bed when they sleep the bladder-closing muscle being weak so when piss pricks it it comes forth The stone in the bladder may hurt the Muscle the cause of weakness is a cold moist humour from superfluity or from tough and gross meats in Age it will be hard to be cured but in infants it easily may The nurse must use a hot drying diet with Sage Hyssop Marjoram the child must drink little anoint the region of the bladder outwardly with oil of Costus or Flower de luce and other
some but in others by accident from cold Air cold Diet and Medicaments or from too much idleness the signs are quite contrary to the former for the other are extreme desirous of Venery and these abhor it and take no pleasure in it they have few or no hairs about their Secrets and their seed is watry and Slimy their wombs are windy and they are subject to Gonorrhaeas and the Whites The Cure is long and hard to be done but they must use such things as warm the womb with drinking good wine and sometimes Cordial Waters and good warm nourishing Meats and of easie digestion with Anniseed Fennel seed and Time And Fumigations are good of Myrrh Frankincence Mastick Bay berries of each a dram Labdanum two drams Storax and Cloves of each a dram Gum Arabick and wine make Troches put one or two upon a Pan of coles and let her receive the Fume at the Matrix Then take Labdanum two ounces Frankincence Mastick Liquid Storax of each half an ounce oyl of Cloves and of Nutmegs of each half a scruple oyl of Lillies and Rue of each one ounce Wax sufficient make a Plaister and lay it over the Region of the womb But if the womb be moist and this is commonly joyned with a cold distemper it drowns the seed like as if a Man should sow Corn in a quagmire The causes are almost the same as of cold for it is Idleness that is the cause in most women that are troubled with it and such women have abundance of Courses but they are thin and waterish and the whites also their Secrets are alwayes wet they cannot retain the mans seed but it slips out again This must be cured as the cold distemper by a heating and drying Diet and Medicaments Baths Injections Fomentations wherein Brimstone is mingled but take heed of Astringents for they will make the Disease worse by stopping the ill humours in The fourth is a dry Distemper of the womb this is natural to some but to most it comes when they are old and past childing when the womb grows hard if it be from any other drying causes such women will be barren before they be old It may proceed from diseases as Feavers Inflammations Obstructions when the blood goes not to the Matrix to moisten it so that if they void any blood it comes from the Veins in the neck of the womb and not from the bottom they have but few courses little seed they are of a lean dry Constitution their lower Lip is of a blackish red and commonly chapt This Distemper if it be long is seldom cured moistning things must do it as Borage Bugloss Almonds Dates Figs Raisins Moistning and nourishing Diet is good and to forbear salt and dry meats avoid anger sadness fasting and use to sleep long and labour but little rub the parts with oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies Linseed sweet Butter Jesamine Hens or Ducks Grease Besides these four there are compound distempers as cold and moist wombs and hot and dry but I presume I need not in particular speak of them because I have given sufficient remedies in the several qualitis already which will be easie to apply I confess a compound distemper is harder to be cured than a simple therefore I shall add one or two remedies more First If then the Womb be cold and moist cure this with surrup of Mugwort Bettony Mints or Hyssop then purge the cold humor with Agarick Mechoachan Turbith and Sena Sudorificks of Guaicum Sarfa and China are very good Secondly If the womb be subject to a hot and dry distemper you must put away choler from the Liver and from the whole body those things that will do it are Manna and Tamarinds sirrup of Roses Rhubarb Senna Cassia and the like which are very safe gentle and effectual Remedies BOOK VI. CHAP. I. Of the Strangling of the womb and the effects of it with the Causes and Cure THe womb by its consent with other parts of the Body as well as by its own nature is subject to multitudes of diseases and it is not to be uttered almost what Miseries women in general by meanes thereof be they Maids Wives or widowes are affected with But amongst all diseases those that are called Hysterical Passions or strangling of the womb are held to be the most grievous Swounding and Falling Sickness are from hence by the consent the womb hath with the heart and brain and sometimes this comes to pass by stopping of the Terms which load the heart the brain and Womb with evil humors and sometimes it ariseth from the stopping in of the seed of Generation as is seen in Antient Maids and widowes for by reason hereof ill vapors and wind rise up from the womb to the Midriff and so stops their breath it is most commonly the widowes disease who were wont to use Copulation and are now constrained to live without it when the seed is thus retained it corrupts and sends up filthy vapours to the brain whereby the Animal Spirits are clouded and many ill consequents proceed from it as Falling Sicknesses Megrims Dulness Giddiness Drowsiness Shortness of breath Head-ache beating of the Heart Frenzy and Madness and indeed what not The same woman may be tormented with several of these at the same time when the seed and the Courses are mingled with ill humours being once corrupted The Menstrual blood and seed are noble parts but the best things once corrupted become the worst and degenerate into a venemous nature and are little better than Poyson When the Vessils of the womb lye near the Vessels of other parts of the body or there is near affinity of one part with the womb then by consent are many grievous Diseases produced The womb is of a membranous nature and for that reason it consents exceedingly with the nerves and membranes and so the parts that are near are soon offended by it and it conveys its ill qualities to the whole body by Nerves Veins and Arteries the Brain hath it by the membranes of the marrow of the Back and by Nerves the arteries they carry it to the Heart and the veins to the Liver and these are large in the womb and by them all the noxious blood and poisonous vapours return The Veins of the Mesentery give it a consent with the stomach and so do the arteries carry all to the Spleen which is the cause that some women in age grow hypochondriacal by heat of their blood because their courses did not flow sufficient when they were young It will be hard to distinguish these two diseases in women or to cure the one and not cure the other The Breasts they consent with the womb by Nerves and Veins that go from it to them so then it is clear that it holds a correspondence with the heart the Midriff the Brain and Head and all the instruments of motion and sense likewise with the Stomach Liver Spleen Bladder Belly Mesentery Hips Back straight Gut
Legs and arms and is the cause of strange symptomes in them all For Galen saith well the strangling of the Mother or Hysterical Passion is but one by name but the symptomes are scarce to be numbered It alters womens complexions they grow sandy or pale and yellow or swarthy and now and then their eyes and faces shew red and very sanguine When this strange affection falls upon them they will gnash theit teeth and become speechless for their breath is stopt and it hath been often observed that they have been supposed to be dead neither breath nor Pulse nor Life to be found for that time and sometimes their breath is stopt so close and it holds so long that they have died of it The causes of this disease are very many for a sudden fear a bad news related hath cast divers women into these fits for by this Melancholly gets the mastery of them it were but reason therefore for men to forbear relating any sad accident to them but with great proviso When the womb is strangled no one disease can determine it for that seldome comes alone sometimes only the breath is stopt sometimes the speech and animal actions of the brain fail and the whole body is chill and almost dead by ill vapors that choke it rising from the womb The Malignant Vapors then sent from thence by the Nerves Veins and arteries are the immediate causes of all the hurt that is done and these vapors are much like the wind very powerful and almost unperceived they are so subtil and thin that they pass in a moment of time through the whole body it will choke the Patient when they flie to the Throat as people are that eat White Hellebore or venomous mushromes Ofttimes you shall see the woman to loth and vomit and draw her breath short and her heart akes if the vapour strike the heart first it will cease from moving and she falls into a swound but if it flie to the brain she is void of all sense and motion There is nothing worse than corrupt seed to offend the Body Women with Child are not free from this disease when corrupt humours rise from an unclean womb The chief seat of this ill humour lieth in the Trumpet of the womb and in her stones for the substance of it is loose and hollow and the Stones lie in bladders full of water and women that have strangling of the womb have this water of a yellow colour and grosser than it should be Many Physicians have mistook the stones and the Trumpet for the womb it self when putrified rotten seed makes them swell and windy humours cause them to rise as far as the Navel but I spoke of this before when I shewed the reason how the womb is thought to ascend higher than nature hath placed it It hath sometimes a long time to breed in and sometimes it comes suddenly according as the corruption of the humours is which sometimes also lie still and so soon as they are but moved they evacuate and send a poisonous fume into other parts of the body And nothing will sooner stir these vapours and humours in women who are subject to this disease than anger or fear or such like passions or sweet scents and smells applied to their noses which is an argument that the womb is delighted with sweet scents but cannot away with stinking things for let Musk or Civet be held to such womens noses they are presently sick till they be taken away What Distemper this strangling of the womb is Physicians agree not some say it is a cold distemper but coldness is not the chief symptome though cold be great others say it is a convulsion or Syncope or breathing stopt but it cannot be set forth by any one symptome for though the venomous vapor be small that breeds it it goes many waies and spreads through all the body But the true causes of this Disease are the poisonous vapours that rise from the womb it is not an apparent quality that this vapour works by but a secret quality as the Torpedo or Scorpion small creatures prevail with to do great mischief as they are enemies to the natural heat and vital spirits and when the heart suffers there can be no good animal spirits bred because the vital are corrupted but blood and seed whilest they are in their own proper vessels hurt not unless they are mingled with ill humors Fernelius saith that the womb and seed the place and matter of life are the breeding of the most deadly poisons Hippâ—crates in these fits bids give them wine to refresh their weakness Avicenna bids give them no wine but water and forbids eating flesh because they ingender more seed and blood but when she is in the fit wine is best for a little wine will not presently get to the womb Sometimes both maids and widdows from such like causes are troubled with the rage of the womb that they will grow even mad with carnal desire and entice men to lie with them they are hot but not feaverish and they are inclined to madness Modest women will die of consumptions when they have this rage of the womb rather than declare their desire but some women are shameless The cause is great store of sharp hot seed that is not natural but the next degree to it that bites and swells and provokes nature to expulsion the brain suffers by consent the womb in the Nymphe is most affected which swells with heat but the Clitoris and not the Nymphe is the seat of lust hot blood and humours in the womb breed this and they are increased by hot spiced meats and drinks idleneness and bawdy acts and objects at first it may be cured but the end of it is frenzy and madness if it be neglected Maids must marry that cannot live chast or draw blood to abate the heat and sharpness of it let them purge these humours gently and use cooling and moistening meats and drinks and all with moderation Lettice Violets and water-Lillies and Purslain are good coolers and take away the windiness of the parts the seed leaves and flowers of Agnus Castus strewed in their beds or Camphire smelt unto are very good in such cases Let them use this Electuary take conserve of water Lillies Violets tops of Agnus Castus of each one ounce of red Roses half an ounce of red Coral and emralds in powder of each half a dram of Coleworts and Lettice candid of each one ounce with sirrup of Violets and water-Lillies make an Electuary lay a plate of lead to their backs Nuns and such as cannot marry may use tâ—ings â—hat by a hidden quality diminish seed but they cause barrenness let them eat no eggs nor much nourishing meats and sleep little Camphire that is so much commended against this preternatural desire is hot and sharp and bitter it will burn and flame and being of thin parts penetrates deep but it hath cold operations for it will cure