judgement that it sendeth and committeth to Memory to be reserved as it were in a treasury or store-house and to be directed concerning his acts and effects 2. The Sensitive faculty The second vertue is the Sensitive faculty the which although we know that it is variable and diverse in respect of the senses yet we may understand that it is caused and effected in this manner The Animal spirit whose place of late we said to be in the braine proceeding from the interiour and inward little caves and ventricles of the braine The Animal Spirit doth forme and frame the senses by the mediation and assistance of certaine subtile and slender sinewes doth forme and frame the Senses and by his vertue through the ministry and furtherance of the sinewes directeth and transposeth sight to the eyes smelling to the nostrills hearing to the eares and tasting to the palate of the mouth which senses wee see onely to be numbred and nominated of the senses of the head The third is the Moving vertue 3. The Moving faculty ingendred and bred in the braine to whom it is said to be proper to move and give motion For as the Animal spirit disposeth and directeth the orders and properties of the senses The Animal spirit directs the motions as is before declared so by the benefit of the same facultie the motions also are directed by which the vertues and faculties of the Spirit are dilated opened and enlarged and are likewise conveyed and sent abroad to the other members But for the perfection and complement of all these vertues and faculties Spirit is necessarily required Spirit necessary for the perfection of the former faculties by whose benefit and continuall motion as well the senses as the faculties are instigated and provoked to performe and finish their faculties and actions And they say that the Spirit is a certaine airy substance which continually exciteth and stirreth up the powers and faculties of the body to fulfill and accomplish their actions And indeed this Spirit is a certaine subtile body What spirit is ingendred by the force of heat because of blood flowing and streaming in the Liver attracted and drawne by breathing and the Arteries and afterward diffused by the veines to all the members quickning the bodies serving to promote and further motion by the meanes and aide of the nerves and Muscles But first this is directed and conduced to the Liver in this manner Heate remaining in the blood How naturall spirit is ingendred there is caused a certaine boyling in the Liver from whence a certaine fume or vapour issueth and proceedeth forth which eft-soones being purified by the veines of the Liver is changed and transmuted into a certaine airie substance and is called Naturall Spirit which purifieth and clarifieth the blood and afterward is sent and distributed to the particular and severall members Afterward the same Spirit is transferred and carried from the Liver by certaine veines to the Heart How vitall spirit is ingendred where by the motion of the parts of the Heart and a mutuall coagitation it is made more pure and is converted into a more subtile and finer Nature and beginneth to be Vitall and truely Spirit because is diffuseth and spreadeth it selfe from the Heart by Arteries to the members of the whole body and doth augment and further the vertue of Naturall Spirit And againe How Animal spirit is ingendred the same Spirit mounting and penetrating upward from the Heart through Arteries to the little caves and ventricles of the braine is there more exactly laboured and refined and is transmuted and altered into the essence and substance of the Animal Spirit Animal Spirit most pure which is most pure of all from whence streight-way it is sent and conducted againe by the organs and instruments of the senses to corroborate and strengthen those senses in some measure Although therefore it be the selfe-same one Spirit yet because of his divers offices and functions in divers parts Why the Spirit is called Naturall Vital Animal it is diversly taken and understood as in the Liver it is named Naturall in the Heart Vitall and in the braine Animal But we must not beleeve that this Spirit is the immortall soule infused into man of God Whether the Spirit be the Soule but it is onely the instrument and as it were the Charriot of the same The Spirit but the instrument or Charriot of the Soule For by the meanes alone of this Spirit the soule is conjoyned and united to the body neither yet also is there any perfect exercise of the soule without the ministry and service of this spirit which thing might easily be proved but that already this discourse concerning the faculties and Spirit hath beene overlong CHAP. V. Of the true Generation of the parts and the increase of the Feature according to the daies and moneths A little while after also a veine directed by the Navell A two-forked veine ingendred attracteth the grosser blood confused in the seed fit and convenient for nourishment whereby a two-forked veine is ingendred according to the forme of this Figure And these veines doe attract sucke and draw unto them the hottest the most subtile and purest blood of which the heart is ingendred in the membrane or skinne of the heart involving and lapping the same round about named in Latin Pericardium and the heart is fleshie What the Heart is and of a grosse substance by nature as is necessary for such a hot member But the notable and great veine Vena cava spreading out himselfe and penetrating into inward concavitie vault or privie-chamber of the right side of the heart deriveth and carrieth blood thither for the nourishment of the heart The unmoveable and still veine Also from the same branch of that veine in the same part of the heart a certaine other veine doth spring up named of some the unmoving or still veine in Latine Vena immota vel tranquilia so named because it doth not beat and move as other pulsive moving veines of the heart doe named in Latine Venae pulsatiles but lieth hidden being calme and still ordained and destinated to this office namely The office of the unmoveable and still veine that it should conduct and convey blood digested in the Heart unto the Lungs and Lights which veine is environed and lapped about for which cause it is named Vena arteriosa an arteried veine with two coats like unto the Arteries But in the concavity hollow of the left part in the heart a most great and notable pulsive or beating veine Aorta called Aorta doth spring up diffusing and sending abroad vitall and lively spirit by the blood of the heart into all the pulsive and moving veines of the body For as Vena cava is the originall fountain and spring of all the veines by which the body attracteth and draweth to it the whole nutriment of blood Even so
panting of the heart shortnesse of breath distemperature of reason because of vapours mixed with the spirits a debility and weakenesse of all the members cold sweates continuall paine in the wombe And indeed evill humours retained and increased in the wombe doe cause and breed all these things partly neere unto it partly removed farther from it which distemper and molest the braine and other members of the body by stopping and intercepting naturall heat proceeding from the heart untill they suffocate and destroy all the senses at once and also the strength and forces of the body But in the cure of the present fit of this sicknesse first you shall mingle Salt with Vinegar The cure of the present fit in the suffocation of the Matrix and shall rub the uttermost parts of the members of the body I meane the soles of the feete and palmes of the hands and pulses of the armes afterward binders being tied neere unto the secrets the hips and hammes you shall apply cupping-glasses neere unto the place without Scarification Afterward you shall apply to her nostrills all things which being burnt have a strong and stinking savor as Castoreum Assa Foetida Feathers Haire Leather Horne Hooses of Horses or Kine or such like things For these things stirre up and move the Animal spirit being as it were asleepe which by and by inforced with such a stinking favour making haste to come to the braine by the nerves and instruments for the purpose doth stirre up the motive facultie in the same Moreover this motion by the great force of this strong savour commeth to the heart with the Animal Spirit where both of them together doe repaire vitall spirit in the same being oppressed and as it were laid asleepe At last all of them joyned together doe oppose themselves against the Matrix rising up towards the Midriffe and stir up the expulsive force of it so that the corrupt humours being expelled which are in it the Matrix may fall downe and give more roome and space unto the superiour vitall Organs or Instruments In this case the dung of a Horse fed with Oates boiled in the best Wine drunke very hot is very much approved Also halfe a dram of the confection Diacastoreum taken in broth made of a Hen. An Vnguent Likewise such an Vnguent may be prepared wherewith her secrets may be annoynted inwardly which suffereth this swooning Take Muske one scruple Gallia Muscata one dram Oile of Lillies two ounces Temper them and make an Vnguent Suffumigations also being thus prepared Suffumigations from which a fume may ascend up to the nostrills will profit in this case Take Castoreum Galbanum dissolved in Vinegar of each halfe an ounce Brimstone one ounce Assa Foetida one dram If you prepare these Fumes or Trochiskes you shall confect them with Oile of Castoreum But if you would use them with Vinegar you shall put pure and cleane wooll into her nostrills dipped in Vinegar in which these powders are dissolved or you shall apply it outwardly to them But if this deadly malady shall proceed from the Termes being retained in the Matrix or from corrupt seede it may be cured in the same manner as wee will declare in the Chapters following But if the cause of this disease shall come from cold it will be the wisest course to use hot bathes when due purgation hath beene performed such as are the bathes in that part of Germany which is named Helvetia A certaine diet and order of bathing being prescribed and set downe of a skilfull Physician because that water doth consist of much Brimstone and some Allome it sooner resolveth dispelleth and driveth away cold heateth the Matrix and comforteth all other Members and parts of the body of a woman CHAP. IX Of the Precipitation or falling downe of the Matrix of the causes and cure of the same THe Precipitation of the Matrix is the departure and digression of the Matrix from her naturall place into some other place or the comming forth and outward appearing of it through the privities This hapneth either by a fall blow or some other vehement hurt or through wind inclosed in the Matrix or corrupt humours or by the intemperate moistnesse putrefying the ligaments and binders of the same or else through difficulty and painfulnesse of Aborcement or the birth and negligence of Midwives or by violent extraction and pulling forth of the Secundine whereby it falleth out that the ligaments and stay-bands of it are broken and the Matrix is throwne downe suddenly to issue forth This removing of the Matrix is caused in a diverse manner that is to say toward the right or left side or lower and into the fore-part and hinder part of the body But although the causes of these diseases may easily be judged and discerned by these things going before yet they may as yet be divided into outward and inward Outward causes are Outward Causes falling blowes or strokes some hurt lifting of some thing which is of great waight swift running leaping dauncing unseasonable riding all immoderate exercise and such things as are like unto them Also long sitting upon the cold earth or cold pavement long-tarrying in cold water over-much and often drinking of cold water Also the violent breaking forth of the child the hard and painfull birth the rashnesse of the Midwives the violent extraction of the Secundine often coughing great crying out vehement sneesing The disease Tenasmus binding the body and all these things do minister occasions to the Matrix to fall downe Inward Causes The inward causes are long stopping of the Flowers with whose weight the Matrix being pressed downward doth suddenly descend and fall downe the ligaments and binders thereof being oftentimes broken in sunder Also humours inclosed in the same wind enforcing it and removing it from her place Likewise over-much humidity and moisture putrefying and corrupting the ligaments or tying-bands and by that infection enforcing it to issue forth The signes of this disease are not unlike to the causes Signes The party will easily rehearse the signes of the outward causes Whosoever is grieved with this disease But the inward signes are to be considered according unto the removing of the Matrix For if it bend toward Diaphragma or the Midriffe without any strangling or choking wee may perceive that the woman doth feele paines and heaving above the Navell to feele a round lumpe like a Globe in her belly to fetch her breath and wind very short and quicke as though her bowells were swiftly crushed together with the hand a dimnesse of the eyes paine of the head loathing of meat and often belchings going before and accompanying it sometimes also a sound of the belly being heard especially when as the removing from her place shall arise from wind inclosed in the same But if it shall fall downe to the lower parts then many paines shall be about the kidnies loynes and secret members and a round
what great profit it is to have an exact knowledge of this Tractat. Chap. 3 Of the condition of the Infant in the wombe also of the care and duty belonging to women conceived with child Chap. 4 How the Infant is conditioned and in what state he is the fifth sixth seventh and eighth moneth And also of the difference of the sexe and formes Chap. 5 Of certaine Precepts very necessary for women conceived with child even to the houre of the birth by reason of divers chances Chap. 6 The third Booke of the birth and of all manner of remedies which may concerne women in time of child-birth and also their Infants Of the due and lawfull time of the birth and of the forme and manner of it and also of the paines and dolours of women in time of their travell and labour Chap. 1. Of the office of Midwives and of the apt forme and fashion of their Stoole or Chaire Chap. 2 Of certaine naturall Precepts and Medicines furthering and easing the slownesse and difficulty of the birth Chap. 3 How the Secundines or after-burden may have an easie passage if it stay behinde Chap. 4 Of the usage and ordering of the woman in child-bed and of the Infant being newly borne Chap. 5 How and with what Instruments children sticking in the wombe and being dead are to be brought forth Chap. 6 The fourth Booke of the differences and varieties of an unnatuarall birth and of the cure and remedies of them Of the first forme and fashion of a birth not naturall and how it is to be remedied Chap. 1 Of the second Chap. 2 Of the third Chap. 3 Of the fourth Chap 4 Of the fifth Chap. 5 Of the sixth Chap. 6 Of the seventh Chap. 7 Of the eighth Chap 8 Of the ninth Chap. 9 Of the tenth Chap. 10 Of the eleventh Ch. 11 Of the twelfth Chap. 12 Of the thirteenth Ch. 13 Of the fourteenth Ch. 14 Of the fifteenth Cha. 15 The fifth Booke of the false conception named Mola and other false tumors of the womb Also of aborcements and certaine Monsters and likewise of the divers signes of conception Of the deceiving conception Mola and of other falsly supposed conceptions Chap. 1 Of the cure of the false conception Mola and other false tumours and swellings of the womb Chap 2 Of unperfect children and also of monstrous births Chap. 3 Of the causes and signes of aborcement or untimely births and also of all manner of cures of such as suffer abortion Chap. 4 Of the signes of Conception Chap. 5 Whether men and women may ingender or conceive children of Divells and Spirits and againe whether Divells and Spirits may have children by men and women Chap. 6 The sixth Booke of divers causes of sterility and barrennesse and of the speciall maladies of the Matrix and also of the divers remedies of all of them Of the sterility of men and women also of the causes and signes of the same Chap. 1 Of the cure and remedy of sterility and barrennesse proceeding from phlegme Chap. 2 Of the cure of sterility arising from the cholericke humidities and moistures of the Matrix Chap. 3 Of the cure of barrennesse if it proceed from superfluous bloody humours of the Matrix Chap. 4 Of the cure of sterility proceeding from a melancholie humour Chap. 5 Of the remedy of sterility proceeding from overmuch heat drinesse moisture and coldnesse Ch. 6 Of certaine generall Precepts serving for the curing of the barrennesse of men and women Chap. 7 Of the suffocation or choking of the Mattrix and of the causes and cure of the same Chap. 8 Of the praecipitation or falling downe of the Matrix and of the causes and cure of it Chap. 9 Of the superfluities of the Termes and of the cure of the same Chap. 10 Of the causes and cure of the stopping of the Termes Chap. 11 THE FIRST BOOKE OF THE Generation of Man CHAP. I. Of the Generative or Begetting Seede how and in what manner it hath his beginning WE observe the naturall Procreation of man The procreation of man such as the generation and beginning of Plants or Herbes to be altogether such as we perceive the Generation beginning of Plants or Herbes of every kinde to be For as they every one of them from the seede of his kinde cast into the wombe of the earth doe bud or increase and doe naturally grow to the perfect forme of his proper Nature So man also being a reasonable creature according to the quality of his body doth naturally draw his originall beginning from the Sperme and Seede of man projected and cast forth into the wombe of woman as into a field But that matter of Generation which we call Sperme or Seede What the begetting seed is by his originall and nature is onely a superfluous humour the residue and remainder I say of the nutriment and food and the superfluity of the third concoction or gestion in the body derived and conveyed along through the hidden and secret organs or instruments from the chiefest members of the body unto the generative parts and serveth for Generation From whence it hath its beginning And it hath his beginning and breeding from the residues and remnants of all the meats belonging to the nourishment of man after they be altered and transmuted even to the third Concoction of the superfluity of which concocted food collected and gathered together in his proper and due manner it is evident that the same is ingendred according to the constitution of the age and nature For there is made a threefold concoction of any meat Three Concoctions altered and converted into the nourishment of the living creature even to generation of Seed that concoction neverthelesse following which is the purest of all concoctions For the food being Concoction 1 sent downe into the stomacke by chewing streight way the pure nutriment which is ordained to the other part the dry excrement being driven downeward thorow the guts to the belly through the sucking veines named in Latine Meseraicae carryed as it were to one gate flowing out of innumerable chanels is brought to the Liver Where to the disposition of the former concoction made in the stomacke there is forthwith made the second concoction in the Concoction 2 Liver of the food derived unto it the superfluous matter being separated that is to say both kinds of choler and the waterish humor drawne and attracted by the emulgent vessels in Latine Vasa emulgentia that it being strained thorow the Kidnies might descend down into the Bladder then the remnant and residue refined and cleansed in the Liver by this concoction that is to say blood is conveyed over to the heart to receive his vitall administration and office In Concoction 3 the heart againe is made the third concoction of the food being received at one time For there blood having taken unto it vitall and lively Spirit being diffused and sent abroad throughout the severall members
living Creatures it maketh and workes the haires in Plants or Herbs the leaves also by cold and drinesse in living Creatures it worketh and maketh sinewes and bones and in Plants or Herbs the rinds barkes and wood Afterward the forming or fashioning faculty 2. The forming or fashioning faculty or vertue which others call the Informative faculty is that which formeth and fashioneth the matter which is changed to the similitude and likenesse of that from whence it drew his originall and beginning the parts like unto their first originall being severally disposed and ordered By this vertue and faculty the parts which ought and should be hollow as the guts veines arteries and such like are made hollow and those parts which ought to be massie and solid are in like manner formed so And in few words it formeth all things yea the smallest of them particularly and perfecteth the superfice or uttermost face of every little particle or diminitive portion so that nothing remaineth idle nothing also superfluous The helping or minstring faculties But to these principall faculties belonging to naturall force in perfecting the living Creature other helping or rather ministring faculties are added beside The begetting I say or generative faculty dilating and extending the thing ingendred into length breadth and profundity The augmenting vertue also which doth augment and increase the same by nutrition and nourishment and doth compleate and accomplish it even to his just augmentation and increase So also there commeth to them the nutritive and nursing faculty which ministreth to the Feature and cherrisheth the Feature in the wombe from the time that the seede is conceived that it may suffice for the composing and ordaining of so many To the nutritive faculty foure other aiding and helping faculties and so great parts of the living Creature And to this last faculty and vertue foure other aiding and helping faculties are said to approach The attractive which some call the appetitive faculty which attracteth convenient nutriment and food to the severall parts by his force as with an instrument as for the nourishment of flesh it attracteth the substance of blood and for the aliment and nourishing of the braine the substance of Phlegme and so likewise in the other parts working by his hot and dry faculty The concocting or altering vertue working by a hot and dry faculty and power changeth and transmuteth the substance of the nutriment and reduceth the nourishments of a diverse nature as it were into one masse or lumpe The reteining or retentive faculty which reteineth and helpeth the pure nutriment whereby that being digested is assimilated made like and is united to the particular members using the helpe of coldnesse and drinesse The expelling or expulsive facultie which by the helpe of moisture and coldnesse doth necessarily expell and void superfluous things neither agreeable or convenient to the quantity nor quality of the parts and therefore by no meanes to be assimilated and united to the parts The second principall faculty is named Vital The second faculty and vertue which worketh principally in humane seed is called Vitall and possesseth his seat and mansion in the heart And that quickneth and giveth life to the heart from whom the vitall Spirit by the Arteries annexed to it doth proceed to the members to be quickned and revived by the disposition of a naturall faculty and vertue by dilating and contracting the Heart and Arteries By dilating and enlarging I say because the moving force and power which remaineth in the heart doth dilate and spread abroad the motion of the heart it selfe from the middle and Center of it into all the extreme and outward parts But by contracting and knitting together because the same force and faculty collecteth and contracteth againe the motion of the heart from the extreme and outward parts to the middle and Center of it Wee see both of them to be done and performed by the benefit of the lungs which like a paire of bellowes attracteth and draweth aire to the heart by an Artery The lungs like a paire of Bellowes attracts aire to the heart that is conveied and diffused againe from the same by the Arteries to other parts of the body The same moneth the brest with a continuall motion the nerves and sinewes being moved first of all Aire most necessary for the mitigation of naturall heat about the Heart Therefore this aire is most necessary both for the mitigation and asswagement of naturall heat about the heart which is attracted from the cold aire to temperate and moderate immoderate and overmuch heat especially seeing it is manifest The heart of so hot a constitution that unlesse it be mitigated by aire from the lungs it would be suffocated and perish that the heart is of so strong a constitution that it would quickely be suffocated and strangled by it selfe and so perish unlesse it should attract to it a cold temperament and mitigation every foot from the aire by the lungs of whose temperature the Animal Spirit is ingendred and is seated in the braine as we will streight-way declare from whence all the nerves sinewes drawing their beginning do descend down by the ridge-bone of the backe named in latine Spina dorsi and from thence afterward are distributed and divided into the body and are also cherrished and preserved of their primary Animal Spirit by the helpe of the vitall spirit Notwithstanding the same aire attracted by breathing The aire attracted by the lungs is by many meanes often corrupted by the labour and imployment of the lungs and passing into his vitall spirit by many meanes is also corrupted as hath beene often observed I say by the evill disposition of the braine by the infection of the Liver by the passion of the heart by the corruption and rottennesse of the Lungs and such like infirmities also by excessive corruption of the aire outwardly approching unto it of which to speake much for the present time would both be besides the purpose and also to no profit The third faculty is named Animal and is three-fold The third faculty is Animal which as the Queene doth possesse the highest place and obtaineth a seat in the braine And the same is certainly found to be three-fold For the first vertue of the same 1. The disposing and ordering faculty is the disposing and ordering faculty which disposeth and ordereth the whole braine and alone doth imploy and busie it in his order In what parts of the braine Imagination Reason and Memory are seated For in the former part of it it placeth and seateth Imagination in the middle part it scituateth Reason and in the hinder part it setteth Memory For whatsoever Fantasie hath conceived in the former little cell cave or ventricle that it streight-way transferreth and sendeth to the Senate and Councel-chamber of Reason there as it were to be examined by judgement and determined and whatsoever is here collected and approved by
from this great veine Aorta are derived all the pulsive moving and beating-veines on every side dispersing pouring forth vital spirit thorowout the whole body The heart the fountaine of lively heat For the heart is the source and fountaine of vitall and lively heat without which no living creature no member can be cherrished Vnder the great veine Aorta even now spoken of The Veyned Arterie in the left cavity and vault of the heart another veine as yet springeth forth called in Latine Arteria venosa the veined Artery Although that truely be a pulsive and moving veine and convey vitall spirit yet it hath only one coat as those veines have which convey blood and that is framed and ordained that it may drive and transport cold aire from the Lungs to the Heart to refrigerate coole and refresh it and to temper and allay the immoderate heat But because veines doe breake forth from both the concavities and hollow cells of the Heart The generation of the lungs and are implanted and inserted to the Lungs the Lungs also formed and framed by them For a veine proceeding from the right cavity and hollow of the heart proceedeth and bringeth forth most subtile and pure blood which the Fibraes threds or haires being from thence afterward dispersed is altered changed and transmuted into the flesh of the Lungs And from the great veines of the Heart and Liver that is to say Vena cava and Aorta The brest legs and armes ingendred the whole brest is ingendred and also the legges with the armes successively and in their due order And the braine is so formed that it may be able to conceive retaine and alter the natures and qualities of all the vitall and lively spirits From the braine also the beginnings both of Reason The Originall of Reason and the Senses and all the senses doe proceed and have their originall For as the veines derive their progeny from the Liver and the Arteries from the Heart The Originall of the Nerves and Sinewes So also the Nerves and Sinewes being of a softer and milder nature doe spring and grow from the braine not being hollow after the manner of veines but solid and massie For indeede they are the first and principall instruments of all the senses by which all the motions of the senses are duely caused and procured through vitall and lively spirit After the Nerves and Sinewes the Marrow of the backe-bone The Marrow of the backe-bone in Latine Spina dorsi is ingendred from the braine not unlike to the nature of the braine so that it may scant be called and termed Marrow Not unlike to the nature of the braine both because it hath no similitude nor likenesse unto Marrow and also because it doth not resemble the same in substance What Marrow is For Marrow is a certaine superfluity of the nutriment of the members proceeding from blood ordained and destinated to moisten and cherrish the bones of the body but the braine and Marrow of the backe-bone or Spina dorsi The Marrow of the backe-bone derived from the seed doe draw and derive their originall and primacie from the seede not deputed or allotted to nourish other members and to make them prosper in good plight but that they should by themselves ordaine and constitute private and particular parts of the body for the motion emolument and use of the senses that from thence all other nerves and sinewes may take their roots and beginnings Many nerves do spring from the Marrow of the back bone For many nerves doe spring from the Marrow of the back-bone or Spina dorsi from which the bodie may have sense and motion as it is evident by the Vital and Animal faculty and vertue by good defence as hath beene declared in the former Chapters Further wee must here note and consider that of the seede are ingendred Cartilages or gristles Of the seede a e Cartilages or gristles bones c ingendred bones the coats of the veines of the Liver and of the Arteries of the heart the braine with the nerves and sinewes againe the coats and also both the other pannicles or caules and wrappers and coverings of the Feature But of the proper and convenient blood of the Feature Of the blood of the Feature the flesh is ingendred also the Heart Liver and lungs the flesh is ingendred and those things which are fleshie as the Heart Liver and Lungs And afterwards all these things doe flourish prosper and are nourished with menstruall blood a tracted and drawne by the little veines of the Navell which veines are observed to attaine to the Matrix from the orifices or mouths of the veines All which things are distinctly and orderly caused and brought to passe from the conception even unto the eighteenth day of the first Moneth at which time it is called seed but afterward it beginneth both to be called and to be a Feature Feature which thing also some ancient Writers have comprehended in these Latine verses Sex in lacte dies ter sunt in sang vine trini Bis seni carnem ter seni membra figurant Et aliter Injectum semen sex primis certe diebus Est quasi lac reliquisque no vem fit sanguis at inde Consolidat duodena dies bis nona deinceps Effigiat tempusque sequens producit ad ortum Talis enim praedicto tempore figura confit Which verses for the benefit of the unskilfull in the Latine tongue may thus be Englished Sixe daies to milke by proofe thrice three to blood convert the seed Twice sixe soft flesh doe forme thrice sixe doe massive members breed Or otherwise The first sixe daies like milke the fruitfull seed Injected in the wombe remaineth still Then other nine of milke red blood do breed Twelve daies turne blood to flesh by Natures skill Twice nine firme parts the rest ripe birth doe make And so foregoing time doth forme such shape CHAP. VI. Of the food of the Feature in the wombe with what nourishments it is nourished and when it groweth to be an Infant SO long as the Feature remaineth in the wombe it is nourished and cherrished with blood attracted and drawne to it by the Navell The Feature in the wombe nourished 〈◊〉 with blood attracted to it by the Navell whereby it commeth to passe that the Termes of women are stayed and cease to issue forth after the conception For then the Feature beginneth to covet and to attract unto it much blood Three differences of menstruous blood after conception But the blood is discerned to have a three-fold difference after the time of conception The first and most pure part of it the Feature attracteth for his nourishment The second and not so pure and thin the Matrix forceth and driveth upward to the brests by certaine veines The breeding of milke where it is converted and changed into milke and for that cause it is that certaine
stones bones iron and innumerable such like things through the Matrix all which things verily the wicked Spirit had subtilly and maliciously conveyed underneath and brought in The same Vincentius citeth some other Histories serving to this matter and question in the twenty sixt and twenty seventh Chapter of his Booke named Naturale Speculum Namely that a certaine young-man caught a woman by the haire of the head bathing her selfe in the Sea about the evening whom he tooke to wife after he had brought her home to his house and begot a sonne by her But she not speaking a word at all hitherto that her husband compelled her to speake moved by instigation of others which said she was a spirit making a shew as if hee would murther the child begotten of her unlesse shee would declare her of-spring But shee having uttered forth sorrowfull things to have vanished away and also to have drowned this childe washing himselfe in the Sea being growne to ripenesse of age and that hee was afterward found in no place cast out to the shore side Therefore that hee was not a true man although he was borne and brought up in shape of a true man Moreover that many did believe that this spirit which by a false apparition did seeme to be a woman The Divell named Succubus to be a divell which is named Succubus It is not unlike to this which hee bringeth forth in the aforesaid place Namely that at Colonia Agrippina many Noble men sate in Councell in a certaine Palace sometime neere the shore of the river Rhenus which while by chance they did looke downe into the water did see a certaine souldier carried in a little boat a Swanne swimming before drawing the little boat with a silver chaine put upon his neck suddenly to leap upon the shore the Swan being sent away with the little boat there to have married a wife and to have begotten many children of her And some yeeres being ended the empty boat swimming backe againe and the Swanne swimming before it as hee did before time that the same souldier did returne againe into the same boat and to have appeared to no man againe and that his children lived there a long time But many have believed that he was a Divel whom they named Incubus who dwelling so long with the woman and so many yeeres in the shape of a man having used such great coozenages and deceits did shew forth counterfeited tumours of her wombe and counterfeited births children conveyed underneath taken by stealth from some other place Whether the Divell may conceive seed of men and by the same seed cast forth into women ingender or not But whereas many doe labour by this perswasion and contend that the Divell named Succubus may be able to conceive seede from man and by and by being changed into a Divell named Incubus to cast forth the same seede into the wombe of a woman and of her to ingender a man as it is most false so it ought to deserve no credit at all For it is most contrary and repugnant both to Religion and also to Nature For if this were possible with how many monsters of wilde beasts had wee seene mankinde so long space of time to have beene tormented and vexed of such a great enemy of mankind by the change and alteration of seeds made in brute beasts men and women Wherefore Conciliator in his Booke de Medicina the twenty and fifth Difference determineth well of these things saying Wee must know that the testicles or stones of man are the principall parts of the generative or begetting vertues but not the sole or onely parts because the beginning of Generation is not caused by them alone neither are they alone able to perfect Generation For the first beginning is from the heart by reason of vitall and lively faculty and vertue reposed and laid up in the same so that no living thing can be ingendered without the helpe and aid of the power and vertue of it For at last the vertue and faculty of the testicles doe consist by vitall vertue and naturall heat Wherefore that the Divell named in Latine Succubus may be able to conceive with men and being changed into the Divell termed Incubus may cast forth the same seede conceived into women and beget a man is not only a fabulous thing to be spoken but also impious wicked and odious to be believed But whether the Divell hath power to steale to carry from one place to another to convey and change children one for another is a matter that needeth no great enquiry For that some such like thing may be brought to passe some time wee must understand but that it is not done by his owne power but by the permission of the most just and omnipotent God for the sinnes of men especially when wicked Parents having no religious care of their children do not strengthen and fortifie them with the blessing of God and overwhelme them with the curse of the Divell Therefore let all because they are the children of God learne to bring them up religiously and to consecrate them to God and not to object them to the maledictions of the Divell The sixth Booke Of the divers causes of Sterility and barrennesse and of the speciall maladies of the Matrix and also of the divers remedies of all of them CHAP. I. Of the Sterilitie of men and women also of the cause and signes of the same WEe say that sterility or barrennesse of which wee have purposed to speak at this present is not onely a disability and unaptnesse of bringing forth children in women contracted and caused by some cause that may be corrected and remedied but in men also of ingendering and sending forth fruitfull seede Aristotle attributeth this disability and impotency principally to fat men and women because of the evill proportion and ill disposition of the generative members that is to say in whom the seed is procured and derived from a more remote place and so vitall spirit inclosed in it doth vanish away sooner by that delay But not onely that habite and disposition of the body is a cause but there are many other causes also besides of this difficulty and infirmitie For when we see oftentimes man and wife joyned together not to ingender and beget children but being separated both of them to procreate children and on the contrary part that those which being coupled together doe beget children are not fruitfull when they are separated it must needes be that without doubt there is some hidden cause Where wee thinke it will not be an unprofitable thing to declare and bring forth those things which are best knowne For there are many outward and inward causes which doe concurre together in this case But as fertility and fruitfulnesse hath his helpes and furtherances by many outward things as in a convenient diet in an accustomed temperature of the aire by bathes warme by nature such as are the Helvetian