stopt Hippocrates confirms this affirming that women are in danger to run mad when blood comes forth at their Nipples Brassavolus tells us of womens milk that came like blood but it was raw unconcocted blood and that might be for Nurses Courses are alwayes stopt because the blood runs to their breasts to make Milk By the colour of the nipples the state of the womb is perceived if the Paps look pale or yellow that should look red the womb is not well Also if you will stop the Terms that run too much set a great cupping glass under the Breasts for that will turn the course of the blood backward Farther you may know the Child if it be a Boy to be three moneths old and if a Girle to be about four moneths old if you find Milk in the Mothers breasts for at those times the Child first moves and then is there Milk found in the breasts of the Mother If the right breast swell and strut out the Boy is well if it flag it is a sign of miscarriage judge the same of the Girle by the left breast when it is sunk or round and hard the first signifies abortion to be near the other health and safety both of the Mother and the Child CHAP. VIII How the Child grows in the Womb and one part after the other successively made MEn are of several minds concerning the time when each part is made I think they are in the right who maintain that the membranes are first made which wrap the Child with the Navel-vessels by which the Child is fastned to the Mothers womb and draws nutriment from her and all parts are made sooner or later as dignity and necessity of the parts require but this is thought to be the hardest piece of Anatomy because it is seldome to be observed because if women dye in child-bed they first miscarry and dye afterward Some follow Galen herein who never saw a woman Anatomized others Columbus some Vesalius but few or none know the truth The stones of a woman for generation of seed are white thick and well concocted for I have seen one and but one and that is more by one than many Men have seen In the act of Copulation both eject their seed which is united in the womb and Boys or Girls are begotten as the seed is that prevails stronger or weaker so the greater light puts out the lesser the Sun the light of a Candle Nature desires to beget its like in all things a Man a Man-child a woman one of her own sex but we follow desire not nature when we with the contrary If the Horse or Mare trot it were strange that the Filly should amble The seed of both persons being joyn'd the Matrix presently shuts as close as may be to keep in and to fasten the seed by its native heat and so womens bellies seem lank at their first conception The first thing that works is the spirit of which the seed is full this is stir'd up to action by heat of the womb and though the seed seems to be homogeneous and all one substance yet it consists of very different parts some pure and some impure the spirit then in the seed divides between these parts and makes a separation of the earthy cold clammy grosser parts from the more aerial pure and noble parts The impure are cast to the outside to circle in and keep close the seed which is pure and of the outside are the Membranes made by which the seed inclosed is kept from danger of cold and other ill accidents just as it is in Trees so it is here the cold winter congeals the vital spirits of the Tree but the Suns heat revives it in the Spring and opens the pores of the Tree and separates the clean from the which is unclean making of the pure juyce flowers of the impure and gross juyce leaves and bark The first thing Nature makes for the child is the Amnios or inward skin that surrounds the Child in the womb as the Pia mater doth the brain next is the Chorion or outward skin made which compasseth the Child as the dura mater the brain this is soon done by nature for God and nature hate idleness and no sooner are these two coats made but presently the Navel-Vein is bred piercing both these skins whilest they are exceeding tender and conveighs a drop of blood from the mothers womb-veins to the seed of this one drop is formed the Childs Liver from the Liver is bred the hollow Vein and this Vein is the fountain of all other Veins of the body so this being done the seed hath blood sufficient to feed it and to form the rest of the parts by It is a vain fancy that some hold how that all the parts are formed together others that the heart is first framed it must receive a right construction what Aristotle saith that the Heart lives first and dyeth last for the Liver is made much before the Heart Nor is that if it be well understood to be found fault with that a Man lives successively first the life of a Plant then of a Beast and lastly of a Man For first the Child grows then it begins to move last of all it becomes a reasonable Soul Next to the hollow Vein of the Liver being made are the arteries of the navel made then the great Artery which is the Tree and all the small Arteries are but branches coming from it last of all the Heart is framed as Columbus proves upō very sufficient reason for all the arteries are made before it for the Body receives its life by Arteries and the Navel arteries are bred from the Mothers arteries and therefore are made next to the Veins to give vital blood to the Seed as the Liver feeds it with natural blood to build a frail house for poor mortals Next in order so far as reason and Anatomy can guide us the Liver sends blood to the Arteries to make the Heart for the arteries are made of seed but the heart and all fleshy parts are made of blood last of all the brain and then the Nerves to give feeling and motion are produced If the most noble parts were first framed as the Peripateticks suppose then the brain and heart should be first made which is not agreeing to reason and observation As for the forming of the bones in order I think Aristotle said true that the whirl bones and the skull are first made I confess all these things have been questioned by some but I love not impertinent disputes as it was the quality of the Grecians who have made a large dispute whether the Elephants Tusks be Horns or Teeth Hippocrates divides the forming of the infant into four divisions First the seed of both sexes mixed have not lost their own form but resemble curdled milk covered with a film or cream the next form is a rude draught of the parts or a chaos like a lump of
flesh And next in order there is a more curious draught wherein the three chief parts the Brain the Heart and the Liver may be seen together with the first three and as it were the warp of all the seed parts and this is called Embrion But fourthly To perfect the whole work all the parts are set in order and perfected so that Nature hath nothing to do but to hasten to delivery that this work of hers may be brought forth into the world When the spirit in the seed begins to work it parts the more noble from the base and the pure from the impure so that the thick cold clammy parts are kept out to cover the more thin and pure parts and to defend and preserve them Nature begins her conformation with the cold clammy parts of the seed and makes skins and membranes of them to cover the rest and stretcheth them out as need requires Men have only two membranes the outward or Chorion which is strong and nervous and wraps the infant round and this membrane is like a soft pillow for the Veins and Navel-arteries of the Child to lean upon for it had been dangerous for the Childs Vessels coming from its Navel to pass far unguarded but the inward Coat which is wonderful soft and thin called the Amnios or Lamb-skin is loose on each side except it be at the cake where it growes so fast to the skin that it cannot easily be parted this skin receives the sweat and Urine and from thence the Child is much helped for it swims in these waters like as in a bath and time is for delivery it moistneth the orifice of the Matrix makes it glib and slippery whereby the woman is more easily and more speedily delivered These two Coats grow so close together that they seem to be but one garment and it is called the Secundine or after-burthen because it comes forth after the Child is born for the Child first breaks through it sometimes brings along with it a piece of the said Lamb-skin upon the face and head which is called by Midwives the Caule and strange reports they give of it Some think it ridiculous and fabulous but as all extraordinary things signifie something more than is usual so I am subject to believe that this Caule doth foreshew something notable which is like to befall them in the course of their lives But notwithstanding all that hath been said some Anatomists do a little vary from it for they maintain that within the first seven days wherein the generative seed is mingled and curdled in the Mothers womb by the heats motion many small fibres are bred in which shortly the Liver and his principal Organs are formed first and through these Organs the vital spirits coming to the seed in ten days makes all the distinction of parts and through some small Veins in the Secundine the blood runs and of that is the Navel made and there appears at the same time three clods of seed or white lumps like curdled Milk these are the foundation of three principal parts viz. the Brain the Liver and the Heart But the Liver is confest to be first made of a blood gathered by one branch of this Vein for the Liver it self is nothing else but a lump of clotted blood full of Veins which serve to attract and to expell but immediately before the Liver is made there is a two-forked Vein formed through the navel to suck away the grosser part of the blood that rests in the seed In the other branch of this vein more veins are made for the spleen and lower belly and all of them coming to one root meet in the upper part of the Liver in the hollow Vein from hence other Veins are sent out of the Midriff to the thighs below to the upper part of the back-bone next this the heart is made with its veins for these veins draw the hottest part of the blood that which is most subtil so make the heart within the membrane called the Pericardium or skin that covers the heart the hollow Vein runs through the inward part of the right side of the heart carrying blood to it to feed it from the same branch of this vein and the same part of the heart is there another vein that beats but faintly therefore called the still Vein amongst the pulsative Veins and this is provided to send the more pure blood by from the heart to the Lungs they are covered with a double Coat as the Arteries are The Artery called Aorta that conveighs the vital spirits through the whole body from the heart by the beating Veins or arteries is bred in the hollow of the left Vein of the heart and under this artery in the same hollow place of the heart is another Vein bred which is called the vein-artery that brings the cold air from the Lungs to cool the heart for the Lungs are made by many Veins that run from the hollow of the heart and come thither to frame the Lungs and they have their substance from a very thin subtil blood that is brought thither from the right hollow of the heart The breast is first framed by the great Veins of the Liver and after that the outmost parts the legs and arms But last of all the Brain is made in the third little skin I speak of for the seed being full of vital spirits the vital spirits draw much of the natural moisture into one hollow place where the brain is made and covered with a Coat which heat drieth and bakes into a skull The Veins come all from the Liver Arteries from the Heart Nerves from the brain of a soft gentle nature yet not hollow as Veins are but solid the Brain retains and changes the vital spirits from hence are the beginnings of sense and reason After the Nerves the pith of the back-bone is bred which cannot be called Marrow for Marrow is a superfluous substance made of blood to moisten and strengthen the bones but the pith of the back and brain are made of seed not to serve other parts but to be also parts of themselves for sense and motion that all the Nerves might grow originally from thence also Bones Gristles Coats and Membranes are bred from the seed Veins for the Liver Arteries for the Heart Nerves for the Brain besides all other pannicles and coverings the child is wrapped in But all fleshy substance as the Heart it self Liver and Lungs are made of the proper blood of the birth this is all ended in eighteen days of the first month and all that time it carrieth the name of seed and afterwards is called the birth and this birth so long as it is in the womb is fed with blood received through the Navel and therefore when women are with child the courses cease for after conception this blood is severed into three parts the best and finest serves for the childs nourishment the next in pureness though
true place also if the woman have blackish courses chiefly if she be far gone with child she is in danger to lose the Child many women have their Terms in the first moneths but they are but watry pale coloured not fitting for the nourishment of the infant and they are also superfluous so that nature at first sends them out as being useful neither for nutriment for the Mother nor the Child I said before that the breasts will shew danger and of Twins which is most likely to suffer if the right breast flag she will miscarry of a Boy if the left of a Girle and the head shaking as with a Palsie the body trembling the face flushing with red the eyes painâ—d inwardly if the body be afflicted with wind there is fear of miscariage in child birth but if she travel when she is sick of a sharp Feaver or some such dangerous disease seldom doth either Mother or the child escape death but the ordinary causes of Abortion are when the womb is too weak or corrupted by phlegmatick slippery slimy or watry humours so that it cannot retain the Child the pains of inflammation and Imposthumes hinder delivery extream Costiveness of the body by straining to go to stool forceth the child downwards and the dung staying in the right gut when the woman is bound oppresseth the child if she fall into a Tenesmus which is a great desire to go to stool and can do nothing Hippocrates saith Abortion is like to follow Piles and Hemorrhoids cause pain and miscarriage fat women have slippery wombs and lean women have as dry and want nourishment for the child neither are fit for child-bearing Bleeding is bad for childing women unless there be great need purging especially in the first or second or about the last months and vomiting is far worse too much fasting starves the child too much eating and drinking will stifle it great heats or baths or stoves force the child to press for a more free air and great cold is not good for it all immoderate exercises passions desires longings falls strokes and all violent running leaping coughing lifting and such like will bring on this misfortune There being then so many causes and accidents whereby women usually fall into such mishaps 't will be profitable for women with child to observe some good rules beforehand that when her time of delivery is at hand she may more easily undergo it and not so soon miscarry But as there are diverse causes of miscarriage so the times are diverse that we are to provide for either before or after conception And before she be conceived with child let her use means both by diet and physick to strengthen her womb and to further conception Drink wine that is first well boyled with the mother of Tyme for it is a pretious thing If the womb be too windy eat ten Juniper berries every morning if too moist the woman must exercise or sweat in a Stove or Hot-house or else take half a dram of Galingal and as much Cinnamon mingled in powder and drink it in Muskadel every morning but if she use moderate labour perhaps she may have no need of this but the most frequent cause of barrenness in young lusty women that are of a cholerick complexion is driness of the Matrix and this is easily known by their great desire of copulation It is to be corrected by cooling drinks and emulsions made of barley-water blanched Almonds white poppy seeds Cucumbers Citrons Melons and Gours and to drink frequently of this all violent exercise drinking of wine or strong waters must be forborn The Oyl of Nightshade is good to annoint the Reins some report that the seeds of Mandrakes are very useful to cool and purge a hot and foul womb such diseases are common to salt complexions and the dose of half a dram of Mandrake seed bruised and drunk at once in a cup of white wine cannot be dangerous for though the leaves be cold yet the seeds have a vital spirit in them to beget their like cold begets nothing but heat is an active quality for production There are many conjectures concerning those Mandrakes that Reuben found and that Rachel so much desired because she was then barren Gen. 30. it may be she knew that they were fit to cure her barrenness I grant that sometimes God is the cause of barrenness who shuts up the womb and will not suffer some women to conceive we have multitudes of examples in Scripture for it Rachel doubtless was not barren of her self and she was angry with Jacob that she said unto him Give me Children or else I die but he acknowledgeth God to be the chief cause of it And he said unto her Am I God who hath withheld the fruit of the womb from thee And again he makes the barren women to keep house and be a joyful mother of Children Prayer is then the chief remedy of their barrenness not neglecting such natural means to further conception and to remove impediments that God hath appointed and those means are chiefly either by a well ordering of the body and mind or else when need requires by taking of Physick The good order of the body consists in seasonable moderate eating and drinking of wholsome meats and drinks moderate exercise for idleness is a great enemy to conception and that may be the reason that so many City Dames have so few children if they have any they are commonly sickly and short lived it is not so with Country women who are always working they usually have many children and they are lusty and strong for moderate labour raiseth natural heat revives the spirits helps digestion opens the pores and wasts excrements comforts all the parts and strengtheneth the senses and spirits help nature in all her faculties and that is the way to have strong and many children As for working too much it wasts and destroys nature but I think few women are guilty of this fault Moderate rest refresheth nature as well as moderate work but there is a large difference between moderate rest and extreme idleness which dulls both mind and body and hastens old age and therefore Lycurgus commanded all the Spartans to work at least four hours in a day If women will be fair let them work as it is with the body so it is with the mind the mind must alwayes be intent upon something that is good yet this also admits of some relaxation and rest or else we are never able to endure but above all we must take heed of discontent for that wonderfully hinders conception whereas content of mind dilates the Heart and Arteries and distributes the vital blood and spirits through the body which exceedingly recreates nature in all her operations Much might be said in Divinity against discontent sullenness and murmuring which many women especially are too much guilty of for it troubles the imagination which should be pure in the act of conception it stirs up ill
Speculation is like to one that is blind or wants her sight she that wants the Practice is like one that is lame and wants her legs the lame may see but they cannot walk the blind may walk but they cannot see Such is the condition of those Midwives that are not well versed in both these Some perhaps may think that then it is not proper for women to be of this profession because they cannot attain so rarely to the knowledge of things as men may who are bred up in Universities Schools of learning or serve their Apprentiships for that end and purpose where Anatomy Lectures being frequently read the sitution of the parts both of men and women and other things of great consequence are often made plain to them But that Objection is easily answered by the former example of the Midwives amongst the Israelites for though we women cannot deny that men in some things may come to a greater perfection of knowledge than women ordinarily can by reason of the former helps that women want yet the holy Scriptures hath recorded Midwives to the perpetual honour of the female Sex There being not so much as one word concerning Men-mid-wives mentioned there that we can find it being the natural propriety of women to be much seeing into that Art and though nature be not alone sufficient to the perfection of it yet farther knowledge may be gain'd by a long and diligent practice and be communicated to others of our own sex I cannot deny the honour due to able Physicians and Chyrurgions when occasion is Yet we find even that amongst the Indians and all barbarous people where there is no Men of Learning the women are sufficient to perform this duty and even in our own Nation that we need go no farther the poor Country people where there are none but women to assist unless it be those that are exceeding poor and in a starving condition and then they have more need of meat than Midwives the women are as fruitful and as safe and well delivered if not much more fruitful and better commonly in Childbed than the greatest Ladies of the Land It is not hard words that perform the work as if none understood the Art that cannot understand Greek Words are but the shell that we ofttimes break our Teeth with them to come at the kernel I mean our brains to know what is the meaning of them but to have the same in our mother tongue would save us a great deal of needless labour It is commendable for men to imploy their spare time in some things of deeper Speculation than is required of the female sex but the Art of Midwifry chiefly concern us which even the best Learned men will grant yielding something of their own to us when they are forced to borrow from us the very name they practise by and to call themselves Men-midwives But to avoid long preambles in a matter so clear and evident I shall proceed to set down such rules and method concerning this Art as I think needful and that as plainly and briefly as possibly I can and with as much modesty in words as the matter will bear and because it is commonly maintain'd that the Masculine gender is more worthy than the Feminine though perhaps when men have need of us they will yield the priority to us that I may not forsake the ordinary method I shall begin with men and treat last of my own sex so as to be understood by the meanest capacity desiring the Courteous Reader to use as much modesty in the perusal of it as I have endeavoured to do in the writing of it considering that such an Art as this cannot be set forth but that young men and maids will have much just cause to blush sometimes and be ashamed of their own follies as I wish they may if they shall chance to read it that they may not convert that into evil that is really intended for a general good CHAP. I. A brief description of the Generative parts in both sexes and first of the Vessels in Men appropriated to procreation THere are six parts in Men that are fitted for generation 1. The Vessels that prepare the matter to make the seed called the preparing Vessels 2. There is that part or Vessel which works this matter or transmutes the blood into the real desire for seed 3. The Stones that make the Seed fructifie 4. There are Vessels that conveigh the Seed back again from the Stones when they have concocted it 5. There are the seminal or Seed-Vessels that keep or retain the Seed concocted 6. The Yard that from these containing Vessels casts the seed prepared into the Matrix CHAP. II. Of the Seed-preparing Vessels 1. THe Vessels that prepare the matter to make the Seed are four two Veins and two Arteries which go down from the small guts to the Stones they have their names from their office which is to fit that matter for the work which the Stones turn into Seed that is made fruitful by them though it be a kind of Seed or blood changed into a white substance before it comes to the Stones It will be needful that you should know that the fountain of blood is the Liver and not the Heart as was anciently supposed and the Liver by the Veins disperse the blood through the Body The two Arteries that prepare the matter arise both from the great Artery or Trunk that is in the Hearts and is the beginning of all the Arteries for the Arteries rise from the Heart as the Vein do from the Liver but the two Veins for preparation of Seed are one on the right the other on the left side the right Vein proceeds from the great hollow Vein of the Liver a little below the beginning of the Emulgent Vein but the left Vein springs commonly from the root of the Emulgent Vein yet it hath been seen to have a branch that comes to it from the Trunk of the hollow Vein Of these two Veins and Arteries there is one Vein and one Arterie of each side these two Veins in the middle part pass streight through the Loins and they repose upon the Lumbal Muscle having only a thin skin that comes betwixt them and there they divide and scatter themselves into the skinny parts that are near adjoining All these Veins and Arteries so descending are called Seed-preparing Vessels and they are covered with a skin that comes from the Peritonaeum the Vein lies uppermost and the Artery under it The lower part of these two Veins goes beyond the Midriff to the Stones and descends with a little Nerve and that Muscle which holds up the Stones through the doubling of the Midriff but they pass not through the Peritonaeum and when it comes near the Stones an Artery joins with it and then are these Vessels with that skin that comes from the Peritonoeum twisted together as the young twigs of Vines are and so pass they to the end of
from the Liver to the veins about the womb but those veins and vessels being very narrow and not yet open if the blood be stopt in that it cannot break forth it will corrupt and runs back again by the passages of the hollow vein and great Artery to the Liver the heart and the Midriff and stops the whole body which may be easily known for their faces will look green and pale and wan they have trembling of the heart pains of the head short breathing the arteries in the back the neck and the Temples will beat very thick and though not alwayes yet sometimes they will fall into a Feaver by reason of these corrupt humours but it is alwayes almost attended with disgust and loathing of good nutriment and longing after hurtful things The whole Body especially the Belly legs and thighs swelling with abundance of naughty humours the Hypocondriacal parts are extended by reason of the menstrual blood runing back to the greater vessels and they are much given to vomit but all these signs are not found in all persons alike but they are common to most and in some you shall find all these meet The cause is the Terms stopt and from thence ill humours abound for when the natural channel is stopt the blood must needs return to the great vessels whence it came and choak them up and so spoil the making of blood nothing but raw and corrupt humors are bred which can never turn to good nutriment or be ever perfectly joyned to the parts of the body the blood is flegmatick slimy stuff and sometimes it is bred from corrupt meats and drink that maids will long after as well as Childing women they will be alwayes eating Oatmeal scrapings of the wall earth or ashes or chalk and will drink Vinegar they are strangly affected with an inordinate desire to eat what is not fit for food whereupon their natural heat is choaked and their blood turns to water their body grows loose and spongy and they grow lazy and idle and will hardly stir their pulse beats little and faint as the vapours fly to several parts so they are ill affected by them the heart faints the head is dried and pained and the animal actions are hurt when melancholy is mixed with the humours in too great proportion Sometimes this white Feaver turns to a Dropsie or the liver grows hard like a stone that it can make no blood some fall dead suddenly when the heart is choaked by ill vapours and humours flying to it if the stomach be affected the danger is the greater but if onely the womb be out of frame the remedy is much more easy The best time of the year to cure Maids and those that are sick of the green sickness is the spring and the way of cure is to heat the cold humours and make the thick gross blood thin and this cannot be all performed by one work to draw away and to correct the whole mass of humours at once wherefore you must purge gently and often mingling things that heat and attenuate as well as purgatives to carry the ill humours forth But first it will be good to give a Glister and next to open a Vein in the foot or ancle Moreover your physick must vary according to the parts of the body that are most stopt and where the humors float If they lye above the stomach and mesentery then vomit if you find the Person fitted for vomit likewise the Spleen or liver or womb must be respected in their several kinds with Physick accordingly and to save you the labour of much reading and me of writing too often of the same thing under several heads you may find what is to be done almost in all respects where I write of the stopping of the Terms and by this rule I wish the Reader to apply the rest when he stands in need which he can never well do as I said till he have some judgement in it and then it will become familiar to him But in this Disease principally for the cure respect the Liver the Spleen and the Mesentery or Midriff for these are certainly obstructed and must be opened and above all be sure to keep a sparing diet and of a thin substance Secondly Let blood in the arm first though the courses be stopt and after that in the foot If the disease be of long standing you shall do well to give a gentle Purge First of all to purge the humours as Take powdered Rhubarb two drams Chicory and Anniseed-water three ounces apiece Infuse the Rhubarb all night then let them boyl one walm onely and then strain it forth and in the strained liquor dissolve sirrup of Damask Roses one ounce and a half Diacassia half an ounce Cinnamon-water half an ounce five grains of Diagridium let her drink it in the morning Next after this use opening decoction of Succory and Madder and Liquorish roots of each half an handful Anniseeds and Fennel seeds two drams a piece a handful of Harts-tongue Leaves Borrage Flowers and pale Roses of each half a handful one ounce of the roots of Sassafras stoned Rasins one ounce and a half and half a dram of Cinnamon Boyl all these in Fountain water to a third part onely wasted and then sweeten it with sirrup of Lemmons she may drink it when she pleaseth An Electuary made of the rob or pulp of Elder-berries boyl'd to a just substance four ounces with one ounce of bay berries dried and powdered two Nutmegs and one dram of burnt-hartshorn half a scruple of Amber and four scruples of species Diarrhoda mingled all with sirrup of Succory one ounce and half is excellent And finally it will not be from the purpose but very useful to anoint the womb and Liver with such Oyntments as will open their obstructions made with Oyl of Spike and bitter Almonds of each two ounces and juyces of Rue and Mugwort half as much and Vinegar a fourth part waste the watery part of these by boiling then add Spikenard Camels Hay Roots of Asarum of each one dram Cypress half a dram Wax sufficient to make an Unguent To provoke the Termes And that is effected with one ounce of the Five opening Roots and with Madder Elecampane Orris Roots Eryngo dried Citron Pills and Sarfa of each half an ounce Germander Mugwort Agrimony of each a handful two small handfuls of Savin an ounce of wilde Saffron seeds two ounces of Senna Agarick and Mechoachan of each half an ounce two Pugils of Stoechas Flowers of Galingal Anniseeds and Fennel of each two drams Boil all this to a Pint and half sweeten it for your Pallat and add to it a spoonful of Cinnamon water Quercetans Pills of Tartar and Gum Amoniacum are commended Take of each half a dram Spike a scruple three drops of Cinnamon Extract of wormwood half a scruple take a scruple or twenty grain weight in pills an hour before Meat Conserve of Marigold Flowers is very good Some after good
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
the Stones These two Arteries have their beginning from the great Artery a little below the Emulgent and so they go downwards till they join with the two Veins formerly mentioned the two Veins they prepare and carry the natural Blood to make Seed of the two Arteries they carry the vital Spirits or vital blood CHAP. III. Of the Vessels that make the change of red Blood into a white substance like Seed THese Vessels as you heard before are also four two Veins and two Arteries that at their first descending keep near one to the other carrying their different blood one from the Liver the other from the Heart as fit matter for the Stones to make Seed of but before they come at the Stones they twist one with the other sometimes the Veins going into the Arteries and sometimes again the Arteries going into the Veins thus they joyn their forces the better to prepare the matter for the use of the Stones and after that they part again which things are full of delight for a Man to behold that he may the more admire the excellency of the works of the great God that hath so wonderfully made Man The two Veins and two Arteries after they have joyned with many ingraftings and twistings together appear but two Bodies crumpled like the tendrels of a Vine white and pyramidal and rest one upon the right the other on the left Stone piercing the very tunicles of the Stones with very small veins and so disperse themselves all through the bodies of the Stones The substance of these vessels is betwixt that of the stones and that of the Veins and Arteries being neither wholly kernels nor wholly skinny their office is by their several twistings to mingle the vital and natural blood together which they contain and by vertue they borrow from the Stones to change the colour of red blood into a matter that is white prepared immediately for the Stones to make Seed of CHAP. IV. Of the Cods or rather the Stones contained therein THe Cods is as it were a purse for the Stones to be kept in with the seminary Vessels and this purse is divided in the middle with a thin membrane which some call the seam and may be seen on the outside of the Cods making a kind of wrinkle that runs all along the length of it and just in the middle This member suffers many kinds of diseases and distempers the property of it is to be dilated and extended by which means there arise sundry Ruptures the Watry Uly the windy the Humoral the Fleshy and the watry ruptures and all this happens by reason of too much repletion of the vessels of seed caused by much grosse or watry bloud Within this pursy and sobbing and chaking of the stones which are two whole kernels like to the kernels of womens paps their figure is Oval and therefore some call them Eggs. The substance of the Stones hath neither blood in it nor feeling yet they feel exqusitely by reason of the pannicles and each stone hath two Muscles sticking to their pannicles to lift them up that they hang not too loose They are temperately hot and moist but the bloud that flowes to them is very hot by which means they draw as a Limbeck the matter of seed from the whole Body Physicians place them amongst the Principal parts for the Generation and the preservation of mankind They are fastned to all the Principal parts by Veins Arteries and Pannicles they are subject to mulplicity of diseases and distempers They are wrapt up in three several Coats the outermost is the purse or Cod common to them both it differs from other skin that covers the Body because other skin is smooth this is wrinkled that it may observe the motions of the stones to extend or shrink with them when they ascend or descend they ascend in time of copulation but in all violent heats or Feavers or weakness or in old age the stones hang down which is alwayes a very strong sign of much damage in sickness The second Coat wraps up the stones as the first purse doth but the second wraps them nearer and is not so wide as the first and though the fleshy pannicle from which it springs be thinner here than any where else yet it is full of small arteries and veins that carry in vital natural bloud to keep the stones warm which are of themselves a very cold part The third Coat immediately wraps in the Stones and is white thick and strong to preserve the soft and loose substance of the Stones Some persons there are yet not many and those Monsters in nature that have but one stone and some three stones but one stone is oftener than three and unlesse it be some great failing in Nature I rather think that the other stone lyeth up close within the Body as sometimes both stones do and do not come down into the Cod till such an age or at certain times as is proved by experience where the stones lie within and come not down such persons are more prone to venery because the stones are kept warmer than when they appear yet the stones are tyed with strings that are long and slender which are Muscles that hang by on both sides to keep the stones from being overstretched or oppressing the passage of the the seminal Vessels if any ill chance befall the stones then these Muscles are exceeding sensible of pain and subject to swell by reason of it The left stone is the biggest and therefore some think more femals are begotten than males and the right is the hotter and breeds the stronger Seed and therefore it is generally maintained that Boyes are begotten from the right stone but Girles with the left Those that have hottest stones are most prone to Venery and their stones are longer and harder and they are more hairy about those parts especially The right stone is the hottest in all because it receives more pure and Vital blood from the hollow Vein and the great Artery than the left doth which receives onely a watry bloud from the Emulgent Vein But both of them have an innate quality to make Seed and without the Stones no procreation can be as we see that such as are gelded lose the faculty of Generation though they want nothing else but their stones The substance of the stones is very like to the Seed it self moist white and clammy There is yet another Vessel or conduit belonging to the stones which is called the Vessel of ejecting or casting forth of the Seed it comes from the head of the stones to the root of the yard overthwart the stones in a small body like a Silkworm by one end the carrying vessel elutes the stones and carries forth the seed from the other end the casters forth of the Seed passeth and descends to the bottom of the stones and bends back again and is knit to the preparing Vessels and returns to the head of the stones
here below and are not changed themselves for that the Heavenâ— and the fixed Stars and the Planets are still the same they were in the first creation and that the twelve Signs and Planets do rule over the bodies of men and women and how that Scorpio which is the house of Mars rules over the womb and makes it fruitful and that Leo is a barren Sign because Lions seldom bring forth young and so is Virgo for they are no maids that conceive with child But then why should not Taurus be a barren but a fruitful Sign when Bulls never bring forth any But not to trouble the reader with Astrological dreams I think it is not the seven Planets that by this complement of seven make the child to live but I should rather impute it to the perfection of the number seven which is easily proved by Scripture to be the most perfect number and will appear so to be by the Sabbath the seventh day of the week commanded for rest also the Sabbatical or every seventh year and the year of Jubilee seven times seven So that Hippocrates was out in three books where he endeavours to prove that a child born in the eighth month cannot live Aristotle Plutarch Galen and others were of the same judgement But to oppose them the writers of Spain Egypt and of Nanas prove the contrary by divers examples Hippocrates might be also misunderstood whether he meant Solar months that consist of thirty one days a piece or very near being the time the Sun is passing through the Zodiack or Lunar months the time the moon is in any Sign of the twelve and her stay there which is but twenty seven days with some few hours and minutes besides all this the woman Hippocrates mentions might not make her reckoning right for if you trust to womens account you can be at no certainty scarce one of a hundred can tell you true And as for Saturn who is so much blamed for playing the ill Midwife in the eighth month he is as much commended for his good office in the first month but there is no man or Planet that can alwayes have every mans good word yet I am of opinion they do him wrong but Astrologers may say what they please without reason for they never prove any thing but one dream by another Aries forsooth is not fruitful because it is the House of Mars and is not Scorpio which they praise for fructifying the house of Mars too Every Planet is maintained by them to rule the severai parts of mans body and that by degrees according to their signs and several Houses they are in I have found no Table concerning this business to have any truth in it wherefore I have drawn forth one exactly which you may safely rely upon if upon any Table at all and by this Table you shall find that every Planet when he is in Scorpio which signifies fruitfulness of the womb rules those parts of the body which are under the same Sign the two great Luminaries I mean the Sun and Moon excepted which do it by reception a clear proof that they have a great influence in framing the child in the womb and that the two Luminaries in that work mingle their influence one with the other The Table The first month Authors give to Saturn to retain the conception for he say they fixes the seed The Second month to Jupiter and upon him they lay the foundation of encreasing of sense and reason but the true foundation is then laid when the Seed of both man and woman are well mingled Mars rules the third month to give heat and motion to the infant Any Tooth good Barber The Sun governs the fourth month to give the child vital spirits yet Mars gave it motion a month before without any spirits at all I cannot understand there can be voluntary motion and no vital spirits Venus in the fifth month adds beauty the body we all know is fashioned in thirty or forty days but beauty must not come till three months after As for the sixth month that is Mercuries part to distinguish the parts of the child which Venus it seems could never do with all her beauty as if the child were but a Chaos and a rude mass till the sixth month yet it was very beautiful a month before As for the seventh and last month in the Planetary revolution that is the Moons part to make the child complete Here is much ado to small purpose It is no error I confess to impute much to the operation of the Planets But they are much mistaken about the times that such and such Planets do work for doubtless the Planets do not operate by succession as some would have it so that when one rules all the rest are idle and lie still but they cooperate and work altogether and that continually Their motion causes mutation for the motion of the Sun saith Potolomy of the Earth saith Copernicus distinguisheth night from day The Sun gives heat to all things here below the Moon moisture and our life consists in heat and moisture The Sun is the Sire of all living creatures and is first active in the seed of both sexes in the very middle of the seed and so he enlivens and moves every part to its proper action That which Aristotle speaks of the Heart the Microcosmical Sun in man's production is partly true both in and after conception to frame vital spirits and cause motion action For as the earth is preserved by the element of water from being scorched and burnt up by the beams of the Sun so the Microcosmical Sun the Heart but which is the Moon the brain or the Liver is hard to say adds moisture to this conception from first to last I mean as long as the child lives and thus the radical moisture is preserved Aristotle thought the brain by its coldness tempered the heat of the heart and for my part I think he said very true I see no man give a sufficient reason to the contrary There must yet be something to ballance the heat and moisture of the Sun and Moon and that they say is Saturn by his coldness for he fixeth them both in the work of conception and the dry bones are his work which are the Pillars and supports of this frail building But because there is no Generation but first there must be corruption for the corruption of one is the generation of another whereby it comes to pass that there is not a total decay in the world the beams of the Sun Moon working upon the seed of both sexes fixed by Saturn are purified and concocted by the equal temperament of heat and moisture that the Planet Jupiter le ts fall amongst them but then comes Mars with his heat and dryness and what is overplus in the conception as there must needs be some superfluities that Mars draws forth and turns to excrements and hardens into Coverings and Coats for
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