often and unreasonably opened by too frequent coition or in over moist bodies or by the whites it makes women barren and therefore Whores have seldom any Children it is the same reason if it grow too hard or thick or fat also the Cancer and the Schirrhus two diseases incurable which happen but seldom till the courses fail are bred here Thus I have as briefly and as plainly as I could laid down a description of the parts of generation of both sexes purposely omitting hard names that I might have no cause to enlarge my work by giving you the meaning of them where there is no need unless it be for such persons who desire rather to know Words than Things BOOK II. CHAP. I. What things are required for the procreation of Children I Have in the former part made a short explanation of the parts of both sexes that are needful for this use but yet some think that there is no need of describing the parts of them both because some have written that the Generative parts in men differ not from those in women but in respect of place and situation in the body and that a woman may become a man and that one Tyesias was a man for many years and after that was strangely metamorphos'd into a woman and again from a woman to a man and that in regard he had been of both sexes he was chosen as the most fit Judge to determine that great question which of the two Male or Female find most pleasure in time of Copulation Some again hold that man may be changed into a woman but a woman can never become a man but let every man abound in his own opinion certain it is that neither of these opinions is true for the parts in men and women are different in number and likeness substance and proportion the Cod of a man turned inside outward is like the womb yet the difference is so great that they can never be the same for the Cod is a thin wrinkled skin but the womb at the bottom is a thick membrane all fleshy within and woven with many small fibres and the Seed-Vessels are implanted so that they can never change their place and moreover their Stones are for shape magnitude and composition too different to suffer a change of the sex so that of necessity there must be a conjunction of Male and Female for the begetting of children Insects and imperfect creatures are bred sundry wayes without conjunction but it is not so with mankind but both sexes must concur by mutual embracements and there must be a perfect mixture of Seed issueing from them both which vertually contain the Infant that must be formed from them God made all things of nothing but man must have some matter to work upon or he can produce nothing The two principles then that are necessary in this case are the seed of both sexes and the mothers blood the seed of the Male is more active than that of the Female in forming the creature though both be fruitful but the female adds blood as well as seed out of which the fleshy parts are made both the fleshy and spermatick parts are maintain'd and preserv'd What Hippocrates speaks of two sorts of Seed in both kinds strong and weak seed hot and cold is to be understood only of strong and weak people and as the seed is mingled so are Boys and Girls begotten The Mothers blood is another principle of Children to be made but the blood hath no active quality in this great work but the seed works upon it and of this blood are the chief parts of the bowels and the flesh of the muscles formed and with this both the spermatical and fleshy parts are fed this blood and the menstrual blood or monthly Terms are the same which is a blood ordained by Nature for the procreation and feeding of the Infant in the Womb and is at set times purged forth what is superfluous and it is an excrement of the last nutriment of the fleshy parts for what is too much for natures use she casts it forth for women have soft loose flesh and small heat and cannot concoct all the blood she provides nor discuss it but by this way of purgation The efficient cause of this purging are the Veins that are burdened with this superfluity of the remaining blood and desire to be discharged of it Yet nature keeps an exact method and order in all her works and therefore she doth not send this blood out but at certain periods of time viz. once every month and that only in some persons generally maids have their terms at fourteen years old and they cease at about fifty years for they want heat and cannot breed much good blood nor expel what is too much yet those that are weak sometimes have no courses till eighteen or twenty some that are strong have them till almost sixty years old fulness of blood and plenty of nutriment in diet brings them down sometimes at twelve years old but commonly in Climacterical or twice seven years they break forth heat and strength making way for them and then maids will not be easily ruled for their passages grow larger the humours flow and they find a way by their own thinness of parts being helped by the expulsive faculty Men about the same age begin to change their faces and to grow downy with hair and to change their notes and voices Maids breasts swell lustful thoughts draw away their minds and some fall into Consumptions others rage and grow almost mad with love The time of the courses is not so exact that it can be certainly determined by us who are not of Natures Cabinet counsel Sometimes sharp corroding humours force the passage before it is time and sometimes the blood is so thick that it cannot break forth Lusty and Menlike women send them forth in three days but idle persons and such as are always feeding will be seven or eight days about it but there is a mean between them both that proportions the time accordingly four dayes will be sufficient but the quantity of blood that is cast out is more or less considering the circumstance of age temperament diet and nature of the blood and that different according to the seasons of the year the places by which it comes forth are the Veins and the bottom of the womb for the veins come from under the belly and seed branches to the bottom and to the neck of the womb and when women are with Child the superfluous blood runs out by the veins of the neck but maids and such as are not with Child send this blood forth by the womb it self by this blood the seed conceived increaseth and when the Child is delivered then it returns to the breasts for to make Milk as we hinted at before Though the blood be a necessary cause and nothing will be done without it that comes to perfection yet the seed is the Principal cause
this straitness as I said But the straitness of the womb it self and its vessels are sometimes natural by ill conformation and such women will miscarry in the fourth or fifth month because the womb that naturally stretcheth as the child grows in bigness will after the woman is delivered shrink as small as it was before in some women will not be extended But if the straitness be in the vessels or neck of the womb Conception is hindered because the terms cannot flow gross humours especially when the womb is cold and weak stop the mouths of the veins and arteries Inflammations or Swellings or Scars or Schirrhus or the like may be the causes sometimes thick Flegm abounds if there were a wound or the after-burden were forcibly pulled out If the terms be stopt from an old obstruction of grown humors the cure is hard a Schirrhus or humour that shuts up the vessels cannot be cured what is to be cured must first be done by general evacuations of purging and bleeding then use means to provoke the terms if the straitness come from diseases first cure them Sometimes the Secrets of women are full of pushes and scurf with itching and pain wheals rising in the neck of the womb They are of two sorts some are gentle but most commonly they are venemous and come from the foul disease and will impart it unto men They proceed from burnt sharp cholerick malignant humours hard to be cured Sirrup of Fumitory is very good in such cases it is also profitable to wash the parts with wine and Salt-Peter Draw blood if it abound first in the arm then in the ancle but first if be the disease drink the decoction of Sarsa and Guaicum for it Avoid sharp sowr meats it is good to purge with Confectio Hamech or Fumitory Pills You may see the cause of this great itching and scurf if you search with Speculum Matricis an instrument Chirurgeons use Sometimes Tubercles grow in the neck of the womb with heat and pain you may see them them for they are a kind of swelling wrinkles like the wrinkles you see when you close your Fist but they are much larger and when they swell they make these Tubercles they are usual in the secrets or Fundament and come from the same malignant causes with the former and some are more enflamed and painful than others are The swellings are hard proceeding from thick burnt humours Powder of egg-shels burnt is good to strew upon them to dry them up if they be new and there be no inflammation but if they be old and dry they must first be softened These wrinkled skins when they are many resemble a bunch of Grapes Cure the Pox first for usually that is the cause and then they will vanish of themselves If Medicaments prevail not some old authors bid us to use an actual Cautery and to burn them away Likewise Warts in the secrets are bred by a gross dreggy ill humour and is of kind with the forementioned Nature sends it forth to the outward skin and there it becomes Warts if they be hard or blew and painful you may know what they are the Pox is in them and hard to be got out and they lie where medicines can scarce be applied to them to remain if you apply sharp Topicals use a defensative of Bole and Vinegar that you hurt not the parts and so you may touch them with Aqua fortis or Spirit of Vitriol or of Brimstone There are several sorts of these Excrescences there are those that are called Myrmeciae leave an Ulcer if you cut them off Thymi Clavi will grow again but Acrocordanes leave no root if they be once cut away The powder of Mulberries is good to cure Warts and swellings upon the privities of men and I recommend it to women in the same cases Sometimes women have the piles of the womb like those in the Fundament they proceed from gross blood that staies about the ends of these veins in the neck of the womb Women that are thus troubled look pale and are very faint and weary this may come from too long flowing of the courses and grow thick and cannot get forth they are painful and bleed disorderly you may see them by the help of Speculum Matricis and touch them The cure is by revulsion of the humour by letting blood in the arm or heel and by gentle applications if the pains be great if nature open them and they bleed moderately you may give way to nature but if they run violently open a vein in the arm two or three times Purge with Rhubarb Tamarinds and Mirobolans mingled and use Topicals to stay the blood The blind Piles bleed not at all they are cured by letting young women bleed freely and by softening the parts with emollient Fomentations to open the veins and to dispel the humour made with mallows Marshmallows Cammomile Melilot Maâ—lius Linseed Fenugreek Anoint where the pain is with butter Populeon and Opium if the pain be gone and they bleed not use Driers of Bole Ceruss Allum burnt Lead wash'd if the veins swell with blood rub them with Fig leaves or with Horse Leeches applied draw blood from them This disease of the Piles of the womb differs from the flowing of the courses because this is with great pain and moreover the courses run from the veins of the womb and the neck of it but the Piles are caused when the blood runs too much to the veins that force the secrets and either stops there or comes forth sometimes by them but some say they differ from the courses namely by their great pain but that they make the body lean if they last long and the blood comes not forth so orderly nor at certain periods and set times as the courses use to do Sometimes the womb hath Ulcers bred there some are cleaner and some again are sordid and malignant all hard to be cured They proceed generally from a virulent Gonorrhoea or the Pox but they may rise from inflammation by abundance of sharp corroding humors from abortion or hard labour or sharp medicines or when the after-birth is pulled out by force and rends the womb The pain of Ulcers is biting and increased by sharp injections of Wine or Honey and Water All Ulcers are hard to heal there because of the sensibility and moistness of the part and a light Excoriation or rawness will not easily be healed but eating Ulcers never are cured there almost but by Death Ulcers by Venery if they be cured you must first cure the Pox. All Ulcers in the secrets of Wombs may be cured if they be not Cankered and the way to cure them is by Purging and bleeding to cleanse and carry away and divert the ill Humours and moisture from the Womb if there be great pain abait that with Mucilage of Fleabane and whites of Eggs or an Emulsion of Poppey Seeds Warm Injections into the Womb will help forward the Cure made of
some but in others by accident from cold Air cold Diet and Medicaments or from too much idleness the signs are quite contrary to the former for the other are extreme desirous of Venery and these abhor it and take no pleasure in it they have few or no hairs about their Secrets and their seed is watry and Slimy their wombs are windy and they are subject to Gonorrhaeas and the Whites The Cure is long and hard to be done but they must use such things as warm the womb with drinking good wine and sometimes Cordial Waters and good warm nourishing Meats and of easie digestion with Anniseed Fennel seed and Time And Fumigations are good of Myrrh Frankincence Mastick Bay berries of each a dram Labdanum two drams Storax and Cloves of each a dram Gum Arabick and wine make Troches put one or two upon a Pan of coles and let her receive the Fume at the Matrix Then take Labdanum two ounces Frankincence Mastick Liquid Storax of each half an ounce oyl of Cloves and of Nutmegs of each half a scruple oyl of Lillies and Rue of each one ounce Wax sufficient make a Plaister and lay it over the Region of the womb But if the womb be moist and this is commonly joyned with a cold distemper it drowns the seed like as if a Man should sow Corn in a quagmire The causes are almost the same as of cold for it is Idleness that is the cause in most women that are troubled with it and such women have abundance of Courses but they are thin and waterish and the whites also their Secrets are alwayes wet they cannot retain the mans seed but it slips out again This must be cured as the cold distemper by a heating and drying Diet and Medicaments Baths Injections Fomentations wherein Brimstone is mingled but take heed of Astringents for they will make the Disease worse by stopping the ill humours in The fourth is a dry Distemper of the womb this is natural to some but to most it comes when they are old and past childing when the womb grows hard if it be from any other drying causes such women will be barren before they be old It may proceed from diseases as Feavers Inflammations Obstructions when the blood goes not to the Matrix to moisten it so that if they void any blood it comes from the Veins in the neck of the womb and not from the bottom they have but few courses little seed they are of a lean dry Constitution their lower Lip is of a blackish red and commonly chapt This Distemper if it be long is seldom cured moistning things must do it as Borage Bugloss Almonds Dates Figs Raisins Moistning and nourishing Diet is good and to forbear salt and dry meats avoid anger sadness fasting and use to sleep long and labour but little rub the parts with oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies Linseed sweet Butter Jesamine Hens or Ducks Grease Besides these four there are compound distempers as cold and moist wombs and hot and dry but I presume I need not in particular speak of them because I have given sufficient remedies in the several qualitis already which will be easie to apply I confess a compound distemper is harder to be cured than a simple therefore I shall add one or two remedies more First If then the Womb be cold and moist cure this with surrup of Mugwort Bettony Mints or Hyssop then purge the cold humor with Agarick Mechoachan Turbith and Sena Sudorificks of Guaicum Sarfa and China are very good Secondly If the womb be subject to a hot and dry distemper you must put away choler from the Liver and from the whole body those things that will do it are Manna and Tamarinds sirrup of Roses Rhubarb Senna Cassia and the like which are very safe gentle and effectual Remedies BOOK VI. CHAP. I. Of the Strangling of the womb and the effects of it with the Causes and Cure THe womb by its consent with other parts of the Body as well as by its own nature is subject to multitudes of diseases and it is not to be uttered almost what Miseries women in general by meanes thereof be they Maids Wives or widowes are affected with But amongst all diseases those that are called Hysterical Passions or strangling of the womb are held to be the most grievous Swounding and Falling Sickness are from hence by the consent the womb hath with the heart and brain and sometimes this comes to pass by stopping of the Terms which load the heart the brain and Womb with evil humors and sometimes it ariseth from the stopping in of the seed of Generation as is seen in Antient Maids and widowes for by reason hereof ill vapors and wind rise up from the womb to the Midriff and so stops their breath it is most commonly the widowes disease who were wont to use Copulation and are now constrained to live without it when the seed is thus retained it corrupts and sends up filthy vapours to the brain whereby the Animal Spirits are clouded and many ill consequents proceed from it as Falling Sicknesses Megrims Dulness Giddiness Drowsiness Shortness of breath Head-ache beating of the Heart Frenzy and Madness and indeed what not The same woman may be tormented with several of these at the same time when the seed and the Courses are mingled with ill humours being once corrupted The Menstrual blood and seed are noble parts but the best things once corrupted become the worst and degenerate into a venemous nature and are little better than Poyson When the Vessils of the womb lye near the Vessels of other parts of the body or there is near affinity of one part with the womb then by consent are many grievous Diseases produced The womb is of a membranous nature and for that reason it consents exceedingly with the nerves and membranes and so the parts that are near are soon offended by it and it conveys its ill qualities to the whole body by Nerves Veins and Arteries the Brain hath it by the membranes of the marrow of the Back and by Nerves the arteries they carry it to the Heart and the veins to the Liver and these are large in the womb and by them all the noxious blood and poisonous vapours return The Veins of the Mesentery give it a consent with the stomach and so do the arteries carry all to the Spleen which is the cause that some women in age grow hypochondriacal by heat of their blood because their courses did not flow sufficient when they were young It will be hard to distinguish these two diseases in women or to cure the one and not cure the other The Breasts they consent with the womb by Nerves and Veins that go from it to them so then it is clear that it holds a correspondence with the heart the Midriff the Brain and Head and all the instruments of motion and sense likewise with the Stomach Liver Spleen Bladder Belly Mesentery Hips Back straight Gut
in the Veins is too hot and over-heats the Artery but if this heat of the Artery affect the Brain the Patient will be mad if it go over the whole body she falls into a Consumption lay your hand on the left side and you shall feel the Arteries beat much So then this Disease hath several considerations and must be cured partly as hypochondriacal Melancholy partly as in the cure for stopping of the Courses and partly as Melancholy arising from the womb Physitians can hardly tell which way to proceed oftentimes in these Distempers because it is hard to say what Disease the woman is sick of when the Spleen and left Hypochondry are afflicted from the womb The womb hath two Arteries the one from the Hypogastrick Artery and another from the preparing Arteries that which comes from the Hypogastrick runs almost through the whole Abdomen when the foul corrupt blood in the womb runs backward to the Hypogastrick Artery it passeth to the Caeliac Artery and so to the Spleen and the parts near it and it is Natures present way to thrust ill humors to the ignoble parts When the courses are stopt these ill humors are thought to be onely in the Veins but the veins and Arteries mouthes are so joyned that they pass from the Veins to the Arteries and that is the reason that elderly women whose courses were stopt when they were young are troubled oftentimes with the Spleen hypochondriack Melancholy These cannot endure to smell to sweet Scents they are short breathed Costive and Belch often they have pain in the left side and are very sad when the thin part of the blood is inflamed they grow very hot and red in the Face but that lasts not long the disease it will produce if not cured is chiefly a Schirrhus of the Spleen open a Vein if the blood be hot and the Courses stopt use Leeches to the haemorroids and Purge often but very gently with Quercetan's Pill of Tartar or Fernelius his Cum Ammoniaco and Birth-wort or prepared Steel to open the Courses and to cure Melancholy that ariseth from the womb When the liver is hurt by the gross blood running back to the holow vein from the womb as it often doth if the courses be stopt blood abound it breeds raw flegmatick blood and causeth the Green-sickness for there are many more great veins in the womb than in any other part of the body and they are often obstructed and sometimes by this stopping not onely sundry Diseases but Hair will grow over the whole body for hairs grow from the Excrementitious part of the blood and if that Excrement be sent over the body it will produce hair So Hippocrates tells us of a woman with a great beard and it is not long since there was a woman to be seen here in England which had not onely a long beard but her whole Body covered with hair It is also by reason of the womb or by consent from it that many women have no stomach others have a very large Appetite and sometimes a desire to eat strange things not fit for Food they Vomit and have the Hiccough many such ill symptomes as the vapors are so are the Diseases if Cold then they breed cold diseases if hot such diseases as proceed of heat For these filthy vapors when the way is large easily ascend from the Arteries of the womb and get into the Hypogastrick and Caeliac Arteries hot vapors cause Thirst cold vapors destroy concoction and are the cause of many cruel diseases by their Malignity When the stomach is hurt by the womb it is easily perceived for the signes of it go away sometimes and come again onely when the Fumes fly to the stomach There is no cure for this but by first curing the womb for this disease is worse than if the stomach were originally the cause of the distemper Cure the womb and if there be no other cause the stomach is cured first give a vomit to cleanse the stomach and use often to take pills of Aloes and Mastick for these fortifie the stomach If one womb in a woman be the cause of so many strong and violent diseases she may be thought a happy woman of our sex that was born without a womb Columbus reports that he saw such a woman and that her secrets were as the secrets of other women and part of the neck out It will be needless to tell you what some have written that it hath been often seen that worms and Hair and Fat and Stones and many other strange things have been found in womens wombs but what a miserable case is she in that was born with two wombs Such a woman Julius Obsequeus related that he saw and Bauhinus speaks of a maid who had a Matrix like that of a Bitch divided in two parts But some perhaps may think these things fabulous I confess they are monstrous and out of the ordinary course of nature and I know no cure for them if such things should happen I forbear therefore to speak any more of them and shall proceed to some things more material to be known and such things as few women living but have frequent occasion to be provided with remedies for CHAP. III. Of Womens Breasts and Nipples NAture within some convenient time after the Child is conceived in the womb begins to provide nourishment for it so soon as it shall be born The breasts are two in number lest by accident one Breast should fail and sometimes women have Twins and more children than one to give suck to Some women saith Gardan have been seen with more than two breasts for they have had two breasts on each side but that is very rare The form of the breast is round and sharp at the Nipple yet these differ in many women for some have breasts no bigger than men and some have huge overgrown swoln breasts by reason of much blood abounding and strong heat to draw and to concoct it The breasts should be of a moderate size neither too great nor too small not too soft nor too hard it is not necessary to have them over-big though they can hold but little milk thee may hold sufficient but large breasts are in danger to be cancerated and inflamed besides that the milk is not so good because their wants a moderate heat The immediate causes of great Breasts is partly natural by birth the passages being loose and large and sleep and idleness furthers it and much handling of them heats and draws the blood thither their causes are not many It is best to prevent their growing too big at first for it is not easily done afterward Cooling Diet and drying and astringent repercussive Topical means are the best Binding things help loose breasts and make them hard all cold Narcotick stupefying Medicaments are forbidden they will bind the Vessels but they abate Natural heat and will let no milk breed When children are weaned Discussers and Driers
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
write now for their better instruction and reformation then will Men wonder no longer what becomes of so many Children as are born in the City one can hardly find as many living as are born in half a years time I am perswaded not so many can be found to have lived to seven years of age They that love their Children will take my advice and they and their Children will have good cause to thank me for it and besides the avoiding the mischiefs of intemperance to themselves and posterity they shall find the blessing of God upon them as a great reward of this vertue of moderation and the poor will have just cause to pray for me and them for what is wastfully spent by the riotous may be charitably bestowed upon their poor neighbours that stand in need of it CHAP. II. Of true conception TRue Conception is then when the seed of both sexes is good and duly prepared and cast into the womb as into fruitful ground and is there so fitly and equally mingled the Man's seed with the womans that a perfect Child is by degrees framed for first small threads as it were of the solid and substantial parts are formed out and the womans blood flowes to them to make the bowels and to supply all parts of the infant with food and nourishment Conception is the proper action of the womb after fruitful seed cast in by both sexes and this Conception is performed in less than seven hours after the seed is mingled for nature is not a minute idle in her work but acts to the utmost of her power it is not copulation but the mixture of both seeds is called conception when the heat of the womb fastens them if the woman conceives not the seed will fall out of the womb in seven daies and abortion and conception are reckoned upon the same time The Seeds of both must be first perfectly mixed and when that is done the Matrix contracts it self and so closely embraceth it being greedy to perfect this work that by succession of time she stirs up the formative faculty which lieth hid in the seed and brings it into act which was before but in possibilty this is the natural property of the womb to make prolifick Seed fruitful it is not all the art of man that setting the womb aside can form a living child To conceive with child is the earnest desire if not of all yet of most women Nature having put into all a will to effect and produce their like Some there are who hold conception to be a curse because God laid it upon Eve for tasting of the forbidden fruit I will greatly multiply thy conception but forasmuch as encrease and multiply was the blessing of God it is not the conception but the sorrow to bring forth that was laid as a curse We see that there is in women so great a longing to conceive with child that ofttimes for want of it the womb falls into convulsions and distracts the whole body The womb as I said is fast tied at the neck and about the middle but the bottom hangs lose so that it doth ofttimes fall into strange motions The natural motion of it comes from the moving faculty but the unnatural motions from some unhealthful and convulsive cause which is most commonly bred in it for want of conception and not bearing of children we see no women ordinarily that are better in health than those that often conceive with child and some are so fruitful that they conceive with many children about the same time so that considering his magnitude surely no creature multiplies more than man for he hath a priority in this blessing above the beasts Twins are frequent and sometimes two or three children at one birth are not the same thing with superfetation when children are got again before the first be delivered you must not think divers Cells in the womb to be the cause of this multiplicity of children for there is no such thing in the womb to be the cause of this multiplicity of children for there is no such thing in the womb but only one line that parts one side from the other but such women have larger wombs than others and so the seed divided finds place to form more children than one if their be sufficient strength in the several parts of the seed to do it Yet when Twins are begotten they have no more than one cake called Placenta that both their Navel vessels are received by though they have different Secundines or Coats that cover them It may be discerned but with some difficulty that a woman will have more than one child by their heavy burden and slow motion also by the unevenness of their bellies and that there is a kind of separation made by certain wrinkles and seams to shew the children are parted in the womb and if she be not very strong to go through with it in her Travel she is in danger both she and her children If the twins be both boys or both girls they will fare the better Yet one is found by frequent examples to be more lusty longer liv'd than the other be they both of one sex or one a boy the other a girl that which is strongest encreaseth but the weaker decayes or fails by reason of the prevailing force of the other Sometimes the woman conceives again a long time after her conception the womb opening it self by reason of great delight in the action though it were shut so close as no air could enter for the Matrix attracts and makes room for it And this may fall out not only for once but at a third Copulation that a woman may have one mischance and two children yet no twins It may be discerned by the several motions of the Infants but the mother is in great danger of her life by losing of so great a quantity of blood as she must needs lose at two births in so short a compass of time It is most dangerous to spurr nature to delivery before her period wherefore in such cases leave it to the work of nature using only Corroboratives and some such remedies as may facilitate her progress therein But women may avoid this mischief that often happens if they will rest themselves content when they have once conceived But that Story which I touched before seems to me to be but a meer Romance of Margaret Countess of Hennenberge and sister to William King of the Romans as some writers record that when she was forty years old she was delivered at one birth successively of as many children as there are daies in the year namely three hundred sixty five the one half boys and the other half girls and the odd child was divided to both sexes an Hermaphrodite partly male partly female and that the cause of this miracle was from a curse of her sister some say a poor beggar woman at her door laid upon her for her causeless jealousie and
and the whole body is purged by it but the womb is not affected it is a filthy disorderly Evacuation either before or after Terms or when they are wholly stopt the colour of the matter is blew or green or reddish few maids have this Disease women with child may it is not the running of the Reins for that is in less quantity whiter and thicker nor from nightly Pollutions which come onely in sleep The cause is some excrementitious humor sometimes like watry blood a cold and moist womb breeds this Disease or when ill humors are gathered in the whole body or Liver Spleen or stomach they are sometimes thus voided nature that useth to send forth good blood by the Veins casts forth these ill humours by them they are of divers colours and stink If it be from a Phlegmatick humor the Ligaments of womb grow loose and the womb falls out in time they make thick veins and they are discoloured in their Faces short breathed if the humor be not bred in the womb it comes from a Cacochymy of the whole body if it comes from the whole it is more in quantity if onely from the womb it is but little Many have had this Disease long and found no great hurt but if it be not timely looked to it will do mischief causing Consumptions Faintings and Convulsions when the matter is sent to the nerves and brain You must not stop it suddenly for so it will find a way to the nobler parts Bleeding is naught in this case general Evacuations are good and after particulars according to the part diseased The whites and over-flowing of the Terms I say are a disease and although it resemble the Gonorrhaea it is not the same it is also like the matter that flows from an Ulcer of the womb but it is not that neither The running of the Reins in Men women is not the same disease with this the running of the Reins is peculiar to unchast women but this flux of whites may proceed from too much cold or too much heat and hath many differences as will appear by the colour of the matter sent forth the colour shews the peccant humor it is necessary for the cure to search whether it be a Gonorrhaea or involuntary flux of seed which both women and Men are subject to and the remedies are the same as the causes are in both Women commonly call the whites the running of the Reins but the running of the Reins comes most commonly by unlawful Venery or excess in that Act but the proper cause of the whites is too much superfluity of Excrement but where those Excrements are bred is doubted Some say these corrupt humours are daily bred in the principal parts others say they come onely from the womb and seed Vessels others say from the Reins onely and the womb is unaffected But Galen plainly shews that the whole body is affected that dischargeth it self by the womb and therefore weak and flegmatick women are most subject to have the whites To cure it first observe a strict Diet cleanse the whole body by purging letting blood Sweating and Diureticks in very moist bodies prepare the humours three or four dayes before purging or take Cassia new drawn one ounce powder of Rhubarb one dram with sirrup of water Lillies or Violets take it in the morning dissolve it if you please in Posset drink and about two hours after take some broth You may take every day a dram of Trochisci de Carabe in Plantane water or give every second or third day a dram of the filings of Ivory in Plantane water a very laudable remedy To sweat also is very laudable in this case take Barley water three ounces strong wine two ounces drink it warm and lie and sweat Conserve of Roses and Marmalade are excellent for this disease drink the decoction of Comfrey Roots with Sugar to sweeten it take three or four ounces at a draught Whites of eggs well beaten with red Rose water and made with Cotton or Linnen into a Pessary and put into the Matrix with a string tied to it to pull it out again is commended Diureticks are not good till the body be well purged and then they will help to drive the ill humour forth by Urine Lest the womb be hurt with ill humours inject a decoction of Barley Honey of Roses and Whey with sirrup of dried Roses Take red Saunders two drams and a half yellow Saunders one dram and a halfe red Roses three drams fine Bole a quarter of an ounce burnt Ivory one dram Camphire half a dram white wax one ounce oil of Roses three ounces make an ointment This is not only good to anoint the secrets but also to cool the inflammation of the kidneys stomach liver and other parts If the Whites flow from abundance of superfluous humours you may evacuate much through the skin by often rubbing of the body but first rub easily and by degrees rub harder Of these fluxes there are three sorts White Red and Yellow and there are three kinds of Archangel or dead nettles to cure them First The White Flowers helps the Whites Secondly The Red are to cure the Reds Thirdly And the Yellow flux is cured by the Yellow Half a dram of Myrrh taken every morning is commended or a scruple of the Pills of Amber at night often taken they will not work till the day following Many strange things are oftentimes voided by the Womb as Stones and Gravel And Peter Diversas relates that a Nun voided a rugged Stone as large as a Ducks Egg and it gave her some ease but there followed a foule flux of the Womb that killed her Garcias Lopius saw a Woman that voided many Ascarides or small Worms by the Womb. When stinking humors are cast forth this way it is not properly the Running of the reins for both sexes have sometimes the running of the reins and most commonly it comes from a foul course whereas the whites come from a corruption of humours if it run white and little and thick it is a true flux of seed if it last and be not cured it brings a wasting of body and barrenness if this flux grow from fulness of Seed the buds of willow steept in wine will cure it if it proceed from a weak retention give half a scruple of Castor and use astringents to the reins and belly or a bath of willow leaves Myrtles Quinces each two handfuls red Roses Rosemary each a handful Cypress Nuts three ounces let her sit up to the Navel apply bags of the same to the Loins and Privities and anoint the said parts with oil of Mastich and Myrtles CHAP. XII Of the Swelling and Puffing up of the Body especially the Belly and the Feet of Women after Delivery THe Swellings of these parts in Childbed women come either from a depraved diet used whilest they were with child or else drinking immoderately after delivery or it may be they abound with more blood
finger into his mouth and holding the nipple faster than they were wont when the tooth is coming forth the Gum is whiter than in other parts the watching breeds cholerick humours and inflames the body and brings a Feaver If the teeth be long before they can come forth children commonly will die of Feavers and Convulsion fits they that scowr have seldome any Convulsion When the gums are thick the teeth can scarce get forth wherefore soften the Gum with rubbing it with Honey and Fresh Butter or let the child chew a candle of Virgins Wax Let the Nurse keep a moderate Diet inclining to cold as Barley Broths Water-Gruel Lettice Endive Rear-eggs take heed of salt spiced meats and wine but anoint the childs Gum with a Mucilage of Quinces made with Mallows water or with the brains of an Hare XXII If the Gums be ulcerated let the Nurse rub the childs gums and Wheals and Pushes with her finger and anoint them with Hens grease Hares brains oil of Cammomile and Mel Rosarum or sirrup of violets with Plantane water and if the inflammation be great boil Pomegranate flowers Roses and Sanders of each two drams Allum half a dram in water strain out three ounces and dissolve in it the sirrup of Mulberries half an ounce If the Pushes and Wheals be white take Pomegranate flowers Amber Cypress nuts of each two drams Roses and Myrtle flowers of each half a handful boil them in water add to the decoction one ounce and a half of honey of Roses .. Sometimes there riseth between the Gums and the great teeth a little fleshy substance to consume that wash it with a deccoction of the roots of Plantain Bugloss Agrimony of each a handful Barley a small handful and red Roses a handful four Dates Flowers of Pomegranates two drams Liquorish one dram and a half XXIII Children are very much molested with destillations Coughs and Catarrhs if the humour be sharp and hot that falls from the brain the child will look red in the face if it be a cold humour much matter will run forth at the nose and mouth then keep the child resonably warm and give it Sugar candy with oil of sweet Almonds wash the childs feet with Ale boiled with Betony Marjoram Rosemary then anoint the soles of the feet with Goose grease rub the breast with fresh butter and oil of sweet Almonds and lay on warm linnen cloths for slimy humours give it a spoonful of sirrup of Maiden-hair or of Liquorish and Hyssop mingled Take also Gum Traganth Arabick Quince seeds juice of Liquorish and Sugar Pelets mingle them and in new milk let the child take of it every day Where the cause is cold that makes the Cough beat a little Myrrh to powder and give it the child with oil of sweet Almonds and a little honey when it comes from heat make a decoction of Raisins in water and with white poppey seed and Gum Dragant each two drams seeds of Gourds four drams beat all together and give the child a four penny weight in the foresaid decoction XXIV If the breath be short let it take an Electuary of Honey and Linseed and anoint the ears and parts about them with Olive oil XXV If the childs nose be stopt put a little Ointment of Roses and good Pomatum into the Nostrils to soften the hard matter Wash the inflamed or Gummy eyes that will not open with breast milk or Plantain and Rose Water Childrens moist brains breed moist humours that run to their ears make them clean with a rag and drop in Honey of Roses mingled with oil of bitter Almonds XXVI If the child new born be in great pain then rub it with Pellitory of the wall and fresh Butter or with Spinach and Hogs-grease and lay it to the Navel take care it be not too hot or make a cake of oils of eggs and of Nuts for the Navel give it a Glister if it need with Milk Sugar and the yolk of an Egg. XXVII Children are subject to all sorts of Feavers but chiefly to Feavers from corrupt milk and Feavers with breeding of teeth They have epidemical Feavers sometimes that cast forth the Meazles or small Pox the mothers menstrual blood is the original cause but the corrupt air stirs it up for as the air is pure or impure so these diseases are more raging or less It is oftentimes infectious and the humours so corrupt that worms breed under the scabs and corrode the bones and inward parts as hath been proved by opening some that died If it be a Feaverish time that it spreads much give good Antidotes and change the air but all children almost will have them first or last Before there is a Feaver you may fortifie nature and give a a gentle purge but for my part I approve not of purging or bleeding in these distempers unless it be long before So soon as you see the feaver drive them out by Cordials and prefer the eyes and throat and prevent deformity The first signs of this disease for they are both from one cause are pains of the head redness in the eyes a dry Cough with a feaver then little pimples break forth all the body over but chiefly they aim at the throat and face The small Pox is dangerous to all but most to those that are of an ill habit of body and if they come forth in heaps and not orderly or if they look blew black or ill coloured they are exceeding dangerous If the child suck the nurse must use a moderate diet she may eat Hen broth with herbs of Succory Borrage Bugloss and Endive boiled in it Let her drink this drink following to make them come easily and quickly forth take peeled Lentils half an ounce fat figs two ounces Gum Lac two drams Gum Traganth and Fennel seed of each two drams and a half boil this in fountain water strain it and sweeten two pints of it with Sugar and sirrup of Maiden-hair let her drink half a pint fasting If the child be weaned give it a Julep of cordial waters two ounces and a half sirrup of Lemmons one ounce use this often and four or five hours after give it some Unicorns horn and Oriental Bezoar in powder To preserve the eyes anoint the Eye-lids with Plantane and Rose water and a little Saffron To preserve the nose take Rose water and Betony of each one ounce Vinegar half an ounce and as much powder of peels of Citrons add to it Saffron six grains let the child smell to it often dip some cotton in it and stop the ears to keep the Small Pox from thence You may preserve the mouth the tongue and the throat with a handful of barley and leaves of Plantain Sorrel Agrimony and of Vervain of each a handful all boiled in water to six ounces dissolve in it sirrup of Pomegranates and of Roses of each half an ounce Saffron half a scruple make a Gargarisme sirrup of Juniper of Violets and of water-Lillies
a passage within the passage of the Peritoneum called the Bason or Laver placed between the right Gut and the bladder and it is whiter than the superficies of the bottom the cavity is deep but the mouth or entrance is much narrower it reacheth from the inward mouth of the womb to the outward mouth or lips of the Privities It is a fit sheath to receive the Yard and is long that by it the mans Seed may be carried to the orifice of the Womb it grows longer or shorter in time of Copulation and wider and narrower as the mans Yard is so it swells more or less is more open and more shut the length and wideness cannot be limited because it is fit for any Yard yet I have heard a French man complain sadly that when he first married his Wife it was no bigger nor wider than would fit his turn but now it was grown as a Sack Perhaps the fault was not the womans but his own his weapon shrunk and was grown too little for the scabbard The neck of the womb is continued with the bottom of it yet it hath a diverse substance from it for it is sinewy and skinny that it may with more care be enlarged or contracted not become too hard nor too soft The substance of it is spongy and fungous like that of a mans Yard that when there is Copulation it may close about the Yard which it doth by reason of many small Arteries which fill up the passage with spirits and make it become narrower Wherefore in women that are lustfull it swels in that time of desire and the caruncles strut out and the hole grows very strait In young maids it is more soft and delicate but it grows every day harder as they grow elder after many Children and in old women it becomes hard like a gristle by reason it is so often worn and by the Courses flowing forth It is smooth when you stretch it and slippery but otherwise full of wrinkles unless it be where it ends in the Lap. In the entrance of the passage and in the fore part there are many round folds and plaights which cause the more pleasure in Venus action by the attraction of the Nut of the Yard In young women these folds are smoother and narrower and the passage straiter that it will scarce admit a finger to go in yet through this do pass not onely the Menstruous blood but also corrupt humours in those that have that disease is called the Whites CHAP. XIV Of the Vessels preparing Seed in Women AS in Men so in Women the Seed vessels are either preparing or carrying Vessels The Preparing vessels are neither more nor less than they are in Men for they are just four two Veins and two Arteries and they arise as they do in men for the right Vein is derived from the pipe of the great Liver vein under the Emulgent but the left comes from the Emulgent on the left side both the Arteries come from the trunk of the great Artery yet I do not say that there is no difference between these in men and women for then it had been needless to go over this subject any more The differences are chiefly two 1. Because womens passages are shorter these vessels are shorter in women than they are in men for womens stones lye in their bellies but mens hang without in their Cods but womens Vessels have by far more windings and turnings hither and thither out and in than mens have that the matter they bring may be better prepared their windings up and down prove that they are not shorter if they had room to go any farther as they have in Men. It is worth observing that you may know that the Vessels of the womb have union and communion one with the other both the Veins the Arteries for the vital and natural blood are mingled to perform this great work and it is thus brought to pass The spermatick Veins passing by the side of the womb joyn with the foresaid Arteries and then they make this mixture and this is easily proved for if you blow up the Seed Vein with a hollow pipe or quill you shall see all the Vessels of the womb to swell at the same time and to be blown up with it which is enough to confirm that they are all mingled and united These four Vessels bring the Seed from all parts of the body that they may fit it make it ready for Natures use The right vein comes from the trunk of the hollow Liver vein below the Emulgent vein nigh unto the great hollow bone but the left vein comes from the left Emulgent vein for the great Artery is seated on this side by the hollow vein and that Artery beats throbs continually and if the left Seed vein had come from the Trunk of the hollow vein as the right doth it must have past over the great Artery and then the never ceasing beating of the Artery would have broken this thin Vein if nature had not provided the foresaid remedy against it The Arteries both of them have the same beginning as they have in men for they come from the Trunk of the great Artery near the great bone under the Emulgent vein and they are filled with vital blood as the two Veins are with natural blood Yet they do not fall out of the Peritoneum as the Arteries of men do nor do they reach the share-bone because women have no reason to cast their Seed out of themselvs but onely into their own womb which is but a short way nor do these Arteries interweave or grow together till they come into their stones but with some variation again they are divided for in women they are supported with fat membranes so brought to the Stones yet by the way as they come they inoculate the Veins with the Arteries and after that they branch into two parts and the one part makes the Seed vessels and that which is called Corpus varicosum affording to the Cods and stones some small twigs for to feed them but the other part is carried to the skin that cleaves to the bottom of the Matrix and supplieth the higher part of its bottom with nourishment and feeds the Infant in the womb also with blood and moreover by these Vessels the monthly Terms are voided forth especially of such women that are not with Child but in Men they are all wrought up into one body which is called Corpus varicosum The difference that they make in shortness from the same Vessels in men may be for this reason also because the womans Seed doth not need so strong and great preparing as mens Seed doth nor could their Vessels have been kept within the womans belly had they not been made shorter than mens But it is admirable to consider how strangely these Vessels are infolded and wrapt up one within the other to prepare the Seed Yet because womens stones are but small their
in this building for the seed is the workmaster that makes the Infant and therefore the stones that make this seed must needs be Principal parts though some exclude them making only the Heart the Brain and the Liver to be of the first rank but the stones may in some sort be put in the first rank not onely to make the body fruitful but to work a change in the whole Take away a Mans stones and he is no more the same man but growes cold of constitution though he were never so hot before and is subject to Convulsion fits also their voice grows shrill and Feminine and their manners and dispositions are commonly naught Eunuchs may live without them and it hath been an approved cure for the Leprosy in former times but Hippocrates tells us that the stones are the strength and vigour of Manhood and that a convulsion of the stones threatneth Death and the firmness or looseness of them is a great sign of good or evil and that applications to the stones are very effectual to the strengthning of the body It is then very needful for all to keep the Organs of procreation pure and clean that they may send forth good seed to make the work perfect and that Children may be long lived which they cannot well be nor of sound constitutions if they are begotten from corrupt Seed or unnatural blood Alchymists lay the cause of all Childrens diseases on the Seed of the Parents as plants have not the causes of their destruction from the Elements but from their own Seed as also we see that when the Plague or any Epidemical disease rageth all are not infected because they have not that matter in them that will so soon take as it doth with others That therefore the matter may be fit for the work of nature there are two things very useful good diet moderately taken and conveniet labour and exercise of body Ill diet causeth ill blood and excess in meat or drink choakes the natural heat causeth raw crude humours which will never make good blood and ill blood will never make good seed for every part hath its natural propriety to change the nutriment into its own likeness as the Breasts change blood into Milk the stones change it into seed alwayes supposing such previous preparations that are needful or it cannot be done as it should be Temperance in eating and drinking will make both Parents and Children to be long lived and there is as much difference between good and bad nourishment as there is between pure Fountain water and ditch water but temperance is not to be understood as if there were a set proportion for all alike for it is according to every ones constitution what is too much for one Man or woman may be too little for another it is then such a quantity of meat or drink that the stomach can well master and digest for the feeding of the body Those that work hard must eat more than Schollars that follow their studies for the work of the stomach is called off by the intention of the mind their meat must be less and of easier digestion They that live in hot climates or near the Sun have not so strong stomachs as in colder regions nor is it with us all one in Summer and winter but every man or woman of years by good observation may know his own temper and what quantity will best agree with him and so if he be not a fool he may be his own Physician Youth and age cannot feed alike Children are often feeding because they want both for growth and nourishment but old age not near so much sick and healthful differ in the same kind I never could endure that preposterous way that most persons observe to the destruction of their Friends that when they are sick they will never let them alone but provoke them to eat whereas fasting is the better Doctor so it be not out of measure The causes of great eating and drinking beyond the bounds of nature are a liquorish appetite and a fancy beyond reason But having found out the causes I shall prescribe some remedies withal It is easy to know when you have eat or drank too much or what agrees not with you when you find nature charged with it and is not able to digest it vapours rising from the stomach that is glutted will choak the brain and cause defluxions and multitudes of diseases if you be sleepy after meat and drink you have taken too much for moderation makes a Man cheerful and not sleepy Also refrain from all meats and drinks that agree not with your constitution for they will never breed good blood but if you have done amiss in surfeiting your self or over eating or using any thing that agrees not with you remember that nature abhors all sudden changes and therefore you must not withdraw all at once but by degrees till you can bring your selves safely to a moderation This intemperance of Parents is the cause that many Children die before their time for what is too much can never be well concocted but turns to ill and raw humours and if the stomach turn the food into crude juyce or chyle the Liver that makes the second concoction can never mend it to make good blood nor can the third concoction of the stones to turn that blood into seed make good seed of ill blood for what is bad in the first concoction the second concoction nor third can ever rectify but if the chyle be good blood and seed will be good But you must know that nothing furthers good concoction more than moderate labour for it stirs up natural heat whereas idle persons breed crude humours And therefore Lycurgus the Lacedemonian Law-giver commanded Maids to work for saith he this keeps their bodies in good temper and free from crudities and when they come to marry their Children will be strong There 's as much difference between labour and sloth as between the earth in Summer and Winter in Summer the Sun by its heat makes it fruitful in Winter it is chill for want of the Suns heat Convenient labour sends the spirits to all parts of the body when the Elements are unequally divided death follows so the better the spirits are distrubuted to the seed the better will the seed be and your Children the stronger which is no small effect of moderate exercise when sloth is the cause of their hasty dissolution moderate labour open the pores of the body and by sweat or insensible transpriation sends forth all fuliginous and smoky vapours that choke the spirits and cause divers maladies we find all this to be true in reason and experience confirms it for Countrey people that work hard digest what they eat and their Children are usually strong and long liv'd But Citizens and such as refuse to labour and live idle lives I do not say all I hope there will be the fewer for what I have taken the pains to
farther it is constantly reported that these children were all baptized living at the Church of Lardune in Holland near the Hague and the boys were all called Johns the girls Elizabeths there were two Silver Basons that they were Christned in and Guido the Suffragan of Vtrecht keeps them for to shew to strangers and one of these Basons as it is reported was brought for a present to King Charles the second before he came from thence and they say farther that presently after they were baptized the mother and all her children died Some write of another Countess in Frederick the eleventh's daies who had five hundred boys at one birth But to leave this and to proceed to the causes of Conception Notwithstanding that God gave the blessing generally to our first Parent and so by consequent to all her succeeding generations yet we find that some women are exceeding fruitful to conceive and others barren that they conceive not at all God reserving to himself a prerogative of furthering and hindering Conception where he pleaseth that men and women may more earnestly pray unto God for his blessing of Procreation and be thankful unto him for it so Psal 127.3 the Psalmist tells us Loe Children and the fruit of the Womb are an heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord. So Hannah pray'd in the first of Samuel and gave thanks when God had heard her prayer Some women are by nature barren though both they themselves and their husbands are no way deficient to perform the acts of Generation and are in all parts as perfect as the most fruitful persons can be Some think the cause is too much likeness and similitude in their complexions for God having framed an Harmonious world by a due disposing of contraries they that are too like of constitution can never beget any thing this I confess is hard to find that they should agree in all respects no difference of complexion at all yet sometimes Physicians judge barrenness proceeds from too great similitude of persons but I should rather think from some disproportion of the Organs or some impediment not easily perceived else how comes it to pass that some that have continued barren many years at last have proved fruitful I remember a story that I heard of a Watch-maker who had an excellent Watch that was out of tune and he could never make it go true what the fault was he could not find at length he grew so angry that he threw the watch against the wall and took it up again and then he found it goe exceeding true and by that means he came also to know the cause of the former defect for indeed it proved to be nothing else but some inequality in the Case of the watch which by throwing it against the wall accidentally was amended wherefore a small matter sometimes will remove the impediment if we can but find what it is Some say again the cause of barrenness is want of love in man and wife whose Seed never mixeth as it should to Procreation of children their hatred is so great as it is recorded of Eleocles and Polynices two Theban Princes who killed each other and when their bodies were afterwards burn'd as the manner of burial was in their daies to preserve only their ashes in a pot as if the hatred still continued in their dead bodies the flames parted in the midst and ascended with two points and this extream hatred is the reason why women seldom or never conceive when they are ravished and it proves as ineffectual as Onan's Seed when he spilt it upon the ground The cause of this hatred in married people is commonly when they are contracted and married by unkind Parents for some sinister ends against their wills which makes some children complain of their Parents cruelty herein all the daies of their lives but as Parents do ill to compel their children in such cases so children should not be drawn away by their own foolish fansies but take their Parents counsel along with them when they go about such a great work as marriage is wherein consists their greatest woe or welfare so long as they live upon the earth Another cause that women prove barren is when they are let blood in the arm before their courses come down whereas to provoke the Terms when they flow not as they should Women or Maids ought rather to be let blood in the foot for that draws them down to the place nature hath provided but to let blood in the arm keeps them from falling down and is as great a mischief as can be to hinder them wherefore let the Terms first come naturally before you venture to draw blood in the arm unless the cause be so great that there is no help for it otherwise The time of the courses to appear for maids is fourteen or thirteen or the soonest at twelve years old yet I remember that in France I saw a child but of nine years old that was very sickly until such time as she was let blood in the arm and then she recovered immediately but this is no president for others especially in our climate blood-letting being the ordinary remedy in those parts when the Patient is charged with fulness of blood of what age almost soever they be There is besides this natural barrenness of women another barrenness by accident by the ill disposition of the body and generative parts when the courses are either more or fewer than stands with the state of the womans body when humours fall down to the womb and have found a passage that way and will hardly be brought to keep their natural rode or when the womb is disaffected either by any preternatural quality that exceeds the bounds of nature as heat or cold or dryness or moisture or windy vapours Lastly There is barrenness by inchantment when a man cannot lye with his wife by reason of some charm that hath disabled him the French in such a case advise a man to thred the needle Nouer C'eguilliette as much as to say to piss through his wives wedding ring and not to spill a drop and then he shall be perfectly cured Let him try it that pleaseth CHAP. III. Signs that a woman is conceived with Child and whether it be a Son or a Daughter YOung women especially of their first Child are so ignorant commonly that they cannot tell whether they have conceived or not and not one of twenty almost keeps a just account else they would be better provided against the time of their lying in and not so suddenly be surprised as many of them are Wherefore divers Physicians have laid down rules whereby to know when a woman hath conceived with Child and these rules are drawn from almost all parts of the body The rules are too general to be certainly proved in all women yet some of them seldom fail in any First if when the seed is cast into the womb she feel the womb shut close and a
shivering or trembling to run through every part of her body and that is by reason of the heat that draws inward to keep the conception and so leaves the outward parts cold chill Secondly The pleasure she takes at that time is extraordinary and the mans seed comes not forth again for the womb closely embraceth it and will shut as fast as possibly may be Thirdly The womb sinks down to cherish the seed and so the belly grows flatter than it was before Fourthly She finds pain that goes about her belly chiefly about her Navel and lower belly which some call the Water-course Fifthly Her stomach becomes very weak she hath no desire to eat her meat but is troubled with sowr belchings Sixthly Her monthly terms stop at some unseasonable time that she lookt not for Seventhly She hath a preternatural desire to something not fit to eat nor drink as some women with child have longed to bite off a piece of their Husbands Buttocks Eightly Her Brests swell and grow round and hard and painful Ninthly She hath no great desire to copulation for some time she will be merry or sad suddenly upon no manifest cause Tenthly She so much loatheth her victuals that let her but exercise her body a little in motion and she will cast off what lieth upon her stomack Eleventhly Her Nipples will look more red at the ends than they usually do Twelfthly the veins of her breasts will swell and shew themselves very plain to be seen Thirteenthly Likewise the veins about the eyes will be more apparent Fourteenthly The womb pressing the right gut it is painful for her to go to stool she is weaker than she was her visage discoloured These are the common rules that are laid down But if a womans courses be stopt and the Veins under her lowest Eylid swell and the colour be changed and she hath not broken her rest by watching the night before these signs seldom or never fail of Conception for the first two months If you keep her water three dayes close stopt in a glass and then strain it through a fine linnen cloth you will find live worms in the cloth Also a needle laid twenty four hours in her Urine will be full of red spots if she have conceived or otherwise it will be black or dark coloured To know whether the Infant conceived be male or female I refer you to Hippocrates Aphor 48. for it is a very hard thing to discover 1. If it be a boy she is better coloured her right Breast will swell more for males lye most on the right side and her belly especially on that side lieth rounder and more tumified and the Child will be first felt to move on that side the woman is more cheerful and in better health her pains are not so often nor so great the right breast is harder and more plump the nipple a more clear red and the whole visage clear not swarthy 2. If the marks before mentioned be more apparent on the left side it is a Girle that she goes with all 3. If when she riseth from the place she sits on she move her right foot first and is more ready to lean on her right hand when she reposeth all signifies a boy Lastly Drop some drops of breast Milk into a Bason of water if it swim on the top it is a Boy if it sink in round drops judge the contrary CHAP. IV. Of false Conception and of the Mole or Moon Calf MAny women themselves have thought that they had conceived with Child because their bellies were swoln so great and their courses were staid and came not down according to natures custome whereas this swelling of the belly more and more and stopping of the Termes proceeded from nothing else but an ill shaped lump of flesh which grows greater every day in the womb and is fed by the Terms that flow to it and this is that Midwives call a Mole or Moon-Calf and these are of two sorts one the true the other the false Mole The true Mole is a mishapen piece of flesh without figure or order it is full of Veins and Vessels with discoloured veins or membranes of almost all colours without any entrails or bones or motion it is bred in the wombs hollowness and cleaves fast to the sides of it but takes no substance from it sometimes it hath a skin to cover it and is empty within sometimes it is long or round and some women have cast forth three at a time like the Yard of a man sometimes these Moles are without sense sometimes they have an obscure feeling sometimes they are bred with the Child and then is the Child in great danger to be opprest by them sometimes they are voided when the Child is delivered or before or after Widows have been known to have had these Moles formed in their wombs by their own seed and blood that flows thither But ordinarily I think this comes not to pass but it proceeds from a fault in the forming faculty when the mans seed in Copulation is weak or defective and too little so that it is overcome by the much quantity of the womans blood the faculty begins to work but cannot perfect and so onely Veins and Membranes are made but the Child is not made yet this Mole is of so different kinds that it is not possible to set them down according to their several varieties but doubtless a Mole is sooner formed if Men and Women ly together when they have their courses and the blood is not fit for formation by reason of impurity so that neither heat nor cold are the chief cause of this error but the uncleanness of the matter that is not endued with a forming faculty from corrupt seed or menstruous blood bad humours are ingendred and nature works in vain Some are called false Moles and of those are four sorts as their causes are for either they proceed from wind and are called windy swellings or from water flowing to the womb and called watry swellings or else diverse humours cause this swelling and sometimes it is nothing but a bag full of blood If the Child be conceived with a Mole it draws the nourishment from the Child Both sexes doubtless contribute to the making of most Moles the seed of the Man being choakt with the blood of the woman and wrapt both in a caule Nature will make something of it though nothing to the purpose If it be true that some widdows have had them they were neither of the same shape nor substance but voided will consume into water and this can be supposed only of dead Moles for living Moles that have some sense or feeling or true motion in them can never be produced but mans seed must be a part of their beginning as for Maids they cannot breed any true Mole because a true Mole must be made of the greatest part of the womans blood coming into the womb but the vessels passages in
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-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
not so pure as the first riseth to the breasts to make milk and the grossest part of the three stays in the womb and comes away with the birth and after-birth But this is a long dispute how the child comes to be fed in the womb Alcmeon thought the childs body being soft like a sponge did draw nourishment by all parts of its body as a sponge sucks water not only drinking from the mothers veins but from the womb also Hippocrates as well as Democritus or Epicurus seems to say that the child sucks both nourishment and breath at the mouth from the mother when she breaths for these two causes 1. Because it could not suck so soon as it is born were it not used to it before 2. There are excrements found in the Guts of a new born child but all creatures that suck will do it presently by instinct of nature as Chickins that never fed before will presently pick up their food and as for the excrements found in the Guts they are not excrements of the first concoction for they stink not but are gross blood that came from the Vessels of the spleen to the Guts and are dried there but now it is agreed by all since the truth is found out that the child in the womb is fed by its Navel only they differ about the food it lives on the Peripateticks say it is fed by menstrual blood which is the excrement of the last nutriment of the fleshy parts which at certain times is purged forth by the womb in a moderate quantity but primarily ordained for the generation and nutriment of the child But Fernelius Pliny Columella and Columbus deny this because such blood is impure and will where it falls destroy Plants and Trees Dogs will run mad that eat it and ofttimes hurts the women themselves causing swimmings of the head pains swellings and suffocations this then were ill food for a tender infant But to answer all If the woman be in good health her monthly courses are no bad blood for quality though they hurt in quantity being more than she can concoct and therefore she sends forth what is too much but if her body be ill affected the blood that stays in the womb is naught as well as that she voids by her terms but when the courses are not duly voided but stay in being stopt beyond their time of evacuation then they cause those ill effects formerly mentioned else not but women have not these courses the greatest part of the time they are with child nor yet when they give suck for the most part if the child be not fed with this blood what becomes of this blood when women are with child certain it is it turns into milk when time serves to suckle the infant with Yet Hippocrates was mistaken who says that the last part of the time the child lieth in the womb after it is quick it s fed partly by the mother milk but this is certain that the infant in the womb is fed with pure blood conveyed in the Liver by the Navel-vein which is a branch of the great vein and spreads to the small veins of the Liver And here this blood is more refined the thick gross crude part goes to the Spleen and Kidneys and the gross excrement of it to the Guts and that is it is found in the Guts as soon as they are born The most pure part goes into the hollow vein and from thence through the whole body by small branches this blood hath a watry substance with it as all blood hath to make it run and keep it from clodding and this water in men and women breaths forth by sweat so it doth in a child and is contain'd in the Lamb-skin as I told you This watry substance that is joined with the blood when the blood comes to the kidneys parts from the blood and is sent by the kidneys that make their separation by the Ureters to the bladder nor doth the infant piss as he lieth in the womb by the Yard but the Urine is carryed by the Vrachos a vessel to carry it which is long and without blood to the Allantois â—or skin that is made to hold the childs water in so long as it remains in the womb this Vrachos or passage goeth from the bottom of the bladder to the Allantois and hath no muscle belongs unto it that the child may void the Urine when nature requires but when the child is born it hath muscles at the root of the bladder to shut and open that we may make it not a meer natural but partly a mixed action to follow our business and make water not alwayes but when we please but this is not the course with the child continually for the first month the childs Urine comes out through the passage of the Navel but in the last month by the Yard but it never goes to stool in the womb because it takes no nutriment by the mouth After forty five days the child lives but moves not commonly he moves in double the time he was formed and is born in thrice the time after he began to move If the child be fully formed in forty days her will move in ninety days and be born in the ninth month but he receives daily more food after the third and fourth month to the day of his birth A child born in six months is not perfect and must die but one born in seven months is perfect but one born in the eight month cannot live because in the seventh month the child useth all its force to come out and if it cannot it must stay two months longer to recover the strength lost upon the former attempt that had made it too feeble to get forth in the eighth month for if it come not forth at the seventh month it removes its station and changeth it self to some other place in the womb these two motions have so weakened it that it must stay behind a month longer for if it come forth before it is almost impossible for it to live But Astrologers determine this business another way for they affirm that children born in the seventh month do live by reason of the compleating of the motion of the seven planets allowing one month to each of them beginning with Saturn thus Saturn Jupiter Mars Sol Venus Mercury Luna Now if the child come not forth at the seventh month but stay till the eighth month the Planets having ruled every one his month Saturn begins to rule again who is an enemy to conception in all his qualities and so the child born in the eighth month will be born dead or live a very short time yet other Philosophers maintain that Saturn is no enemy to conception but ruling in the first month by his influence and retentive faculty the child is fixed in the womb but as the celestial bodies have their influence upon the terrestial and upon all the elements they cause all the changes
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
it the child by the mouth to drink But in what place this string must be cut Midwives and Physicians can scarce agree Elias lib. 4. c. 3. saith it must be cut four fingers breadth from the body but what is this Midwives fingers are not equal I suppose he means four inches for that was the opinion of the Antients Miraldus was critical in this point and from him some errors were begotten about it in late writers and Midwives Hence it is if Spigelius speak truth that Midwives cut the Females Navel-string shorter than they doe the Males for Boys privy parts must be longer than womens but it Females are cut short they say it will make them modest and their secrets narrower Spigelius and others laugh at this conceit for if Midwives by cutting their Navel-strings can make their secrets wider all women that have hard labour have good reason to complain of their Midwives for cutting their Navel-string so short Miraldus bids cut the navel-string long in both sexes for that the Instruments of Generation in both follow this proportion if womens Navel-strings be cut too short it will hinder their Childbearing Taisner an excellent Astrologer was of this mind If Nature framed the child by the Navel-string in the womb there is no small use of it afterward Miraldus saith that if a childs Navel-string be cut off and let fall to touch the ground that child shall never hold its water sleeping nor waking Also if you carry a piece of a Childs Navel-string about you you may saith Miraldus wear it for a foil in a Ring you shall never be troubled with convulsion fits nor the Falling sickness I have known all this tried but he saith farther that it will defend those that carry it from Devils and Witch-crafts and one may try this if they please If the Child be very weak when it is born put back gently the natural blood by the Navel vein and the vital by the Navel arteries and you shall see the child almost dead before to revive like one awak'd out of sleep if the child seem full of life and spirits then stop the navel-string near the Navel that no blood nor vital spirits go back and that will keep the child strong as it is having done this bind the Navel-string with a strong ligature and cut it not off too near to the string least it unloose you need not fear to bind the Navel-string very hard because it feels not and that piece of the Navel-string you leave on will fall off in a very few days for the whole course of Nature is soon changed in the Child and another way ordain'd to feed it It is no matter what you cut it off with so it be sharp to do it neatly The reason of so many nodes or knots in the childs Navel-string is that the blood and vital spirits might not come in too fast to choke the child Nature is a careful Nurse but Midwives say these knots in number signifie so many Children the reddish boys the whitish Girls and the long distance between knot and knot long time between child and child but all false for all women almost have equal knots and more knots with their last Children than with the first When the Navel-string is cut off apply a little Cotten or lint to the place to keep it warm least the cold get in and that it will do if it be not hard enough bound and if it do you cannot think of a greater mischief for the Child when part of the Navel-string left is fallen off Midwives use to burn a rag to tinder and to apply to the place a little powder of Bolearmoniack were better because it drieth Beasts can lick the Navel-string round enough to keep out the air but the curse lyeth heavier on women for our Grand-Mothers first sin than it doth upon beasts CHAP. V. What is best to bring away the Secundine or after-burden WOmen are in as great danger if not more after the young is born but Beasts are not the Caule or inward chamber of the womb the child did lye in stayeth oft-times long after the child is born which should presently follow it when it so happens if it begins especially to corrupt as it will soon do it causeth grievous pains and ofttimes death wherefore make hast to drive it forth but be sure the means you use be very gentle for the woman is now grown weak and her womb is quick of feeling but the Secundine is dead let the quick then cast forth the dead Midwives long nails may do mischief I grant delays are dangerous for if it be retain'd till it corrupt it will cause Feavers Imposthumes Convulsions and such like know this that what brings away the birth will also do good to call forth the after-birth then comfort the woman let her snuff up a little white Hellebore in powder to make her sneefe but put the woman to as little trouble as you can for she hath endured pain enough already The herb Vervain boil'd in wine or a sirrup made with the clarified juice as I told you of Tansie Featherfew and mugwort do the same but hardly so forcibly Alexanders boiled in wine and the wine drunk is excellent Sweet-Cecely Angelica roots or Master-wort doe the same so used The smoke of Mary-Gold flowers taken in by a Tunnel at the secrets will easily bring forth the Secundine though the Midwife have let go her hold Mugwort boil'd soft in water applied like a Poultess to the Navel brings birth and after-birth away but then remove it least it bring the womb after all Women suffer great pains in Child-birth because the womb that hath many Nerves and Sinews by which the body feels is strait till time of delivery and then it is stretched which causeth great pain and some women have more pain in bearing than others have because some womens passages are narrower and their wombs more full of Nerves as Anatomy will shew and some think the reason of the great soreness of some women is because the share-bone and os sacrum or holy-bone do part or give way in hard travel it was that excellent Anatomist Doctor Reads opinion and I believe it to be true for nature strives to the utmost in such times Crook and Columbus deny this but the bones are joyned with Cartilages and Ligaments which being wet with much moisture may give way though the bones open not but in all labour the Nerves that carrry feeling through the whole body are then stretcht and cause soreness till they have rest and be settled again CHAP. VI. Of the great pains and throws some Women suffer after they are delivered SOmetimes a woman delivered shall for two of three days after and now and then longer feel such bitter pains in her belly and above the Groin as if she should be delivered again these pains are not in the body and bottom of the womb but in the Vessels and Ligatures by
the Womb. Take two pound of the crumbs of the inward part of white Bread Cammomile flowers one handful Mastick two drams Cloves half a dram bruise them and mingle them well with some Maligo Wine and two ounces of rose Vinegar boil them to a Pultiss and lay it on a double Cloth to the Os pubis Purgations may not be used unless the belly be bound and then a gentle Glister or some Manna or Cassia about half an ounce is safe to give by Potion Slipperiness of the womb is cured by an injection made of Pomegranate pills boil'd in Oyl of Lillies Or take Mastick Myrtle Gallia moscala of each half a dram mix them with Goose-grease and Sheeps-Wool and sew them in a linnen cloth and make a pastry and tye a string to it to pull it out again when you have put it up into the place To strengthen the Matrix Take four ounces of the Oyl of Nuts Barrows-grease one ounce and half Cypress-nuts Mastich of each one dram and half boyl them all about five hours and with this annoint her belly womb and reins of her back BOOK V. CHAP. I. How women after Child-birth must be governed THere is great differences in Womens constitutions and education you may kill one with that which will preserve the other tender women that are bred delicately must not be governed after the same manner that hardy Country women must for one is commonly weak stomach'd but the other is strong if you should give the weak woman presently after delivery strong broth or Eggs or milk it will cast her into a Feaver but the other that is strong will bear it but tender women must be tenderly fed and nothing given them that is of hard digestion nor yet what they have no mind to provided that what she desires be not offensive but for the first week she lies in let her have boil'd and not roast Jellies and Juice of Veal or Capon but no mutton Broth for that may make her Feaverish let her drink barley water or boyl one dram of Cinnamon in a pint of water dissolving two ounces of fine Sugar in it if she will drink wine mingle twice as much water or two third parts with it but let it be white wine in the morning and Claret in the after-noon she may sometimes drink Almond-milk but beware of crudities Some women when they lie in are still sleeping some cannot sleep if she cannot sleep let her drink barley water well boyled not straining it at all but let her forbear it after the first week lest it nourish too much and stop the Liver Baths for Child-bed Women For the first week let her Womb and Privities be bathed with a decoction of Chervil a good handful boiled in a good quantity of water adding to it after it is boiled one ounce of Honey of Roses this will draw away the purgations and cleanse and heal the parts and it will take away all inflammations For the second week boil Province Roses put in Bays Wine and water and with this decoction bath her secrets Keep her not too hot for that weakens nature and dissolves her strength nor too cold for cold getting in will cause torments hurt the Nerves and make the womb swell Let her diet be hot and eat but little at once some Nurses perswade them to eat apace because they have lost much blood but they are simple that say so for the blood voided doth not weaken but unburden nature for if it had not come away long diseases or death would have succeeded some say Oat-meal Candles are good for them but oat-meal makes people troubled with the green sickness by its binding quality boyling will never make a binding thing to purge ill humours as they say it doth Child-bed Women but purging things by boyling may sometimes be made to bind Let her for three daies keep the room dark for her eyes are weak and light offends them let all great noises be forborn and all unquietness remembering to be praising God for her safe delivery First then so soon as she is laid give her a draught of white wine burnt with a dram of Spermaâ—cety melted in it Vervain is an herb that fortifies the womb it is fit to gather in May and June you may dry it in the Sun and keep it to boil with her meat and drinks you shall profit more in two daies with it than in two weeks without it If the woman be Feaverish boil Plantane leaves and roots with it and if she be not yet they will do well together for the heat of the one is tempered by the coldness of the other But if her purgations stop for Plantane take Mother of tyme. If her purgations be clotted and smell filthily or the after-burden be not quite come away boyl Featherfew Mugwort Penniroyal Mother of time in white wine sweetened with Sugar let her drink that new laid eggs and Sugar Penides are best for her to eat often of moderately and boyl Cinnamon in all her meats and drinks Let her talk little nor stir much especially if she be weak for six or seven dayes after she is delivered is a decoction of Mallows with a little red Sugar is a good Glister if she be too costive Crato prescribes Coleworts and Chrysippus makes them to be a universal remedy for all diseases but they are too windy for women in Child-bed After the first week if she be near clean of her purgations she may use Comfry and knot-grass in broths to close the womb that hath been so much opened you may use a little purging with them Therefore put in some Poâ—ypody of the Oak that is best leaves and roots both being bruised the quantities are almost at your discretion Sometimes pains encrease after delivery Hippocrates saith women are most subject to them after the birth of their first child some Physicians think it is by reason of the thinness and sharpness others from the thickness and sliminess of the blood but if you use the former directions these pains may be prevented What I said of Vervain before is a good remedy or else boil an egg soft and mingle the yelk with a spoonful of water of Cinnamon and let her drink it also a fume of the powder of bay-berries cast on a chafing dish of coals received at her secrets is a great help And for present ease boyl an equal quantity of tar and barrows grease together when it boyls put in a little pidgeons dung to it spread it on a linnen cloth and lay it hot to her reins she may drink half a dram of Bay-berries in powder in a quarter of a pint of Muskadel you may see by this that cold and wind cause these pains For Excoriation of the Privities Annoint them with Oyl of sweet Almonds or Oyl of St. John's wort which is better Against the Piles or Hemorrhoids Take Polypody bruised and boyl it with your drinks or meats Let her be let blood in the Saphena
sex that is the weaker and most subject to infirmities in some respects above the other The Female sex then that it may be more nearly provided for wheresoever it is deficient must be considered under three several considerations that is as maids as wives as widows and their several distempers that befall them almost commonly respect either the womb or their breasts or both and many of these diseases and distempers are common to all the Female sex I mean they sometimes happen to them in any of the foresaid three estates of life but Virgins or Maids diseases that are more peculiar to them though not essential because many of them are incident to the rest the causes may be the same they are that wich is called the white Feaver or green Sickness fits of the Mother strangling of the Womb Rage of the Matrix extreme Melancholly Falling-sickness Head-ach beating of the arteries in the back and sides great palpitations of the heart Hypochondriacal diseases from the Spleen stoppings of the Liver and ill affections of the stomach by consent from the womb But that I may make as perfect an enumeration as may be of all diseases incident to our sex give you some of the best remedies that are prescribed by the most Authentick authors or what I my self have proved by long experience Know then that there are some diseases that happen about the secrets of women as when the mouth of the Matrix is too narrow or too great when there is a Yard in the womb like a mans Yard when the secrets are full of Pimples or very rugged when there are swellings or small excrescenses in the Womb or else Warts in the neck of it or the Piles or Chaps Ulcers or Fistulaes or Cancers or Gangreens and Sphacelus or Mortification all these and more that may be reduced to these heads are found in the entrance or mouth of the womb 2. As to the womb it self it is frequently offended with ill distempers being either too hot or too cold too dry or too moist and of these are many more compounded as too hot and too dry too moist and too cold these are all to be cured by their contraries cold by heat moist by driers Or the womb is sometimes ill shaped and strange things are found in it some women have two wombs and some again have none at all Again the vessels of the womb sometimes will open preternaturally and blood run forth in abundance sometimes the womb swells and grows bigger than it should be It may be troubled with a Dropsie with swelling of its veins from too much blood also it may be inflamed displaced broken and it may fall out of the body It may be rotten or else cancerated and sometimes womens stones and vessels for generation are diseased Further the womb may be troubled with an itch it may be weak or painful or suffer by sympathy and antipathy from sweet or stinking smells Moreover the terms sometimes flow too soon sometimes too late they are too many or too few or are quite stopt that they flow not at all Sometimes they fall by drops and again sometimes they overflow sometimes they cause pain sometimes they are of an evil colour and not according to nature sometimes they are voided not by the womb but some other way sometimes strange things are sent forth by the womb and sometimes they are troubled with flux of seed or the whites As for women with child they are subject to miscarry to hard labour to disorderly births of their children sometimes the child is dead in the womb sometimes alive but must be taken forth by cutting or the woman cannot be delivered sometimes she is troubled with false conceptions with ill formations of the child with superfetations another child begot before she is delivered of her first with monsters or Moles and many more such like infirmities And as for women in child-bed sometimes the Secundine or after-birth will not follow their purgations are too few or too many they are in great pains in their belly their privities are rended by hard delivery as far as their Fundament also they are inflamed many times and ulcerated and cannot go to stool but their fundament will fall forth They have swoonding and epileptick fits watching and dotings their whole body swels especially their belly legs and feet they are subject to hot sharp Feavers and acute diseases to vomiting and costiveness to fluxes to incontinence of Urine that they cannot hold their water As for their breasts that hold the greatest consent with the womb of all the parts of the body they are sometimes exceeding great or swelled with milk or increased in number more breasts than there should be by nature sometimes the breasts are inflamed and trouble with an Erisipelas or hard swellings or Scirrhus or full of kernels or tumors called the Kings evil or strange things may be bred in the breasts besides this some breasts are diseased with Ulcers and Fustulaes or Cankers and some have no nipples or are chopt or Ulcerated and sometimes women have breasts will breed no milk to suckle the child with To speak then particularly to all these diseases that belong to our sex might be thought to be over tedious however I shall so handle the matter that I may not troubled the Reader with impertinences that I shall apply my self to what is most needful for the knowledge and cure of them all but because many diseases may be refered to the chief in that kind and the remedies that will cure one may be sufficient to cure the rest the judicious Reader may according as he shall have occasion make a more special application For it is in vain for any one to make use of what is written if they have no Judgement in the things they use in such cases it will be best for them to ask counsel of others first till they may attain to some farther insight themselves and then no doubt but when they shall meet with sufficient remedies to cure the greatest distempers they will be able to make use of the same without farther direction in the cure of those diseases that are lesse not that I intend to omit any thing that is material in the whole but that I may not trouble the Reader with needless repetitions of the same things as too many authours doe which breeds tediousness and can give little or no satisfaction at all CHAP. VI. Of the Green-sickness some call it Leucophlegmatia or Cachexia an ill habit or white Feaver THough both wives and widows are sometimes troubled with this disease yet it is more common to maids of ripe years when they are in love and desirous to keep company with a man It comes from obstruction of the vessels of the womb when the humours corrupt the whole mass of blood and over cool it running back into the great veins For so soon as Maids are ripe their courses begin to flow Nature sending the menstrual blood
dry like Men that they have hardly any courses at all as the Indian women have none but they are barren if they abound with no more blood than will nourish their body Blood is wanting either because it is not made or not dispersed where it should but turned to other uses Old age cold constitutions diseased bodies will not make blood also often bleeding of the great vessels and much loss of blood or from Issues to make diversions the womb is not supplied with it Nature spends the blood in Nurses that give suck for an other end and fat women wear it on their backs sadness and fear not only wast but cool and corrupt the blood 4. The weakness of the woman hinders the courses and so long as she continues weak she will have noâ— But all these things must be judged of by the relation of the party whether the whole body be diseased or the defect be in the womb or vessels or the mouth of the womb turned aside If the cause be from heat that her courses are stopt her Pulses are swift and strong she is very thirsty and her head aketh and such like signs of heat If from cold the woman is drowsie and sleepy her Pulse beats slow and she is not thirsty the Veins are ill coloured if the woman be fat or lean that will discover the inward cause of it The usual cause of obstruction of the courses is thick slimy humours or from thick gross melancholly blood proceeding from a cold distemper of the Spleen and Liver by drinking cold Water or eating gross Food The Roman women drank snow water and that was the reason said Galen that they had few or no courses but in such cases they could not be very fruitful It will seem strange that some women are so hot of constitution that they have conceived yet never had their courses at all Courses stopt in maids are not the same as they are in women for the effects are very different Maids they prâ—â—â—ntly fall into the Green sickness by it the blood going to and fro all the body over and is corrupted but in women it runs to the womb commonly and causes them to vomit and to loath their meat or to desire unnatural things You shall know a woman with child when her courses are stopt from a maid that hath hers stopt for the one looks wan and pale the other lively and well the one is sad the other merry the womans pains daily decrease and the others increase This obstruction causeth not only barrenness but strange distempers Suffocations Swellings Imposthumes Coffing Dropsies difficulty of breathings urine supprest Costiveness Heaviness Megrims Vertigoes Head ach and many more fearful distempers Hippocrates tells us that when the terms are long stopt the Womb is diseased with humours imposthumes ulcers barrenness Leucophlegmacy vomiting of blood heart-ach and head-ach if the symptomes be great there is danger of death The best way to move the courses in weak women is to forbear Physick and to feed them high with nourishing meats and drinks this is where the Woman is lean her Liver weak and blood is wanting but if blood abound then give a gentle purge or Glister then open a vein to draw down the blood to the womb open a vein in the foot or ancle one day one leg and another day the other four or five daies before the time the courses should come down use Frictions and binding of the parts below but Issues and opening of the Emrods do hurt and draw from the womb you may first loosen the belly with Hiera Picra or Pills de tribus For Phlegmatick bodies use the Decoction of Guaicum or Sarsa and Sassafras and Dittany fifteen drops without sweating purge with Agarick Mechoachan Turbith and Scamony or drink wine of their infusions if the stomach be foul give a vomit lest it get into the Reins Things that provoke the terms are hot and thin take sirrup of Mugwort and of the Fierwort of each one ounce and a half Oximel simple one ounce Water of Motherwort and Mugwort of each two ounces Pennyroyal and Nip of each one ounce sweeten it with a spoonful or two of Cinnamon water make a Julip to drink at thrice Pessaries are not fit for maids but Fumes may be used if she be no maid bruise Mercury with Centaury Flowers put in a bag for a pessary begin with the mildest remedies if it be from a humour provoke not the Terms but cure the swelling Some say that the blood going to other parts cause the Terms to stop but that is contrary for the blood goes to other parts because the Terms are stopt Authors agree not what veins must be opened to move the Terms Galen thinks the Ancle Vein and most men conclude the same because it opens obstructions and brings down the blood open the ancle twice or thrice rather than the arm once but in other diseases of the womb it is best to open a vein in the arm as when the Terms are too many or drop or the womb is inflamed The Saphaena is opened by putting the foot into warm water few terms flowing if the blood be but little there is no harm Diseases grow when they are stopt by thick blood as the Cancer Schirrhus and Erisipelas when the time is near then use the stronger remedies the weaker having made a way for them Tender natures as maids must have but gentle remedies as Aloes one dram and a half Agarick and Rhubarb of each one dram Myrrh Gum Ammoniack dissolved in Vinegar Gentian Root Asarum of each half a dram Cinnamon Mastich Spikenard of each one scruple five grains of Saffron make a mass of the fine powder with sirrup of Mugwort the Dose is one dram To urge the terms in strong Country people take pills Aureae and Aggregativae of each two drams pill Felid and Hiera of each four scruples at the Apothecaries Diagrid one scruple Trochischi Alhandal half a scruple with a hot pestle mix them well in a Mortar adding sirrup of Damask Roses one dram oil of Anniseed olympical half a scruple dissolve Gum Dragant in Cinnamon water and make your pills and let the woman take two scruples every morning before the time of their terms at least three or four drops Ointments and Plaisters are good also and pessaries made of Aromatical things and sweet smells and Fumes as take Benzoin Storax Calamita Bdellium Myrrh what you please mingle them and strew some on a pan of Coles the woman so placed that she may receive the Fume by a Tunnel broad at the lower end to keep the smoke in but lest these Fumes cause the head-ach keep the Fumes down with clothes about the woman that they come not to her head But do none of these things to women with child for that will be Murder give your remedy a little before the Full Moon or between the New and the full for then blood increaseth but never in the Wane of the Moon
for it doth no good Sometimes but seldome the courses stop with Fulness such must saith Riolanus be let blood in the arm but with great care CAHP. X. Of the overflowing of the Courses or immoderate flux thereof THis distemper is contrary to the former and Women are often subject to it and it brings many diseases great weakness loss of appetite ill digestion dropsies consumptions pains in the back and stomach Their ordinary continuance should be two or three daies or four or five daies in large People but if they stay longer it is not good or if they come oftener than once a month I mean the Moons Month passing through the twelve Signs that is twenty seven daies and odd minutes The causes may be falls or blows or strains or hard labour over-heating the body which makes the blood thin or from weakness of the retentive faculty and too much strength of the expulsive faculty or from crude raw blood and weakness or too much moisture and this is the cause that some women have their terms by drops and it lasts long and there is pain and the secrets are alwaies wet if this be not remedied it may cause Ulcers and inflammations if the blood be superfluous open the arm not the ancle vein if it be Cacochymical correct it if too thin and sharp correct and amend it by coolers and thickeners and strengthen the wombs retentive faculty by astringents and convenient driers Many think that the overflowing of the Terms and Issues in women are the same diseases but that is not so as Galen shews for by superfluous Flux of the courses only blood is voided but in too great a measure But women continual Issues send forth not only blood at certain periods but various humours that cause the disease The Terms exceed when they flow in too great abundance in a short time or continue longer than is needful the one resembles violent rain the other flow rain but lasts long If too much blood be the cause of this superfluity the blood will be whitish and pale if choller the terms will be yellow if melancholly they will be dark coloured black or blew it weakeneth all the body and the Liver and Bowels dip a clout in the blood and dry it in the shade and then the colour of the blood will shew the humour that offendeth and accordingly prepare your remedies Sometimes it causeth swounding paleness the whites or the dropsie If fulness be the cause abate blood opening the Liver vein of the right arm repel cool bind bleed little but often use cuppings to the back and breast against the Liver below the paps to draw the blood back but scarifie not under the breasts upon the Salvatella bind and rub the arms and shoulders Waters of Plantane Purslain Shepherds Purse Sorrel sirrup of Pomegranates or dried Roses will cool and thicken the blood and so will Bole or Sealed Earth sirrup of Poppeys Philonium Laudanum are good If it proceed from choller purge with sirrup of Roses of Rhubarb or with Senna or Manna if watry blood be the cause the Reins and Liver are out of temper sweat with China and strengthen those parts Do not force veins but use astringents take the juice of ass dung sirrup of Myrtles of each half an ounce with an ounce of Plantane water let the woman drink it and not know what she takes lest it offend her or give every day a dram of the powder of Mulberry tree roots When you use cold astringents temper them so that you stop not the Veins use no Pessaries except the Veins of the neck of the womb be open Cold and binding fomentations are better than baths for baths make the humours to flow more wash the legs and hips in cold water If choller persist Rhubarb powder in conserve of Roses is very good The principal causes of this overflowing are but four viz. 1. Some of the Vessels broken or much dilated 2. Violent Purgation 3. Corroding humours 4. Hard travel in Childbed or the Midwives unkind handling First if the Vessels be broken the blood gusheth forth in heaps if flowing of humors they come with much pain though the quantity be small Secondly All Physicians almost wish to stop the Courses first that are too many before you strengthen the woman But I think it more reasonable to strengthen nature first and nature will help her self with less means but strengthen the womb and annoint the reins and back with oils of roses Myrtles Quinces do this every night lay a piece of white bays then next your reins upon the bare skin and keep it there constantly inject the juice of Plantane into the Matrix it seldome fails You may drink of the decoctions of Sage Bistort Tormentil Knotgrass Sannicle Ladies-mantle Golden Rod Loos-strife Meadow Sweet Archangel Solomons Seal Purslane Shepherds Purse red Beets Bark and Cups of Oak and Acorns But I commend this medicine take of Comfry leaves or roots of either a handful and of Clowns all-heal the same bruise them and boil them well in Ale drink a good draught when you please and it will help you though the mouths of the Vessels be open Too much blood is lost in the overflowing of the courses when the faculty is hurt by it otherwise the quantity cannot be defined The immediate causes are the opening of the Vessels but the mediate cause is the blood offending in quantity or quality Vessels are opened three or four wayes by Anastomosis when the mouthes lye open by reason of a moist distemper or use of Aloes or hot and moist bathes or from Diapedesis when the blood sweats through the Coats this is not often or from Diaeresis when the sharpness of the blood eates the Vessels in sunder if a Vein be broken Coral Bole Myrtles Comfrey are good to bind or a Poultis with astringent powders and the White of an Egg. Thirdly If a vessel be Corroded a dram of the roots of Dropwort in a new Egg will glutinate Sleep long use little Exercise nor Venery but eat little if it come from Plethory use thin Nutriment beware of hot things alwayes purge the humour that offends vomits are good to stay and turn the course of the humours Take Conserve of Roses two ounces of water Lillies one ounce prepared Pearls and burnt Harts-horn of each half an ounce Bole Armoniac and Terra Lemnia of each half a scruple make an Electuary with sirrup of Plantane this is cooling thickning and binding or in case of great necessity take a Bolus made with old conserve of Roses half anounce Philonium or Requies Nicolai two scruples or but a scruple of each let them drink Red Wine or quench steel in their drink or bloil Plantane Seeds Leaves and Roots in their drink CHAP. XI Of the whites or Womens Disease from corruption of humors WHen the body grows Cacochymical womens Courses stop or run very slowly and sometimes they abound sometimes all humours run thither to a general vent
two ounces and â—ake three drams of clear Chimney Soot make a powder keep it close stopt in a glass to use â—fter one year and not before For the cure of any other Ulcers or Fistulaes of the breasts first try to dry up the milk and when the breasts hang down bind them up that the humours fall not down to them cleanse them with a decoction of Rhapontick Agrimony and Zedoary to heal take six quarts of strong wine and boil in it Rhus Obsoniox Cypress Nuts of each four ounces and two ounces of Green Galls to the thickness of Honey If the Fistula be Callous and hard about the edges open the Orifice with a Gentian root and take the redness away then cleanse and heal as ordinary Ulcers Sometimes stones hair or worms are bred in the breasts from corrupt blood or milk and so they may breed in the back or Navel Sometimes the Veins and Arteries of the breasts are so streight that they can contain no blood to make milk it is either gross humors that stop them as they do the Vessels of the womb or they are made so by the wombs vessels being stopt or from hard humors bred there Sometimes the Nipple hath no hold for the child to draw forth the milk by and it was so made at first or else it is from a wound or ulcer that leaves a scar that stops it The breasts then must needs pine away but if the milk cannot be suck'd forth the breasts are swoln the reason is that the Paps or veins for the milk are not as they should be When gross humours only obstruct that may be cured but a Nipple naturally without a hole or the hole stopt by a Schirrhus or Scar after an ulcer is cured cannot be healed often rubbing of the breasts will open the veins for milk but the Nipples for the child to suck by are oftentimes deficient or lie tied either one or both that women can hardly give suck if an ulcer have eaten away the Nipple or it was not made at her birth it will never be otherwise if the hole be never so small so there be a hole often sucking will make it larger especially by a sucking instrument Clefts and Chaps of the breasts are troublesome and usual to Nurses and in time those Chaps grow to foul Ulcers and hinder giving of suck You may prevent this mischief if in the two last months they go with child you lay two cups of wax made up with a little Rozin to cover the Nipples To cure the Nipples take oil of Myrtles of wax ointment of Lead and Tutty or take Tutty prepared one scruple and half a dram of Allum Camphire six grains with ointment of Roses and Capons grease make it up or take Pomatum one ounce and a half Mastick a scruple Powder of red roses and Gum Traganth of each half a scruple before the child sucks wash the breasts with Rose water and White-wine and that it may suck without pain cover the sore pap with a silver Nipple covered with the pap of a Cow new killed You may take what quantity you please of Mutton Suet or Lambs Suet and wash it in Rose water when it is melted and clarified and annoint the paps with it CHAP. IV. Directions for Nurses BUt there is one consideration more for the Nurse before I leave this and that is that she may not want good milk in her breasts for if she do the child will suffer more than the Nurse because he draws it from her to feed him Those that are fretful lean or sickly have bad Livers and Stomachs and ill digestion that they can have neither much nor yet good milk and bad diet hinders much Such as want milk should drink milk wherein Fennel Seed hath been soked and feed on good nourishment and drink good drink Barley Water and Almond milk are good for hot cholerick people let her eat Lettice Borrage Spuriache and Lamb sodden and eaten with Vervine Calves or Goats milk nourish and breed milk in the breasts the eating of Anniseeds Cummin seeds Carraway seeds or their decoction drank will help well all things that increase seed ripen milk when you go to bed drink two drams and a half of bruised Anniseeds in the decoction of Coleworts Use this Plaister take Deers suet half an ounce Parsley herb and root the like quantity barley meal one ounce and a half red Storax three drams boil the roots and herbs well and beat them to Pap and incorporate all with three ounces of oyl of sweet Almonds and lay them to the breasts and nipple There are many things hinder milk either little blood to breed it or the faculty of the breasts is deficient and cannot do it or the Organs are not right as they should be also much watching fasting labour sweating and great evacuations by stool or Urine strong passions or great pains sorrows cares or strong Feavers and other discussers may destroy or hinder milk in the breasts so may also the childs great weakness who cannot draw it thither it is easily known by any of these causes when the breasts swell not but flag and lie wrinkled you know there is no great store of milk in them if the fault be in the Liver that it breeds not good blood you must rectify the Liver yet she may be in good health sufficient as to other things but then the infant will be ruined by it and it is for that end that nature provides milk that the child may be fed The usual way for rich people is to put forth their children to nurse but that is a remedy that needs a remedy if it might be had because it changeth the natural disposition of the child and oftentimes exposeth the infant to many hazards if great care be not taken in the choice of the nurse There are not many Women that want milk to suckle their own children so there are some that may well be excused because of their weakness that they cannot give suck to their own children but multitudes pretend weakness when they have no cause for it because they have not so much love for their own as Dumb creatures have Nature indeed hath provided some helps where milk is wanting for the child but those are not many to shew women that nature commonly doth her part with most mothers to furnish them with milk without farther means than by good wholesome meats and drinks but there are abundance of things that will hinder milk or destroy it For all things that are cold or else hot and dry are enemies to womens milk but none will breed it but such things as are hot and moist or not very dry and of such things there are no great plenty Also they must be of easie digestion and that will breed good blood that the milk that is bred may have no strong qualities with it to offend the infant You may lay a plaister of Mustard all over the breasts and
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