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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	cold_a	hot_a	moist_a	5,424	5	10.2024	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78521	The compleat midwifes practice, in the most weighty and high concernments of the birth of man. Containing perfect rules for midwifes and nurses, as also for women in their conception, bearing, and nursing of children: from the experience not onely of our English, but also the most accomplisht and absolute practicers among the French, Spanish, Italian, and other nations. A work so plain, that the weakest capacity may easily attain the knowledge of the whole art. With instructions of the midwife to the Queen of France (given to her daughter a little before her death) touching the practice of the said art. / Published with the approbation and good liking of sundry the most knowing professors of midwifery now living in the city of London, and other places. Illustrated with severall cuts in brass. By T.C. I.D. M.S. T.B. practitioners.	Chamberlayne, Thomas.; Boursier, Louise Bourgeois, ca. 1563-1636.	1656 (1656)	Wing C1817C; Thomason E1588_3; ESTC R14527	137,828	305

have to make water p. 89. of the inflammation of the Almonds of the eares p. 90. of vomiting ibid. of the Hicquet p. 91. of the pain of the belly in children ibid. of the small pox in children p. 92. Certain other instructions grounding upon practicall observations fit to be known by all Midwives and child-bearing women c. p. 95. A Second observation of a Woman that had been in Travail nine dayes p. 99. of a Woman here in Town that bare her Child eleven Moneths and could not be Delivered p. 101. of the common opinion that a woman seven moneths gone ought to walk very much and of the accidents that happen thereby p. 1●3 of a child which they thought sick of the Epilepsie occasioned by the sicknesse of the Mother and of the cause p. 106. of a young woman who being struck upon the belly by her Husband with his foot was in great pain could not be brought to bed without the help of a Chirurgion p. 108. of two Deliveries of one Woman p. 109. of a Woman that because she would not be ruled in her Lying in died p. 111. of certain Women that bear children and lye in before their time and others at their full time who grow big and full of humors which causeth the death of the child presently after their Delivery their children being nourished in their Bellies like fish only with water p. 113. The observation of a woman who was thought unable to bear any more Children yet contrary to expectation was delivered of one and the reason thereof p. 114. A good observation in the choice of Nurses p. 115. of a Woman which I laid two several times and of the difference of her bearing of two children proceeding from several causes p. 117. Instruction of a famous and dying Midwife to her Daughter touching the practice of this Art p. 119. The natural forme of a child lying in the wom● To be sold by N Brooke at the Angel in Cornhil G. F. 〈◊〉 THE COMPLEAT MIDWIFE HER PRACTICE Of the Genitals or vessels dedicated to Generation in Men and Women THe consideration of these things is so necessary for the purpose of this book that they require not onely a deep meditation but the praeeminence to take up the first thoughts of those who would arrive to the knowledg of a thing so much needful to all mankinde And it may be lawfully feared that many women do miss their design because they know nothing but the outside of things so that in matters of extremity because they are ignorant of the structure of the parts they cannot tell how to go about their work We shall therefore begin with an easie Anatomy of the privy parts both of men and women so far as shall be requisite to the gaining of so great a skill In the first place therefore we shall begin with man in whom those things which are called the vessels of preparation are first to be considered CHAP. I. Of the vessel of preparation AMong the Spermatic vessels are to be considered first two veins and two arteries these are carried downward from the small guts to the Testicles and are much bigger in men then they are in women The original of these veines is not alwayes the same for commonly the right vein riseth out of the hollow veine a little below the source or original of the Emulgent but the least takes his original from the lower part of the Emulgent it self Yet sometimes it hath a branch carried to it from the trunk of the hollow vein The middle part of these veines runs directly through the Loyns resting upon the Lumbal Muscle a thin Membrane only intervening and thus having gone about half its journey it branches out and distributes it self to the near adjoyning filmy parts of the body The uttermost part of these vessels is carried beyond the Midriff to the Stones yet do they not pass through the Peritonaeum but descends with a small nerve and the muscle called Cremaster through the Duplicity of the Midriffe when it approaches neer the stones it is joyned with an artery and now these vessels which were before a little severed one from the other are by a film rising from the Peritoneum closed up and bound both together and so twisting up like the young tendrils of a vine they are carried to the end of the stones fig 1. fig 2. CHAP. II. Of the Parastatae or vessels where the bloud is first changed THese four vessels after many ingraftings and knittings together seem at length to become onely two bodies full of little crumplings like the tendril of a vine white and in the form of a Piramid resting the right upon the right stone the left upon the left stone These are called Parastatae which as they stand pierce the tunicles of each stone with certain fibers or extraordinary small veines which afterwards dispearse themselves through the body of those stones The substance of these Parastatae is between that of the stones and that of the preparing vessels for they neither altogether consist of Membranes neither are they altogether Glandulous or kernelly CAAP. III. The use of the preparing vessels THe use of those vessels which are called the vessels of preparation is chiefly to attract out of the hollow vein or left Emulgent the most pure and exquisitely concocted bloud which is most apt to be converted into seed which they contain and prepare giving unto it a certain rude form of seed in those parts that lie as it were in certain pleights or folds which they do by a peculiar property bequeathed to them Another use of them is gathered by their scituation for as they are now scituated that is to say the right vein coming from the hollow vein and the left from the Emulgent this inconvenience is avoided that the left vein is not forced to pass over the great artery and so be in danger of breaking by reason of the swift motion of the artery Moreover there being a necessity that male and female should be begot it is fit that there should be seed proper for the generation of both sexes whereof some must be hotter and some must be colder and therefore nature hath so ordered it that the hotter seed should proceed from the right vein for the generation of man and the colder from the left for the generation of females The left vein hath also this property to draw from the Emulgent the more serous and less pure bloud to the intent that the serous humour might stir up venery by its salt and acrimonius substance and therefore it is observed that those who have the left stone bigger are most full of seed and most prone to venery The use of the Parastatae is this to contain the bloud and stay it in their windings and wrinkled bodies and by power received from the stones to change the colour of the bloud CHAP IV. Of the Testicles in general THe stones are in number two very seldome

one and much seldomer three or four The scituation of the stones in men is without the Midriff at the root of the yard under the belly and that for two causes to keep men more chaste it being observed that those creatures which carry their stones within their bodies are more salacious and bring forth in greater numbers Their bigness is not always alike in all creatures but in men as big as a Pigeons egg or as a small Hens egg and commonly the left is bigger then the right In the Anatomy of the stones divers things are to be considered Their Tunicles or the skins in which they are wrapt as well those which are common to both as those which are particular to either next the muscles then the substance of which they are composed and lastly the vessels which are dispearsed through the body of the stones CHAP. V. Of the Tunicles of the stones THe Testicles are wrapt up in divers coverings about the number of which there hath been great dissention But they are now reduced to five whereof two are common and are called Scrotum and Dartos three particular the names of which are Elytroydes Erythroides and Epididymis The first of these which is like a satchel or purse and is common to both consists of a skin and a cuticle This contains the two stones like a purse and is obvious to the touch The skin of this part differs from any other part of the skin which covers the body for whereas that is stretched out and spred close over the whole body this is more loose and made to stretch out or to be wrinkled up together as occasion is that is as the stones either ascend or descend they ascend commonly in the time of conjunction they descend in febers weakness of the Testicles or by reason of old age The second Tunicle The second is called Dartos because it is easily separated from the others In this the testicles lie as it were in a nest wrapping them about more close then the Scrotum doth It takes its Originall from the fleshie Pannicle which though it be thinner hereabouts then in any other part of the body yet is it full of little Veines and arteries The proper Tunicles The proper Tunicles are first the Elytroides which is also called Vaginalis by reason it supplyes the office of a sheath It takes its originall from the production of the Peritoneum for where the spermatic vessells pass they do not at all bruse the Peritoneum but carie it downe to the stones and so constitute or make this Tunicle To know this Tunicle and the original of it is very necessary for Physick because that hollowness which the Processess of the Peritoneum do make for the passage of the spermatic vessels is somtimes dilated as far as the beginning or source of this Tunicle and both the small guts and the caule fall down upon the Testicles which is the cause of that kind of birstness which by the Physitians is called Enterocle This Tunicle grows to that which is called Dartos being ioyned to it by many nervous fibres Underneath this is the Tunicle called Erythroides or the red Tunicle so called from the multitude of red veines which are sprinkled up and down in it It rises from the other membranes and is encompassed without by the first proper tunicle The third and that which immediately compasseth the stones is that which is called Epididymis it is white thick and strong to preserve the soft and loose substance of the stones It riseth ftom the Tunicle of the seminal vessels being the thickest of all the Tunicles and hath some few veines scattered up and dovne in it CHAP. VI. Of the suspensory Muscles TO keep the stones from oppressing or stretching over much the passages of the seminal vessels Nature hath provided them two Muscles for them to hang by on both sides one in form oblonge and slender These Muscles derive their original from a thick membrane which is joyned to the hanch bone in the further part of that region where the hair grows The original of these Muscels and is fastened to this bone with certaine fleshie and straight fibers where the oblique Muscles of the Abdomen or Mideriff end thence reaching down upon the superiour members of the Testicles they are extended through the whole length of that round body These Muscles are never seen in women being altogether useless because their stones are not pendent but are enclosed within their bodies CHAP. VII Of the substance and temper of the stones THe substance of the stones is glandulous or kernelly white soft loose spongy and hollow having sundrie vessels dispersed through them Now although the substance of the Testicles be most soft and moist yet doth not this moistness constitute a uniforme or homogeneal body for the substance of the stones is wholly dissimilar and full of fibres These fibres also seeme to be of a different substance from that of the stones being only cloathed which the flesh of the stones as the fibres of the Muscles are inwardly nervous but coverd over which the flesh of the Muscles These fibres again differ in this that the fibres of the Testicles are hollow but the fibres of the Testicles full and substantiall These fibres are said to come from the spermatick vessels and thence branch themselves forth through the Testicles by which that part of the seed which is over and above what serves for the nourishment of the testicles as drawn forth and kept for procreation As concerning the Temper of the stones they would sooner be thought cold then hot if that Maxime were true that all white things are cold and all red things hot Nothwithstanding because nature is known to abhor all coldness in the work of generation Therefore we must presume to affirme the temper of the stones to be hot for they always abound with blood and a pure spirit that can never be whichout heat Besides that heat is required for the concoction of this blood and the changing it into seed yet is it very temperate as appeares by the softness of the substance for as coldness and driness is the cause of hardness so heat and moisture is the cause of softness Nevertheless we are to understand this that the temper of the stones is not alike in all for in some they are far colder then in others And therefore these who have hot testicles are more salacious and prone to venereal actions having the places neer about much more hairie and their testicles much harder then others Those that have their testicles cold find every thing contrary The greatest heat is in the right testicle because it receives more pure and hotter blood from the hollow veine and the great Artery the left colder because it receives a more inpure and serous bloud from the Emulgent veine CHAP. VIII Of the Actions of Testicles THe action and use of the Testicles is to Generate seed a gift which

not lost her appetite she answered that she never had a better in her life her heart was light her body in good temper so that there was nothing that troubled her but an apprehension she had that the child was dead whereupon I made her try all means to make the Infant stir but she notwithstanding felt nothing only she perceived that something did heave a little upon the operation of the Remedies which was nothing but the Matrix which being now distempered and grown cold did as it were answer the hot Remedies testifying thereby some good which it received thereby I advised her to be patient and to wait Natures leisure which is provident enough of it self telling her that I had seen an Infant which had lain a long time in the Womb without budging which for all that was not dead although you could not perceive in the Woman any thing but the signs of a dead child I had oftentimes brought the Lady to bed and she stil had very good deliveries and very sound children of a good colour so that I believing her to be of a sound constitution thought that if the Infant were dead that Nature which was very strong in her would expel it in time convenient and that she should not be forced not having given any testimony of defect resolving also when her Reckoning was out if then Nature shewed it self weak that we would consult her Friends and Physitians Many of her Friends told me that they doubted that she was deceived in thinking her self to be with Child to which I answered that they might be confident that it was so in brief she was brought to bed sixteen weeks after the fright which she had Now here ariseth a great doubt whether the Child dyed at the hour of her being scared by reason that it did not move in all the time A reason that the child was not dead may be because that the Gentlewoman had not her milk til within three weeks afterward and yet I cannot but think that it dyed at the same time for certainly by that fright the vital spirits were ravished from it and the blood of the Arteries retired to the heart of the Mother not being distributed to the Infant but at the good pleasure of Nature the course of which being stopped it retired to its first source through which the child suffering a suffocation gave a violent motion and now after the Fright was come to her self and that Nature would have returned to finish her work she was not received because the vital faculties of the Infant were extinct and notwithstanding all this the Mother not ceasing to retain the menstrual blood as she was accustomed that finding it self stopped and stil increasing without that use made of it that was wont it made a reflux to the breasts which flowd down again in five or six dayes for the Infant coming to decrease in the Womb now way was made for them which came not down for all that but in the Delivery and after which was in this manner At the end of the sixteenth week after the fright she had pains in the night she thinking to indure them wel enough til morning in the morning caused me to be sent for I came to her finding with her a Physitian and sundry others of her acquaintance The Physitian that expected me had ordered her a Clyster to give her if I thought it to the purpose I found her pale cold and yet in a sweat with so little pulse that I esteemed her dead I touched her found she had been in Travail which had been too long neglected I called presently for a plain silver dish into which I squeez'd the juice of half a Citron and set it upon a Chafing-dish of coals being warmed I caused her to take it this restored Nature a little and stirred up her pains and then I assisted her notwithstanding some of the waters ran down after her first throw the leggs and thighs of the Child came forth now finding the Infant to be dead and seeing that she was troubled with no more throws I was afraid of drawing it forth for fear it might be rotten I did give her a Clyster without moving her the force of which bringing the Child away she was delivered of a dead Infant all over of a leaden colour without any ill vapour the Secundines sound and fair as you shal see her purgations as clear as could be and she had as good and as happy a Lying in as any Woman in the world all which time she had not the appearnce of any Milk at all Hence we may admire the effects of Nature which are wonderful But in such cases Women must be sure in due time and place for if a Woman do resist her paines and doth not put her self in a right posture she runs a great hazard of her life A Second Observation of a Woman that had been in Travail nine dayes BEing called to the Labour of a Woman that had been in Travail nine or ten dayes of whom there was little hope I went and there found the Woman almost dead her eyes open and fixed her nose shrunk in her breath smelling like a charnel-house and she took nothing down into her stomack that she did not instantly vomit up again she had drunk up above two pints of water in an hour and by her bed there was a whole sea of those things that she had vomited up They gave her cold water and the yelk of an Egg sometimes though it came up again at the same instant she felt no paine of the Infant but finding her Womb was open and her waters beginning to come down I found that she had been in Travail only Nature was oppressed and had not had any good assistance so that the Infant was retired back again which stifled the Mother and provoked her vomiting upon which I gave my advice and though I thought my self come a little too late yet I resolved to do what lay in the power of my Art and therefore I resolved to give her a good strong Clyster to awaken Nature and to bring the Infant lower which it did according to our hopes afterwards to drink a smal quantity of Rhubarb-water which stayed with her a little after I gave her the yelk of an Egg which stayed with her also causing her to drink nothing but Rhubarb-water and at every hours end I gave her the yelk of an Egg which did also stay with her by this time Nature began to strengthen it self and the paines of the Infant came again and in less then two hours after the Clyster and other nourishment given when I saw her pretty wel and that Nature strove to expel the Infant I gave her half a dram of Confection of Alkermes in a little Wine and a little while after I caused her to take another Clyster into which I put a little Hiera and a little Benedictus which finished the work for She was then

Whether she have conceived a Male. Conception of a Male. IF she have conceived a male childe the right eye will move swifter and look clearer then the left The right pap will also rise and swell beyond the left and grow harder and the colour of the teats will change more suddainly The milk will increase more suddainly and if it be milked out and be set in the Sun it will harden into a clear mass not unlike pearl If you cast the Milk of the woman upon her Urine it will presently sink to the bottom Her right cheek is more muddy and the whole colour of her face is more cheerful she feels less numness The first motion of the child is felt more lively in the right side for the most part upon the sixtieth day If her flowers flow the fourtieth day after conception The belly is more acute toward the navel As the woman goes she always puts her right leg forward and in rising she eases all she can her right side sooner then her left CHAP. III. Whether she have conceived a Female IF she have conceived a Female Conception of a Female the signs are for the most part contrary to those aforesaid The first motion is made most commonly the nintieth day after conception which motion is made in the left side Females are carried with greater pain her thighs and Genital members swell her colour is paler she hath a more vehement longing Her flowers flow the thirtieth day after conception Girles are begot of parents who are by nature more cold and moist their seed being more moist cold and liquid CHAP. IV. Of the Conception of Twins IF a woman have conceived twins Conception of Twins the signes thereof appears not till the third or fourth moneth after her conception and then it will appear by the motion of the Infant and by the extraordinarie swelling of her belly As to the motion it is plaine that she doth beare twins if she perceive a motion on the right and left side at the same instant which she perceives more quick and violent As for the greatness of the belly if the woman perceive it bigger then at any other times of her being with child as also if the two flanks be swelled higher then the middle of the belly if there doe appeare as it were a line of devision from the navel to the groine making a kind of channel all a long if the woman carrie her burden with more then ordinary paine These are commonly the signes of twins CHAP. V. Of false Conception False Conception VVOmen doe oftentimes deceive themselves concerning their conception for they doe many times beleive themselves to be big with child when it is nothing else but either the retention of their flowers which doe not fall down according to their accustomed periods of time or else that which is called the Moon-calfe which is a lump of flesh for the most part like the guisern of a bird greater or lesser according to the time of its being there which is most commonly not above foure or five months Several sorts of Moles Of moles there are two sorts the one is called the true mole the other is called the false mole The true mole is a fleshie body filled with many vessels which have many white green or black lines or membranes it is without thought without motion without bones without bowels or entrailes receiving its nourishment through certaine veines it lives the life of a plant without any figure or order being engendered in the concavitie of the matrix adhearing to the sides of it but borrowing nothing of its substance Of the false mole Of the false mole there are four sorts the windie mole which is a conflux of wind the watrie mole which is a conflux of watrie humours the Humorous mole which is a conflux of various humours the Membranous mole which is a thin bag filled with blood All these four are contained in the concavity of the womb These moles Sign of moles are somtimes engendered with the Infant though they do oftentimes cause the Infant to die either because it doth deprive the Infant of that nourishment which goes from the infant to the encrease of that or else because it hinders the growth and perfection of the Infant The cause of the fleshy mole doth not always proceed from the mother for the man doth often contribute to the encrease of it when the seed of the man is weak imperfect and barren or though it be good if there be too small a quantity of it which after it is mingled with the seed of the woman is chok'd by the menstrual bloud and so not being sufficient for the generation of the Infant instead thereof produces this little mass of flesh which by little and little grows bigger being wrapt about in a caule while nature strives to engender any thing rather then to be idle It happens also when the woman during her monethly purgations receives the company of her husband her body being not yet purged and void or else when the woman lies with a great desire and lust with her husband after she hath conceived or when she hath retained her monethly courses beyond her time The windy mole The windy mole is engendered by the weak heat of the matrix and the parts adjoyning as the liver and the spleen which engender a quantity of winde which fix in the concavity of the matrix The watry Mole The watry mole is engendered of many confluences of water which the womb receives either from the speen or the liver or the parts adjoyning or else from the weakness of the liver which cannot assimulate the bloud which is sent thither for the nourishment of the thing contained in it part whereof turns into water which cannot be voided but remains in the womb That which is called the Humorous mole is engendered of many moist humours serosities or the whites or certain watry purgations which sweat forth from the menstruous veins and are contained in the concavity of the matrix The Membranous mole The membranous mole is a skin or bag which is garnished with many white and transparent vessels filled up with bloud This being cast into the water the bloud goes out and the membrane is seen only to gather like a heap of clotted seed False Conception hath many signes The signs of false conception common with the true conception as the supression of the flowers depraved appetite vomitings swelling of the belly and of the breasts so that it is a hard thing to distinguish the one from the other only these that follow are more properly the signs of false then true conception For in false conception the face is ordinarily puffed up the breasts that at the first were swollen afterwards become every day more then other softer and lanker and without milk In fine the face the breast the arms the thighs and groynes grow lank and meager

they obtaine from an inbred qualitie which nature hath bestowed upon them For the bloud being received by the spermatic vessels and there beginning to change it's colour is by and by received by the deferent vessels or the vessels which carry the bloud so prepared to the Testicles where it is for a while contained and afterwards being carried to the stones is by them made seed and the last work perfected And it may with more easiness be affirmed that the seed is generated by the stones because every like is said to generate its like now the substance of the Testicles is very like the seed it self that is white moist and viscous Whether the stones are the onely efficient causes of the seed is not here to be disputed being onely a nice point and no way profitable we shall rather with silence adhere to that opinion which affirmes the function of the testicles to be the generation of the seed which is the most likely and proceed to the next CHAP. IX Concerning the Vtilitie of the Testicles and their parts THe structure of the Testicles being thus known It remaines that wee shew you their use This is first discovered from their situation For of those creatures that have stones some have them in their bodyes as all Fowl others have them without though not pendent others have them hanging downward as men Men therefore have their Testicles without their bodys for two causes first because it is required that the Testicles of the male should be bigger and hotter then those of the female so that it were impossibe for them to be contained with the body because of their quantity Besides the seed of the male being the effective original of the creature and therefore hottest it is also required that the seed should be more abundant then could be contained in the Testicles were they placed within the body for the seminarie passages must have bin less and the veines themselves would not have afforded such plentie of matter as now they doe The motion of the Testicles is also to be considered by which they move somtimes upward and somtimes downward The one of these motions which is made upward is voluntary as being made by the muscles but the motion downward is a forced motion not happening without the laxitie of the muscles the Testicles through their own weight falling downwards These muscles are called Cremasteres their use being to draw up the Testicles to shorten the way for the Ejaculation of the seed as also to keep the vessels from being distended too far by the weight of the Testicles The use of the Tunicles is now to be spoken of and first of that which is outermost and is called by the Latines Scrotum being the purse wherein the Testicles are contained It is made to wrinkle it self up and to let it self loose that it may be large enough for the Testicles when they swell with plenty of seed and to wrinkle up again when the Testicles being emptied and so becoming less are drawn upward The other coates or tunicles also made for the defence of the stones but so thin and light that they should not oppress the stones with their weight that which is called Erythroides hath many veines for the nourishment of the Adjacent parts The Epididymis was made to wrap the testicle round about lest the Humid matter of the testicle should flow about and consequently be wasted CHAP. X. Of the vessels that east forth the seed THat passage which comes from the head of the testicles to the root of the yard is called the Ejaculatorie vessel This as I said before rises from the head of the testicles and joyning downward to the testicle descends to the bottome and thence being reflexed again and annext to the preparing vessel it returns againe to the head of the testicle from thence it proceeds upward from the Testicle till it touch the bone of the small guts still keeping close to the preparing vessel till it pierce the production of the Hypogastrium Thence tending downward through the hollowness of the hip it slydes between the bladder and the streight gut till it reach the glandulous Prostatae or forestanders and fix it self at the foot or root of the yard and there end It is not all one at the beginning and at the end for at the beginning while it remains among the tunicles of the testicles it is full of windings and turnings neer the end it hath many little bladders like to warts Now we must understand that these seminarie vessels doe not onely containe the seed but they perfit and concoct it having a seminifie or seed-making qualitie which they borrow from the Testicles There are other uses of these seminary vessels for neer the original of this vessel that is to say the head of the testicles many small passages or as it were conduit-pipes do stretch themselves forward into the body of the testicle into which the genital seed that remaines is remitted and also drawn or sucked from those passages this seminarie passage is at length wound above the testicles adjoyning all along but no where incorporated into the body of the Testicle unless at the bottom in which place it is thought that the seed doth again insinuate it self into the testicles through those hollow fibres being thence propagated and continually making supply to the stones It is to be noted also that these vessels while they move to the Root of the yard do not go by streigth passages which would be then very short but by crooked windings and turnings make the passages as long as may be that they may have longer time to containe and prepare the seed CHAP. XI Of the Seminarie bladders AT the end of the deferent vessels on both sides are certain little bladders knit and joyned together and placed between the bladder and the right gut the last of which together which the seminarie vessels is terminated in the prostatae or forestanders by a little channel These bladders have two several uses for they doe not only striengthen the seminarie vessels where they end but also seem to be the stores and magazines of the seed They are many that every time a man uses the act of venerie he may have a new supply of matter from these several vesicles Thus that which is next the yard being first disburdened the second is the next time emptied and so till all the store is spent and were it not for these vesicles a man could not lye which a woman more then once In these vessels such is the propensitie of nature to propagate let the body be never so much emaciated there is always found a lesser or greater quantitie of seed They are hollow and round to containe a greater quantitie of seed they are also full of membranes that they may be contracted or extended as the plenty of seed requires they are crooked and full of windings and turnings that the seed contained may not easily slip out CHAP.

bring vital bloud for the work of generation As to the Longitude and Latitude of these vessels they are narrower and shorter in women only where they are wrinkled they are much more wreathed and contorted then in men for the way being shorter in women then in men nature required that for stretching out of these vessels that they should be more wrinkled and crankled then in men that the bloud might stay there in greater quantity for the preparation of the seed These vessels The insertion of the vessels in women are carried with an oblique course through the small guts to the stones being wrapt up in fatter membranes but in the mid-way they are divided into two branches whereof the greater branch goes to the stone constituting the varicous or winding body and those wonderful inoculations the lesser branch ends in the womb in the sides of which it is scattered up and down and chiefly at the higher part of the bottome of the womb for nourishment of the womb and of the birth and that some part of the flowers may be purged out through those vessels Now because the stones of women are seated near the womb for that cause these vessels fall not from the peritoneum neither make they such passages as in men neither reach they to the share bone CHAP. VII Of the Stones in Women THe stones of women although they do perform the same actions and are for the same use as mens yet they differ from them in scituation Their scituation substance temperament figure magnitude and in their covering They are seated in the hollowness of the Abdomen neither do they hang out as in men but they rest upon the muscles of the Loynes and this for that cause that they might be more hot and fruitful being to elaborate that matter which with the seed of man engenders man In this place arises a question not trivial A doubt whether the seed of woman be the efficient or the material cause of generation to which it is answered that though it have a power of acting yet that it receives the perfection of that power from the seed of man The stones of women differ from mens also as to their figure Their figure because they are not so round and oval as those of men being in their fore and hinder part more depressed and broad the external superficies being more unequal as if a great many knots and kernels were mixed together There is also another difference as to the subject because they are softer and moister then those of men being more loose and ill compacted The bigness and temper Their magnitude and temperament do also make a difference for the stones of women are much colder and lesser then mens which is the reason that they beget a more thin and watry seed Their coverings also do make a difference for mens are wrapt up in divers tunicles because being pendent outward they were otherwise more subject to external injuries but the stones of women have but one tunicle which though it stick very close to them yet are they also half cloth'd over with the Peritoneum CHAP. VIII Of the deferent or ejaculatory vessels THe deferent vessels are two blind passages on both sides one nothing differing in substance from the spermatick veines They rise in one part from the bottom of the womb neither doe they reach from their other extremitie either to the stone or to any other part but are shut up and unpassable adhering to the womb just as the the blind gut adheres to the Colon but winding halfe way about the stones are every waies remote from them no where touching them onely are tied to them with certaine membranes not unlike the winges of Bats through which certaine veines and arteries being produced from the stones doe run and end in these passages where they begin at the bottom of the womb they are hollow and large but as they proceed further on they grow narrower till near their end they do again obtain a larger bigness these two passages thus running from the corners of the womb to the stones are taken only to be certaine ligaments by which the stones and the womb are strongly knit together and these ligaments in women are the same things with the Cremasteres in men CHAP. IX Of the Actions and Uses of the Genital parts in Women IN the privie part are seen the Pubes the mountaines of veins the two lipps the Orifice under which the two wings lye hid the little knobs of flesh resembling myrtle berries the passages of the Urin and the Clytories As for the pubes and the Mountains of Venus they serve for this use that the great Orifice might be the better shut and to avoyd compression in copulation for which cause they are beset with haire and are covered with a hard kind of fat the great orifice receives the yard and gives passage to the Urine and the birth The use of the wings or knobs of flesh like Myrtle berries are for the defence of the internall parts shutting the orifice of the neck least cold aire dust or any other annoyances should hurt it from without and while they swell up they cause titillation and desire in those parts Lastly the passages of the Urine being shut up by the knobs of flesh resembling myrtle berries hinders the unvoluntarie passage of the Urine CHAP. X. Of the action of the Clytoris THe action of the Clytoris is like that of the yard which is erection which erection is for the motion and attraction of the seed CHAP. XI Of the action and use of the neck of the womb THe action of the neck of the womb is the same with that of the yard that is to say erection which is occasioned divers ways First all this passage is erected and made streight for the better conveyance of the yard to the womb Then while the whole passage is erected it is repleated with spirit and vital bloud whereby it becomes narrower for the more streight embracing of the yard The causes of this erection are first because if the womb were not erected the yard could not have a convenient passage into the womb secondly it would hinder convenient affrication without which the seed could not be drawn forth Lastly it hinders any hurt or damage which might be done by the violent force of the yard CHAP. XII Of the uses of the vessels running through the neck of the womb FIrst it is required that there should be a concurrence of divers veins and arteries for the nourishment of that part and though that part it self being full of membranes does not require much nourishment yet by reason that it is to suffer erection that could not be done but by bloud and spirits which are contained in these vessels besides although the fubstance of this part be of a cold temperament being notwithstanding still heated by the act of copulation that heat would soon consume a slender nourishment

which nature hath supplied by the concourse of these vessels Another cause of the plenty of these veins is nourishment of the birth and the exclusion of the flowers CHAP. XIII Of the actions of the womb THe first use of the womb is to attract the seed by a familiar sympathy just as the load-stone draws iron The second use is to retain it which is properly called conception The third is to cherish the seed thus attracted to altar it and change it into the birth by raising up that power which before lay sleeping in the seed and to reduce it from power into act The fourth action of the womb is to send forth the birth at the time prefixed the apt time of expulsion is when the expulsive faculty begins to be affected with some sence of trouble that is when the birth afflicts and oppresses the womb with its own weight Besides these uses it hath these moreover to nourish the birth and to dilate it self which it doth by the help of veins and arteries which do fill more and more with matter as nature requires The chiefest action of the womb and most proper to it The proper actions of the womb is the retention of the seed without which nothing of other action could be performed for the generation of man CHAP. XIV Of the utility of the womb FIrst it is the most fit place for copulation as being in a place furthest removed from the senses near which it were not fit to be by reason of the inconveniencies which would necessarily arise It is most fit to receive the birth as being hollow in which concavity the birth may increase to its full proportion every way It is most fit for the exclusion of the birth as being placed downward whereby the birth might help its self with its own weight and also by reason of the muscles of the Abdomen which serve for compression and do help the endeavours of the mother CHAP. XV. Of the Utility of the preparing vessels in women THe Utilities of these vessels are taken first from their original and from their insertion the right vein rising from the hollow and the left from the emulgent as in men that the more hot and purer bloud might come from the right vein for the procreation of males and the more serous and watry bloud from the Emulgent for the generation of women The vessels also in women are shorter then in men because the way is not so far to the stones which brevity of the vessels is lengthened out by the many turnings and windings with which those vessels are endued In the middle way those vessels divide themselves like a fork the greater part going to the stones carrying the matter for seed the lesser is carried to the womb where it scatters it self all along the sides of it for the Nutrition of the womb As for the Arteries they afford the bloud which is more full of spirits to perfect the seed CHAP. XVI Of the Utility of the stones THe use of the stones in women is the same as in men that is to say to prepare the seed and to make it fit for procreation They are seated within that they should not want a continual heat to cherish them for the matter of the seed being colder in men then in women it requires a greater heat which it would of necessity want were the stones placed outward like those of men and for that cause are they covered only with one tunicle that the heat of those parts may more easily pass to them And therefore the stones of women are softer then those of men because they should not perfect so substantial a seed and that the heat of the adjacent parts should not be wholly taken up in the cherishing of them Their figure is not exactly round Their figure but depressed that the little Meanders of the veins dispersed through the membrane from the stones to the deferent vessels might have more roome to be inserted for the attraction of the seed out of the whole substance of the stone The inequality and ruggedness of them makes for the longer stay of the seed in those crooked and winding vessels SECT III. CHAP. I. Of the signes of Conception Signs of conception HAving thus shewed you the Anatomy and use of the parts it will be requisite to discourse of the conception it self which is the main and chief end of these vessels And first of the signs of conception The signes of conception on the mothers side are certaine and apparent first if after she hath had the company of her husband she hath received more content then ordinary Pains in the head vertigo dimness of the eys all these concurring together portend conception the apples of the eyes decrease the eyes themselves swell and become of a dark colour the veins of the eyes wax red and swell with blood the eyes sink the eye-brows grow loose various colours appear in the eyes little red pimples rise in the face the veines between the nose and the eyes swell with blood and are seen more plain the vein under the tongue looks greenish the neck is hot the back-bone cold the veins and arteries swell and the pulses are observed more easily the veins in the breast first look of a black colour but afterward turn yellowish the teats looke red if she drink cold drinke she feeles the cold in her breast she loaths her meat and drinke she hath divers longings but her naturall appetite is destroyed continual vomitings follow and weakness of the stomach sower belches wormes about her navel faintness of the loynes the lower part of her belly swelling inward griping of the body the retention of the seed seaven dayes after the act of copulation after which act there is a cold and trembling which seizes the external members the attractive force of the womb increases the womb dries up It is also a certain sign of conception if the Midwife touching with her finger the interiour neck of the womb shall find it exactly closed so that the point of a needle will not go between the womb waxeth round and swels the flowers cease to flow for the veins through which they come down carry the bloud to the nourishment of the birth the thighs swell with some pain the whole body grows weak and the face waxes pale the Excrements proceed slower out of the body the Urine is white a little cloud swimming at the top and many atoms appear in the Urine Take the Urine of a woman and shut it up three days in a glass if she have conceived at the end of three days there will appear in the Urine certain live things to creep up and down Take also the Urine of a woman and put it in a bason a whole night together with a clean and bright needle in it if the woman have conceived the needle will be scattered full of red speckles but if not it will be black and rustie CHAP. II.