the motion is natural in the Heart and Arteries true it is that in these motion is alwayes necessary but the Yard moves only at some times and riseth sometimes to small purpose It stands in the sharebone in the middle as all know being of a round and long fashion with a hollow passage within it through which passe both the Urine and Seed the top of it is called the Head or Nut of the Yard and there it is compact and hard not very quick of feeling lest it should suffer pain in Copulation there is a soft loose skin called the foreskin which covers the head of it and will move forward and backward as it is moved this foreskin in the lower part only in the middle is fastned or tyed long ways to the greater part of the Head of the Yard by a certain skinny part called the string or bridle It is of temperament hot and moist it is joined to the middle of the share bone and with the Bladder by the Conduit pipe that carrieth the Urine with the brain by Nerves and Muscles that come to the skin of it to the Heart and Liver by Veins and Arteries that come from them The Yard hath three holes or Pipes in it one broad one and that is common to the Urine and Seed and two small ones by which the Seed comes into the common long Conduit pipe these two Arteries or Vessels enter into this pipe in the place called the Perinaeum which in men is the place between the root of the Yard and the Arse-hole or Fundament but in a woman it is the place between that and the cut of the neck of the womb from those holes to the Bladder that passage is called the neck of the Bladder and from thence to the head of the Yard is the common pipe or channel of the Yard The Yard hath four Muscles two towards the lower part on both sides one of them near the channel or pipe of the Yard and these are extended in length and they dilate the Yard and raise it up that the Seed may with ease pass through it two other muscles there are that come from the root of it near the share bone that comes slanting toward the top of the Yard in the upper part of it when these are stretched the Yard riseth and when they slacken then it falls again and if one of these be bent and the other be not the Yard bends to that muscle that is stretched or bent If the Yard be of a moderate size not too long nor too short it is good as the Tongue is but if the Yard be too long the spirits in the seed flee away if it be too short it cannot carry the Seed home to the place it should do The Yard also serveth to empty the Bladder of the water in it and that is easily proved by a Louse put into the pipe of the Yard which by biting will cause one to make water when the Urine is supprest The foreskin was made to defend the Yard that is tender and to cause delight in Copulation the Jews were commanded to cut it off Many diseases are incident to the Yard but a priapisme or standing of the Yard continually by reason of a windy matter is a disease that properly belongs to this part and is very dangerous sometimes The Yard of a man is not bony as in Dogs and Wolves and Foxes nor gristly for then it could not stand and fall as need is it is make of Skins Brawns Tendons Veins Arteries Sinews and great Ligaments yet not so full of Veins but it may be emptyed and filled again nor so full of Arteries as to beat alwayes yet you shall find it beat sometimes it consists not of Nerves for they are not hollow enough for the passages but it is compounded of a peculiar substance that is not found in any other part of the body the place of it as I said begins at the share-bone and it is fast knit to the Yard between the Cods and the Fundament so that there is a seam that comes up along the Cods and parts them in the midst between the Stones The Yard is not perfectly round but is somewhat broad on the back or upperside it differs a little in some from others the situation of it is so peculiar to Men that they have herein a preeminence above all other creatures Some men but chiefly fools have Yards so long that they are useless for generation It is generally held that the length or proportion of the Yard depends upon cutting the Navel string if you cut it too short and knit it too close in Infants it will be too short because of the string that comes from the Navel to the bottom of the bladder which draws up the Bladder and shortnes the Yard and this beside the general opinion stands with so much reason that all Midwives have cause to be careful to cut the Navel string long enough that when they tye it the Yard may have free liberty to move and extend it self alwayes remembring that moderation is best that it be not left too long which may be as bad as too short There are six parts to be observed of which the Yard consists 1. Two sinewy bodies 2. A sinewy substance to hold up the two side Ligaments and the urinary passage 3. The Urinary passage it self 4. The Nut of the Yard 5. The four Muscles and 6. The Vessels The two sinewy bodies are really two though they are joined together they are long and hard within they are spongy and full of black blood the spongy substance within seems to be woven network and is made of numberless Veins and Arteries and the black blood that is contained in them is full of spirits Motion and leisure in Copulation heats them and makes the Yard to stand and so will imagination the hollow weaving of them together was to hold the spirits as long as may be that the Yard fall not down before it hath performed the work of nature These side ligaments of the Yard where they are thick and round spring from the lower part of the share-bone and not the upper part as Galen supposed At the beginning they are parted and resemble a pair of Horns or the Letter Y where the common pipe for Urine and Seed goes between them It is thus manifest that the greatest part of the Yard is made of two sinewy parts one of them of each side and they both end at the top of the head of the Yard they come from two beginnings and lean upon the hip under the share-bone and so run on to the Nut of the Yard Also their substance is double the outside is sinewy hard and thick the inside black soft loose spongy and thin they are joined by a thin and sinewy skin which is strengthened by some slanting small Veins placed there like to a Weavers Shuttle they are parted at their first rising to make way
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
burns and hot swellings and head-ach that comes of heat by a likeness and affinity it hath to draw hot vapours to it so Linseed oil is good against burnings Scaliger affirms that Camphire increaseth Venery it may do so if it be used seldome but often used it is certain that it will destroy it There is moreover from ill tempered seed and melancholly blood in the vessels near the Heart which contaminates the Vital and Animal Spirits a melancholy distemper that especially Maids and Widows are often troubled with and they grow exceeding pensive and sad for melancholy black blood abounding in the Vessels of the Matrix runs sometimes back by the great arteries to the heart and infects all the spirits when this blood lieth still they are well but if it be stirred or urged then presently they fall into this distemper they know not why and the arteries of the spleen and back beat strongly and melancholly vapours fly up They are sorely troubled and weary of all things they can take no rest their pain lieth most on their left side and sometimes on the left breast in time they will grow mad and their former great silence turns to prating exceedingly crying out that they see fearful spirits and dead men when it is gone so far it is hard to cure it is vain then to try to make them merry they despair and wish to die and when they find an opportunity they will kill or drown or hang themselves At first when the blood is hot and fiery open a vein in the arm if they have their courses if not in the foot or ancle to bring the courses down Cooling moistening cordials and such things as revive the spirits and conquer melancholy wil do much driers are naught for melancholly is dry Confectio Alkermes is commended for those that can away with it but Confectio de Hyacintho is better use a moistening diet To breed mirth give her waters of Balm and Borage of each three ounces sirrup of the juices of Borage and Bugloss of each one ounce and a half take this at twice and use it often To purge melancholly take six drams of Senna Agarick one dram and a half Borage and violet flowers of each a small handful two drams of Citron peels infuse all six hours in good Rhenish wine strain them and put to them sirrup of Violets one ounce CHAP. II. Of the Falling Sickness WHen Women by reason of the ill affections of the womb fall into Epilepsies and Falling sickness it is worse than any other cause as the symptomes prove for the poisonous vapor is not only in the Nerves as when it is from the brain but also in the membranes veins and arteries The same foul vapour that causeth strangling of the womb produceth this for it causeth divers diseases according to the parts it takes hold on but when it lights forcibly on the Nerves then it causeth the Falling-sickness Sometimes there is a convulsion of the whole body and sometimes but of some parts as of the head or tongue hands or legs eyes or ears some cannot hear others cannot see all lose the sense of feeling some cry out but know not wherefore They that fall if the vapour be not too strong when they rise they go to their work again as if they had no harm but here is not only convulsions as in those that have the Falling-sickness from other parts but stopping the breath as in the strangling of the womb but these seldome some at the mouth as those do for the brain is entire or not much offended nor is their hearing taken away quite by the vapour fastening upon the roots of the Nerves of the ears Rue and Castor that cure fits of the Mother are good here the cure is almost the same only you must add some things that respect the nerves and the Brain Use these Pills twice in a week before supper one hour and take a scruple or half a dram Take Senna and Peony root of each half an ounce Mugwort Rue Betony Yarrow half a handful of each boil them then clarifie the decoction put to it Aloes one ounce and a half of juice of the herb Mercury one ounce let it stand and settle pour off the clear liquor then add two drams of Rhubarb sprinkled with water of Cinnamon Agarick half an ounce Mastick and Epileptick powder of each half a dram make the pills with sirrup of Mugwort To mend the distemper of the head and Womb take conserve of Rosemary flowers and of the Tile tree of Balm and Lillies of the valley of the root Scorzonera Candied of each one ounce Diamoschu dulce one dram with two drams of the roots of Peony and seeds of Agnus Castus and sirrup of Stoechas make an Electuary to take at your pleasure Nor are these all the ill consequences of the wombs distempers but sometimes violent head-ach springs from it which is the greatest pain of all the rest and sometimes it is all over the head or but upon one side or in the eyes the ill vapours rising by the veins and arteries of the Womb to the membranes and films of the brain when the vessels are full of a thin sharp blood that is carried from the womb to the membranes it stretcheth and rends them and corrodes and bites so that the pain is intollerable the cure is to purge away the peccant humour that lieth in the Womb for this is not as other head-ach is that comes from other causes the pain runs also to the Loins and the Membranes there by some capillary veins from the womb The pain of the head by affection with the womb is in all the head commonly but is chiefly iâ— the hinder part of the head because the womb being Nervous consents with the membranes of the brain by the membrane of the Marrow of the back hence it is that women are more subject to the head-ach than men are because of the womb that holds such affinity with the Nerves of the head The violent beating of the heart and Arteries both in the Sides and Back is by consent from the womb when evil humors therein contained pass by the Arteries and Poysonous vapours arise to those parts Cordials are good as Cinnamon Water and Aqua Monefardi or Mathiolas his water the Disease seems small but it is not safe because the cause of it is very ill In this Disease the Artery that beats in the Back beats strongly because it is part of the great Artery but the Arteries that beat in the Hypochondrion beat not so strongly for they are smaller branches from the Spleen and Mesentery but the cause is the same The Arteries are inflamed by the ill vapours and humours sent from the womb and the heart is exceedingly heated by them but this hot humor sometimes beats by reason of the great Artery quite over the whole body but it lasts not long for there is little corruption of the humors Some say the blood
a present Gratification from the Parents that is answerable to the Nurses pains But children should remember when they come to years to be thankful to their Nurses that bred them up and to requite their great care and pains having them in little less esteem than their own Mothers that bore them The Nurse on the other side must not neglect her Duty and doubtless some nurses are as fond of their nurse Children as if they were their own If the nurse use good Diet and Exercise it will breed good blood and good blood makes good milk but let her forbear all sharp sowr fiery melancholy meats or Mustard and Onyons or Leeks and Garlick and let her not drink much strong drink for that will enflame the Child and make it cholerick all Cheese breeds melancholy and Fish is Flegmatick Gross and thick air make gross blood and heavy bodies and dull wits Places that are near the Sea side and Bogs are very sickly and unwholsome but a clear air that is pure is as needful as Meat and Drink it makes the body sprightful and the reason and understanding ready good vital and animal spirits are bred by it whereby all things to reason become more subservient opinion fancy judgement resolution apprehension imagination memory knowledge mirth hope trust joy urbanity and what can be said almost are produced Meats and Drinks feed the body but the air guides the mind in almost all its actions and life and health sickness and death depend most upon it If the nurses milk be too hot Succory Purslain are good herbs for her to eat and if it be too cold then Vervain and Mother of time Cinnamon Borrage and Bugloss and all wholesome Herbs and Meats and Drinks that a little exceed in heat mend her milk If the child be ill the Nurses milk is commonly the cause of it if wind oppress the child let the Nurse but put Fennel seed and Anniseed into her meats or broths and the child will be well but of that more by and by as I pass on to speak of the diseases and infirmities of children but before I part with the Nurse it will be but reason to enquire when the Nurse should part with her child and wean it from the breasts I know there can be no general rule for all because some children are weak and must stay longer before they be weaned Avicenna saith two years is the time children should suck I have seen some in England that have kept their children sucking near four years who would carry their stool after their Nurses to sit down on to give them suck but a year old is sufficient to most children yet they are loth to leave the Dug till they be driven from it Breast milk is very sweet of good digestion and therefore some that are fallen into consumptions in their riper years are cured by sucking a wholesome womans breasts but sucking is not proper for children so soon as they can concoct other nutriment Milk is for Babes but strong meat for men I have known some women so fond of their children that they would never wean them by their good will But when children suck so over-long as three or four years I seldome hear of any of them that ever come to good insomuch that many women have repented of their folly when it was too late Their children by overcockering growing so stuborn and unnatural that they have proved a great grief to their parents It seems God sometimes thus punishes women for their folly and the children thus tenderly bred for want of stronger meat than breast milk in their child-hood grow lame and weak and sick of the Rickets Some women will not be contented with such children as God sends them but they will be mending the feature of their noses and their bodies till they make them very ill favoured that would have grown in good shape and some though they have Daughters will not be contented unless they may have a son God sometimes hears their prayers and sends them a Boy it may be a Fool that will be a boy as long as he lives I have shewed you that children be they Boys or Girls unless they be weak should not suck the breast above a year and if it be a nurses breasts and not the own mother that they suck it is the same thing for time yet the Nurse should be chosen as near to the constitution of the mother as possibly you can for then there will not be so great alteration in the constitution and manners of the child a Nurse is best after her second child if she be but between twenty and thirty years of age her milk must not be above ten months old when you chuse her nor under two months old for that will be too new If the nurses milk prove ill she must take a gentle purgation but if it be to purge the child it must be very gentle indeed for that purging quality of the Medicament passeth to the milk and will operate upon the Child which cannot otherwise be purged by Physick It hath been much argued whether the mother or some other women be best to nurse the child surely I should think the mother in all respects if she be sound and well because it agrees better with the childs temper for the milk of the mother is the same with that nutriment the child drew in in the Womb. But yet it will do good sometimes to change the nurse if the mothers milk contract any ill qualities or be too sharp or salt or otherwise offensive to the child for if the child do not take rest well or cry and complain doubtless the milk it feeds on is distempered Good milk is neither too thick nor too thin too thin is raw and breeds crudities too thick is hardly concocted by the infant it must be white and sweet scented if it smell sowr or burnt it will corrupt in the stomach and so it will if it taste salt or sowr or bitter or have any ill tast drop a drop of breast milk on your nail or upon a Glass and if it shew very white and neither stick like glew nor run off like water but be off a middle nature you may conclude that it is good When the blood is too full of Whey it breeds thin milk which gives little nourishment and the children by sucking of it fall into Fluxes and looseness of the belly and sharp milk makes them scabby purge away the whey of the blood if it be too hot cholerick with Rhubarb otherwise with Mechoachan or sirrup of Roses cold and moist breasts are mended by the contraries that is by hot and dry things If wheyish humours come from the Liver that must be mended hot and dry things that profit are bread well baked with Anniseed and Fennel seed Roast-meat Rice sweet Almonds but broth and Fish and Sallets and Summer fruits must be avoided good exercise breeds good blood gross diet makes
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
Seed vessels needed not to be great so that if they have any Prostates saith Galen to keep the Seed in they are so small they can hardly be discerned CHAP. XV. Of the Seed-carrying Vessels in Women THese vessels that carry the Seed come from the lower part of the stones they are on each side one and are propt up by the ligaments of the womb they are white and sinewy they do not go directly to the womb but with many windings and turnings because the way is short they are broad near the stones then they grow less and again when they come to the womb they are enlarged they go to the horns of the womb and there they end and by those horns they pass into the womb this may be plainly seen in other Female creatures as well as in women though with much difference These vessels in their twistings are like to the Seed bladders as are in men full of wrinkles in the midst they have a hole or mouth like to a Trumpets mouth and it is curled up like Vine tendrils they are more folded together than in Men because they are not to pass through the Peritoneum for womens stones do not hang forth as mens do Also they do not come from the stones presently to the neck of the bladder as with men but they go from the stones to the womb and when they come to the sides of it called the horns there they part and one part which is larger and shorter enters into the middle of the horns of his own side or very near it and there it delivers in and so into the cavity of the womb Seed perfectly concocted but the other part which is longer though it be narrower passeth along by the sides of the womb to the neck of it on both sides and below the innermost mouth of the womb they are implanted under the neck of it into the forestanders which are not so plain to be seen as they are with men yet these hold the Seed there till it is the time of Copulation and then they cast it forth for thus women great with Child do spend their Seed and not by opening the innermost mouth of the womb as some falsely think for so soon as a woman conceives the mouth of the womb is most exactly shut close yet they can lye with men all that while and some women before others will take more pleasure and are more desirous of their Husbands company than before which is scarce seen in any other female creatures besides most of them being fully satisfied after they have conceived but it was needful for man that it should be so because polygamy is forbidden by the Laws of God CHAP. XVI Of Women stones WOmen have need of stones to concoct and digest their Seed as well as men the use of stones in both sexes is to make Seed fruitful for if either the stones of the man or woman be out of temper they must needs be barren and unfruitful nor is there any greater sign of health than when the stones are well and of this Jugement was that great Physician Hippocrates There are many differences betwixt the stones of both sexes 1. In place because women are colder than men their stones are kept within their lower belly to keep them warm and to make them fruitful and they lye on either side of the womb above the bottom when women are not with Child but when they are with Child these stones lye near the place where the hanch-bone and the holy-bone join and they are contained in loose skins coming from the Peritoneum which skins cover also half the Stones and they lie upon the Muscles of the Loins within the Abdomen 2. Womans Stones have no Cod to hold them as Mens have they have but one skin to cover them for lying within the body they need no more but mens Stones have four several skins to keep them warm because they hang without their bellies Also the Cod or rather coat for the Stones is softer and thinner than the mans and cleaves fast to them that it seems to be the same body with them this coat also receives the Vessels of blood and wrapping them fast keeps the blood from shedding forth 3. Womens Stones are not so thick nor great nor round nor smooth nor hard as mens are but they are small and uneven and broad and flat both before and behind whereas mens are oval smooth large round and equall the upper side of womens Stones are so unequal that they resemble small kernels of the Kall joined together and they are long and hollow with small textures in them and they are full of a watry humour like very thick Whey when Women are in good health but when they are sickly they seem like bladders full of a clear watry humour and sometimes of a yellow colour like Saffron and will stink so that it oftentimes causeth the strangling of the Mother which Midwives call fits of the Mother 4. Their Stones are also colder and moister and so is their Seed and therefore women have no Beards on their faces because of the coldness of their Stones 5. They have no forestanders Mans Seed is the agent and womans Seed the patient or at least not so active as the mans Aristotle denyed that women had any seed at all and Jovianus Pontanus would prove this by the Moon which Aristotle likeneth to women in act of Procreation who held that the Moon doth nothing but bring moist matter for the Sun to work upon in things below but Hermetick Philosophy will prove that the moisture the Moon brings hath an active principle as well as the Sun and so doubtless women are not only passive in Procreation but active also as well as the man though not in so high a degree of action her seed is more watry and mans seed full of vital spirits more condensed thick and glutinous for had the womans seed been as thick as the mans they could never have been so perfectly mingled together CHAP. XVII Of the Womb it self or Matrix THe Womb is that Field of Nature into which the Seed of man and woman is cast and it hath also an attractive faculty to draw in a magnetique quality as the Load-stone draweth Iron or Fire the light of the Candle and to this seed runs the Womans blood also to beget nourish encrease and preserve the Infant till it is time for it to be born for the natural and vegetable Soul is virtually in the Seed and runs through the whole mass and is brought into act by the Virtue and heat of the Woman that receives the Seed and by the forming faculty which lies hid in the Seed of both Sexes and in the disposition of the womb both Seeds are well mingled together at the same time in all parts of the body I mean as to the parts made of Seed but as for the parts made with blood they are made at several times as they
for the womb consents or dissents by sympathy and antipathy and sweet things applied to the privities profit in such cases and stinking things to the nose as burnt leather feathers or the like There is a great agreement between the womb and the brain as Hippocrates proves by a smoke to try barrenness by and there is the like between the womb and the Heart by Nerves and Arteries Sweet scents are pleasing to all womens wombs and ill savours offend but not in all women alike for where the Matrix is well disposed and not disaffected by reason of ill humours that it is charged with those Women are much delighted with sweet smels but it is not so with others who are unclean for they cannot away with sweet smels for no sooner do they begin to scent them but they fall into those fits for while the womb resents those sweet swels the ill humours that lye hid in the womb especially where the seed is corrupted fly up with the spirits and carry the bad humours with them to the Heart and to the brain and so cause these stiflings of the womb This is general for all sweet things that the Matrix is pleased with them rightly applied for apply any sweet thing to the Privities the womb is quiet and well refresht by them and so the humours are still or else they move downward but contrarily stinking things by Antipathy with the womb are thrust out by the spirits when we apply such stinks to the nose for the spirits fly downwards and often there is an abortion thereby The womb cannot smell scents no more than it can hear sounds or see objects for scents belong to the nose which is the Organ of smelling as colours to the eyes that are the instruments of seeing the ears of hearing but the womb partakes with these scents by reason of a thin vapour or spirit that comes from any strong smell for the womb is affected as our senses are very suddenly as it feels exactly which is in some kind a general sense and is common to every part of the body our spirits are refresht with sweet vapours not discerning them but as they are placed and strengthened by them But how doth the womb chuse sweet smels and refuse the contrary if she cannot discern I know not why it is so unless the reason be because of the impurity of those vapours that arise from stinking things for all such things are noynoysome and not well concocted and defile the spirts contained in the parts of Generation and so cause faintings and swoundings whereas sweet smels are pleasant and refresh the spirits But why then doth Ambergreece and Musk cause suffocations being so extreamely sweet scented and Assafetida and Castoreum two stinking cure it The Answer is that all women are not so affected but onely they whose wombs as I said are charged with ill humours and then quick spirits arising from sweet smels presently move the brain and the membranes of it and so the membranous womb is soon drawn into consent the bad vapours that lay still before being stirred and raised by the Arteries flee to the heart and the brain and by secret passages cause such fits but noysome smels being raw and ill tempered stop the pores of the brain and come not to the inward membranes to prevent them Also Nature being offended with destructive ill qualified scents raiseth up all her forces as against an open enemy to oppose them and so casts out of the womb with the ill vapours the ill humours also from which these vapours rise so comes a crisis in acute diseases if Nature be strong she casts them forth and when a man takes a purge Nature helps her self against the ill qualities of the Medicament which she can no way conquer but by casting it forth and so what humours were peccant are cast forth with it It was the judgment of Hippocrates that womens wombs are the cause of all their diseases for let the womb be offended all the faculties Animal Vital and natural all the parts the Brain Heart Liver Kidneys Bladder Entrails and bones especially the share-bone partake with it but no part is so much of consent with the womb as the Breasts are The agreement between the womb and the Brain comes from the Nerves and membranes of the marrow of the back some fee great pains in the hinder part of the head some are frantick others so silent they cannot speak Some have dimness of sight dulness of hearing noyse in their ears strange passions and Convulsions It agrees with the Heart by the Arteries of the Seed and lower belly and if these be stopt or choked by a venemous air the hearts natural heat is dissolved faintings and swoondings and intermission of pulse follow with stopping of their breath so that you cannot perceive them to breath unless you apply a clear looking-glass to their mouth and if they breath at all there will be left a dewy vapor upon the Glass if not they are dead for some of these women draw in no more air than what comes in by the pores of the skin into the Arteries and so goes to the Heart and such persons sometimes lye in such fits twenty four hours at least and many of them have lain so long that their Friends have thought them to be dead and have caused them to be unhappily buried when they were alive and would no doubt have revived when the fit had been over I speak this for a warning to others to beware what they do upon such occasions and to give at least two or three dayes time before they put them into the ground some have been taken alive out of their Coffins long after they were thought to be dead The womb and Liver agree by Veins running from the Liver to the womb which is the cause of Jaundies Dropsies and Green-sickness if the blood be naught that comes to it And that the Kidnies by the Seed-veins consents with the womb is manifest by the pains of the loins women suffer when they have their Courses for the left Seed-Vein comes from the left emulgent or kidney-vein on the same side So the womb the bladder and the right gut agree for if the womb be inflamed presently follows a desire to go to stool and to make water by reason of the nearness and communion these parts have one with the other by the membranes of the Peritoneum that tye the womb and these parts together and by common Vessels running betwixt for from the same branch of the vein of the under belly run small Fibres to these three parts but the consent of the womb with the breasts is most observable the humours passing ordinarily from one to the other whereby we may know the affections of the womb and how to cure them and of the state of the Child contained in it Lufitanus tells us that he saw two women that voided monethly blood by their Nipples when their Courses were
here below and are not changed themselves for that the Heavenâ— and the fixed Stars and the Planets are still the same they were in the first creation and that the twelve Signs and Planets do rule over the bodies of men and women and how that Scorpio which is the house of Mars rules over the womb and makes it fruitful and that Leo is a barren Sign because Lions seldom bring forth young and so is Virgo for they are no maids that conceive with child But then why should not Taurus be a barren but a fruitful Sign when Bulls never bring forth any But not to trouble the reader with Astrological dreams I think it is not the seven Planets that by this complement of seven make the child to live but I should rather impute it to the perfection of the number seven which is easily proved by Scripture to be the most perfect number and will appear so to be by the Sabbath the seventh day of the week commanded for rest also the Sabbatical or every seventh year and the year of Jubilee seven times seven So that Hippocrates was out in three books where he endeavours to prove that a child born in the eighth month cannot live Aristotle Plutarch Galen and others were of the same judgement But to oppose them the writers of Spain Egypt and of Nanas prove the contrary by divers examples Hippocrates might be also misunderstood whether he meant Solar months that consist of thirty one days a piece or very near being the time the Sun is passing through the Zodiack or Lunar months the time the moon is in any Sign of the twelve and her stay there which is but twenty seven days with some few hours and minutes besides all this the woman Hippocrates mentions might not make her reckoning right for if you trust to womens account you can be at no certainty scarce one of a hundred can tell you true And as for Saturn who is so much blamed for playing the ill Midwife in the eighth month he is as much commended for his good office in the first month but there is no man or Planet that can alwayes have every mans good word yet I am of opinion they do him wrong but Astrologers may say what they please without reason for they never prove any thing but one dream by another Aries forsooth is not fruitful because it is the House of Mars and is not Scorpio which they praise for fructifying the house of Mars too Every Planet is maintained by them to rule the severai parts of mans body and that by degrees according to their signs and several Houses they are in I have found no Table concerning this business to have any truth in it wherefore I have drawn forth one exactly which you may safely rely upon if upon any Table at all and by this Table you shall find that every Planet when he is in Scorpio which signifies fruitfulness of the womb rules those parts of the body which are under the same Sign the two great Luminaries I mean the Sun and Moon excepted which do it by reception a clear proof that they have a great influence in framing the child in the womb and that the two Luminaries in that work mingle their influence one with the other The Table The first month Authors give to Saturn to retain the conception for he say they fixes the seed The Second month to Jupiter and upon him they lay the foundation of encreasing of sense and reason but the true foundation is then laid when the Seed of both man and woman are well mingled Mars rules the third month to give heat and motion to the infant Any Tooth good Barber The Sun governs the fourth month to give the child vital spirits yet Mars gave it motion a month before without any spirits at all I cannot understand there can be voluntary motion and no vital spirits Venus in the fifth month adds beauty the body we all know is fashioned in thirty or forty days but beauty must not come till three months after As for the sixth month that is Mercuries part to distinguish the parts of the child which Venus it seems could never do with all her beauty as if the child were but a Chaos and a rude mass till the sixth month yet it was very beautiful a month before As for the seventh and last month in the Planetary revolution that is the Moons part to make the child complete Here is much ado to small purpose It is no error I confess to impute much to the operation of the Planets But they are much mistaken about the times that such and such Planets do work for doubtless the Planets do not operate by succession as some would have it so that when one rules all the rest are idle and lie still but they cooperate and work altogether and that continually Their motion causes mutation for the motion of the Sun saith Potolomy of the Earth saith Copernicus distinguisheth night from day The Sun gives heat to all things here below the Moon moisture and our life consists in heat and moisture The Sun is the Sire of all living creatures and is first active in the seed of both sexes in the very middle of the seed and so he enlivens and moves every part to its proper action That which Aristotle speaks of the Heart the Microcosmical Sun in man's production is partly true both in and after conception to frame vital spirits and cause motion action For as the earth is preserved by the element of water from being scorched and burnt up by the beams of the Sun so the Microcosmical Sun the Heart but which is the Moon the brain or the Liver is hard to say adds moisture to this conception from first to last I mean as long as the child lives and thus the radical moisture is preserved Aristotle thought the brain by its coldness tempered the heat of the heart and for my part I think he said very true I see no man give a sufficient reason to the contrary There must yet be something to ballance the heat and moisture of the Sun and Moon and that they say is Saturn by his coldness for he fixeth them both in the work of conception and the dry bones are his work which are the Pillars and supports of this frail building But because there is no Generation but first there must be corruption for the corruption of one is the generation of another whereby it comes to pass that there is not a total decay in the world the beams of the Sun Moon working upon the seed of both sexes fixed by Saturn are purified and concocted by the equal temperament of heat and moisture that the Planet Jupiter le ts fall amongst them but then comes Mars with his heat and dryness and what is overplus in the conception as there must needs be some superfluities that Mars draws forth and turns to excrements and hardens into Coverings and Coats for
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
forward the child is coming but if the skin break and the waters come down that is the last and surest sign as I said when the waters precede and the child doth not follow presently in some reasonable time these things following hasten and ease delivery Featherfew or Mugwort boil'd in white wine let her drink a draught of the decoction the sirrups of either may be made in summer with their juice clarified and boyled to a sirrup with twice as much Sugar a spoonful at a time to be taken or drink a dram of the powder of Cinnamon in wine or the distill'd water of Mugwort Betony Dittander Peniroyal or Featherfew Tansie bruised and applyed or the Oyl of it as I said will do it but the Eagle stone held to the secrets draws out both Child and Secundine hold it to no longer for it will draw forth Womb and all Miraldus tells of many more pretty ways But for more assurance take this powder made of Dittany of Crele Penni-royal Roundbirthwort of each ten grains Cinnamon and Saffron of each twelve grains beat them to fine powder and let her drink it in wine or some fit liquor in the decoction or distill'd waters of red Pease Penniroyal Parsly c. Outward means is good applied to the secrets take Agrimony leaves and roots but after cast it away lest it draw forth the Matrix Henbane Polypody or Bistort roots are commended for the same use But let all hot and violent remedies be avoided for many times they bring the woman into a dangerous Feaver Also too much fasting or too much eating breed peril to women in travel a woman that is with child cannot so well digest her meat as they can that are not with child Midwives therefore must ask how long it was since that the woman did eat and what and how much that vpon occasion she may give her something to strengthen her in her labour if need be as warm broth or a potched egg and if her delivery be long in doing give her an ounce of Cinnamon water to comfort her or else a dram of Confectio Alkermes at twice in two spoonfuls of Claret wine but give her but one of these three things for you may soon cast her into a feaver by too much hot administrations and that may stop her purgations and breed many mischiefs CHAP. III. What must be done after the woman is delivered IT will be profitable when a woman hath had sore travel to wrap her back with a sheep-skin newly flead off and let her ly in it and to lay a Hare-skin rub'd over with Hares blood newly prepared to her belly let these things be worn two hours in winter and but one hour in Summer for these will close up the parts too much dilated by the childs birth and will expel all ill melancholly blood from those parts This being done swathe the woman with a Napkin about nine inches broad but annoint her belly with Oyl of St. Johns wort and then raise up the womb with a linnen cloth many times folded cover her flanks with a little pillow about a quarter of a Yard long then swathe her beginning a little a-above the hanches rather higher than lower winding it even lay warm cloths to her breasts forbearing those that repulse the milk till longer time and the body be setled lest repercussives should do her hurt let then her blood be first setled ten or twelve hours and that the blood which was cast upon the lungs by violent labour may return to its own place but you may ease the pains of her breasts and comfort them laying a linnen cloth doubled and not warm'd dipt in Oil of St. Johns wort and of Roses with the yolk and white of an egg beat together of each an ounce with an ounce of Rose-water and as much of Plantan-water Let her not sleep till about four hours after she is delivered but first give her some nourishing broth or Cawdle to comfort her let her eat no flesh till two dayes at least be over for she may not use a full diet after so great loss of blood suddenly as she grows stronger she may begin with meats of easie digestion as Chickens or Pullets she may drink small wines with a little Saffron Mace and Cloves infused equal parts all tied in a piece of linnen and let them lie in the wine so close stopt she may drink a small draught of it at dinner and supper for the whole month and besides her ordinary food she may if she will take nourishing broths and Aleberries with bread butter and Sugar Let her drink her Beer or Ale with a tost she may drink a decoction of Liquorish Raisins of the Sun and a little Cinnamon if the child be a boy she must lye in thirty dayes if a girl forty daies and remember that it is the time of her purification that her husband must abstain from her CHAP. IV. When and how to cut off the Childs navel-string and what is the Consequent thereof THe Navel-string is twisted that it might be the stronger and that the blood by that delay might be better prepared had the Vein in the Navel or the Arteries or Vrachos that carrye the piss being single the different postures of the child in the womb or the difference of the womans standing sitting or lying might press a single vessel and stop the passage of the blood in the Vein spirit in the Arteries or water in the Vrachos but the twisting hath prevented that The cutting of the Navel-string helps much for it keeps the blood and spirits in after the Child is born A Midwives skill is seen much if she can perform this rightly The time to do it is so soon as ever the Child is born whether he bring a part of the Secundine out with him or not for sometimes the infant brings a piece of the Coat Amnios upon his head and that they name the caule I know no wonders this Caule will work but if you find this Caule on the childs head you shall miss it in the after-birth if it be in the after-birth it will not be on his head The reason why some Children bring it with them on their head into the world is weakness and it signifies a short life and proves seldome otherwise But if it come with it or without it so soon as it is come forth consider whether the Child be strong or weak for by the Navel-string the Mother gives both vital and natural blood to the Child wherefore if the Child be weak you must gently put back part of the vital and natural blood into the childs body by the Navel for that will refresh a weak child if the child be strong you need not do it Many children seem to be born dead that recover by this meanes as very weak children often do but you must crush out six or seven drops of blood out of the navel-string I mean that part which is cut off give
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
Barley Lentils Beanes Lupines of each one Ounce and two drams of Orris Roots and of Horehound Wormwood and a little Centry of each half a handful boil all in Whey strain it and put some Honey of Roses or Hydromel to it Turpentine washed and with Liquorish swallowed is good Drink Sheeps milk sweetened with Sugar Fumes made with Frankincence Myrrh Mastich Storax Calamita Juniper Gum received by a Tunnel do good if there be a jealousie of the Pox add a little Cinnabar but Pessariers with Opium must not be held in above half an hour for it will hurt the Nervous part of the womb a scruple of the Pills of Bdellium taken thrice a week may be profitable Vulnerary Potions drunk and astringent powders cast upon the Ulcers must not be neglected Sometimes there are long Ulcers in the neck of the womb like to those that eat the skin and are seen upon some mens hands and feet in Winter sometimes they are bleeding and sometimes very dry and have hard lips much labour and sharp humours to the parts may cause them when they are new they are easier cured use a good moistening diet if sharp humours cause them purge them forth and anoint the Ulcers with Oil of Linseed and Roses mingle them in a Leaden Mortar with juice of Plantane and the Yolk of an egg when they are hard anoint them with deers Marrow Turpentine wax and oil of Lillies when they are malignant they are cured as Fistulaes are if they itch or cause pain make an unguent of Populeum and Diapompholix of either one ounce Camphire Sugar of Lead of each a scruple when there is a great itching of the womb it is somewhat like the rage of it then eat Sallets of cooling herbs Purslain and Lettice with a few Spearmints oil and vinegar or take conserve of Mints and of Water-Lilly-Flowers of each an ounce Lettice candied six drams Agnus Castus seeds one dram and a half Coral one dram Rue feeds half a dram Camphire a scruple with sirrup of Purslain make an Electuary annoint the Reins and secrets with Galen's cold ointment with a little Camphire As for the womb it is soon ulcerated because the parts are soft and easily corroded and hard to be healed and these ulcers are of many kinds hollow crooked or strait if the sharp humors be retained it makes furrows and divides the parts which growing hard with a callous cannot join again thus it degenerates into a Fistula it may be without pain with hard Lips and an ill matter may be pressed forth of it sometimes it corrodes the bladder and then the water passeth forth by the Fistula and sometimes to the Fundament and the Dung is voided by it An old Fistula is harder to cure than a new and a crooked than a streight General remedies and a good Diet may do much and so leave the rest to nature to evacuate the excrements but use a palliative cure by often Sweating and purging twice a year and by Injections and Corroboratives laying on a Plaister of Diapalma After general meanes if it be not past hopes Vulnerary Decoctions may help made with Centaury Bettony Agrimony Ladies mantle and roots of male Fern. Topicks are useful first dilating the Orifice with Gentian Roots or with a Sponge then make soft the Callous with Turpentine wax Deers Marrow and Oyl of Lillies then consume the Callous which may be effected For a new narrow Fistula use black Hellebore Egyptiac or Vigo 's powder carried to it with a Pencil or Aqua Falopii or take Rose and Plantane water of each six ounces put to it Sublimate half a scruple set it on the Embers in a Glass but if the Fistula be toward the womb beware of violent means if it be foul and a hard Callous withall a Potential Caustick may do good but a Horrion is best all these are safe in the outward part of the Neck of the womb but in the inward there is greater danger A Cancer in the womb is seldome seen nor can it be ever cured but that which is in the Neck of the womb I shall instance in which is either with an Ulcer or without an Ulcer First It comes without an Ulcer but when long Applications are used to them hard schirrhus Tumours which spring from burnt black humours and Terms that flow to those parts chang to an Ulcerated Cancer Secondly It may be in the part not Ulcerated a long time and not be known because it is without pain but at length there will be a pain felt in the Loins and bottom of the belly the swelling looks blew and loathsome when it becomes Ulcerated it is worse and a thin black stinking matter comes from it If much blood flow from it that is dangerous there will be a soft Feaver red cheeks and loathing by reason of the vapours that rise from it Mild Remedies are not felt and strong meanes make it worse it growes harder daily keep it from being Ulcerated and you may live long with it Prepare and Purge Melancholy from whence it proceeds Use no sharp biting applications at first but onely Diapompholyx or juice of night shade Plantane or Purslane Give every day three or four Grains of a Powder made of Oriental Bezoar stone Saphyrs and Emeralds of each one dram in waters of Scabius or Carduus take also juice of Nightshade six ounces burnt Lead washt and Tutty of each two drams Camphire half a dram put Cray-fish powder to them and stir them well in a leaden Mortar An Injection made with a Decoction of Cray-fish is held to be very good and make a Cataplasm and a Fomentation with milk Saffron water Lillies Mallowes Marsh-mallowes Coriander Dill and Fleabane seed Arsenick and Antimony may be good in some remote parts but are dangerous here There was a Noble woman who had a Cancer Ulcerated upon her Face and sought for help from all Countries at last a Barber cut a Chicken in the midst and often applyed that and it drew forth the Ulciome and the Lady was cured The womb is very soon corrupted by the many ill humours that flow thither and it will quickly Gangreen and the parts mortifie the natural heat being extinguished by reason of some preceding Ulcer the neck of the womb will feel an unusual heat and a Feaver runs through the body the part is discoloured and neither beats nor feels any thing prick it or cut it it stinks The Party that hath it faints and decayes wherefore strengthen the heart with cordials and the principal parts least the Spirits be infected cut off the dead flesh stop the corruption by scrarifying it if you can come at it then wash the part with a decoction of wormwood and Lupines and Egyptiac apply Epithems to the heart it is worse when it goes to the womb than when it comes outward Some have had their womb fall out and yet recovered as to life which was before endangered The Neck of the womb is onely subject
some but in others by accident from cold Air cold Diet and Medicaments or from too much idleness the signs are quite contrary to the former for the other are extreme desirous of Venery and these abhor it and take no pleasure in it they have few or no hairs about their Secrets and their seed is watry and Slimy their wombs are windy and they are subject to Gonorrhaeas and the Whites The Cure is long and hard to be done but they must use such things as warm the womb with drinking good wine and sometimes Cordial Waters and good warm nourishing Meats and of easie digestion with Anniseed Fennel seed and Time And Fumigations are good of Myrrh Frankincence Mastick Bay berries of each a dram Labdanum two drams Storax and Cloves of each a dram Gum Arabick and wine make Troches put one or two upon a Pan of coles and let her receive the Fume at the Matrix Then take Labdanum two ounces Frankincence Mastick Liquid Storax of each half an ounce oyl of Cloves and of Nutmegs of each half a scruple oyl of Lillies and Rue of each one ounce Wax sufficient make a Plaister and lay it over the Region of the womb But if the womb be moist and this is commonly joyned with a cold distemper it drowns the seed like as if a Man should sow Corn in a quagmire The causes are almost the same as of cold for it is Idleness that is the cause in most women that are troubled with it and such women have abundance of Courses but they are thin and waterish and the whites also their Secrets are alwayes wet they cannot retain the mans seed but it slips out again This must be cured as the cold distemper by a heating and drying Diet and Medicaments Baths Injections Fomentations wherein Brimstone is mingled but take heed of Astringents for they will make the Disease worse by stopping the ill humours in The fourth is a dry Distemper of the womb this is natural to some but to most it comes when they are old and past childing when the womb grows hard if it be from any other drying causes such women will be barren before they be old It may proceed from diseases as Feavers Inflammations Obstructions when the blood goes not to the Matrix to moisten it so that if they void any blood it comes from the Veins in the neck of the womb and not from the bottom they have but few courses little seed they are of a lean dry Constitution their lower Lip is of a blackish red and commonly chapt This Distemper if it be long is seldom cured moistning things must do it as Borage Bugloss Almonds Dates Figs Raisins Moistning and nourishing Diet is good and to forbear salt and dry meats avoid anger sadness fasting and use to sleep long and labour but little rub the parts with oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies Linseed sweet Butter Jesamine Hens or Ducks Grease Besides these four there are compound distempers as cold and moist wombs and hot and dry but I presume I need not in particular speak of them because I have given sufficient remedies in the several qualitis already which will be easie to apply I confess a compound distemper is harder to be cured than a simple therefore I shall add one or two remedies more First If then the Womb be cold and moist cure this with surrup of Mugwort Bettony Mints or Hyssop then purge the cold humor with Agarick Mechoachan Turbith and Sena Sudorificks of Guaicum Sarfa and China are very good Secondly If the womb be subject to a hot and dry distemper you must put away choler from the Liver and from the whole body those things that will do it are Manna and Tamarinds sirrup of Roses Rhubarb Senna Cassia and the like which are very safe gentle and effectual Remedies BOOK VI. CHAP. I. Of the Strangling of the womb and the effects of it with the Causes and Cure THe womb by its consent with other parts of the Body as well as by its own nature is subject to multitudes of diseases and it is not to be uttered almost what Miseries women in general by meanes thereof be they Maids Wives or widowes are affected with But amongst all diseases those that are called Hysterical Passions or strangling of the womb are held to be the most grievous Swounding and Falling Sickness are from hence by the consent the womb hath with the heart and brain and sometimes this comes to pass by stopping of the Terms which load the heart the brain and Womb with evil humors and sometimes it ariseth from the stopping in of the seed of Generation as is seen in Antient Maids and widowes for by reason hereof ill vapors and wind rise up from the womb to the Midriff and so stops their breath it is most commonly the widowes disease who were wont to use Copulation and are now constrained to live without it when the seed is thus retained it corrupts and sends up filthy vapours to the brain whereby the Animal Spirits are clouded and many ill consequents proceed from it as Falling Sicknesses Megrims Dulness Giddiness Drowsiness Shortness of breath Head-ache beating of the Heart Frenzy and Madness and indeed what not The same woman may be tormented with several of these at the same time when the seed and the Courses are mingled with ill humours being once corrupted The Menstrual blood and seed are noble parts but the best things once corrupted become the worst and degenerate into a venemous nature and are little better than Poyson When the Vessils of the womb lye near the Vessels of other parts of the body or there is near affinity of one part with the womb then by consent are many grievous Diseases produced The womb is of a membranous nature and for that reason it consents exceedingly with the nerves and membranes and so the parts that are near are soon offended by it and it conveys its ill qualities to the whole body by Nerves Veins and Arteries the Brain hath it by the membranes of the marrow of the Back and by Nerves the arteries they carry it to the Heart and the veins to the Liver and these are large in the womb and by them all the noxious blood and poisonous vapours return The Veins of the Mesentery give it a consent with the stomach and so do the arteries carry all to the Spleen which is the cause that some women in age grow hypochondriacal by heat of their blood because their courses did not flow sufficient when they were young It will be hard to distinguish these two diseases in women or to cure the one and not cure the other The Breasts they consent with the womb by Nerves and Veins that go from it to them so then it is clear that it holds a correspondence with the heart the Midriff the Brain and Head and all the instruments of motion and sense likewise with the Stomach Liver Spleen Bladder Belly Mesentery Hips Back straight Gut
Legs and arms and is the cause of strange symptomes in them all For Galen saith well the strangling of the Mother or Hysterical Passion is but one by name but the symptomes are scarce to be numbered It alters womens complexions they grow sandy or pale and yellow or swarthy and now and then their eyes and faces shew red and very sanguine When this strange affection falls upon them they will gnash theit teeth and become speechless for their breath is stopt and it hath been often observed that they have been supposed to be dead neither breath nor Pulse nor Life to be found for that time and sometimes their breath is stopt so close and it holds so long that they have died of it The causes of this disease are very many for a sudden fear a bad news related hath cast divers women into these fits for by this Melancholly gets the mastery of them it were but reason therefore for men to forbear relating any sad accident to them but with great proviso When the womb is strangled no one disease can determine it for that seldome comes alone sometimes only the breath is stopt sometimes the speech and animal actions of the brain fail and the whole body is chill and almost dead by ill vapors that choke it rising from the womb The Malignant Vapors then sent from thence by the Nerves Veins and arteries are the immediate causes of all the hurt that is done and these vapors are much like the wind very powerful and almost unperceived they are so subtil and thin that they pass in a moment of time through the whole body it will choke the Patient when they flie to the Throat as people are that eat White Hellebore or venomous mushromes Ofttimes you shall see the woman to loth and vomit and draw her breath short and her heart akes if the vapour strike the heart first it will cease from moving and she falls into a swound but if it flie to the brain she is void of all sense and motion There is nothing worse than corrupt seed to offend the Body Women with Child are not free from this disease when corrupt humours rise from an unclean womb The chief seat of this ill humour lieth in the Trumpet of the womb and in her stones for the substance of it is loose and hollow and the Stones lie in bladders full of water and women that have strangling of the womb have this water of a yellow colour and grosser than it should be Many Physicians have mistook the stones and the Trumpet for the womb it self when putrified rotten seed makes them swell and windy humours cause them to rise as far as the Navel but I spoke of this before when I shewed the reason how the womb is thought to ascend higher than nature hath placed it It hath sometimes a long time to breed in and sometimes it comes suddenly according as the corruption of the humours is which sometimes also lie still and so soon as they are but moved they evacuate and send a poisonous fume into other parts of the body And nothing will sooner stir these vapours and humours in women who are subject to this disease than anger or fear or such like passions or sweet scents and smells applied to their noses which is an argument that the womb is delighted with sweet scents but cannot away with stinking things for let Musk or Civet be held to such womens noses they are presently sick till they be taken away What Distemper this strangling of the womb is Physicians agree not some say it is a cold distemper but coldness is not the chief symptome though cold be great others say it is a convulsion or Syncope or breathing stopt but it cannot be set forth by any one symptome for though the venomous vapor be small that breeds it it goes many waies and spreads through all the body But the true causes of this Disease are the poisonous vapours that rise from the womb it is not an apparent quality that this vapour works by but a secret quality as the Torpedo or Scorpion small creatures prevail with to do great mischief as they are enemies to the natural heat and vital spirits and when the heart suffers there can be no good animal spirits bred because the vital are corrupted but blood and seed whilest they are in their own proper vessels hurt not unless they are mingled with ill humors Fernelius saith that the womb and seed the place and matter of life are the breeding of the most deadly poisons Hippâ—crates in these fits bids give them wine to refresh their weakness Avicenna bids give them no wine but water and forbids eating flesh because they ingender more seed and blood but when she is in the fit wine is best for a little wine will not presently get to the womb Sometimes both maids and widdows from such like causes are troubled with the rage of the womb that they will grow even mad with carnal desire and entice men to lie with them they are hot but not feaverish and they are inclined to madness Modest women will die of consumptions when they have this rage of the womb rather than declare their desire but some women are shameless The cause is great store of sharp hot seed that is not natural but the next degree to it that bites and swells and provokes nature to expulsion the brain suffers by consent the womb in the Nymphe is most affected which swells with heat but the Clitoris and not the Nymphe is the seat of lust hot blood and humours in the womb breed this and they are increased by hot spiced meats and drinks idleneness and bawdy acts and objects at first it may be cured but the end of it is frenzy and madness if it be neglected Maids must marry that cannot live chast or draw blood to abate the heat and sharpness of it let them purge these humours gently and use cooling and moistening meats and drinks and all with moderation Lettice Violets and water-Lillies and Purslain are good coolers and take away the windiness of the parts the seed leaves and flowers of Agnus Castus strewed in their beds or Camphire smelt unto are very good in such cases Let them use this Electuary take conserve of water Lillies Violets tops of Agnus Castus of each one ounce of red Roses half an ounce of red Coral and emralds in powder of each half a dram of Coleworts and Lettice candid of each one ounce with sirrup of Violets and water-Lillies make an Electuary lay a plate of lead to their backs Nuns and such as cannot marry may use tâ—ings â—hat by a hidden quality diminish seed but they cause barrenness let them eat no eggs nor much nourishing meats and sleep little Camphire that is so much commended against this preternatural desire is hot and sharp and bitter it will burn and flame and being of thin parts penetrates deep but it hath cold operations for it will cure
Cloves of each one scruple Frankincense Bark Calamus of each half a dram Marjoram water three ounces snuff up this water often and drop hot oils into the ears If the water be not dissipated in twenty daies you must open the skull and let out the water by degrees and beware that the child take no cold If such means as are outwardly applied will not help it the last remedy is by the Chirurgion XIV Sometimes children are much vexed with the Hiccough or Hickets or Huckets as they call it it comes commonly from too much repletion and fulness wherefore dip a feather in oil and put it down the childs Throat and make it vomit It may come from a cold stomach then anoint the stomach with oil of Cammomile of Worm wood of Mastick and Quinces and dissolve a scruple of the Troches of Diarrhodon in the Nurses Milk and give it the child If this disease come from too much Milk the belly swells and the child vomits if the Nurses Milk be bad it comes from thence and the Excrements will smell of stinking Milk This is no dangerous disease unless the cause be violent for then it will flie to the Nerves and cause a Convulsion Falling sickness and death Give the child sirrups of Mints and Betony to strengthen the stomach and anoint it with oil of Mints of Mastick and of Dill. There is a disease like the Hickets in children from grief or anger when the spirits flie from the Heart to the Midriff and stop the breath but it is soon over XV. Children are sometimes subject to vomiting from too much or from ill milk or from flegm that falls from the head to the stomach a moist loose stomach is the immediate cause if they vomit milk they are better for it if the milk be naught the matter that comes forth will shew that for it is yellow green or filthy coloured and it stinks Worms may make them vomit but that will be known by the signs children that vomit often are best in health and thrive best because their stomach is kept clean of ill humours but to vomit too much will make them wast away cleanse the stomach with honey of Roses and strengthen it with sirrup of Quinces and of Mints When the humour is too sharp and hot give the sirrup of Pomegranates or of Coral or of Currants Coral hath a hidden vertue and some hang it about their necks Anoint the stomach with oils of Mastick Mints Quinces Wormwood of each half an ounce oil of Nutmegs by expression half a dram oil of Mints chymically extracted three drops or dip bread in hot Wine and lay it to the mouth of the Stomach XVI If the child be griped and pained in the belly you shall know it by the great unquietness and crying and turning it self from side to side it is oft with a scowring and from bad milk that breeds sharp windy humours it gets to the guts and gnaws them and sometimes it is from worms if it be wind it will cease when they break wind but ill humors cause a constant pain Tough flegm binds the belly and the Dung is slimy sharp humours cause a green and yellow flux if this pain last long it casts them into convulsions and falling-sicknesses and is dangerous Foment the belly with a decoction of Lavender Fennel and Cummin seed or take oil of Olives and Dill seed and dip a piece of Wool in it and lay it over the belly warm Give the child some oil of sweet Almonds with Sugar-Candy and a scruple of Anni-seeds and purge it with Honey of Roses which is good also when the body is swoln with wind or too much milk not digested and use a decoction of Cardiaca Cammomile flowers and Cummin seed or boil the top of dwarf-Elder and of Elder in white wine and bath the parts that are swoln with it If the griping pain comes from the sharp milk sirrup of Succory with Rhubarb or sirrup or Honey of Roses or a Glister of the decoction of bran and Pellitory of the wall with sirrup of Roses is very good using an outward Ointment of oil of Dill and Cammomile XVII Sometimes children will sneeze mightily it may come from an imposthume in the head then cooling oils and ointments are commended but if any other cause produce it put the powder of Bazil into the nostrils If heat cause it the childs eyes will sink in then bruise Purslain leaves and with oil of Roses Barley meal and the yolk of an egg mingled make an Application to the Head XVIII When the child is Feaverish and hot the nurse must eat cooling and moistening things and anoint all the parts of the child with oil of Roses and Unguent Populeon and lay to the breasts clarified juice of Wormwood Plantane Mallows Seagreen made to a Cataplasme of Barley meal XIX It falls oftentimes out that children are squint-eyed and that comes when they lie in their Cradle and the Candle or light stands behind them or on one side It may come from the Falling-sickness or by birth but that is seldome and not curable if ill custom have bred it put your candle on the other side or a Picture till the childs eyes come to look right but you may prevent all if you set the candle before the child and not on either side for the child will stare after the light you may when you find the childs eyes distorted hang cloths of all colours on the other side to make the child to turn the eyes the contrary way to gaze on them till it be cured XX. Sometimes children have sore eyes with great pain with Ulcers and Worms and inflammations for childrens brains are very moist and there are many excrements which nature casts forth at other places because the natural Emunctories will not carry them all out much of this goes to their ears which will be very sore that they will cry and not suffer them to be touched it is dangerous for it will not let them sleep the heat and pain is so great it causeth the Falling-sickness and fouls the spongy bones and breeds Worms and sometimes makes children deaf so long as they live you cannot use strong remedies to children drop a little hemp seed oil with Wine into their ears to allay the pain use warm milk about their ears or oil of Violets or the decoction of Poppey tops to dry up the moisture use honey of Roses or water of honey to drop in their ears XXI The usual painful disease of all children is the breeding of their teeth it is very dangerous to some about the seventh month first come forth the fore teeth then the eyteeth lastly the grinders first the Gums itch then they prick like needles by reason of the sharp bones which causeth watchings and inflammations of the Gums Feavers Convulsions Scourings especially when they breed their eye-teeth The beginning of the seventh month is the time that discovers it and the childs putting his
and so goes upward till it touch the bone of the small guts keeping close to the preparing vessels till it pierce the production of the Hypogastrium or lower belly which is the upper part of the place where the hair grows above the Privities it reacheth from the Navil to that hair and so it runnes from thence through the hollowness of the hip and sides between the bladder and the straight gut till it come as far as the forestanders and so fixeth it self where it ends at the root of the Yard where it begins so long as it remains amongst the Coats of the stones it is full of many windings forward and backward but near the end it hath many little Bladders like Warts CHAP. V. Of the carrying Vessels THe carrying Vessels on both sides are certain small bladders united between the Bladder and the right Gut the last of them with the seminary Vessels by a little pipe ends in the forestanders These carry and conveigh the seed that is first fully concocted in the stones by the great heat of them by reason of the vital blood that is brought to them to the seminary Vessels which are to hold the Seed till there is cause to cast it forth They are but two white nervous sinews obscure hollow Pipes they rise from the Stones to the Belly not far from the preparing Vessels from the hollow of the belly they return and go to the backside of the bladder betwixt that and the right gut and near the neck of the bladder they are joyned to the Vessels for Seed which are like a Honey-comb these Honey-combs or hollow Cells have an oyly matter in them for they attract the fatty substance from the Seed and that they send forth into the urinary passage chiefly in the act of carnal copulation lest the thin skin of the Yard which is very quick of feeling should be hurt by the sharpness of the Seed The carrying Vessels fall at last into the vessels ordain'd to the Seed till there is use for it The carriers strengthen the vessels for the seed and are storehouses for it that the whole store be not wasted in one act you shall find in some persons enough to serve for severall acts of copulation They are hollow and round to contain the more Seed and they are full of membrances that they may be shortned or lengthened as the Seed is more or less in quantity and are full of meanders and turnings that the seed pass not away without a mans will CHAP. VI. The Vessels for seed THe Vessels for Seed are such as you call kernels in your meat we call them here forestanders they are two little stones seated at the root of the Yard a little above the sphyaster of the the bladder they are wrapt up with a skin that covers them they seem to be round but they are flat behind and before they are loose and spongy as kernels usually are and white and hard in some persons more or less they having a quick feeling to stir up delight in Copulation they have some small pipes which open into the common pipes through which the Seed passeth into the Yard these kernels or forestanders being pressed by the lower muscles of the Yard besides the oyly fat substance they defend the urinary passage by they also defend the Vessels that carry the seed to them lest by much standing and stretching of the Yard the carriers of seed should be hurt they have another use also for lying between the bladder and the right gut they serve for cushions for the vessels to rest upon to keep them from violent pressing and this is the cause why those that are costive and cannot easily go to stool when they strain to do their business they press those kernels and sometimes void some Seed and also must needs make some water more or less when they go to stool These kernels compass the vessels that carry the seed and through the midst of these passeth the water or Urine pipe or common passage both for seed and Urine or conduit of the Yard At the mouth of this conduit where the carrying vessels meet with it there is a thin skin that keeps the vessels for seed that are like a spunge in nature that they shed not forth the seed against mens will But this skin is full of holes which open by the violent heat and motion in Copulation and so the seed finds its way out for it is a thin spirit and the rather by reason of motion and passes like Quicksilver through a piece of leather there are no more holes to be seen in this skin than in a piece of leather unless it be seen in some persons after death who were in their lifetime troubled with a great running of the Reins as it is called but properly an involuntary shedding of the Seed because these holes are become so great that the subtile seed cannot be kept back by it the reins are to part the Urine from the blood and to send that to the bladder by the conduits of Urine but not to send forth seed or to provide it that is the work of the stones as I said Yet by communication of parts if the reins be much offended the seminary parts cannot perform their office as they should but an involuntary shedding of Seed will follow untill such time as the reins be strengthened and cured I shall give onely one observation and so conclude this Chapter And that is a warning to all that cut for the stone in the bladder of what age soever they be who are cut oftentimes in drawing forth the stone they so rend and tear the seed vessels that such persons are never able to beget Children they may hatch the Cuckows Eggs and keep other mens if they please but they shall never get any themselves these kernels are a hard and spungy substance near as great as a Walnut CHAP. VII Of a mans yard THe Yard is as it were the Plow wherewith the ground is tilled and made fit for production of Fruit we see that some fruitful persons have a Crop by it almost every year only plowing up their own ground and live more plentifully by it than the Countryman can with all his toil and cost some there are that plow up other mens ground when they can find such lascivious women that will pay them well for their pains to their shame be it spoken but commonly they pay dear for it in the end if timely they repent not The Yard is of a ligamental substance sinewy and hollow as a spunge having some muscles to help it in its several postures The Yard and the Tongue have more great Veins and Arteries in them than any part of the Body for their bigness by these porosities by help of Imagination the Yard is sometimes raised and swels with a windy spirit only for there is a natural inclination and force by which it is raised when men are moved to Copulation as
can sooner or later procure nourishment and spirits The parts therefore next the Liver are sooner made than those that are far from it and those are first made that the mothers blood first runs to that is first the Navel Vein and that being first made by that the blood is carried to other parts The Womb is like a Bottle or Bladder blown when the Infant is in it and it lieth in the lower belly and in the last place amongst the entrails by the water course because this is easily enlarged as the child grows in the Womb and the child is by this means more easily begot and the Woman delivered of it nor is it any hindrance to the parts of nutrition while the woman continues with Child but had the Womb where the Infant lieth been seated in the middle or upper belly the child would have been soon stifled for the womb could not have stretched wider according to the growth of the Child because the bones that compass the upper belly would have hindered it The hollow part of the belly where the Womb lieth is called the Bason and it is placed between the Bladder and the right Gut the bladder stands before it and is a strong membrane to defend it and the right Gut lieth behind it as a pillow to keep off the hardness of the backbone so that the womb lieth in the middle of the lowest belly to ballance the body equally and to contain the Womb the Bason is larger in women than in men as you may see by their larger buttocks As the child grows the bottom of the womb which lieth uppermost lying at liberty and not tyed grows upward towards the Navel and so leans upon the small Guts and so fills all the hollow of the flancks when women are near the time to bring forth The Womb is fastened and tied partly by the substance of it and also by four ligaments two above and two beneath but the bottom is not tied neither before nor behind nor above but is free and at liberty that it can stretch as need requires in Copulation or Child-bearing and it hath a kind of animal motion to satisfie its desire Galen saith that the sides are fastened to the hanch-bone by membranes ligaments coming from the muscles of the Loyns and interwoven oft-times with fleshy fibres and carried to other parts of the womb to hold it fast The neck of the womb is tied but not every side to the parts that lie near it at the sides it is loosely tied to the Peritoneum by certain membranes that grow to it and on the back part it is fastened with thin fibres and a little fat to the right Gut and the holy-bone it lieth upon that fat all along that passage and it grows into one with the Fundament above the Lap to which it is joined before if the Fundament chance to be ulcerated within the dung hath been seen to fall out at the Lap. The fore part is knit to the neck of the bladder and because the wombs neck is broader than the neck of the bladder some part of it is fastened by membranes coming from the Peritoneum to the share-bone from hence it happens that when the womb is inflamed the Woman hath a great desire to go to stool and to make water but cannot The lower strings that fasten the Womb are two also called the horns of the womb they are sinewy round reddish and hollow chiefly at their ends like to the husky membrane and sometimes this hollowness is full of fat these horns come from the sides of the Womb and at their first coming forth they touch the Seed-carrying Vessels When these productions are stretched too much as they are ofttimes in hard labour in Child-birth there happens to women a rupture as well as to men but they may be cured by cutting and strong ligatures Fleshy fibres are joined to these productions after they come forth of the Abdomen and they are small Muscles called holders up in Women they belong not to the Stones as they do in men because they join in men to the Seed Vessels When these ligaments come at the share-bone they change into a broad sinewy slenderness mingled with a membrane which toucheth and covers the forepart of the share-bone and upon this the Clitoris cleaveth and is tied which being nervous and of pure feeling when it is rubbed and stirred it causeth lustful thoughts which being communicated to these ligaments is passeth to the Vessels that carry the seed Yet these holders up serve for other uses for as they are Muscles that hold up the Stones in men so they hold up the womb in women that it may be kept fom falling out at the Lap. The parts then of the womb are two The neck or mouth and the bottom The neck is the entrance into it which will open and shut like a purse for in the act of Copulation it receives the Yard into it but after conception the point of a Bodkin cannot pass yet when the time comes for the Child to come forth it will open and make room enough for the greatest child that is conceived This made Galen wonder and so should we all to consider how fearfully and wonderfully God hath made us as the Psalmist saith The Works of the Lord are wonderful to be sought out of all those that take Pleasure therein The form of the womb is exactly round and in maids it is no bigger than a walnut yet it will stretch so after conception that it will easily contain the child and all that belongs to it it is small at first to embrace the Seed that is but little cast into it It is made of two skins an outward and an inward skin the outward is thick smooth and slippery excepting those parts where the Seed Vessels come into the womb the inward skin is full of small holes It is far different from the Matrix of beasts which Galen knew not for the Grecians in those daies held it an abomination to dissect any man or woman though they were dead all the knowledge of Anatomy they learned was by dissecting Apes and such Creatures that were the most like to mankind but the inside of men or women they saw not and so were ignorant of the difference between them Whence it is confirmed that they knew not the seat of some diseases so well as we do and therefore must need fall short of the cure nor would they use the means to find out what disease they died of which true Anatomy would have made known to them and would have been a great furtherance to preserve others that were sick of the same diseases that others died of before It hath been much and long disputed how many Cells are in the womb Mundinus and Galen say there are seven several Cells and that a woman may by reason of so many places distinct one from the other have seven Children at a birth and many midwives are of