thinke upon that Oracle of Hippocrates and obey his words as a sacred Law when he saith the true way to provoke them is by drawing bloud from the ankle provided that there be no reason to oppose this injunction having so done and laying Leeches to the Hemorrhoids thâ— use whereof is exceeding profitable in thiâ— disease if the body be full and the diseasâ— be found to be common to the whole body open the Basilick veine on the righâ— side from whence if an earthy and blacâ— bloud flow away Galen adviseth you tâ— take out a large quantity If the Patient be young leane black anâ— hairy adventure upon deep scarification made in her back and fasten great Cuppiâ— glasses to her arteries These universall administrations beinâ— premised and the humour being rightlâ— prepared it will be convenient to prescribe a Purge to cleanse her body froâ— melancholy to this purpose Take three drams of Sena A dram of the roots of black Hellebore Two scruples of agarick Trochisht Halfe a dram of fennill seeds Macerate them in a sufficient quantitâ— of fumitary water for a night and when iâ— the morning you have prest out the liquor take three ounces of it and add Three drams of Diacatholicon Two drams of Confectio Hameâ—h Halfe an ounce of Syrup of Violets Mingle them and make a Potion She must not take any Pills for they are too great driers both in respect of their forme and also in regard of the ingredients whereof they are compounded But by all meanes let her have somewhat to dispose her to sleep as this or the like emulsion Take the seeds of Gourds Melons Citruls Cucumbers of each an ounce Six sweet Almonds blanched Two drams of white Poppy seeds With ten ounces of a decoction of Lettuce and Poppy heads and an ounce of Syrupe of Poppy make an Emulsion to be taken about nine a clock at night and at two a clock in the morning Embrochations also may be prepared for the head you may make them of a decoction of poppy heads barley roses violets waterlilles nightshade lettuce coriander and mandrake roots Anoynt her nose and her Temples with this oyntment following Take halfe an ounce of unguent Populeum Two drams of unguent rosarum Half a dram of Opium dissolved in vinegar of roses Mingle them for the use aforesaid Let her have cooling Lotions to bath the palmes of her hands and the soles of her feet if the cruelty of the disease be such as to deprive her of all sleep prescribe this draught following yet suspend the use thereof till you have tried other meanes to procure rest for the sick Creature Take a scruple of Philonium Romanum Three ounces of Lettuce water Mingle them and let her drink it when she goeth to bed or Take Philonium Persicum Requies Nicholai of each a scruple Two ounces of a decoction of poppy Mingle them for a Draught Sometimes we use to exhibit two or three graines of laudanum opiatum yet forbear this remedy unlesse an urgent occasion prompt you to it Baths are most wholsome if they be made of the decoction before prescribed or else you may follow this example Take two ounces of Barley The leaves of Violets Vine leaves Lettuce Willow leaves Mallowes of each two handfulls The leaves of red rose water lillies of each a handfull Boile them altogether in a sufficient quantity of broth made with a sheeps-head and let her bath her selfe in the strained liquor A Bath prepared of oyles and sweet waters is very effectuall so also is a Bath of Asses milke for these things temper the earthy humour mitigate the acrimony thereof correct the drynesse and parchednesse of the skin render the bloud more apt to descend provoke sleep qualifie the furious motions of the spirits and nourish and fatten such bodies as are dryed up and consumed You must also comfort the heart with Cordialls and to the same purose Take the waters of Borage Balme of each six ounces Syrupe of the juice of Borage Syrupe Regis saboris of each an ounce Two drams of Cinamon water Mingle them and make a Julep or Take Conserve of rhe flowers of Violets Borage Oringes of each an ounce Confectio Alkermes Confectio de Hyacyâ—tha of each a dram and a halfe Species Diamargarit frigid Species Diambrae of each a dram With a sufficient quantitie of Syrupe de pomis Regis saboris adding two leaves of gold make a mixture or Take the species Letificant Galeni The species Diambra of each halfe a dram Pearle prepared Bezoar stone of each a scruple Two ounces of Sugar dissolved in rose-Rose-water Make them into Lozenges according to Art If these remedies get not the victory we counsell you to make deep issues upon the knee and if the disease be inveterate prescribe an extract of black Hellebore and apply Causticks to the region of the spleen by the force and strength whereof the black and cloudy humour which sticks so close to the bowell may by degrees be brought away CHAP. IV. Of a cold Distemper or a swelling in the Matrix THe Matrix is sometimes swelled either because the Courses are stopped or else in regard of a continuall suppeditation of cold aliment which generates a cold distemper in those parts which because it cannot be simple or solitary therefore it presently consociates it selfe with moisture and from thence arise thick slow and cloudy windes in the very cavernes or hollow parts of the Matrix tormenting the woman with unspeakable paines The signes are a swelling below the Navell neare the privie parts slow windes with rumbling and murmuring of the guts forsaking of meat sadnesse slothfulnesse heavinesse in the head and about her secret parts This is a grievous disease because many times it turnes to a Dropsey in the Matrix for in regard that those windie humours are bread and increased by the diminution of the naturall heat as Galen hath observed in his book de Sumpâ—om Causis it comes to passe that the feeble heat now generating winde proceeding from a cold distemper in the Matrix doth so weaken it that instead of winde water or a waterish humour is produced This disease is cured by an extreame thin and drying diet wherefore let the ayre incline to hot and dry but if the place be such as doth not naturally afford such an ayre prepare it by art sprinkling aromaticall things about her chamber as sage nip betony rosemary â—â—echas thyme origanum and lavender Let her choise be of those dishes which will be of good nourishment to the body â—asie to digest and soon distributed to all the parts as thrushes young sparrowes partridges pheasants and pigeons she may not eat the flesh of goats Kids hares cowes sheep nor Deer meats made with milke are unwholsome for her so are roots sallads and pothearbs new laid egs raisins and figs may be allowed her but command a forbearace of chesnuts and almonds for they are thick and windy let her eat the whitest bread baked with
some cold distemper and winde â—n the Matrix The swelling is discernable by the touch and if you lay your fingers upon her Matrix the print of them remaines if the Patient turne her selfe from one side to another the waterish humour immediately falls down on that side within you may perceive a rumbling noise of waters her Courses are stopped she falsly surmiseth that she is with Childe the breasts grow lank and there is no appearance of milke She feeles some difficulty to fetch her breath she is troubled with passions of the minde she is tormented with thirst complaines of heat in all the parts of the body is apt to nauseate subject to a paine in her heart and all other things molest her that usually accompany a true Dropsey and that in regard of a salt and waterish phlegme retained in the hollow parts of the Matrix and communicated thorough the common wayes to the upper provinces of the body It differs from an inflammation in the Matrix because this is consociated with a Fever continually burning all the parts of the body but in a Dropsey of the Matrix the heat is more gentle and temperate all things are lockt up in the Matrix that is nothing worth the mentioning comes from thence in an inflammation but in a Dropsey a waterish slimy and stinking excrement floweth away This is a Chronicall Disease and doth not quickly either destroy or take leave of the Patient It differs also from the windinesse which swells the Matrix for in that the swelling is not so great the flesh is not so pale and shining neither is there so much winde and it is easily differenced from a Schirrus for in this you may feele a great hardnesse but in the Dropsey the slesh is soft and lanke The Dropsey in the Matrix is a direfull disease whereby the upper parts being vitiated sometimes the whole body is drawn into consent and then the naturall heat of the Matrix is diminished and indeed the oeconomy of this part onely is not disturbed but the universall strength of the influent heat is by degrees extinguisht Wherefore you must begin the Cure without any procrastination or carelesse delayes by a heating and drying diet the forme quantity quality and manner whereof we have set down already at large in the Chapter of a swelling in the Matrix Allow her pure wine for her drinke that is sincere wine or else wormewood wine or if it seeme pleasant to her boile china roots with Annise seeds Cinamon and Agrimony in water for her to drink or alter her beer with China or wormewood or Century All moist things must be avoided and the ayre must be artificially heated unlesse you can settle her in an ayre which is naturally hot Among the universall remedies you must Ornit Phlebotomy for this exhausts the hot substance and weakens the naturall heat cooleth the body extinguisheth the inborne preservative yet this rule is not so strict or so generall but that sometimes it may be lawfull yea necessary to cut a veine when her Courses are supprest or when the Piles are stopt yea if she be young and in the flower of her youth it may be requisite to let her bloud in the spring of the yeare especially if the constitution of the weather be agreeable and the constitution of her body temperate and sanguine but otherwise never or at least very sparingly and that in the Ankle Purge the first regions of her body with Diasenua Mechoaca or Diaphenicon the thick viscous and waterish humours neverthelesse being first prepared specially with such remedies as we have commended unto you above and although the waterish humours may be purged out without staying for their concoction because water neither concocts nor waxeth thick according to Galen in his book de purgand Med. Facult yet to expell the winde and to open the obstructions wherewith the upper parts are infested I praise those things which are good to break winde to unlock the passages and to purge out the humours this is commodiously performed with wormewood agrimony fennill Maidenhaire the juice of the Florentine Flowerdeluce Sena the roots of Parsly Fennill Sparagus Butchersbroom and Alexander boiled after this manner Take the last named five roots of each half anounce Three drams of danewort roots The leaves of wormewood Water agrimony Maidenhaire of each a handfull Six drams of Sena An onnce of the juice of Ireos roots Boile them in a sufficient quantity of Barley water to two pints unto the strained liquor clarified with the white of an Egg add Two ounces of Syrupe Byzant simpl An ounce of Syrupe of wormewood Mingle them and make an Apozem When the humor is prepared exhibit pills de Hiera cum agarico to the quantity of a dram Antimony warily administred is a divine medicine and so are the Trochischs Alhandal for these irresistably bring away those thick and clammy humours which stick so fast to the Matrix afterwards the Matrix must be strengthned and the windy humours must be expelled with Lozenges made according to this manner Take the Electuary Diacinnamomum Diagalanga Dialacca of each halfe a dram Two ounces of sugar dissolved in cinaâ—on-Cinaâ—on-water According to Art make them into Lozenges or Take an ounce of old Treacle Two drams of aromaticum rosatum With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of wormewood make a mixture The Oyntments Plaisters and Poultisses which are mentioned above must be applyed to the secret parts issues also and scaâ—ifications will be convenient as we have already taught Pessaries likewise may bee made after this forme following Take Troch Alhandal Troch de agarico The best Aloes of each two drams A dram of Elaterium which is the juice of the wilde Cucumber inspissated The yelke of an Egg Unsalted Butter The juice of Mercury of each three drams With a sufficient quantity of wax a piece of Cotton and a piece of taffata make a pessary This being administred apply the Fomentation following to her privie parts Take danewort roots newly gathered The roots of the Florentine Flowerdeluce The roots Cucumer asiâ—rin of each six drams The flowers of Camomile Melilot of each two handfulls A handfull of the tops of Dill Juniper berries Laurell berries of each halfe an ounce Boile them in a sufficient quantity of wormewood water distilled to foure pints to the strained liquor add Oyle of Lillies Laurell berries of each three ounces Use it as was said above CHAP. VII Of the falling down of the Matrix THe Matrix sometimes falleth down upon the lower parts and this disease the Physitians call the Descent of the Matrix this is resembled to a pare or a gooseegg as it is small or great as there are many Causes of this disease namely a hard labour and a frequent bringing forth of children miscarrying a bringing away of the dead child some fall from on high hard riding or immoderate dancing yet there is one in my judgement more common then any of the rest namely too
of a small wine â—lasse If these remedies overcome not the disâ—â—se apply an exceeding great Cuppinglasse â—o the heart by the force whereof the winâ—y vapour will evaporate for although â—lysters doe draw back the humour from â—â— affected part yet in reference to great bellied woman you ought to suspect the event of them because they raise too great a disturbance by provoking nature down wards and many times cause abortivenesse yet if the paine be insupportable then inject carminative glysters and omit all bitter ingredients as Hieâ—a benedicta Laxativa or Scammoniata but to prevent all errour prescribe this following Take a handfull of mallow leaves The flowers of melilot The tops of Dill of each halfe a handfull Two drams of fennill seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of barley water to nine pints to the strained liquor add two ounces of Syrup of â—â—seâ— Laxative An ounce of red Sugar Mingle them and make a glyster Or Take the flowers of melilot And mallowes of each a handfull Annise and Fennill seeds Of each two drams Boyle â—them in a sufficient quantity â—â— broth made with an old Cock to niâ—â— ounces to the inward liquor add Calabrian Manna And red Roses of each an cunce and halfe An ounce of oyle of rue Mingle them and make a glyster It might doe much good if you gave her a draught of balme water in the morning in which water you may sâ—eep lignum aloes the space of a night and afterwards put to the strained liquor a sufficient quantity of Syrup of mint for this expells the winde cleanseth away the phlegme and powerfully strenghthens the stomack You must frequently and laboriously rub her lower parâ—s tye ligatures about them and apply Cuppinglasses to them if there be no imaginable cause to feare abortivenesse but if there be the least suspicion of that omit all such applications as may procure a revulsion of the bloud nay let me give you this caution absolutely to forbeare them unlesse she be taken with desperate trembling and fainting fits or swounding in the spring time too when her spirits require them You must cause her Basilick veine to be opened if she be young fleshy and strong for this Remedy besides that it letteth out the thick dreggish and black blood it refresheth the childe also and the heart is sweetly easily and safely delivered from that burthensome humour which 〈◊〉 presse and almost overwhelme it CHAP. VI. Of a Cough in Women with Childe MOst certaine it is that great-bellied Women by reason of their being with childe have not sometimes a free vent for their crude and indigested aliments either by Stoole or by Urine or by any other Eâ—unctories of the body these being unduly kept in the body putrifie wax hot and communicate noysome fumes and vapours to the spiritous parts which by their clamminesse thicknesse and sharpnesse together with the bad quality that is in them gripe and twitch the Woman and force her to cough Some perhaps may demand why doth this Coughing happen in the last months the answer is obvious namely because in those moneths a greater plenty of excrements are lodged in the body then were accumulated at the first The cause of the Cough according to Hippocrates iâ— a viscous thick and tough homour impâ—cted in the Pipes of the Lungs which humour sometimes also thorough that consent which is between the Matrix and the Chest invadeth that part and raiseth a Coughing and these are these are set down as the true signes of this evill As for the Prognostick's you must know that a Cough befalling a woman with childe is a bad Symptome seeing that by the least stretching and shrinking the Cotyledons or vessells of the wombe are many times loosned yea sometimes burst asunder and from thence comes abortivenesse The Cure is perfected with sweet wine mild beere and the frequent use of a Ptisaâ— sharp sowre and cold things must be avoided meats also must be forborne which breed a thick nourishment and are hard to digest vehement evacuations likewise are not good wherefore having given order for the observation of a good Diet prescribe some gentle lenifying medicines to provoke her to spit as manna Syrup of roses laxative Diacnicu and the like These things being administred proceed to Electuaries and expectorating medicines and especially to this Apozem following Take an ounce of cleansed Barley The roots of Aristolochy Licoras scraped of each two drams The leaves of Asarabacca Nettles White Maidenhaire of each a handfull Two drams of raisins pickt The flesh of Dates Fat Figs of each three drams Boyle them in a sufficient quantity of water to two pints and to the strained â—â—quor add Two ounces of Diacodium Mingle them and make an Apozem or You may prescribe Lozenges after this manner Take a dram of the species Diatragacâ—nâ—â— frigid Diaireâ—â— Poppy seeds of each a scruple Two ounces and a halfe of Sugar dissolved in rose water according to arâ— make them into Lozenges Then prescribe this Conserve Take Conserve of red Roses Elecampane candied of each an ounce Conserve of Violet flowers Rosemary flowers of each halfe an ounâ—â— Two drams of meale of beanes A dram of Diaireos Ten graines of Sâ—lphur With Syrup of Colt's foot make a Conserve Meale of â—eanes according to Galen doth cleanse and mundifie the Chest digests the crude spittle contained in the pipes and makes it easie to be excerned beanflower water is exceeding good for the Lungâ— especially if she drinke it with Syrupe of Maydenhaire or Oxymel Sâ—iâ—â—iticum the same faculties hath the distilled waters of red Poppies The yolke of an egg taken in the morning with Sugar and the oyle of sweet Almonds is a most incomparable remedy and hath done good to thousands Anoynt her Breast with this Oyntment which is good to prepare the crude and thick matter which stops her pipes Taken an ounce of the oyntment of marish mallowes The axungia of a hen Of a Duck of each halfe an ounce Oyle of sweet Almonds Oyle of Violets of each two drams Ten graines of Saffron Mingle them and according to art make an oyntment heat it when you use it and anoynt the whole region of her Chest therewith CHAP. VII Of the swelling of the Legs in Women with Childe FRom the same cause namely from abundance of phlegme and crude humoâ—rs especially in the last moneths proceed the swelling of the legs face and eye-browes and when I have told you that the flesh of the whole body groweth soft and that she looketh white and wan in the face I have discovered unto your consideration the fignes of this disease Women in this condition cannot be restored to perfect health till she be delivered yet may we not delay our helps least a worse evill happen unto her for whereas the legs and feet are outward parts and at a great distance from the fountaine of heat they are quickly affected with cold and mortified through the abundance of crude humours which many times
and of no lesse efficaciâ— is this Julep following Take Endive and Borage water of each six ounces Syrup of Betony and Pomegranets of each an ounce Mingle them together for a Juleâ— or Take twenty graines of Mithridate Ten graines of Alkermes without Musk or Amber Three ounces of Buglos water Mingle them and let her drinke it at one draught If the Disease yield not to these remedies wee judge it expedient to let her bloud againe but in the Ankle if you suspect that Obstructions occasion the disâ—ase as commonly indeed they are to be suspected you may observe the same way of Cure as is approved in a Fever arising from Obstructions and Take halfe an ounce of parsley roots The leaves of betony and carduus Benedictus of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of white Maidenhaire The flowers of Bâ—rage Buglos Violets or Roses of each as many as you can take up between your thumb and two fingers at twice Boile them in a sufficient quantity of Barley water to a pint and a halfe in the strained liquor infuse foure drams of the choicest Rubarb the space of a night setting the vessell upon hot ashes with foure scruples of agarick Trochiscated and a scruple of cinamon all put in together In the morning boile them a little and when you have strongly prest out the liquor add three ounces of Syrup of roses laxative and make an Apozem or a Decoction Let her drinke three ounces of this Decoction every other morning Hereupon ensueth a Lask or Loosenesse in the belly but without any paine acrimony or griping and so long as it continueth free from any of those bad qualities you may by no meanes stay it but if it last longer with the Fever the most prudent course will be to open a veine in her Ankle having alwayes a diligent regard to the strength of her body for this evacuation is Symptomaticall as Physitians speake and according to the Prognostications of Galen it is either mortall or very difficult to be judged his words are these when any disease beginneth if any thing be evacuated it is not evacuated by any help or curtesie of Nature but all such things happen by chance in regard of those dispositions which are in the body besides nature for it is impossible that any thing should be well purged out when Nature is oppressed as then she is with the crudenesse of the humours with those causes which did produce the disease for that the Crisis and Judgement upon this disease may be sound and good it is requisite that those crudities must first be concocted and afterwards duly purged out wherefore if the Loosenesse happen at the beginning you must neglect that and be intentive to cure the Fever yet with an eye to the loosenesse by letting her bloud but very sparingly least the spirits should be wasted if the loosenesse continue so long as to weaken the body and bring the sick creature very low then stay it but with caution and tender warinesse but above all things avoid the use of such things as will thicken the humours for thus indeed you might stop the Loosenesse but then withall you should stay the menstruum which inconvenience you ought chiefly to feare Your safest way therefore will be to apply strengthning Fomentations and Plaisters that will moderately binde and with such you may furnish your selves above It would not be unprofitable to purge away the cause of the Loosenesse that so one Flux might be cured by another therefore Take halfe a dram of tosted Rubarb Ten graines of that sort of Myrobalaâ—â— called Chebule Halfe an ounce of Syrupe of dried roses Three ounces of plantane water Mingle them and make a Potion Many times this Loosenesse turnes to the Bloudy-Flux with cruell paines want of sleep a continuall Fever and frequent going to stoole This must be helped with Glysters of a binding qualifying and cleansing faculty as for example Take the roots of Comphrey and marsh-mallowes of each three drams A handfull of plantane leaves Halfe a handfull of red roses Boile them in a sufficient quantity of barley water to nine ounces and to the strained liquor put in Two ounces of honey of roses strained An ounce of red Sugar The yolke of an egg Mingle them and make a Glyster Or Take violet leaves plantane and pellitory of the wall of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of red roses Halfe an ounce of whole barley Boile them in a sufficient quantity of broth made with sheeps feet to nine ounces to the strained liquor add Two ounces of honey of roses strained The yolke of an egg Mingle them and make a Glyster You must not neglect to open the Basilick veine and the Salvatella a veine which brancheth out of the â—ephalick veine on the outside of the elbow for these administrations will be wonderfully helpfull to cure a flux of bloud arising from a distemper in the Liver those astringent fomentations also with the oyntments and Epithems whereof we have spoken at large in the precedent chapters will be of singular use The next Disease unto which women are subject after their delivery is a Lientery so called because the meat passeth thorough the body as it was chewed in the mouth without any change or alteration this is a most dangerous disease and therefore all diligence imaginable must conspire to stop it no lesse terrible and perillous is that other named by the Doctors Iliaca Passio when the guts are so bound up or inflamed or enwrapped one about another that whatsoever is swallowed down is presently cast up againe by vomit this also requires a seasonable and prudent use of remedies least the Patient should pine away and perish for want of sustenance besides it is so much the more dangerous because by those frequent Vomitings Nature is interrupted and distracted and that menstruous matter is driven upwards which should have been purged out from beneath But note that these Vomitings proceed from severall causes First from a certaine contagious vapour ascending from the Matrix and with the noysome odour thereof irritating and pricking the stomack so that it suddenly parts with all the aliment that was contained in it You must be exceeding industrious with all convenient speed to free the woman from this infirmity the vapours must be opposed and forced downwards that so by the discreet helps of art Nature may be assisted to expell those faulty and offensive humours by the Matrix This may be accomplish't by tying Ligatures about the lower parts and by rubbing of them till she complaines you hurt her by putting Pessaries up into the Matrix and applying Cuppinglasses to her thighes also by holding things of a strong and unpleasâ—nt odour to her nose and by opening a vein in her Ankle When her body is duely nourished and well refresh't give her this Glyster Take the leaves of violets pellitory of the wall and beares-breech of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of red rose leaves Two drams of fennill
seeds Boile them to nine ounces in a sufficient quantity of a decoction of an old hen and to the strained liquor add Two ounces of honey of roses strained An ounce of new butter Make a Glyster This being given you must strengthen the stomack with the stomachicall Plaister already prescribed and with these Lozenges Take a dram of aromaticum rosatum in the species Red corall and pearl prepared of each half a dram With two ounces and a halfe of white Sugar dissolved in a sufficient quantity of rose water make little Lozenges according to Art or Take old Conserve of red roses Roman wormewood The Conserve of Quinces of each an ounce Halfe an ounce of the Conserve of Acacia A dram and a halfe of aromaticum rosatum in the species A dram of the Trochichs de carabe Two scruples of red corall prepared With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Pomegranets make a mixture Sometimes the Vomiting is accompanied with yexing and they both proceed from the same causes and therefore may both be cured with the same remedies but if it be of long continuance the most rationall and best grounded proceeding is to apply a Cuppinglasse to the mouth of the stomack with a mighty flame After all these follow two more namely spitting of Bloud and a Cough the former whereof is cured by cutting a veine in the Ankle which kinde of remedy is approved by Hippocrates in the thirty two Aphorisme of his fifth book saying a woman is freed from spitting or vomiting bloud if the menstruum breake forth and frequent experience justifies this truth for divers women by the omission hereof as Galen hath observed in his booke of Letting Bloud fell into the Tissick and other most lamentable diseases But the Cough is twofold either dry or moist the cause of the former is a certaine contagious vapour communicated to the spiritous parts provoking the Midriffe the Lungs and the other instruments of breathing to expell whatsoever is faultie and offensive the cause of the latter is a crude and raw humour ascending up from the Matrix to the Chest and sticking fast unto it This is cured by rubbing the parts and tying straight Ligatures about them by Pessaries Glysters Cuppinglasses opening a veine in her ankle by Electuaries Ptisans expectorating Potions to cleanse away the bad humour by laying on Emplâ—strum Resumptivum Pectorale or Vnguentum de Althaea among which you must mingle Cummin seeds and Saffron After the same manner Women in Child-bed are troubled to fetch their breath because by a mutuall and frequent stretching and compression of the Chest the vapours are transmitted to the Lungs and they who feele themselves molested with such vapours do seldome escape that Cough we last mentioned Moreover to this Catalogue belongeth the Pleurisie which is a most acute and therefore a most dangerous disease this you may discerne by these signes following an acute and burning Fever a Cough difficultie to fetch breath a pricking paine and a hard pulse Open a veine and you overcome this without any further remedy but the question will be in what part of the body I answer if it be a most violent Pleurisie that torments the sick if her Courses come down after a right manner and yet the evill abates not then cut a veine in her ankle but if this availe not so as the Patients life is now in danger then open a veine in her arme especially if she be full of bloud that the vitious humour may be drawn away from the inflamed place and seasonably evacuated this advice of mine is justified by the approbation of Mercurialis Mercatus Alphonsus a Castro Meschius Valeriola and the leared Zacutus Lusitanus neither will it be incovenient if you interchange this administration of phlebotomy namely first to draw bloud from the ankle then from the arme then from the ankle againe and so keeping turnes as need shall require for thus you will give ease both to the part inflamed and likewise to the Matrix which is the part mandant or that from whence the evill is communicated and distributed to the other regions This being carefully performed your next designe must be to mitigate and take away the paine with fomentations liniments Electuaries and Ptisans Take an ounce of the roots of marish mallowes The leaves of mallowes marish mallows and white Maidenhaire of each a handfull Halfe a hundfull of the flowers of dwarf-elder Annise and Line seeds of each halfe an ounce Boyle them in water to a quart and give her the strained liquor to drinke at severall times then Take a dram of unguentum de Althaea The Axungia of a hen and new butter of each halfe an ounce Two ounces of oyle of sweet Almonds Mingle them and make an oyntment then Take Syrup of Violets compound and Syrup of Maidenhaire of each an ounce and a halfe Mingle them and make a mixture to be licked from the point of a knife Afterwards Take two ounces of cleansed barley An ounce of raisins pickt stoned and washt Two drams of the best Licoras Boile them in raine water to a quart and give her the strained liquor to drinke Note that in all diseases of the Membranes the upper part of the throate and the Jawes yea and in the Falling-Sicknesse the Apoplexy the Palsie and the Convulsions you must begin the Cure by letting bloud if plentie of bloud give occasion to the Disease The swelling of the feet is the last of all those Symptomes which invade a woman after her Delivery and this proceeds from a disorderly and negligent Diet during the time of her being with Childe for by that meanes raw humours are bread in her body which after her Delivery settle in her legs as being cold parts full of nerves and far distant from the Liver which is the fountaine of bloud in which places you shall perceive soft kinde of swellings which being crusht down retaine the print of your fingers This must be cured with strengthning administrations and such medicines as are good to expell the raw humours and likewise with such as will moderately binde for should you give her strong binders you would thereby allure the humours towards the upper parts therefore to avoide that errour prepare this Bath following Take two ounces of marish mallow roots The leaves of mallowes Mint Wormewood Sage Rosemary of each two handfulls The leaves of red roses and camomile Of each a handfull An ounce of Laurell Berries Saltpeter Sulphur of each half an ounce Boile them to eight pints in a sufficient quantity of water wherein steele hath been often quenched and let her put her feet into the strained liquor Then take the dreggish substance which remaines after the straining of the said liquor and add to it The meale of Orobus And Lupines of each three ounces Foure ounces of Oxymel With a sufficient quantity of brine made with the juice of Lemmons reduce them into the forme of a Poultis and lay it to the swelled feet But
and such Virgins as are of a hot constitution have verâ— littlâ— or no evacuation this way because the Mâ—nstruum is wasted and vanisheth by their continuall exercise and paines taking Secondly when the moisture is consumed away the vessels are so much the more narrow and bound up so that there is almost no passage left for the exclusion of the Courses A cold Distemper stayeth the Courses because it weakneth and colleth the parts breeds bad humors and obstructions straightens the passages obstructs the conduits infirmes and overcooleth the Matrix and so retaines suppresseth and stoppeth the Courses Swellings Imposthnmes scars and the like are all reducible to the inward causes but the most uâ—uall inward cause is a slow tough and slimy humour which glewing up as it were the vessells of the Matrix and thickning the bloud retaineth the Menstruum according to the opinion of Galen delivered in severall places of his works The outward Causes are all those things which any way increase a cold juice in the body as a cold and moist Ayre gluttony crudities cold â—aths and an unseasonable use of them meats that yield a grosse nourishment and are hard to digest and such as constipate the humours and thicken the bloud in which number are thick and sweet wines pulse of all sorts white meats made with milke hard fish and salt flesh pothearbs Vineger Olives Rice and the like also an unseasonable use of Venery a disorderly motion of the body presently after meates cold drink ale and other Pourtents or liquors which breed slow and thick juices You may know when the Menstruum is or will soon be suppressed by the relation of the sick woman who commonly will make these discoveries that she hath no stomack to her meat that for a long time together she hath felt a heavinesse over all her body with a paine in her back her privities and her Matrix besides you your self may discern agreenish paleness in her face Sometimes she is troubled with loud belchings and cruell paines in her belly but frequently with the head-ach especially in the forepart of her head and when the bloud is stopped putrifies in her body presently there ariseth a Fever by reason of that Sympathy Communion or consent between the Matrix the other parts Many and irreparable are the inconveniences and evills which happen by this stoppage of the Courses if we may beleeve the great Hippocrates who in one of his Aphorismes saith if the Menstruum comes away without moderation diseases follow but if it comes not away at all yet then diseases happen also from the Matrix but if it comes away in a due and naturall manner it preserves the woman from all gowtie torments from paines in her joints from the Pleurisie and all other inflammations in her sides from the Apoplexy from the difficulty to fetch her breath and from loosing her voyce Women that have not their Courses must seeke for remedies with speâ—d and prudence let them betake themselves to a temperate and movst Ayre for if the Ayre be too hot it wasteâ—h the bloud and drawes it upwards from the Matrix it likewise exhausts the Spirits and is thought to be a weakner of the body on the contrary when the Ayre is too cold it compels the bloud to retire it weakens the Matrix breeds grosse and thick humours and locks up the passages so that the Menstruum cannot descend the most convenient drinke in this case is small Rhenish wine if there be a Fever or which will be lesse dangerous small beere boiled with a little Cinamon Anise Maydenhaire or Birthwort Her diet should be such as will bee soon concocted and easily distributed to all the parts boiled meats are more wholesome for her then rosâ—ed because these dry up the bloud but they soften the body and keep it moist let her also choose to feed upon tame creatures rather then wilde because these are more hot and dry but those are more moist and temperate boyle them with red fitches for the broth that is thus made doth most powerfully bring down the Courses What meats must be avoided hath been said above but above all things let her refraine the use of sowre things because as Hippocrates hath warned us they bring paine to the Matrix it will be good to rub the lower parts of her legs very often and to tie straight ligatures about them till they make her complaine of much paine Having thus prescribed her Diet the next designe must be to evacuate the Cause this may be done severall wayes but especially by letting bloud and sometimes by purging her body the Physitians have long contended but very foolishly which vein should be cut but we omitting the frivoulous alterations on both sides conclude with Galen that when the Courses are stop't if the strength of the woman will beare it and the nature of the Disease require it the vein in the Ankle must alwayes be opened not in the Arme as Aetius commands who also is backt in that opinion by Gradus Mercurialis and Amatus Lusitanus who was taught by Ruffus to open a vein in a womans arme to advance the cure but I cannot approve of that course because rectitude must ever be observed Galen in his book de Curandi ratione per sang miss chapt 11. instead of opening a vein useth Scarification to the domesticall part as having the greatest resemblance with Phlebotomy and if these things doe not overcome the Disease apply Leeches to the Hemorrhoids to take away the accumulation of melancholy bloud for they suck out the feculent and dreggish humours impacted in the Matrix by reason that those parts are so neere the one to the other Zacutus Lusitanus applieth them to the inner part of the Matrix and boasteth himselfe the Author of this kinde of remedy but whether it be consonant to reason I leave to considering persons to judge There is no doubt but the application of Leeches may be usefull because the humour is slow thick and earthy but in regard that no part is evacuated till the whole body be first purged therefore I shall advise you to give her this Purge following which will worke very gently Take three drams of Sena Three scruples of Agarick A dram of Annise-seeds Macerate them together in a sufficient quantity of Penniroyall water for the space of a night to three ounces in the morning allow them one or two bublings and to the liquor which you presse out add Foure drams of Diaphenicon Mingle them and give it her to drinke Or of the Electuary make a Bolus When the body is purged and a vein hath been opened let your Judgement keep company with Galens directions and prepare the thick humour with this Decoction following Take Smallage Fennell and Sparagus roots of each halfe an ounce the leaves of Hysope Pennyroyall and Birthwort of each a handfull Two drams of Carrotts seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of Barley water to a quart
to the strained liquor add Syr. de 5. radicibus and Syr. lupulorum of each an ounce mingle them and make an Apozem Or Take the roots of Acorns and Elecampane of each two drams The leaves of Pennyroyall Motherwort Balme Betony of each a handfull Two ounces of white Agarick An ounce and a halfe of Anise seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of Fumitary water to a pint to the liquor which you presse out add Syrupe of Motherwort Syrupe of Maydenhaire of each an ounce Mingle them and make an Apozem Note that Agarick hath respect unto the nervous parts and that the Syrup of the five roots with vinegar doth hurt the Nerves because all sharp things are hurtfull to the Matrix according to Hippocrates whose Judgement winneth reverence with the best Physitians Fomentations must be applyed to the small guts to the privie parts and you must make them of opening simples and such as will cut into and make thin the grosse and thick humours Baths and halfetubs prepared of the like simples will be very usefull and the best liniments you can choose are made of oyle of Lillies castor dill and capers and the most profitable oyntments are unguent Agrippe and de Althea with gums After you have gone thus far you must evacuate the bloud and provoke urine to which purposes prescribe this Decoction following Take the roots of Butchers broome Sparagus Smallage Fennill of each an ounce The roots of Aristolochy the round Birthwort of each two drams The leaves of Penniroyall Snakeweed Motherwort of each a handfull Foure drams of Sena Two ounces of white agarick Foure ounces of Hermodactyls An ounce and a halfe of Epithymum Anise and fennill seeds of each an ounce Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water to a pint and a halfe to the strained liquor being hard prest add two ounces of the best honey mingle them and make an Apozem Every other morning let her drink foure ounces of this fasting and in the meane time strengthen her belly and her Matrix with fomentations that are good to expell winde you may make them of the Simples aforesaid with the powders Dianis Diacumin Diagalang and the like You must provoke the Menstruum with Pessaries made of the juyce of Mercury Cucumbers Restharrow unsalted butter Hogs-grease the gall of an Oxe Sagapenum Ammoniacum Castor Assa-fetida and the like Perfumes made with spices bring down the Courses if the steame or vapour of them be conveighed into the Matrix or you may appoinâ— little Trochishs to be made with rue aristolochy Castor assa fetida Sagapenum and turpentine which being cast upon hot burning coles they will smoke and that smoke will speedily bring down her Courses if it be received up thorow a tunnell You must make an issue in her leg that the Matrix may exhale and the thick humours may be purged out Such Compositions as have steele in them will be most effectuall for it is manifest by experience that steele is good to cut into and make thin the thick and slow humours to open obstructions to bring down the Courses to provoke urine and to free the vessels from all matter that stop them and all these things it performes by manfest qualities inherent in it and not by the ponderosity or heavinesse thereof as some have conjectured Severall Authors have devised severall preparations of it but we alwayes used to prepare it after this manner following Take a pound of Steele filed into a mosâ— fine dust wash it in Pennyroyall water distilled till the water look pure and cleare then put it into a glasse Viol pouring upon it a sufficient quantity of Vinegar made with Penniroyall set it in the Sun thirty dayes stirring it about every seventh day afterwards dry it weare it to a most subtle powder in a Marble morter sift it and keep it for your use the Dose or quantity hereof to be taken is a dram with wormewood wine or Rhenish wine or with Hydromel Note that we advisedly make use of the vinegar aforenamed because the use and vertue of Steele is to unlock obstructions and Vinegar hath a faculty to penetrate make thin and cut asunder the thickest humours and therefore by the help thereof the Steele is with the more expedition transmitted to the remotest parts of the body Yet if the patient be troubled with a hot distemper in her Liver stomack or spleen or if you discerne any weaknesse in her inward parts then prepare the steele with Rose-water or whey of Goats milke When she hath taken the steele let her walke an houre after it for exercise opens the pores and thereby the Medicine is the more easily distributed when she hath observed this injunction let her lie down till she begin to sweat or if she finde in her selfe a disposednesse let her sleep afterwards give her to eat but her meat should rather be rosted then boyl'd and for her drink allow her small wine or wine prepared with steele I doe not judge it meet to determine any time for the continuance of these Rules and precepts onely in generall I hold it convenient to use them till the Patient be more apt and disposed for exercise till she can walke without any lazy complaint of wearinesse till her lips begin to look of a more lively colour till no obstruction be perceiveable by the touch and in a word till the urine which was thin pale and discoloured appeare reddishlike unto the urine of a healthfull woman The Spring time is the most convenient to undertake this Cure for then the humours are most apt to flow which in the Winter are congealed and impacted in the severall parts and in the Summer time it will not be altogether so proper to begin the Cure for then thorough the immoderate heat oâ— the season the humours doe daily threaten to precipitate the sick woman into a fever If the woman be weake in her body let her refraine from exercise and rest her selfe upon her bed and after the space of a full houre let her body be diligently rubbed till it looke red that the faculties of the steele may be actuated and assisted in their operation for Galen in his book de Puero Epileptico and the fourth Chapter saith that the rubbing of the body supplies the want of exercise because it attenuateth and cuteth the humours unlocks the obstructions quickens and kindles the naturall heat and dissolves the peccant matter Many mingle steele prepared with Conserves and Syrups Some make Lozenges thereof and so doe we also especially when the Patient refuseth Wine or Conserves and the like for in some cases we must allow pardon to the queazinesse of the sick and humour the Palate with a safe indulgence The powders Diarhod Abbat Dialacca and Diacucurma are very good to open the passages which are stop't and therefore you may prudently mingle them among the ingredients for the Lozenges aforesaid Here perhaps you will start this question if heat provokes to stoole
Halfe an ounce of syrup of Quinces Two ounces and a halfe of Plant ane water Mingle them and let her drink it Divers Authors as Rondeletius Hollerius Amatus Lusitanus and others condemn thâ— boiling of Rubarb and the reason is this as things say they become more milde and weake in their operations when they have past the fire so those things which arâ— gentle become more vehement having acquired a new kinde of faculty by the forcâ— of the fire this I grant most willingly buâ— in the meane time they purge lesse anâ— binde more which we desire and as foâ— any corrupt quality which the power oâ— the fire may have contributed to it that iâ— easily washt away by the help of Plantanâ— water or the juice of Quinces if you demand whither this humour should be prepared I answer evacuate it without any delay for you must not expect or waiâ— the concoction thereof Binding Glysters will be very usefull you may make them after this manner Take foure drams of the roots of Consolida major The leaves of plantane and horsetayle of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of red Roses Two drams of shaled Pease Boile them in a sufficient quantity of plantane water to nine ounces to the strained liquor add a dram of the Trochischs de Carabe two ounces of syrup of Roses made with dried Roses The whites of two Eggs. Mingle them and make a glyster Or Take foure drams of the greater Comphrey roots The leaves of knotgrasss and plantane of each a handfull As many red Roses as your thumb and two fingers can take up Sumach and Quince seeds of each two drams Three drams of barley parched and beaten to a grosse powder Boile them in a sufficient quantity of plantane water to nine ounces To the strained liquor add two ounces of syrup of Myrtles A dram of terra sigillata Mingle them and make a glyster After these glysters are injected anoint the Matrix with astringent oyntments Take as many plantane leaves as you can grasp between your thumb and two fingers at twice Red Roses Mulberry leaves Oake leaves of each halfe the quantity aforesaid A dram of Sumach seeds Boile them gently in foure pints of oyle of Quinces Straine and presse the liquor hard and then put in True Bolearmanick Trochischs de Carabe of each a dram With a sufficient quantity of white wax make a soft oyntment according to art or Take two ounces of unguentum Comitisse Oyle of myrtles and oyle of quinces of each two drams Mingle them and make a liniment You must likewise bath the Matrix with fomentations made after this manner Take the leaves of plantane Knotgrasse Oake leaves Red Roses of each a handfull The seeds of plantane Sumach Quinces of each three drams Boile them in a sufficient quantity of red wine or water wherein steele hath been quenched to three pints use the strained liquor as was said above That which remaines after the straining may be kept for a Poultis unto which you may add oyle of quinces and unguentum Comitisse of each two ounces and mingling them together you have an excellent Poultis But if the disease yield not to these Remedies you may exhibit half a dram of new Treacle or Philonium Persicum or a scruple of the masse of Pils de Cynoglossa if the Patient incline to a Consumption give her Cowes milk prepared rightly with steele to drink in a morning fasting if the evill still persevere and you suspect the heat of the Liver to be the Cause of the disease make an issue in her leg that the Liver may exhale at that vent and the other bowells may evaporate or else let her goe into a Bath the waters whereof run from an iron Mine for these naturally binde and thicken CHAP. IV. Of the coming away of the Courses by Drops of the vehement Symptomes thereof and of the Whites AS the urine irritates the expulsive faculty so many times doth the Menstruum for as that when it is too hot doth prick burn and is frequently pist out so the Menstruum being vehemently hot doth cause an itch and an irritation and produceth a Disease which the Doctours call Stillicidium Vterinum which we may english to be a coming away of the Courses by drops The Disease proceeds from the same Causes as doth the immoderate flowing of the Courses therefore the same Remedies will be also proper to overcome them yet in this present cure you need not prescribe so many Remedies nor so often When any notable Symptomes accompanie this Disease as a vehement burning torments in the Matrix a paine about the secret parts it is called the Stillicide or Dropping of the Matrix from a sharp humour arising through the hot distemper of the Liver and the Kidneys and whereas it takes beginning from a hot distemper from whence sharpe hot and fiery humours are generated your Method must be first to root out the Cause and then to cure the distemper wherefore her body must be cooled her bloud must be thickned and the Flux must be drawn back to the upper parts this is done by a coole Ayre by giving her whey to drinke wherein steele hath been often quenched and lastly you may prescribe for her the cold thickning Dyet which we have set down above You may let her bloud in both armes and appoint the opening of the veine called Salvatella Leeches must be applied to the Hemorrhoids that the adust and melancholly bloud may be drawn out Purge her often with Rubarb and Cassia Syrupe of Violets Citron Myrobalaus Manna Tamarinds Diaprun sumpl and the like Simples which gently bring away choler Cooling and thickning Juleps will be very necessary which you may make after this manner Take twelve ounces of plantane water Foure ounces of Rose water Two ounces of Syrupe of the juice of Quinces Mingle them and make a Julep or Take the waters of Plantane Purselane of each eight ounces Syrup of Poppy Syrupe of restharrow of each an ounce and a half Mingle them and make a Julep If the chiefest fault lie in the Kidneys Take ten ounces of Bean water distilled The waters of Plantane Mallowes of each two ounces Syrupe of Myrtles Syrupe of Poppy of each an ounce A scruple and a halfe of Lapis Prunelle Mingle them and make a Julep But note if the Patient have a hot Liver and a cold stomack it will be convenient to lessen the quantity of the distilled mallow water or to prescribe an equall part of Rose water the vertue whereof strengthens the inward parts Baths made with binding Simples are highly profitable in this Disease for they doe not onely attemper the sharpnesse of the humours but they drive the humours to the outward parts and so defend and fortifie the Matrix from that annoyance which they threatned unto it and in a while the Flux is stayed Whey although it be Diureticall and provoke urine yet when steele is quenched in it it is wonderfull wholsome for her
as Hippocrates affiâ—meth concerning the Son of Erotelaus lying sick of a bloudy Flux for when he had drunk whey in which red hot flints were quenched his evacuations were more moderate although they were bloudy and in a short time they ended here is to be noted that whey although upon a slight consideration it may seeme to be Diureticall and â—o to provoke rather then to stay the flux yet if steele be frequently quenched in it till the thin and fiery parts thereof be wasted away it stayeth the Flux If these Remedies prevaile not to perfect the Cure I shall counsell you to make an Issue upon the knee for this being kept open the corrupt humours are evacuated without any decay of the spirits which otherwise doe many times produce grievous and vehement Symptomes we have spoken of the coming away of the Menstruum by Drops with the terrible Symptome which accompanies it namely a vehement and insupportable paine but because this paine proceeds from divers causes the Cure must be also diversified Women therefore which are of a cold Constitution especially if they be young prone to Venery Black and Hairy must be purged that the Cause may be taken away and therefore their bodies must be first prepared before you can hope to appease the paine You may evacuate the humour with Diaphenicon Benedicta laxativa or with Pills of Hiera and you may prepare the humour with smallage and fennill roots with agrimony and Motherwort leaves boiled in water wherein steele hath been quenched with Rhodomel The paine must be appeased with unguent Populeum unto which you may add a few graines of opium or else you may apply fomentations to the head A vein also must be opened as we have shewed you above If a woman or Virgin have the whites which come away of a thick and fattish substance you must proceede as in the former Cure but you must be exceeding cautious how you let bloud for such bodies are full of raw humours by reason whereof the spirits are much exhausted and her body is weake and infirme according to the Judgement of Galen in his book de Sanguin missione chap. 11. wherefore in such cases I counsell the Patient to goe to the Spaw waters or some other of the like Nature for they purge away the thick humour both by siege and by urine but especially the melancholy juice which is the cause of this disease A Decoction of China and Saâ—zapavilla cannot be improper nor Leeches applied to the Hemorrhoids Note that the Caul of a Ram or Weather newly killed must be laid to the affected part being first anointed with oyle of Castor for as the skull of a man is good against the Falling Sicknesse and the Lungs of a Fox against the stoppage of the pipes by a specificall vertue or hidden similitude so is this good for the stomack and the Loynes The Whites are defined to be a lasting distillation from the Matrix however it be affected for Nature indevoureth to expell that superfluous moist and excrementiâ—ious bloud thorough the Matrix and even at the same time disburtheneth the body from this unprofitable and offensive humour This evill is reckoned among the Symptomes of those things which are immoderately expelled out of the body the Causes whereof are divers for sometimes a predominancy of choler sometimes a phlegmatick juice many times melancholy and very often bloud is evacuated this is easily known because a snottie kinde of humour drops and distills continually from the Matrix which if it be red it proceeds from bloud if white from phlegme if yellow it takes beginning from choler The sick woman complaines of a general weaknesse over all the parts of the body her legs and eyelids are swelled she cannot digest her meat her stomack failes her she is lazie and loves no exercise and cares not to stir up and down so that at length her strength decayeth and her spirits faile through the abundance of bloud which hath come from her wherefore this disease calls for early help least it degenerate as not seldome it doth into a Dropsey or a Consumption or the like terrible Diseases If the body therefore abound with much bloud let a veine be opened in the arme to draw back the course of the humour which is hastening from all parts of the body to the Matrix Thus we read that Galen cured the wife of Boetius unto whomâ— other Physitians had preposterously prescribed Medicines without opening aâ— veine Afterwards you must prepare the phlegmatick humour with a decoction of wormewood unto which add Syr. of Roses or Syr. de artemisia the cholerick humour must be prepared with a decoction of endive sorrell unto which may be added Oxysaccarum or Syrup de succo Cichorii if it be a Melancholy humour prepare it with a decoction of Fumitary Buglos unto which add Syr. of Fumitary and Syr. Lupuli Then expell the humour with some gentle purge if it be phlegmatick Take three scruples of white agarick Trochischt Two scruples of the root of Mechoacha A dram of Annise seeds Macerate them the space of a night in a sufficient quantitie of fennill water in the morning to two ounces and a halfe of the liquor which you presse out add Three drams of Diacarthamum Halfe an ounce of Diacnicum Mingle them together for a Potion If Cholerick humours abound in the body Take two drams and a halfe of the best Rubarb Citron myrobalans Cinamon of each a scruple Macerate them a whole night in a sufficient quantity of endive water presse them with all your might and add An ounce and a halfe of Syrupe of roses laxative Mingle them and give it her to drinke in the morning If Melancholy humours be predominant Take two drams and a halfe of Sena A dram of Annise seeds Macerate them over night in a sufficient quantity of fumitary water in the morning presse out the liquor and add To two ounces and a halfe of the liquor strained and prest Two drams of Confectio Hamech Halse an ounce of Syrup of fumitary Mingle them for a Potion If the Disease yield not to these Medicines expell the humour by an Epicrasis that is by some Decoction that by degrees will digest open and evaâ—uate the humour and also mightily provoke urine this Apozem following hath all these vertues Take the roots of Parsly Fennell Buglos Polypody of the Oake of each halfe an ounce The leaves of Maidenhaire Agrimony Motherwort of each a handfull Six drams of Sena Two drams of rubarb One dram of agarick As much Epithymum as you can graspe between your thumb and two fingers Two drams of Annise seed Macerate them together a whole night in two pints of barley water upon hot embers in the morning allow them one or two gentle bublings and when you have strained them add Syrupe of fumitary Syrupe of roses laxative of each an ounce Mingle them for an Apozem Every other morning let her have foure ounces of it fasting If all these
things prove ineffectuall infuse a whole night six graines of Antimony in wine and let her drinke it if her body be strong enough to abide the conflict of the medicine for besides that it draws back the humours from the Matrix by provoking to Vomit it likewise purgeth away by stool that tenacious phlegmatick and thick humour which is the cause of the Disease Wormewood beere is not unwholsome for her or instead thereof prescribe to her beer wherein China roots have been infused for this disperseth the humour to the skin and dries up the superfluous moisture for the same purpose we advise with Galen that a Bath of hot sand be prepared that after the use thereof the body be well rubbed and anointed with honey heated by the fire then as we prescribed above make an Issue in her knee CHAP. V. Of the Complication of the Menstrunm with other Diseases THe Complication of the Menstruum with other Diseases is hard to be known and not easie to be cured for if any woman be sick of any Disease and if her Courses be supprest or appeare not the Physitians are at a stand what is most fit during this Judication to be done for if we follow the motions of Nature who worketh rightly and open a vein in the ankle this will not cure the Disease which is rooted in the upper parts And if you draw bloud from the arme you pervert the course and order of Nature to the great disadvantage of the sick woman But you will say in such a case as this what is to be done I shall tell you in few words The Disease is either vehement or moderate and of long continuance if the Courses appeare or come down in a disease of long continuance you may defer the opening of a vein till a more convenient season be it either a vein in the arme or in the ankle which you intended to cut for you can doe no hurt by omitting or at least suspending this remedy But if the Disease be acute and require a speedy evacuation you must observe whither the Menstruum be answerable to the plentie of bloud which abounds in the body if her Courses come down according to the prescription of Hippocrates you must not be busie but leave the whole matter to Nature of the same opinion is Galen also for saith he if at that time when you are letting bloud it should so fall out that her Courses come down or that she should on a sudden have the Piles you must desist from phlebotomy and commit the whole businesse to Nature if you are satisfied that the Menstruum commeth away in a sufficient quantity but otherwise take from her so much bloud as may make good the deficiency of her Courses But if a burning Fever be upon her if she have not her Courses according to custome and to the satisfaction of her own desires then this defect must be supplied with medicines by opening a veine in her ankle applying Cuppinglasses with scarification to the calfes of her legs or Leeches to the Hemorrhoids to take away the superfluity of the bloud One thing must be considered namely if a woman after her delivery have a burning Fever upon her her Courses actually flowing whither it be lawfull in regard of the vehemence of the Fever to open the upper veines Fernelius Valeriola Amatus Lusitanus and divers others of good account assent the lawfulnesse and expediency thereof for although some have imagined that if the upper veines be opened the bloud will ascend to the upper parts yet if it be true which they imagine more profit and advantage will accrew thereby to the sick woman then hurt or danger for when a veine in the ankle is cut although it bring down the Courses and supply the defective motion of Nature in respect of the part particularly affected yet is it not equally prevalent against a most vehement inflâ—mmation nor altogether so profitable in a most acute disease because the bloud must be drawn out from some vessell that is nearer to the part affected that the conjunctive cause may be taken away and although by cutting a vein in the ankle we can draw the whole masse of bloud out of the body yet the bloud is not so fitly taken from one part as from another for in a Quinsey or a Pleurisey 't is more commodious to open the Basilick veine to temper the heat then any other veine in the whole body CHAP. VI. Of hard swellings in the Breasts THe Breasts are naturally thin spongy or fungous and loose for this reason they are apt to entertaine any crude and melancholy humours flowing to them either from the Matrix or from any other parts these if they are not rightly and duly expelled they breed painefull yea malignant and cankerd Vlcers wherefore you must addresse your selfe to the Cure without any truce or delay and this consists in three things in prescribing a Diet in the manuall operations of Surgery and in outward and inward Medicines Let her therefore make choise of a pure ayre let her drink be small beer boiled with annise and snakeweed let her meat be of good concoction and easie distribution as Mutton broth Cock broth and rosted Chickens let her avoid meats that thicken the bloud as milke cheese bacon fish and the like open a veine if she have not her Courses in her ankle or cut the Basilicâ— veine twice or thrice to ease the Liver the Spleen and the Kidneys as the multitude oâ— bloud shall require it Note that the humour must be prepared and attempted with this Apozem Take the roots of Succhory Polipody of each an ounce The barke of the root of the Caper anâ— Tamarisk tree of each halfe an ounce The leaves of Buglos Fumitary Balme of each a handfull Two drams of Fennill seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantitie oâ— barley water to two pints and to the strained liquor add Syrupe of Borage Syrupe of â—umitary of each an ounce and a halfe Ten graines of Spirit of Vitriol Mingle them and make an Apozem Because the humour is thick and dreggish you must purge her body severall times till it be perfectly cleansed this may be done with this decoction following Take an ounce of Polypody of the oake The leaves Fumitary Hops Borage Endive of each a handfull Epithymum Century the less of each halfe a handfull Boile them in a sufficient quantity of Barley water to two pints and in the strained liquor infuse a whole night An ounce of Sena Foure drams of Rubarb Agarick Troch Creame of Tartar of each two drams Epithymum and The flowers of borage buglos and rosemary of each as many as you can grasp between your thumb and two fingers at twice Two drams of annise seeds In the morning give it one or two bublings straine and presse it and to the liquor add Syrupe of violets Syrupe of fumitary of each an ounce Make an Apozem or Take the leaves of buglos Fumitary of each a
handfull Balme Germander of each halfe a handfull As much Epithymum as you can containâ— between your thumb and two fingers Boile them in a sufficient quantitie oâ— whey to a pint and a halfe infuse for â— night in the strained liquor Six drams of Sena Two drams of white Agarick A dram and a half of annise seeds In the morning presse out the liquoâ— hard and add Syrupe of Violets Syrupe of fumitary of each an ounce anâ— a halfe Mingle them for an Apozem Confectio Hamech and Diacricu will bâ— highly profitable so also are Pils de Lapiâ— Lazuli Sometimes you may prescribe glysters tâ— temper the melancholy humour as for example Take the leaves of Mallowes Marishmallowes Violets of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of bran Two drams of fennill seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantitie of barley water to nine ounces in the strained liquor put in Confectio Hamech Diacatholicon of each an ounce An ounce and a halfe of oyle of violets Mingle them and make a glyster or Take half an ounce of Polypody roots The leaves of buglos Fumitary Violets of each a handfull Foure ounces of sena As much Epithymum as you can take up between your thumb and two fingers Two drams of fennill seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantitie of Cock broth to nine ounces to the strained â—â—quor add Diaprun Laxativum Confectio Hamech of each an ounce Half an ounce of Syrup of Violets A dram of Sal gemme Mingle them and make a glyster Leeches applied to the Fundament may much promote the Cure The event may likewise gratifie your â—riall if you prescribe Cordials Treacle Miâ—hridate Lozenges of Pearle Alkermes and the like which with their coldnesse drynesse and cordiall vertue retaine the spirits correct the bloud even when it is putrifying and preserve the bowells in their due Symmetry and naturall constitution Note that you may not forget to wash her legs with a decoction of Hops Violets Fumitary Roses Mallowes and Vine leaves If by the advantage of time it prove aâ— cankerd and a creeping Vlcer you must not vex and discompose the Patient with many or strong Medicines but you musâ— institute a palliative Cure for Galeâ— boasteth that he thus cured a woman who had a Cancer in her breast for wheâ— the thinner part was brought away iâ— became thicker more full of putrefaction and subject to exulcerate for it iâ— undenyable as the same Author affirmethâ— that the vehemence of the remedies inflamâ— the humor and set it on fire by that acrimoâ—nius quality which is naturally in them Almost all Authors agree that Issues anâ— convenient for they supply the stead oâ— Purges and Phlebotomy as Guido a good writeâ— witnesseth in his book de Cauteriis The end of the first Book of Womens Diseases THE SECOND BOOK Written by NICHOLAS FONTANUS OF Womens Diseases The first Chapter OF the Mother THat Disease which we commonly call the Mother the Physitians terme the Strangulation or Suffocation of the Matrix and sometimes the Ascent of the Matrix Gaâ—â— took it to be a drawing back of the Maâ—ix to the upper parts Hereupon some of the Ancients conceived the Matrix to bâ— some stragling Creature wandring too and fro thorough severall parts to which phantasticall conceit Fernelius Eugenius and Laurentius contributed a credulouâ— Assent for though a woman be dead yet can you not with an ordinary strength remove the Matrix from the naturall place neither is that reason which Fernelius alledgeth of any moment who saith that in these diseases he hath toucht it upwards seeing that this is not the true Matrix but a grosse windie swelling of a roundish figure and somewhat resembling the Matrix you will say the Matrix doth remove and slip from its proper place I grant it for by reason of the moisture wherewith those parts abound the Matrix is loosened and exceedingly stretched and this is the truth of the whole matter The Cause of this Disease is twofold the Retention of the Seed and the Menstruum which are the materiall cause and a cold and moist distemper of the Matrix breeding phlegmatick and thick juices which is the efficient cause for when the Seed is retained and the Menstruum hath not the customary and usuall vent they burthen the Matrix and choak and extinguish the heat thereof then upon the diminishing of the naturall heat windy humours are bred especially in the Matrix which by nature is a cold nervous and bloudlesse part after the same manner if the seed be kept too long it disturbeth the Function of the spiritous parts and the Midriffe it oppresseth the heart causeth fainting and sounding fits bindeth as it were and girteth about the parts and seemes in such a manner to stop the breath that the sick woman is in danger to be strangled her puls is sometimes weake various and obscure she hath inward discontents and anxieties and is most commonly invaded by at least very subject unto Convulsion fits she lies as if she were astonished and void of sense and from her belly you may heare rumbling and murmuring noises she breatheth so weakly that it is scarce discernable and indeed she is so sad an object that the by-standers may eaâ—ily mistake her to be dead The drowsie and sleepy disease called Carus differs from this because they who are affected with it have the use of their breath free without any molestation and it differs from a Cataâ—psy another drowsie disease casting the â—â—ck into a profound and dead sleep because they who are taken with that liâ— without any motion but they who havâ— the mother are tormented with Convulsioâ— fits their legs and their hands are stretcheâ— and wrythed into unusuall figures anâ— strange postures and by this it is distinguished from an Apoplexy unto which it is exceeding like Galen wondreth how these women caâ— live who are â—roubled with these crueâ— fits of the Mother without any puls oâ— breathing in as much as it is impossible foâ— one that liveth not to breath or for onâ— that breatheth not to live for so long â— we live so long we breath To this I answeâ— that although these women live withouâ— respiration yet doe they not live without transpiration for this being performed thorough the pores of the skin by thâ— motion of the arteries conserves the symâ— metry of the vitall heat for then thaâ— small heat retiring to the heart as to Castle may bepreserved by this benefit oâ— transpiration alone Now to procure an assurance whithâ— the woman be living or dead hold a feather or a loâ—king-glasse to her mouth the former stir or the latter be spotted it is an undoubted signe that she liveth This is a most acute Disease and soone dispatcheth the sick woman especially if it took beginning from somevery contagious and poisonous vapours lecherous women and lusty widowes that are prone and apt to Venery are most subject to it but married women that injoy the company of their husbands and such as are
windie humours and rumblings in her belly doe presage it her stomack swells her mind is confused her eyes are dim and when she is ready to fall into a fit of the Epilepsie or Falling Sicknesse she may perceive a tingling noyse in her eares a giddinesse circumagitation or turning round in her head she is sad in her minde disquieted in her body troubled with the passion of the heart and not seldome with sounding fits 't is a sad spectacle to behold her in this condition from which if she be not seasonably delivered she is very likely to fall into an Apoplexy this we have learn't from Galen who in his third book de Locis and 5. chapt saith Epilepticks doe often degenerate into a melancholy madnesse and so on the contrary for this melancholy mood turnes to the Falling Sicknesse when the humour invades either the body or the minde or if that darke vapour becloud the minde inducing a dimnesse or gloominesse in the thoughts with sadnesse despaire and deep melancholy if the spirits which are bright and cleare in their own nature be obscured with the foggy commerce of black vapours the very presence of them dismayeth terrifies and discomposeth the minde or if a confluence of those vapours assault the body that is the braine and the nerves they produce the Falling Sicknesse This requires a twofold cure one in the Fit the other after the Fit In the Fit you must quicken and excite the animall faculty and force back those poisonous vapours that are stealing from the Matrix to invade the upper parts then the winde must be expelled the wayes kept open and the thick humour must be got out of the body by rubbing the parts by tying straight ligatures about her legs by fomentations and baths made with the leaves of penniroyall motherwort thyme nip camomile salt vinegar and water softning Glysters are so usefull that you must not forget to inject them you may make them thus Take the leaves of motherwort Penniroyall Birthwort of each a handfull Rosemary Mint of each a handfull Two drams of fennill seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water to nine ounces straine and presse out the liquor and then add Hiera picra Galeni Diaphenicon of each an ounce A dram of sal gemme Mingle them and make a glyster or Take the roots of Elecampane Restharrow of each foure drams The leaves of Marjoram Motherwort Birthwort of each a handfull The tops of Dill Camomile Flowers of each halfe a handfull Two drams of Annise seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity oâ— Barley water to nine ounces to the liquoâ— which you presse out add An ounce and a halfe of Diaphenicon Mass pill fetidar De hiera cum Agarico of each two scruples Oyle of Dill Camamile Butter of each halfe an ounce Mingle them and make a glyster If necessitie urge you and the strength oâ— the Patient will beare it you may prescribâ— a sharper glyster to draw the humours from the farthest distant parts and to imitate thâ— nature and effects of a Purge be this for aâ— example to you Take half an ounce of Polypody roots Two drams of Mechoaca The leaves of Sage Rosemary Betony of each a handfull Halfe an ounce of bastard Saffron seeds Two drams of Agarick As much Epithymum as you can take up between your thumb and two fingers Boile them in a sufficient quantity of honied water to ten ounces straine and presse out the liquor and add An ounce of Hiera Logodii A dram of the Masse of Pills of Cochia Ten graines of Troch Alhandal Half a dram of sal gemme Mingle them and make a glyster For this being a most acute Disease requires the utmost tryalls of art that it may not degenerate as it is very prone to doe into a true Apoplexy To the Matrix to make a sudden dispatch of the Cure apply Carminitive fomentations and â—ath the privie parts to break and expell the winde After the use of the Fomentation apply oyle of Castor oyle of wormewood and inject odoriferous Pessaries of musk amber Civet made up with gallia Moschat and a piece of Cotton according to the secret rules of Art to the nose you must hold stinking things as sagapenum galbanum assa fetida Castor rue and the like When the Fit is approaching Hippocrates adviseth to open a veine in the Ankle and this advice is magnified and applauded by Galen in his book de Rigore Chapt. 8. neither may you forget to apply Leeches to the Hemorrhoids or the calfes of her legs for they will suck out the feculent and dreggish humour that is impacted in the Matrix Cordialls must be administred as Treacle Mithridate Alkermes Confection de Hyacyntha and the like or if you please compound them after this manner Take the hoofe of an Elk. The wood of Misletoe of the Oake of each two drams The skull of a man newly dead of some violent death Hartshorne of each two drams Pearle prepared Burnt Ivory Mastick of each a dram and a half The powder of Rosemary Stechas Sage of each a scruple The species Diacastor Diaccumin of each a scruple With a sufficient quantitie of honey of roses and Syrupe of Stechas make a mixture If the Disease become againe indigested and crude prescribe another Purge of Aloes Hiera Picra Benedicta Laxativa or Turbith but that the ignorant may not be rashly precipitated into some erroneous composition we shall limit him to this prescription Take two scruples of the masse of Pills de Hiera cum agarico Ten graines of pill faetidae Troch Alhandal Diagrydium of each five graines With a sufficient quantity of Syrupe of Stechas make nine Pills Sometimes the retention of the Seed is the Cause of these Symptomes which if they be so vehement that the former remedies cannot tame them proceed as followeth Take Storax in powder Aloes in powder White agarick of each two drams The juice of the hearb Mercury The juice of the wild Cucumber of each three drams A sufficient quantity of Turpentine With a piece of Cotton make a pessary according to art put it up and move it up and down till the superfluous seed be ejaculated If the sick woman have many Fits in a day certaine it is that the disease is fixt and rooted in the Head wherefore in such cases I have known no better remedy then an actuall cauterizing in the hinder part of the head from whence as from an Issue that virulent and luxuriant humour which is the cause of this most dangerouâ— disease may at last have a vent In the intermission of the Fits you muâ—â— open a vein in her Ankle this is not my counsell onely but Galen enjoynes the samâ— remedy for in his book de Cur. ration peâ— sang missionem he saith if you will prevent the Falling Sicknesse â—ut the Scyrhenaâ— that is the veine in the Ankle afterwardâ— he commands the preparation of that coldâ— and thick humour which may be effected by this
annise or fennill seeds or a little honey course barley bread and the like is not good for her but nothing is more unwholsome for her then fruit you may grant her the use of some few hearbs as sparagus parsley alexanders water pepper â—orage and buglos For her drinke give her Fountaine water wherein annise seeds or cinanon or china â—oots or the like have been boiled but â—he most wholsome drink for her is wormeâ—ood â—eer If she drink wine let it be sparkling and â—leasant claret wine mingled with water â—ther artificiall drinks as â—ider perry meâ—eglin steepona Nectarella Medea and the â—ike are hurâ—â—full for her The humour must be prepared with Rhoâ—omel Syrupe of wormewood Syrupe of mint and the like Her body must be purged by fits for the â—rude thick and windie humour will not â—e got out with one medicine this is â—aught us by our great Master Hippocrates who in his fourth book de Acutis saith whosoever indeavours at the beginning of a disease to dissolve or take away an inflammation by a purging medicine he will finde himselfe much mistaken for whilest â—he part is intensively inflamed and the affect yet crude and unconcocted the phyâ—ick gets no victory hath no laudable operation at all but rather it brings away such things as would have made resistanâ—â— against the disease and so by this rashnesse the body is weakned and the disease gâ—tâ— strength which when it hath once overcome the body becomes uncurable therefore whensoever you undertake to purgeâ— body you must not onely make the humours fluid but you must also stay till they are coâ—cocted especially in chronicall and long lasting diseases this may be done bâ— the help of this Apâ—zeâ— following Take the roots of fennill Elecampane of each halfe an ounce The leaves of peâ—â—iroyall Wormâ—wood Hops Motherwort of each a handfull As many Camamile flowers as you caâ— take up between your thumb and two fingers at twice Two drams of agarick Trochischated Half an ounce of Mechoca roots The seeds of fennill Annise of each two drams Boile them according to art in a sufficient quantitie of barley water to twâ— pints when you have prest out the liquor with all your strength add Two ounces of Diacnycum Mingle them and make an Apozem or Take the roots of Polipody Angelica Hermodactyls Of each halfe an ounce The leaves of Hops Motherwort Fumitary Balme Betony of each a handfull Six drams of sena Agarick Trochischated The roots of Mechoaca of each two â—rams Halfe an ounce of Bastard Saffron seeds Epithymum Camomile of each as much as you can â—â—ke up between your thumb and two finâ—ers Two drams of fennill seeds Boile them according to art in a sufficiâ—nt quantity of Cock broth to two pints â—resse out the liquor with your utmost â—rength and add Two ounces of Syrupe of the juice of fuâ—itary An ounce of Diacnycum Mingle them and make an Apozem Let her every day drink three ounces of iâ— For nothing cleanseth the Matrix froâ— tenacious and slimy humours so effectually as Agarick or which is a surer anâ— more infallible remedy against the Motherâ— if we may credit Galen and Mesur Monaâ—dus Costa Clusius Lobel and Weckerus ascribâ— the same vertues to Mechoaca which is hoâ— and dry Turpentine although Galen in his booâ— de sanitate tuenda saith that it serves onâ— to loosen the belly yet it purgeth aâ— cleanseth all the bowells as the Liver tâ—â— Spleen the Kidneys the Lungs and the Mâ—trix from those tough and slimy humour which are strongly impacted in them There are severall wayes to prepare iâ— sometimes it is most easily taken with tâ— yelk of an Egg sometimes in powder aâ— sometimes being reduced into an oyle tâ— admirable efficacy hereof frequent experâ—ence doth more and more discover to mâ— so that I have often adventured to give and with blessed success in many diâ—eases both of the Chest the Kidneys anâ— the bladder for this cleanseth the stomacâ— from thick and tough humours froâ— which part floweth the whole streame â—â— phlegmatick humours it wonderfully warmeth the Matrix wipeth away the clammy filth which sticks about the walls of it expelleth winde provokes the Courses and brings down urine You may make an excellent Fomentation after this manner Take the leaves of Motherwort Penniroyall Birthwort Rue of each a handfull and a halfe Rosemary Sage Betony of each a handfull The flowers of Camomile Stechas of each halfe a handfull The tops of Dill Wormewood Of each as much as you can take up between your thumb and two fingers Boile them in white wine to foure pints use the strained liquor for a Fomentation and with sponges dipt in it bath all about the bottome of her belly her groiny and her privie parts After the Fomentation apply this admirable oyntment Take oyle of laurel Wormewood of each an ounce and a half Oyle of Castor Earthwormes of each an ounce In these oyles boyle gently The powder of aromaticum rosatum Wormewood Sage Lignum aloes of each a dram and a halfe A dram of red Corall Straine and presse out the unctious substance and add Three drams of yellow wax Mingle them and make an oyntment If you augment the severall doses of the aforesaid hearbs prescribed for the Fomentation you may make a halfe Tub or you may lay on the plaister pro Matrice 't is sold in the shops aromatized with Diarrhodon Abbat and Diamoschus dulcis or instead thereof apply the plaister Tachamacha or Catanua Antidotes may not be omitted as Treacle and Mithridate Excellent Lozenges may be made for her of sugar with the species Diamoschus Diagalanga Diaeinnamomum or Diacumium or if you please prescribe this mixtue following Take the roots of Elecampane candied Ginger candied of each an ounce Conserve of the Flowers of Sage Rosemary Orenges of each six drams Halfe an ounce of conserve of horage The species aromaticum rosatum Diamoschus of each a dram and a halfe With a â—ufficient quantity of Syrupe of Wormewood 〈◊〉 them for your use If these medicines doe not overcome the disease let her uâ—e minerall sulphureous baths or the like Zacutus Lusitanus saith if you take the durt in the botâ—ome of one of these baths and lay it upâ—n the Matrix it is as divine a medicine againâ—t the cold affects of the Matrix but in these words of his I conceave there is more of ostentation then of truth If the evill yet persevere we used in the next place to prescribe sweating remedies of guaiacum china and sassaphraz roots to be administred as we have already shewed in the forâ—going cures and afterwards we make issues that the Matrix may exhale Now let us consider what must be determined in this case concerning Phlebotomy some will say that in a bad habit of the body in a Dropsey in the trembling palsie and the like where there is a deficiencie of naturall heat no man will adventure to let bloud seeing that when the bloud is diminished the heat
inflammation 't is a certaine signe that the inflammation shortly will be dissolved but if after the universall administrations the fever still continue vehement it is a true signe of suppuration and the rather if the paine be increased according to that Oracle of Hippocrates whilest Matter or Corruption is ripening the paines and the Fevers are more importunate then when it is full ripe The proper signe of suppuration is a most vehement paine upon the privie parts and therefore to humour the evill and to hasten the suppuration prescribe this Poultis following Take the heads of white Lillies The roots of marish mallowes of each two â—unces The leaves of mallowes Marish mallowes of each a handfull Bran Camomile flowers of each half a handfull Twelve fat figs. Boile them all to softnesse pulp them thorough a haire sieve and add to the pulp Two ounces of the meale of line seed Unsalted butter The oyle of sweet almonds of each halfe an ounce Hogsgrease The fat of a hen of each half an ounce A dram of Saffron Mingle them and make a Cataplasme A Fomentation made of these things and with sponges applied to the secret parts are of knowne vertue but then note that when you use it it must be hot or luke-warme for the Matrix being a part full of Nerves is easily offended with cold things When there is an itching in the Matrix by reason of an influx of some cholerick and biting humour usually there follow chinks chaps and clefts all which require one and the same manner of cure with an inflammation If the Itching continue long give whey or an infusion of Ruharb to driâ— lay cooling Epithems upon her Liver â— then wash her Matrix with this Injectioâ— Take a dram of Trochisch All. Rhasis Mallow water Breast milk of each three ounces Mingle them together for an injection From hence if there be occasion proceâ— to issues CHAP. IX Of a Cancer and an Vlcer in the Matrix A Cancer is an uneven blewish swellinâ— with paine and filthy to behold thâ— is twofold either with or without an Vâ—cer the one hath â—ordid lips from whence issueth a black corruption unsavory anâ— stinking but the other namely that without an Vlcer is called almost by all Antiquity a hidden Vlcer The cause of this is the menstruous bloud detained in great abundance and afterwards dried and burnt up to adustion sometimes it is produced by a dry humour falling down from the upper parts upon the Matrix from whence that accumulation of â—did and blackish bloud floweth away You may discerne the signes by a paine â—ut the groine the abdomen the bottome the belly and in the loines of her back is a stubborne disease both in respect of â—e incommodiousnesse of the place which the sinke of all the humours and also in â—gard of her frequent desire and indeaâ—ur to make water which render the meâ—cines so moist that they cannot stick to â—e part moreover light remedies it conâ—mnes and vehement medicines make it â—orse wherefore Hippocrates in one of his â—horismes most wisely adviseth us not to â—re a hidden Cancer because they who â—e cured quickly perish they who are not red live so much the longer and we say â—e same of a Cancer which is exulcerated â—e paines whereof are greater and doe â—ore torment the woman when the Cure â—f the Vlcer is attempted We must therefore content our selves with palliative Cure that the Patient may live â—e longer for in the midst of misery life sweet this may be done by appointing good Diet and forbidding the use of Meâ—ncholy meats Upon the approach of the Spring and about the end of Autumne let her blâ— from the basilick veine but if she have nâ— her Courses open a veine in the ankle Prescribe such simples as are good â— purge Melancholy as Sena Hellebore myâ— balans epithymum and annise seeds Soâ— of these must be infused a whole night â— whey and so strained and dranke but â— hibit not stronger Physick because the hâ—mour is so apt to be outragious Locall remedies which are moderately cold and binding may be applyed to â— privie parts as roses myrrhe the juice of uâ— ripe grapes mingled with rosewater bred milke and the white of an egg or Take Cerus wash't Tutia of each an ounce and a halfe Burnt Lead Frankincense of each two drams With foure ounces of oleum Omphaciâ—â—â— stirred much and long in a marble morter and Three drams of white wax make an oyntment or Take foure ounces of Litarge of silver wash't in the juice of Pomegranets and for two whole dayes worne to dust in a marble morter Frankincense Burnt Lead Auripigment of each two drams Hogsgrease The grease that is gathered from sheeps wool New butter of each halfe an ounce Foure ounces of oyle of roses Foure drams of wax According to the rules of Art make an oyntment If any filthy matter or bloudy corruption run from the Vlcer beat the shells of Crab fishes to ashes having first dried them in an oven and strow the ashes upon the Vlcer and anoynt it twice a day with oyle If the paine increase and grow insufferable inject this decoction into her Matrix with a Syringe Take an ounce of the sperme of Frogs The leaves of mallowes Marish mallowes Violets Mercury of each a handfull Coriander seeds Poppy seeds of each two drams Boile them in a sufficient quantity of whole barley water to eighteen ounces to three ounces of the strained liquor add Syrup of the juice of Pomegranets Hony of roses strained of each an ounce and a halfe Mingle them together and make an injection for six times to be injected twice every day Purge her body once a moneth with this Medicine following Take three drams of Sena A dram of Agarick Trochischated Halfe a dram of black hellebore A dram of annise seeds Macerate them a whole night in a sufficient quantity of fumitary water to three ounces in the morning set them upon the fire and after one or two bublings add to the liquor which you presse out halfe an ounce of Syrup of the juice of fumitary Two drams of Confectio Hamech Mingle them for a draught If her body be sufficiently strong open a veine yet be sparing of her bloud the Surgeons worke which may be profitable when the breasts or the other parts are infested with a Cancer must in this case be omitted first because he cannot have a full view of it and secondly being irritated by his administrations it would cast the Patient into Convulsion Fits in regard of the consent which it hath with the braine which by this meanes would presently perish Vlcers happen in the Matrix severall wayes either upon the coming down of the whites proceeding from an acrimonious and sharp humour or else from clefts and chaps which are not easily curable because of the humour which insinuating it selfe corrodes and exulcerates the part The signes of an Vlcer in the Matrix are a pricking paine about
the privie parts fluxes of a virulent and corrupt humour a gentle Fever idle talking and sometimes sounding Fits These Vlcers are very hard to cure partly because of the distance of the place the virulency and malignity of them and partly also because it is so full of Nerves that they hinder the coalescence and healing of it The most proper and convenient diet which in this case you can prescribe is that which is moderate and temperate let her surrender her whole desires to sleepe not fearing any excesse hot meats must be avoided and exercise must be forborne but above all things let her refuse her husband in his loving offers of Benevolence for by heat and motion the humours melt and falling down upon the Matrix they exasperate the Vlcers When you let bloud open the black vein a Vomit may be given with security and safety but the event of a Purge is doubtfull yet if you prescribe one let it be very gentle for the reasons aforesaid Locall remedies are very proper and profitable so are Baths and the Injections which we have already commended to you provided that you add a dram and a hall of the Trochisch alb Rhasis with two ounces of Hydromel and the whey of Goaâ—â— milke If you can gather from the confession of the sick woman that these Vlcers owe their beginning to the French Pox having first made triall of all these remedies aforesaid as well universall as particular prescribe compositions which receive Mercury the severall formes whereof if God permit when we describe the Cure of the French Pox we shall set down at large CHAP. X. Of Wormes the Stone in the Matrix and the Hemorrhoids THat wormes breed in all the parts of our bodies is a truth not to be denyed The Cause of these wormes is a viscous phlegmatick raw and cold humour sticking by its clamminesse to the very Matrix or to the neck thereof and by degrees putrifying The signes of them are a dew or moisture upon the lips of the Matrix slendernesse troublesome sleeps an itching in the belly and a slow Fever This is a disease full of molestation in regard of the Fever and the want of sleep which waste and consume the sick Creature To facilitate the Cure a dry regiment is necessary meats that yield a thick cold and moist juice must be avoided her beer should be boiled with rubarbe purselane or sorrell and you may purge her body with pills of mastick or de Hiera cum agaries or Take an ounce of grasse roots The leaves of planâ—ane Tansie of each a handfull Two drams of ciâ—â—n seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of balme water to a pint in the strained liquor infuse for the space of a night Three drams of the choisest Rubarb A dram and a halfe of agarick Troch Coralline Hartshorne prepared of each a dram In the moring set them upon a gentle fire allow them one or two bublings straine them and presse out the liquor and then add Foure ounces of Diacniâ—u Mingle them for an Apozem Every other day let her drinke three ounces of it You may make your injections after this manner Take halfe an ounce of Dittany roots The leaves of Tansie Calamint of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of Century the lesse Two drams of citron seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of honied water to nine ounces add An ounce and a halfe of Syrup of Wormewood Two drams of aloes in powder Meale of Lupines Rubarb in powder of each a dram Mingle them and make an Injection to serve three times or Take the roots of Costmary Aristolochy the long of each two drams Coloquintida Aloes The gall of an Ox of each three drams Two drams of hartshorne prepared Boil them in a sufficient quantity of wormwood water to nine ounces every morning inject three ounces of the strained liquor Or make a plaister of the things aforesaid according to art and lay it to the privie parts The same administrations will serve against the stone in the Matrix provided that you are sure that that is the Materiall and efficient Cause that is a thick slow and viscoâ—â— humour the other namely the efficient is an immoderate heat Stones many times also are generated of a corruption or matter congealed in the Matrix and grown dry the Cause is twofold one inward the other outward the inward hath already been declared the outward is a thick cold and waterish meat suppeditating matter to the Concretion of the stone as milke fish pulse and other grosse aliments as cheese and muddy ale The Stone in the Matrix is known by the paine in the part and if you presse down the Matrix the paine is exasperated The woman conceives not her Courses come down immoderately and if she put her finger up her fundament she may feele the Stone Use your utmost speed and diligence to cure it for whereas the Matrix is as the sinke or common shore into which Nature empties out all the grosse and superfluous bloud it may be feared that that corrupt matter will turne to a Stone which in continuance of time growes sometimes to such a bignesse as we of our own knowledge can testifie that it fills the whole capacity of the Matrix and totally suppresseth the Courses breeding Vlcers full of corruption and purulency The Cure consists in a good regiment in the preparation of the humours and in the evacuation and expurgation of them to prepare the humours give her this Apozem following Take the roots of parsly Eryngos Fennill Alexander of each halfe an ounce The leaves of Germander Violets of each a handfull White Maidenhaire Century the lesse of each halfe a handfull The seeds of grummell Nettles of each two drams Six drams of raisins pickt and stoned Foure drams of licoras Boile them in a sufficient quantity of barley water to two pints to the strained liquor add Syrupe of the five roots Syrup of Lemons of each an ounce and a halfe Mingle them and make an Apozem When she hath drunk the Apozem make ready this Potion Take the roots of Polypody Marish mallowes The leaves of Violets Mallowes of each a handfull The leaves of Sena Bastard saffron seeds of each halfe an ounce Agarick Trochischated Mechoacha of each two drams Macerate them a whole night in a sufficient quantity of Rhenish wine to eight ounces and boyle them gently in the morning straine and presse out the liquor with a strong hand and add to it Halfe an ounce of Electuary Diacarthamum Mingle them together and make a Potion for two doses to be taken every other day We have already furnisht you with Fomentations Poultisses Oyntments Plaisters and halfe tubs to bath in which are very serviceable in this cure but above all things inject these glysters following very often throughout the whole progresse of the Cure Take nine ounces of some emollient decoction Diacatholicon Benedicta Laxativa of each an ounce Oyle of Dill. Oyle of bitter
Almonds of each six drams A dram of Sal gemme Mingle them and make your glyster or Take the roots of restharrow Marish mallowes of each halfe an ounce The leaves of mallowes Violets Pellitory of the wall Mercury of each a handfull The tops of Dill Camomile flowers of each half a handfull Line seed Fenugreek of each three drams Two drams of nettle seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water to nine ounces to the strained liquor add Diaphenicon Benedicta laxà tiva of each an ounce Oyle of Lillies Unsalted butter of each an ounce and a halfe Mingle them and make a glyster When these things are done let the Midwife put her finger up into the Patients Fundament and artificially presse downe the belly upon the bones that joyne neer the privie parts that the place where the stone lies may be raised up this being dryed put in a hooked instrument and draw it out as we have sometimes seen it done but afterwards let issues made in her body be kept open THE THIRD BOOK OF Barrennesse and such Diseases as befall Women with Childe The first Chapter OF Barrennesse both Absolute and Respective PRovident Nature that she might contrive the continuation of Mankinde for a long time if not in the Individuall yet at least in the Species hath imprinted in those parts dedicated to generation a vehement continuall and inexpressible appetite to propagation and thus by a due commixture of the womans bloud with the seed of the man she formeth and fashioneth a Creature in the Matrix which at a certaine and appointed time she sends forth into the world compleat and perfect in its Conformation Wherefore in my Judgement Conception is nothing else then a receiving of the mans seed in the Matrix being exquisitely and proportionably intermingled aptly retained and fully perfected and therefore by the rule of Contraries we may affirme Barrennesse to be a Depravation or defect of these operations Barrennesse is either naturall and acquired from the first Elements of the Conformation or introduced by sicknesse or lastly Respective namely in reference to the Man or the Woman the first is incurable for no Physitian can correct those errours which Nature commits in the mysterious purpose of our generation one of these errours is the straightnesse of those passages which lead to the Matrix being sometimes so narrow that they hinder the right transmission of the seed into the vessells of Generation or if it be injected yet is it received with so much paine and labour that the Matrix doth neither concoct nor perfect it another errour is the widenesse of those parts into which although the seed be duely ejaculated yet it presently slips out againe because the capacity of the Matrix is too wide the crookednesse of the vessells also may be another impediment for we may many times meet with jesting errours as I may call them in the workmanships of Nature thus in one body a double Matrix hath been seen in another two hearts in a third the Spleen placed where the Liver should stand and many other such like recreations of Nature as Realdus Columbus hath discoursed of the◠at large in his Anatomy The second kinde of barrennesse is that which is contracted by some disease for whereas the seed is a certaine spirituall substance generated of the purest part of the bloud it is necessary that it should be concocted in a temperate wombe but if the Matrix be too hot it consumes the seed as a little water thrown into a fire is presently dryed up and on the contrary if it bee too moist and cold the actions that are ordained for conception are weakned and disabled because cold is unprofitable and uselesse for any function it shuts up the mouthes of the veines in the Matrix it renders a woman averse from and indisposed to the pleasure of the Lawfull sheets for a waterish seed cooles the Testicles and makes them unapt to elaborate the seed and make it fit to unite and mix with the mans seed unto these impediments Hippocrates hath also added another which in his Aphorisms he calls a thick Matrix From all which it is manifest that the temperate Matrix is most fruitfull namely that which obtaines a mediocrity approaching to no excesse either of an active or passive quality by the universall Constitution of the whole body you may best discerne the temperature of the wombe which is most fit for conception for such women are fresh coloured and of a rosie complexion gentle of behaviour affable in their cariage merry and pleasant in their conversation not dull and drowsie and full of pensivenesse The third cause of barrennesse proceeds neither from the Nativity of the Patient nor from any sicknes but relates to the man as for example one and the same woman may have had Children by a former husband and yet no children by a second husband not because she is now barren or unfruitfull but she is so called because of her husband by whom she hath now no children the case is likewise the same on the mans part respectively to the woman but perhaps you will demand a reason hereof I answer because the proportion and temperature of both the seeds which ought to concur to generation are contrary the one to the other for the seed both of the man and the woman if it be prolificall and fruitfull will be of a white and shineing colour not thin and waterish but of a thick and compacted substance in sent like unto the flowers of the Dwarfelder tree and being put into water it will sinke to the bottome but that which is unfit for generation will swim upon the top of the water and is in all respects contrary to the former the man ought to be of a strong constitution well set full of museles and neither too slender nor too thick for those that are slender are usually too weak to get children at least such is are healthfull strong and lively and those who are to grosse are commonly of a cold temper have a thin and slippery seed and are more desirous of Venery then able to performe it Barren men are commonly beardless slow in imagination and dull in practise because their seed is cold and containes not any spirit to tickle and warme their Phantasies but they sit like images and are sad and insociable on the contrary hairy men that have Testicles of an indifferent size and a well concocted seed are cheerefull affable ever frequenting the young company of Maids and Virgin◠being excited by the flagrancy of their eyes to Venereous dalliances and lustfull speculations After the same manner we must give judgement concerning women which besides the signes aforesaide if they be bald and harelesse in the privie parts they are suspected to be barren but if they be rough and full of haire it is a signe that they are fruitfull the wiser sort of Physitians know that much haire is an undeniable argument of much heat and
the morning early If her Courses be stopped cut a veine in her ankle Leeches also may be applyed to the Hemorrhoids but with caution and warinesse least thereby you more and more weaken such women whose bodies are full of raw and indigested humours afterwards you must purge her body again with a scruple of extract Catholic and as much of mass pillul faetidar and lastly prescribe an Apozem or Decoction to cut asunder and evacuate the grosse and tough humours to provoke urine to open the obstructions of the Matrix and to bring down the Courses all which vertues meet together in this Composition following Take the roots of smallage Eryngos And Fennill of each halfe an ounce The barke of the root of the Caper And Tamarisk tree of each two drams The leaves of penniroyall and birthwort of each a handfull Germander Maidenhaire Balm of each halfe a handfull Ten drams of Sena Three drams of agarick trochischt A dram and a halfe or two drams of Epythymum Boile them all according to art in a sufficient quantity of water wherein steele hath been infused to a quart when you have strained and with a strong hand presâ— out the liquor add Three ounees of Syrup of roses Mingle them and make an Apozem or Take the roots of Butchers broome Asparagus Polypody of the oak And fennill of each halfe an ounce The leaves of Penniroyall And motherwort of each a handfull A dram and a halfe of annise seeds The flowers of Violets Rosemary and Borage of each as many as you can take up between your thumb and two fingers An ounce of raisins of the Sun Boyle them in a sufficient quantity of barley water to a quart In the strained liquor infuse for a night Ten ounces of Sena Three drams of the whitest agarick Two drams of the best rubarb A dram of Epithymum In the morning let them buble once or twice and then to the liquor which you presse out add Syr. Byzantin And Syr. de eupatorio of each an ounce Mingle them and make an Apozem Of this or of the former let her take twice in a day the quantity of three ounces for a week together once in the morning and the second time at foure a clock â—n the afternoon Excellent Lozenges may be made of the species Diamosch and Diacinnamomum or you may compound them with Treacle Mithridate and Bezoar stone When the Mola hath obtained some growth if it be waterish it must be brought away with such simples as have a faculty to purge out waterish humours or iâ— it be windy you must prescribe such medicines as are of a known and approved vertue to strengthen the Matrix and to expell winde and Carminative glysters in such cases will be very convenient so also will plaisters and fomentations applyed to her privie parts but that which is humorall skinny and bloudy may be overcome with the same remedies as are set down at the beginning against the stoppage of the Courses When Nature indeavours to expell this unprofitable burthen and an issue of bloud ensueth thereupon with fainting and swounding fits then you must be diligent to strengthen the Patient with broths made of the flesh of Capons and Partridges and with such things as will stay the bloud and refresh the exhausted spirits such as are Chalybeated wine Sugar of Pearle Corall c. You will object that wine cannot be seasonable because by the heat thereof it makes the bloud thin and makes it more apt to flow away in greater measure by opening the passages rather then it can any way help to stay it I answer it is not guilty of this mischiefe if it hath a reddish Tincture for if good Claret wine be chalybeated as hath bin said besides that it nourisheth the bâ—dy it is also a binder for it comforteth the spirits and refresheth the whole body which vermes must needs be profitable for and welcome unto a Creature who is hourely subject to faint and swound and although it might provoke the bloud to flow yet a greater good must be preferred before a small inconvenience and therefore give her wine to refresh her spirits which will be more to her advantage then the issue of bloud can be to her prejudice for she may perish suddenly in one of those fits but the flux of bloud may be restrained by degrees Note that foure things require an abstinence from wine First an inflammation of the bowells Secondly a vehement paine in the head Thirdly a Phrensie And fourthly a burning Fever in a crude disease and of this opinion was Galen as appeares in his first book ad Glauconem and the 14. chapter Moreover the Patient should be refreshed with the choicest meats and then the Mola should be disposed to come forth by softning and loosening fomentations made of a decoction of marishmallowes mallowes motherwort Mercury Birthwort Sage Hyssope Calamint the seeds of line marishmallowes fenugreek camomile melilot and rosemary in this you may dip a clout and bath her privie parts But if the bloud come not away rub her legs and apply drie Cuppinglasses to the calfes of her legs and binde most painfull ligatures about them and in a word make tryall of all such remedies as will draw down Nature the humours and the Mola to the lower parts CHAP. III. Of Womens Longings WOmen are sometimes so extravagant and preposterous in their appetite that they refuse wholsome meat and long after colaes chalke a piece of an old wall starch earth and the like trash which they devoure as ravenously as a hungry Plowman will winde downe a good bag-pudding Now perhaps you may also long to know the cause hereof which is no other then the menstruous bloud especially if it be retained about the middle of their time and grow corrupt for the child in the wombe is nourished with the sweetest part of the bloud and the other part remaining which is vitious filthy and dreggish noisome exhalations especially in the middle moneths arise from it and in such a manner contaminate all the upper partts that the worst things are vehemently desired and the most wholsome refused the signes are apparent from the depravation and irregular temper of their stomack This Disease is hard to cure yet not so much in respect of the disease it selfe as of the subject wherein it is generated which is a woman with childe now we know that such women must be warily â—nd religiously dealt withall and unlesse it be in extreame necessity their bodies ought not to be purged By this unavoidable abstinence the disease is increased and the bad humour being long retained in the body becomes daily more and more corrupt by the tetrous exhalations which ascend up from the pollutions of the Matrix therefore having first appointed a strengthning and drying dyet you must indeavour to rid away that humour with Syrup of roses solutive and afterwards when the body is cleansed and free from the humour you may prescribe a gentle Purge of Rubarb
which hath both a purging and a strengthning faculty for if we may adventure our beliefe to the assertions of the best Physitians Rubarb may be safely given to old men infants and women with childe and Fallopius in his booke of purging Simples and in the chapter where he speaketh of Rubarb saith it dries up all superfluous moisture contained in the vessells of the Matrix it is a gentle cleanser it strengthneth the Heart and the stomack by its astringent faculty neither need you to entertaine the vaine feares of some who suspect that the bitternesse thereof may destroy the childe for the taste of it is not horrible to nature and besides the bitternesse quickly vanisheth There remaines another doubt to be answered namely whether it be more proper and advantagious to prescribe an infusion of Rubarb or to give it in the substance I answer that it purgeth most in the substance or body of it expelling the humours by siege which it doth not in an infusion at least not so powerfully because then it evacuates onely by the purgative vertue which is in it and of the same opinion is the Author before named CHAP. IV. Of a bad stomach proceeding from Vomiting IT is a known truth that most dangerous direfull and pernicious Symptomes invade women with childe from which also forsaking of meat and Vomiting doe afterwards follow all which things proceed from those noysome and soggy exhalations which are distributed into the severall parts from the corruption of the bloud for whereas there is a sympathy and consent between the stomack and the Matrix when any poysonous or malignant vapour ascendeth from the latter it immediately invades and overcomes the stomack which being weakned in the conflict or indeavour to resist and keep out those vapours the functions of it are depraved it refuseth all comfort or nourishment or if at any time it admit any 't is no sooner swallowed but vomited up againe these are the signes of this disease and to cure it proceed according to the Method following In the first place prescribe a cleansing potion Take three drams of Elecampane roots The leaves of wormewood and Century the lesse of each halfe a handfull Boile them in a sufficient quantity of whole barley water to a pint and a halfe to the strained liquor add three ounces of honey of roses strained mingle them for a Potion against the next morning prepare this purge following Take three drams of rubarb Two scruples of agarick Trochischt A dram of annise seeds Macerate them a whole night in a sufficient ' quantity of mint water to two ounces and a halfe in the morning presse them hard with all your strength and add three drams of the Electuary Diaphenicon if she cannot take down a Purge let her swallow these Pills following Take a dram of the mass of Pills de Hiera cum agarico Make nine pillâ— and guild them The next day following give her this strengthning mixture which doth not purge at all and every morning let her eat the quantity of a Nutmeg Take Elecampane roots candied Marmalade of Quinces of each an ounce Halfe an ounce of Conserve of red Roses Foure scruples of aromat rosat in powder Two scruples of mastick in powder With a sufficient quantity of Syrup of â—int make a Confection After the use of these things make this plaister following and lay it to her stomack Take lignum aloes Yellow Sanders And the round Cyperus of each two drams Galangale mace cloves And calam aromat of each a dram Common wormewood roman wormewood Spikenard dried mint Of each as much as you can take up between your thumb and two fingers Mastick Storax calamitu Red Corall of each two scruples Amber Musk of each a scruple Pure ladanum Turpentine of each an ounce Foure ounces of white wax Make a Masse whereof let him take a sufficient quantity and spread it upon leather and lay it to her stomack Bisket steeped in muskadine is excellent good for her because it refresheth the spirits and mightily strengthneth the stomack CHAP. V. Of a Pain in the Belly the Passion of the Heart and of sounding Fits VVOmen with Childe doe often feele a pain in their bellies and this also proceeds from winde and the malignant vapours aforesaid neither are the swounding Fits or the Passion of the heart produced by any other causes because the heart when it is shaken with this fuliginous and grosse spirit doth frequently stretch and contract it selfe and endeavouring to expell the evill which annoyes it it falls into an inordinate and strange motion like unto trembling Under these diseases the woman languisheth is full of feares and frights prone to despaire subject to faint can obtaine no sleep but wasteth away daily and waxeth leane and meager To take away her paine you may administer such remedies as will expell the winde and strengthen the bowell of which sort you may furnish your selfe with plenty above in the chapter of a cold distemper and windy humours in the Matrix You may likewise anoynt the stomack with this oyntment following Take an ounce of unguent Altheae Oyle of wormewood Oyle of Camomile And oyle of rue of each three drams The power of lignum aloes Mastick Wormewood And both sorts of Corall of each a dram Halfe a dram of aromat rosat in powder Six drops of oyle of annise seeds With a sufficient quantity of yellow wax according to art make an oyntment This or the like fomentation may likewise be very usefull Take halfe a dram of elecampane roots Two drams of lignum aloes The leaves of Rue Motherwort Sage Wormewood Mint of each a handfull Mastick Cloves of each two drams Boile these Simples in a sufficient quantity of water to three pints and prescribe the strained liquor for a fomentation After the use of the fomentation clap to the stomack the caul of a sheep newly killed In Spaine the greatest persons and those the wisest also take hot bread from the oven afterwards they soake it in Muskadine and having sprinkled upon it the powders of red and white corall and aromat rosatum they lay it to the heart others instead thereof use Treacle Alkermes and Confect Hiachytorum to all which may be added if the evill yield not to the remedies aforesaid a little bag to be worne upon the left pap and made after this manner following Take two drams of lignum aloes Bezoar stone Muske Red corall of each a dram Red and yellow Sanders of each two scuples The Specie Diamosch And Diambr of each a scruple and a half With a piece of red taffata and cotton make â— quilted bombast for the use aforesaid Mingle cordialls with her drinke and cordiall conserves as for example Take two ounces of conserve of red roses Two drams of alkermes Macerate them a night in two pints of â—â—antane water and red wine in the morning straine it thorough Hippocrates his sleeve that is a woolen bag and give her now â—nd then the quantity
Althaea Vnguentum Resumptivum of each an ounce Oyle of white lillies Oyle of Dill Hensgrease of each halfe an ounce Saffron Dittany beaten to powder of each two drams With a sufficient quanty of wax make an oyntment But if nature be culpable in both namely in the weaknesse of the Mother and the expulsive faculty and also in the strength of the retentive then against one you must administer corroborating medicines as hath already been said and to rectifie the other fault you must adhibit loosening remedies such namely as are recited above CHAP. III. Of the Retained Secundine GAlen in his book de usu partium hath rekoned up three membranes which enwrap the childe in the wombe the first whereof is called Ammios this on every side is spread over the whole childe and receiveth the childs sweat that it may swim in it The second is named Allantoeides or Intestinalis or as others name it better Vrinaculum whose use is to receive the urine the third is called Chorion our Midwives call it the Secundine which is nothing else but a multitude and connexion of vessells and membranes thorough which as by little springs or rivolets the child draweth bloud and ayre these membranes are burst when the childe begins to â—â—ick his way out into the world from whence that liquor distilleth as we have noted above which makes the passages slippery after the nativity of the childe these membranes are excerned but if they chance to be retained they introduce most outragious Symptomes and a disease of number in the excesse The Causes of the retention are diverse for many times the Matrix is confirmed after the childe is borne many times the immoderate passions of the minde make nature forget her selfe in his duty sometimes odoriferous things draw the Matrix upwards and so nature is disturbed in her purposes of exclusion an unseasonable drinking of cold water is a very frequent cause of it and so are grosse meats that stuffe the body and thicken the bloud You may know by the Midwives relation that the Secundine is retained unto whom if she be skillfull you ought at the command of Hippocrates yield up your beliefe or you may conjecture it if the woman be sad in minde subject to faint and swound full of tossing and unquietnesse if she feele a heavinesse in her wombe or a round substance like unto a fixt and immoveable ball This is a most lamentable disease for if he Secundine be retained for any consideraâ—le time it putrifies and communicates poiâ—sonous exhalations to the principall parts as the heart the brain the liver from whence arise swounding fits anxiety of minde giddinesse in the head and direfull torments Wherefore let it be the Midwives care with all speed to attempt the cure bringing down the Secundine with her fingers besmeared with oyle and let her hold fast the umbilicall vessells till the Secundine follow but what if it remaine behinde then according to the Oracle of Hippocrates delivered in the fortieth Aphorisme of his fifth book you may exhibit sneezing medicines to the nostrills for these by that motion compresse the upper parts and the expulsive faculty being irritated out comes the Secundine Take black pepper Mustard seed Sagapenum of each a dram and a halfe Tobacco Castor White hellebore of each a dram A scruple of Euphorbium Make a fine powder of them and upon the point of a knife or thorow a quill let her sniffe up a little of it at a time or you may prescribe this Potion for two Doses it hath often done the Cure Take eight ounces of penniroyall water An ounce and a halfe of aqua Hysterica Two scruples of Castor in powder Mingle them for a Potion to be taken at twice or Take two scruples of the Trochischs de Carabre A scruple of Borace Halfe an ounce of the Syrup of juice of betony Three ounces of a decoction of Savine Mingle them for a Draught Suffumigations are also very profitable to bring away the Secundine Take Storax Benjamin Lign aloes of each two ounces Musk Civet of each a scruple Make a pessarie of them adding Vnguentum Agrippe and the juice of Mercuty Liniments must not be omitted made with unguentum de Althaea de Agrippa oyle of Almonds and oyle of Dill fomentations and halfe tubs are equally necessary made of a decoction of camomile pellitory of the wall Motherwort Birthwort Origanum Sage Savine annise fennill and Line seeds unto all which may be added oyle of Almonds and oyle of Dill Glysters must also be injected and with good successe you may continually rub her hips and her thighes tye ligatures about her legs apply Cuppinglasses and cut a veine in her ankle When the Secundine is ejected or drawn out give the woman Cordialls as Bezoar stone Treacle Confect de hyacintha or Alkermes all which things are of undoubted vertue to restraine the malignity of the vapours sometimes a Mole remaineth in the Matrix after the birth which by reason of the congealed bloud and the fleshie substance whereof it is compounded is as difficult to cure as the recention of the Secundine wherefore you must indeavour to expell that by the help of those remedies which we have prescribed above in the chapter of a Mola and here also a little above Note the difference betweene the Secundine and a Mole this is fixt and unmoveable but that is moveable from one place to another in a Mole or when a woman is troubled with that halfe conception so called a black and clotted bloud drops from the Matrix which upon the retention of the Secundine appeares not CHAP. IV. Of the Dead Childe CErtaine it is that the Childe dyes in the Mothers wombe for many causes the first of these is an inward cause as a defect of aliment or the corruption of it the second is a most vehement burning Fever which by the excessive heat thereof wastes the spirits and destroyes the naturall heat The third cause is an unseasonable evacuation of bloud at the nose the mouth the Matrix or by phlebotomy The fourth is an exuperance or an immoderate predominancy of humours in the body The fifth is a great quantity of moysture loosening the vessells The sixth is some vehement medicine The first outward cause is some blow the second a Cough the third vociferations or loud and clamorous yawlings the fourth sneezing the fifth sad tydings the sixth some horrible and dreadfull sights The Childe may be known to be dead by a coldnesse about the Mothers navell and by a kinde of sixt and immoveable weight in her belly by a bad taste in her mouth and by her stinking breath Use your utmost activity and cunning to bring away the dead childe both by inward administrations and by outward applications inwardly let her take this Potion Take a a dram of the Trochishs of myrrhe Castor Storax Borace of each ten graines Foure ounces of a decoction of Savine Mingle them for a draught or Take the powder
dram of Opium dissolved in burnt â—ine Mingle them for a Liniment Between the suppression of the Courses and the staying of the menstruum after a womans delivery there is little or no difference for there is one cause of both and that accompanied with the same signes and thereâ—ore we shall not diversifie the Cure but direct the Reader to the second chapter of our first book where she may furnish her selfe with convenient remedies CHAP. VI. Of the immoderate coming down of the Courses after the birth VVE have sufficiently handled the Causes of the immoderate flowing of the Courses in our first book we have also related unto the signes wherefore now we shall tell you further from an Aphorism in Hippocrates that if Fainting and Convulsion fits befall a woman in Child-bed 't is a bad signe because they argue a great weaknesse after which follow inexpressible tortures with paine in the Hypochondriacall parts by reason of the clotted bloud a small frequent and swift pulse yea and death it selfe sometimes the woman is surprized with dotage a quinsey or a Lethargie wherefore you must labour to stop the Courses with all your best premeditation and caution and the most expedite meanes you can use are a thickning bindiug and cold diet as broth made with trotters in which you may also boile rise quinces or pease but abstaine from wine for it opens the parts thins the humours and provokes the Courses as on the contrary cold things bind thicken and stop up Rub her hands and tie Ligatures about her upper parts and according to the injunction of Hippocrates in his Aphorismes lay Cuppinglasses to her Breasts Finally if the womans strength will bear it there is not a surer remedie then letting bloud and you must open the Basilick vein twice or thrice Thickning things are very necessary and of great moment in this cure Take true bolearmenick The species Diatragacanth frig 1. of each a scruple Halfe an ounce of Syrupe of Quinces Halfe an ounce of plantane water Mingle them for a Draught or Take terra sigillata Red corall prepared Troch de carabe of each a scruple Halfe an ounce of Syrup of pomegranets Three ounces of a decoction of red rose leaves Mingle them for a Draught or Take the leaves of plantane Knotgrasse of each a handfull Red roses Pomegranet flowers of each half a handfull Myrtle seeds Sumach seeds of each two drams A dram of the juice of hypocystis Boile them to six pints in a sufficient quantity of water wherein steele hath been quenched give the strained liquor for a fomentation or Take the powder of Cyprus nuts The roots of Tormentill Dragons bloud of each a dram and a half A dram of mastick Halfe a dram of right bolearmenick Two ounces of unguentum Comitissae Oyle of mastick Oyle of myrtles of each two drams With a sufficient quantity of wax make an oyntment If these get not the victory a scruple of the masse of pills de Cynoglossa Make five pills and guild them or Take halfe a dram of new Treacle Halfe a scruple of Requies Nicholai Two drams of Syrup of poppy Three ounces of plantane water Mingle them for a Draught If any fault in the Liver as sometimes it hapneth is the cause of this evill apply cooling Epithems unto it or instead thereof you may adhibit Ceratum Santalinum mixt with the powders of Corall Roses and Camphire CHAP. VII Cures of such Diseases as usually befall a woman after she is delivered VVe are taught by Hippocrates that those Diseases which happen after the Birth are more dangerous and venomous then the rest because they are produced by agrosse impure thick and feculent bloud for the Childe in the wombe sucketh away the sweetest part of the bloud for its own nourishment which it purifies and reserves the melaneholy and thicker portion thereof being separated and forsaken which if the providence of Nature doe not duly evacuate and purge away the woman in Childe-bed will without all doubt be invaded by strong and vehement Fevers by reason of the boyling and putrifying of the bloud in the veines of the Matrix which according to Galen are very large in the first place therefore let the Patient be carefully attended and begin the Cure by opening a veine by Cuppinglasses applyed to the calfes of her legs with Scarification and laying Leeches to the Hemorrhoids But the Controversie will be what vein must be cut for if she bleed from the arme you draw the bloud upwards if from the ancle you weaken the body and contribute no ease but if you will follow my direction tie strong Ligatures about her thighes and legs having first well rubbed them and then open the Cubit veine without any discouragement for this cleanseth the very Minerall sinke and puddle of the putrified Humours Galen indeed affirmeth that if a veine be opened in any part of the body it will exhaust and emptie all the Vessells but not equally and in all respects alike for we deliver it for an undoubted truth that the whole masse of bloud will soonest flow away if the Basilick veine be opened which is greater then any of the rest and of the same Judgement is Fernelius who saith if the menstruum flow away from women in Childe-bed thorough the vehemence of a Fever you must cut the Cubit veine At the beginning you must refraine the use of purging medicines for although you should make choice of such as are most gentle in their operation yet they stir the humours and doe not expell them from convenient places Againe should you prescribe strong purges they would draw back the menstruum from the Matrix to the stomack and disturb Nature when she is labouring to expell it and that this were no rationall and well-grounded meanes of Cure but rather a rash and preposterous adventure any sober judgement will acknowledge because the expedition the Art and the Mystery of the whole Cure consisteth in the provocation of the Menstruum If it be a violent burning Fever prescribe such things as will qualifie and temper the heat of the bloud but avoide cold Simples because they keep in the menstruum by binding up the parts neither may you be too bold with hot things for they inflame the bloud These Glysters following will be of excellent use for the purpose aforesaid Take nine ounces of some softning Decoction An ounce and a halfe of the Electuary called Diacatholicon An ounce of hony of roses Butter and oyle of sweet Almonds of each halfe an ounce A dram of salt mingle them and make a Glyster or Take nine ounces of mutton broth well boiled The leaves of Motherwort Violets and Pellitory of the wall of each a handfull Pellitory of the wall of each a handfull Two ounces of honey of roses The yolkes of two eggs An ounce of oyle of Violets mingle them and make a Glyster You may make a Ptisan of Raisins Barley and Licorish which will be very profitable for the sick
with childe are seldome invaded by it You must apply your Remedies in the â—â—t and after the fit in the fit the humour â—ust be drawn back with rubbing the parts â—ying painfull Ligatures about them and â—pplying Cuppinglasses with scariffication to â—he calfes of her legs have such Glysters in â—eadinesse as will take away the paine disâ—olve draw back and purge out the thick â—umours you may compound them by â—hese formes following Take halfe an ounce of Elecampane roots The leaves of rue penniroyall Motherwort â—nd pellitory of the wall of each a handâ—ull Three drams of sena Bran Camomile flowers and the tops of Dill of each halfe a handfull Bastard Saffron and Annise seeds of each â—wo drams Boile them in a sufficient quantitie of birthwort water to nine ounces to the strained liquor being squeezed and presâ— very hard add Diaphenicon and benedicta laxativa of each an ounce Oyle of dill and oyle of rue of each sâ— drams Halfe an ounce of butter A dram and a halfe of salt Mingle them and make a Glyster Carminative medicines must be laid upoâ— the whole inward region as fomentatioâ— made of the leaves of Rue Motherwort Penniroyall the flowers of Melilot and Camâ—mile or unguent de Althea with the oylâ— of Camomile Dill and Rue for this looseneth the passages by opening the pores an expelling the winde pessaries may be pâ—â— up made with Civet Musk and Amber but you must affront her nose with stinking odours as the steame of brimstone thâ— smoke ascending from old shoes burnâ— Partridge feathers sagapenum galbanum asâ—fetida and the like cast into the fire because the Matrix doth as it were abhor râ—treat and flie from these things whereaâ— sweet things doe allure to them But some curious braine may here dâ—mand why sweet things held to the nosâ— doe breed the fits of the Mother and on the contrary stinking things appease those fits I answer sweet things applyed to the Matrix in regard that they are hot doe expell the winde cut into the slow and tenacious phlegm and afterwards purge it out but stinking things applied to the Nose consume the ascending vapours with their heat but you may still demand if hot stinking things be good to break the winde why may they not be laid to the Matrix as well as sweet things I answer the Matrix embraceth and meeteth sweet odours and perfumes but unsavory and stinking sents it abhors and flies from for 't is a most certaine truth that every creature even by naturall instinct shunneth inconveniences and affecteth things convenient If the evill still increase and if the Virgin be of a good habit fleshie and for a long time hath not had her Courses or for too long a time hath had them the safest course although upon the approach of the Fit will be to open a veine in the ankle without delay especially if any excretion of bloud appear either at the nose or at the mouth for as Hippocrates hath excellently taught us as the coming down of the Courses is a present Remedie for those who vomit bloud so in a body that is plethorick by reason that the Menstruum hath been long suppressed you may help a woman who vomits bloud if you cut one of her lower veines the same opinion iâ— favoured by Galen in his Commentry saying in this case we ought to endeavour arâ— evacuation namely such an one as is correspondent to nature when she is obedient to her own lawes After the Phlebotomy if her body bâ—strong and the Disease continue apply Cuppinglasses with scarification to her thighes Leeches to the Hemorrboids and with iterated Glysters and medicines given agaiâ— and again into the body purge out thâ— Melancholy juices Many who are more rash then learned more bold then skilfull because of thâ— cold and the winde which are the causeâ— of this Disease at the beginning will unadvisedly be offering wine to the sick which being odoriferous is apt to allure the Matriâ— to the upper parts therefore I counsel all those that value the health of theiâ— friends to forbeare this temerity yet if shâ— faint and her spirits be so far spent thaâ— she swounds or is ready to swound in such an exigence you may allow her wine yet in a small quantity When the Fit is over let her live soberly and feed upon hot meats that yield a thin and subtle nourishment and be very carefull to preserve her self least she fall into a Relaps hearbs and roots and such thinge as thicken the bloud or are hard to digest must be no part of her diet Wormewood beer may be allowed her or in her beer mingle Cinamon water or boile Annise seeds or China roots in it The humour must be prepared with cutting Syâ—ups as Rhodomell Syrupe of Wormewood Syrupe of Mint or Syrupe of the five roots You may prescribe the Purge of Mechoaca Hiera Picra pills of agarick of Hiera with Confectio Hamech or Sena You must open a veine in the ankle again and because this thick and stubborne humour will not obey a single evacution you must also purge her body againe with agarick hellebore Pills of Mastick or of Rubarb Steele taken in powder or mingled among the other medicines will much advance the Cure so will an Issue and an artificiall Bath made with Sulphur or a decoction of Salsa parilla Guaiacum and China Lastly if the Disease take beginning from the seed because in Physick no peculiar or elective purging medicine is consecrated to it you must lessen her diet enjoyne her an abstinence from hot wine and let her continually weare plates of lead upon heâ— back for it is most certaine that these doâ— diminish the seed if the Patient for twelvâ— mornings together upon an empty stomack drink three ounces of a decoction of agnus castus seeds boiled with six graines oâ— Camphire CHAP. II. Of the Epilepsy in the Matrix And thâ— severall kindes thereof PHysitians reckon up a twofold Epileps in the Matrix one by Consent thâ— other by Propriety the Cause of this is thick viscous and slow humour obstructing the hollow parts of the Nerves thâ— cause of that is a cold distemper of the Matrix and a contagious vapour assaulting and shaking the Braine and the nervouâ— parts for when the animall faculty strives to expell that humour or vapour from it selfe the hollow parts of the Nerves are crusht together and the passages are stopt and thus there happens a constipation or an obstruction the insides of the Nerves being as it were straightned bound and closed up together That there is such a Disease as an Epilpsy by Consent we are warranted by Galen to beleeve who in his book de Locis propounds the example of a boy who being lame in his legs fell afterwards into an Epilepsy and after the same manner Virgins who are troubled with obstructions winde or a malignant vapour in their Matrices doe frequently fall into the Falling Sicknesse This is easily known for imminent
Apozem following Take the roots of fennill Small Aristolochy Elecampane of each foure drams The roots of Dittany Piony of each two drams The leaves of Nip Penniroyall Calamint Sage of each a handfull The flowers of Stechas Rosemary of each as much as you can graspe between your thumb and two fingers at twice A dram of annise seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water wherein steele hath been infused to two pints To the strained liquor add An ounce and a half of Syrupe of Stâ—â—has An ounce of oxymell Scilliticum Mingle them and make an Apozem After you have prepared the humour purge the body with this composition following Take two drams and a halfe of Sena Three scrupâ—eâ— of white agarick A dram of annise seeds A scruple of Ginger Macerate them for a â—ight in a sufficient quantity of parsley water in the morning give them one or two bublings and to the â—iquor which you presse ouâ— I meane â—hree ounces of it Add two scruples of Masâ— â—il◠〈◊〉 Mingle them for a Potion or You may prescribe some other miâ—ture â—oâ— purge phlâ—gâ—â— and more 〈◊〉 to â—reak and expell winde or make ready â—his plaister following to be applied to â—eâ—â—â—vell and her secret parâ—â—â— Take three ounces of â—â—stort 〈◊〉 Lign Aloes Sautali moschatelâ—â— Nutmegs Barbaries Dill of each two dramâ— Cinamon Cloves Scevanth Camamile flowers of each a dram Male frankincense or Olibanum Mastick Trochischs de Gallia Moschata Storax calimata Red storax of each a scruple Seven graines and a halfe of musk Three ounces and a halfe of yellow waâ— An ounce and an halfe of turpentine A pound of pure ladanum Nine ounces of ship Pitch Mingle them and according to Art makâ— a Plaister If the contumacity of the evill be such â— not to yield to all these remedies make Iâ—sues in the legs and if those also prove in effectuall my last recourse is to a decoction of Guaiacum wood wherewith the learned Jachinus as he averreth in his Commentaries upon Almansor hath cured many oâ— this Disease CHAP. III. â—f Mâ—lancholy proceeding from the Matrix THis hath one and the same Cause with the Epilepsy namely the retention of â—e Seed and the suppression of the Menâ—â—m which being earthy and not obâ—ning a vent they putrifie beget vapours â—hich doe not onely assault the braine but â—ey oppresse the heart also and the Midâ—e for when a gloomy and black vapour â—ends to the braine the principall parts â—d their instruments are depraved and â—e animall spirit which is the chiefest inâ—ment of the soule and in its own nature â—are and perspicuous is rendred darke â—d obscure The true signes of this disease are sadâ—se fearfulnesse anxiety of minde and seveâ—l figures or postures of unquietnesse apâ—ring in the body They despaire they doate they talke â—ly especially at that time when they â—pect their Courses in these you may obâ—ve a depraved motion of the principall Members because the temperament of tâ— braine is perverted by that cold and dâ— humour moreover they are unwilling dye they cannot sleep they have no stâ—mack to their meat and being taken wiâ— a strange loathing of aliment their bodâ— waste and consume sometimes they imâ—gine that they undergoe the torments damned soules in Hell they weep witâ— out any cause they groan they lameâ— anon againe they laugh desire to goe to some by corners and according the inward discomposure of their mind they turne vary and alter their gestuâ— and countenances into severall figurâ— sometimes they have a conceit that they talking with Angels sometimes they mâ—â—mur sometimes they sing certainly thâ— is not a more strange and wonderfull dâ— ease for in severall persons it bewrayâ— a thousand severall ridiculous and antâ— behaviours He sees the difficulty of this Cure bâ— in regard of the Symptomes and the stuâ— bornesse of the disease who understands to be a cold and dry affect for there is â— doubt but the braine labours under cold and dry distemper and how muâ— drienesse resisteth the best medicines is nâ— unknown to Philosophers for as it is of a dull and sluggish action so are there many resistances and from thence comes the danger because it easily degenerates into raveâ—ng and raging madnesse or into the Falling Sicknesse or into an Apoplexy and it is held incurable if the braine be primarily affected because in continuance of time â—t takes so deep a root that no Magazine of Remedies no stratagems of Art can remove it Wherefore you must be very carefull when you undertake the Cure as for her Diet let it incline to hot and moist assigne â—er a gently breathing ayre boile her drink with the roots of buglos angelica and snakeâ—eed with the leaves of hops buglos balme â—nd fumitary allow her white Wine that is â—mall and well sented let her be indulgent to her sleeps avoiding cares pensivenesse and troublesome thoughts if her body be costive make it and keep it soluble Venery is wholsome for melancholy persons provided that it be acted seasonably and with moderation Hippocrates placed the whole hope of the Cure in the evacuation of that excrement commanding as we have said above such Virgins to marry To facilitate the Revulsion and the evacuation of the humour loosen the belly with moistning Suppositories and Glysterâ— observe their composition Take two scruples of the species Hiera picrâ— Ten graines of Troch Alhandal Halfe a dram of common Salt With a sufficient quantity of honey boiâ—ed to a due thicknesse make a Suppository â— Take a scruple and a halfe of Hiera Piâ— in the species Trochishs of agarick Troch Alhandall of each a scruple Halfe a dram of Sal gemme With a sufficient quantity of honey according to art make a Suppository Take the roots of Elecampane Polypody of each foure drams The leaves of mallowes Violets Balme Pellitory on the wall Mercury of each a handfull Ten good prunes Five drams of Sena As much Epithymum as your thumb anâ— two fingers can grasp Two drams of annise seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity â— fumitary water to nine ounces when you have strained and prest out the liquor add Diaprun Laxat Diaphenicon of each an ounce An ounce and a halfe of oyle of Violets A dram of Sal gemme Mingle them and make a glyster Or Take the leaves of Buglos Borage Balme of each a handfull Halfe a handfull of Violets Foure drams of Sena Halfe an ounce of the roots of black Hellebore As much Epithymum as you can take up between your thumb and two fingers A dram of fennill seeds Boile them in a sufficient quantity of â—roth made of a sheepshead and guts soundâ—y wash't before you put them into the pot â—nd to ten ounces of the liquor which you press out add An ounce of Diaprun Laxat Halfe an ounce of Confectio Hamech An ounce and a halfe of oyle of Violets Two drams of common salt Mingle them and make a glyster But if the Disease arise from a suppression of the Courses
much moisture in that part whereby the Matrix becomes soft and loose 't is needlesse to set down any signes whereby to know this disease for of it selfe it is conspicuous Yet in the meane time you must not let passe any opportunity of help because it is accompanied with a diuturnall Fever many times with Convulsion Fits and a trembling of the parts Wherefore if the disease proceed from an excesse of moisture prescribe a drying dietâ— and open the basalick veine for Revulsion sake A purge must by no meanes be granted her for 't is exceeding hurtfull because it precipitates the humours to the part affected and there breeds an inflammation but a Vomit is very proper in this case because by drawing the humours to some other part it doth derive them from the Matrix When you have done these things labour to settle the Matrix in its former place and to this purpose the woman must be laid upon her bed with her legs stretched out then the Matrix must be gently bathed with mollifying fomentations afterwards to the end it may not fall down againe rub the parts well tye ligatures upon her armes yea apply stinking things to her Matrix as assa faetida galbanum Castor and stinking pisse but to the nose hold sweet things as musk civet and amber When you have thus done dry up the moisture digest the slimy humour and expell the winde with this Fomentation Take half an ounce of tormentill The leaves of wormewood Mint Sage Penniroyall of each two handfulls The flowers of Camomile Red roses of each a handfull Burnt alum Live Sulphur of each three drams Boile them in sowre red wine to three pints and with the strained liquor bath her secret parts After the fomentation lay on this plaister Take two ounces of Emplastrum pro matrice Pitch Gummi laranne of each a dram Two drams of the Trochischs de Gallia Moschata The powder of red roses Red Corall Acornes of each a dram and a halfe With a sufficient quantity of wax make a Masse and spread it upon a piece of leather cut into a convenient forme If it cannot be reduced to its naturall site and position by the dexterity of the hand but begins to mortifie by the inclemency of the ayre cut it off and afterwards fasten it by actuall Cauterizing onely be carefull of some ligaments and feare not the incision because it is none of those principall parts without which we can live no longer but it is a part intended by Nature for Conception onely and generation Avicen reports of some women who lived eighteen yeares without a Matrix and the possibility hereof we affirme to be true upon our owne experience CHAP. VIII Of an Itch Clefts Chaps and an Inflammation in the Matrix AN Inflammation in the Matrix is a preternaturall swelling arising from a hot bloud or from the suppression of the Menstruum in the hollow parts thereof The Causes of this swelling are either inward or outward the inward Causes are a great plenitude or fulnesse of the whole body begot by a hot distemper of the Liver and the veines By the vehemence of this distemper the bloud it selfe is compelled in a large proportion to the Matrix and thus the retained bloud being no wayes able to get out either putrifies or else without putrifying produceth an inflammation sometimes also an Vlcer in the Matrix or clefts or chaps or the Piles doe most speedily draw the bloud unto them by reason of the paine and heat The outward Causes are a fall a blow a stroke a hard labour immoderate coition and the like which weakning the Matrix the bloud flowes unto it and settles there without resistance after this inflammation in the Matrix there followes an acute Fever bred of the putrifaction of the bloud which Fever Galen saith must be numbred among the continuall Fevers She complaines of a great paine in her head by reason of vapours ascending from her Matrix also her eyes ake and her neck is drawn to one side her stomack is affected by consent with nauseating vomiting and a griping paine and from hence many times proceeds a paine in her back and idle talking the excrements are suppressed by the compression of the straight gut and from hence comes a difficulty to make water or a pissing by drops Every one knoweth how dangerous and mortall this disease is by reason of the consent which it hath with the parts aforesaid wherefore you must presently addresse your selfe to the Cure first prescribing a thin and cold Diet which Hippocrates enjoynes to be observed in all Fevers and inflammations and afterwards opening a veine Many Physitians have been puzled to finde out Galens meaning who first commands the Basilick veine to be cut Secondly the Saphena or veine in the ankle but the reason is obvious for whereas in the beginning of the disease the body is full he prescribed the opening of the basilick veine to expedite the Revulsion otherwise he had drawn the humours by a precipitate motion to the part affected and so superinduced an inflammation When this is done he proceeds to lessen the predominancy of the bloud by cutting a veine in the ankle and not without sound reason for by the proximity or nearnesse of that part the labouring parts are soonest disburthened A Purge is in this case inconvenient by reason of the inflammation of the part and the drawing faculty of the purging simples Glysters may be profitable both to bring away the antecedent cause and also to free the afflicted part from the peccant matter Make them by this example Take the leaves of Violets Mallowes Beet of each a handfull The flowers of dwarfelder Violets of each a handfull Roses Prunes ten in number The seeds of Melons Cucumbers Citrons Gourds of each two drams Boile them in a sufficient quantity of whole barley water to nine ounces to the strained liquor add Two ounces of Electuarium lenitivum Oyle of Roses Oyle of Violets of each an ounce Mingle them and make a glyster To appease the paine you may mingle Topicall remedies with the Anodynall and apply them Take the leaves of Mallowes Violets of each a handfull Boile them to softnesse then set them into an oven and dry them beat them to powder sift them and to the sifted matter add The whites of two eggs beaten together The meale of marish mallowes Unsalted butter Oyle of Violets of each an ounce Two drams of Opium dissolved in wine vinegar Mingle them and make a Poultis or Take foure ounces of the crums of whitâ— bread The whites of two egs Oyntment of Roses Oyntment of Poplars of each an ounce Two scruples of Saffron Mingle them and make a Poultis This Inflammation will either be dissolved or hasten to suppuration you may guesse by the vehemence of the fever when it will dissolve for seeing that the greatnesse of the fever doth accompany the greatnesse of the inflammation if the fever remit which depends upon the
distribution potentially cold and moist that is cold and moist in their qualities and operation though they be actually hot when she eats them it would be superfluous to name them having already sufficiently spoken of them in the precedent chapters of a hot dihemper in the Matrix and an inflammation in the Matrix It will be convenient to draw bloud from the basilick vein in the right arme and if the hot dishemper be the cause that the Patient hath not her Courses cut a veine in her ankle Moreover you may prepare cooling and moistning Juleps after this manner Take Syrup of Violets and water lillies of each two ounces Twelve ounces of Endine water Six drops of Spirit of 〈◊〉 mingle them or Take Syrup of horage and Syrupe of purselane of each an ounce and a halsâ—â— A decoction of letâ—uce wash â—â—cumber citrull gourd and melon feeds of 〈◊〉 a diam and a halfe take a pint and alhalfe of the decoction mingled with the Syrups and 〈◊〉 her drink it at three doses Prescribe a Purge also to evacuate â—holer Take three drams of the best rubarb A scuple and a halfe of citron seeds Macerate them a night in a sufficient quantity of a decoction of tamaâ—inds to two ounces and a halfe in the morning straine and presse them and to the liquor add three drams of the Electuary Diaprun laxative Halfe an ounce of Syrupe of Violets by infusion mingle them and give it in the morning Whey of it selfe is exceeding wholsome or else you may thus compound it for your Patient Take an ounce of borage roots Two handfulls of sorrell leaves with the roots Endive and borage leaves of each a handfull Six drams of tamarinds Boyle them in a sufficient quantity of whey to a quart and in the strained liquor infuse for a whole night Halfe an ounce of choise rubarb Two scruples of Cinamon In the morning let them bubble a little over a gentle fire and when you have prest them hard add Three ounces of Syrupe of roses laxative Mingle them together for an Apozem Which is of most excellent vertue to correct the heat and distemper of all the veynes and principall parts this Bath also will be very effectuall to coole the body Take foure handfulls of vine leaves The leaves of mallowes violets and endive of each two handfulls A handfull and a halfe of bran A handfull of salt Boyle them in a sufficient quantity of water to eight quarts let her hold her feet in the strained water two or three houres together You may likewise prepare fomentations of the hearbe aforesaid and bath the privities the Liver and the Reynes of the back and afterwards you may make use of this oyntment Take two ounces of unguent infrigidantis Galeni An ounce of Cerat Sautalin Oyle of roses and oyle of violets of each halfe an ounce Two drams of the powder of red corall Halfe an ounce of vinegar of roses With a sufficient quantity of white wax make an oyntment according to Art Take the liquor which is distilled out of Cockles Snailes or Frogs mingle it with Saccharum perlatum and give it her to drink as a most effectuall remedy against this Disease A decoction of young Chickens boiled with prunes and borage leaves and taken every morning upon an empty stomack doth refresh the body strengthen the spirits moisten the Matrix cleanseth away the foulnesse that groweth in those parts and very powerfully resists the causes of barrennesse When unfruitfulnesse proceedoth from a cold distemper you must observe a contrary method of cure as for example The ayre must incline to hot and dry the meat must be also potentially hot and dry and because this cold distemper in perpetually consociated with moistuâ—â— whereby cloudy and grosse vâ—pours get into the Matrix which is cold and neâ—vous therefore it will be requisite to correct this coldnesse to take away the moisture and to consume and dissipate those windy vapours from hence you may gather that this is a very frequent cause of barrennesse and abortivenesse and so likewise are flatulent and windy humours for they extreamely swell the Matrix so that the seed cannot be perfectly retained neither can the child be held fast by the Cotyledous When you attempt the Cure abstaine from Phlebotomy unlesse it be preparative onely to disburthen the oppressed vessells when the Patient is in the spring of her yeares and at the Spring of the yeare least by taking away the bloud the spirits should be wasted the humours should become more cold and indigested which otherwise were not the bloud prodigally let out might be seasonably concocted and this you may observe with the learned Fernelius to prescribe a Purge before you open a veine in crude bodies that the first region may be cleansed if any man shall rashly proceed to a contrary course doubtlesse with great disadvantange to the Patient he shall pervert the right order of Nature for when as he hath emptied the veines by Phlebotomy he will fill them again with that filthy accumulation of corrupt humours which they suck in with greedinesse from the first places and so he shall not lessen but double the disease the Purge may be made as followeth Take a dram and a halfe of the whitest agarick Two drams of bastard Saffron seeds A scruple of Ginger Halfe a dram of Anniseeds Macerate them a whole night in a sufficient quantity of marjoram water to three ounces in the morning presse them hard and add Diaphenicon and Diacuicum of each halfe an ounce Mingle them and let her drink it in the morning If her body be not sufficiently open give the same potion every third day or else prescribe this Glyster following Take nine ounces of a mollifying decoction made with marjoram and groundpine or germander of each a handfull Diacarthamum and Diaphenicon of each an ounce An ounce and a halfe of honey of roses strained Mingle them and make a Glyster When you have thoroughly purged the body and taken away the cause the parts must be strengthned and the distemper must be corrected with these pills Take a dram of right lign aloes beaten to powder Two scruples of aloes ro sat Musk and amber of each a scruple With a sufficient quantity of alkermes make thirty five pills Let her swallow five of them or fewer every morning they are exceedingly provocative and withall they strengthen the braine the heart the liver and the Matrix when the man and the woman intend conjunction let him anoint his yard with oyle of mastick and wormewood mingled with a few graines of musk and civet and let the woman also anoynt her privie parts therewith as well within as without for by this meanes there is raised a mutuall inclination to Venery and the seed is received with a greater pleasure and is more duely retained and elaborated reason it selfe will convince us that sweating remedies made of ebony and Salsapaâ—illa will mightily help and prepare the Matrix for they expell
the windy humours strengthen the Matrix and dissipate the fuliginous and grosse vapours naturall Baths are excellent for the same purposes and so are Treacle Mithridate Alkermes Aromaticum rosatum Diarrhodon Abbatis Diamargarit calidum and Diacinnamomum and lastly if you desire any satisfaction from our opinion concerning Issues we answer that they evacuate those cold and thick juyces which daily flow unto and settle in the Matrix and therefore as we said almost every where we affirme the use of them to be very expedient and conducible CHAP. II. Of the shapeless lump of Flesh called Mola A Mola is an unprofitable and shapeâ—â—â—â— lump of flesh bred in the Matrix of the menstruous bloud as the Materiall cause thereof according to the opinion of Galen in sundry places of his works He saith of the menstruous bloud that it such as is very thick and much hardned in the Matrix but note that he doth not here exclude the seed of the man for every Physitian knowes that a Mola proceeds from a mixture of the menstruum and â— corrupted seed which indeed doth somewhat indeavour Conception but cannot perfect it neither is there any cause of wonder that such a lump of deformity should be fashioned in the wombe seeing that severall kindes of monsters are bred there according to the variety of thâ— humour which floweth into the Matrix hâ— that would acquaint himselfe with thâ— knowledge of these things may reaâ— Skenkius his Observations and the wonderfull stories related by Marcellus Donatus if also he would search into and examine the true cause of these things let him read Laurentius his book of Anatomy But why doth this breed in the Matrix onely of a woman and not in some other part I answer because although the bloud may congeale and become clotted in the other parts of the body yet it happens so more frequently in the Matrix of a woman then in any other part of her body because the Matrix is as the common shoore of the body where most of the excrements are exonerated But why doth a Mola breed in women onely I answer because women onely have an abundance of this menstruum more then other Creatures and that their bodies are full of grosse thick and tenacious humours by reason that for the most part they use a moist diet and abandon themselves to a reproveable and disorderly course of life This Mola is of severall kindes for sometimes it is waterish sometimes windy and humorall and sometimes againe 't is skinnie and bloudy this last is the most ordinary and all Physitians have granted it this is that which is most usually presented to our observation and lastly this is that which so often hath deceived women who boasted themselves to be with childe and were not and their Physitians also who told them they were with child when they were not Wherefore to avoid these common couzenages let us be circumspect in the knowledge and right understanding of the signes which are a swelling with a drawing back of the Hypochondriacall parts the women grow leane are full of paine and very apt to long the belly is burthened her back aketh her breasts swell and her Courses are stopped and that at the beginning of her conception but afterwards in processe of time she seemes to have the Dropsey her belly is so immoderately swelled but you may know this from a Dropsey for in that the belly sounds like a Drum the woman feeles within a kinde of fluctuation or waving motion and if a finger be laid hard upon her belly the print of it remaines A Mola is distinguished from a perfect conception by three most certain signes that is by the motion by the milk and by the time that a woman beareth her childe in the motion because there is a great difference between the motion of a childe and the motion or stirring of a Mola because the childe kicks and turneth about to all the parts of the bottome of the belly but a Mola moveth like a Globe now on the right side and anon on the left this also if you presse down the womans belly with a gentle hand removeth from the place and returnes not suddenly into it againe and from the milke you may gather a never-failing signe because the breasts swell all the time a woman is with childe but in the other it happeneth otherwise the time likewise affords a never-failing signe for if the swelling of the belly continue beyond the eleventh moneth which is the most constant and certaine period of a womans Reckoning and no signes of a Dropsie at that time appeare you may warrant your owne confidence that she hath a Mola but no childe in her belly This is a most dangerous disease for many times a woman carries it in her wombe the space of two or three yeares and sometimes longer insomuch that the naturall heat is suffocated therewith moreover in the expulsion of it there is no small danger for many times it groweth to such a bignesse that it comes not away without extreame hazard of the womans life for a great Issue of bloud ensueth whereby the spirits being spent and exhausted she waxeth feeble wan and pale and many times perisheth in the very act of expelling it This evill hath a twofold manner of Cure one Preservative to prevent the Generation or breeding of the Mola and the other curative to destroy and bring it away when it is bred and this last is also twofold for the first designe must be to exclude it and the second to save the woman in the very act of excluding it The Preservation consists in a due observation of these things following the ayre she lives in must be hot and dry and the place healthfull being scituate towards the East let her keep a good diet feeding upon meats that yield a wholsome nourishment to the body and such as are soone concocted and distributed to all the parts let her choice also be rather of hot then cold meats avoiding such as are fat salt and hardned with smoak fish which breed thick windy and viscous juyces are unwholsome for her she cannot desire a more wholesome drink then Wormewood wine or excellent generous French wine her belly must be kept open and soluble exercise must be used and sleep refrained angry chidings and cares of the minde must be moderated and all such things for borne as dry the bloud and diminish the naturall heat In the next place prepare the thick and grosse humours with Rhodomel Syrupe of wormewood Syrupe of mint and the like mingled with some convenient water afterwards prescribe this Purge Take three drams of Sena A scruple of Agarick Trochischt A dram of the root Mechoaca A dram and a halfe of anniseeds Boile them a short space in a sufficient quantity of pure water to three ounces then straine and presse them and to the remaining liquor add three drams of Diaphenicon Mingle them and let her drink it in
flesh of Partridges and sheeps feet or sheeps-heads or broths made of them pease beanes quinces Services and the like are not unwholsome for her and for her drinke let it bee beere or water wherein steele hath often been quenched Let her bloud immediately to divert the humour but in what part there is indeed a great controversie among the Physitians about it but to promote the Revulsion of the humour if the Patient be strong enough we tye ligatures about her legs and boldly open a vein in her arme or if she be very strong we apply Cuppinglasseâ— with scarification to her shoulders When the veine is opened give her thickning Syrups as Syrup of poppies Myrtles quinces or Syrupe of restharrow Juleps also made with the distilled waters of plantane and roses and mixt with the Syrups aforesaid will be convenient for her or you may mingle Conserve of roses or Conserve of acacia with Bolearmenick and the Trochisch de Carabe which will be an excellent mixture to thicken and stay the bloud but however forget not to prescribe this Purge Take two scruples of Rubarb gently boyled Ten grains of the myrabolans called chebule Syrup of dried roses or Syrupe of sowre Pomegranets halfe an ounce Three ounces of plantane water or a decoction of tormentill roots Mingle them and make a Potion Procure some sleepe for her with Opiates as Athenasia Requies Nicholaâ— Philonium Persiâ—um new Treacle or Philonium Romanum yea with pills de Cynoglossa or foure or five graines of Opium all these things doe wonderfully thicken the bloud straighten the passages fatten the body concoct the bloud provoke sleep and therefore are very proper for women thus affected Note that the Opium restraines and stops all superfluous evacuations sweat excepted which it provokes besides by inviting sleepe it refresheth the body for by sleep the aliment is soonest concocted the naturall heat retiring to the inward parts whereas when the Patient waketh the heat is distributed and diffused all over the outward parts Lay this plaister which followes the oyntment to the reines of her back and with the oyntment anoynt her privie parts and the region of her Kidnies Take the powder of Gyprus Nuts The roots of Comphrey Bistort of each two drams Red Sanders Red Corall Bolearmenick Mastick of each a dram With foure ounces of Vnguentum Comitissâ— make an oyntment After the oyntment apply this Plaister as was said above Take a pound of loom and beat it to powder with ten drams of gum-arabick tosted by the fire and the whites of foure Egs incorporate them and make a plaister CHAP. X. Of water flowing away from the Matrices of women with Childe MOst certaine it is that Women with Childe by reason of their depraved appetites and continuall intemperance in their diet abound with crude and unconcocted juices which nature not knowing how to digest nor being able to expell them by her monethly Courses are accumulated in a large measure pollute the body and introduce a cold distemper from whence that water comes which is the intended subject of our present discourse they who live a sedentary and an idle life are very obnoxious to this disease in such women this waterish humour comes away at the Matrix cold to the touch slow in motion slimy in substance and white to the eye and voide of all manner of sharpnesse these women look pale their skin is lanke or loose they are lazy and loath to use any exercise they are troubled with winde and loud rumblings in their bellies Account this a difficult Cure especially when it happens in the last moneths when we dare not administer convenient remedies fearing to destroy or hurt the childe because such kinde of remedies dissolvâ— and exhaust the spirits and when the body is extreamely weakned they precipitate the Patient into a Dropsey which is scarce curable or else she miscarries by reason that the retentive faculty is too much weakned by excesse of moysture You must therefore indeavour the cure by a drying Diet as Bisket made with annise seeds and with flesh meat rather rosted then boiled forbid windy meats salt meats such as breed a thick juice and yield too much moisture almonds chesnuts pine kernells and boyled rise are very wholsome all hearbs and fruit beside quinces and medlars are unwholsome For her drinke give her binding red wine or wine wherein steele hath been quenched for this comforts the spirits a decoction of china and Salsaparilla may be profitable because it dries up the descending moisture and cleanseth the body from it this potion following will doe her much good Take two drams of Cyprus nutâ— The leaves of wormewood Mint Red roses of each halfe a handfull The seeds of quinces Services of each two drams Parcht rise Mastick of each a dram Halfe a dram of gum dragon Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water wherein steele hath been quenched to two pints to the strained liquor add Syrup of dried roses Syrup of the juyce of quinces of each an ounce Halfe an ounce of honey of roses Mingle them and make a Potion Let her take three ounces of it early in the morning it evacuates the waterish humour and not onely strengthens but also bindes the parts dryeth the Cotyledons and retaineth the childe in the Matrix that it come not into the world before its due time after the Potion the next day lay this Plaister to her privie parts Take two drams of Loadstone beaten to powder Spikenard Mastick Red corall of each a dram Two ounces of oyle of quinces Six drams of white wax Mingle them and make a Plaâ—ster A gentle laxative Decoction cannot be inconvenient and therefore we shall here set down that which hath often purchased sweet ease to the Patient and credit to our selves Take a handfull of plantane leaves A pugill of red roses Foure drams of rubarb Two drams of agarick trochischated Mastick Spikenard of each a scruple Macerate them together in two pints of water wherein steele hath been infused upon hot coales the space of six houres afterwards set them upon the fire and when they begin to bubble presse out the liquor with a strong hand and add to it Two ounces of Syrup of Fumitary Mingle them according to Art Give her every other morning fasting three ounces of this decoction for it gently strengthens the parts diverts the waterish humour from the Matrix and with much benignity evacuates it When the woman is almost ready to be in labour a wheyish or waterish humour floweth leasurely and by degrees from the Matrix either because of some dilatation of the Membranes in which the childe is enwrapped or else because those membranes are burst asunder and although it descend leasurely yet a large quantity comes from her if this happen when she is in labour suspend all helps of art for it is a good omen that she will be safely delivered but if it should fall out in the fifth sixth seventh or eigth moneth in
of assa faetida Trochishs of myrrhe of each a scruple Troch Alhandal Borace of each ten graines Nutmog Saffron of each five graines Two ounces of a decoction of Savine Two ounces of muscadine Mingle them for a Draught or Take the powder of Euphorbium Dittany of Creet of each a scruple Ten graines of borace Five graines of Cantharides prepared Three ounces of a decoction of Savine Mingle them for a Draught Glystars and Suppositaries are of great concernment and thus make you them Take a dram of rest-harrow roots The leaves of Savine Pennyroyall Birthwort Motherwort of each a handfull Origanum Sage Dittany of Creet of each halfe a handfull Fennill seeds Nettle seeds The pulp of Coloquintida of each two drams Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water to nine ounces to the strained liquor add Two ounces of benedict a laxativa Halfe an ounce of hiera picra Mingle them and make a Glyster or Take Troch Allhandall Scammony of each a scruple A dram of common salt With a sufficient quantity of white honey boiled according to Art make your Suppository Outwardly you may apply oyntments made of oyle of Castor oyle of Foxes oyle of Euphorbium with unguentum Agrippe unâ—o which may be added a little coloquintida powder of dittany scammony the gall of an One. Take two ounces of Vnguentum Agrippâ— Oyle of Castor Foxes Euphorbium of each halfe an ounce The pulp of coloquintida Dittany of Creet Scammony of each two drams The gall of an Oxe Euphorbium of each a dram Mingle them and make an oyntment Suffumigations may be prepared by this forme following Take halfe an ounce of live Sulphur Opoponax Galbanum Assa faetida of each two drams The powder of rue Savine of each a dram and a halfe The gall of an Oxe The juice of an onyon of each a sufficient quantity Make them into Trochischs for your use Pessaries must not be forgotten therefore Take three drams of Hiera piera in the species A dram and a halfe of myrrhe A sufficient quantity of unguentum Agrippâ— With a piece of cotton according to Art make a Pessary Or Take Ammoniack Assa faetida Black hellebore of each two drams Troch Alhandall Scammony of each a dram The juice of rue Soldanella The gall of an Oxe of each halfe a dram Two dramâ— of Turpentine With wooll and cotton according to Art make a long Pessary If these things will not bring away the childe and if the Mother be sadly fallen into an agony the safest method will be to draw out the childe with instruments if no contraindications appeare as a bad pulse and a difficulty of breathing with anxiety and unchearfulnesse of disposition in the woman CHAP. V. Of the Torments and the suppression of the Courses after the Birth WOmen in labour must be gently handled and carefully lookt unto both in respect of the roome where she is laid and also in regard of the Diet which is most proper for her in that condition As for the place it must be darke far and free from noise or any other disturbance that way least she should be offended by any accidents of feare or sadnesse or by any sudden surprizalls of anger or griefe The Diet consists in meats of good juice and easie concoction and such as are not slow in their distribution to the severall parts because they thicken the bloud and obstruct the passages Let her drinke be small beer cleare and well setled from dregs Barley water in which birthwort and borage leaves have been boiled is incomparably the best drinke you can device for her and next to it we prefer Rhenish wine conditionally that the presence of a Fever doth not forbid it The whole hope of preserving the Woman yea of curing the Diseases which happen after the birth is placed in the evacuation of the feculent menstruous bloud and therefore 't is the duty of our skill to provoke and urge down that bloud least that evill be fall her which Physitians call Torment This is a paine in the whole lower region of the belly felt upon the privie parts neere the small guts the inward cause thereof is a multitude of thick menstruous bloud retained in the body The outward cause is the inclemency of the outward ayre in regard of the coldnesse and the passions of the minde thick meats as creame custards and the like coarse bread salt flesh hard fish and many other things which are hard to digest and not kindely distributed to all the regions of the body You may most easily discover this affect by the signes for the Courses are retained at least they come downe not so freely nor in such plenty as at other times they were wont a wandring and unquiet paine is perceived beneath the navell with gurgulations and rumbling in the guts the woman breaks winde both upwards and downwards and this winde is bread of a thick and feculent bloud This affect must not be despised by neglect for the matter making way by degrees to the affected part augmenteth the paine yea and introduceth inflammations with a Fever wherefore when you have duely considered the age of the woman the Climate in which she liveth the time of the yeare and the menstruum you must without delay open a veine in the ankle and not once onely but twice or thrice as it shall seeme expedient for by this administration the thick and feculent bloud is drawn out rub her legs till by her complaints you know she feeles paine and apply Cuppinglasses to the inward part neither may you forget to lay Leeches to the Fundament by reason of its neernesse to the Matrix and the spleen A Purge be it strong or be it gentle must be exhibited the first dayes because the belly is not sufficiently open and inclined to evacuate the menstruum for should you afterwards purge her body it would take off Nature and interrupt her in her duty as Avicen sheweth in his fourth Fen. and and first chapter Therefore let the bloud be made fluid and the passages kept open and then mitigate the paines with mollifying fomentations mixt with Anodynalls Take the Caul of a weather newly killed and clap it upon the part for by the actuall and asswaging heat thereof it takes away the paine and the same vertue hath the bladder of an Oxe if it be filled halfe full of this decoction following Take the leaves of mallowes Vialets Pellitory of the wall Pennyroyall of each a handfull and a half The flowers of Camomile The flowers of melilot of each a handfull Line feeds Fennill seeds of each halfe an ounce Boile them in a sufficient quantity of water to three pints unto which add Three ounces of oyle of sweet almonds Oyle of Dill Oyle of poppies of each an ounce and a halfe use it as was said above Anoynt her belly with this oyntment following Take unguentum de Althâ—a Vnguentum Agrippe of each an ounce Oyle of Lillies Oyle of camomile of each two drams A