to its natural posture but if it come the feet forward and the legs abroad she must joyn the legs and feet together taking care that she remove not the hands from the place they should hang down close by the side If the infant with one or both the knees first strive to come forth she must put them back that both feet may first come down to the passage If the child come headlong with one hand thrust out then she must put the Child back with her hand upon the shoulders that the hand may goe to its natural place if this will not prevail lay the woman upright with her thighs and belly upwards that it may pass forth as it should do If both hands come out first she must thrust the Child back by the shoulders as formerly till the hands hang down by the sides of the Child If it would come forth arsewards the buttocks first she must return it back with her hands till the legs and feet may present themselves or the head first if it be possible which is most natural If the infant present both hands and both feet together to come forth so all at once she must take the Child carefully by the head and put the legs upward to take it forth If the shoulders come first she must put it back by the shoulders that the head may come first If it come the breast forward the legs and hands lying behind she must take it by the feet or by the head as she finds it to be most easy putting the other part upward that it may come forth right If a Woman have two Children at once that come together headlong she must take forth one after the other but beware the other retreat not back in the mean time so also must she receive them both that come together with the feet forward taking them out one after the other If they come one with his feet the other with the head forward at the same time she must receive that first which is most likely and next the passage and that which cometh with the feet first if she can receive last taking heed that they do not hurt one the other But let this general rule be observed still to annoint the passage with Ducks grease or Oyle of Lillies or sweet Almonds or such things as may smooth the passage and ease womans labour and Iikewise when she toucheth any part of the infant this will help much if there should be any aposthume in the place Particular helps to delivery are to lay the woman first all along on her back her head a little raised with a Pillow and a pillow under her back and another pillow larger than the other to raise her buttocks and rump lay her thighs and knees wide open asunder her legs must be bowed backwards toward her buttocks and drawn upwards her heels and soles of her feet must be fixed against a board to that purpose laid cross her bed Some woman must have a swathe-band above a foot broad four double this must be put under her Reins and two women standing on each side of her must hold it up straight and these two persons must lift up the swathe-band equally just when her throws come or else they may do her hurt and two more of the standers by must lay hold on the upper part of her shoulders that she may with more ease force the child forth The woman must hold her breath in and strive to be delivered and the Midwife must stroke down the birth from above the Navel easily with her hand for that will as I said before make the Infant move downwards CHAP. II. To know the fit time when the Child is ready to be born I Shall desire all Midwives to take heed how they give any thing inwardly to hasten the Birth unless they are sure the Birth is at hand many a child hath been lost for want of this knowledge and the mother put to more pain than she would have been Let not therefore the child be forced out unless there fall down an extreme flux of blood for in such cases it is best to save the Mothers life to drive forth the Child but there is great skill and care to be used or the woman were as good be set upon the Rack It is hard to know when the true time of her travel is near because many women have great pains many weeks before the time of delivery comes But I think the heat of their Reins is the cause of these pains but you may know whether the heat of their reins be the cause of it or not for if their legs swell their reins are too hot and the cure will be to annoint their backs to cool the reins with Oyl of Poppies water Lillies or Violets women whose reins are hot have alwaies hard labour A strong decoction of Plantane leaves and roots in water then strained and clarified with the white of an egg boil'd then to a sirrup with its weight in Sugar is excellent take a spoonful or two when you please or drink often the water and sirrups of Violets and water Lillies But if the birth be at hand you shall know when the skins Amnios and Allantois which as I told you serve to hold the sweat and urine of the child in the womb and by the means of which skins the infant is also supported in the Matrix do break by the violent motion of the child so that these excrements fall down to the neck of the womb Midwives call it the water and when that runs forth then the Birth is near this is the truest sign that is for when those skins are broken the Infant can no longer stay there than a naked man in a heap of snow These waters make the parts slippery and the birth easie if the child come presently with them but if it stay longer till the parts grow dry it will be hard therefore Midwives do ill to rend these skins open with their nails to make way for the water to come nature will make it come forth only when she needs it and not before but if the water breakaway long before the birth it is safe to give medicaments to drive the birth after the water But there are other signs of the birth approaching let the Midwife look well on the womans belly for if the upper part of it be sunk and hollow and the lower part big and full it is certain the child is sunk down again if the womans Throws be quick and strong coming from the reins downward all along the belly and not staying at the Navel but falling still lower to the groins and inwardly to the bottom of the belly where lieth the inmost neck of the womb this is another sure sign Then let the Midwife her hand annointed with fresh butter or with oyl of sweet Almonds put up her hand and if she feel the inward neck of the womb open or any substance to push
it the child by the mouth to drink But in what place this string must be cut Midwives and Physicians can scarce agree Elias lib. 4. c. 3. saith it must be cut four fingers breadth from the body but what is this Midwives fingers are not equal I suppose he means four inches for that was the opinion of the Antients Miraldus was critical in this point and from him some errors were begotten about it in late writers and Midwives Hence it is if Spigelius speak truth that Midwives cut the Females Navel-string shorter than they doe the Males for Boys privy parts must be longer than womens but it Females are cut short they say it will make them modest and their secrets narrower Spigelius and others laugh at this conceit for if Midwives by cutting their Navel-strings can make their secrets wider all women that have hard labour have good reason to complain of their Midwives for cutting their Navel-string so short Miraldus bids cut the navel-string long in both sexes for that the Instruments of Generation in both follow this proportion if womens Navel-strings be cut too short it will hinder their Childbearing Taisner an excellent Astrologer was of this mind If Nature framed the child by the Navel-string in the womb there is no small use of it afterward Miraldus saith that if a childs Navel-string be cut off and let fall to touch the ground that child shall never hold its water sleeping nor waking Also if you carry a piece of a Childs Navel-string about you you may saith Miraldus wear it for a foil in a Ring you shall never be troubled with convulsion fits nor the Falling sickness I have known all this tried but he saith farther that it will defend those that carry it from Devils and Witch-crafts and one may try this if they please If the Child be very weak when it is born put back gently the natural blood by the Navel vein and the vital by the Navel arteries and you shall see the child almost dead before to revive like one awak'd out of sleep if the child seem full of life and spirits then stop the navel-string near the Navel that no blood nor vital spirits go back and that will keep the child strong as it is having done this bind the Navel-string with a strong ligature and cut it not off too near to the string least it unloose you need not fear to bind the Navel-string very hard because it feels not and that piece of the Navel-string you leave on will fall off in a very few days for the whole course of Nature is soon changed in the Child and another way ordain'd to feed it It is no matter what you cut it off with so it be sharp to do it neatly The reason of so many nodes or knots in the childs Navel-string is that the blood and vital spirits might not come in too fast to choke the child Nature is a careful Nurse but Midwives say these knots in number signifie so many Children the reddish boys the whitish Girls and the long distance between knot and knot long time between child and child but all false for all women almost have equal knots and more knots with their last Children than with the first When the Navel-string is cut off apply a little Cotten or lint to the place to keep it warm least the cold get in and that it will do if it be not hard enough bound and if it do you cannot think of a greater mischief for the Child when part of the Navel-string left is fallen off Midwives use to burn a rag to tinder and to apply to the place a little powder of Bolearmoniack were better because it drieth Beasts can lick the Navel-string round enough to keep out the air but the curse lyeth heavier on women for our Grand-Mothers first sin than it doth upon beasts CHAP. V. What is best to bring away the Secundine or after-burden WOmen are in as great danger if not more after the young is born but Beasts are not the Caule or inward chamber of the womb the child did lye in stayeth oft-times long after the child is born which should presently follow it when it so happens if it begins especially to corrupt as it will soon do it causeth grievous pains and ofttimes death wherefore make hast to drive it forth but be sure the means you use be very gentle for the woman is now grown weak and her womb is quick of feeling but the Secundine is dead let the quick then cast forth the dead Midwives long nails may do mischief I grant delays are dangerous for if it be retain'd till it corrupt it will cause Feavers Imposthumes Convulsions and such like know this that what brings away the birth will also do good to call forth the after-birth then comfort the woman let her snuff up a little white Hellebore in powder to make her sneefe but put the woman to as little trouble as you can for she hath endured pain enough already The herb Vervain boil'd in wine or a sirrup made with the clarified juice as I told you of Tansie Featherfew and mugwort do the same but hardly so forcibly Alexanders boiled in wine and the wine drunk is excellent Sweet-Cecely Angelica roots or Master-wort doe the same so used The smoke of Mary-Gold flowers taken in by a Tunnel at the secrets will easily bring forth the Secundine though the Midwife have let go her hold Mugwort boil'd soft in water applied like a Poultess to the Navel brings birth and after-birth away but then remove it least it bring the womb after all Women suffer great pains in Child-birth because the womb that hath many Nerves and Sinews by which the body feels is strait till time of delivery and then it is stretched which causeth great pain and some women have more pain in bearing than others have because some womens passages are narrower and their wombs more full of Nerves as Anatomy will shew and some think the reason of the great soreness of some women is because the share-bone and os sacrum or holy-bone do part or give way in hard travel it was that excellent Anatomist Doctor Reads opinion and I believe it to be true for nature strives to the utmost in such times Crook and Columbus deny this but the bones are joyned with Cartilages and Ligaments which being wet with much moisture may give way though the bones open not but in all labour the Nerves that carrry feeling through the whole body are then stretcht and cause soreness till they have rest and be settled again CHAP. VI. Of the great pains and throws some Women suffer after they are delivered SOmetimes a woman delivered shall for two of three days after and now and then longer feel such bitter pains in her belly and above the Groin as if she should be delivered again these pains are not in the body and bottom of the womb but in the Vessels and Ligatures by
from the Liver to the veins about the womb but those veins and vessels being very narrow and not yet open if the blood be stopt in that it cannot break forth it will corrupt and runs back again by the passages of the hollow vein and great Artery to the Liver the heart and the Midriff and stops the whole body which may be easily known for their faces will look green and pale and wan they have trembling of the heart pains of the head short breathing the arteries in the back the neck and the Temples will beat very thick and though not alwayes yet sometimes they will fall into a Feaver by reason of these corrupt humours but it is alwayes almost attended with disgust and loathing of good nutriment and longing after hurtful things The whole Body especially the Belly legs and thighs swelling with abundance of naughty humours the Hypocondriacal parts are extended by reason of the menstrual blood runing back to the greater vessels and they are much given to vomit but all these signs are not found in all persons alike but they are common to most and in some you shall find all these meet The cause is the Terms stopt and from thence ill humours abound for when the natural channel is stopt the blood must needs return to the great vessels whence it came and choak them up and so spoil the making of blood nothing but raw and corrupt humors are bred which can never turn to good nutriment or be ever perfectly joyned to the parts of the body the blood is flegmatick slimy stuff and sometimes it is bred from corrupt meats and drink that maids will long after as well as Childing women they will be alwayes eating Oatmeal scrapings of the wall earth or ashes or chalk and will drink Vinegar they are strangly affected with an inordinate desire to eat what is not fit for food whereupon their natural heat is choaked and their blood turns to water their body grows loose and spongy and they grow lazy and idle and will hardly stir their pulse beats little and faint as the vapours fly to several parts so they are ill affected by them the heart faints the head is dried and pained and the animal actions are hurt when melancholy is mixed with the humours in too great proportion Sometimes this white Feaver turns to a Dropsie or the liver grows hard like a stone that it can make no blood some fall dead suddenly when the heart is choaked by ill vapours and humours flying to it if the stomach be affected the danger is the greater but if onely the womb be out of frame the remedy is much more easy The best time of the year to cure Maids and those that are sick of the green sickness is the spring and the way of cure is to heat the cold humours and make the thick gross blood thin and this cannot be all performed by one work to draw away and to correct the whole mass of humours at once wherefore you must purge gently and often mingling things that heat and attenuate as well as purgatives to carry the ill humours forth But first it will be good to give a Glister and next to open a Vein in the foot or ancle Moreover your physick must vary according to the parts of the body that are most stopt and where the humors float If they lye above the stomach and mesentery then vomit if you find the Person fitted for vomit likewise the Spleen or liver or womb must be respected in their several kinds with Physick accordingly and to save you the labour of much reading and me of writing too often of the same thing under several heads you may find what is to be done almost in all respects where I write of the stopping of the Terms and by this rule I wish the Reader to apply the rest when he stands in need which he can never well do as I said till he have some judgement in it and then it will become familiar to him But in this Disease principally for the cure respect the Liver the Spleen and the Mesentery or Midriff for these are certainly obstructed and must be opened and above all be sure to keep a sparing diet and of a thin substance Secondly Let blood in the arm first though the courses be stopt and after that in the foot If the disease be of long standing you shall do well to give a gentle Purge First of all to purge the humours as Take powdered Rhubarb two drams Chicory and Anniseed-water three ounces apiece Infuse the Rhubarb all night then let them boyl one walm onely and then strain it forth and in the strained liquor dissolve sirrup of Damask Roses one ounce and a half Diacassia half an ounce Cinnamon-water half an ounce five grains of Diagridium let her drink it in the morning Next after this use opening decoction of Succory and Madder and Liquorish roots of each half an handful Anniseeds and Fennel seeds two drams a piece a handful of Harts-tongue Leaves Borrage Flowers and pale Roses of each half a handful one ounce of the roots of Sassafras stoned Rasins one ounce and a half and half a dram of Cinnamon Boyl all these in Fountain water to a third part onely wasted and then sweeten it with sirrup of Lemmons she may drink it when she pleaseth An Electuary made of the rob or pulp of Elder-berries boyl'd to a just substance four ounces with one ounce of bay berries dried and powdered two Nutmegs and one dram of burnt-hartshorn half a scruple of Amber and four scruples of species Diarrhoda mingled all with sirrup of Succory one ounce and half is excellent And finally it will not be from the purpose but very useful to anoint the womb and Liver with such Oyntments as will open their obstructions made with Oyl of Spike and bitter Almonds of each two ounces and juyces of Rue and Mugwort half as much and Vinegar a fourth part waste the watery part of these by boiling then add Spikenard Camels Hay Roots of Asarum of each one dram Cypress half a dram Wax sufficient to make an Unguent To provoke the Termes And that is effected with one ounce of the Five opening Roots and with Madder Elecampane Orris Roots Eryngo dried Citron Pills and Sarfa of each half an ounce Germander Mugwort Agrimony of each a handful two small handfuls of Savin an ounce of wilde Saffron seeds two ounces of Senna Agarick and Mechoachan of each half an ounce two Pugils of Stoechas Flowers of Galingal Anniseeds and Fennel of each two drams Boil all this to a Pint and half sweeten it for your Pallat and add to it a spoonful of Cinnamon water Quercetans Pills of Tartar and Gum Amoniacum are commended Take of each half a dram Spike a scruple three drops of Cinnamon Extract of wormwood half a scruple take a scruple or twenty grain weight in pills an hour before Meat Conserve of Marigold Flowers is very good Some after good
and the whole body is purged by it but the womb is not affected it is a filthy disorderly Evacuation either before or after Terms or when they are wholly stopt the colour of the matter is blew or green or reddish few maids have this Disease women with child may it is not the running of the Reins for that is in less quantity whiter and thicker nor from nightly Pollutions which come onely in sleep The cause is some excrementitious humor sometimes like watry blood a cold and moist womb breeds this Disease or when ill humors are gathered in the whole body or Liver Spleen or stomach they are sometimes thus voided nature that useth to send forth good blood by the Veins casts forth these ill humours by them they are of divers colours and stink If it be from a Phlegmatick humor the Ligaments of womb grow loose and the womb falls out in time they make thick veins and they are discoloured in their Faces short breathed if the humor be not bred in the womb it comes from a Cacochymy of the whole body if it comes from the whole it is more in quantity if onely from the womb it is but little Many have had this Disease long and found no great hurt but if it be not timely looked to it will do mischief causing Consumptions Faintings and Convulsions when the matter is sent to the nerves and brain You must not stop it suddenly for so it will find a way to the nobler parts Bleeding is naught in this case general Evacuations are good and after particulars according to the part diseased The whites and over-flowing of the Terms I say are a disease and although it resemble the Gonorrhaea it is not the same it is also like the matter that flows from an Ulcer of the womb but it is not that neither The running of the Reins in Men women is not the same disease with this the running of the Reins is peculiar to unchast women but this flux of whites may proceed from too much cold or too much heat and hath many differences as will appear by the colour of the matter sent forth the colour shews the peccant humor it is necessary for the cure to search whether it be a Gonorrhaea or involuntary flux of seed which both women and Men are subject to and the remedies are the same as the causes are in both Women commonly call the whites the running of the Reins but the running of the Reins comes most commonly by unlawful Venery or excess in that Act but the proper cause of the whites is too much superfluity of Excrement but where those Excrements are bred is doubted Some say these corrupt humours are daily bred in the principal parts others say they come onely from the womb and seed Vessels others say from the Reins onely and the womb is unaffected But Galen plainly shews that the whole body is affected that dischargeth it self by the womb and therefore weak and flegmatick women are most subject to have the whites To cure it first observe a strict Diet cleanse the whole body by purging letting blood Sweating and Diureticks in very moist bodies prepare the humours three or four dayes before purging or take Cassia new drawn one ounce powder of Rhubarb one dram with sirrup of water Lillies or Violets take it in the morning dissolve it if you please in Posset drink and about two hours after take some broth You may take every day a dram of Trochisci de Carabe in Plantane water or give every second or third day a dram of the filings of Ivory in Plantane water a very laudable remedy To sweat also is very laudable in this case take Barley water three ounces strong wine two ounces drink it warm and lie and sweat Conserve of Roses and Marmalade are excellent for this disease drink the decoction of Comfrey Roots with Sugar to sweeten it take three or four ounces at a draught Whites of eggs well beaten with red Rose water and made with Cotton or Linnen into a Pessary and put into the Matrix with a string tied to it to pull it out again is commended Diureticks are not good till the body be well purged and then they will help to drive the ill humour forth by Urine Lest the womb be hurt with ill humours inject a decoction of Barley Honey of Roses and Whey with sirrup of dried Roses Take red Saunders two drams and a half yellow Saunders one dram and a halfe red Roses three drams fine Bole a quarter of an ounce burnt Ivory one dram Camphire half a dram white wax one ounce oil of Roses three ounces make an ointment This is not only good to anoint the secrets but also to cool the inflammation of the kidneys stomach liver and other parts If the Whites flow from abundance of superfluous humours you may evacuate much through the skin by often rubbing of the body but first rub easily and by degrees rub harder Of these fluxes there are three sorts White Red and Yellow and there are three kinds of Archangel or dead nettles to cure them First The White Flowers helps the Whites Secondly The Red are to cure the Reds Thirdly And the Yellow flux is cured by the Yellow Half a dram of Myrrh taken every morning is commended or a scruple of the Pills of Amber at night often taken they will not work till the day following Many strange things are oftentimes voided by the Womb as Stones and Gravel And Peter Diversas relates that a Nun voided a rugged Stone as large as a Ducks Egg and it gave her some ease but there followed a foule flux of the Womb that killed her Garcias Lopius saw a Woman that voided many Ascarides or small Worms by the Womb. When stinking humors are cast forth this way it is not properly the Running of the reins for both sexes have sometimes the running of the reins and most commonly it comes from a foul course whereas the whites come from a corruption of humours if it run white and little and thick it is a true flux of seed if it last and be not cured it brings a wasting of body and barrenness if this flux grow from fulness of Seed the buds of willow steept in wine will cure it if it proceed from a weak retention give half a scruple of Castor and use astringents to the reins and belly or a bath of willow leaves Myrtles Quinces each two handfuls red Roses Rosemary each a handful Cypress Nuts three ounces let her sit up to the Navel apply bags of the same to the Loins and Privities and anoint the said parts with oil of Mastich and Myrtles CHAP. XII Of the Swelling and Puffing up of the Body especially the Belly and the Feet of Women after Delivery THe Swellings of these parts in Childbed women come either from a depraved diet used whilest they were with child or else drinking immoderately after delivery or it may be they abound with more blood
finger into his mouth and holding the nipple faster than they were wont when the tooth is coming forth the Gum is whiter than in other parts the watching breeds cholerick humours and inflames the body and brings a Feaver If the teeth be long before they can come forth children commonly will die of Feavers and Convulsion fits they that scowr have seldome any Convulsion When the gums are thick the teeth can scarce get forth wherefore soften the Gum with rubbing it with Honey and Fresh Butter or let the child chew a candle of Virgins Wax Let the Nurse keep a moderate Diet inclining to cold as Barley Broths Water-Gruel Lettice Endive Rear-eggs take heed of salt spiced meats and wine but anoint the childs Gum with a Mucilage of Quinces made with Mallows water or with the brains of an Hare XXII If the Gums be ulcerated let the Nurse rub the childs gums and Wheals and Pushes with her finger and anoint them with Hens grease Hares brains oil of Cammomile and Mel Rosarum or sirrup of violets with Plantane water and if the inflammation be great boil Pomegranate flowers Roses and Sanders of each two drams Allum half a dram in water strain out three ounces and dissolve in it the sirrup of Mulberries half an ounce If the Pushes and Wheals be white take Pomegranate flowers Amber Cypress nuts of each two drams Roses and Myrtle flowers of each half a handful boil them in water add to the decoction one ounce and a half of honey of Roses .. Sometimes there riseth between the Gums and the great teeth a little fleshy substance to consume that wash it with a deccoction of the roots of Plantain Bugloss Agrimony of each a handful Barley a small handful and red Roses a handful four Dates Flowers of Pomegranates two drams Liquorish one dram and a half XXIII Children are very much molested with destillations Coughs and Catarrhs if the humour be sharp and hot that falls from the brain the child will look red in the face if it be a cold humour much matter will run forth at the nose and mouth then keep the child resonably warm and give it Sugar candy with oil of sweet Almonds wash the childs feet with Ale boiled with Betony Marjoram Rosemary then anoint the soles of the feet with Goose grease rub the breast with fresh butter and oil of sweet Almonds and lay on warm linnen cloths for slimy humours give it a spoonful of sirrup of Maiden-hair or of Liquorish and Hyssop mingled Take also Gum Traganth Arabick Quince seeds juice of Liquorish and Sugar Pelets mingle them and in new milk let the child take of it every day Where the cause is cold that makes the Cough beat a little Myrrh to powder and give it the child with oil of sweet Almonds and a little honey when it comes from heat make a decoction of Raisins in water and with white poppey seed and Gum Dragant each two drams seeds of Gourds four drams beat all together and give the child a four penny weight in the foresaid decoction XXIV If the breath be short let it take an Electuary of Honey and Linseed and anoint the ears and parts about them with Olive oil XXV If the childs nose be stopt put a little Ointment of Roses and good Pomatum into the Nostrils to soften the hard matter Wash the inflamed or Gummy eyes that will not open with breast milk or Plantain and Rose Water Childrens moist brains breed moist humours that run to their ears make them clean with a rag and drop in Honey of Roses mingled with oil of bitter Almonds XXVI If the child new born be in great pain then rub it with Pellitory of the wall and fresh Butter or with Spinach and Hogs-grease and lay it to the Navel take care it be not too hot or make a cake of oils of eggs and of Nuts for the Navel give it a Glister if it need with Milk Sugar and the yolk of an Egg. XXVII Children are subject to all sorts of Feavers but chiefly to Feavers from corrupt milk and Feavers with breeding of teeth They have epidemical Feavers sometimes that cast forth the Meazles or small Pox the mothers menstrual blood is the original cause but the corrupt air stirs it up for as the air is pure or impure so these diseases are more raging or less It is oftentimes infectious and the humours so corrupt that worms breed under the scabs and corrode the bones and inward parts as hath been proved by opening some that died If it be a Feaverish time that it spreads much give good Antidotes and change the air but all children almost will have them first or last Before there is a Feaver you may fortifie nature and give a a gentle purge but for my part I approve not of purging or bleeding in these distempers unless it be long before So soon as you see the feaver drive them out by Cordials and prefer the eyes and throat and prevent deformity The first signs of this disease for they are both from one cause are pains of the head redness in the eyes a dry Cough with a feaver then little pimples break forth all the body over but chiefly they aim at the throat and face The small Pox is dangerous to all but most to those that are of an ill habit of body and if they come forth in heaps and not orderly or if they look blew black or ill coloured they are exceeding dangerous If the child suck the nurse must use a moderate diet she may eat Hen broth with herbs of Succory Borrage Bugloss and Endive boiled in it Let her drink this drink following to make them come easily and quickly forth take peeled Lentils half an ounce fat figs two ounces Gum Lac two drams Gum Traganth and Fennel seed of each two drams and a half boil this in fountain water strain it and sweeten two pints of it with Sugar and sirrup of Maiden-hair let her drink half a pint fasting If the child be weaned give it a Julep of cordial waters two ounces and a half sirrup of Lemmons one ounce use this often and four or five hours after give it some Unicorns horn and Oriental Bezoar in powder To preserve the eyes anoint the Eye-lids with Plantane and Rose water and a little Saffron To preserve the nose take Rose water and Betony of each one ounce Vinegar half an ounce and as much powder of peels of Citrons add to it Saffron six grains let the child smell to it often dip some cotton in it and stop the ears to keep the Small Pox from thence You may preserve the mouth the tongue and the throat with a handful of barley and leaves of Plantain Sorrel Agrimony and of Vervain of each a handful all boiled in water to six ounces dissolve in it sirrup of Pomegranates and of Roses of each half an ounce Saffron half a scruple make a Gargarisme sirrup of Juniper of Violets and of water-Lillies
in this building for the seed is the workmaster that makes the Infant and therefore the stones that make this seed must needs be Principal parts though some exclude them making only the Heart the Brain and the Liver to be of the first rank but the stones may in some sort be put in the first rank not onely to make the body fruitful but to work a change in the whole Take away a Mans stones and he is no more the same man but growes cold of constitution though he were never so hot before and is subject to Convulsion fits also their voice grows shrill and Feminine and their manners and dispositions are commonly naught Eunuchs may live without them and it hath been an approved cure for the Leprosy in former times but Hippocrates tells us that the stones are the strength and vigour of Manhood and that a convulsion of the stones threatneth Death and the firmness or looseness of them is a great sign of good or evil and that applications to the stones are very effectual to the strengthning of the body It is then very needful for all to keep the Organs of procreation pure and clean that they may send forth good seed to make the work perfect and that Children may be long lived which they cannot well be nor of sound constitutions if they are begotten from corrupt Seed or unnatural blood Alchymists lay the cause of all Childrens diseases on the Seed of the Parents as plants have not the causes of their destruction from the Elements but from their own Seed as also we see that when the Plague or any Epidemical disease rageth all are not infected because they have not that matter in them that will so soon take as it doth with others That therefore the matter may be fit for the work of nature there are two things very useful good diet moderately taken and conveniet labour and exercise of body Ill diet causeth ill blood and excess in meat or drink choakes the natural heat causeth raw crude humours which will never make good blood and ill blood will never make good seed for every part hath its natural propriety to change the nutriment into its own likeness as the Breasts change blood into Milk the stones change it into seed alwayes supposing such previous preparations that are needful or it cannot be done as it should be Temperance in eating and drinking will make both Parents and Children to be long lived and there is as much difference between good and bad nourishment as there is between pure Fountain water and ditch water but temperance is not to be understood as if there were a set proportion for all alike for it is according to every ones constitution what is too much for one Man or woman may be too little for another it is then such a quantity of meat or drink that the stomach can well master and digest for the feeding of the body Those that work hard must eat more than Schollars that follow their studies for the work of the stomach is called off by the intention of the mind their meat must be less and of easier digestion They that live in hot climates or near the Sun have not so strong stomachs as in colder regions nor is it with us all one in Summer and winter but every man or woman of years by good observation may know his own temper and what quantity will best agree with him and so if he be not a fool he may be his own Physician Youth and age cannot feed alike Children are often feeding because they want both for growth and nourishment but old age not near so much sick and healthful differ in the same kind I never could endure that preposterous way that most persons observe to the destruction of their Friends that when they are sick they will never let them alone but provoke them to eat whereas fasting is the better Doctor so it be not out of measure The causes of great eating and drinking beyond the bounds of nature are a liquorish appetite and a fancy beyond reason But having found out the causes I shall prescribe some remedies withal It is easy to know when you have eat or drank too much or what agrees not with you when you find nature charged with it and is not able to digest it vapours rising from the stomach that is glutted will choak the brain and cause defluxions and multitudes of diseases if you be sleepy after meat and drink you have taken too much for moderation makes a Man cheerful and not sleepy Also refrain from all meats and drinks that agree not with your constitution for they will never breed good blood but if you have done amiss in surfeiting your self or over eating or using any thing that agrees not with you remember that nature abhors all sudden changes and therefore you must not withdraw all at once but by degrees till you can bring your selves safely to a moderation This intemperance of Parents is the cause that many Children die before their time for what is too much can never be well concocted but turns to ill and raw humours and if the stomach turn the food into crude juyce or chyle the Liver that makes the second concoction can never mend it to make good blood nor can the third concoction of the stones to turn that blood into seed make good seed of ill blood for what is bad in the first concoction the second concoction nor third can ever rectify but if the chyle be good blood and seed will be good But you must know that nothing furthers good concoction more than moderate labour for it stirs up natural heat whereas idle persons breed crude humours And therefore Lycurgus the Lacedemonian Law-giver commanded Maids to work for saith he this keeps their bodies in good temper and free from crudities and when they come to marry their Children will be strong There 's as much difference between labour and sloth as between the earth in Summer and Winter in Summer the Sun by its heat makes it fruitful in Winter it is chill for want of the Suns heat Convenient labour sends the spirits to all parts of the body when the Elements are unequally divided death follows so the better the spirits are distrubuted to the seed the better will the seed be and your Children the stronger which is no small effect of moderate exercise when sloth is the cause of their hasty dissolution moderate labour open the pores of the body and by sweat or insensible transpriation sends forth all fuliginous and smoky vapours that choke the spirits and cause divers maladies we find all this to be true in reason and experience confirms it for Countrey people that work hard digest what they eat and their Children are usually strong and long liv'd But Citizens and such as refuse to labour and live idle lives I do not say all I hope there will be the fewer for what I have taken the pains to
true place also if the woman have blackish courses chiefly if she be far gone with child she is in danger to lose the Child many women have their Terms in the first moneths but they are but watry pale coloured not fitting for the nourishment of the infant and they are also superfluous so that nature at first sends them out as being useful neither for nutriment for the Mother nor the Child I said before that the breasts will shew danger and of Twins which is most likely to suffer if the right breast flag she will miscarry of a Boy if the left of a Girle and the head shaking as with a Palsie the body trembling the face flushing with red the eyes painâ—d inwardly if the body be afflicted with wind there is fear of miscariage in child birth but if she travel when she is sick of a sharp Feaver or some such dangerous disease seldom doth either Mother or the child escape death but the ordinary causes of Abortion are when the womb is too weak or corrupted by phlegmatick slippery slimy or watry humours so that it cannot retain the Child the pains of inflammation and Imposthumes hinder delivery extream Costiveness of the body by straining to go to stool forceth the child downwards and the dung staying in the right gut when the woman is bound oppresseth the child if she fall into a Tenesmus which is a great desire to go to stool and can do nothing Hippocrates saith Abortion is like to follow Piles and Hemorrhoids cause pain and miscarriage fat women have slippery wombs and lean women have as dry and want nourishment for the child neither are fit for child-bearing Bleeding is bad for childing women unless there be great need purging especially in the first or second or about the last months and vomiting is far worse too much fasting starves the child too much eating and drinking will stifle it great heats or baths or stoves force the child to press for a more free air and great cold is not good for it all immoderate exercises passions desires longings falls strokes and all violent running leaping coughing lifting and such like will bring on this misfortune There being then so many causes and accidents whereby women usually fall into such mishaps 't will be profitable for women with child to observe some good rules beforehand that when her time of delivery is at hand she may more easily undergo it and not so soon miscarry But as there are diverse causes of miscarriage so the times are diverse that we are to provide for either before or after conception And before she be conceived with child let her use means both by diet and physick to strengthen her womb and to further conception Drink wine that is first well boyled with the mother of Tyme for it is a pretious thing If the womb be too windy eat ten Juniper berries every morning if too moist the woman must exercise or sweat in a Stove or Hot-house or else take half a dram of Galingal and as much Cinnamon mingled in powder and drink it in Muskadel every morning but if she use moderate labour perhaps she may have no need of this but the most frequent cause of barrenness in young lusty women that are of a cholerick complexion is driness of the Matrix and this is easily known by their great desire of copulation It is to be corrected by cooling drinks and emulsions made of barley-water blanched Almonds white poppy seeds Cucumbers Citrons Melons and Gours and to drink frequently of this all violent exercise drinking of wine or strong waters must be forborn The Oyl of Nightshade is good to annoint the Reins some report that the seeds of Mandrakes are very useful to cool and purge a hot and foul womb such diseases are common to salt complexions and the dose of half a dram of Mandrake seed bruised and drunk at once in a cup of white wine cannot be dangerous for though the leaves be cold yet the seeds have a vital spirit in them to beget their like cold begets nothing but heat is an active quality for production There are many conjectures concerning those Mandrakes that Reuben found and that Rachel so much desired because she was then barren Gen. 30. it may be she knew that they were fit to cure her barrenness I grant that sometimes God is the cause of barrenness who shuts up the womb and will not suffer some women to conceive we have multitudes of examples in Scripture for it Rachel doubtless was not barren of her self and she was angry with Jacob that she said unto him Give me Children or else I die but he acknowledgeth God to be the chief cause of it And he said unto her Am I God who hath withheld the fruit of the womb from thee And again he makes the barren women to keep house and be a joyful mother of Children Prayer is then the chief remedy of their barrenness not neglecting such natural means to further conception and to remove impediments that God hath appointed and those means are chiefly either by a well ordering of the body and mind or else when need requires by taking of Physick The good order of the body consists in seasonable moderate eating and drinking of wholsome meats and drinks moderate exercise for idleness is a great enemy to conception and that may be the reason that so many City Dames have so few children if they have any they are commonly sickly and short lived it is not so with Country women who are always working they usually have many children and they are lusty and strong for moderate labour raiseth natural heat revives the spirits helps digestion opens the pores and wasts excrements comforts all the parts and strengtheneth the senses and spirits help nature in all her faculties and that is the way to have strong and many children As for working too much it wasts and destroys nature but I think few women are guilty of this fault Moderate rest refresheth nature as well as moderate work but there is a large difference between moderate rest and extreme idleness which dulls both mind and body and hastens old age and therefore Lycurgus commanded all the Spartans to work at least four hours in a day If women will be fair let them work as it is with the body so it is with the mind the mind must alwayes be intent upon something that is good yet this also admits of some relaxation and rest or else we are never able to endure but above all we must take heed of discontent for that wonderfully hinders conception whereas content of mind dilates the Heart and Arteries and distributes the vital blood and spirits through the body which exceedingly recreates nature in all her operations Much might be said in Divinity against discontent sullenness and murmuring which many women especially are too much guilty of for it troubles the imagination which should be pure in the act of conception it stirs up ill
life and motion cease the childs must needs cease that depends upon it but it is an error for the child hath a Soul and life of its own and may live a while without the Mother but the Midwife must keep the womb open that it be not stifled till the Chirurgeon cuts it out you shall feel the Child leap when the Mother is dead Charles Stephen shews how to cut out a dead Child And Francis Ruset saith a live Child may be cut out of the womb both child Mother do well it is possible and sometimes necessary to be done and it stands by reason for women receive sometimes wounds in the Peritoneum and the Muscles of the lower belly more dangerous than the Cesarian cut and yet escape well enough A Child may be sometimes very weak yet not dead take heed you do not force delivery in such occasions till you be sure it is time for children may be sick and faint in their Mothers bellies But to prevent danger burn half a pint of white-wine adding no Spice to it but half an ounce of Cinnamon and drink it off if your Travel and throws come upon you be sure it is dead but if it be but sick and weak it will refresh it and strengthen it If the Child be dead in the womb the juyce of Garden Tansey annointed on the secrets or an oyl made in Summer with the herbs before it run to flower and boil'd in oyl till the juyce be wasted and set in the Sun a moneth before you boil it is an especial oyl for Midwives The Eagle-stone held near the privy parts will draw forth the Child as the Loadstone draws Iron but be sure so soon as the Child and after burthen are come away that you hold the stone no longer for fear of danger Any of these herbs half a dram in powder drunk in white-wine will do much viz of Bettony or Sage or Penny-Royal Fetherfew or Centory Ivy-berries and leaves or drink a strong decoction of Master-wort or of Hysop in hot water it soon will bring the dead Child forth because the afterbirth is corrupted in such cases and comes forth by pieces it is fit to drink of the same drink till all be come away or the roots of Polipody stamped and warm'd laid to the soles of her feet presently works the effect The same things almost all are proper when the Child is living and comes to be born but if her Travel be long the Midwife must refresh her with some Chickens broth of the Yolk of a potched Egg with a little bread or some wine or strong water but moderately taken and withal to cheer her up with good words stroaking down her belly above her Navel gently with her hand for that makes the Child move downwards She must bid her hold in her breath as much as she can for that will cause more force to bring out the Child Place here the Picture of all sorts of postures of Children Take notice that all women do not keep the same posture in their delivery some lye in their beds being very weak some sit in a stool or chair or rest upon the side of the bed held by other women that come to the Labor If the Woman that lyeth in be very fat fleshly or gross let her ly groveling on the place for that opens the womb and thrusts it downwards The Midwife must annoint her hands with Oyl of Lillies and the Womans Secrets or with Oyl of Almonds and so with her hands handle and unloose the parts and observe how the Child lyeth and stirreth and so help as time and occasion direct But above all take heed you force not the birth till the time be come and the Child come forward and appears ready to come forth Now the danger were much to force delivery because when the woman hath laboured sore if she rest not a while she will not be able presently to endure it her strength being spent before Also when you see the after-buthen then be sure the Birth is at hand but if the coats be so strong that they will not break to make way for the Child to come forth the Midwife must gently and prudently break and rend it with her nails if she can raise it she may cut a piece of it with a knife or pair of Sciffers but beware of the infant Then follows presently a flux of humours and the Child after that but if all the humours that should make the place slippery chance to run forth by this means before the child come the parts within and without must be annointed with Oyl of Almonds or Lillies and a whole Egg Yelk and white beaten and poured into the privy passage to to make it glib instead of the waters that are run forth too soon If the child have a great head and stick by the way the Midwife must annoint the place with Oyl as before and enlarge the part as much as may be the like must be done when Twins offer themselves if the head comes first the birth is natural but if it come any other way the Midwife must do what she can to bring it to this posture Sometimes the infant comes with the legs forwards and both arms downwards close to the sides this way the Midwife may endeavour to take it forth if it continue the same posture by annointing and gently handling the place but it is safer if she can to turn the Legs upward again by the Belly that the head may first come down by the back of the womb for that is the natural way If the child come forth with both legs and feet first and the Childs hands both lifted above the head this is the worst for danger of all the rest she must strive to turn the Child and if she cannot she must try to bring the hands down to the sides and to keep the legs close that it may come forth or else to bind the feet as they come out with some linnen Cloath and tenderly to help delivery but it will be hard to it Sometimes the Child will come forth with one foot and the other lifted upward Then let the woman in Child-bed be laid upright on her back hold up her thighs and belly that her head be lower than her body then let the Midwife with her hand gently put back the leg that is come forth into the womb again and bid the labouring woman to stir and move her self that by her stirring the birth may offer it self the head downward and if so you may then set her in a Chair as she was at first that she may have a natural delivery but if this cannot be done then the Midwife with her hand must discreetly bring forth that leg that is not yet come forth but beware she put not the Childs hands that lye close down by its sides out of their place if the side of the child come towards the passage she must turn the child
forward the child is coming but if the skin break and the waters come down that is the last and surest sign as I said when the waters precede and the child doth not follow presently in some reasonable time these things following hasten and ease delivery Featherfew or Mugwort boil'd in white wine let her drink a draught of the decoction the sirrups of either may be made in summer with their juice clarified and boyled to a sirrup with twice as much Sugar a spoonful at a time to be taken or drink a dram of the powder of Cinnamon in wine or the distill'd water of Mugwort Betony Dittander Peniroyal or Featherfew Tansie bruised and applyed or the Oyl of it as I said will do it but the Eagle stone held to the secrets draws out both Child and Secundine hold it to no longer for it will draw forth Womb and all Miraldus tells of many more pretty ways But for more assurance take this powder made of Dittany of Crele Penni-royal Roundbirthwort of each ten grains Cinnamon and Saffron of each twelve grains beat them to fine powder and let her drink it in wine or some fit liquor in the decoction or distill'd waters of red Pease Penniroyal Parsly c. Outward means is good applied to the secrets take Agrimony leaves and roots but after cast it away lest it draw forth the Matrix Henbane Polypody or Bistort roots are commended for the same use But let all hot and violent remedies be avoided for many times they bring the woman into a dangerous Feaver Also too much fasting or too much eating breed peril to women in travel a woman that is with child cannot so well digest her meat as they can that are not with child Midwives therefore must ask how long it was since that the woman did eat and what and how much that vpon occasion she may give her something to strengthen her in her labour if need be as warm broth or a potched egg and if her delivery be long in doing give her an ounce of Cinnamon water to comfort her or else a dram of Confectio Alkermes at twice in two spoonfuls of Claret wine but give her but one of these three things for you may soon cast her into a feaver by too much hot administrations and that may stop her purgations and breed many mischiefs CHAP. III. What must be done after the woman is delivered IT will be profitable when a woman hath had sore travel to wrap her back with a sheep-skin newly flead off and let her ly in it and to lay a Hare-skin rub'd over with Hares blood newly prepared to her belly let these things be worn two hours in winter and but one hour in Summer for these will close up the parts too much dilated by the childs birth and will expel all ill melancholly blood from those parts This being done swathe the woman with a Napkin about nine inches broad but annoint her belly with Oyl of St. Johns wort and then raise up the womb with a linnen cloth many times folded cover her flanks with a little pillow about a quarter of a Yard long then swathe her beginning a little a-above the hanches rather higher than lower winding it even lay warm cloths to her breasts forbearing those that repulse the milk till longer time and the body be setled lest repercussives should do her hurt let then her blood be first setled ten or twelve hours and that the blood which was cast upon the lungs by violent labour may return to its own place but you may ease the pains of her breasts and comfort them laying a linnen cloth doubled and not warm'd dipt in Oil of St. Johns wort and of Roses with the yolk and white of an egg beat together of each an ounce with an ounce of Rose-water and as much of Plantan-water Let her not sleep till about four hours after she is delivered but first give her some nourishing broth or Cawdle to comfort her let her eat no flesh till two dayes at least be over for she may not use a full diet after so great loss of blood suddenly as she grows stronger she may begin with meats of easie digestion as Chickens or Pullets she may drink small wines with a little Saffron Mace and Cloves infused equal parts all tied in a piece of linnen and let them lie in the wine so close stopt she may drink a small draught of it at dinner and supper for the whole month and besides her ordinary food she may if she will take nourishing broths and Aleberries with bread butter and Sugar Let her drink her Beer or Ale with a tost she may drink a decoction of Liquorish Raisins of the Sun and a little Cinnamon if the child be a boy she must lye in thirty dayes if a girl forty daies and remember that it is the time of her purification that her husband must abstain from her CHAP. IV. When and how to cut off the Childs navel-string and what is the Consequent thereof THe Navel-string is twisted that it might be the stronger and that the blood by that delay might be better prepared had the Vein in the Navel or the Arteries or Vrachos that carrye the piss being single the different postures of the child in the womb or the difference of the womans standing sitting or lying might press a single vessel and stop the passage of the blood in the Vein spirit in the Arteries or water in the Vrachos but the twisting hath prevented that The cutting of the Navel-string helps much for it keeps the blood and spirits in after the Child is born A Midwives skill is seen much if she can perform this rightly The time to do it is so soon as ever the Child is born whether he bring a part of the Secundine out with him or not for sometimes the infant brings a piece of the Coat Amnios upon his head and that they name the caule I know no wonders this Caule will work but if you find this Caule on the childs head you shall miss it in the after-birth if it be in the after-birth it will not be on his head The reason why some Children bring it with them on their head into the world is weakness and it signifies a short life and proves seldome otherwise But if it come with it or without it so soon as it is come forth consider whether the Child be strong or weak for by the Navel-string the Mother gives both vital and natural blood to the Child wherefore if the Child be weak you must gently put back part of the vital and natural blood into the childs body by the Navel for that will refresh a weak child if the child be strong you need not do it Many children seem to be born dead that recover by this meanes as very weak children often do but you must crush out six or seven drops of blood out of the navel-string I mean that part which is cut off give
which the womb hangs and so it passeth to the sides and belly The causes are the cold air that is got in by her sore travel in child-birth or sharp or clotted blood sticking in the womb and pricking for expulsion these pains make the woman weak and very troublesome wherefore you must strive to abate them Some women are so hardy that to hinder this they will drink cold water so soon as they are delivered if the woman be cholerick she may do it with a crust of tosted bread otherwise it is dangerous CHAP. VII Of the Chollick some women are afflicted within the time of their travel SOme women have the Chollick at the time they should bring forth a child which hinders the delivery and the pains surpass the pain of their travel you can scarce distinguish one of these pains from the other but whilst the chollick lasts the birth comes not forward at all the causes of this disease are great crudities and indigestions of the stomach Let her take Cinnamon water one ounce with two ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds newly drawn if this do it not then give her a Glister against wind or use fomentations against wind both are good in this cases More remedies there are against wind for Child-bed Women but these may suffice CHAP. VIII Of Womens Miscarriage or Abortment with the Signs thereof THere are abundance of causes whereby women are driven to abort or miscarry and I have spoken somewhat of this before I shall add a little more to it the better to know the signs causes and remedies against it it is the bringing forth an untimely birth or fruit before it be ripe if it happen in seven daies after conception it is but an effluxion but if in fourteen daies after it is an untimely birth sometimes an untimely birth may be alive but it is very seldom that it continues the elder and stronger it is the more hopes for life some women have such large wombs or slippery full of slimy humours that the Seed cannot be contain'd but slips away sometimes it is an imposhumation causing pain that hinders retention but this is rather Effluxion than abortment But sometimes the Cups or Veins whereby the conception is tied to the womb through which also nourishment passeth to it as we said before are stopt with viscous ill humours and so swollen with wind or inflamed that the Cups break and the fruit is lost for want of food this happens commonly in the second or third month so Hippocrates tells us that this is the certain cause if the woman that miscarries be of a good state of body not too fat nor too lean Sometimes the right Gut or the womb may have an Ulcer or Piles or the Bladder or Ureters swollen with the Stone or Strangury and the pains thereof may break the Cups or if she have a Tenasmus great provocation to stool and can do nothing she brings forth her birth by straining downward and that before she should Also great coughs make the woman feeble and consumptive and the child consumes within her great bleeding at the nose or any great loss of blood or too great flux of her courses after conception cause miscarriage if they flow in in the third month else not Also opening of a vein may cause it if the woman want blood but such as are sanguine may let blood after the fourth month and before the seventh month but it is good to see there be cause for it else not Violent purging before the fourth month or after the seventh causes abortment But gentle purging between the fourth and the seventh month are safe Violent fluxing or vomiting make women strain too much especially lean folks and may perish the child and break the Cups If the woman hunger much for want of food Nature hath nothing to spare to keep the child alive it is the same thing with Beasts and Plants that want nutriment and too much will choak it Sharp diseases or Pestilential Feavers Imposthumes in the breast Palsies falling-sicknes kill the child and sometimes the child is sick in the womb Also change of weather may cause miscarriage saith Hippocrates when the winter is hot and moist and the Spring cold and dry that follows it the women that conceive in that Spring will easily abort and if they do not they will suffer hard labour in child-birth and the child will be weak and short liv'd the reason may be because the body is opened and made more tender by the foregoing heat and moist weather and then the succeeding cold makes it more dangerous Great labour as dancing leaping falls or bruises great passions suddenly coming not lookt for may make a woman miscarry let all women beware of it for it is more painful than a true delivery because one is natural and the other against nature nature helps the one but not the other Signs of Abortment I have spoken of in part but commonly about the third and fourth month womens bodies that will swell and puff up with hardness and stiffness stitches and windiness running about her yet she feels no more weight in her body this is a sign of miscarriage if it be not prevented There is nothing better after conception to prevent abortment than good natural food moderately taken and to use all things with moderation to avoid violent passions as care and anger joy fear or whatsoever may too much stir the blood use not Phlebotomy without great cause nor yet violent purgatives If the Matrix be too much dilated use things that contract and fasten as Baths prepared Unguents Ointments Fumes Odours Plaisters Some remedies are specifical against miscarriage and if the woman be in danger she may use them and that in divers ways that she may take them as thus take red Coral in powder two drams shavings of Ivory one dram and a half Mastick half a dram and one Nutmeg in powder give half a dram in a rear egg c. A Powder to hinder Abortion Take Bistort-roots one scruple Kermes berries Plantane and Purslain seeds of each one dram Coriander prepared two scruples Sugar all their weight take every day one scruple with a little Maligo Wine if the body be not costive For an Ague Sometimes women with Child fall into an Ague then take Barley meal juice of Sloes and of Housleek a sufficient quantity and with Vinegar make a Cataplasme and lay it upon a double cloth and lay it often upon the womans belly and this will preserve the child from it For the wind Some are much troubled with wind that will cause them to miscarry then take Cumminseed and boyl it in water give her four spoonful of it twice a week with a dram of Methridate Against sudden frights Take Mastick Frankincence of each one dram Dragons blood Myrtles Bolearmoniak Hermes berries of each half a scruple make them into powder and give half a dram at once with White Wine or Chicken broth To strengthen the Child in
the Womb. Take two pound of the crumbs of the inward part of white Bread Cammomile flowers one handful Mastick two drams Cloves half a dram bruise them and mingle them well with some Maligo Wine and two ounces of rose Vinegar boil them to a Pultiss and lay it on a double Cloth to the Os pubis Purgations may not be used unless the belly be bound and then a gentle Glister or some Manna or Cassia about half an ounce is safe to give by Potion Slipperiness of the womb is cured by an injection made of Pomegranate pills boil'd in Oyl of Lillies Or take Mastick Myrtle Gallia moscala of each half a dram mix them with Goose-grease and Sheeps-Wool and sew them in a linnen cloth and make a pastry and tye a string to it to pull it out again when you have put it up into the place To strengthen the Matrix Take four ounces of the Oyl of Nuts Barrows-grease one ounce and half Cypress-nuts Mastich of each one dram and half boyl them all about five hours and with this annoint her belly womb and reins of her back BOOK V. CHAP. I. How women after Child-birth must be governed THere is great differences in Womens constitutions and education you may kill one with that which will preserve the other tender women that are bred delicately must not be governed after the same manner that hardy Country women must for one is commonly weak stomach'd but the other is strong if you should give the weak woman presently after delivery strong broth or Eggs or milk it will cast her into a Feaver but the other that is strong will bear it but tender women must be tenderly fed and nothing given them that is of hard digestion nor yet what they have no mind to provided that what she desires be not offensive but for the first week she lies in let her have boil'd and not roast Jellies and Juice of Veal or Capon but no mutton Broth for that may make her Feaverish let her drink barley water or boyl one dram of Cinnamon in a pint of water dissolving two ounces of fine Sugar in it if she will drink wine mingle twice as much water or two third parts with it but let it be white wine in the morning and Claret in the after-noon she may sometimes drink Almond-milk but beware of crudities Some women when they lie in are still sleeping some cannot sleep if she cannot sleep let her drink barley water well boyled not straining it at all but let her forbear it after the first week lest it nourish too much and stop the Liver Baths for Child-bed Women For the first week let her Womb and Privities be bathed with a decoction of Chervil a good handful boiled in a good quantity of water adding to it after it is boiled one ounce of Honey of Roses this will draw away the purgations and cleanse and heal the parts and it will take away all inflammations For the second week boil Province Roses put in Bays Wine and water and with this decoction bath her secrets Keep her not too hot for that weakens nature and dissolves her strength nor too cold for cold getting in will cause torments hurt the Nerves and make the womb swell Let her diet be hot and eat but little at once some Nurses perswade them to eat apace because they have lost much blood but they are simple that say so for the blood voided doth not weaken but unburden nature for if it had not come away long diseases or death would have succeeded some say Oat-meal Candles are good for them but oat-meal makes people troubled with the green sickness by its binding quality boyling will never make a binding thing to purge ill humours as they say it doth Child-bed Women but purging things by boyling may sometimes be made to bind Let her for three daies keep the room dark for her eyes are weak and light offends them let all great noises be forborn and all unquietness remembering to be praising God for her safe delivery First then so soon as she is laid give her a draught of white wine burnt with a dram of Spermaâ—cety melted in it Vervain is an herb that fortifies the womb it is fit to gather in May and June you may dry it in the Sun and keep it to boil with her meat and drinks you shall profit more in two daies with it than in two weeks without it If the woman be Feaverish boil Plantane leaves and roots with it and if she be not yet they will do well together for the heat of the one is tempered by the coldness of the other But if her purgations stop for Plantane take Mother of tyme. If her purgations be clotted and smell filthily or the after-burden be not quite come away boyl Featherfew Mugwort Penniroyal Mother of time in white wine sweetened with Sugar let her drink that new laid eggs and Sugar Penides are best for her to eat often of moderately and boyl Cinnamon in all her meats and drinks Let her talk little nor stir much especially if she be weak for six or seven dayes after she is delivered is a decoction of Mallows with a little red Sugar is a good Glister if she be too costive Crato prescribes Coleworts and Chrysippus makes them to be a universal remedy for all diseases but they are too windy for women in Child-bed After the first week if she be near clean of her purgations she may use Comfry and knot-grass in broths to close the womb that hath been so much opened you may use a little purging with them Therefore put in some Poâ—ypody of the Oak that is best leaves and roots both being bruised the quantities are almost at your discretion Sometimes pains encrease after delivery Hippocrates saith women are most subject to them after the birth of their first child some Physicians think it is by reason of the thinness and sharpness others from the thickness and sliminess of the blood but if you use the former directions these pains may be prevented What I said of Vervain before is a good remedy or else boil an egg soft and mingle the yelk with a spoonful of water of Cinnamon and let her drink it also a fume of the powder of bay-berries cast on a chafing dish of coals received at her secrets is a great help And for present ease boyl an equal quantity of tar and barrows grease together when it boyls put in a little pidgeons dung to it spread it on a linnen cloth and lay it hot to her reins she may drink half a dram of Bay-berries in powder in a quarter of a pint of Muskadel you may see by this that cold and wind cause these pains For Excoriation of the Privities Annoint them with Oyl of sweet Almonds or Oyl of St. John's wort which is better Against the Piles or Hemorrhoids Take Polypody bruised and boyl it with your drinks or meats Let her be let blood in the Saphena
the woman is weak already by her travel Good diet and gentle sweating cure a Milk-Feaver but there must be purging and many remedies used for the other as bleeding in the foot cupping of the thighs to provoke the after purgations but if the time of after-purging be over if she be strong then open a vein in the Arm. It is dangerous to purge the woman after the seventh day as some do when she hath a Pleurisie because of her weakness after travel and because purges hinder the after-flux but you may if the flux of blood cease if need be give a gentle purge with Cassia or Manna sirrup of roses or Sena or Rhubarb Too cold and sharp things are naught take heed of cold drink or too much drink let her diet by degrees increase from thin to thicker If the Feaver came from too much milk or terms stopt open a vein in her foot then purge a way the gross humours with sirrup of Maidenhair Endive of each one ounce waters of Succory and Fennel an ounce and half a piece Sharp and putrified humours must be purged away with proper medicaments as water of Succory and violets of each two ounces sirrup of the same of each one ounce cooling Glisters are good here if there be need you may purge stronger but this is not usual I shall give you one example take two drams of Rhubarb in powder Diagridium four grains let them infuse all night in Succory and Anniseed water two ounces and half of each and one ounce of Borrage flower water warm them gently in the morning and strain them well through a linnen cloth add to the strained liquor one ounce of sirrup of Succory Cinnnamon water two spoonfuls drink it warm Then after you have well purged away the ill humours you may gently sweat her to open the passages of the body and womb you will find examples of them in the Treatise of the Courses stopt CHAP. IV. Of the looseness of the belly in child-bed Women THis may be thought a small matter in respect of other infirmities yet this is one of the most dangerous distempers and hardest to help in child-bed women for stop the flux you will stop her purgations if you stop it not she will perish by weakness nothing almost is safely given Physicians are at a stand in such a case but it is good be wary and moderate in what is done and it may be helpt God willing It is not safe to stop it presently and if it continue it may cause a Tenesmus or a dysentury if it come from ill diet let her mend that and strengthen her stomach outwardly if yet it continue use inward remedies that corroborate the stomach yet hurt not the womb as Barley water Honey and sirrup of roses cleansing Glisters are good and to temper sharp cholerick humours But the best way is to observe what loosenes of the belly she is molested with for if it be that they call Diarrhoea that will only discharge her body of ill humours therefore do nothing in that case but let her take strengthening food for when nature hath eased her self sufficiently she will stay both the looseness of the belly and her purgations from the womb and so no ill accidents will come but if the flux be Lienteria that the food comes away with the stools undigested annoint her belly with Oil of Mastick and of Myrtles and give her some sirrup of dried Roses pulp of Tamarinds or some torrified Rhubarb to purge the belly and not hurt the womb But if it rise to a Dysentery called the bloody flux then so soon as her Terms are purged away try to stay it 1. By purging as take half a dram of bark of yellow Mirobolans of rosted Rubarb as much finely powdered sirrup of Roses or of Quinces one ounce pulp of Cassia or of Tamarinds with Sugar half an ounce Plantane or Oaken water four ounces let her drink this at once 2. Abstersives are good as of whey or barley water or Glisters of Mallows Mellilot Wheat-bran and Oyl of sweet Almonds 3. Narcoticks to ease great pains Philonium Romanum two scruples Rose-water two ounces Maligo wine one ounce give it when she goes to sleep this is excellent In this case astringents are to be used but not in the former distempers here they profit there they are dangerous Of Womens vomiting in Child-Bed Women both before they fall in labour and at the time of their travel and also afterwards will sometimes fall to vomiting and it may proceed from ill diet or raw humors or from weakness of their stomach or consent of the womb when the after flux is stopt and sometimes they will vomit blood for the blood that is stopped below runs back to the great veins and liver and being much and sharp finds a way into the stomach and so comes forth at the mouth It is ill after child-birth especially the food being vomited there will be nothing to make milk for the child and sometimes in hard labour a Vein is broken and this may cause a dropsie if ill diet cause vomit rectifie that if ill humours stop it not presently but purge gently if blood come pull back by rubbing or cupping or bleeding opening a Vein in the foot ham or ankle and urging the after flux Sometimes the woman is costive then give her a suppository with Castle sope or Honey and then stay four or five days till you may give a Glister with Manna or Cassia If her Urine run away against her will bath her parts with a decoction of Betony Bays Sage Rosemary Origanum Stoechas and Penni-royal for her vomiting give her three spoonfuls of Cinnamon water one ounce and half of juice of Quinces about a spoonful at a time The leaves of Rosemary dried and brought into powder and so drank about a scruple or half a dram at a time in a cup of wine will stay vomiting preserve or Marmalade of Quinces or Medlars eaten or Pears or sowr Apples do strengthen the stomach juice of Barberries or of Pomegranates or sowr Cherries with Mint water There are many topical applications to be made to the pit of the stomach which being laid on and so continued prevail much as thus take the crum of the inside of a white loaf and tost it and steep it in good Maligo Wine and strew it lightly over with the powder of Cloves and Nutmegs or sirrup of Roses Rhubarb or pulp of Tamarinds and astringents of Roses Plantane Coral Tormentil if the Terms flow not at all the belly must be kept loose but vomiting is so perillous that it ought to be stopt alwaies provided it be done no sooner than it is needful and with good provisoes CHAP. V. Of Womens diseases in general WHosoever rightly considers it will presently find that the Female sex are subject to more diseases by odds than the Male kind are and therefore it is reason that great care should be had for the cure of that
dry like Men that they have hardly any courses at all as the Indian women have none but they are barren if they abound with no more blood than will nourish their body Blood is wanting either because it is not made or not dispersed where it should but turned to other uses Old age cold constitutions diseased bodies will not make blood also often bleeding of the great vessels and much loss of blood or from Issues to make diversions the womb is not supplied with it Nature spends the blood in Nurses that give suck for an other end and fat women wear it on their backs sadness and fear not only wast but cool and corrupt the blood 4. The weakness of the woman hinders the courses and so long as she continues weak she will have noâ— But all these things must be judged of by the relation of the party whether the whole body be diseased or the defect be in the womb or vessels or the mouth of the womb turned aside If the cause be from heat that her courses are stopt her Pulses are swift and strong she is very thirsty and her head aketh and such like signs of heat If from cold the woman is drowsie and sleepy her Pulse beats slow and she is not thirsty the Veins are ill coloured if the woman be fat or lean that will discover the inward cause of it The usual cause of obstruction of the courses is thick slimy humours or from thick gross melancholly blood proceeding from a cold distemper of the Spleen and Liver by drinking cold Water or eating gross Food The Roman women drank snow water and that was the reason said Galen that they had few or no courses but in such cases they could not be very fruitful It will seem strange that some women are so hot of constitution that they have conceived yet never had their courses at all Courses stopt in maids are not the same as they are in women for the effects are very different Maids they prâ—â—â—ntly fall into the Green sickness by it the blood going to and fro all the body over and is corrupted but in women it runs to the womb commonly and causes them to vomit and to loath their meat or to desire unnatural things You shall know a woman with child when her courses are stopt from a maid that hath hers stopt for the one looks wan and pale the other lively and well the one is sad the other merry the womans pains daily decrease and the others increase This obstruction causeth not only barrenness but strange distempers Suffocations Swellings Imposthumes Coffing Dropsies difficulty of breathings urine supprest Costiveness Heaviness Megrims Vertigoes Head ach and many more fearful distempers Hippocrates tells us that when the terms are long stopt the Womb is diseased with humours imposthumes ulcers barrenness Leucophlegmacy vomiting of blood heart-ach and head-ach if the symptomes be great there is danger of death The best way to move the courses in weak women is to forbear Physick and to feed them high with nourishing meats and drinks this is where the Woman is lean her Liver weak and blood is wanting but if blood abound then give a gentle purge or Glister then open a vein to draw down the blood to the womb open a vein in the foot or ancle one day one leg and another day the other four or five daies before the time the courses should come down use Frictions and binding of the parts below but Issues and opening of the Emrods do hurt and draw from the womb you may first loosen the belly with Hiera Picra or Pills de tribus For Phlegmatick bodies use the Decoction of Guaicum or Sarsa and Sassafras and Dittany fifteen drops without sweating purge with Agarick Mechoachan Turbith and Scamony or drink wine of their infusions if the stomach be foul give a vomit lest it get into the Reins Things that provoke the terms are hot and thin take sirrup of Mugwort and of the Fierwort of each one ounce and a half Oximel simple one ounce Water of Motherwort and Mugwort of each two ounces Pennyroyal and Nip of each one ounce sweeten it with a spoonful or two of Cinnamon water make a Julip to drink at thrice Pessaries are not fit for maids but Fumes may be used if she be no maid bruise Mercury with Centaury Flowers put in a bag for a pessary begin with the mildest remedies if it be from a humour provoke not the Terms but cure the swelling Some say that the blood going to other parts cause the Terms to stop but that is contrary for the blood goes to other parts because the Terms are stopt Authors agree not what veins must be opened to move the Terms Galen thinks the Ancle Vein and most men conclude the same because it opens obstructions and brings down the blood open the ancle twice or thrice rather than the arm once but in other diseases of the womb it is best to open a vein in the arm as when the Terms are too many or drop or the womb is inflamed The Saphaena is opened by putting the foot into warm water few terms flowing if the blood be but little there is no harm Diseases grow when they are stopt by thick blood as the Cancer Schirrhus and Erisipelas when the time is near then use the stronger remedies the weaker having made a way for them Tender natures as maids must have but gentle remedies as Aloes one dram and a half Agarick and Rhubarb of each one dram Myrrh Gum Ammoniack dissolved in Vinegar Gentian Root Asarum of each half a dram Cinnamon Mastich Spikenard of each one scruple five grains of Saffron make a mass of the fine powder with sirrup of Mugwort the Dose is one dram To urge the terms in strong Country people take pills Aureae and Aggregativae of each two drams pill Felid and Hiera of each four scruples at the Apothecaries Diagrid one scruple Trochischi Alhandal half a scruple with a hot pestle mix them well in a Mortar adding sirrup of Damask Roses one dram oil of Anniseed olympical half a scruple dissolve Gum Dragant in Cinnamon water and make your pills and let the woman take two scruples every morning before the time of their terms at least three or four drops Ointments and Plaisters are good also and pessaries made of Aromatical things and sweet smells and Fumes as take Benzoin Storax Calamita Bdellium Myrrh what you please mingle them and strew some on a pan of Coles the woman so placed that she may receive the Fume by a Tunnel broad at the lower end to keep the smoke in but lest these Fumes cause the head-ach keep the Fumes down with clothes about the woman that they come not to her head But do none of these things to women with child for that will be Murder give your remedy a little before the Full Moon or between the New and the full for then blood increaseth but never in the Wane of the Moon
some but in others by accident from cold Air cold Diet and Medicaments or from too much idleness the signs are quite contrary to the former for the other are extreme desirous of Venery and these abhor it and take no pleasure in it they have few or no hairs about their Secrets and their seed is watry and Slimy their wombs are windy and they are subject to Gonorrhaeas and the Whites The Cure is long and hard to be done but they must use such things as warm the womb with drinking good wine and sometimes Cordial Waters and good warm nourishing Meats and of easie digestion with Anniseed Fennel seed and Time And Fumigations are good of Myrrh Frankincence Mastick Bay berries of each a dram Labdanum two drams Storax and Cloves of each a dram Gum Arabick and wine make Troches put one or two upon a Pan of coles and let her receive the Fume at the Matrix Then take Labdanum two ounces Frankincence Mastick Liquid Storax of each half an ounce oyl of Cloves and of Nutmegs of each half a scruple oyl of Lillies and Rue of each one ounce Wax sufficient make a Plaister and lay it over the Region of the womb But if the womb be moist and this is commonly joyned with a cold distemper it drowns the seed like as if a Man should sow Corn in a quagmire The causes are almost the same as of cold for it is Idleness that is the cause in most women that are troubled with it and such women have abundance of Courses but they are thin and waterish and the whites also their Secrets are alwayes wet they cannot retain the mans seed but it slips out again This must be cured as the cold distemper by a heating and drying Diet and Medicaments Baths Injections Fomentations wherein Brimstone is mingled but take heed of Astringents for they will make the Disease worse by stopping the ill humours in The fourth is a dry Distemper of the womb this is natural to some but to most it comes when they are old and past childing when the womb grows hard if it be from any other drying causes such women will be barren before they be old It may proceed from diseases as Feavers Inflammations Obstructions when the blood goes not to the Matrix to moisten it so that if they void any blood it comes from the Veins in the neck of the womb and not from the bottom they have but few courses little seed they are of a lean dry Constitution their lower Lip is of a blackish red and commonly chapt This Distemper if it be long is seldom cured moistning things must do it as Borage Bugloss Almonds Dates Figs Raisins Moistning and nourishing Diet is good and to forbear salt and dry meats avoid anger sadness fasting and use to sleep long and labour but little rub the parts with oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies Linseed sweet Butter Jesamine Hens or Ducks Grease Besides these four there are compound distempers as cold and moist wombs and hot and dry but I presume I need not in particular speak of them because I have given sufficient remedies in the several qualitis already which will be easie to apply I confess a compound distemper is harder to be cured than a simple therefore I shall add one or two remedies more First If then the Womb be cold and moist cure this with surrup of Mugwort Bettony Mints or Hyssop then purge the cold humor with Agarick Mechoachan Turbith and Sena Sudorificks of Guaicum Sarfa and China are very good Secondly If the womb be subject to a hot and dry distemper you must put away choler from the Liver and from the whole body those things that will do it are Manna and Tamarinds sirrup of Roses Rhubarb Senna Cassia and the like which are very safe gentle and effectual Remedies BOOK VI. CHAP. I. Of the Strangling of the womb and the effects of it with the Causes and Cure THe womb by its consent with other parts of the Body as well as by its own nature is subject to multitudes of diseases and it is not to be uttered almost what Miseries women in general by meanes thereof be they Maids Wives or widowes are affected with But amongst all diseases those that are called Hysterical Passions or strangling of the womb are held to be the most grievous Swounding and Falling Sickness are from hence by the consent the womb hath with the heart and brain and sometimes this comes to pass by stopping of the Terms which load the heart the brain and Womb with evil humors and sometimes it ariseth from the stopping in of the seed of Generation as is seen in Antient Maids and widowes for by reason hereof ill vapors and wind rise up from the womb to the Midriff and so stops their breath it is most commonly the widowes disease who were wont to use Copulation and are now constrained to live without it when the seed is thus retained it corrupts and sends up filthy vapours to the brain whereby the Animal Spirits are clouded and many ill consequents proceed from it as Falling Sicknesses Megrims Dulness Giddiness Drowsiness Shortness of breath Head-ache beating of the Heart Frenzy and Madness and indeed what not The same woman may be tormented with several of these at the same time when the seed and the Courses are mingled with ill humours being once corrupted The Menstrual blood and seed are noble parts but the best things once corrupted become the worst and degenerate into a venemous nature and are little better than Poyson When the Vessils of the womb lye near the Vessels of other parts of the body or there is near affinity of one part with the womb then by consent are many grievous Diseases produced The womb is of a membranous nature and for that reason it consents exceedingly with the nerves and membranes and so the parts that are near are soon offended by it and it conveys its ill qualities to the whole body by Nerves Veins and Arteries the Brain hath it by the membranes of the marrow of the Back and by Nerves the arteries they carry it to the Heart and the veins to the Liver and these are large in the womb and by them all the noxious blood and poisonous vapours return The Veins of the Mesentery give it a consent with the stomach and so do the arteries carry all to the Spleen which is the cause that some women in age grow hypochondriacal by heat of their blood because their courses did not flow sufficient when they were young It will be hard to distinguish these two diseases in women or to cure the one and not cure the other The Breasts they consent with the womb by Nerves and Veins that go from it to them so then it is clear that it holds a correspondence with the heart the Midriff the Brain and Head and all the instruments of motion and sense likewise with the Stomach Liver Spleen Bladder Belly Mesentery Hips Back straight Gut
two ounces and â—ake three drams of clear Chimney Soot make a powder keep it close stopt in a glass to use â—fter one year and not before For the cure of any other Ulcers or Fistulaes of the breasts first try to dry up the milk and when the breasts hang down bind them up that the humours fall not down to them cleanse them with a decoction of Rhapontick Agrimony and Zedoary to heal take six quarts of strong wine and boil in it Rhus Obsoniox Cypress Nuts of each four ounces and two ounces of Green Galls to the thickness of Honey If the Fistula be Callous and hard about the edges open the Orifice with a Gentian root and take the redness away then cleanse and heal as ordinary Ulcers Sometimes stones hair or worms are bred in the breasts from corrupt blood or milk and so they may breed in the back or Navel Sometimes the Veins and Arteries of the breasts are so streight that they can contain no blood to make milk it is either gross humors that stop them as they do the Vessels of the womb or they are made so by the wombs vessels being stopt or from hard humors bred there Sometimes the Nipple hath no hold for the child to draw forth the milk by and it was so made at first or else it is from a wound or ulcer that leaves a scar that stops it The breasts then must needs pine away but if the milk cannot be suck'd forth the breasts are swoln the reason is that the Paps or veins for the milk are not as they should be When gross humours only obstruct that may be cured but a Nipple naturally without a hole or the hole stopt by a Schirrhus or Scar after an ulcer is cured cannot be healed often rubbing of the breasts will open the veins for milk but the Nipples for the child to suck by are oftentimes deficient or lie tied either one or both that women can hardly give suck if an ulcer have eaten away the Nipple or it was not made at her birth it will never be otherwise if the hole be never so small so there be a hole often sucking will make it larger especially by a sucking instrument Clefts and Chaps of the breasts are troublesome and usual to Nurses and in time those Chaps grow to foul Ulcers and hinder giving of suck You may prevent this mischief if in the two last months they go with child you lay two cups of wax made up with a little Rozin to cover the Nipples To cure the Nipples take oil of Myrtles of wax ointment of Lead and Tutty or take Tutty prepared one scruple and half a dram of Allum Camphire six grains with ointment of Roses and Capons grease make it up or take Pomatum one ounce and a half Mastick a scruple Powder of red roses and Gum Traganth of each half a scruple before the child sucks wash the breasts with Rose water and White-wine and that it may suck without pain cover the sore pap with a silver Nipple covered with the pap of a Cow new killed You may take what quantity you please of Mutton Suet or Lambs Suet and wash it in Rose water when it is melted and clarified and annoint the paps with it CHAP. IV. Directions for Nurses BUt there is one consideration more for the Nurse before I leave this and that is that she may not want good milk in her breasts for if she do the child will suffer more than the Nurse because he draws it from her to feed him Those that are fretful lean or sickly have bad Livers and Stomachs and ill digestion that they can have neither much nor yet good milk and bad diet hinders much Such as want milk should drink milk wherein Fennel Seed hath been soked and feed on good nourishment and drink good drink Barley Water and Almond milk are good for hot cholerick people let her eat Lettice Borrage Spuriache and Lamb sodden and eaten with Vervine Calves or Goats milk nourish and breed milk in the breasts the eating of Anniseeds Cummin seeds Carraway seeds or their decoction drank will help well all things that increase seed ripen milk when you go to bed drink two drams and a half of bruised Anniseeds in the decoction of Coleworts Use this Plaister take Deers suet half an ounce Parsley herb and root the like quantity barley meal one ounce and a half red Storax three drams boil the roots and herbs well and beat them to Pap and incorporate all with three ounces of oyl of sweet Almonds and lay them to the breasts and nipple There are many things hinder milk either little blood to breed it or the faculty of the breasts is deficient and cannot do it or the Organs are not right as they should be also much watching fasting labour sweating and great evacuations by stool or Urine strong passions or great pains sorrows cares or strong Feavers and other discussers may destroy or hinder milk in the breasts so may also the childs great weakness who cannot draw it thither it is easily known by any of these causes when the breasts swell not but flag and lie wrinkled you know there is no great store of milk in them if the fault be in the Liver that it breeds not good blood you must rectify the Liver yet she may be in good health sufficient as to other things but then the infant will be ruined by it and it is for that end that nature provides milk that the child may be fed The usual way for rich people is to put forth their children to nurse but that is a remedy that needs a remedy if it might be had because it changeth the natural disposition of the child and oftentimes exposeth the infant to many hazards if great care be not taken in the choice of the nurse There are not many Women that want milk to suckle their own children so there are some that may well be excused because of their weakness that they cannot give suck to their own children but multitudes pretend weakness when they have no cause for it because they have not so much love for their own as Dumb creatures have Nature indeed hath provided some helps where milk is wanting for the child but those are not many to shew women that nature commonly doth her part with most mothers to furnish them with milk without farther means than by good wholesome meats and drinks but there are abundance of things that will hinder milk or destroy it For all things that are cold or else hot and dry are enemies to womens milk but none will breed it but such things as are hot and moist or not very dry and of such things there are no great plenty Also they must be of easie digestion and that will breed good blood that the milk that is bred may have no strong qualities with it to offend the infant You may lay a plaister of Mustard all over the breasts and
or two of red Rose sirrup or of Pomegranates with Mint water may do much good or beat some Sorrel-seeds to powder and give it to eat with the yolk of a roasted Egg or bruise the seed and boil it in fountain water and let the child drink of it twice a day If the child be costive and cannot go to stool this comes oftentimes from a cold and dry distemper of the Guts from the birth or form slimy flegme that sticks to the Guts and wraps up the Dung this last comes from the milk when the Nurse drinks little or eates hard meats or astringent diet or else it may come from a hot distemper of the Kidneys and Liver that drieth the excrements or want of choler to provoke expulsion A dry distemper of the Guts is not easily helped when there wants choler the body looks yellow and the dung is white because the choller is gone some other way When the child is bound the Head will ache and there is pain in the belly wherefore it is more healthful if the belly be loose so it be moderate A hot distemper is remedied by bathing it often in a bath of boiled Lettice and Succory to mosten and cool it In a hot cause use coolers in a moist drying things let the nurse abstain from binding meats in dry causes as from Quinces Medlars Pease Beans and annoint the stomach and belly of the child with fresh butter oyl of Lillies hens grease if the child be grown give it the decoction of red Coleworts with a little Honey and salt Flegme is cured with sirrup of Roses or with Honey and to cool sirrup of Violets is effectual or emulsions of the four cold seeds When choler will not come from the Gall to the guts to move the expulsive faculty let it drink a decoction of Grass roots Maiden-hair Fennel and Sparagus if it will not yet void the Excrements make a suppository of Honey boiled hard let it be as big as a date stone or a little bigger and as long as your little finger or you may make it of the stalks or roots of Beets or flower de Luce dip them in oyl and thrust it up into the Fundament lay a piece of wool dipt in oyl to the childes navel and give it the quantity of a Pease of good honey When the child sucks give the Nurse a gentle purge to loosen the belly if soluble meats will not do it you may safely lay a plaister over the childes belly made of Mallowes and Marshmallowes of each one handful Holyhocks two ounces ten Figs Fenugreek and Linseed of each one ounce boil all in water and then stamp them in a mortar make it up with butter and hens-grease of each two ounces Saffron one scruple spread it on a Linnen Cloath or apply to the navel a walnut shell full of hens-grease and Oxe Gall and anoint the belly with softning things as with oyl of sweet Almonds and of Linseed bran with the juyce of Dwarf Elder will make a loosning Poultis for the belly VI. The child may be troubled with worms that breed in their Guts some like mites of Cheese and some like earth worms and some children have been observed to have them in their Mothers bellies for they have voided them so soon almost as they were born but the chief cause is by mingling milk with other meats when the constitution is hot and moist or from Summer Fruits and sweet Meats that worms love These worms are broad and small or round and long you may know when they have worms when their Mouthes water much and their breath stinks when they gnash their teeth and start in their sleep and cry when they have a dry cough loath their meat are very thirsty when they vomit and hicket when their bellies swell and they are much bound or very loose when they make thick white water with pain when their belly is empty and the worms want meat their face is covered with a cold sweat and their cheeks flush with red colour and suddenly become pale by this you may know what worms they are for these signs shew round worms commonly rather than flat sometimes children have no great hurt by it when they have worms till the worms grow too strong and then dangerous symptomes follow Long round worms are worst for they will eat quite through the belly and when there is a Feaver the danger is greater Those that do least hurt are white but the fewer and smaller the worms are the less is the danger It is best to eat meats of good juice with Oranges and Pomegranates forbearing all slimy sweet fat meats Fish and milk and Summer fruits and to take some powder of harts-horn and drink thin wine mingled with Grass and Sorrel waters these will keep worms that they breed not which is better than to let them breed and drive them out afterwards Keep the childs belly loose with Glisters when you know they have worms or give them the decoction of Sebestens before meat Scordium and Wormwood are good but children will not be perswaded to take bitter medicaments wherefore you may give them Grass water with juice of Lemmons or one or two drops of Spirit of Vitriol These things following will kill Worms and cast them forth eight grains of Mercurius Dulcis steept all night in Couch-grass water strain it finely and give nothing but the water Wormseed Harts-horn or Coralline are good lay Peach-leaves bruised to the Navel or a little Ox Gall Saint Johns wort and Wormwood Knot-grass water drank with milk Ox Gall and Cummin-seed laid to the Navel are good against great worms mingle with your juice of Wormwood and Ox Gall of each two ounces of Coloquintida one ounce made into a Cataplasme with Wheat meal lay it over the Belly and Navel If there be a Feaver withal use such cooling remedies as are here prescribed against a Feaver you must use several medicaments for the worms will quickly grow familiar with any medicament and will not stir for it the best time to administer your remedies is about the new or full of the Moon for then they will sooner move than in the quarters let the child be fasting and go to stool first if he can and give the medicament to destroy the Worms when they are hungry and the time the child that is of age is wont to eat his breakfast for the worms will look for it VII Sometimes children have Convulsion Fits and the Falling-sickness it is natural to some from their birth but others have it by accident the nurses ill milk may breed it let her cleanse her body and not use too much moist and cooling diet nor let the child suck too much at one time to over-charge the stomach The Male-Peony root hanged about the childs neck and a small quantity of the powder of the same given to the child in any convenient way with milk or pap or broth or drink is much commended and so is the