in their travail nor afterwards to which if remedies be not applied the women do run great hazards and dangers in their lying in great suffocations of the matrix and continual feavers this may be remedied being first enformed of their natural disposition afore they were with child knowing that when they had their purgations they had them in great quantity and for a good while together as also when they came being a gross and thick bloud and therefore seeing that now they do not purge in great quantity and that they have divers unquietnesses weaknesses of the stomach and pains of the head wherefore you may give her in the morning a little syrrup of Maiden-hair and Hysop water mingled together and syrrup of Wormwood with White-wine in their broths you may boyl Jacines and opening herbs keeping the belly soluble with Glysters they must eat no solid meat she must be well chafed from the groines down to the very ankle-bone alwayes stroaking and carrying the hand downward bloud letting also in the foot in the morning is not amiss as also some fumigation that Cleanses the matrix and draws downe the blood yet care must be had that these last remedies be not used before the Matrix be put into its place for feare that these remedies should draw it down too low but about eight or ten days after the Matrix was put into its place for cleansing the matrix you may use this receit Take Pellitory Sanicle Camomile Melilot greene Balm red Balme whit Mulleine Mallowes Marsh-mallowes Betony Margeram Nipp March Violets Mugwort take of each a like quantitie and cut them small and let them boyle in a new pot with three pints of good white wine let the woman take the fume of this receite three times in a day if she have any gross blood in the matrix it will undoubtedly bring it down You may also chafe the womans belly with oyle of violets this helpes the purgations being once dissolved The reason why this thick blood stayes in these partes is because the woman having it before she was with child the heate of the womb when she is with Child redoubling thickens it more so that when she comes to lye down it cannot flow so that it is to be taken away as much as may be with the aforesaid reasons Mollifying fomentations are also proper for this purpose while the woman sits over the fumigation CHAP. XIII For those who have but a little blood THose women that have but little bloud ought not to live in their beds as those who have a great deal They out to take good nourishment in a little quantity As eggs well boyled in the shell in a morning The juyce of Mutton and Veal squeezed out and Mutton broth and all these being mingled together nourish very much and make very good bloud as also Pigeons Partridg Mutton Quaile and such other meats good for the stomach CHAP. XIV What is to be done to the Infant THe Midwife having tied up the Navel string as is beforesaid she ought next to cleanse the Infant not only in the face but also over the whole body anointing the groins hips buttocks thighs and joynts with oyl of sweet Almonds or fresh Butter this makes the skin more firm shuts up the pores of the skin so that the exteriour air cannot come to hurt it and besides this it strengthens all the parts of the bodie It would not be amiss to make a bath or decoction of Roses and Sage in Wine and with that to wash the Infant every morning After the Infant is thus well anointed and after that well dried and wrapped up you may give to the Infant a little Sack and Suger in a spoon or else the quantity of a pease bigness of Mithridate or Treacle dissolved in wine with a little Carduus water CHAP. XV. How to govern women in Child-bed THere is great difference in the governing women in Childbed for she that thinks to order an ordinarie labouring or countrie woman like a person of qualitie kills her and she that thinks to govern a person of qualitie like an ordinarie Countrie-woman does the same to her for the stomack and Constitution of the one is tender and weake and the Constitution and stomack of the other strong and lustie which will not be satisfyed with ordinary viands for if you give to one of these strong stomachs presently after their delivery any strong broth or eggs or a draught of milke are like mills that allways grind and empty as fast as they pour in and that that gives one woman a feaver keeps another from it and therfore women in Childbed are to be governed by their several constitutions As for women that are delicate and have been accustomed to live delicately greater care must be taken of them giving them meats that breed good nourishment and do not clog the stomach forbearing also to give her those meats to which she has too great a dislike agreeing to her humour provided that the meats which she loves be not hurtful and giving her for the first eight days of her lying in boyled meats rather then rosted as gellies c. the juyce of Veal or Capon but not mutton it being too feverish giving her to drink barly water or else water boyled wherein is boyled a dram of Cinamon to every pint and two ounces of sugar dissolved or if she do not love sugar Coriander seed water if she drink wine let it be two thirds of water to one third of wine giving her in the morning White wine and in the afternoon Claret taking care of eating any thing that may breed any crudities she may also take at the discretion of those about her Almond milk now and then There are some women that cannot be kept from sleeping and others that cannot sleep at all It will not be amiss to give to those that cannot sleep French barly water the way to make it well is to let it boyl well and to take the broth without streining it neither ought it to be taken after the eight dayes are past by reason that it nourishes exceedingly and does not a little obstruct the Liver CHAP. XVI Of the bathings that a woman is to use for the first eight dayes of her lying in TAke a good handful of old or new Chervil and boyl it in a sufficient quantity of water then taking it from the fire add to it a spoonful of Mel Rosatum or hony of Roses this draws down the purgations clenses and heals the parts The herb it self may serve for a fomentation to take away any inflamation There are some that use milk to the purpose aforesaid affirming that it is a great asswager of the pain but that having been proved by others hath been observed rather to engender filth then to be any way a clearer by reason that the sharp humour causes it to curdle CHAP. XVII How a woman ought to govern her self in case a woman be to be delivered
that meanes be delayed to the damage of the woman in childbed The fourteenth form If there be twins in the womb and one of them endeavour to come forth with the head formost and the other with the feet First of all the Midwife must consider which of the two the woman may be delivered of with most expedition if the head of the one be less forward then the feet of the second it will be most convenient to draw that forth by the feet turning the head of the other a little to the other side and that being delivered she must presently lay hold of the head of that which is within and direct it just to the passage of the womb which may be done with more ease by reason of the gap which the formost hath made If it happen that in drawing forth the first by the feet that the other chang its situation the midwife may then draw forth the other by the feet as she did the first and if the head of the first be more forward then must she put back the feet of the first and receive that which comes with the head formost If both of them press together to the passage of the womb the midwife must take great care and therfore she must put up her hand to see which of them is most forward as also to try whether it be not some monstrous conception as two heads upon one body or two bodies joyned in one either at the shoulders or at the sides which may be known if she put up her hand gently between the two heads as high as she can and if she find that they are twins she may gently put the one to one side to make way for the passage of the other which is most advanced which must be directed just to the orifice of the womb having a great care that she do not change the situation of the second and as she feeles the pains of the mother coming on her she must by all means bring forward the childe that she would receive still keeping the other back with two or three fingers of the left hand and thus having delivered the first if the second be not well situated she must bring the head to the neck of the womb where it will find the passage open to it by the delivery of the first Now lest the first childe should be in danger of its life you must take it from the mother and carefully tie up the navel string as is formerly mentioned also bind again with a large and long fillet that part of the navel which is fast to the secondines that they may be the more easily found Then the second child being born the Midwife must see if there be not two secondines for by reason of the shortness of the ligature it may have happened to retire back againe to the damage of the woman and therfore the secondines must be hastened forth as soon as may be least the womb should close If the two Infants have but one body the better way is to turn the head upwards and to draw it forth by the feet then by the head taking care when you come to the hipps to draw it forth as quick as may be The fifteenth form The second forme of the unnaturall birth is very dangerous and therfore requires the greater care of the midwife First therfore let her well anoynt the womb of the woman that the passage may be more slipperie which being done let her take hold of the hands of one of the Infants and keeping them close to the sides direct the head to the orifice of the womb that being born let her proceed in the same manner toward the other If she cannot come to take hold of either of the Infants armes she must bring the woman againe to her bed and trye if by the foresaid Agitation of her body the infants may be Brought to a more convenient forme of delivery CHAP. XXIX Of ordering the woman after she is delivered IN the first place she must keep a temperate dyet having a great care not to over fill her selfe after so great an evacuation and indeed her dyet must be like that of wounded persons neither are the tales of Nurses to be beleived who exhort them to fill after so great an emptines telling them that the loss of bloud must be restored for these are meer fooleries for as for that blood which she hath lost it is but unnecessary blood such as is usually kept for the space of nine months which to voyd is much conducing to her health besides their nourishment for the first days must be but slender for feare of falling into a fever besides the abundance of milke which it would bring into the brest where it might be in danger of curdling or apostematizing and therfore for the first five days let her use broths Panadas potched eggs Gellies abstaining from flesh or french Barly In the Morning broth will be expedient at dinner broth or eggs or Panada and at supper the same with some Gellies for her second courses If she intend to nourse her childe she may feed more plentifully and drinke some Barly-water where in some corianders or fennell seed may be put In Italie the persons of most account doe use this water Take two Capons the fethers being well pulled of and the bowels wholly taken out which you shall boyl in a glaz'd earthen pot in a sufficient quantitie of water till they be halfe boyled then must they be taken out of the pot together with the broth and being cutt to peices are to be put into a Lembick in manner following â„ž Bugloss Borache and Time two good handfulls and with that cover the bottome of the shell then lay upon that a row of flesh then upon that a ranck of leaf gold with a dram of powder of pearles and upon that pover the broth let all this be distilled in Balneo Mariae drawing forth a pint at a time which you shall reiterate as often as you have any thing left to give to the woman in child-bed for the space of ten or twelve dayes This water must be drawn six weeks or two months before it be used If the woman be not troubled with a fever let her drinke a little white wine or Claret with twice as much hot water If she haue a mind to drink between meales or at night it may be convenient to give her some syrrup of maidenhaire or any other syrrup that is not astringent with a little boyled water After the suspition of fever or heat of her brests is over she may be nourished more plentifully and you may give her together with her broth some other meat as Pullet Capon Pigeon Mutton or Veale boyled After the eight day is past at what time the Womb is well purged and discharged it will be expedient to give her cold meat in greater quantitie that she may be enabled to gaine strength during all this time
Centinode a good big handfull the rind of Cassia the rind of Pomegranates Scarlet Graines of each three ounces the nature of a whale one ounce Myrrh water rose water and sloe water an ounce and a half thick wine and smiths water of each foure ounces and a half then make two little baggs of a quarter of a yard long causing them to boyle in the foresaid waters in a new pot using one after another as you have occasion leting it lye upon the bone of the Pubes passing in between the hipps chafing her often and holding her head and her reines low using in the morning somtimes a little mastick in an eg or somtimes plantaine seed if the disease be not too old it may be cured by this meanes but if it be of a long standing you must make a pessarie halfe round and half oval of great thick cork peirced through in the middle tye a little packthred to the end then cover it over with white wax that it may doe no hurt and to make it more thick this must be dipped in oyle of Olives to make it enter and it must be streit that it may not easily fall out and if it be too little to have an other bigger when the woman goes to do her necessary occasions she must hold it in least she should force it out the hole is made that the vapors of the womb may have a vent and to give way for her purgations to flow neither must it be taken away till after the purgations are passed the thicknes causes the matrix to mount up as long as it is very thick for the ligaments being close doe then retire If they be women that beare children the midwife ought not to suffer them to force themselves but as nature constraines her having her own hand ready after the throw to put back the Matrix with her finger and when she is brought to bed lay her low with her head and with her reines raising her up with pillows put under her hipps and for women that are troubled with this disease they ought not to lace themselves over hard for that thrusts down the matrix and makes the woman pouch bellyed and hinders the Infant form being well situated in her body causing her to carrie the child all upon her hipps and makes her belly as deformed as her wast is handsome Of a disease that happens by reason of the fall of the Matrix THere is somtimes a relaxation of the membrane that covers the rectum Intestinum when the head of the child at the beginning of the travaile falls downward and draws it low often-times it comes by reason of women with child lacing themselves which causes such a conflux of wind to these parts that it seemes to the woman to be the head of the child in so much that she is hardly able to stand upright neither can she goe For remedy hereof you must keep the woman soluble giving her Anise and Coriander seeds to dissipate the winds You must take Sage Agrimony Mother-wort balme White wormwood Margerome a little rue and a little Thyme and Camomile and having picked all the above written herbs you must cut them very small and having well mingled them put them into a maple platter and then put hot cinders upon them and upon those another handfull of herbes covering the platter with a close cloth that the woman may receive the smoake this is a remedie which hath been much approved and experimented To remedie the fall of the fundament in Infants TAke of the green shrub wherof they make broomes and cut it smal and lay it upon the coales and set the child over the smoake thereof and it will certainly cure it Of the diseases of women and first of the inflammation of the brest THe inflamation of the brests is a hard swelling together with a beating paine redness and shooting The cheif cause of this is the abundance of blood drawn up together in that place though there be somtimes other causes also as the suppression of the courses the Haemorrhoids or a blow received upon the breasts The signes of it are easie to be known that is to say a certain rednes and burning heat oftimes joyned with a fever For the cure of this there are four sorts of remedies first as the order of dyet which must be comforting and moistning as broth of pullets where endive borage lettice and purselaine may be boyled also she may drinke the juce of Pomegranates or barly water with aniseeds boyled in it the use of wine and all sorts of spices are very dangerous and if the woman goe not freely to the stoole there is nothing better then a lenitive glyster she may sleep much and must not disturb her selfe with any passion The next way of remedy is by diverting the humours which is done by frictions letting bloud in the foot scarification of the legs or vesicatories applied to those places especially if the flowers are stopped or ready to come down if not it will be expedient to open a veine in the arme You may also prepare the humour to void it out of the place affected by opening either the middle vein or the Basilic or the Vena Saphena which may be done two or three times if occasion serve after bloud-letting purge but let this be done with sweet medicines such are Cassia Manna Tamarind syrrup of Roses or Violets Solutive having a little before used certain syrrups which may asswage and temper the humours Take syrrup of Roses and Purslain of each one ounce Endive water and Plantain water of each an ounce give this to the patient Neither will it be amiss to give her syrrup of Succory or Endive or such like for these syrrups have a cooling and refreshing faculty especially being mingled with Plantain or Endive water or such like or the decoction of the said herbs now when the humour is thus prepared you may give her some gentle purges As for example take of the pulp of Cassia and Tamarinds of each six drams of this make a little bolus with some sugar and give to the patient or with this potion Take of the Leaves of Italian Orach three drams of Aniseed one scruple infuse these in four ounces of the foresaid waters Into this being strained infuse an ounce of Cassia and into the streining of this dissolve an ounce of solutive Roses of this make a potion and give it The fourth way of cure consists in Topicks such as may drive back and repress the humour though care must be had that they be not over strong lest you thereby do cool the heart too much and thereupon drive the humour upon the heart it self And therefore temperate medicines are chiefly to be chosen and such especially as are able to digest and dissolve the humour Wherefore it shall not be amiss to apply a linnen cloath dipt in white strong vineger and a little cold water which must be applied to the breasts and
Sometimes there is joyned with it a kinde of uterine fury with talking and anger sometimes it causes other madnesses sometimes the Woman fals into a dead sleep which makes her seem as though she were dead It differs from the Epilepsie because in that the convulsive motions are more general nor is there any memory of those things which hapned about them after the Fit the pulse is great the mouth of the party affected fomes with a froth it differs from the Apoplexie because in that the fit comes suddenly without any notice the Patient is affected with a kinde of snorting and there is such a resolution of the parts that they feel not although they be pricked from a Syncope in that there are no signs when the fit wil be the pulse ceases to the apprehension the Patientis troubled with cold sweats They differ from dead people by sneezing which may be provoked by putting something for that purpose into the nose The cause of this is a venemous subtile and thin vapour piercing in one moment through the whole body and carried up from the matter in the womb corrupted after a peculiar manner either by it self or from external means such are perfumes anger fear c. and not only ascending through the veins but also through all the other breathing holes and secret passages of the body The cure is doubtful if it have possessed old Women for any time for it begets weakness consumes the strength and shews abundance of humors or if it possesseth Child-bearing Women either after a difficult travel or after an abortion or if it possesseth Women with child because it induees a fear of abortion there is more hope if the act of respiration be not too much impeded and if the Fits do not return too often The cure regards first the time of the fit being performed first by means of interception which may be done by binding the belly under the navel with a girdle made of the skin of a Hart kild in the very act of copulation Secondly by keeping the natural spirits awaked and rouzed up by painful frictions by pulling the hairs of the privities with violence and suffumigations made with Partridge feathers burnt as also Eel-skins and the application of Assa-faetida and oyle of Tartar to the mouth Thirdly by way of revulsion of the humour by Frictions and Clysters dispelling the windes and the application of Cupping-glasses with much flame first to the thighs and then to the hips putting sweet things into the privities such as are oyle of Sivet half a scruple oyle of Nutmegs one scruple Fourthly by discussion of the humour which is performed inwardly by the oyle of white Amber with the powder of Wall-nut flowers extract of Castor externally by an Emplaster of the fat of a black Heifer Sclarea boyld in butter adding to it a sufficient quantity of Tachamahacca and Caranna After the fit is past evacuation is to be regarded first with purgation for which purpose it will not be amisse to use these ensuing pills Take Siler mountain penyroyall madder the innermost part of Cassia pipe Pomegranat kernels Piony roots and Calamus of each three drams Muscus and Spike of India of each half a dram then make pils thereof with the juyce of Mugwort of which she may take every day or every other day before supper If the disease proceed from the termes let the woman affected take an ounce of Agarick powdered in wine or honied water or a dram of Agnus Castus powdered with an ounce of hony of Roses the womb is also to be strengthened by the internall and externall application of such things as resist the malignity of the disease among which are numbred Faecula Brioniae and Castor The difference of this disease consists in this that sometimes it happens that it is occasioned by the retention of the seed which is known by this that the symptoms of the disease are more violent and after the fit is past there flowes out of the womb a matter like to that of the seed It is cured by evacuation of the seed such as are Rue and Agnus Castus and anointing with odoriferous salves especially if the woman be to live without the use of man If it come from the suppression of the terms which is known by the courses being mingled with a melancholy blood take powdered Agarick a dram of Piony seeds or the weight of a dram and a half of Triphera magna But to conclude this Chapter take this for a secret that for a married Woman in case of the present suffocation there is nothing better then for the man to anoint the top of his Yard with a little oyl of Gilliflowers oyl of sweet Almonds together and so to lye with her for this assuredly brings down the Matrix again Of Barrennesse BArrennesse is an impotence to conceive coming from defect either of the Genitals or of the blood or of the menstruous blood First through the defect of the Genitals either by the closing up of the Orifice of the womb which may be cut and opened by Art or through the narrownesse of the parts for so they wil not admit the yard or by reason of some Ulcers or Excrescences in the neck of the womb Or by reason of some fault in the seed either the woman being too young or too old or through some distemper in the vessels dedicated to generation and then the woman perceives very little or no pleasure in the act of copulation The cure of this is referred to the chapter of the Distempers of the womb Or when there is not that due proportion of seed which ought to be in both parties which chiefly arises from the use of those things that extinguish barrennesse as Mint Rue Camphire Or from inchantments and then the man cannot lie with his wife or though he should yet cannot emit the seed against which it is affirmed that the drinking a draught of cold water that drops from the mouth of a young stone horse as he drinks and saved in a little vessel is very potent Or when the womb doth not draw the seed which is ejected and that by reason of some cold and moist distemper in which case all sorrow anger and much sleep are to be avoided as also the eating of milk fresh cheese and any thing that is made of dough Neither is she to eat Endive Spinage Beets Lettice Nuts Cherries Purslane Onions Garlick or such like as much hurtful to hee are much broath vinegar and fat flesh In the next place the womb must be cleansed from over abundance of moisture such are syrup of Wormwood with the decoction of Harts-tongue Fenel Cumin and Anis-seed After this take once every fourteen dayes a dram of blessed pils fasting five hours after them Take also of these following pils R. of Ladanum Agarick Wax and sheeps suet try'd of which you may make pils to take two or three of them every morning or use this confection
the place where the Child casts its eyes Moistness of the ears by reason of the moistness of the head which gather quantity of humors together the cure of this must not be over hasty yet the urine of children distilled and dropt into the ear is a very approved Remedy Bigness and swelling of the Head in little Children SOmetimes in children that are newly born the head grows to an extraordinary bigness which comes to pass either by reason of abundance of water contained in the same which water is contained either between the skin and the Pericranium or between the bone and the pericranium or between the bone and the membranes called the dura Mater and the Pia Mater Or by reason of abundance of vapours gathered together between the bones and the skin of the head which cause the head to grow to such an extraordinary bigness that it causes often times the death of the child If water be gathered together between the bone of the head and the membranes of the brain it causes a giddeness and Epilepsie to the Infant without being able to take any rest For the cure of the windy affection you may use fomentations in case the wind be contained only between the skin and the Pericranium for which purpose you may take of the leaves of Sage Betonie Egrimony Calamus and Origan of each a handful Anis-seed and Fenel-seed of each two drams Camomil Flowers Melilot and Red Roses of each one handful boyl all these in common water adding to it a little wine and thereof make a Fomentation for the part affected which may be assisted with a plaister made of Oyl of anis-Anis-seeds and bitter Almonds of each one ounce Oyl of Camomil an ounce and a half Laurel and Juniper-berries of each two drams Anis-seeds and Fennel-seeds of each one dram and a half of the best Wine a pint boyl them to the comsumption of the wine adding to the rest half an ounce of Venice Turpentine and as much wax as is sufficient As for the watry distemper though it be difficult to cure yet you must try this Fomentation to digest the humor Take Wormwood Betony creeping Time Penyroyal leaves of each a handful red Rose leaves and leaves of Stoechas a little handful Cypres Nut Orange flowers and Florentine orrice of each two drams boyl them all in a lye made of Vine twiggs and stalks after which you may use this plaister Take the powder of Betony Sage and Wormwood of each two drams Oyl of Camomil and Roses of each 2 ounces Vnguenti comitissae one ounce as much wax as is sufficient but if these Remedies profit nothing the only means left is to open the head Of the diseases of the Eyes Ears and Noses in Children MAny times children are troubled with a light inflammation in their eyes with a certain gum and thickness which hinders them from opening the eye-lid the most present remedies are either for the Nurse to wash the eyes with a little of her breast milke or else with a little Plantain and Rosewater mixt together Sometimes the nostrils are so stopt that they are not able to draw their breath but with much pain For the cure of which the Nurse must moisten a linen cloth in a little ointment of Roses or a little very good Pomatum till the hard matter within be dissolved Many times there flows a moist humor from their heads which happens to those who have moist brains In the cure of this it must be the care of the Nurse to cleanse the eares both within and without afterwards let her drop into them a little oyle of bi ter Almonds and hony of Roses mixt together Of certain Vlcers in childrens mouths THere do many times grow a certain kinde of ulcers in childrens mouths For the cure of which the Nurse in the first place must use a good and sound diet then must the ulcers themselves be rub'd with a little Mel Rosatum and syrup of violets with a drop or two of Plantain water or you may wash them with half an ounce of Rose-water or Plantain water in which put half a dram Dâ—aigret of vitriol if they be very red and inflamed take Brambles flowers of Pomegranates Roses Santall of each two drams Alum half a dram boyle them in water afterwards strain them to the quantity of three ounces in which dissolve halfe an ounce of syrup of Mulberries If they be white take Amber Frankincense wood Cypresse nuts Pomegranate flowers of each two drams flowers of Roses and Myrtles of each half a handful boyl them in water to the consumption of foure ounces wherein dissolve an ounce and a half of hony of Roses Of certain other Tumours called Paroulis and Espoulis PAroulis is a little swelling red and inflamed and is ingendred commonly of a hot cholerick blood or else from a salt flegme that fals down upon the gums causing not only the gums but the neck and chaps to be swelled For the cure hereof you may anoint the gums with this Ointment Take of Amili 11 drams powder of Tragacant one dram burnt Alum one scruple Rosewater one ounce if there be any inflammation rub the gums with a muscilage made of the seed of Quinces made with Rose-water and Plantain-water adding to it a little syrup of Jujubes If the swelling be obstinate bring it to a suppuration with figgs Raisins Jujubes Licorass and French barley wel boyled when it is opened and lanced cleanse and dry it with mel Rosatum syrup of Roses and Cherries The Espoulis is a little excrescence of flesh hapning in the lungs between the teeth but most commonly the great teeth R. The root of Bugloss an ounce and half Plantain Agrimony a handful whole Barley a smal handful red Roses half a handful Pomgranate flowers two drams four Dates a dram and a half of Liquoriss make a decoction and straine it and then add to it an ounce of syrup of Roses and Pomgranates to wash the place affected you also may wash it with this Remedy Take of the juice of Pomgranates and Quinces of each half an ounce juice of Berberies and Lettice of each two drams with a little of the decoction of Lentils and red Roses Of the two strings under the Tongue of a Child THere is one of these strings or ligaments which appears reaching from the bottom of the tongue and extending it self to the top of the tongue this must be cut off first with a pair of cizers and the place rubbed with a lit-little Mosche salt There is another Ligament which rises from the root and extendeth it self to the middle of the tongue which is more hard and large which hinders the tongue either from being stretched out or to be moved in the mouth The cure hereof belongs wholly to the Chirurgeon Of the Cough in Children THe Cough in Children comes either from the distillation of some cold and sharp humour distilling from the brain if the humor be cold the child is also troubled
duty for his release Now as some say there are three ways or manners of childrens comming upon the earth first when the head comes foremost and then the woman is easily delivered the second when it comes forth a cross or one side or the feet foremost and then the woman suffers much and either they both dye or one of them As for those births which are unnatural we shall in another place treat of them and their remedies In this combate the infant and the mother suffer very much by reason that woman is a creature delicate and timorous and not patient of much labour or because that women great with childe live a lazy and sloathful life and besides that many times they eat bad victuals which encrease humours superfluous excrements which quantity of humours makes the woman to breath short which is a thing very troublesome to the infant for a woman that will expel the birth quickly ought to keep her breath in as much as she can The third reason of the pain in womens travail is by reason that the head of a childe is bigger being compared to the members then the head of any other creature which makes a greater opening and dilaceration But the women that suffer most pain are they who were not delivered before having not been accustomed to the sufferance of that labour as also elderly women by reason that the bone of the pubes the bone of the hip and the Os sacrum are not so easily separated the ligaments being more strong and hard Now in the contention which the child makes to issue forth the head comes first by reason of the weight being more heavy then the other members SECT V. CHAP. I. Of Midwifes ALthough in these dayes there are many unskilful women that take upon them the knowledge of Midwifry barely upon the priviledge of their age yet there are many things which ought to be observed in a Midwife that they are utterly wanting of Let us therefore consider of the things required in a midwife in relation both to her person and her manners as for her age Her Age. she ought to be neither too young nor too old in a good habite of body and not subject to diseases not mishapen in any parts of her body peculiar in her habits and in her person her hands must be small with her nailes pared close without any rings upon them in the time of her duty nor bracelets upon her wrists she must be cheerfull pleasant strong laborious and used to travaile it being required that she should be stirring at all hours and abiding long time together with her patient For her manners Her manners she ought to be Courteous sober chast not repining cholerick arrogant or covetous nor apt to talke of what she sees done in the houses where she hath to doe Her Spirit For her spirit she ought to be prudent wary and cunning oft times to use faire and flattering words She ought moreover to know that God hath given to all things their beginnings their Increasings their Estate of perfection and declination Therefore the said Midwife nor any of her assistants must not do any thing rashly for to precipitate or hasten nature CHAP. II. What ought to be observed when she is neer the time of her lying downe Of women near the time of their lying down THe hour of the womans Lying down approaching the woman with child ought to prepare her self in this manner she must presently call her midwife and assistance to her it being requisite to have them sooner then later Her Bed She ought to prepare a little bed or couch of a moderate hight as well for the convenience of the midwife as for the ease of herself and others that shall be about her to assist her in her travell This must be situated in a place convenient for people to pass up and downe neere the fire and far from doors It will be requisite for her to have change of linen as also a little cricket for her to rest her feet on having more force when her feet are bowed When she findes her pains growing In the time of travail what to do it will be necessary for her to walke leisurely up and down the chamber afterwards she may lie downe warme and then rise and walke againe expecting the coming down of her waters and the opening of the womb For to keep herselfe long a bed is very troublesome Though when she is a bedd notwithstanding that she hath some certaine paines somtimes yet she may lie and rest herselfe and now and then take a nap By which meanes both the mother and the Infant doe with greater strength endure their succeeding hardship besides that her waters do come downe better If her travel be long she may take some broth or the yolk of a poched egg with some bread or a cup of wine or distilled water yet she must have a care left she overcharg her self either with meat or drink It is certain that all women are not delivered alike for some lie in their bed others sit in a chair being supported and held up by others or else resting upon the side of the bed or chair others upon their knees being upheld under their arms but the best and safest is to lie in their beds and for her good and convenient delivery let the Midwife and others observe what follows Certain Rules First the woman that is in travail ought to be laid upon her back her head being lifted up a little higher with a pillow having also a pillow under her reins to sustain her back under her buttocks and Os sacrum she must have a larger pillow to raise them a little and that her rump may be elevated for a woman that lies low in those parts can never be well delivered for the avoiding of which this scituation is very convenient Her thighs and knees must be a good way separated the one from the other with her legs bowed and drawn up toward her buttocks the soles of her feet and her heels being fixed upon a boord laid thwart the bed for that purpose Secondly To some women they doe use a swath-band four double this swath-band must be a foot broad or more which being put under her reines is to be held up streight by two persons standing on each side just at the time of her paines both of them at the same instant heaving up both ends with an exact cavenness for otherwise it does more harme then good It is also requisite that two of her freinds should hold the upper part of her shoulders that she may be able to force out the birth with more advantage And it will not be amiss for some of her friends to press the upper parts of her belly so to thrust downe the infant by little and a little such a soft compression will much facilitate the travel and give ease to the womans paines Thirdly As for
taken cold which often times doth breed wind which is a great hinderance to the coming forth of the secondines The Midwife ought to chafe the womans belly with her hand which does not only breake the wind but causes the secondine to come downe If this failes the midwife may with her hand dilate the exterior orifice of the womb drawing it forth gently and by degrees CHAP. VIII What may be given to a woman in travaile In the first place hot and violent remedies are to be avoyded Hot things to be avoided but in cases of great necessitie for it many times happens that they are the cause of dangerous fevers Two other things are also very dangerovs to a woman in Travaile too much repletion As also emptiness and fulness and too much emptiness for the stomack of a woman with child doth not digest her meat in so short a time as women that are not with child doe Therfore the midwife ought to informe her self how long it was since she eat and in what quantitie and if it were long since she did eate and that she grow feeble they may give in the intermissions of her paines some warme cherishing and cordial broths or the yolke of a potched egg if her travaile endure long then to strengthen her and comfort her she may take a draught of Cinamon water not exceeding an ounce or at twice a dram of the confection of Alkermes dissolved in two spoonfulls of Claret wine and not more then one of these three things For if they take too much as is before said it causes fevers and heats the whole body of which follows many inconveniences for it stopps the purgations of which many strange diseases ensue CHAP. IX How to put the Womb again in its place SOme women newly brought to bed are many times afflicted with greater paines then those of their travaile by reason that the womb is not well put into its place or if it have the swath-band being loose it is apt to roule upwards in the belly This happens to women that are not well purged after their deliverie for remedie hereof having put the matrix right into its place roule up two linen swathes pretty hard bringing them also round the hipps then take whites of eggs beaten and a dram of Pepper in pouder which being spread upon Toe is to be applyed warme to the navil then let the bellie be well swathed this is the only remedy to ease the paine CHAP. X. Against the extreme loss of blood which happen to women immediately after their delivery THere are many women who immediately after their delivery doe suffer great losse of blood which proceeds from a great plenitude or fullness or by reason that in their travaile they took too many hot and corosive medicines or by streining themselves too hard over-heated the blood so that after travaile it runs from them in great quantitie To remedie this the woman ought to take often a small quantitie of wine in a spoon and if the weakness be much let her mix half a dramme of Alkermes with a draught of wine and take care that she be well swathed upward for that presses downe and streightens the vessels and hinders the violent flux give her also the yolke of an egg to take for that recalls the natural heat to the stomach which was dispersed through the whole It would be necessary also to spread a long the reines of the woman and all along the back-bone by reason of the hollow veine a napkin dipt in Oxicrat or water mingled with vinigre You may also lay upon each groin a skeine of raw silk moistened in cold water Take also of that well tempered earth of which they make the floor of an oven and steep it in strong vinigre then spread it upon a linnen cloath and lay it upon the reines this moderates the heat of the blood and stoppes the violent flux of it Great care must be also had that all the while the Blood comes from her she do not sleep for many times they are taken away in that weakeness when the people thinke they doe not take their rest but when you see this great flux moderated you may take away the astringent medicines by little and little that so the blood may cease running by degrees lest any bloud should be retained that may chance to doe mischeife CHAP. XI What is to be done to a woman presently after her delivery PResently after a woman is delivered if she have had a sore travail they ought to cast her into the skin of a sheep flead alive and put about her reins as hot as may be Upon her belly also lay the skin of a Hare flead alive having cut the throat of it afterwards and rubbed the skin with the bloud which is to be clapt as warm as may be to her belly This closes up the dilatations made by the birth and chases from those parts the ill and melancholly bloud These remedies are to be kept on two hours in Winter and one hour in Summer After this swath the woman with a napkin about a quarter of a yard large having before chafed the belly with oyl of St John's wort Then raise up the Matrix with a linen cloth many times folded then with a little pillow about a quarter of a yard long cover her flanks then use the swath beginning a little above the hanches yet rather higher then lower winding it pretty tight Lay also warm cloaths upon the nipples letting alone those remedies which are proper for the driving back of the milk which are not so soon to be applied for the body is now all in a commotion and there is neither vein nor artery which doth not beat wherfore those remedies that chase away the milk being all dissolving therefore it is not proper to put such medicines upon the breast during that commotion for sear that those medicines should make a stop of any thing hurtful in those parts and therefore it is better to give ten or twelve hours for the bloud to settle in as also for that which was cast upon the Lungs by the agitation of travail to distil down again into its place You may also make a restrictive of the white and yellow of an egg beaten togeiher with an ounce of oyl of St John's wort and an ounce of oyl of roses an ounce of rose water and an ounce of plantine water beat all these together very well in this you may dip a linen cloath folded double and apply it without warming of it to the breasts this comforts and eases the pains of that part She must not sleep presently but a matter of four hours after her delivery you may give her some nourishing broth or candle and then if she will she may sleep CHAP. XII Of women that have a great deal of bloud and purge not neither in their travail nor after SOme women have great superfluity of bloud and yet purge not at all neither
of two children THe travaile of a woman bringing forth two Infants is more tedious and it many times happens that one of the children comes forth very well and the other comes forth very scurvily And this is certain that that which comes forth first is always the strongest having the power to goe before the other and to break the membranes that enveloped it And ofttimes while the second is born the other remaines behinde wrapt in such membranes as the former was so that it remaines a good space behind the other somtimes two houres and yet it hath bin very well borne Now knowing that that which came first was the stronger it would not be amiss to assist the other in coming forth by breaking the membranes that contain the waters and if that faile by giving strong Glysters to excite the paine which were it not many times done the child would never be able to endure the paine of coming into the world by reason of its extraordinary weaknes which is so great somtimes that the bone of the forehead is devided and separated down to the nose although the Infant being born it joynes together againe and the Infant does very well which if it happen you must have a great care to bind some kind of soft pillow upon the place that the aire may not enter in If the second Child come forth ill you must not delay to breake the membranes and to draw the Infant gently out by the feet for having used all its endeavour to come forth to keep it there or to prolong the travaile any longer is more dangerous then profitable sometimes two come so suddainely the one after the other that there seemes to be but one deliverie of both there being but a little membrane that separates them In this case holding the first you must cut the navel string and bind it about and tye it about the Hipp while they draw forth the other Infant which by a longer stay would be much weakened CHAP. XVIII Of the danger that a woman hath to purge her selfe for the first days of her lying in IT is an ordinary thing for women that lye in by reason of their bed to loose the benefit of their bellyes which hinders the evacuation of their milke which causes fevers by sending gross vapours to the head yet can they not bee freed by any purgation taken in at the mouth but it would be much to the purpose to take pertinent Glisters which hinder the foresaid evills causing their breasts to become full and to be come stiff taking them as ocasion requires once in two or three dayes There are some unskilfull women that not understanding the ill consequences which may follow who doe give Sene to women in the first days of their lying in of which some have bin very ill and others have dyed For nature is now weakned by the travaile and while it is labouring to restore the body to its former Estate is not to be disturbed with violent purgations And therfore Glisters are always most proper Neither are laxative broths nor the broth of prunes nor baked apples fasting for these things doe engender wind but rather some good suppositories would be more usefull CHAP. XIX Of the second washing for women THe second washing for women ought to be with Province roses put into little baggs and boyld in water and wine of each a like proportion and this to be done for the second eight dayes CHAP. XX. What is to be done to Infants assoon as they are born IT is an approved Maxime that as soon as a child is born you ought to give it a spoonfull of pure wine for that assists and helps the child to regaine its spirits Another advantage is this that the wine cutts the flegme which the Child has in its throat besides the spirits of the wind rising up to the head comforts and strengthens it and them less subject to be drunk it hinders them also from the Epilepsie which proceeds from the debilitie of the braine This being done and the Mother fully delivered you must tie the Navel Veine with a silk well twisted and many times doubled and if there be any blood in the veine you must be sure to emptie it for feare if it should be left it should turne into corruption then it must be well dryed with pouder of rotten wood you must tye it two fingers breadth from the belly and leave it long three fingers breadths above the tying place and if it be fatt you must close it over and aboue that the veine may be well closed then wind the string twice about it knitting as many knots but if the child be come a fore its time you need not tye it so strong for feare of cutting it with the silke but if the Navel veine be full of water and wind you ought then having tyed it one time and wrapt a linnen cloth about the end of it which is still to be held upward to uncover it againe about half an hour after and then to tye it and wrap it about againe still keeping the end up for feare that if the veine were not fully closed that there might be some danger in the bleeding Some people give to the Infant Treacle dissolved in wine but this must be don warily in a very small quantitie and that not commonly neither The Infant must be washed with water and wine luke warm to clense it After wards wash the face as also chafe the throate the Armes and hands with oyle of wallnuts drawn without fire which some say will keep them from sunburning then put one hand upon the bone of the forehead and another upon the bone called the Coronal bone and softly close up the gap which was made during the time of travaile closing also the suture one against another exactly then gently put your finger under the tongue to see if the Infant have the string or no and if it have it may be clipt away with the poynt of a paire of sharp cizers without danger There are some that thinke they can shape the head and nose of a child as if it were of wax But let such take notice that have flat nosed Children rather to let the nose alone then by squeezing and closing it too much to render the nose obstructed for that compressing the Gristles of the nose renders the child liable either to speake alway in the nose or to lose his smelling There are some children that are borne with their noses awry for the help of which you may with your finger moystened in fair water gently stroke the nose but lay no stress upon it That happens by reason that the nose of the child lights upon some bone of the Mother as it was comming into the world CHAP. XXI Of the last washing for Women THe last washing for women is to be for four days with Province Roses boyled in wine and Myrrh-water CHAP. XXII Of an Astringent for Women when they shall
have occasion Take Galls Cypress nuts and Pomgranate flowers Roch Alome of each two ounces Province Roses four ounces knot grass a good Handfull the rind of Cassia the rind of Pomegranates Scarlet berries of each three ounces the nature or sperm of a whale one ounce Rose water Myrrh water and Burnet water of each an ounce and a half wine and water of a smiths forge of each four ounces and a half then make two little baggs about a quarter of a yard long and half a quarter of a yard broad then boyle all these in the foresaid water in a new pot using the baggs one after another as occasion serveth CHAP. XXIII To make searcloaths for women TAke white wax halfe apound the sperme of a whale and venice turpentine well washed in rose water plantaine water of each an ounce and a halfe then melt all these together then mingle with them an ounce of venice white Lead then order you your cloth as you please making some for the bellie and some for the nipples having first rubbed it over with oyle of Acorns or the sperme of a whale CHAP. XXIV To cleanse a woman before she rises TAke bitter Almonds and peel them make thereof a past with the powder of Iris and the yolk of eggs and put it in a little bagg of Tammy and temper it within the bag with black wine luke-warm and afterwards use it upon the places where the sear-clothes have been laid then wash the places with black wine mingled with orange flower CHAP. XXV How a woman lying in of her first child may avoid the gripings of her belly THere are some women lying in of their first childe who are troubled much with gripings in the belly and these women commonly endure pains when their terms come down by reason of the smalness of the veins which conveigh the bloud into the Matrix such women have griping in their bellies when they lie in of their first child which other women are not troubled with by reason that they have larger vessels yet although they have them not in their first lying in it would not be amiss to use some proper remedies that so they may be never troubled with them which if they receive not at their first lying in they will be uncapable of receiving them ever after for though they may take remedies afterwards to lessen the pain yet they can never cure it wholly Now that which is ordinarily done to women is as soon as ever they are brought to bed is to give them two ounces of oyl of sweet Almonds drawn without fire with two ounces of syrrup of Maiden-hair t is true this is good to make her purgations part away but not to remedy the griping Some there are that do take two drops of the bloud which comes out of the navel-string of the Infant and give it mingled to the woman in the foresaid syrrups though there is much fault to be found with this by reason of the nastiness of it Others do boyl a white Chicken in the which they do put two ounces of Sugar a dram of fine Cinamon half a Nutmeg grated two or three Dates five or six Cloves the Fowl being boyled you may put into it a small quantity of Claret then boyl it altogether again letting it boyl till the Fowl be well soaked then strain it and give it to the woman as soon as she is laid down for want of a white Hen you may take a Pigeon or a red Partridg for want of either Onely take heed to give her this if she be feverish because it is something hot The seed of Savory taken in warm broth is very good and it is also very good for those that have the collick The Queen of France her Receit Take a dram of the root of the greater Consound or Comfrey one of the kernels of peaches nutmegs of each two scruples yellow Amber half a dram Amber-grease half a scruple mingle all this together and give it to the woman as soon as she is laid down the quantity of a dram mingled in white wine or if the woman be feverish in some good warm broth CHAP. XXVI Certain precepts hindering the delay and difficulty of bringing forth BEing now come to talke of the impediments of the birth you must know that the birth is hindered by a twofold manner the one natural the other not natural of the unnatural we shall treat of in its place for the natural take these following directions But in the first place let the Midwife be very skilful that she may decline as much as in her lies all the impediments that may be avoided If the birth be hindred by the driness and straightness of the neck of the womb take a little beaten Hellebore or Pepper and blow it into the nostrils of the mother Her mouth must be held close her breath kept in and sneesing must be provoked as much as may be whereby the spirits being forced to the lower parts may be the more available to force down the childe You may also give her Shepherds-purse dried in a little broth or wine also a little quantity of hony mingled with twice as much luke-warm water and give her will not be unprofitable The milk also of another woman mixt with maiden-hair and applied warm to the navel She may take also oyl of Laurel in wine or warm broth two grains of Pepper being taken inwardly do not only force out the birth but also drive out the secondines This is also an excellent remedy against a difficult travail Take Trochischs of Myrrh one dram grains of Saffron ten Cinnamon one scruple mingle all this with two ounces of Peny-royal water and give it the woman to drink Let her drink it warm and let her go to her bed for an hour till she finds the operation of the drink moving her to her labours If this profit and that the Infant coming with his head foremost stick in the womb you may use these pills of which she may take seven and then rest â„ž Gum Bdelium Myrrh Savin-seed Liquid Storax or Stacte Castor Agaric of each half a scruple Diagridium six grains mingle all these with Cassia extracted as much as suffices and make up pils about the bigness of pease You may also use a pessary as long and as thick as your finger of pure wool which must be covered over with silk and dipt in the juice of Rue where Scammony hath been dissolved and so used If these things prove without effect she may use this ensuing bath above her belly Take of the roote and herb Althea six handfulls Mallows Camomile Melilot Parsley of each foure handfulls Line-seed and seed of fenugreek of each two pound Lavender and Laurel leaves of each two handfulls Let all these things be boyled to gether in water where in the woman is to sit or else to have those parts well wet and moistened with spunges which being done and the woman well dryed with warme cloaths
let her be brought to the bed and anointed with this oyntment Take oyle of sweet Almonds Hens fatt Oyle of Lillies Muscilage of Althoea of each halfe an ounce Mingle all these with as much wax as is sufficient and make an oyntment This being done give her this little doss Take two yolkes of egges and boyle them in ould wine then mix with them these spices Cinamon half an ounce rind of Cassia two drams or you may leave out the Cassia and instead thereof put in the more Cinnamon saffron halfe ascruple Savine Betonie Venus-haire Dittanie Fenugreeke Lawrel berries Mint of each one dram The bone of the heart of a Hart Pearles prepared Mingle all these with sugar and make a thick pouder and give it If the secondine come before the child and hinder the egress of the child it is to be cut of and this following pessarie to be put up Take Marsh-mallows with the rootes two hand fulls Mother wort one handfull Rue one ounce and a half Fenugreek Line-seed of each an ounce ten figgs make of these a decoction with as much water as is sufficient and when you have streined it add this to it Oyle of Lillies oyle of Line of each two ounces Musk one graine In this decoction let the pessary be dipt and put up she may afterwards use this electuarie ℞ Take Myrrh Castor Calamum Arom of each two dramms Cinamon one ounce saffron halfe a scruple Mace Savin of eace a scruple clarified hony halfe a pound you may also make an electuary with the water of Thyme and mother worte wherein have bin boyled Fenu-greek Line-seed Graines of Iuniper of each one spoonful Now after that the woman hath bin weakned with these impediments you may give her in broth species Loetificans or Manus Christi or Diamargaritont CHAP. XXVII How the secondines are to be hastened out THe secondines afore that the Infant is born may be many ways hindred first by the debilitie or weaknes of the Matrix which happens by the frequent motion and endeavouring of the Infant as also by reason of the difficultie of the birth or by reason that the womb doth not continue distended or because it is many times streightened by which the womb is so weakned that by its own force it is not able to expell the secondines Besides the secondines may inwardly stick close to the womb which happens many times through the abundance of superfluous humors that are retained in the matrix by reason of which Glutinous humors the secondines stick to the Matrix These are noe way else to be pulled away but by the hand of the midwife Thirdly the secondines are hard to come away if all the waters come away with the Infant for then the secondines being left without moisture cannot come away by reason of the drines of the womb besides that the Matrix and the neck of the womb are rougher by reason of the driness therof for these waters render the way slipperie and easie both for the infant and for the secondines which being slipped away the womb is to be anoynted with juices and oyles Fourthly when the mouth of the Matrix by reason of the paines of child-bearing swells as often happens unless there be a provident care taken to prevent it Fiftly when the neck of the Matrix is streighter and more close and for that reason fat women travaile with much more difficultie Therefore when the secondines doe make any extraordinary stay the Midwife is to use all her endeavour to make way for them for that retention causes suffocation and divers other evils for being long detained they putrifie and cause an evil smell which ascending up to the heart liver stomach diaphragma and so to the brain cause pains in the head and lungs shortness of breath faintness cold sweats so that there is great danger and also Apoplexies and Epilepsies are not a little to be feared Now in all the time of their stay the women are to be refreshed with convenient food to add strength to them giving them sometimes the yolks of eggs boyled in old wine with Sugar and sprinkled over with Saffron and Cinamon or some broth made of Capon or Hen seasoned with Cinamon and Saffron It may not be amiss to make certain perfumes for the woman to receive up into her womb made of Saffron Castor Myrrh annd Cinamon of each the quantity of a bean and care must be had that the fume pass no further then the Matrix and this may be done till the fume of these spices shall cease After this a little sneezing-pouder is to be put into her nostrils composed of Hellebore or such like the woman shutting her mouth hard and keeping her breath If these things prevail not give her this following potion ℞ Trochisch of Myrrh ʒ j ten grains of Saffron one scruple of Cinamon Peny-royal two ounces make of this one draught and give her after she hath taken this and rested a little while let a pessary of Hellebore and Opoponax wrapt up in pure wool be thrust up into the neck of the womb This will certainly bring down the seconds for it is of so great vertue that it is efficacious in expelling the child which is dead together with the seconds Take Mallows Hollihock Wormwood Mugwort Calamint Origanum an M. j. make a bath and let her sit therein up to the navel and stroke ever downwards with her hands and give her inwardly Myrrh ℈ i j. Cinamon pouder'd in nutmeg-Nutmeg-water or wine or drink Calamint or Penyroyal in wine Neither will it be amiss to anoint the Matrix with the oyntment called Basilicon if this doth nothing avail toward the bringing down of the seconds and that the woman is in great danger of her life then with the consent of her husband and kinred give her seven of the following Pils which being taken let her lie still till the vertue of them do provoke new pains for they are of so great vertue also that they do expel the dead child together with the secondines yet herein it will not be amiss to consult the skilful Physician The Pills are these ℞ Of Castor Myrrh Liquid storax of each a scruple the bark of Cinamon or Cassia and Birthwort of each half a scruple Agaric half an ounce Diagridion six grains Saffron Siler of the mountain Savin of each three graines Thebaic Opium Assa faetida of each one grain mingle all these with as much extracted Cassia as is sufficient and make of them certain Pils as big as pease and give them to the woman in a small quantity of Peny-royal-water It may be also expedient to apply this ensuing plaster ℞ one part of Coloquintida boyled in water and as much of the juce of Rue with these mingle Line-seed Fenugreek Barley of meal of each a spoonful let them all boyl together and the plaster made of these must be laid upon all that part from the navel to the privities CHAP. XXVIII Of Cases of Extremity
often changed Or else you may dip linnen cloaths also in a decoction of Camomil flowers and Violet flowers with a small quantity of oyl of Roses and a drop of vineger or two or you may use this fomentation Take of the juyce of Nightshade oyl of Roses of each an ounce and a half of the decoction of Fenugreek Camomil and Lineseed two ounces vineger one ounce This medicine you may use by dipping a spunge therein and so washing and fomenting the breast therewith Or you may apply this Cataplasme take of the leaves of Nightshade and Melilot half a handful of each let them be boyled extracted through a course cloth then add to them bean meal two ounces Oxymel and oyle of sweet Almonds of each one ounce of this make a Cataplasm and apply it If the disease be more prevalent you must use more forcible remedies and among the rest this fomentation Take of the leaves of Mallows Violets Dill of each one handful flowers of Camomil and Melilot of each a small handful and a halfe boyl these together adding to them a little wine and oyl of Dill or Mustard first let the breast be fomented with this and afterwards with an oyntment composed of equal parts of new butter oyl of violets and Hens fat But if these things avail not to dissipate the humour you must observe whether the inflamation tend either to a suppuration or induration If you find that it tends to a hardness you must try all means to hinder it by the way of mollifying plaisters among which this is not a little experimented Take the marrow of a Calves leg two ounces Sheeps grease one ounce Saffron four scruples Cumminseed bruised two scruples mingle all these and make a plaister If the inflamation doth not harden but doth altogether tend to a suppuration which may be known by these signs that is to say the increasing of the tumour the beating and excessive heat pain which rages about those parts so vehemently that do not admit them to be touch'd But now the suppuration is to be hastened with hot and moist medicines which have an Emplastick faculty for which purpose this is much commended Take the leaves of Mallows one handful roots of Althea one ounce boyl these together and when they are mashed draw them out and add to them bean meal and Fenugreek of each one ounce the whites of two eggs myrrh and Assa faetida of each one dram Saffron one scruple mingle all these together and make a Cataplasm for your use to this you may either add Capons grease Hogs grease or fresh butter If these remedies do not suddenly bring the inflammation to a suppuration you must then take of the shells of snails bruised and lay them upon the Cataplasm in such a manner that the snail shell may come to touch that part of the tumour which is most elevated and pointed whence it appears that the matter will first issue If these remedies avail not it will be necessary to open the said Apostem with a Lancet and this must be done when you are sure that the matter is ready to come forth which may be known by these signs when the beating ceases when the fever the pain and the heat of the part do begin to diminish when you perceive the place pointed and raised and enclining to a blackish colour When the wound is open you must first apply to it a digestive composed of an ounce of turpentine half an ounce of oyl of Roses and the yolk of an egge After this you must cleanse it with honey of roses Turpentine and barly meal or with the oyntment of the Apostles or the oyntment called Aegyptiacum then you may put on the top of the place the oyntment called Basilicon or Paracelsus plaister which doth digest cleanse carnifie cicatrize after a very extraordinary manner This is furthermore to be observed that an ulcer in the breast is not easily cured if the milk be not dried out of the other breast and therefore the milke is to be dried up by keeping the child from sucking and by putting upon the breasts of the woman cloaths dipped in cold water together with bean barly and vineger and such like remedies THE COMPLEAT MIDWIVES Practice Of windy Tumours in the Breasts THe flatuous tumor of the breasts is caused by a thick vapour which rises from the menstruall blood which is retained or corrupted in the Matrix The causes of which are first the suppression of the flowers or when the flowers are not discharged into their proper place and in their proper time as also from the corruption of the humours by which are ingendred divers bad fumes and vapours for this being received into the breasts cause a distention much like a true swelling The signes by which it is known is the pain which it brings along with it which is sharp and pricking causing a distention of the part The heart is not a little out of order by reason of the windinesses which lie so neer it and commonly the left breast is most swoln communicating its pain to the arm shoulder and ribs of the same side And these signes differ from those of a Canker for in this distemper the breast is white and shining by reason of the distention and if you touch it it sounds like a Drum And if you presse it with your hands you wil finde that it is sweld in all parts alike and not in one more then another This is cured first by a good order of diet taking little victuals whereby crudities may be avoided that do afford matter to the obstructions and increase windinesse for which cause she must also drink little that water boyld with Cinamom Anis-seed and rinde of Citrons The next remedy is by using things which are good to provoke the courses among which use this receit strein Selandine stampt into posset-ale and drink it four dayes before the new moon and four dayes after And it will not be amisse to let blood three or four times in the year about the time that the courses ought to begin For by this means you may provoke the flowers hinder the increase either of a Scirrhus or of a Canker to which purpose bathes frictions and infections are not a little to be used In the next place you must prepare the humours that foment this windinesse both in the Matrix and in the veins and that by syrups which do expell flegme and melancholy after which you must purge your patient for which purpose you may take of the leaves of Sene three ounces Anis-seed one scruple let them boyle in foure ounces of Borage water vvhen it is streined infuse into it Confection Hamech vvithout Scammony Colloquint and Cathol Dupl Rheo of each an ounce and a halfe when it is streined dissolve in it one ounce of syrup of Roses solutive this potion must be given two hours before eating You may also use this gentle Apozem Take of the
root of Tamarinds Cypress Bugloss of each an ounce and a halfe flowers of Borage Epithymi Sen. of each halfe a handfull flowers of Balme one handful Raisins one ounce Prunes in number twelve boyle them in a sufficient quantity of vvater and then in a pint of the vvater dissolve foure ounces of the syrup of Violets make of this an Apozem clarified according to Art and sweeten it vvith a sufficient quantity of sugar giving four or five ounces at a time In the next place you may use Topicks to attenuate and resolve to vvhich purpose you may bathe or soment the breast vvith a sponge dipt in Lye and then lay upon it a linen cloth dipt and moistned in Aqua-vitae and dried in the shade or else dipt in fresh butter that hath boyled a good while or in oyle of Lillies or in oyle both of the root seed of Angelica or you may foment the breast vvith this Decoction Take Wheat-bran two handfuls leaves of Dill and Melilot of each halfe a handfull Anis-seed Fenell and Cumin-seed of each two drams Camomill flowers one halfe handfull boyl all these in a sufficient quantity of water and white wine and let them boyle to the consumption of the third part In this decoction you may wet a sponge and wash or foment the breast therewith After you have fomented the part you may put this ointment upon the part affected Take oyle of Lilies Elder of each an ounce and a halfe of the best Balsam halfe an ounce powder of burnt lead unwasht Anis-seed one dram and as much Wax as is sufficient Of the watry tumour of the Breast THe watry tumour is ingendred by a thick and watry flegme gathered together in great abundance in the breast and parts adjoyning and it happens many times that this watry and flegmy substance is not alwayes gathered to one particular place but also diffused through all the parts of the breast which causes a generall swelling in that part This swelling that we may define it is a loose and soft tumour without much pain yeelding to the touch and pressing of the fingers so that the hole which is made by the pressing of the fingers remains a pretty while after yet it soon becomes painful if there be any acrimony joyned with it or if there be any distention by reason of the press of vapours to that part This oftentimes happens by reason of the suppression of the courses sometimes it is occasioned by reason of a clear and watry flegme which discharges it selfe upon these parts This swelling is easily distinguished from other swellings by reason of the loosnesse and softnesse thereof and by the pain which is alwayes lesse then in other swellings and in this kinde of tumour the pain ascends up to the arms and shoulders and the whole breast is altogether swoln and raised and this pain comes at certain times chiefly when the flowers ought to come down which being once come down the pain diminishes by reason that the woman is then throughly purged Yet notwithstanding there doth remain some certain kind of swelling which happens not in the windy tumours by reason that the purgations of the flowers do totally dissipate the matter of those swellings These flegmy tumours do easily turn into Cankers and are therefore to be diligently looked after As to the cure of these tumours there is required first an orderly diet which must be drying her bread must bee well baked and leavened dried Raisins parched Almonds Asparagus rosted flesh and small birds Before meat she may take a little hony of Roses upon a wafer cake For her drink let it be the decoction of Anis-seeds China root Sassafras and Sarsaparil If the retention of the flowers be the cause of this evill let her then use rather boyled then rosted meats and then let her boyle them with Sage Betony and Hysop All meats made of milk are dangerous as also sleep after dinner and unleavened bread You may in the next place use things to divert the humor as frictions and baths if her flowers are suppressed let a vein be opened in the feet Next after you have prepared the humor by the use of syrups as those of Mint Worm-wood Hysop Licorass Maidenhaire hony of Roses with fenel water water of Hysop Marjoram Rosemary Betony Mint then may you use some purges with those pils called Sine quibus Agarick pils and Cochie-pils If the patient be strong and not to be worked upon by weak Physick you may then add two or three grains of Diagridion or Alandaal Trochisques these pils are to be used for eight days half a dram at a time Another way may be by topicks to attenuate and resolve for which purpose the fomentations specified in the foregoing chapters may be very fitly used being prepared with Vine ashes or figg-tree ashes whereto a little Vinegar may be put though the use of things that drive back the humour are not here to be used you may also rub and chafe the brest with this Ointment take of Oyl of sweet Almonds Oyl of Line seed of each one ounce ganders grease of each half an ounce with a little Diachylon instead of Wax a plaister of great Diachylon would not be amiss in this Disease if the Woman feel any paine or heat in her breasts let her anoint them with Oyl of Roses a little burnt lead and a little white wax or with a little Oleum Omphacinum and oyl of sweet Almonds tempered together in a mortar In the dispersing and resolving of the humor you may use baths of alum and sulphur prepared with the decoction of Hysop Mint and Sage and after that such ointments as are most approved for the same purpose alwaies taking heed of too boisterous Remedies if you would suppurate or mature the swelling you must use such Remedies as we have described in the following and fore-going Chapters the strongest of which you may here apply because the matter is more obstinate and tenacious mingling with them for that purpose other more effective Remedies as are the Roots of Mallows marsh mallows lillies figgs goose grease and the like when the sore is opened you must tend it after the same manner as is before rehearsed There are other Remedies either to be taken inwardly or to be outwardly applied which serve to fortifie and comfort the stomack as to take every morning a spoonful of conserve of Rosemary preserved Orange or trochisques of Aromaticum Rosatum Diagalanga or diacuminum Of the kernels in the Breast THe kernels of the breast are little round bodies soft and thin like a sponge which sometimes grow hard by reason of the phlegmie humor which is sometimes purely so and sometimes is mingled with other sharp acrimonious humors But sometimes it comes to passe that not only the kernels of the breast are swollen but also that there do grow others which ought not to be there which may not unfitly be termed a kind of the Kings-evil being a swelling
form of a plaister You may also use for this purpose plaisters of Melilot or Oxycroceum At length if all remedies faile the operation of the hand must be the last succour which we leave to the Chirurgion Of the Canker in the Breasts THe Canker is a venemous tumour hard and very much sweld hot and durable more exasperated oftentimes by remedies then asswaged The Canker proceeds from a feculent and grosse humour vvhich being gathered together in the spleen is chased away from thence after it growes too hot vvhich vvhen Nature cannot void it most commonly in Women empties it self upon the breast by reason of this cavernous and spongy nature the matter of it is a hot melancholy blood and it is known by the crooked vvinding and retorted veins that are about it stretching out long roots a good vvay from it being sometimes blackish and sometimes inclined to black and blew It is soft to see to but it is very hard to the touch extending the pain as far as the shoulders It wil sometimes remain for two years together no bigger then a bean afterwards it grows to be as big as a nut then to the bigness of an Egg and after that increasing daily to a larger size When the skin breaks there issues out a great deal of pestilent mattier thin and blackish and having a very bad smel The ulcer it self is very unequal the lips orifice thereof being sweld with hardness and inverted a light fever possesseth the body and often swoonings And many times the pestilencie of the humor having corroded a vein there issues out a great deal of blood If the canker be ulcerated or in any inward part of the body no medicine can prevail for remedies do more exasperate then help it To burn it with iron is pestilent and if it be cut with a penknife it returns again as soon as it is but skind over But if it be an exulcerated canker which is easily known arises from a more sharp matter for then the flesh is corrupted sending forth a very noysom mattier being very irksom to the sight and accompanied with a gentle Fever and swooning and issuing out of blood The cure of this is to be done by drying refrigerating medicines or by incision to the quick expression of the corrupted blood afterwards after which the wound must be wel cleansed for which purpose the powder which is called Hartmans blessed powder is very prevalent The diet must be of meats that moisten refrigerate blood-letting also is profitable as also preparatiō of the humor w th the juice of sweet smelling Apples and extract of Ellebore and often purgation with Lapis Lazuli pills and particularly if the Canker be not ulcerated you may apply this ointment Take Litharge one ounce beat it in a marble mortar with a leaden pestle incorporating into it two ounces of Rose water and oyle of Roses In case the pain be great use this remedy Take white poppy-seed one ounce oyle of Roses four ounces Henbane-seed and Opium of each a dram and a halfe gum Arabick halfe an ounce a little wax of which you may make an ointment If the Canker be already ulcerated take this water Take of the juices of Nightshade Housleek Sorrell Scabious Honysuckles Mullein Figwort dropwort Plantain Linarum Agrimony of each halfe a pound juyce of green Olives one pint the flesh of Frogs and river Crabs of each a pound and a half the whites of six Eggs Alum three ounces Camphire one dram let all these be distilled in a leaden Limbeck with the distilled water foment the part affected Take also Alum as much as a Nut Hony two peny worth red wine a pint seeth them together till the fifth part be spent strein it through a cloth and wash the Canker therewith Of the greatness of the Breasts THe greatness of the breasts is very unsightly the cause of their greatness is often handling of them store of windy vapours and retention of the monthly courses the cure of them is not to be neglected because the lesser the breasts be the less subject they are to be cankered they are cured by diet first wherein the use of astringent meats is to be recommended so that they be not windy by repercussion of the humors and bloud which flow to that part such are the juice of hemlock and the anointing of the place with partridge eggs or you may use this following cataplasm Take of the juice of hemlock three ounces of white lead Acacia and Frankincense of each three drams of Vinegar one ounce mingle all these together to which you may add powder of spunge burnt alum burnt lead Bole Armoniack and of these with a sufficient quantity of wax and myrtle make a very profitable ointment Thirdly by the discussion of that which is gathered together in that part for which purpose you may make an ointment in this manner Take of the mood or lome found in molis Tonsorum two ounces oyl of myrtle one ounce Vinegar half an ounce or thus take of the same lome and Bole Armoniack of each an ounce white lead two drams oyl of mastick two ounces and a halfe of the emulsion of henbane-seed one dram and a halfe anoint the breast with this and then upon that put a linen cloth dipt in the decoction of Oke Apples 4ly By compression of the part which is done by using a kind of plate of lead upon the breast anointed within side with oyle of Henbane-seed Of the defect abundance and coagulation of the Milk THe defect of milk arises from a double cause for either it is a defect in the blood which is dried up by reason of some hot maladies of the body either through intemperancie of the Liver through fasting or too much evacuation If the deficiency of milk come from these causes it may be increased again either by prepared chrystal the leaves also root and seed of Fenel do avail much in this particular and the powder of Earth-worms prepared and drunk in Wine as also the Electuary called Electuarium Zacuthi There is another cause which proceeds from the Lactifying quality which is many times so weak that it can neither attract nor concoct the blood by reason of some outward refrigerating and astringent qualities or by reason of some other diseases The cure of which being looked after in their respective places much conduceth to the restoring of that defect The redundance of blood proceeds from too great a plenty of blood and a strong lactifying quality In the cure of which the increase of blood is to be impeded which is done by drying up that humor and diversion to which blood-letting conduceth much Medicines also that drive it back are to be put upon the breasts toward the arms to which purpose Hemlock boyld in Chervile water and vinegar avails Curdling of the milk is when the thinner part of the milk exhales and the more grosse and heavy part stayes behinde which many
times is the cause of tumors kernels and Apostems In this case the infant is not to suck the part affected though that breast is also to be suckt for fear lest the milk which is newly generated should be curdled and knotted by that which is there already and so that part of the coagulated milk may be hindered from putrifying To the dissolving of the milk it much conduceth to wash the breast with water wine and vinegar mixt together as also a Fomentation made of the decoction of Marsh-mallows Fenugreek and melilote and then anointing them with a liniment of Oyl of Roses Oyl of sweet Almonds juice of Parsley and Vinegar wherein let the gall of a Hare be first dissolved Hemlock water in this case also is not a little commended Of the Diseases of the neck of the Womb and first of the Disease called Tentigo TEntigo is a Disease in Women when the Clitoris increases to an over-great measure the subject of this disease is the Clitoris or nervous peece of flesh which the lips or wings of the privities do imbrace and which suffers erection in the act of venery the signes of it are evident for it hangs below the orifice of the privity as bigg as the neck of a Goose the causes hereof are a great concourse of humours or nutriment by reason of the laxity of it which happens by often handling The cure is performed by the diminution of the bloud and drawing out of the other humors A slender and refrigerating dyet is also necessary and such things as have a discussive faculty as the leaves of Mastick tree and the leaves of Olive tree In the next place by taking away the excrescence to which purpose gentle causticks may be first applyed as Alum and the Aegyptiac oyntment and that lye whereof sope is made being boyled with Roman Vitriol to which at last you may add some opium and form the composition into Trochisques which being afterwards made into a powder is to be sprinkled upon the fleshieexcrescence at length the flesh is to be cut away either by binding hard or by section care being taken that you avoid an inflammation There is another disease which is called Cauda which is a carnous substance proceeding from the mouth of the womb which sometimes fils up the privy parts and sometimes thrusts it self outwards like a tayl The cure of this is the same with the former onely if it come to section it may be done either with a horse-hair or a silken thread wound about it being first dipt in sublimate water or else with a knife Of the narrowness of the neck of the Womb. THis narrowness is either of the Womb it self or of the orifice of the Womb the signes are the stoppage of the Courses followed with a depressing and weighty paine The cause is partly natural from the nativity and partly varies according to the differences of the disease the difference is in this it hapning sometimes that this streightness consists in the exterior orifice whereby neither the flowers have free passage neither can she enjoy coition or conceive with child because she cannot receive either the man or the seed Sometimes the narrowness is in the interior orifice of the Womb into which the flowing retires back again to the absolute hindrance of conception sometimes it is occasioned by way of compression when the Caul being fatter then ordinary lies upon the neck of the Womb. Sometimes the splaying of the thighs stone in the bladder or some tumor in the streight gut Sometimes it happens by the clinging of other parts together which happens either from the birth and then either the flesh which appears red and is soft to the touch intercepts the passage or else the membrane which seems white feels hard being touched In the cure of this the use of moist fomentations is very prevalent and an insection is to be made perpendicularly great care being taken for feare of hurting the neck of the bladder The humour is next to be provoked forth and a Tent dipt in some suppurating plaister is to be put up the next day it is to be washed with water and honey and cicatrizing plaisters to be applied if it come after the birth it is either occasioned by an ulcer and then either the sides of the neck cling together in which case either incision or cauterization is to be used or else there is a brawnie substance which is to be cut away with a penknife or else some spungie luxuriant flesh in which case drying and discussing Medecines are to be used as Birthwort Frankincense Myrrh and Mastick afterwards you may apply things to eat it away and last of all to cut it away by incision Of Wheals condylomas of the Womb and of the Hemorrhoids THe Wheals of the VVomb are certaine risings in the neck of the womb which by their acrimony excite both paine and itching The signes of them are an itching paine and fall of scurf from that part for the better searching of which the instrument called speculum Matricis is to be used The cause of this are certain cholerick sharp and adust humors and thick which falling upon these moist and loose places do there easily make their way The cure depends upon the consideration of the causes Among the preparing Medecines syrup of Fumitory is much commended and Cichorie with a decoction of Lupines Topicks also are useful that discuss and mitigate the humor as baths and insessions and the washing of the place with wine and Nitre which is often to be used These wheals are divided into gentle and venemous which are said to be contagious they are to be washed in a water thus made Take of Aloes the quantity of a pea of the flowr of brass the quantity of half a pea powder these and mingle them in an ounce of white wine Plantain-water and Rose-water of each an ounce which is to be kept in a glass vessel Condylomas are certaine swelling wrinkles in the neck of the Womb with pain and heat There is no need to tel the signes of these for they are apparent to the eye the wrinkles are like those which appear in the hand when you close the fist but are much bigger when the courses flow they are caused by adust and thick humors some of these are with an inflamation which have more paine and heat and the swelling is hard In the cure of which you must use insessions and fomentations that ease paine sometimes they come without any inflammatiō which if they be new come are to be dryed up if they be old they are first to be softned afterwards to be digested and dryed up for which purpose you may use powder of Egg-shels burnt or this Ointment Take of the Trochisques of steel one dram powderd mixt with a little Oyl of Roses and wax with half an ounce of the juice of Mullein if this profit not the warts are to be shaved away with a knife and an astringent
with a viscous and slimy flegme which lies in the passages of espiration if the humor flowing down be hot the face of the Infant will be red if it come of a cold humor the child must be kept indifferently warme giving it a little oyl of sweet Almonds and sugar candy it wil not be amiss also to wash the feet of the child in ale wherein certain Cephalick herbs have been boyled and after that to anoint the plants or soles of his feet with Gooses fat The breast of the child may be also rubbed with oyl of sweet Almonds and fresh butter and upon this put little linnen clothes something warm If it be accompanied with any viscous matter or flegme you may give the Infant a little syrup of Maidenhaire or syrup of Liquoriss and Hysop mingled together or give the Infant this water to drink Take of Rain water and Fountain water of each a pint white sugar one ounce honey an ounce Vinegar two drams boyl them all together and clarifie them and let the Infant drink it Of breeding Teeth IN breeding Teeth the difficulty and paine that the child endures is easily perceived and whether that be the thing which the child is afflicted with may be easily guessed at by the time of breeding teeth which is about the seventh moneth beside the Infant is perceived to be often putting his fingers in his mouth and the Nurse perceives the infant to gripe her breasts hard c. the place where the teeth are about to break out looks white watchings and the sense of a very great paine The swelling gums are to be anointed with Hares brains boyled or the fat of it If they be inflamed wash them with oyl of Roses and white wax and the juice of Nightshade if they be exulcerated anoint them with butter that hath no salt in it with a little honey and powder of Frankincense Of the inflammation of the Navel-string in Infants SOmetimes after the binding of the Navel-string it happens to exulcerate For the cure use an Emplaster of Pompholyx or anoint iâ— with oyl of Roses and a little Populeon Of the Worms OFtentimes children are extreamly troubled they are generated of a viscous and flegmie humour they are sometimes round and then commonly the children are troubled with a Fever and grow lean their appetite fails them they start in their sleep they have a dry cough joyned with it with a stinking breath and an ill colour in their faces the eyes hollow and dark with a kind of irregular Fever which comes three or four times a night and they often rub their noses if they be little worms they have alwayes a desire to go to the stoole and their excrements are very purants If the Infant be young the Nurse must be sure to keep a good dyet abstaining from all raw fruits pease and Beans and all milkie things and any thing that shall be of a hard concoction next you may lay a plaister of the mass of Pils sine quibus half a dram powder of Wormwood one dram myrrh and Aloes of each two scruples meale of Lupines a dram and a half the gall of an Ox as much as sufficeth if the Infant be any thing grown you may give him in a little broth a smal quantity of Harts-horn You may also give the Child if he be able to take it a little of the decoction of Pourpied and the shavings of Harts-horn adding to it a little of the juice of Citron Of the Convulsion in Infants THe signes of Convulsion are the hanging backward of the head insomuch that the hinder part of the head seemeth to touch the shoulders sometimes the head and the neck hang so far forward that the chin touches the breast The cure of this if it come of too great abundance of humors let the aire wherein the child is nursed be hot and dry and exercise much let her not sleep long especially after dinner and let her dyet be rather drying then any way moist If the child do not suck he must avoid meats that do trouble the head and fil it with vapours or slimy meats that may stop the passages of the veins sweet things are very hurtful but honey and water wherein a little Sage and Betony have been boiled it wil not be amiss to give him if purgation be needful let the Nurse rather then the child purge which may be performed with Cassia or Manna If the Child be any thing bigg let his belly be kept loose by giving him a little water wherin Sena hath been steeped for four and twenty hours tempering therewith a very smal quantity of the juice of Citron or you may give him a little of the powder of Diacarthamum in the pap of an apple If the Convulsion come of driness or emptines or by reason of some great evacuation flux of the belly vomiting hunger or the like the child must be nursed in an aire more moist then dry his dyet must be the same The best and most approved Remedy is to apply a cautery in the hinder part of the head to the nook of the neck between the second and third Vertebrae which may be done to new-born Children Frictions also of the leggs backbone and thighs are very profitable as also Cupping-glasses applied to the thighs and leggs It the Convulsion come by reason of the Worms you may give him this Clyster Take of simple Hydromel 4. ounces new butter one ounce powdered Aloes half a dram and make a clyster Or you may give him two drams of Earth-worms killed dryed and powdered sugar powdered one ounce and let the child take two drams of it every day in a spoonful of Lettice water If any venemous vapour be the cause hereof let him take six grains of Treacle or Mithridate in Pourpied water Of the swelling of the Hypochondria in Infants WHich causeth children by reason of the narrowness of the mouth of the stomack to be troubled with a difficulty of breathing it ariseth from the greediness of the Infant which either sucks too great a quantity of milk or of other meats The inward cure of this is performed by administring the powder of the root of Orrice or Paeonie Of Costiveness in Children THis proceeds from the unskilfulness of the Nurse in the dyeting of the child or from a cold and dry distemper of the guts or from the hot and dry distemper of the bowels in this case the belly may be well loosened with Cassia or with a liniment composed of new oyl of sweet Almonds Goose fat May-butter Ointment of Dial thea of each two drams Colocynth gr 16 one scruple of salt Species Hierae one scruple Diagridion 4 grains make of this anointment and anoint the navel Or it proceeds from a viscous flegme which wraps about and holds the dreggs which may be remedied by a suppository of Mouse-dung and Goats suet or by the use of an Emplaster of Aloes Buls gall Myrrh and May-butter to be laid upon the
Of the Inflammation of the Almonds of the Ears IF the child be very smal you must wash the throat as neer the root of the tongue as may be with a linen cloth tied to a stick dipped in this gargarisme take of new extracted Cassia one dram syrup of dry Roses one dram and a half with six ounces of the decoction of Coriander Or you may anoint the neck with oyl of Violets and Camomil binding the neck with a little roller well anointed with the same when the child goes to bed you may give him in a spoon a little syrup of dry'd Roses of Pavot and Nenuphar mingled together Oxycroceum alone doth also make an excellent Gargarism If they come to a suppuration you must use this gargarisme Take of the decoction of Barley Plantain Agrimony Veronicae Honysuckle and herb Rob six ounces in which dissolve mel Rosatum and Sugar-candie of each half an ounce to make a gargarism Of Vomiting IF it proceed from abundance of milk which the child sucks you must take care that the child suck less and often If it come from any ill humor contained in the stomack besides that the Nurse must keep a very good dyet the Infant must be purged with a smal expression of Rheubarb giving it afterwards a little Codignac to comfort the stomack mingling with it a little tablet of Diarrhodium putting afterwards upon his stomack this plaister Take of the pulp of condited Quinces two ounces red Roses Wormwood and red Sanders of each two drams Oyl of Quinces as much as sufficeth make a plaister of this and lay it upon the stomack of the child Of the Hicquet IF it come from an over-much repletion it wil not be amiss to make him vomit of whatsoever age he be or if it be necessary that a greater force should be used you must try to make him vomit by putting down the throat a Fether dipt in oyl if from the badness of the Nurses milk she must be changed for a better if from the coldness of the stomack you must use remedies to comfort it as little tablets of Diarrhodium of which you must dissolve a scruple in the milk of the Nurse you must also chafe the stomack of the child with oyl of Wormwood Mastick and Quinces Of the pain of the Belly in Children IF the Disease come from indigestion and moistness the little Infant wil vomit and be troubled with a flux of the belly and the belly wil be hard In which cases you may give the infant an ounce of sweet Almonds drawn with out fire and mingled with a quantity of Sugar-candy or anoint the belly with this Ointment Take oyl of Camomil and oyl of sweet Almonds of each an ounce and a half mingle them and therewith anoint the belly if wind be the cause you may mingle a little oyl of rue in the foresaid Ointment Of the Smal-Pox in Children THe signes of this Disease are paine in the head accompanied with a Fever redness about the eyes a dry Cough and you shal mark in the skin up and down the body certain little spots upon the face back brest and thighs the Smal-pox is dangerous if they come forth with much pain if they be greenish blewish or blackish For the cure of this if the Infant suck the Nurse must keep a good order of dyet she may eat broth of Hens with Endive Cichorie Bugloss and Borage boyled therein Now to make the Smal-Pox come forth the more quickly if the Child be little the Nurse must drink this following Potion Take of Caricarum Pinguium one ounce peeled Lentils half an ounce Gum Lacca two drams Gum Tragacant and Fenel-seed of each two drams and a half make of this a decoction in fountain-Fountain-water and strein it to the quantity of two pints sweeten this either with sugar or syrup of Maidenhair let her drink of this in the morning a good glassful Or you may give the child if it be able to take it this Julep to be used very often take of Cordial waters two ounces and a half syrup of Limons one ounce mingle it and use it often 4. or five hours after give him of powder of Unicorns-horn and Bezoar Now to keep this venemous humor from attaching the eyes temper a little Saffron in a smal quantity of Plantain and Rose-water and rub the eyelids or you may anoint them with Tutie For keeping them from the nose take Rose-water and Betonie-water of each an ounce Vinegar half an ounce juice of Pomgranates six ounces in which steep two drams of Santalum and two drams of the powder of Citron peel adde to this six grains of Saffron and make a medecine for the child to smel often to the same Medecine wil serve for the ears by stopping them with a little cotton To preserve the mouth and throat and tongue take this gargarism take whole Barley one handful Plantain leaves leaves of Oxalis Arnogloss Agrimonie and Verbena of each one handful boyl this to the quantity of six ounces dissolving in it syrup of dry Roses and Pomgranates of each half an ounce Saffron half a scruple To preserve the Lungs use syrup of Jujubes Violets and Nenuphar when they are fully come out to make them dye the more quickly rub the face with oyl of sweet Almonds drawn without fire Or use this Ointment take old Lard cut it in smal pieces and melt it in a pot then strein then beat it and mingle it with water for your use When the Pox is totally dead take this Remedy to take away the marks Take Halke the weight of two Crowns clear cream 2. ounces mix them together and with a Fether dipt therein anoint the face of the child two or three daies this causeth the skin to grow smooth leaving not a pit in the face Certain other Instructions grounded upon practical Observations fit to be known by all Midwives and Child-bearing Women c. IN the yeare One Thousand six hundred and Ten a young Lady whom I was wont to bring to bed passing by my house came in to me and told me that she was four moneths gone and that she perceived the Infant to stir about a moneth after she came to see me and told me that she was in much pain for that she had not perceived the Infant to stir in two dayes and that therefore she believed that it was dead by reason of a certain very great fright which she had had for at the time that she was frighted she perceived the childe to move but after that never and her belly began by little and little to wax less and about three weeks after she had that reflux of milk that Women use to have that lye in when this was gone she had no grievance yet seeing her often and knowing her to be bigg with child she asked me my advice to know what she should do Whereupon I asked her if any ill vapours rose up into her mouth she told me no. If she had
not lost her appetite she answered that she never had a better in her life her heart was light her body in good temper so that there was nothing that troubled her but an apprehension she had that the child was dead whereupon I made her try all means to make the Infant stir but she notwithstanding felt nothing only she perceived that something did heave a little upon the operation of the Remedies which was nothing but the Matrix which being now distempered and grown cold did as it were answer the hot Remedies testifying thereby some good which it received thereby I advised her to be patient and to wait Natures leisure which is provident enough of it self telling her that I had seen an Infant which had lain a long time in the Womb without budging which for all that was not dead although you could not perceive in the Woman any thing but the signs of a dead child I had oftentimes brought the Lady to bed and she stil had very good deliveries and very sound children of a good colour so that I believing her to be of a sound constitution thought that if the Infant were dead that Nature which was very strong in her would expel it in time convenient and that she should not be forced not having given any testimony of defect resolving also when her Reckoning was out if then Nature shewed it self weak that we would consult her Friends and Physitians Many of her Friends told me that they doubted that she was deceived in thinking her self to be with Child to which I answered that they might be confident that it was so in brief she was brought to bed sixteen weeks after the fright which she had Now here ariseth a great doubt whether the Child dyed at the hour of her being scared by reason that it did not move in all the time A reason that the child was not dead may be because that the Gentlewoman had not her milk til within three weeks afterward and yet I cannot but think that it dyed at the same time for certainly by that fright the vital spirits were ravished from it and the blood of the Arteries retired to the heart of the Mother not being distributed to the Infant but at the good pleasure of Nature the course of which being stopped it retired to its first source through which the child suffering a suffocation gave a violent motion and now after the Fright was come to her self and that Nature would have returned to finish her work she was not received because the vital faculties of the Infant were extinct and notwithstanding all this the Mother not ceasing to retain the menstrual blood as she was accustomed that finding it self stopped and stil increasing without that use made of it that was wont it made a reflux to the breasts which flowd down again in five or six dayes for the Infant coming to decrease in the Womb now way was made for them which came not down for all that but in the Delivery and after which was in this manner At the end of the sixteenth week after the fright she had pains in the night she thinking to indure them wel enough til morning in the morning caused me to be sent for I came to her finding with her a Physitian and sundry others of her acquaintance The Physitian that expected me had ordered her a Clyster to give her if I thought it to the purpose I found her pale cold and yet in a sweat with so little pulse that I esteemed her dead I touched her found she had been in Travail which had been too long neglected I called presently for a plain silver dish into which I squeez'd the juice of half a Citron and set it upon a Chafing-dish of coals being warmed I caused her to take it this restored Nature a little and stirred up her pains and then I assisted her notwithstanding some of the waters ran down after her first throw the leggs and thighs of the Child came forth now finding the Infant to be dead and seeing that she was troubled with no more throws I was afraid of drawing it forth for fear it might be rotten I did give her a Clyster without moving her the force of which bringing the Child away she was delivered of a dead Infant all over of a leaden colour without any ill vapour the Secundines sound and fair as you shal see her purgations as clear as could be and she had as good and as happy a Lying in as any Woman in the world all which time she had not the appearnce of any Milk at all Hence we may admire the effects of Nature which are wonderful But in such cases Women must be sure in due time and place for if a Woman do resist her paines and doth not put her self in a right posture she runs a great hazard of her life A Second Observation of a Woman that had been in Travail nine dayes BEing called to the Labour of a Woman that had been in Travail nine or ten dayes of whom there was little hope I went and there found the Woman almost dead her eyes open and fixed her nose shrunk in her breath smelling like a charnel-house and she took nothing down into her stomack that she did not instantly vomit up again she had drunk up above two pints of water in an hour and by her bed there was a whole sea of those things that she had vomited up They gave her cold water and the yelk of an Egg sometimes though it came up again at the same instant she felt no paine of the Infant but finding her Womb was open and her waters beginning to come down I found that she had been in Travail only Nature was oppressed and had not had any good assistance so that the Infant was retired back again which stifled the Mother and provoked her vomiting upon which I gave my advice and though I thought my self come a little too late yet I resolved to do what lay in the power of my Art and therefore I resolved to give her a good strong Clyster to awaken Nature and to bring the Infant lower which it did according to our hopes afterwards to drink a smal quantity of rhubarb-Rhubarb-water which stayed with her a little after I gave her the yelk of an Egg which stayed with her also causing her to drink nothing but rhubarb-Rhubarb-water and at every hours end I gave her the yelk of an Egg which did also stay with her by this time Nature began to strengthen it self and the paines of the Infant came again and in less then two hours after the Clyster and other nourishment given when I saw her pretty wel and that Nature strove to expel the Infant I gave her half a dram of Confection of Alkermes in a little Wine and a little while after I caused her to take another Clyster into which I put a little Hiera and a little Benedictus which finished the work for She was then