to Lust have few Courses yellow or black or burnt or sharp they have hairs betimes upon their privities they are subject to the Headach and there are signs of much Choler their Lips are dry When this distemper is strong The Prognostick they have few terms and out of order they are bad and hard to flow and in time they are Hypochondriacks and for the most part barren and there is sometimes a Frenzy of the Womb. Use Coolers The Cure so that they offend not the Vessels that must be open for the Flux of the terms therefore Use inwardly Succory Endive Violets Waterlillies Sorrel Lettice Sanders and Syrups and Conserves made thereof As Take Conserve of Succory Violets Waterlillies Borage each an ounce Conserve of Roses half an ounce Dâ—amargariton frigid Diâ—trio santalon each half a dram with Syrup of Violets or Juyce of Citrons make an Electuary Outwardly use Oyntment of Galens Cooler Oyntment of Roses Cerot of Sanders Oyl of Roses Violets Waterlillies Gourds Venus-navel to the Back and Loins or make Cataplasms of Barley meal Roses powdered Violets Waterlillies Sanders with Juyce or water of Plantane Waterlillies Succory Lettice Oyl of Roses Violets Waterlillies Baths are good to sit in and cooling Fomentations and after let her take some of the Coolers mentioned In great heat use this cooling Pessary Take Opium a scruple Goose grease two scruples Eras de pass mulic cap. 7. Wax and Honey each four scruples Oyl at ounce whites of two Eggs. This was from an opinion the Ancients had that Opium was cold but take heed of the using it too much lest the narcotick quality hurt Let the Air be cool her Garments thin let her meat be with Lettice Endive Succory Barley give no hot meats nor strong Wine except it be waterish and thin Rest is good both in body and mind She must not copulate but she may sleep much Chap. 3. Of the cold Distemper of the womb THis causeth many Evils and Barrennesse They are contrary to those of a hot Distemper The Causes cold Air Rest and Idlenesse and cooling Medicines The Signs It is known by their not desire of Lechery not receiving pleasure in the time of Copulation when they spend their Seed The terms are flegmatick thick and slimy and flow not rightly there is wind in the womb the Seed is crude waterish with a Gonorrhoea The Prognostick The Cure It is the cause of Obstructions and Barrenness and is hard to be cured Use things proper to heal the womb as this Water Take Galangal Cinnamon Nutmeg Mace Cloves each two drams Ginger Cubebs Zedoary Cardamoms each an ounce grains of Paradice long Pepper each half an ounce beat them and put them in six quarts of Wine for eight dayes then add Sage Mints Balm Motherwort each three handfuls let them stand eight dayes more then pour off the Wine and beat the Herbs and the Spices and then pour on the Wine and distil them Ano her Take Cinnamon Nutmegs Cloves Mace Ginger Cubebs Cardamom grains of Pa adice each an ounce and half Galangal six drams long Pepper half an ounce Zedoary five drams bruise them and add six quarts of Wine put them in a Cellar nine dayes daily stirring them then add Mints two handfuls then let them stand fourteen dayes pour off the Wine and bruise them and then pour on the Wine again and distil them Quercetan hath an Hysterick Extract In phar doc restit cap. 25. a greater and a less use outwardly Fomentations Baths Baggs of hot Roots as Birthwort Lovage Valerian Angelica Burnet Masterwort Calamus Madder Elicampane Orris and Herbs as Mugwort Balm Motherwort Savin Penny-royal Calamints Organ Dittany Marjoram Rue Bettony Rosemary Lavender Sage Stoechas flowers Seeds of Smallage Parsley Rue Carrots Anise Fennel Cummin Lovage Parsley Anoint with Oyl of Lillies Rue Angelica Bays Cinnamon Cloves Mace Nutmeg Or Take Labdanum two ounces Frankincense Mastick liquid Storax each half an ounce Oyl of Cloves Nutmegs each half a scruple Oyl of Lillies Rue each an ounce with Wax make a Plaister A Fume Take Frankincense Mirrh Mastich each a dram Bayberries a dram and half Labdanum two drams Storax Cloves each a dram Gum Arabick and Wine make Troches or Pessaries of the same Let the diet be warming and the air the meat of easie concoction seasoned with Anise Fennel Thyme Avoid Milk-meats and raw Fruits Chap. 4. Of the moist Distemper of the Womb. THis is commonly joyned with a cold Distemper and causeth Barrenness and is from the same causes as a cold distemper for commonly cold things do moisten It is commonly in women that are idle The Signs They that have moist wombs abound in Courses but they are waterish and thin the privities are wet they have the VVhites and desire not Copulation much and delight not in it they retain not the seed and if they conceive when the child is big they abort or miscarry The Prognostick The Cure If it last long it is hard to be cured If it be much they conceive not It is by Driers and things that cure the cold distemper are good against the moist because all Healers have a drying power Use Sulphur Baths and Injections Beware of Astringents lest the evil humors be stopt and the disease increased Chap. 5. Of the dry Distemper of the Womb. IN this the womb is hardned of it self it is fleshy and soft and moistned by blood for Conception It is sometimes from the birth or old age when they are past child-bearing If it be from drying causes they are barren before they are old The Causes Diseases and Medicines dry the womb as Inflammations Feavers and when blood flows not to it nor goes to the bottom of it by reason of the straitness of the Veins or Obstructions as in Viragoe's and such as never conceived and if they void any blood it is from the neck of the womb and not from the bottom The Signs They void little seed and are slow in Venery the terms are few the mouth of the womb is dry and they are slender of a dry Constitution their lower Lip is alwayes chapt and blackish red This distemper is hard to be cured in any part especially if it be old The Prognostick The Cure Use Moistners as Borage Bugloss Mercury Mallows Althaea Violets sweet Almonds Pistachaes Pine-nuts Jujubes Dates Figs Raisins Of which are made Syrups Conserves Emulsions Candies c. Outward Remedies are made of the same adding Time Fenugreek-Seeds Lillies Brank-ursine Pellitory c. Fomentations are made with Milk and after bathing anoint the region of the womb and the belly to the privities with oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies Lin-seed Jesamin fresh Butter Hens and Goose grease Let the Diet be moistning the Air moist the meat fatning of much nourishment and small excrement Leet sleep be a little longer than usual Great labour anger sadness fasting do hurt Chap. 6. Of Compound Distempers and first of
Cold and Moist THere is seldom a simple Distemper in the part and commonly there is matter which feeds it It is usually cold and moist which gathers excrements of that sort either in the whole body or in the womb after the terms The Causes Are all things that breed cold and flegmatick humors in the whole body or the womb The Cure They conceive not and are of an ill habit of body the terms seldom flow right and they have sometimes the whites The Prognostick The Cure It is harder to cure than a simple distemper The cold humor is in fault therefore prepare it with Syrup of Mugwort Mints Bettony Hysop with a Decoction proper As Take Fennel roots an ounce Valerian Elicampane Masterwort each half an ounce Penny-royal Mugwort Motherwort Nep Marjoram each a handful Rosemary and Sage-flowers each two pugils Siler Montane Fennel Anniseed Parsnep-seed each a dram boil them to ten ounces strained add Sugar syrup of Mugwort two or three ounces Cinnamon-water half an ounce make a Portion for three doses Then purge it with Agarick Mechoacan Turbith and if other humors be mixed with Flegm add Senna and the like or use Pills de tribus Aloephanginae Mastich of Hiera with Agarick Sine quibus Or Take Agarick a dram and half Senna two drams infuse them in Mugwort-water to three ounces strained add Diaphoenicon or Diacarthaemum two drams strain and add syrup of Mugwort half an ounce Cinnamon-water half a dram After universal Evacuation use Pessaries As Take Mercury bruise it and put it in a bag of white Silk anoint it with Butter or Honey of Roses Or Take Benedicta laxativa three drams Agarick two drams Gith seed a dram Pease meal six drams with juyce of Mercury make Pessaries in a Sarsnet Bag. Or Take Hiera a dram Agarick half a dram Bdellium a dram with Honey make a Pessary or make it with powder of Agarick and Troches of Coloquintida or five sweats of Guajacum China and Sarsa As Take Guajacum a pound and eighteen ounces infuse them in twelve pints of water twenty four hours then boyl them to the consumption of the third part give six or eight ounces hot in the morning and let her sweat Pour water to the reliques and boyl them to the consumption of the third part for an ordinary drink You may use China and Sarsa the same way and because in a decoction some strength is lost and so great a quantity is tedious for women you may distil them and give a less quantity with things proper for the womb As Take Guajacum a pound or Sarsa eight ounces Angelica Elicampane each an ounce Mugwort two handfuls Dittany half a handful add six pints of water or wine steep them two dayes then distil them and give two ounces of the water Let her meat be roasted Birds Hens Capons Partridges Mutton sweet Almonds Raisins Let her abstain from salt and sharp things If these sweats are unpleasant give them in the third and fourth Chapter internal and external As Take Conserve of Marjoram Rosemary Bettony each two ounces of Balm an ounce Diamoschu dulcis Diamargariton calid each a dram â—â—ndied Eryngus and Citrons each half an ounce with furup of Mugwort make an Electuary and use Baths to sit in mentioned Drying spaw-Spaw-waters are good to drink or to sit in Let the diet be as in Chap. 3. and 4. give the flesh of wild Mountain fowl Pidgeons Hens Capons Mutton roasted and spiced and old wine and let her exercise Of the hot and dry Distemper of the Womb with Choler Do as in Chap. 5. purge the Choler whether it be from the whole body or from the Liver with Syrup of Roses Manna Tamarinds Rhubarbs Senna c. Chap. 7. Of the ill shape of the Womb and first of the straitness of it and its vessels THis is a Disease of evil conformation from Nature when it can be stretched out no further this makes an abortion in the fourth or fifth month But it is wonderful in its natural shape when it will stretch according to the proportion of the child and after child-bearing be as small as at first Of straitness of the vessels of the Womb. This is usual and hinders the flux of the terms and conception it is in the vessels of the womb and of the neck thereof The Causes Are thick tough humors that stop the mouths of the veins and arteries these are bred of gross or much nourishment when the heat of the womb is so weak that it cannot attenuate the humors these either flow from the whole body or are gathered in the womb Sometimes vessels are closer by inflammation or Schirrhus or other tumor 3. They are stopt by astringent Medicines 4. By compression 5. From a Scar or Flesh or a Membrane that grows after a wound Stoppage of the terms shews straitness The Signs which hinders conception and this stoppage is known by crudities abounding in the body which are known by their signs Sometimes thick flegm comes from the womb if there was a wound before or the Secundine was pulled out by force Stoppage of terms from an old obstruction by humors is hard to be cured The Prognostick if it be from disorderly use of astringents it is more curable if it be from a Schirrhus or other tumor that compresseth or closeth the vessels that cannot be cured the disease is incurable Obstructions are taken away by the means mentioned in the cold and moist Distemper of the Womb flegm must be purged The Cure and she must be let blood as in stoppage of the terms After Universals come to the obstruction with Medicines that move the terms these take away the cause as in the Chapter of the cold distemper of the Womb. Or Take Asparagus roots Parsly roots each an ounce Madder roots half an ounce red Pease half a handful Penny-royal Calamints each a handful Wall-flowers Dill-flowers each two pugils boil strain and add syrup of Mugwort an ounce and half Or Take Birthwort and white Dittany roots each an ounce Costus Cinnamon Galangal each half an ounce Rosemary Penny-royal Calamints Bettony-flowers each a handful Anise and Fennel seeds each a dram Saffron half a dram with Wine Or use Topicks as Take Mugwort Marjoram Calamints Mercury Penny-royal each two handfuls Sage Rosemary Bays Chamomil-flowers each a handful boyl them in water foment the groins and the bottom of the belly or let her fit in a Bath up to the Navel and then anoint about the groins with Oyl of Rue Lillies Dill c. Or use Pessaries and Fumes mentioned If straitness be from other diseases cure them first Chap. 8. Of the opening of the Vessels of the Womb besides Nature THis when there is great bleeding The Causes The vessels are opened preternaturally three wayes by Anastomosis Diaeresis and by Diapedesis as in the Lungs Anastomosis is from much blood which the Liver doth produce and send out by the womb as in some
half an ounce with good Wine distil them give a spoonful or two Apply outwardly a Cataplasm of Rue Mugwort Chamomil Dill Calamints Nip Penny-royal Thyme with Oyl of Rue Cheir Chamomil and make Baths of the same Bags of Milium Salt Chamomil-flowers Melilot Bayberries Cummin Fennel-seed or lay a Plaister of Bayberries Let Clysters to expel wind be put into the womb As Take Calamints Agnus castus Rue each half an handful Anniseeds Costus Cinnamon each two drams boil them in Wine for half a pint Apply a Cupping-glass with much flame to the Breast and over against the Womb. Use Sulphur-baths and Spaw-waters inward and outward for they expel wind If it come from cold after Child-bearing and she is not well purged by her Terms heat the womb and purge and give strong Wine Let the Diet be hot cutting and attenuating The Diet. with things that expel wind and little at a time Question Whether the wind is in the Cavity when there is Inflation of the Womb It is so by Experience though some deny it nor is there any cause why wind should not be bred in the womb as well as in any other part both by reason of the Excrements that come thither and the natural heat that turns them into wind these also stretch the womb though it be thick as in Dropsies and Conception Also the retentive or altering faculty of the womb is never idle so that when it receives diseased and unfruitful seed it suffers it not to corrupt but turns it into wind As Hippocrates writes When the Womb is stretched by wind from the Belly Lib. de nat pueri women think they have conceived Chap. 11. Of the Dropsie of the Womb. THey are also deceived and think they are with child when there is water that swells the womb Ves lib. 6. de corp hum Fab. Mar. Do de hist me mira l. 4. c. 21. Tetrab 6.4 ser 4. c. 79. this is a Dropsie of the womb This water is either in the Cavity or between the Coats of the womb or in its Vessels Vesalius Marcellus Donatus shew that water is in the Cavity for it doth not presently by its plenty or quality force its passage out because the Orifice is not alwaies open and Nature gathers it by degrees and is used to it Aetius saith There are sometimes Bladders of water in the womb And Christopher Vega saith that Leonora thought that she had gone 6 months and then voided sixty Bladders of water and seven pieces of flesh like that of the Spleen in Membranes Lib. 4. obser cent 2. obser 56. The Causes There is sometimes a Dropsie of the Womb with Conception as Schenstius and William Fabricius saith of his own wife Are gathering of water from moistness mixed with the terms and from an evil Sanguification in the Liver and Spleen from their weakness or from errors in Diet or from weakness of the womb from hard travel or often mischances cold air or water or whatsoever hurts the heat of the womb Also stoppage of the terms doth cause gathering of water for the water useth to be evacuated with them Many take this for the only cause Sometimes the tunicles of the womb may be divided in some place and water may be gathered between them Hippocrates saith the terms are fewer The Signs 1. De morb mulier and cease before the time the bottom of the Belly swells and the Paps are soft without Milk and she thinks she is with child By these you know it is a Dropsie But because Doctors and Midwives are often deceived you must distinguish this from other Swellings When a woman is sound and useth a sound man the womb by degrees swells and the child moves in its time but often there is a Dropsie with Conception before or after therefore in a Dropsie the tumor is equal according to the largeness of the womb and belly and not pointed as in a woman with child Secondly If the woman be in years and hath not conceived before and hath a good colour it is a sign of a Dropsie rather then a Conception If the tenth month be past and the child moves not nor the Breasts swell but are soft say there is Dropsie of the womb Thirdly In a true Conception women are better after some months and the Symptoms abate but in a Dropsie they increase still It is distinguished from a Mole by the weight in the bottom of the Belly From an inflation because the Belly is stretched in that and sounds being stricken but is soft in a Dropsie It differs from the Dropsie of the Belly because the Face is pale or wane in that from the distemper of the Liver there is thirst but in the Womb-dropsie she is of a good colour except the Liver be also bad It differs from Inflamation in the womb for that is with a constant Feaver and the Symptoms of it and from other tumors which are harder but in a Dropsie of the womb if the Belly be pressed it yields You shall know whether it be from the fault in the womb principally or from some other part thus If the Woman be of a good colour and there were only some diseases and causes that might hurt the womb as abortion hard travel stoppage of terms or too many of them then the womb is chiefly affected But if there be signs of a distemper in the whole body or in the Liver or Spleen and the colour is bad it is consent from other parts You shall know whether the water be in Bladders or in the Cavity of the womb thus If you find the Orifice of the womb closed and there is little pain it is in the Cavity But if the Orifice be open and there is great pain it is in Bladders or without the Cavity The Prognostick If the humor in the womb be not corrupt this disease is of long continuance but may be easily cured It is easier cured in the cavity then when it is in bladders and between the tunicles A woman after Conception having a Dropsie of the womb her child dieth and she is in danger The Cure When it is from stoppage of terms and new and the strength firm open a Vein in the Legs otherwise bleed not Purge according to the Humor with respect to the Womb as in Chap. 6. of a cold Distemper Then purge Water Take Angelica and Madder roots each half an ounce Calamints Penny-royal Mugwort Lovage each a handful Savin a pugil boil them in Wine and sweeten it with Sugar Or make Broaths with the same Take Dianisum Diagalangal each half a dram Oyl of Aniseeds Cloves each five drops Sugar three ounces make Rouls Inject into the Womb as in Dropsies Take Asarum roots three drams Penny-royal Calamints each half a handful Savin a pugil Mechoacan a dram Aniseed Cummin each half a dram boil them and take six ounces strained Oyl of Elder and Orris each an ounce make a Clyster Or use Pessaries Take
Sope Stavisacre each a dram quick Brimstone half an ounce Quick-silver 2 drams with Rose-vinegar and Hens-grease make an Oyntment Let the meat be of good juyce cooling and moistning Take heed of Spices sharp and salt meats Chap. 3. Of pain in the Womb. THere is pain in the body of the womb with other diseases sometimes as the Colick-pains woven in the bottom of the Belly and in the Loins and Hips and is called the pain of the Womb. It is often in women with child as the inflammation of the womb It is burning and beating it binds the Belly and stops the Urin. The Causes Solution of unity is the cause of all pains and this is from the stretching of the Womb and its Vessels or corrosion Stretching is from wind or clotted blood in the cavity of it and when Nature cannot expel it by reason of the straitness of the part there is pain Also pain is from stretching of the vessels before the terms flow when they are close and the blood thick and this pain is increased by external cold especially after heat Sometimes there is a gathering of humors about the womb when the terms flow and are foul and they get into the membranes and stretch them The same may be from corrupt Seed that stretcheth the vessels Or from sharpness and corrosion in the neck of the womb The Signs when sharp humors flow through it and twitch it The pain is manifest but let us look at the signs of the causes If it be from clotted blood there was a flux of the same and the pain is fixed about the orifice of the womb If there were external causes the patient will relate If it be from Seed there is suffocation of the Womb. The greater the cause is The Prognostick The Cure and the more vehement it works the more is the danger If there be pain and fear of fainting look to that before the cause with Anodynes and Narcoticks if need be If it be from wind see inflation of the Womb. If it be from clotted blood dissolve and evacuate it with hot and attenuating Medicines made into Fomentations Baths and Oyntments It is good to apply Treacle to the region of the Womb or put it in with Rue and Honey Or give a Clyster to the Womb of Rue Foenugreek-seed and Oyl of Rue and Orris Or give Treacle and Cinnamon-water If the vessels of the womb are not open enough for the terms See in the stoppage of the terms If there be wind make a Clyster thus Take Mercury Mugwort Calamints Penny-royal each a handful Chamomil and Melilot-flowers each half a handful Faenugreek and Linseed each an ounce boyl them in a pint strained dissolve Hiera Benedicta laxativa each half an ounce make a Clyster Give Mugwort Zedoary-water Essence of Castor Treacle or Womans Aqua vitae of which before Make a Clyster for the Womb thus Take Mugwort Calamints Bettony each half a handful Gith Cummin Carrot Aniseeds each a dram Spike Schoenanth Nutmeg Cinnamon each a dram boyl them in Wine Then fill an Ox bladder half full with Oyl of Lillies and Dill and apply it to the belly Or Take Oyl of Lillies Orris each an ounce distilled Oyl of Angelica a dram Goose and Hens grease each half an ounce Mucilage of Line and Faenugreek-seed made with Mugwort-water each three drams seeds of Cummin Carrots Caraway each a dram with Wax make a soft Oyntment Or Take Pellitory two handfuls Mercury a handful beat them add Chamomil-flowers Cummin Anise Carrots-seeds each a dram two yelks of Eggs and Oyl of Lillies make a Cataplasm for the Belly Apply Plaisters to the Navel and Cupping-glasses with great flame to the Region of the womb or dry Fomentations of Oats Milium Anise Cummin Carrot-seed in a Bag. And use Pessaries as Take Harts Marrow Turpentine Wax Goose-grease each three drams Saffron a dram yelks of Eggs seven with Oyl of Lillies make Pessaries If the humors and wind is malignant mix Scorronera Bezear seeds and roots of Angelica water of Zedoary Treacle Mithridate and the like in Suffocation of the womb Chap. 4. Of the Diseases of the Womb that come from sweet scents and stinks THere is a particular Symptom in the womb which breeds great admiration that it delights in sweet scents and is offended with stinks And it is certain for if Musk Civit or the like be but put to the Nose of the woman that is subject to fits of the Mother they grow sick and if the same be put to their privities and stinks to the Nose the fit of the Mother ceaseth It is hard to give the reason of this many wise Men have given their opinion but they disagree among themselves and satisfie me not neither do I promise to satisfie others But it is probable to me that the womb is not delighted with scents as scents for the privities have no smelling and the sense of smelling doth not reach so far but the quality by which it is well or ill is occult and not to be explained and to be separated from the odours If any ask what the quality is I answer There are many qualities in Nature that are hid from our senses and yet we cannot deny them because we see their effects as the quality in a Dogs Nose we cannot apprehend but the Dog perceives it But how these qualities come to the womb Quomodo uterus bene olentia recipiat is by no other way but by the open way by the privities by which Spirits get into the womb and in the suffocation of the womb sweet things profit because they strengthen it by a peculiar quality to disperse the venemous air and draw down the spirits and humors But if they be put to the Nose Quomodo bene olentia hystericis noceant the womb consents by the Sympathy of the organ of smelling and the brain with it This is by the Nerves and Arteries for the heart is presently refreshed with a sweet scent because it presently pierceth into it being spiritual and there is a great consent of the womb with the brain and the smelling as is seen by the tryal of Barrenness by a Fume from Hippocrates 5. Aphor. But we must observe that sweet scents are acceptable to all Wombs and stinks are not but the same Symptomes are not in all Women from them for they who have a Womb of a good constitution with no evil humors in it endure sweet things well and delight in them but they who are unclean hate sweet things and osten fall into fits by them because while the womb is delighted with that sweet and hidden quality with which it hath a peculiar Sympathy the evil humors that lie in the Womb especially if there be any corruption from Seed and the Seed also are stirred and when the Spirits flie up they take the bad humors with them and send bad vapors to the heart which cause suffocation and others Symptoms But when the
and add Fennel-seed Calamus Cinnamon Cassia lignea Cardamoms each half an ounce distil them again Or give Syrup of Calamints Mugwort Or Take water of Penny-royal Savin Calamints each four ounces Syrup of Mugwort four ounces Cinnamon-water an ounce give it at four times Rouls Take Extract of Savin a scruple of Angelica half a scruple of Elicampane six grains Oyl of Cinnamon five drops of Cloves two drops with Sugar dissolved in Balm-water Or make an Electuary of Steel six ounces Cassia lignea Cinnamon each two drams Cloves a dram Raisins two ounces with Sugar dissolved in mugwort-Mugwort-water Or Take Troches of Mirrh a dram Extract of Gentian and Savin each a scruple Castor half a scruple make Pills give two scruples or give every third day Pills of Hiera Use outward Medicines but provoke not sweat by them Take Althaea and Lilly-roots each two ounces Birthwort an ounce Mallows Mercury Mugwort Savin Motherwort Calamint Penny-royal Marjoram Bayes each two handfuls flowers of Chamomil Lavender Cheir each a handful Foenugreek-seed an ounce Juniper and Bayberries each half a handful boil them in Water foment with Spunges And then anoint with this Take Oyl of Lillies an ounce of Lavender-seeds stilled half a dram Calamints and Gith-powder each a dram Storax Calamite a scruple To Virgins that must take no Pessaries give Fumes with the head defended they will open the mouths of the vessels and cut thick humors As Take Mirrh Bdellium Storax each a dram Benzoin two scruples Gallia moschata Ivet each half a scruple with liquid Storax make Troches Then use Clysters and Injections into the Womb with Purgers As Take Calamints Penny-royal each a handful Gith-seed Turbith each a dram Coloquintida half a dram boyl it in Wine inject it into the Womb. If it be hot after it inject the Decoction of Mallows with Milk or Barley-water And because the neck of the womb lies upon the strait gut give Clysters Take Lilly-roots an ounce Orris Valerian each half an ounce Mercury two handfuls Mugwort Savin each a handful Chamomil Lavender-flowers each a pugil Caraway Gith-seed each a dram boyl add Hiera and Benedicta laxativa each half an ounce Oyl of Cheir two drams Electuary of Bayberries half an ounce If she be no Virgin put Mercury bruised in a Bag for a Pessary with Centuary-flowers Or Garlick beaten with Oyl of Spike Begin still with the mildest as Mugwort Mercury Penny-royal Marjoram Rue and then add Mucilages and Juyces to loosen the womb let not Pessaries lie long lest they cause a Feaver If it be from a tumor provoke not the Terms but look to the tumor Let diet be hot and attenuating of good juyce with Parsley Savory Rosemary Cloves Cinnamon Little sleep and much exercise Question 1. Whether are the other Causes of stoppage of the Terms Some say the blood going to other parts is a cause but it is rather contrary and the suppression of terms is cause of that For the Veins of the Womb are large enough to evacuate blood Others say The strength of the womb is a cause which thickens the Vessels that they receive blood But the Womb is made to receive it when it abounds Others accuse the strength which is to be denied but when it is so strong that it is too hot or too dry and will not receive the blood and that is a sign of weakness But there must be strength in the whole body to cast out superfluous blood or there will be other mischiefs Question 2. What Veins must be opened when the Terms are stopt Authors disagree in this as Aetius and Galen Lib. de sang miss cap. 11 18 19. who alwaies speaks of the Ankle-veins and most are of his mind being it is rational For a Vein opened in the Arm doth rather revel from the Womb then draw the blood to it But in the Ankle brings it to its place and opens Obstructions and doth both lessen and bring blood to the womb and move that which is in the womb fixed Open the Ankle therefore twice or thrice Lib. de sang miss adver craesis rather then the Arm once Therefore Galen commends Hippocrates that he opened a Vein in the Ankle in the Servant of Schimarg though she had a Plethory But in other diseases of the womb as Inflammation dropping or too many terms it is good to open a vein in the Arm. The Saphaena is opened by putting the foot in warm water before and after Question 3. At what time must a Vein be opened against the stoppage of the Terms Galen saith It must be when Nature may be helped be the blood moved that is three or four daies before the usual time of their coming as if she had been always in the full of the Moon and they have been stopt some months Bleed three or four daies before the full to put Nature in mind of her duty and to make the blood run again Chap. 4. Of Fewness of the Terms IT is when they flow less then they use or ought to flow The Causes It is either from the blood or in the expulsive Faculty in the passages As if blood be little the terms are few and slow If the retentive Faculty is weak and the expulsive strong they come at due time but in small quantity If the terms are slow the fault is in the quality of the blood being too thick Also straitness of the passages may be a cause for if they be not wide enough the blood cannot flow freely The Signs The patient will tell the disease but the cause of it is to be found in the Chapter aforegoing Few Terms from little blood is not dangerous if they be stopt from thick blood The Prognostick there follow Diseases as Erysipelas Scirrhus or Cancer See the Chapter aforegoing for the Cure The Causes and if it be from thickness of blood it is often cured by a general purge for the whole Body Chap. 5. Of Dropping of the Terms THis is a Flux and lasts long and there is pain The blood flows not conveniently at the due time and manner and the privities are alwaies wet as when the urin drops Are from the blood and the passages of it The Causes and the retentive faculty as when the blood is too thick and sharp which stir up Nature to let it out and because it stretcheth the Membranes there is pain Also the weakness of the retentive faculty is a cause The women declare it The Signs but if it be from thick blood and sharp and straight passages there is a stretching pain about the womb If it be from crudity of blood and weakness of the retentive faculty the blood flows without pain and is not much felt It is troublesom to women and if it last long The Prognostick The Cure causeth Ulcers and Inflammations It is all in mending of the thick and sharp blood and in opening the passages which are the two chief causes of it of which
day in it and not sweat To take away the sharpness of the Seed use Lettice Violets Water-lillies and things that quench seed by a secret quality as Agnus castus Seed Leaves and Flowers of Camphire hereafter As Take leaves of Water-lillies Agnus Castus Willow each three handfuls Ltetice Purslane Venus-navel each a handful Lettice Poppy-seed the four great cold seeds each half an ounce Dill-seed two drams Water-lillies a hundful Violets half a handful beat them with juyce of Lemons distil them after twenty four hours add to every pint a dram of Camphire give an ounce Or Take Agnus castus leaves Rue Willow each two handfuls Mints tops of Dill each a handful and half Water-lillies half a handful Agnus castus seeds Hemp Coriander Lettice-seed each half an ounce beat them and distil them with water add a pint of juyce of Lemons rectifie it to half An Emulsion Take Lettice and white Poppy-seed and the four great cold Seeds each half an ounce water of Lettice Water-lillies Willow each four ounces Syrup of Violets two ounces Magistery of Coral a dram An Electuary Take Conserve of Water-lillies Violets of Agnus castus tops each an ounce of Roses half an ounce red Coral Smaragds each a dram Coleworts and Lettice candied each an ounce with syrup of Violets and Water-lillies make an Electuary Or make Baths of the same As Take tops of Agnus castus Lettice Rue Water-lillies Dill-tops boil them anoint with Oyl of Lillies Unguent of Roses with Camphire after that Or lay a Plaister of Mercury and Marsh-lentils to the Breast and Loins Lay a Plate of Lead to the Back and give a Pessary of Juyce of Plantane Purslane Gourds These that work by an occult quality are fittest for Nuns that must not marry but they that will marry must forbear them because they cause Barrenness Let diet be thin and of little nourishment no Eggs Beef is good and fresh Fish Also Lettice Purslane Succory Sleep little think not of Venery labour and avoid idleness Question Whether is Camphire cold or hot or doth it quench Venery It is hot because it burns flames is thin pierceth is sharp and bitter But it hath cold effects as curing of Burns and Inflammations and hot Head-aches but this is from the likeness of the substance because it draws hot vapors to it and discusseth as Linseed-Oyl that cures burns Nor hath it a double substance cold and hot that may be separated Exercit. 104. sect 8. Scaliger denies it by Experience to quench Venery but if it be taken often it doth He tried it but once Chap. 6. Of the Melancholy of Virgins and Widows IT is a Delirium with sadness trouble and weeping sometimes laughing without a Feaver It differs from others by the efficacy only of the efficient cause for it hath divers pains besides sadness especially on the left side near the Heart in the Pap this is by occasion at a distance The Cause is a melancholick Vapor from a melancholick blood in the vessels near the Heart The Causes that infects the animal Spirits hurts the Fancy and so the reason For melancholick blood abounding in the vessels of the womb comes back to the great Arteries about the Heart by the Arteries of the womb and infects both vital and animal Spirits and causeth trouble of Heart and Delirium while this blood is quiet in the Arteries there is no vapor that riseth but when it is heated or stirred up by any cause the Arteries about the Back and Spleen beat more then ordinary and the vapors arise and trouble the Heart They are sad and full of thoughts The Signs and trouble at the Heart and cannot express their grief all things are tedious to them they weep and laugh without a cause they sleep little and with trouble and fear they have a pain on the left side and sometimes the left Breast their Jaws are dry All which are the effects of a melancholick vapor and when that is discussed all cease If it be old it turns to Madness and then they are first silent then pratlers and think they see Ghosts At first it is easier cured but if it last long The Prognostick and she resist not imagination and will not rejoyce with her Gossips it is dangerous They often despair and desire death or hang themselves or drown themselves If the manners are changed it turns to madness Observe what progress the disease hath made The Cure At first if blood be hot open a Vein often in the Arm if the terms be not stopt If they be bleed in the Ankles some daies before they use to flow Let her be merry and prepare and purge Melancholy thus Take Borage and Balm-water each three ounces Syrup of the Juyce of Borage and Bugloss each an ounce an half Mix them for two Doses repeat them sometimes Then purge Melancholy As Take Senna six drams Agarick a dram and half Borage-flowers and Violets each a pugil Citron-peels two drams infuse them in Rhenish wine for six hours strain them add Syrup of Violets an ounce Or Take Scorzonera-roots two ounces Borage an ounce Balm a handful Senna four ounces Agarick half an ounce Citron-peels 6 drams Zedoary two drams Cordial-flowers a handful add half a pint of the juyce of sweet-scented Apples and of Borage and Bugloss steep them two daies then strain them add Sugar and half an ounce of Cinnamon make a Syrup give two or three ounces Also give Cordials Confection of Hyacinths Species Exhilerants and Confection Alkermes to such as can bear it Cure it as Melancholy only the matter comes from the womb therefore still regard that it dry not the body too much The Prognostick but use a moistning Diet. Chap. 7. Of an Epilepsie from the Womb. THis Falling-sickness is worse then from other causes because there are greater Symptoms for that malignant vapor doth not only fall into the Nerves but the Veins and Arteries The same malignant vapor that causeth suffocation causeth this for when it ascends by the Veins and Arteries it begets other diseases but when it gets to the Nerves or to the fountain of them it causeth the Epilepsie In some the whole body hath a Convulsion in others some part only as the Eyes Head Tongue Hand or Leg and the outward Senses are diversly taken Some see not some hear not some see and cannot speak some dote and think they see strange things some cry out and know not why All lose the sense of Feeling If the vapor be not very malignant they return to their work after the fit as if they had not been ill It is known by what hath been said for here is not only a Convulsion as in other Epilepsies but divers Symptoms as in Suffocation of the Womb. They seldom foam at the mouth because the Brain is not so shaken as to cause foaming nor is the vapor so fixed in the roots of the nerves but they often do hear It is grievous and hath grievous
Symptoms but it is not so bad as a true Epilepsie And if you give proper Medicines it never returns The Cure of the Fit Use things as in Suffocation of the Womb or Mother-fits as Rue and Castor are good against both Also out of the fit you must cure it as the Mother using things that respect the womb and the Head As Take Piony-roots Scorzonera Misleto of the Oak each half an ounce Polipody of the Oak an ounce Rue Penny-royal Calaminths each a handful Seseli Piony Agnus castus seeds each three drams Carthamus-seeds bruised half an ounce flowers of Rosemary Sage Stoechas Borage each two pugils boil them to a pint and half strain and add juyce of Bettony Yarrow Mercury Mugwort Senna five ounces Agarick Epithimum each half an ounce Rhubarb Cloves each two drams Anise Fennel-seed each three drams boil strain with Sugar and half an ounce of Cinnamon make a Syrup give two ounces And these Pills twice in a week a scruple or a dram an hour afore Supper Take Piony-roots Senna each half an ounce Mugwort Bettony Rue Yarrow each half a handful boil them clarifie the Decoction and juyce of Mercury an ounce Aloes an ounce and half Let it settle pour off the clear add Rhubarb sprinkled with Cinnamon-water two drams Agarick half an ounce Mastich Epileptick-powder each half a dram with syrup of Mugwort make Pills To strengthen the Head and the Womb and to mend its Distemper Take Fecula of Piony a dram of Briony Amber Misleto of the Oak each half a dram Bezoar-stone Mans-skull each a scruple make a powder give half a dram with Scorzonera or Tile-flower-water or with Sugar make Rouls An Electuary Take Conserve of Balm Tile-flowers Rosemary Lilly-convals Scorzonera-roots candied each an ounce Diamoschu dulce a dram powder of Agnus castus seeds and Piony-roots each two drams with syrup of Scoechas Chap. 8. Of pain of the Head from the Womb. MAny pains come from the Womb but the chiefest and greatest are in the Head all over or on one side or in the Eyes Matter ascends to the Membranes of the Head by the Veins and Arteries from the Womb. The Causes It is a vapor or humor from blood and humors sometimes bad blood that is thin goes from the womb-vessels to the great Vessels and gets to the Head and to the Membranes there and causeth a stretching ulcerated or pricking or beating pain when it is carried through the Arteries being full of blood They think their Head will be torn The Signs and the Membranes and it is behind in the Head or when the terms flow or are disordered from consent with the womb If it be from a vapor there is no heaviness and it ceaseth presently If from a humor there is heaviness These pains are great and cause watching The Prognostick The Cure We have spoken of the Head-ach but here it is from the Womb therefore consider what humors offend in the womb and let them be purged and the distemper of the womb amended as we shewed in the Distemper of the Womb. There is also a pain in the Loins because bad humors go from the veins of the womb and Arteries to the great Vessels and so are sent by the Capillar-veins into the Membranes and stretch them and cause pain 〈…〉 must have prâ—â—â—â— Purges Question In what part of the Head is the pain that comes by consent from the Womb It is in the Crown before and behind but chiefly behind by reason of the joyning of the back with the womb for the womb is nervous and consents with the Membranes of the brain by the Membranes of the Marrow of the back and so Nerves suffer with Nerves either by communication of matter or pain and because the original of the Nerves is in the hinder part of the Head women are more pained there then men because of the Womb. Chap. 9. Of the Diseases of the Heart and beating of the Arteries in the Back and Sides from the Womb. THe Heart beats and the Arteries also as we shewed in the Green-sickness and it is by evil vapors sent by the Arteries to the Heart from the womb that arise from the terms and evil humors gathered in the womb and this is known by other Signs and Symptoms of a distempered Womb. The Cure To discuss the malignant Vapors from the Heart give Cordials as in Chap. 3. Of Palpitation of the Heart as Aqua vitae cinnamon-Cinnamon-water and Epithems Bags and Liniments The Arteries also beat with the Heart as in Widows on the left Hypochondrion and Back where there is a great Artery and the Artery that beats in the back is part of the great Artery they which beat in the Hypochondrion are the lesser splenitick and mesenterick branches therefore the beating is more in the back then in the Hypochondrion but both pulsations come from the same cause The Causes The Inflammation of the Arteries is the cause of this beating when evil humors are sent from the womb into the great branches of the Artery and there beat the Heart being over hot Sometimes the motion of this Artery is all the body over and from a hot humor the hot humors go to the heart and cause a feaver but because there is little putrefaction it vanisheth presently If the heat of the humors go to the brain by the arteries there is madness Some seek the cause in the veins and say that the arteries suffer from the blood too hot in them You may feel it with your hand laid upon the Hypochondrion The Signs and there are signs of a distempered womb and melancholy from the womb if heat continue in the arteries and go to the whole body it consumeth it It is seemingly a small disease The Prognostick but it is not without danger because it comes from a bad cause that weakens the bowels It is cured as melancholy from the womb The Cure and stopping of the terms and as Hypochondriack melancholy from the womb which follows Chap. 10. Of the Diseases of the Spleen and the Hypochondriack Disease from the Womb. SOmetimes the Spleen and the Hypochondria suffer from the womb so that you may doubt what disease it is It is from the womb by the arteries The Causes the womb hath two one from the preparing arteries another from the Hypogastrick artery That from the Hypogastrick goes almost to all parts of the Abdomen and most branches of the spleen therefore when bad blood is bred in the womb and gets out of the arteries upward to the Hypogastrick artery it gets easily from thence to the coeliack artery to the spleen and the parts adjacent in the abdomen and the sooner because Nature useth to send bad humors to ignoble parts These humors are gathered by suppression of Terms which though they seem to be only in the veins yet they get to the arteries by their Anastomosis Therefore those women that have hot blood and their
It is cured by evacuation of the matter in the Womb with proper Medicines as in the Chapter of the Distemper of the Womb with matter and of Inflation of the Womb and Dropsie THE FOURTH BOOK THE SECOND PART THE FIFTH SECTION Of the Government of Women with Child and preternatural Distempers in Women with Child Chap. 1. Of the signs of Conception IF she keep the seed it is a sign she hath Conceived and a man may know that the seed is kept if he find in Copulation that his Yard is sucked and drawn by the Womb and the Privities are not moist And if she perceives little or no seed to come forth again and grow chill and quiver and perceive a twitching in her Womb from the great delight and the mouth of the Womb closeth and the Terms stop But they are deceived when they count o reckon from the stoppage of the terms For som have their terms twice or thrice after they have conceived and some have them all along without hurt The chiefest sign of Conception is when there is at first loathing of meat pewking Pica or preternatural appetite and vomiting And when they hate that they earnestly affected or faint when they think of them About the fourth month the child moveth which is not in a Mole the breasts after that swell with milk and the last are the surest signs From the face and urin there is no certainty 5. Aphor. 42. ibi 48. Hippocrates teacheth us to know whether it be a Male or Female If she be with child of a Boy she is better coloured but pale if of a Girle And Boys lie on the right side and Girls on the lest in the Womb. Chap. 2. Of the Government and Diet of Women with Child THe Diet is either for such as are sound or as have diseases 5. Aphor. 12. As for the air Hippocrates saith If there be a wet warm winter with Southerly winds a dry spring with Northern winds they who conceive in the spring abort upon any small occasion Or if they bring forth their children are weak and sickly or die Let her avoid all evil scents as of Rue Penny-royal Mints Castor and Brimstone Some cannot bear sweet scents let them not look upon terrible things nor hear great noise of Guns Let meat be easie of concoction let her eat Quinces to strengthen the child or sweet Almonds with Honey sweet Apples Grapes Let her abstain from sharp meats very bitter or salt and things that can provoke Terms as Garlick Onions Olives Mustard Fennel Pepper and all Spices In the last months Cinnamon is good Summer fruits are naught for her and all Pulse When the child is bigger let her diet be more for it is better for Women with child to eat too much then too little lest the child should want nourishment Let her drink moderately of clear Wine not exercise too much nor dance nor ride in a Coach that shakes her let her not lift any great weights in the first and last months In the ninth month let her move a little more to dilate the parts and stir up natural heat Let her abstain from Venery in the first months lest there be a Mole or Superfoetation or the child be hurt but she may use it moderately in the last She may bathe in the last months once in a week to loosen the privy parts Let her avoid anger sorrow fear and too much mirth Let her sleep rather then to be watchful Let the belly be kept loose in the first month with Pruens Raisons or Manna in Broth. And let her use Medicines to strengthen the womb and the child An Electuary Take Conserve of Borage Bugloss and red Roses each two ounces of Balm an ounce Citron-peel and Chebs Myrobalans candied each an ounce Extract of Wood-aloes a scruple Pearl prepared half a dram red Coral Ivory each a dram precious Stones each a scruple candied Nutmegs two drams with Syrup of Apples and Quinces make an Electuary Rouls Take Pearls prepared a dram red Coral prepared and Ivory each half a dram precious stones each a scruple yellow Citron-peels Mace Cinnamon Cloves each half a dram Saffron a scruple Wood-Aloes half a scruple Ambergreece six drams with six ounces of Sugar dissolved in rose-Rose-water make Rouls Apply strengtheners to the navel of Nutmegs Cloves Mace Mastich Coral made up in bags or a Toast in Malmsey sprinkled with powder of Mints Chap. 3. Of the Cure of Women with Child in General THey have divers chronick and acute diseases as Feavers Pleurisie Quinzies or Inflammation of the Bowels 4. Aphor. 31. of which Hippocrates If a Woman with child have an acute disease it is deadly There is a double danger 1. In respect of the Feaver which Galen saith will be continual Valer. l. 1. obser hol com ad lib. 5. aph 30. 2. In respect of the want of nourishment for the child For if a woman with child be fed the Feaver increaseth If she have an Apoplexy Epilepsie Convulsion Cramp she cannot bear it out But acute diseases are not alwaies deadly in women with child They have sometimes intermitting Feavers Coughs from which they hardly are freed before they are delivered Question 1. Whether must Women with Child use a sparing Diet If you give her a Diet at a long distance the child will be starved Gal. cit lo. If you give her a full diet and often the Feaver will endanger both mother and child Therefore be moderate and add something to the dyet which the mother loved before the Feaver for the childs sake and for the Feaver Abate the dyet in the first months let the dyet be little in the middle and last months let it be larger Question 2. Whether may a Woman with Child be let blood Hippocrates saith 5 Aph. 50. If a woman with child be let blood she will miscarry and if the child be older the sooner This is to be understood of great bleeding which was pints in his time but now we go by ounces Therefore if bleeding be required in a Feaver or the like and the woman with child be in strength you may boldly let blood upon these conditions 1. That you take not nourishment from the child let it be a little and you will take more do it the second time lest you weaken 2. Open not the foot nor the Basilica but the Mediana 3. Before you bleed strengthen the child by applications to the navel And if they abort in a Feaver Amat Lusi c. 5. cur 27. rod. Ã cast 3. de morbmul you must impute it rather to the violence of the Feaver then to the bleeding and you used the necessary help for preserving the mother But it is safer in the first then in the last months because the child needs a further dyet You may also open a vein in a woman with child that hath no disease to prevent abortion when there is much blood in the fourth or fifth
Conserve of red Roses two drams red Coral and Mastich each a scruple give it presently Use the Countesses Oyntment outwardly to the Loyns Reins Pecten and Perinaeum Or Take Oyl of Roses Mirtles Mastich Quinces each two ounces Oyl of Mints an ounce Bdellium dissolved in Vinegar liquid Storax each two ounces Oyl of Nutmegs by expression a dram with Wax make an Oyntment Of the same with Pitch Rosin Colophony you may make Plaisters Let her hold a Load-stone in her hand or tie it to her navel or wear an Eagle-stone under her Arm-pits or Coral Jaspar Smaragds Diamonds If these will not keep the Child up you must give over Astringents and use Lenitives Question Whether the straitness of the Womb is the cause of Abortion Hippocrates 1. de morb saith Lib. de super lib. de steril That the Womb may cause Abortion if they be windy thick great or little And he shews in another place That Abortion may be from the straitness of the womb And in another place he saith 3. De nat fac c. 12. If a woman in the third fourth or fifth month miscarry often and at the same time it is because the womb will not stretch And Galen confirms the same and it stands to reason for natural birth is when the womb cannot contain the child for its growth Therefore if it be preternaturally too little it is the cause of Abortion And though Nature hath made the womb to hold the child yet if it be not made large enough it cannot contain it so the stomach is sometimes so strait that it cannot hold an indifferent quantity of meat as others can Chap. 3. Of the Signs of Natural Birth and the manner and government of such as bring forth AT her time of her being to be delivered let her take heed of astringents and thickners but let her eat meat of easie concoction and of good juyce and sit every fourth day in a hot Bath Of Mallows Foenugreek Linseed Mugwort and Chamomil-flowers and after let her back loyns belly and privities be anointed with the Mucilage of Althaea-seed and Oyl of Lillies and let the child be strengthned But when she hath pains from the navel to the groyns and in the back then the ligaments and vessels are broken by which the child grows to the womb And because the Womb violently strains to discharge it the membranous fibres are extended and commonly there are very great pains and throws or the child will not be born and it is an evil sign when throws cease because the expulsive faculty is weakned And let not the Midwife provoke throws till the time When the Membranes are broken the water flows out that comes from the urin and sweat of the child first little then more then waterish blood and the orifice of the womb begins to open to let out the child And before this time you must not provoke throws Then let the Midwife put her finger into the orifice of the womb and she shall perceive something round and hard as an Egg. Let her not lie on her back flat but with her back up that she may breathe more freely After the child is born you must press the blood in the Navel-vessels towards the navel of the Infant and take heed that you lose not much blood in cutting of the Navel-string for it hath destroyed weak children and you must labour to fetch out the Secundine with the child and if it be in the womb anoint your hands with warm Oyl and put them into the womb and fetch it out Chap. 5. Of Natural hard Travel THough Child-bearing since Eves sin is ordained to be painful as a punishment thereof yet sometimes it is more painful then ordinary The first is from the mother The Causes and the expulsive faculty 2. From the Child 3. From the passage From the mother as when the womb is weak and the mother is not active to expel from weakness or diseases or want of spirits of which Hippocrates It is from the Birth when they are Twins or more and both strive to go forth at a time 5. Aphor. 55. or if the child stick to a Mole or be so weak that it cannot break the membrane or if it be too big all over or in the head only or if the Navel-vessels are twisted about his neck It is from the passages when the membranes are thick the orifice too strait Fabric cent 3. obs 57. and the neck of the womb is not open sufficiently as in such as labour of the first child or are very fat The passages are pressed and straitned by tumors in the adjacent parts or when the bones are too firm and will not open then the mother and child are both in danger or when the passages are not slippery or when they are broken too soon by reason of the thin membranes or the water flows forth sooner then it ought You may know hard travel by faint throws The Signs that come at a great distance And you must consider all things concerning the Mother Womb and child The Prognostick In hard Travel the mother and child are in danger and the Perinaeum sometimes breaks with the skin from the Privities to the Arse-hole If a woman be four dayes in Travel the child scarce escapes The Cure All things that move the Terms are good to make easie delivery As Myrrh white Amber in white Wine or Lilly-water two scruples or a dram some give a drop of Oyl of Amber in Vervain-water or a scruple of mineral Borax or half a dram but begin with gentle things as a spoonful of Cinnamon-water Or Take Cassia Lignea Dittany each a dram Cinnamon half a dram Saffron a scruple make a Powder give a dram Or Take Borax mineral a dram Cassia Lignea a scruple Saffron six grains give it in Sack Or Take Cassia Lignea a dram Dittany Amber each half a dram Cinnamon Borax each a dram and half Saffron a scruple give half a dram Or give some drops of Oyl of Hazel in convenient Liquor or two or three drops of Oyl of Cinnamon in Vervain-water some prepare the secundine thus Take the Navel-string and dry it in an Oven Take two drams of the Powder Cinnamon a dram Saffron half a scruple with juyce of Savin make Troches give two drams or wash the Secundine in Wine and bake it in a pot then wash it in Endive-water and wine Take half a dram of it long Pepper Galangal each half a dram Plantane and Endive-feed each a dram and half Lavender-seed four scruples make a Powder Or Take Labdanum two drams Storax calamite Benzoin each half a dram Musk and Amber-grease each six grains make a Powder or Troches for a fume Or use Pessaries to provoke the Birth Take Galbanum dissolved in Vinegar an ounce Myrrh two drams Saffron a dram with Oyl of Orris make a Pessary An Oyntment for the Pecten and Navel Take Oyl of Keir two ounces juyce of
Savin an ounce of Leeks and Mercury each half an ounce boyl them to the consumption of the juyce add Galbanum dissolved in Vinegar half an ounce Myrrh two drams Storax liquid a dram round Birthwort Sowbread Cinnamon each half a dram Saffron a scruple with wax make an Oyntment Also neesing provoke the Birth and Amulets 5. Aphor. 35. Levi. Lemn de oc nat mir lib. 4. c. 12. as a Snakes-skin about her middle the Eagle-stone bound to her thigh If weakness be the cause refresh her with Wine and sops to the nose Confect Alkermes Diamosc Diamarg If there be Twins let the Midwife order them with her hands and help the foremost If the passages be not slippery use an emollient Fomentation and Oyl of sweet Almonds Hens or Ducks-grease c. If the belly be bound give a Clyster or Suppository When Medicine will not do it Aetius tetra 4. c. 23. break the Membrane with the fingers dipt in Oyl or cut them When the Child is still-born let the Midwife chew Spices and blow in its mouth or drop Aqua-vitae in it or anoint it with Honey Chap. 6. Of a vitious disorderly Birth or difficulty preternatural IF the hand come not forth first and the hands and feet are upwards there is an ill birth Hippocrates reckons two causes The Causes the largeness of the womb Lib. de nat pu and disorderly motion of the mother from pain also the thickness of the membrane which when it cannot break with the head it attemps to do with the feet and hands The Signs The Midwife may perceive in what figure the child comes forth The Prognostick All disorderly coming forth is dangerous to mother and child but there is least danger when both feet come forth this is called by the Latins Partus Agrippinus The Cure Let the Midwife reduce it into the cavity of the womb when it comes not forth right and place it right When the feet cannot be thrust upwards let the Midwife supple the parts with Oyl and take hold of the arm and help it and give neesings Let her alwaies labour to put the child in a right posture by moving it with her hand or taking the mother from the bed and compose her in such a posture as may bring the child into a right posture and that soon Chap. 7. Of a slow Birth THis is when the Child is longer coming forth then ordinarily Epistol lo. 2. 29. epis of this Massa writes That a Venetian Matron conceived of a husband of seventy years of age and brought forth a child in the fifteenth month blind and without hands which lived five months Consil 85. ad christ vuolcken Cardanus writes That his father said he was born in the thirteenth month And Mercurialis writes thus That it was never seen or written that a woman had a live child four years in her belly c. but these are rare and miraculous The cause is the weakness of the seed and want of heat in the womb which makes the expulsive faculty weak Chap. 8. Of a Child dead in the Womb. WHen at the time of Child-birth there is pain and breaking forth of water which ceaseth presently without delivery the child remaining in the womb then the mother or child dies or both When the travel is vehement from divers causes they may also cause no birth The Causes for either the more she may lose her strength and the child not come forth or both may die And if the child be weak and move little or the mother may be weak and the child great the travel is hard and both die or if the child come not forth in a right posture Or if the passages are ill proportioned Fabri cent 1. obs 64. 67. as when the bones of the Pubes do not give way or when there is Schirrhus or other tumor that straitneth the passages there is no delivery Or the child dies by a disease for want of nourishment or a fall stroak or leap or passion in the mother Search if the child be living or dead The Signs for if it be dead it will hurt the mother by rotting and if the mother die and child be alive take it out before the mother be buried A child is known to be dead if the Mother and Midwife perceive no motion but it is raised by any strengtheners given and when the mother moves from side to side it moves like a stone or when the face and lips of the mother are pale and her extream parts livid and the breasts that were plump are fallen her breath stinks water and stinking matter flows from the womb there is a Feaver horrour and fainting or Convulsion or if the Secundine come forth before the Child The Prognostick If a dead child be not presently taken out the mother is in great danger there are great Symptomes and strange diseases of which see Francis Rousset and others The Cure When the child comes not forth in time and is alive it must be taken out by the Midwife or Chyrurgion by cutting the belly and womb of which in the Chapter following If it be dead you must drive or take it out before it stinks either by Medicines or Chyrurgery The Medicines are such as stir up the expulsive faculty but they must be stronger then before because the motion of the child ceaseth as Take Savin round Birthwort Troches of Mirrh Castor each a dram Cinnamon half an ounce Saffron a scruple give a dram with Savin-water Or Take Borax Savin Dittany each an ounce Mirrh Asarum-roots Cinnamon Saffron each half a dram make a Powder give a dram Purge first and put her in an emollient Bath and anoint about the womb with Oyl of Lillies sweet Almonds Chamomil Hens and Goose-grease Foment to get out the child with a Decoction of Mercury Orris wild Cowcumber Stoechas Broom-flowers Then anoint the Privities and Loyns with Oyntment of Sowbread Or Take Coloquintida Agarick Birthwort each a dram make a powder add Ammoniacum dissolved in Wine Ox-gall each two drams with Oyl of Keir make an Oyntment Or this Pessary Take Birthwort Orris black Hellebore Coloquintida Mirrh each a dram powdered add Ammoniacum dissolved in Wine Ox-gall each two drams Or make a Fume with Asses-hoof burnt or Galbanum or Castor and let it be taken in with a Funnel If these will not do use Chyrurgery It is done with the hand only or with instruments of which Aegineta and Aetius Lib. 6. c. 23. terrab serm 4. cap. 23. Charles Stephens shews how to use the hand without instruments When you know the child is dead saith he place the woman in the best posture and tye her so very fast c. see the rest John Bauhin takes the same course out of Schenks Observations And because the strength faileth Lib. 5. cap. 2. de disect part corpore human refresh her and abate pain cherish the torn parts and
make a Pessary The stronger are of the Decoction of wild Cowcumber Coloquintida Staphisacre Hellebore Honey and gall of an Ox. Fumes are made of Cassia lignea Nard Mugwort Savin Penny-royal Dittany Or Take Myrrh Castor Galbanum each half a dram Opopanax Cinnamon each a dram with Honey make Troches for to be burnt Then foment the Belly with the Decoction of those Plants Or Take Lupine-meal an ounce powder of Wormwood half an ounce Mirrh Rue each three drams with Ox-gall and Honey make a Cataplasm If it come not forth give a Womb-clyster of the Decoction of Sage Mugwort Mercury Calamints Penny-royal If all fail inject things to suppurate into the womb and let it be turned to matter and come out by degrees and inject strengtheners into the womb Of the Mole left after Child-bearing You may know it by the signs of a Mole mentioned she hath no ease after travel there is pain in the navel back and groyns and much clotted blood comes away and yet she hath no ease the Cure is mentioned before in the Mole Chap. 3. Of the Purgation after Child-bearing diminished or detained THis is not alike in all women for in some women the blood is fresh in others it is waterish cholerick or melancholick And some bleed more then others according to the constitution and Countrey It is either not at all or too much or too little The Causes When they are stopt or lessened the vessels are too strait or the blood flows another way or it is too thick or the vessels of the womb are pressed from its position the blood is drawn away by passions fears or goes hastily to the breasts The Signs The just quantity is not to be defined when it is stopt the belly swells the pain is in the bottom of the belly and groyns there is chilness and a Feaver after it fainting weak swift unequal pulse there is soot in the urin Sometimes the belly inflamed or she voids blew or black clodds or blood The Prognostick Gal. 1. epid com 3. t. 21. The Cure It is bad of it self to have any thing left after Child-bearing and worse if it staies long and grows melancholick therefore it is a cause of many diseases First endeavor to evacuate the blood from the womb by Frictions Ligatures and Cupping if they will not do open a vein in the foot Then open the passages with external and internal meats anoint the Belly with loosning Oyls or foment thus Take Lilly-roots Birthwort Briony Angelica each half an ounce Mercury Mugwort Penny-royal Savin Calamints each a handful Tansey Chamomil and Elder-flowers each half a handful Faenugreek and Linseed each two drams bruise them grosly and put them in a bag and boyl them in Water and Wine lay it to the Privities and bottom of the Belly Give emollient Clysters and if some dayes are past purge with Agarick Rhubarb Senna Or Take Lilly-roots Althaea each half an ounce Birthworts two drams Pellitory Mercury Althaea each a handful Calamints Chamomil Elder-flowers each two pugils Foenugreek and Linseed each two drams boyl them to ten ounces strained add Oyl of Dill Lillies each an ounce Hiera simple half an ounce Oyntment of Sowbread three drams make a Clyster Or give Pessaries that provoke the Terms Give things to melt and attenuate the blood As Take opening Roots three drams Bettony Maiden-hair Endive Schoenanth each two pugils Anise Fennel-seed each a scruple red Pease a spoonful boyl them to a pint and half add cinnamon-Cinnamon-water two drams syrup of the five Roots three ounces give four ounces Chap. 4. Of too great a flux of blood after Child-bearing THat is too much which makes weak It is blood abounding which hath been gathered nine months in the womb The Causes It is thick or spends the Spirits and weakens The Signs There is loathing of meat pain the Hypochondria belly-ach weak and often pulse dark sight noise in the ears fainting and Convulsion It is dangerous when long The Prognostick Hippoc. 9. aphor 55. The Cure and with fainting and Convulsion Therefore observe the Pulse lest she dye suddenly See what strength she hath and stop it not suddenly If it be not very great order a dyet of roasted Hens basted with red Wine or Pomegranate of Starch Almonds Rice Quinces Conserve of Roses steeled Water and make Revulsions use gentle things and strengthen the loose passages Anoint the belly with Oyl of Roses Mirtles cup under the breasts and sides without scarrification Apply a Cataplasm of red Roses Bole and Rose-water to the Liver Then use stronger and give a higher diet often in small quantity and give Syrups to stop blood As Take old Conserve of Roses two ounces of Tormentil an ounce of Quinces without species half an ounce Bole red Coral each half a dram with syrup of Currans and Coral make an Electuary Anoint the belly with the Oyntment of the Countess and other Astringents or use Astringent Fomentations or let her take into the womb a Fume of Mastich Frankincense red Roses c. Then open a vein in the arm and let blood by degrees See Sect. 2. Chap. 6. Of Overflowing of the Terms Chap. 5. Of the pains after Travel and torments in the Belly THese are not in the body and bottom of the womb but in the vessels and membranes by which the womb hangs and that goes to the sides and belly The Causes They are from a constant labour in travel when the bottom of the womb is pricked to send forth from cold air let into it or clotted blood detained or sharp blood sticking to the womb and pricking it The Signs They are in the womb it self you may know if they came from cold by what hath been done and clotted blood will manifest it self The Prognostick The Cure They weaken much and are very troublesome therefore they must be abated First take away the cause or abate the pain and make that which hurts the womb fit to be evacuated by these Pills Take Cinnamon a dram Saffron a scruple Diacymini Diagalangal Zedoary each half a dram make a Powder give a dram in Penny-royal or Cinnamon-water Or Take of Cummin-seed steept in Spirit of Wine and dried again a dram Ameos-seed and Ginger each half a dram Cinnamon a scruple Castor half a scruple make a Powder If she faint add Cordial Waters As Take Diacyminum a dram Diamargariton frigid Citron-peels Zedoary each half a dram make a Powder If she be cholerick or the humor thin and sharp cure it as a Cholick from Choler As Take Syrup of Violets Borage each an ounce Mucilage of Quince-seeds made with Violet-water half an ounce water of Borage Scorzonera each two ounces give it at twice Extenuate the humors and loosen the passages outwardly Take Bean-flour Faenugreek and Linseed each an ounce Chamomil-flowers and Cummin-seeds each half an ounce boyl them in Oyl of Lillies for a Cataplasm You may fume the womb with Decoctions of Herbs Chap.
rot or provoke the part but things that by experience take away pain as Nightshade-water Snails boyled and Frogs in Oyl and with ashes of Frogs made into an Oyntment or Medicines of Lead As Take Oyl of Roses two ounces juyce of Nightshade-berries an ounce and half Ceruss washed Sugar of Lead each a dram Pompholygos half an ounce mix them in a Leaden Mortar till they are thick Or use Cray-fish-ashes and the ashes of the inward rind of an Ash-tree or Herb Robert Lib. 2. De cur vulner C. 3. Cent. 3. Obs 87. Arcaeus teacheth how to cut them out and then burn the part if they be deep and ulcerated But Fabricius shews that you must burn after to consume the reliques and stop the blood after it is cleansed Take Herb Robert Verbascum or Moulin Scabious Caprifolium or Honey-suckles Dill Mans-grease each equal parts burn them take three ounces and with six ounces of Nightshade-water in a Leaden-Mortar mix them After cutting out the root purge melancholy often and provoke Terms or Haemorrhoids lest it return Give Treacle Mithridate with juyce of Borage Sorrel Cray-fish-broath and Asses-milk Ant. Chalmiteus This Water is good against all Cancers Take Moulin-roots Clowns all-heal each two ounces Dropwort Ceterach Herb Robert Agrimony Tormentil Scabious Avens Flaxweed each a handful Nettle-seed three drams Elder and Rosemary-flowers each a pugil boil and sweeten it with Sugar Foment and wash the Cancer with one part of it and let the dreggs be applied as a Pultis Fuchsius his blessed Powder Take white Arsenick that shineth not like glass an ounce powder it pour Aqua vitae upon it and pour it off add fresh Aqua vitae every third day for fifteen dayes Then Take roots of great Dragons gathered in July or August sliced and dried in the wind two ounces Thirdly Take bright clear Soote of the Chimney three drams make a powder Keep it close stopt in a glass the older the better use it not till after a year For a pallative Cure keep it from increasing and take away pain with this Water Take Scrophularia-roots and Herb Roberts each a handful Lambs-tongue Night-shade Bugloss Borage Purslane Eye-bright Bettony each half a handful a Frog and two whites of Eggs with Quince-seeds and Foenugreek each an ounce Rose and eye-bright-Eye-bright-water each a pint distil them in a Leaden Still Use not Cancers as other Ulcers for Emollients Lib. 6. c. 30. Healers and Drawers exasperate and kill with great pain Chap. 8. Of Ulcers and Fistulaes of the Breasts AFter Universals dry up the Milk and if the Breasts hang down bind them up that the humors flow not down and move not the Arm on that side Then cleanse it with the Decoction of Rhapontick Zedoary and Agrimony Heal thus Take strong Wine five quarts Rhois Obsoniorum Cypress-nuts each four ounces green Galls two ounces boyl them to the Consistence of Honey If you fear a Fistula enlarge the Orifice and take away the Callus and heal it as an ordinary Ulcer Chap. 9. Of straitness of the Passages of the Breasts WHen the Veins and Arteries are not wide enough to contain Blood to be turned there is no Milk They are stopt by thick humors The Causes as the vessels of the womb are the cause is the stoppage of the terms or hard tumors in the Breasts that stop or press When the nipple hath no hole for the Child to suck it is from the birth or a wound or scar after an Ulcer The Signs There is little milk and the Breasts pine If the Breasts swell and milk cannot be suckt out the fault is in the paps or the veins of milk The Prognostick An obstruction from gross humors may be cured If it be from a Scirrhus or Scar after an Ulcer it is incurable and so the Nipple born without a hole The Cure If it be from thick humors or blood attenuate it with proper things as Fennel Dill Parsley Anniseeds Pease Rocket-seed or Earth-worms made into Caraplasms or Fomentations Often rubbing of the Breasts opens the Milk-veins Chap. 10. Of strange things bred in the Breasts HAirs Stones and Worms have been found in the Breasts A Worm breeds from putrid blood Bald. Ronsaeus miscel epist 10. Lib. de occult na mira c. 12. and is like a hair the same may be in the back and navel as I shewed And a good Author writes That a woman pained in her breasts could not be eased till Imposthumes broke and worms came forth Levinus Lemnius saw Stones that grew in the Breast Chap. 11. Of the Diseases of Nipples THey are either wanting or lie hid one or both which hinders giving suck If it be from the birth it is scarce cured as also when the Nipple is eaten off by an Ulcer When they come forth first Amatus Lusit cur med cent 5. cur 31. use a sucking Instrument and then apply Puppy-dogs to suck If there be no hole from birth or ulcer healed it is incurable if it be a little often sucking will enlarge it The clefts in the Nipples is an usual evil and causeth great pain in Nurses and if it continue long it turns to foul ulcers that they cannot give suck To prevent this evil in the two last months of being with child wear two cups of Wax over the Nipples with a little Rosin They are cured thus with Oyl of Wax Mirtles Oyntment of Lead Tutty Or Take Tutty prepared a scruple Allum half a dram Camphire six grains with Capons-grease and Oyntment of Roses make an Oyntment Or. Take Pomatum an ounce and half Mastich a scruple Powder of Gum Traganth and red Roses each half a scruple Or Take Oyntment of Lead Pomatum each half an ounce Frankincense Bole each half a scruple mix them When the Infant is to suck wash the Breasts first with white Wine and Rose-water That the Child may suck without pain to the woman let her have a Tin or Silver Nipple and cover it with the Pap of a new killed Cow and let the child suck that THE FOURTH BOOK THE THIRD PART THE SECOND SECTION Of the Symptomes of the Breasts Chap. 1. Of want of Milk and not giving Suck THere are many Causes of want of Milk either there is little Blood to breed it or the milk-making Faculty in the Breast that makes Milk is not right or the Instruments for blood-making are distempered Sometimes the matter is consumed by a Feaver or fasting when they loath meat or from care or labour evacuations sweats or loose belly Or from weakness of the Infant that cannot draw hard Also sadness fear and the like may hinder blood from flowing to the Breasts Milk is wanting when the Breasts are flaggy The Signs and swell not and little milk is sucked out The signs of the Causes thus If it be from the Liver there will be signs of its distemper if from great evacuation that is known the fault is known to be in the breasts
if as oft as they lie in they have no milk and the breasts are small and wrinkled or if Medicines to keep down the breasts have been applied she will tell you or if it be from weakness of the child or passions of mind The inconvenience is little to the Nurse The Prognostick but great to the Child therefore get another Nurse or cure her To breed milk The Cure give things that breed much and good blood of easie concoction Medicines to breed milk are Fennel-roots and all green things that heat and are not very dry which are few but infinite are they that hinder milk as things hot and dry and cold things These increase Milk Roots of Smallage Seeds of Parsley Dill Basil Anise Rocket Earth-worms washt in juyce of Fennel and dried or burnt in a pot a dram or two fasting for some mornings or Crystal or Milk-stone a dram Compounds are Take green Fennel Parsley each a handful Barley two pugils red Pease half an ounce boyl them and with Sugar sweeten them or in Chicken-broath Or Take green Fennel six drams Barley two pugils boyl them in Broath and strain them Or Take Fennel-seed six drams Anise a dram and half Rocket-seed half a dram give a dram or two in Broath Or Take Cows Udder sliced dry it in an Oven and powder it Take half a pound of it Anise Fennel-seed each an ounce Cummin-seed two ounces Sugar four ounces make a Powder Hot Fomentations open the Breast and attract Blood as the Decoction of Fennel Smallage or stampt Mints applied Or Take Fennel and Parsley green each a handful boyl and stamp them add Barley-meal half an ounce Gith-seeed a dram Storax calamite two drams Oyl of Lillies two ounces make a Pultis A Dropax and Synapisme or Plaister of Mustard are good if often changed Chap. 2. Of too much Milk THis is when much blood flows to the Breasts and the Mother will not give suck or weans the Child for the Infant cannot suck it as fast as it breeds when there is much blood and good breasts that cannot make Milk The Prognostick Arist. 7. De hist ani c. 12. The Cure If Milk be kept and cannot be sucked out by the Child these are swellings inflammations pains curdlings and corruption Children that suck much if they be full bodied have a Convulsion The first coming of Milk is not to be stopt but when there is more then the Child can suck it is abated with a slender diet of little nourishment as Barley Pot-herbs-water By letting blood or cupping or by Repellers to the veins under the arms above the breasts Mints Calamints Smallage Agnus-castus Coriander Hemlock to abate Milk Mints and Smallage are doubted Compounds Take Smallage Mints Mallows Mercur. Plat. Dioscor dissentiunt each a handful Foenugreek Cummin-seed each half an ounce Chamomil Melilot-flowers each a pugil boyl them and foment add a little Wine or make a Pultis of them with Bean-flour and Oxymel Or Take Cummin-seed boyl it in Vinegar and with a Spunge foment They which will not give suck let them foment with this Decoction Take Mallows Bays Fennel Smallage Parsley Mints each half a handful anoint after with Oyl Omphacine Then take Turpentine washed with Wine and rose-Rose-water three ounces Eggs two or three Saffron a scruple with Wax make a Plaister with a hole in the middle repeat it alwayes before Supper If you fear inflammation by too great a flux of Milk repel with a Cataplasm of Lettice Water-Lillies Poppies Housleek Or Take Turpentine washt with Mint-water three ounces Cummin-seed Orris Mints each half an ounce Saffron a scruple with Wax make a Cerot Chap. 3. Of Curdling and other faults in the Milk IF it stay long in the breasts the thin evaporates and the thick remains and hardens the kernels hence are hard tumors because the cheesie part of the Milk is apt to harden Sometimes Milk is too thick or too thin sharp salt or the like The Signs The tumor from Milk curdled is known by the plenty of Milk retained that make clefts and pain and little tumors The Prognostick The Cure If curdled Milk be strong in the Breasts it easily turns to an Imposthume and Inflammation To hinder curdling Take Powder of Mints Coriander-seed each two ounces Oyl of Dill an ounce with Wax make a Liniment Or Take Oyl of Mints Chamomil Dill Rue each an ounce To dissolve curdled Milk Take Fennel-roots Eryngus each an ounce Mints a handful green Fennel half a handful Aniseed a dram boyl them to a pint add Syrup of the two Roots and Oxymel each two ounces Foment with the Decoction of Fennel Dill Southernwood Chamomil Melilot-flowers Fenugreek Linseed Parsley-seed Smallage or stamp them or Mints with Butter and apply it If it be hard Take Mints Colewort Bran each a handful boyl them in Vinegar and apply them Or Take juyce of Smallage Dill Coleworts each a handful boyl them soft and bruise them add powder of Mirrh Orris each two drams Saffron a dram Oyl of Rue an ounce Vinegar an ounce and half make a Pultis Chap. 4. Of Milk coming forth at wrong places MIlk hath been known to come forth with the Urin or by the Womb by which passage is the doubt the short way is from the Breasts-veins to the Epigastrick-veins from the Epigastrick to the Hypogastrick and so to the Womb rather then from the Pap-veins to the breast-veins and so the Hypogastrick and so to the womb Chap. 5. Of strange things coming forth of the Breasts SOmetimes matter comes forth of the Nipples when they have long ulcers Schenkius lib. 2. ex observat Bauhini Amat Lusit cent 2. cur 21. and after the ulcer is healed it ceaseth Sometimes the Terms have come forth of the Breasts at set Periods of which Hippocrates When Blood comes forth at the Nipples there is Madness Amatus Lusitanus knew two Noble Women that were so and not Mad. And Hippocrates doth not speak of the Terms but of other blood that is hot and flies to the Head and causeth Madness and part of it goes to the Breast and causeth pain and inflammation which shews madness at hand It is cured by opening the Saphena in the Foot to revel the blood The Cure Chap. 6. Of the change of colour in the Nipples and pain of the Breasts THe change of colour in the Nipples is not a sign of the loss of Virginity for they are blew in them that give suck black in old women and in them that have known Venery it is natural and red as a Strawberry Now because there is a great consent between the Womb and Breasts if the Womb be distempered the Nipples are discoloured The pain in the breasts is from stretching by much milk and inflammation or from corrosion and twitching from sharp matter as in the Cancer and other Ulcers The cause of the pain is known from the distemper If it be from much milk it is a gentle
The strong children must be sooner weaned than the weak some in the twelfth some in the fifteenth month It is good to wean them at a year and half or two years old but give it not suddenly strange food but bring it to by degrees while it sucks It is best to wean in the Spring or Fall in the increase of the Moon and give but very little Wine Chap. 7. Of Childrens Dyet after Weaning FOr seven years the Dyet must be such as nourisheth and causeth growth 1. Aphor. 13. for Hippocrates saith They cannot endure to fast especially if they be â—itty Keep them from passions sorrow and fear and cocker them not but keep them to reason Let them play to temper the affection but so as not to hurt the body THE SECOND PART OF Diseases and Symptomes of CHILDREN Chap. 1. Of Infants Diseases in General 5. Aphor. 24. HIPPOCRATES divides their Diseases according to their Ages In new born Children there are Ulcers in the Mouth Vomiting Coughs Watchings Fears Inflammation of the Navel Aphor. 25. Moistness of Ears At Breeding of Teeth the Gums Itch and there are Feavers and Convulsions and a Loose Belly when they Breed the Eye-teeth Aphor. 26. When they are older the Tonsils are Inflamed the Vertebrae in the Neck are luxated inwardly they Breath short they have the Stone or round Worms or Ascarides Warts Satyrism or standing Yards Strangury Struma's and other Swellings They have other Diseases at other times as Meazles small Pox the Ligament of the Tongue is too short chafing In the Cure use not strong Remedies nor bleeding not purging but Suppositories and Clysters As Take Violet leaves Mallows each a handful flowers of Chamomil and Violets each a pugil boyl them to four or five ounces strained add Syrup of Roses half an ounce or six drams Oyl of Violets half an ounce make a Clyster If it need other Physick give it to the Nurse 6. Epid. c. 6. for the purging force is sent to the milk as Hippocrates saith If a Woman take Elaterium or wild Cowcumbers the Child is purged but you must not give these to the Nurse but gentle things will purâ—e the Infant if the Nurse take them Chap. 2. Of Feavers in Children Meazels and Small Pox. THey are subject to all sorts of Feavers but they have chiefly a Feaver from milk which putrifies and turns to choler and inflames the humors And when the teeth break forth the gums are inflamed they have watching and itching pain in the mouth and then Feavers When Feavers come from corrupt milk The Signs they expel no teeth and there are signs of corrupt milk belly-ach many stools yellow and green A Feaver from breeding of teeth hath its proper signs These Feavers cease when the cause is removed but if corrupt milk last long The Prognostick it is dangerous A Feaver from corrupt milk is commonly from choler The Cure therefore give cold moist things to the Nurse as Lettice Endive Emulsions of the four great cold Seeds Barley-cream Give no Wine while the child is in a Feaver Purge the Nurse gently with Manna Cassia Lenitive Electuary and Syrup of Roses Give Alterers to the Infant as Syrup of Violets Sorrel Citrons Succory endive-Endive-water and of Violet with Sugar Anoint the Back-bone with Mucilage of Quinces Fleabane with Oyl of Violets and a little Wax lay Astringents to the Stomach As Take Oyl of Roses Mastich each half an ounce red Sanders Coral each a scruple with Wax mix it If the Feaver come from breeding of it abate the pain and give the Alterers of which Chap. 14. Of Bleeding of Teeth Of Meazles and Small Pox. Lib. 4. De fabr c. 12. There are Epidemical Feavers at certain times that cast out Meazles and small Pox of which before The cause is not only from the impurity of the Terms but from the malignity of the Air for they are more or less as the Air is purer or impurer Sometimes it is infectious and the humors are so corrupt that worms breed under the scabs and corode the bones and internal parts as hath been seen in Bodies opened dead of this Disease If the Disease be very infectious before there is a Feaver it is good to preserve by change of Air and Antidotes when many die of it but when few die it is not amiss to let them alone lest they have it in a more dangerous time for most will have it only give a gentle Purge and fortifie Nature that she may expel them If there be a Feaver use no more Preservatives but labour to get them forth by Medicines mentioned and defend the eyes and throat and prevent deformity of which before Chap. 3. Of the Milkey Scab Achores and Favi THe Milkey Scab is at the first sucking the Achores are after The Achores are scabs not white and the white scab is not only in the face but all over the body The Achores are only in the head but they are cured alike They are all ulcers chiefly in the head with holes that run with matter constantly They come from excrementitious humors The Causes waterish and sharp mixed of thick and thin very salt Therefore they are sometimes yellow 2. De com po med sec lo. c. 8. or white or red or black but alwayes salt and biting and itching that makes them scratch They are gathered in the womb and from corruption of the milk The Vulgar think they are healthful The Prognostick Hipp. lib. de sacro morb when they run because Nature sends them forth and if they strike in they causes Diseases and Epilepsies They cure in time of themselves but if the matter be very bad it pierceth the skull Dry these not rashly The Cure so they disfigure not the face nor hurt the eyes But drive them forth with Scabious Carduus-water and Cordials Use no Coolers nor Astringents lest the matter be struck in Let the Nurse forbear salt and sharp and spiced things and strong Wine Prepare the humors with Borage Succory Bugloss Fumitory Hops Polypody and Dock-roots Then purge with Senna Polypody Epithymum Rhubarb and strengthen the Bowels As Take Conserve of Borage Bugloss Violets Fumitory Succory each an ounce Succory-roots and Citrons candied each half an ounce Diarrhodon Diamargariton frigid Harts-horn each a scruple with Syrup of Gilly-flowers make an Electuary Let the Nurse take every day two drams Or Take Harts-horn prepared two drams Magistery of Coral a dram Diamargariton frigid half a dram give half a dram or a dram of this Powder Let the child be purged with Manna or Raisons laxative If you fear great putrefaction under the scabs and that will turn to a scald head or eat the skull wash the head with Decoction of Mallows Barley Celandine Wormwood or with Althaea-roots boyled in boyes Urine and Barley-water And then anoint with Oyl of Roses bitter Almonds and a little Litharge Or Take ashes of Mirtles and Nut-shells each
add Camphire a scruple Saffron half a dram with Oyl of Chamomil make a Pultis Snuff this Water often Take Nutmegs Cloves Cubebs each a scruple Calamus Frankincense-bark each half a dram Marjoram-water three ounces drop hot Oyls into the Ears If in twenty dayes the water be not gone open the skull and let out the water by degrees and take heed of cold The tumor of wind in the skin of the head or membranes of the brain is seldom without water which breeds wind Use Discussers that make thin as Chamomil Rue Organ c. Chap. 7. Of Syriasis IT is from Aetius a disease with a Feaver Tetra 1. serm 4. c. 13. or an inflammation of the membranes and the brain so that there is a hollowness of the eyes and forehead It is from flegmatick blood that grows hot by putrefaction and so becomes like choler The Causes The remote causes are hot weather and milk full of wind from the evil dyet of the Nurse Such milk will make the child drunk and cause the inflammation Heat of the fore-head and hollowness there The Signs redness of face a Feaver driness no appetite watching The hollowness in the fore-part of the head is where the Sagital and Coronal sutures meet for there the bones are membranous and grow at last hard It is dangerous The Prognostick and counted deadly among women and as often as this bone or membrane falls there is a pit and the brain falls down they commonly dye in three days The Cure First give a Clyster of Syrup of Roses or Violets then Coolers of the juyce and water of Lettice Guords Melons or apply a Pumpion split in two But cool not the brain too much anoint with Oyl of Roses Or Take Oyl of Roses half an ounce Populeon an ounce the white of an Egg and of the Emulsion of cold Seeds drawn with Rose-water two drams After the flux is stopt and the Inflammation abated use Discussers As Take Oyl of Chamomil an ounce and half of Dill half an ounce with the yolk of an Egg. Let the Nurses dyet be cooling or the milk be changed let it not be vexed Chap. 8. Of Frights in the Sleep 3. Aphor. 24. HIppocrates saith this is often the cause is unclean vapors mixed with the animal spirits that disturb them and present horrible objects to the fancy They arise from the depraved concoction of the stomach in full feeding children that eat more then they can digest These vapors ascend not only by the weasand but by the veins to the head It comes often from worms also or corrupt humors that gnaw the mouth of the stomach The Signs They grown in their sleep and twitch and being frighted out of sleep they cry their breath is hot and often stinking The Prognostick Cure it presently for it is the fore-runner of an Epilepsie Give good Milk and less The Cure that the stomach be not over-charged Let it not sleep presently after food but carry it about till it is in the bottom of the stomach Use Oyl of sweet Almonds or Honey of Roses two spoonfuls to cleanse the stomach Then strengthen it with Magistery of Coral or Confection of Hyacinths with Milk Or Take Magistery of Coral a dram Diaplerers a scruple with Sugar dissolved in rose-Rose-water an ounce make Rouls Anoint the stomach with Oyl of Nard Wormwood Mints Mastich Nutmegs If it be from a Feaver look to that If from Worms I shall after speak of it Some hang Coral and Wolves-teeth about the childs neck Chap. 9. Of great Watching A Child new born sleeps more then he wakes because his brain is very moist and he used to sleep in the womb If you cannot make him sleep by singing or rocking nor the like it is a Disease Are divers in men and children The Causes in these it is from milk corrupt in the stomach from which sharp humors arise and disturb the animal Spirits and infect them and if there be sad fancies frights follow of which before If it cries alwayes The Signs and cannot by any art be made to sleep it is a sign of a disease of watching which is dangerous because children use to sleep much And hence come Catarrhs Convulsions Driness and Feavers The bad milk must be amended The Cure and the corrupt meat prevented If it be from a Feaver or Pain remove them 1. De tuen c. 8. Galen adviseth you often to change the bed and place Sleeping Medicines are not safe but hurt but are rather to be given the Nurse moderately as sweet Almonds Lettice Poppy-seeds Wash the Feet with Decoction of Dill-tops Chamomil-flowers Sage Osiers Vine-leaves Poppy heads Cool not the head too much nor use Narcoticks These are safe Oyl of Dill to the Temples Oyl of Roses with Oyl of Nutmegs with Poppy-seed Breast-milk Rose or nightshade-Nightshade-water with Saffron In great driness of the Brain let the covering of the Cradles head be wet Chap. 10. Of Epilepsie and Convulsion IT is either by consent from parts below when the milk corrupts in the stomach or from an ill quality in it from the Nurses bad diet or from worms in the guts or from vapors from bad humors that twitch the membranes of the brain as in the Meazles and small Pox. It is sometimes from the brain first as when the humors are bred in the brain that cause it either from the parents or from distemper or bad dyet It may come from Tooth-ach also when the brain consents and from a sudden fright The Signs It is manifest You shall know by the signs of the diseases whether it comes from bad milk worms or teeth If from a fright the people will tell you If these all are absent it is certain that the brain is first affected The Prognostick It is a great disease and kills for the most part young children But when in older Hippo. 58. Aph. 7. and it comes at a distance it vanisheth by age If it come with Pox or Meazles it ceaseth when they come forth if Nature be strong enough Give this Powder to prevent it The Cure to a child as soon as it is born Take male Piony-roots gathered in the decrease of the Moon a scruple Magistery of Coal half a scruple with Leaf-gold make a Powder Or Take Piony-roots a dram Piony-seeds Misleto of the Oak Elkes-hoof Mans-skull Amber each a scruple Musk two grains make a Powder The Florentines burn behind in the head to dry the brain and Celsas saith It is the last Remedy Lib. 3. c. 25. Lib. 3. c. 13. Aeginta saith That children cannot endure such cruelty for the pain and watching would kill them See Sylvaticus The best part of the cure in the Nurses diet Sylvatic contro 87. which must not be disordered If it be from corrupt milk provoke vomit thus hold down the tongue and put a quill dipt in sweet Almonds down the throat If it
in the Liver This is sent by the arterial vein into the lungs and pressing the Bronchia or pipes of the lungs causeth difficult breathing and Asthma The Signs It is known to be from a hot humor if it be thin they often sneese the face is red and the jaws the breath is short and the Nurse finds it in her nipples If difficulty of breathing come from the head there will be cough and snorting in breathing and a noise in the lungs when the air passeth not freely through them If it come from the parts below there is neither Catarrh nor Cough but hardness about the Liver and a tumor The Prognostick In Children a great Catarrh with short breath is hard to be cured because they cannot take Physick First let it and the Nurse keep a good diet The Cure fill not the stomach with milk nor other diet but let the Nurse forbear sharp salt peppered sour things and things that fill the head with vapors And give her a Pectoral Decoction Take Figs Jujubes each ten Sebestens thirty Raisens stoned ten drams Liquorish two drams Maidenhair Hysop Violets each half an ounce boyl them in three pints of Water to the consumption of the third part Let her take six ounces every morning Keep the belly open with Syrup of Roses or Cassia or a Clyster with Oyl of sweet Almonds with Sugar-candy or juyce of Fennel with Milk or hold down the Tongue and provoke Vomiting Give Syrup of Jujubes Maiden-hair If the matter be thick give Syrup of Hysop or Horehound or an Emulsion of Oyl of sweet Almonds Pine-nuts scabious-Scabious-water Or give a Lohoch of Diaireoes Diatragacanth frigid Penides with Sprup of Jujubes If it be hot give Emulsions of the four great cold Seeds with Mallows Pellitory with Diatragacanth frigid To dry up the matter lay outwardly a stuph of Hemp hot and sprinkled with powder of red Roses and Frankincense Apply Basil and Marjoram to the Nose to make it sneese Chap. 17. Of the Hickets IT comes from corruption of the food in the stomach or from milk filling it or from cold air these hurt the expulsive faculty and it is stirred up to expel what is hurtful If it come from repletion of milk The Signs the belly swells and there is vomiting after If from corruption of milk the Nurse hath bad milk the child cries and is pained and the excrements smell of stinking milk The Prognostick Hickets is commonly not dangerous in children and cease when the cause is taken away If it be from a vehement cause and goes to the nerves there follows a Convulsion or Epilepsie and death That from corruption of nourishment is cured by Vomit with a feather dipt in Oyl to tickle the throat then strengthen the stomach with hot things As Syrup of Mints Bettony and fomet it with decoction of Mints Organ Wormwood then anoint with Oyl of Mints Mastich Dill. Or Take Mastich an ounce Frankincense Dill-seed each two drams Cummin-seed a dram with juyce of Mints and Flax apply them to the stomach There is a disease like the Hickets in children from anger or grief when the Spirits are much stirred and run from the heart to the Diaphragma forceably and hinder or stop the breath Sometimes they have a shril voice the Spirits suddenly breaking forth but when the passion ceaseth this Symptom ceaseth Chap. 18. Of Vomiting IT is from too much milk or bad milk or from flegm that falls from the head to the stomach but this is seldom in children It is often from a moist loose stomach for as driness retains so loosness le ts go If it be from much milk they are better after vomiting The Cure If it be from corruption of milk that which is vomited is yellow green or otherwise ill coloured and stinking worms are known by their signs It is for the most part without danger in children and they that vomit from their birth The Prognostick are the lustiest for the stomach being not used to meat and milk being taken too much oftentimes crudities are easily bred or the milk is corrupted and it is better to vomit these up then keep them in If Vomiting last long it causeth Atrophy When it is from too much milk give it less The Cure if it be from corrupt milk amend it as I shewed Cleanse the Child with Honey of Roses and strengthen the Stomach with Syrup of Mints Quinces Or Take Wood-Aloes Coral Mastich each half a dram Galangal half a scruple with Syrup of Quinces make a Linctus If the humor be sharp and hot give Syrup of Pomegranates Currans Coral Apply to the Belly the Plaister of Bread the Stomach-Cerot or Bread dipt in Wine hot Or Take Oyl of Mastich Quinces Mints Wormwood each half an ounce of Nutmegs by expression half a dram Chymical Oyl of Mints three drops Coral half an occult propriety therefore it is hung about their necks Chap. 19. Of the Torments or Pains of the Belly IT is often with the flux of the belly and from milk alone that breeds wind and sharp humors When it is corrupted it gets to the guts and causeth a gnawing pain worms staying in the guts do the same The Signs They cry continually hate the breast and toss to and fro If it be from wind it ceaseth sometimes the belly swells and they break wind If it be from humors it is constant if it be tough flegm the belly is bound and the dung is slimy If it be sharp there is a flux yellow and green If from worms there are signs of them and of crudities and wind The Prognostick If this pain lasts long they are weak or have Convulsions or Epilepsie it is worse then from corrupt milk and worms and is dangerous The Cure If it be from crude humors and wind give a Clyster Take Pellitory Chamomil-flowers each a handful boyl them in Chicken broath two three or four ounces add Honey of Roses an ounce with the yolk of an Egg make a Clyster This may be given safely to a child of two months old Or give Oyl of sweet Almonds with Sugar-candy and a scruple of Aniseeds Heur meth ad prax l. 2. c. 26. it purgeth new born Babes from green choler and stinking flegm If it be given with Sugar Pap it allays the crying pains of the belly Anoint the belly with Oyl of Dill or lay Pellitory stampt with Oyl of Chamomil to the belly Or Take Chamomil-flowers Dill-tops each a handful Faenugreek and Lineseed each half an ounce boyl them in Wine foment the belly twice a day before meat If pain be from corrupt milk that is sharp give Syrup of Roses or Honey of Roses or Syrup of Succory with Rhubarb or a Clyster of the Decoction of Bran Pellitory with Syrup of Roses And use outwardly Oyl of Roses Dill and Chamomil Chap. 20. Of puffing up of the Belly and Hypochondria WHen they suck too much the belly is