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-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-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
we spake at large If blood be superfluous loose it not nor open the Ankle-vein lest you draw it more to the Womb but take away the Cacochymy If it be from weakness of the retentive Faculty strengthen the womb with Dryers and Astringents Chap. 6. Of the overflowing of the Terms IT is when it is too much or too long and hurts any Woman and brings diseases but a certain proportion of bleeding is not to be defined but too much is lost when the actions are hurt The Causes Gal. 3. de symp Causis c. 2. 5. aph com 57. The immediate Cause is the opening of the Vessels and the immediate Cause is the blood in quantity or quality offending or by its force or disorderly motion Vessels are opened by Anastomisis Diapedesis Diaeresis or ruption or by Diaurosis or corrosion Anastomosis is from a moist distemper of the Vessels which loosneth the Orifices or from external causes as Baths hot and moist or use of Aloes The flux is seldom too great from a Diapedesis for it is but a sweating through Ruption is from Plethory when the terms have long been stopped and then break out and when the blood is hot by Air Baths c. The outward causes are falls strokes hard travel great burthens lifted Erosion is from sharp blood or humor or from Medicines that corode as Pessaries long kept For this great Flux is chiefly from the Veins in the bottom of the Womb. The Signs The Flux of Blood is too great when the strength abateth and Cachexy follows with paleness swollen feet and the blood that comes from the bottome of the Womb is blacker and clotted That from the neck redder and thinner The signs of the causes If it be from much blood there are signs of plethory and it easily clotted together If the blood be sharp and cholerick it is putrified in the womb you shall know waterish blood by its colour and the signs of that humour abounding and if you dip a clout in it and dry it in the shade you may see it If the womb be too moist such causes went before If it be from breaking of Veins they will tell you of violence If it be from corrosion it is little and slow sometimes pure sometimes serous It weakneth the whole Body The Prognostick the Liver and Bowels there is Swounding the Whites and paleness and Dropsie sometimes That which hath been long is hard to be cured and causeth death and in an old woman it is deadly If there be fulness abate the blood Indications and keep it from flowing to the womb revel it repel cool and astringe it that it may not flow so fast and then amend the blood If it is from plenty of blood The Cure open the Liver-veins in the right Arm bleed little and often because it makes better revulsion and weakens not open the Salvetella if there be weakness Gal. 5. aph com 50. and cup the Back and Breast against the Liver beneath the Paps where are Veins from the womb cup not beneath but in the Shoulders or Back and Arm with Scarification but scarifie not under the Breasts Bind and rub the arms and shoulders and temper and thicken the sharp thin humors with Decoctions and water of Plantane Purslane Sorrel Knot-grass Shepheards-purse pomegranate-Pomegranate-Syrup and of dried Roses Sorrel Purslane Coral Conserve of Roses Bole sealed Earth If it be urgent use Narcoticks Syrup of Poppies Treacle Philonium Laudanum If it still continue it is fed with Choler therefore purge it with Syrup of Roses Manna Rhubarb Senna If it be fed with serous blood help the Reins that do not their duty and the Liver and sweat with China You must not provoke urin but use astringents As Take the juyce of Ass-dung Syrup of Mirtles each half an ounce plantane-Plantane-water an ounce Give it her and let her not know what it is Decoctions Take Comfrey-roots Tormentil each two drams Purslane Plantane each a handful boil them add to six ounces Syrup of Currans Quinces Mirtles each six drams give it at twice Or Take Syrup of Purslane juyce of Nettles each two ounces purslane-Purslane-water four ounces Troches of Amber of sealed Earth each a dram Blood-stone half a dram give two spoonfuls every day A Water Take eight pints of water with Starch Barley-meal and Rice dried Roses a handful juyce of Yarrow Plantane each half a pint Comfrey-roots and all three ounces Horstail Blood-wort each half a handful Pears and Quinces Pomegranate-flowers all Sanders each half an ounce Mastich an ounce Distil them and give two ounces with half an ounce of Syrup of Roses or Purslane Electuaries Conserve of Roses two ounces Quinces an ounce and half Troches of burnt Ivory and sealed Earth each a dram Crocus Martis Bole red coral prepared Mastich each half a dram with Syrup of Mirtles make an Electuary Powders Take Mastich red Coral prepared each a dram Pearl Smaragds prepared each a scruple Blood-stone half a scruple Bole half a dram make a powder Michael Paschal cured many with this Powder Lib. de curat morb cap. 55. Take two Egg-shells burnt Frankincense Mastich each half an ounce Pearl red Coral and Amber each two drams Blood-stone Smaragds prepared each half a scruple Barley-flour two pugils whites of four Eggs with steeled water make Cakes Give from half a dram to a dram in powder with Trotter-broath in the morning Or give every day a dram of the powder of Mulberry-tree roots Or Ex petrafores to Take plump Turtle drawn and pluckt wash it in Rose-water and red Wine put an ounce of Mastich in the belly of it stick it on and roast it and bast it with Vinegar of Roses Then put it into a glass close luted to be dried in an Oven then beat all of it to powder Give a spoonful with Plantane-water or an astringent Decoction Anoint the bottome of the Belly Reins and Groyns with the dropping of it Or make Rouls thus Take Bole half a dram Magistery of Coral a dram Pearl prepared a scruple Sorrel and Plantane-seed each half a dram Aromatiacum rosatum Traganth each half a dram with Sugar dissolved in Plantane-water make Rouls In the use of cold Astringents take heed you stop not the Veins and the heat be cooled If these help not use Narcoticks as Troches of sealed Earths and Amber with Opium these astringe also Use no Pessaries except the Veins in the neck of the Womb be open As Take Snakeweed Tormentil each half an ounce Pomegranate-flowers Plantane-seed each two drams Comfry-roots half an ounce Frankincense Mastich each a dram Acacia Sanguis Draconis each two scruples Blood-stone Starch each a dram and half with the white of an Egg and Gum traganth dissolved in Rose-water make Pessaries with red Silk Womb-Clysters Take juyce of Yarrow Solomons-seal each two ounces Mucilage of Gum Arabick made in Plantane-water two ounces make a Clyster A Fume Take Frankincense Mastich each two drams Mirtles Labdanum each a
dram red Roses Pomegranate-flowers each half a dram with Gum traganth make Troches to be burnt Oyntments Take Oyl of Mirtles Quinces each two ounces juyce of Plantane Solomons-seal Horse-tail each an ounce boil the juyces away add Bole Plantane-seed Mirtle-berries Ceruss each half an ounce with Wax make an Oyntment Or use the Countesses Oyntment to the Loins and Pecten Cataplasms Take Quinces Pearls boiled in red Wine add Bole Mastich Sanguis Draconis Acacia make a Cataplasm or a Cerot Or Take Sorrel and Plantane-seed Purslane-seed Bole Sanguis Draconis each two drams Frankincense Mastich Mirrh each three drams Turpentine an ounce with juyce of Plantane and Yarrow and Wax make a Cerot after the Juyces are boiled away Fomentations are better than Baths for they make the humors flow more Let them be astringent and cool Or wash the Legs and Hips in cold water Lay Epithems to the Liver Oyntments Cerots or Plaisters If Choler offend give Rhubarb and Conserve of Roses to evacuate the Cacochymy If blood flow from a vein broken use Coral Bole Mirtles Comphry Acacia Hypocistis or apply a Pultis of whites of Eggs and astringent Powders If it come from a vessel corroded use stoppers and glutinaters that are slimy as Dropwort-roots a dram with a rear Egg. Let the diet be as the Physick is In a flux from plethory eat little and that of little nourishment and in other cases give things to close the vessels Sleep long and use little Venery little or no exercise Anger hurts and other passions Question Whether Frictions or Ligatures in the Legs may be made for Revulsion Hippocrates and Galen are misconstrued in his 8. Book of Blood-letting and they are not to be used in the flux of the Terms Chap. 7. Of the Terms-flowing with pain and Symptoms THe Symptoms are pain in the Loyns or Thighs Head-ach biting at the mouth of the Stomach pain in the Belly and Loyns fainting They are as in suppression of Terms The Causes but less vehement and are in them that have not conceived There is obstruction thick and gross blood that stretcheth the vessels and the blood flows not orderly A little before the Terms there is head-ach The Signs biting at the stomach pain in the loyns and bottom of the stomach with beating at the heart and fainting When the pain is from thick blood it comes forth in clodds and the pain is worse than before If it be from wind it is sudden and staies not in a place and there is rumbling in the belly The Prognostick Take heed it turn not to the stoppage of terms if it be neglected It is greater in barren women and Virgins then in those who have had children The Cure Take away the cause if they be thick humors evacuate them after they are prepared If sharp temper them These attenuate blood water of Grass-roots Maidenhair Decoctions of the opening Roots Syrup of Maidenhair of the five Roots Treacle and the like in the stoppage of the Terms Against pain use the Fomentations and Oyntments in the Chapter of pain of the Womb. Chap. 8. Of evil discoloured Terms THis is called the Terms depraved by bad humors and so they are voided The Causes Blood is foul either from evil diet or evil humors or stoppage of it The humors are flegm choler or melancholy mixed with it and then the Terms are either pale blew green or black and stinking or white and flegmatick They are so from a fault in the stomach The pale and yellow are from too great heat in the Liver The black are from the spleen disordered The Signs That blood which is natural is different from the bad in colour and substance it is like that of a new slain sheep nor thicker nor thinner and the bad Terms come not seasonably but sooner or later of which Hippocrates Lib. de morb mulier You may know by the colour what humor predominates and by the substance The flegmatick and melancholy are long in coming and the cholerick waterish Terms come quicker The more they differ from the natural state The Prognostick the worse they are black and stinking are worst The mattery are worst of all If these flow seven eight or nine daies she is cured if they ulcerate the womb she is barren Hippocrates saith The Cure 5. Aphor. 36. they must be purged and prepared with proper things as we shewed in the distempers of the womb But take heed that you move not the Terms when you attenuate for that will melt the serous humors and fix them more in the vessels use neither Vinegar nor sharp things After purging consume the reliques by sweat if choler be in fault that must not be sweated out discuss it with warm Baths and do so in melancholy Use Pessaries Fomentations and Fumes to the womb Give Treacle Mithridate or the Decoction of Angelica-roots if cold humors are the cause Chap. 9. Of Terms coming before their time THese shew an ill constitution And it is a depraved excretion of the Terms that comes for the time often for sometimes they flow sooner or twice in a month The immediate Cause is hurt of the retentive and expulsive faculty The Causes so that the blood flows not or sooner or later or oftner the cause why they come sooner is in the blood that stirs up the expulsive faculty in the whole body or in the womb sometimes all causes meet the blood is too much or too sharp and hot and if the retentive faculty in the womb be weak and the expulsive strong and of quick sense it is sooner A fall stroke or passion are the evident Causes The Signs They will relate it and the signs of the causes are these If it be from much blood there are the signs of plethory heat thinness and sharp humors are known by the distemper of the whole The weakness of the retentive faculty and loosness of the vessels is known from a loose and moist habit of body The Prognostick The Cure It is not dangerous but troublesome and hinders conception If they come too soon from hurt in the faculty provoked by too much plethory Let blood use a spare diet and much exercise If it be from sharp blood temper it by good diet and Medicines as in the cholerick distemper of the womb Use Baths of iron-Iron-water that corrects the distempers of the bowels then evacuate If it come from the retentive faculty and loosness of the vessels correct the cold and moist distemper with gentle astringents If it be from a stroke or fall cure it as the vessels opened are cured of which before Chap. 10. Of the Terms that come after their usual time WHen they stay longer then ordinary and return without order at no set time the causes are little and thick blood straitness of the passages weakness of the expulsive faculty and dulness Either of these causes may stop the Terms but if all meet the disease is
the Spleen be stopt Take Steel prepared a pound wash it with Vinegar then strain it and lay it on a Clout and add powder of Cloves half an ounce Let them stand so a day and a night then put them in a glassed Vessel and ten ounces of white Wine Diarrhodon Harts-tongue Senna and Caper-bark then stir them then set them in the Sun for a day or in an Oven Do this ten daies till the Steel be melted in the Wine and little or nothing at the bottom Give two ounces of this in the morning after purging and exercise Or Take Steel prepared an ounce Cinnamon Aniseeds each two drams Diamoschu without Musk a dram Sugar an ounce make a powder give a dram drink white Wine and Mugwort-water after it Steeled Wine Take Steel in powder three ounces Cinnamon half an ounce white Wine three pints Set them in a close glass eight daies in the Sun stir them every day Give six or eight ounces four hours afore dinner for fifteen or twenty daies and walk after it At first give a Steel-medicine to prepare As Take Steel-filings four ounces put it in an Iron Crucible or Ladle then cast it into two pints of water of Hops Grass Madder Borage or spring-Spring-water strain it and do so seven times Then Take so many ounces of new Steel and cast it into water as before strain and add Syrup of Violets Borage or Honey of Roses four ounces give three ounces in the morning after exercise Prepare thus three or four times and then use stronger After Steel use Scorzonera steept all night in Wine give it in the morning This hath cured Obstructions in many Mercatus Bezoar-stone saith Mercatus opens Obstructions in my Experience and resists Venom give six or seven grains Steel is best Spring and Fall purge and exercise before and after it that it may be better dispersed Use Preparatives Purges and strengthners often and for a long time and change the forms lost the Patient loath them If water spread about the body cool the body and make it heavy Use sweats as Baths natural or artificial of Mugwort Calamints Nep Danewort Sage Bayes Rosemary Mercury Ivy Briony-roots Orris Elicampane After purging and opening Obstructions all the Symptoms will vanish if not see for the Symptoms of the Womb. The Diet. Let the Air be temperately hot The Meat of good juyce and easie digestion Pot-herbs and green Fruits must be avoided Fish Milk Lettice Make Sauce with Sage and Cinnamon Drink Wine Let Bread be well leavened with Fennel-seed Drink no Water nor Broaths at first and in the declination of the disease use Exercise and Venery Let sleep be moderate Question 1. Whether may the Woman in this Disease be allowed the absurd things they long for They are Virgins or Women with child that long for such things Virgins must not be allowed them as Chalk c. For they will increase the disease Women with child must be pleased with fair words to abstain from them but if the appetite will not be allayed rather grant them then suffer an abortion or mark upon the Child Question 2. Is Motion and Exercise good in the Green-sickness They are better then idleness which heaps up crudities they raise the languishing heat in the Bowels and help the nourishment to be destributed therefore they are to be used before the disease be great and in the declination they discuss the humors But use moderation lest you weaken the body or choak them First therefore use Frictions then watching then more exercise after convenient purging Question 3. Whether is Venery good for Maids in the Green-sickness It is probable and agreeable to Reason and Experience that Venery is good Hippocrates bids them presently marry for if they conceive Hippocr lib. de morb virgin Lib. 1. ep 2. they are cured John Langius saith This disease comes in the ripeness of age or presently after Venery heats the womb and the parts adjacent opens and loosens the passages so that the terms may better flow to the womb But if there be a great Cacochymy take that away before she be married and then Venery may do more in Physick But use it not in the vigor of the Disease nor in weakness Question 4. Whether is Blood-letting good in this Disease A Cachexy beginning with coldness of the whole Body seem to deny bleeding and because the crude humors are in fault rather then blood Lib. de morb virg But Hippocrates adviseth bleeding at the first If it be a new disease and comes from stopt terms and blood abound that is stopt and not turned into another humour you may boldly bleed provided the strength permit and the passages be open But in an old disease when crude Flegm abounds bleed not for it will increase the Disease Chap. 3. Of Symptomes from the Womb and Mother-fits in general IT is not to be expressed what miserable diseases Women are subject to both Virgins and others from the womb and its consent with other parts For when terms or blood are stopt there are great Symptoms and while they putrifie or get evil qualities the Symptoms are grievous and almost unexpressible One woman may have divers Symptoms from the womb at the same time when the seed and terms are mixed with other humors after they are corrupted and there is more sometimes and such noble substance as seed and terms being corrupted are like poyson Gal. 6. de loc aff c. 5. The consent with other parts is from likeness of parts nearness or connexion of Vessels And because the womb is membranous it hath a great consent with the Membranes and Nerves Also the parts adjacent are easily infected And thirdly it hath consent with all the Body by Veins Arteries and Nerves It consents with the Brain by the Nerves and Membranes of the Back-marrow It consents with the Heart by the Arteries with the Liver by the Veins which are great in the Womb and therefore the blood and bad humors go back to the Liver It consents with the stomach by Anastomosis in the Veins of the Mesentery and by the Arteries through foul humors and vapors go from the womb to the Mesentery and Stomach It consents with the Spleen by the Arteries therefore many Women that had not their terms enough in their youth and have hot blood are after Hypochondriack and a Physitian can scarce distinguish these diseases of the Womb and Spleen nor cure them severally It consents with the Paps by Veins and Nerves and the Heart Diaphragma Head Brain and all the Organs of sense and motion with the Liver Spleen Stomach Belly Mesentery Bladder strait Gut Back Hips Arms and Legs and causeth Symptoms As Galen saith the Mother and Histerical passions in one name Gal. de loc aff c. 5. but hath under it innumerable Symptoms Chap. 4. Of Suffocation of the Womb. IN this they seem to be strangled And there are so many Symptoms at once that it is impossible to define
Alipta moschata a scruple Oyl of Nard Lillies and white Wax make an Oyntment Or Take seeds of Agnus castus a dram all Sanders each half a dram white Rose-powder a dram Tacamahacca a scruple Amber two scruples Alipta moschata half an ounce with Turpentine Labdanum and Wax make a Plaister If she be a Virgin let her be married If it be from Terms stopt see in the Chapter of that This disease is neither from seed nor blood nor humors if they be not corrupted after a peculiar manner If it be from the womb distempered give the Infusion of an ounce of Briony root in white Wine once in a week for a year at bed time or this Hysterical Water Take Lovage-roots Piony Angelica Zedoary each an ounce Misleto of the Oak gathered in the wane of the Moon two ounces Mints Balm Calamints Bettony each a handful Carrot Parsnep-seed Castor each half an ounce distil them in white Wine and water of Motherwort after eight daies infusion Or Take Briony Valerian Spignel Angelica-roots each half an ounce Balm Calamints Penny-royal Bettony each half a handful boyl them in Wine add Syrup of Mugwort an ounce give it at thrice Vitriol of Iron one grain with two grains of Sugar given in Wine some weeks is excellent Or Take Cummin-seed wild Parsnep-seeds each a dram give a dram in powder Or Take Faecula Brionae two drams Cummin-seed Parsnep-seed each a dram Amber half a dram Cloves two scruples Cinnamon a scruple make a powder Pills Take Castor a scruple Assa-foetida half a scruple Mirrh Galbanum Sagapenum each a scruple with Honey of Mercury make Pills take half a scruple or a scruple often Or Take Treacle or Mithridate Apply Plaisters or Liniments to the region of the Womb thus Take old Treacle half an ounce Agnus castus seeds a dram Oyl of Angelica and Cummin-seeds each two drams with Plaister of Bayberries Or make Oyntments of the same Question 1. What preternatural disease is the Suffocation of the Womb properly Some say it is a cold distemper in quality changed they say right but coldness is not the chief Symptom Others say it is respiration hurt by Syneope or Convulsion But it cannot be defined by one Symptom For sometimes the animal actions are hurt and there is a Megrim Delirium Convulsion and sense and motion are gone Nor is it strange that so small a vapor should bring such Symptoms for it hath an occult venom in it which is strong Gal. 6. de lo. off c. 5. for it goes many ways and to many parts Question 2. What is the true Cause of the fits of the Mother I say it is the malignant vapors that flie up from the womb for it doth not work by a manifest quality 4. De lo. aff c. 5. but by a venom which Galen saith is like that of a Torpedo or Phalanx or Scorpion which are little in bulk but do great mischief being enemies to the vital spirits and heart by which there is a coldness all over and short breath from the actions of the heart hurt For when the heart is hurt or the vital Spirits either suffocated or corrupted there are no good animal Spirits bred and they not flowing to the nerves and muscles hinder the motion of the breast Also this malignant vapor is an enemy to the animal Spirits and makes doting and Convulsions when it gets to the brain The Cause of these vapors are corrupt seed and terms for while they are in their proper vessels they change not their nature And the seed is not alwaies pure but mixed with evil humors and the seed vessels are sometimes swollen and distempered Moreover the corruption is from the womb in a peculiar manner for as Fernelius saith The place from whence comes life is also the breeder of the most deadly poison Question 3. It is good to give Wine in a fit of the Mother Hippocrates and Avicen quarrel about this 1. De nat mulierum The first allows Wine because they are weak and nothing sooner refresheth But Avicen is for water and forbids flesh for they increase Seed and Blood But in the time of the fit Wine is proper and Avicen doth not speak of the fit but of the diet out of the fit when it comes from plenty of seed and blood nor will a little Wine in the time of the fit get presently to the Womb. Chap. 5. Of the Frenzie of the Womb. IT is a great and foul Symptom of the Womb both in Virgins and Widdows and such as have known man These are mad for Lust and invite men and lie down to them and it differs from salacity because in that there is no Delirium It is an immoderate desire of Venery that makes women almost mad or a Delirium from an immoderate desire of Venery it is without a Feaver and with heat and tends to madness There are degrees in it for modest women have it but will not for shame declare it and die of Consumptions Others will not conceal it but speak their thoughts bawdily and follow men and sollicite them shamelesly as Hippocrates writes in his Book of Virgins Diseases The immediate Cause is plenty of hot and The Causes sharp Seed against Nature but next unto that which is natural it is a little biting swelling and forcing Nature to let it out by lechery The brain is only hurt by consent and the animal actions by an external error or too vehement object The part first affected is the womb in the Nymphae which grows hot and swells but the Nymphae are not properly the seat of Venery but the Clitoris which was called by the same name anciently The heat and sharpness of Seed is from the heat of the womb that breeds it from hot humors in the womb and hot blood The outward Causes are hot meats spiced strong wine and the like that heat the privities idleness pleasure and dancing and reading of bawdy Histories The Signs They find their lust to boyl at first and for shame will not declare it they are sad and silent and their eyes turn to and fro with lust and if any speak of Venery they blush and the pulse changeth when the brain consenteth reason is perverted and modesty is overcome then they prate are lustful and angry sometimes they cry or laugh without a cause they follow men and sollicite them for copulation Some will lie with any one they meet The Prognostick The Cure It is a sordid disease curable at first but if neglected it turns to madness Let Virgins that have it before reason is subverted be in company with chast Maidens or be married And be let blood to abate heat of blood and sharpness of Seed very often there is no better remedy Then temper and evacuate the humors if they be adust and there be madness use stronger Then have a Bath of Lettice Willow Water-lillies Vine-leaves Purslane Venus-navel red Roses Violets Water-lillies Let her sit twice a
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-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-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-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-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
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-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
are better then many and small then great white are better then those of other colours The other Prognosticks are mentioned in other places Preservation It is better to prevent the breeding of worms then to expel them by eating of meats of good juyce with Oranges and Pomegranates and avoiding sweet fat and slimy meats fish milk and Summer-fruits and figs. Drink thin Wine and Grass and Sorrel-water with it and with powder of Harts-horn Let the belly be kept loose with Clysters for children or give the Decoction of Sebestens before meat or of Wormwood and Scordium but children will not take bitter things therefore give grass-Grass-water and juyce of Lemmons or Citrons or a drop or two of Spirit of Vitriol When you know by the signs The Cure that there are worms kill and repel them with Powder of Coralline Wormseed Harts-horn or eight grains of Mercurius dulcis Infuse them a night in Grass-water and cast away the substance of the Mercury and give the Water Or Take Wormseed two drams Coralline Harts-horn prepared each a dram roots of Piony Dittany Magistery of Coral each a scruple make a Powder or give the Essence of Peach-flowers or the Decoction of fern-Fern-water half an ounce or an ounce If there be a Feaver use colder as juyce of Lemmons Pomegranates Oranges Vinegar Harts-horn Bezoar Confection of Hyacinth or this Portion Take grass-Grass-water four ounces Syrup of Juyce of Citrons an ounce of Violets half an ounce Spirit of Vitriol two drops give two spoonfuls Give bitter things at the mouth and sweet at the fundament as a Clyster of Milk Or Take Raisons ten Figs seven boyl them in water take of it four ounces add Sugar an ounce and half make a Clyster Use varieties that the worms may not be too familiar with one Apply Peach-leaves to the Navel bruised or a Cataplasm of Ox-gall Wormwood and St. Johns-wort Or Take Powder of Wormwood Gith Centaury Wormseed Lupines each half an ounce with Oyl of Wormwood and Wax half an ounce make an Oyntment Or Take Treacle half an ounce with juyce of Wormwood apply it to the Navel or make a Bath of Peach-leaves and Wormwood put the child into it up to the Navel If there be a Feaver use colder things mentioned Chap. 24. Of the Rupture IT is from the Peritonaeum loose or broken when the small guts fall into the cods from crying cough straining at stool and from vehement motion or a fall Sometimes the Peritonaeum is well and a water falls from the belly into the cods The tumor is visible if it be from a gut The Signs it is in one part only as the right or left and it may be felt and the hole also through which it fell If from water it is even all over and there was no cause of other Rupture It is easier cured in Infants then in elder persons for it is safer The Prognostick but worse then that of water which goes away of it self when the water is consumed Let the belly be kept open The Cure let not the child cry Avoid vehement motion lay him upon his back and thrust it up gently and apply this Plaister Take Lambs-tongue Sanicle each half an ounce Lentills and Lupines and red Roses in Powder each two drams Frankincense a dram Allum half a dram with the white of an Egg. Or Take Frankincense Cypress-nuts Aloes Acacia each two drams Mirrh a dram with Izing-glass make a Plaister Or apply Gum Elemni steept in Vinegar till there be a Cream at the top and with Oyl of Eggs make a Cerot Inwardly Take Sanicle Lambs-tongue each half a handful Agrimony a handful Comphry the greater half an ounce boyl them to a pint strained add Sugar give it often Or give Powder of Mouse-ear or Moonwort with Wine If it be from water anoint with Oyl of Elder Bayes Rue or apply a Cataplasm of Powder of Beans Foenugreek Linseed Chamomil-flowers Cummin-seeds with these Oyls Chap. 25. Of sticking out of the Navel IT is without Inflammation 1. When is was not well tyed and too much left that sticks out 2. When the Peritonaeum is loose and hath water or wind in it from crying or coughing 3. When the Navel is ulcerated and the guts fall into it this is called properly Exomphalon The Navel yields to the touch but in an inflamation it is hard there is neither heat nor redness and it lasts longer than an Inflammation The Signs If the Navel was not well cut there will be too great a quantity if the Peritonaeum be not broken but loose the Navel starts not much out and is not greater by crying if it be broken the tumor scarce appears when he lyes upon his Back but it increaseth by crying or walking The Prognostick If the Midwife did not cut the Navel well it is more troublesome then dangerous If it be too large or ulcerated at first it is easily cured but afterwards it may cause a deadly Iliack passion when the guts that fall in are inflamed The Cure When the Peritonaeum is loose wind stretcheth the Navel then use a Cataplasm of Cummin Bayberries and Lupines powdered in red Wine or a Bag of Cummin and Spike boyled in red Wine Then lay on an Astringent and roul it If the Peritonaeum be broken first put in the gut then bind it close after you have laid on astringent Powders Or Take powder of Cypress-nuts Frankincense Mirrh Mastich Sarcocol Allum Izing-glass each a dram with the whites of Eggs make a Pultis and give Medicines against Ruptures Chap. 4. Of Inflammation of the Navel IT is from pain when it is not well tied that draws blood to it There is redness hardness heat and beating If it turns to an Imposthume and breaks The Prognostick The Cure the guts come forth and the child usually dies First abate pain Take Mallows boyled and stampt two ounces Barley-meal half an ounce Lupines Foenugreek each two drams with Oyl of Roses make a Cataplasm To repel Blood Take Frankincense a dram Acacia Fleabane-seed each half a dram with the white of an Egg make a Cataplasm Hinder Suppuration as much as may be but if it doth suppurate Take Turpentine half an ounce the yolk of an Egg and Oyl of Roses two ounces Chap. 27. Of Falling out of the Fundament WHen the muscle that shuts the Arse-hole is loose the Fundament comes forth the cause is moisture of the muscles after a flux or straining at stool in Tenesmus or Needing or when the belly is bound The people will tell you the causes The Signs and you may see it The Prognostick It is easily cured when it is from straining at stool if it have not been long out If it be from great store of moisture it is hard to be cured especially if there be a loosness of the belly for then Medicines cannot lie on The Cure First put it up if it be swollen foment it with the decoction of Mallows
the liver-veins on the right side or the spleen on the left as they are filled more or less It also falls down by the loosning of the parts to which it is fastned but how that can be it is not clear 1. 2. De morb mulier Hippocrates saith It comes from external causes as from cold of the feet or loins from leaping or fear cutting of wood or running down a hill and the like these make the ligaments moist and loose Also it may be from cold after child-bearing getting into the womb when the terms flow sitting upon a cold stone and the like Platerus Others say It comes from the solution of the connexion of the fibrous neck and the parts adjacent and that is from the weight of the womb descending this we deny not But when the ligaments must be loose or broken But women in a dropsie could not be said not to have the womb fall down if it came only from loosness But the cause in them is the saltness of the water which dries more then it moistneth The Signs If there be a little tumor within or without the privities like a skin stretched or a weight felt about the privities it is only a descent of the womb but if there be a tumor like a Goose-Egg and a hole at the bottom there is at first a great pain in the parts to which the womb is fastned as the loyns the bottom of the belly and the privities and the Os sacrum from the stretching or breaking of the ligaments but a little after the pain abateth and there is an impediment in walking Sometimes blood comes forth from the breach of the vessels and the dung and urine are stopt and a Feaver and Convulsion When it is near it is easily cured when old The Prognostick it is hard to be cured but not deadly only it is troublesom and nasty It hinders conception and keeps terms from flowing orderly If it be with pain Feaver or Convulsion it is deadly especially in women with Child That which comes from corrosion of the ligaments is dangerous First put it up before the air alter it The Cure or it be inflamed or swollen Therefore first give a Clyster to remove the excrements Then lay her upon her back with her legs abroad and thighs lifted up her head down and take the tumor in your hands and thrust it in without violence If it be swollen by alteration and cold foment it with the Decoction of Mallows Althaea Line Foenugreek-seed Chamomil-flowers Bayberries and anoint it with oyl of Lillies and Hens-grease If there be an inflammation Roder a. casuo de morb mul. 1. 2. c. 17. put it not up yet It may be frighted in by shewing of red hot iron and acting as if you would burn it First sprinkle upon it the powder of Mastich Frankincense and the like As Take Frankincense Mastich each two drams Sarcocol steept in Milk a dram Mummy Pomegranate-flowers Sanguis Draconis each half a dram When it is put up let her lie with her leggs stretched one upon the other for eight or ten dayes and make a Pessary like a Pear of Cork or Spung put into the womb dipt in sharp wine or juyce of Acacia with powder of Sanguis Draconis Bole Mastich or the Countesses Oyntment with Galbanum and Bdellium Apply a Cupping-glass with great flame under the navel or paps or to both kidnies and lay this Plaister to the back Take Opopanax two ounces Storax liquid half an ounce Frankincense Mastich Pitch Bole each two drams with Wax make a Plaister Or Take Labdanum a dram and half Frankincense Mastich each half a dram wood Aloes Cloves Spike each a dram Ash coloured Amber-greece four grains Musk half a scruple make two round Plaisters to be laid on each side the Navel Make a Fume of a Snail skin salted or of Garlick and let it be taken in by a Funnel Use astringent Fomentations of Bramble leaves Plantane Horstails Mirtles each two handfuls Wormwood two pugils Pomegranate-flowers half an ounce boil them in wine and water Or inject this with a Syringe Take Comfrey-roots an ounce Snakeweed Pomgranate-flowers each half an ounce Rupture-wort two drams Yarrow Mugwort each half an ounce boil them in red Wine Then use Sulphur Baths To strengthen the Womb Take Harts-horn Bayes each a dram Mirrh half a dram make a powder for two doses give it with sharp Wine Or Take Zedoary Parsnep-seeds Crabs eyes prepared each a dram Nutmeg half a dram give a dram in powder but use astringents warily lest you stop the courses and cause worse mischief If it fall out from evil humors that flow to the womb and loosen the ligaments purge the body and then use dryers as the decoction of China Sarsa and Guajacum To keep it in its place make Roulers and Ligatures as for the Rupture and use Pessaries into the bottom of the womb that may force it to remain Lib. de partu Caesar sect 6. cap. 3. 4. of which Francis Rousset hath written at large and shews that they neither hinder Conception nor bring any inconvenience nay that they help Conception and retain it and cure this disease perfectly And Gaspar Bauhinus confirms the same in his Appendix to Rousset You may use Circles or Balls instead of Pessaries As Take roots of wild Vine make round Circles or Balls of them greater or less as the neck of the womb is Then Take Virgins Wax melted with white Rosin or Turpentine dip the balls in till they are fit put one in the neck of the womb that will hold in being just fit let it not be taken out till it fall out and then put in another if she be not cured If it gangrene and sphacelate cut it quite off Lib. de partu Caes sect 4. cap. 5. hist 6. Ibid. sect 4. cap. 5. if she fear cutting take it off by Ligature of which Rousset who shews the way and saith that it may be cut off without danger of life He tells also of the place where you must cut and in Sect. 4. de partu Caesareo where the Ligature is to be made Let the diet be drying and astringent and glewing as Rice Starch Quinces Pears green Cheese Avoid Summer-fruits Let the Wine be astringent and red The Cure of the inclining of the Womb. When it inclines to the sides after Universals apply Cupping-glasses to the other side and let her still lie on the other side and let the Midwife anoint her finger with Oyl of sweet Almonds and draw it a little by degrees to the other side Chap. 17. Of the Rupture of the Womb. FEw Physitians have seen this I never read of any but once I saw it of which in my Institutions lib. 2. part 1. cap. 9. Chap. 18. Of Wounds and breaking of the Womb. The Signs IT is seldom wounded by reason of the divers defences it hath but sometimes the Chirurgions wound it in
with it to the veins of the womb and stops them This thick blood comes from a cold distemper of the stomach liver and spleen from thick and gross food and drinking cold water when the Terms flow Lib. de venae sec adversus Erasistrat So thought Galen in his time of the Roman women that drank Snow-water and had few or no courses Straightness is when the body of the womb is made thicker either by Nature or other causes as a cold and dry or hot and dry distemper Thirdly Straitness is from compression of the vessels by a Scirrhus or hardness of the parts adjacent as the straight gut or by the stone in the bladder and the womb displaced Fourthly The flesh may grow together by a membrane that grows to the vessels or a scar after a wound Or after a mischance when the veins annexed to the Secundine grow so together that they cannot be opened of which in the first Question They are not the same in women and Virgins The Signs for blood stopt in Virgins goes to and fro changeth the colour and brings Feavers especially the white Feaver or Green-sickness But in women it goes more to the womb and brings Symptomes loathing vomiting and Pica Galen hath other signs as heaviness 8. De lo. aff c. 5. a lazy pain in the loyns neck and behind in the head that reacheth to the roots of the eyes from the spreading of the blood stopt through the whole body This laziness is chiefly in the thighs and leggs by reason of the veins there consenting with the womb And are of a green complexion and hairy with a beard and shrill voice You may know women with child from such as want their Terms only by proper signs First the women with child keep their colour but the other are pale and ill-coloured they are merry the other sad 2. Their Symptoms daily grow milder but in the other they daily grow worse 3. You may feel the child move 4. It is perceived in a month You shall know from what causes the terms are stopt thus If the Liver be cold there is no blood made that is superfluous and there are signs of a cold Liver and you may know that blood is not sent to the Womb when there is no heaviness pain or tumor about the Womb the Liver or Spleen are stopt The Prognostick If it be from Flegm or Melancholy which is often there are signs of their abounding as laziness paleness seldom pulse crude urin Hippoc. de morb mulier Gal. 6. de loc aff c. 5. Hippoc. 5. aphor 23. Hippocrates saith That if the Terms stop there are diseases in the Womb Tumors Imposthumes Ulcers and Barrenness and diseases in the whole Body Green-sickness Leucophlegmacy Dropsie Vomiting of blood Heart-ach Cough And the longer they have been stopt the harder they are to be opened If the blood stopt go out at the Nose it is good If it have great Symptoms there is fear of death You must not give Medicines to move the terms to extenuate lean persons nor to such as want blood and have a weak Liver but they must be fed high Com. in 6. epid 3. c. 29. First see if blood abound and then after a Lenitive open a Vein and let that blood which is in the Veins be drawn to the Womb. Galen took three pints of blood at three times from a lean Woman and cured her of an old stopping of the Terms You must open the Ankle-veins the first day the right the next the left four or five daies before the time Or you may cup and scarrifie the Legs And bind the parts below and rub them after general Evacuation opening of the Haemorrhoids doth hurt and so do Issues because they draw from the Womb. Hiera picra half an ounce or Pills de Tribus or Hiera simple are good first Then prepare As Take water of Mugwort Calamints Maiden-hair each three ounces Syrup of the five Roots and of Mugwort each two ounces make it for two Doses Or Take opening Roots half an ounce Madder Burnet each three ounces Mugwort Bettony Germander Calamints each a handful red Pease half a handful flowers of Bugloss Dill each a pugil boil and sweeten it with Sugar For flegmatick Bodies take the Decoction of Guajacum Sassaphras Dittany for fifteen daies without sweating Then evacuate with Agarick Mechoacan Turbith Scammony Coloquintida black Hellebore As Take Agarick two drams infuse it in Mugwort-water two ounces Oxymel an ounce strain and the Extract of Mechoacan a scruple Or Take opening Roots half an ounce Mugwort Bettony each two pugils Senna half an ounce Agarick two drams Fennel and Aniseed each a scruple Galangal half a dram Rosemary-flowers a pugil infuse them to three ounces and half add syrup of Senna an ounce and half Cinnamon-water half a dram Or if they drink Wine Take Turbith Mechoacan Agarick each two drams Senna an ounce and half Maiden-hair Balm Rosemary each two pugils Cinnamon Galangal each a dram hang them in Wine give six ounces with half an ounce of Manna Or Take Diaturbith with Rhubarb half an ounce Mechoacan two drams Agarick a dram Diarrhodon Cinnamon each half a dram Steel prepared a dram with Raisons make an Electuary give as much as a Walnut Or give Pills of Agarick foetida and so continue purging and preparing if the matter be stubborn Or Take Agarick two drams Madder a dram with Syrup of Mugwort make Pills Or Take Aloes three drams de Tribus one dram with juyce of Savin make Pills If the stomach is foul give a Vomit lest it get into the veins Par. 1. sec 2. ca. 2. Then give provokers of the Terms which are hot and thin about the time they used to flow they are three degrees in strength and many sorts of Medicines are made of them A Powder Take Cinnamon a dram Amber a scruple Saffron half a scruple Or Take Troches of Mirrh of Wall-flowers each a scruple Saffron five grains Or Take Castor Penny-royal each a scruple with Wine or proper Waters Physical Wine Take Madder-roots an ounce Orris half an ounce Balm Penny-royal Mugwort Rosemary each a handful Wall-flowers half a pugil Cinnamon an ounce Galangal half an ounce with Wine give four ounces Or Take the Decoction of red Pease Or Take Smallage Fennel-roots each half an ounce Mugwort Bettony Penny-royal Balm each a handful red Pease half an handful Juniper-berries half an ounce Wall-flowers a pugil boil and sweeten it Or Take ten ounces of it with three ounces of Mugwort for three doses Quercetan commends this Take Gromwel-seeds Anise Misleto of the Oak each three drams Dittany a dram Saffron a scruple bruise and keep them twenty four hours in Wine then boyl them give four ounces for three daies together Or make the Womans Aqua vitae Or Take Balm Bettony Penny-royal Mugwort Nep Motherwort Dittany each four handfuls Wine thirty pints distil them add three handfuls of each herbs and distil them again
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-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
it by one Sometimes there is only short breath sometimes the animal actions are hurt the whole Body is cold from a malignant vapor sent up from the Womb. The Causes The immediate Cause is a vapour malignant and venomous sent up by the Arteries Veins and Nerves that hurt the actions of the parts it goes to This vapor is like air or wind thin and little but very strong to get presently through the whole Body It chiefly ascends to the Gullet and causeth choaking as eating of Mushrooms Hellebore and other poysons There is often short difficult breathing with Heart-ach Vomiting and Loathing If the vapor go first to the heart the motion of it ceaseth and there is swounding and she falls down If it go to the Brain the animal actions are hurt When seed and terms corrupt in the Womb with other bad humors they breed this evil vapor because they are the best substance and the beginning of generation they are worst when corrupted especially seed to hurt the whole Body Gal. cit 1. Sometimes it is in Women with child when they have not their after-purging but evil humors are left and corrupt in the Womb. The chief cause of this humor is in the trumpet of the womb and stones the body of which is hollow and loose the stones being in Bladders and have hollowness full of water which in hysterical women is yellow and thicker then ordinary Vesal de corp human Fabr. lib. 5. c. 15. This trumpet and the stones are often taken from the womb it self when they are swollen with corrupt seed and humors and wind and reach to the Navel of which in the Chapter of Ascent of the Womb. This disease is breeding sooner or longer as the matter is more or less sometimes corrupt humors lie still and if they be stirred they send a venom or vapor to the whole body Now in women subject to this disease sweet scents to the Nose or taken in or anger will move these humors and vapors They are according to the variety of the Symptoms and efficient cause or venomous humors The Differences for corrupt blood especially seed puts on another Nature That Suffocation is at hand The Signs it appears by laziness weakness of the Legs paleness sad countenance and the motion of something like a Ball in the Belly with noise like Frogs Snakes or Crows so that some think it is devillish There is also Belching Yawning Yexing short Wind Heart-beating Loathing Dulness Laughter at the coming of the fit from the vapor getting into the Membrane of the Breast that tickle them some cry some both laugh and cry These Symptoms increase when the fit comes and the Jaws are closed that she seems to be choaked and sense and motion is gone or depraved Some have Convulsions some hear what is done about them but cannot speak the pulse is less the whole body is cold and the Eyes shut as if they were dead When the fit declines humors flow from the Privities the Guts rumble the Eyes open the Cheeks grow red and the body warm the animal actions return and the Patient sighs and comes to her self It is known to be from corrupt seed if the terms are in order and short breath and low voice Suffocation and Convulsions and all Symptoms are then more vehement and at the end of the fit there flows a humour like seed out of the privities It is from the terms if they be stopt or flow not orderly and if there be a disease in the womb it is neither from the seed nor the terms The Prognostick 1. If there come Swounding or a great Convulsion or quenching of natural heat it is deadly 2. Suffocation from corrupt seed is more dangerous then that which is from the terms mixt with melancholick humors 3. The longer it lasts and the worse the Symptoms the more is the danger It ceaseth in young Women when they begin to bear children 4. The oftner the fit comes the more you may fear the quenching of the natural heat by weakning of the Heart often and if she foam at the mouth she dies The Cure of the Fit In the fit you must discuss the malignant vapors that rise from the womb and turn it from the principal parts and you must evacuate the matter that breeds it and prevent its return Call upon her loud pluck the hairs of her privities and Ears make strong Ligatures and Frictions cup the Legs and Thighs and Groyns hold stinks to the Nose as Partridge-feathers burnt hairs Leather Horn Castor Assa-foetida Galbanum Oyl of Amber Rue the warts on Horses legs dried and the powder upon coals burnt makes a Fume which if taken in the nose suddenly raised them Apply sweet Scents to the Privities as Civet Musk Gallia and Alipta moschata or powder of Cloves Or Take Storax calamita Benzoin each a dram Gallia moschata half a scruple make Troches with Gum traganth and let the Fume be taken into the VVomb by a Fennel A Liniment Take Storax Benzoin each a dram Gallia moschata half a scruple Civet four grains liquid Storax half a scruple with Cotton put it into the Womb. Clysters to discuss wind draw down the matter Take the Carminative Decoction a pint Electuary of Hiera six drams Benedicta laxativa an ounce Oyl of Rue and Bayberries each a dram Use VVomb-clysters and Pessaries to women that have known man Take Electuary of Hiera and Diaphaenicon each two drams Turpentine half an ounce Honey of Mercury an ounce Castor half a dram with Wooll make a Pessary Oyl of Tin applied to the Navel doth remove the fit Or Rue Castor and sneesing Powders As Take white Hellebore half a scruple long Pepper and Ginger each half a dram or put Oyl of Amber into the Nose and Ears Apply to the VVomb this Take Oyl of Rue Bayes each two ounces Cummin-seed Castor dissolved in Vinegar each two drams with Wax make a Liniment Or use a Plaister of Galbanum Castor and Assa-foetida A Compound distilled VVater Take Zedoary Parsnep-seeds Lovage-roots each two ounces Mirrh Castor each half an ounce Piony-roots four ounces Misleto of the Oak gathered in the wain of the Moon three ounces and water of Motherwort four ounces and half Spirit of Wine a pint and half steep them eight daies distil and give a spoonful with Tile-flower or mugwort-Mugwort-water or Oyl of Amber some drops Or Take Castor Assa-foetida each a scruple Pepper half a scruple with syrup of Mugwort make Pills give three The Cure out of the Fit First prevent the seed from corrupting in the womb and if it be corrupt evacuate it presently with Womb-Clysters and Pessaries then disperse the reliques and strengthen the womb But first give a general Purge that is gentle often and use things that prevent the breeding of Seed Strengthen with Plaisters and Oyntments to the Region of the Womb. As Take liquid Storax two drams Avens Agnus castus seeds Angelica each half a dram
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-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.
a Feaver that will come long after Travel If the Lochia flow not in due time or be stopt then the blood and foul humors go back to the great Veins and Liver Hippocr 1. epid tex 21. The Signs and make a putrid Feaver or inflame those parts A Feaver from milk comes the fourth day and there is heaviness of back and shoulders and the Lochia flow well it not there is the sign of a Feaver If the humors putrifie in the womb there is foul stinking matter voided the belly is swollen and is pained when toucht If the Feaver be not from milk and the Lochia flow it comes from bad humors especially if when she was big with child she kept not a good diet A Feaver from milk is without danger The Prognostick and ceaseth the eighth or tenth day that which comes from suppression of the Lochia or After-flux is dangerous and often deadly except there follow a flux of the belly If black stinking matter flow from the womb they escape If the Feaver come from a Cacochymy before Delivery it is worse because it argues much humors which Nature cannot discharge by the after-flux and the strength is dejected by hard travel A Feaver from milk requires only good diet The Cure and sweating must not be hindred for it cures That which is from stoppage or diminishing of the Lochia must be cured by provoking the after-flux or by another evacuation instead of it as purging bleeding in the foot to provoke the flux or by scarifying the thighs and legs after cupping while the time is that the after-flux should be not afterwards For if that time be past if strength permit open a vein in the arm and bleed plentifully For purging some purge them in a Pleurisie after the seventh day Valer. lib. 5. obs 10. merc 4. de morb mul. c. 11. but beware by reason of the weakness after travel and because Purges may hinder the after-flux which is dangerous it is good to evacuate only by the womb but if the flux of blood cease and Nature would purge something from the womb you may give a gentle Purge of Rhubarb Cassia Manna Syrup of Roses Senna Alterers are thus to be ordered Avoid too cold and sharp things lest the evacuation by the womb should be disturbed by cold things The Diet. Let it be thin the first daies of lying in then thicker and so increasing take heed of too much drink especially of cold drink Question What Veins are to be opened in Women that lie in and have a Pleurisie They have Symptomatical Feavers also from inflammation of the Pleura Jaws or Liver because some of the foul humors are sent to some private part and make an inflammation to which the Feaver is joyned and the causes are as before mentioned If there be a Pleurisie she is in great danger The Question is Whether she must bleed above or below I say thus First This Feaver is not properly Symptomatical but primary and hath the inflammation its associate while nature sends part of the matter to the Pleura or other part Secondly Note That Nature is in an error while she sends the vitious humors which she should expel by the womb to the Pleura Thirdly Note That the vitious motion of Nature is not to be helped therefore which should be done if you should presently open a vein in the arm but the blood is to be voided by the womb which is Natures way Fourthly If the Pleurisie be not abated by opening a vein in the ankle for revulsion but the Symptoms continue or increase you must not continue to open the veins beneath because they evacuate not from the part affected which is necessary in such a dangerous disease It is a sign that the matter is fastned to the part that it cannot again be brought to the womb by revulsion Therefore then you may open a vein in the arm on the same side to evacuate and drive the blood from the part or there about or she will be in danger of death And fear not that Nature will be taken from her ordinary motion towards the womb thereby for the vein that was opened in the foot prevented that and if you fear any danger you may prevent it by Frictions and cupping of the leggs while you let blood in the arm And you may give Clysters that may cause the humors moving upwards to come down and loosen the passages of the womb that blood may flow out the better As Take Pellitory of the Wall Mallows Althaea red Coleworts each a handful Chammomil-flowers half a handful Foenugreek and Linseed each half an ounce boyl them in Water to a pint strained add lenitive Electuary an ounce Diacatholicon or Cassia half an ounce Oyl of Violets two ounces make a Clyster If the Feaver abate and the time of the flux of the Lochia be past give a gentle Purge Cure the rest as an ordinary Pleurisie onely take heed that while the After flux lasts you give no binding Medicine Also she may have a Quinzy while she lies in while the vicious matter flows to the jaws The Cure of which bleeding is to be done as in the Pleurisie but the rest is to be done as in the Quinzy And if the Liver be inflamed by the motion of the humors to it you must bleed as in the Pleurisie and Quinzy Yet it is not so needful in the Arm as in the Pleurisie by reason of the greater distance of the Liver from the Arm for the Pleura and the Breast are nearer and consent more with the Arms but the Vein in the Legg is near to the hollow Vein as the distribution of the upper Veins to the Arms. The rest of the Cure of the Inflammation of the Liver is in Lib. 3. onely observe that you must not use too great Coolers or Binders in women in Child-bed but things that are of thin parts lest the flux called Lochia or After-blood should be stopped THE FOURTH BOOK THE THIRD PART Of the Diseases of Womens Breasts THE FIRST SECTION Of Diseases of the Breasts Chap. 1. Of the increased number of Breasts and greatness extraordinary THough Nature hath ordained two in all Women Card. l. 8. c. 43. de rerum varice Cabrol obs 7. yet some have Breasts like Men others have had two on each side that had Milk The figure of the Breasts is round pointed at the nipple a little it ought not to be soft nor hard and of an indifferent bigness and it is better they be indifferent though they hold not so much milk lest they be subject to Cancers and Inflammations and when they are too big they have not a temperate heat The Causes of over-great Breasts is much blood and the strength of heat attracting and concocting it these are remote causes but the immediate cause is the largeness of the passages and loosness which is in the first conformation and furthered by idleness much sleep and few terms and
often handling of the Breasts by which the blood and the heat is drawn to the Breasts The Cure It is easier to keep them from growing great then to abate them when too big with good dyet and Topicks that repel by cooling and binding and drying As Take Mirtle-leaves Horstail Plantane Mints red Roses each a handful Pomegranate-flowers two pugils boyl them in red Wine and Vinegar and with a Spunge apply it to the Breasts and let it dry or apply Hemlock bruised with Vinegar Or Take Powder of Comfrey-roots two drams Pomegranate-flowers red Roses Frankincense Mastich each half an ounce Barley-flour red Oaker each an ounce and half with rose-Rose-water the white of an Egg and a little Vinegar make a Cataplasm These may be laid to the Breasts and under the Arm-pits to astringe the Vessels and hinder the blood from flowing to them Hemlock Henbane and other Narcoticks are forbidden because they weaken the natural heat and hinder the breeding of milk Dryers and Discussers are good in women that have great Breasts after weaning to consume the moisture As Take Bean and Orobus-meal each two ounces and half Comfrey-roots in powder half an ounce Mints three drams Wormwood Chammomil-flowers and Roses each two drams boyl and add two ounces of Oyl of Mastich make a Cataplasm The Breasts are too little when the Flux of blood to the Breasts is hindred diminished intercepted revelled or turned another way or when the blood is not drawn by the Breasts as in a dry Liver-famine much Labour or in Watchings Feavers and other diseases that consume the body The same is when the radical moisture of the Breasts is consumed You must remove the cause that breeds it and often friction will attract blood and foment with warm water in which Emollients have been boyled with white Wine and then anoint with Oyl of sweet Almonds or of Indian-nuts Loosness of the Breasts is cured by Astringents Chap. 2. Of Sweelling of the Breasts with Milk WHen the milk-carrying veins are too full the Breasts swell all over or in part and are pained by stretching and red Sometimes the milk congealed and is a hard Tumor The cause is abundance of milk or blood that makes it or the weakness of the child that cannot suck or because he is weaned It often ceaseth without Remedies Sometimes it is an inflammation or the milk hardens to a tumor The Cure You must hinder the breeding of much milk of which hereafter and consume that which is bred in women that give suck the child will draw them or a Puppy Or use a Glass to suck with they which will not give suck may use this Take Barley-meal of Lentils Althaea-roots Chamomil-flowers and Mints each half an ounce Agnus-castus-seeds two scruples boyl them in Wine add a little Vinegar Oyl of Dill two ounces make a Cataplasm Chap. 3. Of Inflammation and Erysipelas of the Breasts SOmetimes the tumor in the breast is inflamed from blood for though plenty of milk cause an inflammation blood is the immediate cause for milk as it corrupts and grows hot increaseth pain and so the blood staying in the small capillar veins being out of the vessels is hot putrid and inflamed There are other causes as strokes falls straitness of cloaths and other hurts of the Breasts The Signs A hard and red swelling shews inflammation with beating pain and a Feaver The Prognostick These inflammations are commonly without danger but because the Breasts are so loose and have many kernels and little heat they turn to Cancers and Scirrhus The Cure If you fear a great flux of blood that will increase the inflammation let blood in a Plethorick body But if it come from stopping of the terms or after-flux first open the vein in the ankle and scarifie the leggs then if need be open the arm If bad humors coming to the Breasts nourish the Inflammation give a gentle Purge of Manna Senna and the like If the blood be too hot or mixt with hot humors that help the motion of the blood Use Alterers as Lettice Endive Purslane Plantane Water-lillies and the like Use Repellers after these To be a skilful Physitian study my Sennertus Platerus Riverius Bartholinus and Riolanus of the last Editions but such as are weak and not too cold as a clout dipt in Water and Honey with Oyl of Roses applied to the Breasts Or Take Lettice Purslane each a handful red Roses half a handful boyl them in Water add Vinegar two ounces make an Epithem Or Take Nightshade Lettice each a handful boyl them stamp them and add Barley-meal two ounces powder of Chamomil-flowers half an ounce Oxymel Oyl of Roses each a dram make a Cataplasm When the beginning of the Inflammation is past add Discussers with your Repellers As Take white Bread crums Barley-flour each an ounce and half Bean and Foenugreek-flower each half an ounce powder of red Roses and Chamomil-flowers each two drams boyl them add Rose-winegar an ounce Oyl of Roses and of Chamomil each an ounce make a Cataplasm At length use only Discussers As Take Bean-flower and of Lupines and of Foenugreek and Linseed and powder of Chamomil-flowers each an ounce make a Cataplasm If the matter grow hard use Emollients and Attenuates As Take Mallows a handful boyl them till they are soft add powder of Linseed Althoea and Chamomil-flowers each an ounce boyl them again add Oyl of Jesamine an ounce make a Cataplasm If it tend to suppuration lay a Plaister of Diachylon Or Take Mallows and Althoea each half a handful boyl them till they are soft stamp them and add powder of Althaea-roots two ounces powder of Line and Foenugreek-seeds each an ounce Leaven half an ounce add Oyntment of Althaea two ounces make a Cataplasm When there is matter and the Imposthume breaks of its own accord it is well otherwise open it with a Lancet or some sharp Medicine and let out the matter and then cleanse it thus Take Turpentine Honey of Roses each an ounce Mirrh a scruple The ulcer will be hard to be cured except you dry up the milk in the other Breast by reason of much blood that will flow thither to breed milk Question Whether the Inflammation of the Breasts be from blood alone or from milk also The inflammation and swelling in women in Child-bed upon their Breasts is from the afflux of too much milk and it is with redness and pain and beating or pulsation and it is not only from blood for tumors as in other parts are seldom pure or unmixed but there are other humors with it Therefore it is certain that when blood is drawn by heat or pain or comes of it self to the Breasts and begins to corrupt the milk also may be corrupted Of the Erysipelas of the Breasts This Erysipelas is from fright or anger and it turns presently to a Phlegmon and is cured as the Inflammation of the Breast Lay no cold astringent Repellers or fat things but things
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-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
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-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-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
or if it be to hinder the increase of it let diet be against Melancholy prepare and purge Melancholy This powder for many dayes given is excellent Take Smaragds Saphir and East Bezoar-stone each a dram give every day three or four grains with Scabious or Carduus water Let the Tropicks not be biting at first But foment with juyce of Plantane Nightshade Purslane or use Diapompholigos Or Take Juyce of Plantane Nightshade Purstane each two ounces Mucilage of Fleabane an ounce Oyl of Roses three ounces stir them in a leaden Mortar Or Take Oyl of Roses of Eggs each an ounce and half Sugar of Lead a dram stir them in a leaden Mortar then add Litharge Ceruss each three drams Tutty a dram Camphire a scruple Or Take Juyce of Nightshade six ounces Tutty and burnt Lead each two drams Camphire half a dram stir them long in a leaden Mortar and add powder of Cray-fish Inject a Decoction of Cray-fish and if pain be great foment with Mallows Althaea Water-lillies Coriander Dill Fleabane Seed with Saffron in Milk or make a Cataplasm of the same Some use Antimony Arsenick c. which are good in other parts But this cannot bear them A noble Woman had on the right side of her Face an ulcerated Cancer and when all the French Italian German Spanish Physitians could not cure her a Barber cured her only with Chickens sliced thin and laid on often every day Chap. 12. Of a Gangrene and Sphacel in the Womb. SOmetimes the whole Womb is gangrenated and it is from the Privities that receive many Excrements apt to corrupt The Causes It is from an Inflammation and Ulcer not well cured because the part hath many Excrements which easily quench the natural heat and then the part mortifies The Signs There is an usual heat in the Neck of the Womb and a Feaver with horror all over the body then the colour changeth in the part it is black and blew without pulse or sense When it is cut or pricked it stinks and the strength decayes and the heart faints The Prognostick Aetius leth 1. cap. 72. Nichol. Florent ser 6. tr 3. Math. degrad in 9. Rhasis C. de exitu matricis It is very dangerous and worse when it goes to the womb than outwards Some have had the Womb fall out and have lived which besides grave Histories We saw at Avinion in an old noble VVoman Anno 1635. Stop the putrifaction take away that which is rotten by scarrifying if you can then wash with the Decoction of VVormwood Lupines and with Aegyptiacum and apply this Cataplasm Take Orobus and Bean flour each two ounces Oxymel a pint boil them add Lupines Wormwood Aloes and Mirrh Cut off the dead flesh The Cure strengthen the principal parts the Heart lest the Spirits be infected with evil vapors that fly by the Arteries Give Conserve of Borrage Bugloss Gilli-flowers Diamargariton frigid Electuary of Gems frigid Confection of Hyacinths Syrup of Sorrel Pomegranates Borrage and apply Epithems to the Heart In Observatio Vuierus cured a noble Woman aged twenty five she had a Pustle in her Privities in the Dog-dayes from violent Lechery with her Husband and she used a Cataplasm from a silly Chirurgion and in few dayes it rotted grew black and mortified and went towards the Fundament very fast THE FOURTH BOOK THE SECOND SECTION Of the Diseases of the WOMB Chap. 1. Of the Knowledge of the Temper of the Womb. Lib. uterus muliebris MArk Anthony Ulmus Physitian of Bononia shews the Temper of the Womb He saith That a Beard in Women shews that they have a hot Womb and hot Stones It comes with the beginning of the Terms and when the Breasts swell and is hard to be seen Lib. 3. de lui ani c. 11. Aristotle saith That some Women have hairs in their Chin when their Courses stop and when they have a hot Womb and Stones But there are more certain signs of heat 1. When hard hair comes forth suddenly thick black and long and large about If they come forth slow thin soft yellowish and but few not spreading the Womb is cold Also when the Terms come forth at 12 years of age it is a sign of a hot Womb and when they last long the blood is red hot but not very much In an old Constitution they come later and the blood is cold and waterish and they end sooner If it be hot and moist they flow plentifully and last till after fifty If it be hot and dry the blood is yellow thin and sharp and pricks the Privities If it be cold and moist the blood comes late forth with difficulty and it is whitish and thin If it be cold and dry the Terms come forth very late and with difficulty and seldome continue till forty and the blood is thick and little The third sign is from Lechery for they who have hot wombs desire Copulation sooner and more vehemently are much delighted therewith they who are cold do the contrary The hot and moist are not tired with much Venery The hot and dry have great Lust and a Frenzy if they want it but they are quickly tired because there are but few Spirits If it be cold and moist they are not soon lecherous and are easily satisfied and if they miscarry often the womb is made colder and they delight not in the sport but Copulation doth them good and makes them more youthful If it be cold and dry they desire not a man in a long time and take no delight because the Spirits are few The fourth sign is from often Conception for the hot conceive often and bring forth males or Viragoes if the seed of the man agrees with it the cold doth the contrary A hot and moist Womb is very fruitful if the man be well tempered and though he be old and weak yet she will conceive by him Sometimes they have twins or over-do and have a Mole Hot and dry are fruitful but not so much as the former Cold and moist are hard to conceive especially when they are in years when they are young and the Seed of the man is hot and dry they conceive males but seldom well shaped or healthful and the woman while she is with Child is sickly A cold and dry Womb is commonly barren and if they conceive the Mans Seed is hot and moist they bring forth Females and if Males they are tall and quickly look old Chap. 2. Of the hot Distemper of the Womb. HEat of the VVomb is necessary for Conception but if it be too much it nourisheth not the Seed of the man but disperseth its heat and hinders the Conception The Causes This preternatural heat is from the Birth sometimes and makes them barren If aftewards it is from hot causes that bring the heat and the blood to the womb From internal and external Medicines too much hot meats and drinks and Exercise The Signs They are prone
worse For if blood be not bred in such a quantity that may prick Nature forward to expel it the purging of it is differed till there be enough to stir up Nature to expel it If thick humors are in the blood the passage stopt and the faculty weak the Terms must needs be disordered and the purging of them differed longer If it be from want of blood The Signs she hath either lived poor in diet or exercised too much and she finds no inconvenience by the want of her Terms If it be from gross slimy blood there are signs of Cachochymy The weakness of the faculty is known by the cold distemper of the womb It is not so dangerous as stoppage of the terms The Prognostick but it is bad enough in a plethorick or cacochymical body If little blood be use a fuller diet The Cure and exercise not If blood be gross and foul make it thin and cut it and after Preparatives let the humors mixed therewith be evacuated It is good to purge presently after the Terms and to use Calamints and to purge often Also four or five dayes before the Terms scarifie the ankles and hold the feet in warm water rub the legs apply Cupping-glasses without Scarification to the inside of the thighs and use Fumes and Pessaries Anoint the bottom of the belly with things to provoke the Terms If there be a numness use things against the Palsie Chap. 11. Of the Terms voided another way SOmetimes they come out at the Nose or are vomited up or flow out by the Haemorrhoid veins 1. De morb mul. 5. apho 32. obser medit c. 15. Lib. 1. de affect mul. c. 7. The Causes Hence Hippocrates saith that a woman that vomits blood is cured by having her Terms or by a Bloody-flux Sometimes they are pissed forth Dodonaeus saies That they come out at the eyes like tears sometimes Amatus Lusitanus saith they will come forth at the Teats of the breasts and at the navel at the little finger or ring finger every month as Mercatas observed thrice Are stoppage of the Terms from straitness of the vessels in the womb or evil conformation of the womb The Prognostick It is more troublesome then dangerous and hinders conception It is best when they come out at the Nose for it is a part that Nature useth to disburden her self by The Cure First Bring the blood to the womb again and abate it Open the ankle-vein three daies before she begins to bleed Or cup the thighs or rub them Or use Baths Fomentations Oyntments Womb-Clysters Pessaries and the like mentioned in Suppression of the Terms Chap. 12. Of the Whites IT is a foul excretion from the womb white and sometimes blew or green or reddish nor at a set time nor every month but disorderly longer or shorter Before or after the Terms and when they are stopt Virgins seldom have this disease and women with child have it sometimes It differs from the running of the reins for it is in less quantity whiter and thicker and at a greater distance It differs from night pollution which is only in sleep with the imagination of Venery The immediate Cause is an excrementitious humor flegm choler or melancholy The Causes Sometimes it is like waterish blood It is gathered in the whole body or in the stomach liver or spleen For they who have crudities in the stomach are subject to this disease Sometimes the womb alone is distempered after often mischances or when the womb is very cold and moist This matter flows through the veins of the womb or of the neck of it which use to carry blood and Nature abuseth them to carry excrements especially if they are bred in the womb The remote causes are whatsoever doth breed bad humors some have it after strong purges or long bathing Sometimes they are pale sometimes blew red The Differences waterish and green sometimes slimy or cold or sharp or stinking In young people it is reddish The face is discoloured the urin thick The Signs there is loathing and heart-ach If the humor be sharp and corrupt there is a Feaver If it be flegmatick and much the ligaments of the Womb are loose and it falls out thus Hippocrates Lib. de natur mulierum and there are saith he swelled eyes evil colour and short breathing If it be not bred in the womb the humor is from a Cacochymy If it be from a fault in another part the signs of that will appear If it come only from the Womb there will be but little If from the whole body there will be more The Prognostick It is often long with little inconvenience but it must be looked to lest it be worse for it often breaks ulcers Cachexy falling out of the womb Consumption Fainting Convulsions when the matter is sent to the brain or nerves And the worse the humor is the greater is the disease The Cure It must not be suddenly stopt lest it go to the noble parts First see whether it be from the whole body or any part or from the Womb it self If from the whole body which is often make general evacuation and turn the humors from the womb and keep a good diet lest they come again I allow not bleeding in the arm if the terms be stopt for they cause a Cacochymy which admits no bleeding Moreover the mass of blood may be made foul by them therefore find out whether it comes from Cacochymy or Plethory And when it is most like to come from Cacochymy bleed not Therefore if flegm abound which is most usual after general purging consume the reliques with Guajacum and Sarsa and a drying diet and by provoking Urin of which hereafter If sharp and cholerick humors abound temper them with gentle astringents as Succory Endive Sorrel to prepare purge with Rhubarb Triphera Persica aggregative Pills and Pills of Rhubarb If it be melancholy do as in melancholy If it be water cure it as Galen did the Wife of Boethus c. 8. lib. de prognost ad Posth If it be in the stomach liver or the like prevent it from increase and because it is most about the stomach give a Vomit but not too strong Then strengthen the stomach with hot and dry Medicines If Choler abound the Distemper is hot and then cool it If it come from the Womb do as I shewed from what cause soever it is Baths are good to evacuate and divert and strengthen and take away a moist distemper provided they are proper for the Constitution Use Dryers and Astringents As Take Conserve of red Roses four ounces of Succory two ounces red Coral Snakeweed Tormentil-roots Ivory each two drams with Syrup of Mirtles make an Electuary Or Take red Coral Bole sealed Earth each an ounce Pearl prepared a scruple Mastich half a dram Cypress-roots two scruples Mace half a scruple with Sugar of Roses as much as all make a powder Or Take
month especially if they have no Feaver and are strong As Celsus saith A strong Child and a lusty old Man and a healthy Woman with Child Lib. 2. c. 10. may be safely let blood And Hippocrates forbids bleeding only lest the child should want nourishment Question 3. Whether may a Woman with Child be purged You must not give strong Purges lest their force which moveth the humors should reach to the womb and cast out the child Therefore you must not purge women with child in all diseases nor at all times but only in the fourth month till the seventh and that sparingly And if the matter swell and abound 4. Aph. 1. as Hippocrates shews For the danger from the turgent matter is easily avoided thereby for it will be purged with more ease then when it is fixed and quiet 1. Therefore only purge in an acute disease 2. From the beginning of the fourth only to the end of the sixth 3. Use no vehement Medicine nor very bitter as Aloes which is an enemy to the child and opens the mouths of the vessels nor Coloquintida nor Scammony nor Turbith but use Caffia Manna Rhubarb Agarick and Senna but Diacydonium purgans is best with a little of the Electuary of the juyce of Roses If there be a chronick disease she may also be purged safely especially if she be used to it and strengthners be applyed to the navel Question 4. Whether Purging or Bleeding is most dangerous for a Woman with Child We shewed in the last Question the necessity of purging and its danger by the great motion of humors which if it reach to the womb causeth abortion because it causeth pain in the belly and provokes the terms But bleeding disturbs the humors less nor doth hurt any way but by taking nourishment from the child And this you need not fear if there be too much blood Therefore purging is more dangerous then bleeding Question 5. Whether it is lawful to cause an Abortion to preserve the Mother A Christian may not cause an Abortion for any cause for it is wicked and the Gentiles in Hippocrates his time never allowed it they would not hinder Conception much less would they destroy it when made Nor must the mother be preserved by the loss of the child For we must not do evil that good may come thereby But if to preserve the mother the Physitian purge or bleed and the abortion follow the fault is not in the Physitian that intended it not but in the weakness of Nature and of the Child and is better to preserve the Mother then by neglecting the lawful means let both die Also the dead child must presently be thrown out Question 6. Whether are Clysters Diureticks and Sweats proper for a Woman with Child Though women deny Clysters to them yet if they have been used to them they may be given in a small quantity such as only mollifie and supple nor do they more hurt then Lenitives Diureticks or things that provoke Urine are not safe because they provoke the Terms You may not give gentle Sweats for Nature will receive strength by the casting off of her enemies You must use Alterers that are proper as this Syrup Take the juyce of unripe Grapes about the beginning of September three galons add Pomecitrons or Lemons bruised half a pound boil them till they are soft and strain them and with half a pound of Sugar make a Syrup Chap. 4. Of the Symptoms that befal Women with Child in the first Months THey are loathing meat Pica or evil appetite pewking vomiting belly-ach flux of the belly tooth and head-ach giddiness These all come from the stoppage of the terms especially in a Cacochymy or evil juyce for it goes to the stomach and so to the head First They loath meat 5. Apho. 45. which Hippocrates saith is a sign of Conception And this is when the child takes the purest blood and leaves the impure which gets into the mouth of the stomach and infects it and hence comes the loathing of some sorts of meats Sometimes this ceaseth of it self but if there be danger of a Consumption in the mother lest the child should be in danger for want of food give a gentle Vomit or Stomach-Pills with things that strengthen the Stomach As Take Conserâ—â— of red Roses half an ounce of Bettony an ounce preserved Quinces three drams Aromaticum Rosatum half a dram Pearl prepared half a scruple with Syrup of green Ginger and Quinces make an Electuary Anoint the stomach with oyl of Mastich Mints Quinces Wormwood Mirtles c. Give astringents and powerful things with meat and let it be roasted rather then boyled Pica is when they desire strange and absurd things as Coals Ashes c. As she that longed for her husbands flesh and though she loved him very well she killed him eat part and powdered up the rest Of this disease we spake in the third Book Juyce of young Vine-leaves with Syrup of Quinces is good against this or the water that drops in May from the Vines This keeps the child from suffering by the mothers appetite Or this Spirit Take Citron-peels Oranges Piony-roots as much as you please and Malmsey digest them some dayes then beat the roots and peels add more Malmsey and distil them The third is loathing and vomiting from an evil vapour or humour in the stomach from blood retained If vomiting give her ease stop it not but leave it to nature it will cease after a month or two If it be with trouble give a gentle Vomit or strengthen the stomach or give a little Rhubarb The fourth is pain of the belly from wind and humors about the womb that go to the guts discuss them as in Chap. 3. Of the Cholick Avoid moist Fomentations give cinnamon-Cinnamon-water or spiced wine The fifth is a loosness which must be suddenly stopt lest it cause an abortion First Hippocr 5. Aphor. 34. give a gentle cleanser and strengthener as Rhubarb with syrup of Roses solutive then Quinces at the first course at meals and Rice Starch Almonds Conserve of Roses Quinces Apply to the navel a Pultis of Quinces Mastich Nutmegs Mace Cloves The sixth is the Tooth-ach from a sharp humor from retention of the terms that goes to the root of some tooth and hurts the membranes It ceaseth commonly of it self yet if it be great use a Plaister of Mastich and Tacamahacca to the temples and hold in the mouth the decoction of Fern-roots Cinquefoyl Snakeweed Sage Mulberry-barks c. The seventh is Head-ach when the vapors from the terms stopt ascend and twitch the membranes of the brain it must be repelled and abated with Lenitives of which in Lib. 1. Part 3. Sect. 1. Cap. 3. Of Head-ach The eighth of the Megrim from the vapors disturbing the Spirits that go to the head by the veins and arteries or by the gullet If it cease not discuss vapors and strengthen the brain inwardly and outwardly as in Vertigo
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
prevent Symptomes To take away pain and strengthen the parts foment with the Decoction of Mugwort Mallows Rosemary Wormwood Mirtles St. Johns-wort each half an ounce Sperma Ceti two drams Deers-suet an ounce with Wax make an Oyntment Or Take Wax four ounces Sperma Ceti an ounce melt them dip Flax therein and lay it all over the belly In some Countries women will not permit these but leave all to God Chap. 9. Of the Caesarean-Birth THe belly and womb are cut sometimes to take out the child and this is called the Caesarean-Birth and they that live are called Caesar It is done in three cases 1. When the child is dead and the woman alive 2. When the woman is dead and the child alive 3. When both mother and child are alive This is seldom because either Medicines do it or it is taken out by other Chyrurgery or the work is left to Nature Enchirid. consul medic p. 188. Mathias Cornax hath a History of one that carried a dead child in her belly four years it was taken out by cutting the womb and belly and the mother lived and conceived with child after she fainted not at the time and the wound grew together without stitching and her terms after came in good order and she had a lusty Boy till the second of June The Surgeons that had cut her afore were sent for and the old orifice was open and the mother and the women present would not yield to the second cutting Therefore her strength failed and the Chyrurgion took out a compleat child but it was dead There are more Histories of live children cut out of their mothers bellies being dead And Roderick à Castro saith Pin. lib. 7. hist. nat c. 90. Rod. à Castry lib. 4. de morbis mul. c. 1. Augen lib. 5. epit 2. 11. That an Infant cannot live in the Mothers womb being dead except it be taken out at the very time of her departure or while there are vital Spirits because when the motion and life of the mother ceases the life of the child also ceaseth yet is his Argument of no force because the child hath its proper Soul and if it be well it may live a while in the womb without benefit from the mother as it doth when it is delivered But take heed it be not suffocated in the womb and keep the mothers mouth open and let the Midwife never move her hand from the Privities Lib. 3. de disect part cor hum c. 1. till the Chyrurgion have taken it out and you may know that the child is alive when the mother is dead by its leaping Charles Stephens shews the way of taking out a dead child When a live child is cut out of the belly of a live mother it is done only lest the mother or child or both should die And this may be done and both preserved alive which is plainly demonstrated by Francis Rousset in his Book of this subject so that there is no doubt of it For first he shews the necessity of the Operation and next the possibility of it shewing that the muscles of the belly the Peritonaeum and Womb may be cut without hazard of life Thirdly He confirms by History what he proved by reason and shews that many wounds of the muscles in the lower belly Peritonaeum and Womb have been cured Fourthly He propounds many more dangerous cases then the Caesarean Section which were not deadly in themselves And then he shews the manner of the operation and how it is to be done Therefore have recourse to his works if thou wilt learn it THE FOURTH BOOK THE SEVENTH SECTION Of the Government of Women in Child-bed of the Diseases that come after Travel Chap. 1. Of the Government of Women in Child-bed PResently after she is delivered labour to make the After-birth follow of which in the Chapter following then compose her in Bed and give her good Food Let the Air be temperate rather hot then cold Let her beware of Cold that it get not into the Womb it will cause torment and inflammations If Travel be hard anoint the belly and sides with Oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies and warm Wine Let her meat be of a good juyce and easie concoction Hen-broath and Chickens and Capons Kid Mutton Veal let her drink thin Wine if there be no Feaver or Cinnamon boyled in water the first daies drunk warm Let there be no noise about her and let her not rise too soon avoid passions lest the humors be stirred and fall into some part If she cannot or will not suckle her child turn the milk from the breast by repellers under the Arm-pits as Unguent of Roses Cerot of Sanders dissolved in Vinegar and to the breasts apply a Cataplasm of Bean and Orobus-flour with Oxymel or foment the breasts with the decoction of Mints Dill Smallage or lay the leaves bruised upon them Before she goes forth let her bathe with a Decoction of Lilly-roots Elicampane Mugwort Agrimony Borage Rosemary Chamomil-flowers Stoechas Faenugreek Linseed Citron-peels Chap. 2. Of the Secundine or After-birth or a Mole that is left after Child-bearing THese stick in the bottom of the womb or like a ball to another part the mouth of the womb being open or closed It is not safe to cut the After-birth from the The Causes Navel till both be come forth therefore draw it out with breaking of the Navel-string this is retained because it grows to the sides of the womb or is swollen by hard travel or because the Navel-string is broken by the Infants straining or from cold air got in or from a fright or from her not having throws fit to exclude it or because she is impatient and will not continue in a due posture The Signs The Midwife will declare it and the purgation is not the belly swells there is a Feaver and heaviness and pain in the belly there is a stink and loathing from stinking vapors difficult breathing Suffocation and Convulsion The Prognostick Many die from the retaining of it if it cannot come forth when matter flows from the womb there is hope that they will rot and come away in sixty daies The Cure First let the Midwife draw it gently with her hand and use sneesing then burn Partridge-feathers to the nose and Goats-hoofs as in the suffocation of the Womb. Then use things that expel a dead child Dittany Oyl of wood Heracleon after Preparatives Or Take Marjoram Chervil Penny-royal each a handful Savin half a handful Anise and Fennel-seed each half a dram Lovage and Parsley-roots each three drams boyl them in water for three draughts Or Take Dittany Troches of Myrrh Borax each half a dram Saffron Castor each a scruple make a Powder Or Take round Birthwort two scruples Myrrh a scruple make a Powder give it in Wine Make Pessaries of Mugwort Mercury Sage Orris in Powder with Oyl of Keir Or Take round Birthwort Savin Briony Ox-gall and Honey and
pain If from inflammation it is stronger If from a Cancer it is very great How these pains are cured is shewed in their Chapters A TRACTATE Of the CURE OF INFANTS THE FIRST PART Of the Diet and Government of INFANTS Chap. 1. Of the Choice of the Nurse THE blood that nourished the Child in the Womb is turned into Milk to nourish him after he is born because he can eat no solid meats And because from weakness or a Disease the mother sometimes cannot suckle her child she must have a Nurse of good habit of body and red complexion which is the sign of the best temper and let her not differ much from the temper of the mother unless it be for the better let her be between twenty and thirty well bred and peaceable not angry melancholy or foolish not lecherous nor a drunkard Let it not be after her first child and let not her milk be too old or too new of ten months old at the most Let her breasts be well fashioned with good Nipples that the child may take them with pleasure Let her keep a good diet and abstain from hard wine and copulation and passions these chiefly trouble the milk and bring diseases upon the child If there be a bad humor from high feeding in the Nurse let her take a gentle Purge when she gives not suck except the child be to be purged by the same Question Whether is an Infant better nourished by the Mother or by a Nurse Some say by a Nurse others say The Mothers milk is more like the nourishment it had in the womb which is best except she have a disease For he that gave her strength to conceive travel and bring forth will give her strength to play the Nurse though she be weak And honest women will be very obedient to directions for the good of the child they love so dearly Lib. 12. c. 1. of which Phavorinus Chap. 2. Of the Conditions of good Milk IT must be neither too thick nor too thin for too thick cannot be concocted and the thin argues crudities If it be dropt upon the nail or a glass and falls not easily off as water if it stick too fast it is too thick Let the colour be white the more it differs from that the worse it is Let it be sweet not sour salt or bitter or sharp Let it neither smell burnt or sour for then it will easily corrupt in the stomach of the child Chap. 3. Of Curing the Faults in Milk THe usual fault is when it is too thin by reason of plenty of Serum in the blood this nourisheth little and makes lean children that fall into a Diarrhaea or Belly-flux If it be too sharp they are scabby Give hot and dry things The Cure let bread be well baked with Anise and Fennel-seed roast the meat and give Rice and sweet Almonds avoid Fish Sallets Summer-fruits much Broath use often exercise and purge Serum or Whey with Syrup of Roses and Mechoacan or Rhubarb if it be hot or cholerick If serous humors come from the distemper of the Liver amend that and let cold and moist breasts be amended with things hot and dry Of thick Milk It is from gross dyet and drink or from a hot and dry distemper in the breasts that turns up the thin blood The Cure Give flesh of good juyce and easie concoction Chickens Kid Veal abstain from gross food use moistners and attenuaters and if there be thick humors with the blood let them be evacuated Of the sharpness ill taste scent and colour of the Milk There are divers tastes scents and colours in milk from variety of dyet Therefore let a Nurse take heed of fryed Onions and all sour salt and spiced meats and let her eat Sallets and Radishes and the like Let her not be passionate Milk also is sometimes salt sharp cholerick and melancholick This breeds dangerous diseases as wringing in the belly flux watching leanness trush and falling-sickness The Cure Correct the blood and keep a good dyet beware of things that corrupt the milk as sharp salt things avoid anger and other passions and Venery Good Wine moderately taken by such as have used it takes away the ill scent from milk If these will not do purge the Cachymy or evil juyces with Medicines proper for the humors offending Chap. 4. Of the Dyet and Government of new-born Children THe best colour in a new-born child is redness all over the body that changeth by degrees to a Rose-colour they who are white are sickly and short lived It must cry clear and loud which shews the strength of the breath Observe all the parts and figure and passages diligently let the Midwife handle it gently Roul it up with soft cloaths and lay it in a cradle and wash it first with warm wine give it a little Honey before it sucks or a little Oyl of sweet Almonds newly drawn that if there be any filth contracted in the stomach from the womb it may be cleansed for there is black matter yellowish in the guts which if not voided will cause an Epilepsie Keep it from cold air and not too hot nor in too great light set not a candle behind it at the head nor let it see the Sun least it be squint-ey'd Let it not be frighted nor left alone sleeping or waking least it receive hurt Let it sleep long carried in the arms often and give it the dug but fill not too much his stomach with milk After four months loosen the arms but not the belly and breast and feet but keep them rouled from cold above a year Let it be often cleansed from the excrements of the belly and bladder least they cause itching or pain or excoriation A little crying empties the brain and enlargeth the lungs and stirs up natural heat but let it not cry too much for to prevent Catarrhs and Ruptures but it doth least hurt before sucking and after concoction The first months let it only suck as often as it will so the stomach be not over-charged Give it change of breasts sometimes the right sometimes the left Afterwards make a Pap of Barley-bread steept in water and boyled in Milk Let strong Children have it betimes and not suck an hour after thus it must be nourisht till it breeds Teeth Chap. 5. Of the Dyet of an Infant from Breeding of Teeth till it be Weaned WHen the Teeth come forth by degrees give it more solid food and deny it not milk such as are easily chewed When it is stronger let it not stand too soon but be held by the Nurse or put into a Go-chair that it may thrust forward it self and not fall In places where bathing of Children is used let it be washed twice a week from the seventh month till it be weaned Chap. 6. Of Weaning of Children WEan it not till the Teeth are bred lest when the eye-teeth come forth it causeth Feavers and ach of Gums and other Symptoms
that sweat as Harts-horn sealed Earth Carduus must be given with Elder-water to discuess that thin blood that causeth the inflammation Apply outwardly hot a Pledget dipt in Elder-water Chap. 4. Of the Oedoma of the Breasts THis flegmetick tumor is in chachectick women that have the white Feaver it is cold and white and pits because the part is loose and spungy Are a loose tumor almost insensible of pain The Signs and the finger laid on leaves a pit It is larger when the Terms are at hand and abateth when they are past If it come from a Cachexy The Prognostick and a disease of the womb it is dangerous but it commonly ends by resolution or dissolved The Cure is by dry and hot means The Cure and if it is from a Cachexy or want of Terms they must first be removed then use Topicks that discuss and resolve and strengthen let them be but temperately hot lest you discuss the thin and leave the thick which will cause a Schirrhus Make therefore Fomentations of a Lixivium of Vine and Colewort-ashes and Sulphur or a Decoction of Hysop Sage Organ Chamomil-flowers Then anoint with Oyl of Chamomil Lillies Bayes Or Take Barley-flour four ounces of Linseeds Faenugreek Dill Chamomil-flowers each half an ounce Althaea-roots an ounce with Oyl of Chamomil and Dill make a Cataplasm Chap. 5. Of the Scirrhus of the Breasts IT is a hard tumor without pain from melancholy gathered in the veins that flows to the Breasts or it is thick flegm dryed Sometimes both humors are mixed together or more which makes a bastard Scirrhus And if burnt humors abound most it turns to a Cancer and if melancholy be most it is not a Scirrhus but a Cancer The Signs There are two signs of a true Scirrhus hardness and want of pain if it be fixed It is sometimes white sometimes black or blew as the humor is If it be a bastard Scirrhus there is heat and pain and if they increase it turns to a Cancer and the veins grow blew about and begin to swell The Prognostick The bigger and the harder it is the more hard it is to be cured If hairs grow upon a Scirrhus it is incurable and it easily turns to a Cancer The Cure After Universals and the Cause is removed from the womb or the whole body let the containing cause be softned made thin and discussed But beware of two things First That the thin parts be not discussed by too hot medicines and the thick left for so it will be incurable and as hard as a stone Secondly That you ferment not the matter by moistning Emollients so that it turn to a Cancer The Ancients either used none or a drying or a moistning medicine only You must either use Moistners and Emollients with Digesters by turns Inst l. 50. Ja. 1. sec 1. c. 6. or mixed Foment with the Decoction of Mallows Althaea Foenugreek and Linseed Brank-ursine and Chamomil-flowers Then anoint with Oyl of sweet Almonds Chamomil Hens-grease Veal-marrow Oyntment of Althaea Or apply this Cataplasm Take Althaea Mallows Brank-ursine Fennel-tops each a handful boyl them soft stamp them add Barley and Bean-flour Linseed powder of Althaea-roots Chamomil-flowers each an ounce Or lay on the great Diachylon Plaister and that of Frogs Then sprinkle Wine upon a hot stone and let the Fume be received And apply a Plaister of Ammoniacum dissolved in Vinegar If it be a Bastard Scirrhus you may fear a Cancer Then after Universals and Bleeding take away the disposition of the Bowels that breeds black humors If you fear a flux of humors use Oyl of Roses and Juyce of Plantane and if there be heat stir them first in a Leaden Mortar till they change their colour then add Ceruss Litharge each three ounces with Wax make an Oyntment Chap. 6. Of the Glandles or Kernels in the Breasts being swollen or of the Scrofula and Struma in the Breast CElsus saith The Struma and Scrofula in the Breast are rare It is from a thick humor The Causes flegm or melancholy Struma is with pain sometimes and is like a Cancer or seems to turn to a Cancer but continues many years at a stand But let the cause be what it will it comes from stoppage or disorder of the terms by reason of the great consent of the Womb with the Breast The Signs The Glandles or Kernels are to be felt though not before there is one great unmoveable tumor and the rest are small The Prognostick It is hard to be cured for two causes the earthiness of the matter and the deep lying of it They which are near the skin are easily dissolved The Cure After purging and bleeding use Emollients and Discussers that are strong as in Scirrhus Take Orris-roots three ounces boyl them in Oxymel stamp them add Turpentine Oyntment of Althaea each three ounces Mucilage of Foenugreek-seed an ounce Or Take roots of Althaea two ounces Briony-roots an ounce Orris-roots half an ounce boyl them soft in white Wine stamp them add Ammoniacum dissolved in Vinegar and Bdellium dissolved in Wine each an ounce with Pitch and Wax make a Plaister If it cannot be discussed suppurate or cut it but this is troublesome and dangerous Chap. 7. Of the Cancer of the Breasts 6. Aphor. 38. HIppocrates saith That an occult Cancer is better not cured than cured for if cured they presently die but if not they live long Many women have lived long with good order of diet having a Cancer as if they had no disease so saith William Fabricius Cent. 3. Obs 87. and that if the Cancer be not ulcerated they may live forty years without pain and if you lay on Emollients and Suppuraters they die in half a year The Breasts are spungy and loose The Causes and therefore Cancers breed often there but the Cause is from the Womb when they are of a hot and dry constitution with burnt blood and when the terms stop and then the humors flie to the Womb and make a Cancer either with or without a tumor aforegoing A Cancer that ariseth of it self The Signs is hard to be discerned at first for it is like a little tubercle no bigger than a pease and grows up by degrees and spreads out roots with veins about it And when the skin is eaten through it is a stinking ulcer and the lipps are hard and the matter black It is hard or never cured The Prognostick because the black humor that causeth it is very troublesome and hath a peculiar malignity which is fermented and made worse with Emollients and Suppuraters which loosen the vessels and dilate them so that the humor flows easier to the part and the corrupt humors get easier to the parts adjacent and infect them A Cancer not ulcerated is to be let alone The Cure by the counsel of Hippocrates But let blood and purge melancholy often But use no Topicks that may
rot or provoke the part but things that by experience take away pain as nightshade-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-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