the woman is weak already by her travel Good diet and gentle sweating cure a Milk-Feaver but there must be purging and many remedies used for the other as bleeding in the foot cupping of the thighs to provoke the after purgations but if the time of after-purging be over if she be strong then open a vein in the Arm. It is dangerous to purge the woman after the seventh day as some do when she hath a Pleurisie because of her weakness after travel and because purges hinder the after-flux but you may if the flux of blood cease if need be give a gentle purge with Cassia or Manna sirrup of roses or Sena or Rhubarb Too cold and sharp things are naught take heed of cold drink or too much drink let her diet by degrees increase from thin to thicker If the Feaver came from too much milk or terms stopt open a vein in her foot then purge a way the gross humours with sirrup of Maidenhair Endive of each one ounce waters of Succory and Fennel an ounce and half a piece Sharp and putrified humours must be purged away with proper medicaments as water of Succory and violets of each two ounces sirrup of the same of each one ounce cooling Glisters are good here if there be need you may purge stronger but this is not usual I shall give you one example take two drams of Rhubarb in powder Diagridium four grains let them infuse all night in Succory and Anniseed water two ounces and half of each and one ounce of Borrage flower water warm them gently in the morning and strain them well through a linnen cloth add to the strained liquor one ounce of sirrup of Succory Cinnnamon water two spoonfuls drink it warm Then after you have well purged away the ill humours you may gently sweat her to open the passages of the body and womb you will find examples of them in the Treatise of the Courses stopt CHAP. IV. Of the looseness of the belly in child-bed Women THis may be thought a small matter in respect of other infirmities yet this is one of the most dangerous distempers and hardest to help in child-bed women for stop the flux you will stop her purgations if you stop it not she will perish by weakness nothing almost is safely given Physicians are at a stand in such a case but it is good be wary and moderate in what is done and it may be helpt God willing It is not safe to stop it presently and if it continue it may cause a Tenesmus or a dysentury if it come from ill diet let her mend that and strengthen her stomach outwardly if yet it continue use inward remedies that corroborate the stomach yet hurt not the womb as Barley water Honey and sirrup of roses cleansing Glisters are good and to temper sharp cholerick humours But the best way is to observe what loosenes of the belly she is molested with for if it be that they call Diarrhoea that will only discharge her body of ill humours therefore do nothing in that case but let her take strengthening food for when nature hath eased her self sufficiently she will stay both the looseness of the belly and her purgations from the womb and so no ill accidents will come but if the flux be Lienteria that the food comes away with the stools undigested annoint her belly with Oil of Mastick and of Myrtles and give her some sirrup of dried Roses pulp of Tamarinds or some torrified Rhubarb to purge the belly and not hurt the womb But if it rise to a Dysentery called the bloody flux then so soon as her Terms are purged away try to stay it 1. By purging as take half a dram of bark of yellow Mirobolans of rosted Rubarb as much finely powdered sirrup of Roses or of Quinces one ounce pulp of Cassia or of Tamarinds with Sugar half an ounce Plantane or Oaken water four ounces let her drink this at once 2. Abstersives are good as of whey or barley water or Glisters of Mallows Mellilot Wheat-bran and Oyl of sweet Almonds 3. Narcoticks to ease great pains Philonium Romanum two scruples Rose-water two ounces Maligo wine one ounce give it when she goes to sleep this is excellent In this case astringents are to be used but not in the former distempers here they profit there they are dangerous Of Womens vomiting in Child-Bed Women both before they fall in labour and at the time of their travel and also afterwards will sometimes fall to vomiting and it may proceed from ill diet or raw humors or from weakness of their stomach or consent of the womb when the after flux is stopt and sometimes they will vomit blood for the blood that is stopped below runs back to the great veins and liver and being much and sharp finds a way into the stomach and so comes forth at the mouth It is ill after child-birth especially the food being vomited there will be nothing to make milk for the child and sometimes in hard labour a Vein is broken and this may cause a dropsie if ill diet cause vomit rectifie that if ill humours stop it not presently but purge gently if blood come pull back by rubbing or cupping or bleeding opening a Vein in the foot ham or ankle and urging the after flux Sometimes the woman is costive then give her a suppository with Castle sope or Honey and then stay four or five days till you may give a Glister with Manna or Cassia If her Urine run away against her will bath her parts with a decoction of Betony Bays Sage Rosemary Origanum Stoechas and Penni-royal for her vomiting give her three spoonfuls of Cinnamon water one ounce and half of juice of Quinces about a spoonful at a time The leaves of Rosemary dried and brought into powder and so drank about a scruple or half a dram at a time in a cup of wine will stay vomiting preserve or Marmalade of Quinces or Medlars eaten or Pears or sowr Apples do strengthen the stomach juice of Barberries or of Pomegranates or sowr Cherries with Mint water There are many topical applications to be made to the pit of the stomach which being laid on and so continued prevail much as thus take the crum of the inside of a white loaf and tost it and steep it in good Maligo Wine and strew it lightly over with the powder of Cloves and Nutmegs or sirrup of Roses Rhubarb or pulp of Tamarinds and astringents of Roses Plantane Coral Tormentil if the Terms flow not at all the belly must be kept loose but vomiting is so perillous that it ought to be stopt alwaies provided it be done no sooner than it is needful and with good provisoes CHAP. V. Of Womens diseases in general WHosoever rightly considers it will presently find that the Female sex are subject to more diseases by odds than the Male kind are and therefore it is reason that great care should be had for the cure of that
from the Liver to the veins about the womb but those veins and vessels being very narrow and not yet open if the blood be stopt in that it cannot break forth it will corrupt and runs back again by the passages of the hollow vein and great Artery to the Liver the heart and the Midriff and stops the whole body which may be easily known for their faces will look green and pale and wan they have trembling of the heart pains of the head short breathing the arteries in the back the neck and the Temples will beat very thick and though not alwayes yet sometimes they will fall into a Feaver by reason of these corrupt humours but it is alwayes almost attended with disgust and loathing of good nutriment and longing after hurtful things The whole Body especially the Belly legs and thighs swelling with abundance of naughty humours the Hypocondriacal parts are extended by reason of the menstrual blood runing back to the greater vessels and they are much given to vomit but all these signs are not found in all persons alike but they are common to most and in some you shall find all these meet The cause is the Terms stopt and from thence ill humours abound for when the natural channel is stopt the blood must needs return to the great vessels whence it came and choak them up and so spoil the making of blood nothing but raw and corrupt humors are bred which can never turn to good nutriment or be ever perfectly joyned to the parts of the body the blood is flegmatick slimy stuff and sometimes it is bred from corrupt meats and drink that maids will long after as well as Childing women they will be alwayes eating Oatmeal scrapings of the wall earth or ashes or chalk and will drink Vinegar they are strangly affected with an inordinate desire to eat what is not fit for food whereupon their natural heat is choaked and their blood turns to water their body grows loose and spongy and they grow lazy and idle and will hardly stir their pulse beats little and faint as the vapours fly to several parts so they are ill affected by them the heart faints the head is dried and pained and the animal actions are hurt when melancholy is mixed with the humours in too great proportion Sometimes this white Feaver turns to a Dropsie or the liver grows hard like a stone that it can make no blood some fall dead suddenly when the heart is choaked by ill vapours and humours flying to it if the stomach be affected the danger is the greater but if onely the womb be out of frame the remedy is much more easy The best time of the year to cure Maids and those that are sick of the green sickness is the spring and the way of cure is to heat the cold humours and make the thick gross blood thin and this cannot be all performed by one work to draw away and to correct the whole mass of humours at once wherefore you must purge gently and often mingling things that heat and attenuate as well as purgatives to carry the ill humours forth But first it will be good to give a Glister and next to open a Vein in the foot or ancle Moreover your physick must vary according to the parts of the body that are most stopt and where the humors float If they lye above the stomach and mesentery then vomit if you find the Person fitted for vomit likewise the Spleen or liver or womb must be respected in their several kinds with Physick accordingly and to save you the labour of much reading and me of writing too often of the same thing under several heads you may find what is to be done almost in all respects where I write of the stopping of the Terms and by this rule I wish the Reader to apply the rest when he stands in need which he can never well do as I said till he have some judgement in it and then it will become familiar to him But in this Disease principally for the cure respect the Liver the Spleen and the Mesentery or Midriff for these are certainly obstructed and must be opened and above all be sure to keep a sparing diet and of a thin substance Secondly Let blood in the arm first though the courses be stopt and after that in the foot If the disease be of long standing you shall do well to give a gentle Purge First of all to purge the humours as Take powdered Rhubarb two drams Chicory and anniseed-Anniseed-water three ounces apiece Infuse the Rhubarb all night then let them boyl one walm onely and then strain it forth and in the strained liquor dissolve sirrup of Damask Roses one ounce and a half Diacassia half an ounce cinnamon-Cinnamon-water half an ounce five grains of Diagridium let her drink it in the morning Next after this use opening decoction of Succory and Madder and Liquorish roots of each half an handful Anniseeds and Fennel seeds two drams a piece a handful of Harts-tongue Leaves Borrage Flowers and pale Roses of each half a handful one ounce of the roots of Sassafras stoned Rasins one ounce and a half and half a dram of Cinnamon Boyl all these in Fountain water to a third part onely wasted and then sweeten it with sirrup of Lemmons she may drink it when she pleaseth An Electuary made of the rob or pulp of Elder-berries boyl'd to a just substance four ounces with one ounce of bay berries dried and powdered two Nutmegs and one dram of burnt-hartshorn half a scruple of Amber and four scruples of species Diarrhoda mingled all with sirrup of Succory one ounce and half is excellent And finally it will not be from the purpose but very useful to anoint the womb and Liver with such Oyntments as will open their obstructions made with Oyl of Spike and bitter Almonds of each two ounces and juyces of Rue and Mugwort half as much and Vinegar a fourth part waste the watery part of these by boiling then add Spikenard Camels Hay Roots of Asarum of each one dram Cypress half a dram Wax sufficient to make an Unguent To provoke the Termes And that is effected with one ounce of the Five opening Roots and with Madder Elecampane Orris Roots Eryngo dried Citron Pills and Sarfa of each half an ounce Germander Mugwort Agrimony of each a handful two small handfuls of Savin an ounce of wilde Saffron seeds two ounces of Senna Agarick and Mechoachan of each half an ounce two Pugils of Stoechas Flowers of Galingal Anniseeds and Fennel of each two drams Boil all this to a Pint and half sweeten it for your Pallat and add to it a spoonful of Cinnamon water Quercetans Pills of Tartar and Gum Amoniacum are commended Take of each half a dram Spike a scruple three drops of Cinnamon Extract of wormwood half a scruple take a scruple or twenty grain weight in pills an hour before Meat Conserve of Marigold Flowers is very good Some after good
and the whole body is purged by it but the womb is not affected it is a filthy disorderly Evacuation either before or after Terms or when they are wholly stopt the colour of the matter is blew or green or reddish few maids have this Disease women with child may it is not the running of the Reins for that is in less quantity whiter and thicker nor from nightly Pollutions which come onely in sleep The cause is some excrementitious humor sometimes like watry blood a cold and moist womb breeds this Disease or when ill humors are gathered in the whole body or Liver Spleen or stomach they are sometimes thus voided nature that useth to send forth good blood by the Veins casts forth these ill humours by them they are of divers colours and stink If it be from a Phlegmatick humor the Ligaments of womb grow loose and the womb falls out in time they make thick veins and they are discoloured in their Faces short breathed if the humor be not bred in the womb it comes from a Cacochymy of the whole body if it comes from the whole it is more in quantity if onely from the womb it is but little Many have had this Disease long and found no great hurt but if it be not timely looked to it will do mischief causing Consumptions Faintings and Convulsions when the matter is sent to the nerves and brain You must not stop it suddenly for so it will find a way to the nobler parts Bleeding is naught in this case general Evacuations are good and after particulars according to the part diseased The whites and over-flowing of the Terms I say are a disease and although it resemble the Gonorrhaea it is not the same it is also like the matter that flows from an Ulcer of the womb but it is not that neither The running of the Reins in Men women is not the same disease with this the running of the Reins is peculiar to unchast women but this flux of whites may proceed from too much cold or too much heat and hath many differences as will appear by the colour of the matter sent forth the colour shews the peccant humor it is necessary for the cure to search whether it be a Gonorrhaea or involuntary flux of seed which both women and Men are subject to and the remedies are the same as the causes are in both Women commonly call the whites the running of the Reins but the running of the Reins comes most commonly by unlawful Venery or excess in that Act but the proper cause of the whites is too much superfluity of Excrement but where those Excrements are bred is doubted Some say these corrupt humours are daily bred in the principal parts others say they come onely from the womb and seed Vessels others say from the Reins onely and the womb is unaffected But Galen plainly shews that the whole body is affected that dischargeth it self by the womb and therefore weak and flegmatick women are most subject to have the whites To cure it first observe a strict Diet cleanse the whole body by purging letting blood Sweating and Diureticks in very moist bodies prepare the humours three or four dayes before purging or take Cassia new drawn one ounce powder of Rhubarb one dram with sirrup of water Lillies or Violets take it in the morning dissolve it if you please in Posset drink and about two hours after take some broth You may take every day a dram of Trochisci de Carabe in Plantane water or give every second or third day a dram of the filings of Ivory in Plantane water a very laudable remedy To sweat also is very laudable in this case take Barley water three ounces strong wine two ounces drink it warm and lie and sweat Conserve of Roses and Marmalade are excellent for this disease drink the decoction of Comfrey Roots with Sugar to sweeten it take three or four ounces at a draught Whites of eggs well beaten with red Rose water and made with Cotton or Linnen into a Pessary and put into the Matrix with a string tied to it to pull it out again is commended Diureticks are not good till the body be well purged and then they will help to drive the ill humour forth by Urine Lest the womb be hurt with ill humours inject a decoction of Barley Honey of Roses and Whey with sirrup of dried Roses Take red Saunders two drams and a half yellow Saunders one dram and a halfe red Roses three drams fine Bole a quarter of an ounce burnt Ivory one dram Camphire half a dram white wax one ounce oil of Roses three ounces make an ointment This is not only good to anoint the secrets but also to cool the inflammation of the kidneys stomach liver and other parts If the Whites flow from abundance of superfluous humours you may evacuate much through the skin by often rubbing of the body but first rub easily and by degrees rub harder Of these fluxes there are three sorts White Red and Yellow and there are three kinds of Archangel or dead nettles to cure them First The White Flowers helps the Whites Secondly The Red are to cure the Reds Thirdly And the Yellow flux is cured by the Yellow Half a dram of Myrrh taken every morning is commended or a scruple of the Pills of Amber at night often taken they will not work till the day following Many strange things are oftentimes voided by the Womb as Stones and Gravel And Peter Diversas relates that a Nun voided a rugged Stone as large as a Ducks Egg and it gave her some ease but there followed a foule flux of the Womb that killed her Garcias Lopius saw a Woman that voided many Ascarides or small Worms by the Womb. When stinking humors are cast forth this way it is not properly the Running of the reins for both sexes have sometimes the running of the reins and most commonly it comes from a foul course whereas the whites come from a corruption of humours if it run white and little and thick it is a true flux of seed if it last and be not cured it brings a wasting of body and barrenness if this flux grow from fulness of Seed the buds of willow steept in wine will cure it if it proceed from a weak retention give half a scruple of Castor and use astringents to the reins and belly or a bath of willow leaves Myrtles Quinces each two handfuls red Roses Rosemary each a handful Cypress Nuts three ounces let her sit up to the Navel apply bags of the same to the Loins and Privities and anoint the said parts with oil of Mastich and Myrtles CHAP. XII Of the Swelling and Puffing up of the Body especially the Belly and the Feet of Women after Delivery THe Swellings of these parts in Childbed women come either from a depraved diet used whilest they were with child or else drinking immoderately after delivery or it may be they abound with more blood
Legs and arms and is the cause of strange symptomes in them all For Galen saith well the strangling of the Mother or Hysterical Passion is but one by name but the symptomes are scarce to be numbered It alters womens complexions they grow sandy or pale and yellow or swarthy and now and then their eyes and faces shew red and very sanguine When this strange affection falls upon them they will gnash theit teeth and become speechless for their breath is stopt and it hath been often observed that they have been supposed to be dead neither breath nor Pulse nor Life to be found for that time and sometimes their breath is stopt so close and it holds so long that they have died of it The causes of this disease are very many for a sudden fear a bad news related hath cast divers women into these fits for by this Melancholly gets the mastery of them it were but reason therefore for men to forbear relating any sad accident to them but with great proviso When the womb is strangled no one disease can determine it for that seldome comes alone sometimes only the breath is stopt sometimes the speech and animal actions of the brain fail and the whole body is chill and almost dead by ill vapors that choke it rising from the womb The Malignant Vapors then sent from thence by the Nerves Veins and arteries are the immediate causes of all the hurt that is done and these vapors are much like the wind very powerful and almost unperceived they are so subtil and thin that they pass in a moment of time through the whole body it will choke the Patient when they flie to the Throat as people are that eat White Hellebore or venomous mushromes Ofttimes you shall see the woman to loth and vomit and draw her breath short and her heart akes if the vapour strike the heart first it will cease from moving and she falls into a swound but if it flie to the brain she is void of all sense and motion There is nothing worse than corrupt seed to offend the Body Women with Child are not free from this disease when corrupt humours rise from an unclean womb The chief seat of this ill humour lieth in the Trumpet of the womb and in her stones for the substance of it is loose and hollow and the Stones lie in bladders full of water and women that have strangling of the womb have this water of a yellow colour and grosser than it should be Many Physicians have mistook the stones and the Trumpet for the womb it self when putrified rotten seed makes them swell and windy humours cause them to rise as far as the Navel but I spoke of this before when I shewed the reason how the womb is thought to ascend higher than nature hath placed it It hath sometimes a long time to breed in and sometimes it comes suddenly according as the corruption of the humours is which sometimes also lie still and so soon as they are but moved they evacuate and send a poisonous fume into other parts of the body And nothing will sooner stir these vapours and humours in women who are subject to this disease than anger or fear or such like passions or sweet scents and smells applied to their noses which is an argument that the womb is delighted with sweet scents but cannot away with stinking things for let Musk or Civet be held to such womens noses they are presently sick till they be taken away What Distemper this strangling of the womb is Physicians agree not some say it is a cold distemper but coldness is not the chief symptome though cold be great others say it is a convulsion or Syncope or breathing stopt but it cannot be set forth by any one symptome for though the venomous vapor be small that breeds it it goes many waies and spreads through all the body But the true causes of this Disease are the poisonous vapours that rise from the womb it is not an apparent quality that this vapour works by but a secret quality as the Torpedo or Scorpion small creatures prevail with to do great mischief as they are enemies to the natural heat and vital spirits and when the heart suffers there can be no good animal spirits bred because the vital are corrupted but blood and seed whilest they are in their own proper vessels hurt not unless they are mingled with ill humors Fernelius saith that the womb and seed the place and matter of life are the breeding of the most deadly poisons Hippâ—crates in these fits bids give them wine to refresh their weakness Avicenna bids give them no wine but water and forbids eating flesh because they ingender more seed and blood but when she is in the fit wine is best for a little wine will not presently get to the womb Sometimes both maids and widdows from such like causes are troubled with the rage of the womb that they will grow even mad with carnal desire and entice men to lie with them they are hot but not feaverish and they are inclined to madness Modest women will die of consumptions when they have this rage of the womb rather than declare their desire but some women are shameless The cause is great store of sharp hot seed that is not natural but the next degree to it that bites and swells and provokes nature to expulsion the brain suffers by consent the womb in the Nymphe is most affected which swells with heat but the Clitoris and not the Nymphe is the seat of lust hot blood and humours in the womb breed this and they are increased by hot spiced meats and drinks idleneness and bawdy acts and objects at first it may be cured but the end of it is frenzy and madness if it be neglected Maids must marry that cannot live chast or draw blood to abate the heat and sharpness of it let them purge these humours gently and use cooling and moistening meats and drinks and all with moderation Lettice Violets and water-Lillies and Purslain are good coolers and take away the windiness of the parts the seed leaves and flowers of Agnus Castus strewed in their beds or Camphire smelt unto are very good in such cases Let them use this Electuary take conserve of water Lillies Violets tops of Agnus Castus of each one ounce of red Roses half an ounce of red Coral and emralds in powder of each half a dram of Coleworts and Lettice candid of each one ounce with sirrup of Violets and water-Lillies make an Electuary lay a plate of lead to their backs Nuns and such as cannot marry may use tâ—ings â—hat by a hidden quality diminish seed but they cause barrenness let them eat no eggs nor much nourishing meats and sleep little Camphire that is so much commended against this preternatural desire is hot and sharp and bitter it will burn and flame and being of thin parts penetrates deep but it hath cold operations for it will cure
burns and hot swellings and head-ach that comes of heat by a likeness and affinity it hath to draw hot vapours to it so Linseed oil is good against burnings Scaliger affirms that Camphire increaseth Venery it may do so if it be used seldome but often used it is certain that it will destroy it There is moreover from ill tempered seed and melancholly blood in the vessels near the Heart which contaminates the Vital and Animal Spirits a melancholy distemper that especially Maids and Widows are often troubled with and they grow exceeding pensive and sad for melancholy black blood abounding in the Vessels of the Matrix runs sometimes back by the great arteries to the heart and infects all the spirits when this blood lieth still they are well but if it be stirred or urged then presently they fall into this distemper they know not why and the arteries of the spleen and back beat strongly and melancholly vapours fly up They are sorely troubled and weary of all things they can take no rest their pain lieth most on their left side and sometimes on the left breast in time they will grow mad and their former great silence turns to prating exceedingly crying out that they see fearful spirits and dead men when it is gone so far it is hard to cure it is vain then to try to make them merry they despair and wish to die and when they find an opportunity they will kill or drown or hang themselves At first when the blood is hot and fiery open a vein in the arm if they have their courses if not in the foot or ancle to bring the courses down Cooling moistening cordials and such things as revive the spirits and conquer melancholy wil do much driers are naught for melancholly is dry Confectio Alkermes is commended for those that can away with it but Confectio de Hyacintho is better use a moistening diet To breed mirth give her waters of Balm and Borage of each three ounces sirrup of the juices of Borage and Bugloss of each one ounce and a half take this at twice and use it often To purge melancholly take six drams of Senna Agarick one dram and a half Borage and violet flowers of each a small handful two drams of Citron peels infuse all six hours in good Rhenish wine strain them and put to them sirrup of Violets one ounce CHAP. II. Of the Falling Sickness WHen Women by reason of the ill affections of the womb fall into Epilepsies and Falling sickness it is worse than any other cause as the symptomes prove for the poisonous vapor is not only in the Nerves as when it is from the brain but also in the membranes veins and arteries The same foul vapour that causeth strangling of the womb produceth this for it causeth divers diseases according to the parts it takes hold on but when it lights forcibly on the Nerves then it causeth the Falling-sickness Sometimes there is a convulsion of the whole body and sometimes but of some parts as of the head or tongue hands or legs eyes or ears some cannot hear others cannot see all lose the sense of feeling some cry out but know not wherefore They that fall if the vapour be not too strong when they rise they go to their work again as if they had no harm but here is not only convulsions as in those that have the Falling-sickness from other parts but stopping the breath as in the strangling of the womb but these seldome some at the mouth as those do for the brain is entire or not much offended nor is their hearing taken away quite by the vapour fastening upon the roots of the Nerves of the ears Rue and Castor that cure fits of the Mother are good here the cure is almost the same only you must add some things that respect the nerves and the Brain Use these Pills twice in a week before supper one hour and take a scruple or half a dram Take Senna and Peony root of each half an ounce Mugwort Rue Betony Yarrow half a handful of each boil them then clarifie the decoction put to it Aloes one ounce and a half of juice of the herb Mercury one ounce let it stand and settle pour off the clear liquor then add two drams of Rhubarb sprinkled with water of Cinnamon Agarick half an ounce Mastick and Epileptick powder of each half a dram make the pills with sirrup of Mugwort To mend the distemper of the head and Womb take conserve of Rosemary flowers and of the Tile tree of Balm and Lillies of the valley of the root Scorzonera Candied of each one ounce Diamoschu dulce one dram with two drams of the roots of Peony and seeds of Agnus Castus and sirrup of Stoechas make an Electuary to take at your pleasure Nor are these all the ill consequences of the wombs distempers but sometimes violent head-ach springs from it which is the greatest pain of all the rest and sometimes it is all over the head or but upon one side or in the eyes the ill vapours rising by the veins and arteries of the Womb to the membranes and films of the brain when the vessels are full of a thin sharp blood that is carried from the womb to the membranes it stretcheth and rends them and corrodes and bites so that the pain is intollerable the cure is to purge away the peccant humour that lieth in the Womb for this is not as other head-ach is that comes from other causes the pain runs also to the Loins and the Membranes there by some capillary veins from the womb The pain of the head by affection with the womb is in all the head commonly but is chiefly iâ— the hinder part of the head because the womb being Nervous consents with the membranes of the brain by the membrane of the Marrow of the back hence it is that women are more subject to the head-ach than men are because of the womb that holds such affinity with the Nerves of the head The violent beating of the heart and Arteries both in the Sides and Back is by consent from the womb when evil humors therein contained pass by the Arteries and Poysonous vapours arise to those parts Cordials are good as Cinnamon Water and Aqua Monefardi or Mathiolas his water the Disease seems small but it is not safe because the cause of it is very ill In this Disease the Artery that beats in the Back beats strongly because it is part of the great Artery but the Arteries that beat in the Hypochondrion beat not so strongly for they are smaller branches from the Spleen and Mesentery but the cause is the same The Arteries are inflamed by the ill vapours and humours sent from the womb and the heart is exceedingly heated by them but this hot humor sometimes beats by reason of the great Artery quite over the whole body but it lasts not long for there is little corruption of the humors Some say the blood
finger into his mouth and holding the nipple faster than they were wont when the tooth is coming forth the Gum is whiter than in other parts the watching breeds cholerick humours and inflames the body and brings a Feaver If the teeth be long before they can come forth children commonly will die of Feavers and Convulsion fits they that scowr have seldome any Convulsion When the gums are thick the teeth can scarce get forth wherefore soften the Gum with rubbing it with Honey and Fresh Butter or let the child chew a candle of Virgins Wax Let the Nurse keep a moderate Diet inclining to cold as Barley Broths Water-Gruel Lettice Endive Rear-eggs take heed of salt spiced meats and wine but anoint the childs Gum with a Mucilage of Quinces made with Mallows water or with the brains of an Hare XXII If the Gums be ulcerated let the Nurse rub the childs gums and Wheals and Pushes with her finger and anoint them with Hens grease Hares brains oil of Cammomile and Mel Rosarum or sirrup of violets with Plantane water and if the inflammation be great boil Pomegranate flowers Roses and Sanders of each two drams Allum half a dram in water strain out three ounces and dissolve in it the sirrup of Mulberries half an ounce If the Pushes and Wheals be white take Pomegranate flowers Amber Cypress nuts of each two drams Roses and Myrtle flowers of each half a handful boil them in water add to the decoction one ounce and a half of honey of Roses .. Sometimes there riseth between the Gums and the great teeth a little fleshy substance to consume that wash it with a deccoction of the roots of Plantain Bugloss Agrimony of each a handful Barley a small handful and red Roses a handful four Dates Flowers of Pomegranates two drams Liquorish one dram and a half XXIII Children are very much molested with destillations Coughs and Catarrhs if the humour be sharp and hot that falls from the brain the child will look red in the face if it be a cold humour much matter will run forth at the nose and mouth then keep the child resonably warm and give it Sugar candy with oil of sweet Almonds wash the childs feet with Ale boiled with Betony Marjoram Rosemary then anoint the soles of the feet with Goose grease rub the breast with fresh butter and oil of sweet Almonds and lay on warm linnen cloths for slimy humours give it a spoonful of sirrup of Maiden-hair or of Liquorish and Hyssop mingled Take also Gum Traganth Arabick Quince seeds juice of Liquorish and Sugar Pelets mingle them and in new milk let the child take of it every day Where the cause is cold that makes the Cough beat a little Myrrh to powder and give it the child with oil of sweet Almonds and a little honey when it comes from heat make a decoction of Raisins in water and with white poppey seed and Gum Dragant each two drams seeds of Gourds four drams beat all together and give the child a four penny weight in the foresaid decoction XXIV If the breath be short let it take an Electuary of Honey and Linseed and anoint the ears and parts about them with Olive oil XXV If the childs nose be stopt put a little Ointment of Roses and good Pomatum into the Nostrils to soften the hard matter Wash the inflamed or Gummy eyes that will not open with breast milk or Plantain and Rose Water Childrens moist brains breed moist humours that run to their ears make them clean with a rag and drop in Honey of Roses mingled with oil of bitter Almonds XXVI If the child new born be in great pain then rub it with Pellitory of the wall and fresh Butter or with Spinach and Hogs-grease and lay it to the Navel take care it be not too hot or make a cake of oils of eggs and of Nuts for the Navel give it a Glister if it need with Milk Sugar and the yolk of an Egg. XXVII Children are subject to all sorts of Feavers but chiefly to Feavers from corrupt milk and Feavers with breeding of teeth They have epidemical Feavers sometimes that cast forth the Meazles or small Pox the mothers menstrual blood is the original cause but the corrupt air stirs it up for as the air is pure or impure so these diseases are more raging or less It is oftentimes infectious and the humours so corrupt that worms breed under the scabs and corrode the bones and inward parts as hath been proved by opening some that died If it be a Feaverish time that it spreads much give good Antidotes and change the air but all children almost will have them first or last Before there is a Feaver you may fortifie nature and give a a gentle purge but for my part I approve not of purging or bleeding in these distempers unless it be long before So soon as you see the feaver drive them out by Cordials and prefer the eyes and throat and prevent deformity The first signs of this disease for they are both from one cause are pains of the head redness in the eyes a dry Cough with a feaver then little pimples break forth all the body over but chiefly they aim at the throat and face The small Pox is dangerous to all but most to those that are of an ill habit of body and if they come forth in heaps and not orderly or if they look blew black or ill coloured they are exceeding dangerous If the child suck the nurse must use a moderate diet she may eat Hen broth with herbs of Succory Borrage Bugloss and Endive boiled in it Let her drink this drink following to make them come easily and quickly forth take peeled Lentils half an ounce fat figs two ounces Gum Lac two drams Gum Traganth and Fennel seed of each two drams and a half boil this in fountain water strain it and sweeten two pints of it with Sugar and sirrup of Maiden-hair let her drink half a pint fasting If the child be weaned give it a Julep of cordial waters two ounces and a half sirrup of Lemmons one ounce use this often and four or five hours after give it some Unicorns horn and Oriental Bezoar in powder To preserve the eyes anoint the Eye-lids with Plantane and Rose water and a little Saffron To preserve the nose take Rose water and Betony of each one ounce Vinegar half an ounce and as much powder of peels of Citrons add to it Saffron six grains let the child smell to it often dip some cotton in it and stop the ears to keep the Small Pox from thence You may preserve the mouth the tongue and the throat with a handful of barley and leaves of Plantain Sorrel Agrimony and of Vervain of each a handful all boiled in water to six ounces dissolve in it sirrup of Pomegranates and of Roses of each half an ounce Saffron half a scruple make a Gargarisme sirrup of Juniper of Violets and of water-Lillies
to its natural posture but if it come the feet forward and the legs abroad she must joyn the legs and feet together taking care that she remove not the hands from the place they should hang down close by the side If the infant with one or both the knees first strive to come forth she must put them back that both feet may first come down to the passage If the child come headlong with one hand thrust out then she must put the Child back with her hand upon the shoulders that the hand may goe to its natural place if this will not prevail lay the woman upright with her thighs and belly upwards that it may pass forth as it should do If both hands come out first she must thrust the Child back by the shoulders as formerly till the hands hang down by the sides of the Child If it would come forth arsewards the buttocks first she must return it back with her hands till the legs and feet may present themselves or the head first if it be possible which is most natural If the infant present both hands and both feet together to come forth so all at once she must take the Child carefully by the head and put the legs upward to take it forth If the shoulders come first she must put it back by the shoulders that the head may come first If it come the breast forward the legs and hands lying behind she must take it by the feet or by the head as she finds it to be most easy putting the other part upward that it may come forth right If a Woman have two Children at once that come together headlong she must take forth one after the other but beware the other retreat not back in the mean time so also must she receive them both that come together with the feet forward taking them out one after the other If they come one with his feet the other with the head forward at the same time she must receive that first which is most likely and next the passage and that which cometh with the feet first if she can receive last taking heed that they do not hurt one the other But let this general rule be observed still to annoint the passage with Ducks grease or Oyle of Lillies or sweet Almonds or such things as may smooth the passage and ease womans labour and Iikewise when she toucheth any part of the infant this will help much if there should be any aposthume in the place Particular helps to delivery are to lay the woman first all along on her back her head a little raised with a Pillow and a pillow under her back and another pillow larger than the other to raise her buttocks and rump lay her thighs and knees wide open asunder her legs must be bowed backwards toward her buttocks and drawn upwards her heels and soles of her feet must be fixed against a board to that purpose laid cross her bed Some woman must have a swathe-band above a foot broad four double this must be put under her Reins and two women standing on each side of her must hold it up straight and these two persons must lift up the swathe-band equally just when her throws come or else they may do her hurt and two more of the standers by must lay hold on the upper part of her shoulders that she may with more ease force the child forth The woman must hold her breath in and strive to be delivered and the Midwife must stroke down the birth from above the Navel easily with her hand for that will as I said before make the Infant move downwards CHAP. II. To know the fit time when the Child is ready to be born I Shall desire all Midwives to take heed how they give any thing inwardly to hasten the Birth unless they are sure the Birth is at hand many a child hath been lost for want of this knowledge and the mother put to more pain than she would have been Let not therefore the child be forced out unless there fall down an extreme flux of blood for in such cases it is best to save the Mothers life to drive forth the Child but there is great skill and care to be used or the woman were as good be set upon the Rack It is hard to know when the true time of her travel is near because many women have great pains many weeks before the time of delivery comes But I think the heat of their Reins is the cause of these pains but you may know whether the heat of their reins be the cause of it or not for if their legs swell their reins are too hot and the cure will be to annoint their backs to cool the reins with Oyl of Poppies water Lillies or Violets women whose reins are hot have alwaies hard labour A strong decoction of Plantane leaves and roots in water then strained and clarified with the white of an egg boil'd then to a sirrup with its weight in Sugar is excellent take a spoonful or two when you please or drink often the water and sirrups of Violets and water Lillies But if the birth be at hand you shall know when the skins Amnios and Allantois which as I told you serve to hold the sweat and urine of the child in the womb and by the means of which skins the infant is also supported in the Matrix do break by the violent motion of the child so that these excrements fall down to the neck of the womb Midwives call it the water and when that runs forth then the Birth is near this is the truest sign that is for when those skins are broken the Infant can no longer stay there than a naked man in a heap of snow These waters make the parts slippery and the birth easie if the child come presently with them but if it stay longer till the parts grow dry it will be hard therefore Midwives do ill to rend these skins open with their nails to make way for the water to come nature will make it come forth only when she needs it and not before but if the water breakaway long before the birth it is safe to give medicaments to drive the birth after the water But there are other signs of the birth approaching let the Midwife look well on the womans belly for if the upper part of it be sunk and hollow and the lower part big and full it is certain the child is sunk down again if the womans Throws be quick and strong coming from the reins downward all along the belly and not staying at the Navel but falling still lower to the groins and inwardly to the bottom of the belly where lieth the inmost neck of the womb this is another sure sign Then let the Midwife her hand annointed with fresh butter or with oyl of sweet Almonds put up her hand and if she feel the inward neck of the womb open or any substance to push
forward the child is coming but if the skin break and the waters come down that is the last and surest sign as I said when the waters precede and the child doth not follow presently in some reasonable time these things following hasten and ease delivery Featherfew or Mugwort boil'd in white wine let her drink a draught of the decoction the sirrups of either may be made in summer with their juice clarified and boyled to a sirrup with twice as much Sugar a spoonful at a time to be taken or drink a dram of the powder of Cinnamon in wine or the distill'd water of Mugwort Betony Dittander Peniroyal or Featherfew Tansie bruised and applyed or the Oyl of it as I said will do it but the Eagle stone held to the secrets draws out both Child and Secundine hold it to no longer for it will draw forth Womb and all Miraldus tells of many more pretty ways But for more assurance take this powder made of Dittany of Crele Penni-royal Roundbirthwort of each ten grains Cinnamon and Saffron of each twelve grains beat them to fine powder and let her drink it in wine or some fit liquor in the decoction or distill'd waters of red Pease Penniroyal Parsly c. Outward means is good applied to the secrets take Agrimony leaves and roots but after cast it away lest it draw forth the Matrix Henbane Polypody or Bistort roots are commended for the same use But let all hot and violent remedies be avoided for many times they bring the woman into a dangerous Feaver Also too much fasting or too much eating breed peril to women in travel a woman that is with child cannot so well digest her meat as they can that are not with child Midwives therefore must ask how long it was since that the woman did eat and what and how much that vpon occasion she may give her something to strengthen her in her labour if need be as warm broth or a potched egg and if her delivery be long in doing give her an ounce of Cinnamon water to comfort her or else a dram of Confectio Alkermes at twice in two spoonfuls of Claret wine but give her but one of these three things for you may soon cast her into a feaver by too much hot administrations and that may stop her purgations and breed many mischiefs CHAP. III. What must be done after the woman is delivered IT will be profitable when a woman hath had sore travel to wrap her back with a sheep-skin newly flead off and let her ly in it and to lay a Hare-skin rub'd over with Hares blood newly prepared to her belly let these things be worn two hours in winter and but one hour in Summer for these will close up the parts too much dilated by the childs birth and will expel all ill melancholly blood from those parts This being done swathe the woman with a Napkin about nine inches broad but annoint her belly with Oyl of St. Johns wort and then raise up the womb with a linnen cloth many times folded cover her flanks with a little pillow about a quarter of a Yard long then swathe her beginning a little a-above the hanches rather higher than lower winding it even lay warm cloths to her breasts forbearing those that repulse the milk till longer time and the body be setled lest repercussives should do her hurt let then her blood be first setled ten or twelve hours and that the blood which was cast upon the lungs by violent labour may return to its own place but you may ease the pains of her breasts and comfort them laying a linnen cloth doubled and not warm'd dipt in Oil of St. Johns wort and of Roses with the yolk and white of an egg beat together of each an ounce with an ounce of Rose-water and as much of Plantan-water Let her not sleep till about four hours after she is delivered but first give her some nourishing broth or Cawdle to comfort her let her eat no flesh till two dayes at least be over for she may not use a full diet after so great loss of blood suddenly as she grows stronger she may begin with meats of easie digestion as Chickens or Pullets she may drink small wines with a little Saffron Mace and Cloves infused equal parts all tied in a piece of linnen and let them lie in the wine so close stopt she may drink a small draught of it at dinner and supper for the whole month and besides her ordinary food she may if she will take nourishing broths and Aleberries with bread butter and Sugar Let her drink her Beer or Ale with a tost she may drink a decoction of Liquorish Raisins of the Sun and a little Cinnamon if the child be a boy she must lye in thirty dayes if a girl forty daies and remember that it is the time of her purification that her husband must abstain from her CHAP. IV. When and how to cut off the Childs navel-string and what is the Consequent thereof THe Navel-string is twisted that it might be the stronger and that the blood by that delay might be better prepared had the Vein in the Navel or the Arteries or Vrachos that carrye the piss being single the different postures of the child in the womb or the difference of the womans standing sitting or lying might press a single vessel and stop the passage of the blood in the Vein spirit in the Arteries or water in the Vrachos but the twisting hath prevented that The cutting of the Navel-string helps much for it keeps the blood and spirits in after the Child is born A Midwives skill is seen much if she can perform this rightly The time to do it is so soon as ever the Child is born whether he bring a part of the Secundine out with him or not for sometimes the infant brings a piece of the Coat Amnios upon his head and that they name the caule I know no wonders this Caule will work but if you find this Caule on the childs head you shall miss it in the after-birth if it be in the after-birth it will not be on his head The reason why some Children bring it with them on their head into the world is weakness and it signifies a short life and proves seldome otherwise But if it come with it or without it so soon as it is come forth consider whether the Child be strong or weak for by the Navel-string the Mother gives both vital and natural blood to the Child wherefore if the Child be weak you must gently put back part of the vital and natural blood into the childs body by the Navel for that will refresh a weak child if the child be strong you need not do it Many children seem to be born dead that recover by this meanes as very weak children often do but you must crush out six or seven drops of blood out of the navel-string I mean that part which is cut off give
the Womb. Take two pound of the crumbs of the inward part of white Bread Cammomile flowers one handful Mastick two drams Cloves half a dram bruise them and mingle them well with some Maligo Wine and two ounces of rose Vinegar boil them to a Pultiss and lay it on a double Cloth to the Os pubis Purgations may not be used unless the belly be bound and then a gentle Glister or some Manna or Cassia about half an ounce is safe to give by Potion Slipperiness of the womb is cured by an injection made of Pomegranate pills boil'd in Oyl of Lillies Or take Mastick Myrtle Gallia moscala of each half a dram mix them with Goose-grease and Sheeps-Wool and sew them in a linnen cloth and make a pastry and tye a string to it to pull it out again when you have put it up into the place To strengthen the Matrix Take four ounces of the Oyl of Nuts Barrows-grease one ounce and half Cypress-nuts Mastich of each one dram and half boyl them all about five hours and with this annoint her belly womb and reins of her back BOOK V. CHAP. I. How women after Child-birth must be governed THere is great differences in Womens constitutions and education you may kill one with that which will preserve the other tender women that are bred delicately must not be governed after the same manner that hardy Country women must for one is commonly weak stomach'd but the other is strong if you should give the weak woman presently after delivery strong broth or Eggs or milk it will cast her into a Feaver but the other that is strong will bear it but tender women must be tenderly fed and nothing given them that is of hard digestion nor yet what they have no mind to provided that what she desires be not offensive but for the first week she lies in let her have boil'd and not roast Jellies and Juice of Veal or Capon but no mutton Broth for that may make her Feaverish let her drink barley water or boyl one dram of Cinnamon in a pint of water dissolving two ounces of fine Sugar in it if she will drink wine mingle twice as much water or two third parts with it but let it be white wine in the morning and Claret in the after-noon she may sometimes drink Almond-milk but beware of crudities Some women when they lie in are still sleeping some cannot sleep if she cannot sleep let her drink barley water well boyled not straining it at all but let her forbear it after the first week lest it nourish too much and stop the Liver Baths for Child-bed Women For the first week let her Womb and Privities be bathed with a decoction of Chervil a good handful boiled in a good quantity of water adding to it after it is boiled one ounce of Honey of Roses this will draw away the purgations and cleanse and heal the parts and it will take away all inflammations For the second week boil Province Roses put in Bays Wine and water and with this decoction bath her secrets Keep her not too hot for that weakens nature and dissolves her strength nor too cold for cold getting in will cause torments hurt the Nerves and make the womb swell Let her diet be hot and eat but little at once some Nurses perswade them to eat apace because they have lost much blood but they are simple that say so for the blood voided doth not weaken but unburden nature for if it had not come away long diseases or death would have succeeded some say Oat-meal Candles are good for them but oat-meal makes people troubled with the green sickness by its binding quality boyling will never make a binding thing to purge ill humours as they say it doth Child-bed Women but purging things by boyling may sometimes be made to bind Let her for three daies keep the room dark for her eyes are weak and light offends them let all great noises be forborn and all unquietness remembering to be praising God for her safe delivery First then so soon as she is laid give her a draught of white wine burnt with a dram of Spermaâ—cety melted in it Vervain is an herb that fortifies the womb it is fit to gather in May and June you may dry it in the Sun and keep it to boil with her meat and drinks you shall profit more in two daies with it than in two weeks without it If the woman be Feaverish boil Plantane leaves and roots with it and if she be not yet they will do well together for the heat of the one is tempered by the coldness of the other But if her purgations stop for Plantane take Mother of tyme. If her purgations be clotted and smell filthily or the after-burden be not quite come away boyl Featherfew Mugwort Penniroyal Mother of time in white wine sweetened with Sugar let her drink that new laid eggs and Sugar Penides are best for her to eat often of moderately and boyl Cinnamon in all her meats and drinks Let her talk little nor stir much especially if she be weak for six or seven dayes after she is delivered is a decoction of Mallows with a little red Sugar is a good Glister if she be too costive Crato prescribes Coleworts and Chrysippus makes them to be a universal remedy for all diseases but they are too windy for women in Child-bed After the first week if she be near clean of her purgations she may use Comfry and knot-grass in broths to close the womb that hath been so much opened you may use a little purging with them Therefore put in some Poâ—ypody of the Oak that is best leaves and roots both being bruised the quantities are almost at your discretion Sometimes pains encrease after delivery Hippocrates saith women are most subject to them after the birth of their first child some Physicians think it is by reason of the thinness and sharpness others from the thickness and sliminess of the blood but if you use the former directions these pains may be prevented What I said of Vervain before is a good remedy or else boil an egg soft and mingle the yelk with a spoonful of water of Cinnamon and let her drink it also a fume of the powder of bay-berries cast on a chafing dish of coals received at her secrets is a great help And for present ease boyl an equal quantity of tar and barrows grease together when it boyls put in a little pidgeons dung to it spread it on a linnen cloth and lay it hot to her reins she may drink half a dram of Bay-berries in powder in a quarter of a pint of Muskadel you may see by this that cold and wind cause these pains For Excoriation of the Privities Annoint them with Oyl of sweet Almonds or Oyl of St. John's wort which is better Against the Piles or Hemorrhoids Take Polypody bruised and boyl it with your drinks or meats Let her be let blood in the Saphena
for it doth no good Sometimes but seldome the courses stop with Fulness such must saith Riolanus be let blood in the arm but with great care CAHP. X. Of the overflowing of the Courses or immoderate flux thereof THis distemper is contrary to the former and Women are often subject to it and it brings many diseases great weakness loss of appetite ill digestion dropsies consumptions pains in the back and stomach Their ordinary continuance should be two or three daies or four or five daies in large People but if they stay longer it is not good or if they come oftener than once a month I mean the Moons Month passing through the twelve Signs that is twenty seven daies and odd minutes The causes may be falls or blows or strains or hard labour over-heating the body which makes the blood thin or from weakness of the retentive faculty and too much strength of the expulsive faculty or from crude raw blood and weakness or too much moisture and this is the cause that some women have their terms by drops and it lasts long and there is pain and the secrets are alwaies wet if this be not remedied it may cause Ulcers and inflammations if the blood be superfluous open the arm not the ancle vein if it be Cacochymical correct it if too thin and sharp correct and amend it by coolers and thickeners and strengthen the wombs retentive faculty by astringents and convenient driers Many think that the overflowing of the Terms and Issues in women are the same diseases but that is not so as Galen shews for by superfluous Flux of the courses only blood is voided but in too great a measure But women continual Issues send forth not only blood at certain periods but various humours that cause the disease The Terms exceed when they flow in too great abundance in a short time or continue longer than is needful the one resembles violent rain the other flow rain but lasts long If too much blood be the cause of this superfluity the blood will be whitish and pale if choller the terms will be yellow if melancholly they will be dark coloured black or blew it weakeneth all the body and the Liver and Bowels dip a clout in the blood and dry it in the shade and then the colour of the blood will shew the humour that offendeth and accordingly prepare your remedies Sometimes it causeth swounding paleness the whites or the dropsie If fulness be the cause abate blood opening the Liver vein of the right arm repel cool bind bleed little but often use cuppings to the back and breast against the Liver below the paps to draw the blood back but scarifie not under the breasts upon the Salvatella bind and rub the arms and shoulders Waters of Plantane Purslain Shepherds Purse Sorrel sirrup of Pomegranates or dried Roses will cool and thicken the blood and so will Bole or Sealed Earth sirrup of Poppeys Philonium Laudanum are good If it proceed from choller purge with sirrup of Roses of Rhubarb or with Senna or Manna if watry blood be the cause the Reins and Liver are out of temper sweat with China and strengthen those parts Do not force veins but use astringents take the juice of ass dung sirrup of Myrtles of each half an ounce with an ounce of Plantane water let the woman drink it and not know what she takes lest it offend her or give every day a dram of the powder of Mulberry tree roots When you use cold astringents temper them so that you stop not the Veins use no Pessaries except the Veins of the neck of the womb be open Cold and binding fomentations are better than baths for baths make the humours to flow more wash the legs and hips in cold water If choller persist Rhubarb powder in conserve of Roses is very good The principal causes of this overflowing are but four viz. 1. Some of the Vessels broken or much dilated 2. Violent Purgation 3. Corroding humours 4. Hard travel in Childbed or the Midwives unkind handling First if the Vessels be broken the blood gusheth forth in heaps if flowing of humors they come with much pain though the quantity be small Secondly All Physicians almost wish to stop the Courses first that are too many before you strengthen the woman But I think it more reasonable to strengthen nature first and nature will help her self with less means but strengthen the womb and annoint the reins and back with oils of roses Myrtles Quinces do this every night lay a piece of white bays then next your reins upon the bare skin and keep it there constantly inject the juice of Plantane into the Matrix it seldome fails You may drink of the decoctions of Sage Bistort Tormentil Knotgrass Sannicle Ladies-mantle Golden Rod Loos-strife Meadow Sweet Archangel Solomons Seal Purslane Shepherds Purse red Beets Bark and Cups of Oak and Acorns But I commend this medicine take of Comfry leaves or roots of either a handful and of Clowns all-heal the same bruise them and boil them well in Ale drink a good draught when you please and it will help you though the mouths of the Vessels be open Too much blood is lost in the overflowing of the courses when the faculty is hurt by it otherwise the quantity cannot be defined The immediate causes are the opening of the Vessels but the mediate cause is the blood offending in quantity or quality Vessels are opened three or four wayes by Anastomosis when the mouthes lye open by reason of a moist distemper or use of Aloes or hot and moist bathes or from Diapedesis when the blood sweats through the Coats this is not often or from Diaeresis when the sharpness of the blood eates the Vessels in sunder if a Vein be broken Coral Bole Myrtles Comfrey are good to bind or a Poultis with astringent powders and the White of an Egg. Thirdly If a vessel be Corroded a dram of the roots of Dropwort in a new Egg will glutinate Sleep long use little Exercise nor Venery but eat little if it come from Plethory use thin Nutriment beware of hot things alwayes purge the humour that offends vomits are good to stay and turn the course of the humours Take Conserve of Roses two ounces of water Lillies one ounce prepared Pearls and burnt Harts-horn of each half an ounce Bole Armoniac and Terra Lemnia of each half a scruple make an Electuary with sirrup of Plantane this is cooling thickning and binding or in case of great necessity take a Bolus made with old conserve of Roses half anounce Philonium or Requies Nicolai two scruples or but a scruple of each let them drink Red Wine or quench steel in their drink or bloil Plantane Seeds Leaves and Roots in their drink CHAP. XI Of the whites or Womens Disease from corruption of humors WHen the body grows Cacochymical womens Courses stop or run very slowly and sometimes they abound sometimes all humours run thither to a general vent
than the child could retain or her purgations discharge wherefore it grows crude being superfluous and makes the parts swell so much that a man would think she were with child again but it commonly ceaseth if the woman be once largely purged either by the womb or the belly Hysterical or Mother fomentations are sufficient oftentimes to cure it or take a Sheeps skin of a Sheep new killed and wet it with sharp Wine and lay it on If in travel they keep ill diet the humours turn to Wind and they fall down to the legs and make them swell take heed of drink and when the purgations are over use things that expel wind take worm wood Betony Southernwood Origanum Cammomile Flowers Calamint Annis-seed Rue Carroway seeds boil them and make a fomentation for the feet If too much drinking be the cause let her abstain from that Medicaments that heat and resolve and are good for Dropsies are very good in this distemper the infusion of Rhubarb is much commended especially if the humour proceed from ill habit and course of life Hippocrates prescribes a Goats or Sheeps Liver made into powder and taken with wine of the infusion of Elecampane also Treacle taken with Fumitory and Fennel waters and to abate the swelling of the Feet make a decoction of Rose stalks and Cammomile Flowers excellent to bath them in and for her belly swelled lay on a Plaister of Bay berries or of Melilot or take Bay berries and Juniper berries of each one handful Goats Dung four ounces Cammomile Flowers powdered half a handful Cummin seed two drams pour spirit of wine upon them as you bruise them in a Mortar make a Plaister with a little oil of Spike added and lay it over the womans belly For the swellings of the Bellies of maids if it come not by a masculine blow take Dittany root and Cubebs bruise them and Cummin seeds and Cow Dung and lay it to their bellies as hot as can be endured Women after Delivery are also subject to have their Wombs inflamed when the birth is very great and their labour hard and the mouth of their Womb narrow so that great violence stretcheth it wider than they can suffer and sometimes there is great loss of blood and the womb is torn by putting forth of the child it must be cured by such things as ease pains as Baths and Fomentations and such softening things as are proper for the belly This following Anodyne is very effectual take Flowers of Mallows Marshmallows Vervain and Rue of each a handful Self heal Agrimony Cammomile Flowers Melilot tops red Roses of each a handful cut them very small sew them up in fine linnen bags boil them in Goats milk or equal parts of Plantane water and Wine press them well between two Trenchers and make application of one after the other hot to the place affected but first anoint the part with Poplar ointments or with oil of Roses after this cleanse all the secret parts with a spunge dipt in water of Oaken Leaves Self Heal and of Plantane made luke warm and injections put up with a Syring are effectual also of Mel Passarum and Plantane water mingled and cast in warm or take Galls Lentils Flowers of Pomegranates Seeds of Kneeholm Saunders and Roses of each a like quantity boil all in water and strain it and with a Syring inject the decoction and it will cleanse the Womb. When the Mother is cleansed it will be proper to make the flesh incarnate if it be corroded as take Centaury six ounces Orris Comfrey Roots Agrimony of each three handfuls Gum Tragant Sarcocolla Dragons Blood Frankincence Hypocistis Mummy of each a dram boil all in a sufficient quantity of water to the consumption of half then put to it Iron refuse prepared one ounce and a quarter boil it a while longer and bath the part with it If the womb be too hard and she feel pain between the Navel and the Matrix then take Ducks grease Deers or Ox marrow Neats Foot oil Yolks of eggs Bdellium of each a like proportion two drams of Saffron dissolve all in wine and mix oil of Lillies with them and dip a tent of Linnen or Cotten in this and thrust it up into the place use this often for this will ease it and take away the pain And if the womb be foul with Ulcers or the like take half an ounce of Oxymel of Squils sirrup of Vinegar and Bizantine of each three quarters of an ounce Agrimony and Lovage Waters of each one ounce water of Cichory two ounces let her drink this every morning early and sleep upon it and fast four hour after it the Urine will in a weeks time or somewhat longer become clean and well cleansed and the party cured Womens bellies use to be mightily stretched in Child-bearing in so much that they will be plaighted and full of wrinkles ever after that were plain and smooth before growing lank when they are delivered but if it be but four months past it may be helped by laying a linnen cloth over the belly dipt in oils of sweet Almonds Lillies Jessamine and if the belly be already wrinkled then take Goats and Sheeps Suet and oil of sweet Almonds of each one ounce Sperma Ceti two drams and with a little wax make an ointment when the Flux is past you may lay on the Cataplasie of Aetius or anoint with oils of Mastich and of Roses CHAP. XIII Of Cold Moist Hot Dry and of all the several Distempers of the Womb. THe wombs of Women should be alwaies kept temperate that they exceed not in any preternatural quality if they do the mans Seed will be like corn sowed upon sand and will prove unfruitful if the womb be too hot or cold or moist or dry Those that have hot wombs have but few courses and those are either yellow or black or burnt and fiery that come disorderly and such persons will fall into Hypochondriacal Melancholly and rage of the womb if this be from their birth it will be hard to cure yet it may by good Diet and proper means be much mended by Medicaments that cool and asswage Choler but take heed you do not cool too fast and stop the courses you may safely use conserve of Succory Violets Water Lillies Borage of each one Ounce Conserve of Roses half an ounce Diamargariton Frigidum and Diatrion Santalon of each half a dram with sirrup of Lemmons or Oranges or juice of Citrons take a Nutmeg in quantity at once twice or thrice in a day and anoint the back and loins with Poplar Unguent or oyl of water Lillies Roses Venus Navel wort Let her wear thin cloaths and use the cold Air let her avoid hot and salt meats Wine and strong drink eat Lettice and Endive and cooling herbs that she may sleep well The contrary to this is a cold womb and these are not fruitful they are too cold to nourish the seed of Man it is from the birth in
Plaister The watry rupture is cured with oil of Elder of Bays and of Rue or else make a Cataplasme of Bean flower Fenugreek Linseed Cummin seed Cammomile flowers and the oils aforesaid XI Sometimes children are weak that they are long before they can go wherefore it is good to strengthen their legs and thighs that they may be able to go betimes and that may be done thus take the juice of Marjoram of Sage and of Danewort an equal quantity of each fill a glass viol with these juices and with Past lute it round and when you set in houshold bread in the oven then set in your glass when you draw it forth break the glass and save the ointment you shall find in it melt this with some Neats-foot oil and rub the Childs Legs and Thighs with it on the hinder parts XII Children have many diseases that chiefly happen about the head outwardly as many ulcerous risings and pushes which come chiefly from the Nurses ill milk wherefore purge the nurse and give the child some sirrup of Borrage or of Fumitory bath the Scabs with softening decoctions then dry them with Allum Camphoratum If these milky Scabs called Achores and Favi be not well cured they turn to a Scald or scabby stinking Ulcer called Tinea a moth because like a moth it will fret as they eat Garments The milk scab comes at the first sucking and after that the Achores which are scabs that are not white and are only upon the head but the white scabs run over all the face and the body Those Ulcers in the head especially still run with matter they are of several colours as white red yellow black but they all come from excrementitious watery salt thick and thin humours that itch and make them to scratch they were gathered in the womb and bad milk increaseth them in time they cure themselves if the cause be not too bad but if the matter be too fierce it will pierce the Scull when it runs it doth children good if it stink it may cause the Falling sickness Carduus and Scabius water and good cordials will drive them out coolers and binders are naught for they strike them in The nurse must keep a good diet and prepare her self with Bugloss Borrage Fumitory Succory Hops Polypody and Dock roots then purge with Senna Epithymum and Rhubarb forbear salt spiced and sharp meats Conserve of Succory roots and Citrons candied of each half an ounce of Borrage Bugloss Violets Fumitory and Succory of each one ounce Harts-horn Diarrhodon Diamargariton frigid of each a scruple make an Electuary with sirrup of Gilliflowers let the nurse take daily two drams Purge the child with Manna wash the Head with a decoction of Mallowes Barley Wormwood Celandine Marshmallow roots boiled in barley water and boys piss make an ointment to use after it with oyl of bitter Almonds oyl of Roses and some Litharge or wash the head with Soap if you fear it may turn to a Scald head or eat into the skull and then with the former decoction or take Ceruss Litharge of each two drams of Agarick and Pomegranate flowers of each one dram oyl of Roses and Vinegar make an oyntment If it come to be a Scald head it is a dry Ulcer in the head onely called Tinea but Achores are moist Ulcers in the head and body sometimes A Scald head is infectious it proceeds from a salt sharp melancholick humor from the Mothers blood or from corrupt Milk These Scabs are like bran sometimes or Scurf with Scales sometimes slimy and when the Scab comes off you shall see red quick knobs of flesh like the in-side of a fig some of them are malignant they run but little but that which comes forth stinks much An old black or ash-coloured scab is hard to cure the other is not so when it is new and yellow matter comes from it The hair will scarce ever come again when it is cured the skin is so exceeding hard rub the skin and if it will not seem red there is no hopes of hair The salt humours make the skin thick and dry wherefore it will be good to moisten with laying on a Beet or a Colewort leaf spread with Hogs grease and remove the scab with such things as cleanse and are some what sharp When the child comes to age and is able to bear it purge with Senna Rhubarb and Agarick then take Brimstone two drams Mustard half a dram Briony roots and Staves-acre of each one dram Vinegar one ounce Turpentine and Bears grease of each half an ounce this ointment will make the scab fall or if you beat Hogs-grease and Water-cresses together and lay it on the scab it will fall off in four and twenty hours when the scab is fallen use a pitcht Cap to pull out the hair by the roots then use softeners to correct the dry distemper Apply things that will consume the excrements that lie deep in the skin as take one ounce of each of these following roots of Docks Lillies and Marshmallows of Mallows Fumitory Sage of each two handfuls and boil all in vinegar and Ly and wash the head daily with it Then make a Cerot of Tar and Wax or take salt-Peter one ounce Oxymel one ounce and a half or mingle with Hogs grease live Brimstone one ounce with Hellebore and Staves-acre of each two drams but beware of poisons such as are Arsenick or Pigment or Mercury for they are dangerous to corrode the part that lieth so near the brain XIII Sometimes childrens heads swell with water and are very big the water is either without the skul or within the skul for this water lieth either between the skin and the pericranium or between the bone and the pericranium or between the bone and the membranes called the Dura and Pia Mater Sometimes abundance of vapours get between the bones and skin of the head make the head so great that they kill the child If it be water the child will be giddy and have Epileptick fits nor can it rest If it be only wind between the skin and the pericranium a decoction of Sage Betony Calamint and Origanum of each one handful of Anniseeds and Fennel seeds of each two drams with a handful of Cammomile flowers and of Melilot and red roses the like quantity boiled in water with some wine will cure it The watry humour is hardly cured A humour from water within the brain is smaller and harder than when it is out of the skull but it is more hard to cure and almost incurable A humour of wind is seldome without water that breeds it apply discussers that make the humours thin to the head the nose and the ears as Cammomile Rue and Origanum Take thirty snails in their shells of Mugwort and Marjoram of each one handful stamp them then put to them Saffron half a dram and a scruple of Camphire and make a poultiss with oil of Cammomile Also take Nutmegs Cubebs
Cloves of each one scruple Frankincense Bark Calamus of each half a dram Marjoram water three ounces snuff up this water often and drop hot oils into the ears If the water be not dissipated in twenty daies you must open the skull and let out the water by degrees and beware that the child take no cold If such means as are outwardly applied will not help it the last remedy is by the Chirurgion XIV Sometimes children are much vexed with the Hiccough or Hickets or Huckets as they call it it comes commonly from too much repletion and fulness wherefore dip a feather in oil and put it down the childs Throat and make it vomit It may come from a cold stomach then anoint the stomach with oil of Cammomile of Worm wood of Mastick and Quinces and dissolve a scruple of the Troches of Diarrhodon in the Nurses Milk and give it the child If this disease come from too much Milk the belly swells and the child vomits if the Nurses Milk be bad it comes from thence and the Excrements will smell of stinking Milk This is no dangerous disease unless the cause be violent for then it will flie to the Nerves and cause a Convulsion Falling sickness and death Give the child sirrups of Mints and Betony to strengthen the stomach and anoint it with oil of Mints of Mastick and of Dill. There is a disease like the Hickets in children from grief or anger when the spirits flie from the Heart to the Midriff and stop the breath but it is soon over XV. Children are sometimes subject to vomiting from too much or from ill milk or from flegm that falls from the head to the stomach a moist loose stomach is the immediate cause if they vomit milk they are better for it if the milk be naught the matter that comes forth will shew that for it is yellow green or filthy coloured and it stinks Worms may make them vomit but that will be known by the signs children that vomit often are best in health and thrive best because their stomach is kept clean of ill humours but to vomit too much will make them wast away cleanse the stomach with honey of Roses and strengthen it with sirrup of Quinces and of Mints When the humour is too sharp and hot give the sirrup of Pomegranates or of Coral or of Currants Coral hath a hidden vertue and some hang it about their necks Anoint the stomach with oils of Mastick Mints Quinces Wormwood of each half an ounce oil of Nutmegs by expression half a dram oil of Mints chymically extracted three drops or dip bread in hot Wine and lay it to the mouth of the Stomach XVI If the child be griped and pained in the belly you shall know it by the great unquietness and crying and turning it self from side to side it is oft with a scowring and from bad milk that breeds sharp windy humours it gets to the guts and gnaws them and sometimes it is from worms if it be wind it will cease when they break wind but ill humors cause a constant pain Tough flegm binds the belly and the Dung is slimy sharp humours cause a green and yellow flux if this pain last long it casts them into convulsions and falling-sicknesses and is dangerous Foment the belly with a decoction of Lavender Fennel and Cummin seed or take oil of Olives and Dill seed and dip a piece of Wool in it and lay it over the belly warm Give the child some oil of sweet Almonds with Sugar-Candy and a scruple of Anni-seeds and purge it with Honey of Roses which is good also when the body is swoln with wind or too much milk not digested and use a decoction of Cardiaca Cammomile flowers and Cummin seed or boil the top of dwarf-Elder and of Elder in white wine and bath the parts that are swoln with it If the griping pain comes from the sharp milk sirrup of Succory with Rhubarb or sirrup or Honey of Roses or a Glister of the decoction of bran and Pellitory of the wall with sirrup of Roses is very good using an outward Ointment of oil of Dill and Cammomile XVII Sometimes children will sneeze mightily it may come from an imposthume in the head then cooling oils and ointments are commended but if any other cause produce it put the powder of Bazil into the nostrils If heat cause it the childs eyes will sink in then bruise Purslain leaves and with oil of Roses Barley meal and the yolk of an egg mingled make an Application to the Head XVIII When the child is Feaverish and hot the nurse must eat cooling and moistening things and anoint all the parts of the child with oil of Roses and Unguent Populeon and lay to the breasts clarified juice of Wormwood Plantane Mallows Seagreen made to a Cataplasme of Barley meal XIX It falls oftentimes out that children are squint-eyed and that comes when they lie in their Cradle and the Candle or light stands behind them or on one side It may come from the Falling-sickness or by birth but that is seldome and not curable if ill custom have bred it put your candle on the other side or a Picture till the childs eyes come to look right but you may prevent all if you set the candle before the child and not on either side for the child will stare after the light you may when you find the childs eyes distorted hang cloths of all colours on the other side to make the child to turn the eyes the contrary way to gaze on them till it be cured XX. Sometimes children have sore eyes with great pain with Ulcers and Worms and inflammations for childrens brains are very moist and there are many excrements which nature casts forth at other places because the natural Emunctories will not carry them all out much of this goes to their ears which will be very sore that they will cry and not suffer them to be touched it is dangerous for it will not let them sleep the heat and pain is so great it causeth the Falling-sickness and fouls the spongy bones and breeds Worms and sometimes makes children deaf so long as they live you cannot use strong remedies to children drop a little hemp seed oil with Wine into their ears to allay the pain use warm milk about their ears or oil of Violets or the decoction of Poppey tops to dry up the moisture use honey of Roses or water of honey to drop in their ears XXI The usual painful disease of all children is the breeding of their teeth it is very dangerous to some about the seventh month first come forth the fore teeth then the eyteeth lastly the grinders first the Gums itch then they prick like needles by reason of the sharp bones which causeth watchings and inflammations of the Gums Feavers Convulsions Scourings especially when they breed their eye-teeth The beginning of the seventh month is the time that discovers it and the childs putting his
like driers use Sulphur and Allum Baths with oaken leaves And give it this powder take burnt Hogs-bladders Stones of a Hare roasted and Cocks throats roasted of each half a dram and two scruples of Acorns Mace and Nip of each a scruple give half a dram with Oaken leave Water XXXVI Childrens Urine is sometimes stopt either by gross matter or the stone you may try with the Catheter you must purge the humours with honey of Roses Cassia Turpentine with a decoction of red Pease also Grass-water and Restharrow and Dropwort water are good take Hares blood one ounce Saxifrage roots six drams calcine them the Dose is a scruple or half a dram with White-Wine and Saxifrage Water The Stone in the bladder is as common with children as the Stone of the Kidneys with men and women crude gross meats and unclean milk breed it there is also a weakness in the Liver and stomach when they do not well part gross blood from the pure but much earthy juice remains in the child sometimes it is natural from the Parents they piss by drops and what comes forth is like clear water or whey or milk and sometimes blood comes forth it grows daily and at last they must be cut if they be not cured in time Let then the belly be alwaies kept loose and the nurse eat no slimy gross meats anoint the bladder-with oil of Lillies and of Scorpions and lay on a Cataplasme of Pellitory of the Wall boild in oil of Lillies or give two drops of Spirit of Vitriol with half a drain of Cypress Turpentine Take Magistery or Crabs eyes white Amber prepared Goats blood of each a scruple give it frequently with water of Parsley XXXVII There is one disease more I shall end with and that is called Siriasis an inflammation of the membranes of the brain it is from phlegmatick blood putrified and grows hot and cholerick hot weather windy milk and nurses ill diet may cause it The forehead grows hot hollow the face is red they are dry Feaverish want an appetite The fore part of the head is hollow where the sagittal and Coronal Sutures meet for there the bones are membranons and harden in time it is dangerous and some say deadly When this bone or membrane falls there is a pit and the brain falls down they commonly die in three daies Give a glister of sirrup of Roses or Violets lay on coolers of the juice of Lettice Gourd Melons or split a Pompion in two pieces and lay it on but cool not the brain too much anoint it with oil of Roses let the Nurses diet be cooling or change her for a better Take oil of Roses half an ounce Populeon one ounce the white of an egg and an emulsion of the cold seeds drawn with Rose water two drams after the inflammation is abated and the flux stopt lay on oil of Cammomile one ounce and a half of Dill hal half an ounce with the yolk of an egg Thus by the blessing of Almighty God I have with great pains and endeavour run through all the parts of the Midwives Duty and what is required both for the Mother the Nurse and the Infant desiring that it may be as useful for the end I have written it to profit others as I have found it beneficial to Me in my long Practice of Midwifery To God alone be all Praise and Glory Amen FINIS Books Printed for or Sold by Simon Miller at the Star at the West-end of S. Pauls Quarto PHysical Experiments being a plain description of the causes signs and cures of most diseases incident to the body of man with a discourse of Witch-craft by William Drage Practitioner of Physick at Hitchin in Hartfordhire Bishop White upon the Sabbath The Artificial Changeling The Life of Tamerlane the Great The Pragmatical Jesuit a play by Richard Carpenter The Life and Death of the Valiant and Renowned Sir Francis Drake His Voyages and Discoveries in the West-Indies and aboue the World with his Noble and Heroick Acts. By Samuel Clark late Minister of Bennet Finck London Large Octavo Master Shepherd on the Sabbath The Rights of the Crown of England as it is Established by Law by E. Bagshaw of the Inner Temple An Enchiridion of Fortification or a handful of knowledge in Martial affairs demonstrating both by Rule and Figure as well Mathematically by exact Calculations as Practically to fortifie any body either Regular or Irregular How to run approaches to pierce through a Counter-scarf to make a Gallery over a Mote to spring a Myne c. With many other notable matters belonging to War useful and necessary for all Officers to enrich their knowledge and Practice The Life and Adventures of Buscon the witty Spaniard Epicurus's Morals Small Octavo Daphnis and Chloe a Romance Merry Drollery complete or a Collection of Jovial Poems Merry Songs Witty Drolleries intermixed with Pleasant Catches Collected By W.N. C.B. R.S. J.G. Lovers of Wit The Midwives Book or the whole art of Midwifry discoverd directing child-bearing women how to behave themselves in their Conception Bearing Breeding and Nursing of Children in six Books Butler of War Tractatus de Venenis or a Treatise of poisons Their sundry sorts names natures and virtues with their symptoms signs diagnostick and prognostick and antidotes Wherein are divers necessary questions discussed The truth by the most Learned confirmed by many instances examples and stories Illustrated And both Philosophically and Medicinally handled By William Ramesey The Urinal of Physick By Robert Record Doctor of Physick Whereunto is added an ingenious treatise concerning Physicians Apothecaries and Chirurgeons set forth by a Doctor in Queen Elizabeths daies with a Translation of Papius Ahalsossa concerning Apothecaries Confecting their Medicines worthy perusing and following Large Twelves The Moral Practice of the Jesuites Demonstrated by many Remarkable Histories of their Actions in all parts of the World Collected either from Books of the Greatest Authority or most certain and unquestionable Records and Memorials by the Doctors of the Sorbonne Artimedorus of Dreams Oxford Jeasts Refined now in the Press The third part of the Bible and New Testament A Complete Practice of Physick Wherein is plainly pescribed the Nature Causes differences and signs of all diseases in the body of man With the choicest cures for the same By John Smith Doctor in Physick The Duty of every one that will be saved being Rules Precepts Promises and Examples directing all persons of what degree soever how to govern their passions and to live vertuously and soberly in the world The Spiritual Chymist or six Decads of Divine Meditations on several Subjects with a short account of the Authors Life By William Spurstow D. D. Sometime Minister of the Gospel at Hackney near London Small Twelves The Understanding Christans Duty A Help to prayer A new method of preserving and restoring health by the vertue of Coral and Steel Davids sling
affections and draws away vital heat from the Circumference to the Center consuming the vital spirits Discontent hinders People from what they desire denies God's Providence and shews that our spirits are too much fastened to the World yet sometimes the best woman of us all cannot avoid it But it is the Physical part that I pretend to And therefore let such as desire to have children look to it that their courses come down orderly and be well coloured for then there is no fear but such women will be easie to conceive but they must be sparing in the act of Copulation else one act will destroy another like Penelopes web what she spun in the day she unreathed at night too frequent use makes the womb slippery and therefore whores have but few children and some honest women conceive presently when their Husbands return after a long absence women will soonest conceive two or three dayes after their Terms be staid she must avoid all meats and drinks that hinder conception as drinking of sweet Wine the Hollanders call Stum that keeps women from conceiving or eating Ivy berries wearing Saphyre or Emerald stones about them but a Laodstone carryed causeth concord and fruitfulness and so doth the heart of a male Quale for a man of a female for a woman to eat Eringo root or Ctyrions take Castorium half a dram in Malmsey spread a plaister of Landanum and lay to the womb take a scruple of Galingal in White Wine every morning or a dram of Fox or Boars stones in Sheeps Milk or a dram of a Bulls pisle eat the brains of Sparrows and Pidgeons and the flesh too if you please But to leave this which is concerning means before women have conceived that they may more easily prove with child and retain it their full time and be afterwards in due time happily delivered of it I come in the next place to shew what the woman must do that is gone with child and first let her drink every morning a good draught of Sage Ale for though Sage do provoke the courses yet it will not do so here but it strengthens the womb many things by sundry qualities they abound with will cause contrary effects so Cinnamon a great binder for a loosness will stop the courses when they flow too much and make them come down when they are stopt I have proved that Aurum Potabile will stay the bloody flux yet if a body be full of ill humours it wil purge sufficiently Garden Tansie Ale made and drank like Sage Ale is good if the woman fear to miscarry if you bruise the Tansie and spriâ—â—le it with Muskadel and apply it to her Navel it is more effectual than a toast of bread that some dip in the said wine and apply the same way Let women that are in the said danger alwayes keep the sirrup of this Tansie by them it is made with the juice of the herb clarified and boiled up with a double weight of sugar give a spoonful or two to the labouring woman it may save many a womans life and her childs Let her abstain from all binding diet let her boyl Mallows when she comes near the time of her delivery or Holyhocks in fair spring water and with Honey or Sugar enough to sweeten it and add half a spoonful of white salt for a Glister Let her eat meats and drink such things as nourish well but take heed of surfeiting or excess and let her keep her body loose roasted Apples eat with Sugar in the morning will do it or let her take a bolus of Cassia Fistula called Pudding pipe about an hour or less before dinner there is no danger in it and it opens gently she may make a Glister with Chicken or tender flesh broth adding course Sugar or Honey and half a spoonful of white salt or let her boyl Mercury in her broth to make a suppository with Castle sope or Lard The Eagle stone I have seen abundance of them every day to be sold in Humburgh and they are to be had in London but they are of four kinds the best is brought from Africa and is taken out of an Eagles nest for the Eagle some write cannot lay her eggs if she want these stones by her it hath the name from hence and it is called from the likeness it hath with it a stone with child it is but a small stone with another stone that shakes and sounds within it it is but of a small body and easily beaten to powder some say there is a male Eagle stone and this is a female I think there is both male and female in stones and Plants There is a second and that is called the male Eagle stone and it comes from Arabia it is as hard as a gall of a dark red colour and hard to be powdered the third is brought from Cyprus not unlike that of Africa but it is much bigger The fourth brought from a place called Taphimsius is so denominated also it is round and white and another stone within it it is found in Rivers this is held to be the worst but in some respects very good and the best of all the four as it is used for some occasions but herein must we needs admire the works of God for I have proved it to be true that this stone hanged about a womans neck and so as touch her skin when she is with child will preserve her safe from Abortion and will cause her to be safe delivered when the time comes but since the fall of our first Parents it is hard to find the vertues and secret qualities of the creatures But when I give these and the like rules I know poor women are not able to provide in such cases but their rich neighbours should do it for them for I do not question but that all women will be glad to eat and drink well and to take all things that may do them good if they knew but what and can procure them A Bath for a woman great with child and near her time to be delivered is very good for her to sit in and it may be thus made Holyhocks leaves and roots two handfuls Betony Mallows of each one handful Mugwort Marjerome Mints Camomile of each half a handful Linseed Pursly Pursly bruised two handful put all in Bags together and boil all in well-water sufficient for the woman to sit up to the Navel in when it is warm to sit in hold one bag to her Navel and let her sit upon another after this done warm this Ointment following and annoint her back her belly and secrets Take Oil of sweet Almonds of Lillies of Violets of each half an ounce Ducks grease and Hens grease of each 3 drams Wax a little to make the Ointment you may add if you please to this Ointment in compounding it Holyhock roots Fenugreekseed Butter of each a quarter of an ounce Quince kernels Gum traganth of each an ounce stamp the seeds
it the child by the mouth to drink But in what place this string must be cut Midwives and Physicians can scarce agree Elias lib. 4. c. 3. saith it must be cut four fingers breadth from the body but what is this Midwives fingers are not equal I suppose he means four inches for that was the opinion of the Antients Miraldus was critical in this point and from him some errors were begotten about it in late writers and Midwives Hence it is if Spigelius speak truth that Midwives cut the Females Navel-string shorter than they doe the Males for Boys privy parts must be longer than womens but it Females are cut short they say it will make them modest and their secrets narrower Spigelius and others laugh at this conceit for if Midwives by cutting their Navel-strings can make their secrets wider all women that have hard labour have good reason to complain of their Midwives for cutting their Navel-string so short Miraldus bids cut the navel-string long in both sexes for that the Instruments of Generation in both follow this proportion if womens Navel-strings be cut too short it will hinder their Childbearing Taisner an excellent Astrologer was of this mind If Nature framed the child by the Navel-string in the womb there is no small use of it afterward Miraldus saith that if a childs Navel-string be cut off and let fall to touch the ground that child shall never hold its water sleeping nor waking Also if you carry a piece of a Childs Navel-string about you you may saith Miraldus wear it for a foil in a Ring you shall never be troubled with convulsion fits nor the Falling sickness I have known all this tried but he saith farther that it will defend those that carry it from Devils and Witch-crafts and one may try this if they please If the Child be very weak when it is born put back gently the natural blood by the Navel vein and the vital by the Navel arteries and you shall see the child almost dead before to revive like one awak'd out of sleep if the child seem full of life and spirits then stop the navel-string near the Navel that no blood nor vital spirits go back and that will keep the child strong as it is having done this bind the Navel-string with a strong ligature and cut it not off too near to the string least it unloose you need not fear to bind the Navel-string very hard because it feels not and that piece of the Navel-string you leave on will fall off in a very few days for the whole course of Nature is soon changed in the Child and another way ordain'd to feed it It is no matter what you cut it off with so it be sharp to do it neatly The reason of so many nodes or knots in the childs Navel-string is that the blood and vital spirits might not come in too fast to choke the child Nature is a careful Nurse but Midwives say these knots in number signifie so many Children the reddish boys the whitish Girls and the long distance between knot and knot long time between child and child but all false for all women almost have equal knots and more knots with their last Children than with the first When the Navel-string is cut off apply a little Cotten or lint to the place to keep it warm least the cold get in and that it will do if it be not hard enough bound and if it do you cannot think of a greater mischief for the Child when part of the Navel-string left is fallen off Midwives use to burn a rag to tinder and to apply to the place a little powder of Bolearmoniack were better because it drieth Beasts can lick the Navel-string round enough to keep out the air but the curse lyeth heavier on women for our Grand-Mothers first sin than it doth upon beasts CHAP. V. What is best to bring away the Secundine or after-burden WOmen are in as great danger if not more after the young is born but Beasts are not the Caule or inward chamber of the womb the child did lye in stayeth oft-times long after the child is born which should presently follow it when it so happens if it begins especially to corrupt as it will soon do it causeth grievous pains and ofttimes death wherefore make hast to drive it forth but be sure the means you use be very gentle for the woman is now grown weak and her womb is quick of feeling but the Secundine is dead let the quick then cast forth the dead Midwives long nails may do mischief I grant delays are dangerous for if it be retain'd till it corrupt it will cause Feavers Imposthumes Convulsions and such like know this that what brings away the birth will also do good to call forth the after-birth then comfort the woman let her snuff up a little white Hellebore in powder to make her sneefe but put the woman to as little trouble as you can for she hath endured pain enough already The herb Vervain boil'd in wine or a sirrup made with the clarified juice as I told you of Tansie Featherfew and mugwort do the same but hardly so forcibly Alexanders boiled in wine and the wine drunk is excellent Sweet-Cecely Angelica roots or Master-wort doe the same so used The smoke of Mary-Gold flowers taken in by a Tunnel at the secrets will easily bring forth the Secundine though the Midwife have let go her hold Mugwort boil'd soft in water applied like a Poultess to the Navel brings birth and after-birth away but then remove it least it bring the womb after all Women suffer great pains in Child-birth because the womb that hath many Nerves and Sinews by which the body feels is strait till time of delivery and then it is stretched which causeth great pain and some women have more pain in bearing than others have because some womens passages are narrower and their wombs more full of Nerves as Anatomy will shew and some think the reason of the great soreness of some women is because the share-bone and os sacrum or holy-bone do part or give way in hard travel it was that excellent Anatomist Doctor Reads opinion and I believe it to be true for nature strives to the utmost in such times Crook and Columbus deny this but the bones are joyned with Cartilages and Ligaments which being wet with much moisture may give way though the bones open not but in all labour the Nerves that carrry feeling through the whole body are then stretcht and cause soreness till they have rest and be settled again CHAP. VI. Of the great pains and throws some Women suffer after they are delivered SOmetimes a woman delivered shall for two of three days after and now and then longer feel such bitter pains in her belly and above the Groin as if she should be delivered again these pains are not in the body and bottom of the womb but in the Vessels and Ligatures by
which the womb hangs and so it passeth to the sides and belly The causes are the cold air that is got in by her sore travel in child-birth or sharp or clotted blood sticking in the womb and pricking for expulsion these pains make the woman weak and very troublesome wherefore you must strive to abate them Some women are so hardy that to hinder this they will drink cold water so soon as they are delivered if the woman be cholerick she may do it with a crust of tosted bread otherwise it is dangerous CHAP. VII Of the Chollick some women are afflicted within the time of their travel SOme women have the Chollick at the time they should bring forth a child which hinders the delivery and the pains surpass the pain of their travel you can scarce distinguish one of these pains from the other but whilst the chollick lasts the birth comes not forward at all the causes of this disease are great crudities and indigestions of the stomach Let her take Cinnamon water one ounce with two ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds newly drawn if this do it not then give her a Glister against wind or use fomentations against wind both are good in this cases More remedies there are against wind for Child-bed Women but these may suffice CHAP. VIII Of Womens Miscarriage or Abortment with the Signs thereof THere are abundance of causes whereby women are driven to abort or miscarry and I have spoken somewhat of this before I shall add a little more to it the better to know the signs causes and remedies against it it is the bringing forth an untimely birth or fruit before it be ripe if it happen in seven daies after conception it is but an effluxion but if in fourteen daies after it is an untimely birth sometimes an untimely birth may be alive but it is very seldom that it continues the elder and stronger it is the more hopes for life some women have such large wombs or slippery full of slimy humours that the Seed cannot be contain'd but slips away sometimes it is an imposhumation causing pain that hinders retention but this is rather Effluxion than abortment But sometimes the Cups or Veins whereby the conception is tied to the womb through which also nourishment passeth to it as we said before are stopt with viscous ill humours and so swollen with wind or inflamed that the Cups break and the fruit is lost for want of food this happens commonly in the second or third month so Hippocrates tells us that this is the certain cause if the woman that miscarries be of a good state of body not too fat nor too lean Sometimes the right Gut or the womb may have an Ulcer or Piles or the Bladder or Ureters swollen with the Stone or Strangury and the pains thereof may break the Cups or if she have a Tenasmus great provocation to stool and can do nothing she brings forth her birth by straining downward and that before she should Also great coughs make the woman feeble and consumptive and the child consumes within her great bleeding at the nose or any great loss of blood or too great flux of her courses after conception cause miscarriage if they flow in in the third month else not Also opening of a vein may cause it if the woman want blood but such as are sanguine may let blood after the fourth month and before the seventh month but it is good to see there be cause for it else not Violent purging before the fourth month or after the seventh causes abortment But gentle purging between the fourth and the seventh month are safe Violent fluxing or vomiting make women strain too much especially lean folks and may perish the child and break the Cups If the woman hunger much for want of food Nature hath nothing to spare to keep the child alive it is the same thing with Beasts and Plants that want nutriment and too much will choak it Sharp diseases or Pestilential Feavers Imposthumes in the breast Palsies falling-sicknes kill the child and sometimes the child is sick in the womb Also change of weather may cause miscarriage saith Hippocrates when the winter is hot and moist and the Spring cold and dry that follows it the women that conceive in that Spring will easily abort and if they do not they will suffer hard labour in child-birth and the child will be weak and short liv'd the reason may be because the body is opened and made more tender by the foregoing heat and moist weather and then the succeeding cold makes it more dangerous Great labour as dancing leaping falls or bruises great passions suddenly coming not lookt for may make a woman miscarry let all women beware of it for it is more painful than a true delivery because one is natural and the other against nature nature helps the one but not the other Signs of Abortment I have spoken of in part but commonly about the third and fourth month womens bodies that will swell and puff up with hardness and stiffness stitches and windiness running about her yet she feels no more weight in her body this is a sign of miscarriage if it be not prevented There is nothing better after conception to prevent abortment than good natural food moderately taken and to use all things with moderation to avoid violent passions as care and anger joy fear or whatsoever may too much stir the blood use not Phlebotomy without great cause nor yet violent purgatives If the Matrix be too much dilated use things that contract and fasten as Baths prepared Unguents Ointments Fumes Odours Plaisters Some remedies are specifical against miscarriage and if the woman be in danger she may use them and that in divers ways that she may take them as thus take red Coral in powder two drams shavings of Ivory one dram and a half Mastick half a dram and one Nutmeg in powder give half a dram in a rear egg c. A Powder to hinder Abortion Take Bistort-roots one scruple Kermes berries Plantane and Purslain seeds of each one dram Coriander prepared two scruples Sugar all their weight take every day one scruple with a little Maligo Wine if the body be not costive For an Ague Sometimes women with Child fall into an Ague then take Barley meal juice of Sloes and of Housleek a sufficient quantity and with Vinegar make a Cataplasme and lay it upon a double cloth and lay it often upon the womans belly and this will preserve the child from it For the wind Some are much troubled with wind that will cause them to miscarry then take Cumminseed and boyl it in water give her four spoonful of it twice a week with a dram of Methridate Against sudden frights Take Mastick Frankincence of each one dram Dragons blood Myrtles Bolearmoniak Hermes berries of each half a scruple make them into powder and give half a dram at once with White Wine or Chicken broth To strengthen the Child in
to Ulcers yet sometimes the substance of the womb hath been Ulcerated and rotted away A dead child in the womb may cause an Ulcer but all these Ulcers and Rottenness are to be dealt withal as I have shewed before Sometimes there may be a Rupture of the womb I never saw but one and that was exceeding rare it happens so seldome The womb is so fenced by the adjacent parts that it is seldom wounded unless the Chirurgeon chance to do it in cutting the Child forth of the womb There is more pain in the neck of the womb than in the bottom of it but this cutting may be cured by Injections and Glisters for the womb made with Decoctions of round Birthwort Cypress Nuts boiled in Steel water and Astringent Wine and a little Honyed water and Agrimony Mugwort Plantane Roses Camels Hay Horehound If the pain be great use Anodynes or Pessaries made with a wax candle dipt in Vulnerary Oyntments as take Turpentine Goose Grease wax and Butter of each a dram Bulls Grease Deers Marrow Honey Oyl of Roses of each two drams I have refer'd all the foresaid Diseases to a natural or Accidental straitness of the mouth or neck or Middle of the womb all of them being a hinderance to Copulation and making compression upon the parts CHAP. VIII Of the Largeness of the womb THe opposite to straitness of the womb is the largeness of the Orifice and sometimes more Cuts than nature makes which may proceed from Copulation or bearing of Children By the largeness of the Orifice women are often barren and sometimes the womb falls out as Hippocrates saith Nor do men desire to keep company with such women The cure after Child-birth is with Astringent Fomentations and Bathes of Allum water binding things of Bole Dragons blood Comfrey Roots Pomegranat Flowers Mastick Allum Galls of each half a dram powder all and make a Pessary to thrust into the Orifice dipt in this Mixture made fit with steel'd water Hard Labour doth sometimes cleave the Privy parts as low as the Fundament whereby the rent is made so wide that it goeth from one to the other hole a long piece of Allum put into the cleft may do good to help it but if there be many passages in the secret parts it comes from an error in nature there being a passage open from the womb to the straight gut There are some diseases whereby Physicians are much deceived thinking the cause to lye in the womb when it doth not for womens stones and Vessels of procreation may be sorely distempered and their womb be no wayes affected with it Gasper Bauhin and John Scenkius tell us of a Maid whose belly was swoln as though she had been with child but when she died she desired to be opened to let the World know her innocency and it did so appear for her stones were swelled as big as a white penny Loafe they were blew and spungy and full of water The womb is sometimes subject to great paines besides what proceed from the former Diseases for there is that which is called the Cholick of the womb it is usual to women with child as the Inflammation of the womb is it binds the belly and stops the veins all women are subject to it either from sharp humours or from clotted blood that sticks to the hollow of the womb Drinking of cold drink may cause it sometimes it comes from retention and corruption of the seed that is cured as fits of the Mother If it come from ill humours that lye there purge them forth if from windy vapours that rise from the heat of ill humours these must be discussed give a Glister of Maligo wine and Nut oyl of each three ounces Aquavitae one ounce oyl of Juniper and Rue distiled of each two drams apply it warm lay on a plaister to the Navel of Tacamahac and Gum Caranna CHAP. IX Of the Termes THe Monthly courses of women are called Termes in Latin Menstrua quasi Monstrua for it is a Monstrous thing that no creature but a women hath them or else Menstrua because they should flow every Moneth and they are named Flowers because Fruit follows and so would theirs if they came down orderly they are then a sign that such people are capable of Children it preserves health to have them naturally but if they be stopt there must be danger when the woman is conceived then they stop they begin commonly at fourteen years old and stop at fifty or in some at sixty years old they are of no ill quality naturally but are onely superfluous moisture and blood the Female sex abounds withal for when they stop the Child in the womb is supplied by them The Termes run longer two or three dayes with some women than with others for they differ as women do according to plenty or less plenty of good diet and labour or idleness or the like Hippocrates saith They should bleed in all but two pints at most or a pint and a half the colour of the blood and substance differs according to divers tempers it should not be too thick nor too thin without any ill scent and of a red or reddish colour and the veins of the womb are the passages which are double from the Spermatick and Hypogastrick double branch on both sides to send forth superfluous menstrual blood from all parts of the body some say this blood is venomous and will poison plants it falls upon discolour a fair looking glass by the breath of her that hath her courses and comes but near to breath upon the Glass that Ivory will be obscured by it It hath strong qualities indeed when it is mixed with ill humours But were the blood venomous it self it could not remain a full month in the womans body and not hurt her nor yet the Infant after conceprion for then it flows not forth but serves for the childs nutriment We read of a child but five years old that had her monthly purgations and John Fernelius writes of one that was but eight years old that had them but certainly it must be a sign of a lascivious disposition and of a short life Some womens courses stop not only by conception but from other causes that have come again very well seven or eight months after but if the terms fail there is either want of blood or the blood is stopt but some refer the causes of stopping the courses to four heads viz. 1. Corruption of the blood 2. The Womb ill disposed 3. An ill habit of the body 4. An ill Custome of the faculties of the Body 1. If the Womb be diseased as it is subject to many the Terms will increase or diminish wherefore the womb must be first healed 2. If the blood be corrupt it will be too thick or too thin by reason of ill humours and ill diet 3. If the body be ill disposed it sends not blood as it should do some laborious Country Women become so hot and
thick and gross milk and sometimes a hot and dry distemper of the breasts will burn up the thin part of the milk purge away thick humours from the blood eat meats of good digestion as Veal Chickens Kids flesh and use a moistening and attenuating Diet Fryed Onions and all sowr spiced meats will communicate their qualities to the milk that you may find both by smell and tast Strong passions of anger or fear will cause chollerick and melancholly milk which makes the child lean that it cannnot thrive Hence come gripings and wringing pains in the belly Thrush in the mouth and Falling-sickness good wine moderately drank sometimes will help the ill smell and taste of the milk Let the Nurse be sure to observe a Diet that is most proper for her milk and may not corrupt it and also to avoid all passions and venereous actions during the time she is a nurse and if for all this the milk prove ill she must purge away evil qualities according to my former prescriptions CAAP. VI. Of the Child CHildren that look white and pale when they are born are weak and sickly and seldome live long but if it be of a reddish colour all over the body when it is first born and this colour change by degrees to a Rose colour there is no doubt of the child but it may do well if it cry strongly and clear it argues a great strength of the breast Take notice of all the parts of it and see all be right and the Midwife must handle it very tenderly and wash the body with warm wine then when it is dry roul it up with soft cloths and lay it into the Cradle but in the swadling of it be sure that all parts be bound up in their due place and order gently without any crookedness or rugged foldings for infants are tender twigs and as you use them so they will grow straight or crooked wipe the childs eyes often to make them clean with a piece of soft linnen or silk and lay the arms right down by the sides that they may grow right and sometimes with your hand stroke down the belly of the child toward the neck of the bladder to provoke it to make water But the first work to be done so soon as it is born is to cut the Navel-string and to bind that up right I shewed you how to do it before when the Navel-string is cut off strew upon it a powder of Bole Sarcocolla Dragons blood Cummin and Myrrh of each the same quantity and bind a piece of Cotton or Wool over it to keep it from falling off again and if the child be weak after this anoint the childs body over with oil of Acorns for that will comfort and strengthen it and keep away the cold wash the child next with warm water pare your nails and pick out the filth from the childs nostrils open the Fundament that it may encline to go to stool and keep it neither too hot nor too cold nor in a place that is too light let not the beams of the Sun or Moon dart upon it as it lieth in the Cradle especially but let the cradle stand in a darkish and shadowy place and let the head lie a little higher than the body for a child that is very young to look upon the light of a candle will make them pore blind or squint-eyed so will the light of the Sun set not a candle behind the head of it for the child will turn its eyes to the light Take heed the child be not frighted for it will soon be fearful if you let it sleep alone so soon as it awakes and misseth the Nurse keep it not waking longer than it will but use means to provoke it to sleep by rocking it in the cradle and singing Lullabies to it carry it often in the arms and dance it to keep it from the Rickets and other diseases let it not suck too much at once but often suckle it as it can digest it After four months let loose the arms but still roul the breast and belly and feet to keep out cold air for a year till the child have gained more strength Shift the childs clouts often for the Piss and Dung if they lie long in it will fetch on the skin and put the child to great pain you may suffer the child to cry a little for it is better for the brain and lungs that are thus opened and discharged of superfluous humours and natural heat is raised by it it doth most good before they suck and when the former suck is digested but too much crying will cause rheums to fall and oftentimes the child will be broken bellied by its overstraining change the breasts as you give suck sometimes let it draw one sometimes another and for the first month let it suck as much as it can so the stomach be not too full Give it some pap of barley bread steeped a while in water and then boiled in milk children that are lusty may be fed with this betimes but they must not suck till it be a full hour after it and thus they should be dieted till they breed teeth So soon as the teeth come forth let it eat more substantial meat that is easily chewed and of quick digestion also give it Cows milk and broths let not the child rest too soon upon its legs for if the legs be weak they will grow crooked by reason of the weight of their bodies When the child is seven months old you may if you please wash the body of it twice a week with warm water till it be weaned Let the teeth come forth most part especially the eye-teeth before the child be weaned for those teeth cause great pains when they are breeding and Feavers and grievous a king of their Gums proceed from them the stronger the child is the sooner he is ready to be weaned some at twelve months old and some not till fifteen or eighteen months old you may stay two years if you please but use the child to other Food by degrees till it be acquainted with it Let the child drink but little wine that it do not over-heat the blood the best time to wean the child is either the Spring or the Fall of the Leaf the Moon increasing For seven years give the child nourishing meats and an indifferent plentiful diet to make it grow cocker them not over much nor provoke them to passions I cannot tell which may do most hurt Too much play as children are prone to will over-heat the blood and want of play and idleness will make them dull Some Parents are too fond of their children and leave them to their own wills some are too froward and dishearten their children the mean is best for them both and so they shall be sure to find it I have as briefly as I could touched upon all occasions for women and their children and some things may seem to be needless
or two of red Rose sirrup or of Pomegranates with Mint water may do much good or beat some Sorrel-seeds to powder and give it to eat with the yolk of a roasted Egg or bruise the seed and boil it in fountain water and let the child drink of it twice a day If the child be costive and cannot go to stool this comes oftentimes from a cold and dry distemper of the Guts from the birth or form slimy flegme that sticks to the Guts and wraps up the Dung this last comes from the milk when the Nurse drinks little or eates hard meats or astringent diet or else it may come from a hot distemper of the Kidneys and Liver that drieth the excrements or want of choler to provoke expulsion A dry distemper of the Guts is not easily helped when there wants choler the body looks yellow and the dung is white because the choller is gone some other way When the child is bound the Head will ache and there is pain in the belly wherefore it is more healthful if the belly be loose so it be moderate A hot distemper is remedied by bathing it often in a bath of boiled Lettice and Succory to mosten and cool it In a hot cause use coolers in a moist drying things let the nurse abstain from binding meats in dry causes as from Quinces Medlars Pease Beans and annoint the stomach and belly of the child with fresh butter oyl of Lillies hens grease if the child be grown give it the decoction of red Coleworts with a little Honey and salt Flegme is cured with sirrup of Roses or with Honey and to cool sirrup of Violets is effectual or emulsions of the four cold seeds When choler will not come from the Gall to the guts to move the expulsive faculty let it drink a decoction of Grass roots Maiden-hair Fennel and Sparagus if it will not yet void the Excrements make a suppository of Honey boiled hard let it be as big as a date stone or a little bigger and as long as your little finger or you may make it of the stalks or roots of Beets or flower de Luce dip them in oyl and thrust it up into the Fundament lay a piece of wool dipt in oyl to the childes navel and give it the quantity of a Pease of good honey When the child sucks give the Nurse a gentle purge to loosen the belly if soluble meats will not do it you may safely lay a plaister over the childes belly made of Mallowes and Marshmallowes of each one handful Holyhocks two ounces ten Figs Fenugreek and Linseed of each one ounce boil all in water and then stamp them in a mortar make it up with butter and hens-grease of each two ounces Saffron one scruple spread it on a Linnen Cloath or apply to the navel a walnut shell full of hens-grease and Oxe Gall and anoint the belly with softning things as with oyl of sweet Almonds and of Linseed bran with the juyce of Dwarf Elder will make a loosning Poultis for the belly VI. The child may be troubled with worms that breed in their Guts some like mites of Cheese and some like earth worms and some children have been observed to have them in their Mothers bellies for they have voided them so soon almost as they were born but the chief cause is by mingling milk with other meats when the constitution is hot and moist or from Summer Fruits and sweet Meats that worms love These worms are broad and small or round and long you may know when they have worms when their Mouthes water much and their breath stinks when they gnash their teeth and start in their sleep and cry when they have a dry cough loath their meat are very thirsty when they vomit and hicket when their bellies swell and they are much bound or very loose when they make thick white water with pain when their belly is empty and the worms want meat their face is covered with a cold sweat and their cheeks flush with red colour and suddenly become pale by this you may know what worms they are for these signs shew round worms commonly rather than flat sometimes children have no great hurt by it when they have worms till the worms grow too strong and then dangerous symptomes follow Long round worms are worst for they will eat quite through the belly and when there is a Feaver the danger is greater Those that do least hurt are white but the fewer and smaller the worms are the less is the danger It is best to eat meats of good juice with Oranges and Pomegranates forbearing all slimy sweet fat meats Fish and milk and Summer fruits and to take some powder of harts-horn and drink thin wine mingled with Grass and Sorrel waters these will keep worms that they breed not which is better than to let them breed and drive them out afterwards Keep the childs belly loose with Glisters when you know they have worms or give them the decoction of Sebestens before meat Scordium and Wormwood are good but children will not be perswaded to take bitter medicaments wherefore you may give them Grass water with juice of Lemmons or one or two drops of Spirit of Vitriol These things following will kill Worms and cast them forth eight grains of Mercurius Dulcis steept all night in Couch-grass water strain it finely and give nothing but the water Wormseed Harts-horn or Coralline are good lay Peach-leaves bruised to the Navel or a little Ox Gall Saint Johns wort and Wormwood Knot-grass water drank with milk Ox Gall and Cummin-seed laid to the Navel are good against great worms mingle with your juice of Wormwood and Ox Gall of each two ounces of Coloquintida one ounce made into a Cataplasme with Wheat meal lay it over the Belly and Navel If there be a Feaver withal use such cooling remedies as are here prescribed against a Feaver you must use several medicaments for the worms will quickly grow familiar with any medicament and will not stir for it the best time to administer your remedies is about the new or full of the Moon for then they will sooner move than in the quarters let the child be fasting and go to stool first if he can and give the medicament to destroy the Worms when they are hungry and the time the child that is of age is wont to eat his breakfast for the worms will look for it VII Sometimes children have Convulsion Fits and the Falling-sickness it is natural to some from their birth but others have it by accident the nurses ill milk may breed it let her cleanse her body and not use too much moist and cooling diet nor let the child suck too much at one time to over-charge the stomach The Male-Peony root hanged about the childs neck and a small quantity of the powder of the same given to the child in any convenient way with milk or pap or broth or drink is much commended and so is the
preserve the Lungs When the Pox are fully out then to make them die quickly rub the face with fresh hogs-grease old Lard melted and strained and mingled with water or with oil of sweet Almonds When the Pox are dead and begin to fall away to keep them from Pock-holes anoint the face with a feather dipt in an Ointment made of Chalk and Cream use this two or three daies it will smooth the skin handsomely and take away the spots XXVIII Children are exceedingly prone to breed Lice more than men of age though all people are troubled with them They breed from the Excrements of the head and body it is not only filth that breeds Lice but a certain matter fit for them for fleas will not breed of the same that lice are bred of Children and women that are hot and moist have many excrements to breed such things withall Some meats breed Lice as figs by their gross juice which naturally tends to the skin and variety of meat Lice breed most in Childrens heads and stick fast to the skin and roots of the hair some have died of Lice and Lice will leave some when they are dying To prevent Lice comb and keep childrens heads clean let them eat no rigs but meats of good juice and purge them with hot drying thin medicaments Use â—o Mercury nor Arsenick to childrens heads but use this Lotion take parts alike of round Birthwort Lupines Pine and Cypress leaves boil them in water then anoint the head with powder of Staves-acre three drams of Lupines half an ounce of Agarick two drams quick brimstone one dram and half Ox Gall half an ounce all made up wirh oil of Wormwood XXIX If the child fright in the sleep give it good breast milk but not too much let it not sleep presently but carry it about till the milk descend to the bottom of the stomack give it sometimes the oil of sweet Almonds or honey of Roses two spoonfuls To cleanse the stomack strengthen it with magistery of Coral or Confection of Jacinths with milk anoint the stomach with oil of Worm-wood Nard Mints Mastick Nutmegs if it be from worms you have the remedies before It is for the most part ill vapours that ascend by the Weasand and veins to the head when children cannot concoct what they have in their stomachs XXX Sometimes children cannot sleep it is by reason of corrupt milk that disturbs the animal spirits hence arise Catarrhs Convulsions Feavers driness let better milk be given it the Nurse must eat Lettice sweet Almonds Poppey seeds but sleeping medicaments are not good for infants Wash the feet with a decoction of Dill tops Cammomile flowers Sage Osiers Vine leaves Poppy heads to the Temples use oil of Dill or oil of Roses with oil of Nutmegs with Poppey seeds Breast milk Rose or Nightshade water with Saffron If the Childs brain be very dry moisten the covering of the Cradle XXXI Bad and sharp milk hurts the childs stomach for it cannot endure it for it breeds bad humours all these diseases spring from it the Thrush Bladders in the Gums and inflammation of the Tonsils Bladders in the Gums are cured with powder of Lentils husked and strewed upon them or with a Liviment of the flour of Milian and oil of Roses The inflammation of the Tonsils I suppose it is that disease in children called the Mumps that commonly comes between eleven and thirteen years old the parts being then so hard that the humour cannot breath forth alwaies keep the belly loose and anoint outwardly with oil of sweet Almonds or Cammomile or St. John's wort inwardly first repel secondly mix resolvers with repellers and lastly only resolvers but not too hot in age Gargarismes are best Infants may take Diamoron Honey of Roses sirrup of Myrtles and Pomegranates XXXII Sometimes childrens string of the tongue is so short that they cannot suck a skilful Chirurgeon must help it or use this Liviment boil clarified honey till you can powder it then dry yolks of eggs in a Glass in an Oven powder them take a dram weight Mastick and Frankincense of each one scruple burnt Allum six grains make it up with honey of roses The Frog is when the veins under the tongue swell with gross black blood and if the flegm sweat forth and stick in the passages the swelling is like Mushromes and make them stammer take Cuttlebone Salgem Pepper of each one dram burnt Spunge three drams make a powder or of Honey of Besome rub it under the tongue and lay a plaister of Goose dung and Honey boiled in Wine till the Wine be consumed under the Chin. XXXIII Some children grow lean and pine away and the cause is not known if it be from Witchcraft good prayers to God are the best remedy yet some hang Amber and Coral about the childs neck as a Soveraign Amulet But leanness may proceed from a dry distemper of the whole body then it is best to bath it in a decoction of Mallows Marshmallows Branc-Ursine Sheeps heads and anoint with oil of sweet Almonds if it be hot and dry add Roses Violets Lettice Poppey-heads and afterwards anoint with oils of Violets and Roses The child may be lean from want of milk or bad milk from the nurse remedy that or change the nurse for little or bad milk will breed no good blood and the children cannot thrive by it sometimes worms in the body draw away the nourishment sometimes very small worms breed without the body all over and in the Musculous parts and stick in the skin and will not come quite forth but after you rub the child in a Bath they will put forth their heads like black hairs and run in again when they feel the cold air they breed of slimy humours shut up in the Capillary veins which turn to worms for want of transpiration if you rub the child with Yarhound on the back and especially with Honey and Bread you shall see their black heads when you see the heads come forth run over them with a Rasor do it often XXXIV Children used to be galled with lying in piss'd clouts and the scarf skin comes from the true skin the skin looks red change the clouts often and keep the child clean by washing it then anoint the sore with Diapompholix or cast on this powder finely sprinkled of burnt Allum Frankincense Litharge of Silver and seeds and leaves of Roses XXXV Some children cannot hold their water but piss the bed when they sleep the bladder-closing muscle being weak so when piss pricks it it comes forth The stone in the bladder may hurt the Muscle the cause of weakness is a cold moist humour from superfluity or from tough and gross meats in Age it will be hard to be cured but in infants it easily may The nurse must use a hot drying diet with Sage Hyssop Marjoram the child must drink little anoint the region of the bladder outwardly with oil of Costus or Flower de luce and other