the Spleen be stopt Take Steel prepared a pound wash it with Vinegar then strain it and lay it on a Clout and add powder of Cloves half an ounce Let them stand so a day and a night then put them in a glassed Vessel and ten ounces of white Wine Diarrhodon Harts-tongue Senna and Caper-bark then stir them then set them in the Sun for a day or in an Oven Do this ten daies till the Steel be melted in the Wine and little or nothing at the bottom Give two ounces of this in the morning after purging and exercise Or Take Steel prepared an ounce Cinnamon Aniseeds each two drams Diamoschu without Musk a dram Sugar an ounce make a powder give a dram drink white Wine and Mugwort-water after it Steeled Wine Take Steel in powder three ounces Cinnamon half an ounce white Wine three pints Set them in a close glass eight daies in the Sun stir them every day Give six or eight ounces four hours afore dinner for fifteen or twenty daies and walk after it At first give a Steel-medicine to prepare As Take Steel-filings four ounces put it in an Iron Crucible or Ladle then cast it into two pints of water of Hops Grass Madder Borage or spring-Spring-water strain it and do so seven times Then Take so many ounces of new Steel and cast it into water as before strain and add Syrup of Violets Borage or Honey of Roses four ounces give three ounces in the morning after exercise Prepare thus three or four times and then use stronger After Steel use Scorzonera steept all night in Wine give it in the morning This hath cured Obstructions in many Mercatus Bezoar-stone saith Mercatus opens Obstructions in my Experience and resists Venom give six or seven grains Steel is best Spring and Fall purge and exercise before and after it that it may be better dispersed Use Preparatives Purges and strengthners often and for a long time and change the forms lost the Patient loath them If water spread about the body cool the body and make it heavy Use sweats as Baths natural or artificial of Mugwort Calamints Nep Danewort Sage Bayes Rosemary Mercury Ivy Briony-roots Orris Elicampane After purging and opening Obstructions all the Symptoms will vanish if not see for the Symptoms of the Womb. The Diet. Let the Air be temperately hot The Meat of good juyce and easie digestion Pot-herbs and green Fruits must be avoided Fish Milk Lettice Make Sauce with Sage and Cinnamon Drink Wine Let Bread be well leavened with Fennel-seed Drink no Water nor Broaths at first and in the declination of the disease use Exercise and Venery Let sleep be moderate Question 1. Whether may the Woman in this Disease be allowed the absurd things they long for They are Virgins or Women with child that long for such things Virgins must not be allowed them as Chalk c. For they will increase the disease Women with child must be pleased with fair words to abstain from them but if the appetite will not be allayed rather grant them then suffer an abortion or mark upon the Child Question 2. Is Motion and Exercise good in the Green-sickness They are better then idleness which heaps up crudities they raise the languishing heat in the Bowels and help the nourishment to be destributed therefore they are to be used before the disease be great and in the declination they discuss the humors But use moderation lest you weaken the body or choak them First therefore use Frictions then watching then more exercise after convenient purging Question 3. Whether is Venery good for Maids in the Green-sickness It is probable and agreeable to Reason and Experience that Venery is good Hippocrates bids them presently marry for if they conceive Hippocr lib. de morb virgin Lib. 1. ep 2. they are cured John Langius saith This disease comes in the ripeness of age or presently after Venery heats the womb and the parts adjacent opens and loosens the passages so that the terms may better flow to the womb But if there be a great Cacochymy take that away before she be married and then Venery may do more in Physick But use it not in the vigor of the Disease nor in weakness Question 4. Whether is Blood-letting good in this Disease A Cachexy beginning with coldness of the whole Body seem to deny bleeding and because the crude humors are in fault rather then blood Lib. de morb virg But Hippocrates adviseth bleeding at the first If it be a new disease and comes from stopt terms and blood abound that is stopt and not turned into another humour you may boldly bleed provided the strength permit and the passages be open But in an old disease when crude Flegm abounds bleed not for it will increase the Disease Chap. 3. Of Symptomes from the Womb and Mother-fits in general IT is not to be expressed what miserable diseases Women are subject to both Virgins and others from the womb and its consent with other parts For when terms or blood are stopt there are great Symptoms and while they putrifie or get evil qualities the Symptoms are grievous and almost unexpressible One woman may have divers Symptoms from the womb at the same time when the seed and terms are mixed with other humors after they are corrupted and there is more sometimes and such noble substance as seed and terms being corrupted are like poyson Gal. 6. de loc aff c. 5. The consent with other parts is from likeness of parts nearness or connexion of Vessels And because the womb is membranous it hath a great consent with the Membranes and Nerves Also the parts adjacent are easily infected And thirdly it hath consent with all the Body by Veins Arteries and Nerves It consents with the Brain by the Nerves and Membranes of the Back-marrow It consents with the Heart by the Arteries with the Liver by the Veins which are great in the Womb and therefore the blood and bad humors go back to the Liver It consents with the stomach by Anastomosis in the Veins of the Mesentery and by the Arteries through foul humors and vapors go from the womb to the Mesentery and Stomach It consents with the Spleen by the Arteries therefore many Women that had not their terms enough in their youth and have hot blood are after Hypochondriack and a Physitian can scarce distinguish these diseases of the Womb and Spleen nor cure them severally It consents with the Paps by Veins and Nerves and the Heart Diaphragma Head Brain and all the Organs of sense and motion with the Liver Spleen Stomach Belly Mesentery Bladder strait Gut Back Hips Arms and Legs and causeth Symptoms As Galen saith the Mother and Histerical passions in one name Gal. de loc aff c. 5. but hath under it innumerable Symptoms Chap. 4. Of Suffocation of the Womb. IN this they seem to be strangled And there are so many Symptoms at once that it is impossible to define
and add Fennel-seed Calamus Cinnamon Cassia lignea Cardamoms each half an ounce distil them again Or give Syrup of Calamints Mugwort Or Take water of Penny-royal Savin Calamints each four ounces Syrup of Mugwort four ounces cinnamon-Cinnamon-water an ounce give it at four times Rouls Take Extract of Savin a scruple of Angelica half a scruple of Elicampane six grains Oyl of Cinnamon five drops of Cloves two drops with Sugar dissolved in balm-Balm-water Or make an Electuary of Steel six ounces Cassia lignea Cinnamon each two drams Cloves a dram Raisins two ounces with Sugar dissolved in Mugwort-water Or Take Troches of Mirrh a dram Extract of Gentian and Savin each a scruple Castor half a scruple make Pills give two scruples or give every third day Pills of Hiera Use outward Medicines but provoke not sweat by them Take Althaea and Lilly-roots each two ounces Birthwort an ounce Mallows Mercury Mugwort Savin Motherwort Calamint Penny-royal Marjoram Bayes each two handfuls flowers of Chamomil Lavender Cheir each a handful Foenugreek-seed an ounce Juniper and Bayberries each half a handful boil them in Water foment with Spunges And then anoint with this Take Oyl of Lillies an ounce of Lavender-seeds stilled half a dram Calamints and Gith-powder each a dram Storax Calamite a scruple To Virgins that must take no Pessaries give Fumes with the head defended they will open the mouths of the vessels and cut thick humors As Take Mirrh Bdellium Storax each a dram Benzoin two scruples Gallia moschata Ivet each half a scruple with liquid Storax make Troches Then use Clysters and Injections into the Womb with Purgers As Take Calamints Penny-royal each a handful Gith-seed Turbith each a dram Coloquintida half a dram boyl it in Wine inject it into the Womb. If it be hot after it inject the Decoction of Mallows with Milk or Barley-water And because the neck of the womb lies upon the strait gut give Clysters Take Lilly-roots an ounce Orris Valerian each half an ounce Mercury two handfuls Mugwort Savin each a handful Chamomil Lavender-flowers each a pugil Caraway Gith-seed each a dram boyl add Hiera and Benedicta laxativa each half an ounce Oyl of Cheir two drams Electuary of Bayberries half an ounce If she be no Virgin put Mercury bruised in a Bag for a Pessary with Centuary-flowers Or Garlick beaten with Oyl of Spike Begin still with the mildest as Mugwort Mercury Penny-royal Marjoram Rue and then add Mucilages and Juyces to loosen the womb let not Pessaries lie long lest they cause a Feaver If it be from a tumor provoke not the Terms but look to the tumor Let diet be hot and attenuating of good juyce with Parsley Savory Rosemary Cloves Cinnamon Little sleep and much exercise Question 1. Whether are the other Causes of stoppage of the Terms Some say the blood going to other parts is a cause but it is rather contrary and the suppression of terms is cause of that For the Veins of the Womb are large enough to evacuate blood Others say The strength of the womb is a cause which thickens the Vessels that they receive blood But the Womb is made to receive it when it abounds Others accuse the strength which is to be denied but when it is so strong that it is too hot or too dry and will not receive the blood and that is a sign of weakness But there must be strength in the whole body to cast out superfluous blood or there will be other mischiefs Question 2. What Veins must be opened when the Terms are stopt Authors disagree in this as Aetius and Galen Lib. de sang miss cap. 11 18 19. who alwaies speaks of the Ankle-veins and most are of his mind being it is rational For a Vein opened in the Arm doth rather revel from the Womb then draw the blood to it But in the Ankle brings it to its place and opens Obstructions and doth both lessen and bring blood to the womb and move that which is in the womb fixed Open the Ankle therefore twice or thrice Lib. de sang miss adver craesis rather then the Arm once Therefore Galen commends Hippocrates that he opened a Vein in the Ankle in the Servant of Schimarg though she had a Plethory But in other diseases of the womb as Inflammation dropping or too many terms it is good to open a vein in the Arm. The Saphaena is opened by putting the foot in warm water before and after Question 3. At what time must a Vein be opened against the stoppage of the Terms Galen saith It must be when Nature may be helped be the blood moved that is three or four daies before the usual time of their coming as if she had been always in the full of the Moon and they have been stopt some months Bleed three or four daies before the full to put Nature in mind of her duty and to make the blood run again Chap. 4. Of Fewness of the Terms IT is when they flow less then they use or ought to flow The Causes It is either from the blood or in the expulsive Faculty in the passages As if blood be little the terms are few and slow If the retentive Faculty is weak and the expulsive strong they come at due time but in small quantity If the terms are slow the fault is in the quality of the blood being too thick Also straitness of the passages may be a cause for if they be not wide enough the blood cannot flow freely The Signs The patient will tell the disease but the cause of it is to be found in the Chapter aforegoing Few Terms from little blood is not dangerous if they be stopt from thick blood The Prognostick there follow Diseases as Erysipelas Scirrhus or Cancer See the Chapter aforegoing for the Cure The Causes and if it be from thickness of blood it is often cured by a general purge for the whole Body Chap. 5. Of Dropping of the Terms THis is a Flux and lasts long and there is pain The blood flows not conveniently at the due time and manner and the privities are alwaies wet as when the urin drops Are from the blood and the passages of it The Causes and the retentive faculty as when the blood is too thick and sharp which stir up Nature to let it out and because it stretcheth the Membranes there is pain Also the weakness of the retentive faculty is a cause The women declare it The Signs but if it be from thick blood and sharp and straight passages there is a stretching pain about the womb If it be from crudity of blood and weakness of the retentive faculty the blood flows without pain and is not much felt It is troublesom to women and if it last long The Prognostick The Cure causeth Ulcers and Inflammations It is all in mending of the thick and sharp blood and in opening the passages which are the two chief causes of it of which
a Feaver that will come long after Travel If the Lochia flow not in due time or be stopt then the blood and foul humors go back to the great Veins and Liver Hippocr 1. epid tex 21. The Signs and make a putrid Feaver or inflame those parts A Feaver from milk comes the fourth day and there is heaviness of back and shoulders and the Lochia flow well it not there is the sign of a Feaver If the humors putrifie in the womb there is foul stinking matter voided the belly is swollen and is pained when toucht If the Feaver be not from milk and the Lochia flow it comes from bad humors especially if when she was big with child she kept not a good diet A Feaver from milk is without danger The Prognostick and ceaseth the eighth or tenth day that which comes from suppression of the Lochia or After-flux is dangerous and often deadly except there follow a flux of the belly If black stinking matter flow from the womb they escape If the Feaver come from a Cacochymy before Delivery it is worse because it argues much humors which Nature cannot discharge by the after-flux and the strength is dejected by hard travel A Feaver from milk requires only good diet The Cure and sweating must not be hindred for it cures That which is from stoppage or diminishing of the Lochia must be cured by provoking the after-flux or by another evacuation instead of it as purging bleeding in the foot to provoke the flux or by scarifying the thighs and legs after cupping while the time is that the after-flux should be not afterwards For if that time be past if strength permit open a vein in the arm and bleed plentifully For purging some purge them in a Pleurisie after the seventh day Valer. lib. 5. obs 10. merc 4. de morb mul. c. 11. but beware by reason of the weakness after travel and because Purges may hinder the after-flux which is dangerous it is good to evacuate only by the womb but if the flux of blood cease and Nature would purge something from the womb you may give a gentle Purge of Rhubarb Cassia Manna Syrup of Roses Senna Alterers are thus to be ordered Avoid too cold and sharp things lest the evacuation by the womb should be disturbed by cold things The Diet. Let it be thin the first daies of lying in then thicker and so increasing take heed of too much drink especially of cold drink Question What Veins are to be opened in Women that lie in and have a Pleurisie They have Symptomatical Feavers also from inflammation of the Pleura Jaws or Liver because some of the foul humors are sent to some private part and make an inflammation to which the Feaver is joyned and the causes are as before mentioned If there be a Pleurisie she is in great danger The Question is Whether she must bleed above or below I say thus First This Feaver is not properly Symptomatical but primary and hath the inflammation its associate while nature sends part of the matter to the Pleura or other part Secondly Note That Nature is in an error while she sends the vitious humors which she should expel by the womb to the Pleura Thirdly Note That the vitious motion of Nature is not to be helped therefore which should be done if you should presently open a vein in the arm but the blood is to be voided by the womb which is Natures way Fourthly If the Pleurisie be not abated by opening a vein in the ankle for revulsion but the Symptoms continue or increase you must not continue to open the veins beneath because they evacuate not from the part affected which is necessary in such a dangerous disease It is a sign that the matter is fastned to the part that it cannot again be brought to the womb by revulsion Therefore then you may open a vein in the arm on the same side to evacuate and drive the blood from the part or there about or she will be in danger of death And fear not that Nature will be taken from her ordinary motion towards the womb thereby for the vein that was opened in the foot prevented that and if you fear any danger you may prevent it by Frictions and cupping of the leggs while you let blood in the arm And you may give Clysters that may cause the humors moving upwards to come down and loosen the passages of the womb that blood may flow out the better As Take Pellitory of the Wall Mallows Althaea red Coleworts each a handful Chammomil-flowers half a handful Foenugreek and Linseed each half an ounce boyl them in Water to a pint strained add lenitive Electuary an ounce Diacatholicon or Cassia half an ounce Oyl of Violets two ounces make a Clyster If the Feaver abate and the time of the flux of the Lochia be past give a gentle Purge Cure the rest as an ordinary Pleurisie onely take heed that while the After flux lasts you give no binding Medicine Also she may have a Quinzy while she lies in while the vicious matter flows to the jaws The Cure of which bleeding is to be done as in the Pleurisie but the rest is to be done as in the Quinzy And if the Liver be inflamed by the motion of the humors to it you must bleed as in the Pleurisie and Quinzy Yet it is not so needful in the Arm as in the Pleurisie by reason of the greater distance of the Liver from the Arm for the Pleura and the Breast are nearer and consent more with the Arms but the Vein in the Legg is near to the hollow Vein as the distribution of the upper Veins to the Arms. The rest of the Cure of the Inflammation of the Liver is in Lib. 3. onely observe that you must not use too great Coolers or Binders in women in Child-bed but things that are of thin parts lest the flux called Lochia or After-blood should be stopped THE FOURTH BOOK THE THIRD PART Of the Diseases of Womens Breasts THE FIRST SECTION Of Diseases of the Breasts Chap. 1. Of the increased number of Breasts and greatness extraordinary THough Nature hath ordained two in all Women Card. l. 8. c. 43. de rerum varice Cabrol obs 7. yet some have Breasts like Men others have had two on each side that had Milk The figure of the Breasts is round pointed at the nipple a little it ought not to be soft nor hard and of an indifferent bigness and it is better they be indifferent though they hold not so much milk lest they be subject to Cancers and Inflammations and when they are too big they have not a temperate heat The Causes of over-great Breasts is much blood and the strength of heat attracting and concocting it these are remote causes but the immediate cause is the largeness of the passages and loosness which is in the first conformation and furthered by idleness much sleep and few terms and
are better then many and small then great white are better then those of other colours The other Prognosticks are mentioned in other places Preservation It is better to prevent the breeding of worms then to expel them by eating of meats of good juyce with Oranges and Pomegranates and avoiding sweet fat and slimy meats fish milk and Summer-fruits and figs. Drink thin Wine and Grass and Sorrel-water with it and with powder of Harts-horn Let the belly be kept loose with Clysters for children or give the Decoction of Sebestens before meat or of Wormwood and Scordium but children will not take bitter things therefore give Grass-water and juyce of Lemmons or Citrons or a drop or two of Spirit of Vitriol When you know by the signs The Cure that there are worms kill and repel them with Powder of Coralline Wormseed Harts-horn or eight grains of Mercurius dulcis Infuse them a night in grass-Grass-water and cast away the substance of the Mercury and give the Water Or Take Wormseed two drams Coralline Harts-horn prepared each a dram roots of Piony Dittany Magistery of Coral each a scruple make a Powder or give the Essence of Peach-flowers or the Decoction of fern-Fern-water half an ounce or an ounce If there be a Feaver use colder as juyce of Lemmons Pomegranates Oranges Vinegar Harts-horn Bezoar Confection of Hyacinth or this Portion Take grass-Grass-water four ounces Syrup of Juyce of Citrons an ounce of Violets half an ounce Spirit of Vitriol two drops give two spoonfuls Give bitter things at the mouth and sweet at the fundament as a Clyster of Milk Or Take Raisons ten Figs seven boyl them in water take of it four ounces add Sugar an ounce and half make a Clyster Use varieties that the worms may not be too familiar with one Apply Peach-leaves to the Navel bruised or a Cataplasm of Ox-gall Wormwood and St. Johns-wort Or Take Powder of Wormwood Gith Centaury Wormseed Lupines each half an ounce with Oyl of Wormwood and Wax half an ounce make an Oyntment Or Take Treacle half an ounce with juyce of Wormwood apply it to the Navel or make a Bath of Peach-leaves and Wormwood put the child into it up to the Navel If there be a Feaver use colder things mentioned Chap. 24. Of the Rupture IT is from the Peritonaeum loose or broken when the small guts fall into the cods from crying cough straining at stool and from vehement motion or a fall Sometimes the Peritonaeum is well and a water falls from the belly into the cods The tumor is visible if it be from a gut The Signs it is in one part only as the right or left and it may be felt and the hole also through which it fell If from water it is even all over and there was no cause of other Rupture It is easier cured in Infants then in elder persons for it is safer The Prognostick but worse then that of water which goes away of it self when the water is consumed Let the belly be kept open The Cure let not the child cry Avoid vehement motion lay him upon his back and thrust it up gently and apply this Plaister Take Lambs-tongue Sanicle each half an ounce Lentills and Lupines and red Roses in Powder each two drams Frankincense a dram Allum half a dram with the white of an Egg. Or Take Frankincense Cypress-nuts Aloes Acacia each two drams Mirrh a dram with Izing-glass make a Plaister Or apply Gum Elemni steept in Vinegar till there be a Cream at the top and with Oyl of Eggs make a Cerot Inwardly Take Sanicle Lambs-tongue each half a handful Agrimony a handful Comphry the greater half an ounce boyl them to a pint strained add Sugar give it often Or give Powder of Mouse-ear or Moonwort with Wine If it be from water anoint with Oyl of Elder Bayes Rue or apply a Cataplasm of Powder of Beans Foenugreek Linseed Chamomil-flowers Cummin-seeds with these Oyls Chap. 25. Of sticking out of the Navel IT is without Inflammation 1. When is was not well tyed and too much left that sticks out 2. When the Peritonaeum is loose and hath water or wind in it from crying or coughing 3. When the Navel is ulcerated and the guts fall into it this is called properly Exomphalon The Navel yields to the touch but in an inflamation it is hard there is neither heat nor redness and it lasts longer than an Inflammation The Signs If the Navel was not well cut there will be too great a quantity if the Peritonaeum be not broken but loose the Navel starts not much out and is not greater by crying if it be broken the tumor scarce appears when he lyes upon his Back but it increaseth by crying or walking The Prognostick If the Midwife did not cut the Navel well it is more troublesome then dangerous If it be too large or ulcerated at first it is easily cured but afterwards it may cause a deadly Iliack passion when the guts that fall in are inflamed The Cure When the Peritonaeum is loose wind stretcheth the Navel then use a Cataplasm of Cummin Bayberries and Lupines powdered in red Wine or a Bag of Cummin and Spike boyled in red Wine Then lay on an Astringent and roul it If the Peritonaeum be broken first put in the gut then bind it close after you have laid on astringent Powders Or Take powder of Cypress-nuts Frankincense Mirrh Mastich Sarcocol Allum Izing-glass each a dram with the whites of Eggs make a Pultis and give Medicines against Ruptures Chap. 4. Of Inflammation of the Navel IT is from pain when it is not well tied that draws blood to it There is redness hardness heat and beating If it turns to an Imposthume and breaks The Prognostick The Cure the guts come forth and the child usually dies First abate pain Take Mallows boyled and stampt two ounces Barley-meal half an ounce Lupines Foenugreek each two drams with Oyl of Roses make a Cataplasm To repel Blood Take Frankincense a dram Acacia Fleabane-seed each half a dram with the white of an Egg make a Cataplasm Hinder Suppuration as much as may be but if it doth suppurate Take Turpentine half an ounce the yolk of an Egg and Oyl of Roses two ounces Chap. 27. Of Falling out of the Fundament WHen the muscle that shuts the Arse-hole is loose the Fundament comes forth the cause is moisture of the muscles after a flux or straining at stool in Tenesmus or Needing or when the belly is bound The people will tell you the causes The Signs and you may see it The Prognostick It is easily cured when it is from straining at stool if it have not been long out If it be from great store of moisture it is hard to be cured especially if there be a loosness of the belly for then Medicines cannot lie on The Cure First put it up if it be swollen foment it with the decoction of Mallows
half an ounce with good Wine distil them give a spoonful or two Apply outwardly a Cataplasm of Rue Mugwort Chamomil Dill Calamints Nip Penny-royal Thyme with Oyl of Rue Cheir Chamomil and make Baths of the same Bags of Milium Salt Chamomil-flowers Melilot Bayberries Cummin Fennel-seed or lay a Plaister of Bayberries Let Clysters to expel wind be put into the womb As Take Calamints Agnus castus Rue each half an handful Anniseeds Costus Cinnamon each two drams boil them in Wine for half a pint Apply a Cupping-glass with much flame to the Breast and over against the Womb. Use Sulphur-baths and Spaw-waters inward and outward for they expel wind If it come from cold after Child-bearing and she is not well purged by her Terms heat the womb and purge and give strong Wine Let the Diet be hot cutting and attenuating The Diet. with things that expel wind and little at a time Question Whether the wind is in the Cavity when there is Inflation of the Womb It is so by Experience though some deny it nor is there any cause why wind should not be bred in the womb as well as in any other part both by reason of the Excrements that come thither and the natural heat that turns them into wind these also stretch the womb though it be thick as in Dropsies and Conception Also the retentive or altering faculty of the womb is never idle so that when it receives diseased and unfruitful seed it suffers it not to corrupt but turns it into wind As Hippocrates writes When the Womb is stretched by wind from the Belly Lib. de nat pueri women think they have conceived Chap. 11. Of the Dropsie of the Womb. THey are also deceived and think they are with child when there is water that swells the womb Ves lib. 6. de corp hum Fab. Mar. Do de hist me mira l. 4. c. 21. Tetrab 6.4 ser 4. c. 79. this is a Dropsie of the womb This water is either in the Cavity or between the Coats of the womb or in its Vessels Vesalius Marcellus Donatus shew that water is in the Cavity for it doth not presently by its plenty or quality force its passage out because the Orifice is not alwaies open and Nature gathers it by degrees and is used to it Aetius saith There are sometimes Bladders of water in the womb And Christopher Vega saith that Leonora thought that she had gone 6 months and then voided sixty Bladders of water and seven pieces of flesh like that of the Spleen in Membranes Lib. 4. obser cent 2. obser 56. The Causes There is sometimes a Dropsie of the Womb with Conception as Schenstius and William Fabricius saith of his own wife Are gathering of water from moistness mixed with the terms and from an evil Sanguification in the Liver and Spleen from their weakness or from errors in Diet or from weakness of the womb from hard travel or often mischances cold air or water or whatsoever hurts the heat of the womb Also stoppage of the terms doth cause gathering of water for the water useth to be evacuated with them Many take this for the only cause Sometimes the tunicles of the womb may be divided in some place and water may be gathered between them Hippocrates saith the terms are fewer The Signs 1. De morb mulier and cease before the time the bottom of the Belly swells and the Paps are soft without Milk and she thinks she is with child By these you know it is a Dropsie But because Doctors and Midwives are often deceived you must distinguish this from other Swellings When a woman is sound and useth a sound man the womb by degrees swells and the child moves in its time but often there is a Dropsie with Conception before or after therefore in a Dropsie the tumor is equal according to the largeness of the womb and belly and not pointed as in a woman with child Secondly If the woman be in years and hath not conceived before and hath a good colour it is a sign of a Dropsie rather then a Conception If the tenth month be past and the child moves not nor the Breasts swell but are soft say there is Dropsie of the womb Thirdly In a true Conception women are better after some months and the Symptoms abate but in a Dropsie they increase still It is distinguished from a Mole by the weight in the bottom of the Belly From an inflation because the Belly is stretched in that and sounds being stricken but is soft in a Dropsie It differs from the Dropsie of the Belly because the Face is pale or wane in that from the distemper of the Liver there is thirst but in the Womb-dropsie she is of a good colour except the Liver be also bad It differs from Inflamation in the womb for that is with a constant Feaver and the Symptoms of it and from other tumors which are harder but in a Dropsie of the womb if the Belly be pressed it yields You shall know whether it be from the fault in the womb principally or from some other part thus If the Woman be of a good colour and there were only some diseases and causes that might hurt the womb as abortion hard travel stoppage of terms or too many of them then the womb is chiefly affected But if there be signs of a distemper in the whole body or in the Liver or Spleen and the colour is bad it is consent from other parts You shall know whether the water be in Bladders or in the Cavity of the womb thus If you find the Orifice of the womb closed and there is little pain it is in the Cavity But if the Orifice be open and there is great pain it is in Bladders or without the Cavity The Prognostick If the humor in the womb be not corrupt this disease is of long continuance but may be easily cured It is easier cured in the cavity then when it is in bladders and between the tunicles A woman after Conception having a Dropsie of the womb her child dieth and she is in danger The Cure When it is from stoppage of terms and new and the strength firm open a Vein in the Legs otherwise bleed not Purge according to the Humor with respect to the Womb as in Chap. 6. of a cold Distemper Then purge Water Take Angelica and Madder roots each half an ounce Calamints Penny-royal Mugwort Lovage each a handful Savin a pugil boil them in Wine and sweeten it with Sugar Or make Broaths with the same Take Dianisum Diagalangal each half a dram Oyl of Aniseeds Cloves each five drops Sugar three ounces make Rouls Inject into the Womb as in Dropsies Take Asarum roots three drams Penny-royal Calamints each half a handful Savin a pugil Mechoacan a dram Aniseed Cummin each half a dram boil them and take six ounces strained Oyl of Elder and Orris each an ounce make a Clyster Or use Pessaries Take
with it to the veins of the womb and stops them This thick blood comes from a cold distemper of the stomach liver and spleen from thick and gross food and drinking cold water when the Terms flow Lib. de venae sec adversus Erasistrat So thought Galen in his time of the Roman women that drank Snow-water and had few or no courses Straightness is when the body of the womb is made thicker either by Nature or other causes as a cold and dry or hot and dry distemper Thirdly Straitness is from compression of the vessels by a Scirrhus or hardness of the parts adjacent as the straight gut or by the stone in the bladder and the womb displaced Fourthly The flesh may grow together by a membrane that grows to the vessels or a scar after a wound Or after a mischance when the veins annexed to the Secundine grow so together that they cannot be opened of which in the first Question They are not the same in women and Virgins The Signs for blood stopt in Virgins goes to and fro changeth the colour and brings Feavers especially the white Feaver or Green-sickness But in women it goes more to the womb and brings Symptomes loathing vomiting and Pica Galen hath other signs as heaviness 8. De lo. aff c. 5. a lazy pain in the loyns neck and behind in the head that reacheth to the roots of the eyes from the spreading of the blood stopt through the whole body This laziness is chiefly in the thighs and leggs by reason of the veins there consenting with the womb And are of a green complexion and hairy with a beard and shrill voice You may know women with child from such as want their Terms only by proper signs First the women with child keep their colour but the other are pale and ill-coloured they are merry the other sad 2. Their Symptoms daily grow milder but in the other they daily grow worse 3. You may feel the child move 4. It is perceived in a month You shall know from what causes the terms are stopt thus If the Liver be cold there is no blood made that is superfluous and there are signs of a cold Liver and you may know that blood is not sent to the Womb when there is no heaviness pain or tumor about the Womb the Liver or Spleen are stopt The Prognostick If it be from Flegm or Melancholy which is often there are signs of their abounding as laziness paleness seldom pulse crude urin Hippoc. de morb mulier Gal. 6. de loc aff c. 5. Hippoc. 5. aphor 23. Hippocrates saith That if the Terms stop there are diseases in the Womb Tumors Imposthumes Ulcers and Barrenness and diseases in the whole Body Green-sickness Leucophlegmacy Dropsie Vomiting of blood Heart-ach Cough And the longer they have been stopt the harder they are to be opened If the blood stopt go out at the Nose it is good If it have great Symptoms there is fear of death You must not give Medicines to move the terms to extenuate lean persons nor to such as want blood and have a weak Liver but they must be fed high Com. in 6. epid 3. c. 29. First see if blood abound and then after a Lenitive open a Vein and let that blood which is in the Veins be drawn to the Womb. Galen took three pints of blood at three times from a lean Woman and cured her of an old stopping of the Terms You must open the Ankle-veins the first day the right the next the left four or five daies before the time Or you may cup and scarrifie the Legs And bind the parts below and rub them after general Evacuation opening of the Haemorrhoids doth hurt and so do Issues because they draw from the Womb. Hiera picra half an ounce or Pills de Tribus or Hiera simple are good first Then prepare As Take water of Mugwort Calamints Maiden-hair each three ounces Syrup of the five Roots and of Mugwort each two ounces make it for two Doses Or Take opening Roots half an ounce Madder Burnet each three ounces Mugwort Bettony Germander Calamints each a handful red Pease half a handful flowers of Bugloss Dill each a pugil boil and sweeten it with Sugar For flegmatick Bodies take the Decoction of Guajacum Sassaphras Dittany for fifteen daies without sweating Then evacuate with Agarick Mechoacan Turbith Scammony Coloquintida black Hellebore As Take Agarick two drams infuse it in Mugwort-water two ounces Oxymel an ounce strain and the Extract of Mechoacan a scruple Or Take opening Roots half an ounce Mugwort Bettony each two pugils Senna half an ounce Agarick two drams Fennel and Aniseed each a scruple Galangal half a dram Rosemary-flowers a pugil infuse them to three ounces and half add syrup of Senna an ounce and half Cinnamon-water half a dram Or if they drink Wine Take Turbith Mechoacan Agarick each two drams Senna an ounce and half Maiden-hair Balm Rosemary each two pugils Cinnamon Galangal each a dram hang them in Wine give six ounces with half an ounce of Manna Or Take Diaturbith with Rhubarb half an ounce Mechoacan two drams Agarick a dram Diarrhodon Cinnamon each half a dram Steel prepared a dram with Raisons make an Electuary give as much as a Walnut Or give Pills of Agarick foetida and so continue purging and preparing if the matter be stubborn Or Take Agarick two drams Madder a dram with Syrup of Mugwort make Pills Or Take Aloes three drams de Tribus one dram with juyce of Savin make Pills If the stomach is foul give a Vomit lest it get into the veins Par. 1. sec 2. ca. 2. Then give provokers of the Terms which are hot and thin about the time they used to flow they are three degrees in strength and many sorts of Medicines are made of them A Powder Take Cinnamon a dram Amber a scruple Saffron half a scruple Or Take Troches of Mirrh of Wall-flowers each a scruple Saffron five grains Or Take Castor Penny-royal each a scruple with Wine or proper Waters Physical Wine Take Madder-roots an ounce Orris half an ounce Balm Penny-royal Mugwort Rosemary each a handful Wall-flowers half a pugil Cinnamon an ounce Galangal half an ounce with Wine give four ounces Or Take the Decoction of red Pease Or Take Smallage Fennel-roots each half an ounce Mugwort Bettony Penny-royal Balm each a handful red Pease half an handful Juniper-berries half an ounce Wall-flowers a pugil boil and sweeten it Or Take ten ounces of it with three ounces of Mugwort for three doses Quercetan commends this Take Gromwel-seeds Anise Misleto of the Oak each three drams Dittany a dram Saffron a scruple bruise and keep them twenty four hours in Wine then boyl them give four ounces for three daies together Or make the Womans Aqua vitae Or Take Balm Bettony Penny-royal Mugwort Nep Motherwort Dittany each four handfuls Wine thirty pints distil them add three handfuls of each herbs and distil them again
Alipta moschata a scruple Oyl of Nard Lillies and white Wax make an Oyntment Or Take seeds of Agnus castus a dram all Sanders each half a dram white Rose-powder a dram Tacamahacca a scruple Amber two scruples Alipta moschata half an ounce with Turpentine Labdanum and Wax make a Plaister If she be a Virgin let her be married If it be from Terms stopt see in the Chapter of that This disease is neither from seed nor blood nor humors if they be not corrupted after a peculiar manner If it be from the womb distempered give the Infusion of an ounce of Briony root in white Wine once in a week for a year at bed time or this Hysterical Water Take Lovage-roots Piony Angelica Zedoary each an ounce Misleto of the Oak gathered in the wane of the Moon two ounces Mints Balm Calamints Bettony each a handful Carrot Parsnep-seed Castor each half an ounce distil them in white Wine and water of Motherwort after eight daies infusion Or Take Briony Valerian Spignel Angelica-roots each half an ounce Balm Calamints Penny-royal Bettony each half a handful boyl them in Wine add Syrup of Mugwort an ounce give it at thrice Vitriol of Iron one grain with two grains of Sugar given in Wine some weeks is excellent Or Take Cummin-seed wild Parsnep-seeds each a dram give a dram in powder Or Take Faecula Brionae two drams Cummin-seed Parsnep-seed each a dram Amber half a dram Cloves two scruples Cinnamon a scruple make a powder Pills Take Castor a scruple Assa-foetida half a scruple Mirrh Galbanum Sagapenum each a scruple with Honey of Mercury make Pills take half a scruple or a scruple often Or Take Treacle or Mithridate Apply Plaisters or Liniments to the region of the Womb thus Take old Treacle half an ounce Agnus castus seeds a dram Oyl of Angelica and Cummin-seeds each two drams with Plaister of Bayberries Or make Oyntments of the same Question 1. What preternatural disease is the Suffocation of the Womb properly Some say it is a cold distemper in quality changed they say right but coldness is not the chief Symptom Others say it is respiration hurt by Syneope or Convulsion But it cannot be defined by one Symptom For sometimes the animal actions are hurt and there is a Megrim Delirium Convulsion and sense and motion are gone Nor is it strange that so small a vapor should bring such Symptoms for it hath an occult venom in it which is strong Gal. 6. de lo. off c. 5. for it goes many ways and to many parts Question 2. What is the true Cause of the fits of the Mother I say it is the malignant vapors that flie up from the womb for it doth not work by a manifest quality 4. De lo. aff c. 5. but by a venom which Galen saith is like that of a Torpedo or Phalanx or Scorpion which are little in bulk but do great mischief being enemies to the vital spirits and heart by which there is a coldness all over and short breath from the actions of the heart hurt For when the heart is hurt or the vital Spirits either suffocated or corrupted there are no good animal Spirits bred and they not flowing to the nerves and muscles hinder the motion of the breast Also this malignant vapor is an enemy to the animal Spirits and makes doting and Convulsions when it gets to the brain The Cause of these vapors are corrupt seed and terms for while they are in their proper vessels they change not their nature And the seed is not alwaies pure but mixed with evil humors and the seed vessels are sometimes swollen and distempered Moreover the corruption is from the womb in a peculiar manner for as Fernelius saith The place from whence comes life is also the breeder of the most deadly poison Question 3. It is good to give Wine in a fit of the Mother Hippocrates and Avicen quarrel about this 1. De nat mulierum The first allows Wine because they are weak and nothing sooner refresheth But Avicen is for water and forbids flesh for they increase Seed and Blood But in the time of the fit Wine is proper and Avicen doth not speak of the fit but of the diet out of the fit when it comes from plenty of seed and blood nor will a little Wine in the time of the fit get presently to the Womb. Chap. 5. Of the Frenzie of the Womb. IT is a great and foul Symptom of the Womb both in Virgins and Widdows and such as have known man These are mad for Lust and invite men and lie down to them and it differs from salacity because in that there is no Delirium It is an immoderate desire of Venery that makes women almost mad or a Delirium from an immoderate desire of Venery it is without a Feaver and with heat and tends to madness There are degrees in it for modest women have it but will not for shame declare it and die of Consumptions Others will not conceal it but speak their thoughts bawdily and follow men and sollicite them shamelesly as Hippocrates writes in his Book of Virgins Diseases The immediate Cause is plenty of hot and The Causes sharp Seed against Nature but next unto that which is natural it is a little biting swelling and forcing Nature to let it out by lechery The brain is only hurt by consent and the animal actions by an external error or too vehement object The part first affected is the womb in the Nymphae which grows hot and swells but the Nymphae are not properly the seat of Venery but the Clitoris which was called by the same name anciently The heat and sharpness of Seed is from the heat of the womb that breeds it from hot humors in the womb and hot blood The outward Causes are hot meats spiced strong wine and the like that heat the privities idleness pleasure and dancing and reading of bawdy Histories The Signs They find their lust to boyl at first and for shame will not declare it they are sad and silent and their eyes turn to and fro with lust and if any speak of Venery they blush and the pulse changeth when the brain consenteth reason is perverted and modesty is overcome then they prate are lustful and angry sometimes they cry or laugh without a cause they follow men and sollicite them for copulation Some will lie with any one they meet The Prognostick The Cure It is a sordid disease curable at first but if neglected it turns to madness Let Virgins that have it before reason is subverted be in company with chast Maidens or be married And be let blood to abate heat of blood and sharpness of Seed very often there is no better remedy Then temper and evacuate the humors if they be adust and there be madness use stronger Then have a Bath of Lettice Willow Water-lillies Vine-leaves Purslane Venus-navel red Roses Violets Water-lillies Let her sit twice a
prevent take heed of Venery in the terms or before the terms or when the body is soul or obstructed or the womb When it is 1. De morb mulier take it away presently with things that send forth a dead child Hippocrates sheweth the Cure in few words First foment the whole body c. Therefore if she be plethorick let blood largely in the foot at divers times Then purge often with strong Physick Take Althaea Lilly-roots each half an ounce Althaea Mercury Pellitory Brank-ursine each a handful Chamomil Melilot-flowers each half a handful Faenugreek and Lin-seed each six drams boyl them in Broath to a pint add sweet Butter Oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies each an ounce make a Clyster repeat it often To Conquer all Infirmities Study my Sennertus Platerus Bartholinus and Riolanus of the last Editions Make Baths Liniments Fomentations then move the Terms with Dittany Birthwort Briony c. Take Briony Birthwort each half an ounce Asarum two drams Rue Savin Mugwort Dittany Penny-royal Motherwort each half a handful Elder and Chamomil-flowers each half a handful Line and Foenugreek-seeds each half an ounce boyl them to a pint add Hiera an ounce and half Troches of Alkandal a dram Oyl of Rue and Keir each an ounce and half make a Clyster of the residents make a Cataplasm for the belly Or this Pessary Take Troches of Mirrh Galbanum Opopanax dissolved in Wine each two drams Sowbread-roots a dram white Hellebore half a dram with juyce of Rue Fab. cent 2. obs 52. If these will not do let the Midwife take it out with her hand if it be half rotten Or leave it to Nature which doth it in time To stop the flux of blood after a Mole is taken out use strings against overflowing of the Terms As Take Plantane Shepheards-purse Brambles Oak-leaves red Roses each a handful boyl them in steeled Water then take Barley-bran two ounces Pomegranate-flowers Cypress-nuts Pomegranate-peels red Roses Comfrey-roots in powder each an ounce Frogs burnt Bole Sanguis Draconis each half an ounce with the Decoction aforesaid and a little Vinegar make a Cataplasm for the Region of the Womb. Take away pain with Anodynes mentioned in pain of the Womb keep up the strength with meat of a good juyce Question Whether a Mole may be without the company of a Man and without his Seed To speak freely of this which many doubt I suppose that many are made of a weak mans seed mixed with the woman seed and much blood But Histories confirm that Widows have had them without mans seed but not of the shape with the others And being voided they melted being in the air into water I think Virgins cannot have them but from wantonness or in sleep they may spend their seed but because it is weak and the blood necessary for formation neither is drawn by the womb nor flows to it of its own accord as it doth in those that have had children and the vessels of the womb in Virgins are straiter than in Widdows and others that have had children Therefore though the seed of Virgins flow into the womb yet they cannot have a Mole for want of blood which is necessary for the forming of the same This is to be understood of Moles which are not vital for vital Moles that have some life cannot be got in Virgins or Widdows without the seed of Man Chap. 10. Of Monsters HIstories tells of many Monsters brought forth by women We spake of Worms Sect. 2. Chap. 8. They are like Toads or Mice or Fish Par. 7. cap. 12. lij Gordonius saith it is usual in Lumbardy Lycosthenes saith and others also That Serpents Dogs and other Monsters with parts like brute beasts have been brought forth In appen Franc. Ros de par Caes Gasper Bauhin speaks of one Anne Troporim which 1575. brought forth two Serpents with her child In Harvest hot weather she had drunk water in a Brook in a Wood near Basil where she thought she drank the Spawn of a Serpent for a little after that her belly swelled and three months after she was big with child and the Serpents grew as the Child did Her belly was so big that she carried it in a swathing band She was delivered at last of a lean male child and because they suspect Worms or Snakes from the gnawing and strange motion she felt that year they put a bason of milk under her and when they expected an after-birth out came a Serpent which she saw and perceived another coming forth they were an ell long and as thick as a childs arm Thus Bauhin and he speaks of others if you please to peruse him A Monster is that which is either wholly or in part like a beast or that which is ill shaped extraordinary Histories witness that a Monster may be from humane seed The Causes and the seed of a beast It is seldome for the forming faculty doth not err of it self but is seduced by the imagination or frustrated of its ends from a fault of the Spirits the heat or matter Therefore imagination is the cause of Monsters For Histories mention That women with child by beholding men in vizards have brought forth Monsters with horns and beaks and cloven feet The same is when Spirits or heat seed or blood are weak or little And though Doctors cannot cure Monsters yet they are to admonish women with child not to look upon Monsters and to strengthen their spirits and heat and to keep the seed and blood right and not to allow copulation in time of their terms lest any monstrous Birth should be from much and impure blood Chap. 11. Of false Conception and Swelling FAlse Conception or Gravidation is when the terms are stopt and the belly swells and there are signs like those of a true Conception then they think themselves with child and as Hippocrates saith They believe not to the contrary till ten months are past The causes are wind in the womb or water Causae p. 1. s 2. c. 10. matter or thick flegm These are bred from sickly seed retained upon which Nature works in vain or from a fault in the terms that corrupts the seed and breeds bad humors The like appears in Virgins when they begin to have their terms but it is discovered by pain The terms flow not as in a true Conception The Signs but in this there is pain of the head loyns belly and groyns of which Hippocrates saith thus 2. Prorrhet They have a false Conception without terms appearing with a swollen belly have the head-ach and there is no milk in their breasts but what is like water and very little Morveover the belly swells sooner then in a true Conception their colour changeth their face and feet swell they loath meat faint and have a depraved appetite The surest sign is the time of child-bearing being past The Prognostick The Cure They are commonly barren or have ulcers in their Privities
Chap. 5. Of the Symptoms in Women with Child in the middle Months THey are cough heart-beating fainting watching pains in the loyns and hips and bleeding 1. The cough is from a sharp vapor that comes to the jaws and rough artery from the terms or from a thin part of that blood gotten into the veins of the breast or falling from the head to the breast This endangers abortion and strength fails from watching therefore purge the humors that fall from the head to the breast with Rhubarb Agarick and strengthen the head as in a Catarrh and give sweet Lenitives as in a Cough 2. Palpitation of heart and fainting is from vapors that go to it by the arteries or from blood that aboundeth and cannot get out at the womb but ascends and oppresseth the heart Use Cordials as in Syncope inwardly and outwardly If it be from too much blood as in Plethory open a vein 3. Watching is from dry sharp vapors that trouble the animal Spirits Then use Frictions and wash the feet at bed time and give Syrup of Poppies dryed Roses Emulsions of sweet Almonds and white Poppy-seeds 4. There is pain in the loyns and hips from the weight of the child or from the terms stopt or growth of the child that stretcheth the ligaments of the womb and parts adjacent if there be Plethory bleed If it be from weight of the child hold it up with swathing Bands about the neck 5. There is flux of bood at the womb nose or Hoemorrhoids from plenty or from the weakness of the child that takes it not in or from evil humors in the blood that stir up nature to send it forth Also the vessels of the Womb may be broken or torn by motion fall cough or trouble of mind This is dangerous 5. Aphor. 60. of which Hippocrates saith The child cannot be well if it be from blood only there is less danger so it flows by the veins of the neck of the womb for it takes away Plethory or take not nourishment from the child If it be from the weakness of the child that draws it not abortion often follows or hard travel or she goes beyond her time If it flow by the inward veins of the womb there is more danger by the openness of the womb If it come from evil blood the danger is alike from Cacochymy which is like to fall upon both If there be Plethory open a vein warily and use astringents As Take Pearls prepared a scruple red Coral two scruples Mace Nutmegs each a dram Cinnamon half a dram make a powder or with Sugar Rouls or give this powder in Broth. Take red Coral a dram Pearl half a dram pretious Stones each half a scruple red Sanders half a dram Bole a dram sealed Earth Tormentil-roots each two scruples with Sugar of Roses and Manus Christi with Pearl six drams make a powder You may strengthen the child at the navel If there be Cacochymy alter the humors and if you may evacuate You may use Amulets in the hands and about the neck In flux of Haemorrhoids beware of the pain Let her drink hot Wine with a roasted Nutmeg Chap. 6. Of the Symptomes that are in the last Months 1. THe Urin is stopt from suppression of the neck of the bladder Let her then lye down and let the bladder be fomented with a Bag of Pellitory Parsly-roots Mallows Linseed and the like or use the Catheter 2. The belly is bound from a hot and dry Liver when the child draws all the moisture to it or presseth the guts Let her then use Moistners as Butter Mallows Borage in Broaths or that Clysters in a small quantity 3. The veins appear in the hips and legs as varicous only then keep them from walking and let their feet be laid upon a stool 4. The legs swell from serous blood but this goes away with the After-birth and is the signs of a female child but if she cannot walk foment with Lye made of Vine branches and Wine or with a Decoction or Organ Penny-royal Chamomile Calamints Or Take Bean and Lupine-flour each two ounces Tartar an ounce Pidgeons-dung half an ounce with steeled-water and juyce of Coleworts make a Pultis Rub and wash the feet with salt water in which Chamomil Organ and Dill were boyled 5. The skin of the belly is cleft with stretching after the fourth month therefore use loosning Liniments to keep off deformity as marrow of Veal and Sheeps-legs Oyl of sweet Almonds Hens-grease 6. The water gathered in time of being with Child between the membranes that hold the Child comes forth too soon because the membranes are broken by leaping or a contusion This makes difficult birth for that water was to moisten the parts Therefore let her keep a good diet and strengthen the child inwardly and outwardly Chap. 7. Of Weakness of the Child THis is either from weak seed or little nourishment or bad and causeth many diseases in the child To hinder abortion and death of the child know rightly the weakness as Hippocrates saith 5. Aph. 53. They that will abort have first breasts that fall away which is from want of nourishment in the common veins of the womb and breasts 5. Aph. 52. Hippocrates hath a second sign which is this If a Woman with child hath much milk flowing from her breast her child is weak 3. Hippocr 5. aph 56. If the terms flow often the nourishment is taken from the child 4. A mother often and long being sick shews that her child is weak because her blood is not good and the bad humors with the blood go to nourish the child which makes him sick 5. When the mother hath a flux of the belly the child is weak 6. When it begins to move and is scarce felt it is weak If it be from these causes take them away and strengthen the child first seed the mother high with meats of good juyce and sweet Almonds steept in Honey Raisins Quinces outwardly thus Take Malmsey three pints dissolve it in Oyl of Nutmegs by expression half an ounce add powder of Cloves Rue each half an ounce Rose Sage Marjoram Penny-royal-water each a pint Aqua-vitae three ounces Dip Spunges in it and apply them under the left breast to the arm-pits hams pulses soles of the feet and when they dry wet them again Chap. 8. Of Crying in the Womb. CHildren have sometimes cryed in the womb as Fabricius saith in his Epistle to his Brother James Fincel and Weinridick of Monsters writes thus In this City of Bressa a Child was heard to cry in the Womb three daies before the Travel when he was a man he was miserable with poverty and diseases till he died Andreas Libavius writes the same and others Some say It portends evil to the Mother or Child or Countrey It is a voice by the expulsion of the air through the rough artery The Causes and some air may in the cavities from vapors or spirits as in
eggs when chickens pip in them And if the child have a rough artery lungs and breasts which are the organs of breathing sound and the child is strong there is no hinderance but it may utter a voice But something whatsoever it is must stir it to make this noise THE FOURTH BOOK THE THIRD PART THE SIXTH SECTION Of Symptoms that happen in Child-bearing Chap. 1. Of Child-bearing in general WHen the Child can no longer be contained in so small a place being grown and requiring more nourishment it kicks and breaks the Membranes and Ligaments that held it and the Womb by an expelling faculty sends it forth with great straining and this is called Travel It is either natural or not natural legitimate or illegitimate The natural is when the child comes with the head forward and heels upwards with his hands and arms to his thighs and so the other parts easily follow then the Amnios is broken and the water that was laid up in time of being with child flows forth and moistens the passages then the child with more force breaks the Acetabula from which the Secundine is separated and the other membranes are broken and the blood flows into the cavity of the womb and the child gets out by the expulsive faculty with such force that it seems to fall rather then be expelled and the bones of the Privities must needs be divided That which follows the birth is above humane capacity namely The transmiration of the Navel-vessels and Lungs and Heart in the Infant and why Nature ordered it of which Galen elegantly in the 15th Book Of the Use of Parts and 6th Chapter There is also a legitimate Birth when it is according to the Law of Nature and an illegitimate when it is before or after the time Hippocrates saith Lib. de septim paren That a Birth in the seventh month is vital and legitimate And it is sooner from the strength of the faculty and matter fit for formation yet it is commonly weak except the seventh month be compleat Of the eighth month Hippocrates saith thus None lives that is born in the eighth month because it cannot bear the two afflictions to follow but the reason of the Arithmaticians is better that say an even month is imperfect The ninth or tenth months are the best Lib. de natura pueri Lib. Sapient as Hippocrates saith A Child is born in ten months at the farthest and so says the wisest Solomon Some say that a child may be born in the 11th month and Peter Apponensis was so born and some say they have been born in the fourteenth and fifteenth month but rare things are not to be counted the Law of Nature Generally Physitians agree with Hippocrates though some dissent Chap. 2. Of Abortion IT is the exclusion of a child nor perfect nor living before ligitimate time This time is defined by Hippocrates Lib. de carnib Whosoever Conceiveth doth it within seven days but they are properly Abortions that come before the seventh day and though some are in the fifth and sixth month that have lived yet that must not derogate from the common Law of Nature Some differences of Abortion are from the time and bigness of the child For that which is cast out is little and round without distinction of members at first like a Grape Sometimes as long as a finger and members may be distinguished And sometimes the child is almost perfect The Causes The immediate Cause is the expulsive faculty stirred up and that is done by three means from Galen 3. De natur fac cap. 12. from the weight bigness and pain There are more causes which we shall place in two Ranks The first is of the manner of the causes that provoke the expulsive faculty The other is that which findeth out these wayes by all the causes The expulsive faculty is first provoked by the child being weak either from evil seed or being dead The child is weak for want of food and from the mothers diseases either in her whole body or in the womb or parts adjacent that consent as Feavers Inflammations Fainting Convulsions Pain Vomiting Neesing Cough that move the spirits and humors and shake the child and stir up Nature to expel it Also straitness of the womb causeth Abortion by which means it cannot contain a great child Also shortness of the Navel-vessels which Frabricius first observed The outward causes are cold air after hot and moist which gets into the womb and provokes it and hurts the child Cent. 2. obs 50. The Astrologers add the malignant aspect of the Stars also too much or too little meat Great watchings purging and flux of blood by the Womb and Haemorrhoids Also violent motion as leaping carrying of burdens strokes on the belly or back Also passions as anger fear sorrow Also bleeding purging fasting smell of brimstone or ashes hoofs burnt or stink of the snuff of a candle If the breasts be less The Signs or much milk flow from them or she feel much and often pain about the belly or loyns that go to the Pubes and Os sacrum with a desire of thrusting forth in the womb If the child change its place and if it fall lower when it was in the middle of the belly there is fear of miscarrying It is dangerous alwayes The Prognostick because it is with violence there are also great Symptomes they are in less danger that have already brought forth a child therefore the first is most dangerous and the mouths of the Vessels are torn and they commonly become barren Abortion is most dangerous in the sixth seventh and eighth month because the Infant being greater causeth greater pain and breaks the Ligaments worse To preserve from Abortion Consider the constitution before she is with child and prevent every cause If it be like to come from Plethory before Conception open a Vein and after Conception in the fourth or fifth month in the Arm. If it be from Cacochymy purge the whole body and purge the womb with Pessaries and strengthen it of which in the cold and moist distemper of the womb If she have conceived open a vein before the time be used to abort if there be a Cacochymy purge gently at times If there be a cold distemper of body by flegm that hurts the womb give the decoction of China or Sarsa with strengtheners of the child Avoid the external causes of abortion and if they have done hurt help it presently Let not the belly be bound if the child be weak remove the causes of weakness and strengthen it Use things that strengthen the womb and child as Coral as Kermes-berries Or Take Magistery of Coral a dram Pearl prepared half a dram Ivory shaved a dram Mastick half a dram grains of Kermes a dram Manus Christi with Pearl two drams make a Powder If the Abortion be at hand and the pains increase give this Powder with a rear Egg. Or Take
Conserve of red Roses two drams red Coral and Mastich each a scruple give it presently Use the Countesses Oyntment outwardly to the Loyns Reins Pecten and Perinaeum Or Take Oyl of Roses Mirtles Mastich Quinces each two ounces Oyl of Mints an ounce Bdellium dissolved in Vinegar liquid Storax each two ounces Oyl of Nutmegs by expression a dram with Wax make an Oyntment Of the same with Pitch Rosin Colophony you may make Plaisters Let her hold a Load-stone in her hand or tie it to her navel or wear an Eagle-stone under her Arm-pits or Coral Jaspar Smaragds Diamonds If these will not keep the Child up you must give over Astringents and use Lenitives Question Whether the straitness of the Womb is the cause of Abortion Hippocrates 1. de morb saith Lib. de super lib. de steril That the Womb may cause Abortion if they be windy thick great or little And he shews in another place That Abortion may be from the straitness of the womb And in another place he saith 3. De nat fac c. 12. If a woman in the third fourth or fifth month miscarry often and at the same time it is because the womb will not stretch And Galen confirms the same and it stands to reason for natural birth is when the womb cannot contain the child for its growth Therefore if it be preternaturally too little it is the cause of Abortion And though Nature hath made the womb to hold the child yet if it be not made large enough it cannot contain it so the stomach is sometimes so strait that it cannot hold an indifferent quantity of meat as others can Chap. 3. Of the Signs of Natural Birth and the manner and government of such as bring forth AT her time of her being to be delivered let her take heed of astringents and thickners but let her eat meat of easie concoction and of good juyce and sit every fourth day in a hot Bath Of Mallows Foenugreek Linseed Mugwort and Chamomil-flowers and after let her back loyns belly and privities be anointed with the Mucilage of Althaea-seed and Oyl of Lillies and let the child be strengthned But when she hath pains from the navel to the groyns and in the back then the ligaments and vessels are broken by which the child grows to the womb And because the Womb violently strains to discharge it the membranous fibres are extended and commonly there are very great pains and throws or the child will not be born and it is an evil sign when throws cease because the expulsive faculty is weakned And let not the Midwife provoke throws till the time When the Membranes are broken the water flows out that comes from the urin and sweat of the child first little then more then waterish blood and the orifice of the womb begins to open to let out the child And before this time you must not provoke throws Then let the Midwife put her finger into the orifice of the womb and she shall perceive something round and hard as an Egg. Let her not lie on her back flat but with her back up that she may breathe more freely After the child is born you must press the blood in the Navel-vessels towards the navel of the Infant and take heed that you lose not much blood in cutting of the Navel-string for it hath destroyed weak children and you must labour to fetch out the Secundine with the child and if it be in the womb anoint your hands with warm Oyl and put them into the womb and fetch it out Chap. 5. Of Natural hard Travel THough Child-bearing since Eves sin is ordained to be painful as a punishment thereof yet sometimes it is more painful then ordinary The first is from the mother The Causes and the expulsive faculty 2. From the Child 3. From the passage From the mother as when the womb is weak and the mother is not active to expel from weakness or diseases or want of spirits of which Hippocrates It is from the Birth when they are Twins or more and both strive to go forth at a time 5. Aphor. 55. or if the child stick to a Mole or be so weak that it cannot break the membrane or if it be too big all over or in the head only or if the Navel-vessels are twisted about his neck It is from the passages when the membranes are thick the orifice too strait Fabric cent 3. obs 57. and the neck of the womb is not open sufficiently as in such as labour of the first child or are very fat The passages are pressed and straitned by tumors in the adjacent parts or when the bones are too firm and will not open then the mother and child are both in danger or when the passages are not slippery or when they are broken too soon by reason of the thin membranes or the water flows forth sooner then it ought You may know hard travel by faint throws The Signs that come at a great distance And you must consider all things concerning the Mother Womb and child The Prognostick In hard Travel the mother and child are in danger and the Perinaeum sometimes breaks with the skin from the Privities to the Arse-hole If a woman be four dayes in Travel the child scarce escapes The Cure All things that move the Terms are good to make easie delivery As Myrrh white Amber in white Wine or Lilly-water two scruples or a dram some give a drop of Oyl of Amber in Vervain-water or a scruple of mineral Borax or half a dram but begin with gentle things as a spoonful of Cinnamon-water Or Take Cassia Lignea Dittany each a dram Cinnamon half a dram Saffron a scruple make a Powder give a dram Or Take Borax mineral a dram Cassia Lignea a scruple Saffron six grains give it in Sack Or Take Cassia Lignea a dram Dittany Amber each half a dram Cinnamon Borax each a dram and half Saffron a scruple give half a dram Or give some drops of Oyl of Hazel in convenient Liquor or two or three drops of Oyl of Cinnamon in Vervain-water some prepare the secundine thus Take the Navel-string and dry it in an Oven Take two drams of the Powder Cinnamon a dram Saffron half a scruple with juyce of Savin make Troches give two drams or wash the Secundine in Wine and bake it in a pot then wash it in Endive-water and wine Take half a dram of it long Pepper Galangal each half a dram Plantane and Endive-feed each a dram and half Lavender-seed four scruples make a Powder Or Take Labdanum two drams Storax calamite Benzoin each half a dram Musk and Amber-grease each six grains make a Powder or Troches for a fume Or use Pessaries to provoke the Birth Take Galbanum dissolved in Vinegar an ounce Myrrh two drams Saffron a dram with Oyl of Orris make a Pessary An Oyntment for the Pecten and Navel Take Oyl of Keir two ounces juyce of