to be of an opinion that the Males have sooner life than the Females because he saith their heat is greater but for my part I do not beleive that the Male is sooner formed than the Female and that which thus perswades me is because if it were so the Male must likewise be at its full term sooner than the Female proportionable to the same time that the one is animated sooner than the other which wee see the contrary in that the Women are brought to Bed indifferently both of Sons and Daughters at the ordinary terme of nine months Let us therefore say that towards the fifth or sixth week as well Males as Females have all the parts of their body though small and very tender entirely formed and figured at which time it is not longer than a finger and from thence afterwards which is our third time the blood flowing every day more and more to the Womb not by Intervals as the Courses but continually it daily grows bigger and stronger to the end of the ninth month which is the full term of ordinary labour Having explicated Conception and Generation let us now consider great Bellies and their differences CHAP. V. Of big Bellies and their differences with the signs of the true and false great Bellies THE great Belly of a Woman properly taken is a tumour caused by the Infants scituation in the Womb. There are natural great Bellies which contain a living Child and these we call true and others against nature in which instead of a Child is ingendred nothing but strange matter as Wind mixed with Waters which are called Dropsies of the Womb False-Conceptions Moles or Membranes full of blood and corrupted seed for which reason they are called false great Bellies We have already where we treated of Conception and Generation mentioned the causes and signs of a great Belly in its beginning notwithstanding we will again repeat the most certain and ordinary of them which are nauseousness vomittings loss of appetite to things the Woman was accustomed to eat and like longings for strange and naughty things suppression of the Terms without Feaver or Shiverings or other cause pains and swelling of the Breasts all which may be found in Virgins by the retention of their Courses but the most certain is if putting the finger into the Vagina you perceive the inward Orifice exactly close as also the distention of the body of the Womb considerable more or less according to the time the Woman is gone with Child and the Childs stiring in the Womb gives us indubitable proofs of it It is fit we should be alwayes careful not to be deceived by what we feel stir in the Womb forasmuch as the Infant of it self hath a total and a partial motion the total is when it removes the whole body and the partial is when it moves but one part at a time as the Head Arm or Leg the rest of the body lying still but the Womb blown up in fits of the Mother yea and some Moles have by accident a kind of total motion but never a partial one That of a Mole is rather a motion of falling down than otherwise to wit a motion by which heavy things fall downwards for a Woman who hath a Mole of any bigness considerable whatsoever side she turns her self to her belly falls immediatly the same way like a heavy bowl About the time or very near when the Infant quickens if the Woman be certainly with Child these humors which are carried to the Breasts by the stoppage of her Courses are turned to Milk which when it happens is usually an assured testimony of pregnancy though some Women have been found with Milk in their Breasts but rarely and yet not with Child nor ever having had any which Hippocrates also confirms in his 39th Aphorism of his 5th Book where he saith Si mulier quae nec praegnans nec puerpera est lac habet ei menstrua defecerunt If a Woman hath milk in her Breasts and is neither with Child nor ever had any it comes from the stoppage of her Courses But it is rather whey than milk which in that case hath not the consistence as the Milk of a Woman in Childbed nay the Milk of a Woman with Child is yet but waterish and becomes neither thick nor very white till after labour she begins to suckle her Child The Infant moves it selfe manifestly about the fourth month or sooner or later according as it is more or less strong some Women feel it from the second others about the third month yea some before that time In the beginning these first motions are very small and very like to those of a little Sparrow when first hatched but grow greater proportionably as the Infant grows bigger and stronger and at last are so violent that they force the Womb to discharge its self of its burden as in Travail The common opinion is that the Males quicken before the Females because their heat is greater but that is almost equal for there are some Women perceive their Daughters others their Sons soonest which happens indifferently to Males and Females according as there was a more or less vigorous disposition at their Generation Very often Women who daily use Copulation are subject to be deceived for they usually believe they are with Child if their Courses stop and withal are a little qualmish which is not always true for false conceptions cause almost the same accidents as true which cannot easily be distinguished but by its consequences This false great-Belly is as we have already said often caused by wind which blows up and distends the Womb and which Women oft-times discharge with as much noise as if it came from the Fundament sometimes 't is nothing but water which is gathered there in such abundance as some Women have been seen to void a pail full without any Child though they verily believed they were with Child as did that Wood-Merchant whose story you have in the end of the third Chapter who did not void it till the end of the tenth mouth till when she alwayes believed her self with Child There are others who conceive only fals-conceptions and Moles which may be known by the Infants different motions already mentioned and by the Moles continuing in the Womb often after the ordinary time of labour some Women having them a whole year yea many years according as these Moles are more or less adhering to the inner parts of the Womb and are there entertained and nourished by the blood that flows thither Moles alwayes proceed from some false-conceptions which continuing in the Womb grow there by the blood that flows to them by the accumulation of which they are by little and little augmented if the Womb expels it before two months it 's call'd a fals-conception some are only but as it were the Seed involved in a membrane like that geniture which that Woman voided after six or seven dayes of whom Hippocrates speaks
a Quart then strain it squeezing of it strongly and with this Decoction foment those inferiour parts Nights and Mornings to the end they may as much as possible be strengthened and confirmed I say as much as possible because there is no probability that they can ever be reduced to the same estate they were in before she had Children So much for this Wee 'l now pass to convenient Remedies for the Belly of a new-laid Woman All Authors do appoint immediatly after Delivery the skin of a black Sheep slaid alive for this purpose to be laid all over her Belly and to lie on four or five Hours others will have a Hare-skin Truly I believe that by reason of the natural heat of such Skins the remedy is not bad but I also fear lest in some small time after it may do the Woman more hurt than good and that by its Moistness cooling of her it may make her to shake which would be very prejudicial in stopping her Cleansings which ought to flow besides it is a remedy or too much trouble for there must always be a Butcher ready for every Woman that is laid or some other person that can do it as readily who must be for this purpose in the very Chamber or at least in the House that so they may have the Skin very hot according to directions They likewise direct a small Plaister of Galbanum with a little Civet in the middle to be applied to the Womans Navil which as they imagine is very proper to keep the Womb in its place because being delighted with that smell it drawes neer to it of its self but this remedy is a little * Practice and success commends it nor is there reason wanting to defend it wherefore notwithstanding the Authors sense it may be successfully continued Superstitious wherefore I am not for it it being sufficient to keep the Belly very warm in the situation we have directed and prevent the least cold As for Swaths convenient to a Woman new laid they need not be us'd the first day or at least but very loosely especially when there hath been a hard Labour because the least compression of the Womans Belly which is then very sore as the Womb also is having been much harrassed proves a great inconveniency to her wherefore let her not be swathed until the Second day and that very gently at the beginning Midwives believe that they serve instead of Boulster as well for the keeping the Womb up in its place as to squeeze out from all parts the Cleansings which are necessary to be evacuated And Nursekeepers abused with this belief do sometimes swath their Bellies so strait that they do bruise the Womb which is very painful in the beginning of Child-bed and from whence often follows very dangerous Inflamations These Swaths and Boulsters can have no hold to support the Womb as they imagine forasmuch as its * Bottom of the Womb. Fund which is the principal part being flitting in the Cavity of the †Lower Belly Hypogaster cannot be kept stable and firm by that which is applied upon the Belly and beside the interposition of the Bladder which is upon it will not permit it As to their opinion that such Swathings help to cleanse the Womb 't is fit they should be disabused of this Error for it is not the same thing in these Cleansings as pressing the juice out of boil'd meat in a Napkin for these are wholly a work of Nature which a strong compression instead of helping hinders by the pain it causes to the Womb and the Inflamations that follow Without dwelling then upon the ordinary manner of Swathing let us be guided according to the dictates of Reason and not according to the Nurs-keepers naughty Customs whose Method is first to put upon the Belly a Swath four or five double of a triangular Figure to support as they pretend the Womb and sometimes two others Roulers very strait on each side towards the Groine to keep it in its place lest it be shaken and encline more to one side than t'other with yet another broad square Swath for the whole Belly which they put upon the first afterwards they make a Swath of a Napkin folded two or three double of the breadth of a quarter of an Ell with which they do very much girt and compress the Belly I do very well approve of the use of these Swaths and of a good large square Boulster over the whole Belly provided they be very loose the first seven or eight daies only to keep it a little steady observing in the mean time to take it off and remove it often to anoint the Womans Belly all over if it be sore and that she have After-Pains with Oile of sweet Almonds and St Johns Wort mixed together which may be done every day But after that time they may by degrees begin to swath her straighter to contract and gather together the parts which were greatly extended during her going with Child which may be then very safely done because the Womb by those former cleansings is so diminished and lessened that it cannot be too much compressed by the Swaths Let us now see what is fit to be done to the Breasts Proper Remedies may be applied to them for to drive back the Milk if the Woman will not be a Nurse of which we shall speak hereafter but if she intends to be a Nurse 't will be sufficient to keep her Breasts very close and well covered with gentle and soft Clothes for to keep them warm lest the Milk curdle in them and if there be danger of too much Blood being carried thither anoint the Breasts with Oile of Roses and a little Vinegar beat together and put upon them some fine Linnen dipt in it observing that if the Woman do suckle her Child she gives it not the Breast the same day she is brought to Bed because then all her Humours are extremely moved with the Pains and agitation of the Labour wherefore let her defer it at least till next day and it would be yet better to stay four or five days or longer to the end the fury of the Milk and the abundance of humours which flow to the Breasts in the begining may be spent in which time another Woman may give it suck Let us now discourse of a fit Diet for the Woman to keep during her whole Child-bed CHAP. III. What Diet a Woman in Child-bed ought to observe during the whole time of her lying-in when it is accompanied with no ill accident ALthough a Woman be naturally delivered yet notwithstanding she must observe a good Diet to prevent many ill accidents which may happen to her during her Child-bed at the begining of which she must be directed in her Meat and Drink almost as if she had a Fever that so it may be prevented inasmuch as she is then very subject to it so likewise it often happens to her by the least
in the Womb. CHAP. XII Of the Inflammation of the Breasts of the new-laid Woman UNtil of late it was alwaies believed that the Blood was the matter whereof the Milk was made in the Breasts but it is much more probable that the Chyle onely and not the Blood is destined to its generation as well as it is the true matter out of which all the Blood of the Body is made That which easily makes us judg so is the new discovery of the Channel of the Thorax which conveighs the Chyle into the Subclavian Vein found out by Monsieur Pecquet Physician of the Faculty of Montpelier to whom all posterity will be eternally indebted for having means hereby of being disabused of several notable Errors which for want of so fair and necessary a knowledg was slid and entertained into the Practice of Physick until this time However since the Vessels which may for this purpose conveigh part of this Chyle to the Breasts are not yet manifestly known we will content our selves to explain after the following manner the cause of the Inflammation of the Breasts which doth very often happen to Women newly delivered All the Blood and Humours are so heated and agitated during Travail by the Pains and Throws of Labour that the Breasts composed of glandulous and spongious bodies easily receiving in too great abundance of these Humours which flow to them from all parts are soon inflamed thereby because this Repletion doth very sensibly and painfully distend them to this contributes very much the suppression of the Lochia and an universal fulness of the Body This Inflamation may likewise happen by the Womans having been too strait laced by some blow received upon the Breasts or for having lain upon them which easily bruise them as also for want of having given Milk to the Child in as much as by this means the Milk which is in great quantity in the Breasts not being evacuated is overheated corrupts by too-long stay there But from whatsoever cause this Inflamation of the Breasts in a Woman new-laid may proceed convenient Remedies must be speedily applyed lest it afterwards aposthumates or else that not suppurating there remains a scirrhous hardness which in time may degenerate into a Cancer a very pernitious Malady and for the most part incurable when confirmed Besides the danger that an Inflamation of the Breasts may be converted into these dangerous distempers there happens usually to the Woman in those parts which are very sensible an extream pain which often causeth shaking Fits and afterwards a Fever with so great a burning of the whole Body that she can scarce endure any Cloaths upon her and when she doth never so little uncover her self or put her Arms out of the Bed she hath new shaking fits which afterwards augment the heat of her Feaver it is no great wonder that a Feaver soon happens upon this occasion because the Breasts by their nearness to the Heart do easily communicate their Inflamation which sometimes excite Fury and Phrenzy if the Blood be suddenly and in great abundance carried thither as Hippocrates assures us in the 40th Aphorism of his 5th Book Quibuscunque Mulieribus ad Mammas sanguis colligitur furorem significat If saies he the blood be carried to and in great abundance collected in the Breasts it signifies that Fury and Phrenzy will follow Now the principal and most certain means to hinder the afflux of so great a quantity of Humours to the Breasts and prevent the coming of an Inflamation there is to procure a good and ample evacuation of the Locbia by the Womb. Wherefore if they are supprest they must be provoked by the means elswhere directed for by this evacuation all the Humours will take their course towards the lower parts The whole habit of Body may be emptied by bleeding in the Arm afterwards for a greater diversion and the better to bring down the Lochia bleed in the Foot during which Topical Remedies to the Breast must not be forgot as in the beginning to chase well into them Oile of Roses and Vinegar beat together laying upon them afterwards Unguentum refrigerans Galeni and a third part of Populion mixt with it or a Cataplasme made of the setlings found in a Cutlers Grin-stone-Trough Oile of Roses and a little Vinegar mixt together if the pain continue very great another Cataplasm may be made of the Crum of white Bread and Milk mixt with Oile of Roses and the Yolks of raw Eggs upon all these may be laid Compresses dipt in Vinegar and Water or in Plantane Water but great care must be taken that these Remedies applied to the Breast be only cooling and repressing without any great Adstriction for it may cause a scirrhous tumor which would remain a long time and it may be a worse distemper After the height of the Inflammation shall be past and the greatest part of the antecedent Humours evacuated and turned aside let Medicines a little resolving be used to digest resolve and consume the Milk which abounds in the Breasts to prevent corruption by its stay wherefore let them be drawn by the Child or some other person or else resolved unless that it be suppurated It may be resolved by the application of pure Honey to the Breasts which in this case is very effectual or else a red Cabbadg-leaf may be anointed with it and applyed to the Breasts having first withered it a little before the Fire and all the hard Stalks and Veins taken out do not lace the Breasts too strait nor apply any course or rough Clothes to them that they may not be therewith scratched and bruised A very good remedy for the same is a whole red Cabbage boiled in River water to a Pap and then well bruised in a wooden or marble Mortar and pulp'd through a Sieve which mixt with Oyle of Camomil may be applied as a Poultis to the Breasts In the use of all these means let the Woman observe a cooling Diet not very nourishing that too much Blood and Humours may not be engendered of which there is already too great a quantity she must alwaies keep her Body open that the Humours may be so much the more carried downwards and consequently turned from the Breasts During the whole time the Inflammation continues let her keep her Bed lying on her back that she may have the more ease for being raised the Breasts which are gross and heavy because of the abundance of humours with which they are repleted do very much pain her when they hang down let her stir her Arms as little as may be and after the fourteenth or fifteenth day of her Child-bed when she hath sufficiently cleansed and the Inflammation is abated and she no longer Feverish purge her once or twice as the case shall require to empty the ill humours which remain in the whole habit of her Body If notwithstanding all these Remedies the swelling of the Breast doth not go down and that she still
feels much pain and a great Pulsation with a hardness more in one place than another is is certain it will aposthumate there of which we will treat hereafter CHAP. XIII Of the Curdling and Clodding of the Milk IN the beginning of Child-bed the Womans Milk is not well purified because of the great commotion her Body suffered during Labour and it is then mixt with many other Humours now if they are then conveyed to the Breasts in too great abundance they cause an Inflammation treated in the foregoing Chapter but when the Infant hath already sucked fifteen or twenty days or more the Milk then only without this mixture of humours is contained there and sometimes curdles and clods And then the Breasts which before were soft and even become hard uneven and rugged without any redness and the distinction and separation of all the Kernels fill'd with curdled Milk may easily be perceived The Woman finds a great pain there and cannot milk them as before she finds a shivering especially about the middle of her Back which seems to her like Ice This Shivering is usually followed by a Fever of four and twenty Hours continuance and sometimes less if the clodding of the Milk do not turn to an Inflammation of the Breasts which will undoubtedly happen if it be not emptyed or dissipated and resolved This Clodding of the Milk for the most part proceeds because the Breasts are not fully drawn either for that she hath too much Milk or the Infant is too small and weak to suck all or because she doth not desire to be a Nurse for the Milk in these cases remaining in the Breasts after concoction without being drawn loseth the Sweetness and Benignity it had and by means of the Heat that it there acquires and the too long stay it there makes sowring it curdles and clods just as we see Rennet put into ordinary Milk turneth it into Curds this accident may likewise happen from having taken a great Cold or keeping the Breasts not well covered From whatsoever cause this Curdling proceeds the readiest and most certain Remedy is speedily to draw the Breasts until they are emptied and dried but because the Infant being weak and small cannot draw strong enough by reason the Woman is not soft milcht when the Milk is so curdled let another Woman draw them until the Milk comes freely and then she may give the Child suck and to the end she may not afterwards breed more Milk than the Child can draw let her use Diet that gives but little nourishment and keep her body alwaies open But when it happens that the Woman neither can nor will be a Nurse 't is necessary to use other means for the curing of this distemper Then her Breasts must not be drawn for attracting more humours the disease will ever recur if they be not again emptied Wherefore 't is necessary to prevent the coming of any more Milk into them and to resolve and dissipate that which is there for this purpose the plenitude of the Body must be emptied by bleeding in the Arm and besides this evacuation let the Humours be drawn down by strong Clysters and bleeding in the Foot purging also if it be necessary and to resolve digest and dissipate the curdled Milk apply the Gataplasme which we said was proper as that of pure Honey or that of the four Brans boiled in a Decoction of Sage Milk Smallage and Fennel mixing with it Oile of Camomil with which Oile the Breasts may likewise be well anointed I have sometimes seen Women apply to their Breasts with no small success the Linnen-covers of Salt-butter-pots it is a drying Remedy and lie to soak up the moisture of these parts and may be used provided the Remedies before mentioned have discuss'd the Milk but it notwithstanding all this it cannot be dissipated nor resolved there is great danger by its long stay there that it will cause an Inflammation of the Breasts If it so happen it may be remedied according to the directions of the foregoing Chapter Let us now treat of Aposthumes of the Breasts which often follow their inflammation CHAP. XIV Of Aposthumes of the Breasts of a Woman new-laid THere may at all times happen to Maids as well as Wives Aposthumes of the Breasts either hot or cold the cure of which doth not differ as saith Guido except that too strong Repercussives must not be used because of their nearness to the Heart and that the retention of the Courses contributes much to the breeding of them and their provocation to their Cure as also bleeding in the Saphaena but our intention is only to treat of those which happen to a new-laid Woman and ordinarily succeeds an Infiammation of the Breasts caused by corruption of the Milk and too great abundance of Blood and Humours conveighed thither After all possible endeavours have been used to cause this Inflammation to cease whether by universal evacuation of the Body as well by bleeding in the Arm and Foot as the provocation of the Lochia or also by Medicines restraining repelling or simply-dissolving applyed to the Breasts if the Woman still suffers great pain there and hath astrong Pulsation more in one place than another where a hardness of a livid colour may also be perceived and soft in the middle 't is a sign that they will aposthumate Then the application of all the former Topicks must be forborn and ripening Medicines applyed it being much better to make a perfect Suppuration than longer to use Repellers or Resolvers lest the matter be more confirmed in driving back and only resolving the more subtile parts leaving the thicker behind in the Breasts which will become scirrhous and be very difficult to dissipate or by its long continuance as it often happens may turn to a Cancer To suppurate the Aposthume put an emollient and ripening Poultis upon the Breasts such as that made of Mallows and Marsh-mallows with their Roots Lilly-roots and Linseed bruised boiled to a Pap that it may be pulp'd through a Sieve that so no hardness may be left to hurt the Breasts which are then in great pain afterwards mix a good quantity of Hogs-grease or Basilicon with it and lay a little Cloath thick spread with the same Basilicon upon the place where it is likely soonest to break and the Poultis all over it nenewing it twelve hours after or at furthest next day continuing this Remedy 'till the Aposthume be fully ripe It is much better to use this Cataplasme or the like than Plaisters for a Poultis closeth better by its softness and is more equally applyed to the Breasts it mollifies it also and keeps it much more supple besides it is easier changed and cleansed than Plaisters which by their sticking do very much incommode these parts Assoon as the Aposthume is ripe it must be opened if it open not of it self The time when it is fit may be known by the ceasing of the beating the Woman felt before
in her Breasts and that the pain and Fever is much diminished and then besides the middle of the Aposthume is a little elevated to a point and very soft and the contained matter may by the Finger be perceived to fluctuate When these signs shall appear the Aposthume must be opened in the fittest place to give issue to this matter being careful not to do it too soon and before the matter is fully ripe because of too much pain for the Breasts are very sensible parts and easily receive a Defluxion because of their thin and spongious substance interlaced with an infinite number of Vessels Wherefore it must be permitted to ripen yet not suffered to stagnate there too long This apertion may be made with a Lancet or with a grain of potential Cantery making it large enough to evacuate such Clods as are there usually met with but it is best to use the Lancet because there is no loss of substance and the Scar is not so deformed as that which succeeds the application of a Cautery Guido would have this Incision made in the form of an Half-moon to follow the round Figure of the Breast but it is no matter of what fashion it is provided it be in a place convenient for the emptying the matter and that care be taken that some great Vessels be not opened the principal of which are towards the Arm-pits After that all the matter and putrified clodded Milk there found be emptied the Aposthume after the usual manner must be cleansed and mundified observing not to make the Tents too long nor too hard but only very soft pledgits of Lint without thrusting them too deep in fastening a Thread to the first if there be occasion the better to draw it out because these Aposthumes ordinarily are hollow If there be much pain dip the Boulsters in Oile of Eggs or Basilicon mixt with a Digestive if there remain any thing yet to Suppurate afterwards use Detersives and Mundifiers as Honey of Roses or Unguentum Apostolorum according as the case requires laying upon it a good Plaister de Mucilaginibus to soften that hardness which may yet remain Chap XV. lib. 3. pag 349 CHAP. XV. Of Excoriation and loss of the Nipples VEry often Women that are Nurses and especially the first time are subject to have their Nipples which are endued with an exquisite sence because that many small nervous Filaments do there terminate chopped and excoriated which is very painful to them and insupportable when notwithstanding this indisposition they give suck to their Children and so much the more by how much they are hard milch't as it happens the first time the Milk not yet having made way through the small Holes of the Nipples which are not yet throughly opened and then the Child takes more pains to suck than when the Breasts do almost run of themselves and sometimes these Chops and Excoriations do so encrease by the Child 's continual sucking that in the end it takes the Nipple quite off from the Breasts and the Woman is no longer capable of giving suck and there remains sometimes an Ulcer very hard to be cured This may sometimes happen from Childrens being so dry and hungry that they have not patience to suck softly and finding the Milk not speedily to follow as they desire they do bite and mump the Nipple so strongly thinking to draw Milk down the better whether they have Teeth or no that they become raw and in fine still continuing it they are quite taken away as we have said It happens also that other Infants have their Mouths so hot that they make the Nipples sore as when the Children have those little Ulcers called * Thrush Apthae and much sooner if they have the Pox with which also they may infect the Nurses and then those Ulcers so caused do not easily yield to ordinary Remedies but on the contrary grow daily worse and worse These Chops and Excoriations must not be neglected as well by reason of the great pain they put the Woman to when she gives suck as to avoid their dayly growing worse and worse and at length their turning to malignant Ulcers Wherefore assoon as they begin let the Woman forbear giving her Child suck until they are quire cured for with continual sucking it will be very difficult to hinder its return by irritating of them during which the Milk must for a small time be kept back lest by being no longer drawn it cause an Inflammation in the Breast through its great abundance However if but one Nipple be sore she may give suck with the other to these sore Nipples Desiccative Medicines may be applyed as Allum or Lime-water or they may be only bathed with Plantain water putting upon them small soft Rags dipped in any of them or use a small Ceruse Plaister or some Ointment as Dia Pompholygos or a little powder Amylon but especially care must be taken that nothing be applyed to disgust the Child wherefore many content themselves to use only honey of Roses Some will instead of Desiccatives use Emolients but there must be a distinction for Emollients are fit to preserve from such Fissures but when they are already made Desiccatives are best and to prevent the Woman from hurts in these parts which are very painful and that the Rags may not stick to them one ought to put upon them a little Wax or Wooden Caps or Leaden ones they being more Desiccative like to those represented in the begining of the Chapter which must have several small holes on the tops of them as well to give issue to the Sanies which proceeds from the small Ulcers as that the Milk which often distills out of the Nipples may by this means pass away If the Child hath wholly suck'd off the Nipples the Milk must then be quite dried away that so the Ulcers which remain may be the sooner healed for else one shall hardly obtain their end and in time they may become callous and malignant and if the Child hath the Pox it will be very difficult to heal those Ulcers of the Nurses Nipples if it continues to suck wherefore the Child must be put to another who must use Preservatives against this Malady but if they be only small simple Ulcers in the Mouth without any malignity 't is enough to wash them with Barley-water mixt with a little Juice of Citrons and the better to temper these Humours which are over-heated let the Nurse take a cooling Diet that her Milk may become of the same temperament and let her be blooded and purged if it be necessary When the Nipples are quite lost it is very difficult to give a Child longer suck because it can take no hold to suck the Milk and also the small holes of the Nipples are closed up by the Ulcers But if notwithstanding she shall desire to give suck another Woman must by degrees make her new Nipples after the Ulcer shall be perfectly healed whose sucking with
do and have bred some every day as must necessarily confest Now if they did not void it this way they must soon be suffocated by its too-great abundance I know that many may answer me that it is more credible that this discharge is made by the branches of the Vena porta distributed throughout the Mesentery but such as are acquainted with the Circulation of the Blood know that naturally it cannot well be so I believe they would soon be of my opinion if they did but well consider it and it is not sufficient to refute me by objecting that if the superfluity of Blood be thus daily voided one would alwaies have bloody Stooles because it is not unknown that this portion of superfluous Blood which is very small in comparison of the other Excrements proceeding from the Aliment with which it is mixt doth easily there receive a change of colour by the alteration and kind of concoction there made whence it happens that it is not so easily perceived in a Man as a Child in whom the Moeconion being yet without any mixture retaines more of the colour as also because 't is engendered of Blood only which hath been separated as useless to its nourishment and is after this manner expelled Now forasmuch as there is but little superfluous Blood in an Infants body whilest it is in the Womb because it consumes a great deal of it for its nourishment and growth besides that it hath been purified by the Mother before it is conveyed to him so likewise there is but little Moeconion ingendred during the whole time of Praegnancy for which reason also the Infant doth not void any during its stay in the Womb but it doth when it is born for then it receives nourishment by the Mouth of which plenty of other Excrements are made which forceth him to cast forth the first and although the Moeconion hath continued in the Infants Guts during the whole time it was in the Mother's Belly nevertheless which is very admirable it hath nothing neer so ill a scent as the new Excrements have which are engendred out of the nourishment taken in at the Mouth after it is born although they make but a very small stay there and are daily discharged Assoon then as the Midwife hath washed and cleansed the Child according to directions and that she hath viewed every part of its Body let her begin to swaddle it in its Swathing-Cloaths begining first to cover the Head with a small linnen Biggen * This is the French fashion putting a woollen Cap upon it having first put upon the mould of the Head a fine Linnen rag three or four double and four Fingers broad which that it may not stir pin to the Biggen with a small Pin on the outside that it may not prick the Child this double Rag serves to defend the Childs Brain which is not as yet covered over in this place with a Bone as well from cold as other injuries Let her put small Rags behind the Ears to dry up the filth which usually is there ingendred this done let her put other rags as well upon the Breast as in the folds of the Arm-pits and Groyns and so swathe it having wrapped it up in beds and warm blankets It is not necessary to give a particular direction how this ought to be done because it is so common that there is scarce a Woman but knowes it but wee 'l only say in general that a Child must not be swathed too-strait in his Blankets especially about the Breast and Stomach that so he may breath the freelier and not be forced to vomit up the Milk he sucks because the Stomach cannot be sufficiently extended to contain it and such a practice may possibly in time converting this vomiting into an habit prove a very great prejudice to the Child Wherefore to avoid it let his Arms and Legs be wrapped in his bed and stretched strait out and swathed to keep them so viz. his Arms along his sides and his Legs equally both together with a little of the bed between them that so they may not be galled by rubbing one another after all this the Head must be kept steady and strait with a stay fastned on each side the Blancket and then wrap the Child up in Mantles or Blankets to keep it warm He must be thus swaddled to give his little body a strait Figure which is most decent and convenient for a Man and to accustom him to keep upon the Feet for else he would go upon all four as most other Animals do Besides all these Excrements mentioned the Child hath yet a certain clammy Phlegme remaining in its Stomach which he pukes up some few daies after he is born to remedy this you must give the Child a small Spoonful of sugared Wine twice or thrice the first day together making him to swallow it and by no means give it suck until it be most part evacuated or digested and consumed by the Stomach for fear lest the Milk mixing with this viscous humour should corrupt as it would do if you gave it presently suck some gives them for this purpose a little Oyl of sweet Almonds drawn without fire and a little Sugar-candy The Jews are accustomed to give their Children a little Butter and Honey which doth almost produce the same effect and this they do to follow what is said in the 7th Chap. of Isaiah the 14 and 15 Verses Behold a Virgin shall conceive bear a Son and shall call his name Emanuel Butter Honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the Evil and chuse the Good But Wine is much better because it doth better cut and loosen this Phlegme and helps to concoct and digest that which remains and the Sugar sweetens its Acrimony and helps to purge it away Now having given it this Medicine lay it quietly to rest on his side that the Excrements may be the better evacuated and cast forth at the Mouth for if the Child lyes on the back it would be in danger that remaining in its Mouth a part of it would fall upon his Breast which might choak him or at least very much offend him Let us now see how he must be fed and ordered hereafter CHAP. XVIII Of Dieting and Ordering a new-born Babe A Child which during its stay in the Mothers Belly had no other nourishment but the blood it receives by the Umbilical Vessels hath for want of that after its Birth need to take some by the Mouth and suck Breast-milk However it is not good to give it suck assoon as it is born to prevent that so sudden a change as well in respect of the difference of nourishment as the manner of receiving it lest it cause some alteration in its health First therefore empty the Phlegm out of his Stomach giving him as we have said the first three or four daies some Wine and Sugar to cut and loosen it to prevent the Milk he
shall take from corrupting being mixt with this viscous Phlegme wherefore it is best to stay until the next day before you give it suck that so it may be wholly evacuated or digested and consumed and then you may safely give him the Breast It were to be wished that the Mother should not give it suck until the eighth day of her Child-bed at soonest if not three Weeks or a Month that so all the humours of her Body being well tempered and having recovered the agitation they received in the Travail as also their Superfluities having been wholly purged by means of the Lochia her Milk be thereby so much the more purified besides this the small holes of the Nipples not yet being sufficiently opened a new-born Babe cannot ordinarily at first easily draw her Breasts during that time therefore let a Woman suck her But often poor people cannot observe so many Precautions and such Mothers are obliged to give their Children suck from the first day and likewise others will not suffer any but themselves to do it in this case let their Breasts be a little drawn by some old persons or some lusty sucking Child or they may draw them themselves with a Glass figured like that in the beginning of the 15th Chap. and afterwards they may give their Children suck when the Milk is a little brought down let them continue to do thus 'till the Milk be easy for the new-born Child to draw There are some who believe that the Milk of a Woman new-laid is better at the beginning than when it is purified and that it opens the Belly and purgeth the Moeconion from the Guts but the gripes which this overheated and foul Milk also causeth in him is much more prejudicial than the good it otherwise doth wherefore it is best not to give it such new-milk if possible As to the fittest time then of giving the Breast to the new-born Babe it must not be till after the first day for the reasons above given and to make him take it because there are some that will not in three or four daies the Nurse must milk a little into his Mouth and upon his Lips that so he may by degrees taste it then let her put the Nipple dropping into its Mouth and squeeze her Breast with her Hand when he hath fastened that the Milk may come down the easier and that the Infant who hath yet but small strength may not take too much pains to draw and suck it doing thus dy degrees until he is well accustomed to suck If the Nurse hath much Milk she must not give the Child any thing else at least the first two Months Beasts do shew us that Milk alone is sufficient to nourish an Infant since that they do suckle five or six of their young ones and sometimes more without their taking any other food for a long time after As to the quantity of Milk a Child ought to suck it must be proportionable to his Age and Strength in the beginning he must not have too much nor too often that his Stomach not yet accustomed to concoct it may the better digest it afterwards let it daily by little and little be augmented until he may take his fill As to the time and hour it needs no limits for it may be at any time night or day when he hath a mind but let him have it rather little and often than too-much at a time that his little Stomach may the better concoct and digest it without Vomiting as it often doth when it cannot easily contain it After the Child hath suck'd Milk alone for two or three Months more or less according as one finds he needs stronger nourishment give him then Pap made of Flower and Milk though but little at first and not too thick lest his Stomach be soon overcharged by not being used to it or that it may be of easier digestion put the Meal in an earthen Pan into an Oven assoon as the bread is drawn stirring it often to dry it equally Pap made of this Flower besides that it is sooner concocted is much better than the ordinary which is heavier clammier and not so easy of digestion for being made with raw Flower 't is very difficult to boil it well without consuming the best part of the Milk leaving only the grossest part behind and losing by the long boiling both its goodness and taste When the Child hath taken Pap thus made which must be but once a day especially in the morning or twice at most the Nurse may give it a little suck to the end that being washed down into the Stomach the digestion may be the better and easier made There are many Women who give Pap to their Children assoon as they are born and Nurses who have little Milk ordinarily do so to hinder their crying as they will do when they are hungry but somtimes this only is enough to kill them because of the indigestion and obstruction it causeth which by reason of its gross and viscous consistence can hardly find passage through the Stomach and Guts which at the beginning are but weak and not sufficiently opened and dilated whereby there happens to the Children great oppressions and difficulty of Breathing Gripes Swellings pains of the Belly and often Death wherefore do not give it the Child 'till after the first or second Moneth at soonest and if you forbore it three or four whole Moneths he would thrive the better provided the Nurse wants no Milk When the Child hath sucked its fill let the Nurse lay it to rest and sleep not in the same Bed she lies in lest unawares she overlay it as I knew one that did and killed her Child whether wickedly to be freed from it or innocently she alone knoweth but to avoid this mischief let her lay it in a Cradle close by the Bed-side and put a Mantle over the head of the Cradle to prevent the falling of dust on its Face and that the Day-light Sun-shine Candle or Fire in the Chamber may not offend it Lay him to sleep upon his Back with his Head a little raised upon a Pillow and to make him sleep the sooner let the Nurse rock him gently with an equal motion without too-great shaking lest that hindering the digestion of the Milk in his Stomach provoke him to vomit it up just as persons do that are at Sea not because of the scent of the Salt-water but the shaking and tossing of the Ship wherein they are and as it happens to many Women only by riding in a Coach when they are not used to it But that you may not be forced thus to rock a Child every time you would have him sleep it is good not to use him to it at first but let his sleep come naturally of it self There needs no certain limited time for his rest for he may sleep at any time night or day when he hath a mind to it and ordinarily the better he is the more
diligent care reduced to their natural state now amongst other things endeavour to prevent the Childs squinting growing awry crooked or lame and to redress any of these whatsoever as much as possible To prevent its Squinting chuse a Nurse whose sight is stable and right lest by her ill example he gets an ill habit and as we have said elsewhere let the Cradle be ever so placed that being laid in it he may alwaies see the light directly before him either of day candle or fire lest by being on one side he come to turn continually his Eyes that way whereby he will be in great danger of growing asquint Paulus Aeginetus and Pareus also would have a squint-eyed Infant 's sight redressed by putting a Mask upon his Face with only two small holes right against the Eyes to see through which will cause him perceiving no light but through those holes to hold his Eyes ever that way by means whereof they will be established in a right scituation and by degrees quit the ill habit they had gotten of looking aside This counsel seems good in appearance but I believe it will be very inconvenient for a Child to follow it besides that the least removing of the Mask on which side soever the little holes not corresponding perfectly in a direct line to the middle of the Eyes the sight will be thereby more perverted To prevent a Childs growing crooked awry or lame the Nurse must swaddle its Body in a strait scituation equally extending the Arms and Legs and swathing the Child sometimes one way sometimes another lest swadling it alwaies one way the parts should take an ill habit When he is laid in the Cradle he must be streight on his back and not bending and above all when the Nurse holds him in her Arms let her carry him sometimes upon one and sometimes upon the other for holding the Childs Legs alwaies on the same fashion it would be a great hazard if they did not at length grow crooked and it is often the only reason that so many Children have crooked Legs especially about the Knees and this few Nurses take notice of which notwithstanding is of great consequence When these parts have an evil conformation in their Figure they must be helpt with Swathes and Boulsters conveniently placed to keep the parts in a good posture whiles the Child is in swadling Clothes afterwards being grown a little bigger one may use little leather Boots somewhat stiff with which the Legs must be straitned and if the Foot be only awry Shoes underlaid of one side higher than the other will serve the turn When the Breast or Back-bone are in fault it must be helped if possible or at least hindered from growing worse and the fault may be hid by ordering the Childs clothes with Past-board Whale-bone and Tinne placed where the Chirurgeon shall think fit to reduce the mishapen part to a better Figure Having hitherto mentioned the most ordinary Diseases befalling little Infants 't is not necessary here to make a larger description of them for as for those that we have not treated of since they may indifferently happen to all sorts of ages they have nothing peculiar in respect of Children as to the knowledg or cure of them but only for the tenderness and delicacy of their Body There now remains only for to finish our undertaking that we give necessary directions in the choice of a good Nurse CHAP. XXXIV Of the requisites and necessary conditions in the choice of a good Nurse THe first and principal of all the qualities in a good Nurse is that she be the own Mother of the Child as well because of the mutual agreement of their tempers as that having much more love for it she will be much more careful than an hired Nurse who ordinarily loves her Nurse-child but with a feined and seeming love having no other end or foundation but the hope of her recompence she expects for her pains by a mercenary hire Wherefore the true Mother though not the best Nurse should ever be preferred before a Stranger But because there are several that either will not or cannot suckle their own Children whether it be to preserve their beauty as all persons of quality and most of the Citizens do or that their Husbands will not suffer them nor be troubled with such a noise or that being ill or indisposed they cannot there is then an obligation to provide another Nurse which should be chosen as convenient for the Child as may be Now even as we see Trees though of the same kind growing in the same place being afterwards transplanted into another soil produce fruits of a different taste by reason of the nourishment they draw thence Even so the health of Children and sometimes their manners depends on the nourishment they receive at the beginning for as to the health of the Body 't is well known it answers the Humours that all the parts are nourished and maintained with which Humours ever retain the nature of the food whereof they are engendred As for the Manners they ordinarily follow the Temperament which also proceeds from the quality of the Humours and the Humours from the Food By this consequence as the Nurse is so will the Child be by means of the nourishment which it draweth from her and in sucking her it will draw in both the vices of her Body and Mind This appears very easily in Animals that suck a strange Dam for they alwaies partake something of the creature they suck being accordingly either of a mild or fiercer nature or of a stronger or weaker Body which may be noted in the example of young Lions tamed by sucking a domestick Animal as a Cow Asse or Goat and on the contrary a Dog will become more furious or fierce if it sucks a Wolf The necessary conditions in a good Nurse are usually taken from her Age the time and manner of her Labour the good constitution of all the parts of her Body and particularly of her Breasts from the nature of her Milk and in fine from her good Manners As to her Age the most convenient is from twenty five to thirty five years of age because that during this space the Woman is most healthy strong and vigorous she is not fit before five and twenty because her Body not having yet acquired all its dimensions cannot be so robust nor after thirty five because not having Blood enough in so great abundance she cannot have Milk enough for the nourishment of the Child However some Women are indifferent good Nurses from twenty to fourty but very rarely before or after As to the time and manner of her Labour it must be at least a Month or six Weeks after it that so her Milk may be throughly purified because at that time her Body is usually cleansed of the Lochia which follows Labour and the Humours are no longer disturbed with it nor must it be above five or six Months that
and make you yet better able to conceive these things than I have here explained them and that all may be for ever to his greater glory The End of the Third and last Book A Table of the Chapters The First Book OF the Diseases and different dispositions of Women with Child from the time of Conception to the full time of Reckoning pag. 1. Chap. 1. Of the Signs of Sterility and Fertility in Women p. 2 Chap. 2. Of Conception and the conditions necessary to it 12 Chap. 3. Of the signs of Conception 17 Chap. 4. What Generation is and what is necessary to it 24 Chap. 5. Of Big-bellies and their differences with the signs of the true and false great Bellies 31 Chap. 6. How to know the different times of Pregnancy 35 Chap. 7. Whether it may be known that a Woman is with Child of a Boy or Girl and the signs whether she shall have many Children 43 Chap. 8. Of Supersoetation 49 Chap. 9. Of a Mole and its signs 53 Chap. 10. In what manner a Woman ought to govern her self during her being with Child when it is not accompanied with other considerable accidents to endeavour to prevent them 56 Chap. 11. The means to prevent the many accidents which happen to a Woman during the whole time of her being with Child and first of Vomitings 68 Chap. 12. Of the pains of the Back Reins and Hips 74 Chap. 13. Of the pains of the Breasts 76 Chap. 14. Of Incontinence and difficulty of Urine 78 Chap. 15. Of the Cough and difficulty of of Breathing 81 Chap. 16. Of the swelling and pains of the Thighs and Legs 85 Chap. 17. Of the Hemorrhoides 89 Chap. 18. Of the several Fluxes which may happen to a Woman with Child and first of a Loosnesse 92 Chap. 19. Of a Menstruous Flux 98 Chap. 20. Of Floodings 102 Chap. 21. Of the weight bearing down or relaxation of the Matrix which hinders a Womon with Child in her walking and the freedom of coition 116 Chap. 22. Of the Dropsie of the Womb and oedemitous tumours of the lips of the Privities 119 Chap. 23. Of the Venereal Disease in Women with Child 123 Chap. 24. Of Abortion and its Causes 129. The Second Book Of Labours natural and unnatural with the way how to help Women in the first and the right means of remedying the rest p. 137 Chap. 1. What Labour is and the difference of it together with its different termes 138 Chap. 2. The Signs which precede and accompany as well a natural as an unnatural Delivery 146 Chap. 3. Of the Membranes of the Infant and the Waters 151 Chap. 4. Of the Placenta and Umbilical Vessels of the Child 161 Chap. 5. Of the several natural scituations of an Infant in the Mothers Womb according to the different times of Pregnancy 170 Chap. 6. What a Woman ought to do when she is gone her full time 174 Chap. 7. What is to be done when the Woman first falls in Labour 177 Chap. 8. Of the natural Labour and the meanes of helping Women when there is one or more Children 184 Chap. 9. How to fetch the After-burthen 189 Chap. 10. Of laborious and d fficult Labours and those against Nature their Causes and Differences together with the means to remedy them 192 Chap. 11. Of unnatural Labours where manual Operation is absolutely necessary what Observations the Chirurgeon must make before he goeth about it 201 Chap. 12. The signs to know whether the Child be alive or dead 208 Chap. 13. How to fetch the After-burthen when the String is broke 211 Chap. 14. To deliver a Woman when the Child comes Footling 218 Chap. 15. How to fetch the Head when separated from the Body and it remains behind in the Womb 222 Chap. 16. How to help a Woman in her Labour when the Head of the Child thrusts the Neck of the Womb forth before it 225 Chap. 17. How to fetch a Child when coming right it cannot pass either because it is too big or the Passages cannot sufficiently be dilated 227 Chap. 18. How to deliver a Woman when the Child presents the side of the Head to the Birth or the Face 229 Chap. 19. How to deliver a Woman when the Head of the Child is born and the Womb closeth about the Neck 231 Chap. 20. To deliver a Woman when the Child comes with one or both Hands together with the Head 232 Chap. 21. How to deliver a Woman when the Child presents one or both Hands foremost without any other part 237 Chap. 22. How to deliver a Woman when Hands and Feet come together 241 Chap. 23. How to deliver a Woman when the Child comes with the Knees 244 Chap. 24. Of a Delivery when the Child comes with Shoulder Back or Breast 245 Chap. 25. Of those Births wherein the Infant presents the Belly Breast or Side 248 Chap. 26. Of Labours wherein several Children present together in the different Postures abovenamed 250 Chap. 27. Of a Labour when the Navel-string comes first 255 Chap. 28. Of a Labour wherein the Burthen either first offers or first comes quite forth 258 Chap. 29. Of Floodings and Convulsions in Labour 261 Chap. 30. How to deliver a Woman when the Child is Hydropical or Monstrous 262 Chap. 31. Of delivering a dead Child 265 Chap. 32. Of extracting of a Mola and a false Conception 271 Chap. 33. Of the Caesarean Section 275. The Third Book Treating of Women in Child-bed and of the Diseases and Symptomes befalling them at that time Of Children new-born and their ordinary Distempers together with necessary directions for to chuse a Nurse Chap. 1. What is to be done to a new-laid Woman and naturally delivered 288 Chap. 2. Of convenient Remedies for the lower parts of the Belly and Breasts of a Woman newly delivered 290 Chap. 3. What Diet a Woman in Child-bed ought to observe during the whole time after lying in when it is accompanied with no ill accident 296 Chap. 4. How to drive back the Milk in those Women who are not willing to give suck 300 Chap. 5. Of several Diseases and Symptomes which happen to a Woman newly laid and first of Flooding 302 Chap. 6. Of the bearing down and falling out of the Womb and Fundament of a Woman new-laid 307 Chap. 7. Of Bruises and Rents on the outward parts of the Womb caused by Labour 314 Chap. 8. Of After-pains which happen to a Woman new-laid and of their several Causes 317 Chap. 9. Of the Lochia which flow from the Womb in Child-bed whence they come and the signs when they are good or bad 322 Chap. 10. Of the suppression of the Lochia and the accidents which follow thereupon 330 Chap. 11. Of the Inflammation which happens to the Womb after Delivery 334 Chap. 12. Of the Inflammation of the Breasts of the new-laid Woman 338 Chap. 13. Of the clodding and curdling of the Milk 342 Chap. 14. Of Imposthumes of the Breasts of Women new-laid 345 Chap. 15. Of excoriation and loss of the Nipples 349 Chap. 16. Of tending Children new-born and first how to bind cut and swath the Navel-string 353 Chap. 17. How a new-born Babe must be washed and cleansed from the Excrements as also how it ought to be wrapped up in Swadling-Cloaths 358 Chap. 18. Of Dieting and Ordering a new-born Babe 364 Chap. 19. Of the Indispositions of little Children and first of their weakness 372 Chap. 20. Of Contusions or bruises of the Head and other parts of toe Body of a new-born Babe 376 Chap. 21. Of the Mould of the Head and of the Sutures being too open 381 Chap. 22. Of a new-born Babe's Fundament being closed up 385 Chap. 23. Of cutting the Tongue when Tongue-ty'd 386 Chap. 24. Of Gripes and Pains of the Belly of a young Child 388 Chap. 25. Of the Ulceration or shooting forth or rupture of the Navel of a young Infant 391 Chap. 26. Of the Smartings Redness and Inflamation of the Groin Buttocks and Thighs of the Infant 395 Chap. 27. Of the Ulcers or Thrush of the Mouth of an Infant 397 Chap. 28. Of the pain in breeding the Teeth 400 Chap. 29. Of the Loosness of an Infant 404 Chap. 30. Of Vomitings in Children 406 Chap. 31. Of a Hernia or Rupture in Children 408 Chap. 32. Of the Scabs which are upon the Head and Face of young Children 412 Chap. 33. Of the Small Pox and Meazels in Infants 414 Chap. 34. How to cure the Venereal Lues in Infants 422 Chap. 35. How to hinder Childrens growing squint-eyed 428. Chap. 36. Of the requisites and necessary conditions in the choice of a good Nurse 430. FINIS
A Vomitu singultus malum Some advise that after all these things have been tryed in vain great Cupping-glasses should be applyed to the region of the stomach to keep it firm in its place but I believe it to be a Chip in Pottage which doth neither good nor hurt because the stomach is loose and no wayes adhering to this upper part of the belly but since these Vomitings cool it and daily weaken it I should advise a big-bellied Woman to wear in the Winter upon its region a good piece of warm Serge or soft Lambskin which would a little warm those parts and help digestion which is alwayes weak The Italians have a Custom which is not bad they wear to the same purpose a fair piece of Stuff under their Doublets upon the region their stomach of which they are so careful that if they should leave it off but two dayes in the Winter nay even in the Summer they would think themselves sick and they are so grear lovers and so curious of it that this Stomacher is often their greatest bravery enriching it with Gold and Silver Embroidery and Ribonds of very fine colours We have discoursed enough about Vomiting caused by Pregnancy wherefore we will pass forwards to some other Accidents CHAP. XII Of Pains of the Back Reins and Hips ALL these Accidents are but the effects of the dilatation of the Womb and the compression it makes by its greatness and weight on the neighbouring parts which are much greater the first time the Woman is with Child than afterwards when the Womb only receives the same dimensions it had already before but when it hath not yet been dilated it is more sensible of this extention and the ligaments which hold it in its natural scituation suffer a greater stress in the first pregnancy having never before been forced to lengthen to answer the extent of the Womb than in the following Great-Bellies to which it obeys more easily the second time These ligaments as well round as large cause these pains being much straitned and drawn by the bigness and weight of the Womb which contains a Child to wit the large ones those of the back and loyns which answer to the reins because these two ligaments are strongly fastened towards these parts the round ones cause those of the groins share and thighs where they terminate They are sometimes so violently extended by this extream bigness and great weight of the Womb especially of the first Child as I said before that they are lacerated and torn being not able to yeeld or stretch any farther and chiefly if the Woman in that condition makes a false step which causeth in them almost insupportable pains and other worse accidents as it happened two years since to a near Kinswoman of mine who being six months gone or thereabouts of her first Child felt the like after she had stumbled and perceived at the same moment something crack in her Belly towards the region of the Reins and Loins which was one of these large ligaments with a kind of noise by the sudden jolt she received At the same instant she felt extream pains in her Reins and Loins and all the one side of her Belly which made her immediately vomit very often with much violence and the next day she was taken with a great continued Feaver which lasted seven or eight dayes without being able to sleep or rest one hour all which time she continued to vomit all she took with a strong and frequent Hiccough having also great pains which seemed as if they would hasten her Labour which for her sake I was very apprehensive of as also of her death but with the help of God having put her immediatly to bed where she continued twelve whole dayes in which time I bled her thrice in her Arm on several dayes and made her take at two several times a small grain of Laudanum in the yolk of an Egg a little to ease her violent pains by giving her rest alwayes ordering her from time to time good strengthning Cordials all these symptoms which at first seemed desperate ceased by little and little and she went on her full time when she was happily delivered of a Son which lived fifteen months notwithstanding all those mischievous accidents she met with which were enough to have kill'd half a dozen others but God sometimes is pleased to work Miracles by Nature aided with Remedies fit for the purpose as well as by his Grace This History informs us I think very well how these Pains of the Loins Back and Reins come and the pregnant Womb causeth also those of the Hips by its greatness and weight in compressing them and bearing too much upon them There is nothing will ease all these sorts of Pains better than to rest in Bed and bleed in the Arm if there were any great extension or rupture of any ligament of the Womb as was in the case recited And when the Womb bears and weighs too much upon the Hips if the Woman cannot keep her Bed she ought to support and comfort her Belly with a broad Swaith well fitted for the purpose and to bear it as patiently as she can to the time of her Labour which will free her from all these accidents CHAP. XIII Of the Pains of the Breasts AS soon as a Woman conceives her Tearms wanting the ordinary evacuation the passages being stopt and the Woman breeding daily blood there is a necessity she consuming but little whilst young with Child the fruit being yet very little also that the vessels which are too full should disgorge part as it doth upon the parts disposed to receive it such as are the kernels and glandulous parts especially the Breasts which imbibe and receive a great quantity of it which filling and extreamly swelling them causeth this Pain in them which Women feel when they are with Child and happens also to those whose Terms are only suppressed In the beginning we ought to leave the whole work to Nature and the Woman must only have a care she receives no blows upon those parts which are then very tender nor be straight laced with her Bodies or other stiff Wastcoats that might bruise and wound her upon which follow Inflamations and Abscess But after the third or fourth month of going with Child the blood being still sent to the Breasts in great abundance 't is much better to evacuate it by bleeding in th' Arm than to turn or drive it back on some other part of the Body by repercussive or astringent Medicines because it cannot flow to any part where it can do less hurt than in these Wherefore I should rather prefer the Woman being very plethorick to evacuation by bleeding in the Arm than any other way because of shunning thereby the Accident of which speaks Hippocrates in his 40th Aphorism of the 5th Book Quibus Mulierilbus in Mammas sanguis colligitur furorem significat If the blood be carried in too great abundance to
brain upon the sharp Artery and the Lungs and sometimes from a blood of the like nature which flowes from the whole habit towards the Breast upon the suppression of the Terms as also from having breathed in too cold an air which irritates the parts and excites them to move in that manner but being begun by these causes it is very often augmented by the compression the Womb of the pregnant Woman makes upon the Diaphragma which cannot have its free liberty in those that bear their Children high because by its great extension it bears up almost all the parts of the lower Belly towards the Breast and principally the Stomach and Liver forcing them against the Diaphragma which is thereby compressed as we have said This may be remedied by the Womans observing a good diet something cooling if sharp humours cause it avoiding all meats salted spiced or hautgoust she must forbear sharp things as Orenges Citrons Pomgranats Vinegar and others of the like nature because they yet more and more by their pricking quality excite the Cough but she may make use of Lenitives and such as sweeten the passages as juice of Liquorish Sugarcandy and Syrup of Violets or Mulberries of which they may mix some spoonfuls with a Ptysan made with Jujubes Sebestens Raisons of the Sun and French Barly alwayes adding a little Liquorish to it It may not likewise be amiss to turn the abundance of these humours and draw them downwards by some gentle Clyster If this regimen prevails nothing and that there appears signs of fulness of blood it will be necessary at whatsoever time it be of her going with Child to bleed her in the Arm and though this remedy be not usually practised when they are young with Child yet in this case it must for a continual Cough is much more dangerous than moderate bleeding If the Cough comes of cold let her be kept in a close Chamber with a Napkin three or four times double about her Neck or a Lambskin that it may keep her warm and going to bed let her take three or four spoonfuls of Syrup of burnt Wine which is very pectoral and causeth a good digestion if it be made in the following manner Take half a pint of good Wine two drams of good Cinamon bruised half a dozen Cloves with four ounces of Sugar put them together in a Silver Porenger and cause them to boil upon a Chafindish of coals burn it and afterwards boil it to the consistence of a Syrup which let the Woman take at night an hour or two after a light supper It must alwayes be observed from whatsoever cause the Cough proceeds that the Woman go loose in her clothes for being strait-laced the Womb is the more thrust down by the endeavours the Cough causeth it to make And because sleep is very proper to stay defluxions it may be procured if there be occasion by some small Julip using by no means the strong Stupesactives which are dangerous to a Woman with Child if there be not a very great neceâ—sity as there was in my Kinswoman who had furious accidents by the hurt she got from the stumble of which I gave you an account in the 12th Chapter of this Book There are Women that carry their Children so high especially their first because the large Ligament which support the Womb are not yet relaxed that they think them to be in their Breast which causeth so great an oppression and difficulty of breathing that they fear they shall be choaked assoon as they have either eaten a little walked or gone up a pair of Stairs which comes as I said before by reason the Womb is much enlarged and greatly presseth the Stomach and the Liver which forces the Diaphragma upwards leaving it no free liberty to be moved whence is caused this difficulty of breathing Sometimes also their Lungs are so full of blood which is driven thither from all parts of the body when with Child that it hardly leaves passage for the air if so they will breath more easily as soon as a little blood is taken from the Arm because by that means the Lungs are emptied and have more liberty to be moved But if this difficulty of breathing comes from a compression made by the Womb against the Diaphragma in forcing the parts of the lower Belly against it the best remedy is to wear their clothes loose about them and rather eat little and often than to fill their Bellies too much at once because it is thereby more pressed against the Diaphragma and so augments the accident Neither must she use any viscous or windy meats as Pease c. but only such as are of an easie digestion she must all the while avoid any occasion of grief and fear because these two passions drive the blood to the Heart and Lungs in too great abundance so that the Woman who can hardly already breath and hath her Breast stuft will be in danger of being suffocated for the abundance of blood filling at once and above measure the Ventricles of the Heart hinders its motion without which one cannot live CHAP. XVI Of the swelling and pains of the Thighs and Legs IT is very easie for them that are acquainted with the Circulation of the Blood to conceive the reason why many big-bellied Women have their Legs and Thighs swelled and pained and sometimes full of red spots from the swelling of the Veins all along the inside of them which extreamly hinders their going Many think which is in some measure true that the Woman having more Blood than the Infant needs for its nourishment Nature by vertue of the expulsive faculty of the upper parts which are alwayes most strong drives the superfluity of it upon the lower which are the Legs as most feeble and aptest to receive it because of their scituation to explain it thus is something to purpose but I think the Circulation of the Blood will teach us better how this comes than that we need to have recourse to this expulsive faculty It is then thus according to my opinion Following the ordinary motion of the Blood the Crural and the Saphene Veins receive into them what is brought to the lower parts by the Arteries and convey it along the Leg and Thigh ascending still by the Iliacks towards the Heart which are emptied into the Cava to ascend again by it to the Heart and so successively This being so de facto as need not be doubted since it is a verity founded upon experience when a Woman is with Child and chiefly towards the last months and the Womb is much extended and possesseth a great part of the lower Belly then it begins to press the Iliack Veins by its greatness and heaviness and so hinders the Blood from following its course and having its motion so free as before she was with Child which being so the inferior parts which are the Crural and Saphene Veins become swelled much in the same manner as the
lethale The particular causes of Abortion are all the accidents mentioned in the preceding chapters as violent and frequent vomitings because there is not only want of sufficient nourishment for Mother and Child when the food is so continually vomited up but also great reachings and endeavours by which the Womb being often compressed and as it were shaken is at last constrained to discharge it self before its time Pains of the Reins great Cholicks and Gripes may likewise cause the same accident as the Strangury also for there are then made strong compressions of the Belly every moment to expel the Urine Great Coughs by their frequent agitation suddenly thrusting the Diaphragma with force downwards give also violent shocks to the Womb. Great Loosnesses endanger a Woman to miscarry according to the 34th Aphorism of the 5th Book and sooner if a Tenesmus follows which is great needings whereby the right Gut seeks to expel the sharp humours that irritate and provoke it This makes us take notice of the 27th of the 7th Book Mulieri utero gerenti si tensio supervenerit facit abortum for in this case the Womb which is scituated upon the Rectum receives a great commotion by its continual needings If a Womans Courses flow immoderatly it is impossible her Fruit can be in health as it is in the 60th Aphorism of the 5th Book for besides that the Infant is not sufficiently nourished the Womb also by being too much moistened is easily relaxed and opened Letting Blood immoderately doth the same for the same reason especially if the Child be great according to the 31th Chapter of the same Book But one of the worst accidents which cause Abortion is that Flooding which proceeds from the separation of the After-birth from the Womb of which we treated in the 20th Chapter of this first Book The Dropsie of the Womb hinders the Child from growing to perfection for the great abundance of Water extinguisheth the natural heat which is already at that time much debilitated and the Pox in the Mother infects the Child and often Kills it in her Belly as we have demonstrated in the preceeding Chapter and whatever very much agitates and shakes the big-bellied Womans body is capable of making her miscarry as great labour strong contorsions or violent motions of what manner soever in falling leaping dancing and running or riding going in a Coach or Waggon crying aloud or laughing heartily or any blow received on the Belly because that by such agitations and commotions the ligaments of the Womb are relaxed yea and sometimes broken as also the After-birth and Membranes of the Faetus are loosned A great noise suddenly and unexpectedly heard may make some Women miscarry as the noise of a Cannon and chiefly Thunderclaps and yet more easily if to this noise be added the fear they usually have of such things which happens rather to the young than elderly Women because their bodies being more tender and transpirable the air which is strongly forced by that noise being introduced into all her pores offers a great violence by its impulsion on the Womb and on the Child within it which the elder being more robust thicker and closer resist with more ease Great watchings causing a dissipation of the Womans strength and much fasting for want of food hinders the Infant from acquiring its perfection fetid and stinking smells do much contribute to abortion and amongst others the smell of Charcoal as appears by the History recited in the 10th Chapter of this Book The indispositions of the Womb produce the same effect as when it is callous or so small or so much compressed by the Epiploon that it cannot be extended as it ought to be sufficient to contain the Child and Burthen with ease together with the Waters which may likewise happen if the Woman be too strait laced or keeps in her Belly with strong and stiff Busks for to be well shap'd or by this subtilty to conceal a great-belly as some do frequent copulation especially towards the end of her reckoning may effect the same thing because then the Womb being very full bears much downwards and its inward orifice being very near is subjected to violence If a Woman miscarries without any of these accidents and that one desires to know the cause of it Hippocrates explains it in his 46th Aphorism of the 5th Book where he saith Quae veró mediocriter corpulentae abortum faciunt secundo mense aut tertio fine occasione manifesta iis acetabula uteri mucoris sunt plena nec prae pondere faetum continere possunt sed abrumpuntur any Woman indifferently corpulent that miscarries the second or third month without manifest or apparent cause it is because the Cotylâ—dons of the Womb which are the inward closures of its vessels are full of viscous filth by reason of which they cannot retain the weight of the Faetus which is loosened from it To this accident phlegmatick Women are very subject and those who have the Whites exceedingly which by their continual affluence moisten and make the Womb within so slippery that the After-burthen cannot adhere to it which also relaxeth it and its inward orifice that the least occasion causeth abortion But if the passions of the body cause so much hurt to a big-bellied Woman those of the mind do no Iess and specially Choler which agitates inflames disperses and troubles all the Spirits and mass of Blood by which the Child suffers extreamly because of the tenderness of its body but above all sudden fear and the relation of bad news are capable to make the Women miscarry at that instant as it happened to the Mother of that Cousin of mine whom I mentioned in the 10th Chapter of this first Book which likewise the other passions may cause according as they are more or less violent but not so easily There are yet other causes of miscarrying which may be said to proceed from the Infant as when they are monstrous because they do not then follow the rule of Nature as likewise when they have an unnatural scituation which makes them torment themselves because of their incommodity and they oblige the Womb to expel them not being able to endure the pains they cause which it yet does when it is so great that it cannot contain it to the full time nor the Mother furnish it with sufficient nourishment If we find one or more of the above specified accidents and that the Woman withall hath a great heaviness in her Belly so that it falls like a ball on her side when she turns and that there proceeds out of her Womb stinking and cadaverous humors it is a sign she will soon miscarry of a dead Child moreover her Breasts will confirm it if having been hard and full in the beginning they become afterwards empty and flabby as is specified in the 37th Aphorism of the 5th Book and the 38th of the same Book saith That if one of a big-bellied Womans Breasts who hath
Hand that so he may have more liberty to introduce it into the Womb and sliding it then along the Childs body either by the Belly or side as he finds it easiest he shall fetch the Feet and turning it bring them to the Passage and so deliver the Woman as is already directed If it be the Back which presents to the Birth it is also impossible to be born in that Posture what Pains soever the Mother endures and besides the Child having the Body folded inwards and almost double his Breast and Belly are so prest together that he usually wants little of being suffocated to avoid which the Chirurgeon must quickly slide up his Hand along the Back towards the inferiour parts until he meets the Feet for to bring it forth the same way as if it came Footling But when the Child comes with the Breech if it be small and the Mother big having the Passages very large he may sometimes with a little help be born so for though he comes double yet the Thighs being folded towards the Belly which is soft and gives way it passeth without much trouble Assoon as the Chirurgeon finds the Child to come with the Buttocks foremost he must not permit it to engage lower in the Passage for it will not come so unless it be very small and the Passage very large as we have already said This being then in good time perceived he must if he can thrust back the Breech and sliding up his Hand along the Thighs to the Legs and Feet of the Child he must bring them gently one after the other forth of the Womb by folding stretching wagging and drawing them gently towards the side being careful not to winde them too much or cause a dislocation and then let him draw forth the rest of the Body as if it came with the Feet foremost I have said that the Chirurgeon perceiving the Child to come with the Breech foremost ought to put it back if he can for sometimes he will be advanced so forward in the Passage that you may sooner destroy both Mother and Child than reduce it back when once strongly engaged When this happens he cannot hinder it from coming in this Posture in which his Belly is so pressed that he often voids the * Childs ordure meconium by his Fundament However he may much help this Birth by sliding up one or two Fingers of each Hand on each side of the Buttocks for to introduce them into the Groins and having crooked them inward he must draw the Breech just out to the Thighs then by drawing and wagging it from side to side he will disengage them from the Passage as also the Feet and Legs one after the other being careful of dislocating any part and then he may extract the rest as before when coming with the Feet The first Woman I ever layd was of a Child which I drew †This way ought to be avoided if possible thus forth with the Buttocks foremost being constrained to it because assoon as ever the Waters broke which happened before I could arrive to hinder it they were so forward that it was impossible to do it otherwise which I performed very well and in short time without prejudice to the Mother or Child doing as I have directed CHAP. XXV Of those Births wherein the Infant presents Belly Breast or Side THe Back-bone may easily be bent and turned forwards a little but by no means backwards without excessive violence Wherefore the worst and most dangerous Figure that a Child can offer in the Womb to the Birth is the Belly or the Breast for then its Body is constrained to bend backwards and whatever Throws or endeavours the Woman makes to bring it forth it will never be accomplished for she will sooner perish with her Child than ever advance it in this posture into the Passage wherefore it is in great danger if not timely succoured And in case it should escape which would be very strange it would be a long while after its birth weak in the Back But that which augments the danger much more is that for the most part the Navel-string comes forth when the Child comes with the Belly Therefore assoon as it is discovered to be so the Chirurgeon must apply the sole remedy of drawing it forth by the Feet as speedily as may be in the following manner Chap XXV lib. 2. page 248. When a Child comes with Breast or Belly the Chirurgeon must always proceed after the same manner in both inasmuch as they require the same circumstances An Infant may likewise come with the Side which way it is as impossible to pass as the two former but it is not so much tormented nor is this scituation so cruel for it may remain in it a longer time without dying than in the two former wherein it is much more racked than in this in which the Body may be bended forward and not backward as in the other neither doth the Navel-string come forth so easy as when it comes with the Belly first In this as in the other two Births the Chirurgeon must draw the Child forth by the Feet on this fashion having placed the Woman as she ought to be he may push back a little with his hand the Infants body the better to introduce it which he may slide along the Thighs till he finds the Legs and Feet by which he must turn it and afterwards draw it forth just in the same manner as before with the same observations Nor ought he to amuse himself in any of these three Births for to place the Head right that it might come naturally because it is in great danger of dying in these unnatural Positions if not drawn forth with speed which can never be effected unless it be by finding the Feet as I have directed CHAP. XXVI Of Labours wherein several Children present together in the different Postures above named IF all the unnatural Figures and Scituations which we have hitherto described that a single Child may come in do cause those many difficulties and dangers mentioned surely the Labour wherein several together come in these bad scituations must be much more painful not only to the Mother and Children but to the Chirurgeon also for they are then so constrained and pressed that for the most part they trouble each other and hinder both their births besides the Womb is then so filled with them that the Chirurgeon can scarce introduce his Hand without much violence which he must do if they are to be turned or thrust back for to give them a better position than wherein they present Chap XXVI lib. 2. pag 250. Sometime since I delivered two Women within a Week one of the other both of Twins one of each being dead and the other living the living Child of the first Woman was born before the dead and the dead of the second was expelled before the living And the same thing happens every day in respect
Delivery but that so much time may not be lost before the Infant be fetcht which is then ever in great danger as also the flooding may be the sooner stopt which happens for the most part assoon as the Woman is delivered for which reasons it must be with all possible speed dispatched Sometimes notwithstanding this dangerous accident the Child may be born alive if timely succoured but it is then so weak that 't is hard to discover at first whether it be living or dead When it so happens the Midwives do ordinarily before they separate the Burthen put it into a skellet of hot Wine and imagine with no small Superstition that in case it comes to it self the vapours of the warm Wine was the cause of it being conveyed by means of the String into the Infants Belly and so giving it vigour but it is more credible that being almost suffocated for want of respiration assoon as it needed it it begins now by means of it to recover from that fainting but nevertheless there is no hurt in keeping the custome though superstitious since it can do no prejudice and may satisfie preoccupied spirits provided necessaries be not neglected in being blindly carried away with this conceipt CHAP. XXIX Of Floodings or Convulsions in Labour THe best expedient and safest remedy for Mother and Child in this case who are both in great danger is to deliver the Woman presently without any delay fetching the Child away by the Feet at what time soever of the Womans being with Child whether at full reckoning or no. I have at large directed in the 20th Chap. of the first Book speaking of Floodings what ought to be done in these Cases where I related the sad Story of one of my Sisters which I shall not again repeat being too sadly affected with it but refer the Reader to that Chapter for sufficient directions in these dangerous accidents CHAP. XXX How to deliver a Woman when the Child is Hydropical or Monstrous A Child may in the Womb have either the Dropsy of the Head called Hydrocephale or of the Breast or of the Belly And when these parts are so filled with Water as I have sometimes met with that they are much too big for the Passage through which the Child must issue then notwithstanding any Throws or Endeavors the Woman may attempt to bring it forth 't is impossible she should effect it without the help of Art as likewise when the Child is monstrous either by being only too big in the whole Body or in any particular part or by being joined to another Child If the Child be living that hath the Dropsy when the Woman is in Labour it must be destroyed to save the Mother by making a hole in either the Head Breast or Belly of it where the Waters are contained that being emptied by the apertion so made the Child may the easier be drawn forth or else he must necessarily dye in the Womb not being able to be born and remaining there will also kill the Mother wherefore to save her life the Infant must be by an * See the Preface indispensable necessity brought forth by Art since 't is impossible it should come of it self which may be done with a crooked Knife sharp at the very point like that marked C among the Instruments at the end of the Second Book the Chirurgeon proceeding in the following manner After â—â—at the Woman is placed conveniently for the Operation he must slide up his left Hand on the right side of the interiour part of the Infants Head if the Waters be continued therein which he will perceive by the extraordinary bigness and extent of it the Sutures much separated and the Bones of it far distant one from the other by reason of the distension made by the inclosed Waters of which being very certain let him slide with his right Hand along the inside of his left this crooked Knife taking care that the point of it in introducing it be alwaies towards his left Hand for fear of wounding the Womb and having conducted it close up to the Head against one of the Sutures let him turn the Knife towards it and make an apertion large enough to let out the Water and then it will be very easie to bring forth the Child forasmuch as the other parts are then usually small and much consumed If these Waters were contained in the Breast or Belly then the Childs Head being no bigger than ordinary may be born but the Body being exceedingly swelled with the Waters will stay behind as it happened to that Child that had a Dropsy of the Belly which I mentioned in the 19th Chap. of this Book to which I refer you because 't is much to this purpose The case being thus let the Chirurgeon slide up his left Hand as aforesaid and the instrument with the right just to the Breast or Belly for to make an Incision just as I did in the same case related in the said 19th Chap. for to let out the Waters after which he may with much ease finish the Operation You must know that 't is much more difficult to deliver a Monstrous Birth or two joined together than one that hath the Dropsy because the bigness of the Hydropick parts may be easily lessened by a single incision which is sufficient to let out the Waters which distend and then 't is easie to dispatch the rest But when a monstrous Child is to be extracted or a double one a single apertion is not enough but sometimes 't is necessary to take off whole members from those Bodies which makes the Operation much more painful and laborious and requires more time and skill to effect it in which case the left Hand must be introduced into the Womb and the sharp Knife of the right just to the parts that are to be divided and separated and there with all the care that may be the member of the monstrous Child must if possible be taken off just at the Joint and when there are two Children joined together the Separation must be made just in the place where they join and afterwards they may be delivered one after the other always taking them by the Feet and if it hath but one the same thing may be accomplished after having lessened the bigness of it by cutting off some one of the Members I have already shown in the 15th Chap. of this Book speaking of the extraction of a Childs Head left alone behind in the Womb of what fashion this Instrument ought to be that the Operation may be conveniently performed and that it should be as long as an ordinary Crochet for the more surety and facility because that holding the handle of it with the right Hand it may be thrust drawn sloaped and turned without pain to any side at pleasure and with the left which is within the Womb it may be guided for to cut and dismember more skilfully and easily those parts which must be
the impossibility of it There are others agin who shewing the scars of some abscess they have had in their Belly would perswade that a Child hath been taken out there to which purpose I will relate what I once saw my self concerning a big-bellyed Woman that was in the Hôstel de Dieu at Paris when I there practised Deliveries This Woman whether through cunning feigning to believe the thing or through ignorance really beleeving it did testify to all the Women who were then in the said Hôstel de Dieu as also to an infinite of other persons and amongst the rest to a good old Nun that governed all whom they called Mother Bouquet and at that time did preside in the Hall of Deliveries like another goddess Lucina that she was very much afraid that they must open her side to deliver her as it had been two years before in all which time she had made the same relation to above a thousand several persons each of which it may be had again related it to as many more shewing to all of them a great Skar by which she said the Chirurgeons had drawn the Child out of her Belly Wherefore she prayed Mother Bouquet to recommend her to me desiring rather to be delivered by me who was a Chirurgeon because she might be more safely helped in such a business than by a Midwife This good Nun giving me this account which she verily beleeved according to the relation I told her that not having faith enough to imagine it I could not believe the Caesarean Section had been made on that Woman as she had perswaded her If you do not beleeve it replied she I will fetch her presently to you and she her self shall tell you every circumstance And immediatly she caused her to be fetch'd who told me the same she had told her but having particularly examined her from what part the Child was so drawn forth and whether she felt any great pain in the Operation She answered me None because she was then senseless and remained so five or six days after I asked her then how she was certain that the Child was brought away by incision in her Belly being she was not at that time sensible She answered the Chirurgeons assured her it was so and at the same time she shewed me a great Skar scituated just on the right side of her Breast about the middle of the Ribs where she had a great abscess of which this Skar remained and when I had told her that the Breast was not the place whence a Child should be fetcht and that I had with my arguments convinced her of the impossibility of what she had believed and made others to believe as the women of the Hostel de Dieu and Mother Bouquet also they began to be disabused and continued so when three days after this conference I had delivered her with the greatest facility although it was a very great Child which came quickly If one should examine well the beginning of all the Stories of this Operation strictly weighing them as I did upon this occasion they would be found to be meer fables and that that which Rousset reports of his Caesarean Labours is nothing but the ravings capriciousness and imposture of their Authors Now if because of all these reasons a Chirurgeon must never practise this cruel Operation whilst the Mother is alive although the Child be certainly so which for all that may somtimes he very doubtful I pray what infamy would it be for him if having so killed the Mother the Child should also be found dead after it was thought to be alive much more ought he to abstain from it when he is well assured it is dead wherefore he had better pull it in pieces and bits if it cannot be otherwise by the natural way than so to butcher the Mother for to have it whole and if the Womb were so little open that he could not have liberty to work there nor introduce any instrument into it he had better wait a little alwaies trying to dilate the Passages by Art as we have formerly directed than to cast her down almost in an instant with such a blow of despair as the making of this Caesarean Operation which for this reason is never to be undertaken till immediatly after the Mothers death when the Chirurgeon must be present for to act according to the following directions as well in hopes of finding the Child living as to obey an Ordinance which expresly forbids the burying a Woman with Child before it is taken out of her Belly To accomplish which as it ought to be when he perceives the Woman in the agony he must quickly make ready all things necessary for his work to lose no time because delay will certainly be the death of the Infant which else a few moments before might have been brought alive there are some that when the Woman is just a dying would have somewhat put between her Teeth to keep her Mouth open and likewise in the outward part of the Womb to the end the Infant receiving by this means some little air and refreshment may not be so soon suffocated but all this mystery will avail but little because the Child lives only by the Mothers blood whilst it is in the Womb but if he will needs do so it is rather to content the company than out of any belief of the good it will do Assoon then as the Woman hath breathed her last and that she is dead to which all the company must agree he shall begin his Operation which the Greeks call Embriulcie Most Authors would have it made on the left side of the Belly because it is more free from the Liver which is on the right but if my opinion may be authentick it will be better and more skilfully made just in the middle of the Belly between the two right Muscles because in this place there is only the Coverings and the white Line to cut when on the side it cannot be done without cutting the two oblique and cross Muscles which being couched one under the other makes a considerable thickness besides that it bleeds more than towards the middle of the Belly not that the loss of blood is of any moment which will flow when the Woman is but just dead but because it hinders by its flowing the seeing distinctly how to make the Operation as it should be To dispatch then with more ease and speed the Chirurgeon having placed the dead Body that the Belly may be a little raised let him take a good sharp incision Knife very sharp of one side like that marked E in the table of Instruments at the end of this Chap. with which he must quickly make at one stroak or at two or three at most if he will for the greater surety an incision just in the middle of the Belly between the two right Muscles unto the Peritoneum of the length and extent of the Womb or thereabouts after
readily drive away the Milk There are some which boil Sage and Box Leaves in Urine with which they do foment the Breasts pretty warm and lay a Cloth upon them dipt in it But great care must be taken in the application and change of these things that the Woman catch not the least cold as also that no Inflammation or Impostumation be caused instead of driving back the Milk Wherefore such Remedies are to be chosen as are restraining repercussive or resolving according to the different dispositions required I know some Women who hold it for a very great secret and most certain and fit to drive the Milk effectually back and that is to put on her Husbands shift yet warm immediatly after he hath taken it off and wear it until the Milk be gone but in case the Milk doth in the mean time vanish 't is superstitious to believe that this Shirt is the cause of it and that it can produce such an effect it happens rather because all the humours of the Body of their own accord taking another course than to the Breasts do not daily flow in so great abundance to them Wherefore in the use of all these Remedies the principal must not be forgotten which is to take care that they tend downwards procuring to that purpose a good and ample evacuation of the * Cleansings Lochia which is much furthered by keeping the Belly open by Clysters provoking them in doing whereof the Milk will soon vanish All that we have said in the former Chapters of this Third Book is only to be observed when the new-laid Woman hath no manner of Indisposition for in case that any happen she must be governed in another manner and according as the Accidents require of which we intend now to treat in the following Chapters CHAP. V. Of several Diseases and Symptomes which happen to a Woman new laid and first of Flooding WE have elsewhere mentioned the Flooding which precedes Labour and shewed the only means to remedy it which is to deliver the Woman assoon as possible let us now see what is fit to be done to that which happens immediatly or in a little time after proceeding from the late opening of the orifices of the Vessels of the Womb by the loosening of the Secondine which cleaved to it this Blood flowes then so much more abundantly by how much it is subtiler and hotter or by the agitation of a long and hard Labour and besides when a Woman is Sanguine or Plethorick This Accident may often happen by a too sudden or violent pulling away of the After-Burthen and sometimes from some part of it being left behind in the Womb or else some false Conception which then endeavouring to expel it presses and forceth forth the Blood out of the Vessels newly opened and sometimes a great Clod of Blood remaining in the bottom of the Womb will produce the same effect which by reason of the distention it often causes excites Pains like to those a Woman endures before Labour and doth not cease tormenting her until she hath voided it and then she is at ease but sometimes the Blood continuing still to flow and remaining in the bottom of the Womb becomes new Clods which is the cause why the accident renews again as before and continueth so by fits in the intervals of which there comes away some Serosities of the Blood retained which dissolves and makes some persons ignorant of the Art to think that the Flux is stopt although it still continues flowing within where it stops only by some blood so coagulated but when this Clod comes away the Flooding begins again pure Blood and in great abundance Flooding is a more dangerous Accident than any other which may happen to a Woman newly laid and which dispatches her so soon if it be in great quantity that there is not often time to prevent it Wherefore in this case convenient Remedies must be speedily applied as well to stop it as to turn it back from the places whence it flowes To which purpose 't is fit to consider what causeth this Flooding and if it be a false Conception piece of the Burthen or clodded Blood remaining behind all diligence must be used to fetch them away or to cause a speedy expulsion of them but if when nothing remains behind in the Womb the Blood doth notwithstanding continue to flow you must bleed the Woman in the Arm not so much thereby to empty the fulness as to make diversion let her Body be laid equally flat and not raised that so the Blood may not be sent down to the lower parts let her keep her self very quiet without turning from side to side that so the Humours may not be stirred the upper part of her Belly must likewise not be swathed or boulstered for such straitness augmens the evil let her Chamber be kept a little cool and let her not be too warm covered in her Bed that so the flooding through Heat may not be continued All the world forbids Clysters in this case lest as they say the humours be drawn down in great abundance but I have twice experimentally found the contrary where great Floodings have been stopt by Clysters of which I will give you a particular account that so it may be useful on the like occasion I was three years since called to a Woman who was surprized with a very great Flooding immediatly after the Midwife had delivered her which she had done with too much violence as the good Woman assured me who told me She felt a very great pain at the instant she pull'd away the After-birth and that she perceived at the loosening of it a Crack Now from the moment that she was so delivered she lost for five or six daies continually so great abundance of Blood that I could scarce believe she could without dying had I not seen it my self during all this time they had to no purpose used all the means they could imagine to stop this accident and because with it she complained of great pains in her Belly they gave her Anodine and cooling Clysters for fear lest giving her others more strong the Flooding would be more and more excited She had taken so four or five Clysters which came away as they were given without any Excrement which seeing and judging that assuredly some gross Excrements being retained in the Intestines from before the time of her Labour which could not be evacuated by these Anodine Clysters did cause so great a Chollick which she felt all over her Belly which appeared puft up I caused her to take one common and one pretty strong Clyster contrary however to the opinion of most persons who not knowing the cause of the distemper bade me have a care lest it should as they said cause a greater Flooding but the issue of it was quite otherwise than they expected for the good Woman voided with this Clyster a Pan full of gross Excrements which having staid there a long
be a greater hinderance to the Childs sucking and that it turn not into an ill natured Ulcer CHAP. XXIV Of Gripes and Pains of the Belly of a young Child MAny Children are so griped that they cannot forbear crying night nor day for the great pains they feel in their Belly with which some are so vext and tormented that they dye of it 'T is very often the first and most common distemper which happens to little Infants after their Birth which in general and for the most part comes from the sudden change of their nourishment forasmuch as having alwaies received it by the Umbilical Vessels whiles they were in their Mothers Belly they come to change it of a sudden not only the manner of receiving it but the nature and quality of it assoon as they are born for instead of purified Blood only which was conveyed to them by means of the Umbilical Vein they are obliged for want of it to be nourished with their Mothers Breast-milk which they suck with their Mouth and from which are engendered many Excrements causing the Gripes as well because it is not so pure as the Blood with which it was fed in the Womb as because the Stomach and Intestines cannot yet make a good Digestion nor an easie Distribution being not accustomed to it The particular causes of these Gripes are either when the Moeconion amassed during all the time of Pregnancy is not evacuated soon after the Infants birth and that by its too-long stay in the Intestines it acquires a sharp and pricking Acrimony or that becoming hard the Infant cannot void it nor the new Excrements which proceed from the Milk which he hath taken at the first 't is also sometimes because the Child not being able to suck with ease he swallows in sucking the Milk with difficulty much air and wind which being retained in the Stomach and sliding into the Intestines doth painfully distend them This Wind sometimes is caused when a Child takes a greater quantity of Milk than he can digest or because of its ill quality as when the Woman gives her breast-Breast-milk assoon as she is delivered without staying to have it purified Cold may also make it suffer the same But very often it is for giving him Pap too soon as also when it is not enough boiled because this nourishment which is gross and viscous cannot be easily digested by a new-born Babe whose Stomach is not yet accustomed to it and Worms that are engendred in the Intestines by their stirring and biting do also much torment them Besides all these things already mentioned the Midwife also may cause great pains in the Childs Belly by driving back into it the cold and clodded Blood out of the Navel-string before it be tyed For to remedy all these pains in the Belly which Women usually call all by one common name of Gripes respect must be had to their different causes as to that which is the general cause the too sudden change of the nourishment To avoid it one must forbear giving the Child suck until the next day lest the Milk being mixt with the Phlegm which is then in the Stomach corrupt and at first it must suck but little until it be accustomed to digest it If it be the Moeconion of the Intestines which by its long stay causeth these pains for to help to discharge them of it give them at the Mouth a little Oyl of sweet Almonds and Syrup of Roses as we have directed before and to provoke it further give it Beets-stalk covered over with Honey for a Suppository or a sugar'd Almond also dipt in common Honey or one may give it a small Clyster If a Child cannot suck with ease regard must be had to that which hinders it for if it be Tongue-tyed it must be cut as is above directed and if it be because the Nurse is hard milcht change her for one whose Milk is better purified and let her rather suckle it a little and often than more at once than the little Stomach can easily digest at a time And above all whiles the Child is griped give it no Pap because this food by its viscositie doth easily cause obstructions which afterwards engender Wind. If it be Wormes lay a cloath dipt in Oyle of Wormwood mixt with Ox-gall upon the Belly or a small Cataplasme mixt with Powders of Rue Wormwood Coloquint Aloes and the seed of Citrons incorporated with Ox-gal and flower of Lupines and to draw drive them more downwards if the little Infant can take any thing by the Mouth give it a small infusion of Rhubarb or half an Ounce of compound Syrup of Succory having before given it a small Clyster of sugar'd Milk for by this means the Wormes which shun the bitterness of the Medicines and seek after the sweetness of the Milk are easily brought away by Stool When these Gripes are caused by Wind as it often happens or by any sharp Humours in the Intestines anoint the Childs Belly all over with Oyl of Violets or with Oyl of sweet Almonds or else with Oyl of Walnuts Camomil and Melilot mixt together having first warm'd them in which also a Cloath may be dipt to lay upon it or a small Pancake may be made with an Egg or two fried in Oyl of Walnuts for to be applied to it and they may take a little Anodine or Carminative Clyster according as the cause of the Gripes is known above all ever keeping the Child very warm CHAP. XXV Of the Inflamation Ulceration or shooting forth or rupture of the Navel of a young Infant THe continual cries of little Children because of the Pains and Gripes which they feel at the beginning doth somtimes cause such an agitation of the Belly that the Navel-string falling off too soon and before it be entirely closed and cicatrized there happens there an Inflammation and Ulceration at other times also for the same reason although it be outwardly healed not being so within it is dilated and thrust outward the bignesse of a small Egg and sometimes bigger which is usually called Exomphale or shooting forth of the Navel There are some who imagine when it is so inflamed and ulcerated that it was because the String was tied too-near the Belly which caused a great pain and inflamation to follow Others say that Nature having used to discharge the Urine by this part during the Childs being in the Mothers Belly doth at first still continue to send it this way and that it causeth this Accident by its acrimony for which there is no reason for 't is impossible the Urine should regorge from the Bladder to the Navel by the Urachus forasmuch as it is not hollow in an humane Foetus as we have elsewhere made appear And how near the Belly soever the Navel-string is tied and how hard provided some of the true skin which is sensible be not also tied with it it can cause no manner of pain to the Child because it is a dead and
most essential and ordinary by which a Chirurgeon may be assured of it of which some may presently be perceived others not till afterwards He shall first examine and inform himself whether the Woman hath all or most part of the signs of fertility which are already named in the discourse of them if not he must impute them to some other cause and supposing she be fruitful you may then know whether she have conceived by their agreement and more then ordinary delight in the act It is not enough for a Woman to be certain she hath conceived and to yeeld and receive her seed with the Man 's into her Womb unless it close at that instant and retain it There is an Article amongst the customs of Paris in which it is said that to give and keep is not good but it is not so in Conception for a Woman gives and casts her Seed into her Womb and there retains it She may know whether she retains the Seeds if she perceives nothing flow down from the Womb after Copulation The Woman some few months after perceives also some small pain about her Navel and some little commotions in the bottom of her Belly caused by the Womb 's closing it self to retain the Seeds and contracting it self so as to leave no empty space the better to contain them and embrace them the closer The light pain of the Navel comes from the Blader of the Urine from the bottom of which proceeds the Urachus which is fastened to the Navel which is a little agitated by that contraction and kind of motion that happens to the Womb when it is closed to retain the Seeds and from the like agitation comes also those little commotions of the Belly These are the signs of Conceptions which may be known at the moment they happen and may be yet more certainly known if you perceive the inward Orifice exactly close Besides these signs there are others which cannot be known till some time after as when the Woman begins to have loathings having no other Distemper loseth her appetite to meats which she did love longs to eate strange things to which she was not accustomed which happens according to the quality of the humours predominating in her and with which her stomach abounds She hath often nauseatings and vomitings which continue a long time the Tearms stopping no other cause appearing having alwayes before been in good order her Breasts swell wax hard and cause pain from the flowing of the blood and humours to them wanting their ordinary evacuation their upper parts are firmer and larger because of the repletion the Navel starts her Nipples are very obscure or dark coloured with a yellowish livid circle round about her Eyes are dejected and hollow the whites of them dull and troubled her blood when she hath conceived some time is alwayes bad because the superfluities of it not being then purged as accustomed is altered and corrupted by their mixture Moreover there is a sign which all the Women esteem and hold in this doubtful case for very certain which is en ventre plat enfant y a in a flat Belly there is a Child Indeed there is rime in this proverb and something of reason but not as they imagin that the Womb closing it self after Conception draws in a manner the Belly inwards and flatten's it which cannot be because the Womb free and wavering not fastened forwards to the Belly whereby to draw it back after that manner but it may possibly be by reason that Women grow lean by the indispositions of their pregnancy and wax thinner and smaller not only in their Belly but also throughout their whole body as may be known the two first months of their pregnancy during which time that which is contained in the Womb is yet very small but when the Womans blood begins to flow to it in abundance then the Belly waxeth daily bigger and bigger afterwards until her reckoning be out All these signs concurring in a Woman who hath used copulation or the most part of them together and successively according to their seasons we may pass our judgment that she hath conceived notwithstanding that many of them may happen upon the suppression of the Terms which usually produce the like for every one knows that it causeth also in Virgins disgusts nauseatings and vomitings but not so frequently the swelling hardness and pains of the breasts as also extravagant appetites a livid colour of the Eyes and others to which you must have regard The Matrix may be yet exactly close and the Woman not conceived Yea there are some in whom they almost never open unless very little to give passage to the Tearms which happens to some naturally to others by accident as by some callosity proceeding from an Ulcer or other malady If all these signes of Conception which sometimes may deceive us though rarely if they concur together do not give us a sufficient assurance of it and that we desire a better Hippocrates teacheth us a way to know it which I believe to be no more certain than the rest it is in his 42d Aphorism of his 5th Book where he speaks in this sort Si velis noscere an conceperit mulier dormiturae aquam mulsam potui dato si ventris tormina patiatur concepit sin minus non concepit If you desire to know whether a Woman hath conceived or no give her going to rest a draught of Metheglin and if afterwards she feels pains in her Belly caused by wind she hath conceived if none she hath not as he saith Which is grounded as I believe upon the supposition that Metheglin breeds wind which cannot pass easily downwards because the Womb being full compresseth with its greatness the * The great Gut Intestin rectum on which it is scituated and causeth those winds to rumble which are constrained to recoyl back into the other Intestines If there be any occasion where Physicians or Chirurgeons ought to be more prudent and to make more reflections upon their Prognosticks for an affair so important as this is it is in this which concerns their Judgments as to conception and Womens being with child to avoid the great accidents and misfortunes which they cause who are too precipitate in it without a certain knowledge The faults which are committed through too much fear at such a time are in some sort excusable and to be pardoned but not those caused by temerity which are incomparably greater There are but too many poor Women who have been caused to miscarry by Medicines and bleeding not beleiving they were with Child which are so many murders they are guilty of who caused it either through ignorance or rashness besides the death which they bring to those little innocent creatures by destroying them in their Mothers belly they often thereby put the Mothers into great danger We have lately had in Paris in the year 1666 a miserable example of this kind in a Woman hanged and
little Oyl of Violets or else a Decoction made with a handful of Bran two ounces of Honey of Violets and a piece of fresh Butter or any other as occasion might require but there must be great care taken that no sharp Clysters be given her to this purpose nor other Drugs to cause a loosness or too great an evacuation lest it endanger her to miscarry as Hippocrates very well warns us in the 34th Aphorism of his fifth Book where he sayes Mulieri in utero gerenti si alvus plurimum profluat periculum est ne abortiat If a big-bellied Woman have a violent loosness she will be in danger of miscarrying If she ought to govern her self well in the observation of what we have lately mentioned she ought no less to be careful to overcome and moderate her passions as not to be excessive angry and above all that she be not afrighted nor that any melancholly news be suddenly told her for these passions when violent are capable to make a Woman miscarry at the moment even at any time of her going with Child as it hapned to my Cousins Mother named Mris Dionis a Merchant dwelling in the Street Quinquampois whose Father being suddenly killed with a Sword by one of his Servants who meeting him in the Street traiterously run him through out of spite and rage because he had some few dayes before turned him out of doors they brought immediatly this ill news to his Wife then eight months gone and presently after brought her dead Husband at which sudden fright she was immediatly surprised with a great trembling so that she was presently delivered of the said Dionis who is to this day which is very remarkable troubled with a shaking in both hands as his Mother had when she was delivered of him having yet no other inconvenience notwithstanding he was born in the eighth month by such an extraordinary accident nor doth he seem to be above fourty years old though near fifty When he signed his Contract of Marriage they who knew not the reason of it when they saw his hands shake thought it was through fear of his ill Bargain of which they were disabused when they had heard the Catastrophe that hastened his birth Wherefore if there be any news to tell a big-bellied Woman let it rather be such as may moderately rejoyce her for excessive joy may likewise prejudice her in this condition and if there be an absolute necessity to acquiant her with bad news let the gentlest means be contrived to do it by degrees and not all at once Assoon as a Woman finds her self with Child or mistrusts it let her not lace her self so close as she ordinarily doth with Bodies stifned with Whalebone to make her Body shapely which very often injures her Breast and so inclosing her Belly in so strait a mould she hinders the Infant from taking its free growth and very often makes it come before its time and misshapen Those Women are so foolish as not to mind that making themselves slender when they are with Child quite spoils their Belly which therefore after Childbed remains wrinkled and pendent as a Bag and then they cry It is the Midwife or Nurse that did them that mischief in not swathing and looking to them as they ought to do not considering that it came by their strait lacing whilst they were big upwards which causeth the Belly finding no place to be equally extended on all sides to dilate it self onely downwards whither all the burthen is in that manner thrust and carried to avoid which let them use habits more large and easie and wear no Busks with which they presse their Bellies to bring them into shape Let them also forbear Bathing in any manner after they know they have conceived lest the Womb be excited to open before the time Almost all big-bellied Women are so infatued with the custom to bleed when they are half gone and in the seventh month that if they should neglect it although they were otherwise well they vvould never believe they could be well delivered I will not in the mean time justifie and make them believe by that what Hippocrates saith in his 31th Aphorism of his 5th Book Mulier in utero ferens secta vena abortit eoque magis si sit faetus grandior If saith he a Woman be blooded she miscarries and the rather if she be far gone This Aphorism must not prohibit us the use of bleeding when the case requires but only warns us to use it with great prudence forasmuch as some Women want bleeding three or four times yea and oftner sometimes whilst they are with Child when twice may be sufficient to others For as there have been some that have been blooded nine or ten times for diseases during their pregnancy and yet go on with their Infant to their full account so others have miscarried by bleeding but once a little too copiously as in this Aphorism speaks Hippocrates Now since all are not of the same nature they must not be all governed after the same manner nor believe that it is necessary to bleed all big-bellied Women one may judge of the necessity according as they are more or less sanguine It is the same in purging which ought to be prudently administred as well as bleeding according to the exigency of the case using alwayes gentle and benign remedies when they are necessary as Cassia Rhubarb Manna with the weight of a dram or two at most of good Senna These Purgatives may serve turn for a Woman with Child she ought not to use others more violent If she observes all that we have above mentioned she may then hope for a good issue of her great-Belly Having amply enough declared how a Woman with Child should be governed when accompanied with no ill accident and given the Rules she ought to keep to prevent them We will now examine several Indispositions to which she is subject particularly during her pregnancy CHAP. XI The means to prevent the many Accidents which happen to a Woman during the whole time of her being with Child and first of Vomitings VOmiting with the suppression of the Terms is for the most part the first Accident which happens to Women and the means by which they themselves perceive their pregnancy It is not alwayes caused as is believed from ill humours collected in the stomach because of this stoppage of their Courses these corrupted humours do often cause a depraved appetite in pregnant Women when either they flow thither or are there engendred but not this Vomiting which happens immediately after Conception and which comes by succession it cannot be meant of those which are there afterwards corrupted but these first Vomitings proceed from the sympathy between the Stomach and the Womb because of the similitude of their substance and by means of the Nerves inserted in the upper orifice of the Stomach which have communication by continuity with those that pass to the
the Breasts it signifies that the Woman is in danger of being frantick because of the transport which may be made thence to the Brain which accident is avoided by moderate bleeding in the Arm as also by a regular cooling dyet moderately nourishing for to diminish the quantity and temper the heat of the humours of the whole habite CHAP. XIV Of Incontinence and difficulty of Urine THe scituation of the Bladder which is placed just upon the Womb is sufficient to instruct us wherefore pregnant Women are sometimes troubled with difficulty of urine and the reason why they cannot often hinder nor scarce retain their water which is caused two wayes 1. Because the Womb with Child by its bigness and weight compresseth the Bladder so that it is hindred from having its ordinary extension and so incapable of containing a reasonable quantity of urine Which is the cause that the bigger the Woman grows and the nearer her time she approaches the oftner she is compelled to make water which for that reason they cannot keep 2. If the weighty burden of the Womb doth very much compress the bottom of the Bladder it forceth the Women to make water every moment but contrarily if the neck of it be pressed it is filled so extreamly with urine which stayes there with great pain being not able to expel it forasmuch as the Sphincter because of this compression cannot be opened to let it out Sometimes also the urine by its acrimony excites the Bladder very often by pricking it to discharge it self and sometimes by its heat it makes an inflamation in the neck of the Bladder which causeth its suppression It may be likewise that this Accident is caused by some Stone contained in the Bladder then the pains of it are almost insupportable and much more dangerous to Woman with Child than to one that is not because the Womb by its swelling causeth perpetually the stone to press against the Bladder and so much the violenter are these pains as the stone is greater or the figure of it unequal and sharp It is of great consequence to hinder these violent and frequent endeavours of a big-bellied Woman to make water and to remedy it if possible both in one and the other indispositions because by long continuance of alwayes forcing downwards to make water the Womb is loosned and bears very much down and sometimes is forced the inconvenience not ceasing to discharge it self of its burden before the ordinary time This is that should be endeavoured to be hindred having respect to the different cause of the distemper as when it comes from the bigness and weight of the Womb pressing the Bladder as it is for the most part the Woman may remedy it and ease her self if when she would make water she lift up with both her hands the bottom of her belly she may wear a large Swaith accommodated to this use which will bear it up if there be occasion and hinder it from bearing too much upon the Bladder or to do better she may keep her Bed If it be the acrimony of the urine that makes the inflammation on the neck of the Bladder it may be appeased by a regular cooling dyet drinking only Ptisan and forbearing the use of Wine and all sorts of Purgations because they send the filth of the whole body to the part affected and by their heat do yet more augment the acrimony and inflammation but she will do well to use mornings and evenings Emulsions made with the cold Seeds or Whey mixt with Syrup of Violets This Remedy is proper by refreshing gently to cleanse the urinary passages without prejudicing either the Mother or Infant If the inflammation and acrimony of the Urine be not removed by this Rule of Dyet they may let her blood a little in the Arm to prevent any ill accident that may happen they may likewise bath her outward entry of the neck of her Bladder with a Decoction of emollient and cooling Herbs as the leaves of Mallows Marsh-mallows Pellitory and Violets with a little Linseed which being viscous will help the conduit of the Urine to dilate it self the easier there may be also Injections given into the Bladder of the same Decoction to which may be added Honey of Violets or else of lukewarm Milk But if the Woman notwithstanding she observes these Directions cannot make water recourse must be had to the last remedy which is to draw it forth by a Catheter represented and marked with the Letter M in the Table of Instruments at the end of the second Book which being anointed with Oyl Olive or sweet Almonds having first lifted up and thrusted the Belly a little upwards must be gently introduced by the urinary passages into the very hollow of the Bladder and then the Urine will immediately pass away which being finished the Catheter must be taken forth and if the suppression continues it may be used again in the same manner until the accident quite leave her and then they may try whether she can urine naturally If she be in very great extremity she may use an half-Bath luke-warm provided she be not too much moved by this Remedy abstaining also from all Diureticks which are very prejudicial to big-bellied Women because they provoke abortion If on the other side this evil arises from the Stone which presenting it self to the neck of the Bladder stops the urinary passage whilst with Child she must be contented to have it only thrust back with a Catheter but if it be small one may try to draw it forth with a small Probe fit for the purpose putting the fore-finger into the Vagina to keep it in subjection that it recoyl not back towards the Bladder which is only to be done to the small ones for she must be delivered before the great ones can be drawn forth it being better to leave her in that condition than to endanger her life or the Childs by drawing it CHAP. XV. Of the Cough and difficult breathing WOmen whose Children lie low are oftener troubled with difficulty of Urine as we have mentioned in the foregoing Chapter than they whose Children lie higher who are indeed exempted from this and the like inconvenience but are then more subject to a Cough and difficulty of breathing than the former A Cough if violent as sometimes even to vomiting is one of the most dangerous accidents which contributes to Abortion because it is an essay by which the Lungs endeavour to cast forth of the Breast that which offends them by a compression of all its Muscles which pressing all the inclosed air inwards with which the Lungs are much extended thrusts also by the same means with a sudden violence the Diaphragma downwards and consequently all the parts of the lower Belly but particularly the Womb of the pregnant Woman which accident continuing long and violent often causeth her to come before her time This Cough proceeds sometimes from sharp and biting rheumes which distill from the
two Children begins to flag it is a sign she will miscarry of the Child of that side and of both if both flag in the same manner It is most certain a Woman is in more danger of her life when she miscarries than at her full time because as we have said before abortion is wholly contrary to Nature and very often accompanied with flooding and in more danger of miscarrying alwayes if she miscarries of the first and some apprehend then an impossibility of ever having Children after to which young married people are very subject because of the violent emotion and perturbation of the whole body excited by ardent and frequent copulations but notwithstanding they may preserve their fruit when their greater vigour is over and their loves a little moderated We have taught in each of the foregoing Chapters how to prevent all the accidents before recited any of which is sufficient to make her miscarry and the easier if many are complicated wherefore to avoid a troublesome and needless repetition you may have recourse to the Remedies there taught by which both Women and Children may escape the danger of death They that are subject to abortion ought above all to take their ease and keep in bed if they can observing a good diet and refraining copulation assoon as she believes her self to be with Child avoiding the use of all Diureticks and Aperitives which are very pernicious as also violent passions of the mind because they are very prejudicial She ought likewise to be loose in her dress that she may breath the freer and not strait laced and rackt as most of them are ordinarily with their Busks under their cloths to make their bodies strait and amongst other things they had need take heed of slipping and falling in their walking to which big-bellied Women are very subject because the bigness of their Bellies hinders them from seeing their way they will therefore do well to wear low-heeld shoos with large soals to prevent hurting themselves as too many daily do I admire in this case the superstition of many Midwives and some Authors who order a Woman with Child to take assoon as she hath hurt her Belly with a fall some Crimson Silk small minced in the yolk of an Egg or the grains of * Kermes Scarlet and treddles of several Eggs put into the yolk of one as if that entring the stomach were able to fortifie the Womb and the Child in it and to keep it there for which there is no appearance of reason or truth but quiet rest indeed contributes much to it which for this reason is usually directed for nine dayes although such a one hath need of 15 dayes or more for her hurt or commotion and to others five or six is sufficient during which time may be applied hot to the Belly Compresses steeped in Aromatick and Astringent Wine But because there are many Women so infatuated with this superstitious custom that they would not believe themselves out of danger if they took not that Crimson Silk or the Treddles of the Eggs which is a pure conceit one may give it to those that desire it to content them because these Remedies though useless can yet do no hurt It is now time to make an end of this first Book in which I have only mentioned the most ordinary distempers which have some particular indications in their cure during the Womans being with Child of which I have not treated very exactly because it may be supposed that one may elsewhere have a more perfect knowledge of them with all their circumstances let us now pass to the second Book to treat of Deliveries not only the natural but likewise all that are contrary to nature it being the principal motive that induced me to write and to teach as well as I can the best and most methodical deportment in it The End of the first Book BOOK II. Of Labours Natural and Unnatural with the way how to help Women in the first and the right means of remedying the rest AS it is very unprofitable to those that imbark on the Sea for a long Voyage as for example to the Indies or the like if after having by their prudence escaped all the dangers they could meet with in so long a Voyage they are shipwrackt in the Haven So likewise it is not sufficient that a great-bellied Woman should be preserved from all the Diseases mentioned in the preceding Book for nine whole months if at the end of that time she be not well delivered of it by a happy Labour This therefore shal be the whole subject of this second Book where we will treat as well of the Natural as Unnatural Labours and teach the manner of aiding and comforting Women in the first and the means to remedy all the rest CHAP. I. What Labour is and the diffenrences of it together with its different terms BY a Delivery we understand either an emission or extraction of the Infant at the full time out of the Womb. This definition may comprehend as well the Natural which is accomplished by emission when the Infant coming in a commodious and natural Figure the Womb sends it forth without extraordinary violence as the delivery contrary to Nature which we are often obliged to perform extracting it by manual operation Every time the Womb le ts pass or sends forth whatsoever it had retained and formed after conception must not be call'd a labour for observing what I have already noted above and what I will here again repeat that it may be more plain If a Woman voids by the Womb what is contained in the beginning after she had conceived it is properly called an effluxion or slip because at that time there is nothing formed or figured neither have the Seeds yet any firm consistence which is the cause why it flips away so easily with the least opening of the Womb as often happens between the first conceiving and the seventh and eight day only after which until the end of the second month the Woman somtimes le ts slip false-conceptions which turn to Moles if they continue any longer in the Womb which is then called an Expulsion And if after the third month or thereabouts the time when the Faetus is wholly formed and animated it is sent forth before the seventh in that case it is an Abortion which is alwayes the cause either that the Infant comes dead into the World or dies soon after But we properly call Labour or Delivery every issuing forth of an Infant which happens after the end of the seventh month to all the remaining part of the time afterwards because there is then a sufficient perfection as also strength enough to come into the World and live in it afterwards As to the general differences of Labour we must take notice that the one is legitimate or natural the other illegitimate or against nature To come to the knowledge of each we say that four conditions must
Notwithstanding this must not alwaies be put in practice by the Chirurgeon but in such an extremity and then he may do the work as dextrously as he can For my part I had rather do this in the like occasion than resolve upon that cruelty and barbarousness of the Caesarean Section in which 't is absolutely impossible though many Impostures whom Rousset favours assure the contrary that a Woman should ever escape as I shall make more particularly appear hereafter when I come to it for by this Operation I can save the Mother who would perish with the Child And as it is always better of two evils to choose the least so we ought always to prefer the Mothers life before the * This Chapter might be very well spared if every Practitioner had the art the Translator professeth in his Epistle of fetching a Child when it comes right without hooks or turning it Childs CHAP. XVIII How to deliver a Woman when the Child presents the side of the Head to the Birth or the Face WHen the Child presents the side of the Head though it seems a natural Labour because the Head comes first yet 't is very dangerous both to Child and Mother for he shall sooner break his Neck than ever be born in that fashion and by how much the Mothers pains continue to bear him which is impossible unless the Head be first right placed the more the Passages are stopt up * A good Note for though some possibly not unlike this Birth may in time be born yet 't is for the most part dangerous delaying it because many Children and some Women have been so lost Therefore assoon as it is known the Woman must be laid with all speed lest the Child advancing further in this vicious Posture it prove more difficult to thrust him back which must be done when we would place the Head right in the Passage as it truly and naturally should be For to effect this place the Woman that her Hips be a little higher than her Head and Shoulders causing her to lean a little upon the opposite side to the Child 's ill posture then let the Chirurgeon slide up his Hand well anointed with Oyl by the side of the Childs head for to bring it right gently with his Fingers between the Head and the Womb but if the Head be so engaged that it cannot be easily done that way he must then put his Hand up to its Shoulders that so by thrusting them back a little in the Womb sometimes on the one side and sometimes the other as he sees occasion he may give it a natural and convenient Position It were to be wished that the Chirurgeon could put back the Infant by the Shoulders with both his Hands in this manner but the Head doth then take up so much room that he hath much ado to introduce but one with which he must do his Operation with the help of the Fingers ends of the other Hand put up as far as necessary afterwards let him excite and procure the Childs birth as directed in the natural Labour At other times a Child comes with the Face first having its Head turned back in which Posture it is very difficult it should be born and if it remain so long the Face will be so black and blew and swelled that at first sight it will appear monstrous which comes as well by the compression of it in that place as by the Midwifes fingers handling it too rudely when she would place it in a better Posture I remember about six years ago in the like Case a Woman whose Child came with the Face so black and mishapen assoon as it was born as usually in such cases that it lookt like a Blackmoor however I delivered her of it alive assoon as the Mother saw it she told me that she always fear'd her Child would be so monstrous because when she was young with Child of it she fixed her looks very much upon a Blackmoor belonging to the Duke de Guise who alwaies kept several of them wherefore she wished or at lest cared not though it dyed rather than to behold a Child so disfigured as it then appeared But she soon changed her mind when I satisfied her that this blackness was only because it came Faceling and that assuredly in three or four days it would wear away as it happened having often anointed it with Oyl of sweet Almonds by expression and when I saw the Child about a year after me thought I had not seen a fairer Now to deliver this Birth the same manner as when a Child comes with the side of the Head must be observed being careful to work gently to avoid as much as may be the bruising of the Face CHAP. XIX How to deliver a Woman when the Head of the Child is born and the Womb closeth about the Neek THe Child comes naturally with the Head first because that by the hardness and bigness of it the Passage might be the better made and opened for the other parts of the Body which usually pass afterwards without pain but notwithstanding sometimes the Head is so small and the Shoulders so large that without a very great difficulty they cannot pass which makes the Child remain often in the Passage after the Head is born This accident may likewise happen somtimes for not having been careful to lose no time to draw forth the Child by the Head as directed in the Discourse of natural Labours to the end the Shoulders might at the same instant succeed in the place the Head possest Chap XIX lib. 2. pag 232. In the year 1660 whilst I practised Midwifery in that Hospital it happened that the Deputy had a Woman whose Child she could not possibly bring into the world further than its Head where it so remained and seing she could not after all her endeavours finish the work she called the Midwife of the place to her aid which was then Madam de France who likewise used her utmost skill but in vain and when they were both thus tired in pulling the Head so as the Vertebra's of the Neck were separated and that it hung only by a little of the Skin I came in the interim when they desired me to examine the business and to find the cause why the Child could not be drawn forth with all their strengths which was sufficient to have drawn forth the Shoulders if they had been as big again as they were which having considered I immediatly conceived the difficulty to proceed from something else wherefore I put my hand into the Womb up to the Childs shoulders which seemed not too big to pass with ease therefore I concluded that the hinderance was not there After that I put my hand further up directing it all along his Breast at the bottom of which near the grisle Xiphoïde I found his Belly hydropical and full of Water so that it was impossible ever to deliver the Woman until the Water was
the 12th Chap. of this Book for what a horrible spectacle would it be to bring as some have sometimes done a poor Child yet living after the Arm hath been cut off or any other part of the Body wherefore let him make a double reflection on his work before he goeth about it CHAP. XXII How to deliver a Woman when Hands and Feet come together IF the Infant presents both Hands and Feet together at the Birth it is altogether impossible it should be born so the Chirurgeon therefore guiding his Hand towards the orifice of the Womb will perceive nothing but a many Fingers close together and if it be not sufficiently dilated he will be a good while before he can exactly distinguish between the Hands and Feet by reason they are sometimes so shut and prest together that they seem to be all of one and the same shape but when the Womb is open enough for to introduce the Hand into it he will easily know which are the Hands and which the Feet and having well taken notice of it let him slide his Hand and presently direct it towards the Infants Breast which he will find very near and by that * Unnecessary let him gently thrust back the Body towards the bottom of the Womb leaving the Feet in the same place where he found them having therefore placed the Woman in a convenient Posture that is her Hips a little raised above her Breast and Head which scituation ought alwaies to be observed when the Child is to be put back into the Womb let him afterwards take hold of him by the Feet and draw him forth according to the way before directed in its proper Chapter This Labour truly is a little troublesome but nothing near so much as that we have mentioned in the preceding Chapter where the Child presents only his Hands for in that the Feet must be searched a great way off and it must be quite turned about before it can be drawn forth but in this they are ready presenting themselves and there is not much to do but to lift and thrust back a little the upper part of the Body which is almost done of it self * Sufficient and the best way in this Birth by drawing it alone by the Feet Those Authors that have written of Labours and never practised them as many Physicians have done do order all by the same precept often reiterated that is to reduce all wrong Births to a natural Figure which is to turn it that it may come with the Head first but if they themselves had ever had the least experience they would know that it is very often impossible at least if it were to be done by the excess of violence that must necessarily be used to effect it it would go near to destroy both Mother and Child in the operation a Fiat in this Case is soon said and ordered but it is not so easily executed as pronounced For my part I am of an opinion cleer contrary to theirs and such as are skilfull in the Art will surely agree with me in it that is that whensoever the Infant comes wrong in what Posture soever from the Shoulders to the Feet it * A good note is the best way and soonest done to draw it forth by the Feet searching for them if they do not present themselves rather than to try to put it into a natural Posture and place the Head foremost for the great endeavours often necessary to be used in turning the Infant in the Womb which is a little harder than to turn a Pancake in a frying Pan doth so weaken both Mother and Child that there remains not afterwards strength enough for to commit the Operation to the work of Nature and usually the Woman hath no more Throwes nor Pains fit for Labour after she hath been so wrought upon for which cause it would be very tedious and difficult as also the Infant which is already very weak would certainly perish in the Passage without being able to be born Wherefore it is much better in these cases immediatly to fetch it by the Feet searching for them as I have already directed when they do not present themselves by which a tedious Labour will be prevented to the Mother and the Child will be often brought alive who without it will scarce escape death before he can be brought forth by the strength of Nature CHAP. XXIII How to deliver a Woman when the Child comes with the Knees WHen an Infant not being turned towards the latter moneths as he ought to come with his Head foremost as is mentioned in the 5th Chap. of this Book presents the Knees to the Birth having the Legs folded towards the Buttocks one may easily be deceived touching but one of them because of their hardness and roundness and take it for the Head especially when being scituated a little high it can be reached but with the end of a Finger only but if it be touched and handled a little better the Infant being fallen a little lower it will easily be distinguished Assoon then as it is perceived it must not be suffered to advance further in this Posture but having placed the Woman the Knees must gently be put back for to have the more liberty to unfold the Legs one after the other which the Chirurgeon Chap XXIII lib. 2. pag 2â—… Chap XXIV lib. 2 pag 245. may do by putting one or two of his Fingers under the Hamm directing them by little and little all along behind the Leg until he meets the Foot and drawing alwaies a little obliquely for to come the easier to the end of it that so having disengaged one he may do the same to the other proceeding in the same manner as with the first after which having brought them together he may finish the work as when a Child comes Footling alwayes observing to bring the Face of it downward and such circumstances as are noted where we treat of that Labour CHAP. XXIV Of a Delivery where the Child comes with Shoulder Back or Breast THe most difficult of these three sorts of Figures and Scituations in which Infants sometimes come is that of the Shoulders because it is furthest from the Feet of the Infant and the Chirurgeon must find them for to draw it forth The next is the Back and the Breech for the same reason causeth least trouble not only because the Feet are nearer but also because by this Figure the Head and Neck of the Infant is not so constrained and lockt as in the other scituations For to remedy this Birth of the Shoulder some advise that it should be put back to make way for the Head of the Infant that so it may be reduced to a natural Birth but it is much better for the reasons above alledged in the 22th Chap. of this Book to try to bring it by the Feet for to effect which the Chirurgeon must thrust the Shoulder a little back with his
Mother and Child must afterwards be ordered and declare how at this time to prevent and remedy divers Indispositions which often happen to them both Let us first consider those that arrive to a Woman new layd and then we shall pass to those that regard a new-born Infant CHAP. I. What is fit to be done to a Woman new-laid and naturally delivered IMmediatly after the Woman is delivered and the Burthen come away care must be taken that the loosening of it be not followed with a Flooding which if it be not a soft Closure to the Womb must immediatly be applied five or six double to prevent the cold Air by entring in from sudden stopping the Vessels by which the Woman should cleanse by degrees whereby there would certainly happen many ill accidents as great Pains and Gripes of the Belly Inflammation of the Womb and divers others which we shall mention hereafter particularly and which may easily be the cause of her death When the Womb is so closed if the Woman was not delivered upon her ordinary Bed let her be presently carried into it by some strong body or more if there be need rather than to let her walk thither which Bed must be first ready warmed and prepared as is requisite because of the cleansings but if she were delivered on it which is best and safest to prevent the danger and trouble of carrying her to it then all the soul linnen and other things put there for the receiving the Blood Waters and other Filth which comes away in Labour must be presently removed and she must be placed conveniently in it for her ease and rest which she much wants to recover her of the Pains and Labour she endured during her Travail that is with her Head and Body a little raised for to breath the freer and cleanse the better especially of that Blood which then comes away that so it may not clod which being retained causes very great Pains All this will happen if they have not liberty to come freely by this convenient scituation in which she must put down her Legs and Thighs close together having a small Pillow for her greater ease if she desire it under her Hams upon which they may rest a little being so put to Bed let her lye neither of one side nor the other but just on the middle of her back that so the Womb may repossess its natural and proper place It is an ordinary custom to give the Women assoon as they are delivered two Ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds drawn without fire and as much Syrup of Maiden-hair mixed together which is as well for to sweeten and temper the inside of the Throat which was heated and hoarse by her continual Cries and holding her Breath to bear down her Throws during her Labour as also to the end that her Stomach and Intestines being lined with it should not be so much afflicted with dolorous Gripes But this Potion goes so much against the Stomachs of some Women that being forced to take it with an aversion and disgust it may do them rather more hurt than any wise comfort them Wherefore let none have it but those that desire it and have no aversion to it I approve rather in this case of a good Broth to be given her assoon as she is a little setled after the great commotion of Labour because it will be both more pleasing and profitable than such a Potion And having thus accommodated her and provided for her Belly Breasts and lower parts after the manner we shall direct in the next Chapter leave her to rest and sleep if she can making no noise the Bed-curtains being close drawn and the Doors and Windows of her Chamber shut that so seeing no light she may the sooner fall asleep If she had endured a hard Labour she must be then ordered as the case requires and as shall be hereafter declared but what we have here directed is only for a natural Labour and where no extraordinary difficulty happens CHAP. II. Of convenient Remedies for the lower parts of the Belly and Breasts of Women newly delivered SInce the lower parts of a Woman are greatly distended by the birth of an Infant it is good to endeavour therefore the prevention of an inflammation there wherefore assoon as the Bed is cleansed from the foul linnen and other impurities of the Labour and that the Woman is therein placed according to the direction of the preceding Chapter let there be outwardly applied all over the bottom of her Belly and Privities the following Anodine Cataplasm made of two Ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds with two or three new-laid Eggs Yolks and Whites stirring them together in an earthen Pipkin over hot Embers till it comes to the consistence of a Pultiss which being spread upon a Cloth must be applied to those parts indifferently warm having first taken away the Closures which were put to her presently after her Delivery and likewise such clods of Blood as were there left This is a very temperate remedy and fit to appease the Pains which Women ordinarily suffer in those parts because of the violence then endured by the Infants Birth it must lie on five or six Hours and then be renewed a second time if there be occasion afterwards make a Decoction of Barley Linseed and Chervil or with Marsh-mallows and Violet leaves adding to a Pint of it an ounce of Honey of Roses with which being luke warm foment three or four times a day for the first five or six days of Child-bed the bearing-place cleansing it very well from the Blood Clods and other Excrements which are there emptied This Stupe is likewise very good to temper and appease the Pains of those parts Some persons only use to this purpose luke-warm Milk and many Women only Barley-water Great care must be taken at the beginning that no stopping things be given to hinder the cleansings but when ten or twelve days are past and that she hath cleansed very sufficiently Remedies may then be used to fortifie the parts to which purpose a Decoction is very proper made of Provence-Roses Leaves and Roots of Plantane and Smiths water that Iron is quenched in and when she hath sufficiently and fully done Cleansing which is usually after the 18th or 20th day there may be made for those that desire it a very strong astringent Lotion to fortifie and settle those parts which have been much relaxed as well by the great extension they received as by the humours with which they have been so long time soaked This Remedy may be composed with an Ounce and an half of Pomegranate Peel an Ounce of Cypress Nuts half an Ounce of Acorns an Ounce of Terra Sigillata a Handful of Provence-Roses and two drachms of Roch-Allum all which being infused a whole night in five half Pints of strong red Wine or that it may not be too sharp a quantity of Smiths water mixed with that Wine afterwards boil it well to
neglect committed towards her in her tending For this Reason one must not be of the opinion of many Nurse-keepers who will have a new-laid Woman to be well fed as well to restore her lost strength by the tediousness of the Labour and by the quantity of Blood then evacuating for which cause they believe the Woman must be well nourished to make more Blood as also to fill up her Belly which is very much emptied by the Birth of the Child but it is much better to follow in this the counsel which Hippocrates gives us in his Tenth Aphorism of the Second Book where he saies Impura corpora quo plus nutriveris eo magis laeseris The more you nourish impure Bodies the more you hurt them Now it is certain that a Woman newly delivered is of this sort as you may know by the quantity of Cleansings and Superfluities which flow from her Womb at this time when for this reason they must be very regular in their Diet especially the three or four first daies in which time she must be nourished only with good Broaths new laid Eggs and Jellies without using at the beginning more solid Meats but when the great abundance of her Milk is a little past she may with more safety eat a little Broath at her Dinner or a small piece of boil'd Chicken or Mutton as she likes best afterwards if no accident happens they may by degrees nourish her more plentifully provided in the mean time that it be a third part less than she was accustomed to take in her perfect Health and that her Food be of good and easie digestion not suffering her to eat any of those Cakes Tarts or other Pastries which are usually provided at the Childs Baptism As for her Drink let it be Ptysan which is Liquorish Figs and Aniseeds boiled in Water or at least boil'd Water being careful not to give it her too cold she may also provided she be not Feaverish drink a little white Wine well mixed with Water but not till after the first Five or Six days Although I prescribe this Rule in general for all those who are newly brought to Bed yet there are some who must not observe it so exactly as laborious Women who being of a very strong and rebust constitution require a more plentiful feeding to whom notwithstanding if they do not change the quality they must at least retrench the quantity of their ordinary food having alwaies respect to what every person accustom themselves to which the same Hippocrates doth likewise teach us in the 17th Aphorism of the first Book where he saith Animadvertendi sunt quibus semel aut bis quibus copiosior aut parcior aut per partes Cibus est offerendus dandum verò aliquid tempori regioni aerati consuetudini Great care and notice must be taken to whom to give meat once only or twice as also to whom to give more or to whom less or by little and little but some allowance must be made in respect of Time Countrey Age and Custome What we have already said shall suffice for direction in their Meat and Drink The Child-bed Woman must likewise keep her self very quiet in her Bed lying on her Back with her Head a little raised and not turning often from side to side that so the Matrix may be the better setled in its first Scituation she must free her self at that time from all care of business leaving it to the management of some of her Kindred or Friends let her talk as little as may be and that with a low voice and let no ill news be brought to her which may affect her because all these things do cause so great a commotion or perturbation of her Humours that Nature not being able to overcome them cannot make the necessary evacuation of them which hath been the death of many The Citizens Wives have a very ill Custom which they would do very well to refrain that is they cause their Children to be baptized the second or third day after their Labour at which time all their Relations and Friends have a Collation in the Child-bed Room with whom she is obliged to discourse and make answers to the Gossips and all Comers a whole After-noon together with the usual Complements of those Ceremonies enough to distract her and though there is scarce any of the Company which do not drink her Health yet by the noise they make in her Ears she loses it besides all this she is often constrained out of respect to forbear the use of her Bed-pan and other necessaries which are very prejudicial to her and this happens just at the time when she ought to have most rest because about the third day the Milk flowes in greatest quantity to the Breasts this is the reason why ordinarily the next day they have a very great Feaver She ought alwaies to keep her Body open with Clysters taking one once in two daies which not only evacuate the gross Excrements but also by drawing downwards cause her to cleanse the better When she hath observed this Rule a fortnight or three weeks which is very near the time of having cleansed sufficiently that those parts may be throughly cleansed before she goes abroad and begins upon a New score let her take a gentle Purge made of Senna Cassia Syrup of Succory with Rhubarb which is good to purge the Stomach and Bowels of those ill Humours Nature could not evacuate by the Womb as it did the other Superfluities this Purge may be repeated if necessary all which being done and that no indisposition remain she may bath once or twice or to wash and cleanse her Body and afterwards she may govern her self according to her former Custome CHAP. IV. How to drive back the Milk in those Women who are not willing to give suck THere are many Remedies used to this purpose some of which hinder the afflux of humours to the Breast and others dissipate and in part dissolve the Milk therein contained Those which hinder the Humours from plentifully flowing thither are Oile of Roses well mixt with Vinegar with which the Breasts are to be anointed all over or Unguentum Populeum with Ceratum refrigerans Galeni equally mixt and extended upon a piece of Linnen or gray Paper and so applyed to the Breasts Others use Linnen dipt in luke-warm Verjuce in which a little Allom is dissolved that so it may be more Astringent and others lay to them the Lees of Red Wine alone or mixt with Oyl of Roses Those Remedies which dissolve and dissipate the Milk from the Breast is a Cataplasme of the four * Of Linseed Fenugreek Beans and Fitches Branns Honey and Saffron boiled with the Decoction of Chervil or Sage Others apply Honey only and some others rub the Breast alone with Honey and put upon it the Leaves of Red-Cabbadg the great Stalks first being taken away and they a little deadned before the fire this remedy doth very
will have it so The Infants sleep must be moderate that the Humours being thereby better concocted and digested the coming forth of the Pustules may be the freer it ought not to be to a Stupidity for that would be a sign nature were opprest let the Belly be kept moderately open with gentle Clysters that the Excrements may be thence evacuated if too long retained But when the Small Pox is in the beginning accompanied with a great Fever difficulty of Breathing and other Accidents the principal Remedy is Bleeding although most Women not understanding the Case do condemn it and will not suffer it to be done to their Children imagining that it would hinder the coming forth of the small Pox and if it happens that the Children after bleeding die although it be through the greatness and malignity of the Disease they will not fail to impute it to Bleeding but it is very certain this is a profitable Remedy in the beginning of this Disease for by this means all the Humours are cooled and the fulness of them being evacuated Nature easily comands and overcomes the rest As to purging it ought not to be used in the beginning lest by the agitation it makes in the humours Nature be hindered and diverted from doing its work but towards the end it will be very convenient to empty the remaining impurities lest these reliques falling upon some parts should spoil them All this while such things must be used as may fortifie the Heart as Cordials not of the sort of those pretended Cordial and Threacle Waters which ordinarily are made use of and rather cause one to vomit than fortifie the Heart nor those powders of Pearl and Bezoar and other such like trifles which many superstitiously believe without any reason to have a specifick quality to this purpose but the truer and more salutary Cordials are the breathing of sweet and clear Air and wholesom diet with the moderate use of things agreeable to the Stomack and which please and comfort it such as are Syrup of Lemmons and Pome-granats mixed with the Childs Ptysan or a little Wine well allayed with Water which is the Cordial of Cordials if the Fever be not great and that it is a sucking Child the Nurses Milk ought to be sufficient for all As to outward Remedies or application to the Pustules 't is best to leave it to Nature only assisting it as we have said And to the end they may ripen easier assoon as they begin to appear which is about the third or fourth day anoint them principally those of the Face with oile of sweet Almonds rubbing them with a Feather dipt in it some mix a little Cream with it others use only a a little fresh Butter and others again old Hogs-grease melted and often washed in Rose-water and well beaten in a marble Mortar with which they anoint them 'till they are perfectly healed and when the Pustules are ripe enough which is known by the whiteness and itching that follows and is usually about the ninth day the biggest of them may then be pierced to empty the matter lest by its too long stay there it ulcerates and corrodes the parts too deeply This may be done with a gold or silver Needle or by cutting off the tops with Scissers afterwards to dry them up anoint the Face with a Liniment made with fresh Cream mixed with white Chalk continuing this Remedy 'till the Scabs be quite fallen off using it Nights and Mornings or else with Ointment of Roses mixed with a little fine powdred Ceruse To hinder that the small Pox do not cause too great a flux of humours upon the Eyes 't is good using from the beginning some cooling Remedies that by moderately driving back may hinder it There is ordinarily used Rose-water and Plantane-water mixed together with which they bathe them from time to time most Women steep a little Saffron in it but because of its strong scent I chuse rather the Waters alone The Nurses Milk is likewise very good to appease the pain Care must be also taken from time to time to unstop the Infants Nostrils that he may breath the freer which may be done with small linnen tents and to help the Throat which is alwaies hoarse a little Syrup of Violets mixed with his Ptysan may be used and to cut the phlegm that sticks there give it a little Syrup of Lemmons or Pomegranats or a Gargarism of Vinegar and Water but the Milk only is sufficient for sucking Children Let us now see how a sucking Child must be governed in the French Pox. CHAP. XXXIV How to cure the Venereal Lues in Infants IF the small Pox of which we have lately discoursed be a contagious malady it is not so ordinarily but in respect to Infants for it is hardly communnicated by frequentation to elder persons but it is not the same in the great Pox the venome of which is so pernitious and susceptible that a single Child that hath this Disease is capeable to communicate it as it hath been very often seen to whole families and as well to old as young 'T is a sad thing to see poor small sucking Innocents afflicted with so ill a Disease which besides that it makes them suffer the pain of a sin of which they are innocent it makes them also very often be abandoned by every one and deserted in this deplorable state by their own Mother her self Those that have this Disease so young either bring it with them into the world from their Mothers Womb which may be known if she were infected with it or if it had at its birth Pustules and Ulcers in divers parts of its Body and principally about the Belly towards the Fundament and on the inside of the Thighs as also on the Head or else they got it since and took it from their Nurse who is in like manner infected with it then the first impressions will appear about the Mouth of the Child where Ulcers will breed because of the acrimony of the ill Milk it sucks which being its nourishment will not fail to communicate its venom to all the parts of the Body 'T is very hard to cure Children that are born with this disease for they very soon die after because their whole substance cannot be reestablished having for its foundation had so bad a principle as the Mothers Blood infected with such a venome wherewith they have been engendred formed and nourished but as to those who have received it from their Nurses only there is much more hope of and less difficulty in their cure because the venom of the bad Milk not communicating it self immediatly with its whole substance in the Vessels of the Infants Body doth not there make so great a spoil as in the other where the Blood with which it is only nourished whilst it is in the Mothers Womb is conveighed to him and spreads such as it is throughout all the parts of its Body for then there is only
so she may be able to make an end of nursing the Child that there may be no necessity to change her afterwards for another she must not have miscarried but have been brought to Bed at her full time of a healthful Son for 't is a mark of a good constitution and it must be her second or third Child that she may by experience know the better how to tend her Nursery As to the healthful constitution of her Body 't is the principal thing and on which almost all the rest depends In general she must be very healthful and of a good habit not subject to any distemper that she come of Parents that never had the Stone in the Reins or Bladder not subject to Gout Kings-evil Falling-sickness or any other hereditary disease that she hath no Spot nor the least suspicion of any Venereal Distemper that she have no Scab Itch Scald or other filth of the like nature that she be strong the better to watch and tend the Child in all things necessary for it that she be of a middle Stature neither too tall nor too low too fat nor too lean because a person of such a natural Symmetry performs all the functions more perfectly and as is usually said In medio consistit Virtus But above all she must not be with Child let her be of a Sanguine complexion which may be known by her Vermilion colour not altogether so red but inclining to white of a firm flesh not soft she must not likewise have her Courses for that 's a sign that her Blood is too hot either because her Temperament is such or from some amorous passion or otherwaies neither must she be subject to the Whites for such superfluities are a sign of a bad habit she must not be red haired nor marked with red Spots but her Hair must be black or of a Chesnut brown she must be well shaped neat in her Cloaths and comely in her Face having a sprightly Eye and a smiling Countenance she must have good Eyes sound and white Teeth not having any rotten or spoiled lest her Breath should smell she ought to have a sweet voice to please and rejoyce the Child and likewise ought to have a clear and free pronuntiation that he may not learn an ill accent from her as usually red-hair'd have and sometimes also those that are very black-hair'd and white skins for their Milk is hot sharp and stinking and also of an ill taste she must not have a strong Breath as they who have a stinking Nose and bad Teeth as we have said before because the Nurse that constantly kisses the Child would infect its Lungs by often drawing in her corrupted Breath her Breasts ought to be pretty big to receive and concoct there a sufficient quantity of Milk but not big to excesse they must be sound and free from Scars proceeding from former Impostumes they must be indifferent firm and fleshy and not flaggy and hanging that their natural hear may be the stronger The Nurse must be broad breasted that her Milk may have more place to be prepared and digested in and because 't is a sign of abundance of vital heat As to the Nipples they must be well shaped that is not too big nor too hard nor grifly nor sunk in too deep but they must be a little raised and of a moderate bigness and firmness well perforated with many little holes for to be soft milcht that the Child may not take too much pains to draw the Milk by sucking and pressing them with its Month. If a Nurse hath all these recited good qualities respecting all the parts of her Body there is reason to presume her Milk will be well conditioned which may be known first by its quantity which ought to be sufficient for the Childs nourishment nor must it be too much lest that not being all drawn forth it curdles and inflames the Breast by its too long stay there but however it is better to have too much than too little for she may give the overplus to another Child It must be of a middle consistence neither too waterish nor too thick which may be easily judged if the Nurse milking some into her hand and turning it a little on one side it immediately runs off but if it remains fixt without running by the turning of the Hand 't is a mark it is too thick and viscous The good is of a consistence between both which slides off gently in proportion to the turning of the Hand leaving the place whence it slid a little stained As to the colour the whitest is the best and the lesser white it is so much the worse it must be of a sweet and pleasant smell which is a testimony of a good temperament as may be seen in red-haired Women whose Milk hath a soure stinking and bad scent and to be compleat in every quality it must be well tasted that is sweet and sugared without any acrimony or other strange taste We must not forget the principal and best Conditions of a Nurse which consists in her good manners wherefore let her be vigilant and careful to cleanse the Child assoon as there is occasion let her be wise and prudent not subject to choler nor quarrelsome as well because in the beginning it may make bad impressions on the Child as because this passion doth extraordinarily heat the Milk she must not be melancholy but merry and cheerful smiling often to divert it she must be sober and not given to Wine and yet less to the excess of Venus but she may moderately use the first and not totally abstain from the second if her nature require it provided it be with her Husband which liberty is freely given them by Jubertus in his seventh Chapter of his fifth Book of popular Errors founded upon the experience of all poor Women who bring up their Children very well notwithstanding they lie every night with their Husbands and of his own alledging that his Wife had nursed his Children all very well although he lay with her every night and caressed her as he said like a good and faithful Husband but she must forbear at least an hour or two after to give the Child suck If a Nurse hath all or most part of these conditions here specified as well respecting her person as manners and that she maintaines this condition by a Diet fit for the Childs temperament and not contrary to her own there is then great reason to believe she is fit to make a very good Nurse and to bring up in perfect health the Son of a Prince In fine loving Reader I believe I have now acquitted my self of my duty towards the Publick in communicating the knowledg that God hath graciously bestowed on me concerning the Diseases of Women with Child and in Child-bed I pray God the fountain of all Science that he will vouchsafe to teach you the right way of helping them and their Children in these cases