have to make water p. 89. of the inflammation of the Almonds of the eares p. 90. of vomiting ibid. of the Hicquet p. 91. of the pain of the belly in children ibid. of the small pox in children p. 92. Certain other instructions grounding upon practicall observations fit to be known by all Midwives and child-bearing women c. p. 95. A Second observation of a Woman that had been in Travail nine dayes p. 99. of a Woman here in Town that bare her Child eleven Moneths and could not be Delivered p. 101. of the common opinion that a woman seven moneths gone ought to walk very much and of the accidents that happen thereby p. 1â—3 of a child which they thought sick of the Epilepsie occasioned by the sicknesse of the Mother and of the cause p. 106. of a young woman who being struck upon the belly by her Husband with his foot was in great pain could not be brought to bed without the help of a Chirurgion p. 108. of two Deliveries of one Woman p. 109. of a Woman that because she would not be ruled in her Lying in died p. 111. of certain Women that bear children and lye in before their time and others at their full time who grow big and full of humors which causeth the death of the child presently after their Delivery their children being nourished in their Bellies like fish only with water p. 113. The observation of a woman who was thought unable to bear any more Children yet contrary to expectation was delivered of one and the reason thereof p. 114. A good observation in the choice of Nurses p. 115. of a Woman which I laid two several times and of the difference of her bearing of two children proceeding from several causes p. 117. Instruction of a famous and dying Midwife to her Daughter touching the practice of this Art p. 119. The natural forme of a child lying in the womâ— To be sold by N Brooke at the Angel in Cornhil G. F. 〈◊〉 THE COMPLEAT MIDWIFE HER PRACTICE Of the Genitals or vessels dedicated to Generation in Men and Women THe consideration of these things is so necessary for the purpose of this book that they require not onely a deep meditation but the praeeminence to take up the first thoughts of those who would arrive to the knowledg of a thing so much needful to all mankinde And it may be lawfully feared that many women do miss their design because they know nothing but the outside of things so that in matters of extremity because they are ignorant of the structure of the parts they cannot tell how to go about their work We shall therefore begin with an easie Anatomy of the privy parts both of men and women so far as shall be requisite to the gaining of so great a skill In the first place therefore we shall begin with man in whom those things which are called the vessels of preparation are first to be considered CHAP. I. Of the vessel of preparation AMong the Spermatic vessels are to be considered first two veins and two arteries these are carried downward from the small guts to the Testicles and are much bigger in men then they are in women The original of these veines is not alwayes the same for commonly the right vein riseth out of the hollow veine a little below the source or original of the Emulgent but the least takes his original from the lower part of the Emulgent it self Yet sometimes it hath a branch carried to it from the trunk of the hollow vein The middle part of these veines runs directly through the Loyns resting upon the Lumbal Muscle a thin Membrane only intervening and thus having gone about half its journey it branches out and distributes it self to the near adjoyning filmy parts of the body The uttermost part of these vessels is carried beyond the Midriff to the Stones yet do they not pass through the Peritonaeum but descends with a small nerve and the muscle called Cremaster through the Duplicity of the Midriffe when it approaches neer the stones it is joyned with an artery and now these vessels which were before a little severed one from the other are by a film rising from the Peritoneum closed up and bound both together and so twisting up like the young tendrils of a vine they are carried to the end of the stones fig 1. fig 2. CHAP. II. Of the Parastatae or vessels where the bloud is first changed THese four vessels after many ingraftings and knittings together seem at length to become onely two bodies full of little crumplings like the tendril of a vine white and in the form of a Piramid resting the right upon the right stone the left upon the left stone These are called Parastatae which as they stand pierce the tunicles of each stone with certain fibers or extraordinary small veines which afterwards dispearse themselves through the body of those stones The substance of these Parastatae is between that of the stones and that of the preparing vessels for they neither altogether consist of Membranes neither are they altogether Glandulous or kernelly CAAP. III. The use of the preparing vessels THe use of those vessels which are called the vessels of preparation is chiefly to attract out of the hollow vein or left Emulgent the most pure and exquisitely concocted bloud which is most apt to be converted into seed which they contain and prepare giving unto it a certain rude form of seed in those parts that lie as it were in certain pleights or folds which they do by a peculiar property bequeathed to them Another use of them is gathered by their scituation for as they are now scituated that is to say the right vein coming from the hollow vein and the left from the Emulgent this inconvenience is avoided that the left vein is not forced to pass over the great artery and so be in danger of breaking by reason of the swift motion of the artery Moreover there being a necessity that male and female should be begot it is fit that there should be seed proper for the generation of both sexes whereof some must be hotter and some must be colder and therefore nature hath so ordered it that the hotter seed should proceed from the right vein for the generation of man and the colder from the left for the generation of females The left vein hath also this property to draw from the Emulgent the more serous and less pure bloud to the intent that the serous humour might stir up venery by its salt and acrimonius substance and therefore it is observed that those who have the left stone bigger are most full of seed and most prone to venery The use of the Parastatae is this to contain the bloud and stay it in their windings and wrinkled bodies and by power received from the stones to change the colour of the bloud CHAP IV. Of the Testicles in general THe stones are in number two very seldome
she must rest very quiet and be free from all manner of disturbance she must sleep as little in the day time as may be If she goe not well to the stoole she may have some such kind of Glyster as this â„ž of mallows Marshmallows and Pelitory of the wall an one handfull Flowers of Camomile and Melilot of each a small handfull Aniseeds and Fenell seeds of each two ounces boile these in the decoction of a wethers head take of this three quartaries and dissolve in them of course suger and common hony of each two ounces new fresh butter three ounces of this make a Glister and if occasion serve add to this an ounce of Catholicon What is to be done to the Breast Belly and lower parts of the Woman in child-bed IN the first place you may lay the skin of a hare or sheep for the space of four or five howers which being taken away you may then anoynt it with this following oyntment and then lay a linnen towell all over her belly and hipps which must be continued on for the first seven days looking after and turning every morning The Oyntment may be this â„ž the oyl of sweet Almonds Camomil and Hipericon an one ounce and a half Spermaceti two ounces Goats fat one ounce oyle of Myrtles halfe an ounce melt all these and make an oyntment to anoynt the belly Now before the cere cloath be put on you must apply a little plaister of Galbanum about the bigness of two or three fingers to the navel in the middle of which may be put two or three graines of civet yet so as that the woman may not perceive the sent of it The cere cloth may be this â„ž White wax four ounces Pomatum without musk Calfes greass of each an ounce Spermaceti an ounce and a half oyle of Hipericon and sweet Almonds of each one ounce Venice Turpentine washed in Pellitory water halfe an ounce melt these in Balneo Mariae and spread them upon a cloath about the bigness of the belly and when it is coole apply it The next care is to be had of the brests upon these some put round cere cloths made thus take six ounces of new wax oyle of Myrtle roses and hony of Narbon of each two ounces melt these all togetheâ— and make a cere cloth Let them have holes in the middle for the nipples to goe through This oyntment is also very good to keep the milke from clotting â„ž Oyntment of Populion one ounce Galens refrigerating oyntment half an ounce oyle of roses six dramms vinegar a small quantitie melt them together and make an oyntment This fomentation is also much commended â„ž Fennel Parssely Petroselinum Mallows Althea of each a small handfull Laurel and Camomile flowers of each half a handfull boyle these according to art and make a fomentation for the nipples After this fomentation anoynt them with oleum rosatum omphacium and then apply this following plaister â„ž Venice Turpentine foure ounces well washed in strong wine and rose water adding to it two whole eggs and a scruple of saffron with as much wax as is sufficient spread this upon a linnen cloth and apply it as for the lower parts for the three first dayes they are to be fomented with a certaine fomentation of milke where in hath bin boyled a few roses some chervil and a little plantaine From the next day to the eight day you may use this bath wine and water of each half a pint red roses and flowers of Hipericon of each two handfulls Agrimony one handfull make of this a decoction after bathing once or twice lay this following oyntment along the lipps of the privities upon a linnen cloth â„ž Oyle of Hipericon two ounces Spermaceti an ounce and a halfe a little white wax mix all these together melt them and make an oyntment After the eight dayes are past you may lay upon her belly this following plaister â„ž Oyle of Hipericon Camomile and aniseeds of each one ounce oyle of Mastick an ounce and a half oyle of myrtles six dramms Spermaceti two ounces the fat of the reines of a goat an ounce and a half Dears suet one ounce of this make an oyntment to anoynt the belly of the woman in childbed and then apply this following plaister â„ž Oyle of myrtles and Hypericon of each an ounce and a halfe oyle of Nippo one ounce Venice Turpentine washed in water of Motherwort four ounces melt all these together and put them upon a hempen cloath that may cover all the belly and lett her weare it the space of eight dayes These fifteen days being past for the space of eight days more you may lay upon her belly and her hipps this following plaisters â„ž Oyle of Mastick myrtles Iasmine and Quinces of each an ounce and a halfe oyle of Acornes two ounces spermaceti one ounce Venice Turpentine washed in Plantaine water half an ounce wax six ounces melt all these together adding powder of Mastick and Terra sigillata an halfe an ounce florentine Orrice one ounce spread all these upon a hempen cloath and lay it on her belly to be kept there for the space of eight or ten dayes for the lower parts this fomentation may be needfull â„ž Leaves of Plantaine Mulleine Centinody and Horstaile an one handful Cypress leaves a handfull and a halfe of the rind of Pomgranates cypress nuts and Pomgranate flowers of each halfe an ounce red roses Camomil and Melilot of each a handfull roch Alum two ounces calamus aromaticus and florentine Orrice of each three drams Gilliflowers one dram make of these two sacks and boyle them in like quantities of sower wine and smiths water for the exteriour mouth of the neck of the womb Of the choice of a good Nurse THe choice of a good Nurse is very important and therefore you must first look upon her aspect and see whether her sight be no way imperfect as whether she be squint-eyed or have a down-cast look you must have a special care that she be not red hair'd for their milk is extreamly hot see moreover whether her teeth be sound and white and well set know whether she come of parents that have been troubled with the consumption and if she have not nor be exsumptive herself you may judg of her stomach and whether she be subject to catarrhs you must also take heed that she send no stinking breath either from her mouth or nostrils for that corrupts the Lungs of the Infant Enquire whether neither she nor any of her kindred have been troubled with leprosie by reason that it is very contagious or with the Epilepsie or Falling-sickness And therefore those women that either cannot or will not nurse their own children must make use of such women as are most fit to the humour they would have the child to be of for the nurse is now to be the second mother of the child from whom the Infants draws all her conditions be they good be they bad and
in women c. 15. p. 42. Of the utilitie of the stones c. 16. p. 43. Sect. 3. Of the signs of conception c. 1. p. 44. Whether she hath conceived a Male c. 2. p. 46 Whether a Female c. 3. p. 47. Of the conception of Twins c. 4. p. ibid. Of false conception c. 6. p. 48. How women with child ought to govern themselves c. 6. p. 54. How to govern themselves in the time of their going with child c. 7. p. 57. c. Sect. 4. Of the mixture of the seed of both Sexes as also of its substance and form c. 1. p. 62. of the three tunicles which the birth is wrapt in in the womb c. 2. p. 64. Of the true generation of the parts and the increase of them according to the several daies and seasons c. 3. p. 65. Of the nourishment of the birth in the womb c. 4. p. 69. Of the condition of the Infant in the womb in the sixth seventh and eight moneth c. 5. p. 71 Sect. 4. Of the situation of the child in the womb p. 72. Sect. 5. Of Midwifes c. 1. p. 75. What ought to be observed when shee is neer the time of her lying down c. 2. p. 76. How to expell the Collick from women in child-bed c 3. p. 79. How the Midwife may know when the pains of travail do seize a woman c. 4. p. 80. Of the falling down of the waters a good while before the woman travails c. 5. p. 81. What the Midwife ought to do in time of travaile c. 6. p. 82. How to draw forth the Secondines c. 7. p. 84. What may be given to a woman in travaile c. 8. p. 85. How to put the Womb again in its place c. 9. p. 86. Against the extreme losse of blood which happen to women immediately after their delivery c. 10. p. ib. What is done to a woman presently after her delivery c. 11. p. 88. Of women that have a great deal of bloud and purge not neither in their travail nor after c. 12. p. 90. For those who have but a little bloud c. 13. p. 92. What is to be done to the Infant c. 14. p. ib. How to govern women in Child-bed c. 15. p. 93. Of the bathings that a woman is to use for the first eight dayes of her lying in c. 16. p. 95. How a woman ought to govern her self in case she be to be delivered of two children c. 17. p. 95. Of the danger that a woman hath to purge her selfe for the first dayes of her lying in c. 18. 97. Of the second washing for women c. 19. p. 98. What is to be done to Infants as soon as they are born c. 20. p. 98. Of the last washing for Women c. 21. p. 101. Of an Astringent for Women when they shall have occasion c. 2â— p. ibid. To make searcloaths for women c. 23. p. 102. To cleanse a woman before she rises c. 24. p. ibid. How a woman lying in of her first child may avoid the gripings of her belly c. 25. 103. The Queen of France her Receit p. 104. Certain precepts hindering the delay and difficulty of bringing forth c. 26. p. 105. How the secondines are to be hastened out c. 27. p. 108. Pills for the purpose p. 111. Of Cases of Extremity and first what is to be done to a woman who in her travail is accompanied with a flux of bloud and with convulsions c. 28. p. 112. Of ordering the woman after she is delivered c. 29. p. 129. What is to be done to the breast Belly and lower parts of the woman in child-bed p. 131. An Oyntment p. 132. An oynment to keep the milk from clotting p. 133. A Fomentation much commended ibid. Of the choise of a good Nurse p. 135. What is to be done in the extream parts of a child p. 1. 36. What is to be done to such children as are troubled with flegme p. 137. What is to be done to children that have their Cods full of wind p. 138. How to take away the Canker out of the Infants mouth ibid. What is to be done to children whose intestines are fallen p. 139. To make an oyntment to strengthen the thighs and legs of a child and make him goe ibid. Of the relaxations of the Matrix and the cause p. 140. of a disease that happens by reason of the fall of the Matrix p. 143. To remedie the fall of the fundament in Infants p. 144. of the Diseases of women and first of the inflammation of the brest ibid. of windy Tumours in the breasts p. 1. of the watry tumour in the brests p. 4. of the kernell in the breast p. 7. of the Scirrhus of the breasts p. 9. of the Canker in the breasts p. 12. of the greatnesse of the breasts p. 14. of the defect abundance and coagulation of the Milk p. 16. of the Diseases of the neck of the womb and first of the disease called Tentigo p. 17. of the narrownesse of the neck of the womb p. 19. of wheales condilomas of the womb and of Hemorrhoids p. 20. of the Vlcers of the neek of the womb p. 23. of the womb being out of temper p. 26. of then arrownesse of the vessels of the womb p. 30. of the puffing up of the womb p. 31. of the inflammation of the womb p. 33. of the Scirrhus of the womb p. 36. of the Dropsie of the womb p. 38. of the falling of the womb p. 40. of the ascent of the Matrix as also of the wounds and ulcers of the same p. 42. of the paine of the womb p. 44. of the suppression of the flowers p. 46. of the dropping of the flowers and the difficulty of their comming down p. 51. of the discolouring of the flowers p. 53. of the inordinate flux of the Flowers p. 54. of the over-abundance of the Courses p. 56. of the whites Gonorrhea in women p. 59. of the Green sicknesse p. 61. of the suffocation of the Matrix p. 62. of barrennesse p. 66. of bringing up of children and their diseases of the diseases of the head p. 71. Bignesse and swelling of the head in little children p. 73. of the diseases of the eyes ears and noses in children p. 75. of certain ulcers in Childrens mouths p. 76. of certain other tumors called Paroulis and Espoulis p. 77. of the two strings under the tongue of a child p. 78. of the Coughing children ibid. of breeding teeth p. 79. of the inflammation of the Navel-string in Infants p. 80. of the Worms ibid. of the convulsion in Infants p. 81. of the swelling of the Hypocondria in Infants p. 83. of Costivenesse in children ibid. of loosenesse in children p. 84. of Burstnesse in children ibid. of the inflammation of the Navel p. 86. of the jutting forth of the Navel p. ibid. of the stone in the bladder p. 87. of the not holding of the Vrine ibid. of the Intertrigo p. 88. of Leannesse ibid. of the difficulty that children
vein and the Aorta is the whole breast generated and after that the arms and legs in order Within the foresaid time is generated the last and chiefest part of this substance that is to say the brain in the third little skin of this mass for the whole mass of the seed being repleat with vital spirits that vital spirit contracts great part of the Genital moisture into one certain hollowness where the brain is formed outwardly it is covered with a certain covering which being baked and dried by the heat is reduced into a bone and so is the Cranium made Now the brain is so formed as to conceive retain and change the natures of all the vital spirits whence are the beginnings of reason and of all the sences for as out of the liver arise the veins out of the heart arise the arteries so out of the brain arise the nerves of a more soft and gentle nature yet not hollow like veins but solid These are the chiefest instruments of all the sences and by which all the motions of the sences are made by the vital spirit After the nerves is generated by the brain also the pith of the back-bone which cannot be called marrow for the marrow is a superfluous substance begot out of the bloud destined for the moistening and for the strenghthening of the bones but the brain and pith of the back-bone take their beginning from the seed being not destined for the nourishing or strengthening of the members but to constitute certain private and particular parts of the body for the motion and use of the sences that all the other nerves may take their beginning thence for from the pith of the back-bone do arise many nerves by which the body obtaines both sence and motion Here is also to be noted that out of the seed it self are generated gristles bones tunicles for the veins of the liver the arteries of the heart the brain with its nerves besides the tunicles and pannicles and the other coverings which the infant is wrapt in Now of the proper bloud of the birth the flesh is formed and whatever parts are of a fleshie substance as the heart the liver and the lights Then are all these nourished by the menstruous bloud which is attracted through the veins of the navel This is all distinctly done from the conception unto the eighteenth day of the first moneth in all which time it is called seed After which it receives the name of Birth CHAP. IV. Of the nourishment of the birth in the womb VVHile the birth remaines in the womb it is cherished up with blood attracted through the navel which is the reason that the flowers doe cease alwayes in women as soone as they have conceived Now this blood presently after conception is distinguished into three parts the purest part of it is drawn by the child for the nourishment of its selfe the second which is less pure and thin the womb forces upwards to the breast where it is turned into Milke The third and most impure part of the blood remaines in the matrix and comes away with the secondines both in the birth and after the Birth Now the infant being thus formed and perfected in the womb for the first moneth sends forth its Urine through the passages of the navel but in the last month that passage being shut up through the privie members yet notwithstanding while the Infant is in the womb he voyds nothing out at the fundament because he hath taken no nourishment in at the mouth After the fourty fifth day it receives life and is then called an Infant Now though the infant hath by this time obtained sence yet doth he not move He most commonly moves in twice the time that he was formed and in thrice the space after he began his motion he hastens into the world as for example if the Infant were formed in forty five dayes it will move in ninetie and be born the ninth month after that and thus much of the formation and nourishment of the child in the womb CHAP. V. Of the condition of the Infant in the womb in the sixth seaventh and eighth moneth AFter the third and fourth moneth the infant is nourished with more plenty of nourishment until the time of deliverie approach Now you must observe that a childe born in the sixth month cannot live by reason that it is not come to its just perfection but if it be born in the seventh moneth it will very easily live because it is come to its full perfection Now the reason why those that are born in the eight moneth doe not live when as those which are born in the seventh doe is plaine for in the seventh moneth the Infant stirs it self to come forth so that if it have so much strength it easily performes its desire if not it remaines in the womb till it have gathered two months more strength After this motion of the seventh month if it be not able to come forth it changes it self into another part of the womb by which motion it is so weakened that if it should be born in the eight moneth it were impossible that it should live for it is weakened by a double motion not only that of the seventh moneth but also by that motion whereby it strives to go forth in the eight moneth SECT IV. CHAP. I. Of the situation of the child in the womb COncerning the scituation of the child in the womb it may be considered either generally or specially specially either as it concerns the male or the female The male is commonly scituated in the right side of the womb the female in the left The general situation of the childe either male or female in the womb is always the same Which hath been observed and seen to be in this posture when the infant lies with his back and his buttocks leaning against the back of the mother the head enclined and touching his breast with his chin resting his two hands upon his knees his navel and his nose between his two knees with his two eyes upon his two thumbs his legs folded backward and touching his buttocks with each leg This figure is the most natural as being least subject to suffer any accident being less inconvenient and less troublesome to the mother The most naturall form for the childe to come into the world is when the head comes forward the hands being stretched upon the hips The things which are the causes of a womans delivery are three first the want of respiration and air for the infant The second is the want of nourishment of which when the infant finds a defect in his mothers womb he is forced to seek it in another place The third is the narrowness of the place where the infant lies so that he is forced to seek room other-where which makes him to break the membranes wherein he was contained pressing and constraining the mother by the sharpness of those waters to do her
the woman herselfe she must be of a good heart and force her selfe by striving as much as possible she can stopping her mouth and keeping her breath as if she were doing the ordinary deeds of nature As for the collick if it seize women in travaile you may read the remedies in the following chapter CHAP. III. How to expell the Collick from women in Childbed There are some women who at the same instant that they are in travaile are taken with fits of the collick which is often caused by the crudities and indigestions of the stomach which doe torment women so extremely that it exceeds the paine of their travaile and while this paine lasts a woman advances nothing toward the end of her travaile the paine of travaile being hardly to be distinguished from it For her ease therefore the woman ought to take these remedies two ounces of oyle of sweet Almonds with an ounce of Cinnamon-water or else some wind dispelling Glyster and if the first time suffice not you may reiterate it sometimes fomentations that are proper for the dispelling of winde are very necessary for this purpose CHAP. IV. How the Midwife may know when the pains of travail do seize a woman VVHen the woman begins to cry out and hath sent for her Midwife the first thing that the Midwife is to ask is when she did conceive 2. Then is she to look diligently upon the belly of the woman and to mark it well for if she do behold the upper parts of the belly sunk and hollow and the lower parts of the belly full and big she may then conclude that the child is fallen down 3. She ought then to ask her some questions concerning her pains for if they be quick and strong beginning at the reins and sliding down all along the belly without ending at the navel but still falling down upon the groins and inwardly at the bottom of the belly below which is the interiour neck of the womb these are certain signs that the woman begins to be in labour 4. But for more certaintie the midwife may put up her hand being anointed first with fresh butter and if she perceive the interior neck of the womb to dilate it selfe t is a certaine signe that the paines of childbed are upon the woman or if she perceive any thing to push forwards her travaile is also undoubtable CHAP. V. Of the falling down of the waters a good while before the woman travails There are some women who have their waters come from them a long time before their travaile sometimes twelve days sometimes eight dayes somtimes six and sometimes foure though the ordinary time be not aboue three houres before her travaile they remaining for the most part not above twenty four howers This is caused by some ruptures of the membranes where from the beginning of the formation of the child the humour is contained rather then by the abundance of humours and therefore though a woman that hath abundance and that the membranes containing them are so strong that they wil not breake suddaine though the woman shall not travail till they breake yet the midwife ought not to break them but rather hold the woman over a vessel of warme water and also use some softening linniment to soften the membranes that so the mother straining the head or other member of the child may breake them more easily But for those women that have these evacuations so long before they travaile they must refraine going into the aire for feare of injuring themselves the passages being open for though the air cannot hinder the childe from coming forth by reason of its weight yet oft times getting within the secondine it not onely streightens the vessels and mouthes of the veines that are at the bottom of the womb but also causes several convulsions to the great danger of the woman but it is an easie thing to remedy these accidents by keeping close in her chamber having also a special regard to distinguish whether they be the waters of the birth or any Hydropick humour of the Matrix CHAP. VI. What the Midwife ought to do in time of travaile THe Midwife seeing the birth come naturally the pains now coming thicker and thicker the womb also opening to be delivered of its burthen and the endeavours of the childe being seen to come forth The Midwife must now encourage her patient admonishing her to shut her mouth and to hold her breath and to strein and endeavour with her lower parts Neither ought the Midwife be too hasty either to widen or force the passage of the Infant or to break the membranes but to stay till the membranes do burst of their own accord And here is to be noted Note the ignorance of some women who for haste to be gone to other women do tear the membranes with their nail to the danger both of the woman and of the childe which then remains dry without that moisture which makes the passages slippery which must of necessity augment the pain of the woman When the head comes forth of the womb the Midwife must take it gently between her two hands and then when the pains increase slipping down her hands under the arm-holes gently drawing forth the Infant yet staying her hand always but when the pains come upon the woman This must be done with a very delicate and tender hand lest the child by any rude or harsh handling should receive any deformed shape of body When the child is come into the world which is commonly with his face downward it must be suddenly turned upon his back lest it should be stifled for want of air Then let her cut the navel-string leaving the length of four fingers tying it with a silk thread as near the belly as may be Which done the childe if it be well may be laid aside only care must be had that the head and the stomach be well covered and that nothing come upon his face CHAP. VII How to draw forth the Secondines THis childe being thus drawn forth and in safety the midwife must now apply her selfe to the drawing out of the secondines which must be don by wagging and stirring them up and down and then gently drawing them forth causing the woman to take salt in both her hands and to shut them close and then to blow in them whereby you shall know whether they be broken or noe it may be done also by causing her to put one finger in her mouth to provoke a desire of vomiting or else by stirring as when she is doing the ordinary deeds of nature or as nature it selfe constrained her to doe before the head of the child was come forth All this must be don speedily yet if this be not sufficient she may take the yolke of an egg raw or she may take a small draught of raw elder-water or you may cause her to smell to a peice of Assa Foetida If she be troubled with winde collicks or have
of two children THe travaile of a woman bringing forth two Infants is more tedious and it many times happens that one of the children comes forth very well and the other comes forth very scurvily And this is certain that that which comes forth first is always the strongest having the power to goe before the other and to break the membranes that enveloped it And ofttimes while the second is born the other remaines behinde wrapt in such membranes as the former was so that it remaines a good space behind the other somtimes two houres and yet it hath bin very well borne Now knowing that that which came first was the stronger it would not be amiss to assist the other in coming forth by breaking the membranes that contain the waters and if that faile by giving strong Glysters to excite the paine which were it not many times done the child would never be able to endure the paine of coming into the world by reason of its extraordinary weaknes which is so great somtimes that the bone of the forehead is devided and separated down to the nose although the Infant being born it joynes together againe and the Infant does very well which if it happen you must have a great care to bind some kind of soft pillow upon the place that the aire may not enter in If the second Child come forth ill you must not delay to breake the membranes and to draw the Infant gently out by the feet for having used all its endeavour to come forth to keep it there or to prolong the travaile any longer is more dangerous then profitable sometimes two come so suddainely the one after the other that there seemes to be but one deliverie of both there being but a little membrane that separates them In this case holding the first you must cut the navel string and bind it about and tye it about the Hipp while they draw forth the other Infant which by a longer stay would be much weakened CHAP. XVIII Of the danger that a woman hath to purge her selfe for the first days of her lying in IT is an ordinary thing for women that lye in by reason of their bed to loose the benefit of their bellyes which hinders the evacuation of their milke which causes fevers by sending gross vapours to the head yet can they not bee freed by any purgation taken in at the mouth but it would be much to the purpose to take pertinent Glisters which hinder the foresaid evills causing their breasts to become full and to be come stiff taking them as ocasion requires once in two or three dayes There are some unskilfull women that not understanding the ill consequences which may follow who doe give Sene to women in the first days of their lying in of which some have bin very ill and others have dyed For nature is now weakned by the travaile and while it is labouring to restore the body to its former Estate is not to be disturbed with violent purgations And therfore Glisters are always most proper Neither are laxative broths nor the broth of prunes nor baked apples fasting for these things doe engender wind but rather some good suppositories would be more usefull CHAP. XIX Of the second washing for women THe second washing for women ought to be with Province roses put into little baggs and boyld in water and wine of each a like proportion and this to be done for the second eight dayes CHAP. XX. What is to be done to Infants assoon as they are born IT is an approved Maxime that as soon as a child is born you ought to give it a spoonfull of pure wine for that assists and helps the child to regaine its spirits Another advantage is this that the wine cutts the flegme which the Child has in its throat besides the spirits of the wind rising up to the head comforts and strengthens it and them less subject to be drunk it hinders them also from the Epilepsie which proceeds from the debilitie of the braine This being done and the Mother fully delivered you must tie the Navel Veine with a silk well twisted and many times doubled and if there be any blood in the veine you must be sure to emptie it for feare if it should be left it should turne into corruption then it must be well dryed with pouder of rotten wood you must tye it two fingers breadth from the belly and leave it long three fingers breadths above the tying place and if it be fatt you must close it over and aboue that the veine may be well closed then wind the string twice about it knitting as many knots but if the child be come a fore its time you need not tye it so strong for feare of cutting it with the silke but if the Navel veine be full of water and wind you ought then having tyed it one time and wrapt a linnen cloth about the end of it which is still to be held upward to uncover it againe about half an hour after and then to tye it and wrap it about againe still keeping the end up for feare that if the veine were not fully closed that there might be some danger in the bleeding Some people give to the Infant Treacle dissolved in wine but this must be don warily in a very small quantitie and that not commonly neither The Infant must be washed with water and wine luke warm to clense it After wards wash the face as also chafe the throate the Armes and hands with oyle of wallnuts drawn without fire which some say will keep them from sunburning then put one hand upon the bone of the forehead and another upon the bone called the Coronal bone and softly close up the gap which was made during the time of travaile closing also the suture one against another exactly then gently put your finger under the tongue to see if the Infant have the string or no and if it have it may be clipt away with the poynt of a paire of sharp cizers without danger There are some that thinke they can shape the head and nose of a child as if it were of wax But let such take notice that have flat nosed Children rather to let the nose alone then by squeezing and closing it too much to render the nose obstructed for that compressing the Gristles of the nose renders the child liable either to speake alway in the nose or to lose his smelling There are some children that are borne with their noses awry for the help of which you may with your finger moystened in fair water gently stroke the nose but lay no stress upon it That happens by reason that the nose of the child lights upon some bone of the Mother as it was comming into the world CHAP. XXI Of the last washing for Women THe last washing for women is to be for four days with Province Roses boyled in wine and Myrrh-water CHAP. XXII Of an Astringent for Women when they shall
and first what is to be done to a woman who in her travail is accompanied with a flux of bloud and with convulsions IN the first place great care must be had as to the situation of the woman The woman in this case must be laid cross her bed where she must be held by some one that hath strength that she may not slide or move her self in the operations of the Chirurgion Her thighes must be held hard and wide abroad with her leggs bent backwards towards her hipps and her head leaning upon a bolster the reines of her back and her Crupper being alittle elevated with certaine pillows put under neath her thighes besides this she must be well covered with linnen cloaths laid upon her stomacke belly and thighes to defend her from the cold and wind Being thus situated the Chirurgion ought to putt up his hand being first well opened with in the neck of the womb to remove all those clotts of blood which may lie there to obstruct the passages of the blood He may then trye if the interior neck of the womb be sufficiently dilated that he may put in his hand and move the Infant if it be needfull which must be done as gently and with as little violence as may be he must anoynt it on all parts with sweet butter or good Pomatum and so opening it by little and a little he may put his hand quite in and if the waters are not yet come downe he may without any difficultie let them forth and then at the same instant if the Infant Come with the head forwards he shall gently turn it to find out the feet and when he hath found one of them he shall gently draw it forth and immediately tye a riband about it with a knott hanging downe ward then let him put it in a gaine suffering part of the riband to hang out that he may more easily be able to find out the other foot which he shall quickly doe by thrusting up his hand a long the thigh of the Infant when he hath found it he shall take the other foot and draw them both together at an even length giving the woman now and then some leisure to breath but urging her still to streine her selfe when she feeles the paines coming on her then shall the Chirurgion or midwife take a fine linnen cloath and wrap about the thighs of the child least by taking it naked his fingers should slip in that manner drawing it forth till it appeare all come forth observing still that the belly and the face be still kept downward Now if the woman have a flux of bloud and that the neck of the Matrix be open the Chirurgion ought then to consider whether the Infant or the secondine come forth first of all for it oftentimes happens that the secondines passing toward the mouth of the Matrix do so stop and obstruct it that they do not give leave for the childe or the waters to come forth so that some perceiving that softness are presently of opinion that the mouth of the womb is not open But this the Midwife or Chirurgion may easily discern by thrusting up the middle finger as high as may be and feeling therewith the circumference of the neck of the womb by which they wil soon perceive whether the womb be dilated or no and whether it be the secondines that present themselves Now when it is found to be the secondines and that they cannot easily come forth the Midwife may with her two fingers widen the passage that he may have thereby the liberty to put up his hand and seek for the Infant Now if the secondines are not placed in the middle they must be turned a little as quickly as may be that you may more conveniently seek for the feet of the Infant to draw it forth as we have said In such a case as this all care must be had that nothing be broken and that every thing be brought out whole for so though the woman should dye the Midwife or the Chirurgion would be blameless If the secondines come first the best way is to deliver the woman withall the expedition that may be by reason of the great fluxes of blood that will follow by reason that the veins are opened but here are two things to be considered the first is whether the secondines are much or little come forth if they are but little advanced they must be put back with care and diligence and if the head of the child appeare first it must be guided directly toward the neck of the womb as in the most naturall birth but if there appear any difficulty in the birth by reason of the weakness either of the childe or of the mother then the most convenient way will be to seek for the feet as we have said before Another thing to be observed is that if the secondine be so far advanced that they cannot be put back and that the childe follows it close then are the secondines to be pulled away with all the care and expedition that can be and to be laid aside without cutting the entrail that sticks to them for by that you may be guided to the Infant which whether it be alive or dead it is to be pulled out by the feet with as much care and quickness as may be though it is not to be done but in cases of great necessity for otherwise the secondines ought to come last If the childe be dead in the womb of the mother Of the child dead in the mothers belly the woman is then to be situated in the same posture as when she is troubled with a flux of bloud If it present it selfe dead with the head formost and that ther is little or no hope that the woman may be delivered without assistance and that her strength begins to faile her the most certaine and safe way is to put up the hand for the Chirurgion must then slide up his left hand being hollowed as when a man strives to hold water in it causing it to slide in the neck of the womb along the lower part thereof toward the feet and that betweene the head of the Infant and the neck of the Matrix and having thus opened the womb with his left hand he shall with his right put up his hook above his left hand between the head of the child and the flat of his hand and fix it in the bone of the temples toward the eare or else in the hollow of the eye or in the Occipital bone keeping his left hand still in its place after this gently moving and stirring the head with his left hand with his right hand holding the hook well fixed he shall draw the child forth by degrees exhorting the woman all the while to force and streine her selfe with all her power and then is the best time to draw forth the child when the paines shall seize her now if it happen that he loose his
that meanes be delayed to the damage of the woman in childbed The fourteenth form If there be twins in the womb and one of them endeavour to come forth with the head formost and the other with the feet First of all the Midwife must consider which of the two the woman may be delivered of with most expedition if the head of the one be less forward then the feet of the second it will be most convenient to draw that forth by the feet turning the head of the other a little to the other side and that being delivered she must presently lay hold of the head of that which is within and direct it just to the passage of the womb which may be done with more ease by reason of the gap which the formost hath made If it happen that in drawing forth the first by the feet that the other chang its situation the midwife may then draw forth the other by the feet as she did the first and if the head of the first be more forward then must she put back the feet of the first and receive that which comes with the head formost If both of them press together to the passage of the womb the midwife must take great care and therfore she must put up her hand to see which of them is most forward as also to try whether it be not some monstrous conception as two heads upon one body or two bodies joyned in one either at the shoulders or at the sides which may be known if she put up her hand gently between the two heads as high as she can and if she find that they are twins she may gently put the one to one side to make way for the passage of the other which is most advanced which must be directed just to the orifice of the womb having a great care that she do not change the situation of the second and as she feeles the pains of the mother coming on her she must by all means bring forward the childe that she would receive still keeping the other back with two or three fingers of the left hand and thus having delivered the first if the second be not well situated she must bring the head to the neck of the womb where it will find the passage open to it by the delivery of the first Now lest the first childe should be in danger of its life you must take it from the mother and carefully tie up the navel string as is formerly mentioned also bind again with a large and long fillet that part of the navel which is fast to the secondines that they may be the more easily found Then the second child being born the Midwife must see if there be not two secondines for by reason of the shortness of the ligature it may have happened to retire back againe to the damage of the woman and therfore the secondines must be hastened forth as soon as may be least the womb should close If the two Infants have but one body the better way is to turn the head upwards and to draw it forth by the feet then by the head taking care when you come to the hipps to draw it forth as quick as may be The fifteenth form The second forme of the unnaturall birth is very dangerous and therfore requires the greater care of the midwife First therfore let her well anoynt the womb of the woman that the passage may be more slipperie which being done let her take hold of the hands of one of the Infants and keeping them close to the sides direct the head to the orifice of the womb that being born let her proceed in the same manner toward the other If she cannot come to take hold of either of the Infants armes she must bring the woman againe to her bed and trye if by the foresaid Agitation of her body the infants may be Brought to a more convenient forme of delivery CHAP. XXIX Of ordering the woman after she is delivered IN the first place she must keep a temperate dyet having a great care not to over fill her selfe after so great an evacuation and indeed her dyet must be like that of wounded persons neither are the tales of Nurses to be beleived who exhort them to fill after so great an emptines telling them that the loss of bloud must be restored for these are meer fooleries for as for that blood which she hath lost it is but unnecessary blood such as is usually kept for the space of nine months which to voyd is much conducing to her health besides their nourishment for the first days must be but slender for feare of falling into a fever besides the abundance of milke which it would bring into the brest where it might be in danger of curdling or apostematizing and therfore for the first five days let her use broths Panadas potched eggs Gellies abstaining from flesh or french Barly In the Morning broth will be expedient at dinner broth or eggs or Panada and at supper the same with some Gellies for her second courses If she intend to nourse her childe she may feed more plentifully and drinke some Barly-water where in some corianders or fennell seed may be put In Italie the persons of most account doe use this water Take two Capons the fethers being well pulled of and the bowels wholly taken out which you shall boyl in a glaz'd earthen pot in a sufficient quantitie of water till they be halfe boyled then must they be taken out of the pot together with the broth and being cutt to peices are to be put into a Lembick in manner following â„ž Bugloss Borache and Time two good handfulls and with that cover the bottome of the shell then lay upon that a row of flesh then upon that a ranck of leaf gold with a dram of powder of pearles and upon that pover the broth let all this be distilled in Balneo Mariae drawing forth a pint at a time which you shall reiterate as often as you have any thing left to give to the woman in child-bed for the space of ten or twelve dayes This water must be drawn six weeks or two months before it be used If the woman be not troubled with a fever let her drinke a little white wine or Claret with twice as much hot water If she haue a mind to drink between meales or at night it may be convenient to give her some syrrup of maidenhaire or any other syrrup that is not astringent with a little boyled water After the suspition of fever or heat of her brests is over she may be nourished more plentifully and you may give her together with her broth some other meat as Pullet Capon Pigeon Mutton or Veale boyled After the eight day is past at what time the Womb is well purged and discharged it will be expedient to give her cold meat in greater quantitie that she may be enabled to gaine strength during all this time
it is often seen that children do partake more of the conditions of the Nurse then the Mother and therefore care must be taken that the Nurse be good conditioned good teeth brown hair of a healthy generation that neither she nor her husband may have had the French disease that she be not peevish nor cholerick that she have milk in abundance and a good fleshy breast that her breast be not over-fleshy that she be not too fat and above all that she be not of too amorous a humour and desirous to be with her husband for that is perfect venome to the milk What is to be done in the extream pains of the childe IF a child have extream throws presently after it be born you must rub it with Pelitory and fresh butter or Spinach or else with Hogs grease and apply it upon the navel having first a great care that it be not too hot Or else make a little cake of eggs and oyl of nuts and apply in the very same place if this avail not give it a little Glyster of milk the yolke of an egge and a little Sugar this easeth the pain of the intestines What is to be done with those children that are troubled with flegme THere are some children born of ill constitution'd women or else of women that have not used good nourishment in the time of their being with child who are very full of flegme these you must lay upon one side and sometimes upon the other for if you lay them upon their backs you may perchance choak them you must be sure to keep their bellies soluble causing them to void that bloud kept in the entrails from the time of their being in the womb by giving it a little suppository of black soap well rubbed in fresh butter to take away the Acrimony of it then give it a spoonful of syrrup of violets this causes the flegm to pass down if you perceive that the Infant hath not much heat you may mix with it half the quantity of oyl of sweet Almonds and half of the syrrup of violets and continue it stroaking the stomach and the belly of the Infant with fresh butter every time that they undress him That which ought to he done to children that have their cods full of wind VVHen Infants have their cods full of wind ye must examin whether it be with wind or water if it be water by rubbing and chafing the skin with fresh butter the waters will sweat out if it be wind the children must be stirred and swung gently mingling in their drinke the decoction of aniseeds How to take away the canker from the mouths of Infants THere have been known certaine children which have been nourished with cold milk which hath bin thick and in great quantity which a few days after its birth hath heated the mouth of the infant in such a fashion that it caused a white canker which presently possessed the tongue palate the gums the throat and all the mouth whereupon it was taken with a fever and it could no longer suck all the assistance that could be was still applyed and when no other medicine did avayle there was found one a particular remedie which was half a handfull of sage a handfull of cherveil brused a little and boyled in a sufficient quantitie of water a bout a dozen seethings to which you must add a spoonfull of vinegre when you have streined it you must put to it an ounce of mel rosatum then you must have a little hooked stick with a little peice of scarlet tyed at the end then putting the water in a sawcer dip the end of the stick where the scarlet is tyed and then rub the place affected gently and you shall find the cancer to asswage by little and a little What is to be done to children whose intestines are fallen THere are a great many infants whose great gut fals which is a thing very easily remedyed at the beginning and therfore you must put it up againe first lay the child with his head lowermost then you must have a thick cushion soaked in smiths water then you must have an emplaister made of the roots of great Consound scraped and put upon it as an oyntment then looking to it every day taking care that it crie but little and never unbind him but as hee lyes lest the gut tumble down againe and so the cure be delayed as the child grows big the hole lessens and the Intestine grows big This is an experienced way To make an oyntment to strengthen the thighs and leggs of a child and make him goe TAke Sage Marjoram Dwarfe Elder-bruise them a good while together till you have beaten out a good deale of juice then put it into a glass viol till it be full and stop up the hole with past and round the sides also put the said past put it then in an oven to bake as long as a good bigg loafe then draw it forth and suffer it to coole then breake the past which is round the viol breake the bottle and keep up that which is with in which you shall find turnd to an oyntment and when you would use it you must add to it some of the marrow of the hoofe of an oxe melting it all together and when you have so done you must rub the hinder part of the leggs and thighs of the child This hath been done to a child whom a famous Physitian after three yeares having in hand gave over saying that it would never goe Of the relaxations of the Matrix and the cause There are many causes of the relaxation of the Matrix the one proceeding from great fluxes which fal down upon the ligaments thereof causing them to wax loose Others come to this disease by some falls others by reason of carring in their womb too great burdens others by streining themselves in travaile before their time and because the orifice of the womb is not open somtimes and very often by reason of the midwifes who putting up their hands into the womb teare downe they know not what which is often times apart of the Matrix to the bottom of which the secondines adhere drawing down part of the womb which they take to be the secondines which is often times brought also to a worse condition when the unskilfull women force her to the remedies for bringing down the secondines as holding baysalt in her hand streining to vomit and the like For remedie wherof all these relaxation of the Matrix by the same remedies except those which are occasioned by strong fluxes for in this case other remedies are not sufficient being that you are to take away the cause of those defluxions before you can proceed to the cure of the relaxation Among the rest I will relate one that hath been found very profitable and experienced which is this astringent Take Gall nuts Cypress nuts and Pomegranate flowers Roche Alum of each two ounces Province Roses four ounces
delivered of a very lusty child which lived about two dayes I came thither about noon and the was brought to bed before 9. at night I wrote this thus particularly to let you know that oft-times for want of knowing where the mischief lies the Remedies are mis-applyed and indeed a Woman Travayling in the ninth moneth ought chiefly to be succored with Clysters Of a Woman here in Town that bare her Childe elevent Moneths and could not be Delivered BEing called to a Woman in this Town that thought her self three moneths and a half gene which is one of the Termes of time wherein commonly the Moles and false births are delivered having then some loss of blood and paine I was sent for and judged it to have been some imperfect Conception and therefore I used all the meanes that art imposeth to assist her yet could she not expel it for all these long paines whereupon finding some strange apprehensions in her I wondered for in all the time of my practice I never knew such a thing as that dangerous in my life But I afterwards found this apprehension to come from a certain accident that had hapned to a Sister of hers who being with child carried it very wel to the end of the ninth moneth at the end of which she began to be in paine as if she would have cryed out the paines were great and long which they were not at all astonished at by reason that it was her first childe yet were not these paines accompanied with any signes of Labour as the opening the exterior orifice of the Womb and they continued thus for the space of two dayes and two nights many Medicines were used to facilitate the birth but to no purpose and now she felt not the child stir any more And now it was concluded that she had mistaken her time and now being at rest for four or five dayes and growing weary of the City she went into the Country and being returned without taking notice that she had received any harm she was taken with the same paines as before which continued a day and a night and then ceased as before this was adjudged to be certain paines of the colick after this she endured one moneth longer in her former estate which was now the eleventh moneth compleat at the end of which she felt some little pain like throws which presently affected her heart upon which she was laid upon her bed and they brought her Wine but at the very instant she dyed without having any time to cal for assistance seeing her dead they perceived upon the right side of her belly a very black mark about the breadth of a dollar being opened they found the child all putrified Hence we must observe that in Women that are bigg with child who have frequent pain and nothing coming forth the Matrix that should open rather shutting it self closer whether it be at the time or no you must imagine these to be clysters that expel wind which are to be reiterated as occasion requires which rule if it had been observed in this Woman she nor the Fruit of her Womb had not perished in that manner Of the common opinion that a Woman seven moneths gone ought to walk very much and of the accidents that happen thereby IT is a common error among Midwives vvhich is not to be passed by that a Woman vvith child vvhen she hath gone seven months of her time is to vvalk much upon a conceit that exercise is very proper for her for that they say doth loosen the child from the reins and facilitates the birth I confess as to facilitating of the birth it may something avail only I must add this also that it is better to dravv avvay the child then to break it and moreover it is better to be something longer in Travail then to incur 2. or 3. evils vvhich ordinarily happen the first is that the Child in the end of the eleventh moneth doth make certain indeavours to free it self from the belly of the Mother and vvithout doubt his first indeavour is to turn himself in the belly of the Mother for the Infant turns himself a good vvhile before the time of Labour and therefore I say exercise is very dangerous the first reason is because by pushing dovvnvvard the belly is dilated and especially in such as carry their children lovv and besides oft-times the head drags dovvn all the body of the Womb and loosens the ligaments in such a sort that after Delivery it can hardly be put into its place again Besides the children having their heads between the bones of the Mother by much walking of the Mother they come to be bruised so that the Infants do many times dye and no man is able to give a cause why for the branches of veins which are for the nourishment of the brain open in an instant letting out the blood which is contained in them and when the corruption is ingendred there follows immediatly Fevers and corruption of the Infant At other times Women coming to sit upon a hard seat do bruise the head of the Infant which causes like accidents and in all these accidents none but the Midwife is to blame unless the belly it self be spoiled This they say is the fault of the Nurse who did not apply Remedies fit to restore the fault I must confess that Remedies do much avail to the recovery of the fore-said malady and do much avail to the healing of that disease marring of the belly but to restore it to such an estate as it was in before I say it is a thing impossible for Medecines to perform for the skin which is once separated cannot be closed again without a scar I would now not only blame those that assist them but by putting the actions of people before them shew them where lies the fault and what reason I have so to do I must confesse that false accusations have made the most able Midwives timorous for they lye liable to so many causes of detraction that all that are either but indifferent good or else not good are all accused alike if any thing fall out amiss with the Patient as if they were the absolute causes of the evil or that it lay absolutely in their power to hinder it it happens also many times that a Midwife worthy of that name doth deliver a Woman from death and yet in the place of much praise she incurs many times much blame so that they are oftentimes constrained to avoid the scandal to advertise the of their ill procedures and to give place to those that know not how to do things with that sweetness and judgement The fault is no where but in the ignorance scandal and ingratitude of Women toward those of this Calling Besides there are a company of young Women that because they have had one child do give themselves a great deal of liberty to talk of these things Cries one I like not these
thereon and renders them uncapable of conceiving One I have heard of who was afflicted with this disease and voided a great great deal of putrified blood by a certain fumigatio that I taught her was cured I can say this of a certainty that after this Woman had voided this putrefaction she came to see me with a very lusty child and was bigg of another for being discharged of the burden of putrified blood she found her self marvelously free for conception for the Matrix that began to be ulcerated was now fortified and strengthened again and the natural heat began to take possession there again A good Observation in the choice of Nurses THere be two sorts of Nurses which I have found the one is of such Women as are of an ill humor or juice which humors settle all in the milk for that is the place where these fluxes discharge themselves these Women are in a better condition being Nurses then when they are not Nurses and being not Nurses are subject to pains sometimes in the arms and sometimes in the shoulders sometimes in one of their leggs or Thighs or else they are subject to the watring of the eyes or swelling in the corner of the eye or nose these are good Nurses as long as children are fat but the fat is soft and the Infants dul sottish giving no great signs of vivacity coming to bear teeth are very sickly and do ordinarily dye by reason of the flux that pusheth out too great company of teeth at once The children that escape this are more il juic'd in their infancy then are their Fathers and Mothers in their old age If the flux that afflicts them be salt the milk is of a blackish and blewish colour if it be of choler it is more dangerous then the other for that is very dangerous and venemous to the children There is another sort of Nurses more dangerous then these I have now spoken of who presently after they have lain in that is three or four or five or six moneths are taken with their purgations a thing which never happens to good Nurses for this is the course of Nature that all the blood which is retained is dedicated to the nourishment of the Infants This is caused by an immoderate heat which is in their blood and to say truth as soon as ever this happens the Infant must be taken away for they are more apt to conceive then to nurse and if they continue Nurses they do but ruine the children this is too much experimented and I speak this to save the lives of a great many children when seeing them suck I have discovered their want of milk so that I may say there dies a third part of the children for want of taking care in this particular which seem fat and in good case This is the cause of great cholicks and vvindinesses in children vvhich kils them in a moment for the least Fever that takes them carries them avvay Bâ—side this there are some whose milk is so little but vvithall so thick that it sticks upon the tongue palate and throat which causes as it were a vvhite canker vvhich is more and more heated by reason of their forcible drawing in vain possesseth all the throat vvhereby they are hindred froÌ„ sucking These Nurses wil milk after this a drop or two out of their breasts crying look ye the child cares not for sucking I never knew more abuse in any thing then in Nurses for let them make vvhat excuse they vvill it is nothing but necessity that reduceth them to be such although the greatest part do say that it is to get acquaintance yet vvhen they have a childe vvhether they have milk or no yet they desire not to part vvith it no more then they do to drown themselves vvhereby the Parents are often deceived And therefore the mothers ought to have a great care and to make it their business to surprize the Nurses at their ovvn houses that if there be any miscarriage they may find it out And indeed it is very reasonable that the cause of these poor creatures that cannot complain should not be neglected and these she-murderers be made known that they may not go unknown Of a VVoman which I laid two several times and of the difference of her bearing of two children proceeding from several causes I VVas called to lay a Woman who said she was gone her ful time she had the same pains that Women are wout to have in the time of Travail but her waters came not down at one forcible throw she cast forth a great membrane like a hoggs bladder all united within and without only that it had divers branches of veins as you shal see in a bladder which I presently cut and found therein a little Infant wel shaped swimming in black waters it had gone its ful time and was so lean that it resembled a meer picture it had the Navel-string holding fast to the bladder where it is to be supposed those smal branches of the veins do end here as I guess as long as it found any bloud it lay languishing but that beginning to fail it dyed and presently voided those excrements that were contained in the Intestines which being mingled in the waters made them black and as for the Woman her self she was the fullest of humor that ever I saw in my life Another time I brought the same VVoman to bed who was delivered of a child that came the ordinary way into the world with the head formost now I perceiving her in Labour found nothing at first but a certain softness as if the waters were coming down afterwards I perceived a certain bag with hair a thwart which I saw certain great knobs or heads the Infant being come forth was not yet formed the face and the head were like vizards more then any face it had the form of a nose but it was soâ—t like wool the head was ful of water and those knobs which appeared were nothing but the futures of the head which the too great abundance of water had disjoynd in the hands it had nothing but hair in stead of bones and the toes were of the same the VVoman her self was said to be extreamly cholerick and moist Instructions of a famous and dying Midwife to her Daughter touching the practice of this Art DAughter if the excellencies of what is to be known in this world are to be found not in one but in several Countrics certainly they are most able to instruct who have had the greatest experience and longest travel in the world which is the reason that in this small Treatise I have not tyed my self up to the rules solely of my own Nation but have searched the studies also of other Nations that thou mayest be bettered not only by my experience but by the labour of others In the first place therefore I exhort thee to be diligent and to leave nothing unsearched that may tend to the
THE Compleat Midwifes PRACTICE In the most weighty and high Concernments of the Birth of Man Containing Perfect Rules for Midwifes and Nurses as also for Women in their Conception Bearing and Nursing of Children from the experience not onely of our English but also the most accomplisht and absolute Practicers among the French Spanish Italian and other Nations A Work so plain that the weakest capacity may easily attain the knowledge of the whole Art With Instructions of the Midwife to the Queen of France given to her Daughter a little before her death touching the practice of the said Art Published with the approbation and good liking of sundry the most knowing Professors of Midwifery now living in the City of London and other places Illustrated with severall Cuts in Brass Exod. 1.17 But the Midwifes feared God V. 20. Therefore God dealt well with the Midwifes By T.C. I.D. M.S. T.B. Practitioners London Printed for Nathaniel Brooke at the Angell in Cornhill 1656. The expert and famous madam LOVYS BOURGEOIS midwife to the Qweene of France Sold by N Brooke at the Angell in Cornhill Ro Vaughan sculp THE PREFACE OF Sundry PRACTITIONERS in and about the City of LONDON c. Christian Reader IT is high time there being already published many Treatises in this kind for us to discharge our consciences for the good of the Nation we have perused all that have been in this nature in English and finde them strangely defficient so crowded with unnecessary notions and dangerous mistakes that we thought it fit to give you warning of them that for the future the unfortunate practisers may prevent the almost guilt of the crying sin of murder It is Admirable to us that our Countrey should be so much deluded to build all their practice upon such Authors that have not at all conduced to any considerable advantage in this so necessary usefull Art as the preserving of man-kind Alas how many miserable volumes have these late times brought forth Not to disparage any that have deserved but in so weighty a concernment as this we must stand upon our integrity There hath been a reasonable intention in the publishers of some books viz. The Birth of man the most antient but very much unfurnished as also the books of child-birth The expert Midwife the worst that have been written in that kind in French and it s almost or miracle to us that Mr. Culpepper a man whom we otherwaies respect should descend so low as to borrow his imperfect Treatise from those wretched volumes some of which are before mentioned and we must deale faithfully with you that that small peice of his intituled The directory for Midwifes is the most desperately defficient of them all except he writ it for necessity he could certainely have never been so sinfull to have exposed it to the light Now Christian Reader to give thee a true information of what we have here done for thy good we shal not only Justifie from our own experiences but fully demonstrate from the writings of the best practisers both of the French Spanish and Italians and other Nations and we must cleerly confesse that we are highly obliged to the incomparable labours of that most famous woman of the world Madam Long Bourgeo late Midwife to the Queen of France the praises that we read of all those that ever heard of her are not so much a flourish as truth for her reasons are solid experiences and her witnesses have been all of the most emminent persons of France and not only of her but as we have already exprest of the most excellent known men or women of this Art of other Countries it 's upon this account that we break the barriers and boldly stand the brunt of all censures The chief occasion of this book is to make it a great exemplary and Schoole where medicine married to the Midwives industrie may teach every one the admirable effects of the Divinity of this art of Midwifery And now knowing Reader that the Receipts herein contain'd which have ever had happy succeses are not made publicke to the world on any other designe then or the assistance of such persons whom either the want of fortune or opportunity denieth such sudden helps neither can we be without bleeding hearts if we but consider how many have been lost by the unskilfulnesse of those that attempted this great work nor should we have prostrated our reputation and private experiences but to correct the frequent mistake of most Midwifes who resting to bold upon the common way of delivering women neglect all the wholesome and profitable rules of Art which might concern them in the occult diseases of women as also of the Anotomical parts of the Body Thus having discharged our consciences we have no more to write but referre you to the book it self desireing a blessing of God on these our faithful endeavours we are the hearty well wishers of your good I. C. I. D. M. S. T. B. The Contents OF the genitals or vessels dedicated to generation in men or women p. 1. Of the vessels of preparation C. 1. p. 2. Of the Parastatae or vessels where the blood is first changed C. 2. p. 3. The use of the preparing vessels C. 3. p. ib. of the Testicles in generall c. 4. p. 4. Of the Tunicles of the stones c. 5. p. 5. Of the suspensory muscles c. 6 p. 7. Of the substance and temper of the stones c. 7. p. 7. Of the actions of the testicles c. 8. p. 9. Of the Vtilitie of the testicles and their parts c. 9. p. 10. of the vessel that cast forth the seed c. 10. p. 11. Of the Seminary bladders c. 11. p. 13. Of the Kernelly Prostatae or forestanders c. 12. p. 14. of the structure of the Yard c. 13. p. 15. of the severall parts constituting the Yard c. 14. p. 17. Of the action of the Yard c. 15. p. 21. Of the use of the Yard in general c. 16. p. ibid. Of the use of the parts constituting the yard c. 17. p. 22. Sect. 2. Of the Genitals of women c. 1. p. 25. Of those parts called Mymphs and Clytoris c. 2. p. ib. Of the fleshly knobs and the greater neck of the womb c. 4. p. 27. Of the Hymen c. 5. p. 28. Of the vessels that run through the neck of the womb c. 6. p. 29. Of the fabrick of the womb c. â— p. 30. Of the preparing vessels in women p. 34. Of the stones in women p. 35. Of the different or ejaculatory c. 8. p. 37. Of the actions and uses of the Genitall parts in women c. 9. p. 38. Of the actions of the Clytoris c. 10. p. 39. Of the action and use of the neck of the womb c. 11. p. ibid. Of the uses of the vessels running through the neck of the womb c. 12. p. 40. Of the actions of the womb c. 13. p. ib. Of the utilitie of the womb c. 14. p. 41. Of the utilitie of the preparing vessels
Whether she have conceived a Male. Conception of a Male. IF she have conceived a male childe the right eye will move swifter and look clearer then the left The right pap will also rise and swell beyond the left and grow harder and the colour of the teats will change more suddainly The milk will increase more suddainly and if it be milked out and be set in the Sun it will harden into a clear mass not unlike pearl If you cast the Milk of the woman upon her Urine it will presently sink to the bottom Her right cheek is more muddy and the whole colour of her face is more cheerful she feels less numness The first motion of the child is felt more lively in the right side for the most part upon the sixtieth day If her flowers flow the fourtieth day after conception The belly is more acute toward the navel As the woman goes she always puts her right leg forward and in rising she eases all she can her right side sooner then her left CHAP. III. Whether she have conceived a Female IF she have conceived a Female Conception of a Female the signs are for the most part contrary to those aforesaid The first motion is made most commonly the nintieth day after conception which motion is made in the left side Females are carried with greater pain her thighs and Genital members swell her colour is paler she hath a more vehement longing Her flowers flow the thirtieth day after conception Girles are begot of parents who are by nature more cold and moist their seed being more moist cold and liquid CHAP. IV. Of the Conception of Twins IF a woman have conceived twins Conception of Twins the signes thereof appears not till the third or fourth moneth after her conception and then it will appear by the motion of the Infant and by the extraordinarie swelling of her belly As to the motion it is plaine that she doth beare twins if she perceive a motion on the right and left side at the same instant which she perceives more quick and violent As for the greatness of the belly if the woman perceive it bigger then at any other times of her being with child as also if the two flanks be swelled higher then the middle of the belly if there doe appeare as it were a line of devision from the navel to the groine making a kind of channel all a long if the woman carrie her burden with more then ordinary paine These are commonly the signes of twins CHAP. V. Of false Conception False Conception VVOmen doe oftentimes deceive themselves concerning their conception for they doe many times beleive themselves to be big with child when it is nothing else but either the retention of their flowers which doe not fall down according to their accustomed periods of time or else that which is called the Moon-calfe which is a lump of flesh for the most part like the guisern of a bird greater or lesser according to the time of its being there which is most commonly not above foure or five months Several sorts of Moles Of moles there are two sorts the one is called the true mole the other is called the false mole The true mole is a fleshie body filled with many vessels which have many white green or black lines or membranes it is without thought without motion without bones without bowels or entrailes receiving its nourishment through certaine veines it lives the life of a plant without any figure or order being engendered in the concavitie of the matrix adhearing to the sides of it but borrowing nothing of its substance Of the false mole Of the false mole there are four sorts the windie mole which is a conflux of wind the watrie mole which is a conflux of watrie humours the Humorous mole which is a conflux of various humours the Membranous mole which is a thin bag filled with blood All these four are contained in the concavity of the womb These moles Sign of moles are somtimes engendered with the Infant though they do oftentimes cause the Infant to die either because it doth deprive the Infant of that nourishment which goes from the infant to the encrease of that or else because it hinders the growth and perfection of the Infant The cause of the fleshy mole doth not always proceed from the mother for the man doth often contribute to the encrease of it when the seed of the man is weak imperfect and barren or though it be good if there be too small a quantity of it which after it is mingled with the seed of the woman is chok'd by the menstrual bloud and so not being sufficient for the generation of the Infant instead thereof produces this little mass of flesh which by little and little grows bigger being wrapt about in a caule while nature strives to engender any thing rather then to be idle It happens also when the woman during her monethly purgations receives the company of her husband her body being not yet purged and void or else when the woman lies with a great desire and lust with her husband after she hath conceived or when she hath retained her monethly courses beyond her time The windy mole The windy mole is engendered by the weak heat of the matrix and the parts adjoyning as the liver and the spleen which engender a quantity of winde which fix in the concavity of the matrix The watry Mole The watry mole is engendered of many confluences of water which the womb receives either from the speen or the liver or the parts adjoyning or else from the weakness of the liver which cannot assimulate the bloud which is sent thither for the nourishment of the thing contained in it part whereof turns into water which cannot be voided but remains in the womb That which is called the Humorous mole is engendered of many moist humours serosities or the whites or certain watry purgations which sweat forth from the menstruous veins and are contained in the concavity of the matrix The Membranous mole The membranous mole is a skin or bag which is garnished with many white and transparent vessels filled up with bloud This being cast into the water the bloud goes out and the membrane is seen only to gather like a heap of clotted seed False Conception hath many signes The signs of false conception common with the true conception as the supression of the flowers depraved appetite vomitings swelling of the belly and of the breasts so that it is a hard thing to distinguish the one from the other only these that follow are more properly the signs of false then true conception For in false conception the face is ordinarily puffed up the breasts that at the first were swollen afterwards become every day more then other softer and lanker and without milk In fine the face the breast the arms the thighs and groynes grow lank and meager
The belly waxes hard as happens to those who are troubled with the Dropsie and almost of an equal roundness with many pricking pains at the bottom of the belly which have scarce any intermission which is the cause that they can hardly sleep being encombered with a heavy and dead burthen It may be known also by other signs for in the conception the Male Infant begins to move at the beginning of the third moneth for the most part and the female at the beginning of the third or fourth moneth now where any motion happens the woman ought to observe whether she have any milk in her breasts or no if she have milk in her breasts it is a sign of true conception if she have not it is a sign of a false one Besides in true conception the mother shall perceive her child to move on all sides oftner though to the right flank then to the left sometimes up sometimes down without any assistance but in false conception although there be a kind of motion which is not enliven'd that proceeds from the expulsive faculty of the mother and not from the mole The mother shall also perceive it to tumble always on that side she lies not having any power to sustain it self beside as she lies on her back if any one do push gently downward the burthen of her belly she shall perceive it to lie and rest in the place where it was pushed without returning thither Beside that which will confirm it more is when after the end of nine moneths the woman shall not come to her travel but that her belly still swels and is puffed up more and more all the rest of the parts of the body growing thin and meager this is a sign of a mole notwithstanding that many women have been known to go ten or eleven moneths before their delivery The signs of the windy mole are these when the belly is equally stretched and swelled up like a bladder more soft then when it bears the fleshie mole and especially near the groynes and small of the belly if it be struck on it sounds like a drum sometime the swelling decreases but by and by it swels more and more the woman feels her self more light it is engendered and encreases swifter then the fleshie mole or the watry and it makes such a dissention of the belly as if one were tearing it a sunder For the watery and humorous mole the signs are almost the same the belly increases and swels by little and little as the woman lies upon her back the sides of her belly are more swelled and distended then the middle or the bottom of the belly which grows flatter then by reason that the water and the humours fall down to the sides of the belly moving up and down on the belly as if there were a fluctuation of water there This distinction is more to be observed in the watry mole that the flank and thighs are more stretched and swollen then the humoral because that the waters flow thither oftentimes and that which comes forth through natures conduite is as clear as rock water without any ill savour but that which flows out in the humoral distemper is more red like water wherein flesh hath been washed and is of an ill savour This is also to be marked in false conception that the flowers never come down and the navel of the mother advances it self little or nothing both which happen in true conception There are besides these above written certain other tumours which the women do take for moles These occasion a rotundity and swelling in the belly which are not discovered till the woman be opened and then there doth appear though the body of the womb be clean and neat without any thing contained in it at one or both corners of the womb a quantity of water contained as it were in little bags in others are to be seen a heap of kernels and superfluous flesh clustered up together in the womb which cause it to swell Yet in these women it hath been observed that their purgations have been very regular which hath been a sign that the womb it self hath been in good temper There is also another excrescency of flesh which may be termed a pendent mole The pendent mole which is a piece of flesh hanging within the inner neck of the womb which at the place where it is fastened is about a fingers breadth still increasing bigger and bigger toward the bottom like a little bell This flesh hanging in the interior neck of the womb possesses the whole orifice of the privy member sometimes appearing outward as big as the fist as hath been observed in some women Of the cures of all these we shall treat in due place CHAP. VI. How women with childe ought to govern themselves IN the first place she ought to chuse a temperate and wholsome air neither too hot nor too cold nor in a watry and damp place nor too subject to fogs or winds especially the South winde which is a great enemy to women with childe causing oft times abortion in them The North winde is also hurtful engendring Rhumes and Catarrhs and Coughs which do often force a woman to lie down before her time Likewise the winds which carry with them evil odours and vapours for these being sucked with the air into the Lungs are the cause of divers diseases For her diet Her Diet. she ought to chuse meat that breeds good and wholsome nourishment and which breeds good juice such are meats that are moderately drie the quantity ought to be sufficient both for themselves and for their children and therefore they are to fast as little as may be for abstinence unless upon good occasion renders the child sickly and tender and constrains it to be born before its time to seek for nourishment as the over-much diet stuffs it up or renders it so big that it can hardly keep its place All meats too cold too hot and too moist are to be avoided as also the use of salads and spiced meats and the too much use of salt meats are also forbidden which will make the childe to be born without nails a sign of short life Her bread ought to be good wheat well baked and levened Her meats ought to be Pigeons Turtles Phesants Larks Partrige Veal and Mutton For herbs she may use Lettice Endive Bugloss and Burrage abstaining from raw Salads for her last course she may be permitted to eat Pears Marmalad as also Cherries and Damsons she must avoid all meats that are diuretick and provoke urine or the termes and such meats as are windy as Pease and Beans Of Longing Yet because there are some women that have such depraved stomachs by reason of a certain salt and sower humor contained in the membranes of the stomach as that they will eat coles chalke ashes cinders and such like trash so that it is impossible to hinder them to such therefore we can only
say thus much that they ought to forbear as much as in them lies assuring them that such trash does not only endanger their own health but the health of the childe Yet if they cannot command that depraved appetite let them so provide though it be by giving some small satisfaction to their depraved longings that they do not hasten any further inconvenience for though those strange meats be very contrary to nature yet the strange desire that they have to them does not a little avail to the disgestion of them For her drink let it be small Ale though now and then a cup of pure wine does not amiss to comfort the stomach and the parts dedicated to generation Her time of sleep Her sleeping is best in the night for the concoction of those meates which she hath eate in the day time she must avoid by all meanes the sleeping after dinner she may sleep full out nine houres her sleeping beyond that time is prejudiciall She may exercise Her exercise her self moderately for violent exercise loosens the Cotyledons through which the Infant receives his nourishment the riding in coaches is forbid especially for the last three months She ought to avoyd great noises Other precepts as the noise of Guns or great bels Laughing crying if it be immoderate is extremely hurtfull as also immoderate anger In the first four moneths she ought not to lye with her husband for that shakes and moves the fruite of her womb and causes the flowers to descend she must also abstain in the sixth and eight but in the seventh and ninth it is not denyed and is thought to facilitate the delivery She ought also to keep her body soluble which if it should come of it self she must take loosing syrups to help nature Assoon as ever they perceive themselves to be with child they must lay a side their busks and not straighten themselves any way for feare of hurting the fruit of their womb by not giving it its full libertie of growth CHAP. VII How women ought to govern themselves in the time of their going with childe FIrst that her breasts Precepts concerning the breasts after her delivery may not grow bigge and swell over-much as also to a void the danger of two much blood which being converted into milke may chance to curd and breed some disease in the breast Therefore as soon as she perceives her selfe with child let her cary about her neck a small neck-lace of gold though some do more esteem of a neck-lace of steel or a little ingot of steel to hang between the two breasts you may also foment the breasts a quarter of an hour every morning with the distilled waters of sage perwincle or ground-Ivy making them first luke warme when the third or fourth moneth of her time is come Concerning the belly and that she perceives the Infant begin to move about which time the belly begins to swell and to grow big she may swathe it with a linen swath-band which she may anoint with some convenient pommatum this keeps the belly smooth and from wrinkles and from hanging down like a tripe She may use this liniment or Pommatum â„ž the gall of a kidd and of a sow of each â„¥ iij. capon greass and goose greass of each an ounce and an halfe cut these into little peices and melt them in an earthen dish putting therto as much water as will suffice to keep them from burning then straine it through a linen cloath and afterwards having washed it in faire water untill it be very white add to it of the marrow of a redd deare about an ounce then wash it againe in rose water or some other water of a good sent and anoint the swath-band therewith Or this â„ž of the grease of a dog and the fat of mutton which is about the kidnyes of each two ounces the fat of a whale about an ounce oyle of sweet Almonds about an ounce and a halfe prepare the greases as above-said then mingle them with the other things and wash them in rose water as before Some women that are loath to grease their bellyes with these oyntments doe carry the skin of a dog or else the outward and thin pilling of a sheeps skin take the skin of a dog ready drest for the making of gloves wash it a good many times in faire water first and afterward in rose water then drye it in the shade and moisten it in the foresaid oyles Take this one more Liniment â„ž a quarter of a pound of fresh butter well washed in faire Water of rose water and of oyle of sweet Almonds an ounce of the seed of a a Whale half an ounce melt these altogether and anoint the belly These oyntments are to be kept in a Galley-pot covered over with rose water The woman having attained the ninth moneth of her time and still continuing these oyntments she may now begin to use more exercise walking gently before dinner for the first twelve or fifteen dayes of that moneth afterwards she may use a more strong exercise that is for the eight or ten next dayes In the first days of this moneth it might not be unprofitable to be bathed in the following decoction for the space of a quarter of an houre and being afterwards put to bed to let her selfe be well rubbed and afterwards anoynted with some good oyntment all about the navill along the Os sacrum and the bone of the small guts and all about her hips and thighs You may use this Bath â„ž of Mallows marsh-mallows mother-wort of each two handfuls roots of Lillies three ounces of Camomil and Melilot flowers of each a good handful the seed of Line Quinces and Fenugreek of each an ounce boyl all these in fair water to make a decoction and for a half bath You may use this Oyntment â„ž Hens grease three ounces the grease of a Duck an ounce and an halfe oyle of Linseed an ounce and an half fresh butter two ounces melt all these together and then wash them well either in pellitorie water or in the water of mugwort adding thereto two ounces of the muscilage of Marsh-mallows If the woman all her time doe complaine that she feels little or no motion of the child let her carry upon her navel this following quilt which will give strength to the Infant â„ž powder of Roses red Corral Gillow-flowers of each three ounces and an half seed of Angelica two drams Mastick a dram and an half Ambergrease two grains Musk one grain put all these in a sack of fine Linen and quilt them together for the use aforesaid Thus much is to be observed by women with childe that are in health and have no other diseases hanging upon them but of the other diseases incident to women with childe we shall take a time hereafter to treat SECT IV. Of the formation of the childe in the womb CHAP. I. Of the mixture of the seed of both Sexes as
duty for his release Now as some say there are three ways or manners of childrens comming upon the earth first when the head comes foremost and then the woman is easily delivered the second when it comes forth a cross or one side or the feet foremost and then the woman suffers much and either they both dye or one of them As for those births which are unnatural we shall in another place treat of them and their remedies In this combate the infant and the mother suffer very much by reason that woman is a creature delicate and timorous and not patient of much labour or because that women great with childe live a lazy and sloathful life and besides that many times they eat bad victuals which encrease humours superfluous excrements which quantity of humours makes the woman to breath short which is a thing very troublesome to the infant for a woman that will expel the birth quickly ought to keep her breath in as much as she can The third reason of the pain in womens travail is by reason that the head of a childe is bigger being compared to the members then the head of any other creature which makes a greater opening and dilaceration But the women that suffer most pain are they who were not delivered before having not been accustomed to the sufferance of that labour as also elderly women by reason that the bone of the pubes the bone of the hip and the Os sacrum are not so easily separated the ligaments being more strong and hard Now in the contention which the child makes to issue forth the head comes first by reason of the weight being more heavy then the other members SECT V. CHAP. I. Of Midwifes ALthough in these dayes there are many unskilful women that take upon them the knowledge of Midwifry barely upon the priviledge of their age yet there are many things which ought to be observed in a Midwife that they are utterly wanting of Let us therefore consider of the things required in a midwife in relation both to her person and her manners as for her age Her Age. she ought to be neither too young nor too old in a good habite of body and not subject to diseases not mishapen in any parts of her body peculiar in her habits and in her person her hands must be small with her nailes pared close without any rings upon them in the time of her duty nor bracelets upon her wrists she must be cheerfull pleasant strong laborious and used to travaile it being required that she should be stirring at all hours and abiding long time together with her patient For her manners Her manners she ought to be Courteous sober chast not repining cholerick arrogant or covetous nor apt to talke of what she sees done in the houses where she hath to doe Her Spirit For her spirit she ought to be prudent wary and cunning oft times to use faire and flattering words She ought moreover to know that God hath given to all things their beginnings their Increasings their Estate of perfection and declination Therefore the said Midwife nor any of her assistants must not do any thing rashly for to precipitate or hasten nature CHAP. II. What ought to be observed when she is neer the time of her lying downe Of women near the time of their lying down THe hour of the womans Lying down approaching the woman with child ought to prepare her self in this manner she must presently call her midwife and assistance to her it being requisite to have them sooner then later Her Bed She ought to prepare a little bed or couch of a moderate hight as well for the convenience of the midwife as for the ease of herself and others that shall be about her to assist her in her travell This must be situated in a place convenient for people to pass up and downe neere the fire and far from doors It will be requisite for her to have change of linen as also a little cricket for her to rest her feet on having more force when her feet are bowed When she findes her pains growing In the time of travail what to do it will be necessary for her to walke leisurely up and down the chamber afterwards she may lie downe warme and then rise and walke againe expecting the coming down of her waters and the opening of the womb For to keep herselfe long a bed is very troublesome Though when she is a bedd notwithstanding that she hath some certaine paines somtimes yet she may lie and rest herselfe and now and then take a nap By which meanes both the mother and the Infant doe with greater strength endure their succeeding hardship besides that her waters do come downe better If her travel be long she may take some broth or the yolk of a poched egg with some bread or a cup of wine or distilled water yet she must have a care left she overcharg her self either with meat or drink It is certain that all women are not delivered alike for some lie in their bed others sit in a chair being supported and held up by others or else resting upon the side of the bed or chair others upon their knees being upheld under their arms but the best and safest is to lie in their beds and for her good and convenient delivery let the Midwife and others observe what follows Certain Rules First the woman that is in travail ought to be laid upon her back her head being lifted up a little higher with a pillow having also a pillow under her reins to sustain her back under her buttocks and Os sacrum she must have a larger pillow to raise them a little and that her rump may be elevated for a woman that lies low in those parts can never be well delivered for the avoiding of which this scituation is very convenient Her thighs and knees must be a good way separated the one from the other with her legs bowed and drawn up toward her buttocks the soles of her feet and her heels being fixed upon a boord laid thwart the bed for that purpose Secondly To some women they doe use a swath-band four double this swath-band must be a foot broad or more which being put under her reines is to be held up streight by two persons standing on each side just at the time of her paines both of them at the same instant heaving up both ends with an exact cavenness for otherwise it does more harme then good It is also requisite that two of her freinds should hold the upper part of her shoulders that she may be able to force out the birth with more advantage And it will not be amiss for some of her friends to press the upper parts of her belly so to thrust downe the infant by little and a little such a soft compression will much facilitate the travel and give ease to the womans paines Thirdly As for
taken cold which often times doth breed wind which is a great hinderance to the coming forth of the secondines The Midwife ought to chafe the womans belly with her hand which does not only breake the wind but causes the secondine to come downe If this failes the midwife may with her hand dilate the exterior orifice of the womb drawing it forth gently and by degrees CHAP. VIII What may be given to a woman in travaile In the first place hot and violent remedies are to be avoyded Hot things to be avoided but in cases of great necessitie for it many times happens that they are the cause of dangerous fevers Two other things are also very dangerovs to a woman in Travaile too much repletion As also emptiness and fulness and too much emptiness for the stomack of a woman with child doth not digest her meat in so short a time as women that are not with child doe Therfore the midwife ought to informe her self how long it was since she eat and in what quantitie and if it were long since she did eate and that she grow feeble they may give in the intermissions of her paines some warme cherishing and cordial broths or the yolke of a potched egg if her travaile endure long then to strengthen her and comfort her she may take a draught of Cinamon water not exceeding an ounce or at twice a dram of the confection of Alkermes dissolved in two spoonfulls of Claret wine and not more then one of these three things For if they take too much as is before said it causes fevers and heats the whole body of which follows many inconveniences for it stopps the purgations of which many strange diseases ensue CHAP. IX How to put the Womb again in its place SOme women newly brought to bed are many times afflicted with greater paines then those of their travaile by reason that the womb is not well put into its place or if it have the swath-band being loose it is apt to roule upwards in the belly This happens to women that are not well purged after their deliverie for remedie hereof having put the matrix right into its place roule up two linen swathes pretty hard bringing them also round the hipps then take whites of eggs beaten and a dram of Pepper in pouder which being spread upon Toe is to be applyed warme to the navil then let the bellie be well swathed this is the only remedy to ease the paine CHAP. X. Against the extreme loss of blood which happen to women immediately after their delivery THere are many women who immediately after their delivery doe suffer great losse of blood which proceeds from a great plenitude or fullness or by reason that in their travaile they took too many hot and corosive medicines or by streining themselves too hard over-heated the blood so that after travaile it runs from them in great quantitie To remedie this the woman ought to take often a small quantitie of wine in a spoon and if the weakness be much let her mix half a dramme of Alkermes with a draught of wine and take care that she be well swathed upward for that presses downe and streightens the vessels and hinders the violent flux give her also the yolke of an egg to take for that recalls the natural heat to the stomach which was dispersed through the whole It would be necessary also to spread a long the reines of the woman and all along the back-bone by reason of the hollow veine a napkin dipt in Oxicrat or water mingled with vinigre You may also lay upon each groin a skeine of raw silk moistened in cold water Take also of that well tempered earth of which they make the floor of an oven and steep it in strong vinigre then spread it upon a linnen cloath and lay it upon the reines this moderates the heat of the blood and stoppes the violent flux of it Great care must be also had that all the while the Blood comes from her she do not sleep for many times they are taken away in that weakeness when the people thinke they doe not take their rest but when you see this great flux moderated you may take away the astringent medicines by little and little that so the blood may cease running by degrees lest any bloud should be retained that may chance to doe mischeife CHAP. XI What is to be done to a woman presently after her delivery PResently after a woman is delivered if she have had a sore travail they ought to cast her into the skin of a sheep flead alive and put about her reins as hot as may be Upon her belly also lay the skin of a Hare flead alive having cut the throat of it afterwards and rubbed the skin with the bloud which is to be clapt as warm as may be to her belly This closes up the dilatations made by the birth and chases from those parts the ill and melancholly bloud These remedies are to be kept on two hours in Winter and one hour in Summer After this swath the woman with a napkin about a quarter of a yard large having before chafed the belly with oyl of St John's wort Then raise up the Matrix with a linen cloth many times folded then with a little pillow about a quarter of a yard long cover her flanks then use the swath beginning a little above the hanches yet rather higher then lower winding it pretty tight Lay also warm cloaths upon the nipples letting alone those remedies which are proper for the driving back of the milk which are not so soon to be applied for the body is now all in a commotion and there is neither vein nor artery which doth not beat wherfore those remedies that chase away the milk being all dissolving therefore it is not proper to put such medicines upon the breast during that commotion for sear that those medicines should make a stop of any thing hurtful in those parts and therefore it is better to give ten or twelve hours for the bloud to settle in as also for that which was cast upon the Lungs by the agitation of travail to distil down again into its place You may also make a restrictive of the white and yellow of an egg beaten togeiher with an ounce of oyl of St John's wort and an ounce of oyl of roses an ounce of rose water and an ounce of plantine water beat all these together very well in this you may dip a linen cloath folded double and apply it without warming of it to the breasts this comforts and eases the pains of that part She must not sleep presently but a matter of four hours after her delivery you may give her some nourishing broth or candle and then if she will she may sleep CHAP. XII Of women that have a great deal of bloud and purge not neither in their travail nor after SOme women have great superfluity of bloud and yet purge not at all neither
in their travail nor afterwards to which if remedies be not applied the women do run great hazards and dangers in their lying in great suffocations of the matrix and continual feavers this may be remedied being first enformed of their natural disposition afore they were with child knowing that when they had their purgations they had them in great quantity and for a good while together as also when they came being a gross and thick bloud and therefore seeing that now they do not purge in great quantity and that they have divers unquietnesses weaknesses of the stomach and pains of the head wherefore you may give her in the morning a little syrrup of Maiden-hair and Hysop water mingled together and syrrup of Wormwood with White-wine in their broths you may boyl Jacines and opening herbs keeping the belly soluble with Glysters they must eat no solid meat she must be well chafed from the groines down to the very ankle-bone alwayes stroaking and carrying the hand downward bloud letting also in the foot in the morning is not amiss as also some fumigation that Cleanses the matrix and draws downe the blood yet care must be had that these last remedies be not used before the Matrix be put into its place for feare that these remedies should draw it down too low but about eight or ten days after the Matrix was put into its place for cleansing the matrix you may use this receit Take Pellitory Sanicle Camomile Melilot greene Balm red Balme whit Mulleine Mallowes Marsh-mallowes Betony Margeram Nipp March Violets Mugwort take of each a like quantitie and cut them small and let them boyle in a new pot with three pints of good white wine let the woman take the fume of this receite three times in a day if she have any gross blood in the matrix it will undoubtedly bring it down You may also chafe the womans belly with oyle of violets this helpes the purgations being once dissolved The reason why this thick blood stayes in these partes is because the woman having it before she was with child the heate of the womb when she is with Child redoubling thickens it more so that when she comes to lye down it cannot flow so that it is to be taken away as much as may be with the aforesaid reasons Mollifying fomentations are also proper for this purpose while the woman sits over the fumigation CHAP. XIII For those who have but a little blood THose women that have but little bloud ought not to live in their beds as those who have a great deal They out to take good nourishment in a little quantity As eggs well boyled in the shell in a morning The juyce of Mutton and Veal squeezed out and Mutton broth and all these being mingled together nourish very much and make very good bloud as also Pigeons Partridg Mutton Quaile and such other meats good for the stomach CHAP. XIV What is to be done to the Infant THe Midwife having tied up the Navel string as is beforesaid she ought next to cleanse the Infant not only in the face but also over the whole body anointing the groins hips buttocks thighs and joynts with oyl of sweet Almonds or fresh Butter this makes the skin more firm shuts up the pores of the skin so that the exteriour air cannot come to hurt it and besides this it strengthens all the parts of the bodie It would not be amiss to make a bath or decoction of Roses and Sage in Wine and with that to wash the Infant every morning After the Infant is thus well anointed and after that well dried and wrapped up you may give to the Infant a little Sack and Suger in a spoon or else the quantity of a pease bigness of Mithridate or Treacle dissolved in wine with a little Carduus water CHAP. XV. How to govern women in Child-bed THere is great difference in the governing women in Childbed for she that thinks to order an ordinarie labouring or countrie woman like a person of qualitie kills her and she that thinks to govern a person of qualitie like an ordinarie Countrie-woman does the same to her for the stomack and Constitution of the one is tender and weake and the Constitution and stomack of the other strong and lustie which will not be satisfyed with ordinary viands for if you give to one of these strong stomachs presently after their delivery any strong broth or eggs or a draught of milke are like mills that allways grind and empty as fast as they pour in and that that gives one woman a feaver keeps another from it and therfore women in Childbed are to be governed by their several constitutions As for women that are delicate and have been accustomed to live delicately greater care must be taken of them giving them meats that breed good nourishment and do not clog the stomach forbearing also to give her those meats to which she has too great a dislike agreeing to her humour provided that the meats which she loves be not hurtful and giving her for the first eight days of her lying in boyled meats rather then rosted as gellies c. the juyce of Veal or Capon but not mutton it being too feverish giving her to drink barly water or else water boyled wherein is boyled a dram of Cinamon to every pint and two ounces of sugar dissolved or if she do not love sugar Coriander seed water if she drink wine let it be two thirds of water to one third of wine giving her in the morning White wine and in the afternoon Claret taking care of eating any thing that may breed any crudities she may also take at the discretion of those about her Almond milk now and then There are some women that cannot be kept from sleeping and others that cannot sleep at all It will not be amiss to give to those that cannot sleep French barly water the way to make it well is to let it boyl well and to take the broth without streining it neither ought it to be taken after the eight dayes are past by reason that it nourishes exceedingly and does not a little obstruct the Liver CHAP. XVI Of the bathings that a woman is to use for the first eight dayes of her lying in TAke a good handful of old or new Chervil and boyl it in a sufficient quantity of water then taking it from the fire add to it a spoonful of Mel Rosatum or hony of Roses this draws down the purgations clenses and heals the parts The herb it self may serve for a fomentation to take away any inflamation There are some that use milk to the purpose aforesaid affirming that it is a great asswager of the pain but that having been proved by others hath been observed rather to engender filth then to be any way a clearer by reason that the sharp humour causes it to curdle CHAP. XVII How a woman ought to govern her self in case a woman be to be delivered
have occasion Take Galls Cypress nuts and Pomgranate flowers Roch Alome of each two ounces Province Roses four ounces knot grass a good Handfull the rind of Cassia the rind of Pomegranates Scarlet berries of each three ounces the nature or sperm of a whale one ounce Rose water Myrrh water and Burnet water of each an ounce and a half wine and water of a smiths forge of each four ounces and a half then make two little baggs about a quarter of a yard long and half a quarter of a yard broad then boyle all these in the foresaid water in a new pot using the baggs one after another as occasion serveth CHAP. XXIII To make searcloaths for women TAke white wax halfe apound the sperme of a whale and venice turpentine well washed in rose water plantaine water of each an ounce and a halfe then melt all these together then mingle with them an ounce of venice white Lead then order you your cloth as you please making some for the bellie and some for the nipples having first rubbed it over with oyle of Acorns or the sperme of a whale CHAP. XXIV To cleanse a woman before she rises TAke bitter Almonds and peel them make thereof a past with the powder of Iris and the yolk of eggs and put it in a little bagg of Tammy and temper it within the bag with black wine luke-warm and afterwards use it upon the places where the sear-clothes have been laid then wash the places with black wine mingled with orange flower CHAP. XXV How a woman lying in of her first child may avoid the gripings of her belly THere are some women lying in of their first childe who are troubled much with gripings in the belly and these women commonly endure pains when their terms come down by reason of the smalness of the veins which conveigh the bloud into the Matrix such women have griping in their bellies when they lie in of their first child which other women are not troubled with by reason that they have larger vessels yet although they have them not in their first lying in it would not be amiss to use some proper remedies that so they may be never troubled with them which if they receive not at their first lying in they will be uncapable of receiving them ever after for though they may take remedies afterwards to lessen the pain yet they can never cure it wholly Now that which is ordinarily done to women is as soon as ever they are brought to bed is to give them two ounces of oyl of sweet Almonds drawn without fire with two ounces of syrrup of Maiden-hair t is true this is good to make her purgations part away but not to remedy the griping Some there are that do take two drops of the bloud which comes out of the navel-string of the Infant and give it mingled to the woman in the foresaid syrrups though there is much fault to be found with this by reason of the nastiness of it Others do boyl a white Chicken in the which they do put two ounces of Sugar a dram of fine Cinamon half a Nutmeg grated two or three Dates five or six Cloves the Fowl being boyled you may put into it a small quantity of Claret then boyl it altogether again letting it boyl till the Fowl be well soaked then strain it and give it to the woman as soon as she is laid down for want of a white Hen you may take a Pigeon or a red Partridg for want of either Onely take heed to give her this if she be feverish because it is something hot The seed of Savory taken in warm broth is very good and it is also very good for those that have the collick The Queen of France her Receit Take a dram of the root of the greater Consound or Comfrey one of the kernels of peaches nutmegs of each two scruples yellow Amber half a dram Amber-grease half a scruple mingle all this together and give it to the woman as soon as she is laid down the quantity of a dram mingled in white wine or if the woman be feverish in some good warm broth CHAP. XXVI Certain precepts hindering the delay and difficulty of bringing forth BEing now come to talke of the impediments of the birth you must know that the birth is hindered by a twofold manner the one natural the other not natural of the unnatural we shall treat of in its place for the natural take these following directions But in the first place let the Midwife be very skilful that she may decline as much as in her lies all the impediments that may be avoided If the birth be hindred by the driness and straightness of the neck of the womb take a little beaten Hellebore or Pepper and blow it into the nostrils of the mother Her mouth must be held close her breath kept in and sneesing must be provoked as much as may be whereby the spirits being forced to the lower parts may be the more available to force down the childe You may also give her Shepherds-purse dried in a little broth or wine also a little quantity of hony mingled with twice as much luke-warm water and give her will not be unprofitable The milk also of another woman mixt with maiden-hair and applied warm to the navel She may take also oyl of Laurel in wine or warm broth two grains of Pepper being taken inwardly do not only force out the birth but also drive out the secondines This is also an excellent remedy against a difficult travail Take Trochischs of Myrrh one dram grains of Saffron ten Cinnamon one scruple mingle all this with two ounces of Peny-royal water and give it the woman to drink Let her drink it warm and let her go to her bed for an hour till she finds the operation of the drink moving her to her labours If this profit and that the Infant coming with his head foremost stick in the womb you may use these pills of which she may take seven and then rest â„ž Gum Bdelium Myrrh Savin-seed Liquid Storax or Stacte Castor Agaric of each half a scruple Diagridium six grains mingle all these with Cassia extracted as much as suffices and make up pils about the bigness of pease You may also use a pessary as long and as thick as your finger of pure wool which must be covered over with silk and dipt in the juice of Rue where Scammony hath been dissolved and so used If these things prove without effect she may use this ensuing bath above her belly Take of the roote and herb Althea six handfulls Mallows Camomile Melilot Parsley of each foure handfulls Line-seed and seed of fenugreek of each two pound Lavender and Laurel leaves of each two handfulls Let all these things be boyled to gether in water where in the woman is to sit or else to have those parts well wet and moistened with spunges which being done and the woman well dryed with warme cloaths
hold in one place the danger is nothing for he hath the libertie to fix his instrument better in another place The head being thus drawn forth he must with all speed that may be slip his hands down the childs armeholes to draw forth his shoulders and the rest of his body In the meane while it will be requisite to give the woman a small draught of wine or a Tost sopt in wine or Hipocras Another way If after these Medicines following adhibited the child make no hast into the world but lyes unmoved in the womb then you may proeeed to instruments after another manner First of all as soone as the woman is brought to the bed let her take this following potion hot and abstaine from all other meat and remaine quiet for the space of an houre or two till she feele the power and efficacy of the medicine â„ž Seven cut Figs Fenugreek Motherwort-seed and Rue of each two drams Water of Penyroyal and mother wort of each six ounces boyle all these to the consumption of half strein them and to the straining add Trochischs of Myrrh one dram three graines of Saffron Suger as much as is sufficient make one draught of this and spice it with a little Cinamon After she hath rested a little upon this let her again return to her travel at what time certain perfumes must be made ready of Trochischs composed of these following spices to be cast on the coals and so used as that the perfume may onely come to the Matrix and no further Take Castor Sulphur Galbanum Opoponax Pigeons dung Assa-faetida of each half a dram mingle all these with the juyce of Rue and make a Trochisch of them in the form of a filberd If these produce no effect you may use this following Emplaster Take Galbanum an ounce and a half Colocinthis without the grains two drams the juyces of Rue and Motherwort new Wax as much of each as is sufficient of each make a plaster Let this be spread upon a cloth to reach from the navel to the privities and in breadth to both the sides which she may keep on for the space of an hour or two A pessary may be also convenient made of Wooll and closed over with silk and then moistned in the following decoction Take of Round birth-wort brought from France Savin and Colocynthis with grains Staves acre black Ellebore of each half a dram bruise these together and make a pessary with as much of the juyce of Rue as is sufficient But now if all these things avail not and that the Midwife is not able to dilate the passage for the infant then you must have recourse to the Chirurgion To which purpose she is to be placed in a seat so that she may turn her crupper as much from the back of the chair as may be drawing up her legs as close as she can but spreading her hips abroad as much as may be Or else if it seem more commodious she may be laid upon the bed with her head downwards with her buttocks raised and her thighs drawn up as much as can be then you may go to work either with your speculum matricis or his Apertory so that the womb being sufficiently widened by the help of these instruments the birth may be drawn out by the hands of the Chirurgion together with the seconds if possible may be The womb must then be washed and anointed the woman then must be laid in her bed and wel comforted with spices as also with some comfortable meat and drink This course must be taken with all dead infants and also with moles and secondines which are hindered in their coming forth naturally If by these Instruments the womb cannot be sufficiently widned for the egress of the infants there are yet other Instruments by which the womb may be widened with dammage to the mother and birth be brought forth such as are Drakes bill and the long Pincers by which the womb is not only widened but the birth taken hold of by them for the more forcible drawing it forth If there be any swelling or inflation or concrete bloud gathered together in the preputium of the Matrix under the skin those tumours either before or after the birth where the matter appears thinnest and ripest the midwife may cut with a pen knife and squeeze out the matter anoynting it afterwards often with a pessary dipt in oyl of roses until it be whole If it happen that the child be swollen in the womb in any part of it by reason of wind or any watrie humor yet if it be alive such meanes are to be used as may be least to the detriment of the child and of the mother but if it be dead in what ever part those humours be either in the brest arms or legs the midwife may then put up her hand and with a little knife for that purpose cut the swollen that by letting out of the wind or humour the child may grow less and be brought forth with less difficultie Many times it happens that the child comes into the world with the feet formost and the hands dilating themselves from the hipps In this case the midwife ought to be well furnished with oyntments helping the egress of the Infant by anointing and stroking it least it be carried backward Having also a great care to take hold of both the armes of the Infant and keep them close to the hipps that the child may come forth after its own manner If by reason of this deduction of the armes from the sids of the Infant and the narrowness of the Matrix it so happen that the child cannot make a total egress the womb of the woman and the Infant it self and child are to be well anointed sneezing powders being administred to the woman to helpe her endeavours the womb is also to be pressed hard with both hands that the child make no retirement back but may still move forward 3 2 1 6 5 4 If the child happen to come forth but with one foot the arme being extended along the sides with the other foot turned backward the woman is instantly to be brought to her bed and laid in the same posture as we have before told you and then is the other foot which came forth first to be put back into the womb which being done let the woman rock her self from one side of the bed to the other lying alwayes with her head low and her buttocks rais'd till she apprehend the child to be turned upon which she may immediately expect her pains with all the assistance that may be given and in the mean while to be comforted as much as may be with cordial potions and wholsome medicines Many times it happens that the child lies athwart and fals upon its side If the child lie athwart which when it comes to pass the mother is not to be urged to her labour neither is the birth to be expected
after that manner for it is impossible that the child should be so born without some conversion and therefore the Midwife is to do all she can to reduce it to a more natural form of birth by moving the buttocks and steering the head to the passage if this succeed not let her trie by often rocking the woman to and fro to bring the child to its natural form of being born The fifth unnatural form If it happen that the childe hasten to the birth with the legs and arms distorted the Midwife ought not to hasten the woman but immediately cast her on her bed where she may direct the woman to roul her self to and fro or else she may gently stroak the womb of the woman as she lies till she have reduced the Infant to a better posture If this profit not the Midwife must take the legs and close them together then if she can she must get her hand about the armes of the child and in the safest way she can direct it to its coming forth though it be the safest way to turn the Infant in the womb and by that means compose it to the natural birth The sixth form If the infant come into the world with both knees forward with the hands hanging down upon the thighs The Midwife may then put up both the knees upward till the feet happen to come forward and then with her left hand let her take hold of the feet and keep her right hand about the sides of the childe and in that posture endeavour the birth of the child but if that succeed not let the woman as is said before be brought to her bed and there wallow from side to side till she have moved the childe into a better posture 9 8 7 12 11 10 But when it happens that the child hastens forwards with on arme extended upon the thigh Of the seventh form and the other stretched over the head the feet being stretched out at length in the womb the Midwife may by no means receive the childe in this posture but must lay her patient upon the bed as we have said before then must the womans belly be gently pressed backward that the infant may retire into the womb and if it give not backward of its own accord the Midwife may with her hand gently thrust back the shoulder and bring the arm that was stretched back to its right place The most dangerous of all those that we have spoken of is this The eight form and therefore the Midwife must take great care to put back the Infant in this case into the womb first of all therefore anoint well her hands as also the womb of the woman then if she can let her thrust in her hand near the armes of the Infant and so move the shoulders that the infant may fall back into the womb and then to bring it to the natural form let her thrust up her other hand and reduce the armes of the infant to the sides of it If this succeed not the woman must be laid on her bed and after a little rest she must be ordered as before we have said If this avail not she must be brought back to her seat as we have before rehearsed then must her womb by the help of those women that assist her be gently prest downward and on both sides while the Midwife having anointed the matrix and both the armes of the Infant joyns them as close together as she can and in that manner receives the Infant And there is the lesse danger in this form if the Midwife be diligent and the child slender The ninth form If the Infant thrust it self forwards with the buttocks formost the Midwife must put her hand well anointed and so by heaving up and putting back the buttocks strive to turn the head to the passage Yet overmuch haste must not be made lest the Infant should fall back into some worse posture and therefore if it cannot be turned by putting up the hand the woman must be brought to her bed and ordered as we have often said before comfortable things being conveniently ministred to her The tenth form If the child come forward with the neck bowed and the shoulders forward with the hands and feet stretched upwards in this case the Midwife must carefully move the shoulders backward that she may be able to bring the head forwards which may be easily done for the shoulders being removed the head will soon appear foremost yet if this suffice not the woman must be laid on her back upon the bed and ordered according to the former precepts The eleventh form When the Infant thrusts forth the hands and feet formost care must be had to avoid the danger of this mishapen posture and therfore the midwife must strive by removing the feet to lay hold on the head and as much as in her lyes to direct it to the passage the hands are also to be removed unless of their own accords they fall down to the sides If by this means it cannot be done the former precepts of converting the child are to be observed Sometimes it happens that the childe strives to force its passage in this posture which is very dangerous First of all therefore The 12th form let the midwife anoynt her hands well and the womb of the woman which being done let her put up her hand and seek for the armes of the child which when she hath found let her hold them fast till she hath hold of the head also which she must with all her skill endeavour to bring formost then let her remove the hands of the Infant and fix them upon the sides of the Infant Yet if this doe not availe it will be the safest way to lay the woman on her bed and to proceed according to the former precepts to trye if by that delay she may have the more advantage to proceed as before The same method which is to be observed in single birth The 13th form is also to be observed in case of twins or of triple birth for as the single birth hath but one naturall way and many unnaturall formes so is it with the birth of more children and therfore when it happens that when twins appeare coming into the world according to the naturall forme the midwife must observe to receive that first which is nearest the passage yet be sure not to let go the other lest it should fall back into the womb and tumble into some other forme but the one being born immediatly to receive the other this birth is the more easie in the natural form because the first child widens the passage for the latter but in unnatural births there is most difficulty in the passage of the second child care must be also had in the birth of twins that the secondines be maturely brought forth least the womb being delivered of its burden should fall and the secondine by
Centinode a good big handfull the rind of Cassia the rind of Pomegranates Scarlet Graines of each three ounces the nature of a whale one ounce Myrrh water rose water and sloe water an ounce and a half thick wine and smiths water of each foure ounces and a half then make two little baggs of a quarter of a yard long causing them to boyle in the foresaid waters in a new pot using one after another as you have occasion leting it lye upon the bone of the Pubes passing in between the hipps chafing her often and holding her head and her reines low using in the morning somtimes a little mastick in an eg or somtimes plantaine seed if the disease be not too old it may be cured by this meanes but if it be of a long standing you must make a pessarie halfe round and half oval of great thick cork peirced through in the middle tye a little packthred to the end then cover it over with white wax that it may doe no hurt and to make it more thick this must be dipped in oyle of Olives to make it enter and it must be streit that it may not easily fall out and if it be too little to have an other bigger when the woman goes to do her necessary occasions she must hold it in least she should force it out the hole is made that the vapors of the womb may have a vent and to give way for her purgations to flow neither must it be taken away till after the purgations are passed the thicknes causes the matrix to mount up as long as it is very thick for the ligaments being close doe then retire If they be women that beare children the midwife ought not to suffer them to force themselves but as nature constraines her having her own hand ready after the throw to put back the Matrix with her finger and when she is brought to bed lay her low with her head and with her reines raising her up with pillows put under her hipps and for women that are troubled with this disease they ought not to lace themselves over hard for that thrusts down the matrix and makes the woman pouch bellyed and hinders the Infant form being well situated in her body causing her to carrie the child all upon her hipps and makes her belly as deformed as her wast is handsome Of a disease that happens by reason of the fall of the Matrix THere is somtimes a relaxation of the membrane that covers the rectum Intestinum when the head of the child at the beginning of the travaile falls downward and draws it low often-times it comes by reason of women with child lacing themselves which causes such a conflux of wind to these parts that it seemes to the woman to be the head of the child in so much that she is hardly able to stand upright neither can she goe For remedy hereof you must keep the woman soluble giving her Anise and Coriander seeds to dissipate the winds You must take Sage Agrimony Mother-wort balme White wormwood Margerome a little rue and a little Thyme and Camomile and having picked all the above written herbs you must cut them very small and having well mingled them put them into a maple platter and then put hot cinders upon them and upon those another handfull of herbes covering the platter with a close cloth that the woman may receive the smoake this is a remedie which hath been much approved and experimented To remedie the fall of the fundament in Infants TAke of the green shrub wherof they make broomes and cut it smal and lay it upon the coales and set the child over the smoake thereof and it will certainly cure it Of the diseases of women and first of the inflammation of the brest THe inflamation of the brests is a hard swelling together with a beating paine redness and shooting The cheif cause of this is the abundance of blood drawn up together in that place though there be somtimes other causes also as the suppression of the courses the Haemorrhoids or a blow received upon the breasts The signes of it are easie to be known that is to say a certain rednes and burning heat oftimes joyned with a fever For the cure of this there are four sorts of remedies first as the order of dyet which must be comforting and moistning as broth of pullets where endive borage lettice and purselaine may be boyled also she may drinke the juce of Pomegranates or barly water with aniseeds boyled in it the use of wine and all sorts of spices are very dangerous and if the woman goe not freely to the stoole there is nothing better then a lenitive glyster she may sleep much and must not disturb her selfe with any passion The next way of remedy is by diverting the humours which is done by frictions letting bloud in the foot scarification of the legs or vesicatories applied to those places especially if the flowers are stopped or ready to come down if not it will be expedient to open a veine in the arme You may also prepare the humour to void it out of the place affected by opening either the middle vein or the Basilic or the Vena Saphena which may be done two or three times if occasion serve after bloud-letting purge but let this be done with sweet medicines such are Cassia Manna Tamarind syrrup of Roses or Violets Solutive having a little before used certain syrrups which may asswage and temper the humours Take syrrup of Roses and Purslain of each one ounce Endive water and Plantain water of each an ounce give this to the patient Neither will it be amiss to give her syrrup of Succory or Endive or such like for these syrrups have a cooling and refreshing faculty especially being mingled with Plantain or Endive water or such like or the decoction of the said herbs now when the humour is thus prepared you may give her some gentle purges As for example take of the pulp of Cassia and Tamarinds of each six drams of this make a little bolus with some sugar and give to the patient or with this potion Take of the Leaves of Italian Orach three drams of Aniseed one scruple infuse these in four ounces of the foresaid waters Into this being strained infuse an ounce of Cassia and into the streining of this dissolve an ounce of solutive Roses of this make a potion and give it The fourth way of cure consists in Topicks such as may drive back and repress the humour though care must be had that they be not over strong lest you thereby do cool the heart too much and thereupon drive the humour upon the heart it self And therefore temperate medicines are chiefly to be chosen and such especially as are able to digest and dissolve the humour Wherefore it shall not be amiss to apply a linnen cloath dipt in white strong vineger and a little cold water which must be applied to the breasts and
often changed Or else you may dip linnen cloaths also in a decoction of Camomil flowers and Violet flowers with a small quantity of oyl of Roses and a drop of vineger or two or you may use this fomentation Take of the juyce of Nightshade oyl of Roses of each an ounce and a half of the decoction of Fenugreek Camomil and Lineseed two ounces vineger one ounce This medicine you may use by dipping a spunge therein and so washing and fomenting the breast therewith Or you may apply this Cataplasme take of the leaves of Nightshade and Melilot half a handful of each let them be boyled extracted through a course cloth then add to them bean meal two ounces Oxymel and oyle of sweet Almonds of each one ounce of this make a Cataplasm and apply it If the disease be more prevalent you must use more forcible remedies and among the rest this fomentation Take of the leaves of Mallows Violets Dill of each one handful flowers of Camomil and Melilot of each a small handful and a halfe boyl these together adding to them a little wine and oyl of Dill or Mustard first let the breast be fomented with this and afterwards with an oyntment composed of equal parts of new butter oyl of violets and Hens fat But if these things avail not to dissipate the humour you must observe whether the inflamation tend either to a suppuration or induration If you find that it tends to a hardness you must try all means to hinder it by the way of mollifying plaisters among which this is not a little experimented Take the marrow of a Calves leg two ounces Sheeps grease one ounce Saffron four scruples Cumminseed bruised two scruples mingle all these and make a plaister If the inflamation doth not harden but doth altogether tend to a suppuration which may be known by these signs that is to say the increasing of the tumour the beating and excessive heat pain which rages about those parts so vehemently that do not admit them to be touch'd But now the suppuration is to be hastened with hot and moist medicines which have an Emplastick faculty for which purpose this is much commended Take the leaves of Mallows one handful roots of Althea one ounce boyl these together and when they are mashed draw them out and add to them bean meal and Fenugreek of each one ounce the whites of two eggs myrrh and Assa faetida of each one dram Saffron one scruple mingle all these together and make a Cataplasm for your use to this you may either add Capons grease Hogs grease or fresh butter If these remedies do not suddenly bring the inflammation to a suppuration you must then take of the shells of snails bruised and lay them upon the Cataplasm in such a manner that the snail shell may come to touch that part of the tumour which is most elevated and pointed whence it appears that the matter will first issue If these remedies avail not it will be necessary to open the said Apostem with a Lancet and this must be done when you are sure that the matter is ready to come forth which may be known by these signs when the beating ceases when the fever the pain and the heat of the part do begin to diminish when you perceive the place pointed and raised and enclining to a blackish colour When the wound is open you must first apply to it a digestive composed of an ounce of turpentine half an ounce of oyl of Roses and the yolk of an egge After this you must cleanse it with honey of roses Turpentine and barly meal or with the oyntment of the Apostles or the oyntment called Aegyptiacum then you may put on the top of the place the oyntment called Basilicon or Paracelsus plaister which doth digest cleanse carnifie cicatrize after a very extraordinary manner This is furthermore to be observed that an ulcer in the breast is not easily cured if the milk be not dried out of the other breast and therefore the milke is to be dried up by keeping the child from sucking and by putting upon the breasts of the woman cloaths dipped in cold water together with bean barly and vineger and such like remedies THE COMPLEAT MIDWIVES Practice Of windy Tumours in the Breasts THe flatuous tumor of the breasts is caused by a thick vapour which rises from the menstruall blood which is retained or corrupted in the Matrix The causes of which are first the suppression of the flowers or when the flowers are not discharged into their proper place and in their proper time as also from the corruption of the humours by which are ingendred divers bad fumes and vapours for this being received into the breasts cause a distention much like a true swelling The signes by which it is known is the pain which it brings along with it which is sharp and pricking causing a distention of the part The heart is not a little out of order by reason of the windinesses which lie so neer it and commonly the left breast is most swoln communicating its pain to the arm shoulder and ribs of the same side And these signes differ from those of a Canker for in this distemper the breast is white and shining by reason of the distention and if you touch it it sounds like a Drum And if you presse it with your hands you wil finde that it is sweld in all parts alike and not in one more then another This is cured first by a good order of diet taking little victuals whereby crudities may be avoided that do afford matter to the obstructions and increase windinesse for which cause she must also drink little that water boyld with Cinamom Anis-seed and rinde of Citrons The next remedy is by using things which are good to provoke the courses among which use this receit strein Selandine stampt into posset-ale and drink it four dayes before the new moon and four dayes after And it will not be amisse to let blood three or four times in the year about the time that the courses ought to begin For by this means you may provoke the flowers hinder the increase either of a Scirrhus or of a Canker to which purpose bathes frictions and infections are not a little to be used In the next place you must prepare the humours that foment this windinesse both in the Matrix and in the veins and that by syrups which do expell flegme and melancholy after which you must purge your patient for which purpose you may take of the leaves of Sene three ounces Anis-seed one scruple let them boyle in foure ounces of Borage water vvhen it is streined infuse into it Confection Hamech vvithout Scammony Colloquint and Cathol Dupl Rheo of each an ounce and a halfe when it is streined dissolve in it one ounce of syrup of Roses solutive this potion must be given two hours before eating You may also use this gentle Apozem Take of the
Of the Inflammation of the Almonds of the Ears IF the child be very smal you must wash the throat as neer the root of the tongue as may be with a linen cloth tied to a stick dipped in this gargarisme take of new extracted Cassia one dram syrup of dry Roses one dram and a half with six ounces of the decoction of Coriander Or you may anoint the neck with oyl of Violets and Camomil binding the neck with a little roller well anointed with the same when the child goes to bed you may give him in a spoon a little syrup of dry'd Roses of Pavot and Nenuphar mingled together Oxycroceum alone doth also make an excellent Gargarism If they come to a suppuration you must use this gargarisme Take of the decoction of Barley Plantain Agrimony Veronicae Honysuckle and herb Rob six ounces in which dissolve mel Rosatum and Sugar-candie of each half an ounce to make a gargarism Of Vomiting IF it proceed from abundance of milk which the child sucks you must take care that the child suck less and often If it come from any ill humor contained in the stomack besides that the Nurse must keep a very good dyet the Infant must be purged with a smal expression of Rheubarb giving it afterwards a little Codignac to comfort the stomack mingling with it a little tablet of Diarrhodium putting afterwards upon his stomack this plaister Take of the pulp of condited Quinces two ounces red Roses Wormwood and red Sanders of each two drams Oyl of Quinces as much as sufficeth make a plaister of this and lay it upon the stomack of the child Of the Hicquet IF it come from an over-much repletion it wil not be amiss to make him vomit of whatsoever age he be or if it be necessary that a greater force should be used you must try to make him vomit by putting down the throat a Fether dipt in oyl if from the badness of the Nurses milk she must be changed for a better if from the coldness of the stomack you must use remedies to comfort it as little tablets of Diarrhodium of which you must dissolve a scruple in the milk of the Nurse you must also chafe the stomack of the child with oyl of Wormwood Mastick and Quinces Of the pain of the Belly in Children IF the Disease come from indigestion and moistness the little Infant wil vomit and be troubled with a flux of the belly and the belly wil be hard In which cases you may give the infant an ounce of sweet Almonds drawn with out fire and mingled with a quantity of Sugar-candy or anoint the belly with this Ointment Take oyl of Camomil and oyl of sweet Almonds of each an ounce and a half mingle them and therewith anoint the belly if wind be the cause you may mingle a little oyl of rue in the foresaid Ointment Of the Smal-Pox in Children THe signes of this Disease are paine in the head accompanied with a Fever redness about the eyes a dry Cough and you shal mark in the skin up and down the body certain little spots upon the face back brest and thighs the Smal-pox is dangerous if they come forth with much pain if they be greenish blewish or blackish For the cure of this if the Infant suck the Nurse must keep a good order of dyet she may eat broth of Hens with Endive Cichorie Bugloss and Borage boyled therein Now to make the Smal-Pox come forth the more quickly if the Child be little the Nurse must drink this following Potion Take of Caricarum Pinguium one ounce peeled Lentils half an ounce Gum Lacca two drams Gum Tragacant and Fenel-seed of each two drams and a half make of this a decoction in Fountain-water and strein it to the quantity of two pints sweeten this either with sugar or syrup of Maidenhair let her drink of this in the morning a good glassful Or you may give the child if it be able to take it this Julep to be used very often take of Cordial waters two ounces and a half syrup of Limons one ounce mingle it and use it often 4. or five hours after give him of powder of Unicorns-horn and Bezoar Now to keep this venemous humor from attaching the eyes temper a little Saffron in a smal quantity of Plantain and Rose-water and rub the eyelids or you may anoint them with Tutie For keeping them from the nose take Rose-water and Betonie-water of each an ounce Vinegar half an ounce juice of Pomgranates six ounces in which steep two drams of Santalum and two drams of the powder of Citron peel adde to this six grains of Saffron and make a medecine for the child to smel often to the same Medecine wil serve for the ears by stopping them with a little cotton To preserve the mouth and throat and tongue take this gargarism take whole Barley one handful Plantain leaves leaves of Oxalis Arnogloss Agrimonie and Verbena of each one handful boyl this to the quantity of six ounces dissolving in it syrup of dry Roses and Pomgranates of each half an ounce Saffron half a scruple To preserve the Lungs use syrup of Jujubes Violets and Nenuphar when they are fully come out to make them dye the more quickly rub the face with oyl of sweet Almonds drawn without fire Or use this Ointment take old Lard cut it in smal pieces and melt it in a pot then strein then beat it and mingle it with water for your use When the Pox is totally dead take this Remedy to take away the marks Take Halke the weight of two Crowns clear cream 2. ounces mix them together and with a Fether dipt therein anoint the face of the child two or three daies this causeth the skin to grow smooth leaving not a pit in the face Certain other Instructions grounded upon practical Observations fit to be known by all Midwives and Child-bearing Women c. IN the yeare One Thousand six hundred and Ten a young Lady whom I was wont to bring to bed passing by my house came in to me and told me that she was four moneths gone and that she perceived the Infant to stir about a moneth after she came to see me and told me that she was in much pain for that she had not perceived the Infant to stir in two dayes and that therefore she believed that it was dead by reason of a certain very great fright which she had had for at the time that she was frighted she perceived the childe to move but after that never and her belly began by little and little to wax less and about three weeks after she had that reflux of milk that Women use to have that lye in when this was gone she had no grievance yet seeing her often and knowing her to be bigg with child she asked me my advice to know what she should do Whereupon I asked her if any ill vapours rose up into her mouth she told me no. If she had
not lost her appetite she answered that she never had a better in her life her heart was light her body in good temper so that there was nothing that troubled her but an apprehension she had that the child was dead whereupon I made her try all means to make the Infant stir but she notwithstanding felt nothing only she perceived that something did heave a little upon the operation of the Remedies which was nothing but the Matrix which being now distempered and grown cold did as it were answer the hot Remedies testifying thereby some good which it received thereby I advised her to be patient and to wait Natures leisure which is provident enough of it self telling her that I had seen an Infant which had lain a long time in the Womb without budging which for all that was not dead although you could not perceive in the Woman any thing but the signs of a dead child I had oftentimes brought the Lady to bed and she stil had very good deliveries and very sound children of a good colour so that I believing her to be of a sound constitution thought that if the Infant were dead that Nature which was very strong in her would expel it in time convenient and that she should not be forced not having given any testimony of defect resolving also when her Reckoning was out if then Nature shewed it self weak that we would consult her Friends and Physitians Many of her Friends told me that they doubted that she was deceived in thinking her self to be with Child to which I answered that they might be confident that it was so in brief she was brought to bed sixteen weeks after the fright which she had Now here ariseth a great doubt whether the Child dyed at the hour of her being scared by reason that it did not move in all the time A reason that the child was not dead may be because that the Gentlewoman had not her milk til within three weeks afterward and yet I cannot but think that it dyed at the same time for certainly by that fright the vital spirits were ravished from it and the blood of the Arteries retired to the heart of the Mother not being distributed to the Infant but at the good pleasure of Nature the course of which being stopped it retired to its first source through which the child suffering a suffocation gave a violent motion and now after the Fright was come to her self and that Nature would have returned to finish her work she was not received because the vital faculties of the Infant were extinct and notwithstanding all this the Mother not ceasing to retain the menstrual blood as she was accustomed that finding it self stopped and stil increasing without that use made of it that was wont it made a reflux to the breasts which flowd down again in five or six dayes for the Infant coming to decrease in the Womb now way was made for them which came not down for all that but in the Delivery and after which was in this manner At the end of the sixteenth week after the fright she had pains in the night she thinking to indure them wel enough til morning in the morning caused me to be sent for I came to her finding with her a Physitian and sundry others of her acquaintance The Physitian that expected me had ordered her a Clyster to give her if I thought it to the purpose I found her pale cold and yet in a sweat with so little pulse that I esteemed her dead I touched her found she had been in Travail which had been too long neglected I called presently for a plain silver dish into which I squeez'd the juice of half a Citron and set it upon a Chafing-dish of coals being warmed I caused her to take it this restored Nature a little and stirred up her pains and then I assisted her notwithstanding some of the waters ran down after her first throw the leggs and thighs of the Child came forth now finding the Infant to be dead and seeing that she was troubled with no more throws I was afraid of drawing it forth for fear it might be rotten I did give her a Clyster without moving her the force of which bringing the Child away she was delivered of a dead Infant all over of a leaden colour without any ill vapour the Secundines sound and fair as you shal see her purgations as clear as could be and she had as good and as happy a Lying in as any Woman in the world all which time she had not the appearnce of any Milk at all Hence we may admire the effects of Nature which are wonderful But in such cases Women must be sure in due time and place for if a Woman do resist her paines and doth not put her self in a right posture she runs a great hazard of her life A Second Observation of a Woman that had been in Travail nine dayes BEing called to the Labour of a Woman that had been in Travail nine or ten dayes of whom there was little hope I went and there found the Woman almost dead her eyes open and fixed her nose shrunk in her breath smelling like a charnel-house and she took nothing down into her stomack that she did not instantly vomit up again she had drunk up above two pints of water in an hour and by her bed there was a whole sea of those things that she had vomited up They gave her cold water and the yelk of an Egg sometimes though it came up again at the same instant she felt no paine of the Infant but finding her Womb was open and her waters beginning to come down I found that she had been in Travail only Nature was oppressed and had not had any good assistance so that the Infant was retired back again which stifled the Mother and provoked her vomiting upon which I gave my advice and though I thought my self come a little too late yet I resolved to do what lay in the power of my Art and therefore I resolved to give her a good strong Clyster to awaken Nature and to bring the Infant lower which it did according to our hopes afterwards to drink a smal quantity of Rhubarb-water which stayed with her a little after I gave her the yelk of an Egg which stayed with her also causing her to drink nothing but Rhubarb-water and at every hours end I gave her the yelk of an Egg which did also stay with her by this time Nature began to strengthen it self and the paines of the Infant came again and in less then two hours after the Clyster and other nourishment given when I saw her pretty wel and that Nature strove to expel the Infant I gave her half a dram of Confection of Alkermes in a little Wine and a little while after I caused her to take another Clyster into which I put a little Hiera and a little Benedictus which finished the work for She was then
Midwives that handle me I wil change mine cries another for that trick also so that many out of a kind of fear have a greater desire and wil to be complacent then to do wel and so â—itting with their hands before them entertaine their Patients with discourse who for all that feeling their paines are constrained to thrust forward upon which the head of the Infant coming first for the most part the womb serves for a Head-band which comes forth before it whereas might the Midwife be permitted to touch the Patient they might put back the womb and prevent many accidents that happen in lyings in which happens sometimes to be a total relaxation of the Matrix of which when the Women complain to their complacent and flattering Midwives They reply why Mistress you know I did not touch and besides I am not in fault if you have been touched this is the fruit of their reproaches You will say there are abundance of Country Women that the Midwife never toucheth at all and they do not know scarcely whether a Woman lye in or no unless they see the Infant appear but they are not free from the disease whereof I speak for I have seen so great a company of them that I have been afraid to behold them This comes say the Midwives because they touched them not and that it is occasioned either because the Infant is too bigg or they say it is a burstness or the coming down of the great gut the most subtile put up a clew of thread the others a ball of wax which easeth a little while but comes out again every hour Of a Childe which they thought sick of the Epilepsie occasioned by the sickness of the Mother and of the cause ONe day there came to me a Gentlewoman to desire me that I would give her something for her Daughter that was sick of the Mother when her Mother related what she ailed I desired to see her I saw her and she had in one hour two several fits which was an affrightment attended with very much yawning after which she remained in a very great weakness all which time the mouth of the child was drawn more to one side then the other the eyes when she was out of the fit were open and fixed in one place I inquired of the Mother at what age her Daughter came to be first troubled with it who answered that she had been in this Town for something more then a year and that before that time she was never troubled with any such thing I gave her the best counsel that I could and first of all bid her to carry her again to the place where she was first nursed using some few Remedies that were convenient which prospered so wel that after she came thither she had but one fit though she had them so frequently before Of this no other cause can be given but that the place where she lived for that year being thicker then that where she was nursed caused in her a stirring of the humors with which the mother was continually afflicted she being disposed naturally to that kind of disease Of a young Woman who being struck upon the belly by her Husband with his foot was in great pain and could not be brought to bed without the help of a Chirurgeon I Will here relate a thing which I have seen in a young Woman that if the like accident should happen the same Remedies may be applyed There came a Woman to me to declare to me a disease with which she was troubled defiring me to do my utmost for that hitherto she could not lye in without the help of a Chirurgeon who had already killed two of her children I knowing what an ill Husband she had and that he had given her a blow upon the belly with his foot and had broken the Peritonaeum which was the reason that part of her guts hung down upon the share-â—bone like the bagg of a bagpipe to which place being bigg the Womb jutted out so that when the time came the Infant had not liberty to turn it self so that the Midwife seeing she could not have the child without losing the Woman was feign to make use of the Chirurgeon I considered her disease and ordered her to carry a swathe-band such a one as VVomen with child carry to support their bellies onely made a little more hollow and I caused her to wear it as they that are burst do wear half slopps lying smooth with cushionets within and never to fig 3 fig 4 Explanation of the third figure THis figure contains the birth at full maturity ready to come forth in the truest posture AAAA the parts of the midriff dissected BBBB the body of the womb dissected into four parts CCCC the Membranes or Filmes called Chorion and the Amnios dissected likewise into four parts D the Birth in its naturall posture Explanation of the fourth Figure This Figure contains the Navel vessels and the films or covering of the infant AAAA the muscles of the midriff the peritoneum and the skin it self dissected into four parts B the Liver of the Infant C the urinary vessels D the hole of the Liver into which the Navel veine doth passe E the Vmbilical or Navel vein it self FF the two Navel arteries tending downwards to the small gut arteries G the passage for the urine proceeding from the bottom of the bladder H the umbilicall vessels taken out of the body of the Infant to shew how they are joyned together I the membrane that involves the Navel vessels KKKK the guts or intrales of the Infant LLL the Navel vessels extended from the children to the birth M the place where the branches of the Navel vessels are first collected into one Trunk NN A branch of the Navel vessels scatterd through the fleshy part of the Chorion OOO A branch of the Navell arteries PPPP the conjunction of the umbilicall veine and artery QQQQ the extremities of the Navel veins and Arteries ending the fleshy parts of the Chorion RRRR the membraine called the Chorion rise without this whether bigg or no which she did and stil does and bears as fine children and lies in as wel as any other woman Of two Deliveries of one Woman THere was a Woman who being come to a sufficient age became big she causeth two of the best Midwives of the Country to assist her in her Lying in the hour being come they did as art commanded them which was the Child coming wel into the vvorld to keep her in a good situation to cause her to eat things vvhich vvere only to the purpose to keep her moderately vvarm then to bring her pains to a good issue I excuse the passion and impatience of Friends but I vvould not do any thing against my duty for complacency a fault that is soon committed but not so easily repented of This Woman vvas pretty long as most Women are of their first Children in vvhich time her Husband
altogether impatient seeing her to doubt the report of the Midvvives therefore said he here is a Chirurgeon hard by vvho may be sent for to resolve the doubt of the Midvvives he sent for him just about the hour that the Woman vvas to be brought to bed The Chirurgeon vvhen he came savv that the child vvas ready to come forth The Midvvives vvho had given vvay to the Chirurgeon thinking to take their place again as soon as he had touched her to make his report were deceived for he seeing the business ready to be done told her Husband that it was necessary for him to operate but that he would proceed with so much industry that he would not only bring forth a sound a lusty child but moreover that he would render his Wife also in a safe condition The Midwives when they would have spoken were put to silence The Gentlewoman vvas presently delivered and he stayed but a litle while to receive thus the Midwives that had attended long and all the while of the Travail were despised and put off and the Chirurgeon extolled and praised and wel rewarded with several most obliging and curteous invitations About a year after he was entertained upon the former score like a Prince the hour of her Labour came again and the Gentleman was gone to visit some of his friends having such a confidence in the Chirurgeon that he set his minde at rest for any danger The labour of this child was not like the labour of the other child for it came with the feet foremost and when the whole body was come forth the head could not be got forth he had brought with him no instruments thinking that this Delivery would have been like the other but seeing himself at a stand he sent to a Chirurgeon not far off for an instrument in the mean time he sent into the kitchen for the ladle with the hook at the end thereof to draw forth the child he drew so wel that he drew away the life of the childe and without seeking any further for any body to saddle his horse or bidding any body farewel he fled his wayes This may be an instruction to those that are so ready to entertaine Mountebanks and Empericks then vvhom there are no men more prodigal of the life of another for money Of a Woman that because she would not be ruled in her Lying in dyed I Was one day called to the Labour of a Woman vvhich had good Deliveries of her Sons and Daughters at their due time although her deliveries of Boyes vvere alwaies more difficult then those of her Daughters being come to her I found her vvalking in the Chamber with her leggs bare in a season that was not over-hot I caused her to be put into her bed to vvarm her again but she vvould by no means indure it although I prayed her she vvas angry with me and told me this vvas not the rule to be constrained the Mistriss and the Nurse combined against me the night approached the waters being come dovvn I feared the ill success of this business that her disease vvould be irrecoverable by reason of her self-vvilness I desired her Husband to use his endeavour but he could do no more vvith her then I about midnight I prayed her to go to bed again and to vvarm her self and unless she could do so I could do nothing she told me I understood nothing in respect of a certain Surgeon who whē she had such a kinde of Labour before only toucht her with his finger and delivered her that she would have him I was content so she sent for him he came very confidently but his work vvas not at so easie a pass as formerly he put a good large Table Napkin before him trussing it up to his elbows saying he was as able to deliver her as before she would no more see me after his arrival the Chirurgeon to whom I represented after his arrival all that I had understood and seen and the fear which I had of her told me that all would be well At day break a neighbour of mine calling me away I desired her Husband to let me go but he vvas unvvilling unless I vvould promise to come again vvhich I did and as soon as the door vvas open one of the servants told me another Midvvife vvas sent for her Husband desired me again that since the Chirurgeon failed of his skil I would use my skil but it was too late for the Chirurgeon left them and the Woman dyed See here hovv ill a thing it is to be opinionated for I could easily have delivered her if she vvould have been ruled by me Of certain Women that bear Children and lye in before their time and others at their full time who grow bigg and ful of humors which causeth the death of the child presently after their Delivery their children being nourished in their Bellies like fish only with water I Knew a Gentlewoman who had lain in three times but yet none of her children lived I desired her to take a Physitian that might give advice both to her and me and to ordain her some remedies and a government of dyet to keep her from suffering the like accidents for time to come we chose a Physitian who prescribed certain Tablets or Trochisques to take from the time she began to grow bigg until the time of her Delivery twice a week as also to take the water of Indian Bul-rush and of Sarsaparilla to mix in her drink or broth as often as she would having a due regard to the heat of her blood she observed every tittle of his directions which made her to bear a Son alive sound and healthful she continued these Remedies four years together but the next time she grew big with childe she thought that Nature of it self would be sufficient I counseled her to the contrary but she he arkned not so that when her Time came she was brought to bed of a dead child I shal give you the Receit of the Tablets and of the Water for the benefit of Women that are subject to an ill Delivery by reason of the great quantity of waters which hindreth the child from turning in the womb the water is made in this manner R. Two pints or 2 pints and a half of water put therein half an ounce of the root of Indian Bulrush and an ounce of Sarsaparilla put this in the drink and let it infuse one night mix it with the drink or else drink it pure The Tablets are made of this fashion R. Mace Saunders Rhubarb Pearl and Coral Sene of each 25 grains with one ounce and half of sugar let every Tablet weigh 6 drams The observation of a VVoman who was thought unable to bear any more Children yet contrary to expectation was delivered of one and the reason thereof THere are certain Women who have the neck of the Womb long and hardned by a cold humor that fals down
had from the Apothecaries with her consent or if she be young with the consent of her friends You must take order also that some good broth be made for her to take in the time of her Travail if it should chance to be long and also two hours after her being brought to bed Above all things I charge thee that what ever business thou maist have there that thou go not about them too hastily For there is nothing so nauseous to be seen as the improvident actions of over-busie Women Never be dismayd if every thing go not wel for fear disorders the senses and a person that keeps her wits together without suffering them to be scattered by fear is capable of giving assistance in weighty affairs and especially where things are done with leisure for in such cases Nature helps marvelously when we are most at a stand There is a great necessity of prudence especially in the Age wherein we live There is now no need of Coloquintida to render any thing good in it self bitter and disagreeable to the taste There are few Women now a dayes that do give that respect or have that kindness for them as in former ages for then when their Midwife dyed they shewed a great deale of sorrow and prayed God that now they might have no more Children which though it were not well done yet it shewed their affection Now a dayes Women use them as meer Hirelings There is a great deal of artifice to be used in the pleasing of our Women especially the young ones who many times do make election of men to bring them to bed I blush to speak of them for I take it to be a great piece of impudence to have any recourse to them unless it be in a case of very great danger I do approve it I have approved it and know that it ought to be done so that it be concealed from the Woman all her life long nor that she see the Chirurgeon any more for it is very inconvenient to Husbands that unless in cases of very great danger such th ngs concerning their own Wives should be communicated to any other men but themselves To this purpose shal I tel thee Daughter that being called to the Labour of a friend where were none but two or three of her acquaintance they asked me what I thought of the labour to which I answered that the child did not come wel but that I would do the work with the assistance of God without danger to the child or to the Mother they desired me that I would let a Chirurgeon see her for their satisfaction I consented to it provided that she might not see him for I was fearful lest she should dye with apprehension and shame I perswaded her to slide down toward the feeâ— of the bed I put the bolster upon the middle of the bed and darkned the room on that side where he was to come at the feet he touched her and she was brought to bed without any other assistance save that of God and Nature Since these injuries have been put in fashion there have been observed greater hazards and dangers in lying in then before which might be remedied by persons capable of their profession if they might be let alone But this detraction is so much in request that among some kinde of people there is much adoe to make them believe the truth and especially where they cannot get great advantage by so doing and truly Honorable persons which I have had the honour to serve make other Women seem monstrous to me You shall come into some houses where there are certain persons that hold such false lights to the Mistriss of the house that she sees quite contrary to that which is real which persons if they are not humored your busines will be there soon dispatched Take great heed of coming there for it may chance to gain you nothing but a great deal of care There are some Women that have no children at which they are very much troubled which is so notwithstanding that they might easily be helped if they would tel an understanding Midwife where the defect lay As concerning those who are sent for to lay Women in the Country I must say this that as for those that are not very wel experimented they may incurr many hazards by reason of their ignorance and the multiplicity of accidents that may happen and for those that are knowing to leave their Patients in the City is a thing that may displease and wrong many and run the hazard of being no more entertained among them to their own ruine neither is there any certainty of a Woman that wil run rambling into the Country My last advice is that thou do wel and in so doing fear nothing but God that he may bless thee and thy endeavours FINIS Now Published that excellent and practical peece Intituled Adam in Eden Of the knowledge of all our English Plants with their â—ignatâ—res physically applyed to the body of Man that every man may be his own Physitian in Folio by W. C. M. D. â—nd others