Liquor contained in these Bladders to be Seed but from Dr. Harvey downwards many learned Physicians and Anatomists have denied that Women have Seed Some Women says Dr. Harvey send forth no such humour as is called Seed and yet they conceive for I have known several Women says he that have bin fruitful enough without such emission yea some that after they begun to emit such an humour tho' indeed they took greater pleasure in Copulation yet grew less fruitful than before There are also infinite instances of Women who tho' they have pleasure in Copulation yet send forth nothing and notwithstanding conceive It is moreover to be observed that the humour is cast out and issues most commonly from about the Clytoris and Orifice of the privities and very rarely from any depth within the neck of the Womb but never within the Womb it self so as that it should be there mixed with the mans Seed besides it is not ropy and oyly like Seed but serous like Urine We must therefore agree with that new but necessary Opinion that supposes these little Bladders to contain nothing of Seed both because the Liquor is sent forth in a greater quantity than can be supplyed from them and also because they have no passage whereby the Liquor contained in them might issue out for if you press them never so hard unless you burst them nothing will pass out of them therefore it must be concluded that they are truly Eggs Analogous to those of Fowl and other Creatures and that the Stones so called are not truly so nor have any such Office as those of Men but are indeed an Ovarium wherein these Eggs are nourished by the blood Vessels dispersed through them and from whence one or more as they are fecundated by the Mans Seed separate and are convey'd into the womb by the Fallopian tubes If you boyl these Eggs their Liquor will have the same colour taste and consistency with the white of Birds eggs and their difference in wanting shells is of no moment for Birds eggs have need of a shell because they are hatched without the Body and are exposed to external injuries but these of Women being fostered within their body have no need of other fence than the Womb whereby they are sufficiently defended These Eggs in Women are commonly towards the number of twenty in each Testicle whereof some are far less than others The objection of the Galenists against the Aristotelians viz. That the Stones of Females must needs make Seed because when they are cut out barrenness always follows will be sufficiently obviated by this new Hypothesis that agrees to the necessity of the stones so far as to affirm that the little Bladders contained in them become when they are impregnated by the masculine seed the very conceptions themselves which would be in vain to expect if the female were castrated CHAP. IX Of the deferent or Ejaculatory Vessels THE Deferent Vessels are two blind passages on both sides one nothing differing in substance from the spermatick Veins They rise in one part from the bottom of the Womb neither do they reach from their other extremity either to the Stone or to any other part but are shut up and unpassable adhering to the womb just as the blind Gut adheres to the Colon but winding half way about the Stones are every way remote from them no where touching them only are tied to them with certain Membranes not unlike the wings of Bats through which certain Veins and Arteries being produced from the Stones do run and end in these passages Where they begin at the bottom of the womb they are hollow and large but as they proceed further on they grow narrower till near their end they do again obtain a larger bigness these two passages thus running from the corners of the womb to the Stones are taken only to be certain ligaments by which the Stones and the Womb are strongly knit together and these ligaments in Women are the same things with the Cremasteres in men Galen and most of the Antients counted these short processes that go streight from the Stones to the bottom of the Womb to be ejaculatory Vessels and that the seed was cast from the Stones thro' them into the bottom of the Womb and some others have thought they have found a small pipe passing on each side out of these processes by the sides of the Womb to its neck into which they were inserted and opened near its Orifice By the former it was supposed Women not with Child did cast their seed into the bottom of the Womb and by these latter such as were already impregnated for that if it should have issued into the bottom of the womb where the conception was it would have corrupted to the great prejudice of the Faetus But many accurate Anatomists have not bin able to find the least foot-step of these latter ducts and as for the former seeing they have not any cavity and therefore can have nothing of seed in them we must conclude that they are only ligaments of the stones to keep them in their place and this may be proved farther by observing that they come not into the inner cavity of the womb but are knit only to its outward Coat and there are only two holes in the bottom of the womb that admit a probe and those lead to the fallopian tubes and not to these ligaments Seeing therefore that those which have bin accounted ejaculatory Vessels either are not to be found at all or are found unfit for such an Office and having withal rejected the Opinion of Womens having seed and affirm'd that that which makes the Conception is one of those little bladders in the stones dropping from thence and conveyed into the womb we must enquire by what way they can pass for if the abovesaid ligaments reputed deferent Vessels have no passage whereby the seed if there were any might pass much less cou'd one of these bladders be conveyed that way and therefore for deferent Vessels we assign those passages that are called the fallopian tubes they are very slender and narrow passages nervous and white arising from the sides of the womb and at a little distance from it they become larger and twist like the tendrel of a Vine 'till near their end where ceasing their winding they grow very large and seem membranous and fleshy which end is very much torn and jaggy like the edge of rent Cloaths and has a large hole which always lies closed because those jags fall together but yet being opened they are like the outmost orifice of a brass Trumpet These tubes are the same in Women that the horns of the womb are in other Creatures for they answer to those both in situation connection amplitude perforation likeness and also office For as other Creatures always conceive in the Horns so it has been sometimes observed that a Conception has in a Woman bin contained in one of the tubes which must
a place furthest removed from the senses near which it were not fit to be by reason of the inconveniencies which would necessarily arise It is most fit to receive the Birth as being hollow in which concavity the birth may increase to its full proportion every way It is most fit for the exclusion of the Birth as being placed downward whereby the birth might help it self with its own weight and also by reason of the Muscles of the Abdomen which serve for compression and do help the endeavours of the mother CHAP. XVI Of the Utility of the preparing Vessels in Women THE Utilities of these Vessels are taken from their Original and from their Insertion the right Vein rising from the Hollow and the left from the Emulgent as in men that the more hot and purer blood might come from the right vein for the procreation of Males and the more serous and watry blood from the Emulgent for the generation of Women The Vessels also in women are shorter than in men because the way is not so far to the Stones which brevity of the Vessels is lengthned out by the many turnings and windings with which those Vessels are endued In the middle way those Vessels divide themselves like a Fork the greater part going to the Stones carrying the matter for Seed the lesser is carried to the womb where it scatters it self all along the sides of it for the nutrition of the Womb. As for the Arteries they afford the blood which is more full of spirits to perfect the Seed CHAP. XVII Of the Utility of the Stones THE use of the Stones in Women is the same as in men that is to say to prepare the Seed and to make it fit for procreation They are seated within that they should not want a continual heat to cherish them for the matter of Seed being colder in women than in men it requires a greater heat which it would of necessity want were the Stones placed outward like those of men and for that cause are they covered only with one Tunicle that the heat of those parts may more easily pass to them And therefore the Stones of women are softer than those of men because they should not perfect so substantial a Seed and that the heat of the adjacent parts should not be wholly taken up in the cherishing of them Their figure is not exactly round but depressed that the little Meanders of the veins dispersed through the Membrane from the Stones to the deferent Vessels might have more room to be incerted for the attraction of the Seed out of the whole substance of the Stones The inequality and ruggedness of them makes for the longer stay of the Seed in those crooked and winding Vessels SECT III. CHAP. I. Of the signs of Conception HAving thus shewed you the Anatomy and Use of the parts it will be requisite to discourse of the Conception it self which is the main and chief end of these Vessels And first of the signs of Conception The signs of Conception on the Mothers side are certain and apparent first if after she hath had the company of her Husband she hath received more content than ordinary Pains in the head giddiness dimness of the eyes all these concurring together portend conception the apples of the eyes decrease the eyes themselves swell and become of a dark colour the veins of the eyes wax red and swell with blood the eyes sink the eye-brows grow loose various colours appear in the eyes little red pimples rise in the face the veins between the Nose and the Eyes swell with blood and are seen more plain the vein under the tongue looks greenish the neck is hot the back bone cold the veins and arteries swell and the pulses are observed more easily the veins in the breast first look of a black colour but afterward turn yellowish the Teats look red if she drink cold drink she feels the cold in her breast she loaths her meat and drink she hath divers longings but her natural appetite is destroyed Continual vomitings follow and weakness of the stomach sour belches worms about her Navel faintness of the loyns the lower part of her belly swelling inward griping of the body the retention of the Seed 7 days after the act of copulation After which act there is a cold and trembling which seizes the external members the attractive force of the womb increases the womb dries up It is also a certain sign of conception if the Midwife touching with her finger the interiour neck of the womb shall find it exactly closed so that the point of a needle will not go between The womb waxeth round and swells the flowers cease to flow for the Veins through which they come down carry the blood to the nourishment of the birth the thighs swell with some pain the whole body grows weak and the face waxes pale the Excrements proceed slower out of the body The Urine is white a little cloud swimming at the top and many atoms appear in the Urine Take the Urine of a Woman and shut it up three days in a glass if she have conceived at the end of three days there will appear in the Urine certain live things to creep up and down Take also the Urine of a Woman and put it in a bason a whole night together with a clean and bright needle in it if the woman have conceived the needle will be scattered full of red speckles but if not it will be black and rusty Conception is an action of the Womb whereby the fruitful Seed of the Man and Woman are received and kept that a Child may be formed There are two kinds of Conception one true to which succeeds the generation of an Infant the other spurious and contrary to Nature in this case the Seed changes into water false Conceptions Moles or any other strange matter It is to be noted that there is no absolute necessity that all the Seed should be received and retained entire nor must we imagine that tho' all of it be not received into the Womb the Child formed out of it will want some Limb as an Arm or Leg or other member for want of sufficient matter for the least drop of Seed nay only a fume of it is sufficient to impregnate and form a Child But when the quantity of the Seed is small the Child may be the less and weaker for it or if the Man or the Woman be disâ—ased or the Womb stuft with ill humours the Child will be sickly or Moles or false Births or Dropsies of the Womb will be occasioned Tho' a Midwife may guess that a Woman has conceived when all the signs concur or most part of them together and successively according to their seasons yet many of these signs happen upon suppression of the courses and none of them are so very certain as not sometimes to fail us wherefore in trials of Women and upon giving physick to them great caution
a quantity of the nutritious Juice in women with Child that passes to the Womb-cake by the Hypogastrick and Spermatick Arteries for the Nourishment of the Child that the Courses stop after the first or second Month if the Woman be not very sanguine The Child is nourished three several ways by one and the same humour first by apposition whilst it is yet an imperfect Embryo before the Umbilical Vessels are framed But when the Umbilical Vessels are perfected then it receives the same Liquor by the Umbilical Vein the most spirituous and thin part whereof it changes into blood and sends the thicker part by the Umbilical Artery into the Amnios which the Child sucks in at its Mouth and being concocted again in the Stomach is received out of the Guts by the millâ—y Veins as after the Birth The parts of a Child in the Womb differ very much from those in a grown person All the parts are less the bones are softer and many of them grisly and flexible the head is proportionably bigger than the rest of the Body the Crown is not covered with Bone but with a membrane the Bone of the fore-head and under jaw is divided the Bone of the hinder part of the Head is distinguished into three four or five Bones the Brain and Nerves are softer than in grown persons the Bones that serve for hearing are very hard and big the Breasts swell and out of them in Children new born whether Boy or Girl a serous milk flows forth sometimes of its own accord sometimes with a light pressure The spinous processes of the Vertebrae of the Back are wanting the Heart is very big and its Ears large there are two unions of the greater Vessels that are not to be seen in grown persons namely First the Oval Hole whereby there is a passage open out of the hollow Vein into the Vein of the Lungs just as each of them are opening the first into the right ventricle and the latter into the left Ventricle of the Heart and this hole just as it opens into the Vein of the Lungs has a Valve that hinders any thing from returning out of the said Vein into the hole Secondly the Arterial Channel which two fingers breadth from the Basis of the Heart joins the Artery of the Lungs to the Aorta it has a pretty large cavity and ascends a little obliquely from the said Artery to the Aorta into which it carries the Blood that was driven into the Artery of the Lungs out of the right Ventricle of the Heart so that it never comes into the left Ventricle as the Blood that is sent out of the left Ventricle into the Aorta never came to the right but immediatly past into it out of the hollow Vein by the Oval hole so that the Blood does not pass thro' both the ventricles as it does after the Child is born The Lungs will sink before the Child is born whereas if the Child be but born and takes only half a dozen of breaths they become spungy and light that they will swim and by this may be known whether those Children that are murdered by Wenches and which they commonly affirm they are still-born were really so or no for if they were still born the Lungs will sink but if alive so as to breath never so little a while they will swim The Umbilical Vessels go out of the Belly the Stomach is narrower but pretty full of a whitish Liquor the Caul can scarce be seen being somewhat like a Spiders web the Guts are seven times longer than the Body in the small Guts the Excrements are flegmatick and yellow but somewhat hard and blackish sometimes greenish in the thick Gut the blind Gut is larger than usual and often fill'd with Excrements the Liver is very large and has a passage more than in grown People called the Veiny Channel it carries the greatest part of what is brought by the umbilical Vein directly and in a full stream into the hollow Vein above the Liver but as soon as the Child is born this Channel closes presently so do the Urachus and the two umbilical Arteries the spleen is small the Gall Bladder is full of Yellow or Green Choler the Sweet-bread is very large and White the Kidneys are big and unequal and seem as if they were compounded of many Glaudules the Ureteres are wide and the Bladder is stretch'd with Urine SECT IV. Of the formation of the Child in the Womb. CHAP. I. Of the mixture of the Seed of both Sexes as also of its substance and form AFTER that the Womb which is the Genital Member of the Female Sex hath received the Seed of the Man she commixes also her own Seed so that there is now but one mixture made of the Seed of both Sexes The natural forme of a child lying in y e womb But it being unquestionable that the menstruous Blood is the matter of the Womans Seed therefore that ye may know the Original of it it is to be understood that the Menstruous blood is nothing else but an Excrement of the third concoction gathered together every Month and purged out Which Purgation being duly made the Woman is then in perfect health of body but if they come not down according to their accustomed times and seasons or do not come down at all the Woman neither can conceive nor engender Thus the Seeds of both Sexes meeting in the Womb and there mixing together they are presently enclosed in a little Tunicle begot by the heat of the Womb and are there as it were coagulated and curdled together CHAP. II. Of the three Tunicles which the birth is wrapt in in the the Womb. FIRST out of the extreme superficies of the Seed by reason of the more watry moisture of the womans Seed a thin Membrane is generated which by reason of its moist quality is dilated farther being at first transparent but after the Birth comes forth folded up together and is called the Secundine But of the superfluous moisture of these two Tunicles are begot two other Tunicles which defend the Infant from being clogged with any superfluities as from the Flowers retained after Conception which serve neither for the nourishment nor for the increase of the Infant Yet are they retained 'till the very time of the Birth At which time they are either let out by the hand of the Midwife or else bursting the Secondine wherein they are contained they flow out of themselves The second Tunicle is that which was anciently called Allantoides wrapping about all the interiour parts frrom the Navel downwards this is full of folds and wrinckles in which the Urine Sweat and other sharp Humours that distill from the Infant almost grown to maturity are contained and kept to the time of Delivery By this second Tunicle therefore the Infant is delivered and defended from those humours lest they should either corrode and hurt the tender skin of the Infant or else any way defile and foul
nature may more commodiously be referred to a discourse by it self Now what might be the cause that the genital Members are ingendred within or without and that the creature becometh Male or Female is a thing plain and evident enough to demonstrate considering that heat extendeth and enlargeth all things and cold retaineth and closeth them up so that it is concluded by all that are knowing in Philosophy and natural causes that if the seed be cold and moist a woman is begotten not a man And if the same be hot and dry a man is begotten not a Woman Whence it is to be inferred that there is no man to be termed cold in respect of a woman nor woman hot in respect of a man This therefore is to be noted as a thing without all controversie or exception that the qualities which render a woman fruitful are cold and moisture the womb holding the same proportion with mans seed that the earth doth with Corn or any other grain and we see that if the earth want cold and moisture the seed will not prosper and that those are the most fertile soyls which partake most of cold and moist yet these two qualities ought to keep a certain measurableness lest that either by excess or deficiency generation be spoyled for as the Corn is vitiated by excess of rain and overmuch cold so in conception the seed may be choaked by over-abundance of these qualities and on the other side if those parts in a woman should be temperate as in a man it were impossible she should conceive or be a woman Nor could she breed that flegmatick blood which ingendereth milk by which as Galen and Hypocrates affirm the birth is nourished while it remaineth in the mothers belly neither could she be beardless or void of hair if she were overmuch inclining to hot and dry Nevertheless all women are not cold and moist alike there being of these qualities several degrees some being cold and moist in the first degree some in the second some in the third and in each of these they may conceive if a man answer them in proportion of heat As for the signs of these several degrees of coldness and moisture in women though hitherto they have not been taken notice of by any yet it will be very requisite in this place to consider them according to the several effects which each of these degrees produceth First by the quick apprehension and acuteness of wit in women for if they be very witty and acute they are to be judged cold and moist in the first degree only if very shallow and simple in the third degree but if they partake of a middle nature between these two extreams it signifieth that they are in the second degree Secondly their Conditions they being either curst or good natured according to these three degrees Thirdly their voice which is either shrill or big according as they are more or less cold and moist Fourthly their substance in flesh leanness being a sign of little coldness and moisture grosness or over much corpulency of the redundance of those qualities to be meanly fleshed betokeneth the second degree Fifthly the colour of their face which is either white or swarthy as these qualities are intense or remiss of the second degree is composed a fresh and lively colour Sixthly their hair which is also either much or little according to the exuberance or defect of cold and moist Seventhly a handsom form and proportion of body is the result of the middlemost degree deformity arising from either Extream Now from all these Signs it may be concluded that those women who are cold and moist in the second degree are of the perfectest temper and in the best capacity as to their own proper nature of bringing forth Children CHAP. IV. The signs to know the several degrees of hot and dry in a Man AS there are in Women three degrees of cold and moist so likewise in Men there are as many of hot and dry and the same signs which discover those in women specifie these in men only the first or remiss degree in women holdeth a proportion with the third or intense degree in men as namely whereas among women those have the biggest voices that are cold and moist in the first degree the like is to be concluded of men that are hot and dry in the third the defect in those answering to the excess in these now to understand these temperatures the more exactly we must take notice of a very observable point mentioned by Galen which is that the temperature of all parts of the body especially the brain follows the temperature of the Testicles and he affirmeth that they are of more importance than the Heart alledging this reason namely that the Heart is the beginning of the life only but the Testicles are the beginning of living healthfully and without distempers CHAP. V. What Women ought to marry with what men that they may have Children IN respect of married Women that prove Childless Hypocrates adviseth this experiment to be tried to know whether the defect be on the Womans part or on her Husbands which is to make her suffumigations with Incense or Storax with a Garment close wrapped about her which may hang down on the ground in such sort that no vapor or fume may issue out and if within a while after she feel the savour of the Incense in her mouth she may conclude that the barrenness comes not through her own defect but through her husbands for as much as the fumes found the passages open whereby it pierced up to the Nostrils But although this proof perform that effect which Hippocrates speaketh of namely the piercing up to the inner part of the mouth yet this is no infallible argument of the Husbands barrenness nor of the fruitfulness of the Wife Since want of Children may arise through an unapt disposition in them both in respect of the correspondency of qualities for it hath oftentimes hapned that a man who could not have Children by one wife hath had them by another the like also hath befallen Women What the correspondency should be which the man and wife ought to bear each to other is expressed by Hypocrates in these words If the hot answer not the cold and the dry the moist with measure and quantity that is if there meet not in the Womb two Seeds the one hot the other cold the one dry the other moist extended in equal degree there can be no generation For so marvellous a work as the formation of Man could not be perform'd without a proportionable commixture of seeds which could not be if the mans seed and the womans were both of the same temperature To exemplify what I have said it is to be concluded that a woman who is wily ill-condition'd shrill-voiced lean swarthy-coloured and deformed which are the signs of cold and moist in the first degree may conceive by a man who is ignorant good
Practice of the whole Art a Work very useful and necessary for the information of all in Physick Chyrurgery Chymistry c. By N. Culpeper late Student in Physick With on account of the Author's Life The Contents OF the Genitals or Vessels dedicated to Generation in men or women Page 1 Of the Vessels of preparation p. 2 Of the Parastatae or Vessels where the blood is first changed p. 5 The use of the preparing Vessels p. 4 Of the Testicles in general p. 6 Of the Tunicles of the Stones p. 8 Of the suspensory Muscles p. 9 Of the substance and temper of the Stones p. 10 Of the actions of the Testicles p. 11 Of the Vtility of the Testicles and their parts p. 12 Of the Vessels that casteth forth the Seed p. 14 Of the Seminary Bladders p. 15 Of the Kernelly Prostatae or forestanders p. 17 Of the structure of the Yard p. 21 Of the several parts constituting the Yard p. 22 Of the action of the Yard p. 26 Of the use of the Yard in general ibid. Of the use of the parts constituting the Yard p. 27 Of the Genitals of Women p. 29 Of those parts called Nemphae and the Clytoris p. 30 Of the fleshy knobs and the greater neck of the Womb. p. 33 Of the Hymen p. 34 Of the Vessels that run through the neck of the Womb. p. 36 Of the fabrick of the Womb. p. 37 Of the preparing Vessels in Women p. 40 Of the stones in Women p. 41 Of the deferent or ejaculatory Vessels p. 45 Of the actions and uses of the Genital parts in Women p. 48 Of the action of the Clytoris p. 49 Of the action and use of the neck of the Womb. ibid. Of the uses of the Vessels running thro' the neck of the womb p. 50 Of the actions of the Womb. p. 50 Of the Vtility of the Womb. p. 51. Of the Vtility of the preparing Vessels in Women p. 52 Of the Vtility of the Stones ibid. Of the signs of Conception p. 53 Whether she hath conceived a Male p. 56 Whether a Female ibid. Of the Conception of Twins p. 57 Of false Conception ibid. How Women ought to govern themselves in the time of their going with Child p. 63 The Womb-Cake p. 85. Of the mixture of the Seed of both Sexes as also of its substance and form p. 96. Of the three Tunicles which the Birth is wrapt in in the Womb. p. 97. Of the true generation of the parts and the increase of them according to the several days and seasons p. 98 Of the nourishment of the Birth in the Womb. p. 102 Of the condition of the Infant in the Womb in the 6 7 and 8 month p. 103 Of the situation of the Child in the womb ibid. Of Midwives p. 107 What ought to be observed when she is near the time of her lying down p. 108 How to expell the Collick from Women in Child-bed p. 110 How the Midwife may know when the pains of Travel do seize on a Woman p. 111 Of the falling down of the Waters a good while before the Woman Travels ibid. What the Midwife ought to do in time of Travel p. 112 How to draw forth the Secondines p. 114 What may be given to a Woman in Travel ibid. How to put the Womb again into its place p. 115 Against the extream loss of blood which happens to women immediately after their delivery p. 116 What is to be done to a woman presently after her Delivery p. 117 Of Women that have a great deal of blood and purge not neither in their Travel nor after p. 118 Of those who have but a little blood p. 120 What is to be done to the Infant ibid. How to govern Women in Child-bed p. 121 Of the bathings that a Woman is to use for the first eight days of her Lying-in p. 122 How a Midwife ought to govern her self in case a Woman be to be deliver'd of two Children ibid. Of the danger that a Woman hath to purge her self for the first days of her Lying-in p. 124 Of the second washing for Women ibid. What is to be done to Infants as soon as they are born p. 125 Of the last Washing for Women p. 126 Of an Astringent for women when they shall have occasion 127 To make Cere-Cloaths for Women ibid. To cleanse a Woman before she rises ibid. How a woman lying in of her first Child may avoid the gripings of her belly p. 128 The Queen of France her Receipt p. 129 Certain Precepts hindring the delay and difficulty of bringing forth ibid. How the Secondines are to be hasten'd out p. 132 Pills for that purpose p. 134 Of cases of extremity and first what is to be done to a woman who in her Travel is accompanied with a flux of blood and with Convulsions p. 135 Of ordering the woman after she is delivered p. 148 What is to be done to the Breast Belly and lower parts of the woman in Child-bed p. 150 An Ointment p. 151 An Ointment to keep the Milk from clotting ibid. A Fomentation much commended ibid. Of the choice of a good Nurse p. 153 What is to be done in the extream parts of the Child p. 154 What is to be done to such Children as are troubled with Flegm p. 155 What is to be done to Children that have their Cods full of wind ibid. How to take away the Canker out of the Infants mouth 156 What is to be done to Children whose Intestines are fallen ibid. To make an ointment to strengthen the thighs and legs of a Child and to make him go p. 157 Of the relaxations of the Matrix and the cause ibid. Of a Disease that happens by reason of the fall of the Matrix p. 159. To remedy the fall of the Fundament in Infants p. 160 Of the Diseases of Women and first of the inflammation of the Breast ibid. Of Windy Tumours in the breasts p. 169 Of Swelling from Milk p. 164 Of the watry Tumour in the Breast p. 172 Of the Kernel in the Breast p. 174 Of the Scirrhus of the Breast p. 176 Of the Cancer in the Breasts p. 183 Of the greatness of the Breasts p. 186 Of the defect abundance and coagulation of the Milk 187 Of the Diseases of the neck of the Womb and first of the Disease called Tentigo p. 188 Of the narrowness of the neck of the Womb. p. 189 Of Wheals Condyloma's of the Womb and of Hemorrhoids p. 191 Of the Vulcers of the neck of the Womb. p. 194 Of the Womb being out of temper p. 200 Of the narrowness of the Vessels of the womb p. 203 Of the puffing up of the Womb. p. 204 Of the inflammation of the Womb. p. 206 Of the Scirrhus of the Womb. p. 209 Of the Dropsie of the Womb. p. 210 Of the falling of the Womb. p. 211 Of the ascent of the Matrix as also of the Wounds and Vlcers of the same p. 213 Of the pain of the Womb. p.
suffer so great a distention neither can it be full of Arteries because it wants a continual pulsation neither can it consist of Nerves because they having no hollowness cannot be extended and loosned as it must of necessity happen to the Yard It is therefore necessary that the Yard should have such a substance as is not peculiar to any part of the body It is to be understood that there do concur to the framing of the Yard two nervous bodies the passage for the Urine which is called Urethra the Glans or Nut of the Yard four Muscles the Vessels and the skin Here doth arise a question why the Yard hath not any fat Which is in brief thus because that there should be no hindrance to the perfect sense of the Yard which could of necessity not be avoided if that member were subject to any obesity the fat being subject to be melted by frication CHAP. XIV Of the several parts constituting the Yard AMONG the parts that compose the structure of the Yard is that skin which with its cuticle and fleshly pannicle is common not only to this but to other members only it hath this peculiar to it self that it may be reflexed and drawn back from the Nut of the Yard This skin that turns back is called the Praeputium because that part in circumcision was cut away with which prepuce the Nut of the Yard is covered The Glans or Nut of the Yard is a fleshy part soft thin repleat with blood and spirits endued with an exquisite sense something sharp and acute at the end This is fastned to the prepuce at the lower part by a certain ligament which is therefore called the bridle or the filet which commonly is broken in the first venereal assaults which are for the most part the most furious The greatest part of the Yard is constituted by two nervous bodies on both sides one which terminate both together in the Nut. They rise from a two-fold original leaning or resting upon the Hip under the Share-bone whence as from a sure foundation they go on till they arrive at the nut of the Yard They consist of a double substance the first is nervous hard and thick the inner part black loose soft thin and spongy It is called the Nervous pipe These two bodies are joyned together by a certain membrane thin yet nervous which is strengthned by certain overthwart fibres being there placed in the likeness of a Weavers shuttle and though in their original they are separated the one from the other that there might remain some certain space for the Urethra yet they are joyned together about the middle of the Share-bone where they lose about the third part of their nervous substance The interiour substance which is wrapt about by the exteriour nervous substance hath this worthy observation That there appears stretched through the whole length of it a thin and tender Artery proportionable to the bigness of the body which is diffused through the whole loose substance of the Yard reaching as far as the root of the Yard Besides these two there is another body which lies between these two as proper or rather more peculiar to the Yard than they are This is a pipe placed at the inferiour part of the Yard being called the Urethra though it be a passage as proper to the Seed as to the Urine which is encompassed by the two fore-mentioned bodies This is a certain Channel produced in length and running through the middle of those nervous bodies consisting of the same substance that they do being loose thick soft and tender every way equal from the neck of the bladder to the nut of the Yard saving that it is a little wider at the beginning than it is toward the place where it ends which is at the head of the Glans or nut of the Yard At the beginning of this Channel there are three holes one in the middle and something bigger than the other two arising from the neck of the bladder the other two on both sides one being something narrower proceeding from the passage that goes out of the seminary vessels and conveighs the Seed into this Channel This is further to be noted in this place that in the Channel where it is joyned to the Glans together with the nervous bodies there is a little kind of cavern in which sometimes either putrid Seed or any other corroding humour happens in the Gonorrhaea being collected it is the cause of ulcers in that part the cause of very great pain and it many times also comes to pass that there is a certain little piece of flesh which grows out of this Ulcer that oftentimes stops the passages of the urine To the structure of the Yard there do moreover occurr two pair of Muscles one more short and thick proceeding from a part of the Hip near the beginning of the Yard and being of a fleshy substance The use of these two Muscles is to sustain the Yard in the erection and to bend the fore part of the Yard which is to be inserted into the womb the other pair is longer and rises from the Sphincter of the Fundament where they are endued with a more fleshy substance being in length full as long as the Yard under which they are carried downward ending at the sides of the Urethra about the middle of the Yard Their use is to dilate the Urethra both at the time of making water and at the time of Conjunction lest it should be stopped up by the repletion of the nervous bodies and so stop up the passage of the Seed They are also thought to keep the Yard firm lest it lean too much to either side and also to press out the Seed out of the Prostatae or Forestanders There are Vessels also of all sorts in the yard first of all certain Veins appearing in the external parts and in the cuticle which do branch themselves out from the Hypogastrium In the middle between the space of the fibres they send out certain branches from the right side to the left and from the left to the right These veins swelling with a frothy blood and spirit erect the Yard There are also certain nerves which scatter themselves from the pith or marrow of the Holy-bone quite through the yard bringing with them the cause of that pleasure and delight which is perceived in the erection of the yard CHAP. XV. Of the Action of the Yard THE main scope of Nature in the use of the Yard was the injection of Seed into the womb of the Woman which injection could not be done till the Seed were first moved neither could the Seed be moved but by frication of the parts which could not be done till it were sheathed in the Womb nor that neither till the Yard were erected This distention is caused by repletion which is caused by the plenty of Seed Secondly by superfluity of wind which if it
flow where it is found it is a certain note of Virginity but upon the first Copulation it is broke and bleeds and when it is once broke it never closes again This Blood is called the flower of Virginity and of this the Scripture makes mention Dut. cap. 22. 13.21 But tho' a man when he finds these signs of Virginity may be fully satisfied he hath married a Maid yet on the contrary it will not necessarily follow that where they are wanting Virginity is also wanting for the Hymen may be corroded by acrimonious fretting Humours flowing thro' with the courses or from the falling out or inversion of the Womb or sheath at least It sometimes happens even to Maids for if a Maid be so inconsiderate as to marry while her courses flow or within a Day after then both the Hymen and the inner wrinkled Membrane of the Sheath are so flaggy and relaxed that the Yard may easily enter with out any lett and so give suspicion of Unchastity when really she is unblameable saving for her imprudence to marry at that season Sometimes the Hymen grows so strong in old Maids that a Man is forced to make many essays before he can penetrate it and in some it is naturally quite closed up and these by this means having their courses stopt are in great danger of their life if they be not opened by some Chyrurgical Instrument Close to the Hymen lye the four Myrtle-berry Caruncles so called from their resembling Myrtle-berries The largest of them is uppermost standing just at the Mouth of the Urinary passage which it stops after rendring the Urine Opposite to this in the bottom of the sheath there is another and one on each side but of these four there is only the first in Maids the other three are not indeed Caruncles but little knobs made of the angular parts of the broken Hymen roll'd into a heap by the wrinkling of the sheath These three when the sheath is extended in Womens labour loose their roughness and become smooth so that they disappear until it be again contracted and indeed the sheath near its outer orifice has a Muscle near three Fingers broad that upon occasion contracts it so that Men and Women need not be solicitous concerning their Genitals being proportionable one to the other CHAP. V. Of the Vessels that run through the neck of the Womb. BEtween the Duplicity of the two Tunicles that constitute the neck of the Womb there are many Veins and Arteries that run along arising from those Vessels that descend on both sides the thighs and are incerted into the side of the neck of the Womb The great quantity and bigness of them deserves admiration for they are much bigger than the nature and openness of the place seems to require The cause of this is twofold first Because it being requisite for the neck of the Womb to be filled with abundance of spirits and to be extended and dilated for the better taking hold of the Yard there is required a great heat for these kind of motions which growing more intense by the act of frication doth consume a great quantity of moisture so that great Vessels are requisite and only able to make that continual supply that is needful There is another cause of the longness of these Vessels which is this Because that the monthly purgations are poured through those veins for the flowers must not come only out of the Womb but out of the neck of the Womb also Whence it happens that Women with Child do sometimes continue their purgations because that though the womb be shut up yet the passages in the neck of the womb are open This is also further to be noted in the neck of the womb that as soon as ever your sight is entred within the female fissure there do appear to the view two certain little holes or pits wherein is contained a serous humour which being pressed out in the act of copulation does not a little add to the pleasure thereof This is the humour with which women do moisten the top of a mans Yard not the Seed but a humour proper to the place voided out by the Womb. CHAP. VI. Of the Fabrick of the Womb. TO the neck of the Womb the Womb it self is adjoined in the lower part of the Hypogastrium where the hips are widest and broadest which are greater and broader thereabouts than those of men which is the reason also that they have broader Buttocks than men have The Womb is placed between the Bladder and the streight gut being joined to the bladder and leaning upon the streight gut where it lies as between two Cushions this situation of the womb was fittest that so it might have liberty to be stretched or contracted according to the bigness of the Fruit contained in it The figure of the womb is round and not unlike a Gourd that lessens and grows more acute at the one end The bottom of the womb is knit together by Ligaments of its own which are peculiar The neck of the womb is joined by its own substance and by certain Membranes to the Share-bone and the Sacred bone As to the bigness of it that varies according to the age or constitution of the body and use of Venery For it is much greater in Women that have brought forth than in those that are with Child and after the birth It is of a substance so thick as that it exceeds a thumbs breadth in thickness which after conception is so far from decreasing that it increases still to a greater bulk and proportion This substance the more to confirm it is interweaved with all manner of fibres streight oblique and overthwart The Vessels of the Womb are Veins Arteries and Nerves There are two little Veins which are carried from the spermatick Vessels to the bottom of the womb and two greater from the Hypogastricks which go not only to the bottom but to the neck The mouth of these veins pierce as far as the inward concavity in which place the extremities of them are called Acetabula which in the time of the Flowers gape and open themselves by reason of the great plenty and stream of blood that pours it self from thence and therefore they are at that time most conspicuous in women with Child that which is called the Liver of the Womb is joined to them that it might draw blood for the nourishment of the Child at which time their veins do so swell especially in the time of or near Delivery that they are as big as the Emulgent veins or at least half as thick as the Hollow vein It hath two Arteries on both sides the Spermatick and the Hypogastrick which every where do accompany the Veins The Womb hath also divers little nerves knit together in form of a Net which are carried not only to the interior part of the bottom of the Womb but also to the Neck and as
far as the privities themselves and that chiefly for sense and pleasure for which cause there is a great sympathy between the Womb and the Head This is also further to be noted that the Womb in its situation is not fixed and immoveable but moveable by reason of two ligaments which hang on both sides from the Share-bone and piercing through the Peritonaeum are joined to the bone it self so that it sometimes happens that through those holes of the Peritonaeum which give passage to these ligaments being loosened either the Omentum or the Entrails do swell outwardly and cause the burstness either of the Caul or of the Guts and sometimes it happens by reason of the looseness of those ligaments that the womb is moved with such force that it falls down and in the act of Copulation is moved up and down sometimes it moves upward that some Women do affirm that it ascends as high as their Stomack Now though the Womb be one continued body yet it is divided into the Mouth and the Bottom The Bottom of the Womb is called all that which by still ascending stretches it self from the internal Orifice to the end being narrow toward the Mouth but dilating it self by little and little 'till it come at the entrails The Mouth of the womb is that narrowness between the neck and the bottom it is an oblong and transverse Orifice but where it opens it self orbicular and round the circumference very thick and of an exquisite feeling and if this mouth be out of order and be troubled with a Scirrhous brawn or over-fatness over-moisture or relaxation it is the cause of Barrenness In those that are big with Child there uses to stick to this Orifice a thick viscous glutinous matter that the parts moistned may be the more easily opened For in the delivery this mouth is opened after a very strange and miraculous manner so that according to the bigness of the birth it suffers an equal dilatation from the bottom of the womb to the privy member CHAP. VII Of the preparing Vessels in Women THE Spermatick Preparing Vessels are two Veins and two Arteries differing not at all from those of men either in the number original action or use but only in their bigness and the manner of their insertion For as to their number there are so many veins and so many Arteries as in men They arise also from the same place as in men that is to say the right from the trunck of the hollow vein descending the left from the left Emulgent There are two Arteries also on both sides one which grow from the Aorta these both bring vital blood for the work of Generation As to the Longitude and Latitude of these Vessels they are narrower and shorter in Women only where they are wrinckled they are much more wreathed and contorted than in men for the way being shorter in women than in men Nature required for stretching out these vessels that they should be more wrinckled and crankled than in men that the blood might stay there in greater quantity for preparation of the Seed These vessels in Women are carried with an oblique course through the small guts to the Stones being wrapt up in fatter membranes but in the mid-way they are divided into two branches whereof the greater branch goes to the Stone constituting the various or winding body and those wonderful inosculations the lesser branch ends in the womb in the sides of which it is scattered up and down and chiefly at the higher part of the bottom of the womb for nourishment of the Womb and of the birth and that some part of the flowers may be purged out through those Vessels now because the Stones of Women are seated near the womb for that cause these vessels fall not from the Peritonaeum neither make they such passages as in men neither reach they to the Share-bone The use of these Spermatic Vessels is to minister to the generation of Seed according to the ancient Doctrine but to the nutrition of the Eggs in the Stones according to the new and for the nourishment of the Foetus and of the solid parts and the expurgation of the courses in as much as blood is convey'd by the Arteries to all those parts to which their Ramifications come in which parts they leave what is to be separated according to the law of Nature the remaining blood returning by the Veins CHAP. VIII Of the Stones in Women THE Stones of Women although they do perform the same actions and are for the same use as mens yet they differ from them in situation substance temperament figure magnitude and in their Covering They are seated in the hollowness of the Abdomen neither do they hang out as in men but they rest upon the Muscles of the Loins and this for that cause that they might be more hot and fruitful being to elaborate that matter with which the Seed of man engenders man In this place arises a Question not trivial whether the Seed of Woman be the efficient or the material cause of generation To which it is answered that though it have a power of acting yet it receives the perfection of that power from the Seed of Man The Stones of Women differ from mens also as to their figure because they are not so round and oval as those of men being in their fore and hinder part more depressed and broad the external superficies being more unequal as if a great many knots and kernals were mixed together There is also another difference as to the subject because they are softer and moister than those of men being more loose and ill compacted Their magnitude and temperament do also make a difference for the Stones of Women are much colder and lesser than Mens which is the reason that they beget a thin and watry Seed Their coverings also do make a difference for mens are wrapt up in divers Tunicles because being pendent outward they were otherwise more subject to external injuries but the stones of women have but one tunicle which though it stick very close to them yet are they also half cloathed over with the Peritonaeum They have but one membrane that encompasses them round but on their upper side where the preparing Vessels enter them they are about half way involved in another membrane that accompanies those Vessels and springs from the Peritonaeum When this cover is removed their substance appears whitish but is wholly different from the substance of Mens Stones for mens are composed of Seed-vessels which being continued to one another are twenty or thirty ells long if one could draw them out at length without breaking but Womens principally consist of a great many membranes and small fibres loosly joined to one another among which there are several little bladders full of a clear Liquor thro' whose membranes the nerves and preparing Vessels run Galen and Hypocrates and their followers imagine the
evacuation downward is apt to occasion miscarriage The Womans mind ought to be kept sedate and quiet all melancholly news and frightful objects must be removed far from her nor must any thing that may cause sorrow be suddenly told her She must moderate her passions and excessive anger must by all means be avoided for the passions do wonderfully affect the Child and often cause miscarraige some have been born dumb others have had a continual shaking of their Limbs and the like when the Mother has been suddenly and violently surprized or frighted wherefore it is best to be discoursing of such things before big-bellied Women as may moderately rejoyce them and that such objects be presented as may please and divert them and if it be absolutely necessary to acquaint them with sorrowful things great care and caution must be used and the misery must be discovered piece-meal Some Women are so very vain that they will lace themselves hard with Bodice stifned with Whale-bone to preserve their shapes forsooth but they do not consider what injury they do themselves for their Breasts being prest too much are apt to be inflamed and impostumated and the growth of the Child is hindered and the Limbs of it too often disfigured thereby and sometimes miscarriage happens They ought therefore at this time to have their Cloaths more loose and easie Some Women have also a custom to bleed once or twice when they are with Child tho' they have no need of it but this is certainly an errour for Women with Child ought not to bleed but upon necessity some having miscarried by bleeding but once a little too much blood being taken away tho' others I confess having blouded nine or ten times whilst they were with Child and yet have not miscarried Now seeing all are not of the same constitution they must not be all treated alike Those that have most blood can best bear bleeding If Purging be thought necessary gentle things must be only used as Manna Rhubarb or the like Women with Child are subject to many accidents the first is Vomiting whereby they often judge they are breeding it is not always occasioned by ill humours in the stomach but sometimes from a sympathy betwixt the Stomach and the Womb by the nerves inserted in the upper Orifice of the Stomach which have communication by continuity with those that pass to the Womb. Now the Womb which has a very exquisite Sense because of its membranous composition beginning to wax bigger feels some pain which being at the same time communicated by this continuity of nerves to the upper Orifice of the Stomach cause there these Vomitings for Women that were in good health before they conceived Vomit from the first day of their being with Child tho' they have no ill humours in their Stomach If the Vomiting continues a long while it weakens the Stomach very much and hinders digestion tho' it oftentimes continues till the Women are quick and then they recover their Appetite but in some it does not go off till they are delivered and some are most afflicted with it towards the end of their reckoning and this sort seldom ceases before they are brought to Bed Vomiting at the beginning if it be gentle and without great straining is not much minded and sometimes it is beneficial but if it continue after the third or fourth Month it ought to be remedied because the nourishment being daily Vomited up the Mother and the Child will be much weakened and moreover the continual subversion of the Stomach causing great agitation and compression the Belly occasions miscarriage It is very difficult to prevent wholly this Vomiting yet it may be much lessened by a good Diet and by eating little at a time and to strengthen the Stomach let her eat her meat with the juice of Oranges or the like Marmalade of Quinces is also very good being eaten after dinner or after meals and she ought to drink Claret-wine with water and it is convenient to quench Iron in her drink She must forbear fat Meats and Sauces for they much soften the membranes of the Stomach which were too weak and relaxed Sweet and Sugar Sauces are also injurious But if the vomiting continue tho' regular diet has bin used the corrupt humours must be purged off by stool by some gentle purge made of Mallows Cassia Rhubarb and the like but if the vomiting continues tho' the woman observes a good diet and tho she has bin purged we must do no more for there is great danger of miscarriage There are sometimes great pains in the back reins and hips especially the first time the woman is with child by reason of the dilatation of the womb and the compression it makes by its greatness and weight on the neighbouring parts The ligaments as well round as large cause these pains being much straightened and drawn by the bigness and weight of the womb namely the large one of the back and loins which answer to the reins because these two ligaments are strongly fastned towards these parts the round ones cause pains in the groins and thighs where they end they are some times so violently extended by this extream bigness and great weight of the womb that they are torn especially if the woman happen to stumble which causeth violent pain and much mischief A woman being six Months gone with Child upon stumbling felt something crack in her belly near the loins and she presently felt great pain in her back and in one side of her belly she vomited violently and the next day was seized with a continual Fever this lasted seven or eight days without sleeping or resting an hour and all the while she vomited up all she took and she was also very much troubled with Hicoughs and had great pains like those of labour But by keeping her bed twelve days and by bleeding in her arm thrice and by the use of a grain of laudanum divers times and by corroborating cordials she was somewhat eased and all the symptoms went off by little and little and she went her full time and indeed there is nothing that will mitigate the pains of the back and reins better than rest in bed and bleeding in the Arm especially if they were occasioned by the ligaments broke or two much extended it may be convenient to keep up the belly with a broad swaith if the Woman cannot keep her Bed Oftentimes when a Woman has conceived the courses being stopt a great quantity of blood flows to the Breasts which makes them swell and be painful therefore to prevent inflammations Women ought to take great care that they are not strait-laced so as to compress the breasts and this is all that needs to be done at the beginning only she must be sure that she receives no blows upon them but it 's better to bleed in the Arm after the third or fourth Month if a great deal of blood flow to the Breasts then to endeavour to repel
Sick has vomited a great while you must give Laudanum without delay and such a dose as is not only equal to the violence and duration of the symptom but such an one as is sufficient to vanquish it Of Barrenness BArrenness is an impotence to conceive coming from defect either of the Genitals or of the blood or of the menstruous blood First through the defect of the Genitals either by the closing up of the Orifice of the womb which may be cut and opened by Art or through the narrowness of the parts for so they will not admit the Yard or by reason of some Ulcers or Excrescencies in the neck of the womb Or by reason of some fault in the seed either the woman being too young or too old or through some distemper in the Vessels dedicated to generation and then the woman perceives very little or no pleasure in the act of Copulation The Cure of this is referred to the Chapter of the distempers of the womb Or when there is not that due proportion of seed which ought to be in both parties which chiefly arises from the use of those things that extinguish barrenness as Mint Rue Camphire Or from Inchantments and then the man cannot lye with his wife or though he should yet cannot emit the seed Against which it is affirmed that the drinking a draught of cold water that drops from the mouth of a young Stone-horse as he drinks and saved in a little vessel is very potent Or when the womb doth not draw the seed which is ejected and that by reason of some cold and moist distemper in which case all sorrow anger and much sleep are to be avoided as also the eating of Milk fresh Cheese and any thing that is made of dough Neither is she to eat Endive Spinage Beets Lettice Nuts Cherries Purslane Onions Garlick or such like nor much broth vinegar and fat flesh In the next place the womb must be cleansed from over-abundance of moisture with syrup of Wormwood with the decoction of Harts-tongue Fennel Cumin and Aniseed After this take once every 14 days a dram of blessed Pills fasting five hours after them Take also of these following Pills Take of Labdanum Agaric Wax and Sheep suet tryed of which you may make Pills to take two or three of them every morning or use this confection Take shaven Ivory Ash keys yellow and wild Rape-seed Siler mountain with red and white Behen of each one dram Cinamon Galingale long Pepper Cloves and Mace Balsam-wood Rosemary-flowers Blatrae Byzantiae Marjoram Penny-royal of each four scruples Baulm Bugloss Citron Pils of each two scruples Pearls one scruple Musk 2 grains white sugar twenty four ounces seeth this with Malmsey and make thereof a Confection Or because of some Diseases in the parts where note that too much fatness of the Call doth close the mouth of the womb such women must not sleep much especially in the day time they must use strong Clysters that are warm and dry and purge often Or when the Womb doth not attract the seed when it is cast in which proceeds from a moist intemperance which is by the looseness of the fibres of the Womb so that the Womb cannot contract it self which is cured as in the moist distemper Or by reason of the thickness of the Womb for then the blood that increases the seed doth not slide down to that place The cure hereof requires a thin diet purging and sweating or by reason of the slipperiness thereof which happens by reason of the running of the whites in women The cure whereof consists in the stopping of the whites which hath been already treated of or by reason of the gaping of the Orifice which hath been occasioned either by difficult birth or by some abortion The cure is performed by astringent Medicines among which the chiefest are the fomentation of Lentisk and Myrtle or by reason of some sudden cough or sneezing immediately after copulation by which the seed is shaken forth Or when the Womb doth not alter the seed that is cast in through an immoderate cold distemper Sometimes through heat and then it would be requisite to avoid hot air and to keep the part about the womb cold the eating of hot meats and spices must be avoided Purge after blood-letting in the Basilick vein of the right hand with Electurium de Epythymo and juyce of Roses of each two drams and a half whey four ounces mix them well together and take them in the morning sleeping on and fasting four hours upon Purge also with Triphera Saracenica and Rheubarb with potions prepared and mixed with syrup of Roses Violets and Endive Take Pistacia Eringo's of each half an ounce of Saffron a dram Lignum Aloes Galangal Avens Mace red and white Behen Baulm-flowers of each four scruple shavings of Ivory and Cassia rinds of each two scruples syrup of Ginger confected twelve ounces white Sugar six ounces seeth these together with the syrup in 12 ounces of Baulm-water untill it be all boyled away when it is cold put some more water to it and stir them together and at last of all mix with it a scruple and a half of Musk and Amber of this Conserve let the woman take thrice a day to wit in the morning an hour before supper and an hour after dinner Or it proceeds from obstruction of the Flowers in which case first let blood in the Basilick vein then purge with Opoponax and Hiera Composita of each half a dram to be made up into seven Pills to be taken in the morning sleeping upon them an hour and a half with a draught of sugar'd water five hours after or with a potion of syrup of vinegar compounded syrup of Hemp agrimony of each three quarters of an ounce Feverfew Mugwort and Elecampane roots of each an ounce and mix them together Then she may put up into the Womb a pessary of Musk Amber Aloes-Wood and Ash keys of each three grains Saffron half a scruple Hares rennet as much as suffices which being made up like a good big Tent she must keep a whole day in her Body Of the bringing up of Children and of their Diseases Of the Diseases of the Head THE Diseases common to Children are first certain little ulcerous risings chiefly in the Head sometimes in the whole Body they arise from some vitious humour either collected in the Womb or out of the Womb by reason of the badness of the milk containing a serous salt and nitrous quality If there be no ill to be suspected the humour may be driven forth by giving the Child some Syrup of Fumatory or Harts-horn burnt The Nurse is to be purged and the matter offending to be tempered with Syrup of Borage or Fumary If there be much corruption under the Crust of the Scab the Head of the Child is to bo bathed with some softning decoction and then to be anointed with some drying Ointments Sometimes they are troubled with an inflamation of
Tablet weigh six drams 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 THere are certain Women who have the neck of the Womb long and hardned by a cold humor that falls down thereon and renders them uncapable of conceiving One I have heard of who was afflicted with this Disease and voided a great deal of putrified blood by a certain fumigation that I taught her she 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 big of another for being discharged of the burden of putrified blood she found her self marvellously free for Conception for the Matrix that began to be ulcerated was now fortified and strengthned again and the natural heat began to take possession there again A good observation in the choice of Nurses THere be two sort 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 than 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 legs 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 dull and sottish giving no great signs of vivacity coming to bear teeth they are very sickly and do ordinarily die by reason of the flux that pusheth out too great company of teeth at once The Children that escape this are more ill juic'd in their infancy than 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 than the other for that is more dangerous and venomous to the Children There is another sort of Nurses more dangerous than these I have now spoken of who presently after they have Lain in that is three or four or five or six months 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 Infant This is caused by a moderate heat which is in their blood and to say true as soon as ever this happens the Infant must be taken away for they are more apt to conceive than to nurse and if they continue Nurses they do but ruine the Children This is but 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 yet seem fat and in good case This is the cause of great Cholicks and windinesses in Children which kills them in a moment for the least Feaver that takes them carries them away Besides this there are some whose milk is so little but withal so thick that it sticks upon the tongue palate and throat which causes as it were a white canker which is more and more heated by reason of their forcible drawing in vain and possesseth all the throat whereby they are hindred from sucking These Nurses will 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 than in Nurses for let them make what excuse they will it is nothing but necessity that reduceth them to be such Although the greatest part do say that it is to get acquaintance yet when they have a Child whether they have milk or no yet they desire not to part with it no more than they do to drown themselves whereby 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 own 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 unpunished Of a Woman which I laid two several times and of the difference of her bearing of two Children proceeding from several causes I Was called to lay a Woman who said she was gone her full time she had the same pains that women are wont 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 Hogs-bladder all united within and without only that it had divers branches of veins as you shall see in a bladder which I presently cut and found therein a little Infant well shaped swiming in black waters it had gone its full 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 small branches of the veins do end Here as I guess as long as it found any blood it lay languishing but that beginning to fail it died 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 humours that ever I saw in my life Another time I brought the same Woman to bed who was delivered of a Child that came the ordinary way into the World with the head foremost 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 athwart 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 than any face it had the form of a nose but it was soft like wooll The head was full of water and those knobs which appeared were nothing but the futures of the head which the too great abundance of water had disjoyn'd in the hands it had nothing but hair instead of bones and the toes were of the same The woman her self was said to be extream 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 Countries 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 up my self to the
have happened when the Egg being received out of the stone into it has been stopt in its passage to the womb either from its own bigness or some obstruction in the tube The substance of the tubes is not nervous as Fallopius affirms but membranous for they consist of two membranes the outer and inner the inner springs from or at least is common with that which covers the inner substance of the womb But whereas it is smooth in the womb it is very wrinkled in the tubes the outer is common with the outmost of the womb and this is smooth The capacity of these passages varies very much for in the beginning as it goes out of the womb it only admits a bristle but in his progress where it is most capacious it will receive ones little finger but in the extremity where it is jagged it is but about a quarter so wide their length also is very uncertain for they sometimes increase from four or five to eight or nine fingers breadth long Their use is in a fruitful Copulation to grant a passage to the finer part of the man's Seed or of a seminal fume towards the stones to bedew the Eggs contained in them which Eggs one or more being thereby ripened and dropping off from the stone are received by the extremity of the tubes and carried along their inner cavity to the womb Two objections may be made against this use First That the end of the tube not sticking close to the stone when one of the Eggs drops from the stone it would more probably fall into the cavity of the belly than light just pat in the mouth of the tube Secondly when it is received by it its passage is so narnow that it is hard to imagin how it can pass by it But as to the first the same objection may lye against the use of the oviduct in Hens for in them it does not join quite close to the Ovarium and yet it is certain that the rudiments of the Eggs do all pass by them to the womb Moreover it is probable that when all the other parts of the Genitals are turgid in the act of Copulation these tubes also may be in some measure erected and extend their open mouth to the stones to impregnate the Eggs with the seminal fume thro' their passage and if any one be ripened and separate to receive it afterwards by its orifice As to the second objection against the narrowness of these tubes he that considers the straightness of the inner orifice of the womb both in maids and in women with Child yet observes to dilate so much upon occasion as to grant a passage to the Child out of the womb cannot wonder that to serve a necessary end of Nature the small passages of the tubes should be so far stretched as to make way for an Egg seeing its proportion to their passage is much less than of the Child to the usual largeness of the said orifice CHAP. X. Of the Actions and Uses of the Genital parts in Women IN the privie part are seen the Pubes the mountains of Venus the two lips the orifice under which the two wings lye hid the little knobs of flesh resembling Myrtle-berries the passages of the Urine and the Clytoris As for the Pubes and the Mountains of Venus they serve for this use that the great Orifice might be the better shut and to avoid compression in copulation for which cause they are beset with hair and are covered with a hard kind of fat the great Orifice receives the Yard and gives passage to the Urâ—ne and the birth The use of these Wings or knobs of flesh like myrtle-berries are for the defence of the internal parts shutting the Orifice of the neck lest cold air dust or any other annoyances should hurt it from without and while they swell up they cause titillation and desire in those parts Lastly the passages of the Urine being shut up by the knobs of flesh resembling myrtle-berries hinders the unvoluntary passage of the Urine CHAP. XI Of the Action of the Clytoris THE action of the Clytoris is like that of the Yard which is erection which erection is for the motion and attraction of the Seed CHAP. XII Of the action and use of the Neck of the Womb. THE action of the neck of the Womb is the same with that of the Yard that is to say Erection which is occasioned divers ways First all this passage is erected and made streight for the better conveyance of the Yard to the Womb Then while the whole passage is erected it is repleted with spirit and vital blood whereby it becomes narrower for the more streight embracing of the Yard The causes of this erection are first because if the womb were not erected the Yard could not have a convenient passage into the womb secondly it would hinder convenient affrication without which the Seed could not be drawn forth Lastly it hinders any hurt or damage which might be done by the violent force of the Yard CHAP. XIII Of the uses of the vessels running through the neck of the Womb. FIRST it is required that there should be a concurrence of divers Veins and Arteries for the nourishment of that part and though that part it self being full of Membranes does not require much nourishment yet by reason that it is to suffer Erection that could not be done but by blood and spirits which are contained in these vessels Besides although the substance of this part be of a cold temperament being notwithstanding still heated by the act of Copulation that heat would soon consume a slender nourishment which nature hath supplied by the concourse of these Vessels Another cause of the plenty of these veins is nourishment of the Birth and the exclusion of flowers CHAP. XIV Of the actions of the Womb. THE first use of the Womb is to attract the Seed by a familiar sympathy just as the Second use is to retain it which is properly called Conception The third is to cherish the Seed thus attracted to alter it and change into the Birth by raising up that power which before lay sleeping in the Seed and to reduce it from power into act The fourth action of the Womb is to send forth the birth at the time prefixed the apt time of expulsion is when the expulsive faculty begins to be affected with some sense of trouble that is when the Birth afflicts and oppresses the Womb with its own weight Besides these uses it hath these moreover To nourish the Birth and to dilate it self which it doth by the help of Veins and Arteries which do fill more and more with matter as nature requires The chiefest action of the Womb and most proper to it is the retention of the Seed without which nothing of other actions could be performed for the Generation of man CHAP. XV. Of the Utility of the Womb. FIRST it is the most fit place for Copulation as being in
the thighs and groyns 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 encumbered 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 Month for the most part and the Female at the beginning of the third or fourth Month 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 false conception Besides in a true conception the Mother shall perceive her Child to move on all sides oftner though to the right flank than to the left sometimes up sometimes down without any assistance but in a false conception although there be a kind of motion which is not enlivened 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 besides as she lies on her back if any one do push gently downward the burden 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 months the woman shall not come to her Travel but that her belly still swells 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 months 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 than when it bears the Fleshy mole and especially near the groins and small of the belly if it be struck on it sounds like a drum sometime the swelling decreases but by and by it swells more and more the woman feels her self more light it is engendered and encreases swifter than the fleshy mole or the Watry and it makes such a distention of the belly as if one were tearing it asunder For the watry and humorous mole the signs are almost the same the Belly increases and swells by little and little as the woman lies upon her back the sides of her belly are more swelled and distended than 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 it were a fluctuation of water there This distinction is to be observed in the Watry Mole that the flank and thighs are more stretched and swollen than in the humoral because that the waters flow thither oftentimes And that which comes forth through Nature's Conduit 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 conceptions that the flowers never come down and the Navel of the Mother advances it self little or nothing both which happen in true conceptions 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 they do 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 which is a piece of flesh hanging within the inner neck of the womb which at the place where it is fastned is about a fingers breadth still increasing bigger and bigger toward the bottom like a little bell This flesh hanging in the interiour 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 Child ought to govern themselves IN the first place she ought to chuse a temperate and wholesome air neither too hot nor too cold nor in a watry and damp place nor too subject to fogs and winds especially the South-wind which is a great enemy to Women with Child causing oft-times abortion in them The Northwind is also hurtful engendring Rheums and Catarrhs and Coughs which do often force a woman to lie down before her time Likewise those 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 she ought to choose meat that breeds good and wholsome nourishment and which breeds good juice such are meats that are moderately dry 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 and 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 child 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 Pheasants Larks Partridge 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 Marmalade as also Cherries and Damsins she must avoid all meats that provoke urine or the terms and such meats as are windy as Pease and Beans Yet because there are some Women that have such depraved stomachs by reason of a certain salt and sowre humour contained in the membranes of the stomach as that they will eat coals chalk 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 child 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 is best in the night for the concoction of those meats which she hath eat in the day time She must avoid by all means the sleeping after dinner she may sleep full out nine hours her sleeping beyond that time is prejudicial She may exercise her self moderately for violent excrcise loosens the Cotyledones through which the Infant receives its nourishment the riding in Coaches is forbid especially for the last three months She ought to avoid great noises as the noise of Guns or great Bells Laughing and crying if it be immoderate is extreamly hurtful as also immoderate anger In the first four months she ought not to lye with her Husband for that shakes and moves the fruit of her Womb and causes the Flowers to descend she must also abstain in the sixth and eighth but in the seventh and ninth it is not denied and is thought to facilitate the Delivery She ought also to keep her body soluble which if it should not come of it self she must take loosening Syrups to help nature as soon as ever they perceive themselves to be with Child they must lay aside their Busks and not streighten themselves any way for fear of hurting the fruit of their Womb by not giving it its full liberty of growth A Woman with Child ought to be accounted sick for the time of going with Child is called a sickness of nine Months and she is indeed subject to many inconveniences on that account therefore she ought to use her utmost endeavour to prevent those many accidents she is then subject to and that she may preserve her self in health as much as her present condition will allow of let her be careful to observe a good diet agreeable to her constitution and condition The air of the place where she dwells ought to be temperate for if it be too hot it dissipats the humours and spirits and if it be moist and cold it occasions rheums and coughs whereby miscarriages have been caused ill smells are also very offensive to Women with Child as the stink of a candle the smell of char-coal Their Stomach generally loath Meat and are weak and therefore they must please their Stomachs and let them not fast too long for thereby their blood is unfit to nourish the Child but they must not eat too much at a time especially for Supper because the bigness of the belly hinders the Stomach from containing much wherefore let the Woman eat little and often Her bread must be made of good Wheat white and well baked her meat may be Mutton Veal Fowl or Pullets Pidgeons or Partridges boyled or roasted according as she likes best New laid Eggs are also a good Diet and to purifie the Blood which is generally ill during the time of pregnancy she ought to eat sometimes Broths with succory borrage or sorrel boyled in it but hot seasoned Pyes and baked meats must be avoided if she long for Fish River fish and those of running streams are to be preferred before others But note that this ought to be a general rule in this case viz. That if Women earnestly long for any thing they must have it And because their Stomachs are always weak they ought to drink some good Wine or some other good Liquor at Meals to help digestion All things very hot and such things as force Urine ought to be shunned because they are apt to force the courses and so to cause miscarriage They ought to sleep moderately because by sleep the functions and the concoction are strengthened whereas excessive watchings waste the Spirits and weaken the faculties therefore a Woman with Child ought to sleep nine or ten hours at least in a Night As to exercise and rest respect must be had to the various times of pregnancy At the beginning of the Conception if the Woman perceives it she ought if her condition will allow of it to keep in Bed at least till the fifth or sixth day and not to converse with her Husband all that time for then a little matter will cause miscarriage She must not ride on Horse-back or in a Coach or Waggon all the time she is with Child especially when she is near her time because these kind of motions increase the weight of that which is contained in the Womb and often causes abortion But she may be carried in a Chair or Litter or walk gently She must forbear carrying or lifting heavy burthens nor must she raise her Arms too high or dress her own head for many have miscarried the ligaments of the Womb being relaxed on this account And it must be câ—refully noted that when she walks she must walk in low heeled shoes for big bellied Women are apt to stumble because they cannot see their feet by reason of the bigness of their bellies and she must rather rest too much than use motion too much for immoderate motion is very dangerous and I believe the exercise of bigg bellied Women when it has been immoderate towards the latter end of their reckoning has been the chiefest and most general cause of hard Labours for many times the Child is put into a wrong position by the motion and exercise of the Mother or the Birth is unduly hastned both which sometimes prove very prejudicial The Woman ought rather the two last Months of her reckoning to abstain from Copulation the Body being thereby much moved and the Belly compressed which makes the Child sometimes take a wrong posture and without doubt if these things that have been said concerning exercise and rest were well regarded the lives of many Women and Children would be saved and much pain and sorrow prevented Some Women are so very apt to miscarry that being frightned or surprized by the noise of a great Gun or the sound of a Bell or a clap of Thunder they have miscarryed Women with Child are subject to be bound in the Bodies the Womb by its weight pressing the right gut and so hindring an easy discharge of the Excrements In this case such things as loosen the belly are to be frequently used She may now and then eat stewed Prunes or Veal-broth or a Glister of Mallows may be injected but sharp Glisters and things that purge too much must be avoided for Hypocrates says that too great an
it on some other part by astringent or repelling Medicines because it does least hurt in the breasts than any where else It may be also convenient to use an orderly cooling Diet to lessen the quantity and qualifie the heat of the humours Big bellied Women sometimes are troubled with incontinence and difficulty of Urine because the Womb by its bigness and weight presses the Bladder so that the common extension of it being hindred it is rendred incapable of holding such a quantity of water as it uses to do and therefore the nearer a Woman is to her time the oftner she is forced to make water but on the contrary if the neck of the Womb be pressed she makes water with great difficulty and sometimes an heat and inflammation in the neck of the Bladder is the occasion of the suppression of the Urine and sometimes a stone is the cause and if so the pain is more violent and much more dangerous than at another time the Womb by its weight and bigness causing the stone perpetually to press upon the bladder These frequent endeavours to make water ought to be prevented if possibly because the continual forcing downwards to make water loosens the Womb and so sometimes occasions miscarriage and therefore when it comes from the bigness and weight of the Womb as it dos most commonly the Woman must ease her self by lifting up the bottom of her Belly when she has occasion to make water or she may have a large swaith fitted for that purpose to keep her Belly from bearing too much upon the Bladder But keeping in Bed is the best and surest remedy If an Inflammation of the neck of the Bladder be occasioned by sharp humours the Woman must have a cooling Diet and forbear Wine and Morning and Evening she must take an Emulsion made of Whey Syrup of Violets and the cold Seeds and this is very safe for it cools and cleanses the passages of the Urine and is no way injurious to the Mother or Child But if the pain and inflammation do not go off by the use of these things to prevent any ill accident that may happen a little blood mâ—y be taken from the Womans Arm and the outward entry of the neck of the bladder may be bathed with a cooling and Emollient Decoction made of Mallows Marsh-mallows Violets and Linseeds or Injections made of the same Decoction with honey of Violets or warm Milk may be cast into the Bladder But if these things do not do the business a Catheter may be used from time to time to draw forth the water and if the pain be violent a half bath luke-warm may be used if she be not too much moved thereby But all Medicines that force Urine must be forborne for they are very injurious to Women with Child for they are apt to occasion miscarriage And if a Stone be the cause it must for the present be only thrust back with the Catheter for if you should endeavour to draw it out the life of the Child or Mother will be hazarded wherefore it is best to let it alone till the Woman is delivered When the Child lies high coughs and difficulty of breathing afflict big-bellied Women and when the cough is so much as to cause Vomiting it is a very dangerous Symptom being the most apt to occasion miscarriage because the Lungs endeavouring to cast out the offending matter depresses the Diaphragm and thereby all the parts of the belly and especially the Womb. Many things may also occasion this cough as salt Rheums flowing from the whole Body to the Breast the suppression of the course cold taken and the like If it proceed from sharp humours or salt rheums salt and high seasoned meats must be avoided and also such things as are sharp as Vinegar Oranges and the like and instead of them she ought to use such things as smoothen the passages of the Lungs and Breast as Sebestins Jujubes Raisons of the Sun Liquorish Sugar-candy Syrup of Violets and the like It is also proper to turn the humours downwards by a gentle Glyster If these things will not do the business and there is a sign of a great deal of blood the Woman must be blooded in the Arm and tho' it is not common practice to bleed at the very beginning of being with Child yet it must be done when the cough is continual for moderate bleeding is not so dangerous as such a cough If the cough be occasioned by a cold the Woman ought to keep her Chamber and to have her neck well defended from the cold with cloaths and at Bed time let her take three spoonfuls of Syrup of burnt Wine which is very good for the Breast and helps digestion It is made of half a pint of good Wine two drams of Cinnamon bruised half a dozen of Cloves four ounces of Sugar boyl them over the fire burn the Wine and afterwards boyl it to the consistence of Syrup It is to be noted that in this case the Woman must be never strait-laced and some gentle Medicine to cause sleep ought be given for such things are particularly proper to stop Rheums and to thicken the matter The following Anodyne may be used every other night at Bed time upon occasion Take of Cowslip-water two ounces of the Syrrups of Jujubes and Meconium each half an ounce mingle them make a draught Some Women by their first Child are so much oppressed in their Breast that they fear they shall be choaked presently after eating walking or going up Stairs the Child lying very high by reason the Ligaments that support the Womb are not yet relaxed and if upon this account the Lungs be full of Blood they will breath more easily after a little Blood is taken from the Arm. But if the difficulty of breathing is occasioned by the Womb 's pressing upon the Midrife the Cloaths must be worn loose and the Woman must eat little at a time and often for full feeding oppresses the Midrife and increases the difficulty of breathing and she must be sure to avoid windy Meats as Pease eaâ—ns and the like And Grief and Fear if possible must be far removed for thereby Women are in danger of being suffocated when their Heart and Lungs are before oppressed Women with child are subject to Pains and swellings of the Legs and Thighs which are sometimes also full of red Spots which much obstructs their walking these are occasioned by abundance of Blood for Women that are sanguine are most subject to these swellings and pains much walking and excercise do also occasion them to remedy or prevent which a Woman so affected should keep her Bed and if there be signs of fulness of Blood she may be blooded in the Arm but if she be forced to walk about her Legs must be swaithed beginning below and swaithing upwards But in some Women these swellings are occasioned by weakness and flegmatick humours and if you press the swelling it will pit as is
usual in Dropsies In this case the natural heat is not able to concoct the nourishment and to drive out that which is superfluous for this sort of swelling make a bath of Camomile Melilot and Lavender and the Ashes of Vines afterwards foment with Aromatic Wine and in it dip compresses to be laid on and to be repeated three or four times a day But usually these swellings go off of themselves when the Woman is delivered the whole Body being cleansed by the Child-bed purgations Many big bellied Women are subject to the piles because the courses that were wont to be evacuated monthly are collected in a great quantity and flow back upon the Body They are also occasioned by the Costivness of the body they are painful Swellings and Inflamations occasioned by a Flux of humours to the Fundament Some are internal some external some small and with little or no pain and some very big and painful It is easy enough to prevent their further growth by remedies which hinder and turn the Flux from those parts when they are small and without pain but the greatest care is to be taken when they are large and painful First therefore you must endeavour to ease the pain for as long as that remains the Flux is ever increased and if Bloud abounds she may be blooded in the Arm-once and again if the case require it to divert the humours and to lessen them If Costiveness be the cause an emollient Glister must be injected made of the decoction of Mallows Marshmallows Violets and sweet Butter or Oyl of Almonds but you must be sure to add nothing that may fret or provoke the parts least the disease should be increased thereby especially when the piles are within Some put the small end of a pullets gut upon the end of the Glister-pipe that it may be the easier injected You may else anoint the swellings with Galen's cooling Oyntment mixed with an equal part of Populeon or you may use the hot stroakings of a Cow or you may foment with a Decoction of Marshmallows and linseed Oyls of sweet Almonds Poppies and water Lillies well beaten together with the Yolk of an Egg and ground in a leaden Mortar give great ease A cooling Diet must be ordered and the woman must keep her Bed till the Flux of the Humours is gone If the Swelling do not abate upon the use of these things Leeches must be apply'd But it is to be noted that in Women with Child the bleeding of the Piles may be beneficial if the Bleeding be moderate and without pain But if it flow in too great quantity the Mother and Child will be weakened thereby therefore if so it will be necessary to apply an astringent Fomentation made of a Decoction of Pomgranate Peel Province Roses Granat Flowers and a little Allom and to turn the Blood bleeding in the Arm is requisite Women with Child are subject to several Fluxes viz. a Looseness the Flux of the Courses and Floodings There are three sorts of Loosenesses a Lientery wherein the meat passes through raw and undigested a frequent Ejection of Excrement and Humours Lastly the Bloody Flux which together with the Evacuation of Humours and Excrements voids Blood with violent pains But whatever sort of Flux it is if it be much and of long continuance the Woman is in danger of miscarrying for in a Lientary the Mother and Child are much weakened that being cast out by Stool which should be the Nourishment and the Strength and Spirits are much weakened by a common Looseness but the bloody Flux is most dangerous because the frequent endeavours to go to Stool greatly disturb the Womb. As to the Cure of these Fluxes whereof great Care ought to be had in time for they occasion Miscarriages the Woman afflicted with a Lientery ought to use meat of easie digestion and little at a time that so her Stomach may be able to concoct it and she ought to drink Claret mixed with water wherein Iron hath been quenched and before and after Meals a little burnt Wine or good Canary may be drank or a little Marmalade of Quinces may be eat If it be only a loosness and is gentle and is not of long continuance it needs not be much regarded and therefore ought to be left to Nature but if it continues five or six days some gentle purging Medicine ought to be used as Syrup of Succory with Rhubarb or the like But great care ought to be taken in the bloody flux lest by its continuance it should cause miscarriage In this case the ill humours must be first purged off with Syrup of Succory and Rhubarb or the like and Broaths made of Veal and Chicken with cooling herbs in them must be used to qualifie the Acrimony of the humours and she must drink Claret wine and Water wherein Iron has been quenched or half a Spoonful of Syrup of Quinces may be mixed with Water and every other Night at Bed time after purging she may take fifteen or 20 Drops of liquid Laudanum and Glisters may be injected made of Calves Head or Sheeps head Broath and to prevent the frequent Endeavours of going to Stool a Glister made of Milk and the Yolk of an Egg mixed may be now and then injected When a Woman is with Child generally speaking she ought not to have her Courses because their ordinary passage is stopt and also because the Blood is then employ'd for the Nourishment of the Child yet some big bellied Women have their monthly purgations till the fifth Month and yet go out their time and do very well A Woman having her courses thought she was not with Child and because she found her self indisposed she advised with a Physician who by Bleeding and purging her made her miscarry after she had bin three Months gone with Child It is to be noted that when Women with Child have a Flux of Blood you must carefully consider whither it be the ordinary Courses or a real Flooding if if it be the ordinary Courses the Blood comes at the accustomed times and flows by degrees from the Neck near the inward Orifice of the Womb and not from the Bottom of it as may be perceived if trying with a Finger you find the inward Orifice quite closed which could not be if the Blood issued from the Bottom It must be likewise considered whether the Courses flow by reason of the Superfluity of the Blood the Acrimomony of it or the weakness of the Vessels If abundance of Blood be alone the Cause there being more than enough for the Nourishment of the Child it injures neither Mother nor Child but is a Benefit to both provided it be moderate But if there be not abundance of Blood and if the Woman use to have but a small quantity of her Courses before she was with Child it is a sign that the Flux proceeds from the Heat and Acrimony of the Blood or the Weakness of the Vessels To prevent this Flux when
it ought to be stopt the Woman must keep in Bed and forbear all things that may heat her blood and must observe a cooling and strengthening Diet and feed on Meat that breeds good Blood and thickens it as Broths made of Chicken Knuckels of Veal and the like wherein may be boiled cooling Herbs Rice Milk and Barley Broth is also very good and in all her Drink quench Iron She must forbear Conversation with her Husband And to comfort the Child which in this case is usually very weak Linnen dipt in strong Wine wherein Cinamon and Pomgranat Peel has bin infused must be applyed to the Mothers Belly Flooding is much more dangerous than a Flux of the Courses for the Blood comes from the bottom of the Womb with pain and in great Abundance and continues flooding daily without Intermission only sometimes Clods of Blood stop it for a while but afterwards it flows more violently and destroys both Mother and Child if not seasonably stop'd by the delivery of the Woman A false Conception or a Mole which the Womb endeavours to expel is usually the Cause when the flooding happens when young with Child whereby some Vessels at the bottom of the Womb continually cast forth Blood until the strange Body is ejected But when a flooding comes upon a woman that has truly conceived at whatsoever time it be it proceeds likewise from the opening of the Vessels of the bottom of the womb occasioned by some blow slip or other hurt and especially because the after-birth separating in part if not wholly from the in side of the womb opens all the Orifices of the Vessels where it was joined and for this reason a great flux of blood follows and never stops 'till after the delivery of the woman for if but part of the after-birth only be once loosened it never joins again to the womb and therefore the opening of the Vessels cannot be stopt 'till all that is in the womb is expelled and afterwards the womb like a spunge squeezed contracts it self and stops the Vessels But tho' it be necessary to deliver the Woman presently to stop a great flooding which manifestly endangers the womans life yet it is to be noted that when the flooding is small other things are to be first tryed for some small floodings have for sometimes bin suppressed by keeping quietly in bed by bleeding in the arm and proper remedies and perhâ—ps it may in a short time be found to be only an ordinary flux of the Courses if therefore the strength of the woman keeps up and the flux be not attended with ill symptoms it is best to leave the whole business to Nature but if the flux be very much and the woman is afflicted with Convulsions and Fainting she must be instantly delivered whether she has pains and throws or no. Sometimes women with child are oppressed with a great weight at the bottom of their bellies by reason the womb bears down and sometimes she cannot walk without pain and difficulty In this case the large ligaments of the womb are much relaxed either by the burthen upon them or by a fall shaking or great pains or bad labour in a former delivery Sometimes also a great many humours are the cause for they moisten and relax the ligaments This bearing down of the womb hinders coition and causes numness in the Hips and Thighs and difficulty of Urine and costiveness The best remedy in this case whatsoever is the cause of the bearing down is keeping the Bed for the ligaments are continually more and more relaxed by the weight when she is up but if her condition or circumstances are such as will not admit of continual rest in the bed she ought at least to keep up her belly with a swaith and if the weight causes a difficulty of rendring her water she must lift up her belly as oft as she has occasion to make water if humours be the cause of the relaxation of the ligaments of the womb a drying dyet must be constantly used and her meat must be roasted and the woman must be very careful when there is such a weight and relaxation of the womb from whatsoever cause it proceeds that she be not strait laced because thereby the womb is forced down but above all when she is in labour care must be taken that neither by means of the throws which strongly force down the womb nor by the birth of the Child nor the violent extraction of the Burthen she gets a precipitation instead of a bearing down as is seen often If a woman chance to be infected with the Venereal Disease during her pregnancy the case is very difficult for those Methods and Medicines that are proper for the Cure of it are apt to occasion a miscarriage and yet notwithstanding if she be infected at her first being with Child or if the symptoms are violent and dangerous when she is â—ear her time something must be done for should the disease lie unregarded upon her seven or eight Months her mass of blood would be corrupted and the venom imparted to the Child in her Belly and tho' she be near her time if the symptoms are violent she will be in great danger of being ruined if Medicines be not presently used to mitigate them If it be only a Gonorrhea or running of the Reins ten grains of Mercurius dulcis more or less according to her strength must be given at Bed time in form of a Bolus in conserve of Roses or the like and some gentle purge the next Morning and at Bed-time after the purge you must be sure to give some Anodyne to appease the commotion raised by the Purge The Bolus and Purge must be repeated twice a Week or oftner if the strength will permit and if no ill accident intervene If the Urine be very hot and sharp it will be convenient to use an emulsion to mitigate the pain and heat the following is of good use Take of blanched Almonds number 12 of the four greater cold Seeds each one dram and an half of the Seeds of Lettice and white Poppies each half a dram beat them in a marble Mortar and pour on them a sufficient quantity of barly Water make an emulsion for two Doses add an Ounce of Syrrup of Violets and half a dram of Sal Prunella If the privy parts are excoriated or swelled you must foment them with a decoction of Mallows and Fenugreek-seeds and afterwards anoint the excoriated parts with the white Ointment with Camphor but if the Disease arise to a confirm'd Pox a gentle Salivation must unavoidably be ordered Some venture to raise it with a Mercurial Ointment but I think it is much safer to do it by Mercurius dulcis inwardly taken and great care must be taken to prevent sickness of the stomach gripes and stools therefore as soon as ever you perceive any sickness of the Stomach faintness or gripes you must leave off the use of Mercury for a while 'till the
the Infant The third Tunicle within all these compasses the whole Birth round about defending it from all sharp exteriour humours being very soft and tender CHAP. III. Of the true generation of the parts and the increase of them according to the several days and seasons AFTER the Womb hath received the Genital Seed and by its heat hath shut them both up curdled and coagulated together from the first to the seventh day are generated many fibres bred by a hot motion in which not long after the Liver with its chief Organs is first formed Through which Organs the vital spirit being sent to the Seed within the tenth day forms and distinguishes the chiefest members This Spirit is let in through certain Veins of the Secondine through which the Blood flows in and out of which the Navel is generated At the same time in the clotted Seed there do appear three white lumps not unlike curdled Milk out of which arise the Liver the Brain and the Heart Presently after this a Vein is directed through the Navel to such the thicker sort of the Blood that remains in the Seed for the nourishment of the parts This Vein is two-forked In the other branch of this Vein is a certain blood collected out of which the Liver is first framed for the Liver is nothing but a certain mass of Blood or Blood coagulated and hardned to a substance And here you may see what a company of Veins it hath which serve both for the expulsive and attractive faculty In the other Branch are generated those Textures of Veins with a dilatation of other Veins as also of the Spleen and the Guts in the lower part of the Belly by and by all the Veins like branches gathering into one Trunk toward the upper part of the Liver meet all in the Concave or hollow Vein This Trunk sends other branches of Veins to constitute the Diaphragme others it sends into the upper part of the back-bone seated about the Diaphragme as also the lower parts as far as the Thighs Afterwards the Heart with its Veins directed from the Navel to that part of the Seed and carried as far as the Back-bone is formed These Veins suck the hottest and most subtil part of the Blood out of which the heart is generated in the membrane of the heart otherwise called the Pericardium being by nature thick and fleshy according as the heat of the Members requires Now the hollow vein extending it self and piercing the interior part of the right side of the heart carries blood thither for the nourishment of the heart From the same branch of this vein in the same part of the heart arises another vein called by some the still vein because it beats not with so quick a Pulse as the others do ordained to send the most purely concocted blood in the heart to the lungs being encompassed with two Tunicles like Arteries But in the concavity of the left part of the heart arises a great beating vein called the Aorta diffusing the vital spirit from the heart into all the beating veins in the body Under the said vein called the Aorta in the concavity of the heart there is another vein called the veiny Artery which was therefore framed to carry the cool air from the lungs to temper the great heat of the heart Now there being many veins which running from the concavity of the heart are inserted into the lungs therefore by these veins the lungs are also framed for the vein which proceeds from the right concavity produces a most subtile blood which is turned into the substance of the lungs By the great veins of the heart and liver the hollow 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 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 a 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 Skull made Now the Brain is so formed as to conceive retain and change the nature of all the vital spirits whence are the beginings of Reason and of all the Senses 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 sollid These are the cheifest instruments of all the Senses and by which all the motion of the Senses 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 Blood destined for the moistening and for the strengthening 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 strengthning of the members but to constitute certain private and particular parts of the body for the motion and use the Senses that all the other Nerves may take their begining thence for from the pith of the back-bone do arise many Nerves by which the body obtains both sense 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 blood of the Birth the flesh is formed and whatever parts are of a fleshy substance as the heart the liver the lights Then are all these nourished by the menstrous blood which is attracted through the veins of the Navel This is all distinctly done from the conception unto the eighteenth day of the first month 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. WHilst the Birth remains in the Womb it is cherished up with blood attracted through the Navel which is the reason that the flowers do cease alwayes in Women as soon as they have conceived Now this blood presently after conception is distinguished into three parts the purest of it drawn by the Child for the nourishment of it self the second which is less pure and thin the Womb forces upwards to the breast where it is turned into milk The third and most impure part of the blood remains 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 month sends forth its Urine thro' the passages of the navel but in the last month that
passage being shut up through the privy-members yet notwithstanding while the child is in the Womb he voids nothing out at the Fundament because he hath taken no nourishment in at the Mouth After the forty fifth day it receives life and is then called an Infant Now though the Infant hath by this time obtained sense 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 days it will move in ninety and be born the ninth month after that CHAP. V. Of the condition of the Infant in the Womb in the sixth seventh and eighth month AFter the third and fourth month the Infant is nourished with more plenty of nourishment until the time of delivery approach Now you must observe that a child 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 month it will very easily live because it is come to its full perfection Now the reason why those that are born in the eighth month do not live when as those that are born in the seventh do is plain for in the seventh month the Infant stirs it self to come forth so that if it have so much strength it easily performs its desire if not it remains 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 eighth month it were impossible that it should live for it is weakened by a double motion not only that of the seventh month but also by that motion whereby it strives to go forth in the eighth month SECT V. CHAP. I. Of the situation of the Child in the Womb. COncerning the situation 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 situated in the right side of the Womb the Female in the left The general situation of the Child 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 inclined 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 natural form for the Child 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 duty for his release Now as some say there are three ways or manners of Childrens coming 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 die 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 timerous and not patient of much labour or because women great with Child live a lazy and sloathful life and besides that many times they eat bad victuals which encreases Humours and 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 quick 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 Child is bigger being compared to the Members than 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 â—igaments 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 than the other Members 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 Films called Chorion and the Amnios dissected likewise into four parts D. The Birth in its natural 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-vein doth pass E. The Umbilical 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 Umbilical Vessels taken out of the Body of the Infant to shew how they are joined together I. The Membranes that involves the Navel Vessels KKKK The Guts or Intrailes 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 scattered through The fleshy parts of the Chorion OOO A branch of the Navel-Arteries PPPP The Conjunction of the Umbilical Vein and Arteries QQQQ The extremities of the Navel-Veins and Arteries ending the fleshy parts of the Chorion RRRR The Membrane called the Chorion SECT IV. CHAP. I. Of Midwives ALthough in these days 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 she ought to be neither too young nor too old in a good habit of Body and not subject to Diseases nor mis-shapen in any parts of her Body peculiar in her Habits and in her Person her Hands must be small with her Nails pared close without any Rings upon them in the time of her Duty nor Bracelets upon her Wrists she must be chearful pleasant strong laborious and used to travel it being required that she should be stirring at all Hours and abiding a long time together with her Patient For her Manners she ought to be Courteous Sober Chaste not repining Cholerick Arrogant or Covetous nor apt to talk of what she sees in the Houses where she hath to do For her Spirit she ought to be prudent wary and cunning oft-times to use fair 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 the Woman is near the time of her 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 Assistants to her it being requisite to have them rather sooner than later She ought to prepare a little Bed or Couch of a moderate heighth as well for the covenience of the Midwife as for the ease of her self and others that shall be about her to assist her in her Travel This must be situated in a place convenient for the People to pass up and down near the fire and far from Doors It will be requisite for her to have change of Linnen as also a little Cricket for her to rest her feet on having more force when her Feet are bowed When she finds her Pains growing it will be necessary for her to walk leisurely up and down the Chamber afterwards she may lye down warm and then rise and walk again expecting the coming down of her Waters and the opening of the Womb. For to keep her self long a-bed is very troublesome Though when she is a-bed notwithstanding that she hath some certain pains sometimes yet she may lie and rest her self and now and then take a nap By which means both the Mother and the Infant do with greater strength endure their succeeding hardship besides that her waters do come down better If her Travel be long she may take some broth or the yolk of a porched Egg with some bread or a cup of wine or distilled water yet she must have a care lest she over-charge 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 First the woman that is in travel 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 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 situation 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 towards her buttocks the soles of her feet and her heels being fixed upon a board laid thwart the bed for that purpose Secondly to some women they do use a swath-band four double this swath-band must be a foot broad or more which being put under her reins is to be held up streight by two persons standing on each side just at the time of her pains both of them at the same instant heaving up both ends with an exact eveness for otherwise it does more harm than good It is also requisite that two of her friends 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 down the Infant by little and little Such a soft compression will much facilitate the travel and give ease to the womans pains Thirdly as for the woman her self she must be of a good heart and force her self by striving as much as possibly she can stopping her mouth and keeping her breath as if she were doing the ordinary deeds of nature As for the Cholick if it seize Women in Travail you may read the Remedies in the following Chapter CHAP. III. How to expel the Cholick from Women in Child-bed THere are some women who at the same instant that they are in travel are taken with fits of the Cholick which is often caused by the crudities and indigestions of the stomach which do torment women so extremely that it exceeds the pain of their Travel and while this pain lasts a woman advances nothing toward the end of her Travel the pain of Travel being hardly to be distinguished from it For her ease therefore the woman ought to take these Remedies two ounces of oyl of sweet Almonds with an ounce of Cinnamon water or else some wind dispelling Clyster and if the first time suffice not you may re-iterate it and sometimes fomentations that are proper for the dispelling of wind are very necessary for this purpose CHAP. IV. How the Midwife may know when the pains of Travel do seize upon a woman WHen the Woman begins to cry out and hath sent for her Widwife 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 begining 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 certainty the Midwife may put up
her hand being anointed first with fresh butter and if she perceive the inner neck of the womb to dilate it self 't is a certain sign that the pains of Child-bed are upon the woman or if she perceive any thing to push forwards her travel is also undoubtable CHAP. V. Of the falling down of the waters a good while before the woman travels THere are some women who have their waters come from them a long time before their travel sometimes twelve days sometimes eight Days sometimes six and sometimes four though the ordinary time be not above three Hours before her travel they remaining for the most part not above twenty four Hours This is caused by some Ruptures of the Membranes where from the beginning of the formation of the Child the Humour is contained rather than by the abundance of Humours and therefore though a Woman that hath abundance and that the Membranes containing them are so strong that they will not break suddenly though the Woman shall not travel 'till they break yet the Midwife ought not to break them but rather hold the Voman over a Vessel of warm Water and also use some softning Liniment to soften the Membranes that so the Mother straining the Head or other Member of the Child may break them more easily But for those Women that have these evacuations so long before they travel they must refrain going into the Air for fear of injuring themselves the passages being open for though the Air cannot hinder the Child from coming forth by reason of its weight yet oftentimes getting within the Secondine it not only streightens the Vessels and Mouths of the Veins 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 Travel THE Midwife seeing the Birth come naturally the Pains now coming thicker and thicker the Womb also opening to be deliver'd of its Burden and the endeavours of the Child 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 strain and endeavour with her lower parts Neither ought the Midwife to 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 the ignorance of some Women who for haste to be gone to other Women do tear the Membranes with their Nails to the danger both of the Woman and of the Child which then remains dry without that moisture which makes the passage 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 her Pains encrease 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 Child 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 THE Child being thus drawn forth and in safety the Midwife must now apply her self to the drawing out of the Secondines which must be done 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 no 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 self constrained her to do before the Head of the Child was come forth All this must be done speedily yet if this be not sufficient she may take the Yolk of an Egg raw or she may take a small draught of raw Elder-water or you may cause her to smell to a piece of Assa Foetida If she be troubled with Wind-Cholicks or have taken Cold which oftentimes doth breed Wind which is a great hindrance to the coming forth of the Secondines the Midwife ought to chafe the Womans Belly with her Hand which doth not only break the wind but causes the Secondine to come down If this fails the Midwife may with her Hand dilate the Orifice of the womb drawing it forth gently and by Degrees CHAP. VIII What may be given to a Woman in Travel IN the first place hot and violent Remedies are to be avoided but in cases of great necessity for it many times happens that they are the cause of dangerous â—eavers Two other things are also very dangerous to a Woman in Travel too much repletion and too much emptiness for the Stomach of a Woman with Child doth not digest her meat in so short a time as Women that are not with Child do Therefore the Midwife ought to inform her self how long it was since she eat and in what quantity and if it were long since she did eat and that she grow feeble they may give in the intermissions of her Pains some warm cherishing and Cordial Broths or the Yolk of a poached Egg If her Travel endure long then to strengthen her and comfort her she may take a draught of Cinnamon-water not exceeding an ounce or at twice a dram of the Confection of Alkermes dissolved into two spoonfuls of Claret-Wine and not more than one of these three things For if they take two much as is before said it causes Fevers and Heats in the whole Body of which follow many inconveniencies for it stops 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 Pains than those of their Travel by reason that the womb is not well put into its place or if it have the Swathe-band being loose it is apt to roul upwards in the Belly This happens to Women that are not well purged after their Delivery for remedy hereof having put the Matrix right into its place rowl up two linnen
Swathes pretty hard bringing them also round the Hips then take whites of Eggs beaten and a dram of Pepper in Powder which being spread upon Tow is to be applied warm to the Navel then let the Belly be well swathed This is the only remedy to ease the Pain CHAP. X. Against the extreme loss of blood which happens to women immediately after their delivery THere are many women which immediately after their Delivery do suffer great loss of blood which proceeds from a great plentitude or fulness or by reason that in their travel they took too many hot and corrosive medecines or by straining themselves too hard over-heated the blood so that after Travel it runs from them in great quantity To remedy this the woman ought to take a small quantity of wine in a spoon and if the weakness be much let her mix half a dram of Alkermes with a draught of wine and take care that she be well swaithed upward for that presses down and streightens the vessels and hinders the violent flux Give her also the yolk 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 along the reins of the woman and all along the back-bone by reason of the hollow vein a napkin dipt in Oxicrate or Water mingled with Vinegar You may also lay upon each groin a Skein of raw Silk moistned in cold Water Take also of that well tempered Earth of which they make the Floor of an Oven and steep it in strong Vinegar then spread it upon a linnen Cloath and lay it upon the Reins this moderates the heat of the Blood and stops 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 weakness when the people think they do but take their Rest But when you see this great Flux moderated you may take away the astringent Medicines by little and little so that the Blood may cease running by degrees lest any blood should be retained that may chance to do mischief 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 Travel 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 Blood 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 melancholy Blood These remedies are to be kept on two hours in Winter and one hour in Summer After this swathe 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 linnen Cloath many times folded then with a little pillow about a quarter of a yard long cover her Flanks then use the Swathe beginning a little above the Hanches yet rather higher than lower winding it pretty tite 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 Wherefore 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 fear that those medecines should make a stop of any thing hurtful in those parts and therefore it is better to give ten or twelve hours for the Blood to settle in as also for that which was cast upon the Lungs by the agitation of Travel to distil down again into its place You may also make a restrictive of the white and yellow of an Egg beaten together with an Ounce af Oyl of St. John's wort and an ounce of Oyl of Roses an ounce of Rose-water and an ounce of Plantain-water beat all these together very well in this you may dip a linnen 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 Caudle and then if she will she may sleep CHAP. XII Of women that have a great deal of Blood and purge not neither in their travel nor after SOme women have great Superfluity of Blood and yet purge not at all neither in their Travel 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 informed of their natural disposition before 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 Blood 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 Syrup of Maiden-hair and Hysop-water mingled together and Syrup of Wormwood with White-wine in their broths you may boyl Jacines and opening Herbs keeping the belly soluble with Clysters she must eat no solid Meat she must be well chafed from the Groins down to the very Ankle-bone always strokeing and carrying the hand down-ward Blood-letting also in the Foot in the morning is not amiss as also fome Fumigation that cleanses the Matrix and draws down the Blood Yet care must be had that these last Remedies be not used before the Matrix be put into its place for fear 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 Receipt Take Pellitory Sanicle Camomile Melilot Greenbalm Red-balm white Mullein Mallows Marsh-mallow Betony Margeram Nipp March-violets Mugwort take of each a like quantity and cut them small and let them boyl in a new pot with three pints of good White-wine let the Woman take the fume of this Receipt 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 Oyl of Violets this helps the Purgations being once dissolved The reason why this thick Blood stays in these parts is because the Woman having it before she was with Child the heat of the Womb when she is with Child redoubling thickens it more so that when she comes to lie down it cannot flow so that it is
never cure it wholly Now that which is ordinarily done to women is as soon as ever they are brought to bed to give them two Ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds drawn without fire with two ounces of Syrup 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 blood which comes out of the Navel string of the Infant and give it mingled to the Woman in the foresaid Syrups though there is much fault to be found with this by reason of the nastiness of it Others do boil a white Chicken in the which they do put two ounces of Sugar a dram of â—â—neâ— Cinamon half a Nutmed grated two or three Dates five or six Cloves the Fowl being boiled you may put into it a small quantity of Claret then boyl it altogether again letting it boil 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 Partridge for want of either Only 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 Cholick The Queen of France her Receipt Take a dram of the root of the great Comfrey one of the kernels of Peaches Nutmegs of each two scruples yellow Amber half a dram Amber-greece half a scruple mingle all these together and give 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 concerning the delay and difficulty of bringing forth BEing now come to talk of the impediments of the Birth you may know that the Birth is hindered by a two-fold manner the one natural the other not natural of the unnatural we shall treat 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 hindered by the driness and streightnes 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 sneezing 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 Child You may also give her Shepherds purse dried in a little Broth or Wine also a little quantity of Honey mingled with twice as much luke-warm water and given her will not be unprofitable The milk also of another Woman mixt with Maiden-hair and applyed 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 Myrrhe one dram grains of Saffron ten Cinnamon one Scruple mingle all this with two ounces of Penny-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 Labour 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 Take Gum Bdellium Myrrh Savin-seed Liquid Storax Agaric of each half a scruple Diagridium six grains mingle all these with Cassia extracted as much as suffices and make up Pills about the bigness of a Pea. 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 Scamony hath been dissolved and so used If these things prove without effect she may use this ensuing Bath above her Belly Take of the Root and Herb Marsh-Mallows six handfuls Mallows Camomile Melilot Parsley of each four handfuls Line-seed and Seed of Fenugreek of each two pound Lavender and Laurel Leaves of each two handfuls Let all these things be boyled together in Water wherein the Woman is to sit or else to have those parts well wet and moistned with Spunges which being done and the Woman well dried with warm Cloaths let her be brought to the Bed and anointed with this Ointment Take Oyl of sweet Almonds Hens Fat Oyl of Lillies Muscilage of Marsh-mallows of each half an Ounce Mingle all these with as much wax as is sufficient and make an Oyntment This being done give her this little Dose Take two Yolks of Eggs and boil them in old Wine then mix with them these Spices Cinamon half an Ounce rind of Cassia 2 drams or you may leave out the Cassia and instead thereof put in the more Cinamon Saffron half a Scruple Savine Betony Venus-hair Dittany Fenugreek Lawrel-berries Mint of each one dram The bone of the Heart of a Hart Pearls prepared mingle all these with Sugar and make a thick Pouder and give it If the Secondine come before the Child and hinder the Egress of the Child is to be cut off and this following Pessary to be put up Take Marsh-mallows with the Roots two handfuls Mother-wort one handful Rue one ounce and an half Fenugreek Line-seed of each an ounce ten Figs make of these a decoction with as much water as is sufficient and when you have strained it add this to it Oyl of Lillies Oyl of Linseed of each two Ounces Musk one grain In this decoction let the pessary be dipt and put up she may afterwards use this Electuary Take Myrrh Castor sweet smelling Flag of each two drams Cinamon one ounce Saffron half a Scruple Mace Savin of each a Scruple clarified Honey half a pound You may also make an Electuary with the water of Thyme and Mother-wort wherein have been boiled Fenugreek Linseed grains of Juniper of each one spoonful Now after that the Woman hath been weakned with these Impediments you may give her in Broth Species Laetificans or Manus Christi or Diamargariton CHAP. XXVII How the Secondines are to be hastned out THE Secondines after that the Infant is born may be many ways hindred first by the debility or weakness of the Matrix which happens by the frequent motion and endeavouring of the Infant as also by reason of the difficulty of the Birth or by reason that the womb doth not continue distended or because it is many times streightned by which the womb is so weakned that by its own force it is not able to expel the Secondines Besides the Secondines may inwardly stick close to the womb which happens many times through the abundance of superfluous Humours that are retained in the
Matrix by reason of which glutinous Humours the Secondines stick to the Matrix These are no way else to be pulled away but by the Hand of the Midwife Thirdly the Secondines are hard to come away if all the waters come away with the Infant for then the Secondines being left without moisture cannot come away by reason of the driness of the womb besides that the Matrix and the Neck of the womb are rougher by reason of the driness thereof for these waters render the way slippery and easie both for the Infant and for the Secondines which being slipped away the womb is to be anointed with Juices and Oils Fourthly when the Mouth of the Matrix by reason of the pains of Child-bearing swells as often happens unless there be a provident care taken to prevent it Fifthly when the Neck of the Matrix is streighter and more close and for that reason fat Women travel with much more difficulty Therefore when the Secondines do make any extraordinary stay the Midwife is to use all her endeavour to make way for them for that retention causes suffocation and divers other Evils for being long detained they putrifie and cause an evil smell which ascending up to the Heart Liver Stomach Diaphragme and so to the Brain cause pains in the Head and Lungs shortness of Breath Faintness cold Sweats so that there is great danger and also Apoplexies and Epilepsies are not a little to be feared Now in all the time of their stay the Women are to be refreshed with convenient Food to add strength to them giving them sometimes the Yolks of Eggs boiled in old wine with Sugar and sprinkled over with Saffron and Cinamon or some Broth made of Capon or Hen seasoned with Cinamon and Saffron It may not be amiss to make certain Perfumes for the Woman to receive up into her womb made of Saffron Castor Myrrh and Cinamon of each the quantity of a Bean and care must be had that the Fume pass no further than the Matrix and this may be done till the Fume of these Spices shall cease After this a little sneezig Powder is to be put into to her Nostrils composed of Hellebore or such like the Woman shutting her Mouth hard and keeping her Breath If these things prevail not give her this following Potion Take Trochisch of Myrrh ten grains of Saffron one Scruple of Cinamon Penny Royal waters two ounces make of this one draught and give her after she hath taken this and rested a little while let a Pessary of Hellebore and Opoponax wrapt up in pure wool be thrust up into the neck of the womb This will certainly bring down the Secondines for it is of so great vertue that it is efficacious in expelling the Child which is dead together with the Secondines Take Mallows Hollihock Wormwood Mugwort Calamint Origanum each one handful make a Bath and let her sit therein up to the Navel and stroke ever downwards with her Hands and give her inwardly Myrrh a Scruple Cinamon poudered in Nutmeg-water or wine or drink Calamint or Penny-Royal in wine Neither will it be amiss to anoint the Matrix with the Ointment called Basilicon if this doth nothing avail toward the bringing down of the Secondines and that the Woman is in great danger of her life then with the Consent of her Husband and Kindred give her seven of the following Pills which being taken let her lie still 'till the vertue of them do provoke new Pains for they are of so great Vertue that they also do expel the dead Child together with the Secondines yet herein it will not be amiss to consult the skilful Physician The Pills are these Take of Castor Myrrh Liquid Storax of each a scruple the bark of Cinamon or Cassia and Birthwort of each half a scruple Agaric half an ounce Diagridium 6 grains Saffron Siler of the Mountain Savin of each 3 gr Thebaic Opium Assa faetida of each one gr mingle all these with as much extracted Cassia as is sufficient and make of them certain Pills as big as pease and give them to the Woman in a small quantity of Penny-Royal water It may be also expedient to apply this ensuing Plaister Take one part of Coloquintida boiled in water and as much of the juice of Rue with these mingle Lineseed Fenugreek Barly meal of each a spoonful let them all boil together and the Plaister made of these must be laid upon all that part from the Navel to the Privities CHAP. XXVIII Of cases of Extremity and first what is to be done to a Woman who in her Travail is accompanied with a flux of blood 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 thighs must be held hard and wide abroad with her legs bent backwards towards her Hips and her Head leaning upon a Bolster the reins of her Back and her Crupper being a little elevated with certain pillows put underneath her Thighs besides this she must be well cover'd with linnen Cloaths laid upon her stomach Belly and Thighs to defend her from the cold and wind Being thus situated the Chyrurgion ought to put up his Hand being first well opened within the neck of the womb to remove all those clots of blood which may lie there to obstrust the passages of the blood He may then try if the interiour neck of the womb be sufficiently dilated that he may put in his hand and move the Infant if it be needful which must be done as gently and with as little violence as may be He must anoint it on all parts with sweet-butter or good Pomatum and so opening it by little and little he may put his hand quite in and if the waters are not yet come down he may without any difficulty let them forth and then at the same instant if the Infant comes 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 knot hanging downward then let him put it in again 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 do by thrusting up his hand along 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 strain her self when she feels the pains coming on her Then shall the Chirurgion or Midwife take a fine linnen cloth and wrap about the thighs of the Child lest by taking it naked his fingers should slip in that manner drawing
it forth 'till it appear all come forth observing still that the Belly and the Face be still kept downward Now if the woman hath a flux of blood and that the neck of the Matrix be open the Chirurgion ought to consider whether the Infant or the Secondines 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 Child 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 will 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 she may have thereby the liberty to put up her hand and seek for the Infant Now if the Secondines be 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 die the Midwife or Chirurgion would be blameless If the Secondines come first the best way is to deliver the Woman with all 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 appear first it must be guided directly toward the neck of the Womb as in the most natural birth but if there appear any difficulty in the birth by reason of the weakness either of the Child 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 Secondines be so far advanced that they cannot be put back and that the Child follow 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 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 case of great necessity for otherwise the Secondines ought to come last If the Child be dead in the Womb of the Mother the Woman is then to be situated in the same posture as when she is troubled with a flux of blood If it present it self dead with the head foremost and that there is little or no hope that the woman may be delivered without assistance and that her strength begins to fail her the most certain 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 between 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 in in the bone of the temple toward the ear 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 strain her self with all her power and then is the best time to draw forth the Child when the pains shall seize her now if it happen that he lose his hold in one place the danger is nothing for he hath the liberty 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 Child's arm-holes to draw forth his shoulders and the rest of his body In the mean while it will be requisite to give the Woman a small draught of wine or a tost sopt in wine of Hipocras If after these Medicines following adhibited the Child make no haste into the World but lies unmoved in the Womb then you may proceed to Instruments after another manner First of all as soon as the Woman is brought to bed let her take this following potion hot and abstain from all other meat and remain quiet for the space of an hour or two 'till she feel the power and efficacy of the Medicine Take seven cut Figs Fenugreek Motherwort-seed and Rue of each two drams water of Peny-royal and Motherwort of each six ounces boil all these to the consumption of half strain them and to the straining add Trochischs of Myrrh one dram three grains of Saffron Sugar 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 only 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 Emplaister Take Galbanum an ounce and a half Coloquintida without the grains two drams the juyces of Rue and Motherwort new wax as much of each as is sufficient of each make a plaister Let this be spread upon a cloth to reach from the Navil 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 Wool and closed over with silk and then moistned in the following Decoction Take of round Birth-wort brought from France Savin and Coloquintida 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 drawn 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 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 Secondines if possible may be The womb must then be washed and anointed the woman then must be laid in her bed and well 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 hindred in their coming forth naturally If by these Instruments the Womb cannot be sufficiently widened for the egress of the Infants there are yet other Instruments by which the Womb may be widened without damage to the Mother and the 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 inflammation or concrete blood 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 anointing it afterwards often with a pessary dipt in Oil 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 watry Humour yet if it be alive such means are to be used as may be least to the detriment of the Child and of the Mother but if it be dead in whatever part those humours be either in the breast arms or legs the Midwife may then put up her hand and with a little knife for that purpose cut the swollen part that by letting out of the Wind or humour the Child may grow less and be brought forth with less difficulty Many times it happens that the Child comes into the World with the feet foremost and the hands dilating themselves from the hips In this case the Midwife ought to be well furnished with Oyntments helping the egress of the Infant by anointing and stroaking it lest it be carried backward Having also a great care to take hold of both the arms of the Infant and keep them close to the hips that the Child may come forth after its own manner If by reason of this deduction of the Arms from the sides 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 are to be well anointed sneezing Powders being administred to the Woman to help 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 It happens sometime that the Child comes forward with its feet with the Arms not close to its sides but extended above its head which when it comes to pass the Midwife is by no means to receive this Birth unless the Child be very small and the Matrix so wide that it may afford an easie passage to the Child yet may she not then receive it till she hath well anointed both the Child and the Matrix But it would be much more safe and convenient for both the Child and the Mother to put back the Child into the Womb and bring it to its natural form which may be done in this manner The woman must lie on her back upon her bed with her head downward and her buttocks a little elevated which being done the Midwife shall gently compress the belly of the Woman toward the Midriff thereby to put back the Infant into the Womb. But above all things let her take care that she turn the Face of the Child toward the back of the Mother raising up the thighs and buttocks of the Child toward the navel of the Mother to bring the Child to a more legitimate and natural production Many times it happens that the Child lies athwart and falls upon his side 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 try by often rocking the Woman to and fro to bring the Child to its natural form of being born If it happen that the Child 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 stroke 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 Arms 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 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 Child 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 Child into a better posture But when it happens that the Child hastens forwards with one Arm extended upon the Thigh 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 Child in this posture but must lay the 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 and therefore the Midwife must take 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 Arms 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 Arms 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 Arms of the Infant joins them as close together as she can and in that manner receives the Infant And there is the less danger in this form if the Midwife be diligent and the Child slender If the Infant thrust it self forwards with the buttocks formost the Midwife must put up 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 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 formost yet if this suffice not the Woman must be laid on her back upon the Bed and ordered according to the former Precepts When the Infant thrusts forth the Hands and Feet formost care must be had to avoid the danger of this mishapen posture and therefore the Midwife must strive by removing the Feet to lay hold on the Head and as much as in her lies to direct it to the passage the Hands are also to be removed unless of their own accord 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 Child strives to force its passage in this posture which is very dangerous First of all therefore let the Midwife anoint her Hands well and the Womb of the Woman which being done let her put up her Hand and seek for the Arms 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 do not avail it will be the safest way to lay the Woman on her Bed and to proceed according to the former Precepts to try 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 is also to be observed in case of Twins or of tripple Birth for as the single Birth hath but one natural way and many unnatural Forms so is it with the Birth of many Children and therefore when it happens that Twins appear coming into the World according to the natural form 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 form but the one being born immediately 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 Secondine be naturally brought forth lest the womb being deliver'd of its Burthen should fall and the Secondine by that means be delayed to the damage of the Woman in Child-bed If it happen in drawing forth the first by the feet that the other change 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 she must 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 therefore 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 joined 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 feels the pains of the Mother coming on her she must by all means bring forward the Child 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 〈◊〉 neck of the Womb where it will find the passage 〈◊〉 to it by the delivery of the first Now lest the first Child 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 and also bind again with a large and long fillet that part of the Navel which is fast to the Secondines that they may be 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 hapned to retire back again to the damage of the Woman and therefore the Secondines must be hastened forth as soon as may be lest 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 than by the head Taking care when you come to the Hips to
draw it forth as quick as may be The second form of unnatural Birth is very dangerous and therefore requires the greater care of the Midwife First therefore let her well anoint the Womb of the Woman that the passage may be more slippery 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 Arms she must bring the Woman again to her Bed and try by the aforesaid Agitation of her body if the Infants may be brought to a more convenient form of delivery CHAP. XXIX Of ordering the Woman after she is delivered IN the first place she must keep a temperate diet having a great care not to over fill her self after so great an evacuation and indeed her diet must be like that of wounded persons neither are the tales of nurses to be believed who exhort them to fill after so great an emptiness telling them that the loss of blood 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 void is much conducing to her Health Besides their nourishment for the first days must be but slender for fear of falling into a Fever besides the abundance of milk which it would bring into the breast where it might be in danger of curding or Apostematizing and therefore for the first five days let her use Broths Panada's potched Eggs Gellies abstaining from Flesh or French Barley In the morning Broth will be expedient at dinner Broth or Eggs or Panada and at supper the same with some Gellies for the second course If she intend to nurse her Child she may feed more plentifully and drink some Barlâ— water wherein some Corianders or Fennel◠〈…〉 be put In Italy the persons of 〈…〉 account do use this water Take two 〈…〉 the Feathers being well pulled off 〈…〉 â—he bowels wholly taken out which you led off boyl in a glaz'd earthen pot in a sufficient quantity of water till they be half boyled then must they be taken out of the pot together with the Broth and being cut to peices are to be put into a Lembick in manner following Take Bugloss Borage and Time two good handfuls and with that cover the bottom of the shell then lay upon that a row of flesh then upon that a rank of leaf-Gold with a dram of powder of Pearls and upon that pour the broth let all this be distilled in Balneo Mariae drawing forth a pint at a time which you shall re-iterate as often as you have any thing left to give to the Woman in Child-bed for the space of ten or twelve days 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 drink a little white Wine or Claret with twice as much hot Water If she have a mind to drink between Meals or at night it may be convenient to give her some syrup of Maiden-hair or any other Syrup that is not astringent with a little boyled water After the suspition of a Fever or heat of her breasts is over she may be nourished more plentifully and you may give her together with her Broth some other meat as Pullet Capon Pidgeon Mutton or Veal boyled After the eight day is past at what time the Womb is well purged and discharged it will be expedient to give her good meat in greater quantity that she may be enabled to gain strength during all this time she must rest very quiet and be 〈◊〉 from all manner of disturbance she must sleep as 〈…〉 the day time as may be If she go not well to stool 〈…〉 some such kind of Clyster as this Take of Mallows 〈…〉 mallows and Pellitory of the wall each one handful 〈…〉 â—f Camomile and Melliot of each a small handful A◠〈…〉 and Fennel-seeds of each two ounces boyl these in 〈…〉 â—â—coction of a Weathers-head take of this three quarters of a pint and dissolve in them of course Sugar and common Hony of each two ounces new fresh butter three ounces of this make a Clyster 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 hours which being taken away you may then anoint it with this following Oyntment and then lay a linnen Towel all over her belly and hips which must be continued on for the first seven days looking after it and turning every Morning The Oyntment may be this Take the Oyl of sweet-Almonds Camomile and St. John's wort each one ounce and a half Sperma ceti two Ounces Goats fat one Ounce Oyl of Miriles half an Ounce melt all these and make an Oyntment to anoint the Belly Now before the Cerecloth be put on you must apply a little Plaister of Galbanum about the bigness of 2 or 3 fingers to the Navel in the middle of which may be put two or three grains of Civet yet so as that the Woman may not perceive the sent of it The Cerecloth may be this Take White Wax four ounces Pomatum without Musk Calfs-grease of each one ounce Sperma ceti an ounce and a half Oyl of St. John's wort and Sweet Almonds of each one ounce Venice-Turpentine washed in Pellitory-water half an ounce melt these in Balneo Mariae and spread them upon a cloath about the bigness of the belly and when it is cool apply it The next care is to be had of the Breasts upon these some put round Cerecloth made thus Take six ounces of new Wax Oyl of Myrtle Roses and Honey of Narbon of each two ounces melt these altogether and make a Cerecloth let them have holes in the middle for the Nipples to go through This Oyntment is also very good to keep the Milk from clotting Take Oyntment of Populeon one ounce Galen's refrigerating Oyntment half an ounce Oyl of Roses six drams Vinegar a small quantity melt them together and make an Oyntment This fomentation is also much commended Take Fennel Parsly Mallows Marsh-mallows of each a small handful Laurel and Camomile-flowers of each half a handful boyl these according to Art and make a Fomentation for the Nipples After this Fomentation anoint them with Oleum Rosatum Omphacium and then apply this following Plaister Take Venice-Turpentine four 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 cloath and apply it As for the lower parts for the three first days they are to
handful of Chervil bruised a little and boyled in a sufficient quantity of water about a dozen seethings to which you must add a spoonful of Vinegar when you have strained it you must put to it an ounce of Honey of Roses then you must have a little hooked stick with a little piece of Scarlet tied at the end then putting the water in a Sawcer dip the end of the stick where the Scarlet is tied and then rub the place affected gently and you shall find the Canker 〈◊〉 aâ—swage by little and little What is to be done to Children whose Intestines are falleâ— THERE are a great many Infants whose great gut falls which is a thing very easily remedied at the beginning and therefore you must put it up again First lay the Child with the 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 Comfrey scraped and put upon it as an Ointment then looking to it every day taking care that it cry but little and never unbind him but as he lyes lest the Gut tumble down again 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 legs of the Child and make him go TAKE Sage Marjoram Dwarf-Elder bruise them a good while together 'till you have beaten out a good deal of Juyce then put it into a Glass Vial 'till it be full and stop up the Hole with paste and round the sides also of the said Paste put it then in an Oven to bake as long as a good big Loaf then draw it forth and suffer it to cool then break the Paste which is round the Vial break the Bottle and keep up that which is within which you shall find turned to an Oyntment And when you would use it you must add to it some of the Marrow of the Hoof of an Ox melting it altogether and when ye have so done you must rub the hinder part of the legs and thighs of the Child This hath been done to a Child whom a famous Physician after 3 Years having in hand gave over saying that it would never go 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 fall down upon the ligaments thereof causing them to wax loose Others come to this Disease by some falls others by reason of carrying in their womb too great Burdens others by straining themselves in travail before their time and because the Orifice of the Womb is not open sometimes and very often by reason of the Midwifes who putting up their Hands into the Womb tear down they know not what which is oftentimes a part 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 oftentimes brought also to a worse condition when the unskilful Women force her to the Remedies for bringing down the Secondines as holding Bay salt in her Hand streining to Vomit and the like For remedy whereof all these telaxations of the Matrix are by the same Remedies except those which are occasion'd 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 Pomgranate Flowers Roche-Alum of each two Ounces Province Roses four ounces Knot-grass a good big handful the Rind of Cassia the Rind of Pomegranates Scarlet Grains of each three Ounces the nature of a Whale one ounce Mirrh-water Rose-water and Sloe-water an ounce and a half thick Wine and Smiths-water of each four ounces and a half then make two little bags of a quarter of a Yard long causing them to boil in the aforesaid waters in a new pot using one after another as you have occasion letting it lie upon the Bone of the Pubes passing in between the Hips chafing her often and holding her Head and her Reins low using in the Morning sometimes a little Mastick in an Egg or sometimes Plantain Seed If the Disease be not too old it may be cured by this means but if it be of a long standing you must make a pessary half round and half Oval of great thick Cork pierced through in the middle tye a little Pack-thred to the end then cover it over with white Wax that it may do no hurt and to make it more thick this must be dipped in Oyl of Olives to make it enter and it must be straight that it may not easily fall out and if it be too little to have another bigger and when the Woman goes to do her necessary occasions she must hold it in lest she should force it out the Hole is made that the Vapours 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 thickness causes the Matrix to mount up as long as it is very thick for the Ligaments being close do then retire If they be Women that bear Children the Midwife ought not to suffer them to force themselves but as Nature constrains 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 reins raising her up with pillows put under her hips and for Women that are troubled with this Disease they ought not to lace themselves over hard for that thrâ—sts down the Matrix and makes the Woman pouch bellied and hinders the Infant from being well situated in her Body causing her to carry the Child all upon her Hips and makes her Belly as deformed as her Waste is handsome Of a disease that happens by reason of the fall of the Matrix THere is sometimes a relaxation of the Membrane that covers the rectum Intestinum when the head of the Child at the begining of the Travel falls downward and draws it low oftentimes it comes by reason of Women with Child lacing themselves which causes such a conflux of wind to these parts that it seems to the Woman to be the head of the Child insomuch that she is hardly able to stand upright neither can she go For remedy hereof you must keep the woman soluble giving her Anise and Coriander seeds to dissipate the winds You must take Sage Agrimony Motherworth Balm white Wormwood Margerom 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
Ulcer you must apply a drying and cicatrizing Ointment Take of Tutty washed half an ounce and of Litharge Ceruse and Sarcacoal each two drams of Oyl and Wax a sufficient quantity make an Ointment Sometimes the Ulcer penetrates the right gut and sometimes the bladder which may be known by the matter evacuated by those parts if it flow by the right gut lenitive cleansing and drying Glisters must be injected but if it flow from the Bladder gentle and cooling diureticks must be used as an emulsion of the greater cold Seeds Turpentine and the like If the Ulcer turn to a Fistula which chiefly happens when it is opened outwardly towards the Hip tho' it may happen in the womb it self or in the neck of it In this case we must consider whether it be best to leave the accustomed passage untouched thro' which nature endeavours to evacuate various Excrements or to undertake the â—ure of it But if that be thought most proper for the sick a Cure that is call'd palliative must be instituted by purges frequently-repeated and by sweatlng twice a Year and by cleansing and strengthening injections and by applying over a plaister of Diapalma or the like but if there be any hopes of a Cure the same Remedies must be used which are proper for other Fistula's If the Ulcer be occasion'd by the French Pox it cannot be cured without an universal Cure in performing which the fumes of Cinnabar receiv'd thro' a Tunnel into the womb are peculiarly proper Also the anointing the inner parts of the womb with a Mercurial Ointment In all Ulcers of the womb if there be a troublesome itching about the neck as it frequently happens by reason of a defluxion of an acid and Salt Humour to the part a pessary must be made to qualifie it dipt in the ointment of Elecampane with Mercury or in Aegyptiacum dissolved in Sea or Allom-water or in fresh Butter wherein Quick-Silver has been extinguished to which must be added Sulphur Of the Diseases of the Womb. Of the Womb being out of temper THE intemperance of the Womb is when it hath lost its natural temper and is affected with a preternatural intemperancy arising both from inward and outward causes The one of these is hot and is known by the womans proneness to Venery by the small Flux of the Monthly Courses by their adustness sharpness inordinate and difficult Flux Hence in process of time they are very Hypochondriack by early growing of the hairs about the Privities by redness of the Face and driness of the lips and frequent pains of the head and abundance of cholerick humours in the Body it ariseth either at first from the Birth which causes Women to be Virago's and to be barren or after their Nativity from outward causes as the use of hot things overmuch Venery and such Medicines as bring the heat and blood to the Womb. The cure consists in a contrary diet and cooling Medicines both internal and external which are to be applyed to the back and sides which must be very moderate that the heat which is necessary for Conception may not be weakened and the cold and membranous substance of the womb come to any harm or lest the Vessels which serve for the carrying away of the Courses should be thickned and the Nerves of the back and sides be any way mischieved The next way of cure is performed by evacuating Medicines namely Rheubarb and solutive Syrup of Roses Manna also profiteth much the flower of Vitriol of Venus and Mars taken from three grains to six and put in any proper Syrup purges the Womb. There is another intemperancy which comes of cold which is known by a lesser proneness to Venery and little pleasure taken in it a setling in the Courses with a slimy and flegmy matter mixed and an inordinate flowing of them by reason of the plenty of Humours collected in the Womb which causes obstructions by reason of abundance of windy vapours in the Womb crudities and watriness of the Seed which causes it to flow without any pleasure a pale colour in the Face It arises from causes contrary to the former it is cured by contrary diet by hot Medicines applyed to the womb among which the roots of Birthwort Clove-Gilliflowers Angelica and Eringo's are very much commended The leaves also of Mercury Balm Dittany Penny-royal Sage Rosemary Mugwort flowers of Centaury Marigolds Sage Rosemary Borage and sundry spices as Nutmegs Cubebs Saffron and Cinamon These kind of Compounds are also very useful as Oyl of Mace Oyl of Amber Oyl of Myrrh and of Cinamon There is another intemperancy of the womb which comes of moisture and is joined most commonly with the cold intemperancy it is known by the plenty of the Courses and by the thinness and watriness of them as also the moistness of the Privities by reason of the moistness of the Excrements no pleasure in the act of Venery and proneness to abortion by reason of the growth of the Birth It hath the same original with the frigid intemperancy and happens most commonly to Women who are lazy and sedentary It is cured with the same Medicines as the former only this may be added that a fume may be made of the shavings of Ivory And the decoction of Sage being received into those parts before supper is very much commended Baths of Sulphur do also profit much There is another distemper of the Womb which is dry which is discerned by the want of Seed and the defect of the Courses by slowness to Venery driness of the Mouth of the Womb by a blackish colour of the lower lip which is always chopt It sometimes arises from the very Nativity which causes a dry and lean constitution of Body sometime through age and then Women cease to bring Children sometimes from inflammations and such like Diseases sometimes from a defect of blood which ought to moisten the parts which happens either through a narrowness and obstruction of the Veins or else because it being voided out at the neck of the Womb cannot pierce to the bottom The cure of this is performed first by a contrary diet where you must also avoid much labour watching hunger and sadness Secondly by the use of moistning things amongst which are most commended Borage Bugloss Mercury Mallows Violets Among outward means Baths of sweet water and unctions with Oyl of sweet Almonds Oyl of white Lillies Hens-grease and the marrow of Calves legs The cure is the more hard if the driness have been of any long continuance There is another which is a compound distemper which is most often cold and moist which is discerned by comparing the signs of the simple distemperatures together It arises from Flegmy humours The cure is performed by preparing the matter with hot things by evacuation of the matter with such Medicines as are most proper to purge Flegm As also by a particular purgation of the Womb it self to which purpose pessaries do very much conduce as
also sulphury and drying baths as also the use of Sudorificks or things that provoke sweat may be very profitable as the decoctions of Lignum sanctum China Sarsaparella and Mastick wood Of the narrowness of the Vessels of the Womb. THE signs of the narrowness of the vessels of the Womb are partly the retention of the Flowers so that they cannot flow as also the hindrance of conception by reason that the passage of the blood is intercepted The causes are partly external as from astringent baths and medicines which is known from the relation of the party affected it is cured more easily by moistning and mollifying Medicines The other causes are internal as from Flesh or Membrane clinging to the orifice of the Womb or by a closing up of the orifices of the veins by reason of some violent extraction of the Secondines which is commonly incurable the only cure which may be tryed is by mollifying applications Another cause is deduced from obstruction which arises from certain thick viscous and copious humours flowing from other parts of the Body the heat of those places not being able to attenuate them or else gather together in the Womb it self by reason of the weakness of the heat of that part it is discerned by the same signs as the cold Distemper there being also a slimy matter which now and then comes down from the Womb It is cured as other obstructions by sharp and bitter Medicines and steel-wine as also baths made with opening and mollifying things Sometimeâ— this narrowness arises from a compression of the parts occasioned either by some swelling or Schirrus either within or without the Womb if this be there do appear manifest signs of swelling It is an evil for the most part incurable many times it is occasioned by an over-fatness of those parts which is plain to the sense Of the puffing up of the Womb. THE puffing up of the Womb is a windy swelling of that part occasioned from cold flegmy and flatulent matter which is increased through the defect of natural heat in the Womb. This is called the windy Mole it giving hopes of a conception The signs of this are a distention of the Womb not far from the Midriff which is now increased now diminished sometimes extending it self to the Navel sometimes to the Loins and Diaphragm It differs from the Dropsie partly because the swelling is not so great and the party affected is not much troubled with thirst by the increasing and diminishing of the tumor and by the upper part not being so lean It is distinguish'd from the Dropsie of the Womb by the fore apprehension of the causes that beget those windy vapors by the sound and less ponderosity as as also by a feeling of an extensive and pricking pain in the womb and parts adjoyning It is also distinguished from the inflammation of the intestines because here is no great pain neither is the Patient hard bound yet the Flowers are suppressed and the feet and hollow of the eyes do swell and the colour of the body is changed the woman draws her breath short and is sad and when she awakes is fain to lift up her head to take breath It differs from a Mole because there is not that heaviness and ponderosity in the womb besides the woman doth not feel the burden of her womb tumble from one side to the other It is distinguished from conception by the sound and by the increasing and decreasing of the swelling and by the deadness of the motion not unlike that of a dead Infant for if the Midriff be violently compressed the wind being then compelled to the part adjoyning there is a kind of palpitating motion perceived through all the Midriff The matter of this distemper is generated either in the Womb it self or by reason of the suppression of the Courses or by the interception of due purgation after delivery Many times it comes through the veins and seminal vessels Now the weakness of the heat proceeds sometimes from the external air sometimes from hard Delivery from the suppression of the Courses from abortion c. The Cure is performed after the same way that other Cures are managed among those things that purge Species Hierae and Diaphaenicon with Castor are most commended for Fumes Nutmeg is counted the best for Potions Nutmegs bruised and boyled with the roots of Mather and drunk in six ounces of wine and two drams of Sugar Sometimes this wind gets into the cavity of the Womb and then the neck and orifice of the Womb is closed so that nothing can go forth when the woman is moved or when the Midriff is pressed down with her hand and then a kind of noise and sound is perceived Sometimes the wind gets into the tunicles of the Womb and then the mouth of the Womb may be open by reason of the shutting up of the windy vapours in a narrow place there goes a noise forth and the pain grows greater and extends farther This is more hard and difficult to be cured than that which is in the concavity of the Womb. Of the inflammation of the Womb. THE inflammation of the Womb is a swelling of the same through the putrefaction of blood which is fallen down into its substance having many symptoms and now tending to a Scirrhus now towards an Apostem The signs are various there is a swelling in the Womb with heat and pain and a retraction of the Womb to the more inward parts the neck of the Womb appears red with little veins scattered up and down in it like the web of a Spider There is sometimes a difficulty of breathing with some kind of Pleurisie because the interior tunicle of the Womb being extended which rises from and is joyned to the Peritonaeum thâ— parts also to which that coheres are stretched The excrements of the belly and bladder are detained by reason of the heat and driness of the belly and the compression of the passages Sometimes the whole body of the belly seems empty or filled with water and the Navel hangs forward and the mouth of the womb is made very slender and close and upon a sudden few depraved courses come down then happens a burning Fever by reason of the great sympathy with the womb and the heart occasioned through the Arteries and great Vessels There is a pain in the breasts with a swelling in them by reason of the consent and agreement between the groyns the hips the septum transversum claviculare and the forepart of the head which is extended to the roots of the eyes as also from vapours which rise from the putrified blood to the head through the Arteries that run along through the neck passing by both parts of the infundibulum into the fore part of the head The cause of this consists in the blood which is sometimes with Choler and sometimes with Melancholy The Cure is difficult if the blood in that part be wholly putrified for that causeth a sordid
humor which consumes the Patient with a continual Fever If it be an Erisypelas or St. Anthonies fire there is no cure at all because the Birth dies by reason of the excessive heat which causes abortion to follow which kills the Woman if it turn to a gangrene it is deadly it is cured as other inflammations which may be observed in the following Chapters Only observe that for revulsion you must not let blood in the veins of the thighs for that draws down the blood to the womb but in the arm the blood flowing from the Liver and the parts adjoyning For deriving of the matter you may cut a vein in the ham unless the Woman be with Child for that will cause abortion Refrigerating and moistning Topicks without any binding faculty may be well applied to which purpose the decoction of wild Thyme prepared with Chalybeat water and outwardly applied with a sponge is an excellent Remedy These inflammations sometimes affect the whole womb and sometimes either side of the Womb which causes the heat to descend into the Hip because of the ligaments of the Womb which are carred thither the thigh is difficultly moved and the groins are inflamed sometimes the inflammation possesseth the posterior part which causes the belly to be bound and a pain in the loins and back-bone sometimes it possesseth the forepart which because it coheres to the bladder the Urine is suppressed or made very difficultly and the pain is extended above the Privities Semetimes it possesses the bottom of the Womb which causes such a pain in the lower part of the Belly that it is hardly to be touched and the pain extends to the Navel There is another inflammation which degenerates into a Scirrhus whereall the symptoms are not so dangerous yet there is a great heaviness perceived in the parts adjoyning This evil is diuturnal and commonly ends in the Dropsie sometimes it turns to an Apostem swelling 'till it break In this case the body is troubled with a shivering especially towards the Evening when the Apostem is broken sometimes it empties it self into the concavity of the Womb wherein there is less danger and sometimes in other parts of the Body which causes sometimes a stoppage in the Urine and sometimes in the Belly with a swelling of the hairy parts and the feeling of something floating up and down Of the Schirrus of the Womb. THE Schirrus of the Womb is a hard swelling of the said part without pain begot by some thick earthly and feculent Humour the signs besides others that are general are these in particular The Flowers at the beginning are either wholly stopt or flow very sparingly the evil increasing there is a great flux of blood by intervals the mouths of the Veins being opened more than ordinary or because the Womb is not able to receive or to retain its wonted proportion of blood It is distinguish'd from the Mole because in that distemper the Flowers if they flow flow inordinately the Breasts swell with Milk which in the Schirrus grow very lank The cause of this is a gross feculent humour being a thick blood sometimes Flegmy sometimes melancholy which happens to those who decline in their age or to those who have been troubled with a squeamish and naughty stomach Often it arises from an ill cured Inflammation through the use of Medicines that cool too much The Cure is difficult either because having been dried for a long time they cannot be softned or because the natural heat in those places where the Schirrus is is for the most part extinct and then because while the humour is mollifying if it have conceived any putrefaction it easily turns to the Cancer For the cure it is the same as of the Breasts It differs either as being in and possessing the substance of the Womb which causes the Womb to lean downward upon the Hip and Back and there begets pain sometimes possessing the neck of the Womb which is discerned by touching it and is cured more easily than the former If it be in the upper part of the neck of the Womb the Woman is hindred in the lower part of the neck of the Womb the streight gut is affected Of the Dropsie of the Womb. THE Dropsie of the Womb is a distemper from water collected in the Womb either by some fault in the part it self or in the parts adjoining The signs of this are a loose swelling at the bottom of the belly extending it self according to the proportion of the Womb the fewness and naughtiness of the Courses a moistness and slenderness of the neck of the Womb softness of the Breast want of Milk a shivering in the Body and sometimes a Fever It differs from an inflammation by the symptoms above related and from an inflation in the defect of sound and distention from a Mole because in this there is a greater weight perceived at the bottom of the belly and the Breasts at the time of delivery are not without milk It differs from Conception because in the Dropsie the swelling is just according to the form of the Womb but in Conception it is always sharper In Women with Child the Flowers do not flow but in this Disease there flows such a certain bloody vitious humour without any order which ceases quickly It differs from the Dropsie of the Belly because the face of the Patient is coloured unless the Liver be any way affected the want of thirst and the ascent of the swelling from the lower part to the upper The cause of this is a water gathered there through some defect of the Liver or Spleen or through some weakness in the Womb by reason whereof it is not able to concoct or expel the Excrements or through a too immoderate defluxion of the Courses which oppresseth the natural heat or through a suppression of them which suffocates the heat The cure is to be performed by the eduction of the water and strengthening of the Womb for which purpose the use of Antimonial Pills is not a little to be commended Her diet must be of meats that breed good Juice she must drink little she must use instead of drink a Ptisan or Barly-broth made with Sassafras or Sarsaparilla if her Courses be stopt you may let her blood in the foot if the repletion be great then to let her blood in the arm will not be amiss The use of Clysters is not amiss and Fomentations are also very necessary made with the decoction of Broom wild Cucumbers Flowers of Camomile Melilot with Origan Cumin Fenel Aniseed of which you may make several injections Ointments also may be useful made of Oil of Lillies or Oil of Dill Then may you apply upon the Belly this Plaister Take of the emplaister of Laurel berries two Ounces Oil of Camomile and Melilot two ounces and a half Pigeons dung and Goats dung of each half an ounce mix them altogether and make a Plaister adding thereto a little Venice Turpentine Of the falling
of the Womb. THE falling of the Womb is the falling of it down below the Abdomen or Midriff proceeding from a looseness of the Ligamants The general signs of this are a pain in the loins and hairy parts and of the Os sacrum or holy Bone to which the Womb is fastned at the beginning the pain is not very great nor after long continuance by reason of use The weight thereof being only troublesome which is an impediment to the Patient in going The particular signs do vary according as the fall is greater or less for in the one the Womb descends to the middle of the Hips and lower in the latter there is perceived the distention of the skin and as it were the weight of a good big Egg about the Privities The Cure of this is difficult if there be the greater falling of the Womb if the Woman be in Age if a Fever Convulsion or other symptoms happen if that be in women with Child it is deadly and sometimes it is corrupted by the ambient Air and turns into a Gangrene The Cure consists in the re-putting of it into its own place where you must observe first to stop the inflammation if there be any or if there be any swelling caused by the cold Air you must foment the part first with decoction of Mallows Marsh-mallows Flowers of Camomile and Lawrel Berries If there be any wind or excrement in the Gut you must use Clysters first it is also to be fomented and anointed with agglutinating and astringent or binding Medicines there is a Fumigation to be made of the skin of a salt Eel dried and poudered When it is to be put into its place the woman must be laid with her Belly upwards then must the Midwife or other Party employed with a linnen Cloth dipt in Oyl of Roses a little warmed gently thrust up the part affected which is fallen as gently as may be turning a little Now to keep it up the woman must be kept lying on her back with her thighs stretched out and one laid upon another across the Belly must not be too much bound lest in the ejection of the excrement the Womb should be again precipitated neither must it be loose lest the Membranes binding the Womb should be unloosed Then must you use agglutinating Medicines Pessaries Fomentations and Injections yet great care must be had lest you suppress the Courses Of this there be some differences either by reason of the looseness of the Ligaments which are four which is discerned in that it is generated by degrees and with less pain It arises either from hard labour or a ponderosity or heaviness of the Child or from the concourse of flegmy humours it is cured by the evacuation of humors and by the use of astringent and corroborating Medicines such as are the decoction of Musk of the Oak Harts-horn Laurel-leaves and the astringent Plaister Another cause and difference ariseth from the rupture of the Ligaments which is discerned by this that the evil comes suddenly and is more painful and is sometimes followed with a Flux of blood it arises from the heaviness of the birth or from a difficult labour or from Abortion or a difficult and violent extraction of the Secondines Sometimes it happens because the Ligaments are eaten away and then the signs of some Ulcer are discerned by the flowing forth of matter Of the ascent of the Matrix as also of the Wounds and Ulcers of the same SOme have thought that it is possible for the Womb to ascend up to the Stomach which opinion is altogether false for first it is tyed so fast with four Ligaments that it is impossible for it to move to the upper parts Besides suppose it had a natural motion by the Fibres yet the Womb being so firmly annexed to the right gut and to the Privities it would necessarily follow that those parts should be also stretched And though it happen to be stretched and distended by the windy vapours yet it follows not that therefore it should be moved upward and whereas women do say that they do sometimes perceive a certain round body moving about the region of the Navel that may rather be said to be the stones and that blind Vessel than the Womb. Of the wounds of the Matrix this must be noted that they are very difficult to be cured Yet the cure is to be assayed five manner of ways by the use of things which do evacuate the peccant humor which is done partly by a good order of diet and living in a dry and temperate air longer sleep than ordinary and the avoiding of exercise in this case is to be observed and instead thereof to use moderate frictions All repletion and a loose belly are naught the meat that she eats must be little and contrary to the humour that offends as rear Eggs Milk Chicken-broths and the meat of them dry Raisins Almonds and Pistaches For her drink it ought to be chiefly the decoction of Barly or Liquorish In the next place it will not be amiss to let blood in the Basilick Vein let her take some convenient purge according to the humour which abounds Vomitings also and frictions may be used and the provoking of sweat by the decoction of Guaiacum Salsaparil and China-root which are very proper to turn away the humors from the Matrix Sometimes this happens from an intemperancy of the womb which if it be cold the womb is not able to concoct sufficient quantity of nourishment and therefore heaps up together many excrements if it be moist it is not able to contain either the blood or the seed or the birth as it should do The cure of this is above touched in the Chapter of Distempers There is another difference which is taken from the occult qualities which the womb is seen to have there being a sympathy and antipathy between that and divers things as to covet the seed of Man and to love sweet things and then the affection arises from no evident cause there being no excess of coldness or moisture to be apprehended The Medicines which are to be applied for the cure of this must be proper in their whole substance Sometimes the difference ariseth in this that the natural heat is either suffocated or dissipated this affection is something dangerous because it is a difficult matter to restore the natural heat In the cure of this restoratives must be notwithstanding used such are Cinamon Nutmeg Species diaxylo Aloes Aromaticum Rosatum Of the pain of the Womb. THere is no need to give other signs of this than the complaint of the Woman it affects both women that are free and women that are with Child It happens sometimes from corroding humors especially caused by Ulcers or vitious Flowers The cure whereof is referred to these heads sometimes it happens from a distention caused either by some curdled blood sticking in the cavity of the Womb and then there is a copious Flux of blood
out of the Womb and the pain is fixed chiefly about the orifice of the Womb the right Gut and the Bladder being affected by reason of the continual desire of expelling forth the humor In the Cure first you must seek to dissolve the clotted blood which is done by the use of Treacle dissolved in wine and then to evacuate which is performed with Agaric Aloes with the juice of Savin decoction of Rosemary with the Flowers of Cheiri in Wine Sometimes it is caused by the menstruous blood when the vessels are more open or the blood too thick which happens through the over-much use of cold drink especially when the woman is hot The cure may be found in the cure of the suppression of the Flowers Sometimes it is caused by other vitious humours collected in the concavity of the womb or adhering to the other Vessels and then these humours are to be removed with purging and evacuating Medicines Sometimes windy vapours are the cause hereof arising from the heat of the vitious humors caused by copulation It is cured by things that discuss the wind to which purpose it may not be amiss to use a Clyster made of Malmsey and Oyl of Nuts of each three ounces of Aqua vitae one ounce of Oyl of Juniper and distilled Rue of each two drams and applied warm or a mixture of spirit of wine and spirit of Nitre of each half a dram or two scruples exhibited in the spirit of Wine Sperma ceti with Oyl of sweet Almonds or a Plaister of Caranna and Tachamahacca applied to the Navel Sometimes it is occasioned by the retention and corruption of the seed For the Cure look the Chapter of the suffocation of the Matrix Of the Suppression of the Flowers THE suppression of the Flowers is the retention of the menstrual blood either by reason of the narrowness of the vessels or through some corruption of the blood The signs are evident from the relation of the Woman Yet if they are loth to confess it may be discerned by this for in Virgins the suppressed blood wanders up and down the Veins and begets obstructions changing the colour of the Body and causing Fevers In Women because the blood is carried down to the Womb where it begets many diseases it is distinguished from retention after Conception because women with Child find no alteration of affections of the mind and retain the native colour of their bodies and in the third month they shall perceive the motion and situation of the Infant and lastly the mouth of the womb is closed up The Causes of this distemper are the narrowness of the Veins and the vitiousness of the blood The Cure of this must be hastened because this suppression if it stay long begets many more diseases as Fevers Dropsies Vomiting of blood and the like The Cure is hard if it be of any continuance and if it stay beyond the sixth month it is almost incurable especially if it happen through any perversion of the neck of the Womb for then the woman is troubled with often swooning and vomiting of blood and a pain seizes the parts of the Belly the Back and the Back-bone which is attended with a Fever and the excrements of the Belly and Bladder are suppressed a weariness possesses the whole Body because of the diffusion of the retained blood through the whole body and especially the hips and thighs because of the sympathy of those parts with the veins of the Womb. In the first place the letting of blood is commended for the blood which every month stays in the body and sticks in the Veins is to be provoked downward to the Womb and therefore a vein is to be opened in the heel for so the plenty of blood is diminished and the motion of the blood is made toward the Womb if necessity requires that it should be done more than once one day a vein must be opened in one thigh and another day in the other and that which is opened for evacuation must be first opened that which is opened in the ham or heel must be done after Purgation three or four or five days before the time that the accustomed evacuations of the Woman ought to come down Cupping-glasses also are to be applied first to the more remote places as to the thighs and then to the nearer parts as to the hips Ligatures or bindings and frictions at the time of the coming down of the Flowers after Purgation of the whole body are not to be omitted In the second place the matter is to be prepared for which purpose in bodies troubled with Flegm the decoction of Guaiacum with Cretan Dittany doth much avail without provoking sweat In the third place evacuation is to be made at several times Among evacuating Medicines are commended Agaric Aloes with the juice of Savin and these Pills Take Aloes Succotrine three drams the best Myrrh one scruple extract of sweet smelling Flag Carduus Saffron of each three drams Roots of Gentian and Dittany of each five grains make them up with Syrup of Laurel-berries taking the quantity of one scrupâ—e at evening before supper In the fourth place by opening obstructions by those things which provoke the Flowers of which these are most to be commended the decoction of Rosemary with Flowers of Cheiri Pennyroyal-water twice distilled and mingled with Cinnamon-water Extract of Zedoary Angelica and Castor and the Earth which is found in Iron Mines prepared in the same manner as Steel spirit of Tartar the fat of an Eel Colubrina with the distill'd water of Savin And in the fifth place by the discussion of the dregs and relicks that remain by sudoroficks or things that provoke sweat with a potion made of a Chalybeate decoction with spirit of Tartar c. The differences of this Disease arise partly from the obstruction of the Veins of the Womb caused by a cold and thick blood and thick slimy humours mixed with the blood and coming either from some hot distemper of the Womb which dissipates the sharp and subtil humours and leaves behind the gross and earthy parts or from the cold Constitution of the Liver and Spleen especially if at the time of the menstrual Flux at what time the Flux of Blood is more violent those subtil humours happen to be dissipated and then at the time of the monthly Purgation the Party affected feels a great pain in the loins and parts adjoining and if any thing come down it is slymy whitish and blackish The whole Body is possessed with a numness the Colour pale a slow Pulse and raw Urines The Cure is the same with the former great care being taken of a gross and ill diet There is another difference of this Disease when it happens by Compression which arises from external causes as the Northern wind and long standing in cold water which may be known from the relation of the sick Person The Blood in this case is to be drawn to the lower parts by
Frictions and Baths or from internal causes as fatness or swelling of the Womb or of the lower parts in which case Medicines must be applied that asswage the swelling There is another difference which is in the hardness of the skin which happens either from the first Nativity and then the disease is not easily taken away or long after from some cold and dry distemper Concerning which look the former Chapters Another difference there is when there happens a closing up of the skin which is caused after Cicatrising of an Ulcer or by reason of some skin or Membrane growing to the Vessels of the Womb or by reason of frequent Abortion after which these Veins to which the Secondines adhere do grow together so close that they cannot be afterwards opened Another difference of this Disease there is when it happens through want of Blood which is not generated either by reason of external causes as Famine over much evacuation Issues and such like or through internal causes as a frigid Constitution of the principal parts old Age and Fevers or when it is converted to other uses as before full growth to the nourishment of the Body In Women with Child to the nourishment of the Birth In those that give suck to the increase of Milk And in fat people to the augmentation of the Fat Or when it is consumed either by External causes as over much Exercise Affrights Terrors Sadness Baths overmuch Sweating which do consume the serous quality of the Blood or through Internal Causes as are hot and dry Diseases or over-great evacuations in other parts of the Body Sometimes another difference of this Disease proceeds from the dryness of the Blood which happens to Women who in the Winter time do too much heat their lower parts by putting Coals under their Coats For the cure thereof you must use refrigerating and moistning Medicines Of the dropping of the Flowers and the difficulty of their coming down THE dropping of the Flowers is when they are coming down for many days together drop by drop This happens both from external causes as over hard labour c. And sometimes from the drossiness of the blood the passage not being wide enough For the cure of this it is convenient to open a Vein in the Arm with gentle purging as in the former Chapter Sometimes from the weakness of the retentive faculty there being at that time great plenty thinness and serosity of the blood In this case there is no pain Medicines that bind and corroborate the Stomach here must have place The difficulty of the Flowers is when they come down with pain and trouble either through defect in the Veins or in the Blood The signs of this are gathered from the relation of the sick person who is then much troubled with pain in the Head Stomach and Loins and lower parts of the body And they do either flow altogether or drop by drop as in the former disease It is a Disease more incident to Maids than married Women because the Veins of the Womb are less open in them than in those who brought forth Children It happens sometimes from a corruption of the blood that is from the drossiness and thickness thereof and then the blood clots together and there is a great pain long before the Flowers begin to come down The Cure of this is performed by attenuating Medicines Sometimes from the sharpness and acrimony of the Blood which proceeds from a mixture of sharp humours with the Body and then the genital parts do itch It is cured by those Medicines that temper the sharpness of the Humour as the four greater Seeds Violets and Flowers of Nenuphar Sometimes from windy Vapours and then the pain comes by intervals and is suddenly exasperated rumbling up and down and when the wind is forth the pain ceaseth The cure hereof is procured by evacuation of the matter and dispelling of the wind as is before declared Of the discolouring of the Flowers THE discolouring of the Flowers is when their right colour which ought to be red declines either to paleness whiteness greenness yellowness or blewishness through some defect or vitiousness of the blood The signs are apparent by the sight of the blood besides that it is accompanied with an ill smell many times also it is the cause of Fevers trembling of the body loathing of the meat pain in the stomach c. The differences of this disease consist first in the vitiousness of the blood which is caused through some distemper either of the whole body or some part thereof Sometimes the blood is affected by reason of some stoppage thereof and then the Flowers are suppressed which causeth pains in the Breast and strong beating of the Breast and if the woman begin to amend the Blood flows out with a stinking putrefaction which continues 'till the eighth day or it may be because the Blood is foul'd by the Womb being full of excrements and then you may perceive the signs of a foul Womb. Sometimes the difference of this disease consists in the mixture of the Blood with other vitious humors The Cure consists in preparation and evacuation but care must be had that because the thick humors need attenuation and that over attenuating things do melt the serous humor that you therefore do not use over attenuating things as Vinegar c. Another difference is when the Flowers decline to a whitish colour which ' proceeds from abundance of Flegm or from Putrefaction and then Ulcers follow in the Womb and barrenness follows unless the womans Flowers do happen to flow for seven or eight days together by which the woman is freed from the disease or else they break out to the parts above the groin without any tumor and burst forth a little above the Hypochondrium and then the woman seldom lives or else there will appear after some few days a great swelling in the Groyn without a head of a red colour because the Flesh is there filled up with the Blood When it inclines to yellowness or greenness the distemper comes of Choler when to a blackness and blewness from Melancholy Of the inordinate Flux of the Flowers THE disorderly Flux of the Courses is either the coming of them down before their time or else the stoppage of them for some time after the usual course of Nature They come down sometimes before their time partly by reason of internal Causes and partly by reason of external Causes as falls blows and such like casualties that open the veins Or from the expulsive faculty of the Womb too much provoked First by the plenty of blood which is known by this that the blood which is sent to the womb from all part is fluid and of its natural constitution signs of a Plethora or fulness of blood are apparent in the Woman It is Cured by blood letting if the blood abound by good diet and frequent though gentle exercise Secondly it proceeds from the Acrimony and sharpness of
the blood which is known by the hot temper of the body the blood it self is more thin and yellowish It must be Cured by evacuating Medicines as Rheubarb and such things as temper the blood whereof we have already spoken It comes also when the retentive faculty of the womb grows lank which may be known by the looseness of the Vessels of the Womb besides a moist and faint habit of the body In the Cure beware of things which are too Astringent baths wherein the force and strength of Iron may be effectual may with safety be used The subsistence and stay of the Courses beyond the accustomed time proceeds from a frustration of the expulsive faculty as when there is small store of blood which is known by this that the Woman is not troubled with the stay of the Courses and especially if she have over-exercised her self or used a spare diet before Secondly the thickness of the blood which is known by the whiteness and clamminess thereof In the performance of the Cure you must purge before too much blood be gathered together Next the Courses are to be attenuated for the performance of which Calamint and Mercurialis are to be most commended In this Case scarification of the heels is not amiss There is another difference of this Disease which arises from the weakness of the expelling faculty caused either by the frigid distemper of the Womb of which we have spoken already or by a kind of numness thereof of which we shall speak anon Of the over abundance of the Courses THE over much flux of the Courses is either a more abundant or a more lasting Purgation of the Courses through some defect either in the blood or the womb or the veins of the womb The signs are evident viz. want of Appetite Crudities a bad colour in the face a swelling in the feet and the rest of the body a waxing lean of the body and in brief a general ill habit of body The Cure if it be of any continuance is difficult if it happen to an aged woman there is none at all It requires a revulsion or drawing back of the blood interception and incrassation or thickning thereof and a closing up of the Vessels by astringent Medicines Yet observe that they must be stopt by degrees To this effect you may take this Powder Take of the seed of White Henbane red Coral of each half a dram white Camphor half a scruple and give the quantity of half a dram at a time powder of Amber Dragons-blood Bloodstones Red Coral Lettice seed of each one dram Balaust two scruples Bole armoniack two drams given in three ounces of Plantain-water Asses milk heated with Steel You may externally also apply a girdle made of the bruised leaves of Bares-foot Of this Disease there are many differences Sometimes it happens from the blood which is derived from the bottom of the Womb where for the most part lies the blackest and most clotted blood or from the neck of the Womb which is more red and fluid Another difference ariseth from the plenty of blood which appears by this that the Vessels are either broken or much opened especially in those women who have had a stoppage in their Courses for a time which presently break out again The signs of this are evident that is to say a fulness of blood in the body besides that the blood which comes forth easily curdles In the Cure you must have recourse to blood-letting which if you do for evacuation it must be done in the Hepatick Vein If the woman be weak in Salvatella of both hands In the next place the use of Cupping-Glasses is to be commended being applied with scarification to the back c. Or without scarification to the Breast being used again when the woman is troubled with difficulty of breathing In the third place ligatures and frictions of the Arms are to be used Another difference of this disease arises from a sharp blood which is known by the gnawing of the humor upon the Vessels In the Cure you must purge with syrup of Roses solutive or with leaves of Sena a pessary of Sows dung and Asses dung which is made up with Plantain water and the muscilage of the seed of Quinces is here of use if need require Another difference arises from a serous and watry blood for either the Liver is weakned or the Veins so debilitated that it cannot attract the serous or wheyie humour in the blood in this case the blood flows not forth in such a quantity nor is easily curdled If a Cloth be dipped in it and then dried in the shade it presently discolours In the Cure hereof you must look to the rectifying of the weakness of the Reins and Liver with convenient remedies for which purpose the Livers of Foxes Calves Hens c. are very good Sometimes from a Rupture of the Veins which proceeds either from a fulness of blood or from Causes that do vehemently stir up the blood especially from hard labour if it be needful you must let blood and apply conglutinating Medicines Or from a gnawing of the Vessels which is known by this that sometimes there flows forth little blood and that purulent and full of the wheyie or serous humor It arises from a sharp and corrupt blood and sometimes from the use of sharp Medicines Among the astringent Medicines the root of Filipendula is much to be commended or a decoction of the same Root Of the Whites and Gonorrhea in Women THE Whites is an inordinate eruption of an excrementitious humour collected together through some vitiousness of the blood It affects Women chiefly and sometimes also Virgins of which there are Examples Yet it is more often in women especially if they be of a moist constitution and live an idle and delicate life eating such things as are cold and moist Old women also are affected herewith through the abundance of Flegm and the weakness of the concoctive faculty It differs from the Gonorrhea because in that the seminal matter is white and thicker and flows by long intervals and issues forth in a lesser quantity from a nocturnal pollution for that is joyned with venereal imaginations and only happens in the time of sleep It differs from the discolouring of the Flowers for they though not exactly do always observe their times of Flowing Besides they happen not to Women with Child or such whose Courses are stopped It differs from the putrid humour that issues from the Ulcers of the Womb because that is joyned with the signs of an Ulcer and the putrefaction is thicker and whiter if it be mattery it is coloured with blood and issues forth with pain The Cure of this must be hastned because in a short time it endangers the making of women barren causing them to be lean to fall into a Consumption Melancholy the Dropsie fall of the Womb Swoonings and Convulsions which is the cause that though it be not hard to be cured in
by it self or from external means such are perfumes anger fear c. and not only ascending through the veins but also through all the other breathing holes and secret passages of the body The Cure is doubtful if it have possessed old Women for a time for it begets weakness consumes the strength and shews abundance of humour or if it possesseth Child-bearing Women either after a difficult Travel or after an Abortion or if it possesseth Women with Child because it induces fear of Abortion there is more hope if the act of Respiration be not too much impeded and if the Fits do not return too often The Cure regards first the time of the Fit being performed first by means of interception which may be done by binding the Belly under the Navel with a girdle made of the skin of a Hart killed in the very act of Copulation Secondly by keeping the natural Spirits awaked and rouzed up by painful friction by pulling the hairs of the Privities with violence and suffumigations made with Partridge feathers burnt as also Eel-skins the application of Assa faetida and Oil of Tartar to the mouth Thirdly by way of revulsion of the humour by Frictions and Glysters dispelling the winds and the application of Cupping-glasses with much flame first to the Thighs and then to the Hips putting sweet things into the Privities such as are Oil of Sivet half a scruple Oil of Nutmegs one scruple Fourthly by discussion of the humour which is performed inwardly by the Oil of white Amber with the pouder of Walnut Flowers extract of Castor externally by an Emplaister of the fat of a black Heifer Sclarea boiled in butter adding to it a sufficient quantity of Tachamahacca and Caranna After the fit is past evacuation is to be regarded first with purgation for which purpose it will not be amiss to use these ensuing Pills Take Siler mountain Pennyroyal Madder the innermost part of Cassia Pipe Pomegranate Kernels Piony roots and Calamus of each three drams Muscus and Spike of India of each half a dram then make Pills thereof with the juice of Mugwort of which she may take every day or every other day before Supper If the disease proceed from the terms let the Woman affected take an Ounce of Agarick poudered in Wine or honied water or a dram of Agnus Castus powder'd with an ounce of Honey of Roses The Womb is also to be strengthned by the internal and external application of such things as resist the malignity of the Disease among which are numbred Faecula Brioniae and Castor The difference of this Disease consists in this that sometimes it happens that it is occasioned by the retention of the Seed which is known by this that the symptoms of the Disease are more violent and after the fit is past there flows out of the Womb a matter like to that of the seed It is cur'd by evacuation of the seed such as are Rue and Agnus Castus and anointing with odoriferous salves especially if the woman be to live without the use of man If it come from the suppression of the terms which is known by the Courses being mingled with a melancholy blood take powdered Agaric a dram of Pioney seeds or the weight of a dram and a half of Triphera magna But take this for a secret that for a married Woman in case of the present suffocation there is nothing better than for the Man to anoint the top of his Yard with a little Oyl of Gilliflowers and Oyl of sweet Almonds together and so to lye with her for this assuredly brings down the Matrix again This Disease is very frequent the Procatartick or external Causes of it are either violent motions of the body or which is much oftner vehement commotions of the Mind from some sudden assault either of Anger or Grief or the like Passions Therefore as often as Women are troubled with this or that disorder of Body the reason whereof cannot be deduced from the common Axioms for finding out Diseases we must diligently enquire whether they are not chiefly afflicted with that indisposition which they complain of when they have been disturbed in their minds and afflicted with grief which if they confess we may be fully satisfied that this disorder proceeds from this Disease we are now speaking of especially if Urine as clear as Chrystal evacuated copiously some certain times makes the Diagnostick more manifest But to these disorders of the Mind which are usually the occasions of this Disease is to be added emptiness of the stomach by reason of long fasting immoderate bleeding and a Vomit or Purge that worked too much and certainly this Disease proceeds from a confusion of the Spirits upon which account too many of them in a crowd contrary to proportion are hurried violently upon this or that part occasioning Convulsions and pain when they rush upon parts indued with exquisite sense perverting the functions of the Organs both of that into which they thrust themselves and also of that from whence they departed both being much injured by this unequal distribution which is quite contrary to the Oeconomy of Nature The Origen and Antecedent Cause of this confusion is a weak constitution of the Spirits whether it is natural or adventitious for which Reason they are easily dissipated upon any occasion and their System soon broke For as the outward Man is framed with parts obvious to sense so without doubt the inward Man consists of a due Series and as it were a Fabrick of the Spirits to be viewed only by the eye of Reason and as this is nearly joyned and as it were united with the constitution of the Body so much the more easily or more difficultly is its frame disordered by how much the Constitutive Principles that are allotted us by Nature are more or less firm That the said Confusion of the Spirits is the cause of Hysteric Diseases will appear by Mother-Fits wherein the Spirits are crowded in the lower Belly and rushing together violently towards the Jaws occasion Convulsions in every region thro' which they pass blowing up the Belly like a great Ball which is yet nothing but the rowling together or conglobation of the parts seized with the Convulsion which cannot be suppressed without great violence The external parts in the the mean while and the Flesh being in a manner destitute of Spirits by reason they are carried another way are often so very cold not only in this kind but in all other kind of Hysteric Diseases that dead Bodies are not colder but the Pulse are as good as those of People that are well nor is the Womans life in danger by this cold unless it is occasioned by some very large evacuation going before And the inordinate agitation of the Spirits disturbing the blood is the cause of the clear and copious Urine for when the Oeconomy of the blood is interrupted the Sick cannot long enough contain the serum that is imported but lets it
the said Sinus Pudoris and are connected together by certain Membranes or Ligatures which are each of them situated in the interstices or spaces between each Caruncle with which they are in a manner equally extended which Membranes being once dilacerated are an apparent sign of devirgination nor can it be denied but that this dilaceration may be caused by other accidents besides the accompanying with a man as by violent Coughing Sneezing or loud Vociferation all which may occasion a violent flowing down of humours to the breaking of those ligatures or membranes but as for any Stories of a Hymen as that it should be a transverse membrane situated now in the lower extremity of the Sinus Pudoris now in the midst of the concavity that it is perforated all about in the manner of a Sieve or in the middle only with one larger hole or that the breaking of this Hymen should be the only cause of Devirgination are all to be rejected as vain and Frivolous CHAP. X. Whether there may be a mutation out of one Sex into another and of Hermaphrodites BEfore any thing can be positively determined concerning this argument so much of uncertainty there is in it it will be convenient to recite what hath been delivered both as to the negative and the affirmative by Authors that have maintained each contrary opinion Severinus Pinaeus who holds the Negative writes to this effect viz. That the genital parts of both Sexes are so unlike each other in substance much more in composition situation figure action and use that scarce any thing can be found more unlike and by how much the more all other parts of the body excepting the Breasts which in women are more tumid because of their secondary use have an exact resemblance so much the more unlike are the genital parts of the one Sex compared with those of the other and if their figure be thus different much more is their use True it is indeed that both are appointed for generation but in a different manner for women contribute the matter but men the form The Venereal appetite also proceeds from different causes for in men it proceeds from a desire of emission in women from a desire of repletion In women also the chiefest of those parts are concave and apt to receive but in men they are only porous and in a manner solid These things considered I cannot but wonder saith he how any one can imagine that the Genital Members of Female Birth should be changed into those that belong to Males since by those parts only the difference and distinction of Sexes is made Nor can I well impute the cause of this vulgar error to any thing but a mistake of some not over-expert Midwives who have been deceived by the evil conformation of the parts which may have happened in some Male-births to have had so small a protrusion as not to have been discerned as appeared by the example of a Child Christned at Paris by the name of Joan as if it had been a Girl when as it proved afterwards a Boy And on the contrary the over-far extension of the Clitoris in female Births may have occasioned the like mistake But notwithstanding what hath been thus said in the Negative there have not been wanting some learned Physitians who have firmly asserted the affirmative part of which number Galen himself is one A man saith he is different from a woman in nothing else except in the having his genital members without his body And this is certain that if Nature having formed a man would convert him into a Woman she hath no other task to perform but only to turn his genital members inward and if a woman into a man to do the contrary And this however held for a Fable hath chanced many times in nature as well while the Creature hath been in the Mothers Womb as after the same hath been born For divers times Nature hath made a Female Child and she hath so remained in her Mothers belly for the space of one or two Months and afterwards plenty of heat growing in the genital Members upon some occasion they have issued forth and the Child hath become a Male but yet retaining some certain gestures unbefitting the Masculine Sex as a shrill voice womanish actions and the like Contrariwise Nature hath often made a Male and cold growing on and turning the genitals inward it hath become a Female yet still retaining a manlike fashion both in voice and gesture Now to give an impartial judgment of these two opinions I cannot but hold that the latter of them carrieth a greater semblance of truth with it for as to what Pinaeus affirms of the great difference of figure in the genital members of each it will not be of so much force if we consider that the inversion of them is that which chiefly occasioneth this difference of form the reason of which is evidently deduced from the contrary natures of heat and cold heat enlarging and extending all things and cold retaining and closing them up Now as to the business of Hermaphrodites or those that enjoy both Sexes in one person many there are that will not afford any belief or at the least doubt whether or no there are any such things in nature but although there cannot be so apparent a reason given for this as for the mutation of Sexes yet in this we may suffer our selves to be guided by the same Criterium as in the business of Specters and Apparitions of Spirits concerning which although it hath puzled many learned men to find out what should be the true causes and reasons that such things come to pass yet it argues much indiscretion not to give credit to them both in regard Histories have abounded with frequent examples of them in all ages and also considering the daily reports we have of such things both from the mouths and pens of serious and judicious men Perhaps it may be judged by some to have been more decent that these things should have been delivered in the Latin than in the vulgar Tongue that so the secrets of Nature might not have been prostituted to every unworthy Reader that makes use of such things only for a mockery and a May-game and to promote idle and lascivious discourse yet forasmuch as they are written for God's Glory and the benefit and help of mankind and intended only for the use of sober pious and discreet Matrons and that the want of skill and knowledge in these mainly important Secrets hath been the occasion of very many mistakes to the great misery oftentimes of Women in travail and prejudice of the poor Infant the concealment of them had been much more inexcusable than the publishing can be Exod. 1.17 But the Midwives feared God verse 20 Therefore God dealt well with the Midwives Deo Gloria RARE SECRETS Brought to LIGHT Which for many years were locked up in the Breast of that most Famous and Learned Physician Sir Theodore
Mayern Physician to His late Majesty King CHARLES the First Of Ever Blessed Memory In which are contained the sufficient Testimonies of the renowned and happy successes of his management in his general Practice on the greatest Ladies of the Court and Country in the use of so publick a benefit as that of the Excellent Art of MIDWIFRY LONDON Printed in the Year 1696. TO THE Understanding Reader I Shall not need to spend many words in recommending to the World these present Observations and Experiments in Midwifry since had not my own knowledge and experience of them warranted me to give a sufficient testimony of them It had been enough to say that they were the Collections of a Person of so great a fame and therefore of so general a practice for a long series of years both abroad and in this Nation that not to mention his universal insight in all parts of Learning his judgment chiefly in matters of this nature ought not to be suspected He must needs be an absolute stranger to all the Concerns of publick fame and the knowledge of eminent men who hath not been very well acquainted though living in the remotest part of this Nation with the high reputation of Sir Theodore Mayern who not only as he was Physician to the late King but by the proof he had given of his eminent skill and perfection in his faculty has gained the greatest esteem and generality of practice at Court and among the Nobility of any man in his time By which it appears that these present Receipts extracted from the Musaeum of this excellent Person have been frequently made use of by himself among the greatest Ladies of Court and Countrey Upon this account I having had the fortune as being a near Relation of his to get these among several other of his Papers into my hands should have thought my self very injurious to the World if I had not taken the first opportunity to communicate to the publick view a matter of so publick a benefit especially since it is a business of no less importance than the preservation of Life to be very cautious what to make choice of and not easily to be satisfied with every thing that may have rashly and without mature judgment been publisht of this Subject The truth is among all the Treatises of Midwifry that I have seen set forth in our Language I have not met with any to which I can more willingly subscribe my approbation than to the works of Madam Lowise Burgeoise late Midwife to the Queen of France Therefore hearing of a second Edition of the said Treatise to come forth I thought it most convenient to annex thereunto this collection more considerable for its quality than quantity the experiences of the one having been no less approved among the Ladies of the French Court than those of the other among our great Ladies of England To conclude I shall not for this supplement go about to implore the favourable censure of the Courteous Reader but commit it to the fortune of that free reception which it cannot but meet with both from the advantageous Testimony I have alledged and the beneficial Effects I dare promise it will produce RARE SECRETS Brought to LIGHT Which for many years were locked up in the breast of that most Famous and Learned Physician Sir Theodore Mayern Physician to His late MAJESTY King CHARLES the First of ever Blessed Memory To know the time of Delivery whereby the woman may know the better how to prepare her self THE natural time of Delivery falls out to be at the end of nine months especially if at that season the Woman be wont to have her natural purgations or else if at nine Months end she happen to be near the full or the new Moon For these things hapning together not only hasten her Delivery but also facilitate the Labour To this end it is necessary that a Woman should be careful to remember and take notice of the time of her Conception that she may be able to govern her self according to the seasons as she grows near her time It is also very necessary for Women to have in memory the days and seasons of their natural Purgations not only in regard of their delivery but also in regard of several Maladies and Diseases which upon this occasion happen at the said time and of which no person can rightly judge of the cause unless those things be well known Now if it happen that a woman have mistaken or forgot as not being rightly able to observe either because of some retention extraordinary or some extraordinary and tedious flux of her natural Purgations she may redress her self by the means which follow Most commonly and ordinarily women have their natural Purgations from the age of fourteen years to twenty one at the new Moon after that from twenty one to thirty in the first quarter from thirty to thirty seven or thirty eight they have them at the full of the Moon from thirty seven to the time that they begin to cease in the last quarter Signs which precede Delivery THE Woman having a regard to the end of the nine Moons as also to the times of the full and new Moons as also to the time that she uses to have her Purgations as hath been said she must be provided of all things for her assistance and preservation Now when her Delivery is near she shall know by these signs Great pains in her groins thighs the small of her belly and all the lower parts of the Navel together with swellings and hardness in the said places Shiverings and shakings through the whole body as at the coming of an Ague after that again a sudden heat feebleness lassitude and small sweats upon the face after which the blood being inflamed rises up into the face which causes a heat and redness great unrest and changing from hot to cold from strong to weak from weak to strong and she shall feel the Child to make violent thrusts There will come bloody water from the lower parts When these signs but especially the bloody waters appear then she ought to commit her self to the care of the Midwife for before 't is in vain and may prove dangerous Nature hath so well ordered her works that the Matrix never opens it self before the time prefixed at which time these signs appear and therefore a woman ought to be very diligent in the observance of the said seasons and signs To cause the Woman to contain the Birth TAke Mint Roses Marjoram Saffron Musk as much as suffices of each put them into a bag to be hung about the neck so that it may reach to the stomach this will keep the womb from falling low An Emplaister to hinder the Monthly Flux in Women with Child TAke Oyl of Roses white Wax juyce of Male-knot-grass of each 2 ounces Bole-Armoniack Crocus Martis each six drams of this make a plaister when the Flux comes down let the woman contain
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 stomach 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 yolk of an Egg sometimes though it came up again at the same instant She felt no pain 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 did according to our hopes afterwards to drink a small quantity of Rhubarb-water which stayed with her a little after I gave her the Yolk of an Egg which stayed with her also causing her to drink nothing but Rhubarb-water and at every hour's end I gave her the Yolk of an Egg which did also stay with her by this time Nature began to strengthen it self and the pains of the Infant came again and in less than two hours after the Clyster and other nourishment given when I saw her pretty well 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 Benedictum which finished the work for she was then delivered of a very lusty Child which lived about two days I came thither about noon and she was brought to bed before nine 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 misapplied and indeed a Woman Travailling in the ninth Month ought chiefly to be succoured with Clysters Of a Woman here in Town that bare her Children eleven months and could not be Delivered BEing called to a Woman in this Town that thought her self three months and a half gone which is one of the Terms of time wherein commonly the Moles and False-births are delivered having then some loss of blood and pain I was sent for and judged it to have been some imperfect Conception and therefore I used all means to assist her yet could she not expel it for all these long pains 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 happened to a Sister of hers who being with Child carried it very well to the end of the ninth month at the end of which she began to be in pain as if she would have cried out the pains were great and long which they were not at all astonished at by reason that it was her first Child yet were not these pains accompanied with any signs of Labour as the opening the exterior orifice of the Womb And they continued thus for the space of two days 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 days 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 pains as before which continued a day and a night and then ceased as before This was adjudged to be certain pains of the Colick after this she endured one month longer in her former estate which was now the eleventh month 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 died without having any time to call 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 big with Child who have frequent pain and nothing coming forth the Matrix that should open rather shuting it self closer whether it be at the time or no you must make for them 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 months gone ought to walk very much and of the Accidents that happen thereby IT is a common error among Midwives which is not to be passed by that a Woman with Child when she hath gone seven Months of her time is to walk 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 draw away the Child than to break it and moreover it is better to be something longer in Travail than to incurr two or three evils which ordinarily happen the first is that the Child in the end of the seventh month doth make certain endeavours to free it self from the belly of the Mother and without doubt his first endeavour is to turn himself in the belly of the Mother for the Infant turns himself a good while before the time of Labour and therefore I say Exercise is very dangerous The first reason is because by pushing downward the belly is dilated and especially in such as carry their Children low and besides oft times the head drags down 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 ingendered there follows immediately Feavers 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
I excused the passion and impatience of friends but I would not do any thing against my duty for complacency a fault that is soon committed but not so easily repented of This Woman was pretty long as most Women are of their first Children in which time her husband altogether impatient and seeing her to doubt the report of the Midwives Therefore said he here is a Chirurgeon hard by who may be sent for to resolve the doubt of the Midwives he sent for him just about the hour that the Woman was to be brought to bed The Chirurgeon when he came saw that the Child was ready to come forth The Midwives who had given way 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 and a lusty child but moreover that he would render his wife also into a safe condition The Midwives when they would have spoken were put to silence The Gentlewoman was presently delivered and he stayed but a little while to receive his reward Thus the Midwives that had attended long and all the while of the Travail were dispised and put off and the Chirurgeon extolled and praised and well rewarded with several most obliging and courteous 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 mind 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 Istrument in the mean time he sent into the kitchen for a Ladle with a hook at the end thereof to draw forth the child He drew it so well that he drew away the life of the child and without seeking any further for any body to saddle his horse or bidding any body farewell he fled his wayes This may be an instruction to those that are so ready to entertain Mountebanks and Empericks than whom 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 died I Was one day called to the Labour of a woman which had good Deliveries of her Sons and Daughters at their due time although her Deliveries of Boys were always more difficult than those of her Daughters being come to her I found her walking 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 warm her again but she would by no means endure it although I prayed her she was angry with me and told me This was not the rule to be constrained The Mistress and the Nurse combined against me the night approached the waters being come down I feared the ill success of this business that her disease would be irrecoverable by reason of her self-will'dness I desired her husband to use his endeavour but he could do no more with her than I about midnight I prayed her to go to bed again and to warm her self and unless she would do so I could do nothing She told me I understood nothing in respect of a certain Surgeon who when she had such a kind of Labour before only toucht her with his finger and delivered her and that she would have him I was content and so she sent for him He came very confidently but his work was 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 Surgeon 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 was unwilling unless I would promise to come again which I did and as soon as the door was open one of the servants told me another Midwife was sent for Her Husband desired me again that since the Chyrurgeon failed of his skill I would use my skill but it was too late for the Chyrurgeon left them and the Woman died See here how ill a thing it is to be opinionated for I could easily have delivered her if she would have been ruled by me Of certain Women that bear Children and lie in before their time And others at their full time who grow big and full of humours 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 Laid-in three times but yet none of her Children lived I desired her to take a Physician that might give advice both to her and me and to order her some remedies and a government of diet to keep her from suffering the like accidents for time to come We chose a Physician who prescribed certain Tablets or Trochisques to take from the time she began to grow big 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 Child she thought that Nature of â—t self would be sufficient I counselled her to the contrary but she hearkned not so that when her time came she was brought to bed of a dead Child I shall give you the Receipt 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 water which hindereth the Child from turning in the Womb The Water is made in this manner Take two pints or two pints and a half of water put therein half an ounce of the root of Indian Bul-rush 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 after this fashion Take Mace Saunders Rhubarb Pearl and Coral Sena of each 25 grains with one ounce and half of Sugar let every
natured sweet voic'd corpulent having little hair a well-coloured face and a handsome body which are the signs of hot and dry in the first degree a woman cold and moist in the second degree in regard she retaineth a mean in all those signs above-mentioned is most like to be fruitful because she comes nearest in proportion to men of each several temperature But from the first of these Unions or Conjoynings of man and woman are most likely to issue the wisest children because the dryness of the mother correcteth and amendeth the defect of the father Moreover it is requisite that women be dryed by a mature age and not marry over young for from thence it comes to pass most commonly that children prove shallow and indued with little wit CHAP. VI. What course is to be taken that Male Children be brought into the World not Female THose who see the comfort of having wise Children must indeavour that they be born Male for the Female through the cold and moistness of their Sex cannot be endowed with so profound a judgment We find indeed that they talk with appearance of knowledge in slight and easie matters but seldom reach any further than to a slight superficial smattering in any deep Science It is a thing very well worth observation that whereas the right side of the reins and the right testicle are naturally more hot and dry and the left side of the reins with the left testicle more hot and moist Nature seems to have intended that which at the beginning of the World is recorded in History to have been very frequent as namely that a woman brought forth two Children at a birth the one Male the other Female the right side which is hot and dry being assigned to the generation of Males the left side which is cold and moist to the generation of Females and it seems to have been so ordained to that end that for every man there might be a wife But after the Earth came to be well increased with people it hapned as it appears that this method and design of Nature was broken off and now not only the double Child-bearing is very rare but a far greater number of women are daily brought forth into the World than men Whence it is to be gathered that either Nature is grown weary or else interrupted in her course of working However since this defect of Nature is to be remedied with care and diligence if men would imploy their serious considerations in a matter of such importance there are six things to be observed by those that would obtain the accomplishment of their desire in the design whereof this Chapter treats The first is the eating those sorts of meats which are hot and dry provided they have not those qualities in too high an excess lest thereof be engenderd a man extreamly wily and malicious and such a one whose actions may prove pernicious to the Common-wealth but rather let those viands be hot and dry in a moderate degree such as are Hens Partridges Turtles Thrushes Goats c. and those roasted The second thing is the feeding so moderately that the stomach may overcome and digest that meat which is eaten for those very sorts of meat which are in their proper nature hot and dry yet being eaten in so great a quantity that the nature cannot digest them they become cold and moist also the immoderate drinking Wine is absolutely to be forbidden there being no rawness which so much endamageth generation as that of Wine being so vaporous and subtle a Liquor Whereupon a Law was anciently enacted in the Carthaginian Commonwealth which prohibited the married couple to taste of Wine that day they were to perform the rights of the Marriage Bed The third is to use much exercise which by fretting and consuming the excessive moisture of the Seed heateth and dryeth the same whereas ease and overmuch delicacy breedeth coldness and moisture in the Seed And hence it comes to pass that rich and great persons that live at ease and feed high have for the most part Daughters And Hypocrates reporteth that the principal persons of the ancient Scythians who were very effeminate and womanish most commonly either begot Females or else they proved either Eunuches or Hermaphrodites and being ignorant of the natural cause of this defect he saith and derides them for it that they used to sacrifice to their gods imploring from them a remedy of that which was an effect of their mis-governance The fourth diligence is not to use the act of Generation untill the Seed be well concocted and ripened it being convenient for seven or eight days before to use those meats which we have already prescribed and observing the same course as Gardiners do with the Seeds which they would preserve for they attend till they ripen and cleanse and wax dry since if they should pluck them from the stalk before they are deeply seasoned and arrived to that point which is to be required though they should lye in the ground never so long they would not grow at all The fifth point for a man to accompany with his Wife four or five days before her natural Courses in regard the Child immediately standeth in need of much food to nourish it The sixth and last point is to procure that both the Seed of the Husband and Wife fall into the right side of the Womb by which means it hapneth that Males are ingendred the reason of which is as Galen affirmeth that the right side of the Womb holdeth affinity in temperature with the Liver the right side of the Reins and the right Testicle which we have already delivered to be more hot as the left side is more cold by which Females are ingendered To these things there is another consideration to be added which Galen hath also observed namely that the Seed of each Testicle are of a different nature for whereas that of the right Testicle cometh out more hot more speedily and in a lesser quantity that of the left cometh out more cold more slowly and in greater abundance CHAP. VII What means are to be used for preserving the Childrens wit after they are formed MAN is compounded of a substance so subject to alteration and corruption that at the same instant in which he begins to be formed he also begins to fade and decline whereupon Nature hath provided that in mans body there should be four natural faculties Attractive Retentive Concoctive and Expulsive the first concocting and altering the aliments which we eat return to repair the substance that was lost each succeeding in his place So that it little availeth to have ingendered a Child of the perfectest Seed if we make no choice of the meats which afterwards we feed upon For the Creation being finished there remaineth not for the creature any part of the substance whereof it was composed True it is that the first Seed if it be well concocted possesseth such vertue that digesting and altering