or if it be to hinder the increase of it let diet be against Melancholy prepare and purge Melancholy This powder for many dayes given is excellent Take Smaragds Saphir and East Bezoar-stone each a dram give every day three or four grains with Scabious or Carduus water Let the Tropicks not be biting at first But foment with juyce of Plantane Nightshade Purslane or use Diapompholigos Or Take Juyce of Plantane Nightshade Purstane each two ounces Mucilage of Fleabane an ounce Oyl of Roses three ounces stir them in a leaden Mortar Or Take Oyl of Roses of Eggs each an ounce and half Sugar of Lead a dram stir them in a leaden Mortar then add Litharge Ceruss each three drams Tutty a dram Camphire a scruple Or Take Juyce of Nightshade six ounces Tutty and burnt Lead each two drams Camphire half a dram stir them long in a leaden Mortar and add powder of Cray-fish Inject a Decoction of Cray-fish and if pain be great foment with Mallows Althaea Water-lillies Coriander Dill Fleabane Seed with Saffron in Milk or make a Cataplasm of the same Some use Antimony Arsenick c. which are good in other parts But this cannot bear them A noble Woman had on the right side of her Face an ulcerated Cancer and when all the French Italian German Spanish Physitians could not cure her a Barber cured her only with Chickens sliced thin and laid on often every day Chap. 12. Of a Gangrene and Sphacel in the Womb. SOmetimes the whole Womb is gangrenated and it is from the Privities that receive many Excrements apt to corrupt The Causes It is from an Inflammation and Ulcer not well cured because the part hath many Excrements which easily quench the natural heat and then the part mortifies The Signs There is an usual heat in the Neck of the Womb and a Feaver with horror all over the body then the colour changeth in the part it is black and blew without pulse or sense When it is cut or pricked it stinks and the strength decayes and the heart faints The Prognostick Aetius leth 1. cap. 72. Nichol. Florent ser 6. tr 3. Math. degrad in 9. Rhasis C. de exitu matricis It is very dangerous and worse when it goes to the womb than outwards Some have had the Womb fall out and have lived which besides grave Histories We saw at Avinion in an old noble VVoman Anno 1635. Stop the putrifaction take away that which is rotten by scarrifying if you can then wash with the Decoction of VVormwood Lupines and with Aegyptiacum and apply this Cataplasm Take Orobus and Bean flour each two ounces Oxymel a pint boil them add Lupines Wormwood Aloes and Mirrh Cut off the dead flesh The Cure strengthen the principal parts the Heart lest the Spirits be infected with evil vapors that fly by the Arteries Give Conserve of Borrage Bugloss Gilli-flowers Diamargariton frigid Electuary of Gems frigid Confection of Hyacinths Syrup of Sorrel Pomegranates Borrage and apply Epithems to the Heart In Observatio Vuierus cured a noble Woman aged twenty five she had a Pustle in her Privities in the Dog-dayes from violent Lechery with her Husband and she used a Cataplasm from a silly Chirurgion and in few dayes it rotted grew black and mortified and went towards the Fundament very fast THE FOURTH BOOK THE SECOND SECTION Of the Diseases of the WOMB Chap. 1. Of the Knowledge of the Temper of the Womb. Lib. uterus muliebris MArk Anthony Ulmus Physitian of Bononia shews the Temper of the Womb He saith That a Beard in Women shews that they have a hot Womb and hot Stones It comes with the beginning of the Terms and when the Breasts swell and is hard to be seen Lib. 3. de lui ani c. 11. Aristotle saith That some Women have hairs in their Chin when their Courses stop and when they have a hot Womb and Stones But there are more certain signs of heat 1. When hard hair comes forth suddenly thick black and long and large about If they come forth slow thin soft yellowish and but few not spreading the Womb is cold Also when the Terms come forth at 12 years of age it is a sign of a hot Womb and when they last long the blood is red hot but not very much In an old Constitution they come later and the blood is cold and waterish and they end sooner If it be hot and moist they flow plentifully and last till after fifty If it be hot and dry the blood is yellow thin and sharp and pricks the Privities If it be cold and moist the blood comes late forth with difficulty and it is whitish and thin If it be cold and dry the Terms come forth very late and with difficulty and seldome continue till forty and the blood is thick and little The third sign is from Lechery for they who have hot wombs desire Copulation sooner and more vehemently are much delighted therewith they who are cold do the contrary The hot and moist are not tired with much Venery The hot and dry have great Lust and a Frenzy if they want it but they are quickly tired because there are but few Spirits If it be cold and moist they are not soon lecherous and are easily satisfied and if they miscarry often the womb is made colder and they delight not in the sport but Copulation doth them good and makes them more youthful If it be cold and dry they desire not a man in a long time and take no delight because the Spirits are few The fourth sign is from often Conception for the hot conceive often and bring forth males or Viragoes if the seed of the man agrees with it the cold doth the contrary A hot and moist Womb is very fruitful if the man be well tempered and though he be old and weak yet she will conceive by him Sometimes they have twins or over-do and have a Mole Hot and dry are fruitful but not so much as the former Cold and moist are hard to conceive especially when they are in years when they are young and the Seed of the man is hot and dry they conceive males but seldom well shaped or healthful and the woman while she is with Child is sickly A cold and dry Womb is commonly barren and if they conceive the Mans Seed is hot and moist they bring forth Females and if Males they are tall and quickly look old Chap. 2. Of the hot Distemper of the Womb. HEat of the VVomb is necessary for Conception but if it be too much it nourisheth not the Seed of the man but disperseth its heat and hinders the Conception The Causes This preternatural heat is from the Birth sometimes and makes them barren If aftewards it is from hot causes that bring the heat and the blood to the womb From internal and external Medicines too much hot meats and drinks and Exercise The Signs They are prone
to Lust have few Courses yellow or black or burnt or sharp they have hairs betimes upon their privities they are subject to the Headach and there are signs of much Choler their Lips are dry When this distemper is strong The Prognostick they have few terms and out of order they are bad and hard to flow and in time they are Hypochondriacks and for the most part barren and there is sometimes a Frenzy of the Womb. Use Coolers The Cure so that they offend not the Vessels that must be open for the Flux of the terms therefore Use inwardly Succory Endive Violets Waterlillies Sorrel Lettice Sanders and Syrups and Conserves made thereof As Take Conserve of Succory Violets Waterlillies Borage each an ounce Conserve of Roses half an ounce Dâ—amargariton frigid Diâ—trio santalon each half a dram with Syrup of Violets or Juyce of Citrons make an Electuary Outwardly use Oyntment of Galens Cooler Oyntment of Roses Cerot of Sanders Oyl of Roses Violets Waterlillies Gourds Venus-navel to the Back and Loins or make Cataplasms of Barley meal Roses powdered Violets Waterlillies Sanders with Juyce or water of Plantane Waterlillies Succory Lettice Oyl of Roses Violets Waterlillies Baths are good to sit in and cooling Fomentations and after let her take some of the Coolers mentioned In great heat use this cooling Pessary Take Opium a scruple Goose grease two scruples Eras de pass mulic cap. 7. Wax and Honey each four scruples Oyl at ounce whites of two Eggs. This was from an opinion the Ancients had that Opium was cold but take heed of the using it too much lest the narcotick quality hurt Let the Air be cool her Garments thin let her meat be with Lettice Endive Succory Barley give no hot meats nor strong Wine except it be waterish and thin Rest is good both in body and mind She must not copulate but she may sleep much Chap. 3. Of the cold Distemper of the womb THis causeth many Evils and Barrennesse They are contrary to those of a hot Distemper The Causes cold Air Rest and Idlenesse and cooling Medicines The Signs It is known by their not desire of Lechery not receiving pleasure in the time of Copulation when they spend their Seed The terms are flegmatick thick and slimy and flow not rightly there is wind in the womb the Seed is crude waterish with a Gonorrhoea The Prognostick The Cure It is the cause of Obstructions and Barrenness and is hard to be cured Use things proper to heal the womb as this Water Take Galangal Cinnamon Nutmeg Mace Cloves each two drams Ginger Cubebs Zedoary Cardamoms each an ounce grains of Paradice long Pepper each half an ounce beat them and put them in six quarts of Wine for eight dayes then add Sage Mints Balm Motherwort each three handfuls let them stand eight dayes more then pour off the Wine and beat the Herbs and the Spices and then pour on the Wine and distil them Ano her Take Cinnamon Nutmegs Cloves Mace Ginger Cubebs Cardamom grains of Pa adice each an ounce and half Galangal six drams long Pepper half an ounce Zedoary five drams bruise them and add six quarts of Wine put them in a Cellar nine dayes daily stirring them then add Mints two handfuls then let them stand fourteen dayes pour off the Wine and bruise them and then pour on the Wine again and distil them Quercetan hath an Hysterick Extract In phar doc restit cap. 25. a greater and a less use outwardly Fomentations Baths Baggs of hot Roots as Birthwort Lovage Valerian Angelica Burnet Masterwort Calamus Madder Elicampane Orris and Herbs as Mugwort Balm Motherwort Savin Penny-royal Calamints Organ Dittany Marjoram Rue Bettony Rosemary Lavender Sage Stoechas flowers Seeds of Smallage Parsley Rue Carrots Anise Fennel Cummin Lovage Parsley Anoint with Oyl of Lillies Rue Angelica Bays Cinnamon Cloves Mace Nutmeg Or Take Labdanum two ounces Frankincense Mastick liquid Storax each half an ounce Oyl of Cloves Nutmegs each half a scruple Oyl of Lillies Rue each an ounce with Wax make a Plaister A Fume Take Frankincense Mirrh Mastich each a dram Bayberries a dram and half Labdanum two drams Storax Cloves each a dram Gum Arabick and Wine make Troches or Pessaries of the same Let the diet be warming and the air the meat of easie concoction seasoned with Anise Fennel Thyme Avoid Milk-meats and raw Fruits Chap. 4. Of the moist Distemper of the Womb. THis is commonly joyned with a cold Distemper and causeth Barrenness and is from the same causes as a cold distemper for commonly cold things do moisten It is commonly in women that are idle The Signs They that have moist wombs abound in Courses but they are waterish and thin the privities are wet they have the VVhites and desire not Copulation much and delight not in it they retain not the seed and if they conceive when the child is big they abort or miscarry The Prognostick The Cure If it last long it is hard to be cured If it be much they conceive not It is by Driers and things that cure the cold distemper are good against the moist because all Healers have a drying power Use Sulphur Baths and Injections Beware of Astringents lest the evil humors be stopt and the disease increased Chap. 5. Of the dry Distemper of the Womb. IN this the womb is hardned of it self it is fleshy and soft and moistned by blood for Conception It is sometimes from the birth or old age when they are past child-bearing If it be from drying causes they are barren before they are old The Causes Diseases and Medicines dry the womb as Inflammations Feavers and when blood flows not to it nor goes to the bottom of it by reason of the straitness of the Veins or Obstructions as in Viragoe's and such as never conceived and if they void any blood it is from the neck of the womb and not from the bottom The Signs They void little seed and are slow in Venery the terms are few the mouth of the womb is dry and they are slender of a dry Constitution their lower Lip is alwayes chapt and blackish red This distemper is hard to be cured in any part especially if it be old The Prognostick The Cure Use Moistners as Borage Bugloss Mercury Mallows Althaea Violets sweet Almonds Pistachaes Pine-nuts Jujubes Dates Figs Raisins Of which are made Syrups Conserves Emulsions Candies c. Outward Remedies are made of the same adding Time Fenugreek-Seeds Lillies Brank-ursine Pellitory c. Fomentations are made with Milk and after bathing anoint the region of the womb and the belly to the privities with oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies Lin-seed Jesamin fresh Butter Hens and Goose grease Let the Diet be moistning the Air moist the meat fatning of much nourishment and small excrement Leet sleep be a little longer than usual Great labour anger sadness fasting do hurt Chap. 6. Of Compound Distempers and first of
terms flowed not orderly in their youth are splenitick and Hypochondriack in their age The Signs It is known by a pain in the left side and breast to the throat there is short breath often belching the belly is bound they are sad and solitary When thin blood grows hot there is inflammation over all the body and chiefly the face which suddenly vanisheth and there are other signs of Hypochondriacks These cannot endure sweet scents to their nose The Prognostick The Cure If it be not speedily cured it turns to worse diseases as the Schirrhus of the spleen The blood is commonly too hot therefore open a vein especially when it is from the terms stopt You may also open the Haemorrhoids and then purge gently and often with Pills of Tartar by Quercetan of Ammoniacum of Aristolochia or Birthwort by Fernel or give Steel and things as in the Hypochondriack diseases lib. 3. part 5. and in the Chapter of Terms stopt and Melancholy from the Womb. Chap. 11. Of the Distemper of the Liver from the Womb and of a Beard growing by consent from the Womb. THe Womb hath many and great veins more then other parts If then there be too much blood in them it easily goes back to the hollow vein and choaks the heat of the Liver and so the Liver is distempered according to the humor It breeds crude and flegmatick bood which sent over the body causeth a Cachexy and what diseases come by the Liver are by consent from the womb as in stoppage of the Terms and Green-sickness Hippocrates speaks of a womans Beard in Phaetusa the Wife of Pythius 6 Epid. sec 8. aph 45. for hairs have their beginning and growth from the reliques of the nourishment of the noble parts that is from the excrementitious part of the blood And if terms be stopt and vitious humors that use to be evacuated with them are sent over the body they cause divers Diseases and Symptoms and among the rest the body of a woman is made hairy and she hath a Beard which is rare Chap. 12. Of the Diseases of the Stomach that come from the Womb. SOmetimes from consent with the womb the appetite is lost diminished increased or depraved or there is Hickets or vomiting belching pain or heart-ach The Causes This is when malignant vapors the way being large rise from the arteries of the womb and go to the coeliack artery and through the Hypogastrick And if they are hot they cause thirst if cold they hurt concoction and many times cause strong symptoms from their malignity and occult qualities whose causes are not known Hence it is that women desire absurd things as these vapors get into divers parts of the stomach The Signs You may know when the stomach is affected by consent from the womb because the Symptoms abate and return again when the vapor comes to the stomach there are also other signs of the womb distempered and of the Spleen and Mesentery by the vessels of which the matter is sent from the womb to the stomach The Prognostick The Symptoms are worse when they come from the womb then when they come from the stomach first nor are they curable except the womb be first cured The Cure It is to be directed to the womb and stomach For if it come only by consent and there is no disease by propriety when you have cured the womb the stomach disease vanisheth of it self if you do but strengthen the stomach If the stomach be first affected look only to that Therefore first evacuate the humors that stick in the stomach as we shewed in its Distemper with matter or the humors will be infected by the malignant vapors A Vomit is here proper To help the Womb see for the Mother-fits and Suffocation and for the Chapter of the Distemper of the womb with matter then strengthen the Stomach thus Take Aromaticum Rosatum a dram Extract of Angelica half a scruple Oyl of Cloves Cinnamon each five drops with Sugar two ounces make Rouls Or give Pills of Aloes and Mastich often THE FOURTH BOOK THE FOURTH SECTION Of the Symptoms which are in Conception Chap. 1. Of the desire of Venery hurt THere are two Symptoms in women about copulation The first lechery lost when she doth not willingly entertain a man or cannot long endure him or if she endures she finds little or no pleasure no more than if she were outwardly handled The other is too great lust as in Frenzy of the womb when they cannot be satisfied by many men Causes The defect of appetite in lust is from defect of seed or when it is cold or there wants Spirits in the Seed-vessels The causes of want of Seed are Lib. 3. Par. 9. Sect. 2. C. 1. Sometimes it is from evil conformation of the Seed-vessels Women discover this to their Husbands that go to the Physitians for counsel The Signs These women have not fruitful feed The Prognostick The Cure and therefore are barren For that see Lib. 3. Of Barrenness of Men where are Liniments and Oyntments for the Loyns and Privities of women but that she may take more pleasure let the man anoint the head of his Yard with Civet or Hens-gall or the gall of a Pickrel Too much Letchery not of it self hinders Conception but wandring Lust that follows Letchery doth The Causes are the same with those of Womb-Frenzy as plenty of seed sharpness and commotion sharpness of seed from hot meat and Medicines that provoke lust and sharp humors in the womb and seed Thus lust or lechery is abated by Medicines that extinguish the plenty of seed and allay its sharpness Chap. 2. Of Barrenness and want of Conception Man or Woman may be lustful and copulate and yet there may be no conception or she may conceive too many as Twins or more or have one conception after another which is called Superfoetation or she conceives a Mole or Monster Conception is of fruitful seed spent by a man and mixed with a womans seed to perfection for the making of a child by the retentive and altering faculty of the womb hence it is necessary that both seeds be fruitful that is hot full of Spirits and well tempered and a fit subject for a Soul and that both spend at a time and there be mixed and retained together to produce a child Also the sucking of the womb is necessary and that it should lay it up and embrace it so that there be no space between the Seed and the Womb. Sometimes the womb greedily snatcheth and embraceth the seed but doth not keep it but lets it come forth two or three dayes after or keeps it to no purpose and brings it not to action as in a false conception or mole Moreover there must be blood in readiness to get the child or besprinkle it when it is first formed and to nourish it after Therefore if terms be wanting as in girls or be stopt or
gone as in old Folk expect no Conception If they flow not by reason of labour and too much exercise the conception is not hindered if there be but blood enough to form the child Hence it is that women that are brought in bed conceive again before they have their terms If all these be right there is conception otherwise she is barren which is an impotency of the womb that keeps it from sucking in of the seed or from retaining or from nourishing it and bringing it into act The Causes The first is impotency in copulation from the closing of the womb of which before or other evil conformation of the privities or an ulcer or tumor in the neck of the womb The second is the breeding of unfruitful seed from distemper of the vessels and stones or too tender and delicate a constitution In men at eighteen in women at fourteen and men seldom get children after sixty and women seldom bear them after sixty As for evil conformation to breed seed Faelix Plat. lib. 1. obser tit de vitalis motus defectu some have wanted Seed-vessels or they were not in their places Some women are barren by the first Husband and have children by the second because there must be a certain proportion between both seeds and if they be wanting they are barren which proportion is hard to be explained and almost impossible for we must not stay in the first qualities for there are occult qualities in seed by which they agree or disagree The third cause is when the womb sucks not in the seed nor receives it in a right manner as when the attractate faculty is hurt or hindered by divers distempers of the Womb or when a woman hates her husband Attraction is hindered by tumors or ulcers in the Womb or by its being displaced 5. Aph. 46. as Hippocrates They who being too fat and conceive not the mouth of their Womb is stopt up with the Cawl and they conceive not till they are lean But the more probable reason of not conceiving is the matter of the seed turning into fat The fourth cause is the retension of the seed hurt by a moist distemper then the Womb is weak and the fibres are loose so that it cannot contract it self to retain and the seed by reason of its sliminess cannot stick there Also if the Womb be too thick not fleshy and soft and be not sprinkled with blood as it is in some by birth which makes them barren and in some after they cease to conceive If the orifice of the womb gape after hard travel and abortion by which the fibres are loosned and weakned and the retention of the seed hurt And if a woman after Copulation cough neese cry out dance or be angry or frighted the same may be The fifth cause of Barrenness is the hurt of the altering faculty which brings in the form and act into seed for if there be not a due proportion between the womb and the seed there is Barrenness as Seeds are choaked in Marshy-ground or die or are burnt in dry and sandy ground so mans Seed is suffocated in a moist womb 5. Aph. 52. and dryed up in a hot Hippocrates speaks of the true proportion of the womb as it is fit to cherish this or that seed thus Women that have thick and cold wombs conceive not and they whose womb is too moist for they quench the seed Nor do they conceive that have dry and burning wombs for the seed is corrupted in them for want of nourishment They who are of a mean temper between these are fruitful The last cause of Barrenness is want of Menstrual-blood which is necessary for the first formation of the child Therefore Nurses that have much milk conceive because the blood is carried to the Breasts Therefore all these causes are reduced either to impotency in Copulation or distemper of the Stones and Seed-vessels or evil conformation or a cold and moist distemper of the Womb which cannot attract detain and alter the seed sometimes a hot and dry distemper that cannot nourish the seed or from the enlarging of the Orifice after Child-bearing or from Humors or being displaced or the straitness of the Vessels or want of Terms or too many Hence we may gather that barrenness is oftner from a fault in the women than the men for in men there is nothing required but fruitful seed spent into a fruitful womb But women besides the meeting of their own seed must receive retain and nourish the mans and afford matter for the forming of the child in which divers accidents happen and any of these will cause Barrenness Mark also in these kinds of causes that some do not properly cause barrenness but only hinder Conception for a time as the closing of the womb smalness of the privities these do not simply cause barrenness Some bring other external causes Ioa. Anglicus cap. de steril as eating the heart of a Deer or if she wear Jet about her or if Harts-tongue be hanged about her bed if she walk over the Terms of another or tread upon them unawares or anoint with them or put the juyce of Mints into her womb Some are born so from a fault in the womb The Differences others are not simply barren but in respect of the man and when they have another Husband are fruitful Some are barren till the constitution of the womb be changed Some bring forth at first and then by some fault grow barren How shall we know that a Women is Barre First see if the fault be in the man or woman The Signs Lib. 3. Of Sterility in Men. For women see if they are apt to Venery or not or receive the Yard fitly 2. Search if she hath good seed answerable to the man or whether she hath used quenchers of seed You may know that she spendeth little or no Seed if she hath little or no pleasure in the act Unfruitful Seed is known by a disease in the womb a cold and moist distemper the signs whereof are mentioned a foul body shews the same for good seed cannot be made of bad blood It is hard to find whether the two seeds have the right proportion or the womb agree with the mans seed Yet temperate with temperate are very fruitful because they are both of a good constitution But intemperate couples are barren but if one temper be good it may mend the other and she may conceive If it come from a Medicine that destroys the seed she will tell If Inchantment be the cause though they love yet they cannot copulate Or whereas they loved each other now they fall out without a cause Ask the woman how her womb doth attract retain and cherish the seed If it have a tumor or have matter or not Whether there be a natural hereditary imperfection Enquire concerning her Family if many were barren whether she hath had hard travel or abortion Whether the
seed comes away presently after or at a distance after some dayes if so then the womans seed is unfruitful or there is a distemper in the womb that keeps it from cherishing the seed If the Terms be wanting they are Viragoes and have hair on their Chins or they are fat and seed turns into fat or they are very lean because they want blood 5. Aph. 59. Hippocrates proves Barrenness thus Put a Fume saith he under the coats of a Woman and let her be close cloathed about and if the scent come to the Nose she is not barren and he bids you put Garlick cleansed into the womb and if she smell of it at the mouth she is fruitful The Prognostick A natural bad disposition that causeth Barrenness is not curable Hippocrates saith 2. Prognos 3. That Barrenness from Ulcers is hard to be cured A woman that conceives not from disagreement with her husbands constitution by another husband or in time may be cured or some distemper that causeth sterility may be mended by Physick Take away the causes The Cure amend the distemper of the womb whether with matter or without matter is to be mended which causeth either no Seed or that which is unfruitful or not convenient See Part I. Sect. 2. Chap. 1. The Medicines of an occult quality are best As Take Rocket-seed Siler montane each half a dram Ivory-shavings Cinnamon Nutmeg each a dram Musk in such as may three grains white Sanders three drams make a Powder give a dram with Wine Or Take Species Diamoschu Diambra each a dram the Matrix of a Hare a Bores-stones and the Yard of a Stagg each half a dram Nutmeg Cinnamon Cloves Rocket-seed wild Parsnep-seed each a dram Musk Amber each four grains with Sugar as much as all give two drams in Wine A Confection Take sweet Almonds Pistachaes Pine-Nuts Hazel-Nuts each an ounce Citron-peels Ginger Cloves Cinnamon each half a dram Rocket-seed two drams give a spoonful at bed-time Or make this March-pane Take sweet Almonds four ounces Pine Pistachaes Hazel-nuts each two ounces Diambra Diamoschu each a dram Ivory half a dram Cinnamon half an ounce An Electuary Take Conserve of Rosemary six ounces Dogs-stones candied two ounces Orobus Schinks-reins Bores-stones Sows-wombs Deers-privities Ivory Turnep-seed Fennel Nettle-seed Rocket Clary wild Mustard each two drams Pine-nuts sweet Almonds each half an ounce Diamoschu dulcis a dram Oyl of Nutmeg by expression two drams with Syrup of Bettony make an Electuary Or use Triphera without Opium Or use Baths Insessions Fomentations Fumes and Baths after Terms for five days Take Briony Masterwort-roots Mercury Mug-wort Penny-royal Marjoram Bayes Sage Motherwort Juniper-berries and tops make a Bath Or use Sulphur-baths of Allum Niter Bitumen these do much good A Fume Take Labdanum Storax calamite Benzoin each two drams Wood Aloes a scruple Musk six grains with infusion of Traganth made in Rose-water make Troches Make Pessaries of green Mercury and Motherwort Or Take Mastich Storax liquid each half an ounce Balm Nep Mercury each a dram Cloves Nutmeg each half a dram Civet half a scruple with Wax make a Pessary After Baths and Fumes anoint the Pecten and Navel with this Take Oyl of Keir half an ounce Oyl distilled of Marjoram a scruple of Cloves half a scruple of Nutmegs by expression a dram Storax liquid two drams Civet and Musk each six grains with Wax make a Liniment After bathing let her have a Bag upon her Belly of Balm Calamints Mints Motherwort and Wine Let her wear Plaisters upon her Loins and Perinaeum till the week before her Terms As Take the Plaister for the Mother an ounce Storax liquid Caranna each two drams Gallia moschata half a dram Oyl of Cloves half a scruple of Nutmegs by expression a dram with Oyl of Keir make a Plaister If the Womb be too loose and slippery use Clysters of juyce of Mercury with Honey-baths Pessaries Fumes and other astringent Topicks that strengthen If the mouth of the Womb gape make a Decoction in Wine of Mirtles Mastich Wood-Vines Olives Wormwood Cypress-roots Comfrey Snakeweed Cinquefoyl red Roses Pomegranate flowers foment the Privities or with powder of Mastich Frankincense Allum Wood-Aloes make a Fume Other Diseases are to be cured as before shewed Let it be to increase seed of much good juyce The Diet. In the time of Copulation avoid passions anger sadness fear Let love be invited and if it burn there will many spirits flie to the Womb and Privities Chap. 3. Of Barrenness for the time and Conceiving seldom SOme Conceive the seventh eighth or ninth year after wedding some presently but not after the first any more or not in many years after If Virgins marry afore fourteen The Causes they conceive not or if the constitution of the womb be bad or the Seed Some conceive not from the disagreementt of Seeds till their constitution be changed They who want Terms The Signs or have them disorderly or are sickly seldom or never conceive with child or have had hard travel or a dead child Some are weakned so that after the first child they have no strength to conceive All these will be related whether she be married too soon or had hard travel or aborted or had a dead child or a Mole If these were not the Seed and Womb have not a just proportion with the mans but it may be altered by age The Prognostick If the womb be much hurt after hard travel or any thing turn in it or broken they seldom conceive again And if a woman marry at a ripe age and have no remarkable Disease and conceive not presently she is not to be accounted barren because some private indisposition hinders Conception which after may be altered and she may prove fruitful The Cure A woman that marries too young after she hath once conceived and then ceaseth must use Venery sparingly till she grow older that she may recover the strength she lost in her first travel And if a woman marry at ripe years and conceives not by reason of the driness of her Womb let her use Baths Fomentations and emollient Pessaries If she conceive not from weakness strengthen the Womb and let her not use Venery often If Virgins be sick from seed retained or terms let them marry But if there be a fault in the Liver or Spleen or the whole body that may be increased by Venery it is better that they be cured before they be married And if they cannot be cured let them not be married If the Womb be distempered by Birth or a Disease cure it as in diseases of the Womb. If it be from a Mole or Flux of blood cure it as it hath and shall be shewed If it be from a dead child first cleanse it with juyce of Mercury and then put Treacle or Mithridate dissolved into the womb or with a Pessary or give them outwardly Chap. 4. Of Conception and Forming of the Child COnception is
an action of the womb after fruitful seed both male and female is received mixed and nourished and its strength is stirred up to do its office Seed and Coema differ seed is that which comes from both male and female but Coema is that which is mixed of both and is called Conception which produceth a child This Conception is presently when two seeds meets in the womb in less then seven hours after they are spent if the heat of the Womb preserve them Nature is not idle a moment but presently falls to conformation Lib. de genit Therefore Hippocrates saith that the beginning of Conception is to be reckoned from the day that the Seed is retained and if she conceives not from the weakness of the seeds or womb the seed will fall out in seven days for Hippocrates saith Lib. de septim partu 3. De hist ani c. 3. That Conception and Abortion are judged in the same time as a disease health and death are judged And Aristotle saith If seed remains within till the seventh day there is certain Conception As for Formation the Soul lying in the seed makes its own house for all acknowledge a forming faculty and you must then suppose there is a substance from whence this faculty flows And though Aristotle saith that seed is a living creature in power not that there is not the essence of the Soul in the seed and that it is not a living creature in respect of the first act but because it is not come to the second act for want of fit Instruments which being perfected it hath the second act and all its operations which for defect of Organs it cannot produce There are divers opinions of the time of Formation they are best that say the membranes are first made which wrap the child with the Navel-vessels by which it is joyned to the Mothers womb and receives nourishment for the child Then all other parts are made sooner or later as the child requires for dignity or necessity We intend here to speak of womens diseases Therefore there are three things required for the Formation of a Child 1. Fruitful seed from both parents in which the Soul remains that hath a forming quality to make its own habitation 2. The Mothers blood is required to enlarge the Child to perfection 3. There is required a good constitution of the womb to nourish the seed and stir the concealed force If these three be right there is a child that is sound and perfect that will be born but if any of these be wanting there are Twins or more and other faults of which in order Chap. 5. Of the Generation of Twins and many Children NAture hath ordained that a woman should conceive but one child in these and other Countries especially and that every year yet in many places she hath more one had five at every birth twenty at four lyings in A Margaret the Countess of Holsterne in the time of the Emperour Henry the Seventh had three hundred sixty four at one labour And another Countess in the time of Frederick the Eleventh had five hundred and fourteen children at once being Boys these are so seldom that they seem incredible I speak nothing of the Causes of such Monstrous Productions but of Twins or Three The Causes or Four It is certain they are got at one time and this differs from Superfoetation which is at many times And you must not impute it to the divers Cells of the womb for women have no such Cells but only a Line that divides the left-side from the right but it comes from the division of the seed into divers parts and the least forming force in the side is compleat and makes a child of every part of it And because the cavity of the womb cannot admit so many parts of seed being no bigger than a Bean and if it do admit them how can the seed be divided at one copulation into so many parts I suppose that such women have naturally a larger womb so that much seed is divided And as Twins are begot at the same time so they have but one Placenta or part that receives the Navel-vessels of both but they have their several Coats It is hard to know whether a woman have conceived Twins onely their belly is not even The Signs but divided with seams and wrinkles and the weight is commonly greater and the motion is not one not alike If a woman have two children and be weak The Prognostick she is in danger in her travel Twins of one Sex are more lively then of both Sexes And one is by experience weaker and shorter lived then the other Chap. 6. Of Superfoetation IT is seldom that a woman hath many children at divers Copulations but it is sometimes and is called Superfoetation that is a new conception after a former 5. Aphor. 15. Though Hippocrates writes That the mouth of the Womb after Conception is so shut that you cannot put in a Needles point yet a woman with child may take such pleasure after that she may a little open the womb to receive seed again and draw it in which may form another child The Causes Therefore the Cause is the pleasure the woman hath which opens the womb again to attract seed And it is necessary that the seed received be in its proper membrane and peculiar receptacle The Differences These come sometimes sooner sometimes later sometimes the same day or the following sometimes longer after Sometimes they have a third Superfoetation so that they have two living children and one mischance The Signs It is known only by the motion of the Infant when it is conceived long after the first The Prognostick It is dangerous for the Mother for fear of abortion and for loss of much blood by two births at no great distance of time The Cure It is best to leave the whole work to Nature and women ought to take heed of Superfoetation therefore after they have conceived let them meddle no more Chap. 7. Of the ill Formation of the Child IN the Formation of the child there are divers Symptoms 1. In the weakness of the child 2. The parts are more or fewer to which you may refer Hermaphrodites 3. The parts are greater or less as Dwarffs or Gyants 4. There is some part out of place or shape as Histories shew abundantly You must find the Causes in the seeds terms The Causes womb and error in Formation the cause of these is the action hurt of the forming faculty This is not always from it self but from the unfitness of the matter and fault in the place which keeps it from the intention for actions of active things are not but in a disposed patient Sometimes there is an extraordinary cause as imagination when the Mother is frighted or imagineth strange things or longeth vehemently for some meat which if she have not the child hath a mark of the colour
It is cured by evacuation of the matter in the Womb with proper Medicines as in the Chapter of the Distemper of the Womb with matter and of Inflation of the Womb and Dropsie THE FOURTH BOOK THE SECOND PART THE FIFTH SECTION Of the Government of Women with Child and preternatural Distempers in Women with Child Chap. 1. Of the signs of Conception IF she keep the seed it is a sign she hath Conceived and a man may know that the seed is kept if he find in Copulation that his Yard is sucked and drawn by the Womb and the Privities are not moist And if she perceives little or no seed to come forth again and grow chill and quiver and perceive a twitching in her Womb from the great delight and the mouth of the Womb closeth and the Terms stop But they are deceived when they count o reckon from the stoppage of the terms For som have their terms twice or thrice after they have conceived and some have them all along without hurt The chiefest sign of Conception is when there is at first loathing of meat pewking Pica or preternatural appetite and vomiting And when they hate that they earnestly affected or faint when they think of them About the fourth month the child moveth which is not in a Mole the breasts after that swell with milk and the last are the surest signs From the face and urin there is no certainty 5. Aphor. 42. ibi 48. Hippocrates teacheth us to know whether it be a Male or Female If she be with child of a Boy she is better coloured but pale if of a Girle And Boys lie on the right side and Girls on the lest in the Womb. Chap. 2. Of the Government and Diet of Women with Child THe Diet is either for such as are sound or as have diseases 5. Aphor. 12. As for the air Hippocrates saith If there be a wet warm winter with Southerly winds a dry spring with Northern winds they who conceive in the spring abort upon any small occasion Or if they bring forth their children are weak and sickly or die Let her avoid all evil scents as of Rue Penny-royal Mints Castor and Brimstone Some cannot bear sweet scents let them not look upon terrible things nor hear great noise of Guns Let meat be easie of concoction let her eat Quinces to strengthen the child or sweet Almonds with Honey sweet Apples Grapes Let her abstain from sharp meats very bitter or salt and things that can provoke Terms as Garlick Onions Olives Mustard Fennel Pepper and all Spices In the last months Cinnamon is good Summer fruits are naught for her and all Pulse When the child is bigger let her diet be more for it is better for Women with child to eat too much then too little lest the child should want nourishment Let her drink moderately of clear Wine not exercise too much nor dance nor ride in a Coach that shakes her let her not lift any great weights in the first and last months In the ninth month let her move a little more to dilate the parts and stir up natural heat Let her abstain from Venery in the first months lest there be a Mole or Superfoetation or the child be hurt but she may use it moderately in the last She may bathe in the last months once in a week to loosen the privy parts Let her avoid anger sorrow fear and too much mirth Let her sleep rather then to be watchful Let the belly be kept loose in the first month with Pruens Raisons or Manna in Broth. And let her use Medicines to strengthen the womb and the child An Electuary Take Conserve of Borage Bugloss and red Roses each two ounces of Balm an ounce Citron-peel and Chebs Myrobalans candied each an ounce Extract of Wood-aloes a scruple Pearl prepared half a dram red Coral Ivory each a dram precious Stones each a scruple candied Nutmegs two drams with Syrup of Apples and Quinces make an Electuary Rouls Take Pearls prepared a dram red Coral prepared and Ivory each half a dram precious stones each a scruple yellow Citron-peels Mace Cinnamon Cloves each half a dram Saffron a scruple Wood-Aloes half a scruple Ambergreece six drams with six ounces of Sugar dissolved in Rose-water make Rouls Apply strengtheners to the navel of Nutmegs Cloves Mace Mastich Coral made up in bags or a Toast in Malmsey sprinkled with powder of Mints Chap. 3. Of the Cure of Women with Child in General THey have divers chronick and acute diseases as Feavers Pleurisie Quinzies or Inflammation of the Bowels 4. Aphor. 31. of which Hippocrates If a Woman with child have an acute disease it is deadly There is a double danger 1. In respect of the Feaver which Galen saith will be continual Valer. l. 1. obser hol com ad lib. 5. aph 30. 2. In respect of the want of nourishment for the child For if a woman with child be fed the Feaver increaseth If she have an Apoplexy Epilepsie Convulsion Cramp she cannot bear it out But acute diseases are not alwaies deadly in women with child They have sometimes intermitting Feavers Coughs from which they hardly are freed before they are delivered Question 1. Whether must Women with Child use a sparing Diet If you give her a Diet at a long distance the child will be starved Gal. cit lo. If you give her a full diet and often the Feaver will endanger both mother and child Therefore be moderate and add something to the dyet which the mother loved before the Feaver for the childs sake and for the Feaver Abate the dyet in the first months let the dyet be little in the middle and last months let it be larger Question 2. Whether may a Woman with Child be let blood Hippocrates saith 5 Aph. 50. If a woman with child be let blood she will miscarry and if the child be older the sooner This is to be understood of great bleeding which was pints in his time but now we go by ounces Therefore if bleeding be required in a Feaver or the like and the woman with child be in strength you may boldly let blood upon these conditions 1. That you take not nourishment from the child let it be a little and you will take more do it the second time lest you weaken 2. Open not the foot nor the Basilica but the Mediana 3. Before you bleed strengthen the child by applications to the navel And if they abort in a Feaver Amat Lusi c. 5. cur 27. rod. Ã cast 3. de morbmul you must impute it rather to the violence of the Feaver then to the bleeding and you used the necessary help for preserving the mother But it is safer in the first then in the last months because the child needs a further dyet You may also open a vein in a woman with child that hath no disease to prevent abortion when there is much blood in the fourth or fifth
Savin an ounce of Leeks and Mercury each half an ounce boyl them to the consumption of the juyce add Galbanum dissolved in Vinegar half an ounce Myrrh two drams Storax liquid a dram round Birthwort Sowbread Cinnamon each half a dram Saffron a scruple with wax make an Oyntment Also neesing provoke the Birth and Amulets 5. Aphor. 35. Levi. Lemn de oc nat mir lib. 4. c. 12. as a Snakes-skin about her middle the Eagle-stone bound to her thigh If weakness be the cause refresh her with Wine and sops to the nose Confect Alkermes Diamosc Diamarg If there be Twins let the Midwife order them with her hands and help the foremost If the passages be not slippery use an emollient Fomentation and Oyl of sweet Almonds Hens or Ducks-grease c. If the belly be bound give a Clyster or Suppository When Medicine will not do it Aetius tetra 4. c. 23. break the Membrane with the fingers dipt in Oyl or cut them When the Child is still-born let the Midwife chew Spices and blow in its mouth or drop Aqua-vitae in it or anoint it with Honey Chap. 6. Of a vitious disorderly Birth or difficulty preternatural IF the hand come not forth first and the hands and feet are upwards there is an ill birth Hippocrates reckons two causes The Causes the largeness of the womb Lib. de nat pu and disorderly motion of the mother from pain also the thickness of the membrane which when it cannot break with the head it attemps to do with the feet and hands The Signs The Midwife may perceive in what figure the child comes forth The Prognostick All disorderly coming forth is dangerous to mother and child but there is least danger when both feet come forth this is called by the Latins Partus Agrippinus The Cure Let the Midwife reduce it into the cavity of the womb when it comes not forth right and place it right When the feet cannot be thrust upwards let the Midwife supple the parts with Oyl and take hold of the arm and help it and give neesings Let her alwaies labour to put the child in a right posture by moving it with her hand or taking the mother from the bed and compose her in such a posture as may bring the child into a right posture and that soon Chap. 7. Of a slow Birth THis is when the Child is longer coming forth then ordinarily Epistol lo. 2. 29. epis of this Massa writes That a Venetian Matron conceived of a husband of seventy years of age and brought forth a child in the fifteenth month blind and without hands which lived five months Consil 85. ad christ vuolcken Cardanus writes That his father said he was born in the thirteenth month And Mercurialis writes thus That it was never seen or written that a woman had a live child four years in her belly c. but these are rare and miraculous The cause is the weakness of the seed and want of heat in the womb which makes the expulsive faculty weak Chap. 8. Of a Child dead in the Womb. WHen at the time of Child-birth there is pain and breaking forth of water which ceaseth presently without delivery the child remaining in the womb then the mother or child dies or both When the travel is vehement from divers causes they may also cause no birth The Causes for either the more she may lose her strength and the child not come forth or both may die And if the child be weak and move little or the mother may be weak and the child great the travel is hard and both die or if the child come not forth in a right posture Or if the passages are ill proportioned Fabri cent 1. obs 64. 67. as when the bones of the Pubes do not give way or when there is Schirrhus or other tumor that straitneth the passages there is no delivery Or the child dies by a disease for want of nourishment or a fall stroak or leap or passion in the mother Search if the child be living or dead The Signs for if it be dead it will hurt the mother by rotting and if the mother die and child be alive take it out before the mother be buried A child is known to be dead if the Mother and Midwife perceive no motion but it is raised by any strengtheners given and when the mother moves from side to side it moves like a stone or when the face and lips of the mother are pale and her extream parts livid and the breasts that were plump are fallen her breath stinks water and stinking matter flows from the womb there is a Feaver horrour and fainting or Convulsion or if the Secundine come forth before the Child The Prognostick If a dead child be not presently taken out the mother is in great danger there are great Symptomes and strange diseases of which see Francis Rousset and others The Cure When the child comes not forth in time and is alive it must be taken out by the Midwife or Chyrurgion by cutting the belly and womb of which in the Chapter following If it be dead you must drive or take it out before it stinks either by Medicines or Chyrurgery The Medicines are such as stir up the expulsive faculty but they must be stronger then before because the motion of the child ceaseth as Take Savin round Birthwort Troches of Mirrh Castor each a dram Cinnamon half an ounce Saffron a scruple give a dram with Savin-water Or Take Borax Savin Dittany each an ounce Mirrh Asarum-roots Cinnamon Saffron each half a dram make a Powder give a dram Purge first and put her in an emollient Bath and anoint about the womb with Oyl of Lillies sweet Almonds Chamomil Hens and Goose-grease Foment to get out the child with a Decoction of Mercury Orris wild Cowcumber Stoechas Broom-flowers Then anoint the Privities and Loyns with Oyntment of Sowbread Or Take Coloquintida Agarick Birthwort each a dram make a powder add Ammoniacum dissolved in Wine Ox-gall each two drams with Oyl of Keir make an Oyntment Or this Pessary Take Birthwort Orris black Hellebore Coloquintida Mirrh each a dram powdered add Ammoniacum dissolved in Wine Ox-gall each two drams Or make a Fume with Asses-hoof burnt or Galbanum or Castor and let it be taken in with a Funnel If these will not do use Chyrurgery It is done with the hand only or with instruments of which Aegineta and Aetius Lib. 6. c. 23. terrab serm 4. cap. 23. Charles Stephens shews how to use the hand without instruments When you know the child is dead saith he place the woman in the best posture and tye her so very fast c. see the rest John Bauhin takes the same course out of Schenks Observations And because the strength faileth Lib. 5. cap. 2. de disect part corpore human refresh her and abate pain cherish the torn parts and
half an ounce with good Wine distil them give a spoonful or two Apply outwardly a Cataplasm of Rue Mugwort Chamomil Dill Calamints Nip Penny-royal Thyme with Oyl of Rue Cheir Chamomil and make Baths of the same Bags of Milium Salt Chamomil-flowers Melilot Bayberries Cummin Fennel-seed or lay a Plaister of Bayberries Let Clysters to expel wind be put into the womb As Take Calamints Agnus castus Rue each half an handful Anniseeds Costus Cinnamon each two drams boil them in Wine for half a pint Apply a Cupping-glass with much flame to the Breast and over against the Womb. Use Sulphur-baths and Spaw-waters inward and outward for they expel wind If it come from cold after Child-bearing and she is not well purged by her Terms heat the womb and purge and give strong Wine Let the Diet be hot cutting and attenuating The Diet. with things that expel wind and little at a time Question Whether the wind is in the Cavity when there is Inflation of the Womb It is so by Experience though some deny it nor is there any cause why wind should not be bred in the womb as well as in any other part both by reason of the Excrements that come thither and the natural heat that turns them into wind these also stretch the womb though it be thick as in Dropsies and Conception Also the retentive or altering faculty of the womb is never idle so that when it receives diseased and unfruitful seed it suffers it not to corrupt but turns it into wind As Hippocrates writes When the Womb is stretched by wind from the Belly Lib. de nat pueri women think they have conceived Chap. 11. Of the Dropsie of the Womb. THey are also deceived and think they are with child when there is water that swells the womb Ves lib. 6. de corp hum Fab. Mar. Do de hist me mira l. 4. c. 21. Tetrab 6.4 ser 4. c. 79. this is a Dropsie of the womb This water is either in the Cavity or between the Coats of the womb or in its Vessels Vesalius Marcellus Donatus shew that water is in the Cavity for it doth not presently by its plenty or quality force its passage out because the Orifice is not alwaies open and Nature gathers it by degrees and is used to it Aetius saith There are sometimes Bladders of water in the womb And Christopher Vega saith that Leonora thought that she had gone 6 months and then voided sixty Bladders of water and seven pieces of flesh like that of the Spleen in Membranes Lib. 4. obser cent 2. obser 56. The Causes There is sometimes a Dropsie of the Womb with Conception as Schenstius and William Fabricius saith of his own wife Are gathering of water from moistness mixed with the terms and from an evil Sanguification in the Liver and Spleen from their weakness or from errors in Diet or from weakness of the womb from hard travel or often mischances cold air or water or whatsoever hurts the heat of the womb Also stoppage of the terms doth cause gathering of water for the water useth to be evacuated with them Many take this for the only cause Sometimes the tunicles of the womb may be divided in some place and water may be gathered between them Hippocrates saith the terms are fewer The Signs 1. De morb mulier and cease before the time the bottom of the Belly swells and the Paps are soft without Milk and she thinks she is with child By these you know it is a Dropsie But because Doctors and Midwives are often deceived you must distinguish this from other Swellings When a woman is sound and useth a sound man the womb by degrees swells and the child moves in its time but often there is a Dropsie with Conception before or after therefore in a Dropsie the tumor is equal according to the largeness of the womb and belly and not pointed as in a woman with child Secondly If the woman be in years and hath not conceived before and hath a good colour it is a sign of a Dropsie rather then a Conception If the tenth month be past and the child moves not nor the Breasts swell but are soft say there is Dropsie of the womb Thirdly In a true Conception women are better after some months and the Symptoms abate but in a Dropsie they increase still It is distinguished from a Mole by the weight in the bottom of the Belly From an inflation because the Belly is stretched in that and sounds being stricken but is soft in a Dropsie It differs from the Dropsie of the Belly because the Face is pale or wane in that from the distemper of the Liver there is thirst but in the Womb-dropsie she is of a good colour except the Liver be also bad It differs from Inflamation in the womb for that is with a constant Feaver and the Symptoms of it and from other tumors which are harder but in a Dropsie of the womb if the Belly be pressed it yields You shall know whether it be from the fault in the womb principally or from some other part thus If the Woman be of a good colour and there were only some diseases and causes that might hurt the womb as abortion hard travel stoppage of terms or too many of them then the womb is chiefly affected But if there be signs of a distemper in the whole body or in the Liver or Spleen and the colour is bad it is consent from other parts You shall know whether the water be in Bladders or in the Cavity of the womb thus If you find the Orifice of the womb closed and there is little pain it is in the Cavity But if the Orifice be open and there is great pain it is in Bladders or without the Cavity The Prognostick If the humor in the womb be not corrupt this disease is of long continuance but may be easily cured It is easier cured in the cavity then when it is in bladders and between the tunicles A woman after Conception having a Dropsie of the womb her child dieth and she is in danger The Cure When it is from stoppage of terms and new and the strength firm open a Vein in the Legs otherwise bleed not Purge according to the Humor with respect to the Womb as in Chap. 6. of a cold Distemper Then purge Water Take Angelica and Madder roots each half an ounce Calamints Penny-royal Mugwort Lovage each a handful Savin a pugil boil them in Wine and sweeten it with Sugar Or make Broaths with the same Take Dianisum Diagalangal each half a dram Oyl of Aniseeds Cloves each five drops Sugar three ounces make Rouls Inject into the Womb as in Dropsies Take Asarum roots three drams Penny-royal Calamints each half a handful Savin a pugil Mechoacan a dram Aniseed Cummin each half a dram boil them and take six ounces strained Oyl of Elder and Orris each an ounce make a Clyster Or use Pessaries Take
a mans head Paraeus l. 23. c. 36. sometimes the whole womb is a Scirrhus sometimes only part of it The immediate Cause The Causes is a thick earthy humor as natural melancholy when a thick humor is gathered in the womb there is a Scirrhus without inflamation aforegoing this is usual in melancholy women and such as are not clensed by their terms or have the Pica or green-sickness and are fifty years old Other humors somtimes breed a Scirrhus after inflamation when cold astringents have been used disorderly for when the humor is fixed to the part and hardned The same may be from hot discussers which send forth the thin matter in an inflamation and fasten the thick The Signs The tumor is to be felt it yields not and is without pain the terms flow not at first or very little afterwards there is a great flux of blood If an inflamation went before and the part is heavy and burthened it is a Sign of a Scirrhus She is unweeldy sloathful and you may know from what humor it is by the signs of the humors predominating in the body and the part pained will shew you in what place it is The Prognostick A Scirrhus easily turns to a Cancer And when the terms are stopt there is a Dropsie of the womb or belly It is easier cured in the neck then in the womb it self The Cure Moisten and heat the cold and dry humor with Borage Bugloss Fumitory Succory Epithymum Polypody Then purge with Polypody Senna black Hellebore and the like As Take roots of Althaea Lillies each two ounces Mallows Violets Althaea Brank-ursine each a handful Mugwort Calamints Chamomil-flowers each half a handful Foenugreek and Linseed each half an ounce boyl them for a Fomentation or Bath or to a Cataplasm with Linseed Foenugreek each an ounce Figs six Orris powder two drams Saffron half a dram Hens-grease and Oyl of sweet Almonds as much as is fit Or Take Bdellium Ammoniacum Galbanum each as much as you please beat them in a Mortar with Oyl de Been and Lillies add Mucilage of Foenugreek Linseed Figs make a Liniment or with Wax a Plaister Or Take Oyl of Capers Lillies sweet Almonds Jesamine each an ounce fresh Butter Hens-grease Goose-grease each half an ounce Mucilage of Foenugreek Althaea and Oyntment of Althaea each six drams Ammoniacum dissolved in Wine an ounce with Wax make an Oyntment Make Injections thus Take Bdellium dissolved in Wine Oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies Chamomil each two ounces marrow of a Veal bone Hens-grease each an ounce with the Yelk of an Egg. In a bastard Scirrhus you may use Healers and Digesters better and Ammoniacum and hotter Fat 's Internal Medicines are Steel c. of which in Obstruction of the Womb and Scirrhus of the Spleen As for Diet abstain from breeders of gross and slimy humors and from hot dryers Cancer of the Womb. What may be said of this is said before only a Cancer may seize upon the substance of the womb but it is more usually in the neck of it Chap. 15. Of the displacing of the Womb and first of the Ascent of it WHen the womb falls out of the Privities it is called Procidentia uteri this is ordinary But the ascent or going up of the womb is more unknown Eustach rud lib. 2. pract c. 5. Many grave Anatomists hold That the womb doth ascend if sweet things are applied to the Nose If to the Privities that it descends If stinking Scents come the womb flies from them and it is to be seen by breathing altered and by some meats that the womb greedily desires and catcheth up 6. De lo. off c. 5. Galen overthrows this Opinion and saith that the womb doth move after a sort and ascend but it is very little and not to be demonstrated Nor can it arise to the Stomach it is tied with such strong Ligaments to its place and when it falls out the Ligaments are extended by moisture and falling of it down And there is no reason why the Ligaments though loose or wet it should go up so speedily and come down again For falling down is by degrees and it is not soon brought up again And though it be enlarged in Conception it is by degrees and equally not suddenly in one side Nor as the Ligaments made very loose in Conception and the bottom of the womb is not tied the Ligaments being only on the sides But this cannot be denied which women affirm that they feel a body or ball moving about the Navel and a Physitian or Midwife may feel it Therefore let us inquire what it is if it be not a womb That Body which you may feel stir is the Stones and that blind Vessel which Fallopius found out which he compared to the great end of a Trumpet called Fallopius his Trumpet For the Stones hang and the body of the Trumpet is like a Pipe loose and moving and when they are full and swell with corrupt Seed and Vapors they move to and fro and ascend as high as the navel And the stones with the Trumpet make this round tumor of the Womb Antropogo lib. 2. c. 34. The Causes which is felt in women as Riolanus observes Whatsoever makes corrupt seed in the stones of a woman and fills them with evil vapors or wind is the cause of which in suffocation of the womb For the cause is like in both only in suffocation the Symptoms are worse because the evil vapors are then more freely carried by the veins arteries and nerves afflict the principal part The woman and others may feel a round body and she findeth a pain at her heart The Signs and short breath without sleeping or doting or other Symptoms and there were causes that disturbed the womb It is not dangerous yet not to be slighted The Prognostick for it may turn to the strangling of the womb when these evil vapors move to the noble parts Let the aim be at the corrupt seed The Cure and vapors which must be discussed and evacuated as in suffocation of the womb Chap. 16. Of falling out of the Womb. SOmetimes it falls to the middle of the thighs The Causes or to the knees almost or hangs a little out The Womb changeth its place when the ligaments by which it is bound to the other parts are not in order There are four two above broad and membranous that come from the Peritonaeum and two below that are nervous round and hollow Besides it is bound to the great vessels by veins and arteries and to the back by nerves Now the place is changed when it is down another way or when the ligaments are loose and it falls down by its own weight It is drawn on one side when the terms are stopt the veins and arteries are full those namely which go to the womb if it be a mole on the one side the liver and spleen cause it by
same scents are put to the privities the womb is refreshed with them and the Spirits are quiet or move to the scents And so the humors if there be any are still or else move downward But stinks on the contrary by reason of their Antipathy with the Womb voided by the Spirits and so the humors move downwards and often there is an abortion thereby What is spoken of sweet Scents may be understood of all sweet things and this is our Judgement in a matter so difficult THE FOURTH BOOK THE SECOND SECTION Of the Symptoms in the Terms and other Fluxes of the Womb. Chap 1. Of the Flux of the Terms BY Divine providence the blood which is voided every month is kept in when there is a Child For if it be its Nature it is not ill but only superfluous till they conceive nor is it more an Excrement then Seed and Milk The terms commonly begin at fourteen and then the hair appears on the privities the breasts swell and women begin to be lecherous and the blood can no longer stay in the Veins but breaks out at the Veins of the Womb. In some they begin at twelve and they are very lustful commonly and of shorter lives they continue till fifty and some till sixty and then stop In some they begin at seventeen or eighteen And in some they stop before fifty according to the variety of Nature and Diet. Nature doth not send forth every day what is gathered but staies till the plenty offends and doth only once in a month otherwise it would be filthy and unpleasant and hinder Conception Nor do they flow at one time in all exactly but there are twenty two daies or at most thirty between the purgings In some they last three daies which was usual in the time of Hippocrates In some four or five or more as their Liver is greater or their diet is higher or lower Hippocrates saith they should bleed but a pint and half or two pints this is is not alike in all but differs in respect of age and diet As for the quality it must not be too thick nor too thin but of a middle substance without scent of a red colour yellower in cholerick persons in melancholick black in flegmatick whiter and it must flow without any great Symptom The passages are the veins of the womb being double from the double branch on both sides it the Spermatick and Hypogastrick that they may evacuate superfluities from all parts And from this Description of a natural Flux you may gather what is preternatural Question Whether can a Woman conceive that never had Terms They are called by some Flowers because they go before Conception as flowers do before fruit but many have conceived that never had their flowers being hotter by Nature as the Indians that never had any Flowers and Viragoes that use more exercise but if these have no more blood then will nourish their body they are barren If any thing abound that is not required for nourishment of the parts and is so much that Nature cannot endure it in the body the Womb draws it to it when it hath conceived to make up the child of which hereafter Question 2. Whether Menstruous blood is only superfluous in quantity or bad in respect of quality Writers disagree about this Some say it is bad in quantity and quality and venomous by the effects as making Ivory obscure and infecting Looking-glasses corrupting Wine by a Vapor from the Body of a Woman that hath her Flowers Others say they offend only in plenty for if it were venomous it would not be a whole month in the body and it could not from the child nor would Nature make Milk of it Therefore menstruous blood only offends in quantity and not in any manifest or hidden quality But it hath strange qualities when it is mixed with bad humors or is kept too long in the Body to be corrupted and cause great Symptoms but this is when it is mixed with bad humors or is out of its Vessels and so corrupt Question 3. Of the Text of Aristotle 7. de hist. Animalium cap. 2. and how it is to be understood Aristotle writes thus 7. De histo ani c. 2. Constantly every month some have their Terms but most in the third as if he should say Few women have their courses every month but many have them every third month This is against Galen and against experience For it is certain that among six hundred women scarce one hath them every third month Therefore this is either an errour in the Greek Text or in the Translation or great Men do often lie which is probable and so did Aristotle in this of Physick therefore it is in vain to defend their Errour Chap. 2. Of the Terms flowing too soon ORdinarily they begin at fourteen but many have had them sooner A child of eleven daies old had a bloody humor flowing Her saxonia vidit venetiis ser 6. part 5. c. 16. from the Privities Another of five years old had every month a moderate flux Fernel reports that a Girl of eight years old had the terms but are rare and for the most part very lecherous and short lived Chap. 3. Of want and stopping of the Terms SOme Women have them not till eighteen or twenty Some before and then they stop for a time without either giving suck or being with child Some have been without them three five or seven months and then they came again This is an evil constitution or suppression of that which it ought to flow from the fault of the blood and stoppage of the passages The Causes When Terms are wanting either blood is wanting or stopt It is wanting either because it is not made or dispersed or turned to other uses for nature being more sollicitous to preserve the individual person then to propagate the species spends it in preserving of the person Blood is not made from divers causes as age cold constitution of Liver Heart or a disease which distempers the bowels Or often bleeding from great Vessels or from having many issues which take from the blood It is spent other waies as before ripe age and when women are with child or give suck or in hot Natures and fat women in whom it is turned to fat It is in vain to provoke Terms in these They are either external evident causes of stopping of the Terms as too great labour troubles sadness fear but these last do not only waste the blood but cool and corrupt it and cause obstructions 2. Epid. sec 8. in fine as Hippocrates speaks of Phatusa the wife of Pytheus The proper causes are the straitness of the passage or evil conformation of the parts through which it should flow Or the closing of the womb of which we spake but I speak here of the vessels The usual cause of obstructions is thick slimy humors from the blood too thick or mixed with melancholy which comes
the Spleen be stopt Take Steel prepared a pound wash it with Vinegar then strain it and lay it on a Clout and add powder of Cloves half an ounce Let them stand so a day and a night then put them in a glassed Vessel and ten ounces of white Wine Diarrhodon Harts-tongue Senna and Caper-bark then stir them then set them in the Sun for a day or in an Oven Do this ten daies till the Steel be melted in the Wine and little or nothing at the bottom Give two ounces of this in the morning after purging and exercise Or Take Steel prepared an ounce Cinnamon Aniseeds each two drams Diamoschu without Musk a dram Sugar an ounce make a powder give a dram drink white Wine and Mugwort-water after it Steeled Wine Take Steel in powder three ounces Cinnamon half an ounce white Wine three pints Set them in a close glass eight daies in the Sun stir them every day Give six or eight ounces four hours afore dinner for fifteen or twenty daies and walk after it At first give a Steel-medicine to prepare As Take Steel-filings four ounces put it in an Iron Crucible or Ladle then cast it into two pints of water of Hops Grass Madder Borage or Spring-water strain it and do so seven times Then Take so many ounces of new Steel and cast it into water as before strain and add Syrup of Violets Borage or Honey of Roses four ounces give three ounces in the morning after exercise Prepare thus three or four times and then use stronger After Steel use Scorzonera steept all night in Wine give it in the morning This hath cured Obstructions in many Mercatus Bezoar-stone saith Mercatus opens Obstructions in my Experience and resists Venom give six or seven grains Steel is best Spring and Fall purge and exercise before and after it that it may be better dispersed Use Preparatives Purges and strengthners often and for a long time and change the forms lost the Patient loath them If water spread about the body cool the body and make it heavy Use sweats as Baths natural or artificial of Mugwort Calamints Nep Danewort Sage Bayes Rosemary Mercury Ivy Briony-roots Orris Elicampane After purging and opening Obstructions all the Symptoms will vanish if not see for the Symptoms of the Womb. The Diet. Let the Air be temperately hot The Meat of good juyce and easie digestion Pot-herbs and green Fruits must be avoided Fish Milk Lettice Make Sauce with Sage and Cinnamon Drink Wine Let Bread be well leavened with Fennel-seed Drink no Water nor Broaths at first and in the declination of the disease use Exercise and Venery Let sleep be moderate Question 1. Whether may the Woman in this Disease be allowed the absurd things they long for They are Virgins or Women with child that long for such things Virgins must not be allowed them as Chalk c. For they will increase the disease Women with child must be pleased with fair words to abstain from them but if the appetite will not be allayed rather grant them then suffer an abortion or mark upon the Child Question 2. Is Motion and Exercise good in the Green-sickness They are better then idleness which heaps up crudities they raise the languishing heat in the Bowels and help the nourishment to be destributed therefore they are to be used before the disease be great and in the declination they discuss the humors But use moderation lest you weaken the body or choak them First therefore use Frictions then watching then more exercise after convenient purging Question 3. Whether is Venery good for Maids in the Green-sickness It is probable and agreeable to Reason and Experience that Venery is good Hippocrates bids them presently marry for if they conceive Hippocr lib. de morb virgin Lib. 1. ep 2. they are cured John Langius saith This disease comes in the ripeness of age or presently after Venery heats the womb and the parts adjacent opens and loosens the passages so that the terms may better flow to the womb But if there be a great Cacochymy take that away before she be married and then Venery may do more in Physick But use it not in the vigor of the Disease nor in weakness Question 4. Whether is Blood-letting good in this Disease A Cachexy beginning with coldness of the whole Body seem to deny bleeding and because the crude humors are in fault rather then blood Lib. de morb virg But Hippocrates adviseth bleeding at the first If it be a new disease and comes from stopt terms and blood abound that is stopt and not turned into another humour you may boldly bleed provided the strength permit and the passages be open But in an old disease when crude Flegm abounds bleed not for it will increase the Disease Chap. 3. Of Symptomes from the Womb and Mother-fits in general IT is not to be expressed what miserable diseases Women are subject to both Virgins and others from the womb and its consent with other parts For when terms or blood are stopt there are great Symptoms and while they putrifie or get evil qualities the Symptoms are grievous and almost unexpressible One woman may have divers Symptoms from the womb at the same time when the seed and terms are mixed with other humors after they are corrupted and there is more sometimes and such noble substance as seed and terms being corrupted are like poyson Gal. 6. de loc aff c. 5. The consent with other parts is from likeness of parts nearness or connexion of Vessels And because the womb is membranous it hath a great consent with the Membranes and Nerves Also the parts adjacent are easily infected And thirdly it hath consent with all the Body by Veins Arteries and Nerves It consents with the Brain by the Nerves and Membranes of the Back-marrow It consents with the Heart by the Arteries with the Liver by the Veins which are great in the Womb and therefore the blood and bad humors go back to the Liver It consents with the stomach by Anastomosis in the Veins of the Mesentery and by the Arteries through foul humors and vapors go from the womb to the Mesentery and Stomach It consents with the Spleen by the Arteries therefore many Women that had not their terms enough in their youth and have hot blood are after Hypochondriack and a Physitian can scarce distinguish these diseases of the Womb and Spleen nor cure them severally It consents with the Paps by Veins and Nerves and the Heart Diaphragma Head Brain and all the Organs of sense and motion with the Liver Spleen Stomach Belly Mesentery Bladder strait Gut Back Hips Arms and Legs and causeth Symptoms As Galen saith the Mother and Histerical passions in one name Gal. de loc aff c. 5. but hath under it innumerable Symptoms Chap. 4. Of Suffocation of the Womb. IN this they seem to be strangled And there are so many Symptoms at once that it is impossible to define
it by one Sometimes there is only short breath sometimes the animal actions are hurt the whole Body is cold from a malignant vapor sent up from the Womb. The Causes The immediate Cause is a vapour malignant and venomous sent up by the Arteries Veins and Nerves that hurt the actions of the parts it goes to This vapor is like air or wind thin and little but very strong to get presently through the whole Body It chiefly ascends to the Gullet and causeth choaking as eating of Mushrooms Hellebore and other poysons There is often short difficult breathing with Heart-ach Vomiting and Loathing If the vapor go first to the heart the motion of it ceaseth and there is swounding and she falls down If it go to the Brain the animal actions are hurt When seed and terms corrupt in the Womb with other bad humors they breed this evil vapor because they are the best substance and the beginning of generation they are worst when corrupted especially seed to hurt the whole Body Gal. cit 1. Sometimes it is in Women with child when they have not their after-purging but evil humors are left and corrupt in the Womb. The chief cause of this humor is in the trumpet of the womb and stones the body of which is hollow and loose the stones being in Bladders and have hollowness full of water which in hysterical women is yellow and thicker then ordinary Vesal de corp human Fabr. lib. 5. c. 15. This trumpet and the stones are often taken from the womb it self when they are swollen with corrupt seed and humors and wind and reach to the Navel of which in the Chapter of Ascent of the Womb. This disease is breeding sooner or longer as the matter is more or less sometimes corrupt humors lie still and if they be stirred they send a venom or vapor to the whole body Now in women subject to this disease sweet scents to the Nose or taken in or anger will move these humors and vapors They are according to the variety of the Symptoms and efficient cause or venomous humors The Differences for corrupt blood especially seed puts on another Nature That Suffocation is at hand The Signs it appears by laziness weakness of the Legs paleness sad countenance and the motion of something like a Ball in the Belly with noise like Frogs Snakes or Crows so that some think it is devillish There is also Belching Yawning Yexing short Wind Heart-beating Loathing Dulness Laughter at the coming of the fit from the vapor getting into the Membrane of the Breast that tickle them some cry some both laugh and cry These Symptoms increase when the fit comes and the Jaws are closed that she seems to be choaked and sense and motion is gone or depraved Some have Convulsions some hear what is done about them but cannot speak the pulse is less the whole body is cold and the Eyes shut as if they were dead When the fit declines humors flow from the Privities the Guts rumble the Eyes open the Cheeks grow red and the body warm the animal actions return and the Patient sighs and comes to her self It is known to be from corrupt seed if the terms are in order and short breath and low voice Suffocation and Convulsions and all Symptoms are then more vehement and at the end of the fit there flows a humour like seed out of the privities It is from the terms if they be stopt or flow not orderly and if there be a disease in the womb it is neither from the seed nor the terms The Prognostick 1. If there come Swounding or a great Convulsion or quenching of natural heat it is deadly 2. Suffocation from corrupt seed is more dangerous then that which is from the terms mixt with melancholick humors 3. The longer it lasts and the worse the Symptoms the more is the danger It ceaseth in young Women when they begin to bear children 4. The oftner the fit comes the more you may fear the quenching of the natural heat by weakning of the Heart often and if she foam at the mouth she dies The Cure of the Fit In the fit you must discuss the malignant vapors that rise from the womb and turn it from the principal parts and you must evacuate the matter that breeds it and prevent its return Call upon her loud pluck the hairs of her privities and Ears make strong Ligatures and Frictions cup the Legs and Thighs and Groyns hold stinks to the Nose as Partridge-feathers burnt hairs Leather Horn Castor Assa-foetida Galbanum Oyl of Amber Rue the warts on Horses legs dried and the powder upon coals burnt makes a Fume which if taken in the nose suddenly raised them Apply sweet Scents to the Privities as Civet Musk Gallia and Alipta moschata or powder of Cloves Or Take Storax calamita Benzoin each a dram Gallia moschata half a scruple make Troches with Gum traganth and let the Fume be taken into the VVomb by a Fennel A Liniment Take Storax Benzoin each a dram Gallia moschata half a scruple Civet four grains liquid Storax half a scruple with Cotton put it into the Womb. Clysters to discuss wind draw down the matter Take the Carminative Decoction a pint Electuary of Hiera six drams Benedicta laxativa an ounce Oyl of Rue and Bayberries each a dram Use VVomb-clysters and Pessaries to women that have known man Take Electuary of Hiera and Diaphaenicon each two drams Turpentine half an ounce Honey of Mercury an ounce Castor half a dram with Wooll make a Pessary Oyl of Tin applied to the Navel doth remove the fit Or Rue Castor and sneesing Powders As Take white Hellebore half a scruple long Pepper and Ginger each half a dram or put Oyl of Amber into the Nose and Ears Apply to the VVomb this Take Oyl of Rue Bayes each two ounces Cummin-seed Castor dissolved in Vinegar each two drams with Wax make a Liniment Or use a Plaister of Galbanum Castor and Assa-foetida A Compound distilled VVater Take Zedoary Parsnep-seeds Lovage-roots each two ounces Mirrh Castor each half an ounce Piony-roots four ounces Misleto of the Oak gathered in the wain of the Moon three ounces and water of Motherwort four ounces and half Spirit of Wine a pint and half steep them eight daies distil and give a spoonful with Tile-flower or Mugwort-water or Oyl of Amber some drops Or Take Castor Assa-foetida each a scruple Pepper half a scruple with syrup of Mugwort make Pills give three The Cure out of the Fit First prevent the seed from corrupting in the womb and if it be corrupt evacuate it presently with Womb-Clysters and Pessaries then disperse the reliques and strengthen the womb But first give a general Purge that is gentle often and use things that prevent the breeding of Seed Strengthen with Plaisters and Oyntments to the Region of the Womb. As Take liquid Storax two drams Avens Agnus castus seeds Angelica each half a dram
Culpepers Midwife 2. Part. Culpeper's DIRECTORY FOR Midwives OR A Guide for WOMEN THE SECOND PART Discovering 1. The Diseases in the Privities of Women 2. The Diseases of the Privy Part. 3. The Diseases of the Womb. 4. The Symptomes of the Womb. 5. The Symptomes in the Terms 6. The Symptomes that befal all Virgins and Women in their Womb after they are ripe of Age. 7. The Symptomes which are in Conception 8. The Government of Women with Child 9. The Symptomes that happen in Child-bearing 10. The Government of Women in Child-bed and the Diseases that come after Travel 11. The Diseases of the Breasts 12. The Symptomes of the Breasts 13. The Diet and Government of Infants 14. The Diseases and Symptomes in Children London Printed for George Sawbridge at the Sign of the BIBLE on Ludgate-Hill 1676. THE CONTENTS OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF PRACTICAL PHYSICK Of Womens Diseases THE FIRST PART Of Diseases in the Privities in Women THE FIRST SECTION Of Diseases of the Privy Part and the Neck of the Womb. Chap. 1. Of the straitness and largeness of the Orifice Page 1 Chap. 2. Of the Mentula or Yard in a Woman Page 3 Chap. 3. Of Atretae or Closures and straitness of the Neck and Mouth of the Womb. Page 4 Chap. 4. Of Pustles and roughness of the Privities Page 6 Chap. 5. Of Condyloma in the Neck of the Womb. Page 7 Chap. 6. Of Warts in the Neck of the Privities and Womb. Page 8 Chap. 7. Of the Hemorrhoids of the Womb. Page 9 Chap. 8 Of the Ulcers in the Neck of the Womb. Page 11 Chap. 9. Of the Clefts in the Neck of the Womb. Page 14 Chap. 10. Of Fistulaes in the Neck of the Womb. Page 15 Chap. 11. Of a Cancer in the Womb. Page 16 Chap. 12. Of a Gangrene and Sphacel in the Womb. Page 18 The CONTENTS of the Second SECTION Of the Diseases of the Womb. Chap. 1. Of the Knowledge of the Temper of the Womb. Page 20 Chap. 2. Of the hot Distemper of the Womb. Page 22 Chap. 3. Of the cold Distemper of the Womb. Page 24 Chap. 4. Of the moist Distemper of the Womb. Page 25 Chap. 5. Of the dry Distemper of the Womb. Page 26 Chap. 6. Of Compound Distempers and first of cold and moist Page 27 Chap. 7. Of the ill shape of the Womb and first of the straitness of it and its Vessels Page 30 Chap. 8. Of the opening of the Vessels of the Womb besides Nature Page 32 Chap. 9. Of a double Womb the wanting of the Womb and evil shape of the Womb and strange things found in it Page 33 Chap. 10. Of the Magnitude of the Womb increased and first of the Inflation of the Womb. Page 25 Chap. 11. Of the Dropsie of the Womb. Page 38 Chap. 12. Of a Tumor in the Womb from Blood in its Veins Page 42 Chap. 13. Of Inflammation of the Womb. ibid. Chap. 14. Of a Scirrhus and Cancer in the Womb. Page 45 Chap. 15. Of the displacing of the Womb and first of the Ascent of it Page 47 Chap. 16. Of Falling out of the Womb. Page 49 Chap. 17. Of the Rupture of the Womb. Page 54 Chap. 18. Of Wounds and breaking of the womb ib. Chap. 19. Of Ulcers and rottenness of the Womb. Page 55 Chap. 20. Of the Diseases of the Stones and Vessels of Procreation in Women ibid. The CONTENTS of the Second PART Of the Symptomes in the Womb and from the Womb. Chap. 1. Of Weakness of the Womb. Page 57 Chap 2. Of the Itch of the Womb. Page 59 Chap. 3. Of Pain in the Womb. Page 60 Chap. 4. Of the Diseases of the Womb that come from sweet scents and stinks Page 63 The CONTENTS of the Second SECTION Of the Symptoms in the Terms and other fluxes of the Womb. Chap. 1. Of the flux of the Terms Page 66 Chap. 2. Of the Terms flowing too soon Page 69 Chap. 3. Of want and stoppage of the Terms ibid. Chap. 4. Of fewness of the Terms Page 78 Chap. 5. Of Dropping of the Terms Page 79 Chap. 6. Of the over-flowing of the Terms Page 80 Chap. 7. Of the Terms flowing with pain and Symptomes Page 85 Chap. 8. Of evil discoloured Terms Page 86 Chap. 9. Of Terms coming before their time Page 87 Chap. 10. Of Terms that come after their usual time Page 88 Chap. 11. Of the Terms voided another way Page 90 Chap. 12. Of the Whites ibid. Chap. 13. Of the Gonorrhoea Page 94 Chap. 14. Of strange things voided by the Womb. Page 95 The CONTENTS of the Third SECTION Of the Symptoms that befal all Virgins and Women in their Wombs after they are ripe of age CHap 1. Of Virginity Page 96 Chap. 2. Of the Green-sickness or White-feaver Page 100 Chap. 3. Of Symptomes from the Womb and Mother-fits in general Page 106 Chap. 4. Of Suffocation of the Womb. Page 108 Chap. 5. Of the Frenzie of the Womb. Page 115 Chap. 6. Of the Melancholy of Virgins and Widows Page 118 Chap. 7. Of an Epilepsie from the Womb. Page 120 Chap. 8. Of pain of the Head from the Womb. Page 122 Chap. 9. Of the Diseases of the Heart and beating of the Arteries in the Back and Sides from the Womb. Page 124 Chap. 10. Of the Diseases of the Spleen and the Hypochondriack disease of the Womb. Page 126 Chap. 11. Of the Distemper of the Liver from the Womb and of a Beard growing by consent from the Womb. Page 127 Chap. 12. Of the Diseases of the Stomach that come from the Womb. ibid. The CONTENTS of the Fourth SECTION Of the Symptomes which are in Conception CHap 1. Of the desire of Venery hurt Page 130 Chap. 2. Of Barrenness and want of Conception Page 131 Chap. 3. Of Barrenness for the time and conceiving seldom Page 139 Chap. 4. Of Conception and forming of the Child Page 141 Chap. 5. Of the Generation of the Twins and many Children Page 142 Chap. 6. Of Superfoetation Page 144 Chap. 7. Of the ill Formation of the Child Page 145 Chap. 8. Of a Child turned into Stone Page 147 Chap. 9. Of a Mole Page 148 Chap. 10. Of Monsters Page 151 Chap. 11. Of false Conception and Swelllling Page 153 The CONTENTS of the Fifth SECTION Of the Government of Women with Child and preternatural Distempers in Women with Child Chap. 1. Of the signs of Conception Page 155 Chap. 2. Of the Government and Dyet of Women with Child Page 156 Chap. 3. Of the Cure of Women with Child in general Page 158 Chap. 4. Of the Symptomes that befal Women with Child in the first Months Page 162 Chap. 5. Of the Symptomes in Women with Child in the middle Minths Page 164 Chap. 6. Of the Symptomes that are in the last Months Page 166 Chap. 7. Of Weakness of the Child Page 167 Chap. 8. Of Crying in the Womb. Page 168 The CONTENTS of the Sixth SECTION Of Symptoms that happen in Child-bearing Chap. 1. Of Child-bearing in
general Page 170 Chap. 2. Of Abortion Page 172 Chap. 3. Of the signs of Natural Birth and the manner and government of such as bring forth Page 175 Chap. 5. Of Natural hard Travel Page 177 Chap. 6. Of a vitious disorderly Birth or difficulty preternatural Page 179 Chap. 7. Of a slow Birth Page 180 Chap. 8. Of a Child dead in the Womb. Page 181 Chap. 9. Of the Caesarean Birth Page 183 The CONTENTS of the Seventh SECTION Of the Government of Women in Child-bed and of the Diseases that come after Travel Chap. 1. Of the Government of Women in Child-bed Page 186 Chap. 2. Of the Secundine or After-birth or a Mole that is left after Child-bearing Page 187 Chap. 3. Of the Purgation after Child-bearing diminished or detained Page 189 Chap. 4. Of too great a flux of blood after Child-bearing Page 191 Chap. 5. Of the Pains after Travel and Torments in the Belly Page 192 Chap. 6. Of the Tearing of the Vulva to the Arse and coming forth of the Womb Inflamation Ulcer Suffocation and falling out of the Fundament Page 193 Chap. 7. Of Watching Doting and Epilepsie of Women in Child-bed Page 194 Chap. 8. Of the swelling of the Womb Belly and Feet after Child-bearing Page 195 Chap. 9. Of Vomiting Loosness Belly-bound and not holding of Urine in Women in Child-bed ibid. Chap. 10. Of the Wrinkles of the Belly after Child-bearing and mending of the largeness of the Privities Page 197 Chap. 11. Of Feavers and acute Diseases in Women in Child-Bed Page 198 The CONTENTS of the First SECTION Of the Diseases of the Breasts Chap. 1. Of the increased number of Breasts and greatness extraordinary Page 203 Chap. 2. Of swelling of the Breasts with Milk Page 205 Chap. 3. Of Inflammation and Erisipela's of the Breasts Page 206 Chap. 4. Of the Oedoma of the Breasts Page 209 Chap. 5. Of the Scirrhus of the Breasts Page 210 Chap. 6. Of the Glandles or Kernels in the Breasts being swollen or of the Scrofula and Struma in the Breast Page 211 Chap. 7. Of the Cancer of the Breasts Page 212 Chap. 8. Of Ulcers and Fistulaes of the Breasts Page 215 Chap. 9. Of straitness of the passages of the Breasts ibid. Chap. 10. Of strange things bred in the Breasts Page 216 Chap. 11. Of the Diseases of the Nipples ibid. The CONTENTS of the Second SECTION Of the Symptoms of the Breasts Chap. 1. Of want of Milk and not giving of suck Page 218 Chap. 2. Of too much Milk Page 220 Chap. 3. Of Curding and other faults in the Milk Page 221 Chap. 4. Of Milk coming forth at wrong places Page 222 Chap. 5. Of strange things coming forth of the Breasts Page 223 Chap. 6. Of the change of colour in the Nipples and pain of the Breasts Page 224 A TRACTATE Of the CURE OF INFANTS The CONTENTS of the First PART Of the Dyet and Government of Infants Chap. 1. Of the Choise of the Nurse 225 Chap. 2. Of the Conditions of good Milk 227 Chap. 3. Of Curing the Faults in Milk ibid. Chap. 4. Of the Dyet and Government of new born Children 229 Chap. 5. Of the Dyet of an Infant from breeding of Teeth till it be Weaned 230 Chap. 6. Of Weaning of Children ib. Chap. 7. Of Childrens Dyet after Weaning 231 The CONTENTS of the Second PART Of Diseases and Symptoms of Children Chap. 1. Of Infants Diseases in general 232 Chap. 2. Of Feavers in Children Meazles and Small Pox. 233 Chap. 3. Of the Milkey Scab Achores and Favi 235 Chap. 4. Of a Scald Head 236 Chap. 5. Of Ptiriasis or breeding of Lice 239 Chap. 6. Of Hydrocephalus or swelling of the Head 240 Chap. 7. Of Siriasis 141 Chap. 8. Of Frights in the sleep 242 Chap. 9. Of great Watching 243 Chap. 10. Of Epilepsie and Convulsion 244 Chap. 11. Of Strabismus or Squint-eyes 246 Chap. 12. Of pain in the Ears Inflammation Moisture Ulcers and Worms ibid. Chap. 13. Of the Thrush Bladders in the Gums and Inflammation of the Tonsils 247 Chap. 14. Of Breeding of Teeth 248 Chap. 15. Of Loosing of the Tongue and of the Frog 249 Chap. 16. Of Catarrh Cough and difficult Breathing 250 Chap. 17. Of the Hicket 251 Chap. 18. Of Vomiting 252 Chap. 19. Of the Torments or Pains of the Belly 253 Chap. 20. Of puffing up of the Belly and Hypochondria 255 Chap. 21. Of the Flux of the Belly ibid. Chap. 22. Of Binding of the Belly 257 Chap. 23. Of the Worms 258 Chap. 24. Of the Rupture 261 Chap. 25. Of sticking out of the Navel 262 Chap. 26. Of Inflammation of the Navel 263 Chap. 27. Of falling out of the Fundament ibid. Chap. 28. Of the Stone in the Bladder 264 Chap. 29. Of difficulty and stoppage of Urine 265 Chap. 30. Of not holding the Urine 266 Chap. 31. Of chafing in the Hips called Intertrigo 267 Chap. 32. Of Leanness and Fascination ibid. THE FOURTH BOOK OF PRACTICAL PHYSICK Of Womens Diseases THE FIRST PART Of Diseases in the Privities of Women THE FIRST SECTION Of Diseases of the Privy Part and the Neck of the Womb. Chap. 1. Of the straitness and largeness of the Orifice THere are three Diseases in this Part. The straitness and the largeness and Yard of a Woman The straightness is when the Cleft is narrow that it will not admit a Mans Yard or with much difficulty it hinders Child-bearing and if it be from the first confirmation it is hard to be cured by Physick but it is enlarged either by copulation or by bringing forth of children Sometimes it is from an Ulcer or from astringent Medicines given unadvisedly that they may appear to be Virgins when they are not Sometimes the cleft is shut up outwardly and there is only passage for the Urin and the Terms these Women are called Atretae that is shut up and bored of which Chap. 3. Sometimes it is so close that neither Terms nor Urin can come forth The contrary to this is largeness of the Cleft or when there are more holes then Nature hath usually by often Copulation or Child-bearing This laxity or largeness causeth Barrenness and falling out of the Womb as Hippocrates shews in the Nature of Women And this makes women unpleasant to men This is cured by purging after Child-bearing by Fomentations Baths Liniments of Allum water and the Decoction of astringent Plants Take Comfry roots Bole Sanguis Draconis Pomgranate flowers Allum Mastich Galls each half a dram make a Powder and with steeled Water make a Mixture dip a Pessary therein Or Take Oaken leaves Plantane each half a handful Comfry roots an ounce Pomegranate peels and flowers Sumach each half an ounce Allum an ounce boyl them in Water and foment the Privites Sometimes in hard travel the space between the Fundament and the privy Cleft is broken into one hole Eros shews the Cure of it Some put a long piece of Allum into the Cleft When there are divers passages in a Womans Privities it is
Cold and Moist THere is seldom a simple Distemper in the part and commonly there is matter which feeds it It is usually cold and moist which gathers excrements of that sort either in the whole body or in the womb after the terms The Causes Are all things that breed cold and flegmatick humors in the whole body or the womb The Cure They conceive not and are of an ill habit of body the terms seldom flow right and they have sometimes the whites The Prognostick The Cure It is harder to cure than a simple distemper The cold humor is in fault therefore prepare it with Syrup of Mugwort Mints Bettony Hysop with a Decoction proper As Take Fennel roots an ounce Valerian Elicampane Masterwort each half an ounce Penny-royal Mugwort Motherwort Nep Marjoram each a handful Rosemary and Sage-flowers each two pugils Siler Montane Fennel Anniseed Parsnep-seed each a dram boil them to ten ounces strained add Sugar syrup of Mugwort two or three ounces Cinnamon-water half an ounce make a Portion for three doses Then purge it with Agarick Mechoacan Turbith and if other humors be mixed with Flegm add Senna and the like or use Pills de tribus Aloephanginae Mastich of Hiera with Agarick Sine quibus Or Take Agarick a dram and half Senna two drams infuse them in Mugwort-water to three ounces strained add Diaphoenicon or Diacarthaemum two drams strain and add syrup of Mugwort half an ounce Cinnamon-water half a dram After universal Evacuation use Pessaries As Take Mercury bruise it and put it in a bag of white Silk anoint it with Butter or Honey of Roses Or Take Benedicta laxativa three drams Agarick two drams Gith seed a dram Pease meal six drams with juyce of Mercury make Pessaries in a Sarsnet Bag. Or Take Hiera a dram Agarick half a dram Bdellium a dram with Honey make a Pessary or make it with powder of Agarick and Troches of Coloquintida or five sweats of Guajacum China and Sarsa As Take Guajacum a pound and eighteen ounces infuse them in twelve pints of water twenty four hours then boyl them to the consumption of the third part give six or eight ounces hot in the morning and let her sweat Pour water to the reliques and boyl them to the consumption of the third part for an ordinary drink You may use China and Sarsa the same way and because in a decoction some strength is lost and so great a quantity is tedious for women you may distil them and give a less quantity with things proper for the womb As Take Guajacum a pound or Sarsa eight ounces Angelica Elicampane each an ounce Mugwort two handfuls Dittany half a handful add six pints of water or wine steep them two dayes then distil them and give two ounces of the water Let her meat be roasted Birds Hens Capons Partridges Mutton sweet Almonds Raisins Let her abstain from salt and sharp things If these sweats are unpleasant give them in the third and fourth Chapter internal and external As Take Conserve of Marjoram Rosemary Bettony each two ounces of Balm an ounce Diamoschu dulcis Diamargariton calid each a dram â—â—ndied Eryngus and Citrons each half an ounce with furup of Mugwort make an Electuary and use Baths to sit in mentioned Drying Spaw-waters are good to drink or to sit in Let the diet be as in Chap. 3. and 4. give the flesh of wild Mountain fowl Pidgeons Hens Capons Mutton roasted and spiced and old wine and let her exercise Of the hot and dry Distemper of the Womb with Choler Do as in Chap. 5. purge the Choler whether it be from the whole body or from the Liver with Syrup of Roses Manna Tamarinds Rhubarbs Senna c. Chap. 7. Of the ill shape of the Womb and first of the straitness of it and its vessels THis is a Disease of evil conformation from Nature when it can be stretched out no further this makes an abortion in the fourth or fifth month But it is wonderful in its natural shape when it will stretch according to the proportion of the child and after child-bearing be as small as at first Of straitness of the vessels of the Womb. This is usual and hinders the flux of the terms and conception it is in the vessels of the womb and of the neck thereof The Causes Are thick tough humors that stop the mouths of the veins and arteries these are bred of gross or much nourishment when the heat of the womb is so weak that it cannot attenuate the humors these either flow from the whole body or are gathered in the womb Sometimes vessels are closer by inflammation or Schirrhus or other tumor 3. They are stopt by astringent Medicines 4. By compression 5. From a Scar or Flesh or a Membrane that grows after a wound Stoppage of the terms shews straitness The Signs which hinders conception and this stoppage is known by crudities abounding in the body which are known by their signs Sometimes thick flegm comes from the womb if there was a wound before or the Secundine was pulled out by force Stoppage of terms from an old obstruction by humors is hard to be cured The Prognostick if it be from disorderly use of astringents it is more curable if it be from a Schirrhus or other tumor that compresseth or closeth the vessels that cannot be cured the disease is incurable Obstructions are taken away by the means mentioned in the cold and moist Distemper of the Womb flegm must be purged The Cure and she must be let blood as in stoppage of the terms After Universals come to the obstruction with Medicines that move the terms these take away the cause as in the Chapter of the cold distemper of the Womb. Or Take Asparagus roots Parsly roots each an ounce Madder roots half an ounce red Pease half a handful Penny-royal Calamints each a handful Wall-flowers Dill-flowers each two pugils boil strain and add syrup of Mugwort an ounce and half Or Take Birthwort and white Dittany roots each an ounce Costus Cinnamon Galangal each half an ounce Rosemary Penny-royal Calamints Bettony-flowers each a handful Anise and Fennel seeds each a dram Saffron half a dram with Wine Or use Topicks as Take Mugwort Marjoram Calamints Mercury Penny-royal each two handfuls Sage Rosemary Bays Chamomil-flowers each a handful boyl them in water foment the groins and the bottom of the belly or let her fit in a Bath up to the Navel and then anoint about the groins with Oyl of Rue Lillies Dill c. Or use Pessaries and Fumes mentioned If straitness be from other diseases cure them first Chap. 8. Of the opening of the Vessels of the Womb besides Nature THis when there is great bleeding The Causes The vessels are opened preternaturally three wayes by Anastomosis Diaeresis and by Diapedesis as in the Lungs Anastomosis is from much blood which the Liver doth produce and send out by the womb as in some
by the Nose For the blood being thin hot cholerick and sharp opens the mouths of the vessels and causeth a flux Diaeresis is from much blood when there is great motion as when there is long copulation with a strong man that hath a great tool or a hard travel or abortion a fall or stroke also when sharp humors corrode or sharp pessaries The Signs Diapedesis is from the thinness of the vessels and loosness and the thinness of the blood or from much moisture or use of Baths Much blood is a sign the vessels are open you shall know the causes that open them thus In Anastomosis the blood drops and is thin and there are signs of much blood or sharp and thin If there be a Diaeresis the blood flows more and there are clodders and there were causes that broke the Vessels as sharp Suppositories Diapedesis is known when the woman is of a thin and loose habit of body the blood thin or she hath used much bathing If the Vessels open from much blood in a sound body there is less dagger The Prognostick and it is easier cured then in a Cacochymy In an Anastomisis give things that thicken without slime as Roses Mirtles Medlars Services The Cure Pomegranate-peels and flowers Sanders Coral Harts-horn Cypress-nuts In Diaeresis give things that thicken with slime Comfry Plantane Gum-traganth whites of Eggs troches of Amber Bole Starch Rice Quinces sanguis Draconis Sarcocol and Izing-glass But because there are divers causes and these diseases are not cured but by taking them away we shall speak of them in the Chapter of immoderate terms Chap. 9. Of a double Womb the wanting of a Womb and evil shape of the Womb and strange things found in it Julius Obsequens saith that one woman had two wombs and Bauhinus saith that a Maid had her womb in two parts as in Bitches Columbus saith that one wanted a womb Lib. 15. anato but her privities were as in other women and part of the neck of it hung out Worms in the Womb. Lib. de morb mul. Hippocrates writes that worms are found in the womb And Gynaecea writes it is a sign that Nature is wanton c. And Joen de Tornamira writes that he saw a Woman that had an intolerable itching in her womb from the Ascarides he gave a Womb-clyster of the Decoction of Wormwood and Hiera and she voided many small worms and was cured An Addition * Wheresoever foul humors stop in any parts it is no wonder if it breed worms if other things agree which are required for the breeding of them Fat and Hair found in a Womb. Cent. obser 5. obser 49. William Fabricius mentions that in a dead woman the womb was taken out and it weighed eighty seven pounds and was full of divers humors in the middle there were hairs like yellow Wooll An Addition * This was by Magick or a humor lay there fit to breed this strange matter by preternatural heat Stones bred in the Womb. Lib. 4. de morb mulier c. 11. Lib. 5. epid Mercurialis doubts of stones being bred in it but thinks it is clotted blood like stones But it cannot be denied which many worthy Authors write First Hippocrates writes that a Woman of sixty after noon alwaies was pained as one in travel After she had eaten many Leeks she had one fit worse then the rest and she arose and found something rough in the Orifice of her womb and she fainted and another woman thrust in her hand and took out a great stone and the woman recovered Aetius also saith Tetrab 4. serm 4. c. 98. Hard stones are bred in the Womb sometimes c. Nicholas Florentine and Marcellus Donatus say the same Chap. 10. Of the Magnitude of the Womb increased and first of the Inflation of the Womb. INflation is a stretching of the Womb with wind it is called by some a windy Mole Math. de grad in 9. Rhasis See Matthew de gradibus and Thadeus Dun lib. miscel c. 8. This wind is from a cold matter The Causes either thick or thin contained in the Veins of the Womb which overcomes the weak heat of the womb It is gathered there by cold meats and drinks or flows from other parts Cold Air may be the cause also if women that lie in expose themselves to it This wind is contained either in the Cavity of the Vessels of the Womb or between the Tunicles There is a swelling in the region of the womb The Signs sometimes reaching to the Navel Loins and Diaphragma and as wind increaseth or decreaseth it ariseth or abateth It is different from a Dropsie because it is never swollen so high And lest a Physitian be deceived and take it for a Conception observe the signs of women with child for if one sign be wanting you may suspect an Inflation Also in Inflation the tumor increaseth and decreaseth but in Conception it still increaseth Moreover if you strike upon the Belly there is a noise but not in Conception It differs from a Dropsie in the Womb for there is no such heaviness they move more easily and the Belly is not so swelled there were causes that bred wind and things against wind do good It differs from a Mole for there is in that a weight and hardness in the Belly and when they move from one side to another they feel a weight that moveth which is not in this of which Hippocrates 2. De morb mulier The feet and the face swell in the hollow parts the colour is bad the terms are stopt there is wind c. If the wind is without the cavity of the womb there is more pain and larger nor is there a noise because the wind is in a straighter place The Prognostick It is neither a lasting nor a deadly disease if well look'd after If it be in the Cavity of the womb it is easier discussed The Cure Give Hiera Diaphoenicon with a little Castor sharp Clysters that also expel wind If it be in travel purge not till she be delivered Bleed not because it is from a cold matter if it come after Child-bearing and the terms were not sufficient after and there is fulness of blood open the Saphaena After these give things mentioned in Tympany that respect the womb As Take Conserve of Bettony Rosemary each an ounce and half candied Eryngus Citron-peels candied each half an ounce Diacymium Diagalangal each a dram Oyl of Aniseeds six drops with Syrup of Citrons make an Electuary Or Take Conserve of Rosemary Balm each three ounces candied Citrons and Oranges each an ounce Diacymium a dram with syrup of Citrons make an Electuary Or give the Woman Aqua vitae or this Take Angelica roots two ounces Masterwort Elicampane Orange peels each six drams Calamints Penny-royal Rue Sage Rosemary each a handful Cummin Fennel Aniseed each half an ounce Juniper-berries a handful Zedoary Galangal Cubeb each
Agarick a dram Coloquintida half a dram Guidium ten grains with Honey and Wool make a Pessary Make Fomentations and Baths of Danewort Mercury Elder Penny-royal Organ Chamomil-flowers Bayberries wild Cowcumbers Broom Carrot Rue-seeds And anoint after with Oyl of Elder Danewort Orris with drops of Oyl of Angelica Anise Caraway Sulphur Baths are good and those of Niter or the Plaister of Bayberries or Snails to the bottom of the Belly Vomiting and Neesing break the bladders Give Clysters at the Fundament as in Dropsies Take Mercury leaves Danewort Soldanella Mugwort Motherwort each a handful Chamomil Elder Broom-flowers each a dram boil and to ten ounces strained and juyce of Beets Mercury Danewort each six drams Boys urin an ounce and half Hiera six drams Hony half an ounce make a Clyster Let the Dyet be drying as in Chap. 5. Chap. 12. Of a Tumor in the Womb from Blood in the Veins THis Disease makes women think they are with chiid also For blood long detained in the Veins about the womb stretcheth them outwardly and twisteth them and the Veins in the substance of the womb are full and stretched and make it larger But when the terms flow it falleth again except there be a Cachexy or Dropsie This is only from stoppage of Terms and is cured by provoking them Chap. 13. Of Inflammation of the Womb. IF the blood that comes to the womb get out of the Vessels into its substance and grow hot and putrifie it causeth Inflammation either all over or in part before or behind above or below on the right or left side The Causes Blood is the immediate Cause which is pure or mixed therefore the Inflammation is either an Erysipelas Oedema or Scirrhus as Flegm Melancholy or Blood abound Blood is either sent to or drawn by the womb By heat or pain it is sent to it when it aboundeth or it is hot or thin and when the blood is moved by hot Air Exercise Passions anger or hot diet The Signs There is a tumor with heat and pain in the region of the womb with stretching and heaviness in the Privities and if you put in your finger you 'l feel the heat and she more pain there is a Feaver sometimes called Lipyra when there is cold without and heat within The tongue is dry and black with watching doting tossing to and fro the brests are pufft up and pained There is head-ach to the roots of the eyes and a pain in the groyns hips midrif pleura and shoulders short wind and like a Pleurisie with loathing vomiting hickets The belly is bound the pulse is small and often and weak but at first darting and quick And Hippocrates saith If the Womb be inflamed the terms are stopt 2. De morb mulier and the neck of it is like a Spiders web with many small veins c. If it be inflamed before the pain is about the pubes and the urin is stopt If behind it is in the loyns and the belly is bound If it be inflamed in the bottom the pain is towards the navel If it be from pure blood the Symptoms are less if from choler stronger the thirst is more the watching greater if from melancholy all are worse If it be all over the womb it is dangerous The Prognostick and few escape it An Erysipelas in a woman with child is deadly because there is an abortion and the Mother dies the worse the Symptoms the greater is the danger And it is safer to discuss an inflamation then to ripen it if it turn to a Schirrus it is lasting and makes a Dropsie If it be not after abortion or a flux of blood The Cure open a vein in the Arm or cup and sacrifice the shoulders Bleed not in the foot least you draw blood more to the womb but afterwards to derive if it be from terms stopt you may Gal. 2. ad glau c. 2. Galen saith You may divert the blood by bleeding in the arm or cupping the breasts and you may derive it by opening the ankle-vein and cupping upon the hips If there be choler purge it with Syrup of Roses Manna Rhubarb Diacatholicon and use not strong movers of the Terms Use Alterers and Coolers as Juleps and Emulsions and provoke sleep and if there be dotage give Narcoticks After the Universals use Repellers and Anodines As Take Housleek Purslane Lettice Venus-navel Vine leaves each half a handful boyl them in wine add Barly meal two ounces Pomegranate-flowers two drams boyl a dram with Oyl of Roses make a Pultis Or Take Diachylon simple two ounces juyce of Venus-navel and Plantane each half an ounce Oyl of Roses an ounce Sugar of Lead a dram make an Oyntment in a leaden Mortar Make Injections of the same Herbs or of Milk and Rose-water Or Take Plantane Venus-navel Lettice each a handful red Roses two pugils boyl and add Oyl of Mirtles an ounce Rose-vinegar half an ounce make an Injection Make Clysters of the same Plants in a small quantity least they oppress the Womb. Take Althaea roots and ounce Mallows Violets Lettice each a handful Nightshade half a handful Violets Roses each a pugil sweet Prunes ten Linseed half a dram boil them in Barly water to six ounces add Oyl of Roses three ounces make a Clyster An anodine Fomentation Take roots of Althaea Mallows and Violets each a handful red Roses Melilot Chamomil-flowers each a pugil boil them for a Fomentation Or use a Cataplasm of white Bread and Milk In the progress dicuss As Take powder of Althaea roots an ounce Chamomil and Melilot flowers each two drams Mugwort half an ounce Barly and Bean flour each an ounce boyl them in sharp wine add Hogs-grease Oyl of Chamomil and Lillies each an ounce make a Cataplasm If the inflammation turn to matter ripen it As Take powder of Althaea roots Chamomil-flowers Melilot Linseed Foenugreek each an ounce Figgs eight boyl them add yelks of four Eggs and half a scruple of Saffron make a Pultis After it is ripe break it by motion of the body coughing neesing cupping or by Pessaries As Take Figgs an ounce Rue half a handful boyl them soft add Honey and Leaven each half an ounce Pidgeons dung Orris roots each half a dram with wool make a Pessary After it is broken the pain abates then clense and heal the ulcer as in Sect. 1. c. 8. of an ulcer of the womb If it break about the bladder give an Emulsion of cold Seeds Whey and Syrup of Violets Let the diet be cool with Barley-water warm Abstain from Wine to the declination of the disease let the belly still be kept loose Chap. 14. Of a Scirrhus and Cancer in the Womb. AN earthy matter left after an inflammation makes a hard tumor called a Scirrhus and sometimes it is without an inflammation It is a proper Scirrhus when there is neither sense nor pain it is improper when there is a little sense It is sometimes as big as
the liver-veins on the right side or the spleen on the left as they are filled more or less It also falls down by the loosning of the parts to which it is fastned but how that can be it is not clear 1. 2. De morb mulier Hippocrates saith It comes from external causes as from cold of the feet or loins from leaping or fear cutting of wood or running down a hill and the like these make the ligaments moist and loose Also it may be from cold after child-bearing getting into the womb when the terms flow sitting upon a cold stone and the like Platerus Others say It comes from the solution of the connexion of the fibrous neck and the parts adjacent and that is from the weight of the womb descending this we deny not But when the ligaments must be loose or broken But women in a dropsie could not be said not to have the womb fall down if it came only from loosness But the cause in them is the saltness of the water which dries more then it moistneth The Signs If there be a little tumor within or without the privities like a skin stretched or a weight felt about the privities it is only a descent of the womb but if there be a tumor like a Goose-Egg and a hole at the bottom there is at first a great pain in the parts to which the womb is fastned as the loyns the bottom of the belly and the privities and the Os sacrum from the stretching or breaking of the ligaments but a little after the pain abateth and there is an impediment in walking Sometimes blood comes forth from the breach of the vessels and the dung and urine are stopt and a Feaver and Convulsion When it is near it is easily cured when old The Prognostick it is hard to be cured but not deadly only it is troublesom and nasty It hinders conception and keeps terms from flowing orderly If it be with pain Feaver or Convulsion it is deadly especially in women with Child That which comes from corrosion of the ligaments is dangerous First put it up before the air alter it The Cure or it be inflamed or swollen Therefore first give a Clyster to remove the excrements Then lay her upon her back with her legs abroad and thighs lifted up her head down and take the tumor in your hands and thrust it in without violence If it be swollen by alteration and cold foment it with the Decoction of Mallows Althaea Line Foenugreek-seed Chamomil-flowers Bayberries and anoint it with oyl of Lillies and Hens-grease If there be an inflammation Roder a. casuo de morb mul. 1. 2. c. 17. put it not up yet It may be frighted in by shewing of red hot iron and acting as if you would burn it First sprinkle upon it the powder of Mastich Frankincense and the like As Take Frankincense Mastich each two drams Sarcocol steept in Milk a dram Mummy Pomegranate-flowers Sanguis Draconis each half a dram When it is put up let her lie with her leggs stretched one upon the other for eight or ten dayes and make a Pessary like a Pear of Cork or Spung put into the womb dipt in sharp wine or juyce of Acacia with powder of Sanguis Draconis Bole Mastich or the Countesses Oyntment with Galbanum and Bdellium Apply a Cupping-glass with great flame under the navel or paps or to both kidnies and lay this Plaister to the back Take Opopanax two ounces Storax liquid half an ounce Frankincense Mastich Pitch Bole each two drams with Wax make a Plaister Or Take Labdanum a dram and half Frankincense Mastich each half a dram wood Aloes Cloves Spike each a dram Ash coloured Amber-greece four grains Musk half a scruple make two round Plaisters to be laid on each side the Navel Make a Fume of a Snail skin salted or of Garlick and let it be taken in by a Funnel Use astringent Fomentations of Bramble leaves Plantane Horstails Mirtles each two handfuls Wormwood two pugils Pomegranate-flowers half an ounce boil them in wine and water Or inject this with a Syringe Take Comfrey-roots an ounce Snakeweed Pomgranate-flowers each half an ounce Rupture-wort two drams Yarrow Mugwort each half an ounce boil them in red Wine Then use Sulphur Baths To strengthen the Womb Take Harts-horn Bayes each a dram Mirrh half a dram make a powder for two doses give it with sharp Wine Or Take Zedoary Parsnep-seeds Crabs eyes prepared each a dram Nutmeg half a dram give a dram in powder but use astringents warily lest you stop the courses and cause worse mischief If it fall out from evil humors that flow to the womb and loosen the ligaments purge the body and then use dryers as the decoction of China Sarsa and Guajacum To keep it in its place make Roulers and Ligatures as for the Rupture and use Pessaries into the bottom of the womb that may force it to remain Lib. de partu Caesar sect 6. cap. 3. 4. of which Francis Rousset hath written at large and shews that they neither hinder Conception nor bring any inconvenience nay that they help Conception and retain it and cure this disease perfectly And Gaspar Bauhinus confirms the same in his Appendix to Rousset You may use Circles or Balls instead of Pessaries As Take roots of wild Vine make round Circles or Balls of them greater or less as the neck of the womb is Then Take Virgins Wax melted with white Rosin or Turpentine dip the balls in till they are fit put one in the neck of the womb that will hold in being just fit let it not be taken out till it fall out and then put in another if she be not cured If it gangrene and sphacelate cut it quite off Lib. de partu Caes sect 4. cap. 5. hist 6. Ibid. sect 4. cap. 5. if she fear cutting take it off by Ligature of which Rousset who shews the way and saith that it may be cut off without danger of life He tells also of the place where you must cut and in Sect. 4. de partu Caesareo where the Ligature is to be made Let the diet be drying and astringent and glewing as Rice Starch Quinces Pears green Cheese Avoid Summer-fruits Let the Wine be astringent and red The Cure of the inclining of the Womb. When it inclines to the sides after Universals apply Cupping-glasses to the other side and let her still lie on the other side and let the Midwife anoint her finger with Oyl of sweet Almonds and draw it a little by degrees to the other side Chap. 17. Of the Rupture of the Womb. FEw Physitians have seen this I never read of any but once I saw it of which in my Institutions lib. 2. part 1. cap. 9. Chap. 18. Of Wounds and breaking of the Womb. The Signs IT is seldom wounded by reason of the divers defences it hath but sometimes the Chirurgions wound it in
cutting out of the Child of which Hollerius inter rara no. 8. He speaks of a woman with child in Paris that her childs hand put forth at the Navel and was so in travel 15 dayes and both child and mother were safe The Prognostick It is evident if it be made by the Chirurgion in cutting out of a Child and you may know it by the place if it come otherwise There is blood and matter that flow out at the neck of the womb There is more pain when it is in the neck of the womb then when it is in the bottom These wounds are cured as appears by the Caesarean Birth or cutting but they are dangerous by reason of the strange Symptoms and the consent of the parts The Cure Use Consolidates or Healers and if there be pain Anodines or Pessaries made of Wax-candles dipt in Wound-Oyntments Or Take Wax Turpentine Goose-grease Butter each a Dram Honey Deers-marrow Oyl of Roses Bulls-grease each two drams Or Take Frankincense Mastich Ceruss Galbanum each half an ounce mix them all with white Wine then add Pompholix an ounce and with Wax and Oyl of Roses make an Oyntment Make Injections or Clysters for the Womb of the Decoction of round Birthwort Cypress boiled in steeled Water and sharp Wine with a little Hydromel Agrimony Mugwort Plantane Roses Schaenanth Horehound Chap. 19. Of Ulcers and Rottenness of the Womb. THough the neck of the womb be only subject to Ulcers as we shewed yet the substance of the womb hath been ulcerated and it hath been observed to rot when it hath fallen out and to fall away As we said of a Woman at Avinion that after lived some time And the Examples of Rousset shew that it may be safely cut off Also a child dead in the womb Lib. de part Caesar chir c. 76. may cause an Ulcer and divers Histories witness in Abucasis and Alexander Benedictus Mauritius Cordaeus and many others How these ulcers and rottenness of the womb are cured is said in sect 1. cap. 8. where we spake of Ulcers of the neck of the Womb and cap. 10. of Fistulaes of the Womb. Chap. 20. Of the Diseases of the Stones and Vessels of Procreation in VVomen IT is apparent by Histories written by grave and learned Men that the Stones of Women and their Seed-vessels are many times grievously distempered when the womb joyned to them is not Sometimes water is gathered about the stones In apprend ad Roussetum 2. de partu Caesar as Gasper Bauhinus John Schenkins write and he hath another History Lib. Obser 3. from John Heintz of a Maid that desired a little before she died that her body might be opened to testifie her innocency In which besides other things remarkable the stones were found swollen as big as a head of a young child blewish and spungy much water came out of them and that made her Belly swell and she taken to be with child but the truth appeared and her Chastity testified THE FOURTH BOOK THE SECOND PART Of the Symptoms in the Womb and from the Womb. Chap. 1. Of Weakness in the Womb. THere are many Symptoms from the Womb. Of those in the Womb the first is weakness so that it cannot perform its actions The action of the womb is twofold private and publick By its private action it makes its nourishment of blood that comes to it By its publick action it serves for generation If the private faculty be hurt and the nourishment not well made there is a superfluous moisture and then weakness without other faults of the Organ or unity divided The Causes The first Cause is distemper when the manifest qualities are changed or when the natural heat is suffocated or dispersed or when the occult qualities are changed Heat in the womb makes a distemper if it be too much by which the womb sucks more then it can concoct this is not properly weakness but that distemper is weakness when the action is either not done or weakly done But cold rather makes weakness in the womb by which it cannot make the sufficient quantity of nourishment hence excrements are heaped up and it cannot perform its actions Also a moist distemper makes weakness by which it can neither keep seed nor child It is also weak from loosness The Signs Little desire of Venery and no pleasure therein argue weakness of the womb flux of Seed often abortion Part 1. sect cap. 2. 3. pain in the Loins and Pubes when the Terms are coming farts from the Womb Head-ach and the like The signs of a cold and moist distemper with or without matter are already declared The Prognostick It is a great disease by reason of the divers Symptoms in women that have conception hurt It is worst when it comes from dispersing and extinguishing of the natural heat The Cure We have shewed how distempers of the womb are cured but the dispersing of the Spirits and natural heat is cured by things that hinder the loss of Spirits and strengthen the womb as Spices Cinnamon Cloves Nutmeg Mace Diacalaminth Aromaticum rosatum Diaxilaloes rosata Novella Treacle Mithridate Outwardly by Oyl of Lillies Nard Lavender and Astringents when the womb is loose Things that help the womb in the whole substance are in the Chapter of the cold and moist Distemper as Aqua vitae for Women Or thus Take Castor three ounces Saffron two ounces extract them singular add to both Extract of Mugwort two ounces of Angelica a dram Magistery of the mother of Pearl a dram Oyl of Cloves a scruple of Angelica and of Amber and of Nutmegs each half a scruple Let her eat meat of much nourishment and drink good Wine Chap. 2. Of the Itch of the Womb. THis is more in old then young women and must be distinguished from the Frenzy of the womb for here is only a desire to scratch the Privities so that they cannot sleep Nor is it with desire of Copulation as in the Fury of the Womb. It is a salt humor that is serous and adust that causeth it that is sent to the neck of the womb The Causes and the privities How it comes there I shewed in Ulcers of the Privities It is known by her Relation and often putting her hand to the Privities The Prognostick The Cure It is more troublesome then dangerous because it hinders sleep First purge the whole Body and if there are signs of Plethory and strength permits bleed in the Arm. Then qualifie the sharp salt humors with cold and moist means and remove them from the Privities Foment with a Decoction of Lettice Plantane Willow Dock-roots and then anoint with Galen's Cooler Or dip a Pessary in this Oyntment and put it in Or Take Allum Niter Sulphur each six drams Staphisacre an ounce with Rose-vinegar and fresh Butter make a Liniment If these will not Cure use stronger as the Oyntment of Elicampane with Quick-silver Or Take black
Sope Stavisacre each a dram quick Brimstone half an ounce Quick-silver 2 drams with Rose-vinegar and Hens-grease make an Oyntment Let the meat be of good juyce cooling and moistning Take heed of Spices sharp and salt meats Chap. 3. Of pain in the Womb. THere is pain in the body of the womb with other diseases sometimes as the Colick-pains woven in the bottom of the Belly and in the Loins and Hips and is called the pain of the Womb. It is often in women with child as the inflammation of the womb It is burning and beating it binds the Belly and stops the Urin. The Causes Solution of unity is the cause of all pains and this is from the stretching of the Womb and its Vessels or corrosion Stretching is from wind or clotted blood in the cavity of it and when Nature cannot expel it by reason of the straitness of the part there is pain Also pain is from stretching of the vessels before the terms flow when they are close and the blood thick and this pain is increased by external cold especially after heat Sometimes there is a gathering of humors about the womb when the terms flow and are foul and they get into the membranes and stretch them The same may be from corrupt Seed that stretcheth the vessels Or from sharpness and corrosion in the neck of the womb The Signs when sharp humors flow through it and twitch it The pain is manifest but let us look at the signs of the causes If it be from clotted blood there was a flux of the same and the pain is fixed about the orifice of the womb If there were external causes the patient will relate If it be from Seed there is suffocation of the Womb. The greater the cause is The Prognostick The Cure and the more vehement it works the more is the danger If there be pain and fear of fainting look to that before the cause with Anodynes and Narcoticks if need be If it be from wind see inflation of the Womb. If it be from clotted blood dissolve and evacuate it with hot and attenuating Medicines made into Fomentations Baths and Oyntments It is good to apply Treacle to the region of the Womb or put it in with Rue and Honey Or give a Clyster to the Womb of Rue Foenugreek-seed and Oyl of Rue and Orris Or give Treacle and Cinnamon-water If the vessels of the womb are not open enough for the terms See in the stoppage of the terms If there be wind make a Clyster thus Take Mercury Mugwort Calamints Penny-royal each a handful Chamomil and Melilot-flowers each half a handful Faenugreek and Linseed each an ounce boyl them in a pint strained dissolve Hiera Benedicta laxativa each half an ounce make a Clyster Give Mugwort Zedoary-water Essence of Castor Treacle or Womans Aqua vitae of which before Make a Clyster for the Womb thus Take Mugwort Calamints Bettony each half a handful Gith Cummin Carrot Aniseeds each a dram Spike Schoenanth Nutmeg Cinnamon each a dram boyl them in Wine Then fill an Ox bladder half full with Oyl of Lillies and Dill and apply it to the belly Or Take Oyl of Lillies Orris each an ounce distilled Oyl of Angelica a dram Goose and Hens grease each half an ounce Mucilage of Line and Faenugreek-seed made with Mugwort-water each three drams seeds of Cummin Carrots Caraway each a dram with Wax make a soft Oyntment Or Take Pellitory two handfuls Mercury a handful beat them add Chamomil-flowers Cummin Anise Carrots-seeds each a dram two yelks of Eggs and Oyl of Lillies make a Cataplasm for the Belly Apply Plaisters to the Navel and Cupping-glasses with great flame to the Region of the womb or dry Fomentations of Oats Milium Anise Cummin Carrot-seed in a Bag. And use Pessaries as Take Harts Marrow Turpentine Wax Goose-grease each three drams Saffron a dram yelks of Eggs seven with Oyl of Lillies make Pessaries If the humors and wind is malignant mix Scorronera Bezear seeds and roots of Angelica water of Zedoary Treacle Mithridate and the like in Suffocation of the womb Chap. 4. Of the Diseases of the Womb that come from sweet scents and stinks THere is a particular Symptom in the womb which breeds great admiration that it delights in sweet scents and is offended with stinks And it is certain for if Musk Civit or the like be but put to the Nose of the woman that is subject to fits of the Mother they grow sick and if the same be put to their privities and stinks to the Nose the fit of the Mother ceaseth It is hard to give the reason of this many wise Men have given their opinion but they disagree among themselves and satisfie me not neither do I promise to satisfie others But it is probable to me that the womb is not delighted with scents as scents for the privities have no smelling and the sense of smelling doth not reach so far but the quality by which it is well or ill is occult and not to be explained and to be separated from the odours If any ask what the quality is I answer There are many qualities in Nature that are hid from our senses and yet we cannot deny them because we see their effects as the quality in a Dogs Nose we cannot apprehend but the Dog perceives it But how these qualities come to the womb Quomodo uterus bene olentia recipiat is by no other way but by the open way by the privities by which Spirits get into the womb and in the suffocation of the womb sweet things profit because they strengthen it by a peculiar quality to disperse the venemous air and draw down the spirits and humors But if they be put to the Nose Quomodo bene olentia hystericis noceant the womb consents by the Sympathy of the organ of smelling and the brain with it This is by the Nerves and Arteries for the heart is presently refreshed with a sweet scent because it presently pierceth into it being spiritual and there is a great consent of the womb with the brain and the smelling as is seen by the tryal of Barrenness by a Fume from Hippocrates 5. Aphor. But we must observe that sweet scents are acceptable to all Wombs and stinks are not but the same Symptomes are not in all Women from them for they who have a Womb of a good constitution with no evil humors in it endure sweet things well and delight in them but they who are unclean hate sweet things and osten fall into fits by them because while the womb is delighted with that sweet and hidden quality with which it hath a peculiar Sympathy the evil humors that lie in the Womb especially if there be any corruption from Seed and the Seed also are stirred and when the Spirits flie up they take the bad humors with them and send bad vapors to the heart which cause suffocation and others Symptoms But when the
with it to the veins of the womb and stops them This thick blood comes from a cold distemper of the stomach liver and spleen from thick and gross food and drinking cold water when the Terms flow Lib. de venae sec adversus Erasistrat So thought Galen in his time of the Roman women that drank Snow-water and had few or no courses Straightness is when the body of the womb is made thicker either by Nature or other causes as a cold and dry or hot and dry distemper Thirdly Straitness is from compression of the vessels by a Scirrhus or hardness of the parts adjacent as the straight gut or by the stone in the bladder and the womb displaced Fourthly The flesh may grow together by a membrane that grows to the vessels or a scar after a wound Or after a mischance when the veins annexed to the Secundine grow so together that they cannot be opened of which in the first Question They are not the same in women and Virgins The Signs for blood stopt in Virgins goes to and fro changeth the colour and brings Feavers especially the white Feaver or Green-sickness But in women it goes more to the womb and brings Symptomes loathing vomiting and Pica Galen hath other signs as heaviness 8. De lo. aff c. 5. a lazy pain in the loyns neck and behind in the head that reacheth to the roots of the eyes from the spreading of the blood stopt through the whole body This laziness is chiefly in the thighs and leggs by reason of the veins there consenting with the womb And are of a green complexion and hairy with a beard and shrill voice You may know women with child from such as want their Terms only by proper signs First the women with child keep their colour but the other are pale and ill-coloured they are merry the other sad 2. Their Symptoms daily grow milder but in the other they daily grow worse 3. You may feel the child move 4. It is perceived in a month You shall know from what causes the terms are stopt thus If the Liver be cold there is no blood made that is superfluous and there are signs of a cold Liver and you may know that blood is not sent to the Womb when there is no heaviness pain or tumor about the Womb the Liver or Spleen are stopt The Prognostick If it be from Flegm or Melancholy which is often there are signs of their abounding as laziness paleness seldom pulse crude urin Hippoc. de morb mulier Gal. 6. de loc aff c. 5. Hippoc. 5. aphor 23. Hippocrates saith That if the Terms stop there are diseases in the Womb Tumors Imposthumes Ulcers and Barrenness and diseases in the whole Body Green-sickness Leucophlegmacy Dropsie Vomiting of blood Heart-ach Cough And the longer they have been stopt the harder they are to be opened If the blood stopt go out at the Nose it is good If it have great Symptoms there is fear of death You must not give Medicines to move the terms to extenuate lean persons nor to such as want blood and have a weak Liver but they must be fed high Com. in 6. epid 3. c. 29. First see if blood abound and then after a Lenitive open a Vein and let that blood which is in the Veins be drawn to the Womb. Galen took three pints of blood at three times from a lean Woman and cured her of an old stopping of the Terms You must open the Ankle-veins the first day the right the next the left four or five daies before the time Or you may cup and scarrifie the Legs And bind the parts below and rub them after general Evacuation opening of the Haemorrhoids doth hurt and so do Issues because they draw from the Womb. Hiera picra half an ounce or Pills de Tribus or Hiera simple are good first Then prepare As Take water of Mugwort Calamints Maiden-hair each three ounces Syrup of the five Roots and of Mugwort each two ounces make it for two Doses Or Take opening Roots half an ounce Madder Burnet each three ounces Mugwort Bettony Germander Calamints each a handful red Pease half a handful flowers of Bugloss Dill each a pugil boil and sweeten it with Sugar For flegmatick Bodies take the Decoction of Guajacum Sassaphras Dittany for fifteen daies without sweating Then evacuate with Agarick Mechoacan Turbith Scammony Coloquintida black Hellebore As Take Agarick two drams infuse it in Mugwort-water two ounces Oxymel an ounce strain and the Extract of Mechoacan a scruple Or Take opening Roots half an ounce Mugwort Bettony each two pugils Senna half an ounce Agarick two drams Fennel and Aniseed each a scruple Galangal half a dram Rosemary-flowers a pugil infuse them to three ounces and half add syrup of Senna an ounce and half Cinnamon-water half a dram Or if they drink Wine Take Turbith Mechoacan Agarick each two drams Senna an ounce and half Maiden-hair Balm Rosemary each two pugils Cinnamon Galangal each a dram hang them in Wine give six ounces with half an ounce of Manna Or Take Diaturbith with Rhubarb half an ounce Mechoacan two drams Agarick a dram Diarrhodon Cinnamon each half a dram Steel prepared a dram with Raisons make an Electuary give as much as a Walnut Or give Pills of Agarick foetida and so continue purging and preparing if the matter be stubborn Or Take Agarick two drams Madder a dram with Syrup of Mugwort make Pills Or Take Aloes three drams de Tribus one dram with juyce of Savin make Pills If the stomach is foul give a Vomit lest it get into the veins Par. 1. sec 2. ca. 2. Then give provokers of the Terms which are hot and thin about the time they used to flow they are three degrees in strength and many sorts of Medicines are made of them A Powder Take Cinnamon a dram Amber a scruple Saffron half a scruple Or Take Troches of Mirrh of Wall-flowers each a scruple Saffron five grains Or Take Castor Penny-royal each a scruple with Wine or proper Waters Physical Wine Take Madder-roots an ounce Orris half an ounce Balm Penny-royal Mugwort Rosemary each a handful Wall-flowers half a pugil Cinnamon an ounce Galangal half an ounce with Wine give four ounces Or Take the Decoction of red Pease Or Take Smallage Fennel-roots each half an ounce Mugwort Bettony Penny-royal Balm each a handful red Pease half an handful Juniper-berries half an ounce Wall-flowers a pugil boil and sweeten it Or Take ten ounces of it with three ounces of Mugwort for three doses Quercetan commends this Take Gromwel-seeds Anise Misleto of the Oak each three drams Dittany a dram Saffron a scruple bruise and keep them twenty four hours in Wine then boyl them give four ounces for three daies together Or make the Womans Aqua vitae Or Take Balm Bettony Penny-royal Mugwort Nep Motherwort Dittany each four handfuls Wine thirty pints distil them add three handfuls of each herbs and distil them again
and add Fennel-seed Calamus Cinnamon Cassia lignea Cardamoms each half an ounce distil them again Or give Syrup of Calamints Mugwort Or Take water of Penny-royal Savin Calamints each four ounces Syrup of Mugwort four ounces Cinnamon-water an ounce give it at four times Rouls Take Extract of Savin a scruple of Angelica half a scruple of Elicampane six grains Oyl of Cinnamon five drops of Cloves two drops with Sugar dissolved in Balm-water Or make an Electuary of Steel six ounces Cassia lignea Cinnamon each two drams Cloves a dram Raisins two ounces with Sugar dissolved in Mugwort-water Or Take Troches of Mirrh a dram Extract of Gentian and Savin each a scruple Castor half a scruple make Pills give two scruples or give every third day Pills of Hiera Use outward Medicines but provoke not sweat by them Take Althaea and Lilly-roots each two ounces Birthwort an ounce Mallows Mercury Mugwort Savin Motherwort Calamint Penny-royal Marjoram Bayes each two handfuls flowers of Chamomil Lavender Cheir each a handful Foenugreek-seed an ounce Juniper and Bayberries each half a handful boil them in Water foment with Spunges And then anoint with this Take Oyl of Lillies an ounce of Lavender-seeds stilled half a dram Calamints and Gith-powder each a dram Storax Calamite a scruple To Virgins that must take no Pessaries give Fumes with the head defended they will open the mouths of the vessels and cut thick humors As Take Mirrh Bdellium Storax each a dram Benzoin two scruples Gallia moschata Ivet each half a scruple with liquid Storax make Troches Then use Clysters and Injections into the Womb with Purgers As Take Calamints Penny-royal each a handful Gith-seed Turbith each a dram Coloquintida half a dram boyl it in Wine inject it into the Womb. If it be hot after it inject the Decoction of Mallows with Milk or Barley-water And because the neck of the womb lies upon the strait gut give Clysters Take Lilly-roots an ounce Orris Valerian each half an ounce Mercury two handfuls Mugwort Savin each a handful Chamomil Lavender-flowers each a pugil Caraway Gith-seed each a dram boyl add Hiera and Benedicta laxativa each half an ounce Oyl of Cheir two drams Electuary of Bayberries half an ounce If she be no Virgin put Mercury bruised in a Bag for a Pessary with Centuary-flowers Or Garlick beaten with Oyl of Spike Begin still with the mildest as Mugwort Mercury Penny-royal Marjoram Rue and then add Mucilages and Juyces to loosen the womb let not Pessaries lie long lest they cause a Feaver If it be from a tumor provoke not the Terms but look to the tumor Let diet be hot and attenuating of good juyce with Parsley Savory Rosemary Cloves Cinnamon Little sleep and much exercise Question 1. Whether are the other Causes of stoppage of the Terms Some say the blood going to other parts is a cause but it is rather contrary and the suppression of terms is cause of that For the Veins of the Womb are large enough to evacuate blood Others say The strength of the womb is a cause which thickens the Vessels that they receive blood But the Womb is made to receive it when it abounds Others accuse the strength which is to be denied but when it is so strong that it is too hot or too dry and will not receive the blood and that is a sign of weakness But there must be strength in the whole body to cast out superfluous blood or there will be other mischiefs Question 2. What Veins must be opened when the Terms are stopt Authors disagree in this as Aetius and Galen Lib. de sang miss cap. 11 18 19. who alwaies speaks of the Ankle-veins and most are of his mind being it is rational For a Vein opened in the Arm doth rather revel from the Womb then draw the blood to it But in the Ankle brings it to its place and opens Obstructions and doth both lessen and bring blood to the womb and move that which is in the womb fixed Open the Ankle therefore twice or thrice Lib. de sang miss adver craesis rather then the Arm once Therefore Galen commends Hippocrates that he opened a Vein in the Ankle in the Servant of Schimarg though she had a Plethory But in other diseases of the womb as Inflammation dropping or too many terms it is good to open a vein in the Arm. The Saphaena is opened by putting the foot in warm water before and after Question 3. At what time must a Vein be opened against the stoppage of the Terms Galen saith It must be when Nature may be helped be the blood moved that is three or four daies before the usual time of their coming as if she had been always in the full of the Moon and they have been stopt some months Bleed three or four daies before the full to put Nature in mind of her duty and to make the blood run again Chap. 4. Of Fewness of the Terms IT is when they flow less then they use or ought to flow The Causes It is either from the blood or in the expulsive Faculty in the passages As if blood be little the terms are few and slow If the retentive Faculty is weak and the expulsive strong they come at due time but in small quantity If the terms are slow the fault is in the quality of the blood being too thick Also straitness of the passages may be a cause for if they be not wide enough the blood cannot flow freely The Signs The patient will tell the disease but the cause of it is to be found in the Chapter aforegoing Few Terms from little blood is not dangerous if they be stopt from thick blood The Prognostick there follow Diseases as Erysipelas Scirrhus or Cancer See the Chapter aforegoing for the Cure The Causes and if it be from thickness of blood it is often cured by a general purge for the whole Body Chap. 5. Of Dropping of the Terms THis is a Flux and lasts long and there is pain The blood flows not conveniently at the due time and manner and the privities are alwaies wet as when the urin drops Are from the blood and the passages of it The Causes and the retentive faculty as when the blood is too thick and sharp which stir up Nature to let it out and because it stretcheth the Membranes there is pain Also the weakness of the retentive faculty is a cause The women declare it The Signs but if it be from thick blood and sharp and straight passages there is a stretching pain about the womb If it be from crudity of blood and weakness of the retentive faculty the blood flows without pain and is not much felt It is troublesom to women and if it last long The Prognostick The Cure causeth Ulcers and Inflammations It is all in mending of the thick and sharp blood and in opening the passages which are the two chief causes of it of which
we spake at large If blood be superfluous loose it not nor open the Ankle-vein lest you draw it more to the Womb but take away the Cacochymy If it be from weakness of the retentive Faculty strengthen the womb with Dryers and Astringents Chap. 6. Of the overflowing of the Terms IT is when it is too much or too long and hurts any Woman and brings diseases but a certain proportion of bleeding is not to be defined but too much is lost when the actions are hurt The Causes Gal. 3. de symp Causis c. 2. 5. aph com 57. The immediate Cause is the opening of the Vessels and the immediate Cause is the blood in quantity or quality offending or by its force or disorderly motion Vessels are opened by Anastomisis Diapedesis Diaeresis or ruption or by Diaurosis or corrosion Anastomosis is from a moist distemper of the Vessels which loosneth the Orifices or from external causes as Baths hot and moist or use of Aloes The flux is seldom too great from a Diapedesis for it is but a sweating through Ruption is from Plethory when the terms have long been stopped and then break out and when the blood is hot by Air Baths c. The outward causes are falls strokes hard travel great burthens lifted Erosion is from sharp blood or humor or from Medicines that corode as Pessaries long kept For this great Flux is chiefly from the Veins in the bottom of the Womb. The Signs The Flux of Blood is too great when the strength abateth and Cachexy follows with paleness swollen feet and the blood that comes from the bottome of the Womb is blacker and clotted That from the neck redder and thinner The signs of the causes If it be from much blood there are signs of plethory and it easily clotted together If the blood be sharp and cholerick it is putrified in the womb you shall know waterish blood by its colour and the signs of that humour abounding and if you dip a clout in it and dry it in the shade you may see it If the womb be too moist such causes went before If it be from breaking of Veins they will tell you of violence If it be from corrosion it is little and slow sometimes pure sometimes serous It weakneth the whole Body The Prognostick the Liver and Bowels there is Swounding the Whites and paleness and Dropsie sometimes That which hath been long is hard to be cured and causeth death and in an old woman it is deadly If there be fulness abate the blood Indications and keep it from flowing to the womb revel it repel cool and astringe it that it may not flow so fast and then amend the blood If it is from plenty of blood The Cure open the Liver-veins in the right Arm bleed little and often because it makes better revulsion and weakens not open the Salvetella if there be weakness Gal. 5. aph com 50. and cup the Back and Breast against the Liver beneath the Paps where are Veins from the womb cup not beneath but in the Shoulders or Back and Arm with Scarification but scarifie not under the Breasts Bind and rub the arms and shoulders and temper and thicken the sharp thin humors with Decoctions and water of Plantane Purslane Sorrel Knot-grass Shepheards-purse Pomegranate-Syrup and of dried Roses Sorrel Purslane Coral Conserve of Roses Bole sealed Earth If it be urgent use Narcoticks Syrup of Poppies Treacle Philonium Laudanum If it still continue it is fed with Choler therefore purge it with Syrup of Roses Manna Rhubarb Senna If it be fed with serous blood help the Reins that do not their duty and the Liver and sweat with China You must not provoke urin but use astringents As Take the juyce of Ass-dung Syrup of Mirtles each half an ounce Plantane-water an ounce Give it her and let her not know what it is Decoctions Take Comfrey-roots Tormentil each two drams Purslane Plantane each a handful boil them add to six ounces Syrup of Currans Quinces Mirtles each six drams give it at twice Or Take Syrup of Purslane juyce of Nettles each two ounces Purslane-water four ounces Troches of Amber of sealed Earth each a dram Blood-stone half a dram give two spoonfuls every day A Water Take eight pints of water with Starch Barley-meal and Rice dried Roses a handful juyce of Yarrow Plantane each half a pint Comfrey-roots and all three ounces Horstail Blood-wort each half a handful Pears and Quinces Pomegranate-flowers all Sanders each half an ounce Mastich an ounce Distil them and give two ounces with half an ounce of Syrup of Roses or Purslane Electuaries Conserve of Roses two ounces Quinces an ounce and half Troches of burnt Ivory and sealed Earth each a dram Crocus Martis Bole red coral prepared Mastich each half a dram with Syrup of Mirtles make an Electuary Powders Take Mastich red Coral prepared each a dram Pearl Smaragds prepared each a scruple Blood-stone half a scruple Bole half a dram make a powder Michael Paschal cured many with this Powder Lib. de curat morb cap. 55. Take two Egg-shells burnt Frankincense Mastich each half an ounce Pearl red Coral and Amber each two drams Blood-stone Smaragds prepared each half a scruple Barley-flour two pugils whites of four Eggs with steeled water make Cakes Give from half a dram to a dram in powder with Trotter-broath in the morning Or give every day a dram of the powder of Mulberry-tree roots Or Ex petrafores to Take plump Turtle drawn and pluckt wash it in Rose-water and red Wine put an ounce of Mastich in the belly of it stick it on and roast it and bast it with Vinegar of Roses Then put it into a glass close luted to be dried in an Oven then beat all of it to powder Give a spoonful with Plantane-water or an astringent Decoction Anoint the bottome of the Belly Reins and Groyns with the dropping of it Or make Rouls thus Take Bole half a dram Magistery of Coral a dram Pearl prepared a scruple Sorrel and Plantane-seed each half a dram Aromatiacum rosatum Traganth each half a dram with Sugar dissolved in Plantane-water make Rouls In the use of cold Astringents take heed you stop not the Veins and the heat be cooled If these help not use Narcoticks as Troches of sealed Earths and Amber with Opium these astringe also Use no Pessaries except the Veins in the neck of the Womb be open As Take Snakeweed Tormentil each half an ounce Pomegranate-flowers Plantane-seed each two drams Comfry-roots half an ounce Frankincense Mastich each a dram Acacia Sanguis Draconis each two scruples Blood-stone Starch each a dram and half with the white of an Egg and Gum traganth dissolved in Rose-water make Pessaries with red Silk Womb-Clysters Take juyce of Yarrow Solomons-seal each two ounces Mucilage of Gum Arabick made in Plantane-water two ounces make a Clyster A Fume Take Frankincense Mastich each two drams Mirtles Labdanum each a
Diarrhodon a dram Sanders a scruple Coriander two drams Mastich Coral each a dram with Sugar make Troches But use not these Astringents till the Body be purged lest the waterish humors be stopt and the Belly swell but you may use hot Dryers safely as Treacle Mithridate with Conserve of Roses and Wormwood As Take Conserve of Rosemary-flowers an ounce Diacorus two drams Diarrhodon Aromaticum Rosatum each a dram red Coral prepared a dram and half Treacle two drams with syrup of Citron-peels make an Electuary And left the womb be hurt with evil humors inject the Decoction of Barley Honey of Roses and Whey with Syrup of dried Roses Or of Wormwood Mints Motherwort red Roses Allum And then use a Fume of Frankincense Labdanum Mastich Sanders Nutmeg red Roses Avoid crude and moist things and Fish Milk and all sweet Meats and Salt Forbear Suppers drink red Wine sleep and wake moderately lie not upon the Back lest the Loyns be heated and the humors sent to the Womb. Question Whether are Diureticks good in the Whites Diureticks that provoke urin do also provoke terms therefore the reliques of the humors would be carried by them to the womb but these move the terms secondarily but if the Body be well purged first they will not make the Flux greater but bring it out by urin Chap. 13. Of a Gonorrhoea THe running of the Reins may be in all women that are fit for a man for it is the flux of natural Seed It is in men and women from the French Pox but when stinking humors do flow it is not properly called a Gonorrhoea The Causes The chief cause is the weakness of the retentive faculty and the loosness and largeness of the Seed-vessels the Causes of these are shewed in the Gonorrhoea of men The Signs The Woman will declare it and the greatness and the colour For if it be white and little and thick and at distance it is a true Gonorrhoea The Prognostick The Cure If it continue it brings a Consumption and Barrenness The Cure of a Gonorrhoea and night pollution is Pract. 3. but I shall add this if it come from plenty of Seed The Buds of the Salix or Willow is good with Wine If it be from weakness of the retentive faculty give Caster half a scruple and use Astringents to the Belly Reins and Stones or a Bath of Willow-leaves Mirtles Quinces each two handfuls Rosemary red Roses each a handful Cypress-nuts three ounces Let her sit in up to the Navel And apply Bags of the same to the Loyns Kidnies Privities and anoint after with Oyl of Mastich and Mirtles Chap. 14. Of strange things voided by the Womb. THere is matter often voided by the Womb of which before And sometimes stones and gravel breed in the womb Hippoc. 5. epid letr 4. ser 4. c. 98. as Aetius and Peter Salius Diversus speaks of a Nun that after a pain that no Medicine could cure voided a rough stone as big as a Ducks Egg and then she was at ease but a foul Flux of the Womb followed of which she died Worms Garcias Lopius writes that he saw a woman Lib. var. lect c. 13. that voided many Ascarides of the Womb. THE FOURTH BOOK THE THIRD SECTION Of the Symptoms that befal all Virgins and Women in their Wombs after they are ripe of Age. Chap. 1. Of Virginity IT is the integrity of Womens Privities not violated by Man but what are the signs of Virginity is a Question I think thus Question 1. Whether doth the Hymen which is the sign of Virginity appear in all Women Some say there is no such thing and if a Membrane be there it is preternatural and a disease in the Organ called the Closing of the Womb. Some famous Physitians and Anatomists say There is a Hymen which is the sign of Virginity It is they say a Membrane wrinkled with Caruncles like Mirtle-berries like the bud of a Rose half blown hence came the word Deflower I think with the Ancients that there is something in these parts that distinguisheth Virgins from Women which is violated in the first Copulation many say they have it and we may believe them For it is certain that there is an alteration at first in Virgins which causeth pain and bleeding which is a sign of Virginity But what this is it is not yet known manifestly Some say it is a nervous Membrane with small Veins which bleed at the first bout Some say there are four Caruncles tied together with small Membranes Some have observed a fleshy Circle about the Nymphae with obscure little Veins which makes the Membrane not to be nervous but fleshy To be short I suppose it to be certain that the part which receives the Yard is not in them that have used a man as in Virgins nor is it alike in all and this hath caused the diversity of Opinions in Anatomists Moreover this is not found in all Virgins because some are very lustful and when it itcheth they put in their finger or some other thing and break the Membrane sometimes the Midwives break it Question 2. Whether do all Virgins at the first bout our Copulation bleed The Africans had a Custome to shut the Bridegroom and the Bride up in a Chamber Ex Leone Africans after they were married till they prepared the Wedding-dinner And an Old Woman stood at the door to receive a bloody sheet from the Bridegroom that she might shew it in triumph to all the Guests and that then they might feast with joy And if there was no Blood to be seen the Bride was to be sent home to her Friends with disgrace and the Guests went sadly home without their Dinner Some say from Experience that some honest Virgins have lost their Maiden-heads without bleeding and that it is a certain sign of Virginity when they bleed and when they do not they are not to be censured as unchast I hold that young Virgins will bleed but when they are in years by reason of the long continuance of the Terms the parts are harder and longer and if the mans yard be small there is no necessity of bleeding Or if the Girle was wanton afore and by long handling hath dilated the part or broke it there is no blood after Copulation Therefore Deut. chap. 20. the Law of Moses is taken for that which hapneth often and for the most part And there can be no more gathered from hence but bleeding is an undoubted sign of Virginity The same may be said of the African Custome Question 3. Whether is the straitness of the Privities a sign of Virginity The Privities are straiter in some according to age habit of body and other circumstances and Virgins are straiter then VVomen that have been at it But I deny that straitness is a certain Argument of Virginity For after many acts of Venery it may be made so strait by astringent Medicines that Whores may be taken for Virgins as
month especially if they have no Feaver and are strong As Celsus saith A strong Child and a lusty old Man and a healthy Woman with Child Lib. 2. c. 10. may be safely let blood And Hippocrates forbids bleeding only lest the child should want nourishment Question 3. Whether may a Woman with Child be purged You must not give strong Purges lest their force which moveth the humors should reach to the womb and cast out the child Therefore you must not purge women with child in all diseases nor at all times but only in the fourth month till the seventh and that sparingly And if the matter swell and abound 4. Aph. 1. as Hippocrates shews For the danger from the turgent matter is easily avoided thereby for it will be purged with more ease then when it is fixed and quiet 1. Therefore only purge in an acute disease 2. From the beginning of the fourth only to the end of the sixth 3. Use no vehement Medicine nor very bitter as Aloes which is an enemy to the child and opens the mouths of the vessels nor Coloquintida nor Scammony nor Turbith but use Caffia Manna Rhubarb Agarick and Senna but Diacydonium purgans is best with a little of the Electuary of the juyce of Roses If there be a chronick disease she may also be purged safely especially if she be used to it and strengthners be applyed to the navel Question 4. Whether Purging or Bleeding is most dangerous for a Woman with Child We shewed in the last Question the necessity of purging and its danger by the great motion of humors which if it reach to the womb causeth abortion because it causeth pain in the belly and provokes the terms But bleeding disturbs the humors less nor doth hurt any way but by taking nourishment from the child And this you need not fear if there be too much blood Therefore purging is more dangerous then bleeding Question 5. Whether it is lawful to cause an Abortion to preserve the Mother A Christian may not cause an Abortion for any cause for it is wicked and the Gentiles in Hippocrates his time never allowed it they would not hinder Conception much less would they destroy it when made Nor must the mother be preserved by the loss of the child For we must not do evil that good may come thereby But if to preserve the mother the Physitian purge or bleed and the abortion follow the fault is not in the Physitian that intended it not but in the weakness of Nature and of the Child and is better to preserve the Mother then by neglecting the lawful means let both die Also the dead child must presently be thrown out Question 6. Whether are Clysters Diureticks and Sweats proper for a Woman with Child Though women deny Clysters to them yet if they have been used to them they may be given in a small quantity such as only mollifie and supple nor do they more hurt then Lenitives Diureticks or things that provoke Urine are not safe because they provoke the Terms You may not give gentle Sweats for Nature will receive strength by the casting off of her enemies You must use Alterers that are proper as this Syrup Take the juyce of unripe Grapes about the beginning of September three galons add Pomecitrons or Lemons bruised half a pound boil them till they are soft and strain them and with half a pound of Sugar make a Syrup Chap. 4. Of the Symptoms that befal Women with Child in the first Months THey are loathing meat Pica or evil appetite pewking vomiting belly-ach flux of the belly tooth and head-ach giddiness These all come from the stoppage of the terms especially in a Cacochymy or evil juyce for it goes to the stomach and so to the head First They loath meat 5. Apho. 45. which Hippocrates saith is a sign of Conception And this is when the child takes the purest blood and leaves the impure which gets into the mouth of the stomach and infects it and hence comes the loathing of some sorts of meats Sometimes this ceaseth of it self but if there be danger of a Consumption in the mother lest the child should be in danger for want of food give a gentle Vomit or Stomach-Pills with things that strengthen the Stomach As Take Conserâ—â— of red Roses half an ounce of Bettony an ounce preserved Quinces three drams Aromaticum Rosatum half a dram Pearl prepared half a scruple with Syrup of green Ginger and Quinces make an Electuary Anoint the stomach with oyl of Mastich Mints Quinces Wormwood Mirtles c. Give astringents and powerful things with meat and let it be roasted rather then boyled Pica is when they desire strange and absurd things as Coals Ashes c. As she that longed for her husbands flesh and though she loved him very well she killed him eat part and powdered up the rest Of this disease we spake in the third Book Juyce of young Vine-leaves with Syrup of Quinces is good against this or the water that drops in May from the Vines This keeps the child from suffering by the mothers appetite Or this Spirit Take Citron-peels Oranges Piony-roots as much as you please and Malmsey digest them some dayes then beat the roots and peels add more Malmsey and distil them The third is loathing and vomiting from an evil vapour or humour in the stomach from blood retained If vomiting give her ease stop it not but leave it to nature it will cease after a month or two If it be with trouble give a gentle Vomit or strengthen the stomach or give a little Rhubarb The fourth is pain of the belly from wind and humors about the womb that go to the guts discuss them as in Chap. 3. Of the Cholick Avoid moist Fomentations give Cinnamon-water or spiced wine The fifth is a loosness which must be suddenly stopt lest it cause an abortion First Hippocr 5. Aphor. 34. give a gentle cleanser and strengthener as Rhubarb with syrup of Roses solutive then Quinces at the first course at meals and Rice Starch Almonds Conserve of Roses Quinces Apply to the navel a Pultis of Quinces Mastich Nutmegs Mace Cloves The sixth is the Tooth-ach from a sharp humor from retention of the terms that goes to the root of some tooth and hurts the membranes It ceaseth commonly of it self yet if it be great use a Plaister of Mastich and Tacamahacca to the temples and hold in the mouth the decoction of Fern-roots Cinquefoyl Snakeweed Sage Mulberry-barks c. The seventh is Head-ach when the vapors from the terms stopt ascend and twitch the membranes of the brain it must be repelled and abated with Lenitives of which in Lib. 1. Part 3. Sect. 1. Cap. 3. Of Head-ach The eighth of the Megrim from the vapors disturbing the Spirits that go to the head by the veins and arteries or by the gullet If it cease not discuss vapors and strengthen the brain inwardly and outwardly as in Vertigo
Conserve of red Roses two drams red Coral and Mastich each a scruple give it presently Use the Countesses Oyntment outwardly to the Loyns Reins Pecten and Perinaeum Or Take Oyl of Roses Mirtles Mastich Quinces each two ounces Oyl of Mints an ounce Bdellium dissolved in Vinegar liquid Storax each two ounces Oyl of Nutmegs by expression a dram with Wax make an Oyntment Of the same with Pitch Rosin Colophony you may make Plaisters Let her hold a Load-stone in her hand or tie it to her navel or wear an Eagle-stone under her Arm-pits or Coral Jaspar Smaragds Diamonds If these will not keep the Child up you must give over Astringents and use Lenitives Question Whether the straitness of the Womb is the cause of Abortion Hippocrates 1. de morb saith Lib. de super lib. de steril That the Womb may cause Abortion if they be windy thick great or little And he shews in another place That Abortion may be from the straitness of the womb And in another place he saith 3. De nat fac c. 12. If a woman in the third fourth or fifth month miscarry often and at the same time it is because the womb will not stretch And Galen confirms the same and it stands to reason for natural birth is when the womb cannot contain the child for its growth Therefore if it be preternaturally too little it is the cause of Abortion And though Nature hath made the womb to hold the child yet if it be not made large enough it cannot contain it so the stomach is sometimes so strait that it cannot hold an indifferent quantity of meat as others can Chap. 3. Of the Signs of Natural Birth and the manner and government of such as bring forth AT her time of her being to be delivered let her take heed of astringents and thickners but let her eat meat of easie concoction and of good juyce and sit every fourth day in a hot Bath Of Mallows Foenugreek Linseed Mugwort and Chamomil-flowers and after let her back loyns belly and privities be anointed with the Mucilage of Althaea-seed and Oyl of Lillies and let the child be strengthned But when she hath pains from the navel to the groyns and in the back then the ligaments and vessels are broken by which the child grows to the womb And because the Womb violently strains to discharge it the membranous fibres are extended and commonly there are very great pains and throws or the child will not be born and it is an evil sign when throws cease because the expulsive faculty is weakned And let not the Midwife provoke throws till the time When the Membranes are broken the water flows out that comes from the urin and sweat of the child first little then more then waterish blood and the orifice of the womb begins to open to let out the child And before this time you must not provoke throws Then let the Midwife put her finger into the orifice of the womb and she shall perceive something round and hard as an Egg. Let her not lie on her back flat but with her back up that she may breathe more freely After the child is born you must press the blood in the Navel-vessels towards the navel of the Infant and take heed that you lose not much blood in cutting of the Navel-string for it hath destroyed weak children and you must labour to fetch out the Secundine with the child and if it be in the womb anoint your hands with warm Oyl and put them into the womb and fetch it out Chap. 5. Of Natural hard Travel THough Child-bearing since Eves sin is ordained to be painful as a punishment thereof yet sometimes it is more painful then ordinary The first is from the mother The Causes and the expulsive faculty 2. From the Child 3. From the passage From the mother as when the womb is weak and the mother is not active to expel from weakness or diseases or want of spirits of which Hippocrates It is from the Birth when they are Twins or more and both strive to go forth at a time 5. Aphor. 55. or if the child stick to a Mole or be so weak that it cannot break the membrane or if it be too big all over or in the head only or if the Navel-vessels are twisted about his neck It is from the passages when the membranes are thick the orifice too strait Fabric cent 3. obs 57. and the neck of the womb is not open sufficiently as in such as labour of the first child or are very fat The passages are pressed and straitned by tumors in the adjacent parts or when the bones are too firm and will not open then the mother and child are both in danger or when the passages are not slippery or when they are broken too soon by reason of the thin membranes or the water flows forth sooner then it ought You may know hard travel by faint throws The Signs that come at a great distance And you must consider all things concerning the Mother Womb and child The Prognostick In hard Travel the mother and child are in danger and the Perinaeum sometimes breaks with the skin from the Privities to the Arse-hole If a woman be four dayes in Travel the child scarce escapes The Cure All things that move the Terms are good to make easie delivery As Myrrh white Amber in white Wine or Lilly-water two scruples or a dram some give a drop of Oyl of Amber in Vervain-water or a scruple of mineral Borax or half a dram but begin with gentle things as a spoonful of Cinnamon-water Or Take Cassia Lignea Dittany each a dram Cinnamon half a dram Saffron a scruple make a Powder give a dram Or Take Borax mineral a dram Cassia Lignea a scruple Saffron six grains give it in Sack Or Take Cassia Lignea a dram Dittany Amber each half a dram Cinnamon Borax each a dram and half Saffron a scruple give half a dram Or give some drops of Oyl of Hazel in convenient Liquor or two or three drops of Oyl of Cinnamon in Vervain-water some prepare the secundine thus Take the Navel-string and dry it in an Oven Take two drams of the Powder Cinnamon a dram Saffron half a scruple with juyce of Savin make Troches give two drams or wash the Secundine in Wine and bake it in a pot then wash it in Endive-water and wine Take half a dram of it long Pepper Galangal each half a dram Plantane and Endive-feed each a dram and half Lavender-seed four scruples make a Powder Or Take Labdanum two drams Storax calamite Benzoin each half a dram Musk and Amber-grease each six grains make a Powder or Troches for a fume Or use Pessaries to provoke the Birth Take Galbanum dissolved in Vinegar an ounce Myrrh two drams Saffron a dram with Oyl of Orris make a Pessary An Oyntment for the Pecten and Navel Take Oyl of Keir two ounces juyce of
prevent Symptomes To take away pain and strengthen the parts foment with the Decoction of Mugwort Mallows Rosemary Wormwood Mirtles St. Johns-wort each half an ounce Sperma Ceti two drams Deers-suet an ounce with Wax make an Oyntment Or Take Wax four ounces Sperma Ceti an ounce melt them dip Flax therein and lay it all over the belly In some Countries women will not permit these but leave all to God Chap. 9. Of the Caesarean-Birth THe belly and womb are cut sometimes to take out the child and this is called the Caesarean-Birth and they that live are called Caesar It is done in three cases 1. When the child is dead and the woman alive 2. When the woman is dead and the child alive 3. When both mother and child are alive This is seldom because either Medicines do it or it is taken out by other Chyrurgery or the work is left to Nature Enchirid. consul medic p. 188. Mathias Cornax hath a History of one that carried a dead child in her belly four years it was taken out by cutting the womb and belly and the mother lived and conceived with child after she fainted not at the time and the wound grew together without stitching and her terms after came in good order and she had a lusty Boy till the second of June The Surgeons that had cut her afore were sent for and the old orifice was open and the mother and the women present would not yield to the second cutting Therefore her strength failed and the Chyrurgion took out a compleat child but it was dead There are more Histories of live children cut out of their mothers bellies being dead And Roderick à Castro saith Pin. lib. 7. hist. nat c. 90. Rod. à Castry lib. 4. de morbis mul. c. 1. Augen lib. 5. epit 2. 11. That an Infant cannot live in the Mothers womb being dead except it be taken out at the very time of her departure or while there are vital Spirits because when the motion and life of the mother ceases the life of the child also ceaseth yet is his Argument of no force because the child hath its proper Soul and if it be well it may live a while in the womb without benefit from the mother as it doth when it is delivered But take heed it be not suffocated in the womb and keep the mothers mouth open and let the Midwife never move her hand from the Privities Lib. 3. de disect part cor hum c. 1. till the Chyrurgion have taken it out and you may know that the child is alive when the mother is dead by its leaping Charles Stephens shews the way of taking out a dead child When a live child is cut out of the belly of a live mother it is done only lest the mother or child or both should die And this may be done and both preserved alive which is plainly demonstrated by Francis Rousset in his Book of this subject so that there is no doubt of it For first he shews the necessity of the Operation and next the possibility of it shewing that the muscles of the belly the Peritonaeum and Womb may be cut without hazard of life Thirdly He confirms by History what he proved by reason and shews that many wounds of the muscles in the lower belly Peritonaeum and Womb have been cured Fourthly He propounds many more dangerous cases then the Caesarean Section which were not deadly in themselves And then he shews the manner of the operation and how it is to be done Therefore have recourse to his works if thou wilt learn it THE FOURTH BOOK THE SEVENTH SECTION Of the Government of Women in Child-bed of the Diseases that come after Travel Chap. 1. Of the Government of Women in Child-bed PResently after she is delivered labour to make the After-birth follow of which in the Chapter following then compose her in Bed and give her good Food Let the Air be temperate rather hot then cold Let her beware of Cold that it get not into the Womb it will cause torment and inflammations If Travel be hard anoint the belly and sides with Oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies and warm Wine Let her meat be of a good juyce and easie concoction Hen-broath and Chickens and Capons Kid Mutton Veal let her drink thin Wine if there be no Feaver or Cinnamon boyled in water the first daies drunk warm Let there be no noise about her and let her not rise too soon avoid passions lest the humors be stirred and fall into some part If she cannot or will not suckle her child turn the milk from the breast by repellers under the Arm-pits as Unguent of Roses Cerot of Sanders dissolved in Vinegar and to the breasts apply a Cataplasm of Bean and Orobus-flour with Oxymel or foment the breasts with the decoction of Mints Dill Smallage or lay the leaves bruised upon them Before she goes forth let her bathe with a Decoction of Lilly-roots Elicampane Mugwort Agrimony Borage Rosemary Chamomil-flowers Stoechas Faenugreek Linseed Citron-peels Chap. 2. Of the Secundine or After-birth or a Mole that is left after Child-bearing THese stick in the bottom of the womb or like a ball to another part the mouth of the womb being open or closed It is not safe to cut the After-birth from the The Causes Navel till both be come forth therefore draw it out with breaking of the Navel-string this is retained because it grows to the sides of the womb or is swollen by hard travel or because the Navel-string is broken by the Infants straining or from cold air got in or from a fright or from her not having throws fit to exclude it or because she is impatient and will not continue in a due posture The Signs The Midwife will declare it and the purgation is not the belly swells there is a Feaver and heaviness and pain in the belly there is a stink and loathing from stinking vapors difficult breathing Suffocation and Convulsion The Prognostick Many die from the retaining of it if it cannot come forth when matter flows from the womb there is hope that they will rot and come away in sixty daies The Cure First let the Midwife draw it gently with her hand and use sneesing then burn Partridge-feathers to the nose and Goats-hoofs as in the suffocation of the Womb. Then use things that expel a dead child Dittany Oyl of wood Heracleon after Preparatives Or Take Marjoram Chervil Penny-royal each a handful Savin half a handful Anise and Fennel-seed each half a dram Lovage and Parsley-roots each three drams boyl them in water for three draughts Or Take Dittany Troches of Myrrh Borax each half a dram Saffron Castor each a scruple make a Powder Or Take round Birthwort two scruples Myrrh a scruple make a Powder give it in Wine Make Pessaries of Mugwort Mercury Sage Orris in Powder with Oyl of Keir Or Take round Birthwort Savin Briony Ox-gall and Honey and
6. Of the tearing of the Vulva to the Arse and coming forth of the Womb Inflammation Ulcer Suffocation and falling out of the Fundament THe tearing is in hard travel Par. Sectiâ— 1. Cap. 1. when the mother is tender and the child great of which before The womb comes forth from the violent extraction of the child or after-birth which the ligaments are stretched Part 1. Sect. 2. Cap. 15. The Cure is mentioned but you must not hinder the after-flux by astringents let her therefore rest and lie on her back with her feet drawn up with sweets to her nose and stinks to the womb so the womb will be retained and the flux continued after this is past you may use Astringents If there be Inflamation from hard Travel hinder not the after-flux of blood by Coolers If it turn to an ulcer let the after-flux flow and then cure it Suffocation after Child-bearing is from the stinking after-blood which sends up stinking vapors which kill many It is cured by Friction of the leggs Ligatures and Cupping with Scarification applying stinks to the nose as Castor Partridge-feathers burnt Rue And applying Sweets to the Privities You must cure the falling out of the Fundament from straining in Delivery as formerly shewed Chap. 7. Of Watching Doting and Epilepsie of Women in Child-bed THese are from the motion of the blood and humors when the after-blood flows not kindly and there is a Feaver of which in the first Book And from vapors sent from the womb there is an Epilepsie which is cured by Revulsion of vapors and humors downwards and perfect Evacuation of the After-blood which done all these Symptoms cease Chap. 8. Of the Swelling of the Womb Belly and Feet after Child-bearing IT is commonly from cold gotten into the womb and the belly sometimes swells as if there were another child It is cured by hysterical or mother Fomentations or with the skin of a new slain sheep and hard wine if in Travel they keep a bad dyet or drink too much the humors go into wind and if they fall into the Legs they swell then take heed of much drink and after the flux is is past make Evacuation with things that expel wind As Take Coleworts and Chamomil each as you please boyl them in Wine and foment the parts Or Take Wormwood Southernwood Bettony Calamints Organ Chamomil-flowers Aniseeds Rue Caraway as much as will serve for a Fomentation for the Feet Chap. 9. Of Vomiting Loosness Belly bound and not holding of Urine in Women in Child-bed THey cast up crude and indigested meat sometimes Hip. 1. de nat mulier from weakness of the stomach by consent from the womb or from the humors that came to the stomach from the parts near the womb when the after-flux doth not flow they sometimes vomit blood or when it is disordered For the blood not getting out goes to the great Veins and Liver and in its hollow part by plenty and sharp it opens the Veins and it gets into the Stomach Sometimes a Vein is broken from hard Travel Hip. 1. de morb mul. It is bad of what cause soever it comes for the strength will fail and there will be no matter to make milk of if the food be vomited If other humors they may cause a Feaver by their motion If blood be vomited from a Vein of the Liver broken or opened a Dropsie is to be feared therefore stop it whatsoever it be in this case If it be of the meat give that which will be easily digested that oppress not the stomach which must be strengthened If bad humors are vomited up stop it not so soon but cleanse with gentle Medicines and open the way by stool In vomiting blood make Revulsion to the lower parts by rubbing cupping them or bleeding in the ham or ankle and provoke the After-flux The Flux of the Belly is dangerous if it be great for it weakneth and threatneth to bring a Dysentery or Tenasmus or Neesing Nor is it safe to stop it presently lest you stop the After-flux with it If it be from food nor well concocted let her keep a better dyet and let the stomach be strengthened outwardly If this will not do give internal remedies so that they help the stomach and hurt not the womb as the Decoction of Barley Syrup and Honey of Roses Give Clysters also to temper the sharp humors and cleanse Or give Syrup of Roses Pulp of Tamarinds or Rhubarb And Astringents of Roses Plantane Tormentil Quinces Coral and the like If they be wholly stopt the belly must not be bound But first give Rhubarb and Astringents outwardly and provokers of the Terms Also the belly is bound in women in Child-bed then give a Suppository of Soap or Honey and after four or five dayes give emollient Clysters and Manna or Cassia If they cannot hold their Urin after hard Travel use a Bath of Bettony Sage Bayes Rosemary Penny-royal Organ Stoechas and presently after anoint with this Take fat Puppy-dogs boyled in Oyl of Worms Lillies and Foxes till the flesh fall from the bones then take the Fatt and add Frankincense Storax calamite Benzoin Opopanax Mace each a dram Oyl of Nutmegs by expression half a dram with Goose-grease and Wax make an Oyntment Chap. 10. Of the Wrinkles of the Belly after Child-bearing and mending of the largeness of the Privities AFter the fourth month Women prevent wrinkles by carrying a clout upon the belly dipt in Oyl of sweet Almonds Jesamine Oyl of Lillies to loosen the skin that it may stretch better without clefts If the Belly be already wrinkled Tetrabi 4. Serm. 4. 112. Take Sheeps-suet Goats-suet Oyl of sweet Almonds each an ounce Sperma Ceti two drams with Wax make an Oyntment After the flux is past add Oyl of Mastich or Roses or make Aetius his Cataplasm Chap. 11. Of Feavers and acute Diseases in Women in Child-bed THey have often continual Feavers The first is the Feaver of Milk about the fourth or third day from the motion of the blood from the womb to the breasts it is not of many dayes continuance and is not dangerous But take heed you mistake not a putrid Feaver for a Milk-feaver for labour and pain sometimes inflame the humors and cause putrefaction and though the Symptomes appear not the next day after delivery yet there may be the beginning of putrefaction from the heat of the humors in Travel especially if the after-flux be stopt from which time you must count the beginning of the diseases For a Feaver cannot be long concealed nor the motion from Travel last long therefore it is probable the motion is ceased and the Feaver comes of another cause which I shall declare presently The Causes They are the stoppage of the After-flux or the diminishing of it or the foul humors that were gathered in the time of being with child and stirred in Travel Too great purging of the After-blood or Lochia signifies Cacochymy or
if as oft as they lie in they have no milk and the breasts are small and wrinkled or if Medicines to keep down the breasts have been applied she will tell you or if it be from weakness of the child or passions of mind The inconvenience is little to the Nurse The Prognostick but great to the Child therefore get another Nurse or cure her To breed milk The Cure give things that breed much and good blood of easie concoction Medicines to breed milk are Fennel-roots and all green things that heat and are not very dry which are few but infinite are they that hinder milk as things hot and dry and cold things These increase Milk Roots of Smallage Seeds of Parsley Dill Basil Anise Rocket Earth-worms washt in juyce of Fennel and dried or burnt in a pot a dram or two fasting for some mornings or Crystal or Milk-stone a dram Compounds are Take green Fennel Parsley each a handful Barley two pugils red Pease half an ounce boyl them and with Sugar sweeten them or in Chicken-broath Or Take green Fennel six drams Barley two pugils boyl them in Broath and strain them Or Take Fennel-seed six drams Anise a dram and half Rocket-seed half a dram give a dram or two in Broath Or Take Cows Udder sliced dry it in an Oven and powder it Take half a pound of it Anise Fennel-seed each an ounce Cummin-seed two ounces Sugar four ounces make a Powder Hot Fomentations open the Breast and attract Blood as the Decoction of Fennel Smallage or stampt Mints applied Or Take Fennel and Parsley green each a handful boyl and stamp them add Barley-meal half an ounce Gith-seeed a dram Storax calamite two drams Oyl of Lillies two ounces make a Pultis A Dropax and Synapisme or Plaister of Mustard are good if often changed Chap. 2. Of too much Milk THis is when much blood flows to the Breasts and the Mother will not give suck or weans the Child for the Infant cannot suck it as fast as it breeds when there is much blood and good breasts that cannot make Milk The Prognostick Arist. 7. De hist ani c. 12. The Cure If Milk be kept and cannot be sucked out by the Child these are swellings inflammations pains curdlings and corruption Children that suck much if they be full bodied have a Convulsion The first coming of Milk is not to be stopt but when there is more then the Child can suck it is abated with a slender diet of little nourishment as Barley Pot-herbs-water By letting blood or cupping or by Repellers to the veins under the arms above the breasts Mints Calamints Smallage Agnus-castus Coriander Hemlock to abate Milk Mints and Smallage are doubted Compounds Take Smallage Mints Mallows Mercur. Plat. Dioscor dissentiunt each a handful Foenugreek Cummin-seed each half an ounce Chamomil Melilot-flowers each a pugil boyl them and foment add a little Wine or make a Pultis of them with Bean-flour and Oxymel Or Take Cummin-seed boyl it in Vinegar and with a Spunge foment They which will not give suck let them foment with this Decoction Take Mallows Bays Fennel Smallage Parsley Mints each half a handful anoint after with Oyl Omphacine Then take Turpentine washed with Wine and Rose-water three ounces Eggs two or three Saffron a scruple with Wax make a Plaister with a hole in the middle repeat it alwayes before Supper If you fear inflammation by too great a flux of Milk repel with a Cataplasm of Lettice Water-Lillies Poppies Housleek Or Take Turpentine washt with Mint-water three ounces Cummin-seed Orris Mints each half an ounce Saffron a scruple with Wax make a Cerot Chap. 3. Of Curdling and other faults in the Milk IF it stay long in the breasts the thin evaporates and the thick remains and hardens the kernels hence are hard tumors because the cheesie part of the Milk is apt to harden Sometimes Milk is too thick or too thin sharp salt or the like The Signs The tumor from Milk curdled is known by the plenty of Milk retained that make clefts and pain and little tumors The Prognostick The Cure If curdled Milk be strong in the Breasts it easily turns to an Imposthume and Inflammation To hinder curdling Take Powder of Mints Coriander-seed each two ounces Oyl of Dill an ounce with Wax make a Liniment Or Take Oyl of Mints Chamomil Dill Rue each an ounce To dissolve curdled Milk Take Fennel-roots Eryngus each an ounce Mints a handful green Fennel half a handful Aniseed a dram boyl them to a pint add Syrup of the two Roots and Oxymel each two ounces Foment with the Decoction of Fennel Dill Southernwood Chamomil Melilot-flowers Fenugreek Linseed Parsley-seed Smallage or stamp them or Mints with Butter and apply it If it be hard Take Mints Colewort Bran each a handful boyl them in Vinegar and apply them Or Take juyce of Smallage Dill Coleworts each a handful boyl them soft and bruise them add powder of Mirrh Orris each two drams Saffron a dram Oyl of Rue an ounce Vinegar an ounce and half make a Pultis Chap. 4. Of Milk coming forth at wrong places MIlk hath been known to come forth with the Urin or by the Womb by which passage is the doubt the short way is from the Breasts-veins to the Epigastrick-veins from the Epigastrick to the Hypogastrick and so to the Womb rather then from the Pap-veins to the breast-veins and so the Hypogastrick and so to the womb Chap. 5. Of strange things coming forth of the Breasts SOmetimes matter comes forth of the Nipples when they have long ulcers Schenkius lib. 2. ex observat Bauhini Amat Lusit cent 2. cur 21. and after the ulcer is healed it ceaseth Sometimes the Terms have come forth of the Breasts at set Periods of which Hippocrates When Blood comes forth at the Nipples there is Madness Amatus Lusitanus knew two Noble Women that were so and not Mad. And Hippocrates doth not speak of the Terms but of other blood that is hot and flies to the Head and causeth Madness and part of it goes to the Breast and causeth pain and inflammation which shews madness at hand It is cured by opening the Saphena in the Foot to revel the blood The Cure Chap. 6. Of the change of colour in the Nipples and pain of the Breasts THe change of colour in the Nipples is not a sign of the loss of Virginity for they are blew in them that give suck black in old women and in them that have known Venery it is natural and red as a Strawberry Now because there is a great consent between the Womb and Breasts if the Womb be distempered the Nipples are discoloured The pain in the breasts is from stretching by much milk and inflammation or from corrosion and twitching from sharp matter as in the Cancer and other Ulcers The cause of the pain is known from the distemper If it be from much milk it is a gentle
pain If from inflammation it is stronger If from a Cancer it is very great How these pains are cured is shewed in their Chapters A TRACTATE Of the CURE OF INFANTS THE FIRST PART Of the Diet and Government of INFANTS Chap. 1. Of the Choice of the Nurse THE blood that nourished the Child in the Womb is turned into Milk to nourish him after he is born because he can eat no solid meats And because from weakness or a Disease the mother sometimes cannot suckle her child she must have a Nurse of good habit of body and red complexion which is the sign of the best temper and let her not differ much from the temper of the mother unless it be for the better let her be between twenty and thirty well bred and peaceable not angry melancholy or foolish not lecherous nor a drunkard Let it not be after her first child and let not her milk be too old or too new of ten months old at the most Let her breasts be well fashioned with good Nipples that the child may take them with pleasure Let her keep a good diet and abstain from hard wine and copulation and passions these chiefly trouble the milk and bring diseases upon the child If there be a bad humor from high feeding in the Nurse let her take a gentle Purge when she gives not suck except the child be to be purged by the same Question Whether is an Infant better nourished by the Mother or by a Nurse Some say by a Nurse others say The Mothers milk is more like the nourishment it had in the womb which is best except she have a disease For he that gave her strength to conceive travel and bring forth will give her strength to play the Nurse though she be weak And honest women will be very obedient to directions for the good of the child they love so dearly Lib. 12. c. 1. of which Phavorinus Chap. 2. Of the Conditions of good Milk IT must be neither too thick nor too thin for too thick cannot be concocted and the thin argues crudities If it be dropt upon the nail or a glass and falls not easily off as water if it stick too fast it is too thick Let the colour be white the more it differs from that the worse it is Let it be sweet not sour salt or bitter or sharp Let it neither smell burnt or sour for then it will easily corrupt in the stomach of the child Chap. 3. Of Curing the Faults in Milk THe usual fault is when it is too thin by reason of plenty of Serum in the blood this nourisheth little and makes lean children that fall into a Diarrhaea or Belly-flux If it be too sharp they are scabby Give hot and dry things The Cure let bread be well baked with Anise and Fennel-seed roast the meat and give Rice and sweet Almonds avoid Fish Sallets Summer-fruits much Broath use often exercise and purge Serum or Whey with Syrup of Roses and Mechoacan or Rhubarb if it be hot or cholerick If serous humors come from the distemper of the Liver amend that and let cold and moist breasts be amended with things hot and dry Of thick Milk It is from gross dyet and drink or from a hot and dry distemper in the breasts that turns up the thin blood The Cure Give flesh of good juyce and easie concoction Chickens Kid Veal abstain from gross food use moistners and attenuaters and if there be thick humors with the blood let them be evacuated Of the sharpness ill taste scent and colour of the Milk There are divers tastes scents and colours in milk from variety of dyet Therefore let a Nurse take heed of fryed Onions and all sour salt and spiced meats and let her eat Sallets and Radishes and the like Let her not be passionate Milk also is sometimes salt sharp cholerick and melancholick This breeds dangerous diseases as wringing in the belly flux watching leanness trush and falling-sickness The Cure Correct the blood and keep a good dyet beware of things that corrupt the milk as sharp salt things avoid anger and other passions and Venery Good Wine moderately taken by such as have used it takes away the ill scent from milk If these will not do purge the Cachymy or evil juyces with Medicines proper for the humors offending Chap. 4. Of the Dyet and Government of new-born Children THe best colour in a new-born child is redness all over the body that changeth by degrees to a Rose-colour they who are white are sickly and short lived It must cry clear and loud which shews the strength of the breath Observe all the parts and figure and passages diligently let the Midwife handle it gently Roul it up with soft cloaths and lay it in a cradle and wash it first with warm wine give it a little Honey before it sucks or a little Oyl of sweet Almonds newly drawn that if there be any filth contracted in the stomach from the womb it may be cleansed for there is black matter yellowish in the guts which if not voided will cause an Epilepsie Keep it from cold air and not too hot nor in too great light set not a candle behind it at the head nor let it see the Sun least it be squint-ey'd Let it not be frighted nor left alone sleeping or waking least it receive hurt Let it sleep long carried in the arms often and give it the dug but fill not too much his stomach with milk After four months loosen the arms but not the belly and breast and feet but keep them rouled from cold above a year Let it be often cleansed from the excrements of the belly and bladder least they cause itching or pain or excoriation A little crying empties the brain and enlargeth the lungs and stirs up natural heat but let it not cry too much for to prevent Catarrhs and Ruptures but it doth least hurt before sucking and after concoction The first months let it only suck as often as it will so the stomach be not over-charged Give it change of breasts sometimes the right sometimes the left Afterwards make a Pap of Barley-bread steept in water and boyled in Milk Let strong Children have it betimes and not suck an hour after thus it must be nourisht till it breeds Teeth Chap. 5. Of the Dyet of an Infant from Breeding of Teeth till it be Weaned WHen the Teeth come forth by degrees give it more solid food and deny it not milk such as are easily chewed When it is stronger let it not stand too soon but be held by the Nurse or put into a Go-chair that it may thrust forward it self and not fall In places where bathing of Children is used let it be washed twice a week from the seventh month till it be weaned Chap. 6. Of Weaning of Children WEan it not till the Teeth are bred lest when the eye-teeth come forth it causeth Feavers and ach of Gums and other Symptoms