CHAP. XXXVIII. Of the barrennesse or unfruitfulnesse of women.
A Woman may become barren or unfruitfull through the obstruction of the passage of the seed, or through straightnesse or narrownesse of the * 1.1 necke of the wombe, comming either through the default of the forma∣tive facultie, or else afterwards by some mischance, as by an abscesse, scirrhus, warts, chaps, or by an ulcer, which being cicatrized, doth make the way more narrow, so that the yard cannot have free passage thereinto: Moreover, the membrane called Hymen, when it groweth in the midst or in the bot∣tome * 1.2 of the neck of the wombe, hinders the receiving of the mans seede. Also if the womb be over slippery, or moreloose, or slack, or over wide, it maketh the woman to bee barren, so doth the suppression of the menstruall fluxes, or the too immoderate flowing of the courses or whites: which commeth by the default of the wombe or some entrall, or of the whole body, which consumeth the menstruall matter, and car∣rieth the seed away with it.
The cold and moyst distemperature of the wombe, extinguishes and suffocates the * 1.3 mans seed, and maketh it that it will not stay or cleave unto the wombe, and stay till it be conconcted: but the more hot and dry doth corrupt for want of nourishment, for the seeds that are sowne either in a marish or sandy ground cannot prosper well: also a mola contained in the wombe, the falling down of the wombe, the leannesse of the womans body, ill humours bred by eating crude and raw fruits, or great or over-much drinking of water, whereof obstructions and crudities follow, which hinder her fruitfulnesse. Furthermore, by the use of stupefactive things, the seminall mat∣ter is congealed and restrained, and though it flow and be cast out, yet it is deprived of the prolificke power, and of the lively heat and spirits, the orifices or cotylidones of the veines and arteries are stopped, and so the passage for the menstruall matter in∣to the wombe, is stopped. When the Kall is so fat that it girdeth in the wombe nar∣rowly, it hindereth the fruitfulnesse of the woman, because it will not permit the mans seed to enter into the wombe. Moreover the fat and fleshy habit of the man or woman hinder generation. For it hindreth them that they cannot joyne their geni∣tall parts together: and by how much the more bloud goeth into fat, by so much the * 1.4 lesse is remaining to be turned into seed & menstruall bloud, which two are the ori∣ginals & principals of generation. Those women that are speckled in the face, some what lean, & pale, because they have their genitals moystned with a saltish, sharp and tickling humour, are more given to venery than those that are red & fat. Finally, Hip∣pocrates sets downe foure causes onely why women are barren and unfruitfull. The first is, because they cannot receive the mans seede, by reason of the default of the neck of the wombe; the second, because when it is received into the wombe, they cannot conceive it; the third is, because they cannot nourish it; the fourth, because they are not able to carry or beare it untill the due and lawfull time of birth. These things are necessary to generation, the object, wil, faculty, concourse of the seeds, and the remaining or abiding thereof in the wombe, untill the due and appointed natu∣rall time.