Page 954
CHAP. LX. The cure of the Whites.
IF the matter that floweth out in this disease bee of a red colour, it * 1.1 differeth from the naturall monthly fluxe in this onely, because it keeps no order or certain time in its returning. Therfore phleboto∣my and other remedies which we have spoken of, as requisite for the menstruall fluxe when it floweth immoderately, is here neces∣sary to be used. But if it bee white, or doth testifie or argue the ill juice of this or that humour by any other colour, a purgation must be prescribed of such things as are proper to the humour that offends: for it is not good to stop such * 1.2 a flux suddenly; for it is necessary, that so the body should be purged of such filth or abundance of humours: for they that doe hasten to stop it, cause the drop••ie, by rea∣son that this sinke of humours is turned backe into the liver; or else a cancer in the womb, because it is stayed there; or a feaver, or other diseases, according to the con∣dition of the part that receiveth it. Therefore we must not come to locall detersives, de••i••catives, restrictives, unlesse we have first used universall remedies according to art. Alom baths, baths of brimstone, and of bitumen, or iron, are convenient for the whites that come of a phlegmaticke humour; instead whereof bathes may bee made * 1.3 of the decoction of herbes that are hot, dry, and endued with an aromaticke pow∣er, with alome and pebbles, or flint-stones red hot throwne into the same. Let this bee the forme of a cleansin•• decoction and injection. ℞. fol. absynth. agrimon. centi∣nod. burs. past. an. mss. boyle them together, and make thereof a decoction, in which * 1.4 dissolve mellis rosar. ℥ii. aloes, myrrhae, salis nitri, an. ʒi. make thereof an injection, the woman being so placed on a pillow under her buttockes that the necke of the wombe being more high, may be wide open: when the injection is received, let the woman ••et her legges acrosse, and draw them up to her buttockes, and so shee may keepe that which is injected. They that endeavour to dry and bind more strongly, adde the juice of acatia, greene galles, the rindes of pomegranates, roch alome, ro∣mane vitrioll, and they boile them in Smithes water and red wine; pessaries may be made of the like faculty.
If the matter that commeth forth be of an ill colour or smell, it is like that there is a rotten ulcer; therefore we ought to inject those things that have power to correct * 1.5 the putrefaction: among which aegyptiacum, dissolved in lye or red wine, excelleth. There are women which when they are troubled with a virulent Gonorrhaea, or an * 1.6 involuntary fluxe of the seed, cloaking the fault with an honest name, doe untruly say that they have the whites, because that in both these diseases a great abundance of filth is voided. But the Chyrurgian may easily perceive that malady by the rot∣tennesse of the matter that floweth out, and hee shall perswade himselfe that it will not bee cured without salivation or fluxing at the mouth, and sweats. In the meane while let him put in an instrument made like unto a pessary, and cause the sicke wo∣man to hold it there: this instrument must have many holes in the upper end, through which the purulent matter may passe, which by staying or stopping might get a sharpnesse; as also that so the womb may breathe the more freely, and may be kept more temperate and coole by receiving the aire, by the benefit of a spring whereby this instrument, being made like unto a pessary, is opened and shut.