Mikrokosmographia a description of the body of man. Together vvith the controuersies thereto belonging. Collected and translated out of all the best authors of anatomy, especially out of Gasper Bauhinus and Andreas Laurentius. By Helkiah Crooke Doctor of Physicke, physitian to His Maiestie, and his Highnesse professor in anatomy and chyrurgerie. Published by the Kings Maiesties especiall direction and warrant according to the first integrity, as it was originally written by the author.

QVEST. VIII. Whether the Menstruall Blood haue any noxious or hurt∣full qualitie therein.

COncerning the Nature of the Menstruall blood, there hath been and yet is so hard hold and so many opinions euen among Physitians them¦selues, that it were a shame to make mention of all their differences, much more to insist vpon them. But because we would pretermit no∣thing that were worthy of your knowledge, wee will insist vppon the chiefe heads of the Controuersie. The first of which shall bee con∣cerning the matter of the Courses.

All men do agree that this blood is an excrement, for like a superfluity it is euery month * 1.1 driuen foorth of the wombe; but because there are two kinds of excrements, the one Na∣turall and profitable, the other altogether vnprofitable and vnnaturall, wee must enquire of which kinde this menstruall blood is.

That it is an vnprofitable excrement and of a noxious or hurtfull quality, may bee pro∣ued by the authority of famous learned men, as also by strong reasons. Hippocrates in his * 1.2 first Booke De morbis mulierum, expresseth the malignant quality thereof in these words, It fretteth the earth like Vineger, and gnaweth the body of the woman wheresoeuer it lighteth and vlcerateth the parts of generation. Aristotle in the 19. Chapter of his fourth Booke De Na∣tura * 1.3 Animalium writeth, that that kind of blood is diseased and vitiated. Galen in the eight Chapter of his Booke de Atra bile saith, that euery moneth a superfluous portion of blood vnprofitable not onely in quantity but also in quality is auoided. Moses that great Law-gi∣uer as we read in holy Scripture, made an Edict that no Menstruous woman should come * 1.4 into the Sanctuary, Let her touch no holy thing, nor enter into the Sanctuary whilst the dayes of her purgation be fulfilled. By the Lawes of the Zabri, those women that had their courses * 1.5 were interdicted the company and society of men, and the places where she did stand were cleansed by fire. Hesiodus forbiddeth that any man should frequent those bathes vvhere

menstruous women haue bathed themselues. Pliny also in the 28. Chapter of his 7. booke * 1.6 & Columella doe think that this bloud is not only vicious but poysonous. For by the touch thereof the young vines do wither, the buds of hearbes are burnt vp, yea glasses are infected * 1.7 with a kinde of tabes. If a Dogge licke of it he will run mad; and wanton women are wont * 1.8 to bewitch their Louers with this bloud; whence Outd calleth it Lunare virus, the Moone poyson; wherefore it is not onely superfluous in quantity but in the whole quality a noysom excrement. This poysonous quality thereof women haue dayly and lamentable experi∣ence of in their owne bodies, for if it bee suppressed it is a wonder to see what horrible and how many symptomes doe arise there-from.

If (sayeth Hippocrates in his first Booke de morbis mulierum) it bee stabled without the wombe, it ingendereth Inflamations, Cancers, Saint Anthonies fires, and scirrhous, that is, * 1.9 hard and indolent tumors. If it returne vnto the vpper partes it breedeth many diseases which follow the Nature of the part affected and the offending humour. In the Liuer it breedeth the Caecexta, the Iaundise, the Dropsie. In the Spleene obstructions and Sctrrhous tumors: in the Stomacke, depraued Appetite and strange longings: in the Heart palpitati∣ons and Syncopes or sounding; in the Lungs Vlcers and Consumptions: in the Brayn the falling sicknes and mad melancholly, and many other such like.

Amongst the new writers Fernelius the best learned Physician of them all, in the 7. book * 1.10 of his Phisiologie, proueth that this bloud is not Alimentarie nor of the same Nature with that by which the Infant is nourished in the mothers wombe, but thinketh it noxious and hurtfull both in the quantity and quality.

On the contrary we thinke, and perswade our selues wee shall also conuince others, that this bloud which is monthly euacuated by the wombe, is all one with that bloud whereof * 1.11 the Parenchymata or flesh of our bowels are made, and wherewith the Infant in the wombe is nourished, and that it is in his owne nature laudable and pure bloud and no way offensiue to the woman but onely in the quantity thereof. And this we hope wee shall euict both by authority of the Antients and by inuicible and demonstratiue arguments.

First of all Hippocrates fauoureth this opinion as also doth Galen. Hippocrates in his first * 1.12 Booke de morbis mulierū hath this saying. The bloud falleth from a woman like the bloud of a stickt Sacrifice, which soone cloddeth or caketh together because it is sound and healthfull. And this also he repeateth in his Booke de Natura pueri: now the conditions of laudable bloud are, to be red and quickly to cake. Galen in his third Booke de causis symptomatum, writeth * 1.13 that this bloud is not vnnaturall, but offendeth onely in quantity. And this may also be de∣monstrated by good and true reasons: this bloud in a sound woman (for if shee bee sickly the whole masse of bloud is corrupted) the bloud I say that is auoyded euery month by the wombe, is made of the same causes by and of which the other bloud is made with which the flesh is satisfied and nourished. For the matter is the same, the same heat of the Liuer, the same vesselles conteyning it, why then should there bee any difference in their quali∣ties?

Moreouer, if (as the Philosopher often vrgeth) the Finall cause be the most noble, and preuayleth in the workes of Nature ouer all the rest, why should this superfluous bloud re∣dound * 1.14 in the colde Nature of women, vnlesse that it might become an Aliment vnto the conceiued and formed Infant? why doeth shee purge it rather by the wombe then by the * 1.15 nose, as it is often auoided in men? vnlesse it be to accustome her selfe to this way, that after the conception it may exhibit it selfe for the nourishment of the Infant.

This is the small cause of the menstruous bloud acknowledged by Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, and all the whole schoole of Physitians. Aristotle sayeth that such is the Nature of a woman, that their bloud perpetually falleth to the wombe and the principall parts, & ther∣fore if they be haile and sound of body and haue their courses in good order, they are neuer troubled with varices or swollen veines, neuer with the Haemerrhoids nor with bleeding at the nose as men are.

Now if these courses doe affect the way into the wombe for no other cause but onely for the nourishment of the Infant, then no man will deny but that it is benigne and lau∣dable bloud. For Hippocrates in his Booke de Natura pueri and in the first booke de morbis mulierum sayeth, that the Infant is nourished with pure and sweete bloud; in the first place he sayth, that the Infant draweth out of the bloud that which is the sweetest; in the second, that the woman with childe is pale all ouer, because her pure bloud is consumed in the nou∣rishment and increase of the Infant.

Moreouer, that the bloud which Nature purgeth by the wombe of a sound woman is * 1.16 pure and Elementary, this is a manifest argument because of it returning to the paps milke is generated, and therefore Nurses haue not their courses as long as they giue sucke; nowe that milke is made of the purest blood, Hippocrates witnesseth in his Booke de Natura pueri.

Aristotle in the first Chapter of his fourth Book de Generatione Animalium, sayth that the * 1.17 nature of the Milke and of the menstruous bloud is one and the same, and thence it is that those that giue sucke haue not their courses, neither yet do conceiue with childe, and if they do happen to conceiue, then their milk faileth.

Add hereto that if the impurity of the courses were so great as some would haue it then it would follow that when women are with childe and their courses faile vppon that cause, they should be worse disposed, then if they should faile vppon other causes, because the In∣fant drawing away the purer part of the bloud, that other which is venomous or of a malig∣nant quality would rage so much the more hauing lost the bridle whereby it is restrayned: moreouer those symptomes would be more violent in the last moneths then in the first after conception; all which is contradicted by common experience.

Wherefore the menstruall bloud is onely aboundant in women, and hath no other fault * 1.18 at all, if they be sound and hayle; and is of the same Colour, Nature and Temperament with the rest of the bloud conteyned in the trunke of the hollow veine, and wherewith the flesh is nourished. Yet is it called an excrement but that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 abusiuely; because the flesh being therewith filled and satisfied doth returne that which remayneth back into the veines and voyde it out; so the Stomacke beeing satisfied with the Chylus thrusteth it into the Guttes.

But Auicen maketh a question whether this menstruall bloud be an excrement of the se∣cond * 1.19 or of the third concoction; we say it is of both but in a diuerse respect. It is an excre∣ment of the second concoction, because the whole masse of bloud hath his first Generation in the Liuer the seate of the second concoction, and from the Liuer is powred as an ouer∣plus * 1.20 or redundancie into the trunk of the hollowveine. It is an excrement of the third con∣coction, because it is as we sayd vomited away by the flesh when it is satisfied after the third concoction.

Those arguments which before were alleadged against this truth are but veine and light. * 1.21 For as we grant that all those mischiefes and inconueniences before named doe happen in a diseased woman, so we deny that there is any such in a sound, haile and well disposed wo∣mans body. And if at any time the suppression of the courses in a sound body doeth bring forth any of those fore-mentioned symptomes, that commeth to passe because of the stay & abode of it, or else because euill humors doe fall together with the blood vnto the wombe which is a common sinke as it were of the body, by the permixtion of which humours the blood acquireth a malignant quality.

Those incommodities of the menstruous blood before remembred, are great arguments * 1.22 of the purity thereof: for those thinges which are most pure are soonest vitiated, and being once taynted are most offensiue; so the symptomes of suppressed seede are more grieuous then those that come from the suppression of the courses, because the seede is the purer and fuller of spirits.

Hence it is that the carkasse of a man casteth a worse stench or sauour then the carkasse of any other creature, because a mans body is of all other the most temperate. And Hippo∣crates in his Booke de morbis sayth, that by how much the Aliment is better and more pure, by so much is their corruption worse and more offensiue. And thus much of the Nature and quality of the menstruous blood.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Of the matter of the courses
• * 1.2

  That it is ill qualitied. Hippocrates au∣thority.
• * 1.3

  Aristotle Galen.
• * 1.4

  Moyses.
• * 1.5

  The lawes of the Zabri.
• * 1.6

  Pliny.
• * 1.7

  Columella.
• * 1.8

  Reason and experience.
• * 1.9

  What disea∣ses come therefrom.
• * 1.10

  Fernelius opi∣nion.
• * 1.11

  The contrary opinion that it is naturall.
• * 1.12

  Hippocrates.
• * 1.13

  Galen. Reasons to proue it natu∣rall.
• * 1.14

  First.
• * 1.15

  The second.
• * 1.16

  Third.
• * 1.17

  Why Nurses haue not their courses nei∣ther yet con∣ceiue.
• * 1.18

  Conclusion.
• * 1.19

  Auicens questi∣on.
• * 1.20

  Answered.
• * 1.21

  Answere to the former ar∣guments.
• * 1.22

  The discomo∣dities of the courses proue their purity.