foure yeares old, out of whose breastes so great a quantity of Milke did flow, that it was al∣most sufficient to nourish a childe. They that haue trauailed into the new world do report that almost all the men haue great quantity of Milke in their breasts.
If therefore men doe breede Milke, much more Virgins and Women before they doe conceiue. For their Dugs are more rare and large, and beside they haue a greater aboun∣dance of superfluous bloud; Reason also fauoureth this opinion, for where the materiall cause of Milke is present, and the strength of the efficient not wanting what should hinder the generation thereof? Now in Virgines that bee of ripe yeares, the veines of the Chest which water the Dugges haue great aboundance of bloud, they haue also the strength of the glandules to alter and to boyle it: for after the fourteenth yeare, The Dugges sayth Hip∣pocrates doe swell and the Nipples strut, and young wenches are then sayd 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is fra∣trare, to grow together like twinnes. Wherefore Milke may sometimes be bredde, in such women especially whose courses be stopt as Hippocrates writeth. But these disagreeing pla∣ces of Hippocrates it will not bee hard to reconcile out of Hippocrates himselfe. There is a double generation of Milke according to Hippocrates, and a double nature thereof. One kinde of Milke is true and laudable, another not true nor perfectly boyled. The former is made by a great alteration and true concoction of the breastes, and that not priuate but of∣ficiall; the latter ariseth of a remainder of the proper nourishment of the breasts; the first is perfectly white, sweete, and moderately thicke, and fitte to suckle an Infant; this other is white indeed because it beareth the colour and forme of the part from whence it floweth, but it hath neither the true nature of a nourishing Chymus or humour, nor the sweetnes nor the power or vigour of nourishment, and therefore it deserueth the name of Milke, not by his quality or specificiall forme, but onely for his colour, for it is thinne and waterish, alto∣gether vnprofitable to nourish an Infant. The former is begotten by the expression and refluence of the blood from the wombe to the dugges, as also by traction: this latter onely by the Traction of the proper Aliment; the former cannot be generated before true con∣ception, because there should be no vse of it before. The latter may bee ingendered in growne & ripe maydens, and well blooded men, whose bodies and vessels do abound with laudable iuyces. This double kinde of generation of Milke, I gather out of Hippocrates his Bookes de natura pueri & de glandulis. The Nature sayth hee of womens breastes is very rare and spongy, and the Aliment which they draw vnto themselues they turne vnto Milke. This is the first kinde of generation.
The other he describeth in the same place. The Milke commeth from the wombe to the breasts, which after the birth must be the nourishment of the Infant: this the Kel presseth out and sendeth vpward, being straightned by the growth of the Infant. Wherefore the blood is pres∣sed or strayned, and so returneth in women with Child by a wonderfull prouidence of Na∣ture from the wombe to the Pappes, and that as soone as the Infant begins to moue. After it is brought into the world there is no more expression made, but the blood floweth of it owne accord to the Pappes, according to his accustomed motion, which Hippocrates she∣weth in these words, in his Booke de natura pueri. After a Woman hath borne a childe, if shee also haue giuen sucke before, the Milke wil arise into the breastes as soone as the Infant begins to moue: so that after the birth it is therefore led vnto the breastes, because it was accustomed to bee his course that way all the while the Infant did moue in the mothers wombe. Nei∣ther doth the blood onely of it owne accord presse vnto the Pappes, but they also drawe a greater quantity then is sufficient for their peculiar nourishment.
Of this Traction there bee diuers causes; the Infants sucking, the largenesse of the ves∣sels, the motion or exercise of the dugs, and at length the auoyding of vacuity. For when the veines of the breasts are exhausted by the Childs instant sucking, then they draw bloud vnto themselues from euery side.
Wee conclude therefore that true Milke and perfectly concocted is not generated be∣fore conception, but that there may be a thinne and raw Milke sometimes made of the re∣liques of the proper nourishment of the dugs.