The naturall motion is when the wombe draweth seed out of the neck into his bottom, for then it runneth downward to meete it, insomuch that sometimes it hath beene seene e∣uen to fall out; it mooueth also naturally when in conception it is contracted and imbra∣ceth the seede strictly on euery side; as also when it excludeth the Infant, the after-birth or any other thing contayned in it beside Nature. For the accomplishment of this motion it hath right fibres and very many transuerse or ouerthwart, and this motion comes from the necessity of Nature.
The symptomaticall motion is onely from a cause that is morbous or diseasefull and that is convulsiue; which motion is manifest in the suffocation of the matrixe, for then the wombe is moued vpward because it is drawne convulsiuely; and that comes either from re∣pletion or from exhaustion or emptines, the ligaments either being by drought exsiccated or steeped in ouermuch moysture: sometimes it commeth from a poysonous breath, from the suppression of the courses, or the retention and corruption of the womans seede falne into it out of the vessels.
In this convulsiue motion the midriffe is pressed or borne vp, which is the chiefe in∣strument of free respiration or breathing, and the braine is also drawn into consent which is the chiefe seate or tribunall of the Animall faculty, which faculty is the efficient cause of respiration. Hence it is that in such suffocations or strangulations there is an interception of respiration, for the instrumentall cause the midriffe is intercepted, the efficient cause the Animal faculty also, because the braine is drawn into consent. The finall cause also is ta∣ken away, for the heat of the heart at that time is very small and requireth therefore no o∣ther ventilation but by transpiration, which is by the pores of the habit of the body.
But you must marke that I cal not this motion a convulsion, but onely a convulsiue mo∣tion; for convulsion properly is, an vnbidden motion of those parts which we vse to moue at our commandement, but the wombe is not mooued by our willes but by it owne will, wherefore convulsions belong not to the wombe but to the muscles onely which are in∣struments of voluntary motion; but abusiuely we may call this a convulsion as Hippocrates calleth the Hiccocke a convulsion.
The third motion of the wombe wee sayed was mixt, proceeding from a morbous or vnhealthy cause and partly from the faculty, as in a great exiccation it runneth vpward toward the Liuer which is the fountaine of sweete moysture; for all dried partes doe as it were thirst after this moysture with a naturall appetite; and this motion is indeede truely mixt, being partly physicall or naturall the dry wombe drawing toward the seate of moy∣sture, or drawing the moysture vnto it selfe as Galen interpreteth it; and partly mathema∣ticall or locall it moouing as Hippocrates sayeth, with a kinde of impetuous violence to the pracordia; although I am not ignorant that Galen in this poynt reprooueth his maister, and taketh this motion to be meerely Physicall or naturall; and is called mathematicall by Hip∣pocrates but abusiuely onely.