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Chap. XXIX. Of the Bottom of the Womb, and its Mouth.
WEE have treated hitherto of* 1.1 the Womb in General, and its similar Parts. The dissimilar Parts follow, into which we have divided the same: viz. the Bottom, the Neck, and the Privity, with the Parts annexed.
The Fundus or Bottom of the womb, is that part which reaches from the internal Orifice to the End up∣wards. We divide it into the lower and narrower part and the larger upper part; to which we ad a third part viz. the Mouth.
The lower and narrow part, is that be∣tween the Mouth of the womb, and* 1.2 the beginning, largeness thereof, and it may be called the short Neck, to dif∣ference it from the true and long Neck. For before the wideness of the womb begins, between it and the inner Mouth, there interceeds another Neck as it were, or narrower Channel, then the largeness of the Bot∣tom, and this is observed both in Man and Beast. And Fallopius is of Opinion, that this part was called the Neck of the womb by the Ancients, as Galen, Soranus, &c. Pinaeus reckons this part to be as long as a mans thumb, I have observed it to be five fingers breadth, long in a Doe.
The Cavity hereof is not large, but such as will admit a Probe or large Quil.* 1.3 It is rough, least the Seed which hath been drawn in, should flow out again, as happens in some barren women, which have this part slippery, by reason of bad Humors. This roughness ari∣ses from wrinkles, which according to the Observati∣on of Pinaeus, have their Roots situate beneath, and their Edg tending inwards or upwards, that they may easily admit, hardly let go any thing.
The large and upper Part is chiefly ter∣med Fundus or the Bottom, and this Part* 1.4 is properly called the Womb or Matrix, and it is the principal Part for whose sake the rest were made, being wider and larger then the rest.
It is seated above the Os pubis or Share-bone, that it may be there dilated and widened.
The womb hath in a woman only one Cavity, not distinguished into a∣ny* 1.5 Cells, as some falsly attribute ther∣unto seven Cells. In Brutes it is com∣monly divided into two parts, and therefore those parts are called the two Horns of the womb: though the* 1.6 form of Horns is not conspicuous in all Brutes, but in Cows, Does, Sheep, Goats, &c. Howbeit in imitation thereof, Authors have attributed horns to the wombs of women, because on the sides of the bottom thereof, there is on each side some protuberan∣cy, where the deferent Vessels are inserted. But the womb of a woman is very seldom divided into two parts, as it is in Beasts, as it hath been observed in some by the Brother of Baubinus, Sylvius, Riolanus, and Obse∣quens before them. And I doubt whether their wombs be so divided, who bear two or more Children at a Birth. The last year many women at Hafnia bore Twins contrary to their custom, yea and some three Children at a Birth, which they never did before nor since. We must not therefore account that to be pro∣per to Families, or attribute the same to the wombs be∣ing double, which properly belongs to the Seed. Al∣so that they are not conceived in a double womb, the womb-cake testifies, which alone is sufficient for many Children, only it hath so many strings fastned to it in several places, as there are Children, as Besterus hath lately described it in a like History.
Yet is it divided into the right and left part. In the former Boys are for the most part ingendred: in the latter Girls. And it seldom happens otherwise, if we believe Hippocrates and Galen. Hunters have this sign whereby they known whether the Beast they hunt have a male or female in her belly, for if when she is struck dead, she fall on her right side, they conclude she is big of a Male, because the burthen she goes with is most weighty on the right side; if on the left she fall, they judg it is a Female. Tis reported that women with child of a Boy, do lift their right foot higher then their left, as they walk, as Salmuth gives us to understand, all which signs are nevertheless fallacious. Hippocrates and his followers do reckon other signs, which are not pro∣per for this place.
The right and left side are differenced by a Line or Seam which sticks up obscurely, which Aristotle termes the Median Line. The like Line is seen in the lower Belly under the Navil, dividing that Region into two parts, which they conceive to be then more visible, when women bear twins. But in some women with child I have seen this Line manifest, who bore after∣wards only one Child.
The outward Surface is smooth and even, and co∣vered as it were with a watry Humor. The inner part hath many Porosities, which are Mouths, through which in the time of a womans going with child, blood easily passes out of the Veins of the womb to nourish the Infant.
Its Use is to receive the Seed, contain the Child, nourish it, &c.
The Orifice or inner Mouth of the womb* 1.7 is oblong, and transverse, but very nar∣row (but when it gapes, it is round and orbicular, which is perhaps the cause why the German Midwives call it the Rose, and the French Midwives, the Crown of the Mother) like the Hole of the Nut of the Yard, that no hurtful thing may enter in, nor the Seed drawn thither, easily pass out. If at any time it fall out of the Privity, or be tur∣ned inside out, it resembles exactly the Mouth of a Tench.
If the Situation thereof be changed, so that it be not just in the middle, looking towardst he bottom, tis conceived a Man cannot squirt his Seed thereinto, and that the Seed will sooner flow back, then the woman conceive. If it be quite absent, which sel∣dom falls out, an uncurable Barrenness* 1.8 is thereby caused. As also Barrenness is caused, if it be otherwise affected, viz. with Cancers, scirrhous Tumors, Obstructions, Callosity, over much Fatness: especially through o∣ver much Humectation and Relaxation, either through over much Copulation as in Whores, or through too great a Flux of Humors.
In women with child a glewish clammy Matter grows to the Orifice, and fills the short Neck well∣near; that these Parts being moistned, may more easi∣ly be opened in the time of Travel.
Within the Channel of this Mouth to the lower part thereof, grows its little bunch, which does more exact∣ly shut •…•…ole, according to the Observation of Rio∣lanus▪