An history of the wonderful things of nature set forth in ten severall classes wherein are contained I. The wonders of the heavens, II. Of the elements, III. Of meteors, IV. Of minerals, V. Of plants, VI. Of birds, VII. Of four-footed beasts, VIII. Of insects, and things wanting blood, IX. Of fishes, X. Of man / written by Johannes Jonstonus, and now rendred into English by a person of quality.

Artic. 2. Of menstruous Blood and Milk.

THe coldness of Women, & generation is the cause that all blood is not wasted in them, yet because they are not alwaies with Child, it is then collected in the vessels about the matrix, and is cast forth every month, that they may not feel the burden of it, wherefore Physitians call them monthly terms. They begin to be cast forth, when they are young Maids, the bottom or neck of the matrix deter∣mins the manner of the flux. It is observed that a fresh maid, with great brests hanging down, which had hair under her arm-pits, and

on her privities, had her courses five yeares together without any hurt Schenk. l. 4. observ. Nature if it cannot find the ordinary way seeks another passage. A Maid of Saxony had her Terms come forth of her eys. A Nun had them came forth of her ears. Pareus his Wife had them by her nostrills: A Maid at Sturgard vomited them up: A Maid in the Island Chios, spit them up. Amatus speaks of some that voided them by their Teats: A woman of Trent, voided them by her Navel; and which is wonderfull, a Nun voided them every month by her little finger, and ring finger of her left hand, Ludovic. Mercat. l. 1. c. 7. de Mulierib. affect. All have not this flux uniforme; Those that are of a good habit have them twice a yeare without hurt, and some not so much as once. And Hortensius saith they have them before they conceive. Institut. medic. l. 1. c. 28. They that are born from Mothers that were long before they had their Terms, are com∣monly sickly. So it was with Francis the 2d. King of France, who never had a s••otty nose, and seldom spit, but a great deal of filthy excrements came towards his eare, and purged his brain that way, and at last the corruption grew Mortall. Thuan. l. 23. Histor. And Pliny affirms that there is a venemous quality in it. For l. 7. c. 15. l. 19. c. 1. he writes thus, You shall not easily find any thing that is more monstrous than the terms of wo∣men: new Wine will grow sowre by them, Corn will wither by touching them, plants will dye, the buds of Trees will be burnt by them, and fall; Looking-glasses grow dark by their very looks. The edge of Steel and the brightnesse of Ivory is mad blunt, swarms of Bees dye, Brasse and Iron will presently rust, and a stinking smell corrupts the ayre: Dogs run mad that tast them, and bite deadly with venome incurable. Also it is reported that the Ant, the smallest creature is sensible of this, and will not eat the Corn hath touched them, not come there any more. Milk hath been somtimes found in Mens brests. For Cardan de subtil. testifies that Antonius Benzus, being 34, yeares old, pale, and with a thin beard, fat of body, had as much Milk in his brests as would suckle a Child. They that have seen the new World, affirm that all the men almost have abundance of Milk. Aristotle saw a hee Goat in Lemnus, that afforded so much milk as would suffice to give a kid suck. l. 3. histor. animal. c. That it will somtimes grow hard as a stone, see Schenkius observat. Mathaeus Medic. quaest, centur. qu. 14▪ denies that Virgins have any. Heurnius ad l. 5. Aphor. 39. affirms it. If Virgins, saith he, abound with this blood, and their termes be stopt, un∣lesse this be voided by letting blood, or vomiting, or bleeding at the nose, or emrods, or a bloody dysentery; and if their brests be hotter and rubbed, it may incline somtimes that way and be turned into milk. Hippocrates in the same Aphoris••m. If a woman have Milk, and be neither great with Child, nor de∣livered, her courses are stopt. Yet we confesse, this hapneth but seldom, since Nature ordaind the Milk to suckle the Infant.