apply a doudle linnen cloath dipped in oyl of Roses, or of sweet A••monds, to mitigate the pain; for to within a few dayes after, that which is beneath the knot will ••all away being destitute of life and nourishment, by reason that the vein and artery are tied so close, that no life nor nourishment can come unto it: commonly all Midwives do let it lie unto the bare belly of the infant, whereof commeth grievous pain and griping, by reason of the coldness thereof which dyeth by little and little as destitute of vital heat. But it were far better to rowl it in soft cotton or lint, until it be mortified, and so fall away.
Those midwives do unadvisedly, who so soon as the infant is born do presently tie the navel-string and 〈…〉〈…〉 off, not looking first for the voiding of the secundine. When all these things are ••on, the infant must be wiped, cleansed and rubbed from all filth and excrement with oil of Ro∣ses or Myttles. For thereby the pores of the skin wil be better shut, and the habit of the body the more strengthened.
There be some that wash infants at that time in warm water and red wine, and afterwards an∣noint them with the fore named oils. Others wash them not with wine alone, but boil therein red Roses and the leaves of Myrtles, adding thereto a little salt; and then using this lotion for the space of five or six daies, they not only wash away the filth, but also resolve and digest, if there be any hard or confused place in the infants tender body, by reason of the hard travail and labour in childe-birth. Their toes and fingers must be handled, drawn a sunder and bowed, and the joints of the arms and legs must be extended and bowed for many daies and often; that thereby that portion of the excremental humor that remaineth in the joints, by motion may be heated and resolved. If there be any default in the membe s, either in conformation, construction or soci∣ety with those that are adjoyning to them, it must be corrected or amended with speed. More∣over, you must look whether any of the natural passages be stopped, or covered with a membrane, as it often happeneth. For if any such cover or stop the orifices of the ears, nostrils, mouth, yard or womb, it must be cut in sunder by the Chirurgian, and the passage must be kept open by putting in of tents, pessaries or dosels, left otherwise they should joyn together again after they are cut. If he have one finger more then he should naturally, if his fingers do cleave close toge∣ther, like unto the feet of a Goose or Duck, if the ligamental membrane that is under the tongue be more short and stiffer then it ought, that the infant cannot suck, nor in time to come, speak, by reason thereof; and if there be any other thing contrary to nature, it must be all amended by the industry of some expert Chirurgian.
Many times in children newly born, there sticketh on the inner side of their mouth and on their tongue, a certain chalky substance, both in colour and in consistence; this affect proceeding from the distemperature of the mouth, the French-men call it the white Cancer. It will not permit the infant to suck, and will shortly breed and degenerate into ulcers that will creep into the jawes, and even unto the throat, and unless it be cleansed speedily, will be their death. For remedy whereof, it must be cleansed by Detersives, as with a linnen cloth bound to a little stick, and dipp∣ped in a medicine of an indifferent consistence made with oil or sweet almonds, hony and sugar. For by rubbing this gently on it, the filth may be mollified, and so cleansed or washed away.
Moreover it will be very meet and convenient to give the infant one spoonful of oil of almonds, to make his belly loose and slippery, to asswage the roughness of the weason and gul let and to dissolve the tough phlegm, which causeth a cough, and sometimes difficulty of breathing. If the eye-lids cleave together, or if they be joyned together, or agglutinated to the coats cornea or adnata; if the watery tumor called hydroccephalos affect the head, then must they be cured by the proper remedies formerly prescribed, against each disease.
Many from their birth have spots or markes, which the common people of France call Signes, that is, marks or signs. Some of these are plain and equal with the skin, others are raised up in little tumors, and like unto warts, some have hairs upon them, many times they are smooth, black or pale; yet for the most part red. When they rise in the face, they spread abroad thereon ma∣ny times with great deformity. Many think the cause thereof to be a certain portion of menstru∣al matter cleaving to the sides of the womb, comming of a fresh flux, if happily a man do yet use copulation with the woman, or else distilling out of the veins into the womb, mixed & concorpo∣rated with the seeds at that time when they are congealed, infecting this or that part of the issue being drawn out of the seminal body, with their own colour. Women referr the cause thereof unto their longing when they are with childe; which may imprint the image of the thing they long for or desire, in the childe or issue that is not as yet formed (as the force and power of ima∣gination in humane bodies is very great:) but when the childe is formed, no imagination is able to leave the impression of any thing in it, no more then it could cause horns to grow on the head of King Chypus as he slept presently after he was returned from attentively beholding Bulls fighting together. Some of those spots be cureable, others not; as those that are great, and those that are on the lips, nostrils, and eye-lids. But those that are like unto warts, because they are partakers of a certain malign quality and melancholick matter, which may be irritated by endea∣vouring to cure them, are not to be medled with at all, for being troubled and angered, they soon turn into a Cancer (which they call Noli me taugere). Those that are curable are small, and in such parts as they may be dealt withall without danger. Therefore they must be pierced through by the roots with a needle and a thread, and so being lifted up by the ends of the thread, they most be cut away, and the wound that remaineth must be cured according to the general method of wounds.