CHAP. LIII. Of provoking the flowers or courses.
THe suppression of the flowers is a plethorick disease, and therefore must be cured by e∣vacuation, which must be done by opening the vein called Saphena, which is at the an∣kle, but first let the basilike vein of the arm be opened, especially if the body be ple∣thorick, lest that there should a greater attraction be made into the womb, and by such attraction or flowing in, there should come a greater obstruction. When the veins of the womb are disten∣ded with so great a swelling that they may be seen, it will be very profitable to apply hors-lee∣ches to the neck thereof: pessaries for women may be used; but fumigations of aromatick things are more meet for maids, because they are bashful and shamefac'd. Unguents, liniments, em∣plasters, cataplasms, that serve for that matter, are to be prescribed and applied to the secret parts; ligatures and frictions of the thighs and legs are not to be omitted, fomentations and ster∣nutatories are to be used, and cupping glasses are to be applied to the groins; walking, dancing, riding, often and wanton copulation with her husband, and such like exercises, provoke the flow∣ers. Of plants, the flowers of St. John's-Wurt, the roots of fennel, and asparagus, bruscus or butchers-broom, or parsly, brook-lime, basil, balm, betony, garlick, onions, crista marina, cost-mary, the rinde or bark of cassia fistula, calamint, origanum, penniroyal, mugwort, thyme, hyssop, sage, marjorum, rosemary, horehound, rue, savin, spurge, saffron, agarick, the flowers of elder, bay-berries, the berries of Ivy, scammony. Cantharides, pyrethrum or pellitory of Spain, euphorbi∣um. The aromatick things are amomum, cinnamon, squinanth, nutmegs, calamus aromaticus, cy∣perus, ginger, cloves, galingal, pepper, cubibes, amber, musk, spiknard, and such like; of all which let fomentations, fumigations, baths, broaths, boles, potions, pils, syrups, apozemes, and opiates be made as the Physicians shall think good.
The apozeme that followeth is proved to be very effectual. ℞. fol. & flor. dictam. an. p. ii. pim∣pinel. m ss. omnium capillar. an. p.i. artemis. thymi, marjor. origan. an. m. ss. rad. rub. major. petros••∣lin. faenicul. an. ℥. i. ss. rad. paeon. bistort. an. ʒ ss. cicerum rub. sem. paeon. faenicul. an. ʒ ss. make there∣of a decoction in a sufficient quantity of water, adding thereto cinnamon ʒ. ii. in one pint of the decoction dissolve (after it is strained) of the syrup of mugwort, and of hyssop, an. ℥ ii. diarrh••d. abbat, ʒi. let it be strained through a bag, with ʒ. ii. of the kernels of Dates, and let her take ℥.iiii, in the morning.
Let pessaries be made with galbanum, ammoniacum, and such like mollifying things, beaten into a mass in a mortar with a hot pestel, and made into the form of a pessary, and then let them be mixed with oil of Jasmine, euphorbium, an ox-gall, the juice of mugwurt, and other such like, wherein there is power to provoke the flowers, as with scammony in powder: let them be as big as ones thumb, six fingers long, and rowled in lawn, or some such like thin linnen cloth; of the same things nodula's may be made. Also pessaries may be prepared with hony boiled, adding thereto convenient powders, as of scammony, pellitory, and such like. Neither ought these to stay long in the neck of the womb, least they should exulcerate, and they must be pulled back by a thred that must be put through them, and then the orifice of the womb must be fomented with white wine of the decoction of penniroyal or mother-wort.
But it is to be noted, that if the suppression of the flowers happeneth through the default of the stopped orifice of the womb, or by inflammation, these maladies must first be cured before we come unto those things that of their proper strength and virtue provoke the flowers: as for ex∣ample, if such things be made and given when the womb is inflamed, the blood being drawn into the grieved place, and the humors sharpned, and the body of the womb heated, the inflammation will be increased. So if there be any superfluous flesh, if there be any Callus of a wound or ulcer, or if there be any membrane shutting the orifice of the womb and so stopping the flux of the flow∣ers they must first be consumed and taken away before any of those things be administred. But