The compleat midwifes practice, in the most weighty and high concernments of the birth of man. Containing perfect rules for midwifes and nurses, as also for women in their conception, bearing, and nursing of children: from the experience not onely of our English, but also the most accomplisht and absolute practicers among the French, Spanish, Italian, and other nations. A work so plain, that the weakest capacity may easily attain the knowledge of the whole art. With instructions of the midwife to the Queen of France (given to her daughter a little before her death) touching the practice of the said art. / Published with the approbation and good liking of sundry the most knowing professors of midwifery now living in the city of London, and other places. Illustrated with severall cuts in brass. By T.C. I.D. M.S. T.B. practitioners.

CHAP. V. Of false Conception.

* 1.1VVOmen doe oftentimes deceive them∣selves concerning their conception; for they doe many times beleive themselves to be big with child, when it is nothing else but ei∣ther the retention of their flowers, which doe not fall down according to their accustomed periods of time, or else that which is called the Moon-calfe, which is a lump of flesh, for the most part like the guisern of a bird, greater or lesser, according to the time of its being there, which is most commonly not above foure or five months.

* 1.2Of moles there are two sorts; the one is called the true mole, the other is called the false mole. The true mole is a fleshie body, filled with many vessels, which have many white, green, or black lines, or membranes; it is without thought, with∣out motion, without bones, without bowels, or entrailes; receiving its nourishment through

certaine veines; it lives the life of a plant, with∣out any figure or order being engendered in the concavitie of the matrix, adhearing to the sides of it, but borrowing nothing of its substance.

Of the false mole* 1.3 there are four sorts, the windie mole, which is a conflux of wind; the watrie mole, which is a conflux of watrie hu∣mours; the Humorous mole, which is a conflux of various humours; the Membranous mole, which is a thin bag filled with blood. All these four are contained in the concavity of the womb.

These moles* 1.4 are somtimes engendered with the Infant, though they do oftentimes cause the Infant to die, either because it doth deprive the Infant of that nourishment, which goes from the infant to the encrease of that, or else because it hinders the growth and perfection of the Infant. The cause of the fleshy mole doth not always proceed from the mother, for the man doth often contribute to the encrease of it, when the seed of the man is weak, imperfect and barren, or though it be good, if there be too small a quantity of it, which after it is mingled with the seed of the woman, is chok'd by the menstrual bloud, and so not being sufficient for the gene∣ration of the Infant, instead thereof produces this little mass of flesh, which by little and lit∣tle grows bigger, being wrapt about in a caule, while nature strives to engender any thing ra∣ther then to be idle.

It happens also when the woman during her

monethly purgations receives the company of her husband, her body being not yet purged and void; or else when the woman lies with a great desire and lust with her husband, after she hath conceived, or when she hath retained her monethly courses beyond her time.

The windy mole,* 1.5 is engendered by the weak heat of the matrix, and the parts adjoyning, as the liver and the spleen, which engender a quan∣tity of winde, which fix in the concavity of the matrix.

The watry Mole,* 1.6 is engendered of many con∣fluences of water, which the womb receives, either from the speen, or the liver, or the parts adjoyning, or else from the weakness of the li∣ver which cannot assimulate the bloud which is sent thither, for the nourishment of the thing contained in it; part whereof turns into water, which cannot be voided, but remains in the womb.

That which is called the Humorous mole, is engendered of many moist humours, serosities, or the whites, or certain watry purgations, which sweat forth from the menstruous veins, and are contained in the concavity of the ma∣trix.

The Membranous mole,* 1.7 is a skin or bag, which is garnished with many white and transpa∣rent vessels, filled up with bloud: This being cast into the water, the bloud goes out, and the membrane is seen only to gather like a heap of clotted seed.

False Conception hath many signes,* 1.8 com∣mon with the true conception; as the supres∣sion of the flowers, depraved appetite, vomit∣ings, swelling of the belly, and of the breasts; so that it is a hard thing to distinguish the one from the other: only these that follow are more properly the signs of false, then true concepti∣on. For in false conception, the face is or∣dinarily puffed up, the breasts, that at the first were swollen, afterwards become every day more then other softer and lanker, and without milk. In fine, the face, the breast, the arms, the thighs and groynes grow lank and meager: The belly waxes hard, as happens to those who are troubled with the Dropsie, and almost of an equal roundness; with many prick∣ing pains, at the bottom of the belly, which have scarce any intermission; which is the cause that they can hardly sleep, being encombered with a heavy and dead burthen. It may be known also by other signs, for in the con∣ception the Male Infant begins to move at the beginning of the third moneth, for the most part, and the female at the beginning of the third or fourth moneth, now where any moti∣on happens, the woman ought to observe whe∣ther she have any milk in her breasts or no, if she have milk in her breasts, it is a sign of true conception, if she have not, it is a sign of a false one. Besides, in true conception, the mother shall perceive her child to move on all sides, of∣tner though to the right flank then to the left,

sometimes up, sometimes down, without any assistance; but in false conception, although there be a kind of motion, which is not enliven'd that proceeds from the expulsive faculty of the mother, and not from the mole. The mother shall also perceive it to tumble always on that side she lies, not having any power to su∣stain it self; beside as she lies on her back, if any one do push gently downward the burthen of her belly, she shall perceive it to lie and rest in the place where it was pushed, without re∣turning thither: Beside that which will confirm it more, is, when after the end of nine moneths the woman shall not come to her travel, but that her belly still swels and is puffed up more and more, all the rest of the parts of the body growing thin and meager, this is a sign of a mole, notwithstanding that many women have been known to go ten or eleven moneths before their delivery.

The signs of the windy mole are these, when the belly is equally stretched and swelled up like a bladder, more soft then when it bears the fleshie mole, and especially near the groynes, and small of the belly; if it be struck on, it sounds like a drum; sometime the swelling decreases, but by and by it swels more and more; the wo∣man feels her self more light, it is engendered and encreases swifter then the fleshie mole, or the watry, and it makes such a dissention of the belly, as if one were tearing it a sunder: For the watery and humorous mole, the signs are

almost the same; the belly increases and swels by little and little, as the woman lies upon her back, the sides of her belly are more swelled and distended then the middle, or the bottom of the belly, which grows flatter then, by rea∣son that the water and the humours fall down to the sides of the belly, moving up and down on the belly, as if there were a fluctuati∣on of water there.

This distinction is more to be observed in the watry mole, that the flank and thighs are more stretched and swollen then the humoral, because that the waters flow thither oftentimes, and that which comes forth through natures conduite, is as clear as rock water, without any ill savour: but that which flows out in the humoral distem∣per is more red, like water wherein flesh hath been washed, and is of an ill savour. This is al∣so to be marked in false conception, that the flowers never come down, and the navel of the mother advances it self little or nothing, both which happen in true conception.

There are besides these above written, cer∣tain other tumours which the women do take for moles. These occasion a rotundity and swelling in the belly, which are not discovered till the woman be opened, and then there doth appear, though the body of the womb be clean and neat, without any thing contained in it, at one or both corners of the womb, a quantity of water, contained as it were in little bags; in others are to be seen a heap of kernels and su∣perfluous

flesh clustered up together in the womb, which cause it to swell. Yet in these women it hath been observed, that their pur∣gations have been very regular, which hath been a sign that the womb it self hath been in good temper.

There is also another excrescency of flesh, which may be termed a pendent mole,* 1.9 which is a piece of flesh, hanging within the inner neck of the womb, which at the place where it is fa∣stened, is about a fingers breadth, still increasing bigger and bigger toward the bottom like a little bell: This flesh hanging in the interior neck of the womb, possesses the whole orifice of the privy member, sometimes appearing outward, as big as the fist, as hath been observed in some women. Of the cures of all these we shall treat in due place.

Notes

• * 1.1

  False Con∣ception.
• * 1.2

  Several sorts of Moles.
• * 1.3

  Of the false mole.
• * 1.4

  Sign of moles.
• * 1.5

  The windy mole.
• * 1.6

  The watry mole.
• * 1.7

  The mem∣branous mole.
• * 1.8

  The signs of false concepti∣on.
• * 1.9

  The pen∣dent mole.