The compleat doctoress: or, A choice treatise of all diseases insident to women. With experimentall remedies against the same. Being safe in the composition. Pleasant in the use. Effectuall in the operation. Faithfully translated out of Latine into English for a common good

CHAP. III. Of the Retained Secundine.

GAlen in his book de usu partium hath rekoned up three membranes, which en∣wrap the childe in the wombe; the first whereof is called Ammios, this on every side is spread over the whole childe, and receiveth the childs sweat, that it may swim in it; The second is named Allantoei∣des, or Intestinalis, or as others name it bet∣ter, Ʋrinaculum, whose use is, to receive the urine; the third is called Chorion, our Midwives call it the Secundine, which is nothing else but a multitude and connexi∣on of vessells and membranes, thorough which as by little springs or rivolets, the child draweth bloud and ayre; these mem∣branes are burst when the childe begins to ••••ick his way out into the world, from whence that liquor distilleth, as we have noted above, which makes the passages slippery; after the nativity of the childe

these membranes are excerned, but if they chance to be retained, they introduce most outragious Symptomes, and a disease of number, in the excesse.

The Causes of the retention are diverse, for many times the Matrix is confirmed af∣ter the childe is borne; many times the immoderate passions of the minde make na∣ture forget her selfe in his duty; sometimes odoriferous things draw the Matrix up∣wards, and so nature is disturbed in her purposes of exclusion; an unseasonable drinking of cold water is a very frequent cause of it; and so are grosse meats that stuffe the body and thicken the bloud.

You may know by the Midwives relation, that the Secundine is retained, unto whom (if she be skillfull) you ought at the com∣mand of Hippocrates yield up your beliefe, or you may conjecture it; if the woman be sad in minde, subject to faint and swound, full of tossing, and unquietnesse, if she feele a heavinesse in her wombe, or a round substance, like unto a fixt and immoveable ball.

This is a most lamentable disease; for if he Secundine be retained for any considera∣••le time it putrifies, and communicates poi∣••sonous exhalations to the principall parts,

as the heart, the brain, the liver; from whence arise swounding fits, anxiety of minde, giddinesse in the head, and direfull tor∣ments.

Wherefore let it be the Midwives care with all speed to attempt the cure, bring∣ing down the Secundine with her fingers besmeared with oyle, and let her hold fast the umbilicall vessells, till the Secundine follow; but what if it remaine behinde? then according to the Oracle of Hippocra∣tes delivered in the fortieth Aphorisme of his fifth book; you may exhibit sneezing me∣dicines to the nostrills; for these by that motion compresse the upper parts, and the expulsive faculty being irritated, out comes the Secundine.

Take black pepper,

Mustard seed,

Sagapenum of each a dram and a halfe.

Tobacco,

Castor,

White hellebore, of each a dram.

A scruple of Euphorbium.

Make a fine powder of them, and upon the point of a knife, or thorow a quill let her sniffe up a little of it at a time; or you may prescribe this Potion for two Doses; it hath often done the Cure.

Take eight ounces of penniroyall water.

An ounce and a halfe of aqua Hysterica.

Two scruples of Castor in powder.

Mingle them for a Potion, to be taken at twice, or

Take two scruples of the Trochischs de Ca∣rabre.

A scruple of Borace.

Halfe an ounce of the Syrup of juice of betony.

Three ounces of a decoction of Savine.

Mingle them for a Draught.

Suffumigations are also very profitable to bring away the Secundine.

Take Storax,

Benjamin,

Lign. aloes, of each two ounces.

Musk,

Civet, of each a scruple.

Make a pessarie of them, adding Ʋnguen∣tum Agrippe and the juice of Mercuty. Lini∣ments must not be omitted, made with un∣guentum de Althaea, de Agrippa, oyle of Al∣monds, and oyle of Dill; fomentations and halfe tubs are equally necessary, made of a decoction of camomile, pellitory of the wall, Motherwort, Birthwort, Origanum, Sage Sa∣vine, annise, fennill, and Line seeds, unto all which may be added oyle of Almonds,

and oyle of Dill; Glysters must also be in∣jected, and with good successe you may continually rub her hips and her thighes, tye ligatures about her legs, apply Cuppin∣glasses, and cut a veine in her ankle.

When the Secundine is ejected or drawn out, give the woman Cordialls, as Bezoar stone, Treacle, Confect. de hyacintha, or Alkermes: all which things are of undoubt∣ed vertue to restraine the malignity of the vapours; sometimes a Mole remaineth in the Matrix after the birth, which by rea∣son of the congealed bloud, and the fleshie substance, whereof it is compounded, is as difficult to cure, as the recention of the Secundine: wherefore you must indeavour to expell that by the help of those reme∣dies, which we have prescribed above in the chapter of a Mola, and here also a little above.

Note the difference betweene the Secun∣dine and a Mole: this is fixt and unmove∣able, but that is moveable from one place to another in a Mole, or when a woman is troubled with that halfe conception, so cal∣led, a black and clotted bloud drops from the Matrix, which upon the retention of the Secundine appeares not.