The midwives book, or, The whole art of midwifry discovered.: Directing childbearing women how to behave themselves in their conception, breeding, bearing, and nursing of children in six books, viz. ... / By Mrs. Jane Sharp practitioner in the art of midwifry above thirty years.

THE MID-WIVES BOOK.

BOOK. I.

The Introduction.

Of the necessity, and Ʋsefulness of the Art of Midwifry.

THe Art of Midwifry is doubtless one of the most useful and neces∣sary of all Arts, for the being and well-being of Mankind, and there∣fore it is extremely requisite that a Midwife, be both fearing God, faithful, and excee∣ding well experienced in that profession. Her fidelity shall find not only a re∣ward here from man, but God hath given a special example of it, Exod. 1. in the Mid∣wives of Israel, who were so faithful to their trust, that the Command of a King could not make them depart from it, viz. But the Mid∣wives

feared God, and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men chil∣dren alive. Therefore God dealt well with the Midwives; and because they feared God, he made them Houses.

As for their knowledge it must be two-fold, Speculative; and Practical, she that wants the knowledge of Speculation, is like to one that is blind or wants her sight: she that wants the Practice, is like one that is lame and wants her legs, the lame may see but they cannot walk, the blind may walk but they cannot see. Such is the condition of those Midwives that are not well versed in both these. Some perhaps may think, that then it is not proper for women to be of this profession, because they cannot attain so rarely to the knowledge of things as men may, who are bred up in Universities, Schools of learning, or serve their Apprenti∣ships for that end and purpose, where Ana∣tomy Lectures being frequently read, the situ∣tion of the parts both of men and women, and other things of great consequence are often made plain to them. But that Objecti∣on is easily answered, by the former example of the Midwives amongst the Israelites, for though we women cannot deny, that men in some things may come to a greater per∣fection

of knowledge than women ordina∣rily can, by reason of the former helps that women want; yet the holy Scriptures hath recorded Midwives to the perpetual honour of the female Sex. There being not so much as one word concerning Men-mid∣wives mentioned there that we can find, it being the natural propriety of women to be much seeing into that Art: and though na∣ture be not alone sufficient to the perfection of it, yet farther knowledge may be gain'd by a long and diligent practice, and be communicated to others of our own sex. I cannot deny the honour due to able Phy∣sicians, and Chyrurgions, when occasion is: Yet we find even that amongst the Indians, and all barbarous people, where there is no Men of Learning, the women are sufficient to perform this duty: and even in our own Nation, that we need go no farther, the poor Country people where there are none but women to assist (unless it be those that are exceeding poor and in a starving con∣dition, and then they have more need of meat than Midwives) the women are as fruitful, and as safe and well delivered, if not much more fruitful, and better com∣monly in Childbed than the greatest Ladies of the Land. It is not hard words that

perform the work, as if none understood the Art that cannot understand Greek. Words are but the shell, that we ofttimes break our Teeth with them to come at the kernel, I mean our brains to know what is the meaning of them; but to have the same in our mother tongue would save us a great deal of needless labour. It is com∣mendable for men to imploy their spare time in some things of deeper Speculation than is required of the female sex; but the Art of Midwifry chiefly concern us, which, even the best Learned men will grant, yielding something of their own to us, when they are forced to borrow from us the very name they practise by, and to call themselves Men-midwives. But to avoid long preambles in a matter so clear and evident, I shall proceed to set down such rules, and method concern∣ing this Art as I think needful, and that as plainly and briefly as possibly I can, and with as much modesty in words as the matter will bear: and because it is commonly maintain'd, that the Masculine gender is more worthy than the Feminine, though perhaps when men have need of us they will yield the priority to us; that I may not forsake the ordinary method, I shall begin with men, and treat last of my own sex,

so as to be understood by the meanest ca∣pacity, desiring the Courteous Reader to use as much modesty in the perusal of it, as I have endeavoured to do in the writing of it, considering that such an Art as this cannot be set forth, but that young men and maids will have much just cause to blush some∣times, and be ashamed of their own follies, as I wish they may if they shall chance to read it, that they may not convert that into evil that is really intended for a general good.

CHAP. I.

A brief description of the Generative parts in both sexes; and first of the Vessels in Men appropriated to procreation.

THere are six parts in Men that are fitted for generation.

1. The Vessels that prepare the matter to make the seed, called the preparing Ves∣sels.

2. There is that part or Vessel which works this matter, or transmutes the blood into the real desire for seed.

3. The Stones that make the Seed fructi∣fie.

4. There are Vessels that conveigh the Seed back again from the Stones when they have concocted it.

5. There are the seminal or Seed-Vessels that keep or retain the Seed concocted.

6. The Yard, that from these containing Vessels, casts the seed prepared into the Ma∣trix.

CHAP. II.

Of the Seed-preparing Vessels.

1. THe Vessels that prepare the matter to make the Seed are four, two Veins, and two Arteries, which go down from the small guts to the Stones; they have their names from their office, which is to fit that matter for the work, which the Stones turn into Seed that is made fruitful by them, though it be a kind of Seed or blood changed into a white substance before it comes to the Stones.

It will be needful that you should know that the fountain of blood is the Liver, and not the Heart, as was anciently supposed, and the Liver by the Veins disperse the

blood through the Body. The two Arteries that prepare the matter, arise both from the great Artery or Trunk that is in the Hearts and is the beginning of all the Arteries, for the Arteries rise from the Heart, as the Vein, do from the Liver; but the two Veins for preparation of Seed, are one on the right the other on the left side; the right Vein proceeds from the great hollow Vein of the Liver, a little below the beginning of the Emulgent Vein; but the left Vein springs commonly from the root of the Emulgent Vein, yet it hath been seen to have a branch that comes to it from the Trunk of the hol∣low Vein. Of these two Veins and Arte∣ries there is one Vein, and one Arterie of each side; these two Veins in the middle part, pass streight through the Loins, and they repose upon the Lumbal Muscle, ha∣ving only a thin skin, that comes betwixt them, and there they divide and scatter themselves into the skinny parts that are near adjoining. All these Veins and Arte∣ries so descending, are called Seed-prepa∣ring Vessels, and they are covered with a skin that comes from the Peritonaeum, the Vein lies uppermost, and the Artery under it. The lower part of these two Veins goes be∣yond the Midriff to the Stones, and descends

with a little Nerve, and that Muscle which holds up the Stones, through the doubling of the Midriff, but they pass not through the Peritonaeum, and when it comes near the Stones an Artery joins with it, and then are these Vessels with that skin that comes from the Peritonoeum twisted together as the young twigs of Vines are, and so pass they to the end of the Stones. These two Arte∣ries have their beginning from the great Ar∣tery a little below the Emulgent, and so they go downwards till they join with the two Veins formerly mentioned; the two Veins they prepare and carry the natural Blood to make Seed of; the two Arteries, they carry the vital Spirits or vital blood.

CHAP. III.

Of the Vessels that make the change of red Blood into a white substance like Seed.

THese Vessels, as you heard before, are al∣so four, two Veins and two Arteries, that at their first descending keep near one to the other, carrying their different blood,

one from the Liver the other from the Heart, as fit matter for the Stones to make Seed of; but before they come at the Stones, they twist one with the other, sometimes the Veins going into the Arteries, and sometimes again the Ar∣teries going into the Veins, thus they joyn their forces, the better to prepare the matter for the use of the Stones, and after that they part a∣gain, which things are full of delight for a Man to behold, that he may the more admire the excellency of the works of the great God that hath so wonderfully made Man. The two Veins and two Arteries, after they have joyned with many ingraftings and twistings together, appear but two Bodies crumpled like the tendrels of a Vine, white and pyramidal, and rest one upon the right, the other on the left Stone, piercing the very tunicles of the Stones with very small veins, and so disperse themselves all through the bodies of the Stones. The substance of these vessels is be∣twixt that of the stones and that of the Veins and Arteries, being neither wholly kernels, nor wholly skinny; their office is, by their se∣veral twistings, to mingle the vital and na∣tural blood together which they contain, and by vertue they borrow from the Stones, to change the colour of red blood into a matter that is white, prepared immedi∣ately

for the Stones to make Seed of.

CHAP. IV.

Of the Cods, or rather the Stones con∣tained therein.

THe Cods is as it were a purse for the Stones to be kept in with the seminary Vessels, and this purse is divided in the middle with a thin membrane, which some call the seam, and may be seen on the outside of the Cods, making a kind of wrinkle that runs all along the length of it, and just in the middle: This member suffers many kinds of diseases and distempers, the property of it is to be di∣lated and extended, by which means there a∣rise sundry Ruptures, the Watry Uly, the windy, the Humoral, the Fleshy, and the watry ruptures, and all this happens by reason of too much repletion of the vessels of seed caus∣ed by much grosse or watry bloud. Within this pursy and sobbing and chaking of the stones which are two whole kernels like to the kernels of womens paps, their figure is Oval, and therefore some call them Eggs.

The substance of the Stones hath neither

blood in it nor feeling; yet they feel exqusitely by reason of the pannicles, and each stone hath two Muscles sticking to their pannicles, to lift them up that they hang not too loose. They are temperately hot and moist, but the bloud that flowes to them is very hot, by which means they draw as a Limbeck the matter of seed from the whole Body. Physicians place them amongst the Principal parts for the Ge∣neration and the preservation of mankind. They are fastned to all the Principal parts by Veins, Arteries, and Pannicles, they are sub∣ject to mulplicity of diseases and distempers. They are wrapt up in three several Coats; the outermost is the purse or Cod common to them both, it differs from other skin that covers the Body, because other skin is smooth, this is wrinkled, that it may observe the motions of the stones, to extend or shrink with them, when they ascend, or descend: they ascend in time of copulation, but in all violent heats, or Feavers, or weakness, or in old age, the stones hang down, which is alwayes a very strong sign of much damage in sickness. The second Coat wraps up the stones as the first purse doth, but the second wraps them nearer, and is not so wide as the first; and though the fleshy pannicle from which it springs be thinner here than any where else,

yet it is full of small arteries and veins, that car∣ry in vital & natural bloud to keep the stones warm, which are of themselves a very cold part The third Coat immediately wraps in the Stones, and is white, thick, and strong to pre∣serve the soft and loose substance of the Stones. Some persons there are, yet not many, and those Monsters in nature, that have but one stone, and some three stones, but one stone is of∣tener than three; and unlesse it be some great failing in Nature, I rather think that the other stone lyeth up close within the Body, as some∣times both stones do, and do not come down into the Cod till such an age, or at certain times as is proved by experience, where the stones lie within, and come not down; such persons are more prone to venery, because the stones are kept warmer than when they ap∣pear; yet the stones are tyed with strings that are long and slender, which are Muscles that hang by on both sides, to keep the stones from being overstretched or oppressing the passage of the the seminal Vessels; if any ill chance be∣fall the stones then these Muscles are exceed∣ing sensible of pain and subject to swell by rea∣son of it. The left stone is the biggest, and there∣fore some think more femals are begotten than males, and the right is the hotter and breeds the stronger Seed, and therefore it is generally

maintained, that Boyes are begotten from the right stone, but Girles with the left. Those that have hottest stones are most prone to Venery: and their stones are longer and harder, and they are more hairy about those parts especial∣ly. The right stone is the hottest in all, be∣cause it receives more pure and Vital blood from the hollow Vein and the great Artery than the left doth, which receives onely a wa∣try bloud from the Emulgent Vein. But both of them have an innate quality to make Seed, and without the Stones no procreation can be; as we see that such as are gelded lose the fa∣culty of Generation, though they want nothing else but their stones. The substance of the stones is very like to the Seed it self, moist, white and clammy. There is yet another Vessel, or conduit belonging to the stones, which is call∣ed the Vessel of ejecting, or casting forth of the Seed, it comes from the head of the stones to the root of the yard overthwart the stones in a small body like a Silkworm, by one end the carrying vessel elutes the stones, and carries forth the seed, from the other end the casters forth of the Seed passeth and descends to the bottom of the stones, and bends back again and is knit to the preparing Vessels, and returns to the head of the stones, and so goes upward till it touch the bone of the small guts, keeping

close to the preparing vessels, till it pierce the pro∣duction of the Hypogastrium or lower belly, which is the upper part of the place where the hair grows above the Privities; it reacheth from the Navil to that hair, and so it runnes from thence through the hollowness of the hip and sides between the bladder and the straight gut, till it come as far as the forestanders, and so fixeth it self, where it ends at the root of the Yard where it begins; so long as it remains a∣mongst the Coats of the stones, it is full of ma∣ny windings forward and backward, but near the end it hath many little Bladders like Warts.

CHAP. V.

Of the carrying Vessels.

THe carrying Vessels on both sides, are cer∣tain small bladders, united between the Bladder and the right Gut, the last of them, with the seminary Vessels, by a little pipe ends in the forestanders: These carry and conveigh the seed that is first fully concocted in the stones, by the great heat of them by reason of the vital blood that is brought to them, to the seminary Vessels which are to hold the Seed,

till there is cause to cast it forth. They are but two white nervous sinews, obscure, hollow Pipes, they rise from the Stones to the Belly not far from the preparing Vessels, from the hollow of the belly they return and go to the backside of the bladder; betwixt that and the right gut, and near the neck of the bladder they are joyned to the Vessels for Seed, which are like a Honey-comb; these Honey-combs or hollow Cells have an oyly matter in them, for they attract the fatty substance from the Seed, and that they send forth into the urinary passage chiefly in the act of carnal copulation, lest the thin skin of the Yard, which is very quick of feeling should be hurt by the sharpness of the Seed. The carrying Vessels fall at last into the vessels ordain'd to the Seed till there is use for it. The carriers strengthen the vessels for the seed, and are storehouses for it, that the whole store be not wasted in one act; you shall find in some persons enough to serve for seve∣rall acts of copulation. They are hollow and round to contain the more Seed, and they are full of membrances that they may be shortned or lengthened as the Seed is more or less in quantity, and are full of meanders and turn∣ings, that the seed pass not away without a mans will.

CHAP. VI.

The Vessels for seed.

THe Vessels for Seed are such as you call kernels in your meat, we call them here forestanders; they are two little stones seated at the root of the Yard, a little above the sphy∣aster of the the bladder, they are wrapt up with a skin that covers them, they seem to be round, but they are flat behind, and before, they are loose and spongy as kernels usually are, and white, and hard, in some persons more or less, they having a quick feeling to stir up delight in Copulation; they have some small pipes which open into the common pipes through which the Seed passeth into the Yard: these kernels or forestanders being pressed by the lower muscles of the Yard, besides the oyly fat substance they defend the urinary passage by, they also defend the Vessels that carry the seed to them, lest by much standing and stretching of the Yard the carriers of seed should be hurt; they have another use also, for lying between the bladder and the right gut, they serve for cushions for the vessels to rest upon, to keep them from violent pressing, and this is the cause why those that are costive and

cannot easily go to stool, when they strain to do their business, they press those kernels and sometimes void some Seed, and also must needs make some water, more or less when they go to stool. These kernels compass the vessels that carry the seed, and through the midst of these passeth the water or Urine pipe, or com∣mon passage both for seed and Urine, or con∣duit of the Yard. At the mouth of this con∣duit where the carrying vessels meet with it, there is a thin skin that keeps the vessels for seed that are like a spunge in nature, that they shed not forth the seed against mens will. But this skin is full of holes, which open by the violent heat and motion in Copulation, and so the seed finds its way out, for it is a thin spirit, and the rather by reason of motion, and passes like Quicksilver through a piece of leather; there are no more holes to be seen in this skin than in a piece of leather, unless it be seen in some persons after death, who were in their lifetime troubled with a great running of the Reins as it is called, but properly an in∣voluntary shedding of the Seed, because these holes are become so great, that the subtile seed cannot be kept back by it; the reins are to part the Urine from the blood, and to send that to the bladder by the conduits of Urine, but not to send forth seed or to provide it,

that is the work of the stones as I said. Yet by communication of parts, if the reins be much offended, the seminary parts cannot perform their office as they should, but an involuntary shedding of Seed will follow, untill such time as the reins be strengthened and cured. I shall give onely one observation and so conclude this Chapter: And that is a warning to all that cut for the stone in the bladder, of what age soever they be who are cut; oftentimes in drawing forth the stone they so rend and tear the seed vessels, that such persons are never able to beget Children, they may hatch the Cuckows Eggs, and keep other mens if they please, but they shall never get any themselves; these kernels are a hard and spungy substance near as great as a Walnut.

CHAP. VII.

Of a mans yard.

THe Yard is as it were the Plow wherewith the ground is tilled, and made fit for pro∣duction of Fruit: we see that some fruitful per∣sons have a Crop by it almost every year, on∣ly plowing up their own ground, and live more plentifully by it than the Countryman can with all his toil and cost: & some there are that plow up other mens ground, when they can find such lascivious women that will pay

them well for their pains, to their shame be it spoken, but commonly they pay dear for it in the end, if timely they repent not. The Yard is of a ligamental substance, sinewy and hollow as a spunge, having some muscles to help it in its several postures. The Yard and the Tongue have more great Veins and Arte∣ries in them than any part of the Body for their bigness; by these porosities, by help of Ima∣gination the Yard is sometimes raised, and swels with a windy spirit only, for there is a natural inclination and force by which it is raised when men are moved to Copulation, as the motion is natural in the Heart and Arte∣ries; true it is that in these motion is alwayes necessary, but the Yard moves only at some times, and riseth sometimes to small purpose. It stands in the sharebone in the middle as all know, being of a round and long fashion, with a hollow passage within it, through which passe both the Urine and Seed; the top of it is called the Head or Nut of the Yard, and there it is compact and hard, & not very quick of feeling, lest it should suffer pain in Copulation; there is a soft loose skin called the foreskin which covers the head of it, and will move forward and backward as it is moved; this foreskin in the lower part only in the middle, is fastned or tyed long ways

to the greater part of the Head of the Yard by a certain skinny part called the string or bridle. It is of temperament hot and moist, & it is joined to the middle of the share bone, and with the Bladder by the Conduit pipe that carrieth the Urine, & with the brain by Nerves and Muscles that come to the skin of it, to the Heart and Liver by Veins and Arteries that come from them. The Yard hath three holes or Pipes in it, one broad one and that is common to the Urine and Seed, and two small ones by which the Seed comes into the com∣mon long Conduit pipe; these two Arteries or Vessels enter into this pipe in the place cal∣led the Perinaeum, which in men is the place between the root of the Yard and the Arse∣hole or Fundament, but in a woman it is the place between that and the cut of the neck of the womb; from those holes to the Bladder, that passage is called the neck of the Blad∣der, and from thence to the head of the Yard is the common pipe or channel of the Yard. The Yard hath four Muscles, two towards the lower part on both sides, one of them near the channel or pipe of the Yard, and these are extended in length, and they dilate the Yard and raise it up, that the Seed may with ease pass through it: two other muscles there are that come from the root of it

near the share bone that comes slanting to∣ward the top of the Yard in the upper part of it, when these are stretched the Yard riseth, and when they slacken then it falls again, and if one of these be bent and the other be not, the Yard bends to that muscle that is stretch∣ed or bent.

If the Yard be of a moderate size, not too long, nor too short, it is good as the Tongue is, but if the Yard be too long, the spirits in the seed flee away; if it be too short, it cannot carry the Seed home to the place it should do.

The Yard also serveth to empty the Blad∣der of the water in it, and that is easily pro∣ved by a Louse put into the pipe of the Yard, which by biting will cause one to make water when the Urine is supprest. The foreskin was made to defend the Yard that is tender, and to cause delight in Copulation; the Jews were commanded to cut it off. Many diseases are incident to the Yard, but a pria∣pisme or standing of the Yard continually by reason of a windy matter, is a disease that properly belongs to this part, and is very dan∣gerous sometimes.

The Yard of a man is not bony, as in Dogs, and Wolves, and Foxes; nor gristly, for then it could not stand and fall as need is; it is

make of Skins, Brawns, Tendons, Veins, Arteries, Sinews, and great Ligaments; yet not so full of Veins but it may be emptyed and filled again, nor so full of Arteries as to beat alwayes, yet you shall find it beat some∣times; it consists not of Nerves for they are not hollow enough for the passages, but it is compounded of a peculiar substance that is not found in any other part of the body; the place of it, as I said, begins at the share-bone, and it is fast knit to the Yard between the Cods and the Fundament, so that there is a seam that comes up along the Cods and parts them in the midst between the Stones. The Yard is not perfectly round, but is some∣what broad on the back or upperside, it dif∣fers a little in some from others; the situation of it is so peculiar to Men, that they have herein a preeminence above all other crea∣tures. Some men, but chiefly fools, have Yards so long that they are useless for ge∣neration. It is generally held, that the length or proportion of the Yard depends upon cut∣ting the Navel string, if you cut it too short and knit it too close in Infants it will be too short, because of the string that comes from the Navel to the bottom of the bladder, which draws up the Bladder and shortnes the Yard: and this beside the general opinion,

stands with so much reason, that all Mid∣wives have cause to be careful to cut the Na∣vel string long enough, that when they tye it, the Yard may have free liberty to move and extend it self, alwayes remembring that moderation is best, that it be not left too long, which may be as bad as too short. There are six parts to be observed of which the Yard consists: 1. Two sinewy bodies. 2. A sinewy substance to hold up the two side Ligaments and the urinary passage. 3. The Urinary passage it self. 4. The Nut of the Yard. 5. The four Muscles; and 6. The Vessels.

The two sinewy bodies are really two though they are joined together, they are long and hard, within they are spongy and full of black blood, the spongy substance within seems to be woven network, and is made of numberless Veins and Arteries, and the black blood that is contained in them is full of spirits. Motion and leisure in Copulation heats them, and makes the Yard to stand, and so will imagination; the hol∣low weaving of them together was to hold the spirits as long as may be that the Yard fall not down before it hath performed the work of nature. These side ligaments of the Yard where they are thick and round,

spring from the lower part of the share-bone, and not the upper part as Galen sup∣posed. At the beginning they are parted and resemble a pair of Horns or the Letter Y, where the common pipe for Urine and Seed goes between them. It is thus mani∣fest that the greatest part of the Yard is made of two sinewy parts, one of them of each side, and they both end at the top of the head of the Yard, they come from two beginnings and lean upon the hip under the share-bone, and so run on to the Nut of the Yard. Also their substance is double, the outside is sinewy, hard and thick, the inside black, soft, loose, spongy and thin, they are joined by a thin and si∣newy skin, which is strengthened by some slanting small Veins placed there like to a Weavers Shuttle; they are parted at their first rising to make way for the water pipe, but they are joined about the middle of the share-bone, and there they lose near a third part of their sinewy substance.

The use of these two sinewy bodies that make the yard, is for the vital spirits to run through the thin parts of them and fill the Yard with spirits, and they are so thick and compact, and strong on the outside; that they hinder these spirits from breaking

suddenly away, for should they flee out, the Yard will stand no longer but presently fall down.

In the inside of the substance of the Yard which is wrapt about by the outward sinewy substance there is seen a thin and tender ar∣tery coming from the root of the Yard, and runs quite through the whole loose sub∣stance of it: Besides these there is a Conduit pipe placed at the lower part of the Yard that serves both for Seed and Urine to be put forth by, as common to them both, and it runs through the middle of the fore∣said two sinewy bodies, and is of the same substance with them, and is loose and thick, soft and tender, and runs equal∣ly in all respects from the neck of the bladder to the top of the Yard, only it is something larger where it begins than where it ends at the top of the Nut. This pipe at first, as I said, hath three holes where it riseth from the neck of the bladder, that in the middle is wider than the other two pipes or holes are which stand on both sides of it, and which are derived from the passage that comes from the Seed Vessels, and they carry the Seed into this great pipe. In this great pipe where it is fastened to the Nut of the Yard, and with the two si∣newy

bodies, there is a little hollow place wherein when a man is troubled with the running of the Reins by reason of the Pox, some corrupt Seed or sharp matter lyeth, which occasions great pains and Ulcers, and sometimes the Chirurgeon is forced to cut off the top of the Yard; and sometimes from these Ulcers there will grow a piece of flesh in the Yards passage for Urine, which hinders the Urine that it cannot come forth till that piece of flesh be taken away by conveighing something into that Urinary passage that may eat it off. There is one thing more worth taking notice of by Chi∣rurgions, concerning this pipe or Urinary passage, that from the place where it begins and goes forward from the neck of the bladder to the spermatick Vessels and fore∣standers, that there is a thin and very ten∣der skin which is of a most acute feeling, and to stir up delight in the act of Venery, and it will make the Yard stand upon any delight∣some thoughts or desires. If the Chirurgi∣ons be not careful when they thrust the springs in near that place, they will soon break this skin and undoe their Patient. This common pipe comes from the neck of the bladder, that is, it begins there, but it doth not take its being from it; for boyl the blad∣der

of any creature, and it will part from it whereby it is plain, that it is only join'd to it, and so runs on to the Nut of the Yard.

CHAP. VIII.

The Nut of the Yard.

THe Nut is a piece of soft thin brawny flesh, that it may do no hurt to the Womb when it enters; it is full of spirits and blood, very quick and tender of feeling, yet will en∣dure to be touched; the skin of it is very pure thin skin; and if it be broken or rub'd off, it will soon grow again, but if the body of it be hurt in the fleshy part, or once lost, it will never grow again; it is a little sharp at the end, and made like to a top, that it may enter the better; it is fastened as I told you, to the foreskin or the lower part with a ligament or bridle, which is sometimes so streight tied, and is so strong, that it will pull the head of the Yard backwards when it stands; but it is usually broken, or gives way the first time that a man lyeth with a woman, for the combate is then doubtless so furious, that a man feels no pain of it by reason of the

abundance of pleasure that takes it off, other∣wise doubtless the part is so quick of feeling, that no man were able to endure it.

CHAP. IX.

The Muscles of the Yard.

A Muscle is an Instrument for voluntary motion, for without that no part were in a capacity to move it self. There is a little Book lately set forth and is well worth the reading, concerning the reason of the motion of the Muscles. Of these Muscles the Yard hath four, two on each side to give motion to it. These Muscles are a fibrous flesh to make up their body; they have sinews for feeling, veins for nourishment, Arteries for vital blood, a skin to cover them, and to part one Muscle from another, and all of them from the flesh, you may if you please easily discern them in a leg of a Rabbit. Of each side of the Yard, one of these Muscles is shorter and thicker than the others are, and they serve to raise the Yard and to make it stand, and are therefore called raisers or erecters; the other two are longer and smal∣ler, and they open the lower part of the

Urinary pipe both when men make water, and when they cast forth the Seed, and are therefore called hasteners, because they dispatch and hasten the work; one pair of these Muscles comes from a part of the hip near the beginning of the Yard; besides that they raise the Yard to make it stand, they also bend the fore part of the Yard to be thrust into the womb, so that all things are so exactly fitted by nature, that a blind man cannot miss it. The two longer Muscles come from the sphincter of the Fundament, and are of a more fleshy substance; and are full as long as the Yard, under which they go downward ending at the side of the water pipe about the middle of the Yard; were it not for these large Muscles to open the con∣duit pipe, the passage would be stopt by re∣pletion of nervy bodies, both when men should make water, or cast out the Seed: They also hold the Yard firm, that it lean not to either side, and serve farther to press forth the Seed out of the forestanders, all helping to the sudden and forceable casting it out in time of Copulation, lest the spirits fly away and the Seed prove unfruitful.

There are all manner of Vessels in the Yard, as Veins, Nerves, Arteries, yet Columbus tells us, that Vesalius a great Anatomist, main∣tains

that there is neither Vein, nor Nerve in it, which is very false, for there are some Veins and Arteries to be seen in the out∣ward skin of the Yard, others are within, and there the Arteries are far more than the Veins, and are dispersed through the whole body of the Yard. The right Artery runs to the left side of it, and the left to the right side, the veins that appear on the outside of it, and on the foreskin, come from the under belly; and these Veins do swell with a frothy blood when the Yard begins to stand.

It hath also two sinews, the lesser of the two goes upon the skin, the greater upon the muscles and body of the Yard. These sinews scatter themselves from the marrow of that bone which is called the holy bone, and they pass quite through the Yard, and cause exceeding great delight when the Yard stands, and they prick forward in the action of Venery.

The Yard is stretched and made to swell by reason of fulness of Seed and plenty of wind, and therefore all windy meats, as Pulse, Beans, and Pease and the like, will make the Yard stand, and sometimes they cause a priapisme or continual standing of the Yard, which will be more troublesome

than if it should never stand at all. It is not to be imagined what pains some have undergone, who by indiscreet taking of Can∣tharides have fallen into this grievous distemper, wherefore I would wish men to take heed lest they pay for it at last, for the Proverb is commonly true, sweet meat must have sour sawce. Sometimes the bladder is full of Urine, and the veins are very hot which make the Yard to rise.

The Yard is placed betwixt the thighs, that it may stand the stronger to perform its work with all the force a man is able, and at the lower end of it to add more strength it is more fleshy, and that flesh is musculous, and besides that it hath two muscles as I said on both sides to poise it equally when it stands, they are indeed but small muscles yet they are exceeding strong.

The skin of the Yard is long and loose that it may swell or slack as the Yard doth, and the foreskin of that skin sometimes co∣vers the head of the Yard, and sometimes goes so far back that it will not come for∣ward again. This skin in time of the Ve∣nerious action, keeps the mouth of the womb close that no cold air get in, yet some think the action migh be better performed without it; the Jews indeed were commanded

to be Circumcised, but now Circumcision a vails not & is forbidden by the Apostle. I hope no man will be so void of reason and Religi∣on, as to be Circumcised to make trial which of these two opinions is the best; but the world was never without some mad men, who will do any thing to be singular: were the foreskin any hindrance to procreation or pleasure, na∣ture had never made it, who made all things for these very ends and purposes.

The top of the Nut hath a hole for the Urine and Seed to come forth by, and nature hath made a little round circle at the bottom of the Nut, with a fit jetting out from the body of the Yard, and when the Yard casts the Seed into the Womb, the neck of the womb with her own slanting fibres lays hold of it and em∣braceth it, and by this circle the Seed is kept in the womb that it cannot fly out again. The Nut of the Yard, when it is half covered with the foreskin, looks like an Acorn in the Cup, and therefore some call it Glans, which in La∣tin signifies an Acorn, in this Acorn or Nut of the Yard lyeth all the pleasure of Copulation, so that if the Nut were gone, many think there could be no more tickling or moving in the Seed, but all fruitful Copulation would be lost, or at least there would be no pleasure in the act of Generation, though the Stones

might move a desire to it by transmitting of the Seed which is made by them. Let men be careful then how they enter too far, for it will be hard to say which were the greater loss, of the Stones or the Nut.

CHAP. X.

Of the Generation or Privy parts in Women.

MAn in the act of procreation is the agent and tiller and sower of the Ground, Woman is the Patient or Ground to be tilled, who brings Seed also as well as the Man to sow the ground with. I am now to proceed to speak of this ground or Field which is the Womans womb, and the parts that serve to this work: we women have no more cause to be angry, or be ashamed of what Nature hath given us than men have, we cannot be without ours no more than they can want theirs. The things most considerable to be spoken to are, 1. The neck of the womb or privy entrance. 2. The womb it self. 3. The Stones. 4. The Vessels of Seed. At the bot∣tom of the womans belly is a little bank called a mountain of pleasure near the well-spring,

and the place where the hair coming forth shews Virgins to be ready for procreation, in some far younger than others; some are more forward at twelve years than some at six∣teen years of age, as they are hotter and riper in constitution. Under this hill is the spring∣head, which is a passage having two lips set about with hair as the upper part is: I shall give you a brief account of the parts of it, both within and without, and of the likeness and proportion between the Generative parts in both sexes.

CHAP. XI.

Of the Womb.

THe Matrix or Womb hath two parts, the great hollow part within, and the neck that leads to it, and it is a member made by Nature for propagation of chil∣dren. The substance of the concavity of it is sinewy, mingled with flesh, so that it is not very quick of feeling, it is covered with a sinewy Coat that it may stretch in time of Copulation, and may give way when the Child is to be born; when it takes in the Seed from Man the whole concavity moves to∣wards

the Center, and embraceth it, and toucheth it with both its sides. The sub∣stance of the neck of it is musculous and gristly with some fat, and it hath one wrinkle upon another, and these cause pleasure in the time of Copulation; this part is very quick of feeling. The concavity or hollow of it is called the Womb, or house for the infant to lie in. Between the neck and the Womb there is a skinny fleshy substance within, quick of feeling, hollow in the middle, that will open and shut, called the Mouth of the Womb and it is like the head of a Tench, or of a young Kitten; it opens naturally in Copulation, in voiding menstrous blood, and in child-birth; but at other times, especi∣ally when a woman is with Child, it shuts so close, that the smallest needle cannot get in but by force.

The neck is long, round, hollow, at first it is no wider than a mans Yard makes it, but in maids, much less. About the middle of it is a Pannicle called the Virgin Pannicle, made like a net with many fine ligaments and Veins, but a woman loseth it in the first act, for it is then broken. At the end of the neck there are small skins which are called fore∣skins; within the neck, a little toward the share bone, there is a short entrance, whose

orifice is shut with certain fleshy and skinny additions, whereby, and by the afore∣said foreskin, the air coming between, they make a hissing noise when they make water.

The figure of the concavity of the Womb is four-quare, with some roundness, and hol∣low below like a bladder.

There is towards the neck of the Womb on both sides a strong ligament near the hanches, binding the womb to the back, they are like a Snails horns, and therefore are called the horns of the womb.

About these horns there is one Stone on each side, harder and smaller than Mens stones, and not perfectly round, but flat like an Al∣mond; Seed is bred in them, not thick and hot as in Men, but cold Watry seed.

These Stones have not one purse to hold them both as Mens stones have, but each of them hath a covering of its own that springs from the Peritoneum, binding them about, the horns and each of them hath a small muscle to move them by.

The foresaid Seed-Vessels are plainted in these Stones, and are called preparing Vessels, descending from the Liver Vein, the great Ar∣tery and the Emulgent Veins; then there are other Vessels called carriers, that continually

dilate themselves and proceed as far as the concavity of the womb, where it is joyned to the neck, and they carry the Seed to the hol∣low of the Womb.

The many Orifices of these Vessels are called Cups, the menstruous blood runs forth by them▪ and the Infant suck's its nutriment from them by the Veins and Arteries of the Navel, that are joyned to these Cups.

A Woman hath no forestanders, for a wo∣mans Vessels are soft, and do not hurt the stones as they would do in Men because they are so hard.

The whole Matrix considered with the stones and Seed Vessels, is like to a mans Yard and privities, but Mens parts for Generation are compleat and appear outwardly by reason of heat, but womens are not so compleat, and are made within by reason of their small heat.

The Matrix is like the Yard turned inside outward, for the neck of the womb is as the Yard, and the hollow of it with its recei∣vers, and Vessels, and Stones, are like the Cods, for the Cods turned in have a hollowness, and within the womb lye the Stones and seed Vessels, but Mens stones and Vessels are larger.

The place of the cut of the Matrix is be∣tween

the Fundament and the share-hone, and the place between both Arteries, is called the Peritoneum.

The neck from the cut by the belly goeth upward as far as the womb, and the place of it is between the right Gut and the bladder; all these are placed at length in the cavity of the belly.

The womb is small in Maids, and less than their bladder, neither is the hollow compleat, but groweth bigger as the body doth. In Maids of ripe years it is not much bigger than you can comprehend in your hand; unless when they come to be with Child, yet it grows by reason of their courses. The sides of it are fleshy, hard, and thick, but when a Woman is with Child it is stretched out and made thin and seems more sinewy, and then it riseth toward the Navel more or less accord∣ding as the Child is in bigness.

It hath but one hollow Cell, yet this at the bottom is in some manner divided into two, as if there were two wombs fastened to one neck.

For the most part Boys are bred in the right side of it, and Girles in the left.

It joyns to the Brain by Nerves, to the Heart by Arteries, to the Liver and Lightes by Veins, to the right Gut by Pannicles, to the

bladder by the neck of it; which neck is short, and comes not forth as Mens do; it is joyned to the hanches by the hornes, the concavity of it is loose every way, and therefore it will fall to the sides, and sometimes it will come all forth of the body by the neck of it. Per∣haps it is no error to say the Wombs are two, because there are two cavities like two hollow hands touching one the other, both covered with one Pannicle, and both end in one chan∣nel; No Man that sees a womb can well dis∣cern it unless he be well skiled in the Aspects, concerning limbs, and shadows, whereby Physi∣cians are much helped in many practices as well as other Artificers.

The womb by reason of that which flows to it, is hot and moist. It is of great use to cleanse the body from superfluous blood, but chiefly to preserve the Child.

It is subject to all diseases, and the whole womb may be taken forth when it is corrupt∣ed, as I have seen, and yet the woman may live in good health when it is all cut away. In the year of our Lord 1520, upon the 5^th. of October, Domianus a Chirurgion, cut out a whole womb from one called Gentil, the wife of Christopher Briant of Millan, in the presence of many Learned Doctors, and other Students: and that woman did afterwards follow her or∣dinary

business, and as she and her Husband confest and reported, she kept company with her husband, and cast-forth Seed in Copulati∣on, and had her monthly courses as she was wont to have before.

CHAP. XII.

Of the likeness of the Privities of both sexes.

BUt to handle these things more particular∣ly, Galen saith that women have all the parts of Generation that Men have, but Mens are outwardly, womens inwardly.

The womb is like to a mans Cod, turned the inside outward, and thrust inward be∣tween the bladder and the right Gut, for then the stones which were in the Cod, will stick on the outsides of it, so that what was a Cod before will be a Matrix, so the neck of the womb which is the passage for the Yard to en∣ter, resembleth a Yard turned inwards, for they are both one length, onely they differ like a pipe, and the case for it; so then it is plain, that when the woman conceives, the same members are made in both sexes, but the Child proves to

be a Boy or a Girle as the Seed is in temper; and the parts are either thrust forth by heat, or kept in for want of heat; so a woman is not so perfect as a Man, because her heat is weaker, but the Man can do nothing without the woman to beget Children, though some idle Coxcombs will needs undertake to shew how Children may be had without use of the woman.

CHAP. XIII.

Of the secrets of the Female sex, and first of the privy passage.

SEven things are here to be observed: 1. The Lips. 2. The Wings. 3. The Clitoris. 4. The passage for Urine. 5. The four fleshy Knobs. 6. The membrane, or sinewy skin that joynes these four fleshy knobs toge∣ther. 7. The neck of the womb.

The Lips, or Laps of the Privities are out∣wardly seen, and they are made of the com∣mon coverings of the body, having some spongy fat, both are to keep the inward parts from cold, and that nothing get in to offend the womb; some call this the womans mo∣desty, for they are a double door like Flood∣gates

to shut and open: the neck of the womb ends in this, and it is as it were a skinny ad∣dition, for covering of the neck, answering to the foreskin of a Mans yard. These Lips which make the fissure of the outward orifice, are long, soft, of a skinny and fleshy substance; in some kind spongy and like kernels, with a hard brawny fat under them, and they are covered with a thin skin; but in those women that are married, they lye lower and smoother than in maids; when maids are ripe they are full of hair that grows upon them, but they are more curled in women than the hair of Maids. They that have much hair and very young are much given to venery.

The wings appear when the Lips are part∣ed, and they are made of soft spongy flesh, and the doubling of the skin, placed at the sides of the neck, these compass the Clitoris, and are like a Cocks Comb. These wings be∣sides the great pleasure they give women in Copulation, are to defend the Matrix from outward violence, and serve to the orifice of the neck of the womb as the foreskin doth to a mans Yard, for they shut the cleft with lips as it were, and preserve the womb from cold air and all injuries: and they direct the Urine through the large passage, as between two walls, receiving it from the bottom of

the cleft like a Tunnel, and so it runs forth in a broad stream and a hissing noise, not so much as wetting the wings of the Lap as it goes along; and therefore these wings are called Nymphs, because they joyn to the passage of the Urine, and the neck of the womb, out of which as out of Fountains, whereof the Nymphs were called Goddesses, water and hu∣mours do flow, & besides in them is all the joy and delight of Venus. Those parts that are seen without are the Lips, the slit, and the groin, but so soon as the Lips are divided there are three slits to be seen, the greatest is the outmost and is first seen, and there are two less slits be∣tween the wings, which serve to close up the parts the more firmly. But that which is the great and long slit, is made by the Lips, and bends backward toward the Fundament from the share-bone downward toward the slit of of the buttocks, and the more backward it goes the deeper and broader it is, and so it makes a trench like a Boat, and ends in the welt of the orifice of the neck of the womb.

The Clitoris is a sinewy hard body, full of spongy and black matter within it, as it is in the side ligaments of a mans Yard, and this Clitoris will stand and fall as the Yard doth, & makes women lustfull and take delight in Co∣pulation, and were it not for this they would

have no desire nor delight, nor would they ever conceive. Some think that Hermaphro∣dites are only women that have their Cli∣toris greater, and hanging out more than o∣thers have, and so shew like a Mans Yard, and it is so called, for it is a small exube∣ration in the upper, forward, and middle part of the share, in the top of the greater slit where the wings end. It differs from the Yard in length, the common pipe, and the want of one pair of the muscles which the Yard hath, but is the same in place and substance; for it hath two sinewy bodies round, without thick and hard, but inward∣ly spongy and full of holes, or pores, that when the spirits come into it, it may stretch, and when the spirits are dissipated it grows loose again; these sinews as in a Mans Yard, are full of gross black vital blood, they come from both the share-bones and join with the bones of the Hip, they part at first, but join about the joining of the share-bones, and so they make a solid hard body of the Yard; and the end is like the Nut, to which is join∣ed a small muscle on each side. The head of this counterfeit Yard is called Tertigo, and the Wings joining cover it with a fine skin like the foreskin; it hath a hole, but it goes not through, and Vessels run along the

back of it as upon a Mans Yard; commonly it is but a small sprout, lying close hid under the Wings, and not easily felt, yet some∣times it grows so long that it hangs forth at the slit like a Yard, and will swell and stand stiff if it be provoked, and some lewd women have endeavoured to use it as men do theirs. In the Indies, and Egypt they are frequent, but I never heard but of one in this Country, if there be any they will do what they can for shame to keep it close.

The Clitoris in Women as it is very small in most, serves for the same purpose as the bridle of the Yard doth, for the womans stones lying far distant from the Mans Yard, the imagination passeth to the spermatical Vessels by the Clitoris moving and the lower ligatures of the Womb, which are joyned to the carrying Vessels of the Seed, so by the stirring of the Clitoris the imagination cau∣seth the Vessels to cast out that Seed that lyeth deep in the body, for in this and the liga∣ments that are fastened in it, lies the chief plea∣sure of loves delight in Copulation; and indeed were not the pleasure transcendently ravish∣ing us, a man or woman would hardly ever die for love.

I told you the Clitoris is so long in some women that it is seen to hang forth at their

Privities and not only the Clitoris that lyeth behind the wings but the Wings also, for the Wings being two skinny Caruncles, on each side one, joyn almost at first, arising from a welt or gard of the skin, of a ligamental substance in the back part the slit of the neck, and they ly hid betwixt the two Lips of the Lap: they alwayes almost touch one the o∣ther, and they go up to the end where the share-bone meets, and when they joyn they make a fleshy rising and cover the Clitoris with a fore∣skin and so they rise to the top of the great cleft. They are longer from the middle up∣ward, and sometimes they will hang forth a little at the great slit without the lips with a blunt corner; yet they are threesquare, like that part of a Cocks Comb that hangs down under his throat both for form and colour; they are soft and spongy, partly fleshy, and partly skinny. In some Coun∣tries they grow so long that the Chirurgion cuts them off to avoid trouble and shame, chiefly in Egypt; they will bleed much when they are cut, and the blood is hardly stopt; wherefore maids have them cut off betimes, and before they marry, for it is a flux of hu∣mours to them, and much motion that makes them grow so long. Some Sea-mem say that they have seen Negro Women go stark

naked, and these wings hanging out.

Besides these, under the Clitoris and above the neck is the passage of the womans water, for the Woman makes not water through the neck of the womb, nor is it a common pas∣sage for Urine and Seed as in men, but it is only for Urine, therefore they that will cast an injection into the womans cleft to stop their water from coming forth too much upon a∣ny occasion concerns their bladder, must take heed they thrust not the spring into the mouth of the Matrix instead of the passage of the bladder.

Near this are four Caruncles or fleshy knobs, in form like to Mirtle berries, they are round in maids, but they flag and hang down as soon as their maidenhead is lost, the uppermost of them is forked and largest, that it may admit the neck of the urinary passage; the other three are below this on the sides; they all serve to keep off air or any thing may offend the neck of the womb.

Maids have these fleshy knobs joyned toge∣ther by a sinewy skin interwoven with ma∣ny small veins, and with a hole in the middle, and through that their Courses pass, it is about the bigness of a mans little finger in such as are grown up; this is that skin so much talked of, and is the token of Virgini∣ty

wheresoever it is, for the first act of Co∣pulation breaks it; some think that it is not found in all maids, but doubtless that is false, else it could have been no proof of Virgi∣nity to the Israelites. Yet certain it is that it may be broken before Copulation, either by defluxion of sharp humours, especially in young maids, or by thrusting in of Pes∣saries unskilfully to provoke the Terms, and many other ways.

The four fleshy knobs with this are like a Rose half blown when the bearded leaves are taken away, or this production with the Lap or privity is like a great Clove-gille∣flower new blown, thence came the word deflowred.

The Arabians thought this skin called Hy∣men was the joining of five Veins together as they are placed on both sides; but that is rejected.

Termelius thought the sides of the womb stuck together and were parted by Copula∣tion; there are many other opinions need∣less to trouble the Reader with. Whatso∣ever it is, there are certain Veins in it which bleed in the breaking of it; and the Hebrew maids were more careful to keep it unbro∣ken, than the French and Italian are; or else Columbus would not say it is seldom found;

and Laurentius professeth he never could find it.

It lieth alwayes hid in the middle of the great cleft, and is peculiar no doubt to all maids, it is as long as the little finger and is broad in the middle, and is compassed about with a round hollowness, the fashion of it is round, but it ends in a point that hath a hole in it so long as the top of the little fin∣ger may be put into it; it is partly fleshy and partly skinny; there are also four skins, like Mirtle berries, as I said, at every cor∣ner of the bosome one, and there are also four membranes or skins that tie these together, and they go not slanting, but they run all right downward, from the inside of the said bosome, and are each of them placed in the distance between the foresaid fleshy skins, and with them they are almost equally stretched out; but both these and they are in several bodies shorter or larger, and the orifice at the end of them wider or smaller, the hole is then straitest when the fleshy skins are nearest joined together; for this cause some maids suffer not so much pain to lose their Maidenhead as others do; for when the Yard first enters the neck of the womb, the fleshy membranes and caruncles are torn up, and the caruncles are so stret∣ched

that a man would think they were ne∣ver join'd together; some Vessels are open∣ed by this means, & by reason of the pain puts maids to a squeek or two, but it is soon over; the younger the maids are the greater the pain, because of the dryness of the part, but they lose less blood in the act because of the smalness of the Vessels: the elder they are, by reason of their courses that have of∣ten flowed, the moisture is more and the pain less, by reason of the wetness and looseness of the Hymen, but the Flux of blood is great∣er, because the Vessels are greater, and the blood hath gotten a fuller passage thither; some pain there will be for all this but not much; yet if they have their Courses then running, or have had them some three or four daies before, the membranes are so dilated by the moisture of those parts that the pain is far less; which hath been a reason why some persons have been jealous of their new married Wives without a cause, thinking they had lost their Maidenheads before. It is best therefore for maids new married to keep their honour, and not to suffer any man to touch them during the time they have their monthly Terms. Besides that it is for∣bidden severely by the Law of God; and Physicians know, that those Children that are

begotten during the time of separation will be Leprous, and troubled with an incu∣rable Itch and Scabs as long as they live.

Also next to their caruncles lieth the out∣ward cleft of the neck, and is placed as it were in the Trench of the great cleft, and is full of wrinkles and like a narrow valley leads the way by a round cavity into the inmost parts, and causeth the outward orifice of the neck of the womb, by which the Yard en∣ters, to provoke the womans parts to give forth their Seed, and to cast in his own. There is a skinny ligament also in the back parts of the outward orifice of the neck which is strait in Maids, and is co∣vered by the Trench, but in women that have born Children it is large and loose, and a certain sign, as well as the former, that Virginity is lost.

The neck of the womb is the distance be∣tween the Privy passage, and the mouth of the womb, into this the mans Yard enters in time of Copulation. It is eight inches long if the Woman be of a reasonable sta∣ture.

The substance of the Matrix is fleshy with∣out, but skinny and all wrinkled within, that it may be able to retain the Seed, & that it

may stretch exceedingly in Childbirth.

The neck of it stands directly betwixt the Urinary passage and the right Gut; which are the two great sinks of the body, that vain Man should not be over proud of his be∣ginning.

It hath two membranes, and if you cut them you shall see a spongy flesh between them, such as is found in the five ligaments of the Yard, and it contains vital spirits, and causeth it to swell in the time of Copulation, and is full of numberless twigs of small Veins and Arteries.

The neck of the womb is the third part of it, and into it, as I said, the mans yard pas∣seth, it is a passage within the passage of the Peritoneum called the Bason or Laver, pla∣ced between the right Gut and the bladder, and it is whiter than the superficies of the bottom; the cavity is deep, but the mouth or entrance is much narrower, it reacheth from the inward mouth of the womb to the outward mouth or lips of the Privities. It is a fit sheath to receive the Yard, and is long, that by it the mans Seed may be carried to the orifice of the Womb; it grows longer or shorter in time of Copulation, and wider and narrower, as the mans Yard is, so it swells more or less, is more open and more

shut; the length and wideness cannot be li∣mited, because it is fit for any Yard: yet I have heard a French man complain sadly, that when he first married his Wife, it was no bigger nor wider than would fit his turn, but now it was grown as a Sack; Perhaps the fault was not the womans but his own, his weapon shrunk and was grown too little for the scabbard.

The neck of the womb is continued with the bottom of it, yet it hath a diverse substance from it, for it is sinewy and skinny that it may with more care be enlarged or contracted, not become too hard nor too soft.

The substance of it is spongy and fungous, like that of a mans Yard, that when there is Copulation, it may close about the Yard, which it doth by reason of many small Arteries which fill up the passage with spirits and make it be∣come narrower. Wherefore in women that are lustfull, it swels in that time of desire, and the caruncles strut out, and the hole grows very strait.

In young maids it is more soft and delicate, but it grows every day harder as they grow elder; after many Children, and in old wo∣men it becomes hard like a gristle, by reason it is so often worn and by the Courses flowing forth.

It is smooth when you stretch it, and slippe∣ry, but otherwise full of wrinkles, unless it be where it ends in the Lap. In the entrance of the passage and in the fore part, there are many round folds and plaights, which cause the more pleasure in Venus action, by the at∣traction of the Nut of the Yard. In young women these folds are smoother and nar∣rower, and the passage straiter, that it will scarce admit a finger to go in, yet through this do pass not onely the Menstruous blood, but also corrupt humours in those that have that disease is called the Whites.

CHAP. XIV.

Of the Vessels preparing Seed in Wo∣men.

AS in Men so in Women, the Seed vessels are either preparing or carrying Vessels. The Preparing vessels are neither more nor less than they are in Men; for they are just four, two Veins and two Arteries; and they arise as they do in men, for the right Vein is derived from the pipe of the great Liver vein under the Emulgent, but the left comes from the Emulgent on the left side: both the Ar∣teries

come from the trunk of the great Artery, yet I do not say that there is no difference be∣tween these in men and women, for then it had been needless to go over this subject any more.

The differences are chiefly two; 1. Be∣cause womens passages are shorter, these ves∣sels are shorter in women than they are in men, for womens stones lye in their bellies, but mens hang without in their Cods, but womens Vessels have by far more windings and turnings, hither and thither, out and in, than mens have, that the matter they bring may be better prepared; their windings up and down prove that they are not shorter, if they had room to go any farther as they have in Men.

It is worth observing, that you may know that the Vessels of the womb have union and communion one with the other, both the Veins & the Arteries; for the vital and natural blood are mingled to perform this great work, and it is thus brought to pass. The sperma∣tick Veins passing by the side of the womb joyn with the foresaid Arteries, and then they make this mixture, and this is easily proved; for if you blow up the Seed Vein with a hol∣low pipe or quill, you shall see all the Vessels of the womb to swell at the same time, and to

be blown up with it; which is enough to con∣firm that they are all mingled and uni∣ted.

These four Vessels bring the Seed from all parts of the body, that they may fit it & make it ready for Natures use. The right vein comes from the trunk of the hollow Liver vein, below the Emulgent vein, nigh unto the great hollow bone: but the left vein comes from the left E∣mulgent vein, for the great Artery is seated on this side by the hollow vein, and that Artery beats & throbs continually; and if the left Seed vein had come from the Trunk of the hollow vein as the right doth, it must have past over the great Artery, and then the never ceasing beating of the Artery would have broken this thin Vein, if nature had not provided the foresaid remedy against it. The Arteries both of them have the same beginning as they have in men, for they come from the Trunk of the great Artery, near the great bone under the Emulgent vein, and they are filled with vital blood, as the two Veins are with natural blood. Yet they do not fall out of the Perito∣neum as the Arteries of men do, nor do they reach the share-bone, because women have no reason to cast their Seed out of themselvs, but onely into their own womb, which is but a short way; nor do these Arteries interweave or

grow together till they come into their stones; but with some variation again they are divided; for in women they are supported with fat membranes, & so brought to the Stones; yet by the way as they come they inoculate the Veins with the Arteries, and after that they branch into two parts, and the one part makes the Seed vessels, and that which is called Cor∣pus varicosum, affording to the Cods and stones some small twigs for to feed them; but the other part is carried to the skin that cleaves to the bottom of the Matrix, and supplieth the higher part of its bottom with nourishment, and feeds the Infant in the womb also with blood: and moreover by these Vessels the monthly Terms are voided forth, especially of such women that are not with Child; but in Men they are all wrought up into one body which is called Corpus varicosum.

The difference that they make in shortness from the same Vessels in men, may be for this reason also, because the womans Seed doth not need so strong and great preparing as mens Seed doth; nor could their Vessels have been kept within the womans belly, had they not been made shorter than mens. But it is admirable to consider how strangely these Vessels are infolded and wrapt up one within the other to prepare the Seed: Yet because

womens stones are but small their Seed vessels needed not to be great; so that if they have any Prostates, saith Galen, to keep the Seed in, they are so small they can hardly be dis∣cerned.

CHAP. XV.

Of the Seed-carrying Vessels in Wo∣men.

THese vessels that carry the Seed come from the lower part of the stones, they are on each side one, and are propt up by the ligaments of the womb, they are white and sinewy, they do not go directly to the womb, but with many windings, and turnings, be∣cause the way is short, they are broad near the stones, then they grow less, and again when they come to the womb they are enlarged, they go to the horns of the womb and there they end, and by those horns they pass into the womb, this may be plainly seen in other Fe∣male creatures as well as in women though with much difference.

These vessels in their twistings are like to the Seed bladders as are in men; full of wrinkles, & in the midst they have a hole or mouth like to

a Trumpets mouth, and it is curled up like Vine tendrils, they are more folded together than in Men, because they are not to pass through the Peritoneum, for womens stones do not hang forth as mens do. Also they do not come from the stones presently to the neck of the bladder as with men, but they go from the stones to the womb, and when they come to the sides of it, called the horns, there they part, and one part which is larger and shorter enters into the middle of the horns of his own side, or very near it, and there it delivers in, and so into the cavity of the womb, Seed perfectly concocted; but the other part which is longer though it be narrower, passeth along by the sides of the womb to the neck of it on both sides, and below the innermost mouth of the womb they are implanted under the neck of it into the forestanders, which are not so plain to be seen as they are with men, yet these hold the Seed there till it is the time of Copulation, and then they cast it forth, for thus women great with Child do spend their Seed, and not by opening the innermost mouth of the womb as some falsely think; for so soon as a woman conceives, the mouth of the womb is most exactly shut close, yet they can lye with men all that while; and some women before

others, will take more pleasure, and are more desirous of their Husbands company than be∣fore, which is scarce seen in any other female creatures besides, most of them being fully satisfied after they have conceived; but it was needful for man that it should be so, because polygamy is forbidden by the Laws of God.

CHAP. XVI.

Of Women stones.

WOmen have need of stones to concoct and digest their Seed as well as men; the use of stones in both sexes is to make Seed fruitful, for if either the stones of the man or woman be out of temper they must needs be barren and unfruitful, nor is there any greater sign of health than when the stones are well; and of this Jugement was that great Physician Hippocrates.

There are many differences betwixt the stones of both sexes. 1. In place, because women are colder than men, their stones are kept within their lower belly to keep them warm and to make them fruitful, and they lye on either side of the womb, above the bottom, when women are not with Child; but when they are with Child, these stones lye near the

place where the hanch-bone, and the holy-bone join, and they are contained in loose skins coming from the Peritoneum, which skins cover also half the Stones, and they lie upon the Muscles of the Loins within the Abdomen.

2. Womans Stones have no Cod to hold them as Mens have; they have but one skin to cover them, for lying within the body they need no more; but mens Stones have four several skins to keep them warm be∣cause they hang without their bellies. Also the Cod or rather coat for the Stones, is sof∣ter, and thinner than the mans, and cleaves fast to them, that it seems to be the same bo∣dy with them; this coat also receives the Vessels of blood, and wrapping them fast keeps the blood from shedding forth.

3. Womens Stones are not so thick, nor great, nor round, nor smooth, nor hard as mens are; but they are small and uneven, and broad and flat both before and behind; whereas mens are oval, smooth, large, round and equall; the upper side of womens Stones are so unequal that they resemble small ker∣nels of the Kall joined together and they are long and hollow with small textures in them▪ and they are full of a watry humour like very thick Whey when Women are in

good health, but when they are sickly they seem like bladders full of a clear watry hu∣mour, and sometimes of a yellow colour like Saffron, and will stink, so that it often∣times causeth the strangling of the Mother, which Midwives call fits of the Mother.

4. Their Stones are also colder and moi∣ster, and so is their Seed, and therefore wo∣men have no Beards on their faces because of the coldness of their Stones.

5. They have no forestanders.

Mans Seed is the agent and womans Seed the patient, or at least not so active as the mans. Aristotle denyed that women had a∣ny seed at all; and Jovianus Pontanus would prove this by the Moon, which Aristotle liken∣eth to women in act of Procreation, who held that the Moon doth nothing but bring moist matter for the Sun to work upon in things below, but Hermetick Philosophy will prove, that the moisture the Moon brings, hath an active principle as well as the Sun: and so doubtless women are not only passive in Procreation, but active also as well as the man though not in so high a degree of action: her seed is more watry, and mans seed full of vital spirits, more condensed, thick and glutinous; for had the womans seed been as thick as the mans, they could never have

been so perfectly mingled together.

CHAP. XVII.

Of the Womb it self or Matrix.

THe Womb is that Field of Nature into which the Seed of man and woman is cast, and it hath also an attractive faculty to draw in a magnetique quality, as the Load-stone draweth Iron, or Fire the light of the Candle, and to this seed runs the Womans blood also, to beget, nourish, encrease and preserve the Infant till it is time for it to be born; for the natural and vegetable Soul is virtually in the Seed, and runs through the whole mass, and is brought into act by the Virtue and heat of the Woman that receives the Seed, and by the forming faculty which lies hid in the Seed of both Sexes, and in the disposition of the womb both Seeds are well mingled together at the same time in all parts of the body, I mean as to the parts made of Seed, but as for the parts made with blood, they are made at several times, as they can sooner or later procure nourishment and spi∣rits. The parts therefore next the Liver are sooner made than those that are far from it,

and those are first made that the mothers blood first runs to, that is first the Navel Vein, and that being first made, by that the blood is carried to other parts.

The Womb is like a Bottle or Bladder blown when the Infant is in it, and it lieth in the lower belly, and in the last place a∣mongst the entrails by the water course, be∣cause this is easily enlarged as the child grows in the Womb; and the child is by this means more easily begot, and the Woman deliver∣ed of it; nor is it any hindrance to the parts of nutrition while the woman continues with Child; but had the Womb where the Infant lieth, been seated in the middle or up∣per belly, the child would have been soon stifled, for the womb could not have stretch∣ed wider according to the growth of the Child, because the bones that compass the upper belly would have hindered it.

The hollow part of the belly where the Womb lieth is called the Bason, and it is pla∣ced between the Bladder and the right Gut; the bladder stands before it, and is a strong membrane to defend it; and the right Gut lieth behind it, as a pillow to keep off the hard∣ness of the backbone, so that the womb li∣eth in the middle of the lowest belly to bal∣lance the body equally, and to contain the

Womb: the Bason is larger in women than in men, as you may see by their larger but∣tocks. As the child grows, the bottom of the womb which lieth uppermost, lying at li∣berty and not tyed, grows upward towards the Navel, and so leans upon the small Guts, and so fills all the hollow of the flancks when women are near the time to bring forth.

The Womb is fastened and tied partly by the substance of it, and also by four ligaments, two above, and two beneath, but the bottom is not tied neither before, nor behind, nor a∣bove, but is free and at liberty, that it can stretch as need requires in Copulation, or Child-bearing, and it hath a kind of animal motion to satisfie its desire. Galen saith, that the sides are fastened to the hanch-bone by membranes, & ligaments, coming from the muscles of the Loyns, and interwoven oft∣times with fleshy fibres, and carried to other parts of the womb to hold it fast.

The neck of the womb is tied, but not e∣very side, to the parts that lie near it; at the sides it is loosely tied to the Peritoneum by certain membranes that grow to it, and on the back part it is fastened with thin fibres, and a little fat to the right Gut and the holy-bone, it lieth upon that fat all along that

passage, and it grows into one with the Fun∣dament, above the Lap, to which it is join∣ed before; if the Fundament chance to be ul∣cerated within, the dung hath been seen to fall out at the Lap.

The fore part is knit to the neck of the bladder, and because the wombs neck is broader than the neck of the bladder, some part of it is fastened by membranes coming from the Peritoneum to the share-bone; from hence it happens that when the womb is in∣flamed, the Woman hath a great desire to go to stool and to make water, but cannot.

The lower strings that fasten the Womb are two also, called the horns of the womb; they are sinewy, round, reddish, and hol∣low, chiefly at their ends, like to the husky membrane; and sometimes this hollowness is full of fat; these horns come from the sides of the Womb, and at their first coming forth they touch the Seed-carrying Vessels. When these productions are stretched too much, as they are ofttimes in hard labour in Child∣birth, there happens to women a rupture as well as to men, but they may be cured by cut∣ting and strong ligatures.

Fleshy fibres are joined to these producti∣ons after they come forth of the Abdomen, and they are small Muscles called holders up,

in Women they belong not to the Stones as they do in men, because they join in men to the Seed Vessels. When these ligaments come at the share-bone, they change into a broad sinewy slenderness, mingled with a mem∣brane which toucheth and covers the fore∣part of the share-bone, and upon this the Clitoris cleaveth and is tied, which being nervous, and of pure feeling, when it is rub∣bed and stirred it causeth lustful thoughts, which being communicated to these liga∣ments, is passeth to the Vessels that carry the seed. Yet these holders up serve for other uses, for as they are Muscles that hold up the Stones in men, so they hold up the womb in women that it may be kept fom falling out at the Lap.

The parts then of the womb are two; The neck or mouth, and the bottom: The neck is the entrance into it, which will open and shut like a purse; for in the act of Copulation it receives the Yard into it, but after con∣ception the point of a Bodkin cannot pass; yet when the time comes for the Child to come forth, it will open and make room e∣nough for the greatest child that is conceived: This made Galen wonder, and so should we all, to consider how fearfully and wonder∣fully God hath made us as the Psalmist saith;

The Works of the Lord are wonderful, to be sought out of all those that take Pleasure therein.

The form of the womb is exactly round, and in maids it is no bigger than a walnut, yet it will stretch so after conception, that it will easily contain the child and all that be∣longs to it; it is small at first to embrace the Seed that is but little cast into it. It is made of two skins, an outward, and an inward skin, the outward is thick, smooth, and slippery, excepting those parts where the Seed Vessels come into the womb; the inward skin is full of small holes.

It is far different from the Matrix of beasts, which Galen knew not, for the Grecians in those daies held it an abomination to dissect any man or woman though they were dead; all the knowledge of Anatomy they learned, was by dissecting Apes and such Creatures that were the most like to mankind, but the inside of men or women they saw not, and so were ignorant of the difference between them. Whence it is confirmed, that they knew not the seat of some diseases so well as we do, and therefore must need fall short of the cure; nor would they use the means to find out what disease they died of, which true Anatomy would have made known to them, and would have been a great further∣ance

to preserve others that were sick of the same diseases that others died of before.

It hath been much and long disputed how many Cells are in the womb: Mundinus and Galen say there are seven several Cells, and that a woman may, by reason of so many places distinct one from the other, have seven Children at a birth, and many midwives are of this opinion, but none that ever saw the womb can think so; for there is but one hollow place, unless Men will say that those holes where the seed vessels come into the womb are places for Children to be conceived in. They that maintain seven Cells in the womb, say a woman may have seven Chil∣dren at a birth, three Boys, three Girls, and one Hermaphrodite; others say a woman can have but two Children at once because nature hath given her but two breasts, she may as well go but two Miles because she hath but two legs, but it is usual for women to have three at one birth: In Egypt the place is so fruitful they have sometimes five or six at a birth. Aristotle tells us of one woman, that at four births brought forth twenty perfect liv∣ing Children: but Albertus Magnus tells us of one woman who miscarryed of two and twen∣ty perfect Children at once, and of another that had one hundred and fifty at once, and

every one of them as big as a Mans little fin∣ger, but believe him that will: yet the story of Margeret Countess of Holsteed, whose Tomb is said to be in a Monastery in Holland, is much lowder, to have had three hundred and sixty four living Infants born at a birth all living, & Christned. But to let this pass, and come to what we know.

How comes it to pass that Twins are con∣ceived at the same time, if the womb have no more but one Cell?

Empedocles saith, the cause is plenty of seed that is sufficient to make more than one Child. Asclepiades ascribes it to the strength of the seed ejected: And Ptolomy to the position of the Starrs when Children are begot.

That twins are begot at the same act of Co∣pulation is held by all Antient and modern Writers, for the seed say they being not cast into the womb all at once, divides in the womb, and makes more Children; another reason they give is, that the womb, when it hath received the Seed, shuts so close that no more Seed can enter.

I answer to the first question, That the be∣ginning of conception is not so soon as the Seed is cast into the womb, for then a wo∣man would conceive every time she receives it. But the perfect mixing of the seed of both

sexes is the beginning of conception, and it is hard to believe, that the womb that is so small at first, that it will hardly hold a Bean, and having but one Cell, can mingle the man and womans seed together exactly in two places at the same time, and it is certain it shuts so close that no place is left for the air to enter in.

Second Answer, The womb doth not shut so close presently but that superfluous seed may come forth, and after conception the pleasures of Venus will open the womb at any time, for it opens the Muscles willingly in such cases; nor do all Authors agree that Twins are begotten at the same time, for all the Stoick Philosophers hold that they are be∣gotten at several times, and if you read the Treatise of Hermes, he will tell you, that Twins are not conceived at the same minute of time; for if they were conceived at once, they must be born at once, which is impossible. Some may object, that the Treatise of Her∣mes speaks not to a minute, but if it be true to a Sign ascending, it must be true to a Degree, and to a minute, and Second.

All Authors allow of a superfetation, that is, the woman may conceive again when she hath conceiv'd of one Child before she be delivered of that. So Alcumena in Plautus Amphitrio, is

said to have brought forth Hercules at seven Moneths, and Iphyclus three moneths after. Hippocrates tells us of a woman of Larista who was delivered of two perfect-living Children at forty days distance one from the other. Avicenna holds, that all women that have their Terms after conception, may conceive again before the first be born; and if they can conceive so long after again before the first be delivered, much rather sooner when the womb is not filled with the growth of the first. But to end this dispute we read Gen. 4.2. That Eve conceived again and bare his brother Abel; the Original signifies, she conceived upon con∣ception, and bare his brother Abel. And in the Treatise of Hermes you shall find a reason why two Children may be conceived a moneth a∣sunder and yet born about the same time, and a woman may miscarry of one of them, and yet go her full time with the other, as Hippocrates shews in his Book De natura Pueri: Nay he relates of women that brought forth two Children at one birth, and a third fifteen weeks after. Let then Midwives take heed that they do not force the second Child be∣fore its time especially if there be no great flux of bloud nor signs of labour appearing.

Question. Why do women desire Copulati∣on when they have already conceived, and beasts do not?

Pappea the Daughter of Agrippa a Roman, a lustful lass answered, because they are beasts. Some say it is a vertue and prerogative given to women, but they are those that call Vice Vertue. The truth is that Adam's first sin lyeth heavy upon his posterity, more than upon beasts, & for this the curse of God follows them, and inordinate lust is a great part of this curse, & the propagation of many Children at once is an effect of this intemperance. Hippocrates for∣bids women to use Copulation after concepti∣on; but I may not wrong the Man so much. But these are the fruits of Original sin, for which we ought to humble our selves in the presence of God, and pray earnestly for his assistance against the effects of it.

CHAP. XVIII.

Of the fashion and greatness of the Womb, and of the parts it is made of.

THe womb is of the form of a Pear, round toward the bottom and large, but nar∣row by degrees to the neck, the roundness of it makes it fit to contain much, and it is there¦fore

less subject to be hurt. When women are w^th Child the bottom is broad like a bladder, & the neck narrow; but where they are not w^th Child the bottom is no broader than the neck. Some womens wombs are larger than others, according to the age, stature, and burden that they bear; Maids wombs are small and less than their bladders; but womens are grea∣ter, especially after they have once had a Child, and so it will continue. It stretcheth after they have conceived, and the larger it extends the thicker it grows.

It hath parts of two kinds; The simple parts it is made of, are Membranes, Veins, Nerves, and Arteries.

The compound parts are four; the mouth, the bottom, the neck, and the Lap or lips. The membranes are two as I said, one out∣ward and the other inward, that it may open and shut at pleasure; the outward membrane is sinewy, and the thickest of all the mem∣branes that come from the Peritoneum; it is strong and doubled, and cloaths the womb to make it more strong, and grows to it on both sides: The inward membrane is double also, but can scarce be seen but in exulcerations of the womb. When the woman conceives it is thick and soft, but it grows thicker daily, and is thickest when the time of birth is Fibres

of all kinds run between these membranes, to draw and keep the Seed, and to thrust forth the burthen; and the flesh of the womb is chief∣ly made up of fleshy Fibres.

The three sorts of Fibres for Seed do plain∣ly appear after women have gone long with Child, those that draw the seed are inward, and are not many, because the Seed is most cast into the womb by the Yard, the thwart Fibres are strongest, and most, and they are in the middle, but the Fibres that lye trans∣verse are strong also, and lye outward, be∣cause it is great force that is required in time of delivery.

The Veins & Arteries that pass through the membranes of the womb come from divers places, for two Veins and two Arteries come from the Seed Vessels, and two veins and two Arteries from the vessels in the lower belly, and run upward, that from all the body, both from above and under, blood of all sorts might be conveighed, to bring nourishment for the womb, and for the infant in it; also they serve as Scavengers to purge out the Terms every moneth. The twigs of the Vein that is in the lower belly, mingle in the womb with the branches of the Seed veins, and the mouths of them reach into the hollow of the womb▪ and they are called cups; through these comes

more blood alwaies than the infants needs, that the Child may never want nutriment in the womb, and there may be some to spare when the time comes for the Child to be born; but after the birth, this blood comes not hither but goes to the Breasts to make Milk; but at all other times it is cast out monethly what is superfluous, and if it be not it corrupts and causeth fits of the Mother; yet they come oftner from the Seed corrupted, and staying there than they do from blood.

It is not onely blood is voided by the Terms, but multitude of humours and excre∣ments, and these purgations last sometimes three or four days, sometimes a week, and young folk have them when the Moon chang∣eth, but women in years at the full of the Moon; which is to be observed, that we may know when to give remedies to Maids whose Terms come not down, for we must do it in the time when the Moon is new or ready to change, and to elder women about the time that Nature useth to send them forth, because a Physician is but a helper to nature, and if he observe not natures rules he will soo∣ner kill than cure.

The sinews of the womb are small but ma∣ny, and interwoven like Net-work, which makes it quick of feeling; they come to the

upper part of the bottom from the bran∣ches of the Nerves of the sixth Conjuga∣tion, which go to the root of the ribs, and to the lower part of the bottom, and to the neck of the Womb from the mar∣row of the Loins, and the great bone. Thus they by their quick feeling cause plea∣sure in Copulation, and Expulsion of what offends the part; they are most plentiful at the bottom of the Womb, to quicken and strengthen it in attracting and embracing the seed of man.

There is but one continued passage from the top or Lap to the bottom of the Womb; yet some divide it into four parts; name∣ly into the upper part, or bottom, for that lieth uppermost in the body. 2. The mouth or inward orifice of the neck. 3. The neck. 4. The outward Lap, Lips, or Privity.

The chief part of these, which is pro∣perly the Womb or Matrix, is the bot∣tom; here is the Infant conceived, kept, formed, and fed until the rational Soul be infused from above, and the Child born▪ The broader part or bottom is set above the share-bone that it may be dilated as the Child grows, the outside is smooth and

overlaid with a watry moisture: there is a corner on each side above, and when Women are not with Child the seed is pou∣red out into these, for the carrying Ves∣sels for seed are planted into them▪ They are to make more room for the Child, and at first it is so small that the Parents seed fills it full, for it embraceth it, be it never so little, as close as 'tis possible; the bottom is full of pores, but they are but the mouths of the Cups by which the blood in Child-bearing comes out of the Veins of the womb into the cavity. The corners of the wombs bottom are wrink∣led, the bottom is softer than the neck of it; yet harder than the Lap and more thick. From the lower part of the bottom comes a piece an inch long like the Nut of the mans Yard, but small as ones little finger, and a Pins point will but enter into it, but it is rough to keep the Seed from recoiling after it is once attracted, for when the parts are overslippery the humours are peccant, and those women are barren. Hip∣pocrates saith, that sometimes part of the kall falls between the bladder and the womb and makes women fruitless.

This part may well be reckoned for ano∣ther part of the womb, for it lieth between

the beginning of the bottom and the mouth, & there is a clear passage in it. The womb hath two mouths, the inward mouth and the out∣ward, by the inward mouth the bottom o∣pens directly into the neck, this mouth ly∣eth overthwart like the mouth of a Place, or the passage of the Nut of the Yard; the whole Orifice with the slit transverse is like the Greek Letter Theta Θ: it is so little and narrow that the Seed once in can scarce come back, nor any offensive thing enter into the hollow of the womb. The mouth lies directly against the bottom, for the Seed goeth in a streight line from the neck to the bottom.

The womb is alwayes shut but in time of generation, and then the bottom draws in the Seed, and it presently shuts so close that no needle, as I said, can find an entrance, and thus it continues till the time of delivery, un∣less some ill accident, or disease force it to o∣pen; for when women with child are in Copulation with men, they do give seed forth, but that seed comes not from the bot∣tom, as some think, but by the neck of the womb. It must open when a child is born so wide as to give passage for it by degrees, be∣cause the neck of the womb is of a compact thick substance, and thicker when the birth

is nigh; wherefore there cleaves to it a bo∣dy like glew, and by that means the mouth opens safely without danger of being torn or broken, and as often as the passage is open it comes away like a round crown, and Mid∣wives call it the Rose, the Garland, or the Crown. If this mouth be too often and un∣reasonably opened by too frequent coition, or in over moist bodies, or by the whites, it makes women barren, and therefore Whores have seldom any Children; it is the same reason if it grow too hard, or thick, or fat, also the Cancer and the Schirrhus, two diseases incurable, which happen but seldom till the courses fail, are bred here.

Thus I have as briefly and as plainly as I could, laid down a description of the parts of generation of both sexes, purposely omitting hard names, that I might have no cause to enlarge my work, by giving you the mean∣ing of them where there is no need, unless it be for such persons who desire rather to know Words than Things.

BOOK II.

CHAP. I.

What things are required for the pro∣creation of Children.

I Have in the former part made a short ex∣planation of the parts of both sexes, that are needful for this use, but yet some think that there is no need of de∣scribing the parts of them both, because some have written that the Generative parts in men, differ not from those in women, but in respect of place and situation in the body; and that a woman may become a man, and that one Tyesias was a man for many years, and after that was strangely metamorphos'd into a woman, and again from a woman to a man, and that in regard he had been of both sexes, he was chosen as the most fit

Judge to determine that great question, which of the two Male or Female find most pleasure in time of Copulation. Some again hold that man may be changed into a woman, but a woman can never become a man; but let e∣very man abound in his own opinion, certain it is, that neither of these opinions is true: for the parts in men and women are different in number, and likeness, substance, and pro∣portion; the Cod of a man turned inside out∣ward is like the womb, yet the difference is so great that they can never be the same; for the Cod is a thin wrinkled skin, but the womb at the bottom is a thick membrane all fleshy within, and woven with many small fibres, and the Seed-Vessels are implanted so that they can never change their place; and more∣over their Stones are for shape, magnitude, and composition too different to suffer a change of the sex; so that of necessity there must be a conjunction of Male and Female for the begetting of children. Insects and im∣perfect creatures are bred sundry wayes, without conjunction; but it is not so with mankind, but both sexes must concur, by mutual embracements, and there must be a perfect mixture of Seed issueing from them both, which vertually contain the Infant that must be formed from them. God made all

things of nothing but man must have some matter to work upon or he can produce no∣thing.

The two principles then that are ne∣cessary in this case are the seed of both sexes, and the mothers blood; the seed of the Male is more active than that of the Female in for∣ming the creature, though both be fruitful, but the female adds blood as well as seed out of which the fleshy parts are made, & both the fleshy and spermatick parts are maintain'd and preserv'd. What Hippocrates speaks of two sorts of Seed in both kinds, strong and weak seed, hot and cold, is to be understood only of strong and weak people, and as the seed is mingled, so are Boys and Girls begot∣ten.

The Mothers blood is another principle of Children to be made; but the blood hath no active quality in this great work, but the seed works upon it, and of this blood are the chief parts of the bowels and the flesh of the muscles formed, and with this both the spermatical and fleshy parts are fed; this blood and the menstrual blood, or monthly Terms are the same, which is a blood ordained by Nature for the procreation and feeding of the Infant in the Womb, and is at set times pur∣ged forth what is superfluous; and it is an ex∣crement

of the last nutriment of the fleshy parts, for what is too much for natures use she casts it forth; for women have soft loose flesh and small heat, and cannot concoct all the blood she provides, nor discuss it but by this way of purgation. The efficient cause of this purging, are the Veins that are bur∣dened with this superfluity of the remain∣ing blood, and desire to be discharged of it. Yet nature keeps an exact method and or∣der in all her works; and therefore she doth not send this blood out but at certain periods of time, viz. once every month, and that on∣ly in some persons: generally maids have their terms at fourteen years old, and they cease at about fifty years, for they want heat and cannot breed much good blood nor ex∣pel what is too much▪ yet those that are weak sometimes have no courses till eighteen or twenty, some that are strong have them till almost sixty years old, fulness of blood and plenty of nutriment in diet brings them down sometimes at twelve years old: but commonly in Climacterical or twice seven years they break forth, heat and strength ma∣king way for them, and then maids will not be easily ruled, for their passages grow larger, the humours flow, and they find a way by their own thinness of parts, being helped by

the expulsive faculty. Men about the same age begin to change their faces and to grow downy with hair, and to change their notes and voices; Maids breasts swell; lustful thoughts draw away their minds, and some fall into Consumptions, others rage and grow almost mad with love.

The time of the courses is not so exact that it can be certainly determined by us who are not of Natures Cabinet counsel. Sometimes sharp corroding humours force the passage be∣fore it is time, and sometimes the blood is so thick that it cannot break forth. Lusty and Menlike women send them forth in three days, but idle persons and such as are al∣ways feeding will be seven or eight days about it; but there is a mean between them both that proportions the time accordingly, four dayes will be sufficient; but the quantity of blood that is cast out is more or less, consider∣ing the circumstance of age, temperament, diet, and nature of the blood, and that diffe∣rent according to the seasons of the year: the places by which it comes forth are the Veins, and the bottom of the womb, for the veins come from under the belly, and seed branches to the bottom and to the neck of the womb, and when women are with Child, the super∣fluous blood runs out by the veins of the neck;

but maids and such as are not with Child, send this blood forth by the womb it self; by this blood the seed conceived increaseth, and when the Child is delivered, then it returns to the breasts for to make Milk as we hinted at before. Though the blood be a necessary cause, and nothing will be done without it that comes to perfection, yet the seed is the Principal cause in this building; for the seed is the workmaster that makes the Infant, and therefore the stones that make this seed must needs be Principal parts, though some ex∣clude them, making only the Heart, the Brain, and the Liver; to be of the first rank; but the stones may in some sort be put in the first rank, not onely to make the body fruitful, but to work a change in the whole; Take away a Mans stones and he is no more the same man, but growes cold of constitution though he were never so hot before, and is subject to Convulsion fits, also their voice grows shrill and Feminine, and their manners and dispo∣sitions are commonly naught. Eunuchs may live without them, and it hath been an ap∣proved cure for the Leprosy in former times; but Hippocrates tells us, that the stones are the strength and vigour of Manhood, and that a convulsion of the stones threatneth Death, and the firmness or looseness of them is a great

sign of good or evil, and that applications to the stones are very effectual to the strength∣ning of the body. It is then very needful for all to keep the Organs of procreation pure, and clean, that they may send forth good seed to make the work perfect, and that Children may be long lived, which they cannot well be, nor of sound constitutions, if they are be∣gotten from corrupt Seed or unnatural blood. Alchymists lay the cause of all Childrens di∣seases on the Seed of the Parents; as plants have not the causes of their destruction from the Elements, but from their own Seed; as al∣so we see, that when the Plague or any Epi∣demical disease rageth, all are not infected, because they have not that matter in them that will so soon take as it doth with others. That therefore the matter may be fit for the work of nature, there are two things very useful, good diet moderately taken, and con∣veniet labour and exercise of body. Ill diet causeth ill blood, and excess in meat or drink choakes the natural heat, causeth raw, crude humours, which will never make good blood, and ill blood will never make good seed, for every part hath its natural propriety to change the nutriment into its own likeness, as the Breasts change blood into Milk, the stones change it into seed alwayes supposing such-

previous preparations that are needful, or it cannot be done as it should be.

Temperance in eating and drinking will make both Parents and Children to be long lived, and there is as much difference be∣tween good and bad nourishment, as there is between pure Fountain water, and ditch wa∣ter; but temperance is not to be understood as if there were a set proportion for all alike, for it is according to every ones constitution, what is too much for one Man or woman may be too little for another; it is then such a quantity of meat or drink that the stomach can well master and digest for the feeding of the body. Those that work hard must eat more than Schollars that follow their studies, for the work of the stomach is called off by the in∣tention of the mind, their meat must be less, and of easier digestion.

They that live in hot climates or near the Sun have not so strong stomachs, as in colder regions, nor is it with us all one in Summer and winter, but every man or woman of years, by good observation may know his own temper, and what quantity will best agree with him, and so if he be not a fool he may be his own Physician.

Youth and age cannot feed alike, Children are often feeding because they want both for

growth and nourishment, but old age not near so much; sick and healthful differ in the same kind.

I never could endure that preposterous way that most persons observe to the destruc∣tion of their Friends, that when they are sick they will never let them alone but provoke them to eat, whereas fasting is the better Doctor, so it be not out of measure.

The causes of great eating and drinking be∣yond the bounds of nature, are a liquorish appetite, and a fancy beyond reason: But hav∣ing found out the causes, I shall prescribe some remedies withal. It is easy to know when you have eat or drank too much, or what a∣grees not with you; when you find nature charged with it, and is not able to digest it, vapours rising from the stomach that is glut∣ted will choak the brain, and cause defluxi∣ons and multitudes of diseases: if you be sleepy after meat and drink, you have taken too much, for moderation makes a Man cheer∣ful and not sleepy. Also refrain from all meats and drinks that agree not with your constitution, for they will never breed good blood, but if you have done amiss in surfeiting your self, or over eating, or using any thing that agrees not with you; remember that na∣ture abhors all sudden changes; and there∣fore

you must not withdraw all at once but by degrees till you can bring your selves safely to a moderation. This intemperance of Pa∣rents is the cause that many Children die be∣fore their time; for what is too much can ne∣ver be well concocted, but turns to ill and raw humours, and if the stomach turn the food into crude juyce, or chyle, the Liver that makes the second concoction can never mend it, to make good blood; nor can the third concoction of the stones to turn that blood into seed, make good seed of ill blood; for what is bad in the first concoction, the se∣cond concoction, nor third can ever rectify, but if the chyle be good, blood and seed will be good.

But you must know that nothing furthers good concoction more than moderate labour, for it stirs up natural heat; whereas idle per∣sons breed crude humours. And therefore Lycurgus the Lacedemonian Law-giver com∣manded Maids to work, for saith he, this keeps their bodies in good temper, and free from crudities, and when they come to mar∣ry, their Children will be strong. There's as much difference between labour and sloth, as between the earth in Summer and Winter; in Summer the Sun by its heat makes it fruit∣ful, in Winter it is chill for want of the Suns,

heat; Convenient labour sends the spirits to all parts of the body; when the Elements are unequally divided, death follows, so the bet∣ter the spirits are distrubuted to the seed, the better will the seed be, and your Children the stronger, which is no small effect of moderate exercise, when sloth is the cause of their hasty dissolution: moderate labour open the pores of the body, and by sweat or insensible tran∣spriation sends forth all fuliginous, and smoky vapours that choke the spirits and cause divers maladies; we find all this to be true in reason, and experience confirms it; for Countrey peo∣ple that work hard digest what they eat, and their Children are usually strong and long liv'd. But Citizens and such as refuse to la∣bour and live idle lives, I do not say all, I hope there will be the fewer, for what I have taken the pains to write now for their better instruc∣tion and reformation: then will Men won∣der no longer what becomes of so many Chil∣dren as are born in the City? one can hardly find as many living as are born in half a years time; I am perswaded not so many can be found to have lived to seven years of age. They that love their Children will take my ad∣vice, and they and their Children will have good cause to thank me for it; and besides the avoiding the mischiefs of intemperance to

themselves and posterity, they shall find the blessing of God upon them, as a great reward of this vertue of moderation, and the poor will have just cause to pray for me and them, for what is wastfully spent by the riotous, may be charitably bestowed upon their poor neigh∣bours that stand in need of it.

CHAP. II.

Of true conception.

TRue Conception is then, when the seed of both sexes is good, and duly prepared and cast into the womb as into fruitful ground, and is there so fitly and equally mingled, the Man's seed with the womans, that a perfect Child is by degrees framed; for first small threads as it were of the solid and substantial parts are formed out, and the womans blood flowes to them, to make the bowels and to supply all parts of the infant with food and nourishment.

Conception is the proper action of the womb after fruitful seed cast in by both sexes, and this Conception is performed in less than seven hours after the seed is mingled, for na∣ture

is not a minute idle in her work, but acts to the utmost of her power; it is not co∣pulation, but the mixture of both seeds is called conception, when the heat of the womb fastens them; if the woman conceives not, the seed will fall out of the womb in se∣ven daies, and abortion and conception are reckoned upon the same time.

The Seeds of both must be first perfectly mixed, and when that is done, the Matrix contracts it self and so closely embraceth it, being greedy to perfect this work, that by succession of time she stirs up the formative faculty which lieth hid in the seed and brings it into act, which was before but in possibilty, this is the natural property of the womb to make prolifick Seed fruitful, it is not all the art of man that setting the womb aside can form a living child.

To conceive with child is the earnest de∣sire if not of all yet of most women, Nature having put into all a will to effect and pro∣duce their like. Some there are who hold con∣ception to be a curse, because God laid it up∣on Eve for tasting of the forbidden fruit, I will greatly multiply thy conception: but foras∣much as encrease and multiply, was the bles∣sing of God, it is not the conception, but the sorrow to bring forth that was laid as a curse.

We see that there is in women so great a longing to conceive with child, that ofttimes for want of it the womb falls into convul∣sions and distracts the whole body.

The womb as I said is fast tied at the neck and about the middle, but the bottom hangs lose, so that it doth ofttimes fall into strange motions. The natural motion of it comes from the moving faculty, but the unnatural motions from some unhealthful and convul∣sive cause; which is most commonly bred in it for want of conception, and not bearing of children; we see no women ordinarily that are better in health than those that often con∣ceive with child, and some are so fruitful that they conceive with many children about the same time; so that considering his magnitude, surely no creature multiplies more than man, for he hath a priority in this blessing above the beasts. Twins are frequent, and some∣times two or three children at one birth, are not the same thing with superfetation, when children are got again before the first be delivered; you must not think divers Cells in the womb to be the cause of this multipli∣city of children; for there is no such thing in the womb to be the cause of this multiplicity of children; for there is no such thing in the womb, but only one line that parts one side

from the other, but such women have larger wombs than others, and so the seed divided finds place to form more children than one, if their be sufficient strength in the several parts of the seed to do it. Yet when Twins are be∣gotten, they have no more than one cake cal∣led Placenta, that both their Navel vessels are received by; though they have different Se∣cundines or Coats that cover them. It may be discerned but with some difficulty, that a woman will have more than one child, by their heavy burden and slow motion, also by the unevenness of their bellies; and that there is a kind of separation made by certain wrinkles and seams to shew the children are parted in the womb; and if she be not very strong to go through with it in her Travel, she is in danger both she and her children. If the twins be both boys or both girls they will fare the better. Yet one is found by frequent examples to be more lusty & longer liv'd than the other, be they both of one sex, or one a boy the other a girl, that which is strongest en∣creaseth, but the weaker decayes or fails by reason of the prevailing force of the other.

Sometimes the woman conceives again a long time after her conception, the womb o∣pening it self by reason of great delight in the action; though it were shut so close as

no air could enter: for the Matrix attracts and makes room for it. And this may fall out not only for once but at a third Copula∣tion, that a woman may have one mischance and two children yet no twins. It may be di∣scerned by the several motions of the Infants, but the mother is in great danger of her life by losing of so great a quantity of blood as she must needs lose at two births in so short a compass of time. It is most dangerous to spurr nature to delivery before her period, wherefore in such cases leave it to the work of nature, using only Corroboratives and some such remedies as may facilitate her progress therein. But women may avoid this mis∣chief that often happens, if they will rest themselves content when they have once con∣ceived.

But that Story which I touched before, seems to me to be but a meer Romance, of Margaret Countess of Hennenberge, and sister to William King of the Romans, as some writers record; that when she was forty years old, she was delivered at one birth successively of as many children as there are daies in the year, namely three hundred sixty five, the one half boys and the other half girls, and the odd child was divided to both sexes, an Hermaphrodite, partly male, partly female:

and that the cause of this miracle was from a curse of her sister, some say a poor beggar woman at her door, laid upon her for her causeless jealousie; and farther it is constant∣ly reported, that these children were all bap∣tized living at the Church of Lardune in Hol∣land near the Hague, and the boys were all called Johns, the girls Elizabeths; there were two Silver Basons that they were Christned in, and Guido the Suffragan of Ʋtrecht keeps them for to shew to strangers, and one of these Basons, as it is reported, was brought for a present to King Charles the second, before he came from thence; and they say farther, that presently after they were baptized, the mother and all her children died. Some write of another Countess in Frederick the eleventh's daies, who had five hundred boys at one birth.

But to leave this and to proceed to the cau∣ses of Conception: Notwithstanding that God gave the blessing generally to our first Parent, and so by consequent to all her suc∣ceeding generations, yet we find that some women are exceeding fruitful to conceive; and others barren that they conceive not at all; God reserving to himself a prerogative of furthering and hindering Conception where he pleaseth, that men and women may more

earnestly pray unto God for his blessing of Procreation, and be thankful unto him for it: so Psal. 127.3. the Psalmist tells us, Loe Chil∣dren, and the fruit of the Womb are an heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord. So Hannah pray'd in the first of Samuel, and gave thanks when God had heard her prayer. Some wo∣men are by nature barren, though both they themselves and their husbands are no way de∣ficient to perform the acts of Generation, and are in all parts, as perfect as the most fruitful persons can be: Some think the cause is too much likeness and similitude in their com∣plexions, for God having framed an Harmo∣nious world, by a due disposing of contraries, they that are too like of constitution can ne∣ver beget any thing; this I confess is hard to find, that they should agree in all respects, no difference of complexion at all; yet some∣times Physicians judge barrenness proceeds from too great similitude of persons; but I should rather think from some disproportion of the Organs, or some impediment not ea∣sily perceived; else how comes it to pass that some that have continued barren many years, at last have proved fruitful. I remember a story that I heard of a Watch-maker, who had an excellent Watch that was out of tune, and he could never make it go true, what the

fault was he could not find, at length he grew so angry that he threw the watch against the wall, and took it up again, and then he found it goe exceeding true, and by that means he came also to know the cause of the former de∣fect, for indeed it proved to be nothing else but some inequality in the Case of the watch, which by throwing it against the wall, acci∣dentally was amended; wherefore a small mat∣ter sometimes will remove the impediment if we can but find what it is.

Some say again the cause of barrenness is want of love in man and wife, whose Seed never mixeth as it should to Procreation of children, their hatred is so great; as it is recor∣ded of Eleocles and Polynices two Theban Prin∣ces who killed each other, and when their bodies were afterwards burn'd, (as the man∣ner of burial was in their daies, to preserve only their ashes in a pot,) as if the hatred still continued in their dead bodies, the flames parted in the midst and ascended with two points; and this extream hatred is the reason why women seldom or never conceive when they are ravished, and it proves as ineffectual as Onan's Seed when he spilt it upon the ground. The cause of this hatred in mar∣ried people, is commonly when they are con∣tracted and married by unkind Parents for

some sinister ends against their wills, which makes some children complain of their Pa∣rents cruelty herein all the daies of their lives; but as Parents do ill to compel their children in such cases, so children should not be drawn away by their own foolish fan∣sies, but take their Parents counsel along with them when they go about such a great work as marriage is, wherein consists their great∣est woe or welfare so long as they live upon the earth.

Another cause that women prove barren is, when they are let blood in the arm before their courses come down, whereas to pro∣voke the Terms when they flow not as they should, Women or Maids ought rather to be let blood in the foot, for that draws them down to the place nature hath provided, but to let blood in the arm keeps them from fal∣ling down, and is as great a mischief as can be to hinder them; wherefore let the Terms first come naturally before you venture to draw blood in the arm, unless the cause be so great that there is no help for it otherwise. The time of the courses to appear for maids is fourteen or thirteen, or the soonest at twelve years old; yet I remember that in France I saw a child but of nine years old that was very sickly until such time as she was let

blood in the arm, and then she recovered im∣mediately; but this is no president for others, especially in our climate, blood-letting be∣ing the ordinary remedy in those parts when the Patient is charged with fulness of blood, of what age almost soever they be.

There is besides this natural barrenness of women, another barrenness by accident, by the ill disposition of the body and generative parts, when the courses are either more or fewer than stands with the state of the wo∣mans body, when humours fall down to the womb, and have found a passage that way and will hardly be brought to keep their natural rode; or when the womb is disaffected, either by any preternatural quali∣ty that exceeds the bounds of nature, as heat or cold, or dryness, or moisture, or windy va∣pours.

Lastly, There is barrenness by inchant∣ment, when a man cannot lye with his wife by reason of some charm that hath disabled him; the French in such a case advise a man to thred the needle Nouer C'eguilliette, as much as to say, to piss through his wives wed∣ding ring and not to spill a drop and then he shall be perfectly cured. Let him try it that pleaseth.

CHAP. III.

Signs that a woman is conceived with Child, and whether it be a Son or a Daughter.

YOung women especially of their first Child, are so ignorant commonly, that they cannot tell whether they have conceived or not, and not one of twenty almost keeps a just account, else they would be better pro∣vided against the time of their lying in, and not so suddenly be surprised as many of them are.

Wherefore divers Physicians have laid down rules whereby to know when a woman hath conceived with Child, and these rules are drawn from almost all parts of the body. The rules are too general to be certainly pro∣ved in all women, yet some of them seldom fail in any.

First, if when the seed is cast into the womb, she feel the womb shut close, and a shiver∣ing or trembling to run through every part of her body, and that is by reason of the heat that draws inward to keep the conception, and so leaves the outward parts cold & chill.

Secondly, The pleasure she takes at that time is extraordinary, and the mans seed comes not forth again, for the womb closely embraceth it, and will shut as fast as possibly may be.

Thirdly, The womb sinks down to cherish the seed, and so the belly grows flatter than it was before.

Fourthly, She finds pain that goes about her belly, chiefly about her Navel and lower belly, which some call the Water-course.

Fifthly, Her stomach becomes very weak, she hath no desire to eat her meat, but is trou∣bled with sowr belchings.

Sixthly, Her monthly terms stop at some unseasonable time that she lookt not for.

Seventhly, She hath a preternatural desire to something not fit to eat nor drink, as some women with child have longed to bite off a piece of their Husbands Buttocks.

Eightly, Her Brests swell and grow round, and hard, and painful.

Ninthly, She hath no great desire to copu∣lation, for some time she will be merry, or sad suddenly upon no manifest cause.

Tenthly, She so much loatheth her victuals, that let her but exercise her body a little in

motion, and she will cast off what lieth upon her stomack.

Eleventhly, Her Nipples will look more red at the ends than they usually do.

Twelfthly, the veins of her breasts will swell and shew themselves very plain to be seen.

Thirteenthly, Likewise the veins about the eyes will be more apparent.

Fourteenthly, The womb pressing the right gut, it is painful for her to go to stool, she is weaker than she was & her visage discoloured.

These are the common rules that are laid down.

But if a womans courses be stopt, and the Veins under her lowest Eylid swell, and the colour be changed, and she hath not broken her rest by watching the night before; these signs seldom or never fail of Conception for the first two months.

If you keep her water three dayes close stopt in a glass, and then strain it through a fine linnen cloth, you will find live worms in the cloth.

Also a needle laid twenty four hours in her Urine, will be full of red spots if she have con∣ceived, or otherwise it will be black or dark coloured.

To know whether the Infant conceived be male or female I refer you to Hippocrates, A∣phor.

48. for it is a very hard thing to disco∣ver.

1. If it be a boy she is better coloured, her right Breast will swell more, for males lye most on the right side, and her belly especial∣ly on that side lieth rounder and more tumi∣fied, and the Child will be first felt to move on that side, the woman is more cheerful and in better health, her pains are not so often nor so great, the right breast is harder and more plump, the nipple a more clear red, and the whole visage clear not swarthy.

2. If the marks before mentioned be more apparent on the left side it is a Girle that she goes with all.

3. If when she riseth from the place she sits on, she move her right foot first, and is more ready to lean on her right hand when she re∣poseth, all signifies a boy.

Lastly, Drop some drops of breast Milk into a Bason of water, if it swim on the top it is a Boy, if it sink in round drops judge the con∣trary.

CHAP. IV.

Of false Conception, and of the Mole or Moon Calf.

MAny women themselves have thought that they had conceived with Child because their bellies were swoln so great, and their courses were staid and came not down according to natures custome; whereas this swelling of the belly more and more, and stopping of the Termes proceeded from no∣thing else but an ill shaped lump of flesh which grows greater every day in the womb, and is fed by the Terms that flow to it; and this is that Midwives call a Mole or Moon-Calf; and these are of two sorts, one the true, the o∣ther the false Mole.

The true Mole is a mishapen piece of flesh without figure or order, it is full of Veins and Vessels with discoloured veins or membranes of almost all colours, without any entrails or bones, or motion; it is bred in the wombs hollowness, and cleaves fast to the sides of it but takes no substance from it, sometimes it hath a skin to cover it and is empty within, sometimes it is long or round, and some wo∣men

have cast forth three at a time like the Yard of a man: sometimes these Moles are without sense, sometimes they have an ob∣scure feeling; sometimes they are bred with the Child, and then is the Child in great dan∣ger to be opprest by them; sometimes they are voided when the Child is delivered, or be∣fore or after. Widows have been known to have had these Moles formed in their wombs by their own seed and blood that flows thi∣ther. But ordinarily I think this comes not to pass, but it proceeds from a fault in the forming faculty, when the mans seed in Co∣pulation is weak or defective and too little, so that it is overcome by the much quantity of the womans blood, the faculty begins to work but cannot perfect, and so onely Veins and Membranes are made but the Child is not made, yet this Mole is of so different kinds that it is not possible to set them down ac∣cording to their several varieties; but doubt∣less a Mole is sooner formed if Men and Wo∣men ly together when they have their courses, and the blood is not fit for formation by rea∣son of impurity, so that neither heat nor cold are the chief cause of this error, but the un∣cleanness of the matter that is not endued with a forming faculty; from corrupt seed or menstruous blood bad humours are in∣gendred

and nature works in vain.

Some are called false Moles, and of those are four sorts, as their causes are; for either they proceed from wind and are called windy swellings, or from water flowing to the womb, and called watry swellings, or else diverse humours cause this swelling, and sometimes it is nothing but a bag full of blood. If the Child be conceived with a Mole, it draws the nourishment from the Child. Both sexes doubtless contribute to the making of most Moles, the seed of the Man being choakt with the blood of the wo∣man, and wrapt both in a caule, Nature will make something of it though nothing to the purpose. If it be true that some wid∣dows have had them, they were neither of the same shape nor substance, but voided will consume into water, and this can be sup∣posed only of dead Moles, for living Moles that have some sense or feeling or true moti∣on in them can never be produced but mans seed must be a part of their beginning; as for Maids they cannot breed any true Mole, be∣cause a true Mole must be made of the great∣est part of the womans blood coming into the womb, but the vessels & passages in maids are too narrow, so that there is no flux of blood thither to make this Mole of, as it is in wo∣men

that have had the use of man: but with∣out dispute, the principal cause is womens carnally knowing their Husbands when their Terms are purging forth, from whence Moles, and Monsters, distorted, imperfect, ill qualified Childred are begotten. Let such as fear God, or love themselves, or their posterity beware of it.

The windy Mole proceeds from an over-cold womb, Spleen and Liver, which breeds wind that fastneth in the hollow of the part. Sometimes the womb is weak and cannot transmute the blood for nourishment, but it turns to water which cannot be all sent forth, but part of it remains in the womb; also the womb ofttimes receives a great confluence of water from the spleen or from some parts nigh unto it.

The Mole made of many humors flowing to the womb, proceeds from the Whites, or ill purgations coming from the menstruous Veins. The fourth Mole is a skin full of blood with many white diaphanous vessels, if you cast it into the water, the skin coagulates like a clod of seed; and the blood runs a∣way.

It is very hard to know a false conception from a true until four moneths be past, and then the motion of the body of the thing con∣ceived

will shew it; for if it be a living Child, that moves quick and lively; but the false con∣ception falls from one side to another like a stone as the woman turns her self in her bed, if it stir at all it is but like a sponge, trembling and beating, and contracts and dilates it self like the beating of the pulse almost.

This false conception hath many signes whereby it personates and shews like a true Conception; for the Terms stop, their sto∣machs fail, they loath their meat, they vo∣mit and belch sowrly, their breasts and belly swell, cunning Midwives and women them∣selves that have them are deceived taking one for the other.

There are many other things bred in the womb sometimes besides these Moles; Two famous Physician of Senon, tell us of a woman that had a Child in her womb, that did not corrupt, nor stink, though it lay long dead there untill it was turned into a stone; cold, and heat, and driness might keep the child from corrupting, but there was also a petri∣fying humour mixt with the seed and blood, or it could never have been turned into a stone; there, is but this single History that I ever read of this kind, and Authors say the mother lived twenty eight years after she was delive∣red of it; but it is no great wonder why it did

not stink nor corrupt in the womb, for many aged women live many years with a Mole in the body, yet it never stinks nor corrupts though they keep it in them till they dye.

As for Monsters of all sorts to be formed in the womb all nations can bring some examples; Worms, Toades, Mice, Serpents, Gordonius saith, are common in Lumbardy, and so are those they call Soole kints in the Low Countries, which are certainly caused by the heat of their stones and menstrual blood to work upon in women that have had company with men; and these are sometimes alive with the infant, and when the Child is brought forth these stay behind, and the woman is sometimes thought to be with Child again; as I knew one there my self, which was after her child∣birth delivered of two like Serpents, and both run away into the Burg wall as the women supposed, but it was at least three moneths af∣ter she was delivered of a Child, and they came forth without any loss of blood, for there was no after burden. Again in time of Copulation, Imagination ofttimes also pro∣duceth Monstrous births, when women look too much on strange objects.

To distinguish then false conceptions from true, but if there be both true and false at once that is very hard to know.

False Conceptions cause the greatest pains in their Backs, and Groins, and Loyns, and Head; their Bellies swell sooner, they faint more, their Faces, and Feet, and Legs swell, their Bellies grow hard like a Dropsie, they have such pain in their Bellies that they can∣not sleep because they carry such a dead weight within them; and though their Faces and breasts swell, they grow daily soft and lank, and no milk in their Breasts but what is like water, or very little; whereas women with Child about the fourth moneth have their Breasts swoln with milk. Some women look well with these false Conceptions, but most of them look pale, and wan, and ill favoured: If it be a boy that is conceived he will stir at the beginning of the third Moneth, and a Girle at the beginning of the third or fourth moneth, and so soon as the infant moves there is Milk bred in the Breasts as any one may prove that will. The Child that is alive moves to all sides, and upward and down∣ward without any help, but oftenest to the right flanck. A false conception may have a motion from the expulsive faculty, but not from it self, and being not tied by ligaments as a living Child is, it tumbles to one side or other, and if she lye on her back and one press it down with his hand gently, there it

will stay and not remove up again of it self. If she go with a Mole nine months compleat her belly will swell more and more, but she will wax lean and wan, and never offer to be delivered. Yet a woman may go ten or e∣leven months with child before her time be perfect to bring forth, but this depends upon the time when the child was begotten, and some women ordinarily go longer or shorter before they come to bring forth.

Those that have Moles are usually barren, or their Privities are ulcerated, for it hurts the womb and the whole fabrick of their bo∣dies.

The windy Mole will swell the belly like a Bladder, and it will sound like a Drum, but it is softer than the fleshy Mole or the watry, it grows sooner, and sooner disappears, and she will feel her self lighter when it abates, but sometimes it will heat the belly with such violence as if she were upon the rack.

The watry Mole is a fluctuation of water from one side to another, as the woman turns her self when she lieth, and then that lide will be higher where the water falls, and the other side will sink down the more and grow flatter.

The Mole caused from many humours doth

not make the belly swell so much as the wa∣try Mole doth, because the water comes more in quantity, and is clear, whereas the humours are reddish and stink when they come forth, like water wherein flesh hath been washed.

There is one observation more concerning false conceptions, that when they happen the Flowers stop presently and never come down, whereas they do sometimes the first two months in true conceptions, because they are superfluous in strong full fed persons before the child comes to want more nu∣triment, also the Navel of the woman doth not rise higher in false conceptions, but in true it doth.

Some women have their Terms well, and their wombs well disposed, yet their bellies have swoln and the cause not discerned till they were dead, for being opened, one or both corners of the womb have had little bags of water, or else clusters of kernels and strange flesh growing in them. Some women have also a piece of flesh hanging within the in∣ward neck of the womb, fastned about a fin∣ger broad at the root, and growing dayly downward in form like a bell, and sometimes fills all the privy members orifice, and may be seen hanging forth, all these make the belly

swell round, but are not properly Moles as they are before spoken of.

Amongst false conceptions all monstrous births may be reckoned, for a monster saith A∣ristotle is an error of nature failing of the end she works for, by some corrupted princi∣ple; sometimes this happens when the sex is imperfect, that you cannot know a boy from a girl; they call these Hermaphrodites: there is but one kind of Women Hermaphrodites, when a thing like a Yard stands in the place of the Clitoris above the top of the genital, and bears out in the bottom of the share∣bone; sometimes in boys there is seen a small privy part of the woman above the root of the Yard, and in girls a Yard is seen at the Lesk or in the Peritoneum. But three ways a boy may be of doubtful sex. 1. When there is seen a womans member between the Cods and the Fundament. 2. When it is seen in the Cod, but no excrement coming forth by it. 3. When they piss through it. But Monsters most ordinarily falling out, are when the child born is of some strange feature, or like a dog, or any other creature, as the Tartar lately captivated by the Germans in their last war a∣gainst the Turks; if the relation be true, he had a head and neck like a horse, some think he was begotten of a beast, a custom too fre∣quent

amongst those miscreants. Some are monsters in magnitude, when one part, as the head, is too great for the body; or a Gyant or a Pigmy is brought forth. Sometimes in place, when the parts are displaced, as when the eyes stand in the forehead, or the ears behind in the poll; many such strange births have been in the world, and sometime children have been born with six fingers on a hand, and six toes, like those Gy∣ants the Scripture speaks of, and others there are born with but one eye, or one hand, one ear, and the like.

CHAP. V.

Of the causes of Monstrous Concepti∣ons.

WHat should be the causes of Monstrous Conceptions hath troubled many great Learned men. Alcabitius saith, if the Moon be in some Degrees when the child is concei∣ved, it will be a Monster. Astrologers they seek the cause in the stars, but Ministers refer it to the just judgements of God, they do not condemn the Parent or the Child in such ca∣ses,

but take our blessed Saviours answer to his Disciples, who askt him, who sinned the Parent or the Child, that he was born blind? our Saviour replyed, neither he nor his Parents, but that the Judgments of God might be made manifest in him. In all such cases we must not exclude the Divine vengeance, nor his Instru∣ments, the stars influence; yet all these errors of Nature as to the Instrumental causes, are either from the material or efficient cause of procreation.

The matter is the seed, which may fail three several wayes, either when it is too much, and then the members are larger, or more than they should be, or too little, and then there will be some part or the whole too little, or else the seed of both sexes is ill mixed, as of men or women with beasts; & certainly it is likely that no such creatures are born but by unnatural mixtures, yet God can punish the world with such grievous punishments, and that justly for our sins. Aristotle tells us that in Africa so many monsters are bred amongst beasts, because going far together to water, they that are of different kinds ingender there, and so dayly new Monsters are begotten. But the efficient cause of Monsters, is either from the forming faculty in the Seed, or else the strength of imagination joyned with it; add

to these the menstruous blood and the dispo∣sition of the Matrix; sometimes the mother is frighted or conceives wonders, or longs strangely for things not to be had, and the child is markt accordingly by it. The unfit∣ness of the matter hinders formation, for an agent cannot produce the effect where the pa∣tient is not fit to receive it. Imagination can do much, as a woman that lookt on a Black-more brought forth a child like to a Black-more; and one I knew, that seeing a boy with two thumbs on one hand, brought forth such another; but ordinarily the spirits and hu∣mours are disturbed by the passions of the mind, and so the forming faculty is hindered and overcome with too great plenty of hu∣mours that flow to the matrix, or the spirits are called off and gone another way. But the imagination is so strong in some persons with child, that they produce such real effects that can proceed from nothing else; as that woman who brought forth a child all hairy like a Camel, because she usually said prayers kneeling before the image of St. John Baptist who was clothed with camels hair: How the imagination can work such wonders is hard to say, but there must be some strength of mind that can convey the species from the external senses to the formative faculty, for by

this means there is a consent between the fa∣culties superior and inferior. The Soul is all in all, and all in every part of the body, yet it works in several parts as occasions serves. The child in the Mothers womb hath a soul of its own, yet it is a part of the mother un∣till she be delivered, as a branch is part of a Tree while it grows there, and so the mo∣thers imagination makes an impression upon the child, but it must be a strong imagination at that very time when the forming faculty is at work or else it will not do, but since the child takes part of the mothers life whilst he is in the womb, as the fruit doth of the tree, whatsoever moves the faculties of the mothers soul may do the like in the child. So the parts of the infant will be hairy where no hair should grow, or Strawberries or Mul∣berries, or the like be fashioned upon them, or have lips or parts divided or joined toge∣ther according as the imagination transported by violent passions may sometimes be the cause of it.

The Arabians say, a strange imagination can do as much as the Heavens can to make plants and mettals in the earth.

The second cause is the heat or place of conception, which molds the matter quickly into sundry forms. But imagination holds

the first place, and thence it is that children are so like their Parents.

CHAP. VI.

Of the resemblance or likeness of Chil∣dren and Parents.

THere are according to Philosophers and Physicians, three forms or likenesses in every living creature.

First, Likeness of kind, as when a creature of the same kind is produced, a man from a man, a horse from a horse; and herein the likeness proceeds commonly from the matter; and because the female usually brings more matter than the male, more children are like the Mo∣ther than the Father. So a she-Goat with a Ram breed a Kid, but a he-Goat and a Sheep beget a Lamb.

Secondly, there is a likeness of sex, and the cause why the child is a boy or a girl is the heat of the seed, if the mans seed prevail in mix∣ing above the womans it will be a boy, else a girl.

Thirdly, there is a likeness of forms and figures and other accidents, that the child by

them more resembles, the father or the mo∣ther, as these accidents, are found in it more like to either of the two; this, saith Galen, comes from the difference of parts and con∣formation of the members.

Hence one is black, another white, one with a high forehead or a Roman nose, the o∣ther not. Sometimes the child is very like the father, sometimes the mother, and oft∣times like them both in many respects, some∣times like neither, but the grandfather or grandmother: and there are many examples where children have been like to those who have had no part in the work; but a strong fansie of the mother hath been the reason of it. Authors and Travellers say, that the Chineses children are like their Sires in many limbs and parts of their faces, as the forehead, nose, beard, and eyes. In some Countries where they have Wives in common, as a people called Cammate have, Men make choice of their children by the likeness to themselves. There are also childrens marks, proper to some Families, that are visible upon their bodies, Thyestes had the likeness of a Crab, some of a star. The Thebans and Spartans a Lance: Delemus and his offspring had their thighs crooked and like to an an∣chor, and that lascivious strumpet Julia, Au∣gustus's

daughter, had no children but resem∣bled her self, for she was so cunning, that she would admit of none besides her husband till she had conceived.

Some are of that opinion, that all this pro∣ceeds from the strength of imagination, so Empedocles, so Paracelsus determine it, and the last thought the Plague to be infectious on∣ly to those that phansie made it so. But the Arabians ascribe so much power to imagina∣tion, that it can change the very works of nature, heal diseases, work wonders, com∣mand all kind of matter, and they impute as much or more to that, than Divines do to having Faith, to which nothing is impossible; but I cannot be altogether of their opi∣nion.

Imagination is powerful in all living crea∣tures, for by it Jacob's Ewes conceived spot∣ted, and grisled, the peeled rods being set be∣fore them when they were in conjunction.

Galen taught an Aethiopian to get a white child, setting a picture before him for his wife to look on.

Their opinions also are not wide, who say the cause of this likeness lieth much in the mo∣tion of the Seed and the forming faculty, this was Aristotles's judgment. We deny not but both may be true, for imagination can do no∣thing

without it, and by the forming faculty Imagination works this similitude, yet so that they both concur to the business. The Soul lyeth in the Seed which makes its own house, for all confess a forming faculty, and this fa∣culty must come from some substance that ly∣eth close in the seed, though it appear not in the first act for want of fit organs to work with. Three things are requisite to form a child.

1. Fruitful seed from both sexes wherein the Soul rests with its forming facul∣ty.

2. The mothers blood to nourish it.

3. A good constitution of the matrix to work it to perfection; if any of these be want∣ing you must not expect a perfect child: But as for the marks, or likeness to the Parents, sometimes this vertue lyeth hid some ages in the seed, and appears not, and then the child comes to be like those from whom it was de∣scended by many succeeding generations, for H••lin had a white daughter by a Black, but that daughter had a black son born of her, the forming faculty still continuing in the seed when it hath been stirred up by new imagi∣nation.

Plants being grafted, experience shews will bear fruit of the nature of the graft, but the

kernels of that fruit sowed will bring fruit like the stock it was grafted on. Graft an Apricock on a Pear stock you shall have Apri∣cocks, but a stone of those Apricocks set grows a Pear stock. If the forming fa∣culty be free, children will be like their Parents, but if it be overpowred or wrested by imagination, the form will follow the stronger faculty; if the mother long for figs, or roses, or such things, the child is sometimes markt with them. Avicen gives this reason for it, that the aery spirits that are nimble of themselves, are soon moved by the phansie, and these mingle with the nutrimental blood of the child and imprint this likeness from ima∣gination. This is a deep speculation, but it may be compared and represented to our under∣standing by those equivocal generations made in the air of frogs, and flies and the like by the forming faculties of the Heavens, so are the forms imagination sends forth engraven on the light spirits, for the quick spirits receive all forms from the imagination, and the seed that passeth through all parts and is deri∣ved from the whole body retains the images of them all.

CHAP. VII.

Of the sympathy between the womb and other parts, and how it is wrought upon by them.

IT is strange to consider that the womb should discern between sweet and stinking scents, and to be so diversly affected with these smels that some have miscarryed by smelling the snuff of a Candle, insomuch that some have thought the womb to be a creature of a discerning quality, and it receives this judge∣ment from every part of the body, it is delight∣ed with sweet scents, and displeased with the contrary. Wise Men have been at a stand to give a reason for it. Some refer it to a hid∣den quality, but that is still the last refuge for ignorance. There are indeed many things in nature secret to us, of which we can give no certain reason, as for the Loadstone to draw Iron; we see it is so but we cannot say how it comes to pass. In fits of the Mother sweet smels are good, for they disperse the ill qua∣lities and venenosities of the Air, and so by a peculiar quality strengthen the womb, by

drawing down the spirits, and humours, but the different way of applying them will do good or harm. For the sweetest things that are, as Musk, or Civet, will cause fits of the Mother, if you apply them to the womans nose, for the womb consents or dissents by sympathy and antipathy, and sweet things applied to the privities profit in such cases, and stinking things to the nose, as burnt lea∣ther, feathers, or the like. There is a great agreement between the womb and the brain, as Hippocrates proves by a smoke to try bar∣renness by, and there is the like between the womb and the Heart by Nerves and Arteries. Sweet scents are pleasing to all womens wombs, and ill savours offend, but not in all women alike, for where the Matrix is well disposed and not disaffected by reason of ill humours that it is charged with▪ those Wo∣men are much delighted with sweet smels, but it is not so with others who are unclean, for they cannot away with sweet smels, for no sooner do they begin to scent them, but they fall into those fits, for while the womb resents those sweet swels, the ill humours that lye hid in the womb, especially where the seed is corrupted, fly up with the spirits and carry the bad humours with them to the Heart, and to the brain, and so cause these stiflings of the womb.

This is general for all sweet things, that the Matrix is pleased with them rightly applied; for apply any sweet thing to the Privities, the womb is quiet and well refresht by them, and so the humours are still, or else they move downward, but contrarily stinking things by Antipathy with the womb are thrust out by the spirits when we apply such stinks to the nose, for the spirits fly downwards, and of∣ten there is an abortion thereby.

The womb cannot smell scents no more than it can hear sounds or see objects, for scents be∣long to the nose which is the Organ of smel∣ling, as colours to the eyes that are the instru∣ments of seeing, & the ears of hearing, but the womb partakes with these scents by reason of a thin vapour or spirit that comes from any strong smell, for the womb is affected as our senses are, very suddenly as it feels exactly, w^ch is in some kind a general sense, and is com∣mon to every part of the body, our spirits are refresht with sweet vapours, not dis∣cerning them but as they are placed and strengthened by them. But how doth the womb chuse sweet smels and refuse the con∣trary if she cannot discern? I know not why it is so, unless the reason be, because of the impurity of those vapours that arise from stinking things, for all such things are noy∣noysome,

and not well concocted, and defile the spirts contained in the parts of Generation, and so cause faintings, and swoundings, whereas sweet smels are pleasant, and re∣fresh the spirits. But why then doth Amber∣greece and Musk cause suffocations being so ex∣treamely sweet scented; and Assafetida and Castoreum, two stinking cure it? The An∣swer is, that all women are not so affected, but onely they whose wombs, as I said, are charged with ill humours, and then quick spi∣rits arising from sweet smels presently move the brain and the membranes of it; and so the membranous womb is soon drawn into consent, the bad vapours that lay still before being stirred and raised by the Arteries, flee to the heart and the brain, and by secret passages cause such fits, but noysome smels being raw and ill tempered, stop the pores of the brain, and come not to the inward membranes to prevent them. Also Nature being offended with destructive ill qualified scents, raiseth up all her forces as against an open enemy to op∣pose them, and so casts out of the womb with the ill vapours the ill humours also from which these vapours rise, so comes a crisis in acute diseases, if Nature be strong she casts them forth; and when a man takes a purge, Nature helps her self against the ill qualities of the

Medicament, which she can no way conquer but by casting it forth, and so what humours were peccant are cast forth with it.

It was the judgment of Hippocrates, that womens wombs are the cause of all their dis∣eases; for let the womb be offended▪ all the faculties Animal, Vital, and natural; all the parts, the Brain, Heart, Liver, Kidneys, Bladder, Entrails, and bones, especially the share-bone partake with it: but no part is so much of consent with the womb as the Breasts are. The agreement between the womb and the Brain comes from the Nerves and mem∣branes of the marrow of the back, some fee great pains in the hinder part of the head, some are frantick, others so silent they can∣not speak. Some have dimness of sight, dul∣ness of hearing, noyse in their ears, strange passions and Convulsions.

It agrees with the Heart by the Arteries of the Seed and lower belly, and if these be stopt or choked by a venemous air, the hearts natu∣ral heat is dissolved, & faintings, and swoond∣ings, and intermission of pulse follow with stopping of their breath, so that you cannot perceive them to breath unless you apply a clear looking-glass to their mouth, and if they breath at all there will be left a dewy vapor upon the Glass, if not they are dead; for some

of these women draw in no more air than what comes in by the pores of the skin into the Arteries and so goes to the Heart; and such persons sometimes lye in such fits twenty four hours at least, and many of them have lain so long that their Friends have thought them to be dead and have caused them to be unhap∣pily buried when they were alive, and would no doubt have revived when the fit had been over. I speak this for a warning to others, to beware what they do upon such occasions, and to give at least two or three dayes time before they put them into the ground; some have been taken alive out of their Coffins long after they were thought to be dead.

The womb and Liver agree by Veins run∣ning from the Liver to the womb, which is the cause of Jaundies, Dropsies, and Green-sickness, if the blood be naught that comes to it. And that the Kidnies by the Seed-veins consents with the womb, is manifest by the pains of the loins women suffer when they have their Courses; for the left Seed-Vein comes from the left emulgent or kidney-vein on the same side. So the womb, the bladder, and the right gut agree, for if the womb be inflamed, presently follows a desire to go to stool, and to make water, by reason of the nearness and communion these parts have one

with the other, by the membranes of the Pe∣ritoneum, that tye the womb and these parts to∣gether, and by common Vessels running be∣twixt, for from the same branch of the vein of the under belly run small Fibres to these three parts▪ but the consent of the womb with the breasts is most observable, the humours passing ordinarily from one to the other, whereby we may know the affections of the womb, and how to cure them, and of the state of the Child contained in it. Lufitanus tells us that he saw two women that voided monethly blood by their Nipples when their Courses were stopt. Hippocrates confirms this, affirm∣ing that women are in danger to run mad when blood comes forth at their Nipples. Brassavolus tells us of womens milk that came like blood, but it was raw unconcocted blood, and that might be, for Nurses Courses are alwayes stopt because the blood runs to their breasts to make Milk. By the colour of the nipples the state of the womb is perceived; if the Paps look pale or yellow that should look red, the womb is not well. Also if you will stop the Terms that run too much, set a great cupping glass under the Breasts, for that will turn the course of the blood back∣ward.

Farther you may know the Child if it be a

Boy to be three moneths old, and if a Girle to be about four moneths old, if you find Milk in the Mothers breasts, for at those times the Child first moves, and then is there Milk found in the breasts of the Mother.

If the right breast swell and strut out the Boy is well, if it flag it is a sign of miscarriage, judge the same of the Girle by the left breast, when it is sunk, or round and hard, the first signifies abortion to be near, the other health and safety both of the Mother and the Child.

CHAP. VIII.

How the Child grows in the Womb, and one part after the other successively made.

MEn are of several minds concerning the time when each part is made; I think they are in the right, who maintain that the membranes are first made which wrap the Child, with the Navel-vessels by which the Child is fastned to the Mothers womb, and draws nutriment from her, and all parts are made sooner or later, as dignity and necessity

of the parts require, but this is thought to be the hardest piece of Anatomy, because it is sel∣dome to be observed, because if women dye in child-bed they first miscarry and dye after∣ward. Some follow Galen herein, who ne∣ver saw a woman Anatomized▪ others Colum∣bus, some Vesalius, but few or none know the truth. The stones of a woman for generati∣on of seed, are white, thick and well con∣cocted, for I have seen one, and but one and that is more by one than many Men have seen. In the act of Copulation both eject their seed, which is united in the womb▪ and Boys or Girls are begotten as the seed is that prevails stronger or weaker, so the greater light puts out the lesser, the Sun the light of a Candle. Nature desires to beget its like in all things, a Man a Man-child, a woman one of her own sex; but we follow desire not nature when we with the contrary. If the Horse or Mare trot, it were strange that the Filly should amble.

The seed of both persons being joyn'd, the Matrix presently shuts as close as may be, to keep in, and to fasten the seed by its native heat, and so womens bellies seem lank at their first conception. The first thing that works is the spirit of which the seed is full, this is stir'd up to action by heat of the womb,

and though the seed seems to be homogeneous and all one substance, yet it consists of very different parts, some pure and some impure; the spirit then in the seed divides between these parts, and makes a separation of the earthy, cold, clammy, grosser parts, from the more aerial, pure, and noble parts. The impure are cast to the outside, to circle in and keep close the seed which is pure, and of the outside are the Membranes made, by which the seed inclosed is kept from danger of cold and other ill accidents▪ just as it is in Trees so it is here, the cold winter congeals the vital spirits of the Tree, but the Suns heat revives it in the Spring, and opens the pores of the Tree, and separates the clean from the which is unclean, making of the pure juyce flowers, of the impure and gross juyce leaves and bark.

The first thing Nature makes for the child, is the Amnios or inward skin that surrounds the Child in the womb, as the Pia mater doth the brain: next is the Chorion or outward skin made, which compasseth the Child, as the dura mater the brain▪ this is soon done by nature, for God and nature hate idleness, and no sooner are these two coats made, but presently the Navel-Vein is bred, piercing both these skins whilest they are exceeding tender; and conveighs a drop of blood from

the mothers womb-veins to the seed; of this one drop is formed the Childs Liver, from the Liver is bred the hollow Vein, and this Vein is the fountain of all other Veins of the body, so this being done, the seed hath blood suffi∣cient to feed it and to form the rest of the parts by. It is a vain fancy that some hold, how that all the parts are formed together, others that the heart is first framed; it must receive a right construction what Aristotle saith, that the Heart lives first and dyeth last, for the Liver is made much before the Heart. Nor is that if it be well understood to be found fault with, that a Man lives successively, first the life of a Plant, then of a Beast, and lastly of a Man. For first the Child grows, then it begins to move, last of all it becomes a reasonable Soul. Next to the hollow Vein of the Liver being made, are the arteries of the navel made, then the great Artery which is the Tree, and all the small Arteries are but branches coming from it; & last of all the Heart is framed, as Columbus proves upō very sufficient reason, for all the ar∣teries are made before it, for the Body receives its life by Arteries, and the Navel arteries are bred from the Mothers arteries, and there∣fore are made next to the Veins, to give vital blood to the Seed, as the Liver feeds it with natural blood to build a frail house for poor

mortals. Next in order, so far as reason and Anatomy can guide us, the Liver sends blood to the Arteries to make the Heart, for the ar∣teries are made of seed, but the heart and all fleshy parts are made of blood; last of all the brain, and then the Nerves to give feeling and motion are produced. If the most noble parts were first framed, as the Peripateticks suppose, then the brain and heart should be first made, which is not agreeing to reason and observation. As for the forming of the bones in order, I think Aristotle said true, that the whirl bones and the skull are first made. I confess all these things have been questioned by some, but I love not impertinent disputes, as it was the quality of the Grecians, who have made a large dispute, whether the Elephants Tusks be Horns or Teeth. Hippocrates divides the forming of the infant into four divisions:

First the seed of both sexes mixed have not lost their own form, but resemble curdled milk covered with a film or cream: the next form is a rude draught of the parts, or a chaos like a lump of flesh. And next in order there is a more curious draught, wherein the three chief parts, the Brain, the Heart, and the Liver, may be seen together with the first three, and as it were the warp of all the seed parts, and this is called Embrion: But

fourthly, To perfect the whole work, all the parts are set in order and perfected, so that Nature hath nothing to do but to hasten to delivery, that this work of hers may be brought forth into the world. When the spirit in the seed begins to work, it parts the more noble from the base, and the pure from the impure, so that the thick, cold, clammy parts are kept out to cover the more thin and pure parts, and to defend and preserve them. Nature begins her conformation with the cold clammy parts of the seed, and makes skins and membranes of them to cover the rest, and stretcheth them out as need requires. Men have only two membranes, the outward or Chorion which is strong and nervous, and wraps the infant round, and this membrane is like a soft pillow for the Veins and Navel-arteries of the Child to lean upon, for it had been dangerous for the Childs Vessels coming from its Navel to pass far unguarded: but the inward Coat which is wonderful soft and thin, called the Amnios or Lamb-skin is loose on each side ex∣cept it be at the cake, where it growes so fast to the skin that it cannot easily be parted; this skin receives the sweat and Urine, and from thence the Child is much helped, for it swims in these waters like as in a bath, and time is for delivery, it moistneth the orifice of

the Matrix, makes it glib and slippery where∣by the woman is more easily and more speedi∣ly delivered.

These two Coats grow so close together that they seem to be but one garment, and it is called the Secundine or after-burthen, be∣cause it comes forth after the Child is born, for the Child first breaks through it, & sometimes brings along with it a piece of the said Lamb-skin upon the face and head, which is called by Midwives the Caule, and strange reports they give of it.

Some think it ridiculous and fabulous, but as all extraordinary things signifie something more than is usual, so I am subject to believe that this Caule doth foreshew something nota∣ble which is like to befall them in the course of their lives.

But notwithstanding all that hath been said, some Anatomists do a little vary from it, for they maintain, that within the first seven days wherein the generative seed is mingled and curdled in the Mothers womb by the heats motion, many small fibres are bred, in which shortly the Liver and his principal Organs are formed first, and through these Organs the vital spirits coming to the seed in ten days makes all the distinction of parts, and through some small Veins in the Secundine the

blood runs, and of that is the Navel made, and there appears at the same time three clods of seed or white lumps like curdled Milk, & these are the foundation of three principal parts, viz. the Brain, the Liver, and the Heart. But the Liver is confest to be first made of a blood ga∣thered by one branch of this Vein, for the Li∣ver it self is nothing else but a lump of clotted blood full of Veins which serve to attract and to expell; but immediately before the Liver is made, there is a two-forked Vein formed through the navel, to suck away the grosser part of the blood that rests in the seed. In the other branch of this vein more veins are made for the spleen and lower belly, and all of them coming to one root meet in the upper part of the Liver in the hollow Vein, & from hence o∣ther Veins are sent out of the Midriff to the thighs below, & to the upper part of the back∣bone; next this the heart is made with its veins, for these veins draw the hottest part of the blood & that which is most subtil, & so make the heart: within the membrane called the Peri∣cardium or skin that covers the heart, the hollow Vein runs through the inward part of the right side of the heart carrying blood to it to feed it: from the same branch of this vein and the same part of the heart is there another vein that beats but faintly, there∣fore

called the still Vein, amongst the pulsative Veins, and this is provided to send the more pure blood by from the heart to the Lungs, they are covered with a double Coat as the Arteries are.

The Artery called Aorta, that conveighs the vital spirits through the whole body from the heart by the beating Veins or arteries, is bred in the hollow of the left Vein of the heart, and under this artery in the same hollow place of the heart is another Vein bred which is called the vein-artery, that brings the cold air from the Lungs to cool the heart, for the Lungs are made by many Veins that run from the hollow of the heart, and come thither to frame the Lungs; and they have their sub∣stance from a very thin subtil blood that is brought thither from the right hollow of the heart.

The breast is first framed by the great Veins of the Liver, and after that the outmost parts, the legs and arms.

But last of all the Brain is made in the third little skin I speak of, for the seed being full of vital spirits, the vital spirits draw much of the natural moisture, into one hollow place where the brain is made, and covered with a Coat which heat drieth and bakes into a skull.

The Veins come all from the Liver, Arte∣ries

from the Heart, Nerves from the brain, of a soft gentle nature, yet not hollow as Veins are, but solid; the Brain retains and changes the vital spirits, from hence are the beginnings of sense and reason.

After the Nerves the pith of the back-bone is bred which cannot be called Marrow, for Marrow is a superfluous substance made of blood to moisten and strengthen the bones, but the pith of the back and brain are made of seed, not to serve other parts, but to be also parts of themselves, for sense and motion, that all the Nerves might grow originally from thence; also Bones Gristles, Coats, and Membranes are bred from the seed, Veins for the Liver, Arteries for the Heart, Nerves for the Brain, besides all other pannicles and co∣verings the child is wrapped in. But all fleshy substance as the Heart it self, Liver, and Lungs, are made of the proper blood of the birth; this is all ended in eighteen days of the first month, and all that time it carrieth the name of seed, and afterwards is called the birth; and this birth so long as it is in the womb is fed with blood received through the Navel, and therefore when women are with child the courses cease; for after conception this blood is severed into three parts, the best and finest serves for the childs nourishment, the next

in pureness though not so pure as the first, ri∣seth to the breasts to make milk, and the grossest part of the three stays in the womb and comes away with the birth and after-birth.

But this is a long dispute how the child comes to be fed in the womb. Alcmeon thought the childs body being soft like a sponge did draw nourishment by all parts of its body, as a sponge sucks water, not only drinking from the mothers veins but from the womb also. Hippocrates as well as Democri∣tus or Epicurus seems to say, that the child sucks both nourishment and breath at the mouth, from the mother when she breaths, for these two causes.

1. Because it could not suck so soon as it is born were it not used to it before.

2. There are excrements found in the Guts of a new born child; but all creatures that suck will do it presently by instinct of nature; as Chickins that never fed before, will present∣ly pick up their food; and as for the excre∣ments found in the Guts they are not excre∣ments of the first concoction, for they stink not, but are gross blood that came from the Vessels of the spleen to the Guts and are dried there; but now it is agreed by all since the truth is found out, that the child in the womb

is fed by its Navel, only they differ about the food it lives on, the Peripateticks say it is fed by menstrual blood which is the excrement of the last nutriment of the fleshy parts, which at certain times is purged forth by the womb in a moderate quantity, but primarily ordained for the generation and nutriment of the child.

But Fernelius, Pliny, Columella, and Colum∣bus deny this, because such blood is impure, and will, where it falls, destroy Plants, and Trees, Dogs will run mad that eat it, and ofttimes hurts the women themselves, causing swimmings of the head, pains, swel∣lings, and suffocations, this then were ill food for a tender infant.

But to answer all: If the woman be in good health, her monthly courses are no bad blood for quality though they hurt in quanti∣ty being more than she can concoct▪ and therefore she sends forth what is too much▪ but if her body be ill affected, the blood that stays in the womb is naught as well as that she voids by her terms, but when the courses are not duly voided but stay, in being stopt beyond their time of evacuation, then they cause those ill effects formerly mentioned, else not: but women have not these courses the greatest part of the time they are with child,

nor yet when they give suck, for the most part; if the child be not fed with this blood what becomes of this blood when women are with child? certain it is it turns into milk, when time serves, to suckle the infant with. Yet Hippocrates was mistaken, who says, that the last part of the time the child lieth in the womb after it is quick, its fed partly by the mother milk; but this is certain that the infant in the womb is fed with pure blood convey∣ed in the Liver by the Navel-vein which is a branch of the great vein, and spreads to the small veins of the Liver. And here this blood is more refined, the thick, gross, crude part goes to the Spleen and Kidneys, and the gross excrement of it to the Guts, and that is it is found in the Guts as soon as they are born. The most pure part goes into the hollow vein, and from thence through the whole body by small branches; this blood hath a watry sub∣stance with it, as all blood hath, to make it run and keep it from clodding, and this water in men and women breaths forth by sweat, & so it doth in a child, and is contain'd in the Lamb-skin, as I told you. This watry sub∣stance that is joined with the blood, when the blood comes to the kidneys, parts from the blood, and is sent by the kid∣neys, that make their separation, by the Ure∣ters

to the bladder; nor doth the infant piss as he lieth in the womb by the Yard, but the Urine is carryed by the Ʋrachos, a vessel to carry it, which is long and without blood, to the Allantois, ••or skin that is made to hold the childs water in, so long as it remains in the womb; this Ʋrachos or passage goeth from the bottom of the bladder to the Allantois, and hath no muscle belongs unto it, that the child may void the Urine when nature requires, but when the child is born it hath muscles at the root of the bladder, to shut and open that we may make it not a meer natural, but partly a mixed action, to follow our business, and make water, not alwayes but when we please; but this is not the course with the child continually, for the first month the childs Urine comes out through the passage of the Navel, but in the last month by the Yard▪ but it never goes to stool in the womb because it takes no nutriment by the mouth. After for∣ty five days, the child lives, but moves not, commonly he moves in double the time he was formed, and is born in thrice the time af∣ter he began to move. If the child be fully formed in forty days, her will move in ninety days, and be born in the ninth month, but he receives daily more food after the third and fourth month to the day of his birth. A child

born in six months is not perfect and must die, but one born in seven months is perfect, but one born in the eight month cannot live, be∣cause in the seventh month the child useth all its force to come out, and if it cannot, it must stay two months longer to recover the strength lost upon the former attempt that had made it too feeble to get forth in the eighth month, for if it come not forth at the seventh month it removes its station and changeth it self to some other place in the womb; these two motions have so weak∣ened it, that it must stay behind a month longer, for if it come forth before, it is almost impossible for it to live. But Astrologers de∣termine this business another way, for they af∣firm, that children born in the seventh month do live by reason of the compleating of the motion of the seven planets, allowing one month to each of them, beginning with Sa∣turn thus; Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna. Now if the child come not forth at the seventh month, but stay till the eighth month, the Planets having ruled every one his month, Saturn begins to rule again, who is an enemy to conception in all his qua∣lities, and so the child born in the eighth month will be born dead, or live a very short time; yet other Philosophers maintain, that

Saturn is no enemy to conception, but ruling in the first month▪ by his influence and reten∣tive faculty, the child is fixed in the womb; but as the celestial bodies have their influence upon the terrestial and upon all the elements, they cause all the changes here below, and are not changed themselves: for that the Heaven••, and the fixed Stars, and the Planets are still the same they were in the first creation, and that the twelve Signs and Planets do rule o∣ver the bodies of men and women; and how that Scorpio which is the house of Mars, rules over the womb and makes it fruitful; and that Leo is a barren Sign, because Lions sel∣dom bring forth young, and so is Virgo for they are no maids that conceive with child. But then why should not Taurus be a barren but a fruitful Sign, when Bulls never bring forth any. But not to trouble the reader with Astrological dreams. I think it is not the se∣ven Planets that by this complement of seven make the child to live, but I should rather impute it to the perfection of the number se∣ven, which is easily proved by Scripture to be the most perfect number, and will appear so to be by the Sabbath the seventh day of the week commanded for rest; also the Sabbati∣cal or every seventh year, and the year of Ju∣bilee seven times seven. So that Hippocrates

was out in three books, where he endeavours to prove that a child born in the eighth month cannot live; Aristotle, Plutarch, Galen, and o∣thers were of the same judgement. But to oppose them, the writers of Spain, Egypt, and of Nanas prove the contrary by divers exam∣ples: Hippocrates might be also misunderstood, whether he meant Solar months that consist of thirty one days a piece, or very near, be∣ing the time the Sun is passing through the Zodiack, or Lunar months, the time the moon is in any Sign of the twelve, and her stay there which is but twenty seven days, with some few hours and minutes; besides all this, the woman, Hippocrates mentions, might not make her reckoning right; for if you trust to womens account you can be at no certain∣ty, scarce one of a hundred can tell you true. And as for Saturn, who is so much blamed for playing the ill Midwife in the eighth month, he is as much commended for his good of∣fice in the first month; but there is no man, or Planet that can alwayes have every mans good word; yet I am of opinion they do him wrong: but Astrologers may say what they please without reason, for they never prove any thing but one dream by ano∣ther. Aries forsooth is not fruitful because it is the House of Mars, and is not Scorpio which

they praise for fructifying the house of Mars too? Every Planet is maintained by them to rule the severai parts of mans body, and that by degrees according to their signs and several Houses they are in. I have found no Table concerning this business to have any truth in it, wherefore I have drawn forth one exactly which you may safely rely upon, if upon any Table at all, and by this Table you shall find that every Planet when he is in Scorpio, which signifies fruitfulness of the womb, rules those parts of the body which are under the same Sign: the two great Luminaries, I mean the Sun and Moon, excepted, which do it by re∣ception; a clear proof that they have a great influence in framing the child in the womb, and that the two Luminaries in that work; mingle their influence one with the other.

The Table.

The first month Authors give to Saturn to retain the conception, for he, say they, fixes the seed. The Second month to Jupiter, and upon him they lay the foundation of encrea∣sing, of sense and reason, but the true foun∣dation is then laid, when the Seed of both man and woman are well mingled. Mars

rules the third month to give heat and mo∣tion to the infant. Any Tooth good Barber. The Sun governs the fourth month to give the child vital spirits, yet Mars gave it motion a month before without any spirits at all: I cannot understand there can be voluntary motion and no vital spirits. Venus in the fifth month adds beauty; the body we all know is fashioned in thirty or forty days, but beauty must not come till three months after. As for the sixth month that is Mercuries part, to distinguish the parts of the child, which Ve∣nus it seems could never do with all her beau∣ty, as if the child were but a Chaos, and a rude mass till the sixth month, yet it was very beautiful a month before. As for the seventh and last month in the Planetary revolution, that is the Moons part, to make the child com∣plete. Here is much ado to small purpose. It is no error I confess to impute much to the operation of the Planets; But they are much mistaken about the times that such and such Planets do work, for doubtless the Planets do not operate by succession as some would have it, so that when one rules, all the rest are idle and lie still, but they cooperate and work altogether and that continually. Their motion causes mutation, for the motion of the Sun, saith Potolomy, of the Earth, saith Co∣pernicus,

distinguisheth night from day. The Sun gives heat to all things here below, the Moon moisture, and our life consists in heat and moisture. The Sun is the Sire of all li∣ving creatures, and is first active in the seed of both sexes, in the very middle of the seed, and so he enlivens and moves every part to its proper action. That which Aristotle speaks of the Heart, the Microcosmical Sun in man's production, is partly true both in and after conception, to frame vital spirits and cause motion & action. For as the earth is preserved by the element of water from being scorched and burnt up by the beams of the Sun, so the Microcosmical Sun, the Heart; but which is the Moon, the brain or the Liver is hard to say, adds moisture to this conception from first to last, I mean as long as the child lives, and thus the radical moisture is preserved. Aristotle thought the brain by its coldness tempered the heat of the heart, and for my part I think he said very true, I see no man give a suffici∣ent reason to the contrary. There must yet be something to ballance the heat and moi∣sture of the Sun and Moon, and that they say is Saturn by his coldness, for he fixeth them both in the work of conception, and the dry bones are his work which are the Pillars and supports of this frail building. But be∣cause

there is no Generation but first there must be corruption, for the corruption of one is the generation of another, whereby it comes to pass that there is not a total decay in the world: the beams of the Sun & Moon working upon the seed of both sexes fixed by Saturn are purified and concocted by the equal tempera∣ment of heat and moisture that the Planet Jupiter lets fall amongst them; but then comes Mars with his heat and dryness, and what is overplus in the conception, as there must needs be some superfluities, that Mars draws forth and turns to excrements, and hardens into Coverings and Coats for the child by his calcining heat, what is bred by moisture and heat, is fixed by cold and dryness. Mars heats with a fiery calcination, but Venus she tem∣pers the heat of Mars by her moisture, for she is a cold moist Planet, and fitly added to abate the courage and violent heat of warlike Mars: there is a great sympathy between Mars and Venus, and therefore surely the Poets speak so much of their conjunction, for they are emi∣nent in this of mans generation.

You may by this find out the causes of sym∣pathy and antipathy in natural things; and seeing all things are made up of such contrary qualities, what is generated must in time be corrupted, nothing is eternal in this world;

but a perpetual motion breeds mutation, and not man nor any thing else can continue in the same stay. Mars and Venus do here play their parts in mans production, for they are the nearest of the five Planets to the earth, but next to them is Mercury, of a changeable dis∣position, and applieth himself to the rest of the Planets with several aspects, and he cau∣seth the desire of knowledge in man; sense and reason also some maintain to be the work of Mercury by his influence upon the child in the womb. It is not denied but a piercing a∣cute humour proceeds from him, which is most likely to effect not alone the sensible but the rational part in man.

CHAP. IX.

Of the Posture the child holdeth in the Womb, and after what fashion it lieth there.

HEre Physicians are at a stand and are ne∣ver like to agree about it, not two in twenty that can set their horses together; the speculation is very curious, insomuch that the Prophet David ascribes this knowledge as more peculiar to God, Psalm 139. My reins are

thine, thou hast covered me in my mothers womb: I will give thanks unto thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well; my bones are not hid from thee, though I be made secretly and fashioned beneath in the earth; thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy Book were all my members written, which day by day were fashioned, whenas yet there was none of them.

Yet Anatomists have narrowly enquired in∣to this secret Cabinet of nature, and Hip∣pocrates that great Physician tells us in his Book De natura Pueri, that the infant lieth in the womb with his head, his hands, and his knees bending downward, towards his feet: so that he is bended round together, his hands lying upon both his knees, the thumbs of his hands, & his eyes meeting each with other, & so saith Bartholinus the younger of the two. Likewise Columbus's opinion is, that the child lieth round in the womb with the right arm bended, and the fingers of the right hand ly∣ing under the ear of it, above the neck, the head bowed so low that the chin meets and toucheth the breast, and the left arm bowed lying above the breast and the face, and the right elbow bended serves to underprop the left arm lying upon it; the legs are lying up∣wards,

and the right leg is lifted so high that the infants thigh toucheth its belly, the knees touch the Navel, and the heel toucheth the left buttock, and the foot is turned backward and hides the privy members; as for the left thigh, that toucheth the belly, and the left leg is lifted up to the breast; the stomach lyeth inward. But the expert Spigelius hath the fa∣shion of a child near the birth, whose figure I have here laid down, and I believe it is very proper, for, as well as I am able to judge by the figure, it is the very same with that of a child that I had once the chance to see when I was performing my office of Midwifry.

Here insert the Figure of the Child near its Birth.

[illustration] anatomical depiction of the child near its birth

The Figure Explained:

Being a Dissection of the WOMB, with the usual manner how the CHILD lies therein near the time of its Birth.

BB. The inner parts of the Chorion extended and branched out.

C. The Amnios extended.

DD. The Membrane of the Womb extended and branched.

E. The Fleshy substance call'd the Cake or Placenta, which nourishes the Infant, it is full of Vessels.

F. The Vessels appoint••d for th•• 〈…〉〈…〉

[illustration]

This is a general observation, that the Male Child most commonly lyeth on the right side in the womb, and the Female on the left side; but Hippocrates layeth it down as the most universal way, to have his hands, knees, and head bending down toward the feet, his nose betwixt his knees, his hands upon both knees, and his face between them, each eye touching each thumb; but he is wrapt as he lieth in two mantles or garments, as I said,

for a boy hath no more; that which imme∣diately covers him and lieth next to his skin, is called Amnios the skirt or Lamb-skin, it is wonderful soft and thin, and is loose on all sides, only it grows so fast to the Cake, that it can hardly be parted from it; the use of it farther is to receive the Childs sweat and U∣rine, which moisteneth the mouth of the Ma∣trix also and makes the birth more easie, but the outward coat called Chorion, is very strong and sinewy, and encloseth the child round a∣bout, and like a soft pillow or bed bears up all the veins and Arteries of the Navel, which would have been in danger, to have been carried so far, without some soft bolster to sus∣tain them.

These coats growing fast together seem to be but one coat, or one to be the beginning of the other, and this altogether taken is called the after-burden or Secundine, for when the Child is grown strong enough to come out of the womb, and the time of his birth is at hand, he breaks through these coverings, and the coverings come forth after the child is born: yet sometimes a piece of the Amnios covers the childs face and head when he is born and women call it the caule, and hold it to be a Sign of some great happiness that will befall the child in the following part of his

life, but some think it is neither here nor there, one born without this caule may be as happy as he that is born with it. There be∣long to the child whilest it lieth in the womb some things that are proper for it, some to cloath it, and are only for that time that it lieth in that place, and afterwards of no known use, though some have tried to make use of them in Physick and Chirurgery, but commonly they cast it away. Some things a∣gain serve to nourish and feed it in the womb, and those are the Navel-vessels which are four in number, two arteries, one vein, and that vessel which is called Ʋrachos, which carrieth away the childs water in the womb to that skin that is prepared to hold that water so long as the child staies in the womb and it is called Allantois. The vein I speak of comes from the Infants Liver, and when it is passed the navel, it brancheth into two branches; and these again divide and subdivide, the skin called Chorion supporting the branches of it, and these are joined to the Veins of the mo∣thers womb, and serve to suck and to carry the mothers blood from thence to feed the in∣fant with, whilest it stays there.

This Vein is for that end that the infant may be fed from the first time of conception untill it be born, and then its use is over as to

the first intention, when the child comes to feed it self, for then it hath no need to suck blood from the mother as it did before.

The Arteries are two on each side, and these spring from the branches of the great artery of the mother that comes from the small Guts and these serve to carry vital blood to feed the Infant with, when it is first well pre∣pared and concocted by the mother.

The next part for servile use, is a Nervous production called Ʋrachos, and it comes from the bottom of the bladder of the child to its Navel, and it serves, as the name also implies, to carry the childs Urine to the Allantois or skin that must retain it. But Anatomists are not all of one mind about it, for some say there is no such thing to be found in the after-burden of women, but in beasts it is. Let their ignorance or disputes be what they will to no purpose, I shall satisfie all by true ex∣perience, which cannot be contradicted; he that reads the Anatomy Lecture of Montpelion in France, Bartholomew Cabrolius a skilful Chi∣rurgion professeth that he saw a maid whose Urine came forth at her Navel, the ordinary passage of her water being obstructed: and Dr. John Fernelius tells the same story, of a man who was thirty years old, who had a stopping in the neck of his bladder so that for

many months continually his water came forth by his Navel, yet he found no hurt at all by it but was very well in health, and Fer∣nelius saith, the reason was, because his Na∣vel-string was not well tied, and the passage of the Ʋrachos gave way because it was not well dried. And there is another example that Valchier Coiler lays down of a German maid of Noremberge, she was thirty four years of age. These distempers are not frequent, because she must be a very unskilful Midwife that knows not how to tie and cut the Na∣vel string, yet these accidents are sufficient in such a dark matter to prove that there is such a thing as a Ʋrachos or Urine-carrier from the Navel in both sexes, men as well as women.

These four vessels, as I said, namely one Vein, two Arteries, and the Ʋrachos, join to∣gether near the Navel, and they are tyed by a skin they have from the Chorion or outward coat of the Secundine, and so they seem to be a Chord or Gut without any feeling, this is that that all People call the Navel-string, if wo∣man or man doubt of the truth of this relati∣on, let him only take the childs Navel-string when it is cut off, and untwist it, and open it and so they shall be able to satisfie themselves. These Vessels are so joined for to strengthen

them that they will not be broken, nor yet are they entangled together; when the child is born into the world then these Vessels as they hang without from the Navel serve for no o∣ther use but to be knit fast and to make a strong band to cover the Navel-hole. Yet experience hath found a way to make a Phy∣sical use of them, that what is spar'd from ty∣ing and to be cut off, may not be thrown a∣way; as for the Secundine and the parts of it, the parts of it are held to be four. I shall shew you a little more concerning the description and use of them. The first part is that which is commonly called a Sugar cake in Latine Placenta, and indeed it is very like a cake in the form of it, it is tied both to the Navel and to the strong outward, sinewy Coat of the Child in the womb called Chorion; and this is that which makes the greater part of the after burden or Secundine; the flesh hereof is soft and of a red colour, much like the spleen or milt, tending somewhat to black, there are abundance of small Veins and Arteries in it, and it should be probable that the chief use it serves for, is to cloath and keep the infant in the womb. Columbus a very good Anatomist, yet was much deceived when he affirms the Chorion or strongest and outward membrane that wraps the Child in the womb to be no

skin. It is undoubtedly known, that the Cho∣rion and Amnios do compass the child round, above, beneath, and on all sides, but the Al∣lantois that contains the childs Urine doth not so. Columbus he mistook this skin for the Pla∣centa or cake, but Hippocrates gives this name Secundine as general to the whole, in that book he hath written of womens diseases: for the Chorion is a skin very white, and thick, light and slippery, and it is laced, and adorn∣ed, and branched with a great many small Veins and Arteries, and we must not think that it serves only for a covering of the child in the womb, for it serves farther to receive and to bind fast the roots of the Veins, and Arteries or Navel-Vessels which I spake of before.

The Allantois or skin to contain the childs Urine in the womb is denied by many that there is any such Vessel to be found in mans body, I must confess reason must help us to discern it, for we can hardly see it or find it. It is said that in Holland men are wont to be present at their wives labours as well as women, and that few of the women use stools, but they sit in their Husbands laps when they are delivered; and they say there is such a a thing. Galen maintains, that there is as much reason and experience for it in men as in

beasts, good women as well as my self have done, may look for it, and find it too if they please, a very fine, white, soft, exceeding thin skin, and it lieth just under the cake or Placen∣ta, and there it is tied to the Ʋrachos from which it takes in the Urine, and its office is to keep the Urine apart from the sweat, that the saltness of the Urine may not hurt the tender Infant, which it must needs do, were it not kept up in a place by its self. The Amnios is the last and inmost skin, and it is wonderful fine, soft, white, transparent, fed and inter∣woven with many Veins and Arteries; this skin not only infolds the Infant, but also holds the sweat that comes from it whilest it lieth in the womb.

BOOK. III.

CHAP. I.

What it is that hinders Conception and may be the causes that some women are barren.

BArrenness, as I said, is either by Nature, and that may be when two persons are joined in mar∣riage, that either both are de∣ficient by reason of ill confor∣mity of the generative parts, or but one of them; for if both be not perfect to all respects, as to that work of copulation, they shall never have a∣ny children, and such marriages are not law∣ful by the Laws of God or man, because that procreating and bearing children is one of

the chief ends of marriage; but accidental barrenness may happen to them by reason of some curable infirmity, and when that is re∣moved they may be as fruitful as others that are naturally so. Physicians and Midwives have tried many ways to discover when man and wife cannot fructifie, where the fault lieth, whether the hinderance be from the man or from his wife, or from both; the best experi∣ment that ever I could find, was to take some small quantity of Barley, or any other Corn that will soon grow, and soak part of it in the mans Urine, and part in the womans U∣rine, for a whole day and a night; then take the Corn out of both their Urines and lay them apart upon some floor, or in parts where it may dry, and in every morning wa∣ter them both with their own Urine, and so continue; that Corn that grow first is the most fruitful, and so is the person whose U∣rine was the cause of it; if one or neither part of these grains grow, they are one or both of them barren: almost all men and women desire to be fruitful naturally, and it is a kind of self-destroying not to be willing to leave some succession after us; nay it seems to be more general and to tend to the ruine of the world, which cannot be conti∣nued without fruitfulness in copulation; Virgi∣nity

and single life in some cases, is preferred before Matrimony because it is a singular blessing and gift of God, which all people are not capable of: But for men or women to mu∣tilate themselves on purpose, or use destruct∣ive means to cause barrenness, besides the means prescribed of Prayer and fasting, I can∣not think to be justifiable, though some per∣sons have presumptuously ventured upon it. Let the Votaries of the Roman Church look to it, when they make vows of chastity, which the greatest part of them doubtless are never able to keep but by using unlawful means. I much doubt whether they pray and fast so much as they pretend to. The principal cause of barrenness in man or wo∣man lieth in the generative parts, and if chil∣dren be born defective it is not we that are Midwives can cure it, what Nature wants, Art can hardly make perfect. It is not my design so much to speak of unfruit∣fulness in men, but of women in relation to their Conception, and Child-bearing; and I conceive the chiefest cause of womens bar∣renness to be from the womb of them that is ill formed, or ill disposed, and not as natu∣rally it should be in those that may have chil∣dren. There are many infirmities that we women especially are made unfruitful by,

but God hath appointed several remedies for most accidents, that none need to despair of help: true it is that the Scripture relates of a woman that had an issue of blood twelve years and could find no cure, but had spent all upon Physicians, yet at last she was cured by touching the hem of Christ's Garment: it is probable God would not have her cured by man, that her faith might be confirmed by the surpassing vertue she found in Christ. But before I come to speak of this, I shall speak of the things that are most proper to follow in order, namely concerning delivery of women with child.

CHAP. II.

Of great pain and difficulty in Child-bearing, with the Signs, and causes, and cures.

I Have done with that part of Anatomy, that concerns principally us Midwives to know, that we may be able to help and give directi∣ons to such women as send for us in their ex∣tremities, and had we not some competent insight into the Theory, we could never know

how to proceed to practice, that we may be able to give a handsome account of what we come for.

The accidents and hazards that women lye under when they bring their Children into the world are not few, hard labour attends most of them, it was that curse that God laid upon our sex to bring forth in sorrow, that is the general cause and common to all as we descended from the same great Mother Eve, who first tasted the forbidden fruit; but the particular causes are diverse according to seve∣ral ages, and constitutions, and conformati∣ons, or infirmities. For sometimes Maids are married very young at twelve or fourteen years of age, and prove so soon with Child, when the passage is very little dilated, but is very strait and narrow; in such a case the la∣bour in Child-bearing must needs be great for the infant to find passage, and for the Mother to endure it; and it must of necessity be much greater if some diseases go along with it, which happens oft in those parts, as Pushes, and Pyles, and Aposthumes, that Nature can hardly give way for the Child to be born. Sometimes the Bladder or near parts are of∣fended, and the womb is a sufferer by consent, and this will hinder delivery: And so if her body be bound that she cannot go to stool, the

belly stopt with excrement will make the pain in travel the greater, because the womb hath not room to enlarge it self. So if women be too old as well as too young, or if they be weak by accident, or naturally of feeble con∣stitutions, if they be fearful, & cannot well en∣dure pain: be they too lean or too spare bodies, too gross or too fat or if they be unruly & will not be governed, they will suffer the greater pain in Child-birth; and it is not without reason maintained also, that a Boy is sooner and easier brought forth than a Girle; the reasons are many, but they serve also for the whole time she goes with Child, for women are lustier that are with Child with Boys, and therefore they will be better able to run through with it: the weaker they are the greater the pain, because they are less able to endure it; and the strength of the Child is much, for it will sooner break forth, than when it is weak though it be of the same sex; if the Child be large, and the passage strait, as it is alwayes, though not alike in all, she must look for a great deal of pain when the time of delivery comes; but none more painful and dangerous than Monstrous births. Some∣times the Child doth not come at the time ap∣pointed by Nature, or it offers not it self in such a posture as that it may find a passage

forth, as when the feet first present themselves to the neck of the womb, either both feet to∣gether, or else but one foot, and both hands upwards, or both knees together, or else more dangerous yet, lying all upon one side thwart the womb, or else backward or arse∣long; or two Children offer themselves at once with their feet first, or one foot and one head; the postures are so many and strange, that no woman Midwife, nor man whatsoe∣ver hath seen them all. We have an exam∣ple in Scripture of two Children that Judah got incestuously upon his Daughter in Law Tamar, who offered themselves to the Birth at the same time, Gen. 38.26. And it came to pass in the time of her travel, that behold Twins were in her womb, and when she travelled, one of them put forth his hand, & the Midwife took and b••und upon his hand a scarlet thred, saying, this came out first; and it came to pass, that as he drew his hand again back, his brother came out, and she said, how hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee, therefore his name was called Pharez. And after him came his brother that had the Scarlet thred upon his hand, and his name was called Zerah. We do not read but that she was safely delivered of them both, and nei∣ther Mother nor Child died in the Birth. But we find an example that will serve to our pur∣pose

concerning hard labor, and that of Rachel, a good woman, wife to the Patriark Jacob, Gen. 35.17, 18. Rachel travelled, and she had hard labor, and when she was in travel the Midwife said to her, fear not, thou shalt have this Son also, but her soul was de∣parting, for she died, &c. A single birth, and a Boy, which is easier labour as I said, than of a Girle, and a young woman who had born one child before; yet Child-bearing is so dan∣gerous that the pain must needs be great, and if any feel but a little pain it is commonly har∣lots who are so used to it that they make lit∣tle reckoning of it, and are wont to fare bet∣ter at present than vertuous persons do, but they will one day give an account for it if they continue impenitent, and be condemned to a torment of hell which far surpasses all pains in Child birth, yet these doubtless are the greatest of all pains women usually undergo upon Earth.

There are many more causes of great pains in travel than have been yet spoken of; for if a woman miscarry before the due time of Child birth, if she come in three, or four, or five Moneths after she hath conceived, the womb at that time is close shut by the course of nature, and must be forced to open, which, if the Child come at the just time it should

come, opens it self, but Abortion makes the woman that she ofttimes never can conceive again, for she can hardly ever retain the mans Seed any more, there is such a weakness caus∣ed in the retentive faculty, or else she will hardly ever conceive again. And I have heard some women complain that have mis∣carryed; of the great pains they have endu∣red at such a time, and to profess that they have found less pain in bearing ten Children than when they have miscarryed with one.

But there is yet something worse than all this, when a Child comes to be dead in the womb, and is of full age to be born; for then it cannot help the woman because it stirs not, nor can it be turned that it may be brought forth but with great difficulty; and if the wo∣man have been long sick her self, the infant cannot be strong in her womb, if she have by some accident had her courses come down much, after she is conceived with Child, or had some extraordinary flux, or looseness, and if the Child do not stir, as a living and healthful Child will; these are signes of im∣becillity.

Moreover the Secundine which covers the Child in the womb, of which I gave you the description before, that it is the Membranes,

and Coats, Chorion and Amnios; and these are ofttimes so strong that they will not break to make passage for the Child to come forth, & it may cause hard labour; also if the Secundine be too thin and weak so that it cleaves asunder before the child be turned, or fitted to come to the birth, for by this means all the moisture and humours run forth of the womb and leave the after-birth dry, and the Birth can hardly pass because the womb is not slippery wanting due moisture. Cold also shuts the womb closer, and heat causeth the woman to faint, if either of them exceed, so that she must be kept in a due temper or her delivery will not be so easy as it might be otherwise. Besides these, Diet is to be taken into consideration; for sower and binding things will straiten the Orifice of the Matrix; as Quinces, and Chesnuts, and Services, and Medlars, and Pears, all these and such like cause dolour by contracting the womb; sweet scents cause hard delivery, because they draw the matrix upward; too much hunger or thirst, weariness, or watching extraordinarily, and to use cold baths after the fifth moneth, or astringent mi∣neral baths of Alum, Salts, or Iron, or of vegetables that bind much, will produce the like painful effects. The woman may be as∣sured also by the pains she feels before travel,

if they be above the Navel and in the back on∣ly, and not below as they should be in time of delivery, that all is not so well as not to put her to more than ordinary pain: the signes of easie Birth are contrary to these; for then the pains bear downwards and not up∣wards and so they are not so violent, if she have usually been delivered with ease; if the woman have cold fainting sweats and she swoon away, and her Pulse beat out of mea∣sure, there is much danger, but if she be strong and lusty, and the Child tumbles and strives much to come forth, and the pains fall to the bottom of the belly there is no fear; but know this, all women are most in danger to miscarry in the first, and second moneth af∣ter they have conceived, for then the liga∣ments and all parts of it are weak and easily spoiled and torn in sunder, and about the end of her going with Child, the Child is heavy and the womb begins to open, and so causeth danger of abortion; but in about four, five, or six moneths there is least danger in taking Physick, or letting blood if the women be op∣pressed with it, for then she will not easily miscarry. I told you before, that women are all ready to be brought a bed at seven moneths end, for that number of seven is the perfection of all numbers; Pythagoras saith,

that seven is the knot that binds Mans life, and Hippocrates, lib. de Principiis, saith, that the time of all men is determined by seven, every climatericall or seven years breeding a new alteration in the body of Man: Children cast their Teeth at seven, and Maids courses begin to flow at fourteen. Seven times seven is of great danger to Mans life; and the great Climaterical which few escape is seven times nine, which makes sixty three. But the signes of miscarriage in Childbirth are, if the Child be faln lower toward the wombs mouth and so out of its true place; also if the wo∣man have blackish courses, chiefly if she be far gone with child, she is in danger to lose the Child; many women have their Terms in the first moneths, but they are but watry, pale coloured, not fitting for the nourishment of the infant, and they are also superfluous, so that nature at first sends them out as being useful neither for nutriment for the Mother nor the Child. I said before, that the breasts will shew danger, and of Twins which is most likely to suffer, if the right breast flag she will miscarry of a Boy, if the left of a Girle, and the head shaking as with a Palsie, the bo∣dy trembling, the face flushing with red, the eyes pain••d inwardly, if the body be af∣flicted with wind, there is fear of miscariage

in child birth, but if she travel when she is sick of a sharp Feaver, or some such dange∣rous disease, seldom doth either Mother or the child escape death: but the ordinary cau∣ses of Abortion are, when the womb is too weak, or corrupted by phlegmatick, slippery, slimy, or watry humours, so that it cannot re∣tain the Child, the pains of inflammation and Imposthumes hinder delivery, extream Cost∣iveness of the body by straining to go to stool forceth the child downwards, and the dung staying in the right gut, when the woman is bound, oppresseth the child; if she fall into a Tenesmus which is a great desire to go to stool and can do nothing, Hippocrates saith, Abor∣tion is like to follow: Piles and Hemorrhoids cause pain and miscarriage, fat women have slippery wombs, and lean women have as dry and want nourishment for the child, neither are fit for child-bearing. Bleeding is bad for childing women, unless there be great need; purging, especially in the first, or second, or about the last months, and vomiting is far worse; too much fasting starves the child, too much eating and drinking will stifle it; great heats or baths, or stoves, force the child to press for a more free air, and great cold is not good for it, all immoderate exercises, passions, desires, longings, falls, strokes, and all violent

running, leaping, coughing, lifting and such like will bring on this misfortune.

There being then so many causes, and ac∣cidents whereby women usually fall into such mishaps, 't will be profitable for women with child to observe some good rules beforehand, that when her time of delivery is at hand, she may more easily undergo it, and not so soon miscarry. But as there are diverse causes of miscarriage, so the times are diverse that we are to provide for, either before or after conception. And before she be conceived with child, let her use means both by diet and physick to strengthen her womb, and to further conception: Drink wine that is first well boyled with the mother of Tyme, for it is a pretious thing. If the womb be too windy, eat ten Juniper berries every morning, if too moist, the woman must exercise, or sweat in a Stove, or Hot-house or else take half a dram of Galingal and as much Cinnamon mingled in powder and drink it in Muskadel every morning, but if she use moderate labour, per∣haps she may have no need of this: but the most frequent cause of barrenness in young lusty women that are of a cholerick complexion, is driness of the Matrix, and this is easily known by their great desire of copulation. It is to be corrected by cooling drinks, and e∣mulsions

made of barley-water; blanched Al∣monds, white poppy seeds, Cucumbers, Ci∣trons, Melons, and Gours, and to drink frequently of this; all violent exercise, drink∣ing of wine, or strong waters must be forborn. The Oyl of Nightshade is good to annoint the Reins; some report, that the seeds of Man∣drakes are very useful to cool and purge a hot and foul womb, such diseases are common to salt complexions, and the dose of half a dram of Mandrake seed bruised and drunk at once in a cup of white wine cannot be dange∣rous, for though the leaves be cold, yet the seeds have a vital spirit in them to beget their like; cold begets nothing; but heat is an active quality for production. There are many con∣jectures concerning those Mandrakes that Reuben found, and that Rachel so much desired because she was then barren, Gen. 30. it may be she knew that they were fit to cure her bar∣renness. I grant that sometimes God is the cause of barrenness, who shuts up the womb, and will not suffer some women to conceive; we have multitudes of examples in Scripture for it, Rachel doubtless was not barren of her self, and she was angry with Jacob, that she said unto him, Give me Children or else I die, but he acknowledgeth God to be the chief cause of it, And he said unto her, Am I God,

who hath withheld the fruit of the womb from thee? And again he makes the barren wo∣men to keep house and be a joyful mother of Children.

Prayer is then the chief remedy of their barrenness, not neglecting such natural means, to further conception and to remove impedi∣ments that God hath appointed, and those means are chiefly, either by a well ordering of the body and mind, or else when need re∣quires by taking of Physick. The good order of the body consists in seasonable moderate eating and drinking of wholsome meats and drinks, moderate exercise, for idleness is a great enemy to conception, and that may be the reason that so many City Dames have so few children & if they have any, they are com∣monly sickly and short lived; it is not so with Country women who are always working, they usually have many children, and they are lusty and strong, for moderate labour raiseth natural heat, revives the spirits, helps diges∣tion, opens the pores, and wasts excrements, comforts all the parts, and strengtheneth the senses and spirits, help nature in all her faculties, and that is the way to have strong and many children. As for working too much, it wasts and destroys nature, but I think few women are guilty of this fault. Mode∣rate

rest refresheth nature, as well as moderate work, but there is a large difference between moderate rest and extreme idleness, which dulls both mind and body, and hastens old age; and therefore Lycurgus commanded all the Spartans to work at least four hours in a day. If women will be fair let them work, as it is with the body so it is with the mind, the mind must alwayes be intent upon some∣thing that is good, yet this also admits of some relaxation and rest, or else we are never able to endure; but above all we must take heed of discontent, for that wonderfully hin∣ders conception, whereas content of mind di∣lates the Heart and Arteries and distributes the vital blood and spirits through the body, which exceedingly recreates nature in all her operations. Much might be said in Divinity against discontent, sullenness, and murmu∣ring, which many women, especially, are too much guilty of; for it troubles the imagina∣tion, which should be pure in the act of con∣ception; it stirs up ill affections and draws a∣way vital heat from the Circumference to the Center, consuming the vital spirits; Discon∣tent hinders People from what they desire, denies God's Providence, and shews that our spirits are too much fastened to the World; yet sometimes the best woman of us all can∣not

avoid it. But it is the Physical part that I pretend to: And therefore let such as de∣sire to have children, look to it that their courses come down orderly, and be well co∣loured, for then there is no fear but such wo∣men will be easie to conceive, but they must be sparing in the act of Copulation, else one act will destroy another, like Penelopes web, what she spun in the day, she unreathed at night; too frequent use makes the womb slippery, and therefore whores have but few children, and some honest women conceive presently when their Husbands return after a long ab∣sence; women will soonest conceive two or three dayes after their Terms be staid; she must avoid all meats and drinks that hinder conception, as drinking of sweet Wine the Hollanders call Stum, that keeps women from conceiving, or eating Ivy berries, wearing Saphyre, or Emerald stones about them; but a Laodstone carryed causeth concord and fruitfulness, and so doth the heart of a male Quale, for a man, of a female for a woman; to eat Eringo root, or Ctyrions; take Castorium half a dram in Malmsey, spread a plaister of Landanum and lay to the womb; take a scru∣ple of Galingal in White Wine every morn∣ing, or a dram of Fox or Boars stones in Sheeps Milk, or a dram of a Bulls pisle; eat the brains

of Sparrows and Pidgeons, and the flesh too if you please.

But to leave this which is concerning means before women have conceived, that they may more easily prove with child, and retain it their full time, and be afterwards in due time happily delivered of it.

I come in the next place to shew what the woman must do that is gone with child; and first let her drink every morning a good draught of Sage Ale, for though Sage do provoke the courses yet it will not do so here, but it strengthens the womb; many things by sundry qualities they abound with, will cause contrary effects; so Cinnamon a great binder for a loosness, will stop the cour∣ses when they flow too much, and make them come down when they are stopt. I have proved that Aurum Potabile will stay the bloody flux, yet if a body be full of ill humours, it wil purge sufficiently.

Garden Tansie Ale made and drank like Sage Ale is good if the woman fear to mis∣carry; if you bruise the Tansie and spri••••le it with Muskadel and apply it to her Navel, it is more effectual than a toast of bread that some dip in the said wine and apply the same way. Let women that are in the said dan∣ger alwayes keep the sirrup of this Tansie by

them, it is made with the juice of the herb, clarified and boiled up with a double weight of sugar, give a spoonful or two to the labou∣ring woman, it may save many a womans life, and her childs. Let her abstain from all bind∣ing diet, let her boyl Mallows when she comes near the time of her delivery, or Holyhocks in fair spring water, and with Honey, or Su∣gar enough to sweeten it, and add half a spoonful of white salt, for a Glister. Let her eat meats and drink such things as nourish well, but take heed of surfeiting or excess, and let her keep her body loose, roasted Ap∣ples eat with Sugar in the morning will do it, or let her take a bolus of Cassia Fistula, called Pudding pipe, about an hour or less before dinner, there is no danger in it and it opens gently, she may make a Glister with Chicken or tender flesh broth, adding course Sugar or Honey, and half a spoonful of white salt, or let her boyl Mercury in her broth to make a suppository with Castle sope or Lard.

The Eagle stone, I have seen abundance of them every day to be sold in Humburgh, and they are to be had in London; but they are of four kinds, the best is brought from Africa, and is taken out of an Eagles nest, for the Ea∣gle some write, cannot lay her eggs if she want these stones by her; it hath the name from

hence, and it is called from the likeness it hath with it, a stone with child: it is but a small stone with another stone that shakes and sounds within it, it is but of a small body and easily beaten to powder; some say there is a male Eagle stone and this is a female, I think there is both male and female in stones and Plants. There is a second and that is called the male Eagle stone, and it comes from A∣rabia, it is as hard as a gall, of a dark red co∣lour, and hard to be powdered; the third is brought from Cyprus, not unlike that of Afri∣ca, but it is much bigger. The fourth brought from a place called Taphimsius, is so denomi∣nated also, it is round and white, and ano∣ther stone within it, it is found in Rivers, this is held to be the worst, but in some respects very good, and the best of all the four as it is used for some occasions: but herein must we needs admire the works of God, for I have pro∣ved it to be true, that this stone hanged a∣bout a womans neck, and so as touch her skin, when she is with child, will preserve her safe from Abortion, and will cause her to be safe delivered when the time comes; but since the fall of our first Parents it is hard to find the vertues and secret qualities of the crea∣tures. But when I give these and the like rules, I know poor women are not able to

provide in such cases, but their rich neigh∣bours should do it for them; for I do not question but that all women will be glad to eat and drink well, and to take all things that may do them good if they knew but what, and can procure them.

A Bath for a woman great with child, and near her time to be delivered, is very good for her to sit in, and it may be thus made: Holyhocks leaves and roots two handfuls; Betony, Mallows, of each one handful; Mug∣wort, Marjerome, Mints, Camomile, of each half a handful; Linseed, Pursly, Pursly brui∣sed two handful; put all in Bags together, and boil all in well-water sufficient for the woman to sit up to the Navel in; when it is warm to sit in, hold one bag to her Navel, and let her sit upon another, after this done, warm this Ointment following and annoint her back, her belly, and secrets. Take Oil of sweet Almonds, of Lillies, of Violets of each half an ounce, Ducks grease, and Hens grease, of each 3 drams, Wax a little to make the Oint∣ment; you may add if you please to this Oint∣ment in compounding it Holyhock roots, Fe∣nugreekseed, Butter, of each a quarter of an ounce, Quince kernels, Gum traganth, of each an ounce; stamp the seeds, slice the roots, boil all in Rain water, take out the mucilage and

mix it with the foresaid Oyles, then let the pounded Gum traganth, and hens grease boil so long till the mucilage come to a Salve. Use this annoynting every day for five or six weeks before she lye in. But before I come to her time of delivery, I shall speak a word of one frequent cause of womens miscarriage, and that is their longings, and sometimes of their unnatural and unreasonable desires after they have conceived with Child: You must know, that to exceed in the things not natural as Philosopers call eating and drinking, full∣ness, emptiness, sleep and watchings, exercise and rest, and too great intention of the mind, may hasten the birth, and cause abortion, Those women that use moderation in the foresaid things, are not so often longing for what they can not easily attain to. Nay sometimes you have Ladies at Court, and Ci∣tizens Wives, and Country women too will long to eat sand and dirt; but their Children seldome live long that are begun thus. That some women with child will desire to steal things from others, this is no small argument that the Child she goes withal will be a Thief; wherefore she must take care to give it good education, and to bring it up in the fear of God. When nature is thus perverted in what she desires, she is forced to leave the conception be∣cause

she cannot attain what she looks for. This may be prevented by a decoction of vine leaves frequently taken; it may be provided by preparing a decoction strong of it at time of the year, and to boil that into a sirrup, to use when need requires, for it is said to be very proper for this distemper, though I can∣not call it a disease.

There is another cause not far unlike in the effects to womens longings, and that is sud∣dain fears, for many a woman brings forth a Child with a hare lip, being suddenly frighted when she conceived by the starting of a Hare, or by longing after a piece of a Hare; Miraldus thought so and many women can∣not deny it to be true; but he was a notable conceited old Philosopher, and he bethought himself how he might find but a remedy to do poor women good, and it is this, which is easily proved; let a woman slit her smock like her husbands shirt, and that he saith upon his knowledge will do it.

BOOK. IV.

CHAP. I.

Rules for Women that are come to their Labour.

ALl Women, Midwives especially should be well seen against this time of necessity, and all things provided that may cause them to be easily delive∣red, and Childbed linnen at hand, having first invoked the Divine assi∣stance by whom we live and move and have our being.

When the Patient feels her Throws coming she should walk easily in her Chamber, and then again lye down, keep her self warm, rest her self and then stir again, till she feels the waters coming down and the womb to o∣pen;

let her not lye long a bed, yet she may lye sometimes and sleep to strengthen her, and to abate pain, the Child will be the stronger.

Sometimes the Child is dead in the womb before, and you may know it to be dead, when the Breasts suddenly hang down slack, Nature makes no Milk or provision for them, for there is no reason she should.

Secondly, she is cold all the belly over, chiefly the Navel.

Thirdly, Her water is thick, and hath a stinking substance that falls to the bottom.

Fourthly, The Child moves not though you wet your hand in warm water and rub it over her belly which is a true trial, and it will stir if it be alive.

Fifthly, She dreams of dead people, and is frightned with it.

Sixthly, Her breath smels filthily.

Seventhly, She longs to eat strange things unfit for to eat.

Eightly, She looks ill favouredly, and sor∣rowfully.

Ninethly, The Child falls to the side she ly∣eth on like a lump of lead: But Garden Tan∣sey or the Eagle stone will bring the Child to its right place if it be weak onely; but if it be dead there is no way to help that but to

hasten delivery as fast as may be, for it is a misery beyond expression for a woman to go with a dead child in her womb; as for two Twins to be born that grow together and one of them dead, the living Child cannot long endure. Virgil tells us of Mezenius a Ty∣rant,

Dead bodies to the living he did place, Joyning them hand to hand and face to face.

Tenthty, Corrupt stinking humours run from the womb, chiefly if she have had some ill disease.

Eleventhly, Her eyes look hollow, and her nose strangely, her lips wan and pale.

Twelfthly, Her breath stinks if the Child have been dead two or three dayes.

The more of these signs appear at once the more certainty of the death of the Child. Wherefore presently use medicines to expel it forth, or Manual and Chirurgical operations with all care to save the Mothers life, for she is in great danger of death also. The signs of greater danger to her are.

• 1. If she swoond in labor, or be in a trance and memory be gone.
• 2. If she be extream weak.
• 3. If she will not answer when you call, or very hardly.
• ...

• 4. If she hath Convulsion fits or shrinking together in travel.
• 5. If she loath meat.
• 6. If her pulse beat high and quick.

But if none of these signes appear, there is not so great danger; wherefore presently hasten by medicaments to provoke the expul∣sive faculty to cast it forth, but the physick must be stronger than for a live Child, for a dead Child makes no way, wanting motion, but a living Child doth.

The vertue of the Eagle stone in such cases some commend, but I fear it is but a fansie of Miraldus, for I never saw it tried.

There must be no delay at such times espe∣cially to drive the dead Child forth before it be corrupted, for then the Mother can scarcely escape, Nature is sometimes strong and able to call forth a dead Birth without helps, but then the danger is the more when help wants.

The causes that some Children dye in the womb are.

• 1. Want of nutriment.
• 2. Corrupt diet.
• 3. Gluttony and surfeiting, that choke the Infant.
• 4. The Cups are sometimes broken by strokes, sudden fears, much sneesing, coughing, violent

• motion, extream joy, sorrow, or trouble of mind; or by medicaments that corrode, or bitter drinks the infant loaths, or things that provoke the courses, or by acute diseases, or lasty by hard labor or difficulty in bearing of Children. These following Medicaments will, God willing, cause her to be delivered of the dead Child, and her self escape death by them; make her sneeze with powder of Pep∣per and white Hellebore snuft up into her no∣strils, drink a dram of Basil powdered, with white wine, it makes the delivery easy, &c.

But if it fall out that these medicaments pre∣vail not, as sometimes they do not, that dis∣ease is beyond the power of medicine or or∣dinary Midwifry, then we must come to chi∣rurgery, and the method how to perform it is thus.

1. Lay the woman along upright, the middle of her body lying highest, and let sufficient help keep her down, that when the Child is drawn forth she rise not with it.

2. The midwife must first annoint her hands with Oyl of white Lillies, Butter, or Ducks grease, then holding down her fingers let her shut her hand and thrust it up into the womb to feel how the Child lyeth, for some∣times it may be drawn forth with the hand,

but if it cannot be done so, then use Chirur∣geons Instruments, having first found with your hand the posture of the Child.

1. If the head come forward, fasten a hook to one eye of it, or under the chin, or to the roof of the mouth, or upon one of the shoul∣ders, which of these you find best, and then draw the Child out gently that you do the woman no hurt.

2. If the feet come first fasten the hook up∣on the bone above the privy parts, called os pubis, or by some rib or back bones, or breast bones; then draw it not forth, but hold the Instrument in your left hand, and then fasten another hook upon some other part of the Child right against the first, and draw gently both together that the Child may come equal∣ly, moving it from one side to another until you have drawn it forth altogether; but of∣ten guide it with your fore-finger well an∣nointed; if it stick or stop any where, take higher hold still with your hooks upon the dead child.

3. If but one arm come forth and you can∣not well put it back again, the passage being too narrow, or for some other reason, then tye it with a linnen cloth that it slip not up a∣gain, and draw it down gently till the who••e arm come forth, and then cut it off with a

sharp knife from the body, do so also if both hands appear together, or one leg, or both, if you cannot easily put them back or take them forth with the body; as you cut the arms from the shoulders, so you must cut the legs from the thighs, your instruments being very sharp for quick dispatch; when some parts are cut off from the body, then turn the rest to draw it out the better.

4. If the childs head be swollen with wa∣try humours, that it be too great to come forth at so narrow a passage, then put in your hand, holding a sharp incision knife between your fingers, and so cut open the head, that the humours contained in it may come forth and the head abate; but if it be too great of it self and not by disease, you must divide the skull and take it out by pieces with instru∣ments, for that purpose; if when the head is come out the breast be too large to follow, then cut that asunder also and bring it forth in pieces, and so must you do with the whole body, or any parts that are swollen too great.

5. If the child come sidelong, then an∣noint your hand and her secrets, and turn the child to the best posture you can; the womb and all the Privities must also be perfumed with such things as may dilate the place and

make it slippery; there are many medicaments prescribed in this book will be very proper for it, but when all fails you must cut the child asunder and draw it out by pie∣ces.

6. If the womb be diseased or hurt so that it be ulcerated,' whereby the parts are made dryer and narrower, it must be dilated by oyls, unguents, baths and fumes, such you will find set down to help delivery for a living child, and you must use them for a child that is dead.

You must observe in this work, that if by violent drawing forth the child, the Privy parts and Genitals of the mother be so torn that her Urine and excrements come out a∣gainst her will, which often happens in such cases, the cure will be the same as for the Pal∣sie, and wounds of these parts, with a gene∣ral evacuation of her body; also make a Bath of all these herbs and roots following, or as many as you can get, viz. of the decoction of Bay-leaves, Sage, Betony, Brank, or some Hogs-Fennel, Origanum, Penni-Royal, Tan∣nicle, Tormentil, Plantane, Rupture-wort, Mug∣wort, Mouseeare, Lady-Mantle, St. Johns-wort, Cammomile flowers, Oaken leaves, Cam∣phire-roots. The woman must sit in this Bath, and presently after her bathing, she must an∣noint

her Privities and Fundament with this following Unguent.

Take Oyl of worms, of Foxes, and of the Lillies of the Vallies, each alike, boyl a young blind Puppey in them, so long that his flesh part from the bones; then press forth all strongly, and add to the straining, Styrax, Calamint, Benzoin, Opopanax, Frankincense, Mastick, of each one dram, a little Aqua Vi∣tae, a little wax; mix them and make of them an Ointment; then let her drink often of this Potion following.

Take Penniroyal, Balm, Motherwort, Mousear, Ladies Mantle, of each one hand∣ful, Mace one dram, boyl all in a Pottle of the best wine, strain it and drink a little draught morning and evening, or boil nothing but La∣dies Mantle in her broth; drink a pint of it every morning fasting; or if her stomach will not bear it, take but four or five Ounces at a draught.

The Cesarian Birth is the drawing forth of the child either dead or alive, by cutting open the Mothers womb, it was so called because Julius Caesar the first Roman Emperor was so brought into the world. Physicians and Chi∣rurgeons say it may be safely done without kil∣ling the Mother, by cutting in the Abdomen to take out the child; but I shall wish no man

to do it whilest the Mother is alive; but if the Mother dye in child-bearing, and the child be alive, then you must keep the womans Mouth and Privities open that the child may receive air to breath, or it will be presently stifled, then turn the woman on her left side, and there cut her open and take out the In∣fant. This is also a Cesarian Birth, but it is not like that which is used whilest the Mother is alive. It is used three ways.

• 1. The Mother living and the Child dead.
• 2. The Child living and the Mother dead.
• 3. When both are living.

Mathias Cornax relates of a woman that carried a dead Child in her womb four years, it was cut out of the belly and womb, and the Mother lived and conceived with child a∣gain; she fainted not when her belly and womb were cut, and they grew well again without stitching; but she had hard labour the second child, and the Chirurgeon offered to cut her again, but the women would not suffer it, so she fainted, but the Chirurgeon de∣livered her of a second boy, but this last was dead.

Roderigo de Carstro saith, th〈…〉〈…〉 child can∣not live in the womb when 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Mother is

dead, if it be not presently taken forth so soon as her breath is gone, or vital spirits last, be∣cause when the Mothers life and motion cease, the childs must needs cease that depends up∣on it; but it is an error, for the child hath a Soul and life of its own, and may live a while without the Mother; but the Midwife must keep the womb open that it be not stifled till the Chirurgeon cuts it out; you shall feel the Child leap when the Mother is dead.

Charles Stephen shews how to cut out a dead Child. And Francis Ruset saith, a live Child may be cut out of the womb & both child & Mother do well; it is possible and sometimes necessary to be done, and it stands by reason, for women receive sometimes wounds in the Peritoneum and the Muscles of the lower belly, more dangerous than the Cesarian cut, and yet escape well enough.

A Child may be sometimes very weak, yet not dead, take heed you do not force delivery in such occasions till you be sure it is time, for children may be sick and faint in their Mo∣thers bellies. But to prevent danger▪ burn half a pint of white-wine adding no Spice to it, but half an ounce of Cinnamon and drink it off: if your Travel and throws come upon you, be sure it is dead; but if it be but sick and weak, it will refresh it and strengthen it.

If the Child be dead in the womb, the juyce of Garden Tansey annointed on the se∣crets, or an oyl made in Summer with the herbs before it run to flower, and boil'd in oyl till the juyce be wasted, and set in the Sun a moneth before you boil it, is an especial oyl for Midwives.

The Eagle-stone held near the privy parts will draw forth the Child, as the Loadstone draws Iron, but be sure so soon as the Child, and after burthen are come away, that you hold the stone no longer, for fear of danger.

Any of these herbs half a dram in powder drunk in white-wine will do much, viz of Bettony, or Sage, or Penny-Royal, Fether∣few or Centory, Ivy-berries and leaves, or drink a strong decoction of Master-wort, or of Hysop in hot water, it soon will bring the dead Child forth; because the afterbirth is corrupted in such cases and comes forth by pieces, it is fit to drink of the same drink till all be come away, or the roots of Polipody stamped and warm'd laid to the soles of her feet presently works the effect.

The same things almost all are proper when the Child is living and comes to be born, but if her Travel be long, the Midwife must re∣fresh her with some Chickens broth of the Yolk of a potched Egg, with a little bread,

or some wine, or strong water, but mode∣rately taken, and withal to cheer her up with good words, & stroaking down her bel∣ly above her Navel gently with her hand, for that makes the Child move downwards: She must bid her hold in her breath as much as she can, for that will cause more force to bring out the Child.

Place here the Picture of all sorts of po∣stures of Children.

[illustration] anatomical depiction of fetal postures in the womb

[illustration]

Take notice that all women do not keep the same posture in their delivery; some lye in their beds, being very weak, some sit in a stool or chair, or rest upon the side of the bed, held by other women that come to the Labor.

If the Woman that lyeth in be very fat, fleshly, or gross, let her ly groveling on the place, for that opens the womb, and thrusts it downwards. The Midwife must annoint her hands with Oyl of Lillies, and the Womans Secrets, or with Oyl of Almonds, and so with her hands handle and unloose the parts, and observe how the Child lyeth, and stirreth, and so help as time and occasion direct. But a∣bove all take heed you force not the birth till the time be come, and the Child come for∣ward

and appears ready to come forth.

Now the danger were much to force deli∣very, because when the woman hath labour∣ed sore, if she rest not a while, she will not be able presently to endure it, her strength be∣ing spent before.

Also when you see the after-buthen, then be sure the Birth is at hand; but if the coats be so strong that they will not break to make way for the Child to come forth, the Mid∣wife must gently and prudently break and rend it with her nails, if she can raise it, she may cut a piece of it with a knife or pair of Sciffers, but beware of the infant.

Then follows presently a flux of humours and the Child after that, but if all the hu∣mours that should make the place slippery chance to run forth by this means before the child come, the parts within and without must be annointed with Oyl of Almonds or Lillies, and a whole Egg Yelk and white beaten, and poured into the privy passage to to make it glib, instead of the waters that are run forth too soon.

If the child have a great head and stick by the way, the Midwife must annoint the place with Oyl as before, and enlarge the part as much as may be; the like must be done when Twins offer themselves; if the head comes first,

the birth is natural, but if it come any other way, the Midwife must do what she can to bring it to this posture.

Sometimes the infant comes with the legs forwards, and both arms downwards close to the sides, this way the Midwife may endea∣vour to take it forth if it continue the same posture, by annointing and gently handling the place; but it is safer if she can, to turn the Legs upward again by the Belly, that the head may first come down by the back of the womb for that is the natural way.

If the child come forth with both legs and feet first, and the Childs hands both lifted a∣bove the head, this is the worst for danger of all the rest; she must strive to turn the Child, and if she cannot she must try to bring the hands down to the sides, and to keep the legs close that it may come forth, or else to bind the feet as they come out with some linnen Cloath, and tenderly to help delivery, but it will be hard to it.

Sometimes the Child will come forth with one foot, and the other lifted upward. Then let the woman in Child-bed be laid upright on her back & hold up her thighs and belly, that her head be lower than her body; then let the Midwife with her hand gently put back the leg that is come forth into the womb again,

and bid the labouring woman to stir and move her self, that by her stirring the birth may offer it self the head downward, and if so, you may then set her in a Chair as she was at first that she may have a natural delivery, but if this cannot be done, then the Midwife with her hand must discreetly bring forth that leg that is not yet come forth; but be∣ware she put not the Childs hands that lye close down by its sides out of their place; if the side of the child come towards the passage, she must turn the child to its natural posture, but if it come the feet forward and the legs a∣broad, she must joyn the legs and feet toge∣ther, taking care that she remove not the hands from the place they should hang down close by the side.

If the infant with one or both the knees first strive to come forth, she must put them back that both feet may first come down to the passage.

If the child come headlong with one hand thrust out, then she must put the Child back with her hand upon the shoulders, that the hand may goe to its natural place; if this will not prevail, lay the woman upright with her thighs and belly upwards that it may pass forth as it should do.

If both hands come out first, she must thrust

the Child back by the shoulders as formerly, till the hands hang down by the sides of the Child.

If it would come forth arsewards, the but∣tocks first, she must return it back with her hands till the legs and feet may present them∣selves, or the head first if it be possible, which is most natural.

If the infant present both hands and both feet together to come forth so all at once, she must take the Child carefully by the head and put the legs upward to take it forth.

If the shoulders come first, she must put it back by the shoulders that the head may come first.

If it come the breast forward, the legs and hands lying behind, she must take it by the feet or by the head as she finds it to be most easy, putting the other part upward that it may come forth right.

If a Woman have two Children at once that come together headlong, she must take forth one after the other, but beware the o∣ther retreat not back in the mean time; so al∣so must she receive them both that come toge∣ther with the feet forward, taking them out one after the other.

If they come one with his feet, the other with the head forward at the same time, she

must receive that first which is most likely, and next the passage, and that which cometh with the feet first, if she can, receive last, taking heed that they do not hurt one the other.

But let this general rule be observed, still to annoint the passage with Ducks grease, or Oyle of Lillies, or sweet Almonds, or such things as may smooth the passage and ease wo∣mans labour, and Iikewise when she toucheth any part of the infant, this will help much if there should be any aposthume in the place.

Particular helps to delivery, are to lay the woman first all along on her back, her head a little raised with a Pillow, and a pillow under her back; and another pillow larger than the other to raise her buttocks and rump; lay her thighs and knees wide open asunder, her legs must be bowed backwards toward her but∣tocks and drawn upwards, her heels and soles of her feet must be fixed against a board to that purpose laid cross her bed. Some wo∣man must have a swathe-band above a foot broad four double, this must be put under her Reins, and two women standing on each side of her must hold it up straight, and these two persons must lift up the swathe-band equally, just when her throws come, or else they may do her hurt, and two more of the standers by

must lay hold on the upper part of her shoul∣ders, that she may with more ease force the child forth. The woman must hold her breath in and strive to be delivered, and the Midwife must stroke down the birth from a∣bove the Navel easily with her hand, for that will, as I said before, make the Infant move downwards.

CHAP. II.

To know the fit time when the Child is ready to be born.

I Shall desire all Midwives to take heed how they give any thing inwardly to hasten the Birth, unless they are sure the Birth is at hand, many a child hath been lost for want of this knowledge, and the mother put to more pain than she would have been. Let not therefore the child be forced out, unless there fall down an extreme flux of blood, for in such cases it is best to save the Mothers life to drive forth the Child, but there is great skill and care to be used, or the woman were as good be set upon the Rack. It is hard to know when the true time of her travel is near, because many

women have great pains many weeks before the time of delivery comes. But I think the heat of their Reins is the cause of these pains, but you may know whether the heat of their reins be the cause of it or not, for if their legs swell their reins are too hot, and the cure will be to annoint their backs, to cool the reins with Oyl of Poppies, water Lillies, or Violets: women whose reins are hot have alwaies hard labour. A strong decoction of Plantane leaves and roots in water, then strained and clarified with the white of an egg, boil'd then to a sir∣rup with its weight in Sugar is excellent, take a spoonful or two when you please, or drink often the water and sirrups of Violets and water Lillies.

But if the birth be at hand, you shall know when the skins Amnios and Allantois, which as I told you serve to hold the sweat and urine of the child in the womb, and by the means of which skins the infant is also supported in the Matrix, do break by the violent motion of the child, so that these excrements fall down to the neck of the womb, Midwives call it the water, and when that runs forth then the Birth is near; this is the truest sign that is, for when those skins are broken, the Infant can no longer stay there than a naked man in a heap of snow.

These waters make the parts slippery and the birth easie, if the child come presently with them, but if it stay longer till the parts grow dry it will be hard, therefore Midwives do ill to rend these skins open with their nails to make way for the water to come, na∣ture will make it come forth only when she needs it and not before; but if the water breakaway long before the birth, it is safe to give medicaments to drive the birth after the water. But there are other signs of the birth approaching, let the Midwife look well on the womans belly, for if the upper part of it be sunk and hollow, and the lower part big and full, it is certain the child is sunk down; again, if the womans Throws be quick and strong, coming from the reins downward all along the belly and not staying at the Navel but falling still lower to the groins, and in∣wardly to the bottom of the belly, where li∣eth the inmost neck of the womb this is ano∣ther sure sign.

Then let the Midwife, her hand annoint∣ed with fresh butter or with oyl of sweet Al∣monds, put up her hand, and if she feel the inward neck of the womb open, or any sub∣stance to push forward, the child is coming; but if the skin break and the waters come down, that is the last and surest sign, as I said,

when the waters precede and the child doth not follow presently in some reasonable time, these things following hasten and ease deli∣very.

Featherfew or Mugwort boil'd in white wine, let her drink a draught of the decoction, the sirrups of either may be made in summer with their juice clarified and boyled to a sir∣rup with twice as much Sugar, a spoonful at a time to be taken; or drink a dram of the pow∣der of Cinnamon in wine or the distill'd wa∣ter of Mugwort, Betony, Dittander, Peni∣royal, or Featherfew.

Tansie bruised and applyed, or the Oyl of it, as I said, will do it, but the Eagle stone held to the secrets, draws out both Child and Secundine, hold it to no longer for it will draw forth Womb and all; Miraldus tells of many more pretty ways.

But for more assurance take this powder made of Dittany, of Crele, Penni-royal, Roundbirthwort, of each ten grains, Cinna∣mon and Saffron of each twelve grains; beat them to fine powder, and let her drink it in wine, or some fit liquor, in the decoction or distill'd waters of red Pease, Penniroyal, Par∣sly, &c.

Outward means is good applied to the se∣crets; take Agrimony leaves and roots, but

after cast it away lest it draw forth the Ma∣trix; Henbane, Polypody, or Bistort roots are commended for the same use. But let all hot and violent remedies be avoided, for many times they bring the woman into a dange∣rous Feaver.

Also too much fasting, or too much eating breed peril to women in travel, a woman that is with child cannot so well digest her meat as they can that are not with child; Midwives therefore must ask how long it was since that the woman did eat, and what and how much, that vpon occasion she may give her some∣thing to strengthen her in her labour if need be, as warm broth, or a potched egg; and if her delivery be long in doing, give her an ounce of Cinnamon water to comfort her, or else a dram of Confectio Alkermes at twice in two spoonfuls of Claret wine, but give her but one of these three things, for you may soon cast her into a feaver by too much hot ad∣ministrations, and that may stop her purgati∣ons, and breed many mischiefs.

CHAP. III.

What must be done after the woman is delivered.

IT will be profitable when a woman hath had sore travel, to wrap her back with a sheep-skin newly flead off, and let her ly in it, and to lay a Hare-skin, rub'd over with Hares blood newly prepared, to her belly; let these things be worn two hours in winter, and but one hour in Summer, for these will close up the parts too much dilated by the childs birth, and will expel all ill melancholly blood from those parts.

This being done, swathe the woman with a Napkin about nine inches broad, but an∣noint her belly with Oyl of St. Johns wort, and then raise up the womb with a linnen cloth many times folded, cover her flanks, with a little pillow about a quarter of a Yard long, then swathe her, beginning a little a∣above the hanches, rather higher than lower, winding it even; lay warm cloths to her breasts, forbearing those that repulse the milk till longer time, and the body be setled, lest repercussives should do her hurt, let then her blood be first setled ten or twelve hours, and

that the blood which was cast upon the lungs by violent labour may return to its own place; but you may ease the pains of her breasts and comfort them, laying a linnen cloth doubled and not warm'd, dipt in Oil of St. Johns wort and of Roses, with the yolk and white of an egg beat together, of each an ounce, with an ounce of Rose-water, and as much of Plantan-water. Let her not sleep till about four hours after she is delivered, but first give her some nourishing broth or Cawdle to com∣fort her; let her eat no flesh till two dayes at least be over, for she may not use a full diet after so great loss of blood suddenly, as she grows stronger she may begin with meats of easie digestion, as Chickens, or Pullets; she may drink small wines with a little Saffron, Mace and Cloves infused, equal parts, all tied in a piece of linnen, and let them lie in the wine so close stopt, she may drink a small draught of it at dinner and supper for the whole month, and besides her ordinary food she may if she will take nourishing broths and Aleberries; with bread, butter, and Sugar. Let her drink her Beer or Ale with a tost, she may drink a decoction of Liquorish, Raisins of the Sun and a little Cinnamon: if the child be a boy she must lye in thirty dayes, if a girl forty daies, and remember that it is the time

of her purification that her husband must ab¦stain from her.

CHAP. IV.

When and how to cut off the Childs na∣vel-string, and what is the Conse∣quent thereof.

THe Navel-string is twisted that it might be the stronger, and that the blood by that delay might be better prepared: had the Vein in the Navel, or the Arteries, or Ʋrachos that carrye the piss being single, the different postures of the child in the womb, or the dif∣ference of the womans standing, sitting, or lying, might press a single vessel, and stop the passage of the blood in the Vein, spirit in the Arteries, or water in the Ʋrachos, but the twisting hath prevented that.

The cutting of the Navel-string helps much, for it keeps the blood and spirits in, af∣ter the Child is born. A Midwives skill is seen much if she can perform this right∣ly.

The time to do it is so soon as ever the Child is born, whether he bring a part of the

Secundine out with him or not, for sometimes the infant brings a piece of the Coat Amnios upon his head, and that they name the caule. I know no wonders this Caule will work, but if you find this Caule on the childs head you shall miss it in the after-birth, if it be in the after-birth it will not be on his head. The reason why some Children bring it with them on their head into the world is weakness, and it signifies a short life, and proves seldome o∣therwise: But if it come with it or without it, so soon as it is come forth, consider whe∣ther the Child be strong or weak, for by the Navel-string the Mother gives both vital and natural blood to the Child; wherefore if the Child be weak, you must gently put back part of the vital and natural blood into the childs body by the Navel, for that will refresh a weak child; if the child be strong you need not do it. Many children seem to be born dead that recover by this meanes, as very weak children often do; but you must crush out six or seven drops of blood out of the navel-string, I mean that part which is cut off, & give it the child by the mouth to drink.

But in what place this string must be cut, Midwives and Physicians can scarce agree. Elias lib. 4. c. 3. saith, it must be cut four fingers breadth from the body, but what is

this, Midwives fingers are not equal, I sup∣pose he means four inches, for that was the opinion of the Antients. Miraldus was criti∣cal in this point, and from him some errors were begotten about it in late writers, and Midwives. Hence it is, if Spigelius speak truth, that Midwives cut the Females Navel-string shorter than they doe the Males, for Boys privy parts must be longer than womens, but it Females are cut short they say it will make them modest, and their secrets narrower. Spigelius and others laugh at this conceit, for if Midwives by cutting their Navel-strings can make their secrets wider, all women that have hard labour have good reason to com∣plain of their Midwives for cutting their Na∣vel-string so short. Miraldus bids cut the navel-string long in both sexes, for that the Instru∣ments of Generation in both follow this pro∣portion, if womens Navel-strings be cut too short, it will hinder their Childbearing. Ta∣isner an excellent Astrologer was of this mind. If Nature framed the child by the Navel-string in the womb, there is no small use of it afterward. Miraldus saith, that if a childs Navel-string be cut off and let fall to touch the ground, that child shall never hold its water sleeping nor waking. Also if you carry a piece of a Childs Navel-string about you, you

may, saith Miraldus, wear it for a foil in a Ring, you shall never be troubled with con∣vulsion fits, nor the Falling sickness. I have known all this tried, but he saith farther that it will defend those that carry it from Devils and Witch-crafts, and one may try this if they please.

If the Child be very weak when it is born, put back gently the natural blood by the Na∣vel vein, and the vital by the Navel arteries and you shall see the child almost dead before, to revive like one awak'd out of sleep; if the child seem full of life and spirits, then stop the navel-string near the Navel that no blood nor vital spirits go back, and that will keep the child strong as it is; having done this bind the Navel-string with a strong ligature, and cut it not off too near to the string, least it unloose; you need not fear to bind the Navel-string very hard, because it feels not, and that piece of the Navel-string you leave on will fall off in a very few days; for the whole course of Nature is soon changed in the Child, and another way ordain'd to feed it. It is no matter what you cut it off with, so it be sharp to do it neatly. The reason of so many nodes or knots in the childs Navel-string is, that the blood and vital spi∣rits might not come in too fast to choke the

child, Nature is a careful Nurse, but Mid∣wives say, these knots in number signifie so many Children, the reddish boys, the whit∣ish Girls; and the long distance between knot and knot, long time between child and child; but all false, for all women al∣most have equal knots, and more knots with their last Children than with the first.

When the Navel-string is cut off, apply a little Cotten or lint to the place to keep it warm, least the cold get in, and that it will do, if it be not hard enough bound, and if it do you cannot think of a greater mischief for the Child; when part of the Navel-string left is fallen off, Midwives use to burn a rag to tinder and to apply to the place, a little powder of Bolearmoniack were better, because it drieth; Beasts can lick the Navel-string round enough to keep out the air, but the curse lyeth heavier on women for our Grand-Mothers first sin, than it doth upon beasts.

CHAP. V.

What is best to bring away the Secun∣dine, or after-burden.

WOmen are in as great danger if not more, after the young is born, but Beasts are not; the Caule or inward chamber of the womb the child did lye in, stayeth oft∣times long after the child is born, w^ch should presently follow it, & when it so happens, if it begins especially to corrupt as it will soon do, it causeth grievous pains and ofttimes death, wherefore make hast to drive it forth, but be sure the means you use be very gentle, for the woman is now grown weak and her womb is quick of feeling but the Secundine is dead, let the quick then cast forth the dead.

Midwives long nails may do mischief, I grant delays are dangerous, for if it be retain'd till it corrupt, it will cause Feavers, Impost∣humes, Convulsions, and such like; know this, that what brings away the birth, will also do good to call forth the after-birth; then comfort the woman, let her snuff up a little white Hellebore in powder to make her sneefe;

but put the woman to as little trouble as you can, for she hath endured pain enough al∣ready.

The herb Vervain boil'd in wine, or a sir∣rup made with the clarified juice, as I told you, of Tansie, Featherfew, and mugwort do the same but hardly so forcibly; Alexanders boil∣ed in wine, and the wine drunk is excellent, Sweet-Cecely, Angelica roots, or Master-wort doe the same so used.

The smoke of Mary-Gold flowers taken in by a Tunnel at the secrets, will easily bring forth the Secundine though the Midwife have let go her hold. Mugwort boil'd soft in water & applied like a Poultess to the Navel, brings birth, and after-birth away, but then remove it least it bring the womb after all.

Women suffer great pains in Child-birth, because the womb that hath many Nerves and Sinews, by which the body feels, is strait till time of delivery, and then it is stretched, which causeth great pain; and some women have more pain in bearing than others have, because some womens passages are narrower, and their wombs more full of Nerves as A∣natomy will shew; and some think the rea∣son of the great soreness of some women is, because the share-bone and os sacrum, or holy-bone

do part or give way in hard travel; it was that excellent Anatomist Doctor Reads opinion, and I believe it to be true; for na∣ture strives to the utmost in such times. Crook, and Columbus deny this, but the bones are joyned with Cartilages, and Ligaments, which being wet with much moisture may give way though the bones open not, but in all labour, the Nerves that carrry feeling through the whole body, are then stretcht and cause sore∣ness till they have rest and be settled a∣gain.

CHAP. VI.

Of the great pains and throws some Women suffer after they are delive∣red.

SOmetimes a woman delivered shall for two of three days after, and now and then longer, feel such bitter pains in her bel∣ly and above the Groin as if she should be de∣livered again, these pains are not in the body and bottom of the womb, but in the Vessels and Ligatures by which the womb hangs,

and so it passeth to the sides and belly. The causes are, the cold air that is got in by her sore travel in child-birth, or sharp or clotted blood sticking in the womb and prick∣ing for expulsion; these pains make the wo∣man weak and very troublesome, wherefore you must strive to abate them.

Some women are so hardy, that to hinder this, they will drink cold water so soon as they are delivered; if the woman be chole∣rick she may do it with a crust of tosted bread, otherwise it is dangerous.

CHAP. VII.

Of the Chollick some women are af∣flicted within the time of their tra∣vel.

SOme women have the Chollick at the time they should bring forth a child, which hinders the delivery, and the pains surpass the pain of their travel, you can scarce distinguish one of these pains from the other, but whilst the chollick lasts the birth comes not forward at all, the causes of this disease are, great crudities, and indigestions of the stomach.

Let her take Cinnamon water one ounce, with two ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds newly drawn; if this do it not, then give her a Glister against wind, or use fomentations against wind, both are good in this cases. More remedies there are against wind for Child-bed Women, but these may suffice.

CHAP. VIII.

Of Womens Miscarriage or Abortment with the Signs thereof.

THere are abundance of causes whereby women are driven to abort, or miscarry; and I have spoken somewhat of this before; I shall add a little more to it, the better to know the signs, causes, and remedies against it; it is the bringing forth an untimely birth or fruit before it be ripe, if it happen in seven daies after conception it is but an effluxion, but if in fourteen daies after it is an untimely birth; sometimes an untimely birth may be alive, but it is very seldom that it continues, the elder and stronger it is the more hopes for life; some women have such large wombs,

or slippery, & full of slimy humours that the Seed cannot be contain'd but slips away; sometimes it is an imposhumation causing pain, that hinders retention, but this is rather Effluxion than abortment. But sometimes the Cups or Veins whereby the conception is tied to the womb, through which also nou∣rishment passeth to it, as we said before; are stopt with viscous ill humours, and so swol∣len with wind, or inflamed that the Cups break and the fruit is lost for want of food; this happens commonly in the second or third month; so Hippocrates tells us, that this is the certain cause, if the woman that miscar∣ries be of a good state of body, not too fat nor too lean. Sometimes the right Gut or the womb may have an Ulcer, or Piles, or the Bladder or Ureters swollen with the Stone or Strangury, and the pains thereof may break the Cups; or if she have a Tenasmus, great provocation to stool and can do nothing, she brings forth her birth by straining down∣ward, and that before she should. Also great coughs make the woman feeble and consum∣ptive, and the child consumes within her, great bleeding at the nose, or any great loss of blood, or too great flux of her courses after conception cause miscarriage, if they flow in in the third month, else not. Also opening of

a vein may cause it if the woman want blood, but such as are sanguine may let blood after the fourth month and before the seventh month, but it is good to see there be cause for it, else not. Violent purging before the fourth month, or after the seventh causes a∣bortment. But gentle purging between the fourth and the seventh month are safe. Vio∣lent fluxing, or vomiting make women strain too much, especially lean folks, and may per∣ish the child and break the Cups. If the wo∣man hunger much for want of food, Nature hath nothing to spare to keep the child alive; it is the same thing with Beasts, and Plants, that want nutriment, and too much will choak it. Sharp diseases or Pestilential Fea∣vers, Imposthumes in the breast, Palsies, fal∣ling-sicknes kill the child, and sometimes the child is sick in the womb. Also change of weather may cause miscarriage, saith Hip∣pocrates, when the winter is hot and moist, and the Spring cold and dry that follows it, the women that conceive in that Spring will easily abort, and if they do not, they will suf∣fer hard labour in child-birth, and the child will be weak and short liv'd; the reason may be because the body is opened and made more tender by the foregoing heat and moist wea∣ther, and then the succeeding cold makes it

more dangerous. Great labour, as dancing, leaping, falls or bruises, great passions sud∣denly coming not lookt for, may make a wo∣man miscarry; let all women beware of it for it is more painful than a true delivery, be∣cause one is natural and the other against na∣ture, nature helps the one but not the other. Signs of Abortment I have spoken of in part, but commonly about the third and fourth month womens bodies that will swell and puff up with hardness and stiffness, stitches and windiness running about her, yet she feels no more weight in her body, this is a sign of miscarriage if it be not prevented.

There is nothing better after conception, to prevent abortment than good natural food moderately taken, and to use all things with moderation, to avoid violent passions, as care, and anger, joy, fear, or whatsoever may too much stir the blood; use not Phlebotomy with∣out great cause, nor yet violent purga∣tives.

If the Matrix be too much dilated, use things that contract and fasten, as Baths pre∣pared, Unguents, Ointments, Fumes, Odours, Plaisters. Some remedies are specifical against miscarriage, and if the woman be in danger she may use them, and that in divers ways that she may take them; as thus, take red Co∣ral

in powder two drams, shavings of Ivory one dram and a half, Mastick half a dram, and one Nutmeg in powder, give half a dram in a rear egg, &c.

A Powder to hinder Abortion.

Take Bistort-roots one scruple, Kermes berries, Plantane, and Purslain seeds, of each one dram, Coriander prepared two scruples, Sugar all their weight, take every day one scruple with a little Maligo Wine if the body be not costive.

For an Ague.

Sometimes women with Child fall into an Ague, then take Barley meal, juice of Sloes, and of Housleek a sufficient quantity, and with Vinegar make a Cataplasme, and lay it upon a double cloth, and lay it often upon the wo∣mans belly, and this will preserve the child from it.

For the wind.

Some are much troubled with wind that will cause them to miscarry, then take Cum∣minseed and boyl it in water, give her four

spoonful of it twice a week with a dram of Methridate.

Against sudden frights.

Take Mastick, Frankincence, of each one dram, Dragons blood, Myrtles, Bolearmo∣niak, Hermes berries, of each half a scruple, make them into powder and give half a dram at once with White Wine or Chicken broth.

To strengthen the Child in the Womb.

Take two pound of the crumbs of the in∣ward part of white Bread, Cammomile flowers one handful, Mastick two drams, Cloves half a dram, bruise them and mingle them well with some Maligo Wine and two ounces of rose Vinegar, boil them to a Pul∣tiss and lay it on a double Cloth to the Os pubis.

Purgations may not be used unless the bel∣ly be bound, and then a gentle Glister, or some Manna or Cassia about half an ounce is safe to give by Potion.

Slipperiness of the womb is cured by an in∣jection made of Pomegranate pills boil'd in Oyl of Lillies. Or take Mastick, Myrtle, Gal∣lia

moscala of each half a dram, mix them with Goose-grease, and Sheeps-Wool, and sew them in a linnen cloth and make a pastry and tye a string to it to pull it out again when you have put it up into the place.

To strengthen the Matrix.

Take four ounces of the Oyl of Nuts, Bar∣rows-grease one ounce and half, Cypress-nuts, Mastich of each one dram and half, boyl them all about five hours, and with this annoint her belly, womb, and reins of her back.

BOOK. V.

CHAP. I.

How women after Child-birth must be governed.

THere is great differences in Wo∣mens constitutions and edu∣cation; you may kill one with that which will preserve the o∣ther; tender women that are bred delicately must not be governed after the same manner that hardy Country women must, for one is commonly weak stomach'd, but the other is strong, if you should give the weak woman presently after delivery strong broth, or Eggs, or milk, it will cast her into a Feaver, but the other that is strong will bear it, but tender women must be tenderly fed, and nothing gi∣ven them that is of hard digestion nor yet

what they have no mind to, provided that what she desires be not offensive; but for the first week she lies in, let her have boil'd and not roast, Jellies, and Juice of Veal, or Ca∣pon, but no mutton Broth for that may make her Feaverish, let her drink barley water, or boyl one dram of Cinnamon in a pint of wa∣ter, dissolving two ounces of fine Sugar in it, if she will drink wine, mingle twice as much water or two third parts with it, but let it be white wine in the morning, and Claret in the after-noon; she may sometimes drink Al∣mond-milk, but beware of crudities.

Some women when they lie in are still sleeping, some cannot sleep; if she cannot sleep let her drink barley water well boyled not straining it at all, but let her forbear it after the first week, lest it nourish too much, and stop the Liver.

Baths for Child-bed Women.

For the first week let her Womb and Pri∣vities be bathed with a decoction of Chervil, a good handful boiled in a good quantity of water, adding to it after it is boiled one ounce of Honey of Roses, this will draw away the purgations, and cleanse and heal the parts; and it will take away all inflammations.

For the second week boil Province Roses, put in Bays, Wine, and water, and with this decoction bath her secrets.

Keep her not too hot, for that weakens na∣ture, and dissolves her strength, nor too cold, for cold getting in will cause torments, hurt the Nerves, and make the womb swell▪ Let her diet be hot, and eat but little at once; some Nurses perswade them to eat apace because they have lost much blood, but they are sim∣ple that say so, for the blood voided doth not weaken but unburden nature, for if it had not come away, long diseases, or death would have succeeded; some say Oat-meal Candles are good for them, but oat-meal makes people troubled with the green sickness by its bind∣ing quality, boyling will never make a bind∣ing thing to purge ill humours as they say it doth Child-bed Women, but purging things by boyling may sometimes be made to bind.

Let her for three daies keep the room dark, for her eyes are weak and light offends them; let all great noises be forborn, and all un∣quietness, remembering to be praising God for her safe delivery.

First then, so soon as she is laid, give her a draught of white wine burnt, with a dram of Sperma••cety melted in it.

Vervain is an herb that fortifies the womb, it is fit to gather in May and June; you may dry it in the Sun, and keep it to boil with her meat, and drinks; you shall profit more in two daies with it than in two weeks without it.

If the woman be Feaverish, boil Plantane leaves and roots with it, and if she be not, yet they will do well together, for the heat of the one is tempered by the coldness of the other. But if her purgations stop, for Plantane take Mother of tyme.

If her purgations be clotted, and smell fil∣thily, or the after-burden be not quite come a∣way, boyl Featherfew, Mugwort, Penni∣royal, Mother of time in white wine sweet∣ened with Sugar, let her drink that; new laid eggs and Sugar Penides are best for her to eat often of moderately, and boyl Cinnamon in all her meats and drinks. Let her talk little, nor stir much, especially if she be weak, for six or seven dayes after she is delivered; is a de∣coction of Mallows with a little red Sugar is a good Glister if she be too costive Crato pre∣scribes Coleworts, and Chrysippus makes them to be a universal remedy for all diseases, but they are too windy for women in Child-bed.

After the first week if she be near clean of

her purgations, she may use Comfry and knot-grass in broths to close the womb that hath been so much opened, you may use a little purging with them. Therefore put in some Po••ypody, of the Oak that is best, leaves and roots both being bruised, the quantities are al∣most at your discretion.

Sometimes pains encrease after delivery, Hippocrates saith, women are most subject to them after the birth of their first child; some Physicians think it is by reason of the thinness and sharpness, others from the thickness and sliminess of the blood, but if you use the for∣mer directions these pains may be prevented. What I said of Vervain before is a good reme∣dy, or else boil an egg soft, and mingle the yelk with a spoonful of water of Cinnamon and let her drink it; also a fume of the pow∣der of bay-berries cast on a chafing dish of coals received at her secrets is a great help. And for present ease boyl an equal quantity of tar and barrows grease together; when it boyls put in a little pidgeons dung to it, spread it on a linnen cloth and lay it hot to her reins: she may drink half a dram of Bay-berries in pow∣der in a quarter of a pint of Muskadel; you may see by this that cold and wind cause these pains.

For Excoriation of the Privities.

Annoint them with Oyl of sweet Almonds, or Oyl of St. John's-wort, which is bet∣ter.

Against the Piles or Hemorrhoids.

Take Polypody bruised and boyl it with your drinks or meats.

Let her be let blood in the Saphena vein.

Cut a great hole in an onion, fill the hole with Oyl, roast it and stamp it and lay it warm to the Fundament.

Also take snails without or with shells, I mean either kind, and bruise them with some Oyl, warm it and lay it to the place; Sows or wood-lice called Hog-lice so bruised with Oyl are as effectual.

The Menstrual blood stopt.

We read Levit. 12. that a woman deliver∣ed of a Boy, must continue in her purifica∣tion thirty three dayes, and for a girl sixty six days. Hippocrates de Natura pueri, saith, a woman must continue purging her blood forth

so long as the child was forming in the womb that is thirty dayes for a Male and forty two dayes for a Female. Hippocrates rules may be calculated chiefly for his own Country of Greece, and the Levitical Law most concerns the seed of Abraham; but this is to be observed though not so precisely to a day by all women after delivery, for women that give their own children suck, have their purgations not so long as those that do not. It is not good for a woman presently to suckle her child because those unclean purgations cannot make good milk, the first milk is naught, for even the first Milk of a Cow is salt and brackish and will turn to curds and whey.

You shall know if a woman be well clean∣sed by her health, for if she be not, she can∣not be well and lusty. I shewed you before what herbs will bring her purgations down. She may if she please take every morning two or three spoonfuls of Briony water to be had at the Apothecaries; or a dram of the pow∣der of Gentian roots every morning in a cup of Wine; the roots of Birth-wort are as good, or take twelve Peony seeds powdered in a little Carduus posset drink to sweat, and if it cures not do it again three hours after.

Against the too great running down of the Menstrual blood.

This disease seldom troubles women after delivery, if it should, Comfrey, and Knot∣grass are good remedies; or else take Shep∣herds-pouch boyled in drink and powdered, or bramble leaves, a dram of either every morn∣ing in a little wine, or a decoction made of the same.

Women when they ly in use to be cost;ive because they keep their bed, and some foolish Nurses are so bold as to purge them with Sena before nature be setled, whereby many sad ac∣cidents have followed, but neither loosning broths, nor Prune broths, nor bak'd Apples are then good, but rather gentle Glisters and suppositories taken twice a week will prevent mischief and make the breasts abound with good milk.

CHAP. II.

Of looseness of the Womb.

THis may proceed from sundry causes, as when great fluxes of humours take the ligaments and relax them; falls or great bur∣dens carried in the womb will unloosen them; or chiefly when women travel before their time, they overstrein themselves because the passage is then shut, but unskilful Mid∣wives often make it so, when they thrust in their hand to pull forth the Secundine, they tear part of the womb a way with it, for the Secundine is fastened to its bottom; sometimes they cause the woman to cast out the Secundine by strong vomit, or by holding Bay salt in her mouth. All causes, except those that come from strong defluxions which must first be removed, will be cured by the same reme∣dies.

Take Nuts of Cypress, and Galls, and flow∣ers of Pomegranates, and Roch Allum two ounces of each, Province Roses four ounces, Scarlet, Grains, Rinds of Pomegranates, and Cassia Rinds of each three ounces, waters of Myrtles, of Sloes, an ounce and half, Smiths water & wine of each 4 ounces and a half, then

boil two little bags, each a quarter of a yard long, in the said waters in a new pot, then hold the womans head and Reins low, and apply these bags first one and then the other upon the os pubis, and chafe her often. Let her take in the morning a little Mastick in an egg or some Plantan seed; but if the disease be long confirmed, then make a Pessary half round and half oval of a thick Cork with a great hole in the middle for her Terms and ill vapours to come out by, tye a pack threed to the end of it to pull it out by, cover it over with white wax that it may not be offensive, dip it in sallet Oyl to make it go in, it must be strait that it may not quickly fall out, when she doth her need let her hold it with her hand, take it not away till her purgations be over; the thickness of the Cork makes the Matrix mount higher; if she be in Child-bed, the Midwife or Nurse must not suffer the wo∣man to strain, but must keep her with her hand or finger to keep back the Matrix, lay∣ing her head low and her Reins high with a pillow under her hips.

Women that are troubled with this disease must not lace themselves too strait for that thrusts down the womb, makes the woman gor-bellied, makes her carry her Child upon her hips, hinders it from lying as it should in

the womb, and though the womans wast may be made slender by it, her belly is as great and ill favoured. But somtimes there happens a relaxation of the skin that covers the right gut, when the head of the child, when the woman begins to travel, falls downward and draws it low; lacing Childing women too hard is a frequent cause of it also, for this makes so much wind fly to those parts, that some are deceived and think it is the head of the child, and the women can hardly stand or go; let her then be kept soluble and eat Annis, & Coriander seed to dispell wind, a fume of Sage, Agrimony, Balm, Motherwort, worm∣wood, Rue, Marjoram, a little Time, and Cammomile, pick out the stalks, cut the herbs small, mingled, put them into a maple platter, put hot cinders upon them and ano∣ther handful of herbs upon them, cover the platter close with a cloth, and let her take the fume beneath.

The womb falls out of its place when the ligaments by which it is bound to other parts of the body are by any means relaxed, it is bound with four ligaments, two broad mem∣braces and above, that spring from the Perito∣neum, and two round hollow nervous pro∣ductions below; also it is tied to the great vessels by veins and Arteries, and to the back

by Sinews, but the Bottom of the womb is not tied, the ligaments being onely upon the sides of it; sometimes it falls forward quite out of the Privities, but whether it can ascend and go upward is doubted by some; Physicians say it will if sweet things be held to the nose, if to the secrets it will fall downward; if stinking things be put to them it flyes from them, it may be discerned by their breathing and by some meats the womb greedily accepts. But Galen saith, it is very little that the womb can go upward, it cannot reach the stomach the ligaments are so strong that tye it down, and the falling of it down is onely by reason of moisture that relax the ligaments, but that will not make it ascend; and though it be en∣larged in conception, that is not presently but by degrees, nor are the ligaments always much relaxed in Childbearing; but what is that if it be not, the womb that may some∣times be felt to move above the womans na∣vel as round as a Ball, that round ball is the womans stones together with that blind Vessel Fallopius found out, like to the great end of a Trumpet, and is therefore called Fallopius hi•• Trumpet: the stones they hang, and the body of the Trumpet is like a pipe that is loose and moving, and when they are full swoln with vapours and corrupt seed, they stir to and

fro, and come up to the navel; and Riolanus saith, this Trumpet and the stones make this great round Ball. Whasoever fills them with corrupt seed and venemous windy va∣pours causeth this moving, and from thence suffocation of the womb; when these poyso∣nous vapours are freely carried by the Nerves, veins, and arteries to all the principal parts, the Brain, the Heart, the Liver, and the rest, it is not extream dangerous, yet it may turn to the strangling of the womb if means be not used; such as are good against suffocations of the womb, when they seem to be strangled, but of that afterwards. Sometimes it falls as low as the middle of the thighs, and some∣times near the knees, when the ligaments are loose; it falls by its own weight, when the Terms are stopt, and the Veins and arteries are full that go to the womb; it is drawn on one side, if there be a Mole on one side, the Liver veins too full on the right side, or the spleen on the left, are the cause of it. But how it comes to be loose is questioned, H••ppo∣crates saith, great heat, or cold of the feet or loyns, violent causes external, leaping or dan∣cing may do it, for these moisten and soke the ligaments, if the woman take cold after she is delivered and the Terms flow. Platerus a∣scribes it to the loosening of the fibrous neck

the adjacent parts by the weight of the Ma∣trix falling down, but then the ligatures must be loose or broken; but when a woman is so in a dropsie, it is the salt water that causeth it and that drieth more than it moisteneth. The signs to know it are, that the womb is only fallen down, if there be a little swelling with∣in or without the privities, like a skin stretch∣ed, but if the swelling be like a Goose egg, and a hole at the bottom, there is then a great pain in the Os sacrum, the bottom of the belly, the loyns and secrets to which the womb is tied, because the ligaments are relaxed or broken, but the pain will abate soon and the woman can hardly go, sometimes the vessels breaking blood comes forth, the woman falls into Convulsions and a Feaver, and cannot void her excrements by stool nor Urine; at first it may be easily helpt, but hardly after∣wards, yet it is not mortal, though it be filthy and troublesome, if it come with a Feaver or convulsion it is mortal in women with child, if the ligaments be corroded the danger is the more. The cure is, thrust it up gently before the air change it or it swell and inflame; first administer a gentle Glister to void the excre∣ments, then lay the woman on her back, her head downwards, her legs abroad and thighs lifted up and with your hand thrust it in gent∣ly,

remove the humours with a decocti∣on of Mallows, Marsh-mallows, Cammo∣mile flowers, Bay berries, Linseed, and Fe∣nugreek, and annoint it with Oil of Lillies and Hens-greafe; if it be inflamed, stay a while before you put it up; you may fright it in with a hot Iron presented near it as if you would burn it, sprinkle on it the powder of Mastick, Frankincense, and the like; when it is put up, let her ly stretcht out with her legs, and one leg upon the other for eight or ten dayes, and a Pessary with a Sponge or Cork dipt in astringent wine, with powder of Dra∣gons-blood, Bole, or the ointment called the Caunlesses at the Apothecaries; apply a large cupping glass to the Navel or breasts, or both kidneys; use astringent Plaisters to her back, & fomentations, baths, & injections; if evil humors cause it to fall out, purge them first away be∣cause they sob the ligaments, and then use dry∣ing drinks of Guaicum, China, Forta, use Pes∣saries and ligaments, as for the Rupture to keep it in its place, of which see Francis Rauset; you may use circles or balls in place of Pes∣saries, made of Briony roots cut round, or of Virgins wax, with white Rosin and Turpen∣tine when they are dried, if it gangrene cut it off, or bind it fast that it may fall of it self. Rauset shews when you may ty it or cut

it off without danger: her diet must be dry∣ing and astringent, and astringent red wine to drink. If it encline to either side, apply Cupping Glasses to the other side, and the Midwife may annoint her finger with the oyl of sweet Almonds, and by degrees draw it to its place.

CHAP. III.

Of Feavers after Child-bearing.

THis disease frequently follows when she is not well purged of her burden or the pur∣gations are corrupt that stay behind, about the third or fourth day they will be Feaverish al∣so by the turning of the blood from the womb to the breasts to make milk, but this lasts not long, nor is it any danger: but you may mis∣take a putrid Feaver for a Feaver that comes from the milk; for the humours may be infla∣med from her labour in travel, and corrupt, though they appear not presently to be so, the next day after she is delivered, but from thence you must reckon the beginning of the Feaver; it is probable then that this Feaver comes from some other cause, especially if her purg∣ings

be stopt, it may proceed from ill hu∣mours gathered in her body whilst she went with child, and are only stirred by her labour; if she be not well purged after travel, the blood and ill humours retreat to the Liver by the great veins and cause a putrid Feaver, but if they flow too much the Feaver may come long after. A feaver from milk will come on the fourth day with pains in the shoul∣ders and the back, and the terms may flow well; if she kept an ill diet when she was big with child, the Feaver comes from ill hu∣mours if it come not from milk, if it do it will end about eight or ten dayes after; but if it come from stoppage of purgations, if she have not a loosness it is very dangerous; if black and ill savouring matter purge by the womb it is safe. But if the Feaver come from ill humours and the body be Cacochymical it is worse, for that shews the ill humours are many which nature cannot send forth by the after-purgings, and the woman is weak al∣ready by her travel. Good diet and gentle sweating cure a Milk-Feaver, but there must be purging and many remedies used for the o∣ther, as bleeding in the foot, cupping of the thighs to provoke the after purgations; but if the time of after-purging be over, if she be strong then open a vein in the Arm.

It is dangerous to purge the woman after the seventh day as some do, when she hath a Pleurisie, because of her weakness after tra∣vel, and because purges hinder the after-flux; but you may if the flux of blood cease, if need be, give a gentle purge with Cassia or Manna, sirrup of roses or Sena or Rhubarb. Too cold and sharp things are naught, take heed of cold drink, or too much drink; let her diet by degrees increase from thin to thicker.

If the Feaver came from too much milk or terms stopt, open a vein in her foot, then purge a way the gross humours with sirrup of Maidenhair, Endive of each one ounce, wa∣ters of Succory and Fennel an ounce and half a piece.

Sharp and putrified humours must be pur∣ged away with proper medicaments, as wa∣ter of Succory, and violets, of each two ounces, sirrup of the same of each one ounce; cooling Glisters are good here; if there be need you may purge stronger, but this is not usual. I shall give you one example, take two drams of Rhubarb in powder, Diagridium four grains, let them infuse all night in Succo∣ry and Anniseed water, two ounces and half of each, and one ounce of Borrage flower water, warm them gently in the morning,

and strain them well through a linnen cloth; add to the strained liquor one ounce of sirrup of Succory, Cinnnamon water two spoonfuls, drink it warm.

Then after you have well purged away the ill humours you may gently sweat her to o∣pen the passages of the body and womb, you will find examples of them in the Treatise of the Courses stopt.

CHAP. IV.

Of the looseness of the belly in child-bed Women.

THis may be thought a small matter in re∣spect of other infirmities, yet this is one of the most dangerous distempers and hardest to help in child-bed women, for stop the flux & you will stop her purgations; if you stop it not she will perish by weakness, nothing al∣most is safely given. Physicians are at a stand in such a case, but it is good be wary and moderate in what is done, and it may be helpt God willing. It is not safe to stop it present∣ly, and if it continue it may cause a Tenesmus or a dysentury, if it come from ill diet let her

mend that, and strengthen her stomach out∣wardly if yet it continue, use inward reme∣dies that corroborate the stomach yet hurt not the womb, as Barley water, Honey and sirrup of roses, cleansing Glisters are good and to temper sharp cholerick humours. But the best way is, to observe what loosenes of the belly she is molested with, for if it be that they call Diarrhoea, that will only discharge her body of ill humours, therefore do no∣thing in that case but let her take strengthen∣ing food, for when nature hath eased her self sufficiently she will stay both the loose∣ness of the belly and her purgations from the womb, and so no ill accidents will come; but if the flux be Lienteria that the food comes away with the stools undigested, annoint her belly with Oil of Mastick and of Myrtles, and give her some sirrup of dried Roses, pulp of Tamarinds, or some torrified Rhubarb, to purge the belly and not hurt the womb: But if it rise to a Dysentery called the bloody flux, then so soon as her Terms are purged away, try to stay it.

1. By purging, as take half a dram of bark of yellow Mirobolans, & of rosted Rubarb as much, finely powdered, sirrup of Roses, or of Quin∣ces one ounce, pulp of Cassia or of Tamarinds with Sugar half an ounce, Plantane or Oak∣en

water four ounces, let her drink this at once.

2. Abstersives are good, as of whey, or bar∣ley water, or Glisters of Mallows, Mellilot, Wheat-bran and Oyl of sweet Almonds.

3. Narcoticks to ease great pains, Philoni∣um Romanum two scruples, Rose-water two ounces, Maligo wine one ounce, give it when she goes to sleep, this is excellent.

In this case astringents are to be used but not in the former distempers, here they profit, there they are dangerous.

Of Womens vomiting in Child-Bed.

Women both before they fall in labour, and at the time of their travel, and also after∣wards will sometimes fall to vomiting, and it may proceed from ill diet or raw humors, or from weakness of their stomach, or con∣sent of the womb when the after flux is stopt, and sometimes they will vomit blood, for the blood that is stopped below, runs back to the great veins and liver, and being much and sharp finds a way into the stomach and so comes forth at the mouth. It is ill after child-birth; especially the food being vomited there will be nothing to make milk for the child, and sometimes in hard labour a Vein is

broken and this may cause a dropsie; if ill diet cause vomit, rectifie that; if ill humours, stop it not presently but purge gently; if blood come, pull back by rubbing, or cupping, or bleeding, opening a Vein in the foot, ham, or ankle, and urging the after flux. Sometimes the woman is costive, then give her a supposi∣tory, with Castle sope or Honey, and then stay four or five days till you may give a Glister with Manna or, Cassia. If her Urine run away against her will, bath her parts with a decocti∣on of Betony, Bays, Sage, Rosemary, Ori∣ganum, Stoechas, and Penni-royal; for her vo∣miting, give her three spoonfuls of Cinnamon water, one ounce and half of juice of Quin∣ces, about a spoonful at a time. The leaves of Rosemary dried and brought into powder, and so drank about a scruple or half a dram at a time in a cup of wine will stay vomiting; preserve or Marmalade of Quinces, or Med∣lars eaten, or Pears or sowr Apples do strengthen the stomach, juice of Barberries, or of Pomegranates or sowr Cherries with Mint water.

There are many topical applications to be made to the pit of the stomach, which being laid on and so continued prevail much, as thus; take the crum of the inside of a white loaf, and tost it and steep it in good Maligo Wine,

and strew it lightly over with the powder of Cloves and Nutmegs, or sirrup of Roses, Rhubarb, or pulp of Tamarinds, and astrin∣gents, of Roses, Plantane, Coral, Tormentil, if the Terms flow not at all the belly must be kept loose, but vomiting is so perillous that it ought to be stopt, alwaies provided it be done no sooner than it is needful and with good provisoes.

CHAP. V.

Of Womens diseases in general.

WHosoever rightly considers it will pre∣sently find, that the Female sex are subject to more diseases by odds than the Male kind are, and therefore it is reason that great care should be had for the cure of that sex that is the weaker and most subject to in∣firmities in some respects above the o∣ther.

The Female sex then that it may be more nearly provided for wheresoever it is deficient must be considered under three several consi∣derations, that is, as maids, as wives, as widows, and their several distempers that be∣fall them almost commonly respect either the

womb or their breasts or both, and many of these diseases and distempers are common to all the Female sex, I mean they sometimes happen to them in any of the foresaid three e∣states of life, but Virgins, or Maids diseases that are more peculiar to them, though not essential, because many of them are incident to the rest, the causes may be the same; they are that wich is called the white Feaver, or green Sickness, fits of the Mother, strangling of the Womb, Rage of the Matrix, extreme Me∣lancholly, Falling-sickness, Head-ach, beat∣ing of the arteries in the back and sides, great palpitations of the heart, Hypochondriacal di∣seases from the Spleen, stoppings of the Li∣ver, and ill affections of the stomach by con∣sent from the womb. But that I may make as perfect an enumeration as may be of all disea∣ses incident to our sex, & give you some of the best remedies that are prescribed by the most Authentick authors, or what I my self have proved by long experience.

Know then that there are some diseases that happen about the secrets of women, as when the mouth of the Matrix is too narrow, or too great, when there is a Yard in the womb like a mans Yard, when the secrets are full of Pimples or very rugged, when there are swellings or small excrescenses in

the Womb, or else Warts in the neck of it, or the Piles or Chaps, Ulcers, or Fistulaes, or Cancers, or Gangreens, and Sphacelus, or Mortification: all these and more that may be reduced to these heads, are found in the en∣trance or mouth of the womb.

2. As to the womb it self it is frequently offended with ill distempers, being either too hot or too cold, too dry, or too moist, and of these are many more compounded, as too hot and too dry, too moist and too cold; these are all to be cured by their contraries, cold by heat, moist by driers.

Or the womb is sometimes ill shaped and strange things are found in it, some women have two wombs, and some again have none at all. Again the vessels of the womb some∣times will open preternaturally, and blood run forth in abundance, sometimes the womb swells and grows bigger than it should be: It may be troubled with a Dropsie, with swel∣ling of its veins from too much blood, also it may be inflamed, displaced, broken, and it may fall out of the body.

It may be rotten, or else cancerated, and sometimes womens stones and vessels for ge∣neration are diseased.

Further the womb may be troubled with an itch, it may be weak or painful, or suffer by

sympathy and antipathy from sweet or stink∣ing smells.

Moreover the terms sometimes flow too soon, sometimes too late, they are too ma∣ny or too few, or are quite stopt that they flow not at all. Sometimes they fall by drops, and again sometimes they overflow; sometimes they cause pain, sometimes they are of an e∣vil colour and not according to nature; some∣times they are voided not by the womb but some other way; sometimes strange things are sent forth by the womb, and sometimes they are troubled with flux of seed or the whites.

As for women with child they are subject to miscarry, to hard labour, to disorderly births of their children; sometimes the child is dead in the womb; sometimes alive, but must be taken forth by cutting or the woman cannot be delivered; sometimes she is trou∣bled with false conceptions, with ill forma∣tions of the child, with superfetations, ano∣ther child begot before she is delivered of her first; with monsters or Moles, and many more such like infirmities.

And as for women in child-bed, some∣times the Secundine or after-birth will not fol∣low, their purgations are too few or too ma∣ny, they are in great pains in their belly, their privities are rended by hard delive∣ry

as far as their Fundament, also they are inflamed many times and ulcerated and cannot go to stool but their fundament will fall forth. They have swoonding and epilep∣tick fits, watching and dotings; their whole body swels, especially their belly, legs and feet: they are subject to hot sharp Feavers and acute diseases, to vomiting and costive∣ness, to fluxes, to incontinence of Urine, that they cannot hold their water.

As for their breasts that hold the greatest consent with the womb of all the parts of the body, they are sometimes exceeding great or swelled with milk, or increased in number, more breasts than there should be by nature; sometimes the breasts are inflamed and trou∣ble with an Erisipelas, or hard swellings, or Scirrhus, or full of kernels, or tumors called the Kings evil, or strange things may be bred in the breasts; besides this some breasts are diseased with Ulcers, and Fustulaes or Can∣kers and some have no nipples, or are chopt or Ulcerated, and sometimes women have breasts will breed no milk to suckle the child with.

To speak then particularly to all these dis∣eases that belong to our sex might be thought to be over tedious; however I shall so handle the matter, that I may not troubled the Rea∣der

with impertinences, that I shall apply my self to what is most needful for the know∣ledge and cure of them all; but because many diseases may be refered to the chief in that kind, and the remedies that will cure one may be sufficient to cure the rest, the judicious Reader may, according as he shall have occa∣sion, make a more special application.

For it is in vain for any one to make use of what is written if they have no Judgement in the things they use, in such cases it will be best for them to ask counsel of others first, till they may attain to some farther insight themselves, and then no doubt but when they shall meet with sufficient remedies to cure the greatest distempers, they will be able to make use of the same without farther direction in the cure of those diseases that are lesse; not that I intend to omit any thing that is mate∣rial in the whole, but that I may not trouble the Reader with needless repetitions of the same things, as too many authours doe, which breeds tediousness, and can give little or no sa∣tisfaction at all.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Green-sickness, some call it Leu∣cophlegmatia, or Cachexia, an ill habit or white Feaver.

THough both wives and widows are sometimes troubled with this disease, yet it is more common to maids of ripe years when they are in love and desirous to keep company with a man.

It comes from obstruction of the vessels of the womb, when the humours corrupt the whole mass of blood and over cool it, run∣ning back into the great veins. For so soon as Maids are ripe, their courses begin to flow, Nature sending the menstrual blood from the Liver to the veins about the womb, but those veins and vessels being very narrow, and not yet open, if the blood be stopt, in that it cannot break forth, it will corrupt, and runs back again by the passages of the hollow vein and great Artery, to the Liver, the heart and the Midriff, and stops the whole body, which may be easily known, for their faces will look green and pale, and wan; they have trembling of the heart, pains of the head, short

breathing, the arteries in the back, the neck, and the Temples will beat very thick; and though not alwayes, yet sometimes they will fall into a Feaver by reason of these corrupt humours, but it is alwayes almost attended with disgust and loathing of good nutriment, and longing after hurtful things.

The whole Body especially the Belly, legs, and thighs swelling with abundance of naugh∣ty humours, the Hypocondriacal parts are ex∣tended by reason of the menstrual blood run∣ing back to the greater vessels, and they are much given to vomit; but all these signs are not found in all persons alike, but they are common to most, and in some you shall find all these meet. The cause is the Terms stopt, and from thence ill humours abound, for when the natural channel is stopt, the blood must needs return to the great vessels whence it came and choak them up, and so spoil the making of blood, nothing but raw and cor∣rupt humors are bred which can never turn to good nutriment, or be ever perfectly joyn∣ed to the parts of the body; the blood is flegmatick slimy stuff, and sometimes it is bred from corrupt meats and drink that maids will long after as well as Childing wo∣men; they will be alwayes eating Oatmeal, scrapings of the wall, earth, or ashes, or

chalk, and will drink Vinegar: they are strang∣ly affected with an inordinate desire to eat what is not fit for food, whereupon their na∣tural heat is choaked, and their blood turns to water, their body grows loose and spon∣gy, and they grow lazy, and idle, and will hardly stir; their pulse beats little and faint, as the vapours fly to several parts so they are ill affected by them; the heart faints, the head is dried and pained, and the animal acti∣ons are hurt when melancholy is mixed with the humours in too great proportion.

Sometimes this white Feaver turns to a Dropsie, or the liver grows hard like a stone that it can make no blood; some fall dead suddenly when the heart is choaked by ill va∣pours and humours flying to it; if the sto∣mach be affected the danger is the greater, but if onely the womb be out of frame the remedy is much more easy.

The best time of the year to cure Maids and those that are sick of the green sickness is the spring, and the way of cure is, to heat the cold humours, and make the thick gross blood thin, and this cannot be all performed by one work, to draw away and to correct the whole mass of humours at once; where∣fore you must purge gently and often, ming∣ling things that heat and attenuate, as well

as purgatives to carry the ill humours forth.

But first it will be good to give a Glister, and next to open a Vein in the foot or an∣cle.

Moreover your physick must vary accord∣ing to the parts of the body that are most stopt, and where the humors float.

If they lye above the stomach and mesen∣tery, then vomit, if you find the Person fit∣ted for vomit; likewise the Spleen, or liver, or womb must be respected in their several kinds with Physick accordingly; and to save you the labour of much reading, and me of writing too often of the same thing, under several heads, you may find what is to be done almost in all respects, where I write of the stopping of the Terms, and by this rule I wish the Reader to apply the rest when he stands in need, which he can never well do, as I said, till he have some judgement in it, and then it will become familiar to him.

But in this Disease principally for the cure respect the Liver, the Spleen, and the Me∣sentery, or Midriff, for these are certainly ob∣structed and must be opened; and above all be sure to keep a sparing diet and of a thin substance.

Secondly, Let blood in the arm first, though the courses be stopt, and after that in the foot.

If the disease be of long standing, you shall do well to give a gentle Purge.

First of all to purge the humours; as

Take powdered Rhubarb two drams, Chi∣cory and Anniseed-water three ounces apiece; Infuse the Rhubarb all night, then let them boyl one walm onely, and then strain it forth, and in the strained liquor, dissolve sirrup of Damask Roses one ounce and a half, Diacassia half an ounce, Cinnamon-water half an ounce, five grains of Diagridium, let her drink it in the morning.

Next after this use opening decoction of Succory and Madder, and Liquorish roots of each half an handful, Anniseeds and Fennel seeds two drams a piece, a handful of Harts-tongue Leaves, Borrage Flowers and pale Roses of each half a handful, one ounce of the roots of Sassafras, stoned Rasins one ounce and a half, and half a dram of Cinnamon.

Boyl all these in Fountain water to a third part onely wasted, and then sweeten it with sirrup of Lemmons, she may drink it when she pleaseth.

An Electuary made of the rob or pulp of Elder-berries boyl'd to a just substance four

ounces with one ounce of bay berries dried and powdered, two Nutmegs, and one dram of burnt-hartshorn, half a scruple of Amber, and four scruples of species Diarrhoda, mingled all with sirrup of Succory one ounce and half, is excellent.

And finally, it will not be from the pur∣pose, but very useful, to anoint the womb and Liver with such Oyntments, as will o∣pen their obstructions, made with Oyl of Spike, and bitter Almonds, of each two ounces; and juyces of Rue and Mugwort half as much, and Vinegar a fourth part; waste the watery part of these by boiling: then add Spikenard, Camels Hay, Roots of Asarum, of each one dram; Cypress half a dram, Wax, sufficient to make an Unguent.

To provoke the Termes.

And that is effected with one ounce of the Five opening Roots, and with Madder, Ele∣campane, Orris Roots, Eryngo, dried Ci∣tron Pills, and Sarfa, of each half an ounce; Germander, Mugwort, Agrimony, of each a handful; two small handfuls of Savin, an ounce of wilde Saffron seeds, two ounces of Senna; Agarick and Mechoachan, of each half an ounce; two Pugils of Stoechas Flowers;

of Galingal, Anniseeds, and Fennel, of each two drams: Boil all this to a Pint and half, sweeten it for your Pallat, and add to it a spoonful of Cinnamon water.

Quercetans Pills of Tartar, and Gum Amo∣niacum are commended; Take of each half a dram, Spike a scruple, three drops of Cinna∣mon, Extract of wormwood half a scruple; take a scruple, or twenty grain weight in pills an hour before Meat: Conserve of Marigold Flowers is very good. Some, after good preparatives, use Steel powder to much ef∣fect; giving first a vomit, if need require. This Medicament is good for all stoppings; but, if the Liver be stopt, let the Steel be fine∣ly powdered. Take prepared steel two ounces, Agarick, Species Diacrocuma, and Darrhodon of each a dram; two drams of Carthamus seed; Cloves one dram, Carrot seed, and red Dock Roots of each one dram and a half.

If the woman vomit, stop it not: but I approve not so well of steel taken in sub∣stance, as by infusion, I am sure it must needs be the safest way. Take steel (in powder) three ounces; three pints of white wine, and half an ounce of Cinnamon, let all stand in the sun eight dayes, stopt close in a Glass; and every day stir them well: the Dose is

six or eight ounces for twenty daies together, four hours before dinner.

Steel is best used in the Spring and in the Fall: but alwaies you must purge the body, and exercise both before and after the use of it; and you must change the form of your Medi∣caments, or the Patient will loath, and grow weary of it: Sweating and bathing are good. Either Baths (by Nature, or Art) made with Mugwort, Calamints, Niss, Danewort, Rose∣mary, Sage, Bays, Elecampane, Mercury, Briony Roots, Ivy: When the Obstructions are opened, and the body purged, you shall see all the former symptomes flie a way: But let the diet be meats of good digestion, and good nourishment; The air must be tem∣perately hot; all crude raw things must be a∣voided: as green fruit, Lettice, Milk, watry Fish: Wine is good drink: Sage and Cin∣namon are good Sawce: put Fennel seed in∣to your bread, and let it be well leavened: Sleep moderately: Marriage is a Soveraign Cure for those that cannot abstain. Maids must not be suffered to eat Oatmeal, or a∣shes, or such ill trumpery, though they de∣sire them never so much; for they will breed and increase the disease: but Child-bearing women, if they cannot be perswaded, must have what they long for, or they will mis∣carry.

Exercise, I say, is alwayes good to keep maids from this disease, and to cure it when it is come: For idleness causeth crudi∣ties; but motion makes heat, and helps to di∣stribute the Nutriment through the body: Yet moderation must be used; for it will weaken faint people if it be too much.

First, therefore onely rub and chafe the body, then by degrees, keep them from sleep∣ing too much; then increasing the labour, af∣ter that the body hath been well cleansed by purging.

Hippocrates commends marriage, as the chiefest remedy for Virgins sick of this disease, if they once conceive, that is their cure: or as saith Johannes Langius, for this disease never comes till they are fit for Copulation, and then commonly it hasteneth; and it is cu∣red by opening of Obstructions, and heating the womb; which nothing can so soon, and well perform, as the Venereal acts, to make the courses come down; but yet it is very dange∣rous, when these people are grown weak with this disease, and their bodies are full of corrupt humours; therefore they must purge them away before they marry: for I have known some that have been so far from being cured, that they died by it; perhaps sooner than they would have done otherwise: It

may be good sometimes, when the disease is new, and the blood plentiful, to open a vein, when the courses are stopt; and are not chang∣ed into some corrupt humour, you may then b••eed freely; this was the right judgment of Hippocrates: but when the passages are stopt, and the whole body is chilled with raw slimy humours, there is no time to bleed then; for that will augment the disease.

And because we are now upon this remedy of marriage, for the cure of this infirmity; though I touch'd it before, I shall a little fur∣ther discusse the matter: Whether all maids have that sign of their Maiden-head, which by Moses's Law (Deut. 22..) was so much to be taken notice of, and Physicians call Hymen, which signifies a Membrane, some do abso∣lutely deny, that there is any such Membrane, or skin; and maintain also, that if any maid have it, it is only the closeness of the womb, a disease in the Organ, and not common to all: And some of the best Anatomists main∣tain the contrary; affirming that there is a skin in all, or should be, that is wrinkled with Caruncles, like Myrtle-berries, or a rose half blown: and this makes the difference between maids and wives: but it is broken at the first encounter with man, and it makes a great alteration; it is painful, and bleeds when it

is broken: but what it is, is not certainly known. Some think it is a nervous Membrane interwoven with small veins, that bleed, at the first opening of the Matrix by copulation: Some think they are four Caruncles fastened together with small Membranes: Some ob∣serve a Circle that is fleshy about the Nimphe, with little dark veins; so that the skin is ra∣ther fleshy than nervous. Doubtless there is a main difference between Virgins and Wives, as to this very thing, though Anatomists agree not about it; because, though all have it, yet there may be causes whereby it may be bro∣ken before marriage, as I instanced formerly: and sometimes it is broken by the Mid∣wives.

Leo Africanus writes that the African cu∣stome was, whilest the wedding dinner was preparing, to shut the married Pair in∣to a room by themselves, and there was some old woman appointed to stand at the Door to take the bloody sheet from the Bride∣groom, to shew it to the Guests; and if no blood appeared, the Bride was sent home to her friends with disgrace, and the Guests dis∣missed without their dinner. But the sign of bleeding perhaps is not so generally sure; it is not so much ••n maids that are elderly, as when they are very young; bleeding is an undoubt∣ed

token of Virginity: But young wenches (that are lascivious) may lose this, by unchast actions, though they never knew man; which is not much inferior, if not worse than the act it self.

Amongst those signs of Maidenhead preser∣ved, is the straightness of the privy passage; which differs according to several ages, Ha∣bit of body, and such like circumstances: But it can be no infallible sign, because un∣chast women will (by astringent medica∣ments) so contract the parts, that they will seem to be maids again; as she did, who be∣ing married, used a bath of Comfrey roots.

Some judge (but falsely) that if a maid have milk in her breasts, she hath lost her Maidenhead: There can be no milk, say they, till she hath conceived with child. Maids want both the cause, and the end, for which nature sends milk; namely to provide food for the child to be born: If a maids courses stop, they corrupt, and turn not to milk. The Breasts have a natural quality to make milk; but they do it not, unless convenient matter be sent to make it of; and that is not done, but for the foresaid end.

Hippocrates, Galen, & there followers say, that maids may have milk in their brests: True it is, that it is a certain sign of a living child in

the womb, when there is milk in the Breasts; and of a mole or false conception, when there is no milk: But that milk that maids sometimes have in their breasts, is only a wa∣try humour, when their courses are stopt, and cannot get forth of the womb; then the Breasts by their faculty make whey, but can∣not make milk, without there be first carnal copulation: it is white as milk is; but not so white, nor so thick: neither comes it to the breasts by the same veins that that blood that makes Milk comes into them by; for this breeds in the veins of maids from the super∣fluous nutriment of their breasts. But to en∣large a little more concerning that distinction of Maids from Wives, by the straitness of the Orifice of the womb: There are three disea∣ses in this part of the secrets; either the mouth is too strait, or too wide, or sometimes there hangs forth the Yard of a woman. The Pri∣vity is too strait when there is not room for the Fore-man to enter; Such persons seldom child, and are delivered with great danger and difficulty: and if this come from ill con∣formation, that nature hath made them so, it will be hard to cure them by any thing but copulation, and bringing forth of Children, to enlarge the place: yet sometimes this strait∣ness comes from the use of astringent Medi∣caments,

when whores desire to appear to be maids; sometimes the passage is so close shut up on the outside, that nothing can come forth but water and the courses, and some∣times neither of them; because they are at∣tracted not bored nor pierced by nature. This disease is threefold; it is either in the mouth, neck, or middle body of the womb; it is ne∣ver good for copulation, conception, or for the courses to be voided by: I remember I saw a woman that had the Orifice of the ma∣trix so little, that nothing but the Urine and her courses could pass through; yet she con∣ceived with child, no man can suppose how she received the mans seed, but by attraction of the Matrix: the midwives (when she was to be delivered) discovered the difficulty; and a Chirurgeon made the Orifice wider, and she was by that means happily brought a bed of a Son: The cleft may be also close stopt, by reason of some wound or Ulcer cured in that part. I saw a woman which by the French disease, had been much eaten off, yet when it was healed, it grew close together, that there was no passage left, but for her Urine to come forth by: either proud flesh, in foul diseases, or else some membrane, by evil conformation may stop the passage: if it be in the mouth of the secrets, it is visible, but if in the neck it

lieth concealed; Unless it be when the cour∣ses are flowing, or Copulation is used, it is not painful: and maids are supposed to be with child; for the belly tumifies, and the body is discoloured. The terms cannot well come forth of the neck, or the Veins of the womb, if there be an Ulcer or inflammation, you may know almost whence it came; but if a mem∣brane stop it, the place is white: if the flesh be red, and you touch it, the touch will dis∣cover it; for a membrane is harder than the Flesh: the hazards are great for childing wo∣men.

CHAP. VII.

Of the Straitness of the womb.

SOmetimes there are superfluous Excre∣scences, that fill up the Privites, and are like a tail: I spoke something before of a Clitoris; but these are not that: for a Clitoris, if it be rubbed, increases pleasure in copula∣tion; but these fleshy excrescensces are pain∣ful to be touched, and hinder copulation: you may safely cut them off, if you can come at them, because they are redundant.

There are a kind of wings in a womans se∣crets, much like to the comb of a cock for colour and shape; it swells like a Yard some∣times (in lust it is full of spirits) and is hard and Nervous at the top of it; sometimes it is no less than the Yard of a man, and some wo∣men by it have been suspected to be men; it proceeds from much nutriment, and frequent handling of the part that is loose. To cure it you must first discuss, and dry it with easie astringents; then you may go on to Cau∣sticks, that are not dangerous; as burnt Allum, or Egyptiac: if these cure it not, then you may at last cut it off; or tie it with a horse hair, or piece of Silk, till it fall off; but cut it not at first for fear of pain and inflammati∣on: The way to cut it off is taught by Aetius, to cut it neatly between both the wings, cau∣sing as little pain as possible may be; and af∣ter that, foment the place with an astringent Decoction of wine with Pomegranate Flow∣ers, Cypress nuts, Bay Berries, Roses and Myrtles.

Some call this disease Tentigro, when the Clitoris grows bigger by odds than it should be; it is a nervous piece of flesh, which is lapt in by the lips of the Privitie, and it ri∣seth in the act of Copulation; it hangs below the Privy parts, outwardly, like a Gooses

Neck in bigness; and it comes from a great Flux of humours to the part, being loose, and often handled: The way to cure it, is to purge superfluous humours forth, and to draw blood, and use a spare diet, and very cooling, and to discuss with the leaves of Mastich tree, or of the Olive: You may take away the ex∣crescence by Sope, being boiled with Roman Vitriol; and last of all, add a little Opium, make some Troches, and sprinkle the pow∣der upon the superfluous part; and after that cut it off, or cure it by ligature as I said be∣fore.

There is another fleshy substance, that sometimes fills up the privy parts, coming from the mouth of the womb, and hangs of∣tentimes out, like a Tail; it may be easier ta∣ken a way than the former, by the same means of cutting or binding with a thread, or silk dipt in sublimate water.

There are many other infirmities that stop up the secrets of the womb, of which I shall briefly speak; but the straitness of the neck of the womb it self is not so usual, as too much wideness is; you may know when it is too strait, by the stopping of the Courses, and a weighty pain bearing down: It proceeds partly from ill conformation by nature, and partly from Diseases; sometimes it is so shut up

outwardly, that neither the courses can come forth, nor the mans Yard enter in; that it is not possible for her to be with child: if the straitness be in the inward Orifice, the courses run back again for want of passage, and hin∣der conception. It may happen when the caule lieth to that, and presseth upon the neck of the womb; the stone in the bladder, or swelling in the straight Gut, may cause it also; if the parts cling together naturally, either soft red flesh, or a white hard skin causes this straitness as I said: But the straitness of the womb it self, and its vessels are sometimes natural by ill conformation; and such women will miscarry in the fourth or fifth month, be∣cause the womb that naturally stretcheth, as the child grows in bigness, & will after the wo∣man is delivered, shrink as small as it was be∣fore, in some women will not be extended. But if the straitness be in the vessels or neck of the womb, Conception is hindered, be∣cause the terms cannot flow; gross humours, especially when the womb is cold and weak, stop the mouths of the veins and arteries.

Inflammations; or Swellings, or Scars, or Schirrhus, or the like, may be the causes; some∣times thick Flegm abounds, if there were a wound or the after-burden were forcibly pulled out.

If the terms be stopt, from an old obstructi∣on of grown humors, the cure is hard; a Schir∣rhus, or humour that shuts up the vessels, can∣not be cured; what is to be cured, must first be done by general evacuations of purging and bleeding; then use means to provoke the terms: if the straitness come from diseases, first cure them.

Sometimes the Secrets of women are full of pushes, and scurf, with itching and pain, wheals rising in the neck of the womb: They are of two sorts; some are gentle, but most commonly they are venemous, and come from the foul disease, and will impart it unto men: They proceed from burnt, sharp, cholerick, malignant humours, hard to be cured; Sirrup of Fumitory is very good in such cases: it is also profitable to wash the parts with wine and Salt-Peter.

Draw blood, if it abound, first in the arm then in the ancle: but first if be the di∣sease, drink the decoction of Sarsa and Gua∣icum for it: Avoid sharp sowr meats; it is good to purge with Confectio Hamech, or Fumi∣tory Pills. You may see the cause of this great itching, and scurf, if you search with Specu∣lum Matricis, an instrument Chirurgeons use. Sometimes Tubercles grow in the neck of the womb, with heat and pain; you may see

them them, for they are a kind of swelling wrinkles, like the wrinkles you see when you close your Fist, but they are much larger; and when they swell they make these Tubercles: they are usual in the secrets, or Fundament, and come from the same malignant causes with the former; and some are more enfla∣med, and painful, than others are: The swel∣lings are hard, proceeding from thick burnt humours; Powder of egg-shels burnt is good to strew upon them to dry them up, if they be new, and there be no inflammation; but if they be old and dry, they must first be soften∣ed. These wrinkled skins, when they are many, resemble a bunch of Grapes: Cure the Pox first, for usually that is the cause, and then they will vanish of themselves.

If Medicaments prevail not, some old au∣thors bid us to use an actual Cautery, and to burn them away. Likewise Warts in the se∣crets are bred by a gross dreggy ill humour, and is of kind with the forementioned; Na∣ture sends it forth to the outward skin, and there it becomes Warts: if they be hard or blew, and painful, you may know what they are, the Pox is in them, and hard to be got out, and they lie where medicines can scarce be applied to them to remain: if you apply sharp Topicals, use a defensative of

Bole and Vinegar, that you hurt not the parts; and so you may touch them with Aqua for∣tis, or Spirit of Vitriol, or of Brimstone. There are several sorts of these Excrescences; there are those that are called Myrmeciae, leave an Ulcer; if you cut them off Thymi, & Clavi will grow again, but Acrocordanes leave no root, if they be once cut away.

The powder of Mulberries is good to cure Warts and swellings upon the privities of men; and I recommend it to women in the same cases: Sometimes women have the piles of the womb, like those in the Funda∣ment; they proceed from gross blood, that staies about the ends of these veins, in the neck of the womb. Women that are thus troubled, look pale, and are very faint and weary: this may come from too long flow∣ing of the courses, and grow thick, and can∣not get forth; they are painful, and bleed disorderly; you may see them, by the help of Speculum Matricis, and touch them: The cure is by revulsion of the humour, by letting blood in the arm or heel; and by gentle applications if the pains be great: if nature open them and they bleed moderately, you may give way to nature; but if they run violently, o∣pen a vein in the arm two or three times: Purge with Rhubarb, Tamarinds, and Miro∣bolans

mingled: and use Topicals to stay the blood. The blind Piles bleed not at all: they are cured by letting young women bleed free∣ly; and by softening the parts with emolli∣ent Fomentations, to open the veins, and to dispel the humour, made with mallows, Marshmallows, Cammomile, Melilot, Ma••∣lius, Linseed, Fenugreek: Anoint where the pain is, with butter, Populeon and Opium; if the pain be gone, and they bleed not, use Driers, of Bole, Ceruss, Allum, burnt Lead, wash'd; if the veins swell with blood rub them with Fig leaves, or with Horse Leeches ap∣plied draw blood from them.

This disease of the Piles of the womb dif∣fers from the flowing of the courses, because this is with great pain; and moreover the courses run from the veins of the womb, and the neck of it; but the Piles are caused when the blood runs too much to the veins that force the secrets, and either stops there, or comes forth sometimes by them: but some say they differ from the courses, namely, by their great pain; but that they make the bo∣dy lean, if they last long, and the blood comes not forth so orderly, nor at certain periods, and set times, as the courses use to do: Some∣times the womb hath Ulcers bred there, some are cleaner, and some again are sordid

and malignant, all hard to be cured. They proceed generally from a virulent Gonor∣rhoea, or the Pox; but they may rise from inflammation, by abundance of sharp corro∣ding humors, from abortion, or hard labour, or sharp medicines, or when the after-birth is pulled out by force, and rends the womb.

The pain of Ulcers is biting, and increased by sharp injections of Wine or Honey and Water: All Ulcers are hard to heal there, because of the sensibility, and moistness of the part: and a light Excoriation, or raw∣ness, will not easily be healed; but eating Ulcers never are cured there almost but by Death. Ulcers by Venery, if they be cured, you must first cure the Pox.

All Ulcers in the secrets of Wombs may be cured, if they be not Cankered: and the way to cure them is by Purging and bleeding, to cleanse and carry away, and divert the ill Humours and moisture from the Womb: if there be great pain, abait that with Mucilage of Fleabane, and whites of Eggs; or, an Emul∣sion of Poppey Seeds. Warm Injections into the Womb will help forward the Cure, made of Barley, Lentils, Beanes, Lupines, of each one Ounce; and two drams of Orris Roots; and of Horehound, Wormwood, and a little Centry, of each half a handful, boil all in

Whey, strain it, and put some Honey of Ro∣ses, or Hydromel to it. Turpentine washed and with Liquorish swallowed is good: Drink Sheeps milk sweetened with Sugar. Fumes made with Frankincence, Myrrh, Mastich, Storax Calamita, Juniper Gum, received by a Tunnel do good; if there be a jealousie of the Pox, add a little Cinnabar; but Pessariers with Opium must not be held in above half an hour, for it will hurt the Nervous part of the womb: a scruple of the Pills of Bdellium, taken thrice a week, may be profitable: Vul∣nerary Potions drunk, and astringent pow∣ders cast upon the Ulcers must not be neg∣lected.

Sometimes there are long Ulcers in the neck of the womb, like to those that eat the skin, and are seen upon some mens hands and feet in Winter; sometimes they are bleeding, and sometimes very dry, and have hard lips; much labour and sharp humours to the parts may cause them: when they are new they are easier cured; use a good moistening diet: if sharp humours cause them, purge them forth; and anoint the Ulcers with Oil of Linseed and Roses, mingle them in a Leaden Mortar with juice of Plantane, and the Yolk of an egg; when they are hard anoint them with deers Marrow, Turpentine, wax, and oil of

Lillies; when they are malignant they are cu∣red, as Fistulaes are; if they itch, or cause pain, make an unguent of Populeum and Diapompho∣lix, of either one ounce; Camphire & Sugar of Lead of each a scruple: when there is a great itching of the womb it is somewhat like the rage of it, then eat Sallets of cooling herbs, Purslain and Lettice, with a few Spearmints, & oil and vinegar, or take conserve of Mints, and of Water-Lilly-Flowers, of each an ounce, Lettice candied six drams, Agnus Castus seeds one dram and a half, Coral one dram, Rue feeds half a dram, Camphire a scruple, with sirrup of Purslain, make an Electuary; an∣noint the Reins and secrets with Galen's cold ointment, with a little Camphire.

As for the womb, it is soon ulcerated, because the parts are soft, and easily corroded, and hard to be healed: and these ulcers are of ma∣ny kinds; hollow, crooked or strait; if the sharp humors be retained, it makes furrows and divides the parts; which growing hard with a callous cannot join again; thus it degenerates into a Fistula; it may be with∣out pain, with hard Lips, and an ill matter may be pressed forth of it: sometimes it cor∣rodes the bladder, and then the water passeth forth by the Fistula, and sometimes to the Fundament, and the Dung is voided by it:

An old Fistula is harder to cure than a new; and a crooked than a streight. General reme∣dies, and a good Diet may do much; and so leave the rest to nature to evacuate the excre∣ments: but use a palliative cure by often Sweating, and purging twice a year; and by Injections and Corroboratives, laying on a Plaister of Diapalma: After general meanes, if it be not past hopes, Vulnerary Decoctions may help, made with Centaury, Bettony, Agrimony, Ladies mantle, and roots of male Fern. Topicks are useful, first dilating the Orifice with Gentian Roots, or with a Sponge; then make soft the Callous with Tur∣pentine, wax, Deers Marrow, and Oyl of Lillies; then consume the Callous, which may be effected: For a new narrow Fistula use black Hellebore, Egyptiac, or Vigo's powder, carried to it with a Pencil, or Aqua Falopii; or take Rose, and Plantane water, of each six ounces, put to it Sublimate half a scruple, set it on the Embers in a Glass; but if the Fistula be toward the womb, beware of violent means: if it be foul, and a hard Callous with∣all, a Potential Caustick may do good, but a Horrion is best; all these are safe in the out∣ward part of the Neck of the womb, but in the inward there is greater danger.

A Cancer in the womb is seldome seen, nor

can it be ever cured: but that which is in the Neck of the womb I shall instance in; which is either with an Ulcer, or without an Ul∣cer.

First, It comes without an Ulcer; but when long Applications are used to them, hard schirrhus Tumours, which spring from burnt black humours, and Terms, that flow to those parts, chang to an Ulcerated Can∣cer.

Secondly, It may be in the part not Ulcera∣ted a long time, and not be known, because it is without pain; but at length there will be a pain felt in the Loins, and bottom of the belly: the swelling looks blew, and loath∣some; when it becomes Ulcerated it is worse, and a thin black stinking matter comes from it. If much blood flow from it, that is dan∣gerous; there will be a soft Feaver, red cheeks and loathing, by reason of the vapours that rise from it: Mild Remedies are not felt, and strong meanes make it worse; it growes harder daily: keep it from being Ulcerated, and you may live long with it. Prepare and Purge Melancholy, from whence it proceeds: Use no sharp biting applications at first, but onely Diapompholyx, or juice of night shade, Plantane, or Purslane. Give every day three or four Grains of a Powder made of Oriental

Bezoar stone, Saphyrs and Emeralds, of each one dram, in waters of Scabius, or Carduus; take also juice of Nightshade six ounces, burnt Lead washt, and Tutty, of each two drams, Camphire half a dram, put Cray-fish pow∣der to them, and stir them well in a leaden Mortar.

An Injection made with a Decoction of Cray-fish is held to be very good; and, make a Cataplasm, and a Fomentation with milk, Saffron, water Lillies, Mallowes, Marsh∣mallowes, Coriander, Dill, and Fleabane seed. Arsenick and Antimony may be good in some remote parts, but are dangerous here.

There was a Noble woman who had a Cancer Ulcerated upon her Face, and sought for help from all Countries; at last a Bar∣ber cut a Chicken in the midst, and often ap∣plyed that, and it drew forth the Ulciome, and the Lady was cured.

The womb is very soon corrupted by the many ill humours that flow thither, and it will quickly Gangreen, and the parts morti∣fie, the natural heat being extinguished; by reason of some preceding Ulcer, the neck of the womb will feel an unusual heat, and a Feaver runs through the body; the part is discoloured, and neither beats nor feels any

thing; prick it, or cut it, it stinks: The Party that hath it faints and decayes, where∣fore strengthen the heart with cordials, and the principal parts, least the Spirits be infect∣ed; cut off the dead flesh: stop the corrupti∣on by scrarifying it, if you can come at it, then wash the part with a decoction of worm∣wood, and Lupines, and Egyptiac; apply Epithems to the heart: it is worse when it goes to the womb, than when it comes outward. Some have had their womb fall out and yet re∣covered, as to life, w^ch was before endangered.

The Neck of the womb is onely subject to Ulcers: yet sometimes the substance of the womb hath been Ulcerated, and rotted away. A dead child in the womb may cause an Ulcer; but all these Ulcers and Rottenness are to be dealt withal as I have shewed before: Some∣times there may be a Rupture of the womb; I never saw but one, and that was exceeding rare, it happens so seldome.

The womb is so fenced by the adjacent parts, that it is seldom wounded, unless the Chirurgeon chance to do it, in cutting the Child forth of the womb. There is more pain in the neck of the womb, than in the bottom of it: but this cutting may be cured by In∣jections and Glisters for the womb, made with Decoctions of round Birthwort, Cypress

Nuts, boiled in Steel water, and Astringent Wine, and a little Honyed water, and Agri∣mony, Mugwort, Plantane, Roses, Camels Hay, Horehound; If the pain be great use An∣odynes, or Pessaries, made with a wax candle dipt in Vulnerary Oyntments; as, take Turpentine, Goose Grease, wax and Butter, of each a dram; Bulls Grease, Deers Mar∣row, Honey, Oyl of Roses, of each two drams.

I have refer'd all the foresaid Diseases to a natural, or Accidental straitness of the mouth, or neck, or Middle of the womb; all of them being a hinderance to Copulation, and mak∣ing compression upon the parts.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the Largeness of the womb.

THe opposite to straitness of the womb is the largeness of the Orifice; and some∣times more Cuts than nature makes; which may proceed from Copulation, or bearing of Children.

By the largeness of the Orifice women are often barren, and sometimes the womb falls

out, as Hippocrates saith: Nor do men desire to keep company with such women.

The cure after Child-birth is with Astrin∣gent Fomentations, and Bathes of Allum wa∣ter; binding things of Bole, Dragons blood, Comfrey Roots, Pomegranat Flowers, Ma∣stick, Allum, Galls, of each half a dram; powder all, and make a Pessary to thrust into the Orifice, dipt in this Mixture, made fit with steel'd water.

Hard Labour doth sometimes cleave the Privy parts as low as the Fundament; where∣by the rent is made so wide, that it goeth from one to the other hole; a long piece of Allum (put into the cleft) may do good to help it: but if there be many passages in the secret parts, it comes from an error in na∣ture, there being a passage open from the womb to the straight gut.

There are some diseases whereby Physicians are much deceived, thinking the cause to lye in the womb when it doth not; for womens stones, and Vessels of procreation, may be sorely distempered, and their womb be no wayes affected with it.

Gasper Bauhin, and John Scenkius, tell us of a Maid whose belly was swoln, as though she had been with child; but when she died, she desired to be opened, to let the World

know her innocency, and it did so appear; for her stones were swelled as big as a white penny Loafe, they were blew, and spungy, and full of water.

The womb is sometimes subject to great paines, besides what proceed from the former Diseases, for there is that which is called the Cholick of the womb; it is usual to women with child, as the Inflammation of the womb is, it binds the belly and stops the veins; all women are subject to it, either from sharp humours, or from clotted blood, that sticks to the hollow of the womb; Drinking of cold drink may cause it: sometimes it comes from retention, and corruption of the seed, that is cured as fits of the Mother; If it come from ill humours that lye there, purge them forth; if from windy vapours, that rise from the heat of ill humours, these must be discussed; give a Glister of Maligo wine, and Nut oyl, of each three ounces, Aquavitae one ounce, oyl of Juniper and Rue distiled, of each two drams, apply it warm: lay on a plaister to the Navel, of Tacamahac, and Gum Caranna.

CHAP. IX.

Of the Termes.

THe Monthly courses of women are called Termes; in Latin Menstrua: quasi Mon∣strua, for it is a Monstrous thing, that no creature but a women hath them; or else Menstrua because they should flow every Moneth: and they are named Flowers be∣cause Fruit follows; and so would theirs if they came down orderly: they are then a sign that such people are capable of Children; it preserves health to have them naturally, but if they be stopt there must be danger; when the woman is conceived, then they stop: they begin commonly at fourteen years old, and stop at fifty, or in some at sixty years old; they are of no ill quality naturally, but are onely superfluous moisture and blood the Female sex abounds withal; for when they stop, the Child in the womb is supplied by them. The Termes run longer two or three dayes with some women than with others, for they differ as women do, according to plenty, or less plenty of good diet, and labour, or idle∣ness, or the like,

Hippocrates saith, They should bleed in all

but two pints at most, or a pint and a half, the colour of the blood and substance differs, according to divers tempers; it should not be too thick nor too thin, without any ill scent, and of a red or reddish colour: and the veins of the womb are the passages, which are double from the Spermatick and Hypogastrick dou∣ble branch on both sides, to send forth super∣fluous menstrual blood from all parts of the body; some say this blood is venomous, and will poison plants it falls upon, discolour a fair looking glass by the breath of her that hath her courses, and comes but near to breath upon the Glass; that Ivory will be obscured by it: It hath strong qualities indeed, when it is mixed with ill humours. But were the blood venomous it self, it could not remain a full month in the womans body, and not hurt her; nor yet the Infant, after concep∣rion, for then it flows not forth, but serves for the childs nutriment.

We read of a child but five years old, that had her monthly purgations: and John Fer∣nelius writes of one that was but eight years old that had them; but certainly it must be a sign of a lascivious disposition, and of a short life.

Some womens courses stop not only by conception, but from other causes, that have

come again very well seven or eight months after; but if the terms fail, there is either want of blood, or the blood is stopt: but some refer the causes of stopping the courses to four heads, viz.

• 1. Corruption of the blood.
• 2. The Womb ill disposed.
• 3. An ill habit of the body.
• 4. An ill Custome of the faculties of the Body.

1. If the Womb be diseased, as it is subject; to many, the Terms will increase or diminish wherefore the womb must be first healed.

2. If the blood be corrupt, it will be too thick, or too thin, by reason of ill humours and ill diet.

3. If the body be ill disposed, it sends not blood as it should do: some laborious Coun∣try Women become so hot and dry like Men, that they have hardly any courses at all; as the Indian women have none: but they are bar∣ren, if they abound with no more blood than will nourish their body: Blood is wanting either because it is not made, or not disper∣sed where it should, but turned to other uses: Old age, cold constitutions, diseased bodies, will not make blood; also often bleeding of

the great vessels, and much loss of blood, or from Issues to make diversions, the womb is not supplied with it. Nature spends the blood in Nurses that give suck for an other end; and fat women wear it on their backs: sadness and fear not only wast, but cool and corrupt the blood.

4. The weakness of the woman hinders the courses; and so long as she continues weak, she will have no••.

But all these things must be judged of by the relation of the party, whether the whole body be diseased, or the defect be in the womb or vessels, or the mouth of the womb turned aside: If the cause be from heat that her courses are stopt, her Pulses are swift and strong, she is very thirsty, and her head a∣keth, and such like signs of heat: If from cold, the woman is drowsie and sleepy, her Pulse beats slow, and she is not thirsty, the Veins are ill coloured; if the woman be fat or lean that will discover the inward cause of it.

The usual cause of obstruction of the cour∣ses is thick slimy humours; or from thick gross melancholly blood proceeding from a cold distemper of the Spleen and Liver, by drinking cold Water, or eating gross Food.

The Roman women drank snow water, and that was the reason (said Galen) that they had few or no courses; but in such cases they could not be very fruitful: It will seem strange, that some women are so hot of constitution, that they have conceived, yet never had their courses at all.

Courses stopt in maids, are not the same as they are in women, for the effects are very different; Maids, they pr••••••ntly fall into the Green sickness by it, the blood going to and fro all the body over, and is corrupted: but in women, it runs to the womb com∣monly, and causes them to vomit, and to loath their meat, or to desire unnatural things: You shall know a woman with child, when her courses are stopt, from a maid that hath hers stopt; for the one looks wan and pale, the other lively and well: the one is sad, the other merry: the womans pains daily de∣crease, and the others increase. This ob∣struction causeth not only barrenness, but strange distempers, Suffocations, Swellings, Imposthumes, Coffing, Dropsies, difficulty of breathings, urine supprest, Costiveness, Heaviness, Megrims, Vertigoes, Head ach, and many more fearful distempers.

Hippocrates tells us, that when the terms are long stopt, the Womb is diseased, with hu∣mours,

imposthumes, ulcers, barrenness, Leu∣cophlegmacy, vomiting of blood, heart-ach and head-ach, if the symptomes be great there is danger of death.

The best way to move the courses in weak women is to forbear Physick, and to feed them high with nourishing meats and drinks; this is where the Woman is lean, her Liver weak, and blood is wanting: but if blood abound, then give a gentle purge, or Glister: then o∣pen a vein to draw down the blood to the womb; open a vein in the foot, or ancle, one day, one leg, and another day the other, four or five daies before the time the cour∣ses should come down: use Frictions and bind∣ing of the parts below, but Issues, and open∣ing of the Emrods do hurt, and draw from the womb: you may first loosen the belly with Hiera Picra, or Pills de tribus. For Phleg∣matick bodies use the Decoction of Guaicum, or Sarsa and Sassafras, and Dittany fifteen drops, without sweating: purge with Aga∣rick, Mechoachan, Turbith, and Scamony; or drink wine of their infusions: if the sto∣mach be foul, give a vomit, lest it get into the Reins.

Things that provoke the terms are hot and thin: take sirrup of Mugwort, and of the Fierwort of each one ounce and a half; Ox∣imel

simple, one ounce; Water of Mother∣wort and Mugwort, of each two ounces; Pennyroyal and Nip, of each one ounce, sweeten it with a spoonful or two of Cinna∣mon water, make a Julip to drink at thrice. Pessaries are not fit for maids, but Fumes may be used; if she be no maid bruise Mercury, with Centaury Flowers put in a bag for a pes∣sary; begin with the mildest remedies: if it be from a humour provoke not the Terms, but cure the swelling. Some say that the blood going to other parts cause the Terms to stop; but that is contrary, for the blood goes to other parts because the Terms are stopt.

Authors agree not what veins must be o∣pened to move the Terms; Galen thinks the Ancle Vein, and most men conclude the same because it opens obstructions, and brings down the blood; open the ancle twice or thrice rather than the arm once: but in other diseases of the womb it is best to open a vein in the arm; as when the Terms are too many, or drop, or the womb, is inflamed.

The Saphaena is opened by putting the foot into warm water, few terms flowing, if the blood be but little there is no harm: Diseases grow when they are stopt by thick blood, as the Cancer, Schirrhus, and Erisipelas; when the time is near, then use the stronger

remedies, the weaker having made a way for them. Tender natures (as maids) must have but gentle remedies; as Aloes one dram and a half, Agarick and Rhubarb of each one dram; Myrrh, Gum Ammoniack dissolved in Vinegar, Gentian Root, Asarum, of each half a dram; Cinnamon, Mastich, Spikenard, of each one scruple; five grains of Saffron, make a mass of the fine powder, with sirrup of Mugwort, the Dose is one dram.

To urge the terms in strong Country peo∣ple, take pills Aureae and Aggregativae, of each two drams; pill Felid and Hiera, of each four scruples, at the Apothecaries, Diagrid one scru∣ple, Trochischi Alhandal half a scruple, with a hot pestle mix them well in a Mortar; adding sirrup of Damask Roses, one dram, oil of An∣niseed olympical half a scruple; dissolve Gum Dragant in Cinnamon water and make your pills, and let the woman take two scruples e∣very morning, before the time of their terms, at least three or four drops.

Ointments and Plaisters are good also, and pessaries made of Aromatical things, and sweet smells, and Fumes; as take Benzoin, Storax Calamita, Bdellium, Myrrh, what you please; mingle them, and strew some on a pan of Coles; the woman so placed, that she may receive the Fume by a Tunnel, broad at the

lower end, to keep the smoke in: but lest these Fumes cause the head-ach, keep the Fumes down with clothes about the woman, that they come not to her head: But do none of these things to women with child, for that will be Murder: give your remedy a little before the Full Moon, or between the New and the full, for then blood increaseth: but never in the Wane of the Moon, for it doth no good: Sometimes, but seldome the courses stop with Fulness; such must, saith Riolanus, be let blood in the arm, but with great care.

CAHP. X.

Of the overflowing of the Courses, or immoderate flux thereof.

THis distemper is contrary to the former, and Women are often subject to it; and it brings many diseases, great weakness, loss of appetite, ill digestion, dropsies, consump∣tions, pains in the back and stomach: Their ordinary continuance should be two or three daies, or four or five daies in large People;

but if they stay longer it is not good; or if they come oftener than once a month, I mean the Moons Month, passing through the twelve Signs, that is twenty seven daies and odd minutes.

The causes may be falls, or blows, or strains, or hard labour, over-heating the bo∣dy, which makes the blood thin; or from weakness of the retentive faculty, and too much strength of the expulsive faculty; or from crude raw blood and weakness, or too much moisture: and this is the cause that some women have their terms by drops, and it lasts long, and there is pain, and the se∣crets are alwaies wet; if this be not remedied it may cause Ulcers and inflammations: if the blood be superfluous open the arm, not the ancle vein; if it be Cacochymical correct it; if too thin and sharp, correct and amend it, by coolers and thickeners; and strengthen the wombs retentive faculty by astringents, and convenient driers.

Many think that the overflowing of the Terms and Issues in women are the same di∣seases, but that is not so (as Galen shews) for by superfluous Flux of the courses only blood is voided, but in too great a measure: But women continual Issues send forth not only blood, at certain periods, but various

humours, that cause the disease.

The Terms exceed when they flow in too great abundance in a short time or continue longer than is needful; the one resembles vio∣lent rain, the other flow rain, but lasts long: If too much blood be the cause of this superflui∣ty, the blood will be whitish and pale; if chol∣ler, the terms will be yellow: if melanchol∣ly, they will be dark coloured, black or blew: it weakeneth all the body, and the Liver and Bowels; dip a clout in the blood, and dry it in the shade, and then the colour of the blood will shew the humour that offendeth, and ac∣cordingly prepare your remedies: Sometimes it causeth swounding, paleness, the whites or the dropsie: If fulness be the cause, abate blood, opening the Liver vein of the right arm; repel, cool, bind, bleed little, but often; use cuppings to the back and breast against the Li∣ver, below the paps, to draw the blood back; but scarifie not under the breasts: upon the Salvatella, bind and rub the arms and shoul∣ders. Waters of Plantane, Purslain, Shep∣herds Purse, Sorrel, sirrup of Pomegranates or dried Roses, will cool and thicken the blood; and so will Bole or Sealed Earth, sirrup of Pop∣peys, Philonium, Laudanum are good. If it proceed from choller, purge with sirrup of Roses, of Rhubarb, or with Senna, or Man∣na:

if watry blood be the cause, the Reins and Liver are out of temper, sweat with Chi∣na, and strengthen those parts.

Do not force veins, but use astringents; take the juice of ass dung, sirrup of Myrtles, of each half an ounce, with an ounce of Plan∣tane water, let the woman drink it and not know what she takes, lest it offend her; or give every day a dram of the powder of Mul∣berry tree roots. When you use cold astrin∣gents temper them so, that you stop not the Veins; use no Pessaries, except the Veins of the neck of the womb be open. Cold and binding fomentations are better than baths, for baths make the humours to flow more: wash the legs and hips in cold water. If choller persist, Rhubarb powder in conserve of Roses is very good. The principal causes of this overflowing are but four; viz.

• 1. Some of the Vessels broken, or much dilated.
• 2. Violent Purgation.
• 3. Corroding humours.
• 4. Hard travel in Childbed, or the Mid∣wives unkind handling.

First, if the Vessels be broken, the blood gusheth forth in heaps; if flowing of humors

they come with much pain, though the quan∣tity be small.

Secondly, All Physicians almost wish to stop the Courses first that are too many, before you strengthen the woman: But I think it more reasonable to strengthen nature first, and nature will help her self with less means; but strengthen the womb, and annoint the reins and back with oils of roses, Myrtles, Quinces; do this every night, lay a piece of white bays then next your reins, upon the bare skin, and keep it there constantly; in∣ject the juice of Plantane into the Matrix, it seldome fails: You may drink of the decocti∣ons of Sage, Bistort, Tormentil, Knotgrass, Sannicle, Ladies-mantle, Golden Rod, Loos-strife, Meadow Sweet, Archangel, Solomons Seal, Purslane, Shepherds Purse, red Beets, Bark, and Cups of Oak and Acorns: But I commend this medicine; take of Comfry leaves or roots, of either a handful, and of Clowns all-heal the same, bruise them and boil them well in Ale, drink a good draught when you please, and it will help you, though the mouths of the Vessels be open. Too much blood is lost in the overflowing of the courses when the faculty is hurt by it, otherwise the quantity cannot be defined. The immediate causes are the opening of the Vessels; but the

mediate cause is the blood offending in quan∣tity or quality: Vessels are opened three or four wayes by Anastomosis, when the mouthes lye open, by reason of a moist distemper, or use of Aloes or hot and moist bathes; or from Diapedesis, when the blood sweats through the Coats, this is not often; or from Diaeresis, when the sharpness of the blood eates the Ves∣sels in sunder; if a Vein be broken, Coral; Bole, Myrtles, Comfrey, are good to bind; or a Poultis with astringent powders, and the White of an Egg.

Thirdly, If a vessel be Corroded, a dram of the roots of Dropwort in a new Egg will glutinate: Sleep long, use little Exercise, nor Venery; but eat little: if it come from Ple∣thory, use thin Nutriment, beware of hot things, alwayes purge the humour that of∣fends; vomits are good to stay, and turn the course of the humours: Take Conserve of Roses two ounces, of water Lillies one ounce, prepared Pearls and burnt Harts-horn, of each half an ounce, Bole Armoniac, and Terra Lemnia, of each half a scruple, make an Electuary with sirrup of Plantane, this is cooling, thickning and binding: or, in case of great necessity take a Bolus made with old conserve of Roses, half anounce, Philonium, or Requies Nicolai two scruples, or but a scru∣ple

of each; let them drink Red Wine, or quench steel in their drink, or bloil Plantane Seeds, Leaves and Roots in their drink.

CHAP. XI.

Of the whites, or Womens Disease, from corruption of humors.

WHen the body grows Cacochymical, womens Courses stop, or run very slowly, and sometimes they abound; some∣times all humours run thither to a general vent, and the whole body is purged by it: but the womb is not affected, it is a filthy dis∣orderly Evacuation, either before or after Terms, or when they are wholly stopt, the colour of the matter is blew, or green, or reddish, few maids have this Disease, women with child may: it is not the running of the Reins, for that is in less quantity, whiter and thicker; nor from nightly Pollutions, which come onely in sleep: The cause is some ex∣crementitious humor, sometimes like watry blood; a cold and moist womb breeds this Disease: or, when ill humors are gathered

in the whole body, or Liver, Spleen or sto∣mach, they are sometimes thus voided; na∣ture, that useth to send forth good blood by the Veins, casts forth these ill humours by them; they are of divers colours, and stink: If it be from a Phlegmatick humor, the Liga∣ments of womb grow loose, and the womb falls out in time; they make thick veins, and they are discoloured in their Faces, short breathed: if the humor be not bred in the womb, it comes from a Cacochymy of the whole body; if it comes from the whole, it is more in quantity; if onely from the womb it is but little: Many have had this Disease long, and found no great hurt, but if it be not timely looked to, it will do mischief; causing Consumptions, Faintings, and Con∣vulsions, when the matter is sent to the nerves and brain: You must not stop it suddenly, for so it will find a way to the nobler parts. Bleeding is naught in this case: general Eva∣cuations, are good; and after particulars, ac∣cording to the part diseased: The whites, and over-flowing of the Terms, I say, are a disease; and although it resemble the Gonor∣rhaea, it is not the same; it is also like the matter that flows from an Ulcer of the womb, but it is not that neither.

The running of the Reins in Men & women

is not the same disease with this; the running of the Reins is peculiar to unchast women: but this flux of whites may proceed from too much cold, or too much heat, and hath many differences, as will appear by the colour of the matter sent forth; the colour shews the pec∣cant humor; it is necessary for the cure to search whether it be a Gonorrhaea or invo∣luntary flux of seed, which both women and Men are subject to, and the remedies are the same, as the causes are in both. Women commonly call the whites the running of the Reins; but the running of the Reins comes most commonly by unlawful Venery, or ex∣cess in that Act: but the proper cause of the whites is too much superfluity of Excrement; but where those Excrements are bred, is doubted: Some say these corrupt humours are daily bred in the principal parts; others say they come onely from the womb, and seed Vessels; others say from the Reins onely, and the womb is unaffected: But Galen plain∣ly shews that the whole body is affected, that dischargeth it self by the womb, and there∣fore weak and flegmatick women are most subject to have the whites.

To cure it, first observe a strict Diet; cleanse the whole body by purging; letting blood, Sweating, and Diureticks: in very

moist bodies prepare the humours three or four dayes before purging; or take Cassia new drawn one ounce, powder of Rhubarb one dram, with sirrup of water Lillies or Violets, take it in the morning, dissolve it if you please in Posset drink, and about two hours after take some broth: You may take every day a dram of Trochisci de Carabe in Plantane wa∣ter; or give every second or third day a dram of the filings of Ivory in Plantane water, a ve∣ry laudable remedy. To sweat also is very laudable in this case; take Barley water three ounces, strong wine two ounces, drink it warm, and lie and sweat. Conserve of Ro∣ses and Marmalade are excellent for this di∣sease: drink the decoction of Comfrey Roots, with Sugar to sweeten it, take three or four ounces at a draught. Whites of eggs well beaten with red Rose water, and made with Cotton, or Linnen into a Pessary, and put into the Matrix, with a string tied to it to pull it out again, is commended.

Diureticks are not good till the body be well purged, and then they will help to drive the ill humour forth by Urine: Lest the womb be hurt with ill humours, inject a decoction of Barley, Honey of Roses, and Whey with sirrup of dried Roses. Take red Saunders two drams and a half, yellow Saunders one dram

and a halfe, red Roses three drams, fine Bole a quarter of an ounce, burnt Ivory one dram, Camphire half a dram, white wax one ounce, oil of Roses three ounces, make an ointment: This is not only good to anoint the secrets, but also to cool the inflammation of the kid∣neys, stomach, liver and other parts.

If the Whites flow from abundance of su∣perfluous humours, you may evacuate much through the skin, by often rubbing of the bo∣dy; but first rub easily, and by degrees rub har∣der.

Of these fluxes there are three sorts, White, Red and Yellow; and there are three kinds of Archangel, or dead nettles to cure them.

First, The White Flowers helps the Whites.

Secondly, The Red are to cure the Reds.

Thirdly, And the Yellow flux is cured by the Yellow.

Half a dram of Myrrh taken every morn∣ing is commended, or a scruple of the Pills of Amber at night, often taken; they will not work till the day following.

Many strange things are oftentimes voided by the Womb, as Stones and Gravel: And Peter Diversas relates, that a Nun voided a rugged Stone as large as a Ducks Egg, and

it gave her some ease; but there followed a foule flux of the Womb that killed her.

Garcias Lopius saw a Woman that voided many Ascarides, or small Worms by the Womb.

When stinking humors are cast forth this way it is not properly the Running of the reins, for both sexes have sometimes the running of the reins; and most commonly it comes from a foul course, whereas the whites come from a corruption of humours: if it run white, and little; and thick, it is a true flux of seed; if it last, and be not cured, it brings a wasting of body and barrenness: if this flux grow from fulness of Seed, the buds of willow steept in wine will cure it: if it proceed from a weak retention, give half a scruple of Castor, and use astringents to the reins and belly; or a bath of willow leaves, Myrtles, Quinces, each two handfuls; red Roses, Rosemary each a handful, Cypress Nuts three ounces; let her sit up to the Navel, apply bags of the same to the Loins and Privities, and anoint the said parts with oil of Mastich and Myrtles.

CHAP. XII.

Of the Swelling and Puffing up of the Body, especially the Belly and the Feet of Women after Delivery.

THe Swellings of these parts in Childbed women come either from a depraved di∣et, used whilest they were with child, or else drinking immoderately after delivery; or it may be they abound with more blood than the child could retain, or her purgations discharge; wherefore it grows crude, being superfluous, and makes the parts swell so much that a man would think she were with child again: but it commonly ceaseth if the woman be once largely purged, either by the womb or the belly. Hysterical, or Mother fomenta∣tions are sufficient oftentimes to cure it; or take a Sheeps skin of a Sheep new killed, and wet it with sharp Wine, and lay it on.

If in travel they keep ill diet, the humours turn to Wind, and they fall down to the legs, and make them swell: take heed of drink; and when the purgations are over, use things that expel wind: take worm wood, Betony, Southernwood, Origanum, Cammomile

Flowers, Calamint, Annis-seed, Rue, Car∣roway seeds, boil them, and make a fomenta∣tion for the feet.

If too much drinking be the cause, let her abstain from that; Medicaments that heat and resolve, and are good for Dropsies, are very good in this distemper: the infusion of Rhu∣barb is much commended, especially if the hu∣mour proceed from ill habit and course of life. Hippocrates prescribes a Goats or Sheeps Liver made into powder and taken with wine of the infusion of Elecampane; also Treacle taken with Fumitory and Fennel waters: and to abate the swelling of the Feet, make a decoction of Rose stalks and Cammomile Flowers, excellent to bath them in: and for her belly swelled, lay on a Plaister of Bay berries, or of Melilot; or take Bay berries and Juniper berries, of each one handful, Goats Dung four ounces, Cammomile Flowers powdered half a handful, Cummin seed two drams, pour spirit of wine upon them as you bruise them in a Mortar, make a Plaister with a little oil of Spike added, and lay it over the womans belly.

For the swellings of the Bellies of maids, if it come not by a masculine blow, take Dittany root, and Cubebs, bruise them, and Cum∣min seeds, and Cow Dung, and lay it to their

bellies as hot as can be endured. Women af∣ter Delivery, are also subject to have their Wombs inflamed, when the birth is very great, and their labour hard, and the mouth of their Womb narrow, so that great violence stretcheth it wider than they can suffer; and sometimes there is great loss of blood, and the womb is torn by putting forth of the child; it must be cured by such things as ease pains, as Baths and Fomentations; and such soften∣ing things as are proper for the belly: This following Anodyne is very effectual; take Flowers of Mallows, Marshmallows, Vervain, and Rue of each a handful, Self heal, Agrimony, Cammomile Flowers, Melilot tops, red Roses, of each a handful; cut them very small, sew them up in fine linnen bags, boil them in Goats milk, or equal parts of Plantane water and Wine, press them well between two Trenchers, and make applica∣tion of one after the other hot to the place af∣fected; but first anoint the part with Poplar ointments, or with oil of Roses: after this cleanse all the secret parts with a spunge dipt in water of Oaken Leaves, Self Heal, and of Plantane made luke warm, and injections put up with a Syring, are effectual also, of Mel Passarum, and Plantane water mingled, and cast in warm; or take Galls, Lentils, Flow∣ers

of Pomegranates, Seeds of Kneeholm, Saunders and Roses, of each a like quantity; boil all in water, and strain it, and with a Syring inject the decoction, and it will cleanse the Womb. When the Mother is cleansed it will be proper to make the flesh incarnate, if it be corroded; as take Centaury six ounces, Orris, Comfrey Roots, Agrimony, of each three handfuls, Gum Tragant, Sarcocolla, Dragons Blood, Frankincence, Hypocistis, Mummy, of each a dram, boil all in a suffici∣ent quantity of water to the consumption of half; then put to it Iron refuse prepared one ounce and a quarter, boil it a while longer, and bath the part with it.

If the womb be too hard, and she feel pain between the Navel and the Matrix, then take Ducks grease, Deers, or Ox marrow, Neats Foot oil, Yolks of eggs, Bdellium, of each a like proportion; two drams of Saffron, dis∣solve all in wine, and mix oil of Lillies with them, and dip a tent of Linnen or Cotten in this, and thrust it up into the place; use this often, for this will ease it and take away the pain.

And if the womb be foul with Ulcers, or the like, take half an ounce of Oxymel of Squils, sirrup of Vinegar and Bizantine of each three quarters of an ounce, Agrimony and

Lovage Waters of each one ounce, water of Cichory two ounces, let her drink this every morning early, and sleep upon it, and fast four hour after it; the Urine will in a weeks time, or somewhat longer, become clean, and well cleansed, and the party cured.

Womens bellies use to be mightily stretched in Child-bearing, in so much that they will be plaighted, and full of wrinkles ever after, that were plain and smooth before, growing lank when they are delivered; but if it be but four months past it may be helped by laying a linnen cloth over the belly dipt in oils of sweet Almonds, Lillies, Jessamine; and if the bel∣ly be already wrinkled, then take Goats and Sheeps Suet, and oil of sweet Almonds, of each one ounce, Sperma Ceti two drams, and with a little wax make an ointment: when the Flux is past you may lay on the Cataplasie of Aetius, or anoint with oils of Mastich and of Roses.

CHAP. XIII.

Of Cold, Moist, Hot, Dry, and of all the several Distempers of the Womb.

THe wombs of Women should be alwaies kept temperate, that they exceed not in a∣ny preternatural quality; if they do, the mans Seed will be like corn sowed upon sand, and will prove unfruitful, if the womb be too hot, or cold, or moist, or dry.

Those that have hot wombs have but few courses, and those are either yellow, or black, or burnt, and fiery, that come disorderly; and such persons will fall into Hypochondriacal Melancholly, and rage of the womb; if this be from their birth, it will be hard to cure: yet it may, by good Diet, and proper means be much mended by Medicaments, that cool and asswage Choler; but take heed you do not cool too fast, and stop the courses: you may safely use conserve of Succory, Violets, Wa∣ter Lillies, Borage of each one Ounce, Conserve of Roses half an ounce, Diamar∣gariton Frigidum, and Diatrion Santalon, of each half a dram, with sirrup of Lem∣mons or Oranges, or juice of Citrons; take a Nutmeg in quantity at once, twice or thrice in a day: and anoint the back and loins with

Poplar Unguent, or oyl of water Lillies, Roses, Venus Navel wort. Let her wear thin cloaths and use the cold Air; let her avoid hot and salt meats, Wine, and strong drink; eat Lettice, and Endive, and cooling herbs, that she may sleep well.

The contrary to this is a cold womb; and these are not fruitful, they are too cold to nourish the seed of Man: it is from the birth in some, but in others by accident; from cold Air, cold Diet and Medicaments, or from too much idleness: the signs are quite con∣trary to the former, for the other are extreme desirous of Venery; and, these abhor it, and take no pleasure in it: they have few or no hairs about their Secrets; and their seed is watry and Slimy, their wombs are windy, and they are subject to Gonorrhaeas, and the Whites: The Cure is long, and hard to be done; but, they must use such things as warm the womb, with drinking good wine, and sometimes Cordial Waters, and good warm nourishing Meats, and of easie digestion; with Anniseed, Fennel seed, and Time: And Fumigations are good, of Myrrh, Frankin∣cence, Mastick, Bay berries, of each a dram; Labdanum two drams, Storax and Cloves of each a dram, Gum Arabick and wine, make Troches; put one or two upon a Pan of coles,

and let her receive the Fume at the Matrix.

Then take Labdanum two ounces, Fran∣kincence, Mastick, Liquid Storax, of each half an ounce, oyl of Cloves and of Nutmegs of each half a scruple, oyl of Lillies and Rue of each one ounce, Wax sufficient, make a Plaister, and lay it over the Region of the womb. But if the womb be moist (and this is commonly joyned with a cold distem∣per) it drowns the seed, like as if a Man should sow Corn in a quagmire. The causes are almost the same as of cold; for it is I∣dleness that is the cause in most women that are troubled with it, and such women have abundance of Courses, but they are thin and waterish, and the whites also; their Secrets are alwayes wet: they cannot retain the mans seed, but it slips out again. This must be cured as the cold distemper, by a heating and drying Diet, and Medicaments, Baths, Injections, Fomentations, wherein Brimstone is mingled; but take heed of Astringents, for they will make the Disease worse, by stopping the ill humours in.

The fourth is a dry Distemper of the womb, this is natural to some, but to most it comes when they are old, and past childing, when the womb grows hard; if it be from any o∣ther drying causes, such women will be bar∣ren

before they be old: It may proceed from diseases, as Feavers, Inflammations, Ob∣structions, when the blood goes not to the Matrix to moisten it; so that if they void a∣ny blood, it comes from the Veins in the neck of the womb, and not from the bottom; they have but few courses, little seed, they are of a lean, dry Constitution; their lower Lip is of a blackish red, and commonly chapt: This Distemper, if it be long, is seldom cu∣red; moistning things must do it, as Borage, Bugloss, Almonds, Dates, Figs, Raisins: Moistning and nourishing Diet is good, and to forbear salt and dry meats; avoid anger, sad∣ness, fasting, and use to sleep long, and la∣bour but little: rub the parts with oyl of sweet Almonds, Lillies, Linseed, sweet Butter, Jesamine, Hens or Ducks Grease.

Besides these four, there are compound dis∣tempers, as cold and moist wombs, and hot and dry; but I presume I need not in parti∣cular speak of them, because I have given sufficient remedies in the several qualitis al∣ready, which will be easie to apply: I con∣fess a compound distemper is harder to be cured than a simple; therefore I shall add one or two remedies more.

First, If then the Womb be cold and moist, cure this with surrup of Mugwort, Bettony,

Mints, or Hyssop; then purge the cold hu∣mor with Agarick, Mechoachan, Turbith and Sena: Sudorificks of Guaicum, Sarfa, and China are very good.

Secondly, If the womb be subject to a hot and dry distemper, you must put away cho∣ler from the Liver, and from the whole bo∣dy: those things that will do it are Manna, and Tamarinds, sirrup of Roses, Rhubarb, Senna, Cassia, and the like, which are ve∣ry safe, gentle, and effectual Remedies.

BOOK. VI.

CHAP. I.

Of the Strangling of the womb, and the effects of it, with the Causes and Cure.

THe womb, by its consent with other parts of the Body, as well as by its own nature, is subject to multitudes of diseases; and it is not to be uttered almost what Mise∣ries women in general, by meanes thereof, be they Maids, Wives, or widowes, are af∣fected with: But amongst all diseases, those that are, called Hysterical Passions, or strang∣ling of the womb, are held to be the most grievous: Swounding and Falling Sickness are from hence, by the consent the womb hath with the heart and brain; and some∣times this comes to pass by stopping of the Terms, which load the heart, the brain and

Womb with evil humors: and sometimes it ariseth from the stopping in of the seed of Generation, as is seen in Antient Maids and widowes; for by reason hereof, ill vapors and wind rise up from the womb to the Mid∣riff, and so stops their breath: it is most commonly the widowes disease, who were wont to use Copulation, and are now con∣strained to live without it; when the seed is thus retained it corrupts, and sends up filthy vapours to the brain, whereby the Animal Spirits are clouded, and many ill consequents proceed from it, as Falling Sicknesses, Me∣grims, Dulness, Giddiness, Drowsiness, Shortness of breath, Head-ache, beating of the Heart, Frenzy and Madness, and indeed what not. The same woman may be tor∣mented with several of these at the same time, when the seed and the Courses are mingled with ill humours, being once corrupted. The Menstrual blood and seed are noble parts; but the best things once corrupted, become the worst, and degenerate into a venemous nature, and are little better than Poyson.

When the Vessils of the womb lye near the Vessels of other parts of the body, or there is near affinity of one part with the womb; then, by consent, are many grievous Diseases pro∣duced.

The womb is of a membranous nature; and for that reason it consents exceedingly with the nerves and membranes, and so the parts that are near are soon offended by it; and it conveys its ill qualities to the whole body, by Nerves, Veins and Arteries, the Brain hath it by the membranes of the marrow of the Back, and by Nerves; the arteries they car∣ry it to the Heart, and the veins to the Liver, and these are large in the womb; and by them all the noxious blood, and poisonous vapours return.

The Veins of the Mesentery give it a con∣sent with the stomach; and so do the arte∣ries carry all to the Spleen, which is the cause that some women in age grow hypochondria∣cal by heat of their blood, because their cour∣ses did not flow sufficient when they were young: It will be hard to distinguish these two diseases in women, or to cure the one, and not cure the other,

The Breasts they consent with the womb by Nerves and Veins, that go from it to them: so then it is clear that it holds a correspon∣dence with the heart, the Midriff, the Brain and Head, and all the instruments of motion and sense; likewise with the Stomach, Liver, Spleen, Bladder, Belly, Mesentery, Hips, Back, straight Gut, Legs and arms, and is the

cause of strange symptomes in them all. For Galen saith well, the strangling of the Mother, or Hysterical Passion, is but one by name but the symptomes are scarce to be numbered. It al∣ters womens complexions, & they grow san∣dy, or pale and yellow, or swarthy, and now and then their eyes and faces shew red, and ve∣ry sanguine.

When this strange affection falls upon them, they will gnash theit teeth, and become speechless, for their breath is stopt: and it hath been often observed that they have been supposed to be dead; neither breath, nor Pulse, nor Life, to be found for that time: and sometimes their breath is stopt so close and it holds so long, that they have died of it.

The causes of this disease are very many; for a sudden fear, a bad news related, hath cast divers women into these fits; for by this Melancholly gets the mastery of them: it were but reason therefore for men to forbear relating any sad accident to them, but with great proviso.

When the womb is strangled, no one dis∣ease can determine it; for that seldome comes alone: sometimes only the breath is stopt, sometimes the speech and animal actions of the brain fail, and the whole body is chill,

and almost dead by ill vapors that choke it ri∣sing from the womb.

The Malignant Vapors then sent from thence by the Nerves, Veins and arteries, are the immediate causes of all the hurt that is done; and these vapors are much like the wind, very powerful, and almost unperceived; they are so subtil and thin, that they pass in a mo∣ment of time through the whole body: it will choke the Patient when they flie to the Throat, as people are that eat White Helle∣bore, or venomous mushromes. Ofttimes you shall see the woman to loth and vomit, and draw her breath short, and her heart akes; if the vapour strike the heart first, it will cease from moving, and she falls into a swound: but if it flie to the brain, she is void of all sense and motion.

There is nothing worse than corrupt seed to offend the Body, Women with Child are not free from this disease when corrupt hu∣mours rise from an unclean womb.

The chief seat of this ill humour lieth in the Trumpet of the womb, and in her stones; for the substance of it is loose and hollow, and the Stones lie in bladders full of water; and women that have strangling of the womb, have this water of a yellow colour, and gros∣ser than it should be.

Many Physicians have mistook the stones and the Trumpet for the womb it self, when putrified rotten seed makes them swell, and windy humours cause them to rise as far as the Navel; but I spoke of this before, when I shewed the reason how the womb is thought to ascend higher than nature hath placed it: It hath sometimes a long time to breed in, and sometimes it comes suddenly, according as the corruption of the humours is, which sometimes also lie still; and so soon as they are but moved they evacuate, and send a poi∣sonous fume into other parts of the body: And nothing will sooner stir these vapours and hu∣mours in women (who are subject to this di∣sease) than anger, or fear, or such like pas∣sions; or sweet scents, and smells applied to their noses, which is an argument that the womb is delighted with sweet scents, but can∣not away with stinking things; for let Musk or Civet be held to such womens noses, they are presently sick till they be taken away.

What Distemper this strangling of the womb is, Physicians agree not; some say it is a cold distemper: but coldness is not the chief symptome, though cold be great; others say it is a convulsion, or Syncope, or breathing stopt: but it cannot be set forth by any one sym∣ptome; for though the venomous vapor be

small that breeds it, it goes many waies, and spreads through all the body. But the true causes of this Disease are the poisonous va∣pours that rise from the womb: it is not an apparent quality that this vapour works by, but a secret quality; as the Torpedo or Scorpi∣on small creatures prevail with to do great mischief, as they are enemies to the natural heat and vital spirits: and when the heart suffers, there can be no good animal spirits bred, because the vital are corrupted; but blood and seed, whilest they are in their own proper vessels, hurt not, unless they are ming∣led with ill humors.

Fernelius saith, that the womb and seed, the place and matter of life, are the breeding of the most deadly poisons.

Hipp••crates, in these fits, bids give them wine to refresh their weakness: Avicenna bids give them no wine, but water, and forbids eating flesh, because they ingender more seed and blood: but when she is in the fit, wine is best; for a little wine will not presently get to the womb.

Sometimes both maids and widdows, from such like causes, are troubled with the rage of the womb, that they will grow even mad with carnal desire, and entice men to lie with them; they are hot, but not feaverish, and

they are inclined to madness.

Modest women will die of consumptions, when they have this rage of the womb, rather than declare their desire, but some women are shameless.

The cause is great store of sharp hot seed, that is not natural, but the next degree to it, that bites, and swells, and provokes nature to expulsion: the brain suffers by consent; the womb in the Nymphe is most affected, which swells with heat, but the Clitoris, and not the Nymphe is the seat of lust: hot blood and hu∣mours in the womb breed this, and they are increased by hot spiced meats and drinks, idleneness and bawdy acts and objects; at first it may be cured, but the end of it is fren∣zy and madness if it be neglected.

Maids must marry that cannot live chast, or draw blood to abate the heat and sharpness of it; let them purge these humours gently, and use cooling and moistening meats and drinks, and all with moderation. Lettice, Vi∣olets, and water-Lillies, and Purslain are good coolers, and take away the windiness of the parts: the seed, leaves and flowers of Agnus Castus strewed in their beds, or Camphire smelt unto are very good in such cases.

Let them use this Electuary; take conserve of water Lillies, Violets, tops of Agnus Cast∣us,

of each one ounce; of red Roses half an ounce; of red Coral, and emralds in powder, of each half a dram; of Coleworts, and Lettice candid, of each one ounce, with sirrup of Vi∣olets and water-Lillies, make an Electuary: lay a plate of lead to their backs.

Nuns, and such as cannot marry, may use t••ings, ••hat by a hidden quality diminish seed, but they cause barrenness: let them eat no eggs, nor much nourishing meats, and sleep little.

Camphire, that is so much commended a∣gainst this preternatural desire, is hot and sharp, and bitter, it will burn and flame, and being of thin parts penetrates deep; but it hath cold operations, for it will cure burns and hot swellings, and head-ach that comes of heat, by a likeness and affinity it hath to draw hot vapours to it; so Linseed oil is good a∣gainst burnings.

Scaliger affirms that Camphire increaseth Venery; it may do so if it be used seldome, but often used, it is certain that it will destroy it.

There is moreover (from ill tempered seed, and melancholly blood, in the vessels near the Heart, which contaminates the Vital and Animal Spirits) a melancholy distemper, that especially Maids and Widows are often

troubled with, and they grow exceeding pen∣sive and sad: for melancholy black blood a∣bounding in the Vessels of the Matrix, runs sometimes back by the great arteries to the heart, and infects all the spirits: when this blood lieth still, they are well; but if it be stirred, or urged, then presently they fall in∣to this distemper, they know not why: and the arteries of the spleen and back beat strongly, and melancholly vapours fly up. They are sorely troubled, and weary of all things; they can take no rest, their pain lieth most on their left side, and sometimes on the left breast: in time they will grow mad, and their former great silence turns to prating ex∣ceedingly, crying out that they see fearful spi∣rits, and dead men; when it is gone so far, it is hard to cure: it is vain then to try to make them merry, they despair and wish to die; and when they find an opportunity, they will kill, or drown, or hang themselves: At first when the blood is hot and fiery, open a vein in the arm, if they have their courses; if not, in the foot or ancle to bring the courses down. Cooling, moistening cordials, and such things as revive the spirits, and conquer melancholy, wil do much; driers are naught, for melanchol∣ly is dry. Confectio Alkermes is commended for those that can away with it; but Confectio de

Hyacintho is better: use a moistening diet. To breed mirth, give her waters of Balm and Bo∣rage, of each three ounces; sirrup of the juices of Borage and Bugloss of each one ounce and a half; take this at twice, and use it often.

To purge melancholly, take six drams of Senna, Agarick one dram and a half; Borage and violet flowers of each a small handful, two drams of Citron peels; infuse all six hours in good Rhenish wine, strain them, and put to them sirrup of Violets one ounce.

CHAP. II.

Of the Falling Sickness.

WHen Women, by reason of the ill affections of the womb, fall into Epi∣lepsies, and Falling sickness, it is worse than a∣ny other cause, as the symptomes prove: for the poisonous vapor is not only in the Nerves as when it is from the brain, but also in the membranes, veins, and arteries.

The same foul vapour that causeth strang∣ling of the womb, produceth this; for it cau∣seth divers diseases, according to the parts it

takes hold on: but when it lights forcibly on the Nerves, then it causeth the Falling-sickness.

Sometimes there is a convulsion of the whole body, and sometimes but of some parts; as of the head, or tongue, hands, or legs, eyes, or ears; some cannot hear, others can∣not see, all lose the sense of feeling: some cry out, but know not wherefore. They that fall, if the vapour be not too strong, when they rise, they go to their work again, as if they had no harm: but here is not only convulsions, as in those that have the Falling-sickness from other parts, but stopping the breath, as in the strangling of the womb; but these seldome some at the mouth, as those do, for the brain is entire, or not much of∣fended; nor is their hearing taken away quite by the vapour fastening upon the roots of the Nerves of the ears.

Rue and Castor that cure fits of the Mother, are good here; the cure is almost the same, only you must add some things that respect the nerves and the Brain: Use these Pills twice in a week, before supper one hour, and take a scruple, or half a dram; Take Senna and Peony root, of each half an ounce, Mugwort, Rue, Betony, Yarrow, half a handful of each; boil them, & then clarifie the decoction;

put to it Aloes one ounce and a half, of juice of the herb Mercury one ounce let it stand and settle, pour off the clear liquor, then add two drams of Rhubarb, sprinkled with water of Cinnamon, Agarick half an ounce, Mastick and Epileptick powder, of each half a dram, make the pills with sirrup of Mug∣wort.

To mend the distemper of the head and Womb, take conserve of Rosemary flowers, and of the Tile tree, of Balm and Lillies of the valley, of the root Scorzonera Candied, of each one ounce, Diamoschu dulce one dram with two drams of the roots of Peony, and seeds of Agnus Castus, and sirrup of Stoechas, make an Electuary to take at your plea∣sure.

Nor are these all the ill consequences of the wombs distempers, but sometimes violent head-ach springs from it, which is the great∣est pain of all the rest; and sometimes it is all over the head, or but upon one side, or in the eyes, the ill vapours rising by the veins and ar∣teries of the Womb to the membranes and films of the brain; when the vessels are full of a thin sharp blood, that is carried from the womb to the membranes, it stretcheth and rends them, and corrodes and bites so, that the pain is intollerable: the cure is to purge

away the peccant humour that lieth in the Womb; for this is not as other head-ach is, that comes from other causes: the pain runs also to the Loins and the Membranes there, by some capillary veins from the womb. The pain of the head by affection with the womb, is in all the head commonly, but is chiefly i•• the hinder part of the head, because the womb being Nervous consents with the membranes of the brain, by the membrane of the Mar∣row of the back: & hence it is that women are more subject to the head-ach than men are, because of the womb that holds such affinity with the Nerves of the head.

The violent beating of the heart and Arte∣ries both in the Sides and Back, is by consent from the womb, when evil humors therein contained, pass by the Arteries, and Poyso∣nous vapours arise to those parts; Cordials are good, as Cinnamon Water, and Aqua Monefardi, or Mathiolas his water: the Dis∣ease seems small, but it is not safe, because the cause of it is very ill.

In this Disease the Artery that beats in the Back beats strongly, because it is part of the great Artery; but the Arteries that beat in the Hypochondrion beat not so strongly, for they are smaller branches from the Spleen and Mesentery, but the cause is the same. The

Arteries are inflamed by the ill vapours and humours sent from the womb, and the heart is exceedingly heated by them: but this hot humor sometimes beats by reason of the great Artery quite over the whole body, but it lasts not long, for there is little corruption of the humors. Some say the blood in the Veins is too hot, and over-heats the Artery; but if this heat of the Artery affect the Brain, the Patient will be mad; if it go over the whole body she falls into a Consumption: lay your hand on the left side, and you shall feel the Arteries beat much. So then, this Disease hath several considerations, and must be cu∣red partly as hypochondriacal Melancholy, partly as in the cure for stopping of the Courses, and partly as Melancholy, arising from the womb.

Physitians can hardly tell which way to pro∣ceed oftentimes in these Distempers, because it is hard to say what Disease the woman is sick of, when the Spleen and left Hypo∣chondry are afflicted from the womb.

The womb hath two Arteries, the one from the Hypogastrick Artery, and another from the preparing Arteries; that which comes from the Hypogastrick runs almost through the whole Abdomen: when the foul corrupt blood in the womb runs back∣ward

to the Hypogastrick Artery, it passeth to the Caeliac Artery, and so to the Spleen, and the parts near it: and it is Natures present way to thrust ill humors to the ignoble parts. When the courses are stopt, these ill humors are thought to be onely in the Veins, but the veins and Arteries mouthes are so joyned, that they pass from the Veins to the Arteries, and that is the reason that elderly women, whose cour∣ses were stopt when they were young, are troubled oftentimes with the Spleen, & hypo∣chondriack Melancholy; These cannot endure to smell to sweet Scents: they are short breath∣ed, Costive, and Belch often; they have pain in the left side, and are very sad, when the thin part of the blood is inflamed they grow very hot, and red in the Face, but that lasts not long; the disease it will produce (if not cured) is chiefly a Schirrhus of the Spleen; open a Vein, if the blood be hot, and the Courses stopt, use Leeches to the haemorroids; and Purge often, but very gently, with Quercetan's Pill of Tartar, or Fernelius his Cum Ammoniaco, and Birth-wort; or pre∣pared Steel to open the Courses, and to cure Melancholy that ariseth from the womb.

When the liver is hurt by the gross blood run∣ning back to the holow vein from the womb, as it often doth if the courses be stopt, & blood

abound; it breeds raw flegmatick blood, and causeth the Green-sickness: for there are ma∣ny more great veins in the womb than in any other part of the body, and they are often obstructed: and sometimes, by this stopping, not onely sundry Diseases, but Hair will grow over the whole body; for hairs grow from the Excrementitious part of the blood, and if that Excrement be sent over the body, it will produce hair: So Hippocrates tells us of a woman with a great beard; and it is not long since there was a woman to be seen here in England which had not onely a long beard, but her whole Body covered with hair.

It is also by reason of the womb, or by con∣sent from it, that many women have no sto∣mach, others have a very large Appetite; and sometimes a desire to eat strange things, not fit for Food: they Vomit, and have the Hiccough, & many such ill symptomes: as the vapors are, so are the Diseases; if Cold, then they breed cold diseases; if hot, such diseases as proceed of heat: For these filthy vapors, when the way is large, easily ascend from the Arteries of the womb, and get into the Hypo∣gastrick, and Caeliac Arteries: hot vapors cause Thirst, cold vapors destroy concoction, and are the cause of many cruel diseases by their Malignity. When the stomach is hurt

by the womb, it is easily perceived, for the signes of it go away sometimes, and come a∣gain, onely when the Fumes fly to the stomach: There is no cure for this, but by first curing the womb; for this disease is worse than if the stomach were originally the cause of the distemper: Cure the womb, and if there be no other cause, the stomach is cured; first give a vomit to cleanse the stomach, and use often to take pills of Aloes and Mastick, for these fortifie the stomach.

If one womb in a woman be the cause of so many strong and violent diseases, she may be thought a happy woman of our sex that was born without a womb: Columbus reports that he saw such a woman, and that her secrets were as the secrets of other women; and part of the neck out.

It will be needless to tell you what some have written, that it hath been often seen, that worms, and Hair, and Fat, and Stones, and many other strange things have been found in womens wombs; but what a miserable case is she in that was born with two wombs? Such a woman Julius Obsequeus related that he saw: and Bauhinus speaks of a maid who had a Matrix like that of a Bitch divided in two parts: But some perhaps may think these things fabulous; I confess they are monstrous,

and out of the ordinary course of nature; and I know no cure for them, if such things should happen: I forbear therefore to speak any more of them, and shall proceed to some things more material to be known, and such things as few women living but have frequent occasion to be provided with reme∣dies for.

CHAP. III.

Of Womens Breasts and Nipples.

NAture, within some convenient time af∣ter the Child is conceived in the womb, begins to provide nourishment for it so soon as it shall be born. The breasts are two in number, lest by accident one Breast should fail, and sometimes women have Twins, and more children than one to give suck to.

Some women saith Gardan, have been seen with more than two breasts for they have had two breasts on each side, but that is very rare. The form of the breast is round, and sharp at the Nipple; yet these differ in many women, for some have breasts no bigger than men, and some have huge overgrown swoln breasts,

by reason of much blood abounding, and strong heat to draw and to concoct it.

The breasts should be of a moderate size, neither too great nor too small; not too soft nor too hard; it is not necessary to have them over-big; though they can hold but little milk, thee may hold sufficient: but large breasts are in danger to be cancerated and in∣flamed; besides that the milk is not so good, because their wants a moderate heat. The immediate causes of great Breasts is partly na∣tural by birth, the passages being loose and large; and sleep and idleness furthers it, and much handling of them heats and draws the blood thither: their causes are not many. It is best to prevent their growing too big at first, for it is not easily done afterward: Cooling Diet, and drying and astringent repercussive Topical means are the best. Binding things help loose breasts, and make them hard; all cold Narcotick stupefying Medicaments are forbidden, they will bind the Vessels, but they abate Natural heat, and will let no milk breed.

When children are weaned, Discussers and Driers will do well to consume the Moisture that is superfluous. Take the Meal of Beans and Orobus, of each two ounces and a half; Powder of Comfrey roots half an ounce,

Mints three drams; Wormwood, Cammo∣mile Flowers, Roses, of each two drams; when they are boiled with two ounces of oil of Mastick, make a Cataplasme: or take red Roses, Myrtle leaves, Horstail, Mints, Plan∣tain, a handful of each; Flowers of sowr Pomegranates two Pugils, boil all in Vinegar and red wine, and with a spunge lay it warm to the breasts, and let it dry on.

If Milk be too much in the breasts after the child is born, and the child be not able to suck it all, the breasts will very frequently inflame, or Imposthumes breed in them; they swell and grow red, and are painful, being over∣stretched, whence hard tumours grow: too much blood is the cause of it, or the child is too weak, and cannot draw it forth. Some∣times it goeth away without any remedies, but if you need help then hinder the breed∣ing of more milk, and try to consume that which is bred; if the child cannot draw it forth, Glasses are made to suck it forth. The woman must eat and drink with moderation, and use a drying diet: if she nurse not the child her self, or if the child be weaned, to dry up the milk, take a good quantity of Ro∣zin, mingle it with Cream, and being luke-warm lay it all over the breasts; or make a plaister to dry up the Milk, with Bean meal,

red Vinegar, and oil of Roses, lay it on warm.

If the Breasts be inflamed, keep a good reasonable cooling Diet, moistening and com∣fortable; it is blood and not milk that cau∣seth inflamation: for milk, when it grows hot, makes pain; and thereby the blood that staies in the small capillar veins, being out of the vessels is inflamed and corrupt: it may also come from Falls or bruises, or strait lacing of the breasts; if there be a Feaver and a throb∣bing pain, and a red hard swelling, the breasts are inflamed. Inflammations may be with∣out danger, but the breasts that are loose and full of Kernels, will soon turn to a Schirrhus, or a Cancer: If the body then be full of blood open a vein, but if the Courses be stopt open a vein in the Ancle, and after that in the arm. You may purge bad humors easily with Manna or Senna: if the blood be over hot, eat Endive, Lettice, Water-Lillies, Plan∣tane, Purslain, use repercussives, and mode∣rate cooling things.

Apply a cloth dipt in oil of Roses, with Honey and Water; when the strength of the inflammation is past use Discussers as well as repercussives; as, take white-bread Crumbs, Barley-flour, of each one ounce and a half; Flour of Beans, and Fenugreek of each half an ounce; Powder of Cammomile Flowers,

and red Roses, of each tow drams, boil them, then mingle Rose Vinegar one ounce, and as much of oyle of Roses and Camomil, lay it over the breasts; then use onely Discutients, as take Bean Meal, Lupines, Fenugreek, Linseed, and Powder of Camomil Flowers, each an ounce, make a Cataplasme; if the Matter begin to grow hard, use things that soften and atte∣nuate; as take a handful of Mallowes and boil them soft, Powder of Linseed, Marshmallows and Camomil Flowers each one ounce, boil all again, and with an ounce of oyl of Jessamine make a Cataplasme: If you find that it will come to suppuration, lay on a Plaister of Diachylon, if it turn to Matter, and the Impostume break; otherwise open it with a Lancet, and let out the Matter, then c••eanse it thus; Take Turpentine, and Honey of Roses, of each one ounce, Myrrh a scruple; it will be hard to cure the Ulcer unless you dry the Milk in the other breast, because much blood will run thither to breed Milk.

An Erisipelas of the breasts comes from great Anger, or some Fright, which turns to an in∣flammation, and is cured as the former: apply no fat things nor cold repercussives to discuss the thin blood that makes the inflammation; lay on a clout dipt in Elder-water, and give her Harts-horn, Terra Sigillata, and Car∣duus,

with Elder-water to make her sweat.

Some womens breasts are too small, when the blood cannot find a way to the breasts, but is repelled, and forced some other way; or when the Liver is dry, and the woman Fea∣verish, toils over much, or watcheth, or from some cause that wasts the body: Therefore feed well, and foment the breasts with Warm water and white-wine, wherein softning things have been boiled, then anoint them with oyl of sweet Almonds, and rub the Breasts often to attract the blood.

Sometimes hard cold swellings will breed in womens breasts, and Phlegmatick swel∣lings, as we see in persons that have the Green-sickness, their breasts will pill, for the part is loose and spungy; it is larger when the terms are like to flow, and when they are gone it abateth for a while: If it come from an ill habit of the body, derived from the womb, it is to be feared; otherwise it may be discust, or dissolved: dry, and hot meats and means are best. If the Courses be stopt open them, and cure the ill habit, then use Topicks to discuss, and strengthen the part; they must be temperately hot, otherwise you will cause a Schirrhus by resolving the thin parts, and leave the thick to grow harder. Make a ly of Colewort and vine Ashes, and brimstone;

or a decoction with Hyssop, Sage, Origa∣num, and Camomile Flowers, then anoint with oyl of Lillies, Bays, and Camomile; or take four ounces of Barley Meal, and half an ounce of Linseed, and of Fenugreek, Dill and Camomile Flowers as much,: one ounce of Marshmallow Roots, with oyl of Dill and Camomile, make an application. These Phlegmatick swellings must be discust at first, or they may turn into Cancers: She must eat Bread well baked, parched Almonds, dryed Raisins; let her drink a decoction of China Roots, Sassafras and Sarsa; forbear Milk-meats, unleavened Bread and Sleeping pre∣sently after meat.

Besides watry and Hydropick humours, there are Kernels growing in the breasts, which are small round spungy bodies, and some∣times swell by humors flowing thither: there grow sometimes other hard swellings caused by that they call the Kings-evil; it is engen∣dred of gross Phlegm, or thick mattery blood, and grows hard under the skin; the stopping of the Courses is the ordinary cause, when the Menstrual blood runs back to the breasts, this will soon become a Cancer, if it be not prevented by softning means, and a moderate thin Diet, keeping her self warm, and using good exercise before Meats; avoid idleness,

and meats of hard digestion; Baths of Brim∣stone are good to be prescribed against windy and watry swellings.

But Celsus saith, That the Scrofula of the Breasts is seldome seen, for that must pro∣ceed from a thick Phlegmatick humor, mixt with a melancholy humors it is sometimes painful, and somewhat like a Cancer, or will soon be turned to one, but stands often times at the same pass for many years: It comes from disorder, or stopping of the Terms, there being so great consent betwixt the breasts and the womb; you may feel the small kernels of the breast, but that I speak of now is one un∣moveable humor, but the other are small: If it lye near the skin it is soon dissolved, but if it lye deep it will hardly be dissolved, because the substance of it is so earthy: first Purge, then bleed, after that apply softning and dis∣cussing remedies that are strong, as you must do for a Schirrhus humor; Take Orris Roots and boil them in Oxynel, and stamp them, mix them with Oyntment of Marshmallowes and Turpentine, of each three ounces, and one ounce of Mucilage of the seed of Fenu∣greek; If you cannot discuss it, ripen it, or cut it open, but take heed how you do it for this is troublesome and dangerous.

All these humors, if they be unskilfully

handled will soon turn to a Schirrhus, from melancholy in the veins flowing to the breasts, and it is thick flegm dried; there are two kinds of it, one is bred of Melancholy blood, which is gross & feculent, or thick flegm mix∣ed with it, and this feels no pain: but the other is not so hard, for it is not yet fully come to its perfection; and it is probable that it is mingled with other humors.

A perfect Schirrhus grows from the stop∣pings of the Spleen, whereby the Melancho∣ly blood is retained, and being in great quan∣tity falls upon the Breasts, or else the courses stopt fly thither.

There is a double intention for the cure:

First, Use emollient means to soften all that is hard and knotty in the breasts, then keep a good Diet; and beware of salt Meats, and such as are smoak'd, and hard of digesti∣on, and moreover all things of a sharp cor∣roding faculty; use moderate Exercise and Mirth, provoke the courses if they be stopt, and set on Leeches, or bleed in the foot.

Sena and Rhubarb are good to purge the body well; and when you have purged, do so no more till you have used some Cordials, as Conserve of Bugloss, and Orange Flowers, Confectio Alkermes, Electuarium Degemus, and Triosantules. Sometimes flegm and melan∣choly

are mingled to cause this Schirrhus, but then it is but a bastard Schirrhus; if burnt humors abound most it will be a Schrrhus, if Melancholy a cancer.

Secondly, The perfect signs of a Schirrhus are, that it is very hard, and feels no pain; if it feel any it is not yet fixed: it is coloured according to the humor, white, or black, or blew; a bastard Schirrhus is hot and pain∣ful, if it go on it will be a Cancer, and the Veins will swell and look blew: if hairs once grow upon it there is no hopes of cure; and the bigger and harder it is the more incura∣ble. Let general medicaments proceed, and cure the cause from the Matrix and from the whole body: soften, attenuate, and discuss the hardness, but take heed of hot things that will discuss the thin parts, and leave the thick behind; neither use too many moistning soft∣ning means, for that will ferment the matter, and change the Schirrhus to a Cancer, that is far worse, but either soften, and moisten, and digest together, or by turns: A Fomentation of Mallows, Marshmallows, brank Ursine, Camomile Flowers, Linseed and Fenugreek are good; anoint afterwards with oyl of sweet Almonds Hens grease, Marrow of a Calf, oyntment of Marshmallowes, lay on the great Diachylon, or the Plaister of Frogs, take

the Fume of a hot stone, sprinkling wine up∣on it; lay on a Plaister of Gum Ammoniacum dissolved in Vinegar of Squills, a bastard Schirrhus will soon Cancerate. Bleed, & purge away the humor that breeds black blood; to hinder humors from flowing to it, anoint with oyl of Roses, and juyce of Plantane if it be hot, beat them well in a mortar of Lead till they shew another colour; then mix Ce∣russ, and Litharge of silver one ounce, with wax make an oyntment: or take one ounce of Mallow Roots, boil & bruise them, let Sheeps Suet, and Capons greese, of each two ounces, be added to it, with wax sufficient to make an Oyntment.

But the disease (worse than a Schirrhus) is a Cancer of the breasts: and William Fa∣bricius saith, that if it be not an Ulcerated Cancer, the woman may live above forty years with it, and no pain molest her; but if you lay on any thing to soften and ripen these swellings, she will dye in half a year. Many orderly women have lived long with Cancers as if they ailed nothing.

Hippocrates bids not to cure an occult Can∣cer, if you do, the person will dye of the cure: because the breasts are loose and spungy, Can∣cers are soon bred there. Burnt blood flow∣ing from the womb of one who is of a hot and

dry Constitution, and the Terms stopping, after a Tumor, they make an Internal or Ex∣ternal Cancer.

A Cancer that comes naturally undiscern∣ed, is hardly known at first, being no greater than a Pease, and daily increaseth with roots spreading, and Veins about it; when the skin is eaten through it becomes a loathsome Ulcer: the Matter is black, and the lips are hard; it is scarce curable, because it is bred of black burnt blood that is malign: and the Vessels are loosned and relapsed by softners and ripe∣ners misapplyed to it; so that the passage is made for the humors to pass to and fro, and serve to infect the rest.

Purge melancholy, and draw blood, but use no Topicks to ripen or rot the part; one∣ly Anodynes that will take away pain; as oyl of Frogs and Snails, with Frogs ashes made to an oyntment, with Nightshade water. Ash•••• of Crayfish, or of the herb Robert, or the i••∣ward Rind of an Ash-Tree.

Arceas shewes the way to cut them for 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and to burn the part if the Ulcer be deep. •…•…∣bricius bids burn the roots first, and afte••∣wards to consume the Reliques, and to sto•• the blood when the root is cut up.

You must often Purge away melancho•••••• humors, and provoke the Courses, or th••

Cancer will return. Mithridate and Treacle, with juyces of Sorrel and Borrage, and Cray∣fish Broth, and Asses milk are approved good to palliate the Cure, and to keep it from go∣ing farther, and ease pain.

This water is commended; Take Scrofula∣ria roots and herb Robert, of each one hand∣ful, Lambs Tongue, Nightshade, Bugloss, Borage, Purslane, Bettony, Eybright, of each half a handful, one Frog, two whites of Eggs, with Quince seeds, and Fenugreeck, each one ounce, a pint of rose water, & as much of Eybright water, distil them in a Leaden still.

Cancers must not be handled like other Ul∣cers, for softners, Drawers and healers exas∣perate, and kill the woman with great do∣lour.

Fichsius his blessed powder against a Cancer is this; take white arsenick that shineth like Glass one ounce, pour on Aquavitae on the powder of it, pour it off again, and put on ••••••sh Aquavitae every third day, for fifteen ••yes together; then take roots of great Dra∣••on gathered in August or July, slice them, ••••d dry them in the wind, two ounces; and ••ake three drams of clear Chimney Soot, make a powder, keep it close stopt in a glass, to use ••fter one year, and not before.

For the cure of any other Ulcers; or Fistu∣laes

of the breasts, first try to dry up the milk, and when the breasts hang down bind them up, that the humours fall not down to them; cleanse them with a decoction of Rhapontick, Agrimony, and Zedoary, to heal take six quarts of strong wine, and boil in it Rhus Ob∣soniox, Cypress Nuts, of each four ounces, and two ounces of Green Galls, to the thickness of Honey: If the Fistula be Callous, and hard about the edges, open the Orifice with a Gentian root, and take the redness away, then cleanse and heal as ordinary Ulcers.

Sometimes stones, hair, or worms are bred in the breasts from corrupt blood, or milk, and so they may breed in the back, or Navel, Sometimes the Veins and Arteries of the breasts are so streight that they can contain no blood to make milk; it is either gross humors that stop them, as they do the Vessels of the womb, or they are made so by the wombs vessels being stopt, or from hard humors bred there.

Sometimes the Nipple hath no hold for the child to draw forth the milk by, and it was so made at first; or else it is from a wound or ulcer that leaves a scar that stops it: The breasts then must needs pine away; but if the milk cannot be suck'd forth, & the breasts are swoln, the reason is that the Paps, or veins for

the milk are not as they should be.

When gross humours only obstruct, that may be cured, but a Nipple naturally without a hole, or the hole stopt by a Schirrhus, or Scar, after an ulcer is cured, cannot be heal∣ed; often rubbing of the breasts will open the veins for milk: but the Nipples for the child to suck by are oftentimes deficient or lie tied, ei∣ther one or both, that women can hardly give suck; if an ulcer have eaten away the Nipple, or it was not made at her birth, it will never be otherwise; if the hole be never so small, so there be a hole, often sucking will make it larger, especially by a sucking instrument

Clefts and Chaps of the breasts are trouble∣some, and usual to Nurses; and in time those Chaps grow to foul Ulcers, and hinder giving of suck: You may prevent this mischief if in the two last months they go with child you lay two cups of wax made up with a little Ro∣zin, to cover the Nipples.

To cure the Nipples take oil of Myrtles, of wax, ointment of Lead and Tutty, or take Tutty prepared one scruple, and half a dram of Allum, Camphire six grains, with oint∣ment of Roses, and Capons grease make it up; or take Pomatum one ounce and a half, Mast∣ick a scruple, Powder of red roses, and Gum

Traganth of each half a scruple; before the child sucks wash the breasts with Rose water and White-wine; and that it may suck with∣out pain, cover the sore pap with a silver Nip∣ple covered with the pap of a Cow new killed: You may take what quantity you please of Mutton Suet, or Lambs Suet, and wash it in Rose water, when it is melted and clarified, and annoint the paps with it.

CHAP. IV.

Directions for Nurses.

BUt there is one consideration more for the Nurse before I leave this; and that is, that she may not want good milk in her breasts, for if she do, the child will suffer more than the Nurse, because he draws it from her to feed him: Those that are fretful, lean, or sickly, have bad Livers and Stomachs, and ill digestion, that they can have neither much, nor yet good milk, and bad diet hinders much.

Such as want milk should drink milk wherein Fennel Seed hath been soked, and feed on good nourishment, and drink good drink, Barley Water

and Almond milk are good for hot cholerick people; let her eat Lettice, Borrage, Spuri∣ache, and Lamb sodden, and eaten with Vervine, Calves or Goats milk nourish and breed milk in the breasts; the eating of An∣niseeds, Cummin seeds, Carraway seeds or their decoction drank will help well, all things that increase seed ripen milk: when you go to bed drink two drams and a half of bruised Anniseeds in the decoction of Cole∣worts. Use this Plaister, take Deers suet half an ounce, Parsley herb and root the like quantity, barley meal one ounce and a half, red Storax three drams, boil the roots and herbs well, and beat them to Pap, and incorporate all with three ounces of oyl of sweet Al∣monds, and lay them to the breasts and nip∣ple.

There are many things hinder milk, either little blood to breed it, or the faculty of the breasts is deficient and cannot do it, or the Organs are not right as they should be; also much watching, & fasting, & labour, & sweat∣ing, and great evacuations by stool or Urine, strong passions, or great pains, sorrows, cares, or strong Feavers, and other discussers may de∣stroy or hinder milk in the breasts, so may al∣so the childs great weakness who cannot draw it thither; it is easily known by any of

these causes; when the breasts swell not but flag, and lie wrinkled, you know there is no great store of milk in them: if the fault be in the Liver, that it breeds not good blood, you must rectify the Liver; yet she may be in good health, sufficient as to other things, but then the infant will be ruined by it: and it is for that end that nature provides milk that the child may be fed.

The usual way for rich people is to put forth their children to nurse, but that is a re∣medy that needs a remedy, if it might be had; because it changeth the natural dispo∣sition of the child, and oftentimes exposeth the infant to many hazards, if great care be not taken in the choice of the nurse.

There are not many Women that want milk to suckle their own children; so there are some that may well be excused, because of their weakness, that they cannot give suck to their own children: but multitudes pretend weakness when they have no cause for it, be∣cause they have not so much love for their own, as Dumb creatures have.

Nature indeed hath provided some helps where milk is wanting for the child, but those are not many; to shew women that nature commonly doth her part with most mothers, to furnish them with milk without farther

means than by good wholesome meats and drinks: but there are abundance of things that will hinder milk, or destroy it. For all things that are cold, or else hot and dry, are enemies to womens milk; but none will breed it but such things as are hot and moist, or not very dry, and of such things there are no great plenty.

Also they must be of easie digestion, and that will breed good blood, that the milk that is bred may have no strong qualities with it to offend the infant. You may lay a plaister of Mustard all over the breasts, and change it of∣ten, and lay on another; all such things as being eaten (breed milk) will do the like if you lay them on outwardly: or foment the breasts with this decoction, as Fennel, Smal∣lage, Mints, pound them, and lay them on, with Barley meal half an ounce, the seeds of Gith one dram, and with two drams of Sto∣rax Calamita, and two ounces of the oil of Lillies to make a Poultis.

Some say that by sympathy a Cows Udder dried in an oven, first cut into pieces, and then powdered, half a pound of this powder to an ounce of Anniseed, and as much of sweet Fennel-seed, with two ounces of Cum∣min seed, and four ounces of Sugar, will make milk increase exceedingly; or boil a

handful of Green Parsly, and a handful of Fennel, with a small handful of Barley, and half an ounce of red Pease in chicken broth, or sweeten the former decoction with fine Su∣gar, and so drink it: Dill, and Basil, and Rochet, and Chrystal also, but this must be warily taken, not too often nor too much, are good to cause milk in the breasts: some prescribe the hoofs of a Cows forefeet dried and powdered, and a dram taken every morn∣ing in Ale; I think it should be the hoofs of the hinder feet, for they stand nearest the Ud∣der, where milk is bred. I mislike not the experiment, but our Ladies thistle is by Signa∣ture, and (the white milky veins it hath) well known to be a very good help to women that want milk.

A woman may be of a good complexion, and yet want milk in her breasts: and there is a Royal Person now living, that I will not be so bold to name here, that when his Nurse wanted milk, the Physicians, Doctor Mayhern and others, were desirous to put her off from being nurse, because (they said) she had not milk sufficient to supply the child with; but his Sacred Majesty of Blessed and Glorious Memory spoke in the womans behalf: when the Physicians confest, That the milk she had was very good; What saith his Majesty, is

not a pint of Cream as good as a quart of Milk?

Some women there are that are full of blood, lusty, and strong, and so well temper∣ed to increase milk, that they can suckle a child of their own, and another for a friend; and it will not be amiss for them when they have too great plenty to do so, if they be poor, for it will help them with food, and not hurt their own child: for if a child suck too much milk, it will soon fall into Convulsion fits, if the children be full bodied; and if milk be too much in the breasts, it will clodder and corrupt, and inflame the blood if it be not drawn forth.

When blood first comes to the breasts to make milk, though it come in great plenty we may not stop it, but afterwards labour to diminish it by a slender diet, and eating things that breed small nourishment; or else lay repercussive medicaments to the veins under the arms, and above the breasts, to drive the blood back; you may also open a vein: Ca∣lamints and Agnus Castus, Coriander seed and Hemlock are enemies to breeding of milk.

When you suspect that the blood will be in∣flamed by too great plenty of milk, then make a Poultiss of Housleek, Lettice, Poppies, and

Water Lillies, this will drive it back.

They that are desirous to put forth their Children to Nurse may use this decoction; of Bays, Mallows, Fennel, Smallage, Parsley, Mints, half a handful of each, to foment the breasts, and afterwards they must anoint them with oyl Omphacine made of sowr grapes; then take Turpentine washt with Wine and Rose-water three ounces, and two or three Eggs, with one scruple of Saffron, and a sufficient quantity of wax to make a Plaister; lay this on upon the breasts fresh every day before Supper, but leave a hole in the mid∣dle of the Plaister for the Nipple to come forth.

If the milk be much, and stay long in the breasts, it does curdle, when the thinner part evaporates, and the thick stayes behind and turns into kernels and hard swellings, which being the Cheesy part of the milk will soon grow hard, and this will easily inflame and impostumate; besides the plenty, it may be salt or sharp, or exceed in many other ill qua∣lities: when milk is too much it will cause pain in the breasts, and clefts; but to hinder it from clotting and congealing, make a pap of grated white bread, new milk, and oyl of Roses, seethe them all together, and lay it warm over the breasts; let her use to eat

Saffron, Cinnamon, and Mints with her Meats, and observe a moderate Diet with moist Meats, which breed but thin milk: but if the milk be clodded and inflamed, pound Chickweed and lay it warm over the breasts, or annoint them with the mucilage of Flea∣wort, Purslane seeds, and Fenugreek, made up with wax to an ointment.

But sometimes the woman takes cold, and falls into an Ague, then lay on a Poultis to the breasts made with Melilot, Camomile, Fen∣nel seeds, Anniseeds, Dill seeds, Linseeds, Fenugreek, Southernwood, Basil, and Gin∣ger, with oyl of Camomile; to hinder the curdling, take two ounces of Coriander seed, and as much of Mints, and one ounce of oyl of Dill made to a Livint, with a little wax: and to dissolve what is already curdled, take an ounce of each of these roots, Fennel, and Eringos, and half a handful of green Fennel tops, and one dram of Anniseeds, boil all to a pint, add Oxymel Simple two ounces, and as much of the sirrup of the two opening roots at the Apothecaries.

It is a thing to be wondered at, how Na∣ture sometimes will find strange conveniences & passages that are not ordinary in some wo∣men; for some have voided their breasts milk by their Urine, and sometimes by the womb;

and it hath been a great Dispute by which of the two the milk came forth: the shortest way for the milk to return, is the way the blood came to the breasts to make the milk, not from the veins of the breasts to the hypo∣gastrick Veins, and next to the womb, but from the breast veins to the epigastrick veins, and from them to the hypogastrick, and so to the womb; but this is seldome seen or heard of: but strange things have come forth of the breasts, and sometimes the menstrual blood unchanged runs forth this way at certain sea∣sons.

Hippocrates Writes that when the blood comes out of the Nipples, those women are Mad: yet Ama••us Lusitanus tells us, of his own experience, that he saw two women at whose Paps their Monthly Terms came forth and yet neither of them was Mad. But we must rightly understand Hippocrates mean∣ing, for he doth mean of her fiery blood that flies up and enflames the party; whereof part goes to the breasts, and much to the the brain; causing pain and inflammations, and that is a forerunner of Madness: but it is not menstru∣al blood will do this, unless it be endued with some extraordinary malignant quality; for that is ordained to go to the breasts to make milk, which is the reason that Nurses have

few or no Courses, because the blood goes to the breasts to make milk, as I said.

But if this accident fall out, that the blood runs forth at the breasts undigested, not chang∣ed by the faculty of the breasts into Milk, as it ought to be, then open the Saphaena vein in the Foot, and that will pull it back again; and cure this Distemper.

There is so near agreement between the breasts and the womb, that any distemper of the womb will change the very colour of the Nipples; and therefore it is not well to pre∣judicate, and to think they are not Maids when their Nipples change colour, when it is onely a sign that their wombs are distem∣pered.

The Nipples are red after Copulation, red (I say) as a Strawberry, & that is their natu∣ral colour: but Nurses Nipples, when they give Suck, are blew, and they grow black when they are old.

If there be pain in the breasts from abun∣dance of milk onely, the pain is not very great, it is onely by overstretching them; but if the milk be sowr, or sharp, or salt, or corroding, the pain is more, and will be greater if there be inflammation; but when there is an Ulcer, or a Cancer; the pains are out of measure great: you may know the c••use of the pain by the

greatness of it; and you have sufficient di∣rections before how to cure them.

But having made way for it, I shall now proceed to speak a few words of Nurses, and Nursing of Children.

CHAP. V.

How to Chuse a Nurse.

THis dispute about Nurses, who are fit for it, and who are not, is much handled by Physicians; and some there be that will tye every woman to Nurse her own Child, be∣cause Sarah, the wife to so great a Man as A∣braham was, nursed Isaac: And indeed if there be no other obstacle the Argument may carry some weight with it; for doubtless the mo∣thers milk is commonly best agreeing with the child; and if the mother do not Nurse her own Child, it is a question whether she will ever love it so well as she doth that proves the Nurse to it as well as Mother: and with∣out doubt the child will be much alienated in his affections by sucking of strange Milk, and that may be one great cause of Childrens proving so undutiful to their Parents.

The Lacedemonians chose the youngest son

after his Father to succeed in the Kingdom, & rejected all the rest; because the mother gave suck onely to the youngest.

Tacitus gives a reason why the Germans are so exceeding strong; because (saith he) they are commonly sucked by their own Mo∣thers.

Yet Alcibiades, a strong and valiant Cap∣tain, was thought to have come to his great strength, by sucking the breasts of a Spartan woman: for they are great, vigorous, and usually very strong women.

I cannot think it alwayes necessary for the mother to give her own Child suck; she may have sore breasts, and many infirmities, that she cannot do it.

Moreover a Nurse ought to be of a good Complexion and Constitution; and if the Mother be not so, it will be good to change the milk by chosing a good wholesome nurse, that may correct the natural humors of the Child drawn from the ill complexion of the Mother.

Many children dye whilest they are sucking the breasts, or else get such Diseases (if the milk be naught) that they can hardly ever be cured, and the chief cause is the Nurses milk. If a Nurse be well complexioned her milk cannot be ill; for a Fig-Tree bears not

Thistles: a good Tree will bring forth good Fruit.

But few can tell, when they see a Nurse, whether her complexion be good or not: wherefore I shall give you such Rules where∣by you may be able to know that; and I have gained most of it by my own experience.

Many Physicians have troubled themselves and others with unnecessary directions, but the chifest is to choose a nurse of a sanguine com∣plexion, for that is most predominant in chil∣dren; and therefore that is most agreeing to their age: but beware you choose not a wo∣man that is crooked, or squint-eyed, nor with a mishapen Nose, or body, or with black ill-favoured Teeth, or with stinking breath, or with any notable depravation; for these are signs of ill manners that the child will partake of by sucking such ill qua∣lified milk as such people yield; and the child will soon be squint-eyed by imitation, for that age is subject to represent, and take impression upon every occasion: but a san∣guine complexioned woman is commonly free from all these distempers, unless by acci∣dent it fall out otherwise; and her milk will be good, and her breasts and nipples hand∣some, and well proportioned; she is of a mean stature, not too tall, nor too low; not

fat, but well flesht; of a ruddy, merry, cheer∣ful, delightsome countenance, and clear skin'd that her Veins appear through it; her hair is in a mean between black, and white and red, neither in the extream, but a light brown, that partakes somewhat of them all: Such a woman is sociable, not subject to melancho∣ly, nor to be angry and fretful; nor peevish and passionate; but jovial, and will Sing and Dance, taking great delight in children; and therefore is the most fit to Nurse them: where∣as all the other tempers, except sanguine, as Flegm, or Choler, or melancholy, breed milk that will agree well with no child; and their own constitutions are not agreeable to the nursing of children: though her com∣plexion then be not exactly sanguine, for that is seldom found, let it suffice if blood be predo∣minant above the rest. Moreover, be her temper naturally never so good, yet if she be diseased she is not for your turn; or if she be above fourty years old, or under eighteen years: she must be of ability to live well, that there be no want; and one that hath had good Education to instruct her; for if she be not well bred, she will never breed the child well: she must have prudence and care to see to it. But there is one rule from the Sex; That a female Child must suck the breasts of

a Nurse that had a Girl the last child she had, and a Boy must suck her that lately had a boy. But the Nurse must not company with Man so long as she gives suck to the child, for if she conceive, the child will suffer by it: she must live in a well-tempered pure, Air; she must sleep well when she is sleepy, that she may soon wake if the child cry. She must use moderate exercise, and indeed the Dancing and Rock∣ing of the child will hardly suffer her to be idle: and therefore all such as put their chil∣dren to Nurse, should do well to consider the great care and pains of the Nurse, by well re∣warding them, when they have made a good choice: for, if the Nurse be not good, they had better be without them.

Nor is it onely a present Gratification from the Parents that is answerable to the Nurses pains: But children should remember, when they come to years, to be thankful to their Nurses that bred them up, and to re∣quite their great care and pains, having them in little less esteem than their own Mothers that bore them.

The Nurse on the other side must not neg∣lect her Duty, and doubtless some nurses are as fond of their nurse Children as if they were their own.

If the nurse use good Diet and Exercise, it

will breed good blood, and good blood makes good milk: but let her forbear all sharp, sowr, fiery, melancholy meats; or Mustard, and Onyons, or Leeks and Garlick: and let her not drink much strong drink, for that will enflame the Child, and make it chole∣rick: all Cheese breeds melancholy, and Fish is Flegmatick. Gross and thick air make gross blood, and heavy bodies, and dull wits. Places that are near the Sea side, and Bogs, are very sickly and unwholsome; but a clear air, that is pure, is as needful as Meat and Drink, it makes the body sprightful, and the reason and understanding ready, good vi∣tal and animal spirits are bred by it, whereby all things to reason become more subservient; opinion, fancy, judgement, resolution, ap∣prehension, imagination, memory, know∣ledge, mirth, hope, trust, joy, urbanity, and what can be said almost are produced: Meats and Drinks feed the body, but the air guides the mind in almost all its actions; and life and health, sickness and death depend most upon it.

If the nurses milk be too hot, Succory, Purslain are good herbs for her to eat; and if it be too cold, then Vervain, and Mother of time, Cinnamon, Borrage and Bugloss, and all wholesome Herbs and Meats and Drinks,

that a little exceed in heat mend her milk.

If the child be ill the Nurses milk is com∣monly the cause of it; if wind oppress the child, let the Nurse but put Fennel seed, and Anniseed into her meats or broths, and the child will be well; but of that more by and by, as I pass on to speak of the diseases and infirmities of children: but before I part with the Nurse it will be but reason to enquire when the Nurse should part with her child, and wean it from the breasts.

I know there can be no general rule for all, because some children are weak, and must stay longer before they be weaned.

Avicenna saith two years is the time chil∣dren should suck: I have seen some in En∣gland that have kept their children sucking near four years, who would carry their stool after their Nurses to sit down on to give them suck; but a year old is sufficient to most chil∣dren; yet they are loth to leave the Dug till they be driven from it.

Breast milk is very sweet, & of good digesti∣on and therefore some that are fallen into consumptions in their riper years, are cured by sucking a wholesome womans breasts: but sucking is not proper for children so soon as they can concoct other nutriment. Milk is for Babes, but strong meat for men.

I have known some women so fond of their children, that they would never wean them by their good will: But when children suck so over-long, as three or four years, I seldome hear of any of them that ever come to good; insomuch that many women have repented of their folly when it was too late. Their children by overcockering, growing so stuborn and unnatural, that they have proved a great grief to their parents.

It seems God sometimes thus punishes wo∣men for their folly; and the children thus ten∣derly bred, for want of stronger meat than breast milk in their child-hood, grow lame, and weak, and sick of the Rickets.

Some women will not be contented with such children as God sends them, but they will be mending the feature of their noses, and their bodies, till they make them very ill favoured, that would have grown in good shape: and some though they have Daughters, will not be contented unless they may have a son.

God sometimes hears their prayers, and sends them a Boy, it may be a Fool, that will be a boy as long as he lives.

I have shewed you that children, be they Boys or Girls, unless they be weak, should not suck the breast above a year; and if it be

a nurses breasts, and not the own mother that they suck, it is the same thing for time; yet the Nurse should be chosen as near to the constitu∣tion of the mother as possibly you can, for then there will not be so great alteration in the constitution and manners of the child; a Nurse is best after her second child, if she be but between twenty and thirty years of age, her milk must not be above ten months old when you chuse her; nor under two months old, for that will be too new.

If the nurses milk prove ill, she must take a gentle purgation; but if it be to purge the child, it must be very gentle indeed, for that purging quality of the Medicament passeth to the milk, and will operate upon the Child, which cannot otherwise be purged by Phy∣sick.

It hath been much argued whether the mother or some other women be best to nurse the child; surely I should think the mo∣ther, in all respects, if she be sound and well, because it agrees better with the childs tem∣per; for the milk of the mother is the same with that nutriment the child drew in, in the Womb. But yet it will do good sometimes to change the nurse, if the mothers milk con∣tract any ill qualities, or be too sharp, or salt, or otherwise offensive to the child; for if the

child do not take rest well, or cry and com∣plain, doubtless the milk it feeds on is distem∣pered: Good milk is neither too thick nor too thin; too thin is raw and breeds crudities; too thick is hardly concocted by the infant: it must be white and sweet scented; if it smell sowr, or burnt, it will corrupt in the stomach; and so it will if it taste salt, or sowr, or bit∣ter, or have any ill tast: drop a drop of breast milk on your nail, or upon a Glass, and if it shew very white, and neither stick like glew nor run off like water, but be off a middle nature, you may conclude that it is good.

When the blood is too full of Whey it breeds thin milk, which gives little nourish∣ment, and the children by sucking of it fall into Fluxes, and looseness of the belly; and sharp milk makes them scabby: purge away the whey of the blood if it be too hot & cho∣lerick with Rhubarb, otherwise with Me∣choachan, or sirrup of Roses: cold and moist breasts are mended by the contraries, that is by hot and dry things: If wheyish humours come from the Liver, that must be mended: hot and dry things (that profit) are bread, well baked with Anniseed, and Fennel seed; Roast-meat, Rice, sweet Almonds: but broth, and Fish and Sallets, and Summer fruits must be avoided: good exercise breeds good

blood; gross diet makes thick and gross milk; and sometimes a hot and dry distemper of the breasts will burn up the thin part of the milk: purge away thick humours from the blood, & eat meats of good digestion, as Veal, Chick∣ens, Kids flesh; and use a moistening and at∣tenuating Diet; Fryed Onions, and all sowr spiced meats, will communicate their quali∣ties to the milk, that you may find both by smell and tast.

Strong passions of anger, or fear will cause chollerick and melancholly milk, which makes the child lean, that it cannnot thrive: Hence come gripings, and wringing pains in the bel∣ly, Thrush in the mouth, and Falling-sick∣ness; good wine moderately drank some∣times, will help the ill smell and taste of the milk. Let the Nurse be sure to observe a Di∣et that is most proper for her milk, and may not corrupt it; and also to avoid all passions and venereous actions during the time she is a nurse; and if for all this the milk prove ill, she must purge away evil qualities, accor∣ding to my former prescriptions.

CAAP. VI.

Of the Child.

CHildren that look white and pale when they are born, are weak and sickly, and seldome live long; but if it be of a reddish co∣lour all over the body, when it is first born, and this colour change by degrees to a Rose colour, there is no doubt of the child but it may do well: if it cry strongly and clear, it argues a great strength of the breast. Take notice of all the parts of it, and see all be right; and the Midwife must handle it very tenderly and wash the body with warm wine, then when it is dry roul it up with soft cloths, and lay it into the Cradle: but in the swadling of it be sure that all parts be bound up in their due place and order gently, without any crookedness, or rugged foldings; for infants are tender twigs, and as you use them, so they will grow straight or crooked: wipe the childs eyes often, to make them clean, with a piece of soft linnen, or silk; and lay the arms right down by the sides, that they may grow right, and sometimes with your hand stroke down the belly of the child toward the neck

of the bladder, to provoke it to make water: But the first work to be done, so soon as it is born, is to cut the Navel-string, and to bind that up right; I shewed you how to do it be∣fore; when the Navel-string is cut off, strew upon it a powder of Bole, Sarcocolla, Dra∣gons blood, Cummin and Myrrh, of each the same quantity, and bind a piece of Cotton, or Wool over it, to keep it from falling off again; and if the child be weak after this, a∣noint the childs body over with oil of Acorns, for that will comfort and strengthen it, and keep away the cold; wash the child next with warm water; pare your nails, and pick out the filth from the childs nostrils; open the Fundament that it may encline to go to stool, and keep it neither too hot nor too cold, nor in a place that is too light; let not the beams of the Sun or Moon dart upon it as it lieth in the Cradle especially, but let the cradle stand in a darkish and shadowy place, and let the head lie a little higher than the body; for a child that is very young to look upon the light of a candle will make them pore blind, or squint-eyed: so will the light of the Sun; set not a candle behind the head of it, for the child will turn its eyes to the light. Take heed the child be not frighted, for it will soon be fearful if you let it sleep alone, so soon as it

awakes and misseth the Nurse; keep it not waking longer than it will, but use means to provoke it to sleep, by rocking it in the cra∣dle, and singing Lullabies to it; carry it often in the arms, and dance it, to keep it from the Rickets and other diseases: let it not suck too much at once, but often suckle it as it can di∣gest it.

After four months let loose the arms, but still roul the breast, and belly, and feet to keep out cold air for a year, till the child have gained more strength. Shift the childs clouts often, for the Piss and Dung, if they lie long in it, will fetch on the skin, and put the child to great pain: you may suffer the child to cry a little, for it is better for the brain and lungs, that are thus opened and discharged of super∣fluous humours, and natural heat is raised by it, it doth most good before they suck, and when the former suck is digested; but too much crying will cause rheums to fall, and of∣tentimes the child will be broken bellied by its overstraining: change the breasts as you give suck; sometimes let it draw one, some∣times another; and for the first month let it suck as much as it can, so the stomach be not too full. Give it some pap of barley bread steeped a while in water, and then boiled in milk; children that are lusty may be fed with

this betimes, but they must not suck till it be a full hour after it, and thus they should be dieted till they breed teeth. So soon as the teeth come forth, let it eat more substantial meat, that is easily chewed and of quick di∣gestion; also give it Cows milk and broths: let not the child rest too soon upon its legs, for if the legs be weak they will grow crook∣ed, by reason of the weight of their bodies. When the child is seven months old you may (if you please) wash the body of it twice a week with warm water till it be weaned, Let the teeth come forth most part, especially the eye-teeth, before the child be weaned, for those teeth cause great pains when they are breeding, and Feavers, and grievous a king of their Gums proceed from them: the stronger the child is, the sooner he is ready to be weaned; some at twelve months old, and some not till fifteen or eighteen months old; you may stay two years if you please, but use the child to other Food by degrees, till it be acquainted with it. Let the child drink but little wine, that it do not over-heat the blood: the best time to wean the child is ei∣ther the Spring or the Fall of the Leaf, the Moon increasing.

For seven years give the child nourishing meats and an indifferent plentiful diet to make

it grow; cocker them not over much, nor provoke them to passions: I cannot tell which may do most hurt. Too much play, as chil∣dren are prone to, will over-heat the blood; and want of play and idleness will make them dull: Some Parents are too fond of their chil∣dren, and leave them to their own wills: some are too froward, and dishearten their children; the mean is best for them both, and so they shall be sure to find it.

I have as briefly as I could, touched upon all occasions for women and their children; and some things may seem to be needless to to tell those that knew them before: but by their leave, they that know some things may be ignorant of other things: what one knew before, it may be another knew not: and what she knew not, another might know.

There are many things here that most wo∣men desire to know: the reason is the same why all meats are eaten, and all Maids may be mar∣ried: for if we all were taken with the same thing, there could be no living in the world.

CHAP. VII.

Of the Diseases that Infants and chil∣dren are often troubled with.

I. SOmetimes the child, so soon almost as it is but new born, will fall into strange throws and convulsions.

Hippocrates divides childrens diseases ac∣cording to their several ages: Children (new born) are subject to inflammation of the na∣vel after it is cut, to moistness of the Eares, to Coughs and Vomitings, and Ulcers in the mouth; to Feares and watchings. When the Teeth begin to breed, there are Feavers, Convulsions, and Fluxes of the Belly, chiefly when the Eye-Teeth breed: when they grow older the Tonsils are enflamed, the Turnbones of the neck are laxated inwardly, they have short breath, and are troubled with the stone in the bladder, round wormes, and Asca∣rides, Strangury, Kings-evil, and standing Yards; as they grow, still new diseases come on: as the Measels, Small-pox; some are Tongue-tyed until the Ligament be cut that is too short, and hinders their Speech. Use no strong Vomitings, or purgings, or Gli∣sters

to children, nor bleed them; but give them gentle means, such are Suppositories, and mild Glisters, with a little Sugar and Milk: give stronger Physick to the Nurse, if need require, to purge the child: strong me∣dicaments given to the nurse may endanger the child that sucks the breasts; but weak purges are sufficient to do it good. You may give the child a Glister thus; take Mallows, and violet leaves, of each one handful, flow∣ers of violets and camomile of each a small handful, boil them, and take four or five ounces of the decoction, and with four or six drams of sirrup of roses, and half an ounce of oyl of Violets, make it ready to give luke-warm, or something more hot, as it may well en∣dure.

II. If a Child be troubled with flegme, lay it not on the back, for you may soon choak it; but turn it to lie on one side or the other. Keep the belly loose; thrust up a suppository of Castle sope, rubbed over with fresh butter, to make it more smooth & gentle to pass in∣to the body; a spoonful of sirrup of Violets afterwards will force down the flegme: you may, if the child be temperate in heat, min∣gle half the quantity of sweet Almond oyl, with half so much sirrup of Violets; but rub

the belly down with sweet butter, as often as it is undressed.

III. If the childs Codds be swoln, observe whether wind or water be the cause of it; the water will sweat out if you chafe the part with fresh butter: if it be wind swing the child well and dance it, and put the decoction of Anniseeds in their drink: but there may be many causes of the swelling of the Codds; if wind be the cause, the Codds will shew thin as a horn, and be as stiff as a Drums head▪ too much crying may cause an inflammation, or bursting. If the swelling arise from heat▪ cooling herbs will cure it; but for wind, boil a handful of bay leaves, of Dill, Camomile, and Fennel, of each a handful, Rue half a handful boil all in a quart of Beer wort to a pint: strain it out hard, and with the liquor boil as much Bean meal as will make a poultis putting to it two or three spoonfuls of oyl of Camomile, apply it hot to the Codds.

IV. If the childs Fundament slip forth, as it will oftentimes in many children, when they are bound, and strain to go to stool, or have taken cold, or the Muscles are relaxed by moisture, when there is a looseness of the Belly, and a Tenesmus or Needing, then the

Muscle that bindes up the hole will come forth; if it come from straining it is easily cured at first; but too much moisture causing it, will be hard to overcome, especially when the belly is loose, for then the Medicaments are driven off.

For the cure then; if it be swoln, and will not be put in, bath it first with a decoction of Mallows, and Marshmallows; or annoint it with oyl of Lillies, then try to put it up, having cast some astringents upon it; or take Galls, Acorn cups, Myrtle berries, dryed red Roses, burnt Harts-horn, burnt Allum, and flowers of sowr. Pomegranates, of each a like quantity; make a strong decoction in water, and whilest it is warm bath the Gut with it, and put it into its place: and, to make it flag up, spread a little melted wax, Frankincense and Mastick together, upon a Linnen Clout, and lay it to the Fundament, so bind it on, and take it off onely when the child goes to stool: sprinkle the Gut with this following powder: Of red roses and sowr Pomegranate flowers, of each half a dram; Frankincense and mastick of each one dram.

V. If the Infant be too loose bellyed, and cannot contain its Excrements; this pro∣ceeds either from breeding of Teeth, and

that is usually with a feaver, or from con∣coction depraved, and the nourishment cor∣rupted, or from much waking, or great pain, or Feaverish humors stirring in the body: or when they drink or suck too much, being over-hot: taking cold may also bring a Looseness; if the Excrements be yellow, and green, and stink, some sharp humor is the cause of it: When children breed teeth it is good to have the belly somewhat loose; but if it exceed it must be stopt, for the child will consume. If the Excrements be black, and the child feaverish, it is an ill sign. But a Sucking child needs not be cured so much as the Nurse; mend her milk, or get another Nurse; and let her avoid green fruit, and Meats of hard digestion. When the child is past sucking, then purge, things that leave a bind∣ing quality behind will do it; such are sirrup or honey of red Roses: You may give a Gli∣ster of two or three ounces of the decoction of Milium and Myrobolans, with an ounce or two of sirrup of dried red Roses. If it proceed from a hot cause, cleanse first, then give sirrup of dried roses, Quinces, Myrtles, Cur∣rants, Coral, Mastick, Harts-horn, or pow∣der of Myrtles, with a little Dragons blood, and annoint the belly with oyl of roses, of Mastick, of Myrtles. In a cold cause the Excre∣ments

will be white; then give sirrup of ma∣stick and Quinces, with mint water; and take half a scruple of Frankincense, and of Nutmeg as much, temper it with the juyce of a Quince, and give it the child: Lay a plaister to the childs belly made with the seeds of red Roses, Cummin, Anniseed, and Smallage, Barley meal, and juyce of Plantane, with a little Vinegar, boil all together: When the stools are red, or yellow, a spoonful or two of red Rose sirrup, or of Pomegranates, with Mint water, may do much good; or beat some Sorrel-seeds to powder, and give it to eat with the yolk of a roasted Egg; or bruise the seed, and boil it in fountain water, and let the child drink of it twice a day.

If the child be costive and cannot go to stool, this comes oftentimes from a cold and dry distemper of the Guts, from the birth, or form slimy flegme that sticks to the Guts, and wraps up the Dung: this last comes from the milk, when the Nurse drinks little, or eates hard meats, or astringent diet; or else it may come from a hot distemper of the Kidneys and Liver, that drieth the excrements; or want of choler to provoke expulsion.

A dry distemper of the Guts is not easily helped: when there wants choler the body looks yellow, and the dung is white, because the choller is gone some other way. When

the child is bound, the Head will ache, and there is pain in the belly: wherefore it is more healthful if the belly be loose, so it be moderate.

A hot distemper is remedied by bathing it often in a bath of boiled Lettice and Succory, to mosten and cool it: In a hot cause use cool∣ers, in a moist drying things; let the nurse abstain from binding meats in dry causes, as from Quinces, Medlars, Pease, Beans; and annoint the stomach and belly of the child with fresh butter, oyl of Lillies, hens grease; if the child be grown give it the decoction of red Coleworts, with a little Honey and salt: Flegme is cured with sirrup of Roses, or with Honey; and to cool, sirrup of Violets is effe∣ctual, or emulsions of the four cold seeds: When choler will not come from the Gall to the guts, to move the expulsive faculty, let it drink a decoction of Grass roots, Maiden-hair, Fennel, and Sparagus; if it will not yet void the Excrements, make a suppository of Honey boiled hard, let it be as big as a date stone, or a little bigger, and as long as your little finger, or you may make it of the stalks, or roots of Beets, or flower de Luce, dip them in oyl, and thrust it up into the Funda∣ment; lay a piece of wool dipt in oyl to the childes navel, and give it the quantity of a Pease of good honey: When the child sucks give the Nurse a gentle purge to loosen the

belly, if soluble meats will not do it; you may safely lay a plaister over the childes bel∣ly, made of Mallowes and Marshmallowes, of each one handful, Holyhocks two ounces, ten Figs, Fenugreek and Linseed of each one ounce, boil all in water and then stamp them in a mortar, make it up with butter and hens-grease, of each two ounces, Saffron one scru∣ple, spread it on a Linnen Cloath; or apply to the navel a walnut shell full of hens-grease and Oxe Gall, and anoint the belly with softning things, as with oyl of sweet Almonds and of Linseed; bran, with the juyce of Dwarf Elder will make a loosning Poultis for the belly.

VI. The child may be troubled with worms that breed in their Guts, some like mites of Cheese, and some like earth worms; and some children have been observed to have them in their Mothers bellies, for they have voided them so soon almost as they were born: but the chief cause is by mingling milk with o∣ther meats, when the constitution is hot and moist; or from Summer Fruits, and sweet Meats that worms love. These worms are broad and small, or round and long: you may know when they have worms, when their Mouthes water much, and their breath

stinks when they gnash their teeth, and start in their sleep, and cry, when they have a dry cough, loath their meat, are very thirsty, when they vomit and hicket, when their bel∣lies swell, and they are much bound, or very loose, when they make thick white water with pain: when their belly is empty, and the worms want meat, their face is covered with a cold sweat, and their cheeks flush with red colour, and suddenly become pale; by this you may know what worms they are, for these signs shew round worms commonly rather than flat: sometimes children have no great hurt by it when they have worms, till the worms grow too strong, and then dange∣rous symptomes follow. Long round worms are worst, for they will eat quite through the belly; and when there is a Feaver the danger is greater: Those that do least hurt are white, but the fewer and smaller the worms are, the less is the danger.

It is best to eat meats of good juice, with Oranges and Pomegranates, forbearing all sli∣my sweet fat meats, Fish, and milk, and Sum∣mer fruits; and to take some powder of harts-horn, and drink thin wine mingled with Grass and Sorrel waters; these will keep worms that they breed not, which is better

than to let them breed, and drive them out afterwards.

Keep the childs belly loose with Glisters, when you know they have worms; or give them the decoction of Sebestens before meat; Scordium and Wormwood are good, but chil∣dren will not be perswaded to take bitter me∣dicaments; wherefore you may give them Grass water, with juice of Lemmons, or one or two drops of Spirit of Vitriol.

These things following will kill Worms, and cast them forth; eight grains of Mercuri∣us Dulcis steept all night in Couch-grass water, strain it finely, and give nothing but the wa∣ter: Wormseed, Harts-horn, or Coralline are good; lay Peach-leaves bruised to the Navel, or a little Ox Gall, Saint Johns wort, and Wormwood; Knot-grass water drank with milk; Ox Gall and Cummin-seed laid to the Navel are good against great worms; mingle with your juice, of Wormwood, and Ox Gall of each two ounces, of Coloquintida one ounce, made into a Cataplasme with Wheat meal, lay it over the Belly and Navel. If there be a Feaver withal use such cooling remedies as are here prescribed against a Feaver; you must use several medicaments, for the worms will quickly grow familiar with any medicament, and will not stir for it: the best time to ad∣minister

your remedies is about the new, or full of the Moon, for then they will sooner move than in the quarters; let the child be fasting, and go to stool first if he can, and give the medicament to destroy the Worms when they are hungry,, and the time the child (that is of age) is wont to eat his breakfast, for the worms will look for it.

VII. Sometimes children have Convul∣sion Fits, and the Falling-sickness; it is natu∣ral to some from their birth, but others have it by accident; the nurses ill milk may breed it, let her cleanse her body, and not use too much moist and cooling diet; nor let the child suck too much at one time, to over-charge the stomach. The Male-Peony root hanged a∣bout the childs neck, and a small quantity of the powder of the same given to the child (in any convenient way) with milk, or pap, or broth, or drink is much commended, and so is the seed: it is good for the child to smell to Rue, and Assafaetida, and sometimes rub the Nostrils with a drop of oil of Castor, or of Costus; it may proceed from ill milk in the childs stomach, or by consent from other parts, or from worms in the Guts, or from ill vapours that ascend where bad humours a∣bound: These prick the Films of the brain, and cause the childs distemper; it may be origi∣nally

bred in the brain, or arise from some sudden fright, or from breeding of teeth; this last will be gone when the pain of the teeth is over.

Many young children die of this disease: it may come with the Small Pox or Measles, and when they come forth it will be cured, if nature be strong; the Nurses good diet is a great furtherer to the cure: in the fit you may give Peony or Lavender Water, and rub the Nape of the neck with a drop of oil of Amber, and touch the Nose with it; an Elks hoof, or an Emrald are useful to hang about the neck, and may be given inwardly.

If it proceed from corrupt milk in the sto∣mach, dip a feather in oil of Almonds, and thrust it down the Throat to cause vomit.

The Florentines with a hot Iron burn the child in the nape of the neck to dry the brain; and Celsus maintains it to be the very last re∣medy.

But Paulus Aequineta saith, It would be sure to kill him with waking pain; he would scarce be able to sleep after it.

To prevent this mischief, so soon as the child is born give him this following powder; male-Peony roots, one scruple, gathered in the Moons decreasing, magistery of Coral half a scruple, with Leaf God.

VIII. Convulsion Fits come when the brain labours to cast off what offends its ma∣ny die of it, for the cause lieth in the nerves and marrow of the back; wherefore wash the body and back with a decoction of Marsh∣mallows, Lilly roots, Peony and Cammomile flowers: The Sun-flower boiled in water is good to wash the Infant with, and annoint the back with mans grease, or Goose grease, or with oils of Foxes, or of worms, or of Lillies, or of Mastick, or Turpentine: This disease comes either of indigestion, or of weakness of the attractive faculty, especially in such children as are fat and moist; the back may be anointed with oils of Rue, or of Flower de Luce; or bath the Limbs with a decoction of Primroses, or of Cowslips, or Cammomile flowers; if you find great heat then mingle oil of Violets, and oil of sweet Almonds, and anoint with that.

IX. Sometimes the childs navel swells, and sticks out, that should lie in; the reason may be because the navel-string was not well tied, and too much of it was left behind which sticks forth, sometimes it may come from the childs crying, or coughing, and that looseneth the Peritonaeum, it is without in∣flammmation: but sometimes the navel hath

an Ulcery and the Guts fall into it. It falls out often so soon as the string is cut, where∣fore take Spike and ••eeth it in oil of sweet Al∣monds, mingle a little Turpentine with it, dip in a piece of Wool, and bind it on the part: but if crying, or coughing, or bruise, or tall, be the cause of it, then use bitter Lu∣pines mingled with the powder of an old Lin∣nen cloth burnt to ashes, mingle all with red wine, dip in Cotton and apply it to the Navel: if the navel be inflamed the Navel feels hard, else it will feel soft, and is neither hot nor red, but will last longer than when it is enflamed: if the Peritonaeum be loose only, and not bro∣ken, it will be no bigger when he cryeth, nor doth the Navel come forth much; but it will increase if it be broken, if he either cry or stir much, but it will not be seen when he lieth on his back: ill outting of the Navel string is not so much dangerous, as it is troublesome to the child; it may be cured at first, though it be too long, or hath an Ulcer: but in time, if it be neglected, the guts will fall into it, and cause inflammation, and an Iliack passion, which will kill the child: wind puffs up the Navel when the Peritonaeum is loose; then take the powder of Cummin-seed, Bay ber∣ries and Lupines, with red wine; or a bag of •…•…ike and Cummin-seeds boiled in red wine

for a Cataplasme, and roul it on.

If the Peritonaeum be broken, let the gut be first put in, then lay on astringent Powders of Cypress-nuts, Mirrh, Frankincense, Sarco∣colla, Mastick, Allum, and Isinglass, of each a like quantity, and make a Poultiss of it with Whites of eggs: give the child inwardly such remedies as are good against Ruptures. When the Navel is inflamed, it looks red, and is hard, hot and pants much; this shews it was not well tied, for the pain draws the blood to it: If it turns to an Imposthume and break, the guts will come out, and kill the child. To ease the pain take two ounces of Mallows boiled and stampt, Barley meal half an ounce, with two drams of Lupines and Fe∣nugreek, make a Cataplasme of them with oil of Roses; drive back the blood with an ap∣plication, made of one dram of Frankincense, with Fleabane seed, and Acacia of each half a dram, incorporated with the white of an egg: Keep it if possible, from imposthumati∣on: but if it cannot be kept, then take half an ounce of Turpentine, two ounces of oil of Roses, and with the Yolk of an Egg lay it on.

X. If the child be burst, as young children often are, it may be easily cured at first, the

Peritonaeum is either loose or broken, and the small guts fall into the Cods; when the child coughs much, or cries, or by some violent fall, or straining to go to stool; elder people are not so easily cured of this: sometimes it is on∣ly a rupture which falls out of the belly into the Cods, and the Peritonaeum is well.

If a Gut be fallen, it is but of one side the right or left Groin, and you may see it and feel it, and the hole too through which the Gut fell: but the watry rupture is all over, e∣ven alike; this will vanish of it self so soon as the water is consumed. Keep the child loose, and from crying and violent motion; lay it upon the back, and thrust up the gut gently, the head lying low, and the heels up; then take Emplastrum ad Herniam, or an ointment made of Comfrey roots, with a thick bolster steeped in Smiths water, and lay it on: keep the child quiet, and see the Bolster come not off; never unbind it, so in time the hole will grow narrow, and the gut larger, and will stay in its place.

You may lay on a Plaister made of Gum Elemi steept in vinegar, till there be a cream on the top, with that and oil of eggs make it up; or take Frankincense one dram, Aloes, Acacia, Cypress nuts of each two drams, with a dram of Myrrh and Isinglass make a Plaister.

The watry rupture is cured with oil of Elder, of Bays and of Rue; or else make a Cataplasme of Bean flower, Fenugreek, Linseed, Cum∣min seed, Cammomile flowers, and the oils aforesaid.

XI. Sometimes children are weak, that they are long before they can go; wherefore it is good to strengthen their legs and thighs, that they may be able to go betimes; and that may be done thus, take the juice of Marjoram, of Sage, and of Danewort an equal quantity of each; fill a glass viol with these juices, and with Past lute it round; and when you set in houshold bread in the oven then set in your glass, when you draw it forth break the glass, and save the ointment you shall find in it; melt this with some Neats-foot oil, and rub the Childs Legs and Thighs with it on the hinder parts.

XII. Children have many diseases, that chiefly happen about the head outwardly; as many ulcerous risings and pushes, which come chiefly from the Nurses ill milk; wherefore purge the nurse, and give the child some sir∣rup of Borrage, or of Fumitory; bath the Scabs with softening decoctions, then dry them with Allum Camphoratum.

If these milky Scabs called Achores and Favi be not well cured, they turn to a Scald, or scabby stinking Ulcer, called Tinea a moth, be∣cause like a moth it will fret as they eat Gar∣ments.

The milk scab comes at the first sucking, and after that the Achores, which are scabs that are not white, and are only upon the head; but the white scabs run over all the face and the body: Those Ulcers in the head especially still run with matter; they are of several colours, as white, red, yellow, black; but they all come from excrementitious, wa∣tery, salt, thick, and thin humours, that itch, and make them to scratch; they were gather∣ed in the womb, and bad milk increaseth them, in time they cure themselves, if the cause be not too bad, but if the matter be too fierce, it will pierce the Scull; when it runs it doth children good, if it stink it may cause the Falling sick∣ness.

Carduus and Scabius water, and good cor∣dials will drive them out; coolers and bind∣ers are naught, for they strike them in.

The nurse must keep a good diet, and pre∣pare her self with Bugloss, Borrage, Fumito∣ry, Succory, Hops, Polypody, and Dock roots; then purge with Senna, Epithymum and Rhubarb; forbear salt, spiced, and sharp

meats: Conserve of Succory roots and Ci∣trons candied of each half an ounce; of Bor∣rage, Bugloss, Violets, Fumitory, and Suc∣cory, of each one ounce; Harts-horn, Diar∣rhodon, Diamargariton frigid, of each a scru∣ple, make an Electuary with sirrup of Gilli∣flowers, let the nurse take daily two drams.

Purge the child with Manna, wash the Head with a decoction of Mallowes, Barley, Wormwood, Celandine, Marshmallow roots boiled in barley water, and boys piss; make an ointment to use after it with oyl of bitter Almonds, oyl of Roses, and some Litharge: or wash the head with Soap, if you fear it may turn to a Scald head, or eat into the skull; and then with the former decoction: or take Ce∣russ, Litharge of each two drams; of Agarick and Pomegranate flowers of each one dram, oyl of Roses and Vinegar make an oynt∣ment.

If it come to be a Scald head, it is a dry Ul∣cer in the head onely, called Tinea; but A∣chores are moist Ulcers in the head and body sometimes.

A Scald head is infectious, it proceeds from a salt sharp melancholick humor, from the Mothers blood, or from corrupt Milk: These Scabs are like bran sometimes, or Scurf, with Scales, sometimes slimy; and when the

Scab comes off you shall see red quick knobs of flesh, like the in-side of a fig, some of them are malignant; they run but little, but that which comes forth stinks much. An old black or ash-coloured scab is hard to cure; the other is not so when it is new, and yellow matter comes from it: The hair will scarce ever come again when it is cured, the skin is so exceeding hard; rub the skin and if it will not seem red, there is no hopes of hair. The salt humours make the skin thick and dry, where∣fore it will be good to moisten with laying on a Beet, or a Colewort leaf spread with Hogs grease, and remove the scab with such things as cleanse and are some what sharp.

When the child comes to age, and is able to bear it, purge with Senna, Rhubarb, and A∣garick, then take Brimstone two drams, Mustard half a dram, Briony roots, and Staves-acre, of each one dram, Vinegar one ounce, Turpentine and Bears grease of each half an ounce; this ointment will make the scab fall: or if you beat Hogs-grease, and Water-cresses together, and lay it on the scab, it will fall off in four and twenty hours: when the scab is fallen use a pitcht Cap to pull out the hair by the roots; then use softeners to correct the dry distemper.

Apply things that will consume the excre∣ments

that lie deep in the skin; as take one ounce of each of these following roots, of Docks, Lillies, and Marshmallows; of Mal∣lows, Fumitory, Sage, of each two handfuls, and boil all in vinegar, and Ly, and wash the head daily with it: Then make a Cerot of Tar and Wax; or take salt-Peter one ounce, Oxymel one ounce and a half; or mingle with Hogs grease live Brimstone one ounce, with Hellebore, and Staves-acre, of each two drams; but beware of poisons, such as are Arsenick, or Pigment, or Mercury, for they are dangerous to corrode the part that lieth so near the brain.

XIII. Sometimes childrens heads swell with water, and are very big; the water is either without the skul, or within the skul; for this water lieth either between the skin, and the pericranium, or between the bone and the pericranium, or between the bone and the membranes, called the Dura and Pia Mater. Sometimes abundance of vapours get between the bones and skin of the head, & make the head so great, that they kill the child; If it be water the child will be giddy, and have Epileptick fits, nor can it rest. If it be only, wind between the skin and the peri∣cranium a decoction of Sage, Betony, Ca∣lamint,

and Origanum, of each one handful; of Anniseeds and Fennel seeds of each two drams, with a handful of Cammomile flow∣ers, and of Melilot and red roses the like quan∣tity boiled in water with some wine will cure it. The watry humour is hardly cured: A humour from water within the brain is smal∣ler and harder than when it is out of the skull, but it is more hard to cure, and almost incu∣rable. A humour of wind is seldome without water that breeds it; apply discussers that make the humours thin, to the head, the nose, and the ears; as Cammomile, Rue, and O∣riganum. Take thirty snails in their shells, of Mugwort, and Marjoram of each one handful, stamp them, then put to them Saf∣fron half a dram, and a scruple of Camphire, and make a poultiss with oil of Cammomile: Also take Nutmegs, Cubebs, Cloves of each one scruple; Frankincense Bark, Calamus, of each half a dram; Marjoram water three ounces, snuff up this water often, and drop hot oils into the ears. If the water be not dis∣sipated in twenty daies, you must open the skull, and let out the water by degrees; and beware that the child take no cold: If such means as are outwardly applied will not help it, the last remedy is by the Chirurgion.

XIV. Sometimes children are much vex∣ed with the Hiccough, or Hickets, or Huckets as they call it, it comes commonly from too much repletion, and fulness; wherefore dip a feather in oil, and put it down the childs Throat and make it vomit: It may come from a cold stomach, then anoint the stomach with oil of Cammomile, of Worm wood, of Ma∣stick and Quinces, and dissolve a scruple of the Troches of Diarrhodon in the Nurses Milk, and give it the child.

If this disease come from too much Milk, the belly swells, and the child vomits: if the Nurses Milk be bad it comes from thence: and the Excrements will smell of stinking Milk.

This is no dangerous disease unless the cause be violent, for then it will flie to the Nerves, and cause a Convulsion, Falling sick∣ness and death.

Give the child sirrups of Mints and Betony, to strengthen the stomach, and anoint it with oil of Mints, of Mastick, and of Dill.

There is a disease like the Hickets in chil∣dren, from grief, or anger, when the spirits flie from the Heart to the Midriff, and stop the breath, but it is soon over.

XV. Children are sometimes subject to vomiting from too much, or from ill milk, or from flegm that falls from the head to the sto∣mach; a moist loose stomach is the immediate cause; if they vomit milk they are better for it: if the milk be naught, the matter that comes forth will shew that, for it is yellow, green, or filthy coloured, and it stinks.

Worms may make them vomit, but that will be known by the signs: children that vomit often are best in health, and thrive best, because their stomach is kept clean of ill humours; but to vomit too much will make them wast a∣way: cleanse the stomach with honey of Ro∣ses, and strengthen it with sirrup of Quinces, and of Mints.

When the humour is too sharp and hot, give the sirrup of Pomegranates, or of Coral, or of Currants: Coral hath a hidden vertue, and some hang it about their necks.

Anoint the stomach with oils of Mastick, Mints, Quinces, Wormwood, of each half an ounce; oil of Nutmegs (by expression) half a dram; oil of Mints chymically ex∣tracted three drops, or dip bread in hot Wine, and lay it to the mouth of the Sto∣mach.

XVI. If the child be griped, and pained in the belly, you shall know it by the great unquietness, and crying, and turning it self from side to side; it is oft with a scowring, and from bad milk, that breeds sharp windy hu∣mours; it gets to the guts and gnaws them; and sometimes it is from worms: if it be wind it will cease when they break wind; but ill humors cause a constant pain. Tough flegm binds the belly, and the Dung is slimy: sharp humours cause a green and yellow, flux; if this pain last long, it casts them into con∣vulsions, and falling-sicknesses, and is dange∣rous: Foment the belly with a decoction of Lavender, Fennel, and Cummin seed; or take oil of Olives, and Dill seed, and dip a piece of Wool in it, and lay it over the belly warm.

Give the child some oil of sweet Almonds, with Sugar-Candy, and a scruple of Anni-seeds, and purge it with Honey of Roses, which is good also when the body is swoln with wind, or too much milk not digested: and use a decoction of Cardiaca, Cammomile flowers, and Cummin seed; or boil the top of dwarf-Elder, and of Elder in white wine, and bath the parts that are swoln with it.

If the griping pain comes from the sharp

milk, sirrup of Succory with Rhubarb, or sirrup, or Honey of Roses; or a Glister of the decoction of bran, and Pellitory of the wall, with sirrup of Roses is very good, using an outward Ointment of oil of Dill, and Cammomile.

XVII. Sometimes children will sneeze mightily, it may come from an imposthume in the head; then cooling oils and ointments are commended; but if any other cause pro∣duce it, put the powder of Bazil into the no∣strils: If heat cause it the childs eyes will sink in; then bruise Purslain leaves, and with oil of Roses, Barley meal, and the yolk of an egg mingled, make an Application to the Head.

XVIII. When the child is Feaverish and hot, the nurse must eat cooling and moisten∣ing things; and anoint all the parts of the child with oil of Roses, and Unguent Popule∣on; and lay to the breasts clarified juice of Wormwood, Plantane, Mallows, Seagreen, made to a Cataplasme of Barley meal.

XIX. It falls oftentimes out that children are squint-eyed, and that comes when they lie in their Cradle, and the Candle, or light

stands behind them, or on one side: It may come from the Falling-sickness, or by birth, but that is seldome and not curable: if ill custom have bred it, put your candle on the other side, or a Picture, till the childs eyes come to look right; but you may prevent all if you set the candle before the child, and not on ei∣ther side, for the child will stare after the light; you may when you find the childs eyes distor∣ted, hang cloths of all colours on the other side, to make the child to turn the eyes the contrary way, to gaze on them till it be cu∣red.

XX. Sometimes children have sore eyes with great pain, with Ulcers, and Worms, and inflammations; for childrens brains are very moist, and there are many excrements which nature casts forth at other places, be∣cause the natural Emunctories will not carry them all out; much of this goes to their ears, which will be very sore, that they will cry, and not suffer them to be touched; it is dan∣gerous, for it will not let them sleep, the heat and pain is so great; it causeth the Falling-sickness, and fouls the spongy bones, and breeds Worms, and sometimes makes children deaf so long as they live; you cannot use strong reme∣dies to children; drop a little hemp seed oil with

Wine into their ears; to allay the pain, use warm milk about their ears, or oil of Violets, or the decoction of Poppey tops: to dry up the moisture use honey of Roses, or water of honey to drop in their ears.

XXI. The usual painful disease of all chil∣dren is the breeding of their teeth; it is very dangerous to some: about the seventh month, first come forth the fore teeth, then the ey∣teeth, lastly the grinders: first the Gums itch, then they prick like needles, by reason of the sharp bones, which causeth watchings, and inflammations of the Gums, Feavers, Convulsions, Scourings; especially when they breed their eye-teeth. The beginning of the seventh month is the time that discovers it, and the childs putting his finger into his mouth, and holding the nipple faster than they were wont; when the tooth is coming forth, the Gum is whiter than in other parts: the watching breeds cholerick humours, and in∣flames the body, and brings a Feaver.

If the teeth be long before they can come forth, children commonly will die of Feavers, and Convulsion fits: they that scowr have seldome any Convulsion.

When the gums are thick, the teeth can scarce get forth; wherefore soften the Gum

with rubbing it with Honey and Fresh Butter; or let the child chew a candle of Virgins Wax: Let the Nurse keep a moderate Diet, inclining to cold, as Barley Broths, Water-Gruel, Lettice, Endive, Rear-eggs: take heed of salt spiced meats, and wine; but anoint the childs Gum with a Mucilage of Quinces, made with Mallows water, or with the brains of an Hare.

XXII. If the Gums be ulcerated, let the Nurse rub the childs gums, and Wheals, and Pushes with her finger, and anoint them with Hens grease, Hares brains, oil of Cammo∣mile, and Mel Rosarum, or sirrup of violets, with Plantane water; and if the inflamma∣tion be great, boil Pomegranate flowers, Ro∣ses, and Sanders of each two drams, Allum half a dram, in water, strain out three ounces, and dissolve in it the sirrup of Mulberries half an ounce. If the Pushes and Wheals be white, take Pomegranate flowers, Amber, Cypress nuts of each two drams, Roses, and Myrtle flowers of each half a handful, boil them in water, add to the decoction one ounce and a half of honey of Roses.. Sometimes there riseth between the Gums, and the great teeth a little fleshy substance, to consume that wash it with a deccoction of the roots of Plan∣tain,

Bugloss, Agrimony of each a handful, Barley a small handful, and red Roses a hand∣ful; four Dates, Flowers of Pomegranates two drams, Liquorish one dram and a half.

XXIII. Children are very much molested with destillations, Coughs, and Catarrhs: if the humour be sharp and hot that falls from the brain, the child will look red in the face; if it be a cold humour much matter will run forth at the nose and mouth; then keep the child resonably warm, and give it Sugar can∣dy, with oil of sweet Almonds: wash the childs feet with Ale boiled with Betony, Mar∣joram, Rosemary, then anoint the soles of the feet with Goose grease: rub the breast with fresh butter, and oil of sweet Almonds, and lay on warm linnen cloths; for slimy humours give it a spoonful of sirrup of Maiden-hair, or of Liquorish and Hyssop mingled, Take also Gum Traganth, Arabick, Quince seeds, juice of Liquorish, and Sugar Pelets, mingle them, and in new milk let the child take of it every day. Where the cause is cold that makes the Cough; beat a little Myrrh to powder and give it the child, with oil of sweet Almonds, and a little honey when it comes from heat, make a decoction of Raisins in water, and with white poppey seed, and Gum Dragant

each two drams; seeds of Gourds four drams, beat all together, and give the child a four penny weight in the foresaid decoction.

XXIV. If the breath be short let it take an Electuary of Honey and Linseed, and a∣noint the ears and parts about them with O∣live oil.

XXV. If the childs nose be stopt, put a little Ointment of Roses, and good Poma∣tum into the Nostrils to soften the hard mat∣ter.

Wash the inflamed, or Gummy eyes, that will not open, with breast milk, or Plantain and Rose Water: Childrens moist brains breed moist humours that run to their ears; make them clean with a rag, and drop in Ho∣ney of Roses mingled with oil of bitter Al∣monds.

XXVI. If the child new born be in great pain, then rub it with Pellitory of the wall and fresh Butter, or with Spinach and Hogs-grease, and lay it to the Navel, take care it be not too hot; or make a cake of oils of eggs and of Nuts for the Navel; give it a Glister if it need with Milk, Sugar, and the yolk of an Egg.

XXVII. Children are subject to all sorts of Feavers, but chiefly to Feavers from cor∣rupt milk, and Feavers with breeding of teeth.

They have epidemical Feavers sometimes that cast forth the Meazles, or small Pox; the mothers menstrual blood is the original cause, but the corrupt air stirs it up; for as the air is pure, or impure, so these diseases are more raging, or less: It is oftentimes infectious, and the humours so corrupt, that worms breed under the scabs, and corrode the bones and in∣ward parts, as hath been proved by opening some that died. If it be a Feaverish time, that it spreads much, give good Antidotes, and change the air; but all children almost will have them first or last: Before there is a Feaver you may fortifie nature, and give a a gentle purge; but for my part I approve not of purging, or bleeding in these distempers, unless it be long before: So soon as you see the feaver, drive them out by Cordials, and pre∣fer the eyes and throat, and prevent defor∣mity.

The first signs of this disease (for they are both from one cause) are pains of the head, redness in the eyes, a dry Cough with a feaver, then little pimples break forth all the body o∣ver, but chiefly they aim at the throat and face.

The small Pox is dangerous to all, but most to those that are of an ill habit of body; and if they come forth in heaps and not orderly; or if they look blew, black, or ill coloured, they are exceeding dangerous. If the child suck, the nurse must use a moderate diet; she may eat Hen broth, with herbs of Succory, Borrage, Bugloss, and Endive boiled in it: Let her drink this drink following to make them come easily and quickly forth; take peel∣ed Lentils half an ounce, fat figs two ounces, Gum Lac two drams, Gum Traganth and Fennel seed of each two drams and a half: boil this in fountain water, strain it, and sweeten two pints of it with Sugar, and sirrup of Maiden-hair, let her drink half a pint fasting. If the child be weaned give it a Julep of cor∣dial waters two ounces and a half, sirrup of Lemmons one ounce, use this often; and four or five hours after, give it some Unicorns horn and Oriental Bezoar in powder.

To preserve the eyes anoint the Eye-lids with Plantane and Rose water, and a little Saffron: To preserve the nose take Rose wa∣ter, and Betony of each one ounce, Vinegar half an ounce, and as much powder of peels of Citrons, add to it Saffron six grains, let the child smell to it often; dip some cotton in it, and stop the ears to keep the Small Pox

from thence. You may preserve the mouth, the tongue, and the throat with a handful of bar∣ley, and leaves of Plantain, Sorrel, Agrimo∣ny, and of Vervain, of each a handful, all boiled in water to six ounces, dissolve in it sirrup of Pomegranates, and of Roses of each half an ounce, Saffron half a scruple, make a Gargarisme: sirrup of Juniper, of Violets, and of water-Lillies preserve the Lungs.

When the Pox are fully out, then to make them die quickly rub the face with fresh hogs-grease, old Lard melted, and strained, and mingled with water, or with oil of sweet Almonds.

When the Pox are dead, and begin to fall away, to keep them from Pock-holes anoint the face with a feather dipt in an Ointment made of Chalk and Cream, use this two or three daies, it will smooth the skin hand∣somely, and take away the spots.

XXVIII. Children are exceedingly prone to breed Lice more than men of age, though all people are troubled with them: They breed from the Excrements of the head and body; it is not only filth that breeds Lice, but a cer∣tain matter fit for them; for fleas will not breed of the same that lice are bred of. Chil∣dren and women that are hot and moist have

many excrements to breed such things with∣all. Some meats breed Lice, as figs by their gross juice, which naturally tends to the skin, and variety of meat. Lice breed most in Childrens heads, and stick fast to the skin, and roots of the hair; some have died of Lice: and Lice will leave some when they are dying. To prevent Lice comb and keep childrens heads clean, let them eat no rigs, but meats of good juice, and purge them with hot drying, thin medicaments: Use ••o Mercury, nor Arsenick to childrens heads, but use this Lotion, take parts alike, of round Birthwort, Lupines, Pine and Cypress leaves, boil them in water, then anoint the head with powder of Staves-acre three drams, of Lupines half an ounce, of Agarick two drams, quick brimstone one dram and half, Ox Gall half an ounce, all made up wirh oil of Worm∣wood.

XXIX. If the child fright in the sleep, give it good breast milk, but not too much; let it not sleep presently, but carry it about till the milk descend to the bottom of the sto∣mack: give it sometimes the oil of sweet Al∣monds, or honey of Roses two spoonfuls. To cleanse the stomack strengthen it with magis∣tery of Coral, or Confection of Jacinths with

milk; anoint the stomach with oil of Worm-wood, Nard, Mints, Mastick, Nutmegs; if it be from worms, you have the remedies be∣fore: It is for the most part ill vapours that ascend by the Weasand and veins to the head, when children cannot concoct what they have in their stomachs.

XXX. Sometimes children cannot sleep, it is by reason of corrupt milk that disturbs the animal spirits; hence arise Catarrhs, Convul∣sions, Feavers, driness; let better milk be given it; the Nurse must eat Lettice, sweet Almonds, Poppey seeds, but sleeping medi∣caments are not good for infants. Wash the feet with a decoction of Dill tops, Cammo∣mile flowers,, Sage, Osiers, Vine leaves, Pop∣py heads: to the Temples use oil of Dill, or oil of Roses, with oil of Nutmegs, with Pop∣pey seeds, Breast milk, Rose, or Nightshade water, with Saffron. If the Childs brain be very dry, moisten the covering of the Cra∣dle.

XXXI. Bad and sharp milk hurts the childs stomach, for it cannot endure it, for it breeds bad humours: all these diseases spring from it, the Thrush, Bladders in the Gums, and inflammation of the Tonsils.

Bladders in the Gums are cured with pow∣der of Lentils husked, and strewed upon them; or with a Liviment of the flour of Mi∣lian, and oil of Roses.

The inflammation of the Tonsils (I sup∣pose) it is that disease in children called the Mumps, that commonly comes between ele∣ven and thirteen years old; the parts being then so hard, that the humour cannot breath forth: alwaies keep the belly loose, and a∣noint outwardly with oil of sweet Almonds, or Cammomile, or St. John's wort inwardly; first repel, secondly mix resolvers with repel∣lers, and lastly only resolvers, but not too hot; in age Gargarismes are best. Infants may take Diamoron, Honey of Roses, sirrup of Myrtles and Pomegranates.

XXXII. Sometimes childrens string of the tongue is so short that they cannot suck, a skilful Chirurgeon must help it: or use this Li∣viment, boil clarified honey till you can pow∣der it, then dry yolks of eggs in a Glass in an Oven, powder them, take a dram weight, Mastick and Frankincense, of each one scru∣ple, burnt Allum six grains, make it up with honey of roses. The Frog is, when the veins under the tongue swell with gross black blood; and if the flegm sweat forth, and stick in the

passages, the swelling is like Mushromes, and make them stammer; take Cuttlebone, Sal∣gem, Pepper of each one dram, burnt Spunge three drams, make a powder; or of Honey of Besome; rub it under the tongue, and lay a plaister of Goose dung, and Honey boiled in Wine till the Wine be consumed, under the Chin.

XXXIII. Some children grow lean, and pine away, and the cause is not known; if it be from Witchcraft, good prayers to God are the best remedy: yet some hang Amber, and Coral about the childs neck, as a Soveraign Amulet. But leanness may proceed from a dry distemper of the whole body, then it is best to bath it in a decoction of Mallows, Marshmallows, Branc-Ursine, Sheeps heads, and anoint with oil of sweet Almonds; if it be hot and dry add Roses, Violets, Lettice, Pop∣pey-heads, and afterwards anoint with oils of Violets, and Roses. The child may be lean from want of milk, or bad milk from the nurse, remedy that, or change the nurse, for little, or bad milk will breed no good blood, and the children cannot thrive by it: some∣times worms in the body draw away the nou∣rishment, sometimes very small worms breed without the body, all over, and in the Muscu∣lous

parts, and stick in the skin, and will not come quite forth; but after you rub the child in a Bath they will put forth their heads like black hairs, and run in again when they feel the cold air; they breed of slimy humours, shut up in the Capillary veins, which turn to worms for want of transpiration; if you rub the child with Yarhound on the back, and especial∣ly with Honey and Bread, you shall see their black heads; when you see the heads come forth, run over them with a Rasor, do it often.

XXXIV. Children used to be galled with lying in piss'd clouts, and the scarf skin comes from the true skin; the skin looks red, change the clouts often, and keep the child clean by washing it, then anoint the sore with Diapompholix, or cast on this powder finely sprinkled, of burnt Allum, Frankincense, Li∣tharge of Silver, and seeds and leaves of Ro∣ses.

XXXV. Some children cannot hold their water, but piss the bed when they sleep, the bladder-closing muscle being weak; so when piss pricks it, it comes forth. The stone in the bladder may hurt the Muscle; the cause of weakness is a cold moist humour, from su∣perfluity, or from tough and gross meats; in

Age it will be hard to be cured, but in infants it easily may. The nurse must use a hot drying diet, with Sage, Hyssop, Marjoram; the child must drink little; anoint the region of the bladder outwardly with oil of Costus, or Flower de luce, and other like driers; use Sulphur and Allum Baths, with oaken leaves: And give it this powder, take burnt Hogs-bladders, Stones of a Hare roasted, and Cocks throats roasted, of each half a dram, and two scruples of Acorns, Mace and Nip of each a scruple, give half a dram with Oaken leave Water.

XXXVI. Childrens Urine is sometimes stopt, either by gross matter, or the stone, you may try with the Catheter; you must purge the humours with honey of Roses, Cassia, Turpentine, with a decoction of red Pease, also Grass-water, and Restharrow, and Dropwort water are good; take Hares blood one ounce, Saxifrage roots six drams, calcine them, the Dose is a scruple, or half a dram, with White-Wine, and Saxifrage Water. The Stone in the bladder is as common with chil∣dren as the Stone of the Kidneys with men and women, crude gross meats and unclean milk breed it; there is also a weakness in the Liver and stomach when they do not well

part gross blood from the pure, but much ear∣thy juice remains in the child; sometimes it is natural from the Parents, they piss by drops; and what comes forth is like clear water, or whey, or milk, and sometimes blood comes forth; it grows daily, and at last they must be cut if they be not cured in time. Let then the belly be alwaies kept loose, and the nurse eat no slimy gross meats; anoint the bladder-with oil of Lillies, and of Scorpions, and lay on a Cataplasme of Pellitory of the Wall boild in oil of Lillies, or give two drops of Spirit of Vitriol, with half a drain of Cy∣press Turpentine. Take Magistery, or Crabs eyes, white Amber prepared, Goats blood of each a scruple, give it frequently, with water of Parsley.

XXXVII. There is one disease more I shall end with, and that is called Siriasis, an in∣flammation of the membranes of the brain, it is from phlegmatick blood putrified, and grows hot and cholerick; hot weather, windy milk, and nurses ill diet may cause it. The fore∣head grows hot & hollow the face is red, they are dry & Feaverish, want an appetite. The fore part of the head is hollow, where the sagittal and Coronal Sutures meet, for there the bones are membranons, and harden in time; it is

dangerous and some say deadly. When this bone or membrane falls there is a pit and the brain falls down, they commonly die in three daies. Give a glister of sirrup of Roses, or Vi∣olets, lay on coolers of the juice of Lettice, Gourd, Melons, or split a Pompion in two pieces, and lay it on, but cool not the brain too much, anoint it with oil of Roses, let the Nurses diet be cooling, or change her for a bet∣ter. Take oil of Roses half an ounce, Popu∣leon one ounce, the white of an egg, and an emulsion of the cold seeds drawn with Rose water two drams; after the inflammation is a∣bated, and the flux stopt, lay on oil of Cam∣momile one ounce and a half, of Dill hal half an ounce, with the yolk of an egg.

Thus by the blessing of Almighty God, I have with great pains and endeavour run through all the parts of the Midwives Duty; and what is required both for the Mother, the Nurse, and the Infant; desiring that it may be as useful for the end I have written it, to pro∣fit others, as I have found it beneficial to Me in my long Practice of Midwifery. To God a∣lone be all Praise and Glory, Amen.

FINIS.