at all it this necessary humor were wanting in the womb yet it may be some women may conceive without the flux of the courses but that is in such as have so much or the â—â—mor gathered together as is wont to remain in those which are purged although it be not so great a quantity that it may flow out as it is recorded by Aristotle But as it is in some very great and in some very little so it is in some seldom and in some very often What womeâ— have this mâ—nstrual flux often abundantly and for a lo ger space then others There are some that are purged twice and some thrice in a moneth but it is altogether in those who have a great liver large veins and are filled and fed with many and greatly nourishing meats which sit idlely at home all day which having slept all night do notwithstanding lie in bed sleeping a great part of the day also which live in a hot moist rainy and southerly air which use warm baths of sweet waters and gentle frictions which use and are greatly delighted with carnal copulation in these and such like women the courses flow more frequently and abundantly What women hâ—ve this flâ—x mâ—re 〈◊〉 leâ— and a far more short time then others But contrariwise those that have small and obscure veins and those that have their bodies more furnished and big either with flesh or with fat are more seldom purged and also more sparingly because that the sâ—perfluous quantity of blood useth to go into the habit of the body Also tender delicate and fair women are less purged than those that are brown and endued with a more compact flesh because that by the rarity of their bodies they suffer a greater wasting or dissipation of their substance by transpiration Moreover they are not so greatly purged with this kind of purgation which have some other solemn or accustomed evacuation in any other place of their body as by the nose or hemorrhoids Why young women are purged in the new of the Moon And as concerning their age old women are purged when the Moon is old and young women when the Moon is new as it is thought I think the cause thereof is for that the Moon ruleth moist bodies for by the variable motion thereof the Sea floweth and ebbeth and bones marrow and plants abound with their genital humor Therefore young people which have much blood and more fluxible and their bodies more fluxible are soon moved unto a flux although it be even in the first quarter of the Moons rising or increasing Why old women are purged in the wane of the Moon but the humors of old women because they wax stiff as it were with cold and are not so abundant and have more dense bodies and straighter vessels are not so apt to a flux nor do they so easily flow except it be in the full of the Moon or else in the decrease that is to say because the blood that is gathered in the full of the Moon falls from the body even of its own weight for that by reason of the decreasing or wane of the Moon this time of the moneth is more cold and moist CHAP. L. The causes of the Monethly Flux or Courses The material cause of the Monethtly flux BEcause a woman is more cold and therefore hath the digestive faculty more weak it cometh to pass that she requireth and desireth more meat or food than she can digest or concoct And because that superfluous humour that remaineth is not digested by exercise nor by the efficacy of strong and lively heat therefore by the providence or benefit of nature it floweth out by the veins of the womb by the power of the expulsive faculty at its own certain and prefixed season or time But then especially it beginneth to flow and a certain rude portion of blood to be expelled being hurtful and malign otherwise in no quality When the monthly flux begins to flow when nature hath laid her principal foundations of the increase of the body so that in greatness of the body she hath come as it were in a manner to the highest top that is to say from the thirteenth to the fiftieth year of her age Moreover the childe cannot be formed in the womb nor have his nutriment or encrease without this flux therefore this is another finall cause of the monethly flux The final cause Many are perswaded that women do far more abound with blood than men considering how great an abundance of blood they cast forth of their secret parts every month A woman exceeds a man in quantity of blood from the thirteenth to the fiftieth year of their age how much women great with child of whom also many are menstrual yeeld unto the nutriment and encrease of the childe in their wombs and how much Physicians take from women that are with childe by opening of a vein which otherwise would be delivered before their natural and prefixed time how great a quantity thereof they avoid in the birth of their children and for ten or twelve daies after and how great a quantity of milk they spend for the nourishment of the child when they give suck which milk is none other thing than blood made white by the power of the kernels that are in the dugs which doth suffice to nourish the child be he great or little yet notwithstanding many nurses in the mean while are menstrual A man exceedeth a women in the quality of his blood and as that may be true so certainly this is true that one dram that I may so speak of a mans blood is of more efficacy to nourish and encrease than two pounds of womans blood because it is far more perfect more concocted wrought and better replenished with abundance of spirits whereby it commeth to pass that a man endued with a more strong heat A man is more hot than a woman and therefore not menstrual doth more easily convert what meat soever he eateth unto the nourishment and substance of his body and if that any superfluity remains he doth easily digest and scatter it by insensible transpiration But a woman being more cold than a man because she taketh more than she can concoct doth gather together more humors which because she cannot disperse by reason of the unperfectness and weakness of her heat it is necessary that she should suffer and have her monthly purgation especially when she groweth unto some bigness but there is no such need in a man CHAP. LI. The causes of the suppression of the courses or menstrual flux THe courses are suppressed or stopped by many causes as by sharp vehement and long diseases by fear sorrow hunger immoderate labors watchings fluxes of the belly great bleeding haemorrhoids fluxes of blood at the mouth and evacuations in any other part of the body whatsoever often opening of a vein great sweats ulcers flowing much and long scabbiness
vel unguenti and there may be use of a resolving and repercussive Ointment as â„ž plumbi usti loti pomphol thuris an Ê’ ij ss absinth pontic â„¥ ss olei rosarum â„¥ iij ceraeÊ’ vi succi solani quantum sufficit ad unguenti crassitudinem They very much commend Theodoricks Emplaister to asswage the pain of ulcerated Cancers â„ž olei ros cerae all an â„¥ ii ss succi granat solani an â„¥ ij cerusae lotae â„¥ i plumbi usti loti Theodoricks Emplaisters tuthiae prapar an â„¥ ss thuris mastich an Ê’ ij fiat empl molle This following Ointment I have often used with good success â„ž Theriac veter â„¥ i succi cancrorum â„¥ ss succi lactucae olei rosar an â„¥ i ss vitel ovorum sub cinerib coct ij camphor Ê’ ss pistentur omnia in mertario plumb fiat ungentum â„ž Spum argent axungiae porci recentis cerae alb an lb ss olei boni â„¥ viij vitel ovorum assat iiij fiat unguent servetur usui And when you will use it mix it with a little Ointment of Roses Leaches The application of Whelps Chickens c. I have also mitigated great pain by applying Leaches to an unulcerated Cancer in that part where the torment was most vehement by disburdening the part of some portion of the malign humor which same thing I have done by application of young Whelps or Pigeons or Chickens cut long-ways and presently applyed to the ulcer and now and then changed assoon as their heat seems dissolved and others applyed for the natural heat in an Anodyne or mitigating medicine Epist 21. The Estate of Erysimum John Baptista Theodosius in his Epistles writes that a cataplasm of the herb Erisimum or Cadlock being beaten is very good to be applyed to a Cancer not ulcerated but if the Cancer be ulcerated he boils this same herb in Hydromel and so by injections and lotions cleanses the ulcer The signs of the Cancer in the womb and mitigates the pain If the Cancer affect the womb the Patient feels the pricking of the pain in the groin above the pecten and in the Kidneys and is often troubled with a difficulty of making water but when it is ulcerated it pours forth filth or matter exceeding stinking and carion-like and that in great plenty the filthy vapour of which carryed up to the heart and brain causes often swounding Now to mitigate the pains of such like places the following medicines are of good use â„ž Mucag. semin lini faenugr extract in aqua rosar plantaginis quod satis est Of this being warm make a fomentation â„ž Rad. Altheae lb ss coquatur in hydromelite pistetur trajiciatur addendo ol rosar parum fiat Caplasma Also you shall make divers pessaries according to the different kinds of pain also make injections of the juyce of Plantain Knot-grass Lettuce Purslain mixed together and agitated or laboured in a leaden Mortar with a little Oyl of Roses for this kind of medicine is commended by Galen in every kind of ulcerated Cancers Also this following Water is very profitable Lib. 9. Simpl. and often proved by me â„ž Stercoris bubuli lb iiij herbae Roberti plantag sempervivi hyoscyami portulac l. ctuc. endiv. an m. i. cancros fluviatiles num xij Let them be all beaten together and distilled in a leaden Alembick keep the liquor for use and with it make often injection into the part or if the site of the part will permit let the cancerous ulcers be washed therewith and pledgets of lint steeped therein be applyed and renewed ever and anon for so the acrimony and force of the inflammation is retunded and the pain asswaged Galen beats into powder River-Crabs burnt Lib. 4. de comp med secundum gen the powder mixed with Ointment of Roses is most profitably applyed upon lint to cancerous Ulcers It will be very convenient to put into the neck of the womb the following Instrument made of Gold or Silver whereby the cancerous filth may have free and safe passage forth and the filthy and putredinous vapours may more easily breathe forth Therefore let it be hollow quite through some five or six fingers long and about the bigness of ones thumb at the upper end perforated with many holes whereby the filth may have passage forth Let the outer or lower end be some two fingers thick in the circumference make it with a neat spring that may hold that end open more or less according to the Physitians mind let there be two strings or laces put unto it by which being tyed before and behind to the rowler with which the woman shall girt her loins the Device may be kept from falling as your may see in the following figure A Vent made like a Pessary for the Womb affected with a cancerous Ulcer A Shews the upper end perforated with five or six holes B The lower end C That part of the end which is opened by the spring which is marked with the Letter D. EE The strings or laces Neither is that remedy for not ulcerated Cancers to be contemned which consists of a Plate of lead besmeared with Quick-silver for Galen himself testifies Lib. 6. simp Plates of Lead that Lead is a good medicine for malign and inveterate ulcers But Guido Cauliacensis is a witness of ancient credit and learning that such plates of lead rubbed over with Quick-silver A History to such malign ulcers as contemn the force of other medicins are as it were Antidotes to waste and overcome their malignity and evil nature This kind of remedy when it was prescribed by that most excellent Physitian Hollerius who commanded me to apply it to the Lady of Montigni Maid of Honour to the Queen-mother troubled with a Cancer in her left brest which equalled the bigness of a Walnut did not truly throughly heal it yet notwithstanding kept it from further growth Wherefore at length growing weary of it when she had committed herself to a certain Physitian boldly promising her quick help she tryed with loss of her life how dangerous and disadvantagious the cure of Cancer was which is undertaken according to the manner of healing other ulcers for this Physitian when he had cast away this our medicin and had begun the cure with mollifying heating and attractive things the pain inflammation and all the other symptoms encreasing the tumor grew to that bigness that being the humor drawn thither could not be contained in the part it self it stretched the brest forth so much that it broke it in the middle just as a Pomgranate cleaves when it comes to its full maturity whereupon an immoderate flux of bloud followed for staying whereof he was forc't to strew caustick powders thereon but by this means the inflamation and pain becoming more raging and swoundings coming upon her she poor Soul in stead of her promised Health yielded up her Ghost in the Physitians bosom CHAP. XXXI Of the
ears neither doth the phlegmon in the jaws and throat admit the same form of cure as it doth in other parts of the body For none can there outwardly apply repercussives without present danger of suffocation What the conditions of the parts affected do indicate So there is no use of repercussives in defluxions of those parts which in site are neer the principal Neither must thou cure a wounded Nerve and Muscle after one manner The temperature of a part as Moisture alwayes indicates its preservation although the disease be moist and give Indication of drying as an ulcer The principality of a part always insinuates an Indication of astringent things although the disease require dissolving as an Obstruction of the Liver for otherwise unless you mix astringent things with dissolving you will so dissolve the strength of the part that hereafter it cannot suffice for sanguification If the texture of a part be rare it shews it is less apt or prone to obstruction if dense it is more obnoxious to that disease hence it is that the Liver is oftner obstructed than the Spleen If the part be situate more deep or remote it indicates the medicines must be more vigorous and liquid that they may send their force so far The sensibleness or quick-sense of the part gives Indication of milder medicines than peradventure the signs or notes of a great disease require Indications from the ages For the Physitian which applyes things equally sharp to the Horny tunicle of the eye being ulcerated and to the leg must needs be counted either cruel or ignorant Each Sex and Age hath its Indications for some diseases are curable in youth which we must not hope to cure in old age for hoarsness and great distillations in very old men admit no digestion as Hippocrates saith Aphor. 40. li. 2. Nunquam decrepitus Bronchum coquit atque Coryzam The feeble Sire for age that hardly goes Ne're well digests the hurtful Rheume or pose Moreover according to his decree the diseases of the Reins Aphor. 6. sect 6. and whatsoever pains molest the bladder are difficultly healed in old men and also reason perswades that a Quartain admits no cure in Winter and scarce a Quotidian and Ulcers in like manner are more hard to heal in Winter that hence we may understand certain Indications to be drawn from time and to increase the credit of the variety and certainty of Indications some certain time and seasons in those times command us to make choice of medicines for as Hippocrates testifies Aphor. 5. sect 4. Ad Canis ardorem facilis purgatio non est In Dog-dayes heat it is not good By purging for to cleanse the blood Neither shalt thou so well prescribe aslender diet in Winter as in the Spring for the air hath its Indications For experience teaches us that wounds of the head are far more difficultly and hardly cured at Rome Naples and Rechel in Xantoigne But the times of diseases yeeld the principal Indications for some Medicines are only to be used at the beginning and end of diseases others at the increase and vigour of the disease From our diet We must not contemn those Indications which are drawn from the vocation of Life and manner of Diet for you must otherwise deal with the painful Husbandman when he is your Patient which leads his life sparingly and hardly than with the Citizen who lives daintily and idlely To this manner of life diet may be referred a certain secret and occult property Hatred arising from secret properties by which many are not only ready to vomit at eating of some meats but tremble over all their bodies when they hear them but spoken of I knew a prime Nobleman of the French Nobility who was so perplext at the serving in of an Eel to the Table at the midst of dinner and amongst his friends that he fell into a swound all his powers failing him Galen in his Book de Censuetudine tells that Aerius the Peripatetick died sodainly because compelled by the advice of those Physitians he used he drank a great draught of cold water in the intolerable heat of a Feaver For no reason saith Galen than that because he knowing he had naturally a cold stomach from his childhood perpetually abstained from cold water Indications taken from things against nature For as much as belongs to Indications taken from things against nature the length and depth of a wound or ulcer indicates one way the figure cornered round equal and smooth unequal and rough with a hollowness streight or winding indicate otherwise the site right left upper lower in another manner and otherwise the force and violence of antecedent and conjunct causes For oftentimes the condition of the cause indicates contrary to the disease as when abundance of cold and gross humors cause and nourish a Feaver So also a Symptome often indicates contrary to the disease in which contradiction that Indication must be most esteemed which doth most urge as for example sake If swounding happen in a Feaver the feaverish burning shall not hinder us from giving wine to the Patient Wherefore these Indications are the principallest and most noble which lead us as by the hand to do these things which pertain to the cure prevention and mitigating of diseases But if any object that so curious a search of so many Indications is to no purpose because there are many Chirurgeons which setting only one before their eyes which is drawn from the Essence of the disease have the report and fame of skilful Chirurgeons We do not alwayes follow the Indication which is from the disease in the opinion of the vulgar But let him know that it doth not therefore follow that this Indication is sufficient for the cure of all diseases for we do not always follow that which the Essence of the disease doth indicate to be done But chiefly then where none of the fore-recited Indications doth resist or gain-say You may understand this by the example of a Plethora which by the Indication drawn from the Essence of the thing requires Phlebotomy yet who is it that will draw blood from a child of three months old Besides such an Indication is not artificial but common to the Chirurgeon with the common people For who is it that is ignorant that contraries are the remedies of contraries and that broken bones must be united by joyning them together But how it must be performed and done this is of Art and peculiar to a Chirurgeon and not known to the vulgar Which the Indications drawn from those fountains we pointed at before aboundantly teaches which as by certain limits of circumstances encompass the Indication which is taken from the Essence of the disease In what parts we cannot hope for restoring of solution of continuity lest any should think we must trust to that only For there is some great and principal matter in it but not all For so
so it may bind them together and strengthen and beautifie the whole joint or connexion for these three be the principal uses of a ligament then diffusing it self into the membranes and muscles to strengthen those parts The treefold use of a Ligament What a Nerve is A Nâ—rve to speak properly is also a simple part of our body bred and nourished by a gross and pâ—legmatick humour such as the brain the original of all the nerves and also the Spinal marrow endued with the faculty of feeling and oftentimes also of moving For there be divers parts of the body which have nerves yet are destitute of all voluntary motion having the sense only of â—eeling as the membranes veins arteries guts and all the entrails A nerve is covered with a double cover from the two membranes of the brain and besides also with a third proceeding from the ligaments which fasten the hinder part of the head to the Vertebra's or else from the Pericranium What we mean by the nervous and ligamentous fibers We understand no other things by the fibers of a Nerve or of a Ligament than long and slender threds white solid cold strong more or less according to the quantity of the substance which is partly nervous and sensible partly ligamentous and insensible You must imagine the same of the fleshy fibers in their kind but of these threds some are streight for attraction others oblique for retention of that which is convenient for the creature and lastly some transverse for expulsion of that which is unprofitable But when these transverse threds are extended in length they are lessened in bredth but when they are directly contracted they are shortned in length But when they are extended all together as it were with an unanimous consent the whole member is wrinkled as contracted into it self as on the contrary it is extended when they are relaxed Some of these are bestowed upon the animal parts to perform voluntary motions others upon the vital to perform the agitation of the heart and arteries others upon the natural for attraction By what power the similar parts principally draw or attract What and of how many sorts the flesh is retention and expulsion Yet we must observe that the attraction of no similar part is performed by the help of the foresaid fibers or threds but rather by the heat implanted in them or by the shunning of emptiness or the familiarity of the substance The flesh also is a simple and soft part composed of the pure portion of the blood insinuating it self into the spaces between the fibers so to invest them for the uses formerly mentioned This is as it were a certain wall and bulwark against the injuries of heat and cold against all falls and bruises as it were a certain soft pillow or cushion yielding to any violent impression There be three sorts of flesh one more ruddy as the musculous flesh of perfect creatures and such as have blood for the flesh of all tender and young things having blood as Calves and also of all sorts of fish is whitish by reason of the too much humidity of the blood The second kind is more pallid even in perfect creatures having blood such is the flesh of the heart stomach weason guts bladder womb The third is belonging to the entrails or the proper substance of each entrail as that which remains of the Liver the veins arteries and coat being taken away of the bladder of the gall brains kidnies milt Some add a fourth sort of flesh which is spongy that they say is proper to the tongue alone What a vein is A Vein is the vessel pipe or channel of the blood or bloody matter it hath a spermatick substance consists of one coat composed of three sorts of fibers What an Artery is An Artery is also the receptacle of blood but that spirituous and yellowish consisting in like manner of a spermatick substance But it hath two coats with three sorts of fibers the utmost whereof is most thin consisting of right fibers and some oblique But the inner is five times more thick and dense than the utmost interwoven with transverse fibers and it doth not only contain blood and spirit but also a serous humour which we may believe because there be two emulgent Arteries as well as Veins Why an artery is more thick and dense than a vein But the inner coat of an Artery is therefore more thick because it may contain blood which is more hot subtil and spirituous for the spirit seeing it is naturully more thin and light and in perpetual motion would quickly fly away unless it were held in a stronger hold There is other reason for a Vein as that which contains blood gross ponderous and slow of motion Wherefore if it had acquired a dense and gross coat it could scarce be distributed to the neighbouring parts The mutual Anastomasis of the veins and arteries Where it is manifest God the maker of the Universe foreseeing this made the coats of the vessels contrary to the consistence of the bodies contained in them The Anastomasis of the Veins and Arteries that is to say the application of the mouths of the one to the other is very remarkable by benefit of which they mutually communicate and draw the matters contained in them and so also transfuse them by insensible passages although that Anastomasis is apparent in the Vein and Artery that meet together at the joint and bending of the arm which I have sometimes shewed in the Physick schools at such time as I there dissected Anatomies From whence a muscle hath its beginning or head But the action or function of a Muscle is either to move or confirm the part according to our will into which it is implanted which it doth when it draws it self toward its original that is to say its head But we define the head by the insertion of the nerve which we understand by the manner of the working of the Muscle CHAP. XI Of the Muscles of the Epigastrium or lower Belly NOw seeing that we have taught what a Muscle is and what the differences thereof are and what simple and compound parts it hath and what the use action and manner of action in each part is it remains that we come to the particular explication of each Muscle beginning with those of the lower belly as those which we first meet withal in dissection Eight muscles of the Epigastrium These are eight in number four oblique two on each side two right or direct one on the right another on the left side and in like manner two transverse All these are alike in force magnitude and action so mutually composed that the oblique descendant of one side is conjoined with the other oblique descendant on the other side and so of the rest We may add to this number the two little Supplying or Assisting muscles which are of a Pyramidal form The oblique
a fire draws the adjacent air and the flame of a Candle the Tallow which is about the wiek for nourishments sake Whilst the Heart is dilated it draws the air whilst it is drawn together or contracted it expels it This motion of the Heart is absolutely natural as the motion of the Longs is animal Some add a third cause of the attraction of the Heart to wit the similitude of the whole substance But in my judgment this rather takes place in that attraction which is of blood by the venae coronales for the proper nourishment of the Heart than in that which is performed for attraction of matters for the benefit of the whole Body These Ears differ in quantity for the right is far more capacious than the left Their magnitude and Number because it was made to receive a greater abundance of matter They are two in number on each side one situate at the basis of the Heart The greater at the entrance of the hollow vein into the Heart the less at the entrance of the veinous and of the great Artery with which parts they both have connexion We have formerly declared what use they have that is Their use to break the violence of the matters and besides to be stays or props to the Arteria venosa and great Artery which could not sustain so rapid and violent a motion as that of the Heart by reason of their tenderness of substance Of the Ventricles of the Heart THe Ventricles are in number two on each side one The partition between the ventricles of the heart distinguished with a fleshy partition strong enough having many holes in the superficies yet no where piercing through The right of these Ventricles is the bigger and encompassed with the softer and rarer flesh the left is the lesser but is engirt with a threefold more dense and compact flesh for the right Ventricle was made for a place to receive the blood brought by the hollow-vein and for distributing of it partly by the Vena arteriosa into the lungs for their nourishment partly into the left ventricle by sweating through the wall or partition to yield matter for the generation of the vital spirits Therefore because it was needful there should be so great a quantity of this blood Why the right ventricle is more capacious and less compact it was likewise fit that there should be a place proportionable to receive that matter And because the blood which was to be received in the right ventricle was more thick it was not so needful that the flesh to contain it should be so compact but on the contrary the arterious blood and vital spirit have need of a more dense receptacle for fear of wasting and lest they should vanish into air and also less room that so the heat being united might become the stronger and more powerfully set upon the elaboration of the blood and spirits Therefore the right Ventricle of the Heart is made for preparation of the blood appointed for the nourishment of the Lungs and the generation of the vital spirits The action of the right ventricle as the Lungs are made for the mitification or qualifying of the Air. Which works were necessary if the Physical Axiome be true That like is nourished by like as the rare and spongious Lungs with more subtil blood the substance of the Heart gross and dense with the veinous blood as it flows from the Liver that is gross The action of the left ventricle And it hath its Coronal veins from the Hollow-vein that it might thence draw as much as should be sufficient But the left Ventricle is for the perfecting of the vital spirit and the preservation of the native heat Of the Orifices and Valves of the Heart The uses of the four orifices of the Heart THere be four Orifices of the Heart two in the right and as many in the left Ventricle the greater of the two former gives passage to the vein or the blood carryed by the Hollow-vein to the Heart the lesser opens a passage to the Vena arteriosa or the cholerick blood carried in it for the nourishment of the Lungs The larger of the two other makes a way for the distribution of the Artery Aorta and the vital spirit through all the body but the lesser gives egress and regress to the Ateria venosa or to the air and fuliginous vapors And because it was convenient that the matters should be admitted into their proper Ventricles by these orifices by the Diastole to wit into the right ventricle by the greater orifice and into the left by the lesser and because on the contrary it was fit that the matters should be expelled by the Systole from their ventricles by the fore-mentioned orifices The Valves Therefore nature to all these orifices hath put eleaven valves that is to say six in the right ventricle that there might be three to each orifice five in the left that the greater orifice might have three and the lesser two for the reason we will presently give How they differ These Valves differ many ways First in action for some of them carry in matter to the Heart others hinder that which is gone out that it come not back again Secondly they differ in site Action Site Figure for those which bring in have membranes without looking in those which carry out have them within looking out Thirdly in figure for those which carry in have a Pyramidal figure but those which hinder the coming back again are made in the shape of the Roman letter C. Fourthly Substance in substance for the former for the most part are fleshy or woven with fleshy fibers into certain fleshy knots ending towards the point of the heart The latter are wholly membranous Number Fiftly they differ in number for there be only five which bring in three in the right ventricle at the greater orifice and two in the left at the lesser orifice those which prohibit the coming back Motion are six in each ventricle three at each orifice Lastly they differ in motion for the fleshy ones are opened in the Diastole for the bringing in of blood and spirit and contrariwise are shut in the Systole that they may contain all or the greater part of that they brought in The membranous on the contrary are opened in the Systole to give passage forth to the blood and spirits over all the body but shut in the Diastole that that which is excluded might not flow back into the Heart But you shall observe that Nature hath placed only two Valves at the orifice of the Arteria venosa Why there be only two Valves at the Orifice of the Arteria venosa because it was needful that this Orifice should be always open either wholly or certainly a third part thereof that the air might continually be drawn into the Heart by this Orifice in Inspiration and sent forth by
by a toothed saw or comb-like connexion But if any ask why the head consists not of one Bone that so it might be the stronger I answer It is that so it might be the safer both from internal and external injuries Why the scull consists of divers bones For the skull being as it were the tunnel of the chimney of this humane fabrick to which all the smoky vapours of the whole Body ascend if it had been composed of one Bone these vapours should have had no passage forth In what bodies and by what mean the vena pupis sometimes enters into the parts within the skull Wherefore the grosser vapours pass away by the Sutures but the more subtile by the pores of the skull some have their Sutures very open but others on the contrary very close Therefore nature hath otherwise compendiously provided for such as want Sutures For it hath made one or two holes some two fingers bredth from the Lambdoides through which the Vena pupis enters into the skull and they are of that largeness that you may put a points tag into them that the vapours may have free passage forth otherwise there would be danger of death thus nature hath been careful to provide for man against internal injuries and in like manner against external for it hath made the head to consist of divers bones that when one is broken the other may be safe the violence of the stroke being stayed in the division of the Bones In what men one part of the head being stricken the opposite is broken Whereby you may know that if the skull chance to be broken in the opposite side to that which received the blow that it happens either by reason of the defect of sutures or else because they are unperfect too firmly closed otherwise it is impossible such fractures should happen by reason of the separation of the Bones which breaks the violence of the blow that it can go no further And certainly as it is rare to find a skull without Sutures so it is rare to find such kind of fractures Therefore Chirurgeons must diligently observe the Sutures and site of them lest they be deceived and take them for fractures or unawares apply a Trepan to them Why we must not apply a Trepan to the Sutures whence by breaking the veins arteries and nervous fibers by which the internal parts communicate with the external there may ensue increase of pain a violent defluxion of blood upon the Crassa meninx and the falling thereof upon the Brain the fibers being broken by which it stuck to the Pericranium and so consequently a deadly interception of the pulsion of the Brain CHAP. IV. Of the Cranium or Skull THe Cranium or Skull covering the Brain like an Helmet What the Cranium is is composed and consists of seven Bones of which some are more dense thick and hard than othersome The first is the Os Occipitis or Nowl-bone seated in the Back-part of the head Why the nowl-bone is harder than the rest more hard and thick than the rest because we want hands and eyes behind whereby we may keep or save our selves from falling This Bone is circumscribed or bounded by the suture Lambdoides and the * My Author means by the Os Basilare in this place the wedg-bone but some Anatomists make it a Synonyma of this Os Occipitis The forehead-bone next to the nowl-bone is harder thâ—n the rest A Cavity to be observed in the forehead-bone Os basilare The eminencies and as it were heads of this Bone are received into the first Vertebra for upon this the head is turned forwards and backwards by the force of fourteen muscles and strong ligaments which firmly tie these heads of the Nowl-bone in the cavities of this first vertebra The second Bone of the skull is in the forepart and is called the Os Coronale or Os frontis the fore-head-bone it hath the second place in strength and thickness It is bounded by the Coronal suture and the ends of the wedg-bone in this forehead-bone there is often found a great cavity under the upper part of the eye-brows filled with a glutinous gross viscid and white matter or substance which is thought to help to elaborate the air for the sense of smelling Chirurgeons must take special notice of this cavity because when the head chances to be broken in that place it may happen that the fracture exceeds not the first table wherefore being ignorant of this cavity and moved with a false perswasion that they see the Brain they may think the Bone wholly broken and to press the Meninges whereupon they will dilate the womb and apply a Trepan and other instruments to lift up the second table of the Bone without any need at all and with the manifest danger of the life of the Patient The third and fourth Bones of the skull are the Ossa parietalia or Bregmatis Ossa parietalia Bregmatis having the third place of density and thickness although this density and thickness be different in divers places of them For on the upper part of the head or crown where that substance turns not to a Bone in children until they have all their teeth so that it feels soft in touching and through it you may feel the beating of the Brain these Bones are very tender so that oft-times they are no thicker than ones nail that so the moist and vaporous excrements of the Brain shut up where the greater portion of the Brain resides may have a freer passage by the Brain 's Diastole and Systole These two square Bones are bounded above with the Sagittal suture below with the scaly on the fore-part with the coronal and on the hind-part with the Lambdoides The fifth and sixth Bones of the skull are the two Ossa Petrosa stony or scaly Bones Ossa petrosa or the scaly bones which are next to the former in strength They are bounded with the false or bastard-Suture and with part of the Lambdoides and wedg-bone The seventh is the Os sphenoides basilare or Cuneiforme that is the wedg-bone Os sphenoides or the wedg-bone It is called Basilare because it is as it were the basis of the head To this the rest of the Bones of the head are fitly fastned in their places This Bone is bounded on each side with the Bones of the forehead the stony Bones and Bones of the Nowl and Palat. The figure represents a Bat and its processes her wings There is besides these another Bone at the basis of the forehead-bone Os Ethmoides or Cribrosum into which the mamillary processes end the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latins Cribrosum and Spongiosum the spongy-Bone because it hath many holes in it not perforated in a direct passage as in a sive but winding and anfractuous that the air should not by the force of attraction presently leap or ascend into the brain
them Now they say the Testudo is a tumor contrary to nature soft diffused What the Testudo or Talparia is vaulted or arched like a Tortois sometimes it arises in the head in form of a Mole and then it is called a Mole The Nata is a great and fleshy tumor not in shape unlike a Melon or rather the flesh of a mans Buttocks whence it may seem to have had the name unless we had rather say It had it What the Nata is because it more usually breeds upon the buttocks than upon any other part of the body The Glandula takes its denomination from an Acorn called Glans in Latine What a Glandula the which it somewhat resembles in the compass and form of the tumor or else because it most commonly breeds in the Glandules or Emunctories of mans body The Nodus or knot is a round tumor hard and immoveable named from a rope tied on a knot What Nodus Guido Cauliacensis affirms Knots commonly to grow in nervous bodies but at this time they more usually arise on the bones of such as have the French Disease CHAP. XX. Of the cure of Lupiae that is Wens or Ganglions A Wen or Ganglion is a tumor sometimes hard sometimes soft yet alwayes round What a Ganglion is using to breed in dry hard and nervous parts And seeing that some of the tumors mentioned before in the former Chapter stick immoveable to the part to which they grow because they are contained in no cist or bag othersome are moved up and down by the touch of your fingers because they are contained in a bag or bladder it commonly comes to pass that Wens have their bladder wherein to contain them and therefore we thimk fit the rather more freely and particularly to treat of their cure because they are more difficultly cured especially where they are inveterate and of long standing The causes The Primitive causes of these are dull blows fallings from high places strains and other such like occasions But the antecedent and conjunct causes are the same with those of an Atheroma Meliceris and Steatoma Signs The description formerly set down will furnish you with the signs by which you may know when they are present certainly from very small beginnings they grow by little and little to a great bigness in the space of six or seven years some of them yield much to the touch and almost all of them are without pain Their cure at the beginning You may hinder such as are beginning and first growing from encrease by somewhat a strong and frequent rubbing with your fingers For so their bag or bladder together with the skin wax thin and the contained humor grows hot is attenuated and resolved But if so you nothing prevail you must lie upon them with your whole hand or a flatted piece of wood as heavy as you can Plates of lead rubbed with Quick-silver until such time as the cist or bag be broken by your impression Then apply and strongly bind unto it a plate of Lead rubbed over with Quick-silver for I have many times found by experience that it hath a wonderful force to resolve and waste the subject humor But if the Wen be in such a place in which you can make no strong impression A resolving plaister as in the face chest belly and throat let there be applyed an emplaister which hath a resolving force such as this following hath Things to wast or consume the bag â„ž gummi ammon bdellii galban an â„¥ iij liquefiant in aceto trajiciantur per setaceum addendo olei liliorum lauri an â„¥ i aqu vitae parum pulveris ireos salis ammon sulphur vivi vitrioli Romani an Ê’ ss Let them be incorporated together and make an Emplaister according to Art But if the tumor cannot be thus resolved it must be opened with a knife or cautery And after the Eschar is removed and the bag wasted by Aegyptiacum Mercury and the like the ulcer must be cleansed replenished with flesh and cicatrized Sometimes Wens grow to so great a mass that they cannot be cured by the described remedies wherefore they must be taken away by the root by your Hand and Instrument if so be that there be no danger by reason of their greatness and so that they adhere not too closely to the adjacent parts and if they be not too nigh to the greater veins and arteries for it will be better in such a cause to let them alone The manner to take away Wens This shall be your way to cut them off or take them away A small Incision must be made even to the bladder or bag by which thrust in a Probe of a finger's thickness hollowed in the midst round at the end and as long as need shall require then draw it many times about between the skin and the bag even to the root of the Wen that so the skin may be divided long wayes then it will be requisite to make another Incision overthwart so that they may intersect each other like a cross then presently draw the skin from the bladder from the corners of the Wen towards the root and that with your finger covered with a fine linnen cloth or else with a Razor if need require But you must observe that in a Wen there are alwayes certain vessels which are small in the beginning but much encreased in process of time according to the encrease of the Wen whereof they are as it were the roots wherefore if any Haemorrhagie or flux of bloud happen let it be stopped by binding the vessels at their heads roots or make a strait ligature at the roots of the Wen with a piece of whipcord or with a many times doubled thred and let the ends hang forth until it fall away of its own accord Neither will it be sufficient to have cut away all this tumor but also it will be fit to cut away a portion of the skin wherewith the tumor was covered and only to leave so much as shall suffice to cover the part then with a needle and thred draw together the lips of the incision but in the interim let tents be put into the bottom of the ulcer until it be perfectly cleansed the rest of the cure be workman-like performed even to the cicatrizing thereof A History The Chirurgeon Collo and I using this method in the presence of Master Dr. Violanius the Kings Physitian took away a Wen from Martial Colard the Maior of Burbon it hanged at his neck as big as a man's head and it weighed eight pounds which made it so troublesome and burdensom to him that he was forced to carry it bound up in a towel as in a scrip What Wens to be cured by ligature Which dangerous to cure Verily if these kind of tumors have a slender root and broad top they must be straitly tyed and so cut off But it is
moderate feeding tending to humidity and indifferent heat for his manner of life let it be quiet and free from all perturbation of anger grief and sadness as also abhorring the use of venery The second is placed in the evacuation of the antecedent matter as by Phlebotomy if need require and by purging by procuring the Haemorrhoids in men and the Courses in women let purgations be prescribed of Diacatholicon Hicra diasenna Polypody Epithymum according to the mind of the learned Physitian The third consists in the convenient use of Topick medicines that is emollient at the beginning and then presently resolving Lib. 2. ad Glauconem or rather such as are mixed both of resolving and emollient faculties as Galen teaches for by the use of only emollient things there is danger of putrefaction and a Cancer and only of resolving there is fear of concretion the subtiler part being resolved and the grosser subsiding Emollients The emollient shall be thus â„ž Rad. alth lib. s rad liliorum â„¥ iij coquantur in aqua com pistentur trajiciantur per setaceum addendo olei chamaem lilior an â„¥ ij oesipi humid â„¥ ss emplastri diachyl alb cum oleo liliorum dissoluti â„¥ iij cerae albae quantum sit satis fiat cerotum Or â„ž gummi ammoniaci galb bdellii styracis liquidae in aceto dissolutorum an â„¥ i diachyl mag â„¥ i ss olei liliorum axungiae anseris an â„¥ i ceroti oesip descriptione Philagr â„¥ ij liquescant omnia simul cerae quantum sit satis ut inde fiat cerotum satis molle When you have sufficiently used emollient things fume the tumor with strong Vinegar and Aqua vitae poured upon a piece of a Milstone Flint or Brick heated very hot for so the mollified humor will be rarified attenuated and resolved then some while after renew your emollients and then again apply your resolvers to wast that which remains which could not be performed together and at once for thus Galen healed a scirrhus in Cercilius his son Goats-dung is very good to discuss Scirrhous tumors Lib. ad Glauc The efficacy of the Empl. of Vigo with Mercury but the Emplaister of Vigo with a double of Mercury is effectual above the rest as that which mollifies resolves and wastes all tumors of this kind CHAP. XXVI Of a Cancer already generated What a Cancer is A Cancer is an hard tumor rough and unequal round immoveable of an ash or livid colour horrid by reason of the veins on every side swollen with black bloud and spread abroad to the similitude of the stretched out legs and claws of a Crab. It is a tumor hard to be known at the first as that which scarse equals the bigness of a Chick or Cicer after a little time it will come to the greatness of a Hasel-nut unless peradventure provoked by somewhat too The figure of the Crab called Cancer in Latin acrid medicins it sodainly increase being grown bigger according to the measure of the encrease it torments the Patient with pricking pain with acrid heat the gross bloud residing in the veins growing hot and inferring a sense like the pricking of Needles from which notwithstanding the Patient hath oft-times some rest The nature of the pain The reason of the name But because this kind of tumor by the veins extended and spread about it like claws and feet being of a livid and ash-colour associated with a roughness of the skin and tenacity of the humor represents as it were the toothed claws of the Crab therefore I thought it not amiss to insert as before the figure of the Crab that so the reason both of the name and thing might be more perspicuous CHAP. XXVII Of the causes kinds and prognosticks of a Cancer HEre we acknowledg two causes of a Cancer the antecedent and conjunct The causes of a Cancer The antecedent cause depends upon the default of irregular diet generating and heaping up gross feculent bloud by the morbifick affection of the Liver disposed to the generation of that bloud by the infirmity or weakness of the Spleen in attracting and purging the bloud by the suppression of the Courses or Haemorrhoids or any such accustomed evacuation The conjunct cause is that gross and melancholick humor sticking and shut in the affected part as in a strait That melancholick bloud which is more mild and less malign The causes of a not ulcerated Cancer only increased by a degree of more fervid heat breeds a not ulcerated Cancer but the more malign and acrid causes an ulcerated For so the humor which generateth Carbuncles when it hath acquired great heat acrimony and malignity corrodes and ulcerates the part upon which it alights A Cancer is made more fierce and raging by meats inflaming the bloud by perturbations of the mind anger heat and medicines too acrid oily and emplastick unfitly applyed both for time and place Amongst the sorts or kinds of Cancers there be two chiefly eminent that is The sorts and differences of Cancers the ulcerated or manifest Cancer and the not ulcerated or occult But of Cancers some possess the internal parts as the Guts Womb Fundament others the external as the Brests also there is a recent or late bred Cancer and also an inveterate one There is one small another great one raging and malign another more mild Every Cancer is held almost incurable or very difficult to be cured for it is a disease altogether malign to wit a particular Leprosie Therefore saith Aetius Aetius lib. 6. The parts most subject to Cancers A Cancer is not easily stayed until it hath eaten even to the innermost of the part which it possesses It invades women more frequently than men and those parts which are lax rare fungous and glandulous and therefore opportune to receive a defluxion of a gross humor such are the brests and all the emunctories of the noble parts When it possesses the brests it often causes inflammation to the Arm-holes and sends the Swelling ever to the glandules thereof whereupon the Patients do complain that a pricking pain even pierces to their hearts But this same pain also runs to the clavicles and even to the inner side of the shoulder-blades and shoulders When it is increased and covers the noble parts it admits no cure but by the hand but in decayed bodies whose strength fail especially if the Cancers be inveterate we must not attempt the cure neither with Instrument nor with Fire neither by too acrid medicines as potential Cauteries but we must only seek to keep them from growing more violent and from spreading further by gentle medicines and a palliative cure For thus many troubled with a Cancer have attained even to old age What Cancers one must not undertake truly to cure Therefore Hippocrates admonishes us that it is better not to cure occult or hidden Cancers for the Patients cured saith he do quickly die but such as are
two ounces of Aqua vitae also sometimes by two or three grains of Musk dissolved in Muskadine given at the beginning of a particular fit towards the general declination of the disease after general purgations the humor and body being prepared and the powers strong And certainly an inveterate Quartain can scarse ever be discussed unless the body be much heated with meats and medicines Therefore it is not altogether to be disproved which many say that they have driven away a quartain by taken a draught of Wine every day assoon as they came forth of their beds in which some leaves of Sage had been infused all the night Also it is good a little before the fit to anoint all the Spine of the back with Oyls heating all the nervous parts such as are the Oyl of Rue Walnuts of the Peppers mixing therewith a little Aqua vitae but for this purpose the Oyl of Castoreum which hath been boyled in an Apple of Coloquintida the Kernels taken out upon hot coles to the Consumption of the half part mixing therewith some little quantity of the Powders of Pepper Pellitory of Spain and Euphorbium is excellent Certainly such like Inunctions are good not only to mitigate the vehemency of the terrible shaking but also to provoke sweats for because by their humid heat they discuss this humor being dull and rebellious to the expulsive faculty for the Melancholy is as it were the dross and mud of the bloud Therefore if on the contrary the Quartain Feaver shall be caused by adult choler What quartains must be cured with refrigerating things we must hope for and expect a cure by refrigerating and humective medicins such as Sorrel Lettuce Purslane broths of the decoction of Cowcumbers Gourds Mellons and Pompions For in this case if any use hot medicines he shall make this humor most obstinate by the resolving of the subtiler parts Thus Trallianus boasts that he hath cured these kinds of Quartain Feaver by the only use of refrigerating Epithemaes being often repeated a little before the beginning of the fit And this is the sum of the Cure of true and legitimate intermitting Feavers That is What bastard Agues are and how they must be cured of those which are caused by one simple humor whereby the Cure of those which they call Bastard intermitting Feavers may be easily gathered and understood as which are bred by a humor impure and not of one kind but mixt or composed by admixture of some other matter for example according to the mixture of divers humors Phlegmatick and Cholerick the Medicins must also be mixt as if it were a confused kind of Feaver of a Quotidian and Tertian it must be cured by a medicin composed of things evacuating flegm and choler CHAP. XXXII Of an Aneurisma that is the dilatation or springing of an Artery Vein or Sinew AN Aneurisma is a soft tumor yielding to the touch What it is made by the bloud and spirit poured forth under the flesh and Muscles by the dilatation or relaxation of an Artery Yet the Author of the definitions seems to call any dilatation of any veinous vessel by the name or an Aneurisma Galen calls an Aneurisma An opening made of the Anatomists of an Artery Also an Aneurisma is made when an Artery that is wounded closeth too slowly the substance which is above it being in the mean time agglutinated filled with flesh and cicatrized which doth not seldom happen in opening of Arteries unskilfully performed and negligently cured therefore Aneurisma's are absolutely made by the Anastomôsis In what parts they chiefly happen springing breaking Erosion and wounding of the Arteries These happen in all parts of the body but more frequently in the Throat especially in women after a painful travail For when as they more strongly strive to hold their breath for the more powerful expulsion of the birth it happens that the Artery is dilated and broken whence follows an effusion of bloud and spirits under the skin The signs are a swelling one while great another small with a pulsation and a colour not varying from the native constitution of the skin It is a soft tumor and so yielding to the impression of the fingers that if it paradventure be small it wholly vanisheth the Arterious bloud and spirits flying back into the body of the Artery but presently assoon as you take your fingers away they return again with like celerity Some Aneurismaes do not only when they are pressed but also of themselves make a sensible hissing if you lay your ear near to them by reason of the motion of the vital spirit rushing with great violence through the straitness of the passage Prognostick Wherefore in Aneurismaes in which there is a great rupture of the Artery such a noise is not heard because the spirit is carryed through a larger passage Great Aneurismaes under the Arm-pits in the Groins and other parts wherein there are large vessels admit no cure because so great an eruption of bloud and spirit often follows upon such an Incision that death prevents both Art and Cure A History Which I observed a few years ago in a certain Priest of Saint Andrews of the Arches Mr. John Maillet dwelling with a chief President Christopher de Thou Who having an Aneurisma at the setting on of the shoulder about the bigness of a Wall-nut Aneurismaes must not rashly be opened I charged him he should not let it be opened for if he did it would bring him into manifest danger of his life and that it would be more safe for him to break the violence thereof with double clothes steeped in the juyce of Night-shade and Housleek with new and wheyey cheese mixt therewith Or with Unguentum de Bolo or Emplastrum contra rupturam and such other refrigerating and astringent medicines if he would lay upon it a thin plate of Lead and would use shorter breeches that his doublet might serve to hold it too to which he might fasten his breeches in stead of a swathe and in the mean time he should eschew all things which attenuate and inflame the bloud but especially he should keep himself from all great straining of his voyce Although he had used his dyet for a year yet he could not so handle the matter but that the tumor increased which he observing goes to a Barber who supposing the tumor to be of the kind of vulgar Impostumes applyes to it in the Evening a Caustick causing an Eschar so to open it In the Morning such an abundance of bloud flowed forth from the tumor being opened that he therewith astonished implores all possible aid and bids that I should be called to stay this his great bleeding and he repented that he had not followed my direction Wherefore I was called but when I was scarse over the threshold How they must be cured he gave up his ghost with his bloud Wherefore I diligently admonish the Chirurgeon that he do not rashly
by accident by reason of the humor contained therein moistening and relaxing all the adjacent parts the humor contained here lifts up the skull somewhat more high especially at the meetings of the Sutures which you may thus know because the Tumor being pressed the humor flies back into the secret passage of the Brain To conclude the pain is more vehement the whole head more swollen the fore-head stands somewhat further out the eye is fixt and immoveable and also weeps by reason of the serous humor sweating out of the Brain Vesalius writes that he saw a Girl of two years old A History whose head was thicker than any man's head by this kind of Tumor and the skull not bony but membranous as it useth to be in Abortive-births and that there was nine pound of water ran out of it Abucrasis tells that he saw a child whose head grew every day bigger by reason of the watery moisture contained therein till at length the tumor became so great that his neck could not bear it neither standing nor sitting so that he died in a short time I have observed and had in cure four children troubled with this disease one of which being dissected after it died had a Brain no bigger than a Tennis Ball. But of a Tumor and humor contained within under the Cranium or Skull I have seen none recover but they are easily healed of an external Tumor Therefore whether the humor lye under the Pericranium or under the musculous skin of the head it must first be assailed with resolving medicines but if it cannot be thus overcome you must make an Incision taking heed of the Temporal Muscle and thence press out all the humor whether it resemble the washing of flesh newly killed or blackish bloud or congealed or knotted bloud as when the tumor hath been caused by contusion then the wound must be filled with dry lint and covered with double boulsters and lastly bound with a fitting ligature CHAP. II. Of a Polypus being an eating disease in the Nose The reason the name THe Polypus is a Tumor of the Nose against Nature commonly arising from the Os Ethmoides or Spongy-Bone It is so called because it resembles the feet of a Sea Polypus in figure and the flesh thereof in consistence This Tumor stops the Nose intercepting and hindering the liberty of speaking and blowing the Nose Lib. 6. cap. 8. Celsus saith the Polypus is a caruncle of excresence one while white another while reddish which adhere to the Bone of the Nose and sometimes fills the Nostrils hanging towards the lips sometimes it descends back through that hole by which the spirit descends from the Nose to the Throttle it grows so that it may be seen behind the Uvula The differences hereof and often strangles a man by stopping his breath There are five kinds thereof the first is a soft membrane long and thin like the relaxed and depressed Uvula hanging from the middle gristle of the Nose being filled with a phlegmatick and viscid humor This in exspiration hangs out of the Nose but is drawn in and hid by inspiration it makes one snaffle in their speech and snort in their sleep The second hath hard flesh bred of Melancholy bloud without adustion which obstructing the nostrils intercepts the respiration made by that part The third is flesh hanging from the Gristle round and soft being the off-spring of Phlegmatick bloud The fourth is a hard Tumor like flesh which when it is touched yields a sound like a stone it is generated of Melancholy bloud dryed being somewhat of the nature of a Scirrhus confirmed and without pain The fifth is as it were composed of many cancrous ulcers spred over the transverse surface of the gristle Which of them admit no manual operation Of all these sorts of Polypi some are not ulcerated others ulcerated which send forth a stinking and strong smelling filth Such of them as are painful hard resisting and which have a livid or leaden colour must not be touched with the hand because they savour of the Nature of a Cancer as into which they often degenerate yet by reason of the pain which oppresses more violently you may use the Anodyne medicines formerly described in a Cancer such as this following An Anodyne â„ž Olei de vitell ovorum â„¥ ij Lytharg auri Tuthiae praep an â„¥ i succi plat solani an â„¥ i ss Lapid haematit camphorae an â„¥ ss Let them be wrought a long time in a Leaden Mortar and so make a medicine to be put into the nostrils Those which are soft loose and without pain are sometimes curable being plucked away with an Instrument made for that purpose or else wasted by actual cauteries put in through a pipe so that they touch not the sound part or by potential cauteries as Egyptiacum composed of equal parts of all the simples with Vitriol which hath a faculty to waste such like flesh Why it must be taken clear away Aqua fortis and Oyl of Vitriol have the same faculty for these take away a Polypus by the roots for if any part there remain it will breed again But Cauteries and acrid medicines must be put into the Nostrils with this Caution that in the mean time cold repelling and astringent medicines be applyed to the Nose and parts about it to asswage the pain and hinder the inflammation Such as are Unguentum de bolo and Unguentum nutritum whites of Eggs beaten with Rose-leaves and many other things of the like nature CHAP. III. Of the Parotides that is Certain swellings about the Ears What it is THe Parotis is a Tumor against Nature affecting the Glandules and those parts seated behind and about the Ears which are called the Emunctories of the brain for these because they are loose and spongy The differences are fit to receive the excrements thereof Of these some are critical the matter of the disease somewhat digested being sent thither by the force of Nature Others Symptomatical Their Signs and Symptoms the excrements of the Brain increased in quantity or quality rushing thither of their own accord Such abscesses often have great inflammation joyned with them because the biting humor which flows thither is more vitiated in quality than in quantity Besides also they often cause great pain by reason of the distention of the parts indued with the most exquisite sense as also by reason of a Nerve of the fifth Conjugation spread over these parts as also of the neighbouring membranes of the Brain by which means the Patient is troubled with Head-ach and all his face becomes swoln Yet many times this kind of Tumor useth to be raised by a tough viscous and gross humor This Disease doth more grievously afflict young men than old Prognostick it commonly brings a Feaver and watching It is difficult to be cured especially when it is caused by a gross tough and viscid humor sent
in the parts thereunder an unvoluntary excretion of the Urine and other excrements Signs that the Spine is wounded or a totall suppression of them seises upon the Patient When the hollow vein and great Artery are wounded the Patient will dye in a short time by reason of the sodain and aboundant effusion of the blood and spirits which intercepts the motion of the Lungs and heart whence the party dies suffocated CHAP. XXX Of the cure of the Wounds of the Chest WE have read in John de Vigo that it is disputed amongst Chirurgeons concerning the consolidation of wounds of the Chest For some think that such wounds must be closed up Vigo tract de vuln thoraâ— cap. 10. and cicatrized with all possible speed lest the cold air come to the heart and the vitall spirits fly away and be dissipated Others on the contrary think that such wounds ought to be long kept open and also if they be not sufficiently large of themselves that then they must be inlarged by Chirurgery that so the blood poured forth into the capacity of the Chest may have passage forth which otherwise by delay would putrefie whence would ensue an increase of the feaver a fistulous ulcer and other pernicious accidents The first opinion is grounded upon reason and truth if so be that there is little or no blood poured forth into the capacity of the Chest But the latter takes place where there is much more blood contained in the empty spaces of the Chest Which lest I may seem rashly to determin I think it not amiss to ratifie each opinion with a history thereto agreeable Whilst I was at Turin Chirurgeon to the Marshall of Montejan the King of France his General A History I had in cure a Souldier of Paris whose name was Levesque he served under captain Renovart He had three wounds but one more grievous than the rest went under the right brest somewhat deep into the capacity of the Chest whence much blood was poured forth upon the midriff which caused such difficulty of breathing that it even took away the liberty of his speech besides through this occasion he had a vehement feaver coughed up blood and a sharp pain on the wounded side The Chirurgeon which first drest him had so bound up the wound with a strait and thick suture that nothing could flow out thereat But I being called the day after and weighing the present symptoms which threatned speedy death judged that the sowing of the wound must straight be loosed which being done there instantly appeared a clot of blood at the orifice thereof which made me to cause the Patient to lye half out of his bed with his head downwards and to stay his hands on a Settle which was lower than the bed and keeping himself in this posture to shut his mouth and nose that so his Lungs should swell the midriffe be stretched forth and the intercostal muscles and those of the Abdomen should be compressed that the blood poured into the Chest might be evacuated by the wound but also that this excretion might succeed more happily I thrust my finger somewhat deep into the wound that so I might open the orifice thereof being stopped up with the congealed blood and certainly I drew out some seven or eight ounces of putrefied and stinking blood by this means When he was laid in his bed I caused frequent injections to be made into the wound of a decoction of Barly with Honey of Roses and red Sugar which being injected I wisht him to turn first on the one and then on the other side and then again to lye out of his bed as before for thus he evacuated small but very many clots of blood together with the liquor lately injected which being done the symptomes were mitigated and left him by little and little The next day I made another more detergent injection adding thereto wormwood Why bitter things must not be cast into the Chest centaury and Aloes but such a bitterness did rise up to his mouth together with a desire to cast that he could no longer indure it Then it came into my mind that formerly I had observed the like effect of the like remedy in the Hospital of Paris in one who had a fistulous ulcer in his Chest Therefore when I had considered with my self that such bitter things may easily pass into the Lungs and so may from thence rise into the Weazon and mouth I determined that thenceforwards I would never use such bitter things to my Patients for the use of them is much more troublesome than any way good and advantagious But at the length this Patient by this and the like means recovered his health beyond my expectation Read the History of Maryllus in Galen lib. 7. de Anaâ—om administra But on the contrary I was called on a time to a certain Germain gentleman who was run with a sword into the capacity of his Chest the neighbouring Chirurgeon had put a great tent into the wound at the first dressing which I made to be taken forth for that I certainly understood there was no blood powred forth into the capacity of the Chest because the Patient had no feaver no weight upon the Diâ—phrâ—gma nor spitted forth any blood Wherefore I cured him in few dayes by only dropping in some of my balsome and laying a plaister of Diacalcitheos upon the wound What harm ensues the too long use of Tents The like cure I have happily performed in many others To conclude this I dare boldly affirm that wounds of the Chest by the too long use of tents degenerate into Fistula's Wherefore if you at any time shall undertake the cure of wounds which penetrate into the capacity of the Chest you shall not presently shut them up at the first dressing No liniments must be used in wounds of the Chest but keep them open for two or three dayes but when you shall find that the Patient is troubled with none or very little pain and that the midriffe is pressed down with no weight and that he breathes freely then let the tent be taken forth and the wound healed up as speedily as you can by covering it only with lint dipped in some balsome which hath a glutinative faculty and laid somewhat broader than the wound never apply liniments to wounds of this kind lest the Patient by breathing draw them into the capacity of the Chest Wherefore also you must have a care that the tent put into those kinds of wounds may be fastned to the pledgets and also have somewhat a large head lest they should be drawn as we said into the capacity of the Chest for if they fall in they will cause putrefaction and death Let Emplast Diacalcitheos or some such like be applyed to the wound But if on the contrary you know by proper and certain signs that there is much blood fallen into the spaces of the Chest then let the orifice of
for such as live for they did not so much as suspect or imagine so horrid a wickedness but either for that they held an opinion of the general resurrection or that in these monuments they might have something whereby they might keep their dead friends in perpetual remembrance Thevet not much dissenting from his own opinion writes that the true Mummie is taken from the Monuments and stony Tombs of the anciently dead in Egypt the chinks of which tombs were closed and cemented with such diligence the inclosed bodies embalmed with precious Spices with such Art for eternity that the linnen vestures which were wrapt about them presently after their death may be seen whole even to this day but the bodies themselves are so fresh that you would judg them scarse to have been three days buryed And yet in those Sepulchers and Vaults from whence these bodies are taken there have been some corps of two thousands years old The same or their broken members are brought to Venice from Syria and Egypt and thence disperst over all Christendom But according to the different condition of men the matter of their embalments were divers for the bodies of the Nobility or Gentry were embalmed with Myrrh Aloes Saffron and other precious Spices and Drugs but the bodies of the common sort whose poverty and want of means could not undergo such cost were embalmed with asphaltum or pissasphaltum Now Mathjolus saith that all the Mummie which is brought into these parts What our Mummie usually is is of this last kind and condition For the Noblemen and chief of the Province so religiously addicted to the Monuments of their Ancestors would never suffer the bodies of their friends and kindred to be transported hither for filthy gain and such detested use as we shall shew more at large at the end of this work Which thing sometimes moved certain of our French Apothecaries men wondrous audacious and covetous to steal by night the bodies of such as were hanged and embalming them with Salt and Drugs they dryed them in an Oven so to sell them thus adulterated in stead of true Mummie Wherefore we are thus compelled both foolishly and cruelly to devour the mangled and putrid particles of the carkasses of the basest people of Egypt or of such as are hanged as though there were no other way to help or recover one bruised with a fall from a high place than to bury man by an horrid insertion in their that is in mans guts Now if this Drug were any way powerful for that they require they might perhaps have some pretence for this their more than barbarous inhumanity But the case stands thus that this wicked kind of Drug Mummie is no way good for contusions doth nothing help the diseased in that case wherefore and wherein it is administred as I have tryed a hundred times and as Thevet witnesses he tryed in himself when as he took some thereof by the advice of a certain Jewish Physitian in Egypt from whence it is brought but it also infers many troublesome symptoms as the pain of the heart or stomach vomiting and stink of the mouth I perswaded by these reasons do not only my self not prescribe any hereof to my Patients But hurtful and how but also in consultations endeavour what I may that it be not prescribed by others It is far better according to Galen's opinion in Method med to drink some Oxycrate The effects of Oxycrate in Contusions which by its frigidity restrains the flowing bloud and by its tenuity of substance dissolves and discusses the congealed clots thereof Many reasons of learned Physitians from whom I have learned this History of Mummie drawn from Philosophy whereby they make it apparent that there can be no use of this or that Mummie in contusions or against flowing or congealed bloud I willingly omit for that I think it not much beneficial to Chirurgeons to insert them here Wherefore I judg it better to begin to treat of Combustions or Burns CHAP. VIII Of Combustions and their Differences ALl Combustions whether occasioned by Gunpowder or by scalding Oyl Water The reason and symptoms of Combustions some metal or what things soever else differ only in magnitude These first cause pain in the part and imprint in it an unnatural heat Which savouring of the fire leaves that impression which the Greeks call Empyreuma There are more or less signs of this impression according to the efficacy of the thing burning the condition of the part burned and stay upon the same If the combustion be superficiary the skin rises into pustules and blisters unless it be speedily prevented If it be low or deep in it is covered with an Eschar or Crust the burnt flesh by the force of the fire turning into that crusty hardness The burning force of the fire upon whatsoever part it falls leaves a hot distemper therein condensates The 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 sing But 〈…〉 contracts and thickens the skin whence pain proceeds from pain there comes an attraction of humors from the adjacent and remote parts These humors presently turn into waterish or serous moisture whilst they seek to pass forth and are hindered thereof by the skin condensated by the action of the fire they lift it up higher and raise the blisters which we see Hence divers Indications are drawn whence proceeds the variety of medicins for Burns For some take away the Empyreuma that is the heat of the fire as we term it and asswage the pain other hinder the rising of blisters othersome are fit to cure the ulcer first to procure the falling away of the Eschar Variety of medicins to take away the heat and asswage the pain then to clense generate flesh and cicatrize it Remedies fit to asswage pain and take away the fiery heat are of two kinds for some do it by a cooling faculty by which they extinguish the preternatural heat and repress or keep back the bloud and humors which flow into the parts by reason of heat and pain Others endued with contrary faculties are hot and attractive as which by relaxing the skin and opening the pores resolve and dissipate the serous humors which yield both beginning and matter to the pustules and so by accident asswage the pain and heat Refrigerating things are cold water the water of Plantain Nightshade Henbane Hemlock the juyces of cooling hearbs as Purslane Lettuce Plantain Housleek Poppy Mandrake and the like Of these some may be compounded as some of the fore-named juyces beaten with the white of an Egge Clay beaten and dissolved in strong Vinegar Roch-Alome dissolved in water with the whites of Egs beaten therein writing-Ink mixed with Vinegar and a little camphire Unguentum nutritum and also Populeon newly made These and the like shall be now and then renewed chiefly at the first until the heat and pain be gone But these same remedies must be applyed warm for if they should be laid or put to
by that means bee plucked away therewith you shall use this medicine so long as need shall seem to require For the third kinde of Scall which is termed a Corrosive or Ulcerous the first indication is to cleans the ulcers with this following ointment The cure of an ulcerous scall â„ž unguenti enulati cum mercurio duplicato aegyptiaci an â„¥ iii. vitriol albi in pulverem redactiÊ’i incorporentur simil fiat unguentum ad usum also you may use the formerly discribed ointment But if any pain or other accident fall out you must withstand it by the assistance and direction of som good Physician verily these following medicins against all kindes of Scalls have been found out by reason and approved by use â„ž Camphur â„¥ ss alum roch vitriol vir aeris sulp vivi fullig forn an Ê’vi olei amygd dulcium anxungiae porci an â„¥ ii incorporentur simul in mortario fiat unguentum Som take the dung which lieth rotting in a sheep fold thay use that which is liquid and rub it upon the ulcerated places and lay a double cloath dipped in that liquor upon it But if the patient cannot bee cured with all these medicines and that you finde his body in som parts thereof troubled in like sort with crustie ulcers I would wish that his head might bee anointed with an ointment made of Axungia argentum vivum and a little Sulphur and then fit som emplastrum Vigonis cummercuiro into the fashion of a cap also som plaisters of the same may bee applied to the shoulders A contumacious scall must bee cured as wee cure the Lues venerea thighs legs so let him bee kept in a very warm chamber and all things don as if hee had the Lues venerea This kind of cure was first that I know of attempted by Simon Blanch the King's Surgeon upon a certain young man when as hee in vain had diligently tried all other usual medicines A scalled head oft-times appeareth verie loathsom to the eie casting forth virulent and stinking saines at the first it is hardly cured but being old far more difficultly For divers times it breaketh out afresh when you think it kill'd by reason of the impression of the malign putrefaction remaining in the part which wholly corrupt's the temper thereof Moreover oft-times beeing healed it hath left an Alopecia behinde it a great shame to the Surgeons Which is the reason that most of them judge it best to leave the cure thereof to Empericks and women CHAP. III. Of the Vertigo or Giddinesse THe Vertigo is a sudden darkning of the eyes and sight by a vaporous and hot spirit which ascendeth to the head by the sleepy arteries and fills the brain What the Vertigo is and the causes thereof disturbing the humors and spirits which are contained there and tossing them unequally as if one ran round or had drunk too much wine This hot spirit oft-times riseth from the heart upwards by the internal sleepy arteries to the Rete mirabile or wonderfull net otherwhiles it is generated in the brain it self being more hot than is fitting also it oft-times ariseth from the stomach spleen liver and other entrails being too hot The Signs The sign of this disease is the sudden darkning of the sight and the closing up as it were of the eyes the body being lightly turned about or by looking upon whee is running round or whirle-pits in waters or by looking down any deep or steep places If the original of the disease proceed from the brain the patients are troubled with the headache heaviness of the head and noise in the ears and oft-times they lose their smell Lib. 6. Paulus Aegineta for the cure bids us to open the arteries of the temples But if the matter of the disease arise from some other place as from some of the lower entrails such opening of an artery little availeth Wherefore then some skilfull Physician must be consulted with who may give directions for phlebotomy if the original of the disease proceed from the heat of the entrails by purging if occasioned by the foulness of the stomach But if such a Vertigo be a critical symptom of some acuse disease affecting the Crisis by vomit or bleeding A critical Vertigo then the whole business of freeing the patient thereof must be committed to nature CHAP. IV. Of the Hemicrania or Megrim THe Megrim is properly a disease affecting the one side of the head right or left It sometimes passeth no higher than the temporal muscles otherwhiles it reacheth to the top of the crown The cause of such pain proceedeth either from the veins and external arteries or from the Meninges or from the very substance of the brain or from the pericranium or the hairy scalp covering the pericranium or lastly from putrid vapours arising to the head from the ventricle womb or other inferiour member Yet an external cause may bring this affect to wit the too hot or cold constitution of the encompassing air drunkenness gluttony the use of hot and vaporous meats some noisom vapour or smoak as of Antimony quick silver or the like drawn up by the nose which is the reason that Goldsmiths and such as gild metals are commonly troubled with this disease But whensoever the cause of the evil proceedeth it is either a simple distemper or with matter with matter I say which again is either simple or compound Now this affect is either alone The differences or accompanied with other affects as inflammation and tension The heaviness of head argues plenty of humor pricking beating and tension shewes that there is a plenty of vapours mixed with the humors and shut up in the nervous arterious or membranous body of the head If the pain proceed from the inflamed Meninges a feaver followeth thereon especially if the humor causing pain do putrefie If the pain be superficiary it is seated in the pericranium If profound deep and piercing to the bottom of the eyes it is an argument that the meninges are affected and a feaver ensues if there be inflammation and the matter putrefie and then oft-times the tormenting pain is so great and grievous that the patient is afraid to have his head touched if it be but with your finger neither can he away with any noise or small murmuring nor light nor smells however sweet no nor the fume of Wine In what kinde of Megrim the opening of an Artery is good The pain is sometimes continual othetwhiles by fits If the cause of the pain proceed from hot thin and vaporous blood which will yield to no medecins a very necessary profitable and speedy remedy may be had by opening an artery in the temples whether the disease proceed from the internal or external vessels For hence alwayes ensueth an evacuation of the conjunct matter blood and spirits I have experimented this in many but especially in the Prince de la Roche-sur-you His Physicians when he was
Therefore it must bee made the space of two fingers from the fundament Where to make the wound to take forth the stone That which is torn sooner healeth then that which is cut according to the straightness of the fibres that so it may bee the more easily restored afterwards Neither must the incision thus made exceed the bigness of ones thumb for that it is afterwards enlarged by putting in the Crow's beak and the dilater but more by the stone as it is plucked forth But that which is cut is neither so speedily nor easily healed up as that which is torn Then presently put into the wound som one of these silver instruments delineated here below and called by the name of Guiders for that thay serv as guides to the other instruments which are to bee put into the bladder these are made with a round and prominent head whereby it may bee put into the described cavitie of the probe and they are noted by these letters A. A. then there are others marked with the letters B. B and called by the like name and are to bee put under the former beeing made forked at the end that so it may as it were embrace the end of the former The figures of Guiders of two sorts Now the probe is to bee drawn forth and the guiders to bee thrust and turned up and down in the bladder and at length to bee staied there by putting in the pin yet such guiders as want a pin are fitter for the hand and are by som called spatbae Then must they bee held betwixt the Surgeon's fingers It will bee also necessarie for the Surgeon to put another instrument called the D cks-bill between the two guiders into the capacitie of the bladder hee must thrust it in somwhat violently and dilate it so thrust in with both his hands turning it everie way to enlarge the wound as much as shall bee sufficient for the admitting the other instruments which are to bee put into the bladder yet it is far better for the patiâ—nt if that the wound may with this one instrument bee sufficiently dilated and the stone pulled forth with the same without the help of anie other The effigies of an instrument called a Ducks-bill Which if you have not in a readiness and the largness of the stone require more dilatation then must you put in this dilater for beeing put into the bladder and the handle pressed together it will dilate the incision as much as you desire The figure of a Dilater shut and opened The wound by the help of this instrument beeing dilated as much as is sufficient then putt in the straight Ducks-bill before described or the crooked here exprest Crooked Forcipes's like a Ducks-bill The stone may bee sought and taken hould of with these instuments and beeing taken hold on the branches of the instrument shall bee tied together least they should suffer that to slide away which they have once taken hold of Neither shall the stone bee suddenly plucked out but easily shaken to and again and at length gently drawn forth Yet you must beware that you do not press it too straightly in the forceps least you should break it in pieces Som least it should slip away when they have once taken hold thereof put their two fingers into the fundament and put them about the stone that it may not fall out nor slip back again which I think conduceth much to the easie extraction of the stone There are others who strengthen this comprehension by putting in on each-side above and below these winged instruments so that the stone can slip forth on no side Winged instruments to hold the stone with the Duck's-beak The figure of another The figure of another winged instrument the end of whose handle is fastned by a scrue as also a bended iron-plate which is marked with this letter A. for the firmer holding thereof A note of more stones than one After the stone is by these means drawn forth observ diligently whether it beee worn on anie side and as it were levigated for that happeneth by the wearing or rubbing of one or more stones upon it yet there is no surer way to know this than by searching with a Catheter The one end of the following instrument may supplie the want of a Catheter or probe and the other may serv for a scoop or clenser A cleanser or scoop whereby you may search whether there bee anie more stones behinde as also clense or purge the bladder from gravel clots of blood and other such bodies as use to remain behinde after the drawing forth of the stone For if other stones remain behinde thay shall bee drawn forth as the former which beeing don the end oft the instrument which is crooked and hollowed like a scoop or spone How to clens the bladder shall bee thrust by the wound into the bladder and therewith you shall gather together and take out what gravel soever clotted blood and the like refuse as shall bee there for that they may yeeld matter for another stone How to break a stone that cannot bee taken out whole and at once But if you finde that the stone which is in the bladder bee too great so that it may not bee plucked forth without great and fearful rending of the bladder it will bee better to take hold thereof with this Crows bill and so break it to peeces The effigies of a toothed Crow's-bill made neatly to break greater stones with a screw to force it together This Crows-bill hath onely-three teeth and those sharp ons on the inside of which two are placed above and one below which is the middle-most so that it falleth between the two upper When the stone is broken all the peeces therof must bee taken forth and wee must have a special care lest any peece thereof lie hid for that in time increased by the access of a tough and viscuous matter or conjoined with other fragments by the intersition of the like matter as glew may rise to a stone of a large bigness CHAP. XLIII What cure must bee used to the wound when the stone is taken forth THe stone being drawn out if the greatness of the wound so require Of sewing the wound when the stone is taken forth it shall have one or two stitches with a needle and threed leaving only so much space as shall bee sufficient to put in a pipe for the use wee shall hereafter shew your threed must bee of crimson silk waxed and let it not bee too small least it by bindeing should cut asunder the fleshie lips of the wound or rot in a short time either by the moisture of the urine or matter flowing from the ulcer Therefore you shall take up much flesh with the skin in sewing it least the lips of the wound beeing torn your labor proov in vain and so you are forced to trouble the patient with makeing a new one Things beeing thus
pains he knew no greater nor surer remedy then to let blood even to the fainting of the patient If thoâ—e which are in this case shall not become better by purging and phlebotomy conveniently prescribed then it happens by the means of drunkenness gluttony and the like distemper For hence abundance of crude humors are heaped up which by their contumacy yield themselves less obedient to medicines Therefore such gouty persons as are intemperate and given to gluttony and venery may hope for no health by use of medicines CHAP. XV. Of local medicines which may be used to a cold Gout LIttle do topick medicines avail It is not safe to use repercussives in the Gout before purging unless the body of the gouty patient shall be purged from excrementitious humors besides also there is danger least by the use of repelling medicines the virulency of the humor may be driven into the entrails which thing hath been the cause of sudden death to many Now in the first place we will speak of locall medicines which are thought meet for a phlegmatick juice because this is more frequent then that which is from a hot cause At the beginning in every Gout the Sciatica excepted we must use astringent things which have a faculty to binde or strengthen the joints and to drie and waste the excrementitious humor An astringent Cataplasm As â„ž fol. sabimae m. ss nucum cupressi â„¥ iii. aluminis rech â„¥ i. gum tragacnathae â„¥ iiii mucilaginis psilii cydon quantum sufficit fiat cataplasma Or â„ž sterceris bubuâ—i recentis lb. i. mellis ros â„¥ iiii olei ros aceti an â„¥ ii bulliant simul parum fiat cataplasma Or else â„ž olei rosar myrtill an â„¥ ii pulveris myrrhae alves an â„¥ i. acaciae â„¥ ii ss incâ—rporentur cum aquâ gallarum câ—ctarum fiat unguentum Some boil sage camomile and melilote flowers wormwood and dane-wort A discussing fomentation of each a handful in a sufficient quantity of vinegar then they put the grieved part into this decoction being warm and by frequent useing this medicine it hath been found to repel and consume the noxious humor not only cold but also cholerick and also to stâ—enthen the part The fresh faces of Olives laid to the part asswage pain dried Oranges boiled in vinegar One partly astâ—ingent and partly discussing beaten and applied do the same Or â„ž medii corticis ulmi lb. ss caudae equin stoechad consolid majoris an m. ss aluminis roch thuris an Ê’ iii farin hordeiÊ’ v. lixivii com quantum sufficit fiat cataplasma ad formam pultis satis liquidae Commonly then when as the part swelleth up the pain is lessened for that the expulsive faculty driveth the humor from the center into the circumference of the part that is from within outward for in like sort such as have the tooth-ache have less pain when their cheeks begin to sweel After repercussives we must come to those which evacuate the conteined humor by evacuating or resolving it For every defluxion of humors remaining in any part requires evacuation Neither must we marvell thereat if the digested humor doth not vanish at the first time for we must have regard to the cold phlegm which is thick and viscid as also of the part which is ligamentous Why the gouty humor doth not presently vanish upon the use of repercussives Greater discusses membranous and nervous and consequently more dense then fleshie parts â„ž rad Bryon sigilli beat Mariae an â„¥ iv bulliant in lixivio postea terantur colentur per setaceum addâ—ndâ— fâ—rin hordei fabarum an â„¥ i. olei chamaem â„¥ iii. fiat cataplasma Or â„ž hordei lupin an â„¥ iii. sulphuris vivi salis com an â„¥ i. mellis com â„¥ v. pul aloes myrrhae an â„¥ ss aq vit â„¥ i cum lixivis fiat cataplasma Or â„ž succi calium rub aceti bâ—ni an â„¥ iiii farin hordei â„¥ iss pul Hermodactyl Ê’ ss vitellos â—â—â—rum nu iii. olei chamam â„¥ ii creci ℈ ii some burn the roots and stalks of Coleworts and mix the ashes with hogs grease and the powder of Orris and so make a pultis Or â„ž Lactis vaccini lb. ii micae panis albi quantum sufficit A cataplasm good for any Gâ—ut at any time bulliant simul addend pulveris subtilis florum chamam melilâ—ti an m. ss cr ci ℈ i. vitellos ovorum nu iiii ol ros â„¥ iii. butyri recentis â„¥ i. terebinth â„¥ ii fiat cataplasma ad formam pultis satis liquidae This Cataplasm may be applyed with good success not only to phlegmatick and cold but also to any gout at any time to mitigate the extremity of the pain in men of any temper and it must be changed twice or thrice a day Also Triacle dissolved in wine and anointed on the part is said to asswage this pain You may for the same purpose make and apply emplaisters unguents cerats and liniments This may be the form of an emplaster â„ž gummi ammoniaci Discussing emplaisters bdelii styracis an â„¥ ii cum aceto aquâ vit dissolve adde farin faenugr â„¥ ss olei chamaem aneth an â„¥ ii cerae quantum sufficit fiat emplasitum molle Or â„ž rad bryon sigill bâ—at Mariae an â„¥ v. bulliant in lixivio complete colentur per setaceum addendo olei cham â„¥ iiii seviâ—ircini â„¥ iiii cerae nov quantum sufficit fiat emplastrum mâ—lle Or â„ž gum ammon opopanacis galbani an Ê’ ii dissolvantur in aceto postea colentur adde olei liliorum terebinth venet an â„¥ i. picis navalis cer nâ—v quantam sufficit fiat emplastrum molle Or else â„ž succi rad â—nul camp ebuli an â„¥ iii. rad alâ—b lb. ss coquantur colentur per petaceum addendo flâ—rum cham meliâ— samâ—â—ci rerisâ—ar hyperici an p. ii nucum cupressi nu iiii ol cham aneth hyper liliorum de spicà an Ê’ ii pinguedinis anatis gallin anseris aâ— Ê’ ss raâ—as viridas vivas nu vi catellos duos nuper natos bulliant omnia simul in lb. ii ss viâ—i odoriferi unâ aquae vit ad consumptionem succorum vini â—ssium catellorum dissolutionem fortiter exprimantur expressionis adde terebinth â„¥ iii. cer quantum sufficit fiat emplastrum molle Also Emp. de vigo Oxicroceum de mucilaginibus de meliloto and the like mixed together and softned with a little oil or axungia are of the like faculty and good for the same purpose Ointments Let this be the form of an ointment â„ž anserem pinguâ—m imple catellis duobus de quibus deâ—â— cutem viscera caput pedes item accipe ranas nu x. colubros detracta cutâ— in frusta dissectos nu iv mithridat theriac an â„¥ ss fol salvia rorismar thymi rutae an m ss baccarum lauri
obstructed by the thickness of this humor but they are depressed and flatted by reason of the rest of the face and all the neighboring parts swoln more then their wont add hereto that the partition is consumed by the acrimony of the corroding and ulcerating humor The seventh is the lifting up thickness and swelling of the lips the filthiness stench and corrosion of the gums by acrid vapors riseing to the mouth but the lips of leprous persons are more swoln by the internal heat burning and incrassating the humors as the outward heat of the Sun doth in the Moors The eighth sign is the swelling and blackness of the tongue and as it were varicous veins lying under it because the tongue being by nature spongeous and rare is easily stored with excrementitious humors sent from the inner parts unto the habit of the body which same is the cause why the glandules placed about the tongue above and below are swoln hard and round no otherwise then scrophulous or meazled swine Lastly all their face riseth in red bunches or pushes and is over-spread with a dusky and obscure redness the eies are fiery fierce and fixed by a melancholick chachectick disposition of the whole body manifest signs whereof appear in the face by reason of the fore-mentioned causes yet some leprous persons have their faces tinctured with a yellowish others with a whitish color according to the condition of the humor which serves for a basis to the leprous malignity For hence Physicians affirm that there are three sorts of Leprosies one of a reddish black colour consisting in a melancholick humor another of a yellowish green in a cholerick humor another in a whitish yellow grounded upon adust phlegm The ninth sign is a stinking of the breath as also of all the excrement s proceeding from leprous bodies by reason of the malignity conceived in the humors The tenth is a horsness a shaking harsh and obscure voice as it were comming out of the nose by reason of the lungs recurrent nerves and muscles of the throttle tainted with the grosness of a virulent and adust humor the forementioned constriction and obstruction of the inner passage of the nose and lastly the asperity and inequality of the Weazon by immoderate driness as it happens to such as have drunk plentifully of strong wines without any mixture This immoderate driness of the muscles serving for respiration makes them to be troubled with a difficulty of breathing The eleventh sign is very observable which is a morphew or defedation of all the skin with a dry roughness and grainy inequality such as appears in the skins of plucked geese with many tetters on every side a filthy scab and ulcers not casting off only a bran-like scurf but also scales and crusts The cause of this dry scab is the heat of the burning bowels and humors unequally contracting and wrinkling the skin no otherwise then as leather is wrinkled by the heat of the sun or fire The cause of the filthy scab and serpiginous ulcers is the eating and corroding condition of the melancholick humor and the venenate corruption it also being the author of corruption so that it may be no marvel if the digestive faculty of the liver being spoiled the assimilative of a malign and unfit matter sent into the habit of the body cannot well nor fitly perform that which may be for the bodies good The twelfth is the sense of a certain pricking as it were of Goads or needles over all the skin caused by an acrid vapor hindred from passing forth and intercepted by the thickness of the skin The thirteenth is a consumption and emaciation of the muscles which are between the thumb and fore-finger not only by reason that the nourishing and assimilating faculties want fit matter wherewith they may repair the loss of these parts for that is common to these with the rest of the body but because these muscles naturally rise up unto a certain mountainous tumor therefore their depression is the more manifest And this is the cause that the shoulders of leprous persons stand out like wings to wit the emaciation of the inward part of the muscle Trapozites The fourteenth sign is the diminution of sense or a numness over all the body by reason that the nerves are obstructed by the thickness of the melancholick humor hindring the free passage of the animal spirit that it cannot come to the parts that should receive sense these in the interim remaining free which are sent into the muscles for motions sake and by this note I chiefly make trial of leprous persons thrusting a somewhat long and thick needle some-what deep into the great tendon endued with most exquisite sense which runs to the heel which if they do not well feel I conclude that they are certainly leprous Now for that they thus lose their sense their motion remaining entire the cause hereof is that the nerves which are disseminated to the skin are more affected and those that run into the muscles are not so much and therefore when as you prick them somewhat deep they feel the prick which they do nor in the surface of the skin The fifteenth is the corruption of the extreme parts possessed by putrefaction and a gangrene by reason of the corruption of the humors sent thither by the strength of the bowels infecting with the like tainture the parts wherein they remain add hereto that the animal sensitive faculty is there decaied and as often as any faculty hath forsaken any part the rest presently after a manner neglect it The sixteenth is they are troubled with terrible dreams for they seem in their sleep to see divels serpents dungeons graves dead bodies and the like by reas n of the black vapors of the melancholick humor troubling the phantasie with black and dismal visions by which reason also such as are bitten of a mad dog fear the water The seventeenth is that at the beginning and increase of the disease they are subtill crafty and furious by reason of the heat of the humors and blood but at length in the state and declension by reason of the heat of the humors and blood and entrails decaying by little and little therefore then fearing all things whereof there is no cause and distrusting of their own strength they endeavor by craft maliciously to circumvent those with whom they deal for that they perceive their powers to fail them The eighteenth is a desire of venery above their nature both for that they are inwardly burned with a strange heat as also by the mixture of slatulencies therewith for whose generation the melancholick humor is most fit which are agitated and violently carried through the veins and genital parts by the preternatural heat but at length when this heat is cooled and that they are fallen into an hot and dry distemper they mightily abhor venery which then would be very hurtful to them as it also is at the beginning of the disease because
the seeds should fall out There the females seed goeth and turneth into nutriment Why the female seed is nutriment for the male seed and the increase of the males seed because all things are nourished and do increase by those things that are most familiar and like unto them But the similitude and familiarity of seed with seed is far greater then with blood so that when they are perfectly mixed and co-agulated together and so wax warm by the straight and narrow inclosure of the womb a certain thin skin doth grow about it like unto that that will be over unsâ—immed milk Moreover this concretion or congealing of the seed is like unto an egg laied before the time that it should that is to say whose membrane or tunicle that compasseth it about hath not as yet increased or grown into a shelly hardness about it in folding-wise are seen many small threds dividing themselves over-spread with a certain clammy whitish or red substance as it were with black blood In the middest under it appeareth the navel from whence that small skin is produced A compendious way to understand humane conception But a man may understand many things that appertain unto the conception of mankind by the observation of twenty eggs setting them to be hatched under an Hen and taking one every day and breaking it and diligently considering it for in so doing on the twentieth day you shall find the Chick perfectly formed with the navel That little skin that so compasseth the infant in the womb is called the secundine or Chorion but commonly the after-birth Lib. de nat puer This little skin is perfectly made within six daies according to the judgment of Hippocrates as profitable and necessary not only to contain the seeds so mixed together but also to sâ—â—k nutriment through the oâ—ifices of the vessels ending in the womb What the Câ—tyledones are Those orifices the Greeks do call Câ—tyledones and the Latines Acetabula for they are as it were hollowed eminences like unto those which may be seen in the feet or snout of a Cuttle-fish many times in a double order both for the working and holding of their meat Those eminences called Acetabula do not so greatly appear in women as in many brute beasts Therefore by these the secundiâ—e cleaveth on every side unto the womb for the conservation nutrition and increase of the conceived â—eed CHAP. VII Of the generation of the navel AFter the woman hath conceived to every one of the aforesaid eminences groweth presently another vessel that is to say a vein to the vein and an aâ—tery to the aâ—tery these soft and yet thin vessels are framed with a little thin membrane which being spread under sucketh to them for to them it is in stead of a membrane and a ligament and a tunicle oâ— a defence and it is doubled with the others and made of the vein and artery of the navel These new small vessels of the infant with their orifices do answer directly one to one to the Cotyledones or eminencies of the womb they are very small and little as it were the hairy fibres that grow upon roots that are in the earth and when they have continued so a longer time they are combined together that of two they are made one vessel untill that by continual connexion all those vessels go and degenerate into two other great vessels called the umbilical vessels or the vessels of the navel because they do make the navel and do enter into the childs body by the hole of the navel The vein never joyneth it selfe with the artery Here Galen doth admire the singular providence of God and Nature because that in such a multitude of vessels and in so long a passage or length that they go or are produced the vein doth never confound it self nor stick to the artery nor the artery to the vein but every vessel joineth it self to the vessel of its own kind But the umbilical vein or navel-vein entering into the body of the child doth join it self presently to the hollow part of the liver but the artery is divided into two which join themselvs to the two Iliack arteries along the sides of the bladder and are presently covered with the peritonaeum and by the benefit thereof annexed unto the parts which it goes unto Those small veins and arteries are as it were the roots of the childe but the vein and artery of the navel are as it were the body of the tree Hippocrates calleth all the membranes that compass the infa t in the womb according to the judgment of Galen in his book de usu pâ—rtium by the name of the secandines to bring down the nutriment to nourish the child For first we live in the womb the life of a plant and then next the life of a sensitive creature and as the first tunicle of the child is called Châ—riâ—ns or Allantâ—ides so the other is called Amnios or Aguiâ—a which doth compass the seed or child about on every side These membranes are most thin yea for their thinness like unto the Spiders web woven one upon another and also connexed in many places by the extremeties of certain small and hairy substances which at length by the adjunction of their like do get strength whereby you may understand what is the cause why by divers and violent motions of the mother in going and dancing or leaping and also of the infant in the womb those membranes are not almost broken For they are so conjoined by the knots of those hairy substances that between them nothing neither the urine nor the sweat can come as you may plainly and evidently perceive in the dissection of a womans body that is great with child not depending on any other mans opinion be it never so old or inveterate yet the strength of those membranes is not so great but that they may be soon broken in the birth by the kicking of the child GHAP. VIII An old opinion confuted Of the Vmbilical vessels or the vessels belonging to the navel MAny of the antient Writers have written that there are five vessels found in the navel But yet in many nay all the bodies I sought in for them I could never find but three that is to say one vein which is very large so that in the passage thereof it will receive the tag of a point and two arteries but not so large but much narrower because the child wanteth oâ— standeth in need of much more blood for his conformation and the nutriment or increase of his parts then of vital spirit These vessels making the body of the navel which as it is thought To what use the knots of the childes navel in the womb serve is formed within nine or ten dayes by their doubling and folding make knots like unto the knots of a Franciscan Friers girdle that staying the running blood in those their knotty windings they might more perfectly
without a passage in their fundament Neither have I seldom seen infants born without any hole in their fundament so that I have been constrained with a knife to cut in sunder the membrane or cunicle that grew over and stopped it And how can such excrements be engendred when the childe being in the womb is nourished with the more laudable portion of the menstrual blood therefore the issue or childe is wont to yeeld or avoid two kindes or sorts of excrements so long as he is in the womb that is to say sweat and urine in both which he swims but they are separated by themselves by a certain tunicle called Allantoïdes as it may be seen in kids dogs sheep and other brute beasts for as much as in mankinde the tunicle Chorion and Allantoïdes or Farciminalis be all one membrane If the woman be great of a man-childe she is more merry strong Aph. 24. sect 5 and better-coloured all the time of her childe-bearing but if a woman-childe she is ill coloured because that women are not so hot as men The males begin to stir within three moneths and an half but females after if a woman conceive a male-childe she hath all her right parts stronger to every work wherefore they do begin to set forwards their right foot first in going and when they arise they lean on the right arm Aph. 47. sect 5. the right dug will sooner swell and wax hard the male-childe stir more in the right side then in the left and the female-children rather in the left then in the right side CHAP. XIII With what travail the Childe is brought into the world and of the cause of this labour and travail WHen the natural prefixed and prescribed time of childe-birth is come the childe being then grown greater requires a greater quantity of food which when he cannot receive in sufficient measure by his navel with great labour and striving he endeavoreth to get forth therefore then he is moved with a stronger violence and doth break the membranes wherein he is contained Then the womb because it is not able to endure such violent motions nor sustain or hold up the childe any longer by reason that the conceptacles of the membranes are broken asunder is relaxed and then the childe pursuing the air which he feeleth to enter in at the mouth of the womb which then is very wide and gapeing Why the infant is born sometimes with his head forwards is carryed with his head downwards and so commeth into the world with great pain both unto it self and also unto his Mother by reason of the tenderness of his body and also by reason of the nervous neck of h s mothers womb In the time childe-birth the bones of Ilium and Os sacrum are drawn and extended one from another and separation of the bone called Os Ilium from the bone called Os sacrum For unless those bones were drawn in sunder how could not only twins that cleave fast together but also one childe alone come forth at so narrow a passage as the neck of the womb is Not only reason but also experience confirmeth it for I opened the bodies of women presently after they have died of travail in child-birth in whome I have found the bones of Ilium to be drawn the bredth of ones finger from Os sacrum and moreover in many unto whom I have been called being in great extremity of difficult and hard travail I have not only heard but also felt the bones to cracle and make a noise when I laid my hand upon the coccyx or rump by the violence of the distention Also honest matrons have declared unto me that they themselves a few dayes before the birth have felt and hard the noise of those bones separating themselves one from another with great pain Also a long time after the birth many do feel great pain and ach about the region of the coccyx and Os sacrum so that when nature is not able to repair the dissolved continuity of the bones of Ilium they are constrained to halt all the dayes of their life after But the bones of the share called Ossa pubis An Italian fable I have never seen to be separated as many do also affirm It is reported that in Italy the coccyx or rump in alâ— Maidens is broken that when they come to be married they may bear children with lesser travail in childe-birth but this is a forged tale for that bone being broken is naturally and of its own accord repaired and joyned together again with a Callus whereby the birth of the childe will be more difficult and hard CHAP. XIV Of the situation of the infant in the womb The situation of the infant in the womb is diverse REason cannot shew the certain situation of the infant in the womb for I have found it altogether uncertain variable and diverse both in living and dead women in the dead by opening their bodies presently after they were dead and in the living by helping them by the industry of my hand when they have been in danger of perishing by travail of childe-birth for by putting my hand into the womb I have felt the infant comming forth sometimes with his feet forwards sometimes with his hands and sometimes wish his hands and feet turned backwards and sometimes forwards as the figure following plainly describeth I have often found them coming forth with their knees forwards and sometimes with one of the feet and sometimes with their belly forwards their hands and feet being lifted upwards as the former figure sheweth at large Sometimes I have found the Infant coming with his feet downwards striding a wide somtimes headlong stretching one of his arms downward out at length and that was an Hermaphrodite as this figure plainly declareth One time I observed in the birth of twins that the one came with his head forwards and the other with his feet according as here I have thought good to describe them In the bodies of women that died in travail of childe I have sometimes found children no bigger then if they had been but four moneths in the womb situated in a round compass like a hoop with their head bowed down to their knees with both their hands under the knees and their â—eels close to their buttocks And moreover I protest before God that I sound a childe being yet alive in the body of his mother whom I opened so soon as she was dead lying all along stretched out with his face upwards and the palms of his hands joyned together as if he were at prayer CHAP. XV. Which is the legitimate and natural and which the illegitimate or unnatural time of childe-birth TO all living creatures except Man the time of conception and bringing forth their young is certain and definite but the issue of Man commeth into the world Mankinde hath no cerâ—tin time to bringing forth young sometimes in the seventh sometimes in
not absolutely performe the duty of a mother unto the childe Gel. lib. 12. ca. as Marcus Aurelius the Roman Emperor was wont to say For it is a certain unnatural imperfect and half kinde of mothers dutie to bear a childe and presently to abandon or put it away as if it were forsaken to nourish and feed a thing in their womb which they neither know not see with their own blood and then not to nourish it when they see it in the world a live a creature or reasonable soul now requireing the help and sustentation of the mother CHAP. XXI Of the choice of Nurses MAny husbands take such pity on their tender wives that they provide Nurses for their children that unto the pains that they have sustained in bearing them they may not also add the trouble of nursing them wherefore such a Nurse must be chosen which hath had two or three children For the duggs which have been already sucked and accustomed to be filled have the veines and arteries more large and capable to receive the more milk In the choice of a Nurse there is ten things to be considered very diligently as her age the habit of her body her behaviour the condition of her milke the form not only of her duggs or breasts but also of her teats or nipples the time of her childe birth the sex of her last infant or childe The best age of a Nurse that she be nor with childe that she be sound and and in perfect health As concerning her age she ought not to be under twenty five years not above thirty five the time that is between is the time of strength more temperate and more wholsome and healthy and less abounding with excremental humors And because her body doth not then grow or increase she must of necessity have the more abundance of blood After thiâ—ty five years in many the menstrual fluxes do cease and therefore it is to be supposed that they have the less nutâ—iment for children The best habit of body in a Nurse The Nurse must also be of good habit or square or wel-set body her breast broad her colour lively not fat nor lean but well made her flesh not soft and tender but thick and hard or strong whereby she may be the more able to endure watching and takeing of pains about the childe she must not have a red or freckled face but brown or somewhat shadowed or mixed with redness for truly such women arâ— more hot then those that are red in the face by reason whereof they must needs concoct and turn their meat the better into blood For according to the judgment of Sextus Cheronensis Lib. de iâ—f nâ—tr as blackish or brown ground is more fertil then the white even so a bâ—own woman hath more store of milk You must look wel on her head lest she should have the scuâ—fâ—e or running sores see that her teeth be not foul or rotten not her breath stinking nor no ulcer nor sore about her body and that she be not born of gouty or leprous Parents Of what behavâ—or the Nurse must be She ought to be quiâ—k and diligent in keeping the childe neat and clean chaste sober merry alwayes laughing and smiling on her Infant often singing unto it and speaking distinctly and plainly for she is the only Mistress to teach the childe to speak Let her be well-manner'd because the manners of the nurse are participated unto the Infant together with the milke For the whelpes of dogs if they do suck Wolves or Lionesses will become more fierce and cruel then otherwise they would Contrariwise the Lions whelps wil leave their savageness and fierceness if that they be brought up and nourished with the milke of any Bitch or other tame beast If a Goat give a Lamb suck the same Lambs-wool will be more hard then others contrariwise if a sheep give a Kid suck the same Kids hair will be more soft then another Kids-hair She ought to be sober and the rather for this cause because many Nurses being overladen with wine and banqueting often set their children unto their breasts to suck and then fall asleep and so suddenly strangle or choak them Why the Nurse must abstain from copulation She must abstain from copulation for copulation troubleth and moveth the humors and the blood and therefore the milke it self and it diminisheth the quantity of milk because it provoketh the menstrual flux and causeth the milke to have a certain strong and virulent quality such as we may perceive to breath from them that are incensed with the fervent lust and desire of Venery And moreover because that thereby they may happen to be with chide whereof ensueth discommodity both to her own childe that is within her body and also to the Nurse-childe to the Nurse-childe because that the milk that it sucketh will be worse and more depraved then otherwise it would be by reason that the more laudable blood after the conception remaineth about the womb for the nutriment and increasing of the infant in the womb and the more impure blood goeth into the dugs which breedeth impure or uncleane milk but to the conceived childe because it will cause it to have scarcity of food for so much as the sucking-childe sucketh so much the childe conceived in the womb wanteth What dugs a Nurse ought to have Also she ought to have a broad breast and her dugs indifferently big not slack or hanging but of a middle consistence between soft and hard for such dugs will concoct the blood into milk the better because that in firm flesh the heat is more strong and compact You may by touching trie whether the flesh be solid and firm as also by the dispersing of the veines easily to be seen by reason of their swelling and blewness through the dugs as it were into many streames or little rivulets for in flesh that is loose and slack they lie hidden Those dugs that are of a competent bigness receive or contain no more milk then is sufficient to novrish the infant In those dugs that are great and hard the milke is as it were suffocated stopped or bound in so that the childe in in sucking can scarce draw it out and moreover if the dugs be hard the childe putting his mouth to the breast may strike his nose against it and so hurt it whereby he may eirher refuse to suck or if he doth proceed to suck by continual sucking and placeing of his nose on the hard breast it may become flat and the nostrils turned upwards to his great deformity when he shall come to age If the teats or nipples of the dugs do stand somewhat low or depressed inwards on the tops of the dugs the childe can hardly take them between its lips therefore his sucking will be very laborious If the nipples or teats be very big they will so fill all his mouth that he cannot well use his tongue in sucking
womb There are women that bear the childe in their womb ten or eleven whole moneths and such children have their conformation of much quantity of seed wherefore they will be more big great and strong and therefore they require more time to come to their perfection and maturity for those fruits that are great will not be so soon ripe as those that are small But children that are small and little of body do often come to their perfection and maturity in seven or nine moneths if all other things are correspondent in greatness and bigness of body it happeneth for the most part that the woman with childe is not delivered before the ninth moneth be done A male will be born soonner then a female or at the leastwise in the same moneth But a male childe will be commonly born at the beginnâ—ng or a little before the begining of the same moneth by reason of his engrafted heat which causeth maturity and ripeness Furthermore the infant is sooner come to maturity and perfection in a hot woman then in a cold for it is the property of heat to ripen CHAP. XXXI How to preserve the infant in the womb when the mother is dead IF all the signes of death appear in the woman that lieth in travel and cannot be delivered there must then be a Surgeon ready and at hand which may open her body so soon as she is dead whereby the infant may be preserved in safety neither can it be supposed sufficient if the mothers mouth and privie parts be held open for the infant being inclosed in his mothers womb Why it is not sufficient to preserve life in the childe to hold open the mouth and privie parts of the mother so soon as she is dead and the childe alive in her body and compassed with the membranes cannot take his breath but by contractions and dilatations of the artery of the navel But when the mother is dead the lungs do not execute their office function therefore they cannot gather in the air that compasseth the body by the mouth or aspera arteria into their own substance or into the arteries that are dispersed throughout the body thereof by reason whereof it cannot send it unto the heart by the veiny artery which is called arteria venalis for if the heart want air there cannot be any in the great artery which is called arteria aorta whose function it is to draw it from the heart as also by reason thereof it is wanting in the arteries of the womb which are as it were the little conduits of the great artery whereinto the air that is brought from the heart is derived and floweth in unto these little ones of all the body and likewise of the womb Wherefore it must of necessity follow that the air is wanting to the cotyledons of the secundines to the artery of the infants navel the iliack arteries also and therefore unto his heart and so unto his body for the air being drawn by the mothers lungs is accustomed to come to the infant by this continuation of passages How the bellie of the woman that dieth in travel must be cut open to save the childe Therefore because death maketh all the motions of the mothers body to cease it is far better to open her body so soon as she is dead beginning the incision at the cartilage Xiphoides or blade and making it in a form semicircular cutting the skin muscles and peritonaeum not touching the guts then the womb being lifted up must first be cut lest that otherwise he infant might perchance be touched or hurt with the knife You shall oftentimes finde the childe unmoveable as though he were dead but not because he is dead indeed but by reason that he being destitute of the accesse of the spirits by the death of the mother hath contracted a great weakness yet you may know whether he be dead indeed or not by handling the artery of the navel for it will beat and pant if he be alive otherwise not but if there be any life yet remaining in him How it may be known whether the infant be aâ—ive or not shortly after he hath taken in the air and is recreated with the access thereof he will move all his members and also all his whole body In so great a weakness or debility of the strength of the childe by cutting the navel string it must rather be laid close to the region of the belly thereof that thereby the heat if there be any jot remaining may be stirred up again But I cannot sufficiently marvel at the insolency of those that affirm that they have seen women whose bellies and womb have been more then once cut and the infant taken out when it could no otherwise be gotten forth and yet notwithstanding alive which thing there is no man can perswade me can be done without the death of the mother by reason of the necessary greatness of the wound that must be made in the muscles of the belly and substance of the womb for the womb of a woman that is great with childe by reason that it swelleth and is distended with much blood must needs yield a gread flux of blood which of necessity must be mortal And to conclude when that the wound or incision of the womb is cicatrized it will not peâ—mit or suffer the womb to be dilated or extended to receive or bear a new birth For these and such like other causes this kinde of cure as desperate and dangerous is not in mine opinion to be used CHAP. XXXII Of superfetation SUperfetation is when a woman doth bear two or more children at one time in her womb What superfetation is and they be enclosed each in his several secundine but those that are included in the same secundine are supposed to be conceived at one and the same time of copulation by reason of the great and copious abundance of seed and these have no number of daies between their conception and birth but all at once For as presently after meat the stomach which is naturally of a good temper is contracted or drawn together about the meat to comprehend it on every side though small in quantity as it were by both hands so that it cannot rowl neither unto this or that side so the womb is drawn together into the conception about the seeds assoon as they are brought into the capacity thereof and is so drawn in unto it on every side that it may come together into one body not permitting any portion thereof to go into any other region or side so that by one time of copulation the seed that is mixed together cannot engender more children then one which are divided by their secundines A womans womb is not distinguished into diverse cells And moreover because there are no such cells in the wombs of women as are supposed or rather known to be in the wombs of beasts which therefore bâ—ing forth many
immoderately the blood is sharp and burning and also stinking the sick woman is also troubled with a continual fever and her tongue will be dry ulcers arise in the gums and all the whole mouth In women the flowers do flow by the veins and arteries which rise out of the spermatick vessels and end in the bottom and sides of the womb but in virgins and in women great with child whose children are sound and healthful by the branches of the hypogastrick vein and artery which are spred and dispersed over the neck of the womb The cause of this immoderate flux is in the quantity or quality of the blood in both the fault is unreasonable copulation especially with a man that hath a yard of a monstrous greatness and the dissolution of the retentive faculty of the vessels The criticâ—l flux of the flowers The signs of blood flowing from the womb or neck of the womb oftentimes also the flowers flow immoderately by reason of a painful and a difficult birth of the childe or the after-birth being pulled by violence from the cotyledons of the womb or by reason that the veins and arteries of the neck of the womb are torn by the comming forth of the infant with great travel and many times by the use of sharp medicines and exulcerating pessaries Oft-times also nature avoids all the juice of the whole body critically by the womb after a great disease which flux is not rashly or suddenly to be stopped That menstrual blood that floweth from the womb is more gross black and clotty but that which commeth from the neck of the womb is more clear liquid and red CHAP. LVI Of stopping the immoderate flowing of the flowers or courses YOu must make choce of such meats and drinks as have power to incrassate the blood for as the flowers are provoked with meats that are hot and of subtil parts so they are stopped by such meats as are cooling thickning a stringent and sliptick as are barly-waters sodden rice the extreme parts of beasts as of oxen calves sheep either fried or sodden with sorrel purslain plantain shepherd's-purse sumach the buds of brambles berberries and such like It is supposed that a Harts-horn burned washed and taken in astringent water will stop all immoderate fluxes likewise sanguis draconis terra sigillata bolus armenus lapis haematites coral beaten into most subtil powder and drunk in steeled water also pap made with milk wherein steel hath oftentimes been quenched and the flowr of wheat barly beans or rice is very effectual for the same Quinces cervices medlars cornelian-berries or cherries may likewise be eaten at the second course Julips are to be used of steeled waters with the syrup of dry roses pomegranats sorrel myrtles quinces or old conserves of red roses but wine is to be avoided but if the strength be so extenuated that they require it you must chuse gross and astringent wine tempered with steeled water exercises are to be shunned especially Venerous exercises anger is to be avoided a cold air is to be chosen The institution or order of life which if it be not so naturally must be made so by sprinkling cold things on the ground especially if the summer or heat be then in his full strength sound sleeping stayes all evacuations except sweating The opening of a vein in the arm cupping-glasses fastened on the breasts bands and painful frictions of the upper parts are greatly commended in this malady But if you perceive that the cause of this accident lieth in a cholerick ill juice mixed with the blood Purging the body must be purged with medicines that purge choler and water as Rubarb Myrobalanes Tamarinds Sebestens and the purging syrup of Roses CHAP. LVII Of local medicines to be used against the immoderate flowing of the Courses ALso unguents are made to stay the immoderate flux of the terms and likewise injections and pessaries This or such like may be the form of an unguent â„ž ol mastich myrt an Ê’ii nucum cupres olibani An unguent myrtil an Ê’ii succi rosar rubr â„¥ i. pulv mastichin â„¥ ii boli armen terrae sigillat anÊ’ ss cerae quantum sufficit fiat unguentum An injection may be thus made â„ž aq plantag An astringent injection rosar rubr bursae pastor centinodii an lb ss corticis querni nucum cupressiâ— gallar non maturar an Ê’ ii berberis sumach balaust alumin. roch an Ê’i make thereof a decoction and inject it in a syringe blunt-pointed into the womb lest if it should be sharp it might hurt the sides of the neck of the womb also Snails beaten with their shells and applied to the navel are very profitable Quinces roasted under the coales and incorporated with the powder of Myrtles and Bole-Armenick and put into the neck of the womb are marvellous effectual for this matter The form of a pessarie may be thus A stringent pessaries â„ž gallar immaturar combust in aceto extinctar Ê’ii ammo Ê’ ss sang dracoâ— pulv rad symphyt sumach mastich fucci acaciae cornu cerust colophon myrrhae scoriae ferri an Ê’i caphur ℈ ii mix them and incorporate them all together with the juice of knot-grass syngreen night-shade hen-bane water-lillies plantain of each as much as is sufficient and make thereof a pessary Cooling things as Oxycrate unguentum rosatum and such like are with great profit used to the region of the loins thighs and genital parts but if this immoderate flux do come by erosion so that the matter thereof continually exulcerateth the neck of the womb let the place be annointed with the milk of a shee-Ass with barly-water or binding and astringent mucelages as of Psilium Quinces Gum Tragacanth Arabick and such like CHAP. LVIII Of Womens Fluxâ—s or the Whites The reason of the name BEsides the fore-named Flux which by the law of nature happeneth to women monthly there is also another called a Womans Flux because it is only proper and peculiar to them this sometimes wearieth the woman with a long and continual distillation from the womb The differences or through the womb comming from the whole body without pain no otherwise then when the whole superfluous filth of the body is purged by the reins or urine sometimes it returneth at uncertain seasons and sometimes with pain and exulcerating the places of the womb it differeth from the menstrual Flux because that this for the space of a few daies as it shall seem convenient to nature casteth forth laudable blood but this Womans Flux yeeldeth impure ill juice somtimes sanious sometimes serous and livid otherwhiles white and thick like unto barly-cream proceeding from flegmatick blood this last kind thereof is most frequent Therefore we see women that are phlegmatick and of a soft and loose habit of body to be often troubled with this disease and therefore they will say among themselves that they have the whites What women are apt to