Air more moist than dry and his diet must be the same The best and most approved remedy is to apply a cautery in the hinder part of the Head to the nook of the Neck between the second and third Vertebra which may be done to new born Children Frictions also of the Legs Back-bone and Thighs are very profitable as also Cupping-Glasses applied to the Thighs and Legs If the Convulsion come by reason of the Worms you may give him this Clyster Take of simple Hydromel four ounces new butter one ounce powdered Aloes half a dram and make a Clyster Or you may give him two drams of Earthworms killed dried and poudered Sugar poudered one ounce and let the Child take two drams of it every day in a spoonful of Lettice-water If any venemous Vapour be the cause hereof let him take six grains of Treacle or Mithridate in Mint-water Of the swelling of the Hypochondria in Infants WHICH causeth Children by reason of the narrowness of the Mouth of the Stomach to be troubled with a difficulty of breathing It ariseth from the greediness of the Infant which either sucks too great a quantity of Milk or of other Meats The inward Cure of this is performed by administring the Powder of the root of Orrice or Paeonie Of Costiveness in Children THIS proceeds from the unskilfulness of the Nurse in the Dieting of the Child or from a cold and dry Distemper of the Guts or from the hot and dry Distemper of the Bowels in this case the Belly may be well loosned with Cassia or with a liniment composed of new Oil of sweet Almonds Goose fat May butter Ointment of Marshmallows of each two drams Colocynth gr sixteen one scruple of Salt Species Hierae one scruple Diagridion four grains make of this an ointment and anoint the Navel Or it proceeds from a viscous Flegm which wraps about and holds the dregs which may be remedied by a suppository of Mouse Dung and Goats suet or by the use of an Emplaister of Aloes Bulls-gall Myrrh and May butter to be laid upon the Navel Of looseness in Children LOoseness of the Belly happens either in the time of Teeth breeding or out of the time in the time of breeding Teeth either by reason of the corruption of the nutriment or by reason of overmuch watching through the pain of the Teeth or by reason of a Fever and some unnatural heat It must not be suddenly stopt if it be not over copious and that the Infant can endure it the Belly must be afterwards cleansed with Roses solutive and afterwards stopped great observation being had whether the cause come from a hot or cold Distemper Of Burstness in Children BUrstness happens to Children either by reason that the Peritonaeum is burst through crying or falling or splaying with the Thighs For the Cure whereof the Child must be kept quiet and still from crying upon which after the part affected is well bound up you may give the Child inwardly of the essence of the greater Comfrey one spoonful with two drops of Balsam of Sal Gemma You may also foment the place with a fomentation made of the roots of the greater Comfrey and Osmund Royal the bark of Elm and Ash Knot-grass each half an ounce the leaves of Plantain Mullein Rupture wort Horsetail Flowers of Camomile red Roses and Melilot of each a handful and a half Balaust Cypress Nuts and Acorns of each two drams put these into two bags and boil them in equal parts of sowre Wine and Smiths water for a Fomentation to be used for a quarter of an hour then you may lay on a Plaister of the red drying Ointment eleven ounces pouder of Mastick Olibanum and Sarcocol Cyprest Nuts of each one dram with a little Wax and Oil of Mastick to make a Plaister which must be put upon the place affected and bound down with a little pillow Sometimes this burstness proceeds from a watry humour abounding in the Abdomen which descending into the Cods causeth them to swell for which you may use with good success this Ointment Take of Unguent Comitiss and the red drying Ointment of each two ounces Pigeons dung half an ounce live Sulphur three drams powder of Lawrel Berries and Mustardseed of each a dram Oil of Dill and Venice Turpentine of each three drams Wax as much as sufficeth This is also an extraordinary remedy for the burstness proceeding from Wind. Of the Inflammation of the Navel THE Inflammation of the Navel ariseth when the blood gathers thither by reason of some external hurt the danger is very great if it should Apostemate and so the Guts fall down and therefore suppuration must be hindred as much as may be Of the jutting forth of the Navel THIS differs from the Inflamation because here the Navel doth not give way to the touch neither is the colour of the Skin changed neither is there any very great pain or Pulse unless the Intestines are very much fallen it proceeds from the ill binding thereof at first which is incurable or when a greater portion than needs of the Navel string is left Secondly from a laxation of the Peritonaeum and then the tumour is equal nor doth the Navel jut forth very far In the Cure hereof you must let the Child abstain from all windy meats and from much crying Sometimes it is occasioned by the rupture of the Peritonaeum the swelling is hardly perceived when the Child lies upon his back but increaseth and swells forward when he walks sits cries and bawls In the Cure of this the Moss that grows upon the wild Prune Tree is very much commended or you may make little swathbands of Leather and anoint them with Oxycroceum Of the Stone in the Bladder THIS is known by the coming forth of the Urine by drops and with pain which is sometimes unmixed sometimes containing a kind of serous humour sometimes died with a little blood It is produced either by the Milk which is engendred of meats that do increase the Stone or through a hot distemper of the Liver which attracts the Chyle and sends it unaltered to the Bladder For the Cure you must use Baths among which this is commended to anoint the Bladder withal take Oyl of Scorpions Oyl of bitter Almonds Conies Grease and Hens Grease of each an ounce and a half and of the juice of Pellitory of the Wall two ounces Or take Sal Tartar one ounce Parsly-water a Pint mix them through a fine paper rubbed over with the Rinds of Oranges and give a small quantity thereof Of the not holding of the Urine THis ariseth either from the Muscle which shuts the orifice of the Bladder which is so disposed that it is loosed upon the least exciting of the Urine and grows so into a habit that it many times accompanies them to their Graves or from the stone in the Bladder or from the weakness of the Sphincter proceeding from a cold and moist distemper which is cured partly by
nature may more commodiously be referred to a discourse by it self Now what might be the cause that the genital Members are ingendred within or without and that the creature becometh Male or Female is a thing plain and evident enough to demonstrate considering that heat extendeth and enlargeth all things and cold retaineth and closeth them up so that it is concluded by all that are knowing in Philosophy and natural causes that if the seed be cold and moist a woman is begotten not a man And if the same be hot and dry a man is begotten not a Woman Whence it is to be inferred that there is no man to be termed cold in respect of a woman nor woman hot in respect of a man This therefore is to be noted as a thing without all controversie or exception that the qualities which render a woman fruitful are cold and moisture the womb holding the same proportion with mans seed that the earth doth with Corn or any other grain and we see that if the earth want cold and moisture the seed will not prosper and that those are the most fertile soyls which partake most of cold and moist yet these two qualities ought to keep a certain measurableness lest that either by excess or deficiency generation be spoyled for as the Corn is vitiated by excess of rain and overmuch cold so in conception the seed may be choaked by over-abundance of these qualities and on the other side if those parts in a woman should be temperate as in a man it were impossible she should conceive or be a woman Nor could she breed that flegmatick blood which ingendereth milk by which as Galen and Hypocrates affirm the birth is nourished while it remaineth in the mothers belly neither could she be beardless or void of hair if she were overmuch inclining to hot and dry Nevertheless all women are not cold and moist alike there being of these qualities several degrees some being cold and moist in the first degree some in the second some in the third and in each of these they may conceive if a man answer them in proportion of heat As for the signs of these several degrees of coldness and moisture in women though hitherto they have not been taken notice of by any yet it will be very requisite in this place to consider them according to the several effects which each of these degrees produceth First by the quick apprehension and acuteness of wit in women for if they be very witty and acute they are to be judged cold and moist in the first degree only if very shallow and simple in the third degree but if they partake of a middle nature between these two extreams it signifieth that they are in the second degree Secondly their Conditions they being either curst or good natured according to these three degrees Thirdly their voice which is either shrill or big according as they are more or less cold and moist Fourthly their substance in flesh leanness being a sign of little coldness and moisture grosness or over much corpulency of the redundance of those qualities to be meanly fleshed betokeneth the second degree Fifthly the colour of their face which is either white or swarthy as these qualities are intense or remiss of the second degree is composed a fresh and lively colour Sixthly their hair which is also either much or little according to the exuberance or defect of cold and moist Seventhly a handsom form and proportion of body is the result of the middlemost degree deformity arising from either Extream Now from all these Signs it may be concluded that those women who are cold and moist in the second degree are of the perfectest temper and in the best capacity as to their own proper nature of bringing forth Children CHAP. IV. The signs to know the several degrees of hot and dry in a Man AS there are in Women three degrees of cold and moist so likewise in Men there are as many of hot and dry and the same signs which discover those in women specifie these in men only the first or remiss degree in women holdeth a proportion with the third or intense degree in men as namely whereas among women those have the biggest voices that are cold and moist in the first degree the like is to be concluded of men that are hot and dry in the third the defect in those answering to the excess in these now to understand these temperatures the more exactly we must take notice of a very observable point mentioned by Galen which is that the temperature of all parts of the body especially the brain follows the temperature of the Testicles and he affirmeth that they are of more importance than the Heart alledging this reason namely that the Heart is the beginning of the life only but the Testicles are the beginning of living healthfully and without distempers CHAP. V. What Women ought to marry with what men that they may have Children IN respect of married Women that prove Childless Hypocrates adviseth this experiment to be tried to know whether the defect be on the Womans part or on her Husbands which is to make her suffumigations with Incense or Storax with a Garment close wrapped about her which may hang down on the ground in such sort that no vapor or fume may issue out and if within a while after she feel the savour of the Incense in her mouth she may conclude that the barrenness comes not through her own defect but through her husbands for as much as the fumes found the passages open whereby it pierced up to the Nostrils But although this proof perform that effect which Hippocrates speaketh of namely the piercing up to the inner part of the mouth yet this is no infallible argument of the Husbands barrenness nor of the fruitfulness of the Wife Since want of Children may arise through an unapt disposition in them both in respect of the correspondency of qualities for it hath oftentimes hapned that a man who could not have Children by one wife hath had them by another the like also hath befallen Women What the correspondency should be which the man and wife ought to bear each to other is expressed by Hypocrates in these words If the hot answer not the cold and the dry the moist with measure and quantity that is if there meet not in the Womb two Seeds the one hot the other cold the one dry the other moist extended in equal degree there can be no generation For so marvellous a work as the formation of Man could not be perform'd without a proportionable commixture of seeds which could not be if the mans seed and the womans were both of the same temperature To exemplify what I have said it is to be concluded that a woman who is wily ill-condition'd shrill-voiced lean swarthy-coloured and deformed which are the signs of cold and moist in the first degree may conceive by a man who is ignorant good
for them to hang by on both sides one in form oblong and slender These Muscels derive their original from a thick membrane which is joyned to the Hanchbone in the further part of that region where the hair grows and is fastned to this bone with certain fleshy and straight fibres where the oblique Muscles of the Abdomen or Midriff end thence reaching down upon the superiour Members of the Testicles they are extended through the whole length of that round Body These Muscles are never seen in Women being altogether useless because their Stones are not pendent but are inclosed within their bodies CHAP. VII Of the substance and temper of the Stones THE substance of the Stones is glandulous or kernelly white soft loose spongy and hollow having sundry vessels dispersed thorow them Now although the substance of the Testicles be most soft and moist yet doth not this moistness constitute an uniform or homogeneal body for the substance of the Stones is wholly dissimilar and full of fibres These fibres also seem to be of a different substance from that of the Stones being only cloathed with the flesh of the Stones as the fibres of the Muscles are inwardly nervous but covered over with the flesh of the Muscles These fibres again differ in this that the fibres of the Testicles are hollow but the fibres of the Stones full and substantial These fibres are said to come from the spermatic vessels and thence branch themselves forth thorow the Testicles by which that part of the Seed which is over and above what serves for the nourishment of the Testicles is drawn forth and kept for procreation As concerning the temper of the Stones they would sooner be thought cold than hot if that Maxim were true that All white things are cold and all red things hot Notwithstanding because nature is known to abhor all coldness in the work of generation Therefore we must presume to affirm the temper of the Stones to be hot for they always abound with blood and a pure spirit that can never be without heat besides that heat is requir'd for the concoction of this blood and the changing it into seed yet it is very temperate as appears by the softness of the substance for as coldness and driness is the cause of hardness so heat and moisture is the cause of softness Nevertheless we are to understand this that the temper of the Stones are not alike in all for in some they are far colder than in others And therefore those who have hot Testicles are more salacious and prone to venereal actions having the places near about much more hairy and their Testicles much harder than others Those that have their Testicles cold find every thing contrary The greatest heat is in the right Testicle because it receives more pure and hotter blood from the hollow Vein and the great Artery the left colder because it receives a more impure and serous blood from the Emulgent Vein CHAP. VIII Of the Actions of the Testicles THE action and use of the Testicles is To generate Seed a gift which they obtain from an inbred quality which Nature hath bestowed upon them For the blood being received by the spermatic Vessels and there beginning to change its colour is by and by received by the deferent Vessels or the vessels which carry the blood so prepared to the Testicles where it is for a while contained and afterwards being carried to the Stones is by them made Seed and the last work perfected And it may with more easiness be affirmed that the Seed is generated by the Stones because every like is said to generate its like now the substance of the Testicles is very like the Seed it self that is white moist and viscous Whether the Stones are the only efficient cause of the Seed is not here to be disputed being only a nice point and no way profitable We shall rather with silence adhere to that opinion which affirms the function of the Testicles to be the generation of the Seed which is most likely and proceed to the next CHAP. IX Concerning the Utility of the Testicles and their parts THE structure of the Testicles being thus known it remains that we shew you their use This is first discovered from their situation For of those Creatures that have Stones some have them in their bodies as all Fowl others have them without though not pendent others have them hanging downward as men Men therefore have their Testicles without their bodies for two causes first because it is required that the Testicles of the Male should be bigger and hotter than those of the Female so that it were impossible for them to be contained within the body because of their quantity Besides the Seed of the Male being the effective original of the Creature and therefore hottest it is also required that the Seed should be more abundant than could be contained in the Testicles were they placed within the body for the seminary passages must have been less and the veins themselves would not have afforded such plenty of matter as now they do The motion of the Testicles is also to be considered by which they move sometimes upward and sometimes downward The one of these motions which is made upward is voluntary as being made by the Muscles but the motion downward is a forced motion not hapning without the laxity of the Muscles the Testicles through their own weight falling downwards These Muscles are called Cremasters their use being to draw up the Testicles to shorten the way of the Ejaculation of the Seed as also to keep the vessels from being distended too far by the weight of the Testicles The use of the Tunicles is now to be spoken of and first of that which is outermost and is called by the Latins Scrotum being the purse wherein the Testicles are contained It is made to wrinkle it self up and to let it self loose that it may be large enough for the Testicles when they swell with plenty of Seed and to wrinkle up again when the Testicles being emptied and so becoming less are drawn upward The other Coats or Tunicles are also made for the defence of the Stones but so thin and light that they should not oppress the Stones with their weight that which is called Erythroides hath many veins for the nourishment of the adjacent parts The Epididymis was made to wrap the Testicle round about lest the Humid matter of the Testicle should flow about and consequently be wasted CHAP. X. Of the Vessels that cast forth their Seed THat passage which comes from the head of the Testicles to the root of the Yard is called the Ejaculatory Vessel This as I said before rises from the head of the Testicles and joyning downward to the Testicle descends to the bottom and thence being reflected again and annext to the preparing Vessel it returns again to the head of the Testicle from thence it proceeds upward from the Testicles till it
far as the privities themselves and that chiefly for sense and pleasure for which cause there is a great sympathy between the Womb and the Head This is also further to be noted that the Womb in its situation is not fixed and immoveable but moveable by reason of two ligaments which hang on both sides from the Share-bone and piercing through the Peritonaeum are joined to the bone it self so that it sometimes happens that through those holes of the Peritonaeum which give passage to these ligaments being loosened either the Omentum or the Entrails do swell outwardly and cause the burstness either of the Caul or of the Guts and sometimes it happens by reason of the looseness of those ligaments that the womb is moved with such force that it falls down and in the act of Copulation is moved up and down sometimes it moves upward that some Women do affirm that it ascends as high as their Stomack Now though the Womb be one continued body yet it is divided into the Mouth and the Bottom The Bottom of the Womb is called all that which by still ascending stretches it self from the internal Orifice to the end being narrow toward the Mouth but dilating it self by little and little 'till it come at the entrails The Mouth of the womb is that narrowness between the neck and the bottom it is an oblong and transverse Orifice but where it opens it self orbicular and round the circumference very thick and of an exquisite feeling and if this mouth be out of order and be troubled with a Scirrhous brawn or over-fatness over-moisture or relaxation it is the cause of Barrenness In those that are big with Child there uses to stick to this Orifice a thick viscous glutinous matter that the parts moistned may be the more easily opened For in the delivery this mouth is opened after a very strange and miraculous manner so that according to the bigness of the birth it suffers an equal dilatation from the bottom of the womb to the privy member CHAP. VII Of the preparing Vessels in Women THE Spermatick Preparing Vessels are two Veins and two Arteries differing not at all from those of men either in the number original action or use but only in their bigness and the manner of their insertion For as to their number there are so many veins and so many Arteries as in men They arise also from the same place as in men that is to say the right from the trunck of the hollow vein descending the left from the left Emulgent There are two Arteries also on both sides one which grow from the Aorta these both bring vital blood for the work of Generation As to the Longitude and Latitude of these Vessels they are narrower and shorter in Women only where they are wrinckled they are much more wreathed and contorted than in men for the way being shorter in women than in men Nature required for stretching out these vessels that they should be more wrinckled and crankled than in men that the blood might stay there in greater quantity for preparation of the Seed These vessels in Women are carried with an oblique course through the small guts to the Stones being wrapt up in fatter membranes but in the mid-way they are divided into two branches whereof the greater branch goes to the Stone constituting the various or winding body and those wonderful inosculations the lesser branch ends in the womb in the sides of which it is scattered up and down and chiefly at the higher part of the bottom of the womb for nourishment of the Womb and of the birth and that some part of the flowers may be purged out through those Vessels now because the Stones of Women are seated near the womb for that cause these vessels fall not from the Peritonaeum neither make they such passages as in men neither reach they to the Share-bone The use of these Spermatic Vessels is to minister to the generation of Seed according to the ancient Doctrine but to the nutrition of the Eggs in the Stones according to the new and for the nourishment of the Foetus and of the solid parts and the expurgation of the courses in as much as blood is convey'd by the Arteries to all those parts to which their Ramifications come in which parts they leave what is to be separated according to the law of Nature the remaining blood returning by the Veins CHAP. VIII Of the Stones in Women THE Stones of Women although they do perform the same actions and are for the same use as mens yet they differ from them in situation substance temperament figure magnitude and in their Covering They are seated in the hollowness of the Abdomen neither do they hang out as in men but they rest upon the Muscles of the Loins and this for that cause that they might be more hot and fruitful being to elaborate that matter with which the Seed of man engenders man In this place arises a Question not trivial whether the Seed of Woman be the efficient or the material cause of generation To which it is answered that though it have a power of acting yet it receives the perfection of that power from the Seed of Man The Stones of Women differ from mens also as to their figure because they are not so round and oval as those of men being in their fore and hinder part more depressed and broad the external superficies being more unequal as if a great many knots and kernals were mixed together There is also another difference as to the subject because they are softer and moister than those of men being more loose and ill compacted Their magnitude and temperament do also make a difference for the Stones of Women are much colder and lesser than Mens which is the reason that they beget a thin and watry Seed Their coverings also do make a difference for mens are wrapt up in divers Tunicles because being pendent outward they were otherwise more subject to external injuries but the stones of women have but one tunicle which though it stick very close to them yet are they also half cloathed over with the Peritonaeum They have but one membrane that encompasses them round but on their upper side where the preparing Vessels enter them they are about half way involved in another membrane that accompanies those Vessels and springs from the Peritonaeum When this cover is removed their substance appears whitish but is wholly different from the substance of Mens Stones for mens are composed of Seed-vessels which being continued to one another are twenty or thirty ells long if one could draw them out at length without breaking but Womens principally consist of a great many membranes and small fibres loosly joined to one another among which there are several little bladders full of a clear Liquor thro' whose membranes the nerves and preparing Vessels run Galen and Hypocrates and their followers imagine the
have happened when the Egg being received out of the stone into it has been stopt in its passage to the womb either from its own bigness or some obstruction in the tube The substance of the tubes is not nervous as Fallopius affirms but membranous for they consist of two membranes the outer and inner the inner springs from or at least is common with that which covers the inner substance of the womb But whereas it is smooth in the womb it is very wrinkled in the tubes the outer is common with the outmost of the womb and this is smooth The capacity of these passages varies very much for in the beginning as it goes out of the womb it only admits a bristle but in his progress where it is most capacious it will receive ones little finger but in the extremity where it is jagged it is but about a quarter so wide their length also is very uncertain for they sometimes increase from four or five to eight or nine fingers breadth long Their use is in a fruitful Copulation to grant a passage to the finer part of the man's Seed or of a seminal fume towards the stones to bedew the Eggs contained in them which Eggs one or more being thereby ripened and dropping off from the stone are received by the extremity of the tubes and carried along their inner cavity to the womb Two objections may be made against this use First That the end of the tube not sticking close to the stone when one of the Eggs drops from the stone it would more probably fall into the cavity of the belly than light just pat in the mouth of the tube Secondly when it is received by it its passage is so narnow that it is hard to imagin how it can pass by it But as to the first the same objection may lye against the use of the oviduct in Hens for in them it does not join quite close to the Ovarium and yet it is certain that the rudiments of the Eggs do all pass by them to the womb Moreover it is probable that when all the other parts of the Genitals are turgid in the act of Copulation these tubes also may be in some measure erected and extend their open mouth to the stones to impregnate the Eggs with the seminal fume thro' their passage and if any one be ripened and separate to receive it afterwards by its orifice As to the second objection against the narrowness of these tubes he that considers the straightness of the inner orifice of the womb both in maids and in women with Child yet observes to dilate so much upon occasion as to grant a passage to the Child out of the womb cannot wonder that to serve a necessary end of Nature the small passages of the tubes should be so far stretched as to make way for an Egg seeing its proportion to their passage is much less than of the Child to the usual largeness of the said orifice CHAP. X. Of the Actions and Uses of the Genital parts in Women IN the privie part are seen the Pubes the mountains of Venus the two lips the orifice under which the two wings lye hid the little knobs of flesh resembling Myrtle-berries the passages of the Urine and the Clytoris As for the Pubes and the Mountains of Venus they serve for this use that the great Orifice might be the better shut and to avoid compression in copulation for which cause they are beset with hair and are covered with a hard kind of fat the great Orifice receives the Yard and gives passage to the Urâ—ne and the birth The use of these Wings or knobs of flesh like myrtle-berries are for the defence of the internal parts shutting the Orifice of the neck lest cold air dust or any other annoyances should hurt it from without and while they swell up they cause titillation and desire in those parts Lastly the passages of the Urine being shut up by the knobs of flesh resembling myrtle-berries hinders the unvoluntary passage of the Urine CHAP. XI Of the Action of the Clytoris THE action of the Clytoris is like that of the Yard which is erection which erection is for the motion and attraction of the Seed CHAP. XII Of the action and use of the Neck of the Womb. THE action of the neck of the Womb is the same with that of the Yard that is to say Erection which is occasioned divers ways First all this passage is erected and made streight for the better conveyance of the Yard to the Womb Then while the whole passage is erected it is repleted with spirit and vital blood whereby it becomes narrower for the more streight embracing of the Yard The causes of this erection are first because if the womb were not erected the Yard could not have a convenient passage into the womb secondly it would hinder convenient affrication without which the Seed could not be drawn forth Lastly it hinders any hurt or damage which might be done by the violent force of the Yard CHAP. XIII Of the uses of the vessels running through the neck of the Womb. FIRST it is required that there should be a concurrence of divers Veins and Arteries for the nourishment of that part and though that part it self being full of Membranes does not require much nourishment yet by reason that it is to suffer Erection that could not be done but by blood and spirits which are contained in these vessels Besides although the substance of this part be of a cold temperament being notwithstanding still heated by the act of Copulation that heat would soon consume a slender nourishment which nature hath supplied by the concourse of these Vessels Another cause of the plenty of these veins is nourishment of the Birth and the exclusion of flowers CHAP. XIV Of the actions of the Womb. THE first use of the Womb is to attract the Seed by a familiar sympathy just as the Second use is to retain it which is properly called Conception The third is to cherish the Seed thus attracted to alter it and change into the Birth by raising up that power which before lay sleeping in the Seed and to reduce it from power into act The fourth action of the Womb is to send forth the birth at the time prefixed the apt time of expulsion is when the expulsive faculty begins to be affected with some sense of trouble that is when the Birth afflicts and oppresses the Womb with its own weight Besides these uses it hath these moreover To nourish the Birth and to dilate it self which it doth by the help of Veins and Arteries which do fill more and more with matter as nature requires The chiefest action of the Womb and most proper to it is the retention of the Seed without which nothing of other actions could be performed for the Generation of man CHAP. XV. Of the Utility of the Womb. FIRST it is the most fit place for Copulation as being in
a place furthest removed from the senses near which it were not fit to be by reason of the inconveniencies which would necessarily arise It is most fit to receive the Birth as being hollow in which concavity the birth may increase to its full proportion every way It is most fit for the exclusion of the Birth as being placed downward whereby the birth might help it self with its own weight and also by reason of the Muscles of the Abdomen which serve for compression and do help the endeavours of the mother CHAP. XVI Of the Utility of the preparing Vessels in Women THE Utilities of these Vessels are taken from their Original and from their Insertion the right Vein rising from the Hollow and the left from the Emulgent as in men that the more hot and purer blood might come from the right vein for the procreation of Males and the more serous and watry blood from the Emulgent for the generation of Women The Vessels also in women are shorter than in men because the way is not so far to the Stones which brevity of the Vessels is lengthned out by the many turnings and windings with which those Vessels are endued In the middle way those Vessels divide themselves like a Fork the greater part going to the Stones carrying the matter for Seed the lesser is carried to the womb where it scatters it self all along the sides of it for the nutrition of the Womb. As for the Arteries they afford the blood which is more full of spirits to perfect the Seed CHAP. XVII Of the Utility of the Stones THE use of the Stones in Women is the same as in men that is to say to prepare the Seed and to make it fit for procreation They are seated within that they should not want a continual heat to cherish them for the matter of Seed being colder in women than in men it requires a greater heat which it would of necessity want were the Stones placed outward like those of men and for that cause are they covered only with one Tunicle that the heat of those parts may more easily pass to them And therefore the Stones of women are softer than those of men because they should not perfect so substantial a Seed and that the heat of the adjacent parts should not be wholly taken up in the cherishing of them Their figure is not exactly round but depressed that the little Meanders of the veins dispersed through the Membrane from the Stones to the deferent Vessels might have more room to be incerted for the attraction of the Seed out of the whole substance of the Stones The inequality and ruggedness of them makes for the longer stay of the Seed in those crooked and winding Vessels SECT III. CHAP. I. Of the signs of Conception HAving thus shewed you the Anatomy and Use of the parts it will be requisite to discourse of the Conception it self which is the main and chief end of these Vessels And first of the signs of Conception The signs of Conception on the Mothers side are certain and apparent first if after she hath had the company of her Husband she hath received more content than ordinary Pains in the head giddiness dimness of the eyes all these concurring together portend conception the apples of the eyes decrease the eyes themselves swell and become of a dark colour the veins of the eyes wax red and swell with blood the eyes sink the eye-brows grow loose various colours appear in the eyes little red pimples rise in the face the veins between the Nose and the Eyes swell with blood and are seen more plain the vein under the tongue looks greenish the neck is hot the back bone cold the veins and arteries swell and the pulses are observed more easily the veins in the breast first look of a black colour but afterward turn yellowish the Teats look red if she drink cold drink she feels the cold in her breast she loaths her meat and drink she hath divers longings but her natural appetite is destroyed Continual vomitings follow and weakness of the stomach sour belches worms about her Navel faintness of the loyns the lower part of her belly swelling inward griping of the body the retention of the Seed 7 days after the act of copulation After which act there is a cold and trembling which seizes the external members the attractive force of the womb increases the womb dries up It is also a certain sign of conception if the Midwife touching with her finger the interiour neck of the womb shall find it exactly closed so that the point of a needle will not go between The womb waxeth round and swells the flowers cease to flow for the Veins through which they come down carry the blood to the nourishment of the birth the thighs swell with some pain the whole body grows weak and the face waxes pale the Excrements proceed slower out of the body The Urine is white a little cloud swimming at the top and many atoms appear in the Urine Take the Urine of a Woman and shut it up three days in a glass if she have conceived at the end of three days there will appear in the Urine certain live things to creep up and down Take also the Urine of a Woman and put it in a bason a whole night together with a clean and bright needle in it if the woman have conceived the needle will be scattered full of red speckles but if not it will be black and rusty Conception is an action of the Womb whereby the fruitful Seed of the Man and Woman are received and kept that a Child may be formed There are two kinds of Conception one true to which succeeds the generation of an Infant the other spurious and contrary to Nature in this case the Seed changes into water false Conceptions Moles or any other strange matter It is to be noted that there is no absolute necessity that all the Seed should be received and retained entire nor must we imagine that tho' all of it be not received into the Womb the Child formed out of it will want some Limb as an Arm or Leg or other member for want of sufficient matter for the least drop of Seed nay only a fume of it is sufficient to impregnate and form a Child But when the quantity of the Seed is small the Child may be the less and weaker for it or if the Man or the Woman be disâ—ased or the Womb stuft with ill humours the Child will be sickly or Moles or false Births or Dropsies of the Womb will be occasioned Tho' a Midwife may guess that a Woman has conceived when all the signs concur or most part of them together and successively according to their seasons yet many of these signs happen upon suppression of the courses and none of them are so very certain as not sometimes to fail us wherefore in trials of Women and upon giving physick to them great caution
within side with Oil of Henbane-seed Of the defect abundance and coagulation of the Milk THE defect of Milk arises from a double cause for either it is a defect in the blood which is dried up by reason of some hot maladies of the body either through intemperancy of the Liver through fasting or too much evacuation If the deficiency of milk come from these causes it may be increased again either by prepared Crystal The leaves also root and seed of Fennel do avail much in this particular and the powder of Earth-Worms prepared and drunk in Wine as also the Electuary called Electuarium Zacuthi There is another cause which proceeds from the Lactifying quality which is many times so weak that it can neither attract nor concoct the Blood by reason of some outward refrigerating and astringent qualities or by reason of some other Diseases The Cure of which being looked after in their respective places much conduceth to the restoring of that defect The redundance of milk proceeds from too great a plenty of blood and a strong lactifying quality In the cure of which the increase of blood is to be impeded which is done by drying up that humour and diversion to which blood-letting conduceth much Medicines also that drive it back are to be put upon the Breasts towards the Arms to which purpose Hemlock boiled in Chervil-water and Vinegar avails Curdling of the milk is when the thinner part of the milk exhales and the more gross and heavy part stays behind which many times is the cause of tumours kernels and Aposthumes In this case the Infant is not to suck the part affected though that Breast is also to be suckt for fear lest the milk which is newly generated should be curdled and knotted by that which is there already and so that part of the coagulated milk may be hindred from putrifying To the dissolving of the Milk it much conduceth to wash the Breast with Water Wine and Vinegar mixt together as also a Fomentation made of the decoction of Marsh-mallows Fenugreek and Melilote and then anointing them with a liniment of Oil of Roses Oil of sweet Almonds juice of Parsley and Vinegar wherein let the Gall of a Hare be first dissolved Hemlock water in this case also is not a little commended Of the Diseases of the neck of the Womb and first of the Disease called Tentigo TENTIGO is a Disease in Women when the Clitoris increases to an over great measure the subject of this Disease is the Clytoris or nervous piece of flesh which the lips or wings of the privities do embrace and which suffers erection in the act of Venery The signs of it are evident for it hangs below the orifice of the Privities as big as the neck of a Goose The causes hereof are a great concourse of Humours or nutriment by reason of the laxity of it which happens by often handling The Cure is performed by the diminution of the blood and drawing out of the other humours A slender and refrigerating diet is also necessary and such things as have a discussive faculty as the leaves of Mastick-tree and the leaves of Olive-tree In the next place by taking away the excrescence to which purpose gentle Causticks may be first applied as Allum and the Aegyptiack Ointment and that Lie whereof Sope is made being boiled with Roman Vitriol to which at last you may add some Opium and form the composition into Trochisques which being afterwards made into a powder is to be sprinkled upon the fleshy excrescence At length the flesh is to be out away either by binding hard or by section care being taken that you avoid an inflammation There is another Disease which is called Cauda which is a carnous substance proceeding from the mouth of the Womb which sometimes fills up the privy parts and sometimes thrusts it self outwards like a tail The Cure of this is the same with the former only if it come to Section it may be done either with a Horse-hair or a silken thread wound about it being first dipt in Sublimat water or else with a Knife Of the narrowness of the neck of the Womb. THIS narrowness is either of the Womb it self or of the Orifice of the Womb the signs are the stoppage of the Courses followed with a depressing and weighty pain The cause is partly natural from the Nativity and partly varies according to the differences of the Disease The difference is in this it hapning sometimes that this streightness consists in the exterior orifice whereby neither the Flowers have free passage neither can she enjoy coition or conceive with Child because she cannot receive either the Man or the Seed Sometimes the narrowness is in the interior orifice of the Womb into which the flowing retires back again to the absolute hindrance of Conception sometimes it is occasioned by way of compression when the Caul being fatter than ordinary lies upon the neck of the Womb. Sometimes the splaying of the thighs stone in the Bladder or some tumour in the straight gut Sometimes it happens by the clinging of other parts together which happens either from the Birth and then either the Flesh which appears red and is soft to the touch intercepts the passage or else the Membrane which seems white feels hard being touched In the Cure of this the use of moist Fomentations is very prevalent and an insection is to be made perpendicularly great care being taken for fear of hurting the neck of the Bladder The Humour is next to be provoked forth and a Tent dipt in some suppurating Plaister is to be put up the next day it is to be washed with water and Honey and cicatrizing Plaisters to be applied if it come after the Birth it is either occasionâ—d by an Ulcer and then either the sides of the neck cling together in which case either incision or cauterization is to be used or else there is a brawny substance which is to be cut away with a Pen-knife or else some spongy and luxuriant flesh in which case drying and dâ—â—cuâ—â—ng Medicines â—re to be used as Birthwort Frankincensâ— Myrrh and Mastick afterwards you may apply things to eat it away and last of all to cut it away by incision Of Wheals Condyloma's of the Womb and of the Hemorrhoids THE Wheals of the Womb are certain risings in the neck of the womb which by their acrimony excite both pain and itching The signs of them are an itching pain and full of scurf from that part for the better searching of which the Instrument called speculum Matricis is to be used The Causes of this are certain cholerick sharp and adust humours and thick Among the preparing Medicines Syrup of Fumitory is much commended and Chichory with a decoction of Lupines Topicks also are useful that discuss and mitigate the humour as Baths and insessions and the washing of the place with Wine and Nitre which is often to be used These Wheals are divided into gentle and
Ulcer you must apply a drying and cicatrizing Ointment Take of Tutty washed half an ounce and of Litharge Ceruse and Sarcacoal each two drams of Oyl and Wax a sufficient quantity make an Ointment Sometimes the Ulcer penetrates the right gut and sometimes the bladder which may be known by the matter evacuated by those parts if it flow by the right gut lenitive cleansing and drying Glisters must be injected but if it flow from the Bladder gentle and cooling diureticks must be used as an emulsion of the greater cold Seeds Turpentine and the like If the Ulcer turn to a Fistula which chiefly happens when it is opened outwardly towards the Hip tho' it may happen in the womb it self or in the neck of it In this case we must consider whether it be best to leave the accustomed passage untouched thro' which nature endeavours to evacuate various Excrements or to undertake the â—ure of it But if that be thought most proper for the sick a Cure that is call'd palliative must be instituted by purges frequently-repeated and by sweatlng twice a Year and by cleansing and strengthening injections and by applying over a plaister of Diapalma or the like but if there be any hopes of a Cure the same Remedies must be used which are proper for other Fistula's If the Ulcer be occasion'd by the French Pox it cannot be cured without an universal Cure in performing which the fumes of Cinnabar receiv'd thro' a Tunnel into the womb are peculiarly proper Also the anointing the inner parts of the womb with a Mercurial Ointment In all Ulcers of the womb if there be a troublesome itching about the neck as it frequently happens by reason of a defluxion of an acid and Salt Humour to the part a pessary must be made to qualifie it dipt in the ointment of Elecampane with Mercury or in Aegyptiacum dissolved in Sea or Allom-water or in fresh Butter wherein Quick-Silver has been extinguished to which must be added Sulphur Of the Diseases of the Womb. Of the Womb being out of temper THE intemperance of the Womb is when it hath lost its natural temper and is affected with a preternatural intemperancy arising both from inward and outward causes The one of these is hot and is known by the womans proneness to Venery by the small Flux of the Monthly Courses by their adustness sharpness inordinate and difficult Flux Hence in process of time they are very Hypochondriack by early growing of the hairs about the Privities by redness of the Face and driness of the lips and frequent pains of the head and abundance of cholerick humours in the Body it ariseth either at first from the Birth which causes Women to be Virago's and to be barren or after their Nativity from outward causes as the use of hot things overmuch Venery and such Medicines as bring the heat and blood to the Womb. The cure consists in a contrary diet and cooling Medicines both internal and external which are to be applyed to the back and sides which must be very moderate that the heat which is necessary for Conception may not be weakened and the cold and membranous substance of the womb come to any harm or lest the Vessels which serve for the carrying away of the Courses should be thickned and the Nerves of the back and sides be any way mischieved The next way of cure is performed by evacuating Medicines namely Rheubarb and solutive Syrup of Roses Manna also profiteth much the flower of Vitriol of Venus and Mars taken from three grains to six and put in any proper Syrup purges the Womb. There is another intemperancy which comes of cold which is known by a lesser proneness to Venery and little pleasure taken in it a setling in the Courses with a slimy and flegmy matter mixed and an inordinate flowing of them by reason of the plenty of Humours collected in the Womb which causes obstructions by reason of abundance of windy vapours in the Womb crudities and watriness of the Seed which causes it to flow without any pleasure a pale colour in the Face It arises from causes contrary to the former it is cured by contrary diet by hot Medicines applyed to the womb among which the roots of Birthwort Clove-Gilliflowers Angelica and Eringo's are very much commended The leaves also of Mercury Balm Dittany Penny-royal Sage Rosemary Mugwort flowers of Centaury Marigolds Sage Rosemary Borage and sundry spices as Nutmegs Cubebs Saffron and Cinamon These kind of Compounds are also very useful as Oyl of Mace Oyl of Amber Oyl of Myrrh and of Cinamon There is another intemperancy of the womb which comes of moisture and is joined most commonly with the cold intemperancy it is known by the plenty of the Courses and by the thinness and watriness of them as also the moistness of the Privities by reason of the moistness of the Excrements no pleasure in the act of Venery and proneness to abortion by reason of the growth of the Birth It hath the same original with the frigid intemperancy and happens most commonly to Women who are lazy and sedentary It is cured with the same Medicines as the former only this may be added that a fume may be made of the shavings of Ivory And the decoction of Sage being received into those parts before supper is very much commended Baths of Sulphur do also profit much There is another distemper of the Womb which is dry which is discerned by the want of Seed and the defect of the Courses by slowness to Venery driness of the Mouth of the Womb by a blackish colour of the lower lip which is always chopt It sometimes arises from the very Nativity which causes a dry and lean constitution of Body sometime through age and then Women cease to bring Children sometimes from inflammations and such like Diseases sometimes from a defect of blood which ought to moisten the parts which happens either through a narrowness and obstruction of the Veins or else because it being voided out at the neck of the Womb cannot pierce to the bottom The cure of this is performed first by a contrary diet where you must also avoid much labour watching hunger and sadness Secondly by the use of moistning things amongst which are most commended Borage Bugloss Mercury Mallows Violets Among outward means Baths of sweet water and unctions with Oyl of sweet Almonds Oyl of white Lillies Hens-grease and the marrow of Calves legs The cure is the more hard if the driness have been of any long continuance There is another which is a compound distemper which is most often cold and moist which is discerned by comparing the signs of the simple distemperatures together It arises from Flegmy humours The cure is performed by preparing the matter with hot things by evacuation of the matter with such Medicines as are most proper to purge Flegm As also by a particular purgation of the Womb it self to which purpose pessaries do very much conduce as
Frictions and Baths or from internal causes as fatness or swelling of the Womb or of the lower parts in which case Medicines must be applied that asswage the swelling There is another difference which is in the hardness of the skin which happens either from the first Nativity and then the disease is not easily taken away or long after from some cold and dry distemper Concerning which look the former Chapters Another difference there is when there happens a closing up of the skin which is caused after Cicatrising of an Ulcer or by reason of some skin or Membrane growing to the Vessels of the Womb or by reason of frequent Abortion after which these Veins to which the Secondines adhere do grow together so close that they cannot be afterwards opened Another difference of this Disease there is when it happens through want of Blood which is not generated either by reason of external causes as Famine over much evacuation Issues and such like or through internal causes as a frigid Constitution of the principal parts old Age and Fevers or when it is converted to other uses as before full growth to the nourishment of the Body In Women with Child to the nourishment of the Birth In those that give suck to the increase of Milk And in fat people to the augmentation of the Fat Or when it is consumed either by External causes as over much Exercise Affrights Terrors Sadness Baths overmuch Sweating which do consume the serous quality of the Blood or through Internal Causes as are hot and dry Diseases or over-great evacuations in other parts of the Body Sometimes another difference of this Disease proceeds from the dryness of the Blood which happens to Women who in the Winter time do too much heat their lower parts by putting Coals under their Coats For the cure thereof you must use refrigerating and moistning Medicines Of the dropping of the Flowers and the difficulty of their coming down THE dropping of the Flowers is when they are coming down for many days together drop by drop This happens both from external causes as over hard labour c. And sometimes from the drossiness of the blood the passage not being wide enough For the cure of this it is convenient to open a Vein in the Arm with gentle purging as in the former Chapter Sometimes from the weakness of the retentive faculty there being at that time great plenty thinness and serosity of the blood In this case there is no pain Medicines that bind and corroborate the Stomach here must have place The difficulty of the Flowers is when they come down with pain and trouble either through defect in the Veins or in the Blood The signs of this are gathered from the relation of the sick person who is then much troubled with pain in the Head Stomach and Loins and lower parts of the body And they do either flow altogether or drop by drop as in the former disease It is a Disease more incident to Maids than married Women because the Veins of the Womb are less open in them than in those who brought forth Children It happens sometimes from a corruption of the blood that is from the drossiness and thickness thereof and then the blood clots together and there is a great pain long before the Flowers begin to come down The Cure of this is performed by attenuating Medicines Sometimes from the sharpness and acrimony of the Blood which proceeds from a mixture of sharp humours with the Body and then the genital parts do itch It is cured by those Medicines that temper the sharpness of the Humour as the four greater Seeds Violets and Flowers of Nenuphar Sometimes from windy Vapours and then the pain comes by intervals and is suddenly exasperated rumbling up and down and when the wind is forth the pain ceaseth The cure hereof is procured by evacuation of the matter and dispelling of the wind as is before declared Of the discolouring of the Flowers THE discolouring of the Flowers is when their right colour which ought to be red declines either to paleness whiteness greenness yellowness or blewishness through some defect or vitiousness of the blood The signs are apparent by the sight of the blood besides that it is accompanied with an ill smell many times also it is the cause of Fevers trembling of the body loathing of the meat pain in the stomach c. The differences of this disease consist first in the vitiousness of the blood which is caused through some distemper either of the whole body or some part thereof Sometimes the blood is affected by reason of some stoppage thereof and then the Flowers are suppressed which causeth pains in the Breast and strong beating of the Breast and if the woman begin to amend the Blood flows out with a stinking putrefaction which continues 'till the eighth day or it may be because the Blood is foul'd by the Womb being full of excrements and then you may perceive the signs of a foul Womb. Sometimes the difference of this disease consists in the mixture of the Blood with other vitious humors The Cure consists in preparation and evacuation but care must be had that because the thick humors need attenuation and that over attenuating things do melt the serous humor that you therefore do not use over attenuating things as Vinegar c. Another difference is when the Flowers decline to a whitish colour which ' proceeds from abundance of Flegm or from Putrefaction and then Ulcers follow in the Womb and barrenness follows unless the womans Flowers do happen to flow for seven or eight days together by which the woman is freed from the disease or else they break out to the parts above the groin without any tumor and burst forth a little above the Hypochondrium and then the woman seldom lives or else there will appear after some few days a great swelling in the Groyn without a head of a red colour because the Flesh is there filled up with the Blood When it inclines to yellowness or greenness the distemper comes of Choler when to a blackness and blewness from Melancholy Of the inordinate Flux of the Flowers THE disorderly Flux of the Courses is either the coming of them down before their time or else the stoppage of them for some time after the usual course of Nature They come down sometimes before their time partly by reason of internal Causes and partly by reason of external Causes as falls blows and such like casualties that open the veins Or from the expulsive faculty of the Womb too much provoked First by the plenty of blood which is known by this that the blood which is sent to the womb from all part is fluid and of its natural constitution signs of a Plethora or fulness of blood are apparent in the Woman It is Cured by blood letting if the blood abound by good diet and frequent though gentle exercise Secondly it proceeds from the Acrimony and sharpness of
the beginning yet it is afterwards very difficult for by this means the whole body accustoms it self to send forth its excrements this way and the Womb being now weakned gathers excrements apace Sometimes it proceeds from the whole body and then you may perceive the signs of an ill humor through the whole body In the Cure of this you must avoid blood-letting for that the bad humor must not be recalled to defile the blood besides that the disease is a sufficient weakning and consuming of the body The humor is discussed by the decoction of Guaiacum and China and Lentisk-wood For the drying up of the humor the Root of Filipendula doth very much conduce For astringent Medicines you may use chiefly the powder of dead men's bones the ashes of Capons-dung in rain water The Patient must avoid sleeping upon her back lest the heat of the Lungs should carry the humors toward the Womb Frictions also of the upper parts for the diversion of the humor may be used Sometimes it is caused by the Womb it self and then there will appear signs of the affection of the Womb and the Flux is not so great For the Cure of this Suffumigations of Frankincense Labdanum Mastick and Sanders are very requisite Of the Green-Sickness THE Green-Sickness is a changing of the colour of the Face into a green and pale colour proceeding from the rawness of the humors The signs of this appear in the Face to which may be added a great pain in the Head difficulty of breathing with a palpitation of the heart a small and thick beating of the Arteries in the Neck Back and Temples sometimes inordinate Fevers through the vitiousness of the humors loathing of Meat Vomiting distention of the Hypocondriack part by reason of the reflux of the menstrous blood to the greater Vessels a swelling of the whole body by reason of the abundance of humors or of the Thighs and Legs above the heels by reason of the abundance of serous humors The Cause is the crudity and rawness of the humor and quantity withal arising from the suppression of the Courses through the natural narrowness of the vessels or through an acquired narrowness of the vessels by the eating of Oatmeal Chalk Earth Nutmegs and drinking of Vinegar or from the obstruction of the other bowels Hence arises an ill concoction in the bowels and the humors are carried into the habit of the body or become habitual thereunto The Cure is performed by the letting of blood especially in the heel if the Disease be of any continuance by Purgation preparation of the humour being first considered which is performed by the decoction of Guaiacum with â—retan Dittany purging of the humor is performed with Agarick Aloes Succotrin with the â—â—ice of Savin for the unobstructing of the humor prepared Steel the root of Scorzonera Bezoarstone in diet Vinegar is utterly to be avoided The Cure of this Disease is performed by opening Obstructions by purging off vitious Humours by correcting the intemperies of the Bowels and by strengthening them First therefore a gentle purging Medicine must be given that is agreeable to the Constitution that the first region may be emptied and if the Belly be bound a Glister must be given first of all afterwards bleeding must be ordered unless the Disease is very inveterate and the Maid be inclined to a Cachexy But a Vein in the Arm must be opened tho' the Courses are stopt for at that time if you bleed in the Foot the obstructions of the Veins and of the Womb would be increased That quantity of Blood being taken away that is necessary proper purges must be used Take of the Pill Coch. major two scruples of Castor powdered two grains of Peruvian Balsom four drops make four Pills let her take them at five in the Morning and sleep after them if she can Let these Pills be repeated twice or thrice every Morning or every other Morning according to the strength of the sick and their operation After the purging Pills let her take the following Take of the fileings of Steel eight grains with a sufficient quantity of extract of Wormwood make two Pills to be taken in the Morning and they must be repeated at five in the Afternoon She must continue this Course for a Month drinking presently after the Pills a draught of Wormwood-wine If a Bolus be more pleasing Take of the conserve of Roman Wormwood and of the conserve of the inner peell of Oranges each one ounce of candied Angelica and Nutmegs candied and of Venice Treacle each half an ounce of Ginger candied two drams with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Oranges make an Electuary take of this Electuary one dram and an half of the filings of Steel well powdered eight grains with a sufficient quantity of Syrup of Oranges make a Bolus to be taken in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon drinking upon it a draught of Wormwood wine Of the suffocation of the Matrix THE signs of the Suffocation of the Womb are a weariness of the whole body with a weakness of the Thighs a paleness and sadness of the Face a nauseousness though seldom vomiting oftentimes a loathing and distate of Meat and that sometimes with a grumbling and noise in the Belly and sometimes without The signs of the present Disease are that when the Vapours are carried up to the Heart and do there stop the vital Spirits a light swooning follows the Pulse changes and is little the Body grows cold all the spirits flying up into the Heart the Vapour being thrust up to the Head and Chaps the Chaps are many times set fast the Patient seeming to be stifled the motion of the Breast and Diaphragm is disturbed and hindred so that the breath is almost stopt the Patient living only by transpiration Sometimes there is joined with it a kind of Uterine fury with talking and anger Sometimes it causes other madness sometimes the Woman falls into a dead sleep which makes her seem as though she were dead It differs from the Epilepsie because in that the Convulsive motions are more general nor is there any memory of those things which happen about them after the Fit the Pulse is great and the Mouth of the Party affected fomes with a froth It differs from the Apoplexy because in that the Fit comes suddenly without any notice and the Patient is affected with a kind of snorting and there is such a Resolution of the parts that they feel not although they be pricked It differs from a Syncope in that there are no signs when the Fit will be the Pulse ceases to the apprehension and the Patient is troubled with cold sweats They differ from dead people by sneezing which may be provoked by putting something for that purpose into the Nose The cause of this is a venemous subtle and thin Vapour piercing in one moment through the whole body and carried up from the matter in the Womb corrupted after a peculiar manner either
by it self or from external means such are perfumes anger fear c. and not only ascending through the veins but also through all the other breathing holes and secret passages of the body The Cure is doubtful if it have possessed old Women for a time for it begets weakness consumes the strength and shews abundance of humour or if it possesseth Child-bearing Women either after a difficult Travel or after an Abortion or if it possesseth Women with Child because it induces fear of Abortion there is more hope if the act of Respiration be not too much impeded and if the Fits do not return too often The Cure regards first the time of the Fit being performed first by means of interception which may be done by binding the Belly under the Navel with a girdle made of the skin of a Hart killed in the very act of Copulation Secondly by keeping the natural Spirits awaked and rouzed up by painful friction by pulling the hairs of the Privities with violence and suffumigations made with Partridge feathers burnt as also Eel-skins the application of Assa faetida and Oil of Tartar to the mouth Thirdly by way of revulsion of the humour by Frictions and Glysters dispelling the winds and the application of Cupping-glasses with much flame first to the Thighs and then to the Hips putting sweet things into the Privities such as are Oil of Sivet half a scruple Oil of Nutmegs one scruple Fourthly by discussion of the humour which is performed inwardly by the Oil of white Amber with the pouder of Walnut Flowers extract of Castor externally by an Emplaister of the fat of a black Heifer Sclarea boiled in butter adding to it a sufficient quantity of Tachamahacca and Caranna After the fit is past evacuation is to be regarded first with purgation for which purpose it will not be amiss to use these ensuing Pills Take Siler mountain Pennyroyal Madder the innermost part of Cassia Pipe Pomegranate Kernels Piony roots and Calamus of each three drams Muscus and Spike of India of each half a dram then make Pills thereof with the juice of Mugwort of which she may take every day or every other day before Supper If the disease proceed from the terms let the Woman affected take an Ounce of Agarick poudered in Wine or honied water or a dram of Agnus Castus powder'd with an ounce of Honey of Roses The Womb is also to be strengthned by the internal and external application of such things as resist the malignity of the Disease among which are numbred Faecula Brioniae and Castor The difference of this Disease consists in this that sometimes it happens that it is occasioned by the retention of the Seed which is known by this that the symptoms of the Disease are more violent and after the fit is past there flows out of the Womb a matter like to that of the seed It is cur'd by evacuation of the seed such as are Rue and Agnus Castus and anointing with odoriferous salves especially if the woman be to live without the use of man If it come from the suppression of the terms which is known by the Courses being mingled with a melancholy blood take powdered Agaric a dram of Pioney seeds or the weight of a dram and a half of Triphera magna But take this for a secret that for a married Woman in case of the present suffocation there is nothing better than for the Man to anoint the top of his Yard with a little Oyl of Gilliflowers and Oyl of sweet Almonds together and so to lye with her for this assuredly brings down the Matrix again This Disease is very frequent the Procatartick or external Causes of it are either violent motions of the body or which is much oftner vehement commotions of the Mind from some sudden assault either of Anger or Grief or the like Passions Therefore as often as Women are troubled with this or that disorder of Body the reason whereof cannot be deduced from the common Axioms for finding out Diseases we must diligently enquire whether they are not chiefly afflicted with that indisposition which they complain of when they have been disturbed in their minds and afflicted with grief which if they confess we may be fully satisfied that this disorder proceeds from this Disease we are now speaking of especially if Urine as clear as Chrystal evacuated copiously some certain times makes the Diagnostick more manifest But to these disorders of the Mind which are usually the occasions of this Disease is to be added emptiness of the stomach by reason of long fasting immoderate bleeding and a Vomit or Purge that worked too much and certainly this Disease proceeds from a confusion of the Spirits upon which account too many of them in a crowd contrary to proportion are hurried violently upon this or that part occasioning Convulsions and pain when they rush upon parts indued with exquisite sense perverting the functions of the Organs both of that into which they thrust themselves and also of that from whence they departed both being much injured by this unequal distribution which is quite contrary to the Oeconomy of Nature The Origen and Antecedent Cause of this confusion is a weak constitution of the Spirits whether it is natural or adventitious for which Reason they are easily dissipated upon any occasion and their System soon broke For as the outward Man is framed with parts obvious to sense so without doubt the inward Man consists of a due Series and as it were a Fabrick of the Spirits to be viewed only by the eye of Reason and as this is nearly joyned and as it were united with the constitution of the Body so much the more easily or more difficultly is its frame disordered by how much the Constitutive Principles that are allotted us by Nature are more or less firm That the said Confusion of the Spirits is the cause of Hysteric Diseases will appear by Mother-Fits wherein the Spirits are crowded in the lower Belly and rushing together violently towards the Jaws occasion Convulsions in every region thro' which they pass blowing up the Belly like a great Ball which is yet nothing but the rowling together or conglobation of the parts seized with the Convulsion which cannot be suppressed without great violence The external parts in the the mean while and the Flesh being in a manner destitute of Spirits by reason they are carried another way are often so very cold not only in this kind but in all other kind of Hysteric Diseases that dead Bodies are not colder but the Pulse are as good as those of People that are well nor is the Womans life in danger by this cold unless it is occasioned by some very large evacuation going before And the inordinate agitation of the Spirits disturbing the blood is the cause of the clear and copious Urine for when the Oeconomy of the blood is interrupted the Sick cannot long enough contain the serum that is imported but lets it
out of the Womb and the pain is fixed chiefly about the orifice of the Womb the right Gut and the Bladder being affected by reason of the continual desire of expelling forth the humor In the Cure first you must seek to dissolve the clotted blood which is done by the use of Treacle dissolved in wine and then to evacuate which is performed with Agaric Aloes with the juice of Savin decoction of Rosemary with the Flowers of Cheiri in Wine Sometimes it is caused by the menstruous blood when the vessels are more open or the blood too thick which happens through the over-much use of cold drink especially when the woman is hot The cure may be found in the cure of the suppression of the Flowers Sometimes it is caused by other vitious humours collected in the concavity of the womb or adhering to the other Vessels and then these humours are to be removed with purging and evacuating Medicines Sometimes windy vapours are the cause hereof arising from the heat of the vitious humors caused by copulation It is cured by things that discuss the wind to which purpose it may not be amiss to use a Clyster made of Malmsey and Oyl of Nuts of each three ounces of Aqua vitae one ounce of Oyl of Juniper and distilled Rue of each two drams and applied warm or a mixture of spirit of wine and spirit of Nitre of each half a dram or two scruples exhibited in the spirit of Wine Sperma ceti with Oyl of sweet Almonds or a Plaister of Caranna and Tachamahacca applied to the Navel Sometimes it is occasioned by the retention and corruption of the seed For the Cure look the Chapter of the suffocation of the Matrix Of the Suppression of the Flowers THE suppression of the Flowers is the retention of the menstrual blood either by reason of the narrowness of the vessels or through some corruption of the blood The signs are evident from the relation of the Woman Yet if they are loth to confess it may be discerned by this for in Virgins the suppressed blood wanders up and down the Veins and begets obstructions changing the colour of the Body and causing Fevers In Women because the blood is carried down to the Womb where it begets many diseases it is distinguished from retention after Conception because women with Child find no alteration of affections of the mind and retain the native colour of their bodies and in the third month they shall perceive the motion and situation of the Infant and lastly the mouth of the womb is closed up The Causes of this distemper are the narrowness of the Veins and the vitiousness of the blood The Cure of this must be hastened because this suppression if it stay long begets many more diseases as Fevers Dropsies Vomiting of blood and the like The Cure is hard if it be of any continuance and if it stay beyond the sixth month it is almost incurable especially if it happen through any perversion of the neck of the Womb for then the woman is troubled with often swooning and vomiting of blood and a pain seizes the parts of the Belly the Back and the Back-bone which is attended with a Fever and the excrements of the Belly and Bladder are suppressed a weariness possesses the whole Body because of the diffusion of the retained blood through the whole body and especially the hips and thighs because of the sympathy of those parts with the veins of the Womb. In the first place the letting of blood is commended for the blood which every month stays in the body and sticks in the Veins is to be provoked downward to the Womb and therefore a vein is to be opened in the heel for so the plenty of blood is diminished and the motion of the blood is made toward the Womb if necessity requires that it should be done more than once one day a vein must be opened in one thigh and another day in the other and that which is opened for evacuation must be first opened that which is opened in the ham or heel must be done after Purgation three or four or five days before the time that the accustomed evacuations of the Woman ought to come down Cupping-glasses also are to be applied first to the more remote places as to the thighs and then to the nearer parts as to the hips Ligatures or bindings and frictions at the time of the coming down of the Flowers after Purgation of the whole body are not to be omitted In the second place the matter is to be prepared for which purpose in bodies troubled with Flegm the decoction of Guaiacum with Cretan Dittany doth much avail without provoking sweat In the third place evacuation is to be made at several times Among evacuating Medicines are commended Agaric Aloes with the juice of Savin and these Pills Take Aloes Succotrine three drams the best Myrrh one scruple extract of sweet smelling Flag Carduus Saffron of each three drams Roots of Gentian and Dittany of each five grains make them up with Syrup of Laurel-berries taking the quantity of one scrupâ—e at evening before supper In the fourth place by opening obstructions by those things which provoke the Flowers of which these are most to be commended the decoction of Rosemary with Flowers of Cheiri Pennyroyal-water twice distilled and mingled with Cinnamon-water Extract of Zedoary Angelica and Castor and the Earth which is found in Iron Mines prepared in the same manner as Steel spirit of Tartar the fat of an Eel Colubrina with the distill'd water of Savin And in the fifth place by the discussion of the dregs and relicks that remain by sudoroficks or things that provoke sweat with a potion made of a Chalybeate decoction with spirit of Tartar c. The differences of this Disease arise partly from the obstruction of the Veins of the Womb caused by a cold and thick blood and thick slimy humours mixed with the blood and coming either from some hot distemper of the Womb which dissipates the sharp and subtil humours and leaves behind the gross and earthy parts or from the cold Constitution of the Liver and Spleen especially if at the time of the menstrual Flux at what time the Flux of Blood is more violent those subtil humours happen to be dissipated and then at the time of the monthly Purgation the Party affected feels a great pain in the loins and parts adjoining and if any thing come down it is slymy whitish and blackish The whole Body is possessed with a numness the Colour pale a slow Pulse and raw Urines The Cure is the same with the former great care being taken of a gross and ill diet There is another difference of this Disease when it happens by Compression which arises from external causes as the Northern wind and long standing in cold water which may be known from the relation of the sick Person The Blood in this case is to be drawn to the lower parts by