farther it is constantly reported that these children were all baptized living at the Church of Lardune in Holland near the Hague and the boys were all called Johns the girls Elizabeths there were two Silver Basons that they were Christned in and Guido the Suffragan of Vtrecht keeps them for to shew to strangers and one of these Basons as it is reported was brought for a present to King Charles the second before he came from thence and they say farther that presently after they were baptized the mother and all her children died Some write of another Countess in Frederick the eleventh's daies who had five hundred boys at one birth But to leave this and to proceed to the causes of Conception Notwithstanding that God gave the blessing generally to our first Parent and so by consequent to all her succeeding generations yet we find that some women are exceeding fruitful to conceive and others barren that they conceive not at all God reserving to himself a prerogative of furthering and hindering Conception where he pleaseth that men and women may more earnestly pray unto God for his blessing of Procreation and be thankful unto him for it so Psal 127.3 the Psalmist tells us Loe Children and the fruit of the Womb are an heritage and gift that cometh from the Lord. So Hannah pray'd in the first of Samuel and gave thanks when God had heard her prayer Some women are by nature barren though both they themselves and their husbands are no way deficient to perform the acts of Generation and are in all parts as perfect as the most fruitful persons can be Some think the cause is too much likeness and similitude in their complexions for God having framed an Harmonious world by a due disposing of contraries they that are too like of constitution can never beget any thing this I confess is hard to find that they should agree in all respects no difference of complexion at all yet sometimes Physicians judge barrenness proceeds from too great similitude of persons but I should rather think from some disproportion of the Organs or some impediment not easily perceived else how comes it to pass that some that have continued barren many years at last have proved fruitful I remember a story that I heard of a Watch-maker who had an excellent Watch that was out of tune and he could never make it go true what the fault was he could not find at length he grew so angry that he threw the watch against the wall and took it up again and then he found it goe exceeding true and by that means he came also to know the cause of the former defect for indeed it proved to be nothing else but some inequality in the Case of the watch which by throwing it against the wall accidentally was amended wherefore a small matter sometimes will remove the impediment if we can but find what it is Some say again the cause of barrenness is want of love in man and wife whose Seed never mixeth as it should to Procreation of children their hatred is so great as it is recorded of Eleocles and Polynices two Theban Princes who killed each other and when their bodies were afterwards burn'd as the manner of burial was in their daies to preserve only their ashes in a pot as if the hatred still continued in their dead bodies the flames parted in the midst and ascended with two points and this extream hatred is the reason why women seldom or never conceive when they are ravished and it proves as ineffectual as Onan's Seed when he spilt it upon the ground The cause of this hatred in married people is commonly when they are contracted and married by unkind Parents for some sinister ends against their wills which makes some children complain of their Parents cruelty herein all the daies of their lives but as Parents do ill to compel their children in such cases so children should not be drawn away by their own foolish fansies but take their Parents counsel along with them when they go about such a great work as marriage is wherein consists their greatest woe or welfare so long as they live upon the earth Another cause that women prove barren is when they are let blood in the arm before their courses come down whereas to provoke the Terms when they flow not as they should Women or Maids ought rather to be let blood in the foot for that draws them down to the place nature hath provided but to let blood in the arm keeps them from falling down and is as great a mischief as can be to hinder them wherefore let the Terms first come naturally before you venture to draw blood in the arm unless the cause be so great that there is no help for it otherwise The time of the courses to appear for maids is fourteen or thirteen or the soonest at twelve years old yet I remember that in France I saw a child but of nine years old that was very sickly until such time as she was let blood in the arm and then she recovered immediately but this is no president for others especially in our climate blood-letting being the ordinary remedy in those parts when the Patient is charged with fulness of blood of what age almost soever they be There is besides this natural barrenness of women another barrenness by accident by the ill disposition of the body and generative parts when the courses are either more or fewer than stands with the state of the womans body when humours fall down to the womb and have found a passage that way and will hardly be brought to keep their natural rode or when the womb is disaffected either by any preternatural quality that exceeds the bounds of nature as heat or cold or dryness or moisture or windy vapours Lastly There is barrenness by inchantment when a man cannot lye with his wife by reason of some charm that hath disabled him the French in such a case advise a man to thred the needle Nouer C'eguilliette as much as to say to piss through his wives wedding ring and not to spill a drop and then he shall be perfectly cured Let him try it that pleaseth CHAP. III. Signs that a woman is conceived with Child and whether it be a Son or a Daughter YOung women especially of their first Child are so ignorant commonly that they cannot tell whether they have conceived or not and not one of twenty almost keeps a just account else they would be better provided against the time of their lying in and not so suddenly be surprised as many of them are Wherefore divers Physicians have laid down rules whereby to know when a woman hath conceived with Child and these rules are drawn from almost all parts of the body The rules are too general to be certainly proved in all women yet some of them seldom fail in any First if when the seed is cast into the womb she feel the womb shut close and a
write now for their better instruction and reformation then will Men wonder no longer what becomes of so many Children as are born in the City one can hardly find as many living as are born in half a years time I am perswaded not so many can be found to have lived to seven years of age They that love their Children will take my advice and they and their Children will have good cause to thank me for it and besides the avoiding the mischiefs of intemperance to themselves and posterity they shall find the blessing of God upon them as a great reward of this vertue of moderation and the poor will have just cause to pray for me and them for what is wastfully spent by the riotous may be charitably bestowed upon their poor neighbours that stand in need of it CHAP. II. Of true conception TRue Conception is then when the seed of both sexes is good and duly prepared and cast into the womb as into fruitful ground and is there so fitly and equally mingled the Man's seed with the womans that a perfect Child is by degrees framed for first small threads as it were of the solid and substantial parts are formed out and the womans blood flowes to them to make the bowels and to supply all parts of the infant with food and nourishment Conception is the proper action of the womb after fruitful seed cast in by both sexes and this Conception is performed in less than seven hours after the seed is mingled for nature is not a minute idle in her work but acts to the utmost of her power it is not copulation but the mixture of both seeds is called conception when the heat of the womb fastens them if the woman conceives not the seed will fall out of the womb in seven daies and abortion and conception are reckoned upon the same time The Seeds of both must be first perfectly mixed and when that is done the Matrix contracts it self and so closely embraceth it being greedy to perfect this work that by succession of time she stirs up the formative faculty which lieth hid in the seed and brings it into act which was before but in possibilty this is the natural property of the womb to make prolifick Seed fruitful it is not all the art of man that setting the womb aside can form a living child To conceive with child is the earnest desire if not of all yet of most women Nature having put into all a will to effect and produce their like Some there are who hold conception to be a curse because God laid it upon Eve for tasting of the forbidden fruit I will greatly multiply thy conception but forasmuch as encrease and multiply was the blessing of God it is not the conception but the sorrow to bring forth that was laid as a curse We see that there is in women so great a longing to conceive with child that ofttimes for want of it the womb falls into convulsions and distracts the whole body The womb as I said is fast tied at the neck and about the middle but the bottom hangs lose so that it doth ofttimes fall into strange motions The natural motion of it comes from the moving faculty but the unnatural motions from some unhealthful and convulsive cause which is most commonly bred in it for want of conception and not bearing of children we see no women ordinarily that are better in health than those that often conceive with child and some are so fruitful that they conceive with many children about the same time so that considering his magnitude surely no creature multiplies more than man for he hath a priority in this blessing above the beasts Twins are frequent and sometimes two or three children at one birth are not the same thing with superfetation when children are got again before the first be delivered you must not think divers Cells in the womb to be the cause of this multiplicity of children for there is no such thing in the womb to be the cause of this multiplicity of children for there is no such thing in the womb but only one line that parts one side from the other but such women have larger wombs than others and so the seed divided finds place to form more children than one if their be sufficient strength in the several parts of the seed to do it Yet when Twins are begotten they have no more than one cake called Placenta that both their Navel vessels are received by though they have different Secundines or Coats that cover them It may be discerned but with some difficulty that a woman will have more than one child by their heavy burden and slow motion also by the unevenness of their bellies and that there is a kind of separation made by certain wrinkles and seams to shew the children are parted in the womb and if she be not very strong to go through with it in her Travel she is in danger both she and her children If the twins be both boys or both girls they will fare the better Yet one is found by frequent examples to be more lusty longer liv'd than the other be they both of one sex or one a boy the other a girl that which is strongest encreaseth but the weaker decayes or fails by reason of the prevailing force of the other Sometimes the woman conceives again a long time after her conception the womb opening it self by reason of great delight in the action though it were shut so close as no air could enter for the Matrix attracts and makes room for it And this may fall out not only for once but at a third Copulation that a woman may have one mischance and two children yet no twins It may be discerned by the several motions of the Infants but the mother is in great danger of her life by losing of so great a quantity of blood as she must needs lose at two births in so short a compass of time It is most dangerous to spurr nature to delivery before her period wherefore in such cases leave it to the work of nature using only Corroboratives and some such remedies as may facilitate her progress therein But women may avoid this mischief that often happens if they will rest themselves content when they have once conceived But that Story which I touched before seems to me to be but a meer Romance of Margaret Countess of Hennenberge and sister to William King of the Romans as some writers record that when she was forty years old she was delivered at one birth successively of as many children as there are daies in the year namely three hundred sixty five the one half boys and the other half girls and the odd child was divided to both sexes an Hermaphrodite partly male partly female and that the cause of this miracle was from a curse of her sister some say a poor beggar woman at her door laid upon her for her causeless jealousie and
the child by his calcining heat what is bred by moisture and heat is fixed by cold and dryness Mars heats with a fiery calcination but Venus she tempers the heat of Mars by her moisture for she is a cold moist Planet and fitly added to abate the courage and violent heat of warlike Mars there is a great sympathy between Mars and Venus and therefore surely the Poets speak so much of their conjunction for they are eminent in this of mans generation You may by this find out the causes of sympathy and antipathy in natural things and seeing all things are made up of such contrary qualities what is generated must in time be corrupted nothing is eternal in this world but a perpetual motion breeds mutation and not man nor any thing else can continue in the same stay Mars and Venus do here play their parts in mans production for they are the nearest of the five Planets to the earth but next to them is Mercury of a changeable disposition and applieth himself to the rest of the Planets with several aspects and he causeth the desire of knowledge in man sense and reason also some maintain to be the work of Mercury by his influence upon the child in the womb It is not denied but a piercing acute humour proceeds from him which is most likely to effect not alone the sensible but the rational part in man CHAP. IX Of the Posture the child holdeth in the Womb and after what fashion it lieth there HEre Physicians are at a stand and are never like to agree about it not two in twenty that can set their horses together the speculation is very curious insomuch that the Prophet David ascribes this knowledge as more peculiar to God Psalm 139. My reins are thine thou hast covered me in my mothers womb I will give thanks unto thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well my bones are not hid from thee though I be made secretly and fashioned beneath in the earth thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect and in thy Book were all my members written which day by day were fashioned whenas yet there was none of them Yet Anatomists have narrowly enquired into this secret Cabinet of nature and Hippocrates that great Physician tells us in his Book De natura Pueri that the infant lieth in the womb with his head his hands and his knees bending downward towards his feet so that he is bended round together his hands lying upon both his knees the thumbs of his hands his eyes meeting each with other so saith Bartholinus the younger of the two Likewise Columbus's opinion is that the child lieth round in the womb with the right arm bended and the fingers of the right hand lying under the ear of it above the neck the head bowed so low that the chin meets and toucheth the breast and the left arm bowed lying above the breast and the face and the right elbow bended serves to underprop the left arm lying upon it the legs are lying upwards and the right leg is lifted so high that the infants thigh toucheth its belly the knees touch the Navel and the heel toucheth the left buttock and the foot is turned backward and hides the privy members as for the left thigh that toucheth the belly and the left leg is lifted up to the breast the stomach lyeth inward But the expert Spigelius hath the fashion of a child near the birth whose figure I have here laid down and I believe it is very proper for as well as I am able to judge by the figure it is the very same with that of a child that I had once the chance to see when I was performing my office of Midwifry Here insert the Figure of the Child near its Birth The Figure Explained Being a Dissection of the WOMB with the usual manner how the CHILD lies therein near the time of its Birth BB. The inner parts of the Chorion extended and branched out C. The Amnios extended DD. The Membrane of the Womb extended and branched E. The Fleshy substance call'd the Cake or Placenta which nourishes the Infant it is full of Vessels F. The Vessels appointâ—d for th◠〈…〉 This is a general observation that the Male Child most commonly lyeth on the right side in the womb and the Female on the left side but Hippocrates layeth it down as the most universal way to have his hands knees and head bending down toward the feet his nose betwixt his knees his hands upon both knees and his face between them each eye touching each thumb but he is wrapt as he lieth in two mantles or garments as I said for a boy hath no more that which immediately covers him and lieth next to his skin is called Amnios the skirt or Lamb-skin it is wonderful soft and thin and is loose on all sides only it grows so fast to the Cake that it can hardly be parted from it the use of it farther is to receive the Childs sweat and Urine which moisteneth the mouth of the Matrix also and makes the birth more easie but the outward coat called Chorion is very strong and sinewy and encloseth the child round about and like a soft pillow or bed bears up all the veins and Arteries of the Navel which would have been in danger to have been carried so far without some soft bolster to sustain them These coats growing fast together seem to be but one coat or one to be the beginning of the other and this altogether taken is called the after-burden or Secundine for when the Child is grown strong enough to come out of the womb and the time of his birth is at hand he breaks through these coverings and the coverings come forth after the child is born yet sometimes a piece of the Amnios covers the childs face and head when he is born and women call it the caule and hold it to be a Sign of some great happiness that will befall the child in the following part of his life but some think it is neither here nor there one born without this caule may be as happy as he that is born with it There belong to the child whilest it lieth in the womb some things that are proper for it some to cloath it and are only for that time that it lieth in that place and afterwards of no known use though some have tried to make use of them in Physick and Chirurgery but commonly they cast it away Some things again serve to nourish and feed it in the womb and those are the Navel-vessels which are four in number two arteries one vein and that vessel which is called Vrachos which carrieth away the childs water in the womb to that skin that is prepared to hold that water so long as the child staies in the womb and it is called Allantois The vein I speak of comes from the Infants Liver and
THE MIDWIVES BOOK Or the whole ART of MIDWIFRY DISCOVERED Directing Childbearing Women how to behave themselves In their Conception Breeding Bearing and Nursing of CHILDREN In Six Books Viz. I. An Anatomical Description of the Parts of Men and Women II. What is requisite for Procreation Signes of a Womans being with Child and whether it be Male or Female and how the Child is formed in the womb III. The causes and hinderance of conception and Barrenness and of the paines and difficulties of Childbearing with their causes signes and cures IV. Rules to know when a woman is near her labour and when she is near conception and how to order the Child when born V. How to order women in Childbirth and of several diseases and cures for women in that condition VI. Of Diseases incident to women after conception Rules for the choice of a nurse her office with proper cures for all diseases Incident to young Children By Mrs. Jane Sharp Practitioner in the Art of MIDWIFRY above thirty years London Printed for Simon Miller at the Star at the West End of St. Pauls 1671. TO HER MUCH ESTEEMED AND EVER HONOVRED FRIEND THE LADY ELLENOUR TALBUTT BE THESE My Poor and Weak Endeavours Humbly Presented BY Madam An Admirer of Your Vertue and Piety Jane Sharp TO THE MIDWIVES OF ENGLAND Sisters I Have often sate down sad in the Consideration of the many Miseries Women endure in the Hands of unskilful Midwives many professing the Art without any skill in Anatomy which is the Principal part effectually necessary for a Midwife meerly for Lucres sake I have been at Great Cost in Translations for all Books either French Dutch or Italian of this kind All which I offer with my own Experience Humbly begging the assistance of Almighty God to aid you in this Great Work and am Your Affectionate Friend Jane Sharp THE CONTENTS Of the several CHAPTERS BOOK I. OF the necessity and usefulness of the Art of Midwifry Page 1. CHAP. I. A brief description of the Generative parts in both Sexes and first of the Vessels in Men appropriated to Generation p. 5. CHAP. II. Of the Seed-preparing Vessels p. 6. CHAP. III. Of the Vessels that make the Change of the Red Blood into a white substance like Seed p. 8. CHAP. IV. Of the Cods or rather the Stones contained therein p. 10. CHAP. V. Of the Carrying Vessels p. 14. CHAP. VI. Of the Vessels for Seed p. 16 CHAP. VII Of a Mans Yard p. 18. CHAP. VIII Of the Nut of the Yard p. 27. CHAP. IX Of the Muscles of the Yard p. 28. CHAP. X. Of the Generative parts in Women p. 33. CHAP. XI Of the Womb p. 38. CHAP. XII Of the likeness of the Privities in both Sexes p. 40. CHAP. XIII Of the Privy passage in the Secrets of the Female Sex p. 41. CHAP. XIV Of the Seed-preparing Vessels in Women p. 54. CHAP. XV. Of the Seed-carrying Vessels in Women p. 58. CHAP. XVI Of Womens Stones p. 60. CHAP. XVII Of the Womb or Matrix p. 63. CHAP. XVIII Of the fashion of the Womb and the parts of which it is made p. 73. BOOK II. CHAP. I. WHat things are required for the Procreation of Children p. 87. CHAP. II. Of true Conception p. 92. CHAP. III. Signes that a Women hath conceived and whether it be a boy or Girle p. 102. CHAP. IV. Of false Conception and of the Mole or Moon calf p. 106. CHAP. V. Of the Causes of Monstrous Conceptions p. 116. CHAP. VI. Of the resemblance or likeness of Children to Parents p. 120. CHAP. VII Of the sympathy between the Womb and other parts p. 125 CHAP. VIII How the Child grows in the Womb and how the parts of it are successively made p. 132. CHAP. IX Of the Posture the Child lieth in the Womb. p. 153. BOOK III. CHAP. I. WHat hinders Conception and the causes of Womens Barrenness p. 163. CHAP. II. Of the great pain and difficulty of Child-bearing with the signes cause and Cure p. 166. BOOK IV. CHAP. I. RVles for Women when near their labour p. 187. CHAP. II. To know the fit time when the child is ready to be born p. 205. CHAP. III. What must be done after the woman is delivered p. 210. CHAP. IV. When and how to cut off the Child's Navel-string and what is the consequent thereof p. 212. CHAP. V. What is best to bring away the Secundine or After-birth p. 217. CHAP. VI. Of the great pains and throws some Women suffer after they are delivered p. 219. CHAP. VII Of the Cholick some women are afflicted with in the time of their travel p. 220 CHAP. VIII Of Womens miscarrying or Abortment with the Signs thereof p. 221. BOOK V. CHAP. I. HOw Women in Childbirth must be governed p. 228. CHAP. II. Of the loosness of the Womb p. 236. CHAP. III. Of Feavers after Child-bearing p. 243. CHAP. IV. Of Womens Vomiting p. 248. CHAP. V. Of Womens diseases in general p. 250. CHAP. VI. Of the Green Sickness or white Feaver p. 266. CHAP. VII Of the straitness of the Womb o. 299. CHAP. VIII Of the largeness of the Womb p. 285. CHAI IX Of the Terms in Women p. 288. CHAP. X. Of the overflowing of the Courses and immoderate Flux thereof p. 296. CHAP. XI Of the Whites or Womans disease from corruption of Humours p. 302. CHAP. XII Of the swelling and puffing up fâ— the Body especially the Belly and Feet of Women after delivery p. 308. CHAP. XIII Of Cold Moist Hot Dry and all the several distempers of the Womb p. 313. BOOK VI. CHAP. I. OF the Strangling of the Womb and the effects of it with the Causes and Cure p. 317. CHAP. II. Of the Falling Sickness p 328. CHAP. III. Of Womens Breasts and Nipples the Diseases incident to the same with their Cures p. 336. CHAP. IV. Necessary Directions for Nurses p. 351. CHAP. V. Instructions in the choice of Nurses p. 360. CHAP. VI. Of the Child p. 372. CHAP. VII Discoveries of the several Diseases incident to Children with the Cure p. 377. THE MID-WIVES BOOK BOOK I. The Introduction Of the necessity and Vsefulness of the Art of Midwifry THe Art of Midwifry is doubtless one of the most useful and necessary of all Arts for the being and well-being of Mankind and therefore it is extremely requisite that a Midwife be both fearing God faithful and exceeding well experienced in that profession Her fidelity shall find not only a reward here from man but God hath given a special example of it Exod. 1. in the Midwives of Israel who were so faithful to their trust that the Command of a King could not make them depart from it viz. But the Midwives feared God and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them but saved the men children alive Therefore God dealt well with the Midwives and because they feared God he made them Houses As for their knowledge it must be two-fold Speculative and Practical she that wants the knowledge of
to the right side the veins that appear on the outside of it and on the foreskin come from the under belly and these Veins do swell with a frothy blood when the Yard begins to stand It hath also two sinews the lesser of the two goes upon the skin the greater upon the muscles and body of the Yard These sinews scatter themselves from the marrow of that bone which is called the holy bone and they pass quite through the Yard and cause exceeding great delight when the Yard stands and they prick forward in the action of Venery The Yard is stretched and made to swell by reason of fulness of Seed and plenty of wind and therefore all windy meats as Pulse Beans and Pease and the like will make the Yard stand and sometimes they cause a priapisme or continual standing of the Yard which will be more troublesome than if it should never stand at all It is not to be imagined what pains some have undergone who by indiscreet taking of Cantharides have fallen into this grievous distemper wherefore I would wish men to take heed lest they pay for it at last for the Proverb is commonly true sweet meat must have sour sawce Sometimes the bladder is full of Urine and the veins are very hot which make the Yard to rise The Yard is placed betwixt the thighs that it may stand the stronger to perform its work with all the force a man is able and at the lower end of it to add more strength it is more fleshy and that flesh is musculous and besides that it hath two muscles as I said on both sides to poise it equally when it stands they are indeed but small muscles yet they are exceeding strong The skin of the Yard is long and loose that it may swell or slack as the Yard doth and the foreskin of that skin sometimes covers the head of the Yard and sometimes goes so far back that it will not come forward again This skin in time of the Venerious action keeps the mouth of the womb close that no cold air get in yet some think the action migh be better performed without it the Jews indeed were commanded to be Circumcised but now Circumcision a vails not is forbidden by the Apostle I hope no man will be so void of reason and Religion as to be Circumcised to make trial which of these two opinions is the best but the world was never without some mad men who will do any thing to be singular were the foreskin any hindrance to procreation or pleasure nature had never made it who made all things for these very ends and purposes The top of the Nut hath a hole for the Urine and Seed to come forth by and nature hath made a little round circle at the bottom of the Nut with a fit jetting out from the body of the Yard and when the Yard casts the Seed into the Womb the neck of the womb with her own slanting fibres lays hold of it and embraceth it and by this circle the Seed is kept in the womb that it cannot fly out again The Nut of the Yard when it is half covered with the foreskin looks like an Acorn in the Cup and therefore some call it Glans which in Latin signifies an Acorn in this Acorn or Nut of the Yard lyeth all the pleasure of Copulation so that if the Nut were gone many think there could be no more tickling or moving in the Seed but all fruitful Copulation would be lost or at least there would be no pleasure in the act of Generation though the Stones might move a desire to it by transmitting of the Seed which is made by them Let men be careful then how they enter too far for it will be hard to say which were the greater loss of the Stones or the Nut. CHAP. X. Of the Generation or Privy parts in Women MAn in the act of procreation is the agent and tiller and sower of the Ground Woman is the Patient or Ground to be tilled who brings Seed also as well as the Man to sow the ground with I am now to proceed to speak of this ground or Field which is the Womans womb and the parts that serve to this work we women have no more cause to be angry or be ashamed of what Nature hath given us than men have we cannot be without ours no more than they can want theirs The things most considerable to be spoken to are 1. The neck of the womb or privy entrance 2. The womb it self 3. The Stones 4. The Vessels of Seed At the bottom of the womans belly is a little bank called a mountain of pleasure near the well-spring and the place where the hair coming forth shews Virgins to be ready for procreation in some far younger than others some are more forward at twelve years than some at sixteen years of age as they are hotter and riper in constitution Under this hill is the spring-head which is a passage having two lips set about with hair as the upper part is I shall give you a brief account of the parts of it both within and without and of the likeness and proportion between the Generative parts in both sexes CHAP. XI Of the Womb. THe Matrix or Womb hath two parts the great hollow part within and the neck that leads to it and it is a member made by Nature for propagation of children The substance of the concavity of it is sinewy mingled with flesh so that it is not very quick of feeling it is covered with a sinewy Coat that it may stretch in time of Copulation and may give way when the Child is to be born when it takes in the Seed from Man the whole concavity moves towards the Center and embraceth it and toucheth it with both its sides The substance of the neck of it is musculous and gristly with some fat and it hath one wrinkle upon another and these cause pleasure in the time of Copulation this part is very quick of feeling The concavity or hollow of it is called the Womb or house for the infant to lie in Between the neck and the Womb there is a skinny fleshy substance within quick of feeling hollow in the middle that will open and shut called the Mouth of the Womb and it is like the head of a Tench or of a young Kitten it opens naturally in Copulation in voiding menstrous blood and in child-birth but at other times especially when a woman is with Child it shuts so close that the smallest needle cannot get in but by force The neck is long round hollow at first it is no wider than a mans Yard makes it but in maids much less About the middle of it is a Pannicle called the Virgin Pannicle made like a net with many fine ligaments and Veins but a woman loseth it in the first act for it is then broken At the end of the neck there are small skins which are called
hanging out Besides these under the Clitoris and above the neck is the passage of the womans water for the Woman makes not water through the neck of the womb nor is it a common passage for Urine and Seed as in men but it is only for Urine therefore they that will cast an injection into the womans cleft to stop their water from coming forth too much upon any occasion concerns their bladder must take heed they thrust not the spring into the mouth of the Matrix instead of the passage of the bladder Near this are four Caruncles or fleshy knobs in form like to Mirtle berries they are round in maids but they flag and hang down as soon as their maidenhead is lost the uppermost of them is forked and largest that it may admit the neck of the urinary passage the other three are below this on the sides they all serve to keep off air or any thing may offend the neck of the womb Maids have these fleshy knobs joyned together by a sinewy skin interwoven with many small veins and with a hole in the middle and through that their Courses pass it is about the bigness of a mans little finger in such as are grown up this is that skin so much talked of and is the token of Virginity wheresoever it is for the first act of Copulation breaks it some think that it is not found in all maids but doubtless that is false else it could have been no proof of Virginity to the Israelites Yet certain it is that it may be broken before Copulation either by defluxion of sharp humours especially in young maids or by thrusting in of Pessaries unskilfully to provoke the Terms and many other ways The four fleshy knobs with this are like a Rose half blown when the bearded leaves are taken away or this production with the Lap or privity is like a great Clove-gilleflower new blown thence came the word deflowred The Arabians thought this skin called Hymen was the joining of five Veins together as they are placed on both sides but that is rejected Termelius thought the sides of the womb stuck together and were parted by Copulation there are many other opinions needless to trouble the Reader with Whatsoever it is there are certain Veins in it which bleed in the breaking of it and the Hebrew maids were more careful to keep it unbroken than the French and Italian are or else Columbus would not say it is seldom found and Laurentius professeth he never could find it It lieth alwayes hid in the middle of the great cleft and is peculiar no doubt to all maids it is as long as the little finger and is broad in the middle and is compassed about with a round hollowness the fashion of it is round but it ends in a point that hath a hole in it so long as the top of the little finger may be put into it it is partly fleshy and partly skinny there are also four skins like Mirtle berries as I said at every corner of the bosome one and there are also four membranes or skins that tie these together and they go not slanting but they run all right downward from the inside of the said bosome and are each of them placed in the distance between the foresaid fleshy skins and with them they are almost equally stretched out but both these and they are in several bodies shorter or larger and the orifice at the end of them wider or smaller the hole is then straitest when the fleshy skins are nearest joined together for this cause some maids suffer not so much pain to lose their Maidenhead as others do for when the Yard first enters the neck of the womb the fleshy membranes and caruncles are torn up and the caruncles are so stretched that a man would think they were never join'd together some Vessels are opened by this means by reason of the pain puts maids to a squeek or two but it is soon over the younger the maids are the greater the pain because of the dryness of the part but they lose less blood in the act because of the smalness of the Vessels the elder they are by reason of their courses that have often flowed the moisture is more and the pain less by reason of the wetness and looseness of the Hymen but the Flux of blood is greater because the Vessels are greater and the blood hath gotten a fuller passage thither some pain there will be for all this but not much yet if they have their Courses then running or have had them some three or four daies before the membranes are so dilated by the moisture of those parts that the pain is far less which hath been a reason why some persons have been jealous of their new married Wives without a cause thinking they had lost their Maidenheads before It is best therefore for maids new married to keep their honour and not to suffer any man to touch them during the time they have their monthly Terms Besides that it is forbidden severely by the Law of God and Physicians know that those Children that are begotten during the time of separation will be Leprous and troubled with an incurable Itch and Scabs as long as they live Also next to their caruncles lieth the outward cleft of the neck and is placed as it were in the Trench of the great cleft and is full of wrinkles and like a narrow valley leads the way by a round cavity into the inmost parts and causeth the outward orifice of the neck of the womb by which the Yard enters to provoke the womans parts to give forth their Seed and to cast in his own There is a skinny ligament also in the back parts of the outward orifice of the neck which is strait in Maids and is covered by the Trench but in women that have born Children it is large and loose and a certain sign as well as the former that Virginity is lost The neck of the womb is the distance between the Privy passage and the mouth of the womb into this the mans Yard enters in time of Copulation It is eight inches long if the Woman be of a reasonable stature The substance of the Matrix is fleshy without but skinny and all wrinkled within that it may be able to retain the Seed that it may stretch exceedingly in Childbirth The neck of it stands directly betwixt the Urinary passage and the right Gut which are the two great sinks of the body that vain Man should not be over proud of his beginning It hath two membranes and if you cut them you shall see a spongy flesh between them such as is found in the five ligaments of the Yard and it contains vital spirits and causeth it to swell in the time of Copulation and is full of numberless twigs of small Veins and Arteries The neck of the womb is the third part of it and into it as I said the mans yard passeth it is
often and unreasonably opened by too frequent coition or in over moist bodies or by the whites it makes women barren and therefore Whores have seldom any Children it is the same reason if it grow too hard or thick or fat also the Cancer and the Schirrhus two diseases incurable which happen but seldom till the courses fail are bred here Thus I have as briefly and as plainly as I could laid down a description of the parts of generation of both sexes purposely omitting hard names that I might have no cause to enlarge my work by giving you the meaning of them where there is no need unless it be for such persons who desire rather to know Words than Things BOOK II. CHAP. I. What things are required for the procreation of Children I Have in the former part made a short explanation of the parts of both sexes that are needful for this use but yet some think that there is no need of describing the parts of them both because some have written that the Generative parts in men differ not from those in women but in respect of place and situation in the body and that a woman may become a man and that one Tyesias was a man for many years and after that was strangely metamorphos'd into a woman and again from a woman to a man and that in regard he had been of both sexes he was chosen as the most fit Judge to determine that great question which of the two Male or Female find most pleasure in time of Copulation Some again hold that man may be changed into a woman but a woman can never become a man but let every man abound in his own opinion certain it is that neither of these opinions is true for the parts in men and women are different in number and likeness substance and proportion the Cod of a man turned inside outward is like the womb yet the difference is so great that they can never be the same for the Cod is a thin wrinkled skin but the womb at the bottom is a thick membrane all fleshy within and woven with many small fibres and the Seed-Vessels are implanted so that they can never change their place and moreover their Stones are for shape magnitude and composition too different to suffer a change of the sex so that of necessity there must be a conjunction of Male and Female for the begetting of children Insects and imperfect creatures are bred sundry wayes without conjunction but it is not so with mankind but both sexes must concur by mutual embracements and there must be a perfect mixture of Seed issueing from them both which vertually contain the Infant that must be formed from them God made all things of nothing but man must have some matter to work upon or he can produce nothing The two principles then that are necessary in this case are the seed of both sexes and the mothers blood the seed of the Male is more active than that of the Female in forming the creature though both be fruitful but the female adds blood as well as seed out of which the fleshy parts are made both the fleshy and spermatick parts are maintain'd and preserv'd What Hippocrates speaks of two sorts of Seed in both kinds strong and weak seed hot and cold is to be understood only of strong and weak people and as the seed is mingled so are Boys and Girls begotten The Mothers blood is another principle of Children to be made but the blood hath no active quality in this great work but the seed works upon it and of this blood are the chief parts of the bowels and the flesh of the muscles formed and with this both the spermatical and fleshy parts are fed this blood and the menstrual blood or monthly Terms are the same which is a blood ordained by Nature for the procreation and feeding of the Infant in the Womb and is at set times purged forth what is superfluous and it is an excrement of the last nutriment of the fleshy parts for what is too much for natures use she casts it forth for women have soft loose flesh and small heat and cannot concoct all the blood she provides nor discuss it but by this way of purgation The efficient cause of this purging are the Veins that are burdened with this superfluity of the remaining blood and desire to be discharged of it Yet nature keeps an exact method and order in all her works and therefore she doth not send this blood out but at certain periods of time viz. once every month and that only in some persons generally maids have their terms at fourteen years old and they cease at about fifty years for they want heat and cannot breed much good blood nor expel what is too much yet those that are weak sometimes have no courses till eighteen or twenty some that are strong have them till almost sixty years old fulness of blood and plenty of nutriment in diet brings them down sometimes at twelve years old but commonly in Climacterical or twice seven years they break forth heat and strength making way for them and then maids will not be easily ruled for their passages grow larger the humours flow and they find a way by their own thinness of parts being helped by the expulsive faculty Men about the same age begin to change their faces and to grow downy with hair and to change their notes and voices Maids breasts swell lustful thoughts draw away their minds and some fall into Consumptions others rage and grow almost mad with love The time of the courses is not so exact that it can be certainly determined by us who are not of Natures Cabinet counsel Sometimes sharp corroding humours force the passage before it is time and sometimes the blood is so thick that it cannot break forth Lusty and Menlike women send them forth in three days but idle persons and such as are always feeding will be seven or eight days about it but there is a mean between them both that proportions the time accordingly four dayes will be sufficient but the quantity of blood that is cast out is more or less considering the circumstance of age temperament diet and nature of the blood and that different according to the seasons of the year the places by which it comes forth are the Veins and the bottom of the womb for the veins come from under the belly and seed branches to the bottom and to the neck of the womb and when women are with Child the superfluous blood runs out by the veins of the neck but maids and such as are not with Child send this blood forth by the womb it self by this blood the seed conceived increaseth and when the Child is delivered then it returns to the breasts for to make Milk as we hinted at before Though the blood be a necessary cause and nothing will be done without it that comes to perfection yet the seed is the Principal cause
in this building for the seed is the workmaster that makes the Infant and therefore the stones that make this seed must needs be Principal parts though some exclude them making only the Heart the Brain and the Liver to be of the first rank but the stones may in some sort be put in the first rank not onely to make the body fruitful but to work a change in the whole Take away a Mans stones and he is no more the same man but growes cold of constitution though he were never so hot before and is subject to Convulsion fits also their voice grows shrill and Feminine and their manners and dispositions are commonly naught Eunuchs may live without them and it hath been an approved cure for the Leprosy in former times but Hippocrates tells us that the stones are the strength and vigour of Manhood and that a convulsion of the stones threatneth Death and the firmness or looseness of them is a great sign of good or evil and that applications to the stones are very effectual to the strengthning of the body It is then very needful for all to keep the Organs of procreation pure and clean that they may send forth good seed to make the work perfect and that Children may be long lived which they cannot well be nor of sound constitutions if they are begotten from corrupt Seed or unnatural blood Alchymists lay the cause of all Childrens diseases on the Seed of the Parents as plants have not the causes of their destruction from the Elements but from their own Seed as also we see that when the Plague or any Epidemical disease rageth all are not infected because they have not that matter in them that will so soon take as it doth with others That therefore the matter may be fit for the work of nature there are two things very useful good diet moderately taken and conveniet labour and exercise of body Ill diet causeth ill blood and excess in meat or drink choakes the natural heat causeth raw crude humours which will never make good blood and ill blood will never make good seed for every part hath its natural propriety to change the nutriment into its own likeness as the Breasts change blood into Milk the stones change it into seed alwayes supposing such previous preparations that are needful or it cannot be done as it should be Temperance in eating and drinking will make both Parents and Children to be long lived and there is as much difference between good and bad nourishment as there is between pure Fountain water and ditch water but temperance is not to be understood as if there were a set proportion for all alike for it is according to every ones constitution what is too much for one Man or woman may be too little for another it is then such a quantity of meat or drink that the stomach can well master and digest for the feeding of the body Those that work hard must eat more than Schollars that follow their studies for the work of the stomach is called off by the intention of the mind their meat must be less and of easier digestion They that live in hot climates or near the Sun have not so strong stomachs as in colder regions nor is it with us all one in Summer and winter but every man or woman of years by good observation may know his own temper and what quantity will best agree with him and so if he be not a fool he may be his own Physician Youth and age cannot feed alike Children are often feeding because they want both for growth and nourishment but old age not near so much sick and healthful differ in the same kind I never could endure that preposterous way that most persons observe to the destruction of their Friends that when they are sick they will never let them alone but provoke them to eat whereas fasting is the better Doctor so it be not out of measure The causes of great eating and drinking beyond the bounds of nature are a liquorish appetite and a fancy beyond reason But having found out the causes I shall prescribe some remedies withal It is easy to know when you have eat or drank too much or what agrees not with you when you find nature charged with it and is not able to digest it vapours rising from the stomach that is glutted will choak the brain and cause defluxions and multitudes of diseases if you be sleepy after meat and drink you have taken too much for moderation makes a Man cheerful and not sleepy Also refrain from all meats and drinks that agree not with your constitution for they will never breed good blood but if you have done amiss in surfeiting your self or over eating or using any thing that agrees not with you remember that nature abhors all sudden changes and therefore you must not withdraw all at once but by degrees till you can bring your selves safely to a moderation This intemperance of Parents is the cause that many Children die before their time for what is too much can never be well concocted but turns to ill and raw humours and if the stomach turn the food into crude juyce or chyle the Liver that makes the second concoction can never mend it to make good blood nor can the third concoction of the stones to turn that blood into seed make good seed of ill blood for what is bad in the first concoction the second concoction nor third can ever rectify but if the chyle be good blood and seed will be good But you must know that nothing furthers good concoction more than moderate labour for it stirs up natural heat whereas idle persons breed crude humours And therefore Lycurgus the Lacedemonian Law-giver commanded Maids to work for saith he this keeps their bodies in good temper and free from crudities and when they come to marry their Children will be strong There 's as much difference between labour and sloth as between the earth in Summer and Winter in Summer the Sun by its heat makes it fruitful in Winter it is chill for want of the Suns heat Convenient labour sends the spirits to all parts of the body when the Elements are unequally divided death follows so the better the spirits are distrubuted to the seed the better will the seed be and your Children the stronger which is no small effect of moderate exercise when sloth is the cause of their hasty dissolution moderate labour open the pores of the body and by sweat or insensible transpriation sends forth all fuliginous and smoky vapours that choke the spirits and cause divers maladies we find all this to be true in reason and experience confirms it for Countrey people that work hard digest what they eat and their Children are usually strong and long liv'd But Citizens and such as refuse to labour and live idle lives I do not say all I hope there will be the fewer for what I have taken the pains to
or one foot and one head the postures are so many and strange that no woman Midwife nor man whatsoever hath seen them all We have an example in Scripture of two Children that Judah got incestuously upon his Daughter in Law Tamar who offered themselves to the Birth at the same time Gen. 38.26 And it came to pass in the time of her travel that behold Twins were in her womb and when she travelled one of them put forth his hand the Midwife took and bâ—und upon his hand a scarlet thred saying this came out first and it came to pass that as he drew his hand again back his brother came out and she said how hast thou broken forth this breach be upon thee therefore his name was called Pharez And after him came his brother that had the Scarlet thred upon his hand and his name was called Zerah We do not read but that she was safely delivered of them both and neither Mother nor Child died in the Birth But we find an example that will serve to our purpose concerning hard labor and that of Rachel a good woman wife to the Patriark Jacob Gen. 35.17 18. Rachel travelled and she had hard labor and when she was in travel the Midwife said to her fear not thou shalt have this Son also but her soul was departing for she died c. A single birth and a Boy which is easier labour as I said than of a Girle and a young woman who had born one child before yet Child-bearing is so dangerous that the pain must needs be great and if any feel but a little pain it is commonly harlots who are so used to it that they make little reckoning of it and are wont to fare better at present than vertuous persons do but they will one day give an account for it if they continue impenitent and be condemned to a torment of hell which far surpasses all pains in Child birth yet these doubtless are the greatest of all pains women usually undergo upon Earth There are many more causes of great pains in travel than have been yet spoken of for if a woman miscarry before the due time of Child birth if she come in three or four or five Moneths after she hath conceived the womb at that time is close shut by the course of nature and must be forced to open which if the Child come at the just time it should come opens it self but Abortion makes the woman that she ofttimes never can conceive again for she can hardly ever retain the mans Seed any more there is such a weakness caused in the retentive faculty or else she will hardly ever conceive again And I have heard some women complain that have miscarryed of the great pains they have endured at such a time and to profess that they have found less pain in bearing ten Children than when they have miscarryed with one But there is yet something worse than all this when a Child comes to be dead in the womb and is of full age to be born for then it cannot help the woman because it stirs not nor can it be turned that it may be brought forth but with great difficulty and if the woman have been long sick her self the infant cannot be strong in her womb if she have by some accident had her courses come down much after she is conceived with Child or had some extraordinary flux or looseness and if the Child do not stir as a living and healthful Child will these are signes of imbecillity Moreover the Secundine which covers the Child in the womb of which I gave you the description before that it is the Membranes and Coats Chorion and Amnios and these are ofttimes so strong that they will not break to make passage for the Child to come forth it may cause hard labour also if the Secundine be too thin and weak so that it cleaves asunder before the child be turned or fitted to come to the birth for by this means all the moisture and humours run forth of the womb and leave the after-birth dry and the Birth can hardly pass because the womb is not slippery wanting due moisture Cold also shuts the womb closer and heat causeth the woman to faint if either of them exceed so that she must be kept in a due temper or her delivery will not be so easy as it might be otherwise Besides these Diet is to be taken into consideration for sower and binding things will straiten the Orifice of the Matrix as Quinces and Chesnuts and Services and Medlars and Pears all these and such like cause dolour by contracting the womb sweet scents cause hard delivery because they draw the matrix upward too much hunger or thirst weariness or watching extraordinarily and to use cold baths after the fifth moneth or astringent mineral baths of Alum Salts or Iron or of vegetables that bind much will produce the like painful effects The woman may be assured also by the pains she feels before travel if they be above the Navel and in the back only and not below as they should be in time of delivery that all is not so well as not to put her to more than ordinary pain the signes of easie Birth are contrary to these for then the pains bear downwards and not upwards and so they are not so violent if she have usually been delivered with ease if the woman have cold fainting sweats and she swoon away and her Pulse beat out of measure there is much danger but if she be strong and lusty and the Child tumbles and strives much to come forth and the pains fall to the bottom of the belly there is no fear but know this all women are most in danger to miscarry in the first and second moneth after they have conceived for then the ligaments and all parts of it are weak and easily spoiled and torn in sunder and about the end of her going with Child the Child is heavy and the womb begins to open and so causeth danger of abortion but in about four five or six moneths there is least danger in taking Physick or letting blood if the women be oppressed with it for then she will not easily miscarry I told you before that women are all ready to be brought a bed at seven moneths end for that number of seven is the perfection of all numbers Pythagoras saith that seven is the knot that binds Mans life and Hippocrates lib. de Principiis saith that the time of all men is determined by seven every climatericall or seven years breeding a new alteration in the body of Man Children cast their Teeth at seven and Maids courses begin to flow at fourteen Seven times seven is of great danger to Mans life and the great Climaterical which few escape is seven times nine which makes sixty three But the signes of miscarriage in Childbirth are if the Child be faln lower toward the wombs mouth and so out of its
true place also if the woman have blackish courses chiefly if she be far gone with child she is in danger to lose the Child many women have their Terms in the first moneths but they are but watry pale coloured not fitting for the nourishment of the infant and they are also superfluous so that nature at first sends them out as being useful neither for nutriment for the Mother nor the Child I said before that the breasts will shew danger and of Twins which is most likely to suffer if the right breast flag she will miscarry of a Boy if the left of a Girle and the head shaking as with a Palsie the body trembling the face flushing with red the eyes painâ—d inwardly if the body be afflicted with wind there is fear of miscariage in child birth but if she travel when she is sick of a sharp Feaver or some such dangerous disease seldom doth either Mother or the child escape death but the ordinary causes of Abortion are when the womb is too weak or corrupted by phlegmatick slippery slimy or watry humours so that it cannot retain the Child the pains of inflammation and Imposthumes hinder delivery extream Costiveness of the body by straining to go to stool forceth the child downwards and the dung staying in the right gut when the woman is bound oppresseth the child if she fall into a Tenesmus which is a great desire to go to stool and can do nothing Hippocrates saith Abortion is like to follow Piles and Hemorrhoids cause pain and miscarriage fat women have slippery wombs and lean women have as dry and want nourishment for the child neither are fit for child-bearing Bleeding is bad for childing women unless there be great need purging especially in the first or second or about the last months and vomiting is far worse too much fasting starves the child too much eating and drinking will stifle it great heats or baths or stoves force the child to press for a more free air and great cold is not good for it all immoderate exercises passions desires longings falls strokes and all violent running leaping coughing lifting and such like will bring on this misfortune There being then so many causes and accidents whereby women usually fall into such mishaps 't will be profitable for women with child to observe some good rules beforehand that when her time of delivery is at hand she may more easily undergo it and not so soon miscarry But as there are diverse causes of miscarriage so the times are diverse that we are to provide for either before or after conception And before she be conceived with child let her use means both by diet and physick to strengthen her womb and to further conception Drink wine that is first well boyled with the mother of Tyme for it is a pretious thing If the womb be too windy eat ten Juniper berries every morning if too moist the woman must exercise or sweat in a Stove or Hot-house or else take half a dram of Galingal and as much Cinnamon mingled in powder and drink it in Muskadel every morning but if she use moderate labour perhaps she may have no need of this but the most frequent cause of barrenness in young lusty women that are of a cholerick complexion is driness of the Matrix and this is easily known by their great desire of copulation It is to be corrected by cooling drinks and emulsions made of barley-water blanched Almonds white poppy seeds Cucumbers Citrons Melons and Gours and to drink frequently of this all violent exercise drinking of wine or strong waters must be forborn The Oyl of Nightshade is good to annoint the Reins some report that the seeds of Mandrakes are very useful to cool and purge a hot and foul womb such diseases are common to salt complexions and the dose of half a dram of Mandrake seed bruised and drunk at once in a cup of white wine cannot be dangerous for though the leaves be cold yet the seeds have a vital spirit in them to beget their like cold begets nothing but heat is an active quality for production There are many conjectures concerning those Mandrakes that Reuben found and that Rachel so much desired because she was then barren Gen. 30. it may be she knew that they were fit to cure her barrenness I grant that sometimes God is the cause of barrenness who shuts up the womb and will not suffer some women to conceive we have multitudes of examples in Scripture for it Rachel doubtless was not barren of her self and she was angry with Jacob that she said unto him Give me Children or else I die but he acknowledgeth God to be the chief cause of it And he said unto her Am I God who hath withheld the fruit of the womb from thee And again he makes the barren women to keep house and be a joyful mother of Children Prayer is then the chief remedy of their barrenness not neglecting such natural means to further conception and to remove impediments that God hath appointed and those means are chiefly either by a well ordering of the body and mind or else when need requires by taking of Physick The good order of the body consists in seasonable moderate eating and drinking of wholsome meats and drinks moderate exercise for idleness is a great enemy to conception and that may be the reason that so many City Dames have so few children if they have any they are commonly sickly and short lived it is not so with Country women who are always working they usually have many children and they are lusty and strong for moderate labour raiseth natural heat revives the spirits helps digestion opens the pores and wasts excrements comforts all the parts and strengtheneth the senses and spirits help nature in all her faculties and that is the way to have strong and many children As for working too much it wasts and destroys nature but I think few women are guilty of this fault Moderate rest refresheth nature as well as moderate work but there is a large difference between moderate rest and extreme idleness which dulls both mind and body and hastens old age and therefore Lycurgus commanded all the Spartans to work at least four hours in a day If women will be fair let them work as it is with the body so it is with the mind the mind must alwayes be intent upon something that is good yet this also admits of some relaxation and rest or else we are never able to endure but above all we must take heed of discontent for that wonderfully hinders conception whereas content of mind dilates the Heart and Arteries and distributes the vital blood and spirits through the body which exceedingly recreates nature in all her operations Much might be said in Divinity against discontent sullenness and murmuring which many women especially are too much guilty of for it troubles the imagination which should be pure in the act of conception it stirs up ill
vein Cut a great hole in an onion fill the hole with Oyl roast it and stamp it and lay it warm to the Fundament Also take snails without or with shells I mean either kind and bruise them with some Oyl warm it and lay it to the place Sows or wood-lice called Hog-lice so bruised with Oyl are as effectual The Menstrual blood stopt We read Levit. 12. that a woman delivered of a Boy must continue in her purification thirty three dayes and for a girl sixty six days Hippocrates de Natura pueri saith a woman must continue purging her blood forth so long as the child was forming in the womb that is thirty dayes for a Male and forty two dayes for a Female Hippocrates rules may be calculated chiefly for his own Country of Greece and the Levitical Law most concerns the seed of Abraham but this is to be observed though not so precisely to a day by all women after delivery for women that give their own children suck have their purgations not so long as those that do not It is not good for a woman presently to suckle her child because those unclean purgations cannot make good milk the first milk is naught for even the first Milk of a Cow is salt and brackish and will turn to curds and whey You shall know if a woman be well cleansed by her health for if she be not she cannot be well and lusty I shewed you before what herbs will bring her purgations down She may if she please take every morning two or three spoonfuls of Briony water to be had at the Apothecaries or a dram of the powder of Gentian roots every morning in a cup of Wine the roots of Birth-wort are as good or take twelve Peony seeds powdered in a little Carduus posset drink to sweat and if it cures not do it again three hours after Against the too great running down of the Menstrual blood This disease seldom troubles women after delivery if it should Comfrey and Knot-grass are good remedies or else take Shepherds-pouch boyled in drink and powdered or bramble leaves a dram of either every morning in a little wine or a decoction made of the same Women when they ly in use to be cost ive because they keep their bed and some foolish Nurses are so bold as to purge them with Sena before nature be setled whereby many sad accidents have followed but neither loosning broths nor Prune broths nor bak'd Apples are then good but rather gentle Glisters and suppositories taken twice a week will prevent mischief and make the breasts abound with good milk CHAP. II. Of looseness of the Womb. THis may proceed from sundry causes as when great fluxes of humours take the ligaments and relax them falls or great burdens carried in the womb will unloosen them or chiefly when women travel before their time they overstrein themselves because the passage is then shut but unskilful Midwives often make it so when they thrust in their hand to pull forth the Secundine they tear part of the womb a way with it for the Secundine is fastened to its bottom sometimes they cause the woman to cast out the Secundine by strong vomit or by holding Bay salt in her mouth All causes except those that come from strong defluxions which must first be removed will be cured by the same remedies Take Nuts of Cypress and Galls and flowers of Pomegranates and Roch Allum two ounces of each Province Roses four ounces Scarlet Grains Rinds of Pomegranates and Cassia Rinds of each three ounces waters of Myrtles of Sloes an ounce and half Smiths water wine of each 4 ounces and a half then boil two little bags each a quarter of a yard long in the said waters in a new pot then hold the womans head and Reins low and apply these bags first one and then the other upon the os pubis and chafe her often Let her take in the morning a little Mastick in an egg or some Plantan seed but if the disease be long confirmed then make a Pessary half round and half oval of a thick Cork with a great hole in the middle for her Terms and ill vapours to come out by tye a pack threed to the end of it to pull it out by cover it over with white wax that it may not be offensive dip it in sallet Oyl to make it go in it must be strait that it may not quickly fall out when she doth her need let her hold it with her hand take it not away till her purgations be over the thickness of the Cork makes the Matrix mount higher if she be in Child-bed the Midwife or Nurse must not suffer the woman to strain but must keep her with her hand or finger to keep back the Matrix laying her head low and her Reins high with a pillow under her hips Women that are troubled with this disease must not lace themselves too strait for that thrusts down the womb makes the woman gor-bellied makes her carry her Child upon her hips hinders it from lying as it should in the womb and though the womans wast may be made slender by it her belly is as great and ill favoured But somtimes there happens a relaxation of the skin that covers the right gut when the head of the child when the woman begins to travel falls downward and draws it low lacing Childing women too hard is a frequent cause of it also for this makes so much wind fly to those parts that some are deceived and think it is the head of the child and the women can hardly stand or go let her then be kept soluble and eat Annis Coriander seed to dispell wind a fume of Sage Agrimony Balm Motherwort wormwood Rue Marjoram a little Time and Cammomile pick out the stalks cut the herbs small mingled put them into a maple platter put hot cinders upon them and another handful of herbs upon them cover the platter close with a cloth and let her take the fume beneath The womb falls out of its place when the ligaments by which it is bound to other parts of the body are by any means relaxed it is bound with four ligaments two broad membraces and above that spring from the Peritoneum and two round hollow nervous productions below also it is tied to the great vessels by veins and Arteries and to the back by Sinews but the Bottom of the womb is not tied the ligaments being onely upon the sides of it sometimes it falls forward quite out of the Privities but whether it can ascend and go upward is doubted by some Physicians say it will if sweet things be held to the nose if to the secrets it will fall downward if stinking things be put to them it flyes from them it may be discerned by their breathing and by some meats the womb greedily accepts But Galen saith it is very little that the womb can go upward it cannot reach the stomach the
for it doth no good Sometimes but seldome the courses stop with Fulness such must saith Riolanus be let blood in the arm but with great care CAHP. X. Of the overflowing of the Courses or immoderate flux thereof THis distemper is contrary to the former and Women are often subject to it and it brings many diseases great weakness loss of appetite ill digestion dropsies consumptions pains in the back and stomach Their ordinary continuance should be two or three daies or four or five daies in large People but if they stay longer it is not good or if they come oftener than once a month I mean the Moons Month passing through the twelve Signs that is twenty seven daies and odd minutes The causes may be falls or blows or strains or hard labour over-heating the body which makes the blood thin or from weakness of the retentive faculty and too much strength of the expulsive faculty or from crude raw blood and weakness or too much moisture and this is the cause that some women have their terms by drops and it lasts long and there is pain and the secrets are alwaies wet if this be not remedied it may cause Ulcers and inflammations if the blood be superfluous open the arm not the ancle vein if it be Cacochymical correct it if too thin and sharp correct and amend it by coolers and thickeners and strengthen the wombs retentive faculty by astringents and convenient driers Many think that the overflowing of the Terms and Issues in women are the same diseases but that is not so as Galen shews for by superfluous Flux of the courses only blood is voided but in too great a measure But women continual Issues send forth not only blood at certain periods but various humours that cause the disease The Terms exceed when they flow in too great abundance in a short time or continue longer than is needful the one resembles violent rain the other flow rain but lasts long If too much blood be the cause of this superfluity the blood will be whitish and pale if choller the terms will be yellow if melancholly they will be dark coloured black or blew it weakeneth all the body and the Liver and Bowels dip a clout in the blood and dry it in the shade and then the colour of the blood will shew the humour that offendeth and accordingly prepare your remedies Sometimes it causeth swounding paleness the whites or the dropsie If fulness be the cause abate blood opening the Liver vein of the right arm repel cool bind bleed little but often use cuppings to the back and breast against the Liver below the paps to draw the blood back but scarifie not under the breasts upon the Salvatella bind and rub the arms and shoulders Waters of Plantane Purslain Shepherds Purse Sorrel sirrup of Pomegranates or dried Roses will cool and thicken the blood and so will Bole or Sealed Earth sirrup of Poppeys Philonium Laudanum are good If it proceed from choller purge with sirrup of Roses of Rhubarb or with Senna or Manna if watry blood be the cause the Reins and Liver are out of temper sweat with China and strengthen those parts Do not force veins but use astringents take the juice of ass dung sirrup of Myrtles of each half an ounce with an ounce of Plantane water let the woman drink it and not know what she takes lest it offend her or give every day a dram of the powder of Mulberry tree roots When you use cold astringents temper them so that you stop not the Veins use no Pessaries except the Veins of the neck of the womb be open Cold and binding fomentations are better than baths for baths make the humours to flow more wash the legs and hips in cold water If choller persist Rhubarb powder in conserve of Roses is very good The principal causes of this overflowing are but four viz. 1. Some of the Vessels broken or much dilated 2. Violent Purgation 3. Corroding humours 4. Hard travel in Childbed or the Midwives unkind handling First if the Vessels be broken the blood gusheth forth in heaps if flowing of humors they come with much pain though the quantity be small Secondly All Physicians almost wish to stop the Courses first that are too many before you strengthen the woman But I think it more reasonable to strengthen nature first and nature will help her self with less means but strengthen the womb and annoint the reins and back with oils of roses Myrtles Quinces do this every night lay a piece of white bays then next your reins upon the bare skin and keep it there constantly inject the juice of Plantane into the Matrix it seldome fails You may drink of the decoctions of Sage Bistort Tormentil Knotgrass Sannicle Ladies-mantle Golden Rod Loos-strife Meadow Sweet Archangel Solomons Seal Purslane Shepherds Purse red Beets Bark and Cups of Oak and Acorns But I commend this medicine take of Comfry leaves or roots of either a handful and of Clowns all-heal the same bruise them and boil them well in Ale drink a good draught when you please and it will help you though the mouths of the Vessels be open Too much blood is lost in the overflowing of the courses when the faculty is hurt by it otherwise the quantity cannot be defined The immediate causes are the opening of the Vessels but the mediate cause is the blood offending in quantity or quality Vessels are opened three or four wayes by Anastomosis when the mouthes lye open by reason of a moist distemper or use of Aloes or hot and moist bathes or from Diapedesis when the blood sweats through the Coats this is not often or from Diaeresis when the sharpness of the blood eates the Vessels in sunder if a Vein be broken Coral Bole Myrtles Comfrey are good to bind or a Poultis with astringent powders and the White of an Egg. Thirdly If a vessel be Corroded a dram of the roots of Dropwort in a new Egg will glutinate Sleep long use little Exercise nor Venery but eat little if it come from Plethory use thin Nutriment beware of hot things alwayes purge the humour that offends vomits are good to stay and turn the course of the humours Take Conserve of Roses two ounces of water Lillies one ounce prepared Pearls and burnt Harts-horn of each half an ounce Bole Armoniac and Terra Lemnia of each half a scruple make an Electuary with sirrup of Plantane this is cooling thickning and binding or in case of great necessity take a Bolus made with old conserve of Roses half anounce Philonium or Requies Nicolai two scruples or but a scruple of each let them drink Red Wine or quench steel in their drink or bloil Plantane Seeds Leaves and Roots in their drink CHAP. XI Of the whites or Womens Disease from corruption of humors WHen the body grows Cacochymical womens Courses stop or run very slowly and sometimes they abound sometimes all humours run thither to a general vent
Legs and arms and is the cause of strange symptomes in them all For Galen saith well the strangling of the Mother or Hysterical Passion is but one by name but the symptomes are scarce to be numbered It alters womens complexions they grow sandy or pale and yellow or swarthy and now and then their eyes and faces shew red and very sanguine When this strange affection falls upon them they will gnash theit teeth and become speechless for their breath is stopt and it hath been often observed that they have been supposed to be dead neither breath nor Pulse nor Life to be found for that time and sometimes their breath is stopt so close and it holds so long that they have died of it The causes of this disease are very many for a sudden fear a bad news related hath cast divers women into these fits for by this Melancholly gets the mastery of them it were but reason therefore for men to forbear relating any sad accident to them but with great proviso When the womb is strangled no one disease can determine it for that seldome comes alone sometimes only the breath is stopt sometimes the speech and animal actions of the brain fail and the whole body is chill and almost dead by ill vapors that choke it rising from the womb The Malignant Vapors then sent from thence by the Nerves Veins and arteries are the immediate causes of all the hurt that is done and these vapors are much like the wind very powerful and almost unperceived they are so subtil and thin that they pass in a moment of time through the whole body it will choke the Patient when they flie to the Throat as people are that eat White Hellebore or venomous mushromes Ofttimes you shall see the woman to loth and vomit and draw her breath short and her heart akes if the vapour strike the heart first it will cease from moving and she falls into a swound but if it flie to the brain she is void of all sense and motion There is nothing worse than corrupt seed to offend the Body Women with Child are not free from this disease when corrupt humours rise from an unclean womb The chief seat of this ill humour lieth in the Trumpet of the womb and in her stones for the substance of it is loose and hollow and the Stones lie in bladders full of water and women that have strangling of the womb have this water of a yellow colour and grosser than it should be Many Physicians have mistook the stones and the Trumpet for the womb it self when putrified rotten seed makes them swell and windy humours cause them to rise as far as the Navel but I spoke of this before when I shewed the reason how the womb is thought to ascend higher than nature hath placed it It hath sometimes a long time to breed in and sometimes it comes suddenly according as the corruption of the humours is which sometimes also lie still and so soon as they are but moved they evacuate and send a poisonous fume into other parts of the body And nothing will sooner stir these vapours and humours in women who are subject to this disease than anger or fear or such like passions or sweet scents and smells applied to their noses which is an argument that the womb is delighted with sweet scents but cannot away with stinking things for let Musk or Civet be held to such womens noses they are presently sick till they be taken away What Distemper this strangling of the womb is Physicians agree not some say it is a cold distemper but coldness is not the chief symptome though cold be great others say it is a convulsion or Syncope or breathing stopt but it cannot be set forth by any one symptome for though the venomous vapor be small that breeds it it goes many waies and spreads through all the body But the true causes of this Disease are the poisonous vapours that rise from the womb it is not an apparent quality that this vapour works by but a secret quality as the Torpedo or Scorpion small creatures prevail with to do great mischief as they are enemies to the natural heat and vital spirits and when the heart suffers there can be no good animal spirits bred because the vital are corrupted but blood and seed whilest they are in their own proper vessels hurt not unless they are mingled with ill humors Fernelius saith that the womb and seed the place and matter of life are the breeding of the most deadly poisons Hippâ—crates in these fits bids give them wine to refresh their weakness Avicenna bids give them no wine but water and forbids eating flesh because they ingender more seed and blood but when she is in the fit wine is best for a little wine will not presently get to the womb Sometimes both maids and widdows from such like causes are troubled with the rage of the womb that they will grow even mad with carnal desire and entice men to lie with them they are hot but not feaverish and they are inclined to madness Modest women will die of consumptions when they have this rage of the womb rather than declare their desire but some women are shameless The cause is great store of sharp hot seed that is not natural but the next degree to it that bites and swells and provokes nature to expulsion the brain suffers by consent the womb in the Nymphe is most affected which swells with heat but the Clitoris and not the Nymphe is the seat of lust hot blood and humours in the womb breed this and they are increased by hot spiced meats and drinks idleneness and bawdy acts and objects at first it may be cured but the end of it is frenzy and madness if it be neglected Maids must marry that cannot live chast or draw blood to abate the heat and sharpness of it let them purge these humours gently and use cooling and moistening meats and drinks and all with moderation Lettice Violets and water-Lillies and Purslain are good coolers and take away the windiness of the parts the seed leaves and flowers of Agnus Castus strewed in their beds or Camphire smelt unto are very good in such cases Let them use this Electuary take conserve of water Lillies Violets tops of Agnus Castus of each one ounce of red Roses half an ounce of red Coral and emralds in powder of each half a dram of Coleworts and Lettice candid of each one ounce with sirrup of Violets and water-Lillies make an Electuary lay a plate of lead to their backs Nuns and such as cannot marry may use tâ—ings â—hat by a hidden quality diminish seed but they cause barrenness let them eat no eggs nor much nourishing meats and sleep little Camphire that is so much commended against this preternatural desire is hot and sharp and bitter it will burn and flame and being of thin parts penetrates deep but it hath cold operations for it will cure