the woman is weak already by her travel Good diet and gentle sweating cure a Milk-Feaver but there must be purging and many remedies used for the other as bleeding in the foot cupping of the thighs to provoke the after purgations but if the time of after-purging be over if she be strong then open a vein in the Arm. It is dangerous to purge the woman after the seventh day as some do when she hath a Pleurisie because of her weakness after travel and because purges hinder the after-flux but you may if the flux of blood cease if need be give a gentle purge with Cassia or Manna sirrup of roses or Sena or Rhubarb Too cold and sharp things are naught take heed of cold drink or too much drink let her diet by degrees increase from thin to thicker If the Feaver came from too much milk or terms stopt open a vein in her foot then purge a way the gross humours with sirrup of Maidenhair Endive of each one ounce waters of Succory and Fennel an ounce and half a piece Sharp and putrified humours must be purged away with proper medicaments as water of Succory and violets of each two ounces sirrup of the same of each one ounce cooling Glisters are good here if there be need you may purge stronger but this is not usual I shall give you one example take two drams of Rhubarb in powder Diagridium four grains let them infuse all night in Succory and Anniseed water two ounces and half of each and one ounce of Borrage flower water warm them gently in the morning and strain them well through a linnen cloth add to the strained liquor one ounce of sirrup of Succory Cinnnamon water two spoonfuls drink it warm Then after you have well purged away the ill humours you may gently sweat her to open the passages of the body and womb you will find examples of them in the Treatise of the Courses stopt CHAP. IV. Of the looseness of the belly in child-bed Women THis may be thought a small matter in respect of other infirmities yet this is one of the most dangerous distempers and hardest to help in child-bed women for stop the flux you will stop her purgations if you stop it not she will perish by weakness nothing almost is safely given Physicians are at a stand in such a case but it is good be wary and moderate in what is done and it may be helpt God willing It is not safe to stop it presently and if it continue it may cause a Tenesmus or a dysentury if it come from ill diet let her mend that and strengthen her stomach outwardly if yet it continue use inward remedies that corroborate the stomach yet hurt not the womb as Barley water Honey and sirrup of roses cleansing Glisters are good and to temper sharp cholerick humours But the best way is to observe what loosenes of the belly she is molested with for if it be that they call Diarrhoea that will only discharge her body of ill humours therefore do nothing in that case but let her take strengthening food for when nature hath eased her self sufficiently she will stay both the looseness of the belly and her purgations from the womb and so no ill accidents will come but if the flux be Lienteria that the food comes away with the stools undigested annoint her belly with Oil of Mastick and of Myrtles and give her some sirrup of dried Roses pulp of Tamarinds or some torrified Rhubarb to purge the belly and not hurt the womb But if it rise to a Dysentery called the bloody flux then so soon as her Terms are purged away try to stay it 1. By purging as take half a dram of bark of yellow Mirobolans of rosted Rubarb as much finely powdered sirrup of Roses or of Quinces one ounce pulp of Cassia or of Tamarinds with Sugar half an ounce Plantane or Oaken water four ounces let her drink this at once 2. Abstersives are good as of whey or barley water or Glisters of Mallows Mellilot Wheat-bran and Oyl of sweet Almonds 3. Narcoticks to ease great pains Philonium Romanum two scruples rose-Rose-water two ounces Maligo wine one ounce give it when she goes to sleep this is excellent In this case astringents are to be used but not in the former distempers here they profit there they are dangerous Of Womens vomiting in Child-Bed Women both before they fall in labour and at the time of their travel and also afterwards will sometimes fall to vomiting and it may proceed from ill diet or raw humors or from weakness of their stomach or consent of the womb when the after flux is stopt and sometimes they will vomit blood for the blood that is stopped below runs back to the great veins and liver and being much and sharp finds a way into the stomach and so comes forth at the mouth It is ill after child-birth especially the food being vomited there will be nothing to make milk for the child and sometimes in hard labour a Vein is broken and this may cause a dropsie if ill diet cause vomit rectifie that if ill humours stop it not presently but purge gently if blood come pull back by rubbing or cupping or bleeding opening a Vein in the foot ham or ankle and urging the after flux Sometimes the woman is costive then give her a suppository with Castle sope or Honey and then stay four or five days till you may give a Glister with Manna or Cassia If her Urine run away against her will bath her parts with a decoction of Betony Bays Sage Rosemary Origanum Stoechas and Penni-royal for her vomiting give her three spoonfuls of Cinnamon water one ounce and half of juice of Quinces about a spoonful at a time The leaves of Rosemary dried and brought into powder and so drank about a scruple or half a dram at a time in a cup of wine will stay vomiting preserve or Marmalade of Quinces or Medlars eaten or Pears or sowr Apples do strengthen the stomach juice of Barberries or of Pomegranates or sowr Cherries with Mint water There are many topical applications to be made to the pit of the stomach which being laid on and so continued prevail much as thus take the crum of the inside of a white loaf and tost it and steep it in good Maligo Wine and strew it lightly over with the powder of Cloves and Nutmegs or sirrup of Roses Rhubarb or pulp of Tamarinds and astringents of Roses Plantane Coral Tormentil if the Terms flow not at all the belly must be kept loose but vomiting is so perillous that it ought to be stopt alwaies provided it be done no sooner than it is needful and with good provisoes CHAP. V. Of Womens diseases in general WHosoever rightly considers it will presently find that the Female sex are subject to more diseases by odds than the Male kind are and therefore it is reason that great care should be had for the cure of that
dry like Men that they have hardly any courses at all as the Indian women have none but they are barren if they abound with no more blood than will nourish their body Blood is wanting either because it is not made or not dispersed where it should but turned to other uses Old age cold constitutions diseased bodies will not make blood also often bleeding of the great vessels and much loss of blood or from Issues to make diversions the womb is not supplied with it Nature spends the blood in Nurses that give suck for an other end and fat women wear it on their backs sadness and fear not only wast but cool and corrupt the blood 4. The weakness of the woman hinders the courses and so long as she continues weak she will have noâ— But all these things must be judged of by the relation of the party whether the whole body be diseased or the defect be in the womb or vessels or the mouth of the womb turned aside If the cause be from heat that her courses are stopt her Pulses are swift and strong she is very thirsty and her head aketh and such like signs of heat If from cold the woman is drowsie and sleepy her Pulse beats slow and she is not thirsty the Veins are ill coloured if the woman be fat or lean that will discover the inward cause of it The usual cause of obstruction of the courses is thick slimy humours or from thick gross melancholly blood proceeding from a cold distemper of the Spleen and Liver by drinking cold Water or eating gross Food The Roman women drank snow water and that was the reason said Galen that they had few or no courses but in such cases they could not be very fruitful It will seem strange that some women are so hot of constitution that they have conceived yet never had their courses at all Courses stopt in maids are not the same as they are in women for the effects are very different Maids they prâ—â—â—ntly fall into the Green sickness by it the blood going to and fro all the body over and is corrupted but in women it runs to the womb commonly and causes them to vomit and to loath their meat or to desire unnatural things You shall know a woman with child when her courses are stopt from a maid that hath hers stopt for the one looks wan and pale the other lively and well the one is sad the other merry the womans pains daily decrease and the others increase This obstruction causeth not only barrenness but strange distempers Suffocations Swellings Imposthumes Coffing Dropsies difficulty of breathings urine supprest Costiveness Heaviness Megrims Vertigoes Head ach and many more fearful distempers Hippocrates tells us that when the terms are long stopt the Womb is diseased with humours imposthumes ulcers barrenness Leucophlegmacy vomiting of blood heart-ach and head-ach if the symptomes be great there is danger of death The best way to move the courses in weak women is to forbear Physick and to feed them high with nourishing meats and drinks this is where the Woman is lean her Liver weak and blood is wanting but if blood abound then give a gentle purge or Glister then open a vein to draw down the blood to the womb open a vein in the foot or ancle one day one leg and another day the other four or five daies before the time the courses should come down use Frictions and binding of the parts below but Issues and opening of the Emrods do hurt and draw from the womb you may first loosen the belly with Hiera Picra or Pills de tribus For Phlegmatick bodies use the Decoction of Guaicum or Sarsa and Sassafras and Dittany fifteen drops without sweating purge with Agarick Mechoachan Turbith and Scamony or drink wine of their infusions if the stomach be foul give a vomit lest it get into the Reins Things that provoke the terms are hot and thin take sirrup of Mugwort and of the Fierwort of each one ounce and a half Oximel simple one ounce Water of Motherwort and Mugwort of each two ounces Pennyroyal and Nip of each one ounce sweeten it with a spoonful or two of Cinnamon water make a Julip to drink at thrice Pessaries are not fit for maids but Fumes may be used if she be no maid bruise Mercury with Centaury Flowers put in a bag for a pessary begin with the mildest remedies if it be from a humour provoke not the Terms but cure the swelling Some say that the blood going to other parts cause the Terms to stop but that is contrary for the blood goes to other parts because the Terms are stopt Authors agree not what veins must be opened to move the Terms Galen thinks the Ancle Vein and most men conclude the same because it opens obstructions and brings down the blood open the ancle twice or thrice rather than the arm once but in other diseases of the womb it is best to open a vein in the arm as when the Terms are too many or drop or the womb is inflamed The Saphaena is opened by putting the foot into warm water few terms flowing if the blood be but little there is no harm Diseases grow when they are stopt by thick blood as the Cancer Schirrhus and Erisipelas when the time is near then use the stronger remedies the weaker having made a way for them Tender natures as maids must have but gentle remedies as Aloes one dram and a half Agarick and Rhubarb of each one dram Myrrh Gum Ammoniack dissolved in Vinegar Gentian Root Asarum of each half a dram Cinnamon Mastich Spikenard of each one scruple five grains of Saffron make a mass of the fine powder with sirrup of Mugwort the Dose is one dram To urge the terms in strong Country people take pills Aureae and Aggregativae of each two drams pill Felid and Hiera of each four scruples at the Apothecaries Diagrid one scruple Trochischi Alhandal half a scruple with a hot pestle mix them well in a Mortar adding sirrup of Damask Roses one dram oil of Anniseed olympical half a scruple dissolve Gum Dragant in Cinnamon water and make your pills and let the woman take two scruples every morning before the time of their terms at least three or four drops Ointments and Plaisters are good also and pessaries made of Aromatical things and sweet smells and Fumes as take Benzoin Storax Calamita Bdellium Myrrh what you please mingle them and strew some on a pan of Coles the woman so placed that she may receive the Fume by a Tunnel broad at the lower end to keep the smoke in but lest these Fumes cause the head-ach keep the Fumes down with clothes about the woman that they come not to her head But do none of these things to women with child for that will be Murder give your remedy a little before the Full Moon or between the New and the full for then blood increaseth but never in the Wane of the Moon
than the child could retain or her purgations discharge wherefore it grows crude being superfluous and makes the parts swell so much that a man would think she were with child again but it commonly ceaseth if the woman be once largely purged either by the womb or the belly Hysterical or Mother fomentations are sufficient oftentimes to cure it or take a Sheeps skin of a Sheep new killed and wet it with sharp Wine and lay it on If in travel they keep ill diet the humours turn to Wind and they fall down to the legs and make them swell take heed of drink and when the purgations are over use things that expel wind take worm wood Betony Southernwood Origanum Cammomile Flowers Calamint Annis-seed Rue Carroway seeds boil them and make a fomentation for the feet If too much drinking be the cause let her abstain from that Medicaments that heat and resolve and are good for Dropsies are very good in this distemper the infusion of Rhubarb is much commended especially if the humour proceed from ill habit and course of life Hippocrates prescribes a Goats or Sheeps Liver made into powder and taken with wine of the infusion of Elecampane also Treacle taken with Fumitory and Fennel waters and to abate the swelling of the Feet make a decoction of Rose stalks and Cammomile Flowers excellent to bath them in and for her belly swelled lay on a Plaister of Bay berries or of Melilot or take Bay berries and Juniper berries of each one handful Goats Dung four ounces Cammomile Flowers powdered half a handful Cummin seed two drams pour spirit of wine upon them as you bruise them in a Mortar make a Plaister with a little oil of Spike added and lay it over the womans belly For the swellings of the Bellies of maids if it come not by a masculine blow take Dittany root and Cubebs bruise them and Cummin seeds and Cow Dung and lay it to their bellies as hot as can be endured Women after Delivery are also subject to have their Wombs inflamed when the birth is very great and their labour hard and the mouth of their Womb narrow so that great violence stretcheth it wider than they can suffer and sometimes there is great loss of blood and the womb is torn by putting forth of the child it must be cured by such things as ease pains as Baths and Fomentations and such softening things as are proper for the belly This following Anodyne is very effectual take Flowers of Mallows Marshmallows Vervain and Rue of each a handful Self heal Agrimony Cammomile Flowers Melilot tops red Roses of each a handful cut them very small sew them up in fine linnen bags boil them in Goats milk or equal parts of Plantane water and Wine press them well between two Trenchers and make application of one after the other hot to the place affected but first anoint the part with Poplar ointments or with oil of Roses after this cleanse all the secret parts with a spunge dipt in water of Oaken Leaves Self Heal and of Plantane made luke warm and injections put up with a Syring are effectual also of Mel Passarum and Plantane water mingled and cast in warm or take Galls Lentils Flowers of Pomegranates Seeds of Kneeholm Saunders and Roses of each a like quantity boil all in water and strain it and with a Syring inject the decoction and it will cleanse the Womb. When the Mother is cleansed it will be proper to make the flesh incarnate if it be corroded as take Centaury six ounces Orris Comfrey Roots Agrimony of each three handfuls Gum Tragant Sarcocolla Dragons Blood Frankincence Hypocistis Mummy of each a dram boil all in a sufficient quantity of water to the consumption of half then put to it Iron refuse prepared one ounce and a quarter boil it a while longer and bath the part with it If the womb be too hard and she feel pain between the Navel and the Matrix then take Ducks grease Deers or Ox marrow Neats Foot oil Yolks of eggs Bdellium of each a like proportion two drams of Saffron dissolve all in wine and mix oil of Lillies with them and dip a tent of Linnen or Cotten in this and thrust it up into the place use this often for this will ease it and take away the pain And if the womb be foul with Ulcers or the like take half an ounce of Oxymel of Squils sirrup of Vinegar and Bizantine of each three quarters of an ounce Agrimony and Lovage Waters of each one ounce water of Cichory two ounces let her drink this every morning early and sleep upon it and fast four hour after it the Urine will in a weeks time or somewhat longer become clean and well cleansed and the party cured Womens bellies use to be mightily stretched in Child-bearing in so much that they will be plaighted and full of wrinkles ever after that were plain and smooth before growing lank when they are delivered but if it be but four months past it may be helped by laying a linnen cloth over the belly dipt in oils of sweet Almonds Lillies Jessamine and if the belly be already wrinkled then take Goats and Sheeps Suet and oil of sweet Almonds of each one ounce Sperma Ceti two drams and with a little wax make an ointment when the Flux is past you may lay on the Cataplasie of Aetius or anoint with oils of Mastich and of Roses CHAP. XIII Of Cold Moist Hot Dry and of all the several Distempers of the Womb. THe wombs of Women should be alwaies kept temperate that they exceed not in any preternatural quality if they do the mans Seed will be like corn sowed upon sand and will prove unfruitful if the womb be too hot or cold or moist or dry Those that have hot wombs have but few courses and those are either yellow or black or burnt and fiery that come disorderly and such persons will fall into Hypochondriacal Melancholly and rage of the womb if this be from their birth it will be hard to cure yet it may by good Diet and proper means be much mended by Medicaments that cool and asswage Choler but take heed you do not cool too fast and stop the courses you may safely use conserve of Succory Violets Water Lillies Borage of each one Ounce Conserve of Roses half an ounce Diamargariton Frigidum and Diatrion Santalon of each half a dram with sirrup of Lemmons or Oranges or juice of Citrons take a Nutmeg in quantity at once twice or thrice in a day and anoint the back and loins with Poplar Unguent or oyl of water Lillies Roses Venus Navel wort Let her wear thin cloaths and use the cold Air let her avoid hot and salt meats Wine and strong drink eat Lettice and Endive and cooling herbs that she may sleep well The contrary to this is a cold womb and these are not fruitful they are too cold to nourish the seed of Man it is from the birth in
like driers use Sulphur and Allum Baths with oaken leaves And give it this powder take burnt Hogs-bladders Stones of a Hare roasted and Cocks throats roasted of each half a dram and two scruples of Acorns Mace and Nip of each a scruple give half a dram with Oaken leave Water XXXVI Childrens Urine is sometimes stopt either by gross matter or the stone you may try with the Catheter you must purge the humours with honey of Roses Cassia Turpentine with a decoction of red Pease also Grass-water and Restharrow and Dropwort water are good take Hares blood one ounce Saxifrage roots six drams calcine them the Dose is a scruple or half a dram with White-Wine and Saxifrage Water The Stone in the bladder is as common with children as the Stone of the Kidneys with men and women crude gross meats and unclean milk breed it there is also a weakness in the Liver and stomach when they do not well part gross blood from the pure but much earthy juice remains in the child sometimes it is natural from the Parents they piss by drops and what comes forth is like clear water or whey or milk and sometimes blood comes forth it grows daily and at last they must be cut if they be not cured in time Let then the belly be alwaies kept loose and the nurse eat no slimy gross meats anoint the bladder-with oil of Lillies and of Scorpions and lay on a Cataplasme of Pellitory of the Wall boild in oil of Lillies or give two drops of Spirit of Vitriol with half a drain of Cypress Turpentine Take Magistery or Crabs eyes white Amber prepared Goats blood of each a scruple give it frequently with water of Parsley XXXVII There is one disease more I shall end with and that is called Siriasis an inflammation of the membranes of the brain it is from phlegmatick blood putrified and grows hot and cholerick hot weather windy milk and nurses ill diet may cause it The forehead grows hot hollow the face is red they are dry Feaverish want an appetite The fore part of the head is hollow where the sagittal and Coronal Sutures meet for there the bones are membranons and harden in time it is dangerous and some say deadly When this bone or membrane falls there is a pit and the brain falls down they commonly die in three daies Give a glister of sirrup of Roses or Violets lay on coolers of the juice of Lettice Gourd Melons or split a Pompion in two pieces and lay it on but cool not the brain too much anoint it with oil of Roses let the Nurses diet be cooling or change her for a better Take oil of Roses half an ounce Populeon one ounce the white of an egg and an emulsion of the cold seeds drawn with Rose water two drams after the inflammation is abated and the flux stopt lay on oil of Cammomile one ounce and a half of Dill hal half an ounce with the yolk of an egg Thus by the blessing of Almighty God I have with great pains and endeavour run through all the parts of the Midwives Duty and what is required both for the Mother the Nurse and the Infant desiring that it may be as useful for the end I have written it to profit others as I have found it beneficial to Me in my long Practice of Midwifery To God alone be all Praise and Glory Amen FINIS Books Printed for or Sold by Simon Miller at the Star at the West-end of S. Pauls Quarto PHysical Experiments being a plain description of the causes signs and cures of most diseases incident to the body of man with a discourse of Witch-craft by William Drage Practitioner of Physick at Hitchin in Hartfordhire Bishop White upon the Sabbath The Artificial Changeling The Life of Tamerlane the Great The Pragmatical Jesuit a play by Richard Carpenter The Life and Death of the Valiant and Renowned Sir Francis Drake His Voyages and Discoveries in the West-Indies and aboue the World with his Noble and Heroick Acts. By Samuel Clark late Minister of Bennet Finck London Large Octavo Master Shepherd on the Sabbath The Rights of the Crown of England as it is Established by Law by E. Bagshaw of the Inner Temple An Enchiridion of Fortification or a handful of knowledge in Martial affairs demonstrating both by Rule and Figure as well Mathematically by exact Calculations as Practically to fortifie any body either Regular or Irregular How to run approaches to pierce through a Counter-scarf to make a Gallery over a Mote to spring a Myne c. With many other notable matters belonging to War useful and necessary for all Officers to enrich their knowledge and Practice The Life and Adventures of Buscon the witty Spaniard Epicurus's Morals Small Octavo Daphnis and Chloe a Romance Merry Drollery complete or a Collection of Jovial Poems Merry Songs Witty Drolleries intermixed with Pleasant Catches Collected By W.N. C.B. R.S. J.G. Lovers of Wit The Midwives Book or the whole art of Midwifry discoverd directing child-bearing women how to behave themselves in their Conception Bearing Breeding and Nursing of Children in six Books Butler of War Tractatus de Venenis or a Treatise of poisons Their sundry sorts names natures and virtues with their symptoms signs diagnostick and prognostick and antidotes Wherein are divers necessary questions discussed The truth by the most Learned confirmed by many instances examples and stories Illustrated And both Philosophically and Medicinally handled By William Ramesey The Urinal of Physick By Robert Record Doctor of Physick Whereunto is added an ingenious treatise concerning Physicians Apothecaries and Chirurgeons set forth by a Doctor in Queen Elizabeths daies with a Translation of Papius Ahalsossa concerning Apothecaries Confecting their Medicines worthy perusing and following Large Twelves The Moral Practice of the Jesuites Demonstrated by many Remarkable Histories of their Actions in all parts of the World Collected either from Books of the Greatest Authority or most certain and unquestionable Records and Memorials by the Doctors of the Sorbonne Artimedorus of Dreams Oxford Jeasts Refined now in the Press The third part of the Bible and New Testament A Complete Practice of Physick Wherein is plainly pescribed the Nature Causes differences and signs of all diseases in the body of man With the choicest cures for the same By John Smith Doctor in Physick The Duty of every one that will be saved being Rules Precepts Promises and Examples directing all persons of what degree soever how to govern their passions and to live vertuously and soberly in the world The Spiritual Chymist or six Decads of Divine Meditations on several Subjects with a short account of the Authors Life By William Spurstow D. D. Sometime Minister of the Gospel at Hackney near London Small Twelves The Understanding Christans Duty A Help to prayer A new method of preserving and restoring health by the vertue of Coral and Steel Davids sling
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
from the Liver to the veins about the womb but those veins and vessels being very narrow and not yet open if the blood be stopt in that it cannot break forth it will corrupt and runs back again by the passages of the hollow vein and great Artery to the Liver the heart and the Midriff and stops the whole body which may be easily known for their faces will look green and pale and wan they have trembling of the heart pains of the head short breathing the arteries in the back the neck and the Temples will beat very thick and though not alwayes yet sometimes they will fall into a Feaver by reason of these corrupt humours but it is alwayes almost attended with disgust and loathing of good nutriment and longing after hurtful things The whole Body especially the Belly legs and thighs swelling with abundance of naughty humours the Hypocondriacal parts are extended by reason of the menstrual blood runing back to the greater vessels and they are much given to vomit but all these signs are not found in all persons alike but they are common to most and in some you shall find all these meet The cause is the Terms stopt and from thence ill humours abound for when the natural channel is stopt the blood must needs return to the great vessels whence it came and choak them up and so spoil the making of blood nothing but raw and corrupt humors are bred which can never turn to good nutriment or be ever perfectly joyned to the parts of the body the blood is flegmatick slimy stuff and sometimes it is bred from corrupt meats and drink that maids will long after as well as Childing women they will be alwayes eating Oatmeal scrapings of the wall earth or ashes or chalk and will drink Vinegar they are strangly affected with an inordinate desire to eat what is not fit for food whereupon their natural heat is choaked and their blood turns to water their body grows loose and spongy and they grow lazy and idle and will hardly stir their pulse beats little and faint as the vapours fly to several parts so they are ill affected by them the heart faints the head is dried and pained and the animal actions are hurt when melancholy is mixed with the humours in too great proportion Sometimes this white Feaver turns to a Dropsie or the liver grows hard like a stone that it can make no blood some fall dead suddenly when the heart is choaked by ill vapours and humours flying to it if the stomach be affected the danger is the greater but if onely the womb be out of frame the remedy is much more easy The best time of the year to cure Maids and those that are sick of the green sickness is the spring and the way of cure is to heat the cold humours and make the thick gross blood thin and this cannot be all performed by one work to draw away and to correct the whole mass of humours at once wherefore you must purge gently and often mingling things that heat and attenuate as well as purgatives to carry the ill humours forth But first it will be good to give a Glister and next to open a Vein in the foot or ancle Moreover your physick must vary according to the parts of the body that are most stopt and where the humors float If they lye above the stomach and mesentery then vomit if you find the Person fitted for vomit likewise the Spleen or liver or womb must be respected in their several kinds with Physick accordingly and to save you the labour of much reading and me of writing too often of the same thing under several heads you may find what is to be done almost in all respects where I write of the stopping of the Terms and by this rule I wish the Reader to apply the rest when he stands in need which he can never well do as I said till he have some judgement in it and then it will become familiar to him But in this Disease principally for the cure respect the Liver the Spleen and the Mesentery or Midriff for these are certainly obstructed and must be opened and above all be sure to keep a sparing diet and of a thin substance Secondly Let blood in the arm first though the courses be stopt and after that in the foot If the disease be of long standing you shall do well to give a gentle Purge First of all to purge the humours as Take powdered Rhubarb two drams Chicory and Anniseed-water three ounces apiece Infuse the Rhubarb all night then let them boyl one walm onely and then strain it forth and in the strained liquor dissolve sirrup of Damask Roses one ounce and a half Diacassia half an ounce cinnamon-Cinnamon-water half an ounce five grains of Diagridium let her drink it in the morning Next after this use opening decoction of Succory and Madder and Liquorish roots of each half an handful Anniseeds and Fennel seeds two drams a piece a handful of Harts-tongue Leaves Borrage Flowers and pale Roses of each half a handful one ounce of the roots of Sassafras stoned Rasins one ounce and a half and half a dram of Cinnamon Boyl all these in Fountain water to a third part onely wasted and then sweeten it with sirrup of Lemmons she may drink it when she pleaseth An Electuary made of the rob or pulp of Elder-berries boyl'd to a just substance four ounces with one ounce of bay berries dried and powdered two Nutmegs and one dram of burnt-hartshorn half a scruple of Amber and four scruples of species Diarrhoda mingled all with sirrup of Succory one ounce and half is excellent And finally it will not be from the purpose but very useful to anoint the womb and Liver with such Oyntments as will open their obstructions made with Oyl of Spike and bitter Almonds of each two ounces and juyces of Rue and Mugwort half as much and Vinegar a fourth part waste the watery part of these by boiling then add Spikenard Camels Hay Roots of Asarum of each one dram Cypress half a dram Wax sufficient to make an Unguent To provoke the Termes And that is effected with one ounce of the Five opening Roots and with Madder Elecampane Orris Roots Eryngo dried Citron Pills and Sarfa of each half an ounce Germander Mugwort Agrimony of each a handful two small handfuls of Savin an ounce of wilde Saffron seeds two ounces of Senna Agarick and Mechoachan of each half an ounce two Pugils of Stoechas Flowers of Galingal Anniseeds and Fennel of each two drams Boil all this to a Pint and half sweeten it for your Pallat and add to it a spoonful of Cinnamon water Quercetans Pills of Tartar and Gum Amoniacum are commended Take of each half a dram Spike a scruple three drops of Cinnamon Extract of wormwood half a scruple take a scruple or twenty grain weight in pills an hour before Meat Conserve of Marigold Flowers is very good Some after good
Barley Lentils Beanes Lupines of each one Ounce and two drams of Orris Roots and of Horehound Wormwood and a little Centry of each half a handful boil all in Whey strain it and put some Honey of Roses or Hydromel to it Turpentine washed and with Liquorish swallowed is good Drink Sheeps milk sweetened with Sugar Fumes made with Frankincence Myrrh Mastich Storax Calamita Juniper Gum received by a Tunnel do good if there be a jealousie of the Pox add a little Cinnabar but Pessariers with Opium must not be held in above half an hour for it will hurt the Nervous part of the womb a scruple of the Pills of Bdellium taken thrice a week may be profitable Vulnerary Potions drunk and astringent powders cast upon the Ulcers must not be neglected Sometimes there are long Ulcers in the neck of the womb like to those that eat the skin and are seen upon some mens hands and feet in Winter sometimes they are bleeding and sometimes very dry and have hard lips much labour and sharp humours to the parts may cause them when they are new they are easier cured use a good moistening diet if sharp humours cause them purge them forth and anoint the Ulcers with Oil of Linseed and Roses mingle them in a Leaden Mortar with juice of Plantane and the Yolk of an egg when they are hard anoint them with deers Marrow Turpentine wax and oil of Lillies when they are malignant they are cured as Fistulaes are if they itch or cause pain make an unguent of Populeum and Diapompholix of either one ounce Camphire Sugar of Lead of each a scruple when there is a great itching of the womb it is somewhat like the rage of it then eat Sallets of cooling herbs Purslain and Lettice with a few Spearmints oil and vinegar or take conserve of Mints and of Water-Lilly-Flowers of each an ounce Lettice candied six drams Agnus Castus seeds one dram and a half Coral one dram Rue feeds half a dram Camphire a scruple with sirrup of Purslain make an Electuary annoint the Reins and secrets with Galen's cold ointment with a little Camphire As for the womb it is soon ulcerated because the parts are soft and easily corroded and hard to be healed and these ulcers are of many kinds hollow crooked or strait if the sharp humors be retained it makes furrows and divides the parts which growing hard with a callous cannot join again thus it degenerates into a Fistula it may be without pain with hard Lips and an ill matter may be pressed forth of it sometimes it corrodes the bladder and then the water passeth forth by the Fistula and sometimes to the Fundament and the Dung is voided by it An old Fistula is harder to cure than a new and a crooked than a streight General remedies and a good Diet may do much and so leave the rest to nature to evacuate the excrements but use a palliative cure by often Sweating and purging twice a year and by Injections and Corroboratives laying on a Plaister of Diapalma After general meanes if it be not past hopes Vulnerary Decoctions may help made with Centaury Bettony Agrimony Ladies mantle and roots of male Fern. Topicks are useful first dilating the Orifice with Gentian Roots or with a Sponge then make soft the Callous with Turpentine wax Deers Marrow and Oyl of Lillies then consume the Callous which may be effected For a new narrow Fistula use black Hellebore Egyptiac or Vigo 's powder carried to it with a Pencil or Aqua Falopii or take Rose and Plantane water of each six ounces put to it Sublimate half a scruple set it on the Embers in a Glass but if the Fistula be toward the womb beware of violent means if it be foul and a hard Callous withall a Potential Caustick may do good but a Horrion is best all these are safe in the outward part of the Neck of the womb but in the inward there is greater danger A Cancer in the womb is seldome seen nor can it be ever cured but that which is in the Neck of the womb I shall instance in which is either with an Ulcer or without an Ulcer First It comes without an Ulcer but when long Applications are used to them hard schirrhus Tumours which spring from burnt black humours and Terms that flow to those parts chang to an Ulcerated Cancer Secondly It may be in the part not Ulcerated a long time and not be known because it is without pain but at length there will be a pain felt in the Loins and bottom of the belly the swelling looks blew and loathsome when it becomes Ulcerated it is worse and a thin black stinking matter comes from it If much blood flow from it that is dangerous there will be a soft Feaver red cheeks and loathing by reason of the vapours that rise from it Mild Remedies are not felt and strong meanes make it worse it growes harder daily keep it from being Ulcerated and you may live long with it Prepare and Purge Melancholy from whence it proceeds Use no sharp biting applications at first but onely Diapompholyx or juice of night shade Plantane or Purslane Give every day three or four Grains of a Powder made of Oriental Bezoar stone Saphyrs and Emeralds of each one dram in waters of Scabius or Carduus take also juice of Nightshade six ounces burnt Lead washt and Tutty of each two drams Camphire half a dram put Cray-fish powder to them and stir them well in a leaden Mortar An Injection made with a Decoction of Cray-fish is held to be very good and make a Cataplasm and a Fomentation with milk Saffron water Lillies Mallowes Marsh-mallowes Coriander Dill and Fleabane seed Arsenick and Antimony may be good in some remote parts but are dangerous here There was a Noble woman who had a Cancer Ulcerated upon her Face and sought for help from all Countries at last a Barber cut a Chicken in the midst and often applyed that and it drew forth the Ulciome and the Lady was cured The womb is very soon corrupted by the many ill humours that flow thither and it will quickly Gangreen and the parts mortifie the natural heat being extinguished by reason of some preceding Ulcer the neck of the womb will feel an unusual heat and a Feaver runs through the body the part is discoloured and neither beats nor feels any thing prick it or cut it it stinks The Party that hath it faints and decayes wherefore strengthen the heart with cordials and the principal parts least the Spirits be infected cut off the dead flesh stop the corruption by scrarifying it if you can come at it then wash the part with a decoction of wormwood and Lupines and Egyptiac apply Epithems to the heart it is worse when it goes to the womb than when it comes outward Some have had their womb fall out and yet recovered as to life which was before endangered The Neck of the womb is onely subject
burns and hot swellings and head-ach that comes of heat by a likeness and affinity it hath to draw hot vapours to it so Linseed oil is good against burnings Scaliger affirms that Camphire increaseth Venery it may do so if it be used seldome but often used it is certain that it will destroy it There is moreover from ill tempered seed and melancholly blood in the vessels near the Heart which contaminates the Vital and Animal Spirits a melancholy distemper that especially Maids and Widows are often troubled with and they grow exceeding pensive and sad for melancholy black blood abounding in the Vessels of the Matrix runs sometimes back by the great arteries to the heart and infects all the spirits when this blood lieth still they are well but if it be stirred or urged then presently they fall into this distemper they know not why and the arteries of the spleen and back beat strongly and melancholly vapours fly up They are sorely troubled and weary of all things they can take no rest their pain lieth most on their left side and sometimes on the left breast in time they will grow mad and their former great silence turns to prating exceedingly crying out that they see fearful spirits and dead men when it is gone so far it is hard to cure it is vain then to try to make them merry they despair and wish to die and when they find an opportunity they will kill or drown or hang themselves At first when the blood is hot and fiery open a vein in the arm if they have their courses if not in the foot or ancle to bring the courses down Cooling moistening cordials and such things as revive the spirits and conquer melancholy wil do much driers are naught for melancholly is dry Confectio Alkermes is commended for those that can away with it but Confectio de Hyacintho is better use a moistening diet To breed mirth give her waters of Balm and Borage of each three ounces sirrup of the juices of Borage and Bugloss of each one ounce and a half take this at twice and use it often To purge melancholly take six drams of Senna Agarick one dram and a half Borage and violet flowers of each a small handful two drams of Citron peels infuse all six hours in good Rhenish wine strain them and put to them sirrup of Violets one ounce CHAP. II. Of the Falling Sickness WHen Women by reason of the ill affections of the womb fall into Epilepsies and Falling sickness it is worse than any other cause as the symptomes prove for the poisonous vapor is not only in the Nerves as when it is from the brain but also in the membranes veins and arteries The same foul vapour that causeth strangling of the womb produceth this for it causeth divers diseases according to the parts it takes hold on but when it lights forcibly on the Nerves then it causeth the Falling-sickness Sometimes there is a convulsion of the whole body and sometimes but of some parts as of the head or tongue hands or legs eyes or ears some cannot hear others cannot see all lose the sense of feeling some cry out but know not wherefore They that fall if the vapour be not too strong when they rise they go to their work again as if they had no harm but here is not only convulsions as in those that have the Falling-sickness from other parts but stopping the breath as in the strangling of the womb but these seldome some at the mouth as those do for the brain is entire or not much offended nor is their hearing taken away quite by the vapour fastening upon the roots of the Nerves of the ears Rue and Castor that cure fits of the Mother are good here the cure is almost the same only you must add some things that respect the nerves and the Brain Use these Pills twice in a week before supper one hour and take a scruple or half a dram Take Senna and Peony root of each half an ounce Mugwort Rue Betony Yarrow half a handful of each boil them then clarifie the decoction put to it Aloes one ounce and a half of juice of the herb Mercury one ounce let it stand and settle pour off the clear liquor then add two drams of Rhubarb sprinkled with water of Cinnamon Agarick half an ounce Mastick and Epileptick powder of each half a dram make the pills with sirrup of Mugwort To mend the distemper of the head and Womb take conserve of Rosemary flowers and of the Tile tree of Balm and Lillies of the valley of the root Scorzonera Candied of each one ounce Diamoschu dulce one dram with two drams of the roots of Peony and seeds of Agnus Castus and sirrup of Stoechas make an Electuary to take at your pleasure Nor are these all the ill consequences of the wombs distempers but sometimes violent head-ach springs from it which is the greatest pain of all the rest and sometimes it is all over the head or but upon one side or in the eyes the ill vapours rising by the veins and arteries of the Womb to the membranes and films of the brain when the vessels are full of a thin sharp blood that is carried from the womb to the membranes it stretcheth and rends them and corrodes and bites so that the pain is intollerable the cure is to purge away the peccant humour that lieth in the Womb for this is not as other head-ach is that comes from other causes the pain runs also to the Loins and the Membranes there by some capillary veins from the womb The pain of the head by affection with the womb is in all the head commonly but is chiefly iâ— the hinder part of the head because the womb being Nervous consents with the membranes of the brain by the membrane of the Marrow of the back hence it is that women are more subject to the head-ach than men are because of the womb that holds such affinity with the Nerves of the head The violent beating of the heart and Arteries both in the Sides and Back is by consent from the womb when evil humors therein contained pass by the Arteries and Poysonous vapours arise to those parts Cordials are good as Cinnamon Water and Aqua Monefardi or Mathiolas his water the Disease seems small but it is not safe because the cause of it is very ill In this Disease the Artery that beats in the Back beats strongly because it is part of the great Artery but the Arteries that beat in the Hypochondrion beat not so strongly for they are smaller branches from the Spleen and Mesentery but the cause is the same The Arteries are inflamed by the ill vapours and humours sent from the womb and the heart is exceedingly heated by them but this hot humor sometimes beats by reason of the great Artery quite over the whole body but it lasts not long for there is little corruption of the humors Some say the blood
two ounces and â—ake three drams of clear Chimney Soot make a powder keep it close stopt in a glass to use â—fter one year and not before For the cure of any other Ulcers or Fistulaes of the breasts first try to dry up the milk and when the breasts hang down bind them up that the humours fall not down to them cleanse them with a decoction of Rhapontick Agrimony and Zedoary to heal take six quarts of strong wine and boil in it Rhus Obsoniox Cypress Nuts of each four ounces and two ounces of Green Galls to the thickness of Honey If the Fistula be Callous and hard about the edges open the Orifice with a Gentian root and take the redness away then cleanse and heal as ordinary Ulcers Sometimes stones hair or worms are bred in the breasts from corrupt blood or milk and so they may breed in the back or Navel Sometimes the Veins and Arteries of the breasts are so streight that they can contain no blood to make milk it is either gross humors that stop them as they do the Vessels of the womb or they are made so by the wombs vessels being stopt or from hard humors bred there Sometimes the Nipple hath no hold for the child to draw forth the milk by and it was so made at first or else it is from a wound or ulcer that leaves a scar that stops it The breasts then must needs pine away but if the milk cannot be suck'd forth the breasts are swoln the reason is that the Paps or veins for the milk are not as they should be When gross humours only obstruct that may be cured but a Nipple naturally without a hole or the hole stopt by a Schirrhus or Scar after an ulcer is cured cannot be healed often rubbing of the breasts will open the veins for milk but the Nipples for the child to suck by are oftentimes deficient or lie tied either one or both that women can hardly give suck if an ulcer have eaten away the Nipple or it was not made at her birth it will never be otherwise if the hole be never so small so there be a hole often sucking will make it larger especially by a sucking instrument Clefts and Chaps of the breasts are troublesome and usual to Nurses and in time those Chaps grow to foul Ulcers and hinder giving of suck You may prevent this mischief if in the two last months they go with child you lay two cups of wax made up with a little Rozin to cover the Nipples To cure the Nipples take oil of Myrtles of wax ointment of Lead and Tutty or take Tutty prepared one scruple and half a dram of Allum Camphire six grains with ointment of Roses and Capons grease make it up or take Pomatum one ounce and a half Mastick a scruple Powder of red roses and Gum Traganth of each half a scruple before the child sucks wash the breasts with Rose water and White-wine and that it may suck without pain cover the sore pap with a silver Nipple covered with the pap of a Cow new killed You may take what quantity you please of Mutton Suet or Lambs Suet and wash it in Rose water when it is melted and clarified and annoint the paps with it CHAP. IV. Directions for Nurses BUt there is one consideration more for the Nurse before I leave this and that is that she may not want good milk in her breasts for if she do the child will suffer more than the Nurse because he draws it from her to feed him Those that are fretful lean or sickly have bad Livers and Stomachs and ill digestion that they can have neither much nor yet good milk and bad diet hinders much Such as want milk should drink milk wherein Fennel Seed hath been soked and feed on good nourishment and drink good drink Barley Water and Almond milk are good for hot cholerick people let her eat Lettice Borrage Spuriache and Lamb sodden and eaten with Vervine Calves or Goats milk nourish and breed milk in the breasts the eating of Anniseeds Cummin seeds Carraway seeds or their decoction drank will help well all things that increase seed ripen milk when you go to bed drink two drams and a half of bruised Anniseeds in the decoction of Coleworts Use this Plaister take Deers suet half an ounce Parsley herb and root the like quantity barley meal one ounce and a half red Storax three drams boil the roots and herbs well and beat them to Pap and incorporate all with three ounces of oyl of sweet Almonds and lay them to the breasts and nipple There are many things hinder milk either little blood to breed it or the faculty of the breasts is deficient and cannot do it or the Organs are not right as they should be also much watching fasting labour sweating and great evacuations by stool or Urine strong passions or great pains sorrows cares or strong Feavers and other discussers may destroy or hinder milk in the breasts so may also the childs great weakness who cannot draw it thither it is easily known by any of these causes when the breasts swell not but flag and lie wrinkled you know there is no great store of milk in them if the fault be in the Liver that it breeds not good blood you must rectify the Liver yet she may be in good health sufficient as to other things but then the infant will be ruined by it and it is for that end that nature provides milk that the child may be fed The usual way for rich people is to put forth their children to nurse but that is a remedy that needs a remedy if it might be had because it changeth the natural disposition of the child and oftentimes exposeth the infant to many hazards if great care be not taken in the choice of the nurse There are not many Women that want milk to suckle their own children so there are some that may well be excused because of their weakness that they cannot give suck to their own children but multitudes pretend weakness when they have no cause for it because they have not so much love for their own as Dumb creatures have Nature indeed hath provided some helps where milk is wanting for the child but those are not many to shew women that nature commonly doth her part with most mothers to furnish them with milk without farther means than by good wholesome meats and drinks but there are abundance of things that will hinder milk or destroy it For all things that are cold or else hot and dry are enemies to womens milk but none will breed it but such things as are hot and moist or not very dry and of such things there are no great plenty Also they must be of easie digestion and that will breed good blood that the milk that is bred may have no strong qualities with it to offend the infant You may lay a plaister of Mustard all over the breasts and
Plaister The watry rupture is cured with oil of Elder of Bays and of Rue or else make a Cataplasme of Bean flower Fenugreek Linseed Cummin seed Cammomile flowers and the oils aforesaid XI Sometimes children are weak that they are long before they can go wherefore it is good to strengthen their legs and thighs that they may be able to go betimes and that may be done thus take the juice of Marjoram of Sage and of Danewort an equal quantity of each fill a glass viol with these juices and with Past lute it round and when you set in houshold bread in the oven then set in your glass when you draw it forth break the glass and save the ointment you shall find in it melt this with some Neats-foot oil and rub the Childs Legs and Thighs with it on the hinder parts XII Children have many diseases that chiefly happen about the head outwardly as many ulcerous risings and pushes which come chiefly from the Nurses ill milk wherefore purge the nurse and give the child some sirrup of Borrage or of Fumitory bath the Scabs with softening decoctions then dry them with Allum Camphoratum If these milky Scabs called Achores and Favi be not well cured they turn to a Scald or scabby stinking Ulcer called Tinea a moth because like a moth it will fret as they eat Garments The milk scab comes at the first sucking and after that the Achores which are scabs that are not white and are only upon the head but the white scabs run over all the face and the body Those Ulcers in the head especially still run with matter they are of several colours as white red yellow black but they all come from excrementitious watery salt thick and thin humours that itch and make them to scratch they were gathered in the womb and bad milk increaseth them in time they cure themselves if the cause be not too bad but if the matter be too fierce it will pierce the Scull when it runs it doth children good if it stink it may cause the Falling sickness Carduus and Scabius water and good cordials will drive them out coolers and binders are naught for they strike them in The nurse must keep a good diet and prepare her self with Bugloss Borrage Fumitory Succory Hops Polypody and Dock roots then purge with Senna Epithymum and Rhubarb forbear salt spiced and sharp meats Conserve of Succory roots and Citrons candied of each half an ounce of Borrage Bugloss Violets Fumitory and Succory of each one ounce Harts-horn Diarrhodon Diamargariton frigid of each a scruple make an Electuary with sirrup of Gilliflowers let the nurse take daily two drams Purge the child with Manna wash the Head with a decoction of Mallowes Barley Wormwood Celandine Marshmallow roots boiled in barley water and boys piss make an ointment to use after it with oyl of bitter Almonds oyl of Roses and some Litharge or wash the head with Soap if you fear it may turn to a Scald head or eat into the skull and then with the former decoction or take Ceruss Litharge of each two drams of Agarick and Pomegranate flowers of each one dram oyl of Roses and Vinegar make an oyntment If it come to be a Scald head it is a dry Ulcer in the head onely called Tinea but Achores are moist Ulcers in the head and body sometimes A Scald head is infectious it proceeds from a salt sharp melancholick humor from the Mothers blood or from corrupt Milk These Scabs are like bran sometimes or Scurf with Scales sometimes slimy and when the Scab comes off you shall see red quick knobs of flesh like the in-side of a fig some of them are malignant they run but little but that which comes forth stinks much An old black or ash-coloured scab is hard to cure the other is not so when it is new and yellow matter comes from it The hair will scarce ever come again when it is cured the skin is so exceeding hard rub the skin and if it will not seem red there is no hopes of hair The salt humours make the skin thick and dry wherefore it will be good to moisten with laying on a Beet or a Colewort leaf spread with Hogs grease and remove the scab with such things as cleanse and are some what sharp When the child comes to age and is able to bear it purge with Senna Rhubarb and Agarick then take Brimstone two drams Mustard half a dram Briony roots and Staves-acre of each one dram Vinegar one ounce Turpentine and Bears grease of each half an ounce this ointment will make the scab fall or if you beat Hogs-grease and Water-cresses together and lay it on the scab it will fall off in four and twenty hours when the scab is fallen use a pitcht Cap to pull out the hair by the roots then use softeners to correct the dry distemper Apply things that will consume the excrements that lie deep in the skin as take one ounce of each of these following roots of Docks Lillies and Marshmallows of Mallows Fumitory Sage of each two handfuls and boil all in vinegar and Ly and wash the head daily with it Then make a Cerot of Tar and Wax or take salt-Peter one ounce Oxymel one ounce and a half or mingle with Hogs grease live Brimstone one ounce with Hellebore and Staves-acre of each two drams but beware of poisons such as are Arsenick or Pigment or Mercury for they are dangerous to corrode the part that lieth so near the brain XIII Sometimes childrens heads swell with water and are very big the water is either without the skul or within the skul for this water lieth either between the skin and the pericranium or between the bone and the pericranium or between the bone and the membranes called the Dura and Pia Mater Sometimes abundance of vapours get between the bones and skin of the head make the head so great that they kill the child If it be water the child will be giddy and have Epileptick fits nor can it rest If it be only wind between the skin and the pericranium a decoction of Sage Betony Calamint and Origanum of each one handful of Anniseeds and Fennel seeds of each two drams with a handful of Cammomile flowers and of Melilot and red roses the like quantity boiled in water with some wine will cure it The watry humour is hardly cured A humour from water within the brain is smaller and harder than when it is out of the skull but it is more hard to cure and almost incurable A humour of wind is seldome without water that breeds it apply discussers that make the humours thin to the head the nose and the ears as Cammomile Rue and Origanum Take thirty snails in their shells of Mugwort and Marjoram of each one handful stamp them then put to them Saffron half a dram and a scruple of Camphire and make a poultiss with oil of Cammomile Also take Nutmegs Cubebs
finger into his mouth and holding the nipple faster than they were wont when the tooth is coming forth the Gum is whiter than in other parts the watching breeds cholerick humours and inflames the body and brings a Feaver If the teeth be long before they can come forth children commonly will die of Feavers and Convulsion fits they that scowr have seldome any Convulsion When the gums are thick the teeth can scarce get forth wherefore soften the Gum with rubbing it with Honey and Fresh Butter or let the child chew a candle of Virgins Wax Let the Nurse keep a moderate Diet inclining to cold as Barley Broths Water-Gruel Lettice Endive Rear-eggs take heed of salt spiced meats and wine but anoint the childs Gum with a Mucilage of Quinces made with Mallows water or with the brains of an Hare XXII If the Gums be ulcerated let the Nurse rub the childs gums and Wheals and Pushes with her finger and anoint them with Hens grease Hares brains oil of Cammomile and Mel Rosarum or sirrup of violets with Plantane water and if the inflammation be great boil Pomegranate flowers Roses and Sanders of each two drams Allum half a dram in water strain out three ounces and dissolve in it the sirrup of Mulberries half an ounce If the Pushes and Wheals be white take Pomegranate flowers Amber Cypress nuts of each two drams Roses and Myrtle flowers of each half a handful boil them in water add to the decoction one ounce and a half of honey of Roses .. Sometimes there riseth between the Gums and the great teeth a little fleshy substance to consume that wash it with a deccoction of the roots of Plantain Bugloss Agrimony of each a handful Barley a small handful and red Roses a handful four Dates Flowers of Pomegranates two drams Liquorish one dram and a half XXIII Children are very much molested with destillations Coughs and Catarrhs if the humour be sharp and hot that falls from the brain the child will look red in the face if it be a cold humour much matter will run forth at the nose and mouth then keep the child resonably warm and give it Sugar candy with oil of sweet Almonds wash the childs feet with Ale boiled with Betony Marjoram Rosemary then anoint the soles of the feet with Goose grease rub the breast with fresh butter and oil of sweet Almonds and lay on warm linnen cloths for slimy humours give it a spoonful of sirrup of Maiden-hair or of Liquorish and Hyssop mingled Take also Gum Traganth Arabick Quince seeds juice of Liquorish and Sugar Pelets mingle them and in new milk let the child take of it every day Where the cause is cold that makes the Cough beat a little Myrrh to powder and give it the child with oil of sweet Almonds and a little honey when it comes from heat make a decoction of Raisins in water and with white poppey seed and Gum Dragant each two drams seeds of Gourds four drams beat all together and give the child a four penny weight in the foresaid decoction XXIV If the breath be short let it take an Electuary of Honey and Linseed and anoint the ears and parts about them with Olive oil XXV If the childs nose be stopt put a little Ointment of Roses and good Pomatum into the Nostrils to soften the hard matter Wash the inflamed or Gummy eyes that will not open with breast milk or Plantain and Rose Water Childrens moist brains breed moist humours that run to their ears make them clean with a rag and drop in Honey of Roses mingled with oil of bitter Almonds XXVI If the child new born be in great pain then rub it with Pellitory of the wall and fresh Butter or with Spinach and Hogs-grease and lay it to the Navel take care it be not too hot or make a cake of oils of eggs and of Nuts for the Navel give it a Glister if it need with Milk Sugar and the yolk of an Egg. XXVII Children are subject to all sorts of Feavers but chiefly to Feavers from corrupt milk and Feavers with breeding of teeth They have epidemical Feavers sometimes that cast forth the Meazles or small Pox the mothers menstrual blood is the original cause but the corrupt air stirs it up for as the air is pure or impure so these diseases are more raging or less It is oftentimes infectious and the humours so corrupt that worms breed under the scabs and corrode the bones and inward parts as hath been proved by opening some that died If it be a Feaverish time that it spreads much give good Antidotes and change the air but all children almost will have them first or last Before there is a Feaver you may fortifie nature and give a a gentle purge but for my part I approve not of purging or bleeding in these distempers unless it be long before So soon as you see the feaver drive them out by Cordials and prefer the eyes and throat and prevent deformity The first signs of this disease for they are both from one cause are pains of the head redness in the eyes a dry Cough with a feaver then little pimples break forth all the body over but chiefly they aim at the throat and face The small Pox is dangerous to all but most to those that are of an ill habit of body and if they come forth in heaps and not orderly or if they look blew black or ill coloured they are exceeding dangerous If the child suck the nurse must use a moderate diet she may eat Hen broth with herbs of Succory Borrage Bugloss and Endive boiled in it Let her drink this drink following to make them come easily and quickly forth take peeled Lentils half an ounce fat figs two ounces Gum Lac two drams Gum Traganth and Fennel seed of each two drams and a half boil this in fountain water strain it and sweeten two pints of it with Sugar and sirrup of Maiden-hair let her drink half a pint fasting If the child be weaned give it a Julep of cordial waters two ounces and a half sirrup of Lemmons one ounce use this often and four or five hours after give it some Unicorns horn and Oriental Bezoar in powder To preserve the eyes anoint the Eye-lids with Plantane and Rose water and a little Saffron To preserve the nose take Rose water and Betony of each one ounce Vinegar half an ounce and as much powder of peels of Citrons add to it Saffron six grains let the child smell to it often dip some cotton in it and stop the ears to keep the Small Pox from thence You may preserve the mouth the tongue and the throat with a handful of barley and leaves of Plantain Sorrel Agrimony and of Vervain of each a handful all boiled in water to six ounces dissolve in it sirrup of Pomegranates and of Roses of each half an ounce Saffron half a scruple make a Gargarisme sirrup of Juniper of Violets and of water-Lillies
for the water pipe but they are joined about the middle of the share-bone and there they lose near a third part of their sinewy substance The use of these two sinewy bodies that make the yard is for the vital spirits to run through the thin parts of them and fill the Yard with spirits and they are so thick and compact and strong on the outside that they hinder these spirits from breaking suddenly away for should they flee out the Yard will stand no longer but presently fall down In the inside of the substance of the Yard which is wrapt about by the outward sinewy substance there is seen a thin and tender artery coming from the root of the Yard and runs quite through the whole loose substance of it Besides these there is a Conduit pipe placed at the lower part of the Yard that serves both for Seed and Urine to be put forth by as common to them both and it runs through the middle of the foresaid two sinewy bodies and is of the same substance with them and is loose and thick soft and tender and runs equally in all respects from the neck of the bladder to the top of the Yard only it is something larger where it begins than where it ends at the top of the Nut. This pipe at first as I said hath three holes where it riseth from the neck of the bladder that in the middle is wider than the other two pipes or holes are which stand on both sides of it and which are derived from the passage that comes from the Seed Vessels and they carry the Seed into this great pipe In this great pipe where it is fastened to the Nut of the Yard and with the two sinewy bodies there is a little hollow place wherein when a man is troubled with the running of the Reins by reason of the Pox some corrupt Seed or sharp matter lyeth which occasions great pains and Ulcers and sometimes the Chirurgeon is forced to cut off the top of the Yard and sometimes from these Ulcers there will grow a piece of flesh in the Yards passage for Urine which hinders the Urine that it cannot come forth till that piece of flesh be taken away by conveighing something into that Urinary passage that may eat it off There is one thing more worth taking notice of by Chirurgions concerning this pipe or Urinary passage that from the place where it begins and goes forward from the neck of the bladder to the spermatick Vessels and forestanders that there is a thin and very tender skin which is of a most acute feeling and to stir up delight in the act of Venery and it will make the Yard stand upon any delightsome thoughts or desires If the Chirurgions be not careful when they thrust the springs in near that place they will soon break this skin and undoe their Patient This common pipe comes from the neck of the bladder that is it begins there but it doth not take its being from it for boyl the bladder of any creature and it will part from it whereby it is plain that it is only join'd to it and so runs on to the Nut of the Yard CHAP. VIII The Nut of the Yard THe Nut is a piece of soft thin brawny flesh that it may do no hurt to the Womb when it enters it is full of spirits and blood very quick and tender of feeling yet will endure to be touched the skin of it is very pure thin skin and if it be broken or rub'd off it will soon grow again but if the body of it be hurt in the fleshy part or once lost it will never grow again it is a little sharp at the end and made like to a top that it may enter the better it is fastened as I told you to the foreskin or the lower part with a ligament or bridle which is sometimes so streight tied and is so strong that it will pull the head of the Yard backwards when it stands but it is usually broken or gives way the first time that a man lyeth with a woman for the combate is then doubtless so furious that a man feels no pain of it by reason of the abundance of pleasure that takes it off otherwise doubtless the part is so quick of feeling that no man were able to endure it CHAP. IX The Muscles of the Yard A Muscle is an Instrument for voluntary motion for without that no part were in a capacity to move it self There is a little Book lately set forth and is well worth the reading concerning the reason of the motion of the Muscles Of these Muscles the Yard hath four two on each side to give motion to it These Muscles are a fibrous flesh to make up their body they have sinews for feeling veins for nourishment Arteries for vital blood a skin to cover them and to part one Muscle from another and all of them from the flesh you may if you please easily discern them in a leg of a Rabbit Of each side of the Yard one of these Muscles is shorter and thicker than the others are and they serve to raise the Yard and to make it stand and are therefore called raisers or erecters the other two are longer and smaller and they open the lower part of the Urinary pipe both when men make water and when they cast forth the Seed and are therefore called hasteners because they dispatch and hasten the work one pair of these Muscles comes from a part of the hip near the beginning of the Yard besides that they raise the Yard to make it stand they also bend the fore part of the Yard to be thrust into the womb so that all things are so exactly fitted by nature that a blind man cannot miss it The two longer Muscles come from the sphincter of the Fundament and are of a more fleshy substance and are full as long as the Yard under which they go downward ending at the side of the water pipe about the middle of the Yard were it not for these large Muscles to open the conduit pipe the passage would be stopt by repletion of nervy bodies both when men should make water or cast out the Seed They also hold the Yard firm that it lean not to either side and serve farther to press forth the Seed out of the forestanders all helping to the sudden and forceable casting it out in time of Copulation lest the spirits fly away and the Seed prove unfruitful There are all manner of Vessels in the Yard as Veins Nerves Arteries yet Columbus tells us that Vesalius a great Anatomist maintains that there is neither Vein nor Nerve in it which is very false for there are some Veins and Arteries to be seen in the outward skin of the Yard others are within and there the Arteries are far more than the Veins and are dispersed through the whole body of the Yard The right Artery runs to the left side of it and the left
flesh And next in order there is a more curious draught wherein the three chief parts the Brain the Heart and the Liver may be seen together with the first three and as it were the warp of all the seed parts and this is called Embrion But fourthly To perfect the whole work all the parts are set in order and perfected so that Nature hath nothing to do but to hasten to delivery that this work of hers may be brought forth into the world When the spirit in the seed begins to work it parts the more noble from the base and the pure from the impure so that the thick cold clammy parts are kept out to cover the more thin and pure parts and to defend and preserve them Nature begins her conformation with the cold clammy parts of the seed and makes skins and membranes of them to cover the rest and stretcheth them out as need requires Men have only two membranes the outward or Chorion which is strong and nervous and wraps the infant round and this membrane is like a soft pillow for the Veins and Navel-arteries of the Child to lean upon for it had been dangerous for the Childs Vessels coming from its Navel to pass far unguarded but the inward Coat which is wonderful soft and thin called the Amnios or Lamb-skin is loose on each side except it be at the cake where it growes so fast to the skin that it cannot easily be parted this skin receives the sweat and Urine and from thence the Child is much helped for it swims in these waters like as in a bath and time is for delivery it moistneth the orifice of the Matrix makes it glib and slippery whereby the woman is more easily and more speedily delivered These two Coats grow so close together that they seem to be but one garment and it is called the Secundine or after-burthen because it comes forth after the Child is born for the Child first breaks through it sometimes brings along with it a piece of the said Lamb-skin upon the face and head which is called by Midwives the Caule and strange reports they give of it Some think it ridiculous and fabulous but as all extraordinary things signifie something more than is usual so I am subject to believe that this Caule doth foreshew something notable which is like to befall them in the course of their lives But notwithstanding all that hath been said some Anatomists do a little vary from it for they maintain that within the first seven days wherein the generative seed is mingled and curdled in the Mothers womb by the heats motion many small fibres are bred in which shortly the Liver and his principal Organs are formed first and through these Organs the vital spirits coming to the seed in ten days makes all the distinction of parts and through some small Veins in the Secundine the blood runs and of that is the Navel made and there appears at the same time three clods of seed or white lumps like curdled Milk these are the foundation of three principal parts viz. the Brain the Liver and the Heart But the Liver is confest to be first made of a blood gathered by one branch of this Vein for the Liver it self is nothing else but a lump of clotted blood full of Veins which serve to attract and to expell but immediately before the Liver is made there is a two-forked Vein formed through the navel to suck away the grosser part of the blood that rests in the seed In the other branch of this vein more veins are made for the spleen and lower belly and all of them coming to one root meet in the upper part of the Liver in the hollow Vein from hence other Veins are sent out of the Midriff to the thighs below to the upper part of the back-bone next this the heart is made with its veins for these veins draw the hottest part of the blood that which is most subtil so make the heart within the membrane called the Pericardium or skin that covers the heart the hollow Vein runs through the inward part of the right side of the heart carrying blood to it to feed it from the same branch of this vein and the same part of the heart is there another vein that beats but faintly therefore called the still Vein amongst the pulsative Veins and this is provided to send the more pure blood by from the heart to the Lungs they are covered with a double Coat as the Arteries are The Artery called Aorta that conveighs the vital spirits through the whole body from the heart by the beating Veins or arteries is bred in the hollow of the left Vein of the heart and under this artery in the same hollow place of the heart is another Vein bred which is called the vein-artery that brings the cold air from the Lungs to cool the heart for the Lungs are made by many Veins that run from the hollow of the heart and come thither to frame the Lungs and they have their substance from a very thin subtil blood that is brought thither from the right hollow of the heart The breast is first framed by the great Veins of the Liver and after that the outmost parts the legs and arms But last of all the Brain is made in the third little skin I speak of for the seed being full of vital spirits the vital spirits draw much of the natural moisture into one hollow place where the brain is made and covered with a Coat which heat drieth and bakes into a skull The Veins come all from the Liver Arteries from the Heart Nerves from the brain of a soft gentle nature yet not hollow as Veins are but solid the Brain retains and changes the vital spirits from hence are the beginnings of sense and reason After the Nerves the pith of the back-bone is bred which cannot be called Marrow for Marrow is a superfluous substance made of blood to moisten and strengthen the bones but the pith of the back and brain are made of seed not to serve other parts but to be also parts of themselves for sense and motion that all the Nerves might grow originally from thence also Bones Gristles Coats and Membranes are bred from the seed Veins for the Liver Arteries for the Heart Nerves for the Brain besides all other pannicles and coverings the child is wrapped in But all fleshy substance as the Heart it self Liver and Lungs are made of the proper blood of the birth this is all ended in eighteen days of the first month and all that time it carrieth the name of seed and afterwards is called the birth and this birth so long as it is in the womb is fed with blood received through the Navel and therefore when women are with child the courses cease for after conception this blood is severed into three parts the best and finest serves for the childs nourishment the next in pureness though
slice the roots boil all in Rain water take out the mucilage and mix it with the foresaid Oyles then let the pounded Gum traganth and hens grease boil so long till the mucilage come to a Salve Use this annoynting every day for five or six weeks before she lye in But before I come to her time of delivery I shall speak a word of one frequent cause of womens miscarriage and that is their longings and sometimes of their unnatural and unreasonable desires after they have conceived with Child You must know that to exceed in the things not natural as Philosopers call eating and drinking fullness emptiness sleep and watchings exercise and rest and too great intention of the mind may hasten the birth and cause abortion Those women that use moderation in the foresaid things are not so often longing for what they can not easily attain to Nay sometimes you have Ladies at Court and Citizens Wives and Country women too will long to eat sand and dirt but their Children seldome live long that are begun thus That some women with child will desire to steal things from others this is no small argument that the Child she goes withal will be a Thief wherefore she must take care to give it good education and to bring it up in the fear of God When nature is thus perverted in what she desires she is forced to leave the conception because she cannot attain what she looks for This may be prevented by a decoction of vine leaves frequently taken it may be provided by preparing a decoction strong of it at time of the year and to boil that into a sirrup to use when need requires for it is said to be very proper for this distemper though I cannot call it a disease There is another cause not far unlike in the effects to womens longings and that is suddain fears for many a woman brings forth a Child with a hare lip being suddenly frighted when she conceived by the starting of a Hare or by longing after a piece of a Hare Miraldus thought so and many women cannot deny it to be true but he was a notable conceited old Philosopher and he bethought himself how he might find but a remedy to do poor women good and it is this which is easily proved let a woman slit her smock like her husbands shirt and that he saith upon his knowledge will do it BOOK IV. CHAP. I. Rules for Women that are come to their Labour ALl Women Midwives especially should be well seen against this time of necessity and all things provided that may cause them to be easily delivered and Childbed linnen at hand having first invoked the Divine assistance by whom we live and move and have our being When the Patient feels her Throws coming she should walk easily in her Chamber and then again lye down keep her self warm rest her self and then stir again till she feels the waters coming down and the womb to open let her not lye long a bed yet she may lye sometimes and sleep to strengthen her and to abate pain the Child will be the stronger Sometimes the Child is dead in the womb before and you may know it to be dead when the Breasts suddenly hang down slack Nature makes no Milk or provision for them for there is no reason she should Secondly she is cold all the belly over chiefly the Navel Thirdly Her water is thick and hath a stinking substance that falls to the bottom Fourthly The Child moves not though you wet your hand in warm water and rub it over her belly which is a true trial and it will stir if it be alive Fifthly She dreams of dead people and is frightned with it Sixthly Her breath smels filthily Seventhly She longs to eat strange things unfit for to eat Eightly She looks ill favouredly and sorrowfully Ninethly The Child falls to the side she lyeth on like a lump of lead But Garden Tansey or the Eagle stone will bring the Child to its right place if it be weak onely but if it be dead there is no way to help that but to hasten delivery as fast as may be for it is a misery beyond expression for a woman to go with a dead child in her womb as for two Twins to be born that grow together and one of them dead the living Child cannot long endure Virgil tells us of Mezenius a Tyrant Dead bodies to the living he did place Joyning them hand to hand and face to face Tenthty Corrupt stinking humours run from the womb chiefly if she have had some ill disease Eleventhly Her eyes look hollow and her nose strangely her lips wan and pale Twelfthly Her breath stinks if the Child have been dead two or three dayes The more of these signs appear at once the more certainty of the death of the Child Wherefore presently use medicines to expel it forth or Manual and Chirurgical operations with all care to save the Mothers life for she is in great danger of death also The signs of greater danger to her are 1. If she swoond in labor or be in a trance and memory be gone 2. If she be extream weak 3. If she will not answer when you call or very hardly 4. If she hath Convulsion fits or shrinking together in travel 5. If she loath meat 6. If her pulse beat high and quick But if none of these signes appear there is not so great danger wherefore presently hasten by medicaments to provoke the expulsive faculty to cast it forth but the physick must be stronger than for a live Child for a dead Child makes no way wanting motion but a living Child doth The vertue of the Eagle stone in such cases some commend but I fear it is but a fansie of Miraldus for I never saw it tried There must be no delay at such times especially to drive the dead Child forth before it be corrupted for then the Mother can scarcely escape Nature is sometimes strong and able to call forth a dead Birth without helps but then the danger is the more when help wants The causes that some Children dye in the womb are 1. Want of nutriment 2. Corrupt diet 3. Gluttony and surfeiting that choke the Infant 4. The Cups are sometimes broken by strokes sudden fears much sneesing coughing violent motion extream joy sorrow or trouble of mind or by medicaments that corrode or bitter drinks the infant loaths or things that provoke the courses or by acute diseases or lasty by hard labor or difficulty in bearing of Children These following Medicaments will God willing cause her to be delivered of the dead Child and her self escape death by them make her sneeze with powder of Pepper and white Hellebore snuft up into her nostrils drink a dram of Basil powdered with white wine it makes the delivery easy c. But if it fall out that these medicaments prevail not as sometimes they do not that disease is beyond the power of medicine
life and motion cease the childs must needs cease that depends upon it but it is an error for the child hath a Soul and life of its own and may live a while without the Mother but the Midwife must keep the womb open that it be not stifled till the Chirurgeon cuts it out you shall feel the Child leap when the Mother is dead Charles Stephen shews how to cut out a dead Child And Francis Ruset saith a live Child may be cut out of the womb both child Mother do well it is possible and sometimes necessary to be done and it stands by reason for women receive sometimes wounds in the Peritoneum and the Muscles of the lower belly more dangerous than the Cesarian cut and yet escape well enough A Child may be sometimes very weak yet not dead take heed you do not force delivery in such occasions till you be sure it is time for children may be sick and faint in their Mothers bellies But to prevent danger burn half a pint of white-wine adding no Spice to it but half an ounce of Cinnamon and drink it off if your Travel and throws come upon you be sure it is dead but if it be but sick and weak it will refresh it and strengthen it If the Child be dead in the womb the juyce of Garden Tansey annointed on the secrets or an oyl made in Summer with the herbs before it run to flower and boil'd in oyl till the juyce be wasted and set in the Sun a moneth before you boil it is an especial oyl for Midwives The Eagle-stone held near the privy parts will draw forth the Child as the Loadstone draws Iron but be sure so soon as the Child and after burthen are come away that you hold the stone no longer for fear of danger Any of these herbs half a dram in powder drunk in white-wine will do much viz of Bettony or Sage or Penny-Royal Fetherfew or Centory Ivy-berries and leaves or drink a strong decoction of Master-wort or of Hysop in hot water it soon will bring the dead Child forth because the afterbirth is corrupted in such cases and comes forth by pieces it is fit to drink of the same drink till all be come away or the roots of Polipody stamped and warm'd laid to the soles of her feet presently works the effect The same things almost all are proper when the Child is living and comes to be born but if her Travel be long the Midwife must refresh her with some Chickens broth of the Yolk of a potched Egg with a little bread or some wine or strong water but moderately taken and withal to cheer her up with good words stroaking down her belly above her Navel gently with her hand for that makes the Child move downwards She must bid her hold in her breath as much as she can for that will cause more force to bring out the Child Place here the Picture of all sorts of postures of Children Take notice that all women do not keep the same posture in their delivery some lye in their beds being very weak some sit in a stool or chair or rest upon the side of the bed held by other women that come to the Labor If the Woman that lyeth in be very fat fleshly or gross let her ly groveling on the place for that opens the womb and thrusts it downwards The Midwife must annoint her hands with Oyl of Lillies and the Womans Secrets or with Oyl of Almonds and so with her hands handle and unloose the parts and observe how the Child lyeth and stirreth and so help as time and occasion direct But above all take heed you force not the birth till the time be come and the Child come forward and appears ready to come forth Now the danger were much to force delivery because when the woman hath laboured sore if she rest not a while she will not be able presently to endure it her strength being spent before Also when you see the after-buthen then be sure the Birth is at hand but if the coats be so strong that they will not break to make way for the Child to come forth the Midwife must gently and prudently break and rend it with her nails if she can raise it she may cut a piece of it with a knife or pair of Sciffers but beware of the infant Then follows presently a flux of humours and the Child after that but if all the humours that should make the place slippery chance to run forth by this means before the child come the parts within and without must be annointed with Oyl of Almonds or Lillies and a whole Egg Yelk and white beaten and poured into the privy passage to to make it glib instead of the waters that are run forth too soon If the child have a great head and stick by the way the Midwife must annoint the place with Oyl as before and enlarge the part as much as may be the like must be done when Twins offer themselves if the head comes first the birth is natural but if it come any other way the Midwife must do what she can to bring it to this posture Sometimes the infant comes with the legs forwards and both arms downwards close to the sides this way the Midwife may endeavour to take it forth if it continue the same posture by annointing and gently handling the place but it is safer if she can to turn the Legs upward again by the Belly that the head may first come down by the back of the womb for that is the natural way If the child come forth with both legs and feet first and the Childs hands both lifted above the head this is the worst for danger of all the rest she must strive to turn the Child and if she cannot she must try to bring the hands down to the sides and to keep the legs close that it may come forth or else to bind the feet as they come out with some linnen Cloath and tenderly to help delivery but it will be hard to it Sometimes the Child will come forth with one foot and the other lifted upward Then let the woman in Child-bed be laid upright on her back hold up her thighs and belly that her head be lower than her body then let the Midwife with her hand gently put back the leg that is come forth into the womb again and bid the labouring woman to stir and move her self that by her stirring the birth may offer it self the head downward and if so you may then set her in a Chair as she was at first that she may have a natural delivery but if this cannot be done then the Midwife with her hand must discreetly bring forth that leg that is not yet come forth but beware she put not the Childs hands that lye close down by its sides out of their place if the side of the child come towards the passage she must turn the child
forward the child is coming but if the skin break and the waters come down that is the last and surest sign as I said when the waters precede and the child doth not follow presently in some reasonable time these things following hasten and ease delivery Featherfew or Mugwort boil'd in white wine let her drink a draught of the decoction the sirrups of either may be made in summer with their juice clarified and boyled to a sirrup with twice as much Sugar a spoonful at a time to be taken or drink a dram of the powder of Cinnamon in wine or the distill'd water of Mugwort Betony Dittander Peniroyal or Featherfew Tansie bruised and applyed or the Oyl of it as I said will do it but the Eagle stone held to the secrets draws out both Child and Secundine hold it to no longer for it will draw forth Womb and all Miraldus tells of many more pretty ways But for more assurance take this powder made of Dittany of Crele Penni-royal Roundbirthwort of each ten grains Cinnamon and Saffron of each twelve grains beat them to fine powder and let her drink it in wine or some fit liquor in the decoction or distill'd waters of red Pease Penniroyal Parsly c. Outward means is good applied to the secrets take Agrimony leaves and roots but after cast it away lest it draw forth the Matrix Henbane Polypody or Bistort roots are commended for the same use But let all hot and violent remedies be avoided for many times they bring the woman into a dangerous Feaver Also too much fasting or too much eating breed peril to women in travel a woman that is with child cannot so well digest her meat as they can that are not with child Midwives therefore must ask how long it was since that the woman did eat and what and how much that vpon occasion she may give her something to strengthen her in her labour if need be as warm broth or a potched egg and if her delivery be long in doing give her an ounce of Cinnamon water to comfort her or else a dram of Confectio Alkermes at twice in two spoonfuls of Claret wine but give her but one of these three things for you may soon cast her into a feaver by too much hot administrations and that may stop her purgations and breed many mischiefs CHAP. III. What must be done after the woman is delivered IT will be profitable when a woman hath had sore travel to wrap her back with a sheep-skin newly flead off and let her ly in it and to lay a Hare-skin rub'd over with Hares blood newly prepared to her belly let these things be worn two hours in winter and but one hour in Summer for these will close up the parts too much dilated by the childs birth and will expel all ill melancholly blood from those parts This being done swathe the woman with a Napkin about nine inches broad but annoint her belly with Oyl of St. Johns wort and then raise up the womb with a linnen cloth many times folded cover her flanks with a little pillow about a quarter of a Yard long then swathe her beginning a little a-above the hanches rather higher than lower winding it even lay warm cloths to her breasts forbearing those that repulse the milk till longer time and the body be setled lest repercussives should do her hurt let then her blood be first setled ten or twelve hours and that the blood which was cast upon the lungs by violent labour may return to its own place but you may ease the pains of her breasts and comfort them laying a linnen cloth doubled and not warm'd dipt in Oil of St. Johns wort and of Roses with the yolk and white of an egg beat together of each an ounce with an ounce of Rose-water and as much of Plantan-water Let her not sleep till about four hours after she is delivered but first give her some nourishing broth or Cawdle to comfort her let her eat no flesh till two dayes at least be over for she may not use a full diet after so great loss of blood suddenly as she grows stronger she may begin with meats of easie digestion as Chickens or Pullets she may drink small wines with a little Saffron Mace and Cloves infused equal parts all tied in a piece of linnen and let them lie in the wine so close stopt she may drink a small draught of it at dinner and supper for the whole month and besides her ordinary food she may if she will take nourishing broths and Aleberries with bread butter and Sugar Let her drink her Beer or Ale with a tost she may drink a decoction of Liquorish Raisins of the Sun and a little Cinnamon if the child be a boy she must lye in thirty dayes if a girl forty daies and remember that it is the time of her purification that her husband must abstain from her CHAP. IV. When and how to cut off the Childs navel-string and what is the Consequent thereof THe Navel-string is twisted that it might be the stronger and that the blood by that delay might be better prepared had the Vein in the Navel or the Arteries or Vrachos that carrye the piss being single the different postures of the child in the womb or the difference of the womans standing sitting or lying might press a single vessel and stop the passage of the blood in the Vein spirit in the Arteries or water in the Vrachos but the twisting hath prevented that The cutting of the Navel-string helps much for it keeps the blood and spirits in after the Child is born A Midwives skill is seen much if she can perform this rightly The time to do it is so soon as ever the Child is born whether he bring a part of the Secundine out with him or not for sometimes the infant brings a piece of the Coat Amnios upon his head and that they name the caule I know no wonders this Caule will work but if you find this Caule on the childs head you shall miss it in the after-birth if it be in the after-birth it will not be on his head The reason why some Children bring it with them on their head into the world is weakness and it signifies a short life and proves seldome otherwise But if it come with it or without it so soon as it is come forth consider whether the Child be strong or weak for by the Navel-string the Mother gives both vital and natural blood to the Child wherefore if the Child be weak you must gently put back part of the vital and natural blood into the childs body by the Navel for that will refresh a weak child if the child be strong you need not do it Many children seem to be born dead that recover by this meanes as very weak children often do but you must crush out six or seven drops of blood out of the navel-string I mean that part which is cut off give
it the child by the mouth to drink But in what place this string must be cut Midwives and Physicians can scarce agree Elias lib. 4. c. 3. saith it must be cut four fingers breadth from the body but what is this Midwives fingers are not equal I suppose he means four inches for that was the opinion of the Antients Miraldus was critical in this point and from him some errors were begotten about it in late writers and Midwives Hence it is if Spigelius speak truth that Midwives cut the Females Navel-string shorter than they doe the Males for Boys privy parts must be longer than womens but it Females are cut short they say it will make them modest and their secrets narrower Spigelius and others laugh at this conceit for if Midwives by cutting their Navel-strings can make their secrets wider all women that have hard labour have good reason to complain of their Midwives for cutting their Navel-string so short Miraldus bids cut the navel-string long in both sexes for that the Instruments of Generation in both follow this proportion if womens Navel-strings be cut too short it will hinder their Childbearing Taisner an excellent Astrologer was of this mind If Nature framed the child by the Navel-string in the womb there is no small use of it afterward Miraldus saith that if a childs Navel-string be cut off and let fall to touch the ground that child shall never hold its water sleeping nor waking Also if you carry a piece of a Childs Navel-string about you you may saith Miraldus wear it for a foil in a Ring you shall never be troubled with convulsion fits nor the Falling sickness I have known all this tried but he saith farther that it will defend those that carry it from Devils and Witch-crafts and one may try this if they please If the Child be very weak when it is born put back gently the natural blood by the Navel vein and the vital by the Navel arteries and you shall see the child almost dead before to revive like one awak'd out of sleep if the child seem full of life and spirits then stop the navel-string near the Navel that no blood nor vital spirits go back and that will keep the child strong as it is having done this bind the Navel-string with a strong ligature and cut it not off too near to the string least it unloose you need not fear to bind the Navel-string very hard because it feels not and that piece of the Navel-string you leave on will fall off in a very few days for the whole course of Nature is soon changed in the Child and another way ordain'd to feed it It is no matter what you cut it off with so it be sharp to do it neatly The reason of so many nodes or knots in the childs Navel-string is that the blood and vital spirits might not come in too fast to choke the child Nature is a careful Nurse but Midwives say these knots in number signifie so many Children the reddish boys the whitish Girls and the long distance between knot and knot long time between child and child but all false for all women almost have equal knots and more knots with their last Children than with the first When the Navel-string is cut off apply a little Cotten or lint to the place to keep it warm least the cold get in and that it will do if it be not hard enough bound and if it do you cannot think of a greater mischief for the Child when part of the Navel-string left is fallen off Midwives use to burn a rag to tinder and to apply to the place a little powder of Bolearmoniack were better because it drieth Beasts can lick the Navel-string round enough to keep out the air but the curse lyeth heavier on women for our Grand-Mothers first sin than it doth upon beasts CHAP. V. What is best to bring away the Secundine or after-burden WOmen are in as great danger if not more after the young is born but Beasts are not the Caule or inward chamber of the womb the child did lye in stayeth oft-times long after the child is born which should presently follow it when it so happens if it begins especially to corrupt as it will soon do it causeth grievous pains and ofttimes death wherefore make hast to drive it forth but be sure the means you use be very gentle for the woman is now grown weak and her womb is quick of feeling but the Secundine is dead let the quick then cast forth the dead Midwives long nails may do mischief I grant delays are dangerous for if it be retain'd till it corrupt it will cause Feavers Imposthumes Convulsions and such like know this that what brings away the birth will also do good to call forth the after-birth then comfort the woman let her snuff up a little white Hellebore in powder to make her sneefe but put the woman to as little trouble as you can for she hath endured pain enough already The herb Vervain boil'd in wine or a sirrup made with the clarified juice as I told you of Tansie Featherfew and mugwort do the same but hardly so forcibly Alexanders boiled in wine and the wine drunk is excellent Sweet-Cecely Angelica roots or Master-wort doe the same so used The smoke of Mary-Gold flowers taken in by a Tunnel at the secrets will easily bring forth the Secundine though the Midwife have let go her hold Mugwort boil'd soft in water applied like a Poultess to the Navel brings birth and after-birth away but then remove it least it bring the womb after all Women suffer great pains in Child-birth because the womb that hath many Nerves and Sinews by which the body feels is strait till time of delivery and then it is stretched which causeth great pain and some women have more pain in bearing than others have because some womens passages are narrower and their wombs more full of Nerves as Anatomy will shew and some think the reason of the great soreness of some women is because the share-bone and os sacrum or holy-bone do part or give way in hard travel it was that excellent Anatomist Doctor Reads opinion and I believe it to be true for nature strives to the utmost in such times Crook and Columbus deny this but the bones are joyned with Cartilages and Ligaments which being wet with much moisture may give way though the bones open not but in all labour the Nerves that carrry feeling through the whole body are then stretcht and cause soreness till they have rest and be settled again CHAP. VI. Of the great pains and throws some Women suffer after they are delivered SOmetimes a woman delivered shall for two of three days after and now and then longer feel such bitter pains in her belly and above the Groin as if she should be delivered again these pains are not in the body and bottom of the womb but in the Vessels and Ligatures by
which the womb hangs and so it passeth to the sides and belly The causes are the cold air that is got in by her sore travel in child-birth or sharp or clotted blood sticking in the womb and pricking for expulsion these pains make the woman weak and very troublesome wherefore you must strive to abate them Some women are so hardy that to hinder this they will drink cold water so soon as they are delivered if the woman be cholerick she may do it with a crust of tosted bread otherwise it is dangerous CHAP. VII Of the Chollick some women are afflicted within the time of their travel SOme women have the Chollick at the time they should bring forth a child which hinders the delivery and the pains surpass the pain of their travel you can scarce distinguish one of these pains from the other but whilst the chollick lasts the birth comes not forward at all the causes of this disease are great crudities and indigestions of the stomach Let her take Cinnamon water one ounce with two ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds newly drawn if this do it not then give her a Glister against wind or use fomentations against wind both are good in this cases More remedies there are against wind for Child-bed Women but these may suffice CHAP. VIII Of Womens Miscarriage or Abortment with the Signs thereof THere are abundance of causes whereby women are driven to abort or miscarry and I have spoken somewhat of this before I shall add a little more to it the better to know the signs causes and remedies against it it is the bringing forth an untimely birth or fruit before it be ripe if it happen in seven daies after conception it is but an effluxion but if in fourteen daies after it is an untimely birth sometimes an untimely birth may be alive but it is very seldom that it continues the elder and stronger it is the more hopes for life some women have such large wombs or slippery full of slimy humours that the Seed cannot be contain'd but slips away sometimes it is an imposhumation causing pain that hinders retention but this is rather Effluxion than abortment But sometimes the Cups or Veins whereby the conception is tied to the womb through which also nourishment passeth to it as we said before are stopt with viscous ill humours and so swollen with wind or inflamed that the Cups break and the fruit is lost for want of food this happens commonly in the second or third month so Hippocrates tells us that this is the certain cause if the woman that miscarries be of a good state of body not too fat nor too lean Sometimes the right Gut or the womb may have an Ulcer or Piles or the Bladder or Ureters swollen with the Stone or Strangury and the pains thereof may break the Cups or if she have a Tenasmus great provocation to stool and can do nothing she brings forth her birth by straining downward and that before she should Also great coughs make the woman feeble and consumptive and the child consumes within her great bleeding at the nose or any great loss of blood or too great flux of her courses after conception cause miscarriage if they flow in in the third month else not Also opening of a vein may cause it if the woman want blood but such as are sanguine may let blood after the fourth month and before the seventh month but it is good to see there be cause for it else not Violent purging before the fourth month or after the seventh causes abortment But gentle purging between the fourth and the seventh month are safe Violent fluxing or vomiting make women strain too much especially lean folks and may perish the child and break the Cups If the woman hunger much for want of food Nature hath nothing to spare to keep the child alive it is the same thing with Beasts and Plants that want nutriment and too much will choak it Sharp diseases or Pestilential Feavers Imposthumes in the breast Palsies falling-sicknes kill the child and sometimes the child is sick in the womb Also change of weather may cause miscarriage saith Hippocrates when the winter is hot and moist and the Spring cold and dry that follows it the women that conceive in that Spring will easily abort and if they do not they will suffer hard labour in child-birth and the child will be weak and short liv'd the reason may be because the body is opened and made more tender by the foregoing heat and moist weather and then the succeeding cold makes it more dangerous Great labour as dancing leaping falls or bruises great passions suddenly coming not lookt for may make a woman miscarry let all women beware of it for it is more painful than a true delivery because one is natural and the other against nature nature helps the one but not the other Signs of Abortment I have spoken of in part but commonly about the third and fourth month womens bodies that will swell and puff up with hardness and stiffness stitches and windiness running about her yet she feels no more weight in her body this is a sign of miscarriage if it be not prevented There is nothing better after conception to prevent abortment than good natural food moderately taken and to use all things with moderation to avoid violent passions as care and anger joy fear or whatsoever may too much stir the blood use not Phlebotomy without great cause nor yet violent purgatives If the Matrix be too much dilated use things that contract and fasten as Baths prepared Unguents Ointments Fumes Odours Plaisters Some remedies are specifical against miscarriage and if the woman be in danger she may use them and that in divers ways that she may take them as thus take red Coral in powder two drams shavings of Ivory one dram and a half Mastick half a dram and one Nutmeg in powder give half a dram in a rear egg c. A Powder to hinder Abortion Take Bistort-roots one scruple Kermes berries Plantane and Purslain seeds of each one dram Coriander prepared two scruples Sugar all their weight take every day one scruple with a little Maligo Wine if the body be not costive For an Ague Sometimes women with Child fall into an Ague then take Barley meal juice of Sloes and of Housleek a sufficient quantity and with Vinegar make a Cataplasme and lay it upon a double cloth and lay it often upon the womans belly and this will preserve the child from it For the wind Some are much troubled with wind that will cause them to miscarry then take Cumminseed and boyl it in water give her four spoonful of it twice a week with a dram of Methridate Against sudden frights Take Mastick Frankincence of each one dram Dragons blood Myrtles Bolearmoniak Hermes berries of each half a scruple make them into powder and give half a dram at once with White Wine or Chicken broth To strengthen the Child in
some but in others by accident from cold Air cold Diet and Medicaments or from too much idleness the signs are quite contrary to the former for the other are extreme desirous of Venery and these abhor it and take no pleasure in it they have few or no hairs about their Secrets and their seed is watry and Slimy their wombs are windy and they are subject to Gonorrhaeas and the Whites The Cure is long and hard to be done but they must use such things as warm the womb with drinking good wine and sometimes Cordial Waters and good warm nourishing Meats and of easie digestion with Anniseed Fennel seed and Time And Fumigations are good of Myrrh Frankincence Mastick Bay berries of each a dram Labdanum two drams Storax and Cloves of each a dram Gum Arabick and wine make Troches put one or two upon a Pan of coles and let her receive the Fume at the Matrix Then take Labdanum two ounces Frankincence Mastick Liquid Storax of each half an ounce oyl of Cloves and of Nutmegs of each half a scruple oyl of Lillies and Rue of each one ounce Wax sufficient make a Plaister and lay it over the Region of the womb But if the womb be moist and this is commonly joyned with a cold distemper it drowns the seed like as if a Man should sow Corn in a quagmire The causes are almost the same as of cold for it is Idleness that is the cause in most women that are troubled with it and such women have abundance of Courses but they are thin and waterish and the whites also their Secrets are alwayes wet they cannot retain the mans seed but it slips out again This must be cured as the cold distemper by a heating and drying Diet and Medicaments Baths Injections Fomentations wherein Brimstone is mingled but take heed of Astringents for they will make the Disease worse by stopping the ill humours in The fourth is a dry Distemper of the womb this is natural to some but to most it comes when they are old and past childing when the womb grows hard if it be from any other drying causes such women will be barren before they be old It may proceed from diseases as Feavers Inflammations Obstructions when the blood goes not to the Matrix to moisten it so that if they void any blood it comes from the Veins in the neck of the womb and not from the bottom they have but few courses little seed they are of a lean dry Constitution their lower Lip is of a blackish red and commonly chapt This Distemper if it be long is seldom cured moistning things must do it as Borage Bugloss Almonds Dates Figs Raisins Moistning and nourishing Diet is good and to forbear salt and dry meats avoid anger sadness fasting and use to sleep long and labour but little rub the parts with oyl of sweet Almonds Lillies Linseed sweet Butter Jesamine Hens or Ducks Grease Besides these four there are compound distempers as cold and moist wombs and hot and dry but I presume I need not in particular speak of them because I have given sufficient remedies in the several qualitis already which will be easie to apply I confess a compound distemper is harder to be cured than a simple therefore I shall add one or two remedies more First If then the Womb be cold and moist cure this with surrup of Mugwort Bettony Mints or Hyssop then purge the cold humor with Agarick Mechoachan Turbith and Sena Sudorificks of Guaicum Sarfa and China are very good Secondly If the womb be subject to a hot and dry distemper you must put away choler from the Liver and from the whole body those things that will do it are Manna and Tamarinds sirrup of Roses Rhubarb Senna Cassia and the like which are very safe gentle and effectual Remedies BOOK VI. CHAP. I. Of the Strangling of the womb and the effects of it with the Causes and Cure THe womb by its consent with other parts of the Body as well as by its own nature is subject to multitudes of diseases and it is not to be uttered almost what Miseries women in general by meanes thereof be they Maids Wives or widowes are affected with But amongst all diseases those that are called Hysterical Passions or strangling of the womb are held to be the most grievous Swounding and Falling Sickness are from hence by the consent the womb hath with the heart and brain and sometimes this comes to pass by stopping of the Terms which load the heart the brain and Womb with evil humors and sometimes it ariseth from the stopping in of the seed of Generation as is seen in Antient Maids and widowes for by reason hereof ill vapors and wind rise up from the womb to the Midriff and so stops their breath it is most commonly the widowes disease who were wont to use Copulation and are now constrained to live without it when the seed is thus retained it corrupts and sends up filthy vapours to the brain whereby the Animal Spirits are clouded and many ill consequents proceed from it as Falling Sicknesses Megrims Dulness Giddiness Drowsiness Shortness of breath Head-ache beating of the Heart Frenzy and Madness and indeed what not The same woman may be tormented with several of these at the same time when the seed and the Courses are mingled with ill humours being once corrupted The Menstrual blood and seed are noble parts but the best things once corrupted become the worst and degenerate into a venemous nature and are little better than Poyson When the Vessils of the womb lye near the Vessels of other parts of the body or there is near affinity of one part with the womb then by consent are many grievous Diseases produced The womb is of a membranous nature and for that reason it consents exceedingly with the nerves and membranes and so the parts that are near are soon offended by it and it conveys its ill qualities to the whole body by Nerves Veins and Arteries the Brain hath it by the membranes of the marrow of the Back and by Nerves the arteries they carry it to the Heart and the veins to the Liver and these are large in the womb and by them all the noxious blood and poisonous vapours return The Veins of the Mesentery give it a consent with the stomach and so do the arteries carry all to the Spleen which is the cause that some women in age grow hypochondriacal by heat of their blood because their courses did not flow sufficient when they were young It will be hard to distinguish these two diseases in women or to cure the one and not cure the other The Breasts they consent with the womb by Nerves and Veins that go from it to them so then it is clear that it holds a correspondence with the heart the Midriff the Brain and Head and all the instruments of motion and sense likewise with the Stomach Liver Spleen Bladder Belly Mesentery Hips Back straight Gut
to to tell those that knew them before but by their leave they that know some things may be ignorant of other things what one knew before it may be another knew not and what she knew not another might know There are many things here that most women desire to know the reason is the same why all meats are eaten and all Maids may be married for if we all were taken with the same thing there could be no living in the world CHAP. VII Of the Diseases that Infants and children are often troubled with I. SOmetimes the child so soon almost as it is but new born will fall into strange throws and convulsions Hippocrates divides childrens diseases according to their several ages Children new born are subject to inflammation of the navel after it is cut to moistness of the Eares to Coughs and Vomitings and Ulcers in the mouth to Feares and watchings When the Teeth begin to breed there are Feavers Convulsions and Fluxes of the Belly chiefly when the Eye-Teeth breed when they grow older the Tonsils are enflamed the Turnbones of the neck are laxated inwardly they have short breath and are troubled with the stone in the bladder round wormes and Ascarides Strangury Kings-evil and standing Yards as they grow still new diseases come on as the Measels Small-pox some are Tongue-tyed until the Ligament be cut that is too short and hinders their Speech Use no strong Vomitings or purgings or Glisters to children nor bleed them but give them gentle means such are Suppositories and mild Glisters with a little Sugar and Milk give stronger Physick to the Nurse if need require to purge the child strong medicaments given to the nurse may endanger the child that sucks the breasts but weak purges are sufficient to do it good You may give the child a Glister thus take Mallows and violet leaves of each one handful flowers of violets and camomile of each a small handful boil them and take four or five ounces of the decoction and with four or six drams of sirrup of roses and half an ounce of oyl of Violets make it ready to give luke-warm or something more hot as it may well endure II. If a Child be troubled with flegme lay it not on the back for you may soon choak it but turn it to lie on one side or the other Keep the belly loose thrust up a suppository of Castle sope rubbed over with fresh butter to make it more smooth gentle to pass into the body a spoonful of sirrup of Violets afterwards will force down the flegme you may if the child be temperate in heat mingle half the quantity of sweet Almond oyl with half so much sirrup of Violets but rub the belly down with sweet butter as often as it is undressed III. If the childs Codds be swoln observe whether wind or water be the cause of it the water will sweat out if you chafe the part with fresh butter if it be wind swing the child well and dance it and put the decoction of Anniseeds in their drink but there may be many causes of the swelling of the Codds if wind be the cause the Codds will shew thin as a horn and be as stiff as a Drums head too much crying may cause an inflammation or bursting If the swelling arise from heat cooling herbs will cure it but for wind boil a handful of bay leaves of Dill Camomile and Fennel of each a handful Rue half a handful boil all in a quart of Beer wort to a pint strain it out hard and with the liquor boil as much Bean meal as will make a poultis putting to it two or three spoonfuls of oyl of Camomile apply it hot to the Codds IV. If the childs Fundament slip forth as it will oftentimes in many children when they are bound and strain to go to stool or have taken cold or the Muscles are relaxed by moisture when there is a looseness of the Belly and a Tenesmus or Needing then the Muscle that bindes up the hole will come forth if it come from straining it is easily cured at first but too much moisture causing it will be hard to overcome especially when the belly is loose for then the Medicaments are driven off For the cure then if it be swoln and will not be put in bath it first with a decoction of Mallows and Marshmallows or annoint it with oyl of Lillies then try to put it up having cast some astringents upon it or take Galls Acorn cups Myrtle berries dryed red Roses burnt Harts-horn burnt Allum and flowers of sowr Pomegranates of each a like quantity make a strong decoction in water and whilest it is warm bath the Gut with it and put it into its place and to make it flag up spread a little melted wax Frankincense and Mastick together upon a Linnen Clout and lay it to the Fundament so bind it on and take it off onely when the child goes to stool sprinkle the Gut with this following powder Of red roses and sowr Pomegranate flowers of each half a dram Frankincense and mastick of each one dram V. If the Infant be too loose bellyed and cannot contain its Excrements this proceeds either from breeding of Teeth and that is usually with a feaver or from concoction depraved and the nourishment corrupted or from much waking or great pain or Feaverish humors stirring in the body or when they drink or suck too much being over-hot taking cold may also bring a Looseness if the Excrements be yellow and green and stink some sharp humor is the cause of it When children breed teeth it is good to have the belly somewhat loose but if it exceed it must be stopt for the child will consume If the Excrements be black and the child feaverish it is an ill sign But a Sucking child needs not be cured so much as the Nurse mend her milk or get another Nurse and let her avoid green fruit and Meats of hard digestion When the child is past sucking then purge things that leave a binding quality behind will do it such are sirrup or honey of red Roses You may give a Glister of two or three ounces of the decoction of Milium and Myrobolans with an ounce or two of sirrup of dried red Roses If it proceed from a hot cause cleanse first then give sirrup of dried roses Quinces Myrtles Currants Coral Mastick Harts-horn or powder of Myrtles with a little Dragons blood and annoint the belly with oyl of roses of Mastick of Myrtles In a cold cause the Excrements will be white then give sirrup of mastick and Quinces with mint water and take half a scruple of Frankincense and of Nutmeg as much temper it with the juyce of a Quince and give it the child Lay a plaister to the childs belly made with the seeds of red Roses Cummin Anniseed and Smallage Barley meal and juyce of Plantane with a little Vinegar boil all together When the stools are red or yellow a spoonful
seed it is good for the child to smell to Rue and Assafaetida and sometimes rub the Nostrils with a drop of oil of Castor or of Costus it may proceed from ill milk in the childs stomach or by consent from other parts or from worms in the Guts or from ill vapours that ascend where bad humours abound These prick the Films of the brain and cause the childs distemper it may be originally bred in the brain or arise from some sudden fright or from breeding of teeth this last will be gone when the pain of the teeth is over Many young children die of this disease it may come with the Small Pox or Measles and when they come forth it will be cured if nature be strong the Nurses good diet is a great furtherer to the cure in the fit you may give Peony or Lavender Water and rub the Nape of the neck with a drop of oil of Amber and touch the Nose with it an Elks hoof or an Emrald are useful to hang about the neck and may be given inwardly If it proceed from corrupt milk in the stomach dip a feather in oil of Almonds and thrust it down the Throat to cause vomit The Florentines with a hot Iron burn the child in the nape of the neck to dry the brain and Celsus maintains it to be the very last remedy But Paulus Aequineta saith It would be sure to kill him with waking pain he would scarce be able to sleep after it To prevent this mischief so soon as the child is born give him this following powder male-Peony roots one scruple gathered in the Moons decreasing magistery of Coral half a scruple with Leaf God VIII Convulsion Fits come when the brain labours to cast off what offends its many die of it for the cause lieth in the nerves and marrow of the back wherefore wash the body and back with a decoction of Marsh-mallows Lilly roots Peony and Cammomile flowers The Sun-flower boiled in water is good to wash the Infant with and annoint the back with mans grease or Goose grease or with oils of Foxes or of worms or of Lillies or of Mastick or Turpentine This disease comes either of indigestion or of weakness of the attractive faculty especially in such children as are fat and moist the back may be anointed with oils of Rue or of Flower de Luce or bath the Limbs with a decoction of Primroses or of Cowslips or Cammomile flowers if you find great heat then mingle oil of Violets and oil of sweet Almonds and anoint with that IX Sometimes the childs navel swells and sticks out that should lie in the reason may be because the navel-string was not well tied and too much of it was left behind which sticks forth sometimes it may come from the childs crying or coughing and that looseneth the Peritonaeum it is without inflammmation but sometimes the navel hath an Ulcery and the Guts fall into it It falls out often so soon as the string is cut wherefore take Spike and â—eeth it in oil of sweet Almonds mingle a little Turpentine with it dip in a piece of Wool and bind it on the part but if crying or coughing or bruise or tall be the cause of it then use bitter Lupines mingled with the powder of an old Linnen cloth burnt to ashes mingle all with red wine dip in Cotton and apply it to the Navel if the navel be inflamed the Navel feels hard else it will feel soft and is neither hot nor red but will last longer than when it is enflamed if the Peritonaeum be loose only and not broken it will be no bigger when he cryeth nor doth the Navel come forth much but it will increase if it be broken if he either cry or stir much but it will not be seen when he lieth on his back ill outting of the Navel string is not so much dangerous as it is troublesome to the child it may be cured at first though it be too long or hath an Ulcer but in time if it be neglected the guts will fall into it and cause inflammation and an Iliack passion which will kill the child wind puffs up the Navel when the Peritonaeum is loose then take the powder of Cummin-seed Bay berries and Lupines with red wine or a bag of â—…ike and Cummin-seeds boiled in red wine for a Cataplasme and roul it on If the Peritonaeum be broken let the gut be first put in then lay on astringent Powders of Cypress-nuts Mirrh Frankincense Sarcocolla Mastick Allum and Isinglass of each a like quantity and make a Poultiss of it with Whites of eggs give the child inwardly such remedies as are good against Ruptures When the Navel is inflamed it looks red and is hard hot and pants much this shews it was not well tied for the pain draws the blood to it If it turns to an Imposthume and break the guts will come out and kill the child To ease the pain take two ounces of Mallows boiled and stampt Barley meal half an ounce with two drams of Lupines and Fenugreek make a Cataplasme of them with oil of Roses drive back the blood with an application made of one dram of Frankincense with Fleabane seed and Acacia of each half a dram incorporated with the white of an egg Keep it if possible from imposthumation but if it cannot be kept then take half an ounce of Turpentine two ounces of oil of Roses and with the Yolk of an Egg lay it on X. If the child be burst as young children often are it may be easily cured at first the Peritonaeum is either loose or broken and the small guts fall into the Cods when the child coughs much or cries or by some violent fall or straining to go to stool elder people are not so easily cured of this sometimes it is only a rupture which falls out of the belly into the Cods and the Peritonaeum is well If a Gut be fallen it is but of one side the right or left Groin and you may see it and feel it and the hole too through which the Gut fell but the watry rupture is all over even alike this will vanish of it self so soon as the water is consumed Keep the child loose and from crying and violent motion lay it upon the back and thrust up the gut gently the head lying low and the heels up then take Emplastrum ad Herniam or an ointment made of Comfrey roots with a thick bolster steeped in Smiths water and lay it on keep the child quiet and see the Bolster come not off never unbind it so in time the hole will grow narrow and the gut larger and will stay in its place You may lay on a Plaister made of Gum Elemi steept in vinegar till there be a cream on the top with that and oil of eggs make it up or take Frankincense one dram Aloes Acacia Cypress nuts of each two drams with a dram of Myrrh and Isinglass make a
Cloves of each one scruple Frankincense Bark Calamus of each half a dram Marjoram water three ounces snuff up this water often and drop hot oils into the ears If the water be not dissipated in twenty daies you must open the skull and let out the water by degrees and beware that the child take no cold If such means as are outwardly applied will not help it the last remedy is by the Chirurgion XIV Sometimes children are much vexed with the Hiccough or Hickets or Huckets as they call it it comes commonly from too much repletion and fulness wherefore dip a feather in oil and put it down the childs Throat and make it vomit It may come from a cold stomach then anoint the stomach with oil of Cammomile of Worm wood of Mastick and Quinces and dissolve a scruple of the Troches of Diarrhodon in the Nurses Milk and give it the child If this disease come from too much Milk the belly swells and the child vomits if the Nurses Milk be bad it comes from thence and the Excrements will smell of stinking Milk This is no dangerous disease unless the cause be violent for then it will flie to the Nerves and cause a Convulsion Falling sickness and death Give the child sirrups of Mints and Betony to strengthen the stomach and anoint it with oil of Mints of Mastick and of Dill. There is a disease like the Hickets in children from grief or anger when the spirits flie from the Heart to the Midriff and stop the breath but it is soon over XV. Children are sometimes subject to vomiting from too much or from ill milk or from flegm that falls from the head to the stomach a moist loose stomach is the immediate cause if they vomit milk they are better for it if the milk be naught the matter that comes forth will shew that for it is yellow green or filthy coloured and it stinks Worms may make them vomit but that will be known by the signs children that vomit often are best in health and thrive best because their stomach is kept clean of ill humours but to vomit too much will make them wast away cleanse the stomach with honey of Roses and strengthen it with sirrup of Quinces and of Mints When the humour is too sharp and hot give the sirrup of Pomegranates or of Coral or of Currants Coral hath a hidden vertue and some hang it about their necks Anoint the stomach with oils of Mastick Mints Quinces Wormwood of each half an ounce oil of Nutmegs by expression half a dram oil of Mints chymically extracted three drops or dip bread in hot Wine and lay it to the mouth of the Stomach XVI If the child be griped and pained in the belly you shall know it by the great unquietness and crying and turning it self from side to side it is oft with a scowring and from bad milk that breeds sharp windy humours it gets to the guts and gnaws them and sometimes it is from worms if it be wind it will cease when they break wind but ill humors cause a constant pain Tough flegm binds the belly and the Dung is slimy sharp humours cause a green and yellow flux if this pain last long it casts them into convulsions and falling-sicknesses and is dangerous Foment the belly with a decoction of Lavender Fennel and Cummin seed or take oil of Olives and Dill seed and dip a piece of Wool in it and lay it over the belly warm Give the child some oil of sweet Almonds with Sugar-Candy and a scruple of Anni-seeds and purge it with Honey of Roses which is good also when the body is swoln with wind or too much milk not digested and use a decoction of Cardiaca Cammomile flowers and Cummin seed or boil the top of dwarf-Elder and of Elder in white wine and bath the parts that are swoln with it If the griping pain comes from the sharp milk sirrup of Succory with Rhubarb or sirrup or Honey of Roses or a Glister of the decoction of bran and Pellitory of the wall with sirrup of Roses is very good using an outward Ointment of oil of Dill and Cammomile XVII Sometimes children will sneeze mightily it may come from an imposthume in the head then cooling oils and ointments are commended but if any other cause produce it put the powder of Bazil into the nostrils If heat cause it the childs eyes will sink in then bruise Purslain leaves and with oil of Roses Barley meal and the yolk of an egg mingled make an Application to the Head XVIII When the child is Feaverish and hot the nurse must eat cooling and moistening things and anoint all the parts of the child with oil of Roses and Unguent Populeon and lay to the breasts clarified juice of Wormwood Plantane Mallows Seagreen made to a Cataplasme of Barley meal XIX It falls oftentimes out that children are squint-eyed and that comes when they lie in their Cradle and the Candle or light stands behind them or on one side It may come from the Falling-sickness or by birth but that is seldome and not curable if ill custom have bred it put your candle on the other side or a Picture till the childs eyes come to look right but you may prevent all if you set the candle before the child and not on either side for the child will stare after the light you may when you find the childs eyes distorted hang cloths of all colours on the other side to make the child to turn the eyes the contrary way to gaze on them till it be cured XX. Sometimes children have sore eyes with great pain with Ulcers and Worms and inflammations for childrens brains are very moist and there are many excrements which nature casts forth at other places because the natural Emunctories will not carry them all out much of this goes to their ears which will be very sore that they will cry and not suffer them to be touched it is dangerous for it will not let them sleep the heat and pain is so great it causeth the Falling-sickness and fouls the spongy bones and breeds Worms and sometimes makes children deaf so long as they live you cannot use strong remedies to children drop a little hemp seed oil with Wine into their ears to allay the pain use warm milk about their ears or oil of Violets or the decoction of Poppey tops to dry up the moisture use honey of Roses or water of honey to drop in their ears XXI The usual painful disease of all children is the breeding of their teeth it is very dangerous to some about the seventh month first come forth the fore teeth then the eyteeth lastly the grinders first the Gums itch then they prick like needles by reason of the sharp bones which causeth watchings and inflammations of the Gums Feavers Convulsions Scourings especially when they breed their eye-teeth The beginning of the seventh month is the time that discovers it and the childs putting his
preserve the Lungs When the Pox are fully out then to make them die quickly rub the face with fresh hogs-grease old Lard melted and strained and mingled with water or with oil of sweet Almonds When the Pox are dead and begin to fall away to keep them from Pock-holes anoint the face with a feather dipt in an Ointment made of Chalk and Cream use this two or three daies it will smooth the skin handsomely and take away the spots XXVIII Children are exceedingly prone to breed Lice more than men of age though all people are troubled with them They breed from the Excrements of the head and body it is not only filth that breeds Lice but a certain matter fit for them for fleas will not breed of the same that lice are bred of Children and women that are hot and moist have many excrements to breed such things withall Some meats breed Lice as figs by their gross juice which naturally tends to the skin and variety of meat Lice breed most in Childrens heads and stick fast to the skin and roots of the hair some have died of Lice and Lice will leave some when they are dying To prevent Lice comb and keep childrens heads clean let them eat no rigs but meats of good juice and purge them with hot drying thin medicaments Use â—o Mercury nor Arsenick to childrens heads but use this Lotion take parts alike of round Birthwort Lupines Pine and Cypress leaves boil them in water then anoint the head with powder of Staves-acre three drams of Lupines half an ounce of Agarick two drams quick brimstone one dram and half Ox Gall half an ounce all made up wirh oil of Wormwood XXIX If the child fright in the sleep give it good breast milk but not too much let it not sleep presently but carry it about till the milk descend to the bottom of the stomack give it sometimes the oil of sweet Almonds or honey of Roses two spoonfuls To cleanse the stomack strengthen it with magistery of Coral or Confection of Jacinths with milk anoint the stomach with oil of Worm-wood Nard Mints Mastick Nutmegs if it be from worms you have the remedies before It is for the most part ill vapours that ascend by the Weasand and veins to the head when children cannot concoct what they have in their stomachs XXX Sometimes children cannot sleep it is by reason of corrupt milk that disturbs the animal spirits hence arise Catarrhs Convulsions Feavers driness let better milk be given it the Nurse must eat Lettice sweet Almonds Poppey seeds but sleeping medicaments are not good for infants Wash the feet with a decoction of Dill tops Cammomile flowers Sage Osiers Vine leaves Poppy heads to the Temples use oil of Dill or oil of Roses with oil of Nutmegs with Poppey seeds Breast milk Rose or Nightshade water with Saffron If the Childs brain be very dry moisten the covering of the Cradle XXXI Bad and sharp milk hurts the childs stomach for it cannot endure it for it breeds bad humours all these diseases spring from it the Thrush Bladders in the Gums and inflammation of the Tonsils Bladders in the Gums are cured with powder of Lentils husked and strewed upon them or with a Liviment of the flour of Milian and oil of Roses The inflammation of the Tonsils I suppose it is that disease in children called the Mumps that commonly comes between eleven and thirteen years old the parts being then so hard that the humour cannot breath forth alwaies keep the belly loose and anoint outwardly with oil of sweet Almonds or Cammomile or St. John's wort inwardly first repel secondly mix resolvers with repellers and lastly only resolvers but not too hot in age Gargarismes are best Infants may take Diamoron Honey of Roses sirrup of Myrtles and Pomegranates XXXII Sometimes childrens string of the tongue is so short that they cannot suck a skilful Chirurgeon must help it or use this Liviment boil clarified honey till you can powder it then dry yolks of eggs in a Glass in an Oven powder them take a dram weight Mastick and Frankincense of each one scruple burnt Allum six grains make it up with honey of roses The Frog is when the veins under the tongue swell with gross black blood and if the flegm sweat forth and stick in the passages the swelling is like Mushromes and make them stammer take Cuttlebone Salgem Pepper of each one dram burnt Spunge three drams make a powder or of Honey of Besome rub it under the tongue and lay a plaister of Goose dung and Honey boiled in Wine till the Wine be consumed under the Chin. XXXIII Some children grow lean and pine away and the cause is not known if it be from Witchcraft good prayers to God are the best remedy yet some hang Amber and Coral about the childs neck as a Soveraign Amulet But leanness may proceed from a dry distemper of the whole body then it is best to bath it in a decoction of Mallows Marshmallows Branc-Ursine Sheeps heads and anoint with oil of sweet Almonds if it be hot and dry add Roses Violets Lettice Poppey-heads and afterwards anoint with oils of Violets and Roses The child may be lean from want of milk or bad milk from the nurse remedy that or change the nurse for little or bad milk will breed no good blood and the children cannot thrive by it sometimes worms in the body draw away the nourishment sometimes very small worms breed without the body all over and in the Musculous parts and stick in the skin and will not come quite forth but after you rub the child in a Bath they will put forth their heads like black hairs and run in again when they feel the cold air they breed of slimy humours shut up in the Capillary veins which turn to worms for want of transpiration if you rub the child with Yarhound on the back and especially with Honey and Bread you shall see their black heads when you see the heads come forth run over them with a Rasor do it often XXXIV Children used to be galled with lying in piss'd clouts and the scarf skin comes from the true skin the skin looks red change the clouts often and keep the child clean by washing it then anoint the sore with Diapompholix or cast on this powder finely sprinkled of burnt Allum Frankincense Litharge of Silver and seeds and leaves of Roses XXXV Some children cannot hold their water but piss the bed when they sleep the bladder-closing muscle being weak so when piss pricks it it comes forth The stone in the bladder may hurt the Muscle the cause of weakness is a cold moist humour from superfluity or from tough and gross meats in Age it will be hard to be cured but in infants it easily may The nurse must use a hot drying diet with Sage Hyssop Marjoram the child must drink little anoint the region of the bladder outwardly with oil of Costus or Flower de luce and other